WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Romance Fantasy’s Pushover Crown Prince Is No More ◈
Chapter 96: Mermaid (8)
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“I never dreamed there were beings worse than Elves.”
As he watched the waves approaching in the distance, the Imperial Crown Prince slowly gathered his thoughts.
Where had things gone wrong?
The answer was simple.
Trusting the Merfolk.
That itself had been the problem.
Those damned Merfolk.
Fanatics who believed anything written in the Prophecy Book.
They were worse than the followers of the Romper Church.
People who left every decision to the words in the Prophecy Book rather than making judgments for themselves.
He should have checked the Prophecy Book and either taken it or burned it.
Instead, he had simply heard it existed and dismissed it.
Who would have thought that would come back as such a massive problem?
‘They’d planned to stab me in the back from beginning to end.’
Treating them kindly had also been a mistake.
He should have better understood why Nerissa Levi Deepheart had acted so aggressively.
Looking at the enormous wave before him, he understood why Nerissa wanted the Empire to fall.
Only then could she draw Leviathan out of her body.
She had to cast aside her own life, summon Leviathan, and destroy the Kingdom of Corallia.
For that condition to be fulfilled, the Empire had to fall.
She had not considered anything else.
Her hatred ran far deeper than he had imagined, to the point that revenge was all she could focus on.
‘The problem is that they didn’t simply have their throne stolen. They continued suffering even after losing it.’
After repeatedly returning to the past, the crown prince had learned the truth.
The Deepheart family had not been expelled from the Kingdom of Corallia immediately after their throne was usurped.
Even then, they had wanted to devote themselves to Corallia.
That was until the Nereus family tampered with the Leviathan sealed within the Deepheart family.
They provoked the Leviathan sealed in the Deepheart family’s bodies, drawing out part of its power to use in territorial disputes.
They had not worried that Leviathan would fully emerge from their bodies.
They knew the Deepheart family would sacrifice their lives to stop it every time.
‘If Leviathan ever came out by mistake, they’d be walking the road to ruin as well.’
A royal family that treated other people’s lives like scraps of paper just because the Prophecy Book did not say otherwise.
He could not even understand how they had maintained the people’s support.
‘No, do they solve even that with the Prophecy Book?’
It was unbelievable that an entire kingdom could be run by relying on a single Prophecy Book for its fate.
Yet that was reality, so the Imperial Crown Prince nodded with a hollow laugh.
“The Merfolk kingdom needs to be destroyed quickly.”
Nerissa could not be present for this.
He had wanted her to witness its destruction herself, but if that happened, there would be an attempt to release Leviathan.
The cleanest solution was to erase the Kingdom of Corallia without Nerissa’s help.
To do that, he needed enough military strength to withstand the three waves Corallia would create.
He was powerless for now and could only watch the waves.
Still, if he kept returning to the past, a day would eventually come when waves like these could be erased without him having to do it himself.
With hope in his eyes, the Imperial Crown Prince watched the eastern region’s harbor.
Chaos was the only fitting word for the scene.
The people, who had not even been properly trained for evacuation, trampled and fought one another as they tried to escape the harbor.
“It is all because I am lacking.”
Once he returned to the past, they would forget this moment anyway.
Even so, he did not want their final moments to end in pain.
The Imperial Crown Prince ran toward the wave.
Though he knew it would only be a meaningless death for now, he pressed forward.
“How can one who rules leave his people behind?”
Until the moment the wave swallowed him.
There was not the slightest fear on the Imperial Crown Prince’s face.
Crash!
The last thing he saw was the Imperial Crown Prince’s hopeful eyes, which did not relinquish hope even as the wave swept him away and killed him.
Tap.
“....”
The Imperial Crown Prince’s memories ended there.
++++++
“Could it be that even me not forcing Nerissa to come here was all according to your will?”
Leaving the Imperial Crown Prince’s interrupted memories behind, I looked down at the Kingdom of Corallia, completely exposed without any protection from the sea.
The first waves had been handled by the knights, and the second by the Dragon Legion’s song.
Having lost the methods it had taken pride in, the Merfolk kingdom looked deeply uneasy.
They likely wanted to create the third wave, but there was no longer any sea around the Merfolk kingdom.
The Dragon Legion’s magic and the White Night I had created were pushing the sea away from the Merfolk kingdom.
“Even if you created the third wave, the result would have been the same now that I’m here.”
After slicing off the roof of Corallia’s castle with a single swing, I leisurely approached Talassa.
“Why did you suddenly lose your mind and do this?”
The Kingdom of Corallia would fall. That fact would not change.
Just as the Deepheart family would establish a new dynasty and begin anew.
“I clearly burned the Prophecy Book. Where did you hear this prophecy?”
