Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Princess's Repayment (1)
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The Crown Prince raised his treasured sword.
And the moment he aimed it at my neck.
“…!”
Fortunately, his blade settled gently on my shoulder.
As if the Emperor were bestowing a title upon a vassal.
“You pass, Baron.”
Leon looked down at me with a solemn voice.
He spoke to me as if I were one of his retainers.
“Compared to those who come babbling about respect or justice, someone with a clear goal like advancement is far easier to handle.”
The Crown Prince grinned and sheathed his sword.
He slid it smoothly into its scabbard.
“In that regard, you qualify to be my partner in this venture.”
“Phew… So I’m still not a vassal yet.”
As I let out a sigh of relief on my own.
He observed my narrowed eyes with a sharp gaze and said.
“Your consistency appeals to me. Just like earlier today when you offered me mithril, only to choose the option that pays the most the moment opportunity arose.”
“Th-thank you, Your Highness…”
He must have been planning to cut me down if I’d spouted flattery here and acted out of character from what he’d seen earlier.
“Very well, then. Shall we get to the main topic? I didn’t bring you here just to threaten you.”
The Crown Prince flicked the crystal orb with his finger.
“It was merely a simple ideological check. Lately, plenty of people have been sending spies to figure out what I’m up to.”
He apologized to me with a magnanimous look.
It resembled the merciful gaze Rea used when dealing with her subordinates.
“So, please understand.”
“Of course, Your Highness. If anything, I’m honored to have proven my innocence.”
The Crown Prince called over the bespectacled middle-aged man standing at a distance.
“Financial secretary, bring the whiskey.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
His dedicated financial secretary arrived with a glass bottle swirling with golden liquor.
The middle-aged man carefully placed the bottle on the table and leisurely returned to his position to wait.
“Have a glass.”
I slowly took the glass.
But I didn’t drink.
“What, can’t handle your liquor?”
“Yes, even one glass gets me thoroughly drunk…”
I answered cautiously, gauging his reaction.
The Crown Prince furrowed his thick brows and asked.
“Even when it’s from me?”
His blue eyes stared straight at me.
I swallowed hard and replied.
“I’m sorry, but I need to stay sharp to answer Your Highness’s great questions without delay, don’t I?”
I lifted the corner of my mouth.
And flashed the world’s purest smile.
“I was worried that if I got drunk, I might fail to provide you with clear information.”
The Crown Prince looked stunned for a moment upon hearing my words.
Then he chuckled and nodded.
“You’re a born merchant, aren’t you? From what I heard, you were just a defensive knight of some county administrator.”
“He must have investigated my background before meeting me.”
“Ahaha… Truth be told, knighthood doesn’t suit me. I’m aiming to retire in my thirties and manage my territory.”
The Crown Prince’s expression softened somewhat, as if he understood my firm goal.
“I see. You harvested this thing called watermelons and succeeded in premiumizing them, right? With the wealth you’ve amassed, a lowly knight’s duties must seem beneath you.”
“Your Highness truly knows everything.”
I chuckled along, matching his rhythm as best I could.
“Given your savvy in business, I expect wise advice from you as well.”
The Crown Prince emptied his glass after leaving those meaningful words.
In response, I poured him another.
“Your Highness, a messenger hawk has arrived.”
The financial secretary untied the note from the leg of the hawk that had landed by the window.
He humbly handed it to Leon.
“I see. So Lydia is finally making her move.”
The Crown Prince, who had been waiting without making the first offer.
He read the note leisurely.
“Our little youngest has thrown 500,000 gold into the mithril acquisition.”
The initial offer for exclusive mithril rights had been 750,000 gold.
However, considering its potential value, even 2 million gold was perfectly reasonable.
Knowing this, the Crown Prince calmly doubled it.
“Financial secretary, put in 1 million gold immediately.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
With his single command, the price of two capital buildings shifted.
“Then she’ll counter with double, 2 million. When she does, offer 3 million to break her will.”
I’d thought the Crown Prince was only skilled in governance.
But with eyes that seemed to pierce through everything, he ordered his secretary.
“An excellent choice, Your Highness.”
