WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 49: It’ll Be a Little Different
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When Bigfoot died,
Gorhan was the one who regretted it more than anyone.
“I can’t believe Bigfoot was hunted.”
Bigfoot’s leg hide was absurdly tough, harder than steel and yet flexible at the same time.
He had wanted to compare it with his own durability.
He would have been happy with even a piece of hide.
But the entire hide had been sent to the Empire’s central region, which was truly unfortunate.
As Gorhan continued to distinguish himself on the northern front while easing that regret,
“Uraaaaaaah!”
One day, when he was in especially high spirits,
Gorhan left the front line and ventured deeper into the Magic Beasts’ nest.
Most matters had been settled, and nobody was injured.
He simply wanted to go farther in alone and unleash every bit of strength he had left.
How far had he charged beyond the front line?
“...Who are you?”
“My name is Mirne. Hello.”
“How are you here? This may not be Imperial land, but how can a woman be alone in terrain this dangerous?”
Gorhan had encountered a peculiar woman.
He could not quite put his finger on it, but she had a strange charm.
She was not exactly his ideal woman.
Still, she naturally drew his attention and made him curious about her interests.
There was something mysterious about her, something that tickled at his heart.
“A witch?”
Gorhan was clumsy with emotions. The moment he sensed something strange, he swung the axe in his hand.
“Black Mane Cleave!”
Slash!
Judging by her clothes alone, she looked like the daughter of some distinguished family.
Yet a woman like that had appeared in terrain so harsh that even Magic Beasts rarely came here?
He could only conclude that it was some bizarre sorcery.
“Wait! Wait! Please calm down!”
Mirne hurriedly tried to clear up what seemed to be a misunderstanding, but
“Skill names need to be shouted with spirit! Black Mane Rend!”
Gorhan swung his axe blindly.
His previous strike had been a simple downward swing.
This time, he swung his axe so quickly that it felt as though multiple places were being cut at once.
Slaaash!
The force of Gorhan’s swings made the blizzard seem to stop for an instant.
The few Magic Beasts nearby sensed his momentum, felt their lives were at risk, and fled.
“Yes, when I swing this hard, they usually either die... or get fired up. One of the two.”
Then, in the middle of it all,
“How are you completely unharmed?”
Mirne was perfectly fine.
Everything around her had been torn apart by the axe, yet she remained untouched.
She did not seem affected by the northern cold either, looking exactly as she had before.
She looked as though she had merely come out for a stroll.
Watching her,
“I’ll need enough strength to kill you for certain!”
Gorhan was about to draw up his power when,
“No, I’m Mirne! The Crown Princess of the Macelin Kingdom! Mirne!”
“I don’t need to know that.”
Mirne hurriedly spoke and calmed Gorhan down.
“I’ll be direct. I came to meet you before returning to the kingdom.”
“Before returning to the kingdom?”
“I have memories in the North, but because of the Magic Beasts...”
“I understand.”
Gorhan immediately answered Mirne’s words.
Magic Beasts had not originally existed in the North.
It was an ancient story, of course.
Still, the northern tribes desperately wished for that day to return.
It was every tribe’s dream.
“You might be able to restore the North to how it was before Magic Beasts existed.”
“Me? No, why should I trust you in the first place? Do you not realize that speaking with you right now makes no sense?”
“If that is your concern, I have the blessing of a Spirit. Does that answer your question?”
“Spirits struggle to act in the North. The cold winds laden with Demonic Energy are deadly to them. That is why even our tribal shamans have great difficulty when casting their spells. So how can you...?”
The more Mirne said that Gorhan might be able to fulfill that dream, the more Gorhan’s suspicion grew.
With an expression that said she had no choice, Mirne finally manifested the Spirit she had contracted with.
In the bitter cold of the North, people believed it was impossible to manifest a Spirit.
“Amazing!”
That common belief shattered before his eyes, and Gorhan’s mouth fell open.
“Do you believe me now?”
“I will. I cannot say I trust you completely, but I believe you are strong.”
“...You don’t believe what I said?”
“I can tell that you are an incredible Spiritist. So what is your purpose? Did you come to recruit me?”
That was one thing, and this was another.
Gorhan’s thought process was simple, yet he kept each matter thoroughly separate.
Of course, he would keep listening because a pretty woman was speaking.
But he could not completely erase the thought that she was an evil witch.
“No. I came because I want us to get along. Close friends!”
“Close friends?”
“Yes. Please take this.”
As he held those thoughts,
a white hand landed on Gorhan’s rough palm and dropped something into it.
“What is this?”
“It is an artifact that lets us communicate! It is a new masterpiece I made, though I had a lot of help.”
“And?”
“It means we should contact each other sometimes. Like comrades with the shared goal of completely wiping out the Magic Beasts in the North.”
“How funny.”
“I’m glad you laughed.”
After that conversation ended,
Whoooosh.
A fierce blizzard suddenly blew between Mirne and Gorhan, enough to obscure his vision.
Within that violent snowstorm,
“...Could a hand and a smile be this warm?”
