WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 23: The Great Cleanup (3)
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Crrrack.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
“Judging by the letter, it seems you were trying to contact the Romper Holy Kingdom. How does your messenger bird know where it is?”
“Huurgh... Hkk... Gyaaaah!”
“No matter how highly trained a messenger bird is, it shouldn’t be able to fly to a country it has never visited. That means there must have been some kind of exchange.”
For the North and South to interact, they inevitably had to pass through the imperial center.
Even if that were not the case, the moment someone from the North left its territory, a report should have reached the imperial center.
Yet without any such report, the North had simply sent a messenger bird south, and to the Romper Holy Kingdom at that?
“It means you have an accomplice, and that accomplice seems to be somewhere in the West.”
The pieces of the puzzle snapped together like magnets.
“Was Mirne the one who helped you? Did she serve as the bridge between you and the Romper Holy Kingdom?”
There could only be one person.
One of the men in the South or the Romper Holy Kingdom was obviously one of the male leads from I’m Full Because Everyone Keeps Giving Me Things.
The male leads must have somehow crossed paths. And Mirne had surely been involved in the process.
It was far too obvious.
The circumstantial evidence was conclusive.
But there was one problem.
“She has no connection to this. I acted alone.”
He stubbornly denied everything related to Mirne.
Still, it was almost impressive how he kept saying she this and she that while denying any connection to her.
But.
“It doesn’t matter how much you deny it. Even if you do, the Empire won’t just let this slide.”
Would the Macelin Kingdom really be safe from the Empire after this?
Using the Northern rebellion as a starting point, the Empire would investigate everything from the Macelin Kingdom to the Romper Holy Kingdom.
They would use every possible means to resolve their suspicions.
“She did nothing wrong! Everything was my decision!”
“I know. How many times do you have to say it?”
Had someone turned on a recording?
The moment Preon heard me, he answered as if he were having a seizure.
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, though, so I decided it was time to stop playing with him.
“Your cultivation has already been crippled. How much can you possibly resist by screaming?”
It wasn’t just his cultivation.
His back had been completely broken, so he wouldn’t be able to move properly.
His ribs had been shattered, so he couldn’t even lift an arm.
Nor could he hope for aid.
I couldn’t let those who had dared join the rebellion live.
The only reason the North Grand Duke was still alive was because I wanted him to admit his connection to Mirne.
Yet he kept denying it to the end.
‘Can someone really fall this deeply in love in such a short time? It’s not like they were even engaged. Can a few meetings make someone lose their mind like this?’
He seemed completely smitten.
Honestly, I didn’t understand it.
Even Estella, who was flinching as she watched from behind me, was far more beautiful than the Mirne I had seen on the cover of I’m Full Because Everyone Keeps Giving Me Things.
Did the social skills of a twenty-first-century person work even in a sword-and-magic fantasy world?
The North Grand Duke was a case of someone being utterly ruined by advanced female psychological-political dynamics.
Or perhaps some unspoken story had already built up between them.
With that thought in mind.
“Goodbye.”
I decided to personally cut off his head.
Clack.
It was the first time I had held a sword since transmigrating.
The moment I gripped it, I understood.
‘The Crown Prince... used a sword originally?’
The previous Crown Prince had been an exceptionally skilled swordsman.
Not with an ordinary sword, either. He had wielded a Zweihander.
There was only one reason he had never used it until now.
‘He might accidentally kill someone.’
What a kind reason.
He didn’t use a sword because he might accidentally kill his enemies.
He truly had a heart kind enough to be called a pushover.
‘He was ridiculously kind.’
With that final mutter, I swung.
Slash!
The instant I cut off the North Grand Duke’s head.
[ The North Grand Duke does not die so easily. ]
[ He begins his final struggle. ]
“What?”
Along with the absurd message came a boom!
An enormous force burst from Preon’s body and shoved everyone except me away.
At the same time, the North Grand Duke’s appearance changed.
