WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 45: Saintess (4)
──────
The Empire had to fall.
It was a rule.
For the novel to continue smoothly, it was something that inevitably had to happen.
No matter what, it was bound to fall eventually, so she had to squeeze it for all it was worth before then.
But.
‘Why did things turn out like this?’
What was this situation unfolding before her?
‘The Crown Prince has changed so much. Far more drastically than in the original story.’
Why?
Mirne could not begin to guess.
‘Two male leads have died. Both of them had enormous potential.’
The Northern Grand Duke and the Saint absolutely could not die here.
No, it was strange enough for male leads in a romance fantasy novel to die so pointlessly.
The Northern Grand Duke, in particular, was supposed to be known for his martial strength.
And the role responsible for that martial strength had died so early on?
‘Then when a situation arises later that requires that strength, there’ll be a gap.’
Mirne was saddened by the deaths of the people she had been in contact with.
Still, her anxiety over not knowing how the novel would change afterward was even greater.
‘What happens if the story gets even more twisted than it already is? No, what if the Empire doesn’t fall in the first place?’
The worst possibilities began creeping into her mind.
She was anxious. Above all, the possibility that the Empire would not fall was the greatest problem.
In the past, it had not caused her much concern.
She had thought there was still plenty to take from the Empire.
There was still so much left to claim, and it would be troublesome if it collapsed on its own.
She had thought it would not be bad for it to remain reasonably prosperous.
Yet no more support was coming to the Macelin Kingdom.
Recently, the Empire had even begun exploiting it instead.
The Empire was no longer merely maintaining a reasonable level of prosperity. It was trying to reclaim the glory of its former peak.
‘Could the changing story mean there’s a chance the Crown Prince will become a target that can be captured?’
As some famous person had said, nothing was absolute.
Was there perhaps a chance?
[ The Imperial Crown Prince, Bellon Velos, is not a target that can be captured. ]
Yet the only message she received was still that the Crown Prince was not a target that could be captured.
So was the story really just continuing to twist itself?
Without the Empire falling?
‘That can’t happen... It can’t... Then when the Empire changes later...’
As Mirne continued spiraling into dark thoughts.
Rustle.
The Spirits waiting nearby revealed themselves, trying to comfort her.
Bang!
“Eek!”
At that moment, someone grabbed the back of her neck and slammed her body into the table.
“This is hardly the place for it. Being carefree wasn’t enough, you were about to summon Spirits too... Have you lost your mind?”
“Y-Your Highness...! I’m sorry. I was trembling, and the Spirits saw that and wanted to comfort me...”
“Whatever. This was not a meeting to nitpick such trivial matters in the first place.”
After releasing the pressure pinning Mirne down, the Crown Prince naturally looked around the room.
“Theo, you’ve worked hard. I can handle things here alone, so you may rest.”
“As you command!”
He ordered Theo, who had been standing at attention nearby, to rest.
Once Theo left, Bellon quietly stared at Mirne for a moment.
‘Are male leads incapable of harming Mirne by nature?’
Could they inflict meaningful harm on Mirne as long as they did not have killing intent?
To test that, Bellon had told Theo to use telekinesis to press down on Mirne.
Strangely enough, Theo’s magic activated, but Mirne was completely unharmed.
‘But when I did it, it worked.’
So this time, Bellon used telekinesis to press Mirne down himself.
As though it would have been strange for it not to work, Mirne was swiftly subdued.
‘There seems to be some kind of rule... But that isn’t what matters right now.’
Bellon shook his head slightly.
“I would like you to explain several things. Why you believe Dark Mages will appear in the Empire, how you know that... And even knowing it, why you secretly joined the Holy Kingdom’s party.”
He focused on the matter at hand.
‘But what does the Saint’s death have to do with the Empire’s destruction probability dropping by ten percent?’
That unanswered question still remained.
+++++
The Empire was vast.
Absurdly vast.
And lately, it had not been able to manage all that land properly.
Land left unmanaged was bound to rot, and strange things grew in rotten places.
They were problems that could have been solved with a little attention.
But the Empire had been busy supporting other countries all this time.
So those strange things had grown far larger than they had been at first.
And those strange, wicked things that had grown so large had been discovered by Mirne’s own Divine Power as a Prospective Saintess.
“So that’s roughly what happened?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“You secretly investigated because you thought speaking up with something unconfirmed might cause needless confusion.”
“That is correct.”
