WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈

Chapter 19: I Want to Hear the Details

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"How long do you intend to keep this up?"

"Keep what up?"

Unlike the biting weather outside, the room was warm.

"I'm talking about what you've been doing. Do you truly believe this makes any sense?"

"What's so senseless about it? This is the North's way."

"...How can you call that the North's way?"

Yet the atmosphere inside was freezing over even more harshly than the weather outside.

A woman stood across from the North Grand Duke.

She was deeply dissatisfied with the state of the North.

"You declared that you would cut ties with the center, yet you still accept support from it."

"That isn't a problem. It's the path to making the North stronger, and it was already approved."

"Even so, is there any reason to cut ties to this extent? Why are you building a Barrier toward the center instead of outside the North?"

"Because the North may become the final line of defense."

"Do you intend to ignore a summons from the center as well?"

"I wouldn't know. I've never received one."

The North as it was now dreamed of complete independence.

The North Grand Duke flatly denied it, appearing to prepare for every possible contingency.

Still, anyone with even a little sense could see what was happening.

The North's harsh environment allowed it to train as many soldiers as it wanted without worrying about the center's opinion.

Were they truly planning to declare a complete separation from the center by building a Barrier in such an environment?

If so, shouldn't they stop accepting the center's support?

Various thoughts floated through the woman's mind like bubbles.

"The soldiers are too weak to begin with. The North needs all kinds of experience to grow stronger. This is all part of that."

"...Does that include sending soldiers to Macelin?"

"Macelin is currently fighting wars of all sizes. You could say it's in the process of unifying the West. The experience gained from those wars will be valuable."

"Why should soldiers of the North fight in another kingdom's war? Is it because of that harlot, Mirne?"

Bang!

At the word harlot, the North Grand Duke released his power and rose to his feet.

The room's steadily freezing atmosphere shattered, and the North Grand Duke's fury filled the space in its place.

"How dare you call her a harlot?"

"Do you know how many men she is in contact with besides Your Grace?"

"She is simply kind."

"She pretends to be kind while receiving endless support behind the scenes. Surely you aren't going to claim you don't know that."

"...Everyone was moved by her kind heart and acted of their own accord. I did as well. She has never directly asked for anything."

The North Grand Duke said that and sat back down.

"Why do you hate her so much?"

The woman who continued to oppose him stood before the North Grand Duke.

If he was the North's sword, she was the North's Wand.

The Ice Mage, Estella Nave.

The North Grand Duke could not understand her.

Why was she so hostile toward Mirne?

Mirne had clearly brought benefits to the North, so why did Estella ignore that while speaking?

He could not understand it at all.

"...Ha. Are you really asking because you don't know?"

"No matter how much I think about it, I can't find a reason for you to hate her, unless you simply want to hate her."

"She openly demanded soldiers, and in return, ha... all we received were a few toys fit for children."

"She also showed us the potential the North possesses."

"Other retainers could have thought of that much already."

A brief silence fell.

Estella did not let the opportunity pass.

"Stop this nonsense and devote yourself to the true North. I hear the center's recent movements have been unusual, so why aren't you looking into them properly?"

"Why don't you do it?"

"You need to give me the authority to do that. Didn't you take it from me?"

What was the point of being called the North's Wand?

Nothing remained beneath that title except its name.

She had once led the intelligence corps and the Mage corps, but now both her arms and legs had been cut off.

Everything began after the North Grand Duke became obsessed with a woman.

He claimed he would unite everything in the North, then took every bit of her authority.

As a result, they had recently been having trouble maintaining the northern front.

Mages understood mage formations better than anyone.

Yet he gave no consideration to that. He only repeated what he had always said.

"...Do you truly care about the North? What the hell are you thinking?"

Estella simply told him to reveal his true intentions.

If she knew what was in his heart, she could at least leave without regret.

Perhaps it would be better to cross over to the center, which had recently undergone a major upheaval, along with the northerners who shivered in the cold without knowing anything.

That thought had barely crossed her mind when he answered.

"I truly do care about the North. That much is sincere. I hope you'll believe me."

"Do you think a Crown Prince with such a soft nature can truly care for the North? No matter how much he has changed, that nature will not."

In his sight stood a woman whose hair seemed to hold moonlight.

A woman whose long hair reached her waist.

Someone who did not know the North's true future.

Someone who, for some reason, stood against Mirne.

"I must care for the North, if no one else will. That is why I've made these choices."

Preon Vesper, the North Grand Duke, finished speaking as he smoothed his black hair.

"...."

Estella gave a hollow laugh at that answer and turned toward the door.

There was no longer any point in talking.

'Then I'll have no choice but to contact the center myself.'

If outside eyes could not enter the North,

then she would have to make a request from within.

Estella decided to head for the center.

Behind her,

Swish.

The North Grand Duke's subordinates followed.

+++++

"What I'm seeing with my own eyes isn't an illusion, right?"

"Yes."

"Huh."

On the road to the North, we moved quickly as before, intending to visit only the major locations.

