Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: If You Know Yourself and the Enemy, You'll Win a Hundred Battles (1)
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The bond between the King and me was undoubtedly a cursed one.
From our very first meeting, he had never hidden his contempt and hatred toward me, and he had steadfastly maintained that attitude ever since.
He was always itching to devour me whole, and every encounter was filled with us snarling at each other.
Times when we crossed paths without arguing could be counted on one hand, and we'd never once exchanged words pleasantly.
Even accounting for all that, the fury the King displayed now was something I'd never seen before.
"You're out of your mind. Only a madman would entertain such thoughts."
The King went so far as to treat me like a complete lunatic.
I could understand why.
"Unless you're insane, there's no way the heir to the throne would think of visiting the Empire!"
Having just had my right to the succession officially recognized, my declaration of going to the Empire must have sounded like the ravings of a madman to him.
The King continued venting his rage for quite some time after that.
In the past, I would have fired back with my own anger and picked a fight by now.
But I couldn't this time.
I knew his fury wasn't born of the hatred and contempt it used to be. His anger and shouting were closer to concern.
For some reason, my chest felt itchy. It was awkward, almost uncomfortable.
If it were the old days, he would have gladly accepted, telling a worthless wastrel like me to go to the Empire and never come back.
"Pretend you heard nothing."
His voice cracked harshly, as if he no longer had the strength to keep yelling. With that, he dismissed me.
I didn't back down and spoke again.
"To prepare for the future, we must know our enemy."
"If what you want is to understand the Empire, that's plenty possible within the kingdom."
The King tried to dissuade me, promising access to all the intelligence we'd gathered so far.
"I need to see it with my own eyes."
"If you're so dead set on this, you must first lay down everything you've been given."
Seeing my resolve, the King played his trump card. He meant for me to renounce everything that came with being a prince.
What was so hard about that? I'd never truly been treated as a proper prince anyway, not even close.
My knights were loyal to me, not the royal family. There was nothing for the King to take away.
The King seemed to realize that belatedly.
"I'll confiscate the Dragon Slayer Sword as well."
He resorted to threatening my main weapon, playing dirty.
"It's a reward for my achievements. There's no reason to hand it back now."
"Do you think just anyone gets something like that for ordinary merits?"
"You gave it, I received it. It's mine now."
I pushed back, arguing that no one takes back a gift once given.
Our childish bickering dragged on for a while. The King's barely contained anger exploded again.
"Just what is your reason for going to such lengths to visit the Empire?!"
"There are things you can't know without seeing them firsthand."
I replied calmly to the fuming King.
Even the kingdom, which I'd thought I knew everything about, had turned out to be a mystery. It took two years of constant clashes and trial-and-error to grasp its true state and bridge the 400-year gap to some extent.
In that process, I lost my uncle and countless others. I couldn't repeat that same ordeal.
To avoid it, I had to confirm the Empire's reality with my own eyes.
How the Empire of 400 years ago differed from today's, how the Emperor and his knights had changed—I needed to see it myself.
I didn't want to lose anyone close to me again to foolish ignorance and arrogance.
"It's a long road that takes a year just to travel. Everywhere you go, you'll meet those who look down on the kingdom, and you'll endure endless humiliations from them."
So said the King.
His tone was a notch softer than before. He finally seemed to accept that he couldn't break my stubbornness.
"Would that be any different?"
I replied to him that I'd lived the same way in the kingdom, enduring all sorts of insults to reach this point.
"The Empire's nobles won't hesitate to insult you to your face."
"I'll pay them back in kind."
"Some might even try to harm you."
"Let them try if they can."
"I can't understand it. Why court such hardship and walk a thorny path?"
"To avoid even greater hardships."
The King stared straight through me. I didn't avert my gaze.
After peering into my eyes for a long moment, he let out a deep sigh.
"I'll strip you of everything you've been granted. You'll go to the Empire not as a successor to the throne, but merely as a prince."
He meant to revoke my succession rights, confirmed just recently, and send me as nothing more than one who bore royal blood.
After our long, drawn-out argument, that was the conclusion.
"Very well."
I accepted it impassively.
Displeasure flickered in the King's eyes. He clearly didn't like that I hadn't bent until the end.
"Your eighteenth coming-of-age ceremony."
After a long silence, the King spoke again.
"On that day, you'll reclaim everything."
I couldn't help but smile.
His words sounded to me like a command to return safely from the Empire before my coming-of-age rite.
After all that bluster about revoking my rights...
The faint smirk on my lips suddenly hardened.
The atmosphere grew awkward.
Neither the King nor I were used to this kind of tension.