The secretary bowed to the command and withdrew with the proposal.
Leon then returned to his whiskey calmly.
As if the bidding war with the Third Imperial Princess was no big deal.
“Lydia’s always had an inferiority complex toward us first imperial kin. She’s using this to check me while proving her own relevance.”
“I see…”
As I nodded, the Crown Prince swirled his glass.
The golden liquor mingled with the air, rippling gently.
“Otherwise, there’s no reason for her to crawl up like this when she has less money than me.”
I glanced up at him cautiously.
And asked.
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Me…?”
The Crown Prince paused his glass.
He gazed at me intently.
“Yes, because of Third Imperial Princess Lydia, aren’t you buying at nearly three times the original 750,000 gold?”
Leon smirked at my question.
“As expected of a merchant—quick with the numbers.”
The Crown Prince set his glass on the table.
“However, Baron, unlike you, Lydia and I are imperial kin. Imperial blood doesn’t move for money.”
He pointed to the golden lion brooch on his chest.
“We move for ‘pretext.’”
He looked down at me like I was an amusing little creature.
“I have a clear pretext: subjugating the south. That justifies my open exclusive bid on mithril. But Lydia?”
The Crown Prince flashed a sly smile.
“She has no clear pretext. In other words, her actions today could mark her as a prime target for purge once I ascend as Emperor.”
His eyes brimmed with wisdom, just like Rea’s.
Leon was peering far into the future.
“For obstructing the national interest of southern subjugation to bolster her private forces.”
“Surely not…”
The Crown Prince lifted his whiskey again and inhaled its aroma.
As if the glass mattered more than Lydia right now.
“The loss I see from this bidding war is just the price of her weakness.”
He sipped the sharp liquor once more.
Like the Emperor, Leon’s face showed no change no matter how much he drank.
“But, Your Highness…”
I asked him in a meaningful tone.
“What if Third Imperial Princess Lydia bids more than the 2 million gold you anticipated?”
“…?”
The Crown Prince set down his glass.
He looked at me approvingly.
“Are you actually worried about me?”
“Yes, what if?”
I’d expected him to laugh it off.
But surprisingly, he considered it seriously.
“That won’t happen. Her estimated assets cap at 2 million. And borrowing from her homeland Samard in a single day is impossible.”
His eyes lost their mirth; he had all of Lydia’s intel down pat.
“On the contrary, Lydia will realize through this.”
His demeanor shone with the ambition and solemnity of a conquering sovereign.
“That in this empire, she can achieve nothing alone.”
With the Crown Prince’s words, the hotel suite fell silent for a moment.
Only the majestic wingbeats of returning messenger hawks filled the air.
――――――.
The financial secretary untied the note from the arrived hawk’s leg.
He read it first, then…
“Y-Your Highness…”
His sour expression twisted even further.
“Yes, it’s here?”
“Yes, but…”
The Crown Prince took the note.
His relaxed brow immediately furrowed.
The only one hiding a smile in that space was…
“3.5 million gold…?”
Me alone.
“Financial secretary, what is this?”
Leon, who had anticipated Lydia’s estimated assets.
He drew a deep breath upon seeing a figure far exceeding it.
“Didn’t you say Lydia’s liquid assets were definitely 2 million gold?”
“Yes…”
At the secretary’s uncertain reply, the Crown Prince slammed his glass down harder.
The middle-aged man flinched for a moment.
“I overestimated you. I heard you had the best intel in the finance department.”
“I-I deserve death, Your Highness!!”
The middle-aged man hurriedly dropped to his knees.
Even a high official who strutted arrogantly elsewhere cowered like a commoner.
“Counter with 4 million gold immediately. I’ll deal with you after the mithril acquisition.”
The financial secretary scrambled to the hawk and drafted the proposal.
The Crown Prince eyed him pitifully and clicked his tongue.
“I hired you as the industry’s best… Tsk.”
Afterward, Leon’s mood soured, and he said nothing more.
He even set aside his drink, silently awaiting the acquisition result.
But.
He wouldn’t touch alcohol again tonight.
Because the news that soon returned was…
“Y-Your Highness…!!”
