WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 92: Human! Stop There!
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“...Mirne? I’ve never heard of a woman by that name.”
“Then you came here for no reason at all?”
“Do you think anyone could control me? Me, Asher Dominic?”
“You’re not giving me the answer I want. I wanted to let you die as humanely as possible.”
Theo and Levi shook their heads as they watched Asher continue to resist.
Asher Dominic would certainly die.
He had committed far too many crimes to be spared, and that fact would not change no matter how capable he was.
The Empire had decided to extract as much information as possible from Asher before killing him painlessly.
Naturally, the Imperial Crown Prince would not handle the interrogation himself.
It made no sense for the Empire’s Little Sun to personally involve himself in such work.
Staff No. 1 Theo and Tax Collector Knight Levi Möbius had been assigned to interrogate Asher.
“You wandered through several kingdoms, then suddenly crawled into the Empire and decided to settle down here for good. Are you saying you simply changed your mind?”
“Ha! That could happen, couldn’t it? Wha... Urk!”
A golden blade stabbed into Asher’s mouth as he answered confidently.
“Sir Theo, I don’t think this will work. The delinquent taxpayer is too frightened to recognize the Empire’s mercy.”
“It seems we have no other choice.”
Theo nodded at Levi’s words and knocked on the wall a couple of times.
Knock, knock.
At that signal, the interrogation room door opened, and Arveda and Lumynix entered.
“Flames derived from Sol Velos, human magic, Dragon magic... and finally, a Fairy’s Mystery.”
After confirming that the Executioners had entered, Theo briefly explained to Asher what would happen next.
Fear gradually filled Asher’s eyes.
“When these four are combined, you’ll confess any truth.”
This was as far as the Empire’s kindness extended.
What awaited Asher now was only the Great Empire’s relentless advance.
+++++
[ The condition of the half-human, half-yokai ‘Asher Dominic’ changes drastically. ]
[ He could die at any moment. ]
[ However, his death narrative has not been fully established, so unless something unusual happens, he will not die. ]
“So in the end, I have to crack open his head to solve this.”
I’d wanted to get the information cleanly before killing him.
What was with that bastard’s pride that I had to use extreme measures before he would open his mouth?
“Your Imperial Highness, this is Theo, your Staff No. 1. I have a report.”
“Speak.”
As I considered that, Theo gave me the results of the interrogation.
“He has met a woman, but it seems he does not even know whether she was Mirne. He said she was mysterious and beautiful, and that he felt he absolutely had to be with her.”
“Once again, we have nothing but circumstantial evidence.”
“That is the result of forcibly extracting every memory in his head.”
“What about his origins?”
“He introduced himself as a Yokai. It was an unfamiliar term I had never heard before. Not a Magic Beast or a monster, but a Yokai... It seems connected to the Eastern Continent.”
“I understand.”
So it had turned out this way again.
I muttered that inwardly as I reviewed the situation once more.
‘If the prince of the Eastern Continent was supposed to appear early, does that mean Eastern Continent lore will start appearing here soon?’
It was not even an Eastern fantasy novel, just a romance fantasy novel. The sudden addition of a prince from the Eastern Continent had already been ridiculous.
I had never expected Yokai to appear so openly as well.
‘At this point, I can only think that what I suspected before was right.’
At first, I wondered whether the story was being rushed because additional male leads had been added late due to a shortage of them.
But there was Save & Load, and there was also the talk of bugs I had heard in the underground chamber where the Giants slept.
My belief that Mirne’s original work was a visual novel had become a firm conviction.
No, even calling it a conviction was just wordplay at this point.
There was no other possible answer.
‘I don’t need to consider anything else now. It’s definitely a game.’
And if it was a game, there were surely plenty of mods that could be installed.
That made most of the situations unfolding now fit together.
‘The Save & Load that activates when she’s in danger of dying... It must be some kind of safety feature.’
A game with all sorts of bugs caused by installing too many mods.
Perhaps the Imperial Crown Prince’s endless regressions were also the result of those bugs.
‘The Imperial Crown Prince is doing a kind of Save & Load too. He doesn’t even know how long his regressions will continue or what will happen.’
His regressions were not even complete.
It was obvious from the way he lost his most important memories during the process.
