WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 2: The Great Evil
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“Hey, you fucking bastard.”
A curse from the Crown Prince, renowned for his gentle nature and deep affection for his younger brother.
The moment they heard it, the atmosphere in the meeting room turned ice-cold.
As though it no longer mattered who had been arguing or getting worked up moments ago.
A single curse had frozen the room, leaving no one able to speak easily.
‘Did I just hear that wrong?’
The Chief Justice doubted their own ears.
‘...His Highness the Crown Prince is finally showing his anger.’
The Grand General was impressed.
‘Is the Empire really in such danger? Enough to make the Crown Prince, known as a wise ruler and the living god of peace, lose his temper like this?’
The Minister of Finance was prompted to reconsider the Empire’s future.
The Crown Prince’s words were that unexpected.
Even the Second Imperial Prince sat there with his legs trembling and his eyes wide, disregarding the setting entirely.
“Since when did we care this much about the Macelin Kingdom? We don’t even have important diplomatic ties with them. Since when has a kingdom simply being weak been enough reason to hold a meeting like this?”
The retainers’ eyes nearly popped out at the Crown Prince’s next words.
In truth, it was what they had wanted to say every time the Second Imperial Prince dug in his heels.
But the strengthened imperial authority had kept them from speaking carelessly.
All this time, the Empire had been sending endless support to the Macelin Kingdom because of absurd childish demands.
And now, the Crown Prince had finally realized how ridiculous it was.
“B-Brother... Why are you suddenly acting like this? Huh? You weren’t like this before. I-I mean... Macelin is in danger... Shouldn’t we help them?”
Even amid the frozen atmosphere, the Second Imperial Prince had yet to grasp the situation. He awkwardly continued speaking, trying to get back the brother he knew.
“General, did the Macelin Kingdom ever ask us for help?”
Without even looking at the Second Imperial Prince, the Crown Prince asked the retainers around him to explain the situation.
“They have not.”
“So we were planning to send unconditional support to a kingdom that never even asked for help?”
“That is correct.”
“I don’t understand why we should. Especially when it means sending the Empire’s strongest blade.”
With that, the Crown Prince acted as though there was nothing more to say.
“Let’s pretend this meeting never happened. It wasn’t even worth considering in the first place, was it?”
He rose from his seat.
The meeting was over in an instant.
Whether everyone around him could keep up or not, the Crown Prince did not seem to care.
“There will be many changes within the Empire from now on.”
With that final statement, he left the meeting room.
+++++
The imperial authority of the Velos Empire was as centralized as it could possibly be.
The first emperor had founded the nation through absurd military might and served as its central pillar.
And none of the emperors who followed had ever lost their place as the strongest person in the Empire.
Before such overwhelming force, no one dared to resist.
That did not mean there had never been attempts.
There had been a few, but those people had long since been wiped out so thoroughly that history itself had forgotten them.
In any case, backed by such powerful imperial authority, the Empire had become a bottomless well of generosity due to the Second Imperial Prince’s absurd demands and the Crown Prince’s affection for his younger brother.
Many nobles were deeply dissatisfied with this.
“What? His Highness the Crown Prince said that?”
“I’m telling you, he did! During the meeting, he cursed at the Second Imperial Prince and told him to stop saying such nonsense!”
“And that wasn’t all. He said there would be many changes within the Empire from now on. Isn’t the Empire finally going to regain its former glory?”
The Velos Empire had never been seen as an easy mark that handed resources out to neighboring kingdoms.
It had always been the strongest power, using its strength to gain all kinds of benefits from nearby kingdoms, keeping them from growing too powerful, and openly displaying its military might to maintain its place at the top.
But the Second Imperial Prince, drunk on love, had ruined all of that. It had already been three years.
The Empire had only endured because it was the Empire. Any other kingdom would have collapsed long ago.
“What a relief. We nearly sent the Executioners straight to the Macelin Kingdom.”
“Can you even call that a deployment? It’s ridiculous. We were practically giving them away.”
“Exactly. The Armored Knights we sent last time as a so-called deployment haven’t returned in over a year!”
“And our Empire is still supplying the Armored Knights. That decision was beyond ridiculous...”
The retainers, hoping the Empire might finally return to normal, each voiced their complaints.
“But what if this is only temporary?”
“....”
“He only said no to sending the Executioners. If he asks for something else...”
“No, more importantly, what if the Second Imperial Prince does what he always does instead of bringing it up in a meeting?”
