Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Reunion (5)
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As he gasped for breath, the crown prince suddenly asked himself.
Had he ever been this exhausted in his life?
He could say with certainty that he hadn't.
His entire body ached from trekking through the mountains all day, and blisters had formed on the soles of his feet.
“Pant, pant.”
He struggled to control his breathing and looked at the boy before him.
The boy, who was much smaller than his peers and looked more like a page than a squire, was skillfully cutting away branches to clear a path.
He was more interesting than any being the prince had ever seen.
The fact that his Dragon Tongue hadn't worked on him was reason enough.
Of course, his Dragon Tongue wasn't perfect.
That was why he kept it a secret.
It was the kind of ability that could be countered if known.
Though that was only true for those of a certain standing.
The boy before him hadn't known about it in advance, nor was he a high-ranking knight.
And yet, he had resisted the Dragon Tongue.
It had been quite embarrassing.
But his interest was far greater.
He planned to keep the boy by his side and observe him.
He intended to find out exactly how he had resisted the Dragon Tongue.
The foundation of a word-bound ability was conviction in its essence.
As long as a shred of doubt remained in one's heart, one could not fully wield their power.
The Dragon Tongue was also a branch of word-bound abilities.
The more one knew about their target, the stronger its effect became.
When the day came that he knew every last thing about the boy, the boy would no longer be able to resist the Dragon Tongue.
And thus, he would finally be reborn as his first Dragon Knight.
This decision wasn't based solely on the boy's accomplishments so far.
Killing a magician and playing a crucial role in repelling a Madosa at such a young age was certainly a great achievement, but it wasn't all that remarkable compared to the level of training the direct descendants of the Eight Great Families had reached by that age.
If not for their conservative traditions, they too could have achieved similar feats.
The crown prince valued the boy for reasons other than his martial prowess.
The situation in the Empire was chaotic.
Though not outwardly apparent, the circumstances were far from ordinary.
His father, the Emperor, had lost his insight, and the nobles harbored schemes in their hearts instead of loyalty.
Ominous rumors were commonplace.
It was a political climate where one could not easily distinguish friend from foe.
Those who learned the ways of chivalry from birth and came to regard righteousness as a virtue.
A boy who manipulated adults from the shadows at a young age, acting like a mastermind.
It was obvious which one was better suited for the palace.
Moreover, the boy happened to be quite well-versed in court etiquette.
‘May the skies of the Empire remain as blue tomorrow as they were today.’
Those were the words the boy had said when they parted on the day they first met.
It was an archaic greeting that only old, aged nobles would use.
It wasn't something a child who had never even been near the palace could have learned just from reading books.
There were countless other instances where he felt the boy was familiar with palace customs.
In particular, the boy seemed to know exactly how to treat royalty.
As if he had been tutored by a strict teacher.
To exaggerate slightly, it was to the point where the absence of his attendants and palace knights was not felt.
Of course, given the circumstances, there were limits to the boy's service, but that only made it more apparent.
The boy was clearly accustomed to palace etiquette.
The problem was that the boy had never been to the capital, let alone the palace.
He intended to keep him close and observe until the mystery was solved.
It had been quite some time since he had made that decision and begun his observation.
But as time passed, instead of gaining certainty, his questions only grew.
“This way.”
The boy, who had paused to look at the sky, changed direction.
They walked after him for a short while.
The pressure that had been weighing on his chest, as if he were being chased by a wild beast, vanished like a lie.
It wasn't just a feeling.
[The distance from the Madosa is increasing.]
His hidden escort, following them from the shadows, said the same.
This had already happened several times.
[It is as if he is choosing the path while visually confirming the Madosa's location.]
A rare hint of emotion tinged the hidden escort's voice.
A small bit of admiration, and an even greater amount of suspicion.
The escort was wary of the boy's existence.
It was only natural.
If the palace knights were the sturdy shields protecting the royal family from visible threats, the owner of the voice was one of the five shadows who protected them from unseen dangers.
