The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More - Chapter 50

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Translator/Editor: Arsène

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◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈

Chapter 50: The Great Empire

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About a week had passed since Gorhan and Mirne exchanged contact information.

Aside from their first brief exchange of pleasantries, Mirne had not contacted Gorhan.

“If she contacts you again, use our artifact to contact me immediately.”

“Y-Yes.”

“If you start sticking close to Mirne while I’m away... Haha, it’s amusing just thinking about it.”

“....”

Whether Mirne had realized I had seen through her or was busy pursuing another male lead, I did not know.

Either way, I could not just sit around and wait.

“I’ll see you again, Gorhan.”

“...I’ll await that day.”

I headed straight to the central region to deal with the mountain of work waiting for me.

The first thing I did upon arriving was receive a report from the intelligence unit.

“We have not yet discovered any unusual movements in the Macelin Kingdom.”

“Is that so?”

Now that it was finally operating properly, the intelligence unit had focused its efforts on digging into the Macelin Kingdom under my orders.

Despite giving it their all, they had not uncovered anything particularly useful.

‘You can’t fill your stomach with the first spoonful.’

What mattered was that we could finally tap into them from our side, too.

I was about to be satisfied simply knowing reports like this were coming in when an agent continued.

“Yes, Your Highness. There is also a matter we are still tracking because it has not been properly confirmed, but there are rumors that they may abandon construction of their Academy.”

“The Academy?”

I tapped the throne’s armrest at those words.

“That is correct. It is still only a circulating rumor, but we have confirmed that they are mindful of the Imperial Academy.”

“They’re considering abandoning their own Academy because of ours?”

“Yes, but it has not been confirmed. I apologize for troubling you with this.”

“No. I ordered you to bring me every piece of information, so it is fine.”

Abandoning their Academy?

‘That symbolic building, one that could become the center of the setting?’

In a fantasy setting, an Academy was usually at the heart of the story.

That was where all the important characters appeared, where chance encounters occurred, and where all kinds of plotlines unfolded.

It should have been an important institution that could expand the world itself.

Yet they were considering giving it up simply because an Academy was being built in the Empire.

‘One possible development in an academy novel is that the characters might stop attending the Academy later on.’

Would they avoid building one in their own country, attend the Imperial Academy instead, and use it as one of the story’s stops?

“How ridiculous.”

My disbelief slipped out.

“M-My apologies!”

The intelligence agents, who had been kneeling before me, slammed their foreheads into the floor.

“No, that was not directed at you. Is there anything else to report?”

“No, Your Highness.”

“Those who have worked hard should receive rewards worthy of their efforts. Chancellor, do you not agree?”

“Yes, Your Highness. I will see to it properly.”

I promptly dismissed the intelligence unit, then kept tapping the armrest as I continued thinking.

‘Is she trying to leech off the Academy while planning to destroy the Empire?’

Since the Empire was destined to fall anyway, was she planning to suck it dry without a care?

To be honest, there were parts of Mirne’s actions that were difficult to understand.

‘Wouldn’t a transmigration protagonist normally choose a path where everyone could live well?’

No one could save everybody.

Even so, it was rare for someone to ruin others just so they could live well themselves.

Of course, it was different when the victims were evil people.

But the Empire was far from that kind of place.

‘From what I’ve heard, Mirne clearly knows everything up to the novel’s future events.’

From the Executioners’ Covenant to the fact that Dark Mages were about to become active within the Empire.

If she had not wanted the Empire to fall, she would have given us hints beforehand.

Rather than simply taking everything and keeping her mouth shut.

Could she not have used the Second Prince to offer clues one by one, pretending she did not know much about them?

‘It’s not as though I knocked out a grown man with a high-speed sleep-inducing dart gun and asked him to make deductions through a voice modulator.’

Mirne did not do that.

She continued receiving support from all kinds of places, including the Empire.

With it, she focused on making the Macelin Kingdom stronger.

As if she had no other choice.

‘Is it because when the Demon King descends, every nation except Macelin will fall? I don’t know.’

That was still only a hypothesis I could not prove.

Countless possibilities came to mind.

Yet there was only one thing I could say for certain right now.

‘Mirne does not care much about other places, and she has even less intention of saving the Empire from destruction.’

She had never even planned to join hands with the Empire and face the coming future together.

I naturally had no way of knowing why. If I tried asking, there was a good chance the story would change drastically, so I did not want to try.

‘Still, I’ve assigned someone to watch Gorhan for now, so it should be fine.’

The intelligence unit, the Empire’s eyes.

At this point, they were the organization receiving the greatest support in the Empire.

Their stealth-based infiltration was among the best in the Empire.

Using it, they thoroughly monitored the Empire’s major figures.

“I think I can catch my breath for a while.”

“You have been moving so busily, Your Highness. You deserve to rest.”

