WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
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◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 94: Mermaid (6)
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The Merfolk had three reasons for rebelling.
The first was the reappearance of the burned Prophecy Book.
The Prophecy Book that had clearly turned to ash in the Imperial Crown Prince’s hand had somehow returned to the place where it had always been, as though nothing had happened.
The only unusual thing was that it looked far older than before.
Talassa Nereus paid it little mind as he examined the Prophecy Book.
Inside was a detailed prophecy about the Empire’s destruction.
“The first wave shall swallow the eastern region, the second wave shall swallow the center, and the third wave shall engulf the Empire.”
A prophecy that the Merfolk Kingdom would destroy the Empire.
Talassa had believed in prophecies for a long time, so he had no reason to doubt it.
Even so, that alone was not enough for him to act immediately.
He had just witnessed the Imperial Crown Prince’s power, as well as the military might of those around him.
“...The prophecy clearly says the Empire will fall to our kingdom. Does that mean the time will come someday?”
Did he have no choice but to bow low for now?
Even if it meant losing the throne?
As Talassa Nereus, King of the Merfolk Kingdom, considered such thoughts...
“Forgotten glory shall return?”
New words appeared in the Prophecy Book, which looked so old it could crumble at any moment.
The instant he read them, an unknown power surged.
It was as though it urged him to fulfill the prophecy at once.
A forceful power, one that seemed determined to make them destroy the Empire, spread throughout the Kingdom of Corallia.
A sudden sense of omnipotence.
That was the second reason the Kingdom of Corallia decided to stab the Empire in the back.
The final reason was the appearance of a mysterious helper who seemed to have come out of nowhere.
“The Imperial Crown Prince isn’t in the Empire right now?”
“Yes. He is currently at the far western edge of the continent. It’s completely on the other side.”
“No matter how fast he is, it will take him some time to return.”
“That’s correct.”
In a neutral voice, the helper informed them that the Imperial Crown Prince was absent from the Empire, then...
“...What is this?”
“It will be useful.”
They lent them Undine, a water Spirit with the potential to become the Spirit King.
And that was not all.
“And this is...?”
“It’s an item from the Eastern Continent. Relations between them and the Empire have recently soured.”
“What caused the Empire and the Eastern Continent to have such poor relations?”
“You only need to know that an illegitimate child from the Eastern Continent died in the Empire.”
Information, a water Spirit with the potential to become the Spirit King, and even an Eastern Continent relic.
Since the helper had provided all that alone, the Kingdom of Corallia’s fighting spirit naturally burned brighter.
But then, wait.
“...Hm? Who were we speaking with?”
“What do you mean?”
“No, I don’t remember... Wait, how did a water Spirit end up in the Kingdom of Corallia?”
The third reason was erased from their memories.
Yet it disappeared so naturally that no one found it strange.
After all, their intention to destroy the Empire had not changed.
“It doesn’t matter. We only need to follow the Prophecy Book.”
“That’s correct!”
They had always looked down on humans.
The moment they had enough power, the Kingdom of Corallia immediately raised the banner of retaliation.
“Prepare to unleash the third wave as quickly as possible!”
“It’s time to show the humans just how terrifying the Merfolk are!”
Everything was for the Empire’s destruction.
With that thought in mind, they created a massive wave, intending to erase the Empire’s eastern region first.
At the same time the Merfolk were creating the wave, in the Empire’s eastern region...
“Has it really been this long since the last war?”
“Ha ha! Delaying my rotation in the Imperial Garrison until the very end was worth it. I never thought I’d get to see fools fearless enough to defy the Empire!”
“Splitting a wave. What a wonderful phrase. When I heard that the great Little Sun had done it... I’ve been itching to follow in his footsteps.”
The place was packed with knights pondering how to split the enormous wave in the coolest possible way.
+++++
Imperial Knights became Swordmasters through their belief that the Empire would last forever.
To protect that belief, they constantly underwent training so brutal it bordered on madness.
This became even more intense after the Holy Kingdom became a vassal state of the Empire.
Once they could bring priests with them during training, they could target every part of each other’s bodies except those that would cause instant death.
The heart, neck, and head.
Other than those three areas, they could inflict injuries without restriction under unlimited-rules training.
In fact, people in several kingdoms where the Imperial Garrison was stationed had vomited and fainted after watching the Imperial Knights train.
It was called training, but it would not have been wrong to call it a fight to the death.
If it had been a problem, they would have stopped long ago.
