WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 84: Mermaid (2)
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Executioners could not speak of their own Covenant.
That was why I already knew Nerissa’s claim that she wanted the Empire destroyed was not sincere.
Still, I was curious.
What kind of Covenant had made her say she wished for the Empire’s destruction, out of all the lies she could have told?
Was it a personal grudge, or hatred deeply rooted throughout her entire race?
I had wondered which it was.
“The entire race hates the Empire, yet I do not know why.”
A brief conversation had revealed that all Merfolk hated the Empire.
Their very demeanor made it seem as though they naturally wished for its destruction.
I did not know why, so I decided to give them a new reason.
“From now on, the reason the Merfolk hate the Empire will be because the Imperial Crown Prince drove their race to extinction.”
Making an enemy of the Empire carried that meaning.
The extermination of a race, ruin, extinction. Such things naturally followed.
Recently, every kingdom on the continent had been too busy bowing their heads, so there had been few chances to properly display our strength.
Now that they had kindly arranged an opportunity for me to warm up, there was no reason to refuse.
Just as White Night was about to touch the seawater,
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
Massive bubbles began boiling up from the surface, soon producing an enormous amount of steam.
White Night had not even properly touched the water yet, but the spot the Merfolk had occupied was already deeply hollowed out.
It was a bizarre sight. The sea itself was dented as though it were solid ground.
It was as if a huge invisible circle surrounded White Night.
As though the sea feared White Night and fled from it, the waves rushed outward from the white sphere.
“Have the Merfolk already run away?”
“Compared to the Elves, they are even more cowardly. They must have sensed something already.”
“Well... it does not matter. I only need to send White Night all the way to the bottom of the deep sea.”
Could I send White Night into the deep sea, all the way to where the Merfolk lived?
I had never considered that question, nor did I need to.
I intended to keep going until it worked.
“Eeeeeek!!!”
“What is that?! What is happening?!”
“Kailen Marin is repaying kindness with enmity!”
“The Empire! It is the Empire! The Empire is trying to erase our race!”
As White Night slowly descended beneath the sea, Merfolk appeared far away and began shouting.
As though they desperately wanted us to listen.
“They are doing something so obvious.”
“What do you mean, Your Highness?”
“They do not want to be friendly with the Empire, so they do not want to speak to us first. But they also feel wronged about being treated like this, so they are shouting for us to please listen to them. That is what I mean by obvious.”
“...What do you do in times like this, Your Highness?”
Arveda tilted her head, looking genuinely confused.
I smiled softly at her question and enlarged White Night even further.
“It looks like they still have not come to their senses, so I need to wait until then.”
Fwoooosh!
The instant White Night entered the sea, a huge spherical void formed underwater.
Nothing had happened yet because that void was still being maintained.
The moment White Night disappeared, an enormous backlash would follow.
That backlash would naturally reach the Empire’s eastern region.
Yet the reason I could wield my power without hesitation was simple.
‘Because I had faith.’
The Empire possessed enough national strength to easily neutralize the resulting backlash.
‘Did they think the Empire kept churning out knights who eat twenty meals a day for nothing?’
No!!!
Tell him to stop!!!
It is really going to reach the deep sea!!!
We will melt! Everything will melt away!!!
Contact the King! Right now!
Ignoring the Merfolk’s cries around me, I continued sending White Night deeper into the sea.
“Perhaps there has been some... misunderstanding. Would you consider easing your anger here?”
A crowned Merfolk rose to the surface.
“Huh.”
The figure spoke while holding White Night in their palm.
+++++
The promised time would come.
In five years, the Empire would surely fall.
Then a woman would appear and rule the world in peace.
It was a prophecy passed down among the Merfolk since ancient times.
The Merfolk believed in that prophecy without question.
There was only one reason.
“Everything written in the Prophecy Book has actually happened.”
“From now on... from now on, we only need to believe in this Prophecy Book!”
The book containing their prophecy had an extremely high rate of accuracy.
It did not simply say that the Empire would fall.
It recorded large and small events related to the Merfolk in great detail, allowing them to skillfully handle disasters large and small.
As a result, the Prophecy Book, once consulted only as a reference, gradually came to be treated as truth itself.
In the past, they had prepared for every likely situation because they never knew what might happen.