“...You mean running straight to the Crown Prince’s chambers and begging whenever the retainers oppose his proposal?”
Their conversation shifted again, now filled with concern over how long this change would last.
After all, the possibility that this moment would not last forever was greater than the possibility that things had truly changed.
“I’m not asking for much. I just hope we can stop giving things away from now on.”
“Exactly. I’m not even expecting us to get back what we’ve already given them.”
Amid all those concerns, word of that day’s meeting quickly spread throughout the Imperial Palace.
At the same time, the Crown Prince at the center of those rumors was steeling his resolve as he looked at the system messages before him.
“I need to restore the Empire to normal.”
+++++
The first thing I did after leaving the meeting room was head to my chambers.
‘I need somewhere with no one around. I need to clear my head.’
I had snapped because the Second Imperial Prince was trying to give away the Empire’s resources again like some gullible fool.
But something even more important was figuring out how I had ended up here.
Of course, being alone would not give me the answer.
Still, I could at least sort out my thoughts after the sudden change had thrown everything into chaos.
“...It really is Bellon, the Crown Prince.”
The moment I looked in the mirror, a face so handsome there was nothing else to say greeted me.
Blond hair and red eyes.
Eyes that reminded me of the sun. There was no way he could be anyone other than Bellon, the Crown Prince.
“Why had I transmigrated? Was it so I could restore the Empire to normal?”
Why had I suddenly transmigrated to another world?
As I muttered to myself about a situation I could not tell anyone about,
[ The deployment of the Executioners to the Macelin Kingdom has been canceled. ]
[ Fate changes. ]
[ The worldline changes. ]
[ The possibility of the Empire’s destruction decreases by 1%. ]
[ Current possibility of the Empire’s destruction: 91% ]
[ Status Summary: The Empire will certainly be destroyed within five years. ]
[ The Crown Prince will die when the Empire is destroyed. ]
“....”
Messages that instantly snapped me awake appeared before my eyes.
The translucent screen had a modern design that made it painfully obvious only I could see it.
“This is fucking insane.”
The only thing that came out of my mouth when I saw it was a curse.
A 91% chance of destruction? But the most shocking part was that, even with such a high probability, there was still a five-year grace period.
There was a 9% chance the Empire could survive for five years.
It showed both how incredible and powerful the Empire was, and just how much the Second Imperial Prince had given away.
An Empire that could survive for five years even with such a high chance of ruin.
How much had he given away to make the Empire so likely to collapse?
I could not even imagine it.
‘No, I do know... Yeah, but if it was that bad, then it had no choice but to fall.’
Whenever the Macelin Kingdom struggled, he sent people and resources, even providing tax-related benefits for free.
The fact that it had endured this long was almost miraculous.
‘First, I need to find out how much he gave away.’
I had to know what had been given away before I could take it back.
On top of that, I needed to know where I was in the novel’s timeline.
I had read up to around chapter fifty.
Until then, nothing had happened that could have raised the probability of destruction this high.
I needed to know exactly how much time had passed.
‘At the very least, if they’re already talking about the Executioners... Has it gone past chapter one hundred?’
The Executioners were the Empire’s strongest military force.
If they stepped in, most matters could be considered resolved.
They were like a deus ex machina within the Empire.
The kind of beings you would see in a game scribbled in an elementary school notebook, built around the idea of, “If these guys show up, they just win!”
If he was even trying to hand them over, then surely the story had progressed quite far.
They would not try to give away the Empire’s strongest military force right from the start.
‘At least the latter half...’
I decided to stop speculating there.
From here on, I needed to examine records and determine the timeline objectively.
Just as I was about to head to the library,
Bang.
“Brother! Brother! Th-That was a joke earlier, right? It’s me, your little brother Bedin...!”
Without even knocking, the Second Imperial Prince threw open the door and practically collapsed toward me.
“I know you’re my younger brother, Bedin. What is it?”
Why had he come here?
Before I could even think about it,
“About sending the Executioners, the retainers objected so strongly earlier... So you just ended the meeting, right? You’re actually planning to send them, right? Secretly, just between us? Right?”
The Second Imperial Prince continued.
And at the same time,
[ The possibility of the Empire’s destruction is about to change. ]
A system message appeared, warning me how serious this was.
The moment I saw it, I realized this was not the time to figure out where I was in the story.
The first thing I needed to do was this.
‘Get this bastard out of the Empire.’
Strip him of his status as the Second Imperial Prince and send him somewhere far away.
He was the great evil most likely to destroy the Empire and get me killed.
Footnotes:
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