WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 20: The Turtle and the Kettle
──────
It was extremely easy for the imperial center to contact the North.
However, for the North to contact the imperial center, a report had to be submitted first.
Even Estella, known as the North’s Wand, was no exception.
‘I need to get to the imperial center at once.’
Everything happening right now was irrational.
Would things have been different if she had learned about the Barrier sooner?
Only now did she understand why they had kept forcing her onto the front lines.
‘If I’d known about the Barrier, I would’ve left long ago.’
Even building a Barrier near the front lines would not have been enough, yet they were building one toward the imperial center?
Even attempting such a thing was enough to be branded a traitor.
She had never imagined they would actually construct a Barrier, then talk such nonsense about closing off the North.
‘The Grand Duke isn’t even a king. How can he close off the country?’
They were going to declare independence without even reaching an agreement with the imperial center?
That was simply rebellion.
How long did they think they could keep this hidden?
At first, Estella considered using a messenger bird, but decided it would be too easy to discover.
‘It’d be better to move quickly myself.’
Estella decided to head to the imperial center in person.
Teleportation was difficult in the North’s unusual environment, where Mana did not gather well.
She would borrow a horse and take the shortest route possible.
The moment she took her first step toward the imperial center.
“Lady Estella, where are you going in such a hurry?”
“...Silver Mane?”
“I asked where you were going.”
She had run into an obstacle from the very start.
“Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be guarding the front lines?”
“It is thanks to His Highness the Grand Duke’s teaching that the front lines can always shift.”
“Do you think it’s right to keep calling it the front lines when you know I’m heading for the imperial center?”
They had concealed their presence thoroughly.
By the time Estella noticed the knights, she had already been surrounded.
‘What in the world is going on?’
Her moonlit hair trembled.
She had never imagined this possibility.
Calling it carelessness would have been laughable.
Who would expect to be surrounded by the knights of a place they had believed to be their own headquarters?
“We don’t know the details. We were only ordered to escort Lady Estella safely back to the estate.”
“Have you all gone mad? Is Preon in his right mind? Does he think this makes any sense?”
“As I said, we don’t know. Could you please come with us for now?”
They had prepared far too thoroughly.
They had tools that prevented Mana from gathering properly, Mana-Suppressing Chains, and all manner of other equipment.
“...This is treason.”
The word Estella had desperately not wanted to say escaped her lips.
“What you’re doing is clearly treason. Do you know that? Are you doing this knowingly?”
“We don’t know.”
“His Highness the Grand Duke has always been dissatisfied with the imperial center. He said, why should we listen to cowards who have never shed blood?”
“Because that is the North’s role! The North guards the front lines, and the imperial center protects the Empire. Don’t you understand the difference?”
“Then wouldn’t it be better for the North to bear all responsibility for both the front lines and the North itself?”
It was absurd.
If that were the case, the North should have been capable of complete self-sufficiency from the beginning.
The North constantly received aid from the imperial center.
Crops struggled to grow in its harsh environment, making food supplies difficult.
The imperial center had always taken care of that, doing its best to ensure no one starved to death.
And now they wanted independence?
They would take everything they could from the imperial center, then shut their mouths? Did they think the imperial center would simply watch?
As Estella’s thoughts grew tangled, the Silver Mane Knights slowly closed the distance.
“The imperial center has grown too weak. To build a strong nation, someone strong, resolute, and cold-hearted must stand at the top.”
“...And that person is the North Grand Duke?”
“Haha. Is there any need to say more?”
The Silver Mane Knights considered the Mage before them a fish already caught.
A Mage who could not use magic was no different from an ordinary person.
What could she possibly do?
The moment that thought crossed their minds.
Boom!
A powerful shockwave erupted amid a huge cloud of smoke.
“Urgh!”
“Ghk!”
The Silver Mane Knights were all thrown back in an instant.
Those who walked the path of magic always prepared, then prepared again, then prepared some more.
The defensive measures Estella had brought just in case finally proved their worth.
‘Now!’
Estella ran.
She had uncovered clear signs of treason, and she felt it was her duty to inform the imperial center.
She swore she would deliver this news.
“Damn it! Report this first!”
“Report it while you chase her! She can’t get far anyway!”
“How far can a Mage run?”
With the knights chasing her and releasing Mana with terrifying force, Estella ran and ran.
How many days had passed?
Her speed gradually slowed as her strength reached its limit, and her Mana was nearly depleted.
One brief mistake, and they would be close enough to seize her by the nape.
“You held out for a long time. Four days of running.”
“To think you broke through half the North with every trick you could pull.”
Then, in that desperate situation...
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Thud.
Estella met someone she had never expected to see.
Golden hair and red eyes, traits possessed only by the Velos Empire’s imperial family.
“Y-Your Highness the Crown Prince?”
The primary reason the Empire had changed so rapidly lately.