He was a being known as a Lingering Shadow, a man for whom suspicion was a daily routine.
But even for such a man, to be not just suspicious but wary of someone was a rare occurrence.
It was a level of caution one might show to the heads of the Eight Families or the old nobles.
And for good reason.
Two days had already passed since they had separated from the palace knights.
The boy was skillfully evading the Madosa's relentless pursuit.
As the shadow had said, it was as if he were moving while visually confirming the Madosa's location; his path was exquisite, his judgment timely.
[This would be impossible unless he were in league with the Madosa.]
The Lingering Shadow was considering the possibility that he was a collaborator.
[The fact that he is strangely familiar with palace etiquette is suspicious in itself. Perhaps he approached Your Highness with intent.]
Compared to believing the boy possessed some mysterious ability, this was certainly a more objective assessment.
But the crown prince's judgment was different.
He possessed the insight to draw intuition from objective facts.
And that very insight whispered in his ear.
This boy had something.
“Your Highness.”
The crown prince was roused from his thoughts.
The boy was looking at him with a confident expression.
The crown prince suddenly became curious.
What if the boy were to enter the palace?
Would he be swept away, flustered and lost in the chaotic political situation?
Or would he find his way with the same confident expression he wore now?
* * *
[Curious Sloth] Oh! Ooh. That expression is~~!
[Elegant Lefty] That’s the face of someone dreaming an impossible dream.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Ugh. It's so cringey, I can't even watch.
[Elegant Lefty] Hehehe.
[Curious Sloth] Hehehe.
The stars' chatter would continue indefinitely if left alone.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] What about Ingna??
I asked casually at the right moment.
[Elegant Lefty] She wiped out the ogres and is on the move.
[Curious Sloth] Sob, sob~! That poor ogre family~~! Living all cozy in their happy home, what a disaster to befall them~~!
Following the trail I left, Ingna had passed through the ogres' den and was still chasing us at this very moment.
[Curious Sloth] But~~ why are you going in circles like that~~? If you were going to leave the mountain range, you could have left ages ago, right?
[Elegant Lefty] At this rate, all the innocent monsters in the mountains will be wiped out before you even leave.
[Curious Sloth] Of course, watching the monsters struggle to survive is pretty entertaining~~ But~ but~~
[Curious Sloth] It’s getting old~~~
The stars didn't seem to understand why I kept wandering into strange places when there was a faster way out.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] You, don't tell me…?
Only the Emperor Who Abandoned His Country seemed to have noticed my intention.
[Elegant Lefty] Don't tell you what? Why are you the only one who knows, Your Majesty?
[Curious Sloth] An explanation seems necessary~~
At the stars' urging, the Emperor Who Abandoned His Country spoke.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] This brat is using someone else's hands to clean up the mountain range.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] To be precise, please call it paving a road.
[Curious Sloth] ???
[Elegant Lefty] Can you two stop being cryptic and explain it so we can understand?
It seemed the other stars couldn't grasp it.
I told them why I wasn't leaving the mountain range right away.
As long as the stars were telling me her position in real-time from the sky, evading her pursuit wasn't that difficult.
If she came at me head-on with brute force, there'd be no answer, but this kind of chase was my specialty.
I was confident whether I was the one chasing or the one fleeing.
But there was nothing to be gained by simply running away.
So I lured Ingna to the monster settlements.
As expected, instead of going around, Ingna passed straight through them.
Annihilating every monster in sight.
[Curious Sloth] Ah~~!
[Elegant Lefty] So you were cleaning up, just like His Majesty said?
That was the gist of it.
I was using Ingna to revive the flow of logistics, which had been cut off by the mountain range separating the west and the central regions.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] It would be foolish to think no one has attempted what you're doing before.
[Curious Sloth] Monsters are like cockroaches~~ You kill them and kill them, but they just crawl out from somewhere else~~
They were right.
Sooner or later, new creatures would likely take the place of the old ones.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] That is, if they're left alone.