He looked completely different from before.
If I had to compare it, it was as though he had aged five to ten years...
‘Ah.’
The instant I saw it, I realized.
‘Right. That happens too.’
Some romance fantasy novels began when the characters were children.
The covers started with them as babies, then showed them as teenagers before they became adults.
Since the story had mentioned an Academy, his grown-up appearance was probably meant to appear in the future.
That meant the North Grand Duke’s final struggle reflected his future self.
‘Is this even right? What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this?’
It was nice to finally learn what happened when you killed a male lead.
“So a final struggle pattern begins.”
Sorry, but I wasn’t kind enough to wait for his transformation to finish.
Sol Velos.
A wild, flame-like Aura wrapped around my entire body, then coiled around my sword.
Without hesitation, it came down toward the neck of the North Grand Duke, who was still transforming.
“Crown Prince, I told you. I would make you understand through strength!”
The suddenly grown North Grand Duke swung his sword to block mine.
He had used one final struggle pattern just before death, and not only had his ruined body completely recovered, but he had become even stronger than before.
He even held an expensive-looking sword that hadn’t existed a moment ago.
What the hell was this supposed to be?
Then.
“Uaaaaaah!”
Filled with vigor, Preon let out a powerful shout just before our swords clashed.
Matching his momentum, I brought out the Crown Prince’s full power for the first time.
No, more precisely, I tried to.
Slash!
“Urk... Hah... Haaah...”
Before I could even properly unleash my strength, my sword had already perfectly split the North Grand Duke’s body diagonally.
[ The North Grand Duke has completely died. ]
[ However, he died before the North Grand Duke’s death narrative had sufficiently accumulated. ]
[ Therefore, the North Grand Duke’s narrative will pass to another person. ]
[ A new male lead, the Northern Great Warrior, is scheduled to appear. ]
[ Since he has not yet met the protagonist, Mirne, it cannot be determined who will become the Northern Great Warrior. ]
[ The Northern Great Warrior’s keywords will be revealed: #Growth #Savagery #Barbarian #StraightforwardGuy #ChargesHeadfirst ]
Messages appeared the moment Preon died.
“Ha.”
My immediate thought upon seeing them was this.
‘If there’s someone annoying in the Empire, I can kill them even if they’re a male lead.’
From now on, I wouldn’t need to hesitate to kill anyone within the Empire.
The story wouldn’t change, and the possibility of the Empire’s destruction wouldn’t rise.
If anything, having a man who liked the protagonist appear outside the Empire gave me less to worry about.
‘But if he’s the Northern Great Warrior, he’ll eventually try to invade the Empire again.’
Still, an external enemy was far better than a cancer festering within.
By the time the new male lead targeted the Empire, it would probably have recovered considerably.
That bastard would likely become the North Grand Duke just like Preon, then die the same way.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
“Your Highness!”
“Are you all right?”
“W-what was that all of a sudden?!”
Once it was over, the Executioners, the Grand General, and the Imperial Guard Knights came rushing over.
“I’m fine. It was only a brief disturbance.”
“But you should receive proper treatment, just in case...!”
“I’m truly fine. Focus on cleaning up the area. The knights who did not join the rebellion must continue holding the front lines.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Since it had been a final struggle pattern, it seemed others were unable to intervene until the situation was completely resolved.
Otherwise, there was no explanation for why the Grand General and the Executioners had been thrown so far away.
‘Wait, if I had been weak, would I have just died?’
What kind of insane special treatment was that?
Still, it had all worked out in the end, so it wasn’t bad.
[ The North Grand Duke has been completely erased from the Empire. ]
[ The possibility of the Empire’s destruction decreases. ]
[ 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. ]
The possibility of destruction had immediately fallen by 10%, too.
‘It’s similar to when I crippled the East Grand Duke’s cultivation.’
Was it because of the Northern Great Warrior who would appear later?
As I considered the various possibilities, the messages continued as if it weren’t over yet.
