Chapter 180
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 180
After the farewell banquet ended, First Prince Claude was moved to a luxurious guest room.
The bedding was plush, the food was extravagant, and the room temperature was perfect. However, despite being provided with everything he could want, Claude could not find it in himself to be happy. No matter how fine the living conditions were, being confined was no different from being in a dungeon.
If anything, the current situation—being surrounded by scores of soldiers—felt more horrific than a prison with mere iron bars.
"I told you, I don't care if you watch me closely, just let me out! I'm not saying I'll go far! I just want to walk the castle corridors!"
"His Grace the Duke ordered us not to let you out, so we cannot," the soldier replied.
Claude exploded in frustration, shouting at the top of his lungs, but the soldiers remained unmoved. He glared at them with murderous eyes.
"Do you have any idea who you're flapping your gums at right now?"
"Who are you?"
"I am the rightful heir to this Empire, First Prince Claude!"
"And?"
"..."
Claude looked aghast at the soldiers' nonchalant attitude. Ignoring him entirely, the soldiers began to converse among themselves.
"A Prince is the Emperor's kid, right?"
"Yeah. And the Emperor is our Lord's superior."
"If he's the Lord's superior, shouldn't we follow his orders?"
"But the Emperor's kid isn't the Emperor himself."
"Then we can just ignore whatever he says."
Claude was so dumbfounded by their conversation that he was rendered speechless. These men were even worse than the guards who had manned the city gates. What on earth did the people living in Asagrim think of the Emperor?
Just then, a familiar voice drifted from behind the soldiers.
"These men have lived their entire lives in the snowfields. They know nothing of His Majesty the Emperor's majesty."
"Dennis!"
For a fleeting moment, Claude’s face brightened, but it quickly twisted into a scowl. He felt a wave of relief that someone he could actually talk to had finally arrived, but simultaneously felt resentment that Dennis had done nothing while he was being dragged away.
"What the hell have you been doing until now?!"
"Your Highness."
Dennis dropped to his knees and called out to Claude.
"Difficult days lie ahead. But please, you must endure. For the sake of the Imperial Family, which must endure forever, you have no choice but to bow your head for now."
"What kind of bullshit are you—!"
"It may take decades, but as long as Your Highness remains alive, there is hope. Therefore, please take care of your health and preserve the bloodline."
"...!?"
"Soon, I will speak with the Duke and find a Princess Consort for you. It must be lonely staying in such a cramped place by yourself. It will be much better with a companion."
Claude’s face turned pale at Dennis’s words.
The Imperial Family, the bloodline, and a Princess Consort.
At first glance, they seemed like random words, but they shared one common thread: they were all related to lineage. Claude instinctively realized what Dennis had decided.
He... he’s going to pin his hopes on my children, not me? And I’m supposed to live the rest of my life bowing to the Duke?
Claude realized things were going horribly wrong. He had believed that Dennis, of all people, would never betray him. If the late Emperor had sent him to the North as a spy, his loyalty was as good as proven.
In fact, Dennis’s loyalty had not wavered in the slightest even now. The problem was that his loyalty had reverted to a more fundamental level. It wasn't loyalty to the individual First Prince's commands, but loyalty to the preservation of the Imperial line.
I'm in trouble.
The blood drained from Claude’s face at this unforeseen turn of events. He had seen many such 'loyal subjects' before—madmen who didn't care about Claude’s personal feelings and only wanted him to be a cog in the Empire's machinery. Worse, because they believed everything they did was an act of righteous loyalty, they were impossible to reason with.
If left like this, Dennis would become just like those madmen, closing his ears and doing only what he deemed right. Seeing a strange, feverish glint in Dennis’s eyes—the same look those fanatics had—Claude spoke up urgently.
"W-Wait. It’s not over yet! We still have a chance!"
"Of course. They say the affairs of the state are a century-long plan. Bowing for a mere fifty years is nothing."
"That’s not it! I can do it myself! I have a plan!"
"I am sorry, Your Highness. Please forgive this powerless man who has no choice but to entrust the future to the next generation."
"Are your ears clogged?! Just listen to me!"
Claude screamed, but Dennis stood up and bowed as if he hadn't heard a word. Then, as he slowly backed away, he left one final remark.
"Do not despair; hold onto hope. But cast aside excessive greed and entrust yourself to the future. There is a time for everything."
"Hey, you son of a bitch!"
"Whoa there, where do you think you're going?"
As Claude rushed forward to grab Dennis, a soldier blocked his path. Just as another curse was about to fly from Claude’s mouth—
Thump!
"Gah!?"
An impact, as if a lump of iron had been driven into his abdomen, slammed into Claude. He collapsed onto the floor, unable to even scream due to the nausea and pain.
Then, other voices drifted through the soldiers.
"I didn't want to use this kind of magic if possible, but since he tried to escape, I had no choice."
"Indeed. It's a spell we only use to prevent escape attempts."
"The Duke will surely understand why Master did what he did."
Curled in a ball, Claude groaned and painfully lifted his head. He had to see which lunatic had done this to him. As he gritted his teeth and identified the culprits, his eyes widened.
"Mages...!"
"Yes, we are mages. Do you remember us?"
How could he not? For three hundred years, the Imperial Family had wiped out unauthorized mages through witch hunts. Naturally, any unauthorized mage would harbor a deep grudge against anyone of Imperial blood. How could he forget the mages who had been attached to him as 'escorts' during the farewell banquet? Especially since they had used magic to gag him right before he was dragged away.