“You’re an exceptionally capable Prospective Saintess, to have discovered something like that from so far away.”
After hearing Mirne’s words, I smiled inwardly.
‘If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve read a little further than Chapter 50.’
Up to Chapter 50, it had been nothing but the Empire generously giving things away.
I could not bring myself to read any further, so I immediately dropped the novel.
‘The Mage Tower is in the sky... and Dark Mages live in unmanaged lands?’
I had never imagined the Empire was in such poor condition.
And the very idea of unmanaged lands was extremely vague.
So much so that I found myself wondering whether such places had even existed.
‘Is no one reporting them because nobody is managing them?’
Yet despite having lands like that, the Empire had endured just fine without collapsing until now.
How solid was the Empire’s foundation for it to be this sturdy?
As I marveled to myself.
Ding!
[ You have heard about the Dark Mages. ]
[ The story changes. ]
[ The worldline changes. ]
[ You have been awarded the ‘Empire Map.’ ]
[ Light up the map by revealing every corner of the Empire! ]
The reward had arrived at just the right time, apparently to make it easier to find the Dark Mages.
‘Right. It was about time I received something.’
The transmigrated protagonist standing before me had people showering her with things without even doing anything.
Without something like this, I would have felt cheated.
But.
[ Because you obtained information about the Dark Mages in advance, the probability of destruction will not rise immediately. ]
[ However, if the Dark Mages begin operating in earnest, the probability of destruction will rise sharply. ]
[ Be careful not to let the probability of destruction reach 100%! ]
The messages that followed nearly changed my expression.
So if I had simply sat back and done nothing, the destruction probability would have suddenly shot up?
‘Why is this novel so desperate to destroy the Empire?’
As irritation surged through me.
“Do you believe me?”
Mirne looked flustered that I had accepted her words so easily.
Honestly, I could reasonably have gotten angry.
When I asked why she had come, she gave Dark Mages as the reason. It could have sounded like an excuse she had blurted out in a rush because of the situation.
‘I wouldn’t have believed you either if I didn’t know you had transmigrated.’
She had read the original novel to the end, so her words were highly trustworthy.
Still, I had no intention of explaining the basis for that trust one point at a time.
I looked at Mirne and lightly waved a hand.
“I’m more surprised that you’re surprised by that.”
“What do you mean...?”
“The Saint died before your eyes, and so did a god... Yet you’re too calm. It’s as if you believe what was supposed to happen has happened.”
I had already gotten all the information I could from Mirne.
I had obtained the Empire Map as well, so I could tell Arveda and Theo to inspect every corner of the Empire.
The most urgent matter was having Rowena use Purification on the curse afflicting Lumynix.
The only thing left to discuss with Mirne was the matter of the Saintess.
‘As long as the Holy Kingdom remains under the Empire’s control, Mirne will not be treated as the Saintess.’
Everyone connected to the Saint would be removed.
Mirne would no longer be able to exert any influence over the Holy Kingdom.
So.
“W-Well...”
“That is enough. I did not say that because I wanted an answer.”
I rose from my seat first.
As part of bringing the Macelin Kingdom to heel, Mirne would not be sent back immediately.
She would spend some time in prison before returning to the kingdom.
“I hope there will be no more unfortunate incidents like this in the future.”
This time, I had let it slide because of the information about the Dark Mages.
But I could not promise I would be as lenient if something like this happened again.
With that thought, I left the interrogation room and went over my conversation with Mirne once more.
‘Dark Mages... It came out of nowhere, but it’s possible. But why are they appearing in the Empire instead of near the novel’s protagonist?’
Something about why Dark Mages were active within the Empire and why their activities would sharply raise the Empire’s destruction probability bothered me.
‘When it comes to the evil that appears in a typical fantasy novel... it could be a god, or simply people fighting one another... Dark Mages are part of that too.’
But generally speaking, it was difficult to see Dark Mages themselves as the main threat.
Dark Mages were usually the ones who said something like, ‘We are the weakest among us.’
And the true main enemy was usually...
‘No way.’
Related to the Demon Race.
And when it came to the Demon Race, only one familiar trope came to mind.
‘The Demon King.’
If that was the case, then the reason Dark Mages were active within the Empire was...
“Why is it so desperate to devour the Empire?”
There was a very high chance of the Demon King’s descent.
‘Am I supposed to earn the Hero title or something?’
But if the Demon King appeared within the Empire.
‘Not a chance.’
I would become the Hero.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