It was Crown Prince Bellon Velos.
Perhaps because she had confirmed it was him, the tension suddenly drained from her body.
‘Ah, no. I-I’m losing consciousness...’
Thud.
Estella’s vision went dark.
++++++
Crawl, crawl.
Crawl, crawl.
Turtles were not slow on land because they were lazy, but because of their physical structure.
Their heavy shells made them weigh a great deal.
And when their legs emerged, their lower shells naturally forced them to bend.
For a human, it would be like crawling around on their knees.
They moved by slowly pushing themselves along the ground in that state.
There was no way they could move quickly.
“Seeing it like this, humans really can be built like turtles.”
“Thanks to Your Highness the Crown Prince, I’m honored to learn what being a turtle feels like.”
“Have you never seen a turtle?”
“I have, but for certain reasons, I tend to forget.”
“What if I let you keep turtles at the palace? I’ll assign servants to care for them as well.”
“...That would be a greater honor than I deserve.”
Pavan and I looked at the turtles crawling before us.
No.
“Argh! My arms! My legs!”
“W-Who the hell are you to do something like this...?!”
“How dare you harm the Silver Mane Knights of the North and think you can walk around unharmed!”
“You will certainly be punished! Aren’t you afraid of divine retribution?”
“Do you know what will happen if we die like this? Return us to normal at once!”
We looked at the Silver Mane Knights.
Maybe because this region was covered in snow, they had a great deal of trouble moving.
Even while they shouted and protested, their escape was painfully slow.
“Turtles must find it hard to survive in winter.”
“I agree.”
There were ten turtle knights in all.
They all seemed confident in their skills.
Their ability to infuse their swords with Mana was genuinely impressive.
‘What is Pavan, anyway? Why are they so strong too?’
The moment Pavan moved, everything ended neatly.
When they gripped a greatsword in one hand and swung it, ten knights’ knees flew into the air.
Whenever they swung a mace or spear, the knights’ arms shot in every direction like fireworks.
Arveda felt specialized in magic, while Pavan seemed specialized in close combat.
Watching Pavan fight like a one-person army only strengthened my resolve to beat up the Second Imperial Prince again.
‘What was he thinking when he sent them?’
And they said the Covenant was with the Empire.
If they were sent out and did not return to the Empire, did that mean the Empire would be destroyed for failing to uphold the Covenant?
I’d definitely have to keep beating him for a long time.
As I muttered to myself.
“If you’re the Silver Mane Knights, then you’re one of the Grand Duke’s hands and feet, as far as I know.”
“That’s right! We are his hands and feet! So return us to normal at once!”
“Pavan, one turtle is talking too much.”
Stab! Smack!
“Grrrghhh...”
“Your Highness, I have made a kettle.”
“The turtle and the kettle, then.”
I turned my gaze toward the villainess collapsed in the snow.
‘A villainess being chased by the North Grand Duke’s knights.’
Was she being pursued because she had committed some unforgivable crime, or was there another reason?
I would normally have asked right away, but she was unconscious.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t obtain any information at all.
“...We intended to lock Estella away on the front lines, following His Highness the Grand Duke’s orders.”
“Why?”
“Because she was trying to contact the imperial center.”
“Why stop her from making contact?”
“The North... dreams of independence.”
“Ah.”
The last remaining turtle had finally confessed the whole truth.
Unfortunately, the rest had all become kettles.
“...Then will you spare me?”
“As repayment, I won’t let you die as a kettle.”
“...!!!”
The moment the turtle heard that, it began crawling frantically across the ground.
Seeing it shovel dirt into its mouth as it moved, it was clearly trying to become a Mage in this short time.
‘But eating dirt for one day won’t do it.’
How unfortunate that it didn’t know that.
When I looked later, every one of them was eating dirt.
They were even trying to mount a counterattack while crawling away.
They really were attempting all sorts of things, just as one would expect from people preparing for independence.
“By the way, do people usually declare independence without their parents knowing?”
“....”
Pavan firmly kept their mouth shut.
The silence lingered, as if they understood exactly what that meant.
“Mm...”
The villainess regained consciousness at just the right time.
There was far too much I wanted to ask.
So I skipped all the complicated parts and went straight to the point with the woman who had just opened her eyes.
“Is the North preparing a rebellion?”
The villainess the North had chased in order to capture and confine.
Normally, I would have asked for her name first, but something else was more important.
“...Yes.”
“Is that so?”
The North was planning a rebellion.
It had been nearly ninety-nine percent certain, but the villainess’s answer just made it one hundred percent.
‘But then why is she a villainess? She’s not a villainess at all.’
The reason the North had tried to stop her from heading to the imperial center.
It was because their plan for Northern independence would be exposed.
How could a woman trying to reveal that be judged a villainess?
