WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 39: Saint Candidate (4)
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There was a reason I hadn’t been keeping track of the Saint Candidate’s party traveling from the Holy Kingdom to the Empire’s south.
“The North should be the priority for laying railway tracks.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
It was simple, really.
“Where should we select for the Academy site?”
“I’m debating between the northwest and northeast. What do you all think?”
“Your Highness, I believe the northwest would be suitable because...”
I was far too busy.
The railways and the Academy had to be dealt with immediately.
I also needed to find new ways to utilize the Mage Tower floating in the sky.
There were tax issues, the migration of northern barbarians, and more.
Simply put, there were too many matters to handle.
I was managing domestic affairs by reading through the former Crown Prince’s memories, but perhaps because I wasn’t the Crown Prince to my core, handling everything efficiently was incredibly difficult.
‘At least there are plenty of capable people helping me. Otherwise, this could’ve become a real disaster.’
With so much going on, I couldn’t keep watching the Saint Candidate’s journey as well.
Honestly, no matter how bad a feeling I had, I wondered whether something like that could really happen.
‘And yet it actually did.’
The border between the Empire’s south and the Holy Kingdom.
That ambiguous stretch of land.
The Empire called it a no man’s land, while the Holy Kingdom called it a pilgrimage road.
I never dreamed they would cause trouble there.
It felt like my flesh was being torn away, but I thought I had no choice but to stand back and watch.
To think they would come up with such a simple-minded idea as destroying what they couldn’t have.
“This is enough.”
“Your Highness?”
“I’ll handle the rest in the south.”
I was curious how confident they had to be to pull this off, so I rose from my seat at once.
It was unfortunate, but domestic affairs would have to wait.
From here on, it was time for judgment.
+++++
“...Fire.”
At someone’s words, everyone turned in that direction.
The swords moving to take other people’s lives stopped at that exact moment.
“...What is that?”
The Holy Knights, no, the bandits stared at the blaze in confusion.
In the middle of the desert, a massive fire that should not have existed burned fiercely, making its presence known.
The bandits instinctively understood that unless they dealt with it first, they would be unable to do anything else.
Without hesitation, they started toward it.
To punish those who stood in the way of God’s will.
Yet when they reached the fire, what greeted them was...
“Arrrgh!”
“My body! My body!”
“The fire! The fire on my body won’t go out!”
“Save me! Please, save me!”
“Romper! O Romper, please watch over us!”
It was a living hell.
The Holy Kingdom’s proud soldiers rolled across the ground, desperately struggling to put out the flames.
Those who had not caught fire were too afraid to approach the blaze burning in the middle of the desert.
People who possessed the courage to leap anywhere to punish all evil now trembled like children, biting their lips desperately to keep from curling up.
At the center of it all was the person responsible for creating this atmosphere.
“How can there be a band of bandits on a place called the Holy Kingdom’s pilgrimage road?”
The golden-haired, red-eyed man sat atop a pile of Holy Knight corpses.
“...I’m sorry, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? This happened outside the Holy Kingdom.”
The moment the bandits heard Saint Candidate Rowena’s words, their eyes widened.
The Crown Prince? The Empire’s Crown Prince had come all this way to help a Saint Candidate?
Questions flooded their minds at the incomprehensible situation.
“Since when...”
Those overflowing questions slipped from their mouths.
“Is that what a bandit should be curious about? How unlike you.”
At the Crown Prince’s response, the bandits realized their mistake.
At the same time, they recognized that the situation had become badly tangled.
‘Should we retreat?’
Even if their identities had been exposed, there was no solid physical evidence.
Even if someone pointed them out directly, they could snap that the person had mistaken them because of the desert heat.
‘Fighting him would be insane.’
Running was their best option.
As long as the Crown Prince was here, they couldn’t do anything more.
To force the issue, they would have to use Divine Power.
The moment they did, they would no longer be able to feign ignorance.
The bandits who were still relatively unharmed exchanged glances and were about to turn and flee.
“You’re making far too much noise rolling your eyes for mere bandits, as though this is your first time in a situation like this.”
Whoosh!
A streak of fire shot forward in a straight line and erased everything below the bandits’ knees.
Despite the many ordinary people nearby, he controlled the flames precisely enough to burn away only the bandits’ legs below their knees.
The person most shocked by that sight was not the bandits, but Rowena.
‘I heard he had recently carried out a purge, so I thought he would have a harsh temperament.’
Watching the Crown Prince, she realized how wrong she had been.
When she heard what had happened from the North to the eastern region, she thought he was destructive.
Yet he was kinder than anyone else.
He thoroughly protected those within his shadow.
‘I should apologize later... for thinking such things.’
She felt foolish for judging him based on rumors without seeing him herself.
Meanwhile, those whose legs had been burned away rolled across the ground, then began desperately crawling away from the Crown Prince.
“Guh... haaah!”
“The northern knights eat dirt, but do southern knights eat sand?”
No, I shouldn’t call them knights. Calling them bandits would be more fitting.
The Crown Prince slowly rose to his feet as he watched them.
“You will never return alive.”
He told the sand-eating bandits what awaited them.
“Even if you go back, only your heads will make it back. And the official story will be that the Crown Prince exterminated bandits on the Holy Kingdom’s pilgrimage road.”
“Th-That can’t be. Th-That can’t...”
“Do you think the Holy Kingdom will protect you? Those who tried to stab themselves in the flesh out of fear of giving even one thing to me, would they protect you?”
Despair filled the bandits’ eyes at those words.
The thought that the Holy Kingdom would not protect them took root in their minds.