The first thing that greeted us was...

"A Barrier."

"Yes, a Barrier."

It stretched out over an enormous distance.

The Barrier looked high and sturdy enough that going around it would take quite some time.

Why build it on the road connecting the center and the North instead of at the border?

It was even more absurd that the center hadn't known about it.

'Isn't its meaning far too obvious?'

They chose to cut ties with the center to make the North more secure.

Yet they continued receiving support from the center without fail.

They shared no news with the center, but the first thing to greet us when I took a walk through the North was a Barrier.

Since ancient times, there had only been one way to deal with a dog that bit its owner.

Of course, if I met him directly and asked about his intentions, he could deny it.

But with a Barrier so openly built right in front of us, could he really deny it?

As various thoughts ran through my mind,

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, do you remember the Covenant?"

Pavan suddenly asked.

'The Covenant?'

There was a Covenant? That setting existed?

Showing that I was flustered would make me look like an amateur, so I calmly looked at Pavan.

At that moment,

[ You have heard mention of the Covenant. ]

[ The Covenant is a promise handed down from the Great Prophet. ]

[ The Executioners each held different wishes and swore loyalty to the Empire. ]

[ The Empire has a duty to fulfill those wishes. ]

[ If the Empire forgets its duty, it will be endangered. ]

[ The time of the Covenant draws near. ]

[ The possibility of the Empire’s destruction increases. ]

[ Current possibility of the Empire’s destruction: 80% ]

[ Status Summary: There is an extremely high possibility that the Empire will be destroyed within five years. ]

System messages poured out one after another.

'What the hell? There was a setting like this?'

But what exactly was the Covenant? What promise had they made?

'No wonder a dragon obediently listened to the Empire.'

Honestly, it made no sense for five nuclear weapons to exist without any cost.

There naturally had to be upkeep.

Yet failing to manage that upkeep would lead to something serious enough to destroy the Empire.

'Could these Executioners end up cooperating with Mirne later too?'

There was a very high chance that the key to the Covenant lay with the Macelin Kingdom or Mirne.

"I remember. I remember your wishes as well."

I couldn't keep thinking to myself forever, so I answered based on the system messages.

"...!"

Pavan flinched at those words.

"You remember. We were unable to speak of our wishes ourselves... Thank you very much."

Wishes they could not speak of themselves.

So this was a setup for the Empire's possible destruction.

'No one remembers the Covenant, and the wishes that must be fulfilled can't be spoken of directly... So it's a riddle.'

They really were desperate to destroy the Empire.

I needed to investigate this quickly as well.

"Let's focus on our current task for now."

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince. My apologies."

With that in mind, we quickly headed for Eiragard, the North's capital.

In the eastern region, I had traveled while cutting down the allied nobles one by one.

But if I moved that way in a North that reeked of something suspicious, they would catch on quickly.

I concluded it would be better to meet the North Grand Duke as soon as possible.

"It will be quite a long journey."

"We'll need to resupply once along the way. Eiragard is at the very top of the North."

The front line.

How much had the North, which had cut ties with the center, grown?

As I continued forward while imagining a future that was not only possible, but highly likely to occur,

[ A villainess is nearby. ]

The Villainess Ring suddenly made its presence known.

There was a villainess nearby?

'We haven't even reached the front line yet.'

Going by the map, we were only around the midpoint.

Why would a villainess suddenly be here?

[ I will guide you to where the villainess is. ]

My questions did not last long.

The Villainess Ring even showed me the direction of the villainess.

It was practically telling me that I had to meet her, so I immediately changed course.

"There's something I need to check."

"Yes."

Who was the North's villainess?

This hadn't appeared in the early parts of the novel I had read.

My curiosity continued to grow as we headed in that direction.

"Gasp, gasp, gasp."

Not long after we began moving, I heard a woman's ragged breathing, and the moment I did, I realized who it belonged to.

'That woman is the villainess?'

But why did she have knights trailing behind her?

It was clearly a pursuit, no matter who looked at it.

I immediately leaped between the villainess and the knights.

"Who are you!"

"Who the hell are you!"

They delivered the sort of lines one would expect.

To quickly sort out the situation, I took off my robe.

Golden hair and red eyes.

Proof at a glance that I was imperial royalty.

"Y-Your Highness the Crown Prince...?"

The villainess recognized me at once and opened her eyes wide in shock.

The knights' attitude did not change.

I could understand why.

Who would believe that the Crown Prince had suddenly appeared before them?

It was more reasonable to assume someone was trying to deceive them with sorcery or magic.

But then,

"Estella, you dare use such a pathetic trick."

"They’re someone we must oppose for the North's grand plan anyway."

"Do you think we would fall for such an illusion?"

At the knights' words, the corners of my mouth slowly rose.

"The North's grand plan?"

Someone they had to oppose anyway?

"Pavan."

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

"Cut off all their limbs and leave only their heads."

"Shall I leave the woman alone?"

"Yes."

They were saying some very interesting things.

I wanted to hear the details.

Footnotes:

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