Now, if something was not written in the Prophecy Book, they did not even consider it a possible crisis.
So,
“The Empire must be getting really weak by now, right?”
“If it is going to fall in five years... is that not obvious without even looking?”
“I wish Nerissa would hurry up and destroy the Empire.”
The Merfolk had eventually stopped treating anything not written in the Prophecy Book as a danger.
“An Imperial fast ship has appeared.”
“A fast ship?”
“Kailen Marin is on it too!”
“Huh? That idiot? Why has that fool shown up again?”
“I heard he is with someone else, someone higher-ranking than Kailen Marin.”
“If they are above a Grand Duke, they must be a member of the imperial family... so I suppose they are someone important? Still, it should not be a big deal. The Prophecy Book did not mention anything, did it?”
“Right!”
That was why the Merfolk had acted so arrogantly toward the Imperial Crown Prince.
Since he was not written in the Prophecy Book, he could not possibly be a threat.
Even if he held a higher position than Kailen, there was no reason to bow to a high-ranking figure of an Empire that would fall anyway.
That was the mindset behind their response.
And the consequences of that response would be grave.
“...It appears we have made a grave mistake.”
Talassa Nereus, King of the Merfolk.
He had gathered all his power and raised White Night above the surface.
He could not suppress the white sphere before him through his own strength alone.
Talassa was currently drawing on the power of the entire Merfolk kingdom.
‘And yet I still cannot make it disappear.’
A handsome man with blond hair and red eyes entered Talassa’s view.
His eyes were calm, yet full of anger.
The gentle ember seemed ready to burn the entire sea at any moment.
‘There was clearly no one like him in the Prophecy Book.’
Facing the man directly, Talassa became certain that if the Merfolk made another mistake here, their race itself would be erased.
Talassa fell into confusion over what he should believe: the danger before his eyes or a situation absent from the Prophecy Book.
“Are you the King of the Merfolk?”
“My name is Talassa Nereus.”
“Talassa, do you know Nerissa? Your names are similar, as it happens.”
A mere human speaking informally to the king of an entire race.
It was obvious disrespect and rudeness, but Talassa could not offer any response.
He felt as though this one being held the power of life and death over his entire race.
“...I know her. She is the strongest among our people, and my niece.”
The humble form of “our” came out naturally.
From the moment the Imperial fast ship appeared to the moment White Night fell upon the Merfolk kingdom, very little time had passed.
Yet the hierarchy had been completely established during that short time.
“The way those around you spoke about the strongest among your people, the king’s niece, was rather harsh. They said she cannot return home until she destroys the Empire. Do you happen to know anything about it?”
Bellon spoke with only his eyes smiling.
His gaze told Talassa to imagine what would happen next if he did not reveal everything he knew.
It was neither a lie nor a bluff.
Even at that very moment,
Sizzle.
White Night in Talassa’s palm was burning him in real time.
If the Imperial Crown Prince, Bellon, wished it, he could detonate White Night right there.
“...If you are referring to the Executioners’ Covenant, I do not know the details. It is not written in the Prophecy Book either.”
Frightened, Talassa made a slip of the tongue that he normally never would have made.
“A Prophecy Book?”
Bellon was not one to miss that mistake.
“Your Majesty!”
The Merfolk around them were startled at the very mention of the Prophecy Book, making the situation even more suspicious.
“There is a Prophecy Book? What does it prophesy? The future of the Merfolk kingdom?”
“It is a book passed down only among our race.”
“May I see it?”
“My apologies.”
Bellon became certain that the Prophecy Book Talassa spoke of was connected to Mirne.
He had thought there would be at least one Executioner who wished for the Empire’s destruction.
And a Prophecy Book had been passed down through generations among the race of such an Executioner?
A race that wished for the Empire’s destruction and a Prophecy Book. It was too blatant not to investigate.
Naturally, the Prophecy Book was treated as an extremely precious item, so Talassa refused Bellon’s request to see it.
That did not mean Bellon would give up.
“There is no need to apologize. I intend to go see it myself.”
“I will open a path to the Merfolk kingdom.”
The blade of Sword No. 2, the second sword made to kill a god, began turning white.
Just how far did the Imperial Crown Prince’s power reach?
Could he truly split the sea all the way to the Merfolk kingdom deep beneath it?
It was time to find out.
Footnotes:
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