“Yes. If you tried to harm what is mine, you should wear that expression.”
As soon as the Crown Prince finished speaking, every bandit’s body turned to ash and vanished.
With overwhelming firepower, he erased everything that had threatened the Saint Candidate’s group in an instant, leaving only their heads behind.
“Thank you very much, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
The moment Rowena realized the situation had been settled, she quickly knelt.
“And I apologize as well. I judged and misunderstood Your Highness the Crown Prince as I pleased after hearing only rumors.”
“I don’t mind, so rise. How can the person who must lead so many people kneel so easily?”
“How could I not kneel before the person who will become our shelter?”
As she spoke, Rowena met the Crown Prince’s gaze.
Golden hair and red eyes.
The physical traits said to belong only to the Empire’s imperial family entered Rowena’s sight.
“A Saint Candidate is staring at me so intently that I don’t know what to do. Do you like my face?”
“N-No. I’m sorry. I was being rude...”
“No, I asked whether you liked it.”
“...Yes.”
“I practically had to force the compliment out of you, but thank you.”
For a moment, Rowena wondered whether the desert had always been this hot.
“The Empire will send an escort. There are so many bandits here, what in the world is the Holy Kingdom doing?”
“...Your Highness, I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t say that to receive an apology.”
There were others who should apologize, yet an unrelated person was the only one bowing her head.
As he continued speaking, the Crown Prince gave a faint smile.
The Saint Candidate knew his smile was not sincere.
He smiled despite there being nothing remotely amusing about this situation.
It was likely because so many people were watching him.
The Crown Prince seemed to know all too well that the atmosphere changed according to the expression of a powerful figure who had erased every unexpected threat.
‘A kind person.’
Rowena quietly moved behind the Crown Prince and freely admired his back.
At that very moment, he spoke.
“Come to think of it, I don’t know what to call you. Should I call you Saint Candidate?”
“It no longer has any meaning, so you may simply call me Rowena.”
“All right, Rowena. I originally intended to say this in the imperial center, but since we’ve met early, let me ask you something.”
The Crown Prince smiled broadly and met Rowena’s eyes.
“Would you consider becoming the Empire’s Saintess?”
He had asked the question so casually that Rowena blurted, “Excuse me?”
For the first time in her life, Rowena wore a blank expression.
+++++
Crash!
“W-What was that?”
Screeeech!
The moment the ceiling glass of the Grand Temple shattered, everyone was startled.
It would have been shocking enough if it had simply broken, but the glass shattered while the Pope was praying?
Was this an attack?
Could there be an attack they had failed to notice?
“Protect His Holiness the Pope!”
“An enemy attack!”
The priests and knights quickly moved toward the Pope, attempting to evacuate him.
Just as the Pope was about to leave the Grand Temple’s main prayer hall.
Thud!
A large bundle fell through the hole in the shattered ceiling with a loud crash.
The red bundle seemed stuffed with something, and the moment it struck the floor, it made a wet slapping sound.
It was a dreadful sound, and before anyone could guess what it was, the Pope spoke.
“E-Everyone, leave.”
Only the Pope recognized it and, horrified, ordered everyone in the prayer room to leave.
“B-But we don’t know what that is. How can we leave Your Holiness...”
“I said leave at once!”
As though no one else must ever learn the bundle’s identity, the Pope uncharacteristically raised his voice and dismissed everyone from the prayer room.
Screeeech!
After confirming this, a bird made its presence known before flying away as if mocking them.
The Pope knew what that bird was.
It possessed a majesty convincing enough to make one believe it was the rebirth of a phoenix.
‘Isn’t that the Crown Prince’s messenger bird?’
Had no one noticed it?
Could the messenger bird conceal itself on its own?
Many questions came to mind, but this was not the time to worry about them.
“Gasp... gasp...”
With trembling hands, the Pope untied the red cloth and revealed a truth no one wished to see.
“...!”
They were not the Holy Kingdom’s most elite force.
Still, they were never people who lacked the ability to handle the task.
To prepare for any unexpected event, they had dispatched an entire order of knights.
Yet only their heads had returned to the Holy Kingdom.
And they had been delivered by the Crown Prince’s messenger bird.
Its meaning was clear.
Do not try anything foolish.
It was not that he left them alone because he could not.
“L-Lord Romper...”
Unable to look at the crushed heads any longer, the Pope quickly wrapped the bundle again.
Calling for his god, he barely managed to steady his swaying body.
“Father!”
“...Valerian, have you come?”
As he gathered himself, he saw his son enter through the door.
Although Valerian had not looked inside the bundle, he immediately understood what it was.
“Was this the Crown Prince’s doing?”
His expression stiffened in an instant.
Yet at Valerian’s words, the Pope’s face relaxed instead.
“Does this look like the Crown Prince’s doing to you?”
“Then it wasn’t?”
“We... We did this, Valerian.”
This did not have to happen.
How could it be the Crown Prince who made it happen this way?
Did Valerian know that they had created this situation, yet still chose to ignore it?
The Pope wanted to ask that.
But knowing that he stood in the same position, he kept his mouth shut.
What meaning did teaching have if one could not realize it for oneself?
“....”
Without a word, the Pope turned his back to Valerian, picked up the bundle containing the Holy Knights’ heads, and left.
Valerian was left alone in the prayer room.
‘Crown Prince...’
For the first time in his life, Valerian felt an emotion he had never experienced before.
The name of that emotion was...
‘...Was the Crown Prince truly this strong? Did I... Did I think I could stand against a Crown Prince like this?’
Fear.
Footnotes:
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