Just as Mirne loses her memories of that time while using Save & Load.
It seemed plausible that the Imperial Crown Prince lost important memories in a similar way.
‘Then I can understand how the Imperial Crown Prince feels when he says the Empire will certainly fall. If Mirne installed some mod that guarantees the Empire’s destruction... of course he would despair.’
Even so, the Imperial Crown Prince had not given up.
For some unknown reason, he had abandoned everything in this cycle.
Before that, though, he had continued to regress while holding onto hope until the end, no matter the circumstances.
‘His mental strength is unbelievable.’
That thought lasted only a moment.
‘Should I finish this now?’
I got to my feet to kill Asher.
It was time to find out what would happen if I killed a hidden male lead.
“So the Academy will be completed in two years?”
“That is correct. At the current pace, yes. If the Giants awaken, we can shorten it by another year and a half.”
“You have my thanks.”
“I only did what I was supposed to do as an Executioner.”
I wanted to speak with Gilbat longer, but I could not delay dealing with Asher.
“Gilbat, I have met the races of the Executioners so far.”
“Yes, I know.”
“You said your people were in the west?”
So, just before we parted ways, I had one final conversation with Gilbat.
“That’s right. As I told you then... they were certainly in the west, at least until contact was lost.”
“Thank you for confirming it.”
Dwarfs were one thing.
But Beastmen, Merfolk, and Elves all being in the west was absurd.
‘But would that actually be convenient?’
If I went west, I could handle both the Dwarfs and the Merfolk at once.
It was practically as though Mirne had kindly gathered them together to make the Covenant easier to resolve.
‘The Mana Stone Train should be completed by the time I return.’
Now then, shall I go become a Noble?
+++++
[ The death narrative of the half-human, half-yokai ‘Asher Dominic’ has been fulfilled. ]
[ Asher Dominic dies. ]
[ He met you and dreamed of seizing control of the Empire, but was sadly stopped. ]
“...W-What?!”
Clatter.
Startled by the sudden message, Mirne dropped the teacup she was holding.
It had been about a month since she met Asher Dominic.
She had subtly told him to take control of the Empire then.
Yet he had died without even making a proper attempt.
‘T-This makes no sense... How can Asher Dominic die? A character I created, dying so pointlessly...’
She had put so much effort into designing Asher Dominic.
How could such a precious character die so meaninglessly?
As a mod character, she had poured plenty of personal taste into him and made him strong in all sorts of ways.
Yet he had disappeared so quickly that calling him a hidden male lead now felt meaningless.
‘Even the fact that he was half-human, half-yokai was perfectly my type... This is ridiculous. I can’t believe it!’
The situation was already bad enough, yet another disaster had struck.
‘Because of the wound the Imperial Crown Prince gave me... When I regained consciousness, the Imperial Knights were stationed there... Ha.’
Because of that, obtaining the Noble title she wanted so badly kept getting delayed.
The one fortunate thing was that she was steadily making contact with Beastmen.
Before long, she would likely build a good relationship with the Beastman male lead and earn the Beastmen’s recognition.
‘Then I need to meet the Merfolk... and the Dwarfs.’
Mirne ruffled her hair and let out a deep sigh.
“...I should’ve installed a few more mods if this was going to happen.”
A scar removal mod would have been wonderful.
Mirne turned slightly and looked at the mirror reflecting her back.
The long sword scar across her back would not disappear no matter what she tried.
It was probably because the Imperial Crown Prince had cut her at full power.
It did not seem like it could be healed without using a special item.
Just as Mirne gathered her thoughts and prepared to move in order to gain the Noble title...
“Crown Princess! The Imperial Garrison is complaining that they lack supplies! They say they will make an issue of it if they are not properly accommodated...!”
“...What are you talking about now? How can they lack supplies? Does that make any sense?”
“W-Well, the Imperial Knights each eat roughly twenty ordinary meals a day...”
“Aaah! What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
The Imperial Garrison had thoroughly tripped her up.
At the same time, the Imperial Crown Prince was...
“Human! Stop there!”
“Are you speaking to me?”
By some strange coincidence, a Cat Beastman was telling the Imperial Crown Prince to stop.
“How dare you?”
Footnotes:
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