Gorhan stared blankly ahead, unable to forget that brief moment of contact.
Naturally, Mirne had vanished.
+++++
“So you received the artifact, returned to the North, and haven’t contacted her since?”
“That is correct! You are smart, whoever you are!”
Boom!
One question and answer.
One clash.
Every time they clashed, the surrounding terrain changed.
They had started in a new settlement area.
Yet as the exchange continued, the two men’s locations constantly shifted.
By now, they had reached Greatjaw’s territory, one of the habitats of Great Magic Beasts.
They were far beyond the front line.
Crown Prince Bellon rolled his shoulders and looked around.
“We’ve come far.”
“More! Let’s do more! More!”
Bellon turned his gaze back to Gorhan at those words.
‘His character is very clearly defined.’
Gorhan, the Northern Great Warrior, felt like the typical slightly dim but pure barbarian cliché.
Straightforward, fond of fighting, but with occasional flashes of wisdom in the things he casually said.
“Who in the world are you? I have never seen a human as strong as you!”
“Who looks stronger, Mirne or me?”
“I could not tell how strong Mirne was. I truly could not, but she is a woman with a mysterious charm. You, though... You are different. I can tell for certain. You are a distant sun.”
For now, though, he simply looked like a warrior who loved to fight.
“So you haven’t contacted her, but you still have the artifact.”
“That is the same question! But we had a question and answer once, urk!”
Kwoooong!
Once again, Gorhan’s body flew away as lightly as a sheet of paper.
That made around twenty times.
He could not even react. He did not know when he had been struck before slamming into a wall.
“What is this...?”
As Gorhan raised his head toward where he thought Bellon might be,
Bellon slowly appeared before him with a pensive expression.
“You said you knew a way to drive the Magic Beasts out of the North.”
“Th-that is right.”
The questioning continued.
Boom!
The moment Gorhan finished answering, his body flew away again.
It looked as though Bellon was striking him carelessly, but he had been aiming precisely for Gorhan’s heart the entire time.
Whether he struck with a hand or a foot, every blow landed on his heart.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
At first, Gorhan had taken the hits without thinking.
But if this level of damage continued,
‘This is dangerous.’
For the first time in his life, the thought that he might die formed in Gorhan’s mind.
His heartbeat was no longer the same.
Thud, bang, roll.
His body skipped across the snowfield like a stone across water.
Thud!
Where he finally arrived was,
Grrrrrrrr.
“...Greatjaw?”
It was a drake with an unnaturally large protruding jaw.
A descendant of dragons that had lost its former glory.
Nothing should have remained where its wings had regressed, yet Greatjaw had pathetic wings, unbefitting of a Great Magic Beast.
Still, those wings and that monstrous jaw had raised it to the rank of Great Magic Beast.
From Gorhan’s perspective as he looked up at it, his breath caught.
He was already in poor condition, and now a Great Magic Beast had been provoked.
It would have been different if he had brought a weapon or been fully armed.
Facing a Great Magic Beast right now was impossible.
“Hahaha! But overcoming even such hardship is the path of a Great Warrior!”
Even so, Gorhan proudly stood up and prepared to face the Great Magic Beast, considering it a virtue.
At that very moment,
Fwoooosh.
An intensely compressed orange flame flew through the air.
Slash.
It cleanly severed the drake’s upper jaw.
Greatjaw, the terror of the North, died without even realizing when it had been killed.
“That makes two Great Magic Beasts. I heard that you, Gorhan, aim to become a Great Warrior.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
At Bellon’s next words, Gorhan unconsciously began speaking politely.
At the same time, he realized
how much his opponent had been holding back,
and why he had survived after taking more than twenty attacks.
“M-may I ask who you are... sir?”
The words would not come out properly.
How disrespectful had he been toward such a strong person?
It would not have been strange if he died.
Complex thoughts filled Gorhan’s mind when Bellon spoke calmly.
“Judging by your attitude, I will not bother telling you. As long as you maintain that attitude, there will be no problem.”
“Th-thank you.”
Bellon continued with an indifferent expression.
“You said she gave you a new artifact for communication.”
“That is correct.”
“She also said she wanted to be friends with you.”
“Yes.”
Whenever the questioning continued, Gorhan flinched.
Boom!
At the same time, Greatjaw’s huge body finally lost its balance and collapsed to the ground.
The Great Magic Beast was so large that even if someone tilted their head straight up, it would be difficult to see its face.
The moment its enormous body fell limply to the ground, a powerful blizzard blew.
Fwoooosh.
Within that blizzard,
a single flame that melted everything refused to let the snowstorm draw near.
“From now on, report to me whenever anything happens, and do not answer rashly.”
“...W-what does that mean?”
“It means become friends with the woman named Mirne in my way.”
As the flames pushed the blizzard back,
Bellon smiled broadly as he looked down at Gorhan sprawled on the ground.
“She’ll only be thinking about how to use you, so she would never dream that she could be used herself.”
Mirne, the male lead you are trying to capture this time will be a little different.
Footnotes:
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