Chapter 197
Chapter 197
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Shameless Denial
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“Pleased to meet you. I am Duke Yan Eugene Bartla.”
“……!?”
The moment they saw Eugene, both the real prince disguised as a servant and the servant disguised as the prince narrowed their eyes.
“Er… It’s an honor to meet you like this, Duke Bartla. But have we met somewhere before?”
“Hm? I’ve never been to the Roman Empire.”
“No, not that. Didn’t we meet in Brantia?”
“I think you’ve got the wrong person.”
Eugene met the fake prince’s suspicious gaze head-on, brazenly tilting his head.
“No, think about it carefully. It feels like…”
“Your Highness, they say everyone has at least one or two people in the world who look just like them. It seems we’ve mistaken you for someone else.”
The real prince stepped in to wrap things up for the persistent fake prince.
“Actually, a knight we hired as a guide on our way to the royal castle looked a bit—no, quite a lot—like Your Grace. That’s probably why His Highness mistook you.”
“Ah, is that so? Must’ve been someone who really resembled me.”
“And now that I hear it, your voice sounds very similar too.”
“My voice is on the plain side.”
“…….”
Eugene brazenly played dumb to the end.
The fake prince looked exasperated, while the real prince gave Eugene a meaningful glance.
“Ha! To think there’s someone who looks just like Your Grace?”
Prabow put on the gravest expression imaginable and said to Eugene.
“Your Grace, if that man ever gets any wicked ideas and impersonates you, it could be a disaster. We should send someone to deal with it right away.”
“To dare impersonate Your Grace. It’s a crime deserving the culprit’s descendants unto the tenth generation being bound with ropes made from their own severed parts and hung from the spires. Gouge out their eyes with a dagger. Grind away their nose and mouth with basalt until their face is gone. Then sink them into the sea before Elfin Bay.”
One could excuse Prabow for jumping in cluelessly since he didn’t know the situation.
But when the elven princess—beautiful enough to pass for an angel sent by the goddess of beauty—spewed her tirade without batting an eye, everyone’s jaws dropped slightly.
Even Eugene thought her words were a bit over the top.
‘Wait, she’s talking about me?’
There was no impersonator to begin with. That was him.
So Eugene couldn’t help but feel a chill from the Lilisein princess’s blazing eyes, like lanterns jammed into her sockets.
“Ahem! Well, anyway, it seems I was mistaken. Sorry about that, Lord Bartla.”
“It’s fine.”
The Roman Empire’s escort knights’ eyes sharpened slightly at Eugene’s somewhat insolent attitude toward the imperial prince.
But Eugene had no intention of showing courtesy to some servant still pretending to be the prince, for whatever reason.
In Eugene’s judgment, the Rokarop prince’s group had definitely come all the way to Brantia to meet him.
Yet they were still putting on this act, swapping roles between prince and servant.
The ones who’d thirsted after the well should reflect on themselves first if they felt shortchanged, even resorting to hiding their identities to approach him.
And from the way the real prince was looking at him with those odd eyes, it seemed the charade would continue for a while.
“By the way…”
Eugene turned his gaze from the Rokarop prince’s group to the Fransil family head and the nobles standing awkwardly, like people desperate to relieve themselves.
“Why are you all here?”
The startled nobles’ eyes turned to the Fransil family head, like ducklings seeking their mother.
‘Things look screwed, but pull through!’
‘We’re counting on you, Lord Fransil!’
The nobles gazing at the Fransil family head had eyes full of desperate plea.
Because the moment they arrived at Lord Ridwell’s manor, they’d spotted the orcs bound and penned up like livestock, realizing they were screwed.
To think the northern orcs’ raid was real!
That blew away their most important point for arguing with Duke Bartla.
‘Show some dignity! Show your honor!’
Even so, it was true they’d mobilized troops, funds, and supplies without permission from the grand lord Fransil, so the nobles pinned their last hopes on him.
“Duke Bartla, Your Grace.”
The nobles’ faces brightened at the dignified tone of the Fransil family head.
“Speak.”
Step, step, step, step.
At Eugene’s response, the Fransil family head squared his shoulders and strode forward confidently.
As expected of the man who’d pacified western Brantia after several years and claimed the grand lord’s seat himself—there was something different about…
“I’ve heard that some of my vassals committed a grave error against Your Grace.”
“……!?”
The nobles jumped in shock. What was this nonsense?
“The mistakes of my vassals are my own failings as Lord Fransil. Thus, I’ve come in person to make amends before Your Grace.”
“Oh? Mistakes, you say?”
As Eugene’s eyes narrowed, the Fransil family head felt his throat go dry but pressed on quickly.
“Yes. My first mistake was failing to recognize the kingdom’s crisis as a lord of the realm. My second was not more actively supporting Your Grace’s actions in response to that crisis. And my third was letting my loyalty to you as grand lord run so deep that I failed to heed His Majesty the King’s call.”
“Lord Fransil…”
Before Duke Bartla, the Fransil family head openly condemning their own faults left the nobles’ mouths parched.
To think their trusted grand lord would backstab them like this.
“Hmph! Do you lot not understand why I listened to your tattling and brought you all to meet His Grace?”
“T-Tattling, my lord?”
“Lord Fransil, your words…”
Sensing they were truly doomed, the nobles hurriedly tried to make excuses, but the quick-witted Fransil family head bellowed at them.
“Shut your mouths! Should I call it wicked slander instead of tattling!? I’m utterly appalled!”
“…….”
No, we’re the appalled ones!
“To think I have such wretches as my so-called vassals! Oh! How lamentable. But of course, it’s all my fault, my failing—who can I blame? It’s because of my own shortcomings…”
Not content with just scolding the babbling nobles, the Fransil family head deftly and earnestly reflected on himself, then turned a poignant gaze to Eugene.