[ A clue about the Covenant has been granted. ]
[ The Covenant is a promise the five Executioners made with the Great Prophet. ]
[ In exchange for swearing loyalty to the Velos Empire, they asked to have their unmet needs fulfilled. ]
[ However, their unmet needs could not be fulfilled at the time, so the Great Prophet set the time to fulfill this promise far in the future. ]
[ And that distant future is now. ]
‘No, so the Great Prophet put it on an installment plan?’
The Great Prophet was praised in history as an incredible and remarkable person.
But according to the message, they were just a shopping addict who bought five luxury items and made their descendants pay the bill.
If you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t purchase Executioners.
Why did you put it on an installment plan and make us pay for it now?
I wanted to ask, but the Great Prophet was already dead, so I couldn’t.
[ The Covenant of the noble princess, Arveda, is to find her True Name. ]
[ Her name must be found. ]
The first clue about the Covenant appeared as I blamed my ancestor.
‘A name? A True Name?’
So Arveda wasn’t her real name?
At that moment, I immediately understood the nature of the Covenant.
‘Then everyone must have forgotten something.’
And if I couldn’t resolve it, the Empire would be destroyed.
Within five years, at that.
‘Then in five years, the Executioners will destroy the Empire... and head for Macelin?’
It wasn’t certain, but it seemed highly likely.
As countless variables passed through my mind.
“Most of the Swordmasters are dead, and we even lost a Grandmaster... I might have to start kidnapping talented people from somewhere.”
Once I roughly sorted through the situation, I realized the Empire was in a very precarious state.
Too many high-level personnel had died.
The Empire might have abundant resources and diverse talent, but dozens of Swordmasters and one Grandmaster wouldn’t simply fall from the sky.
And naturally, the Magic Beasts of the North wouldn’t go easy on them.
They needed to replenish their forces quickly to maintain the Northern front.
‘They can hold out for now, but they’ll keep needing capable people.’
But the recently chaotic Empire had no room to dispatch such people immediately.
Many Northern nobles were expected to die, and the eastern region’s nobles were already dead.
That left only one option.
“We’re returning to the imperial palace first.”
“Yes!”
I should ask our neighbors nicely.
[ The situation has been completely resolved. ]
[ As a reward... ]
I set aside the messages that were still appearing.
There were more urgent matters to handle first.
+++++
Word had reached him that the Empire had recently undergone great upheaval.
But the details had not been heard.
There had been a revelation that carelessly getting involved would lead to a terrible disaster.
So only a very minor measure had been taken.
Kieeeeeeeek!!!
“...What in the world is that beast?”
The Holy Palace, the Pope’s chamber.
A red bird the Pope had never seen before sat by the window and let out a cry shocking enough to make him jump.
Kieeeeeeeek!
As if smashing through the window wasn’t enough, blood dripped from its beak.
‘Can a bird even hunt enough for blood to be dripping from its beak...?’
The question lasted only a moment.
“U-um...?”
The Pope’s gaze finally landed on the letter tied to the red bird’s leg.
And the red bird, or rather, Pirande seemed to notice the Pope’s gaze as well.
Kieeeeeeeek!
Ptui.
Looking at the Pope, Pirande pulled the letter free with its beak and spat it onto the floor.
Flap, flap.
With the look of a bird that had finished its business, it flew back out the window.
“Good grief.”
What in the world was this?
Even as the Pope stood there in bewilderment, he moved to pick up the letter.
Wondering what could possibly be important enough to arrive like this, he unfolded it.
“Valerian!!!”
The Pope immediately called for his son.
The letter was extremely polite, simple, and devastating all at once.
Its contents spanned roughly three pages, but they could be summarized as follows.
[ Rebellion in the Empire’s North, suspicion of the Romper Holy Kingdom, demand for clarification and compensation. ]
Let no obstacle stand before the Empire.
The Crown Prince’s will had been properly delivered to the Pope.
Footnotes:
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