“Are you worried about me?”

“Of course.”

Arveda and Theo were currently busy searching for Dark Mages.

Rowena was working to further establish her position as the Empire’s Saintess.

Part of me wanted to keep working as well.

Still, perhaps because I had not rested properly in some time, I wanted to lie in bed for about a day.

‘I also need to speak with the Executioner who is presumably a Dwarf.’

I’ll rest properly for just one day.

With that thought in mind.

‘Whew.’

I rose from the throne and headed straight for my bedroom.

+++++

“Empire Status Window.”

The first thing I did upon arriving was check the Status Window.

Ding!

All kinds of messages appeared in rapid succession, but those were not what I wanted to see right now.

‘The Tech Tree is what matters.’

If Academy construction was slowing down, I only had to invest in that branch of the Tech Tree and speed it up.

‘There’s a lot here, but construction comes first.’

I had already seen how upgrading the Tech Tree affected the Empire through the Magic Stone Train.

The results seemed to take effect naturally.

It was as if the engineers had researched something and achieved good results on their own.

‘Construction methods that increase both speed and stability... I don’t know anything about this field, but the system will handle it.’

I knew nothing about construction, but the beauty of special benefits was that they worked even if I did not understand them.

Without hesitation, I invested three points into construction in a row.

“Since areas like education are already selected, it seems the Tech Tree can also open through the Empire’s development without investing points.”

The Convenient Empire Status Window was centered around individual keywords, with branches stretching out around them like a mind map.

I decided to examine what each one did later.

First, I scrolled all the way down to see what lay at the bottom.

Various Tech Trees intersected at certain points.

In the end, it was obvious that they would all eventually become one.

Scroll.

After scrolling for a while, I found the Tech Tree’s ultimate purpose.

“Ha.”

It was written so plainly that I could not have missed it.

“So the goal is to make the Empire great again.”

Looking at the current situation, it felt like we had recovered quite a lot already.

Yet the Tech Tree was still in its early stages. That meant the Great Empire was something I could not even imagine right now.

“Does that mean we’ll be bombarding enemies with magic stone fighter planes or something?”

Something like that did actually exist in the Tech Tree.

Its name was vague, making it hard to know exactly what it was.

Still, since it was called <Ruler of the Skies>, it had to be something along those lines.

“Whew.”

I closed the Status Window and flopped onto the bed.

Then, at that exact moment.

“Eek!”

“Hm?”

Something felt off, so I sat back up.

The blanket should have felt soft when I lay down.

What was this hard sensation?

Could it be?

“Arveda?”

With a sense of foreboding, I lifted the blanket slightly.

There, I found...

“Your Highness... This lady! I was searching for the Dark Mages... and happened to be resting!”

Arveda was there, hugging the doll I had given her as a reward for setting up Lumynix’s barrier so cleanly.

I had given her permission to stay here, but I had not expected her to be under my blanket in such comfortable clothes.

“Have you found them?”

“Not yet. I have been investigating according to the map Your Highness made, but there have been no unusual movements so far.”

“Is that so?”

Arveda would not be careless with her work, so Theo was probably in a similar situation.

If something had happened, Theo would not have been this quiet in the first place.

“This lady... If Your Highness is uncomfortable, I will leave immediately....”

Arveda spoke in an unmistakably dejected voice.

I gently stroked her hair and told her it was fine.

“You worked hard, so I should do at least this much. It’s fine, so rest comfortably.”

“Hehe. Then this lady shall lounge comfortably in Your Highness’s bed and sleep as well.”

“...All right.”

If the Empire fell, would I no longer be able to have even these small conversations?

‘I don’t want that.’

The Great Empire.

I would definitely reach it.

+++++

The next morning.

“Whew.”

After getting a long sleep for the first time in a while, I felt incredibly refreshed.

I headed straight toward the Executioner Palace, where the Executioners stayed.

‘There’s a lot I need to discuss with the Dwarf Executioner.’

There was the Academy construction, the sword containing the Ice Spirit that I had taken from the former Northern Grand Duke, and the sword the Crown Prince had driven into the ground.

There were many things I wanted to ask about.

As I headed toward the Executioner Palace where the Dwarf stayed, the Crown Prince’s memories slowly rose to the surface again.

- I want the strongest sword. A sword that will never break, no matter how fiercely anyone swings it.

- Do you intend to wield it? But that is impossible for Your Highness right now... Will His Majesty be using it?

- No, I will wield it. I cannot right now, but I must prepare for the day I can.

‘What?’

And that memory was shocking beyond belief.

‘Did the Crown Prince... know from the beginning that he could regress? What did he mean by the day he could wield it?’

Why had that memory suddenly surfaced now?

More importantly, there was one thing I needed to focus on.

‘The Dwarf Executioner... called someone His Majesty.’

The Executioner I was going to meet knew about the Emperor.