As the people here were no admirers of the Emperor, this speaker and the rest had no problem expressing such critical opinions in front of each other.
“Not only to the protege but to the prince as well,” another person added. “Imagine being made to take care of a child when you are only a child yourself.”
Someone else shook his head in disgust. “His Highness should never have been imprisoned in the first place. It came to be widely known anyway that the First Prince is not the Emperor’s son. So what was the point of not simply declaring him a bastard? Wasn’t it really so His Majesty could make use of him? He knew it would destabilize his position if all he had for an heir was one who was so unfit. That’s why he’d been dangling the First Prince in front of us this entire time.”
“I agree,