‘...Is she a villainess from the protagonist’s perspective?’
From Mirne’s perspective, the North needed to quietly become independent and help the Macelin Kingdom.
Since this woman was trying to interfere with that, would that naturally make her a villainess in the novel’s flow?
‘Because she’s positioned against the protagonist?’
Hah.
The conclusion came quickly.
The Villainess Ring was not actually a Villainess Ring.
‘It finds characters positioned against the protagonist, so it’s basically a guide to my allies.’
No wonder it had been given to me as a reward for lowering the possibility of destruction.
As I realized the Villainess Ring’s true effect.
“Your name?”
“My name is Estella Nave.”
“Why are you trying to report to the imperial center after uncovering signs of treason?”
“Because I know it’s a grave crime. The North has clearly gone astray.”
As I spoke with the villainess, no, Estella, I was able to roughly understand what was happening in the North.
‘He really had been acting like a king.’
A king who constantly received support from a rich pushover.
It wasn’t as if the North was poor, either.
The benefits from hunting Magic Beasts and the value of rare resources found only in the North were tremendous.
Yet they kept taking from the imperial center without ever thinking of repaying it.
“You conducted diplomacy separately as well?”
“By thinking of the North and the Empire as completely separate... We were already proceeding that way with the Macelin Kingdom.”
“Ha.”
They made him the North Grand Duke, and he had been living as the North’s commander.
This was not something that would end with simply destroying a Mana Core, as it had in the eastern region.
The crime had gone too far.
“Pirande.”
Kieeeeeeek!
I immediately summoned my messenger bird.
Its feathers burned red, and it looked so much like a phoenix that one couldn’t help but wonder whether it truly was one.
And Pirande, my messenger bird, was vicious toward everyone except its master.
“Inform the imperial palace that we need a great cleanup.”
I tied a letter to Pirande’s ankle and sent it soaring into the sky.
There was a simple rule.
If there was much to clean up, call in more people.
It was time to put that rule into practice.
+++++
Kieeeeeeek!
Pirande liked the Crown Prince because he was handsome.
His perfect appearance, and the fiery energy similar to Pirande’s own.
Pirande wanted to stay by his side every day, but had been separated from him often lately.
That was extremely unpleasant.
Pirande wanted to spend its entire life playing and eating beside its master.
Why were there so many things getting in the way?
As Pirande flew along with those thoughts, it heard a coo.
Pirande spotted another messenger bird flying in a similar direction.
A white bird.
It was a bird Pirande had once seen before in its master’s chamber.
An insolent bird that had entered its master’s room while Pirande slept and left behind feathers.
Kieeeeeeek!
Pirande could not endure it.
Pirande was already in a bad mood, and this thing dared to fly right in front of my eyes?
Die.
Rip!
Pirande instantly tore open the white bird’s neck with its talons.
Then, intending to boast about the trophy, Pirande continued toward the imperial palace.
Kieeeek!
Of course, Pirande also planned to brag to its master later.
+++++
“I hope it reaches the Romper Church safely.”
Moving with Mana could be detected, while using people involved too many variables.
In such a situation, the best means of delivering news was a messenger bird.
The North Grand Duke thought of his messenger bird flying toward the Romper Holy Kingdom.
Then he calmly reviewed the North’s current situation.
“The moment we declare independence, activate the Barrier and secure the North’s borders.”
Was there a chance they would clash with the imperial center’s forces? It did not seem very likely.
He had calculated that the Empire did not have many troops capable of moving quickly right now.
Besides.
“It is doubtful that the weak Crown Prince will offer much resistance just because I declare independence.”
Since the Crown Prince had been soft by nature, perhaps he would simply give up once the North declared independence.
The current Empire was far too weak.
Through firm decisions, it needed to become more prosperous than before.
It needed to become powerful enough to swiftly swallow some distant weak nation.
‘The Empire has no such ambition. If it were me, with that ambition, Mirne...’
Still, acting alone placed a burden on him.
So he had no choice but to borrow a little of the Romper Church’s.
The Holy Kingdom’s power.
Not much. Just a little.
He needed to reduce variables as much as possible.
“Things are proceeding well.”
At the very moment he was pleased with the smooth progress of Northern independence.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke! The knights who pursued Estella have all been found dead under strange circumstances!”
“What?!”
Unimaginable news struck his ears.
They were all dead? Did that mean they had failed to capture Estella?
Could Estella have escaped every knight and reached the imperial center?
‘Did someone intervene? It would’ve been impossible for her alone.’
Who could it have been?
The North Grand Duke was briefly flustered, but soon calmed himself.
Even if Estella had escaped the North and reached the imperial center.
The plan would not change.
“The timing has merely been moved up.”
A great cleanup to completely drive out the imperial center’s influence.
“Begin preparations immediately.”
It was time to act without hesitation.
Footnotes:
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