But if someone were to establish a presence first and periodically clear the surrounding area, the story would change.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Who would do something so unprofitable?
The problem, as the Emperor Who Abandoned His Country said, was who would take on such a troublesome task.
The area was too vast for one or two knights to manage, and if a specific family were to take it on, they would have to consider the dispersal of their forces and the cost.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] I'm thinking of entrusting that task to the Giftrang family of Komlat.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Having already lost their foundation, what reason would they have to come all the way to this mountain range?
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] It's possible precisely because they've lost their foundation.
Having lost their original base, it wouldn't make much difference to the Giftrang family where they established a new one.
Besides, I wasn't asking them to abandon their foundation entirely; traveling between the mountain range and Komlat wasn't that difficult.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Being able to move one's base and actually moving it are two different things. There is no reason to abandon a perfectly good city to build a home in this remote mountain range.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Where people live, interests are born. The same is true for even the smallest of cities. But this mountain range is different.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] What if it isn't?
As I said, the west was underdeveloped because the flow of logistics was blocked by this massive mountain range and the numerous monsters within it.
But what if someone were to periodically subjugate the monsters and maintain the road?
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] Logistics would begin to flow again. And as you know, where logistics flow, interests are sure to follow.
People would begin to travel between the west and the central regions again, where passage had ceased.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] That should be enough for a ruined family to rise again.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Impressive. But it will not be easy. Though the Madosa has saved you a great deal of trouble, the effort required hereafter will be considerable.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] The her I know will undoubtedly succeed.
Even though I hadn't known her for very long, I believed in Gretta.
Now that she had even cast off her obsession and attachment to ascension, she would climb to even greater heights.
Having watched Roman, who had ascended through his own power, from the side, I was certain.
I wasn't asking her to cover the entire mountain range; managing a single pass was something she could surely accomplish.
Especially now that the biggest problem, the large monsters, had already been wiped out by Ingna's hand.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] But there is a major flaw in your plan.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] If things proceed as you say, do you think the other great families will stand idly by? The saying that interests are born where people live also applies in reverse.
I nodded at the Emperor Who Abandoned His Country's words.
He was right.
Even if they painstakingly managed the road and collected tolls, if it became a source of significant wealth, the other families wouldn't just watch.
But that, too, was not an unsolvable problem.
[Eternal Squire (2nd Round)] They'll need to have their rights recognized. So much so that the great families, the Eight Families and the prestigious houses, wouldn't even dare to covet it.
As I said that, I turned my gaze.
“Ugh. Are we setting off again?”
The crown prince, who had been sitting on the ground resting, sighed and got to his feet.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Both friend and foe aid you, and what you need is in the right place at the right time. This is truly the tide of the times flowing with you.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Good. Very good.
The Emperor Who Abandoned His Country repeated his approval.
[Elegant Lefty] …I see. I understand completely.
[Curious Sloth] I don't know what you're talking about, so I'll just stay quiet~~~
The stars who had been silent chimed in.
“Your Highness. Let us go.”
I once again led the piece of luggage and climbed the mountain.
Every nook. Every cranny.
That was four days ago.
[Elegant Lefty] Looks like the other side is tired of hide-and-seek.
*Gwoooo!*
As if on cue, a tremendous energy erupted from the distance.
[Elegant Lefty] Here she comes!
An irresistible presence was rapidly approaching.
“Your Highness! Run!”
I immediately took a path eastward and ran.
“Pant, pant! Blech!”
Right behind me, the crown prince was dry-heaving.
*Crash. Snap. Craaaack.*
Farther away, the constant noise of something breaking and shattering could be heard.
I took out the signal flare from my pouch and fired it.
*Fweee! Bang!*
A red flame fell from the sky above.
This tiresome game of hide-and-seek was finally over.
“There you are.”
A cackling laugh followed right at our backs.
Close by, giant trees snapped, and rocks exploded.
“Got you.”
At last, the seeker revealed herself before us.