As I watched the Merfolk silently staring at me, I spotted the Prophecy Book Talassa was gripping tightly.
With his usual quick judgment, King Talassa held the Prophecy Book out to me.
The moment I saw it, I let out a disbelieving laugh.
[ You have discovered an object containing data from the past. ]
‘So something like this was possible too?’
From the System message, I immediately figured out what this Prophecy Book was.
It was the Prophecy Book from the cycle in which the Merfolk kingdom had destroyed the Empire.
They must have even been given the power needed to bring about the prophecy back then.
“And to think a water Spirit had even been lent to them with its contract released...”
Someone had plainly gone to every length to avoid leaving a trace.
But if they had been worried about getting caught, shouldn’t they have avoided doing this in the first place?
‘Does Mirne not know how strong the Empire is? There have been far too many times when she has failed to accurately assess our strength.’
Was this also part of the Imperial Crown Prince’s arrangements?
Muttering to myself, I casually rotated my hand once.
Whoosh!
Flames honed to an edge burned through the necks of the Merfolk who had dared rebel against the Empire.
They died instantly without even being able to scream.
Compared to everything they had done, it could be called an incredibly merciful end.
“Talassa Nereus, you know you’ll die no matter what you do.”
“W-What do you...”
“I mean the sound of you thinking is too loud.”
There was a reason he had kept one hand behind his back even while handing over the Prophecy Book.
The reason itself was so insignificant that it was almost pathetic.
Thud.
Leaving the headless Talassa behind, I checked the item he had tried to hide until the very end.
It was a small jar that looked unmistakably Eastern in style.
It was small enough to fit in my palm, but the energy coming from it was incredibly sharp.
Why had Talassa not used it from the beginning?
If I had to guess, it was because it had not been written in the Prophecy Book.
Since it did not tell him when to use it, he had been unable to properly judge when and how to use it until the end.
“Still, your stupidity has made resolving the Covenant easier.”
I could neatly resolve the complicated problem surrounding the throne, so in a way, I was grateful to the Merfolk.
It was better to erase people who might stab me in the back at any moment than keep them at my side.
As I was thinking that,
[ You have formed contracts with all Four Great Spirits. ]
[ You have fulfilled the conditions to form a contract with the Spirit King. ]
A message appeared, telling me that I could form a contract with the Spirit King thanks to Mirne.
I would manage fine on my own even if she did not keep helping me like this.
Still, it was nice to see her always supporting me.
‘More importantly, if what appears to be an Eastern Continent relic was in Talassa’s hands, does that mean the Eastern Continent is an enemy too?’
Of course, the entire Eastern Continent was not the enemy.
More precisely, the Eastern Continent kingdoms connected to Mirne were probably the enemies.
The first person that came to mind was the Eastern Continent prince she had brought in before, claiming there were not enough male leads.
This was probably that bastard’s doing.
‘But why would he give Talassa something that would so recklessly make an enemy of the Empire?’
Could it be connected to that half-human, half-yokai bastard I had killed before?
After considering it for a moment, I left the now-empty kingdom.
I had worried there might be Merfolk who had died without any sin simply because their kingdom had attempted rebellion.
Surprisingly, there was not a single one.
Every one of them had blindly believed in the Prophecy Book and lent their strength to destroy the Empire.
I could painfully understand why the Imperial Crown Prince had called the Merfolk fanatics.
“Now I just need to bring the Deepheart family back here.”
Part of me wanted to let them keep the place they had fled to.
But it was far too close to the Macelin Kingdom.
‘There was no knowing what kind of scheme might be attempted, so it would be better to bring them here.’
As I finished sorting out my thoughts and was about to open the Prophecy Book to inspect the information from a past cycle,
Flap, flap, flap, flap.
The Prophecy Book opened on its own, its pages flipping madly.
The third wave will surely rise.
The Empire’s destruction is inevitable.
Together with those messages, which carried intense malice, a wave far larger than the previous ones began to form in the distance.
Rumble!
The moment I saw it, I realized this was what Mirne had been aiming for.
A wave that large would not simply destroy the Empire. Half the continent could become a sea.
Perhaps she thought it did not matter if disaster struck the eastern region because she was in the west of the continent.
It was clear that she was truly working hard to destroy the Empire.
“What a pathetic trick.”
Just as I was about to draw my sword,
“Y-Your Imperial Highness... Please allow us to step forward.”
An unfamiliar voice came from behind me.
More precisely, it was a voice I had never expected to hear.
Nerissa Levi Deepheart.
“...We will handle this.”
Her family, the Deepheart family, was already kneeling respectfully behind me.
“Arveda, well done.”
“Hehe!”
Arveda, making a small V sign with her fingers behind them, was there as well.
Footnotes:
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