It was a masterful shift in expression.
“Duke Bartla, Your Grace. Normally, this unworthy one would beg forgiveness alone, but deeming the matter so grave, I’ve brought the parties involved despite the inconvenience.”
The Fransil family head bowed his head with a resolute expression, putting the finishing touch.
‘Impressive.’
Eugene was genuinely impressed.
His outstanding acting was surprising enough, but it was his foresight and political acumen in striking first that truly amazed.
The tattling nobles were still vassals of House Fransil. It wouldn’t do for the house to shirk responsibility for their errors.
Knowing this full well, the Fransil family head had confessed his vassals’ and his own faults first, seeking leniency and mercy.
The clueless nobles, ignorant of his intent, just stood there with dumb looks on their faces.
‘Western Brantia can stay in his hands.’
Having decided inwardly, Eugene spoke.
“If the family head puts it that way, it’d be odd for me to press the issue here.”
“Your Grace’s magnanimous judgment…”
“But you know.”
The Fransil family head, about to brighten, paused mid-lift of his head.
“If those guys had been even a bit more cooperative and quick, my forces could’ve avoided needless sacrifices. Fighting the lizardmen came because reinforcements were delayed.”
“That’s…”
“If we’d gotten troops as planned—no, just one day sooner—we could’ve dealt only with the orcs. But because of their lack of cooperation, we lost over a day, and ended up having to annihilate the lizardmen too, wasting precious troops.”
Pure fabrication.
If he’d known about a lizardman king—a high-tier monster likely holding a red mana stone—he’d have hunted them deliberately.
‘Only four lightly wounded, no serious injuries or deaths? Wow, he’s really running a scam even now.’
‘Kuhahaha! Of course! Gotta screw over the screwers!’
‘As expected of our great demon lord!’
Romari, Galpredic, and the spirit were at least convinced.
‘Spot on! A tactically sound assumption!’
‘Sigh… I don’t even know anymore.’
Princess Lilisein and Prabow’s impressions of the vampire duke only solidified further.
But the Fransil family head and nobles, who’d just arrived at Ridwell’s domain, had no way of knowing.
The Fransil family head inwardly broke into cold sweat and praised Eugene once more.
“I-I see. For that, I sincerely apologize again, and Your Grace’s honor and chivalry in not passing by the monsters…”
“Family head. If the Baiman orcs had landed as planned, who do you think would’ve been smashed first?”
“…….”
“And the lizardmen had an evolved high-tier monster as their leader? Do you think they’d have stayed only in the lower river and coastal areas?”
“…….”
“What do you all think?”
“……!”
The nobles flinched and began exchanging glances. Unless they were fools, they understood what Eugene meant.
As the mood flowed as intended, Eugene muttered calmly, as if to himself.
“It feels like I’m the only one defending the kingdom. Peace doesn’t come free, after all.”
The Fransil family head and nobles finally grasped exactly what Eugene wanted.
“W-Well then, how much would suffice?”
The Fransil family head cautiously asked on their behalf.
“Hmm. It feels a bit off to put a price on pure knighthood for the kingdom’s safety…”
Uneasy. It felt like an icy dagger piercing their hearts.
With mounting dread, the nobles anxiously awaited the vampire duke’s next words.
Eugene smiled and gave the answer anyone who knew him could predict.
“Well, let’s see your sincerity.”
* * *
“Kieeeeng! Kieeeng-eek!”
The golden wraith thrashed about half-mad inside a chest brimming with gold and silver.
Beside it stood Princess Lilisein, breathing raggedly in excitement—whether at the treasure or the spirit was unclear, though probably the latter.
“Heh heh.”
Prabow let out an incredulous chuckle and asked the wizard engrossed in tallying documents.
“How much is it all?”
“I haven’t finished calculating yet. But roughly enough to buy three or four small domains.”
“Ha!”
There were seven tattling lords. They’d seized—no, received as ‘sincerity’—half their wealth.
Nothing wrong with it per se, and one could call it karmic retribution, but as a swordmaster who’d lived honorably his whole life, Prabow couldn’t help the bitter taste in his mouth.
Moreover, he felt inexplicably ashamed toward the prince staring at them with wide, stunned eyes.
Where would a noble imperial ever witness such a disgraceful scene?
And the one orchestrating it, fondly surveying the gold and silver, was Brantia’s duke.
While the one panting as she alternated between him and the spirit—be it sprite or fiend—was Elrand’s princess!
Feeling regret, shame, and despair all at once, Prabow said to the prince.
“Prince Rokarop. It may seem unfamiliar, but Duke Bartla made the best choice considering the new royal family’s dire finances. It’s a decision as the king’s guardian and protector of the royal house, before even being a knight pursuing honor.”
“Hm. Is that so?”
‘He’s suspicious. Anyone can see he’s suspicious.’
Prabow felt even more ashamed at the prince’s reaction.
Then, after whispering quickly to the servant beside him, the prince cleared his throat and spoke.
“Ahem, Duke Bartla.”
“……?”
Eugene turned his head sharply.
“It’s sudden, but I have a proposal for you.”
“Out with it.”
At the abrupt statement, everyone’s eyes turned to Eugene and the prince’s group.
“Won’t you come to the empire with me? Of course, I don’t mean to make you, Brantia’s duke and the king’s guardian, a subject of the empire. I just want your help for a short while.”
“No.”
Eugene refused without a second’s hesitation.
‘Didn’t you get chased out by the crown prince? Why would I follow a prince who might get killed if he goes back?’
Having eavesdropped on the real prince and servant’s imperial tongue conversation, fully grasping their plight, it was an obvious choice for Eugene.
(To be continued)