“The knights are training hard? Voluntarily? Wonderful. They’re so diligent that I can’t help but congratulate them.”
The Imperial Crown Prince personally came to the training grounds and instructed them one by one.
After he mentioned their names, gave them training encouragement funds, and held encouragement festivals, everyone continued training with fire in their eyes.
Nor was this phenomenon limited to the Imperial Knights.
As people felt the Empire changing in real time, shedding its corruption and rising again, the citizens also came to believe that it would endure forever.
That belief gave them strong spirits.
They even carried out evacuation drills without being told to.
They took it upon themselves to do whatever they could to help the Empire.
The results of those efforts were clear now.
“Since they might suffer damage from the wave’s aftermath, all eastern residents have evacuated.”
“Everyone evacuated in an orderly fashion without much confusion, so it was quick.”
“That is what the Empire’s people should be like.”
The moment an immeasurable wave was reported off the eastern port, an evacuation order was swiftly issued.
Trusting that the Empire would protect their homes, the residents took only what they absolutely needed and evacuated quickly.
Thanks to that, only knights remained near the eastern port.
In other words, they could cut loose as much as they wanted.
“Staff No. 1, Theo has spread this news throughout the Empire.”
“Then this news must have reached His Highness the Imperial Crown Prince as well.”
“Yes.”
“Did he say anything?”
The knights gathered at the eastern port, the ones who could be mobilized immediately within the Empire, watched the wave growing larger even now.
They wanted to move at once, but how could they draw their swords without an order from the Imperial Crown Prince?
That would be unbecoming of a knight.
Thud.
As they waited for the imperial command...
Before they even had time to feel that time was being wasted, Staff No. 1, Theo, appeared.
“The great Little Sun has given an order.”
There was no need for a preamble.
The moment Theo opened his mouth, every Imperial Knight dropped to one knee.
“He said, ‘Swords of the Empire, I trust you.’”
I trust you.
Deep smiles spread across the lips of the knights kneeling with their heads bowed.
The great Little Sun trusted us?
“Heh heh heh heh heh.”
“Kuha ha ha ha ha!”
“Those sent to the Imperial Garrison won’t get to hear this? What a shame.”
No matter how hard they tried to hold it in, they could not stop their laughter from spilling out.
Even as the ever-growing wave approached the eastern port, they laughed like mad.
“Repaying trust is the duty of a knight!”
“I am a sword! A blade that protects the Empire!”
“Judgment upon those who leave the Empire’s shadow!”
Great flames rose from the eastern port.
The time had come to show the ignorant why the Empire was called the Empire.
+++++
I rated the strategy highly.
Striking the Empire’s eastern region while I was in the western part of the continent.
Not with an ordinary attack, but with a plan to destroy it through a natural disaster.
Their courage was quite admirable.
Why had those who were bowing so deeply just a few days ago suddenly raised their heads?
‘Mirne, obviously.’
I didn’t need to see it to know.
This time too, she had probably chosen a method that left only circumstantial evidence and neatly erased the proof.
But it was hilarious.
‘Do they have no ability to learn?’
This could not have been their first attempt.
They knew what happened every time they tried something like this, yet they were doing it again.
After going to such lengths to avoid forced Save & Load, was this really the best plan they could come up with?
“I wonder if they’ve underestimated the Imperial Knights too much.”
It wasn’t as though I couldn’t understand the anxiety the Imperial Crown Prince had shown in his memories.
That was because his memories were jumbled together from different regressions.
‘If he had already accumulated many regressions, he wouldn’t have looked so anxious.’
The Imperial Crown Prince’s memory that had surfaced just now was probably from shortly after he had regressed.
How many regressions had he gone through for even his memories to play back in such a tangled mess?
One thing was certain.
It was far beyond what an ordinary person could ever bear.
As I muttered to myself...
“Arveda, I’d like to get a feel for Dragonkind’s power this time.”
I told Arveda the plan.
“This lady! Ready!”
“The coordinates of the Merfolk Kingdom have already been identified. Have the Dragon Legion unleash their breaths upon that place simultaneously.”
“Your command!”
She still hadn’t decided how to speak to me, mixing informal and formal speech in a strange way. It was rather cute.
Anyway.
“I should thank them for raising the banner of rebellion. I was worried about how to naturally quell the discontent that would arise from replacing the king.”
I was very curious what they had received to be so confident about stabbing the Empire in the back.
Would it be enough to withstand the Dragon Legion’s breath?
I couldn’t wait to find out.
Footnotes:
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