Far more shocking than the 3.5 million gold from before.
“What now.”
The returning financial secretary.
His clear voice began to stammer.
“Th-Third Imperial Princess Lydia…”
Too stunned, the secretary even addressed Lydia with honorifics before the Crown Prince.
“Has offered 4.5 million gold as the acquisition price…”
4.5 million.
An amount requiring the Crown Prince to pour out his entire 5 million gold to win.
The moment he heard it.
――――――!!
Every window in the hotel suite shuddered unnaturally.
“Eek…!!”
The middle-aged man shrank back at the sound.
But I remained utterly relaxed.
Simply staring at the source of these waves.
The Crown Prince, wielder of immense mana.
“…”
Leon soon calmed his aura.
He took a deep breath and regained his composure.
The Crown Prince stared at the financial secretary.
I thought he’d behead him on the spot.
Instead, his gaze softened as he asked.
“Who is it?”
The secretary flinched at his gentle question.
“Th-that is…”
The Crown Prince smiled slyly at the stammering man.
Then he dropped the smile.
“Who the hell is backing that bitch!!!?”
He bellowed with a thunderous roar like the Emperor’s bolt that had struck me.
――――――
Like the Crown Prince’s thunderous roar, the carriage wheels rattled.
A plain black carriage.
It headed toward a large warehouse in the capital’s eastern district.
Two carriages had already arrived there.
Guarded by burly eastern knights out front.
“We’ve arrived, Your Highness.”
A bespectacled young man.
He descended from the coachman’s assistant seat and opened the carriage door.
At last…
“It’s been a while since the east.”
Even in silk pajamas, her striking figure stood out.
Topped with the Radiant Knights’ uniform jacket and her lustrous golden hair.
The empire’s First Imperial Princess.
Second in line for the throne.
Stepped down from the carriage.
“The air here always feels laced with sand.”
The eastern knights recognized her and stepped aside.
Damian then led the princess to the warehouse’s side door.
“This way, Your Highness.”
The operations staff guided her with a bulky case in hand.
The princess followed him inside with a solemn gaze.
――――――.
The side door opened.
The moment the interior came into view.
“You’re late. Struggled to make the money, huh-?”
Towering stacks of enormous mithril ingots filled the warehouse.
Beneath them, at the table, sat Lydia and Irina, waiting for Rea.
Even in the dead of night, the two sipped coffee.
“I came after seeing Veil’s note.”
At Rea’s cue, Damian placed the prepared document case on the table.
He revealed a imperial bank check for 1.5 million gold.
“Perfect, now we have it all.”
Lydia, her twin tails undone into long flowing hair.
She too pulled a check for 1.5 million gold from her pajamas.
“This’ll empty Leon’s coffers.”
Irina, in silver pajamas, matched them.
Now fully a sovereign in her own right, she boldly contributed 1.5 million gold.
The three princesses’ fortunes gathered in one place.
“Veil… you came up with quite the clever idea.”
Irina smirked, thinking of one man.
Her sleepy, tousled eyes held a seductive glint.
“He’d never dream we’ve allied.”
Lydia chuckled and savored her victory coffee.
She grimaced, still unaccustomed to the adult taste.
“5 million gold for mithril… A hefty price for the pretext of force strengthening?”
Rea’s sensual gaze drifted to her dear brother.
Imagining him raging and fuming.
A messenger hawk entered through the factory warehouse.
Allen and Batsu, on security duty, checked the note and approached the noble ladies.
“Your Highness, Crown Prince Leon has bid 5 million gold!”
The princesses exchanged intent looks upon hearing it.
Nodding as one in shared thought.
“Accept. At 5 million.”
Lydia replied with a sly smile.
“Oh, and send congratulations too.”
Rea sipped her coffee, satisfied at the image of the asset-stripped Crown Prince.
She usually disliked caffeine, but tonight she craved the thrill.
“When’s Veil coming back?”
The princesses thought of the man who’d drawn them into this.
And soon said.
“We’ll dote on him when he does.”
Was it the dim warehouse lighting?
Their radiant eyes sparkled especially bright.