But to think he would meet all three of them again.
"The Duke sent us. He told us to stop the First Prince immediately if he showed any sign of trying to escape. By the way, due to my meager skills, I failed to control the power properly. Your stomach must hurt quite a bit; are you alright?"
"Y-You bastards, how dare you...!"
"Since your voice is working, I suppose you're fine. How truly unfortunate. We hold no grudge against the Imperial Family, yet we are forced to use such crude methods!"
Marius, Colin, and Helen all put on sorrowful expressions like actors in a play. However, the corners of their mouths were turned up so high they couldn't hide their glee.
"First Prince, please stay quiet. If you keep trying to escape, we might have to use crude methods again."
"..."
Despite the regretful tone, Marius’s deep smirk suggested he was actually hoping for another escape attempt. Claude trembled.
After the mages were stationed as his watchers, Claude truly couldn't even breathe properly. The moment he even approached the door, the mages' merciless 'restraint' would fly his way.
Crunch!
"Guh-ack!"
"Oh dear, another escape attempt. Please stop making us take action."
"It wasn't an escape! I was just going to ask the guard to bring me something!"
"You could have just shouted. Stop with the excuses that won't work."
Unlike the other nobles who maintained a minimum level of etiquette or the soldiers who focused on their guard duties, the mages were truly heartless. Marius, in particular, who had narrowly escaped death several times due to witch hunts, was obsessive in his surveillance. Magic would fly the moment Claude showed even the slightest suspicious sign.
Those bastards know better than anyone that I have no way to run since they took all my magical artifacts...!
Claude was driven mad by the unfairness of it all, but there was nothing he could do when they were blatantly picking fights. Even the soldiers watching didn't bat an eye at Claude’s pain, let alone show surprise.
"It's not like he got stabbed; he's making such a fuss over a little tap to the gut."
"Are all Imperial royals this pathetic? How pathetic."
The soldiers from beyond the snowfields had not a shred of respect for the Imperial Family. Instead, they even whispered among themselves, wondering why such pathetic creatures were ranked above their own King.
Realizing he had no allies nearby, Claude called for Dennis again. He thought Dennis would be furious if he saw how poorly Claude was being treated. However, Dennis wasn't surprised at all after hearing the situation.
"Just as I heard."
"What? You mean you already knew?"
"Yes. Do not worry too much. That magic doesn't actually harm Your Highness; it only causes pain. Your body is not damaged at all."
"How can you say that—!"
"More importantly, I have looked into several candidates for the position of Princess Consort. I have prepared a list, so please take a look."
Claude felt a chill run down his spine at Dennis’s dismissive attitude toward the mages' attacks. Dennis no longer cared what happened to Claude as an individual. He was only thinking about receiving Claude’s lineage to solidify the next generation of heirs. In the worst-case scenario, there was even a possibility that Dennis would discard Claude as soon as he produced a child, caring only for the infant.
Claude tried his best to hide his fear as he spoke.
"B-Before that, I would like to meet the Blue Rose Knight Order. If I am to find a Princess Consort, wouldn't a familiar family be better?"
"Hmm, that is a reasonable point. Their status seems a bit low, but it's not necessarily good for the Princess Consort's family to be too high-ranking anyway."
At Claude’s suggestion that he would marry into a family belonging to the Blue Rose Knight Order, Dennis promptly brought the knights to him. Only then did Claude brighten, seeing a ray of hope.
The Blue Rose Knight Order, one of the orders directly under the Imperial Family, had only been lent to Lucian by the late Emperor; they hadn't changed the object of their loyalty. If he, the First Prince, gave them an order to their faces, they would have no choice but to comply.
Having regained his confidence, Claude put on a dignified expression and commanded the Blue Rose Knights.
"Knights, strike down that presumptuous rebel at once and get me out of here."
"No."
"What?"
"Your Highness, please, get a grip. We are human beings too. We aren't wooden dolls that blindly follow a master's loyalty."
The knights sighed deeply and shook their heads. Their attitude was like that of adults dealing with a child who knew nothing of the world.
"If you escape from here, it's obvious you'll give us all sorts of nonsensical orders. Why would we help you escape?"
"Y-You swore loyalty! You swore loyalty to the Imperial Family!"
"Which is why this is a godsend for us. Thanks to Your Highness being locked up here, we only receive normal orders from the Duke."
"...!"
"We beg of you, just stay still. No one wants to receive direct orders from Your Highness. It's not just us; the other lords feel the same way."
Claude blinked blankly at the knights' blunt confession. Did that mean all those numerous loyalists were a lie? Had they all sworn loyalty only because they believed Claude would never be able to escape Tivron?
The knights delivered the final blow to the dazed Claude.
"A word of advice: even if you somehow manage to escape, do not recklessly go to other lords. You might be murdered."
"W-What?"
"What do you think will happen if you go to people who don't want to hear your orders but also don't want to lose their reputation as loyal subjects? If it were me, I'd finish you off in the shadows and then claim you never visited."
The Blue Rose Knights left Claude after leaving those ominous words. Claude stood frozen on the spot for a long time, unable to move.
Two days later, the moment Lucian came to check on Claude’s condition—
"Duke! No, King Lucian! Please, save me!"
Before Lucian could even open his mouth, Claude fell to his knees and cried out.