The best move was to excuse myself. Unfortunately, there was still business to attend to.
As I forced myself to endure the awkwardness and opened my mouth again, a royal knight's voice rang out.
"Your Majesty! The Empire's ambassador has arrived!"
The King's expression froze like ice in an instant.
"What does that one want now..."
Already distraught, the King clutched his head at the untimely visit from the Empire's envoy.
"You may go."
I shook my head at his dismissal.
"I summoned him."
"What?"
"Let him in!"
Ignoring the King, I ordered the royal knight to open the doors. They swung wide, and the Montpellier bastard appeared.
He must have received treatment on the way; no traces remained of the beating he'd taken all night. He'd even changed into fresh, neat clothes. "Your Majesty."
The King glanced at the bowing Marquis of Montpellier and silently questioned me with his eyes.
Instead of answering, I beckoned the marquis over.
It was a perfunctory gesture, like calling a pet dog.
He flinched.
Montpellier glanced at the King before gauging my mood.
"What happened to the big thief?"
My words, half-muttered to myself, made the marquis squeeze his eyes shut and stand before me.
"Y-Your Highness. I've come as summoned."
The King gaped, his eyes wide, as the marquis bowed nearly to the floor. He looked back and forth between me and the marquis.
Ignoring him, I commanded the marquis.
"Confess every scheme the Empire has carried out in secret from the kingdom."
The marquis jerked his head up.
His face had drained of color, turning a sickly blue-green.
It was only natural.
Until now, the marquis had cooperated readily because I was merely a prince on terrible terms with the King.
Even if our dealings leaked to the Empire later, he could claim it was a ploy to install a puppet prince, giving him plausible deniability.
But the King was different. Spilling imperial secrets in front of him was outright treason, with no excuses possible.
No matter how much leverage I held over him, it wasn't easy for the marquis.
One misstep, and he'd lose everything. No, he'd almost certainly lose it all.
In other words, my order was telling him to bet his life on the slim chance of full compliance.
And in normal circumstances, the marquis would never obey.
"You seem to be mistaken."
To the hesitating marquis, I pulled a single sheet of paper from my bosom and showed it.
It was a document crammed with secrets accessible only to the Empire's highest nobles.
"This isn't a request."
Seeing the clear signature and seal in one corner, the marquis's face blackened as if scorched.
His thoughts were plain to see.
He must be regretting it bitterly—coming to the North that day, yielding to me and leaking secrets, failing to silence me with murder even belatedly. He was surely filled with bone-deep remorse.
Perhaps he was even plotting to report everything to the homeland the moment he left here, saving his own skin.
That would offer better survival odds than defying a great power while clinging to a minor one.
But that was only possible if he escaped the kingdom alive.
My sword maidens were watching him day and night, ready to sever his head at my command. Before meeting the palace steward last night, I'd kidnapped the marquis and made a show of it precisely to demonstrate that.
Unless he was a fool, he knew it.
Escaping the capital alive was virtually impossible.
And the marquis I knew wasn't the type to die nobly for his country. He'd cling to life desperately, savoring his power for one more day.
"Speak."
I ordered him again.
The marquis squeezed his eyes shut. Then, stammering at first, he began recounting the Empire's covert operations in the kingdom.
The tale started in the afternoon and lasted until nightfall. Among it was the fact that I hadn't been the informant in the tragedy four years ago.
"Ha... haha."
When the story ended, the King let out hollow laughs like a madman.
He looked just like I had the night before, laughing like a lunatic.
I quietly gave the King time to compose himself.
"I..."
After a long while, the King looked at me and asked.
"How should I atone for my sins?"
He, who had fallen for the marquis's schemes, hated and persecuted his eldest son, eventually driving him to the North.
"What must I do to right my past wrongs?"
In a subdued voice, the King asked how to apologize.
And I answered.
Just say it was a misunderstanding. Say you're sorry. One word is enough.
"I'm sorry. Truly sorry. I've done you unforgivable wrongs."
The King apologized to me.
"I've already forgotten."
I accepted it.
It took a long time for the King to regain his composure.
"How long have you known?"
"I only learned yesterday myself."
"What of Gerwein and the knights?"
"I'll leave them be for now."
"It's resentment and hatred toward the innocent. It should be corrected."
"I'll tell them the truth someday, but not now."
Indescribable emotions swirled in the King's eyes.
Guilt, and pride as well.
Seeing that heavy gaze made me uncomfortable again. So I kicked the innocent marquis for no reason.
"You've wrought so much havoc all this time!"
"I-I deserve death!"
The marquis, who had toppled over, prostrated himself flat and banged his head on the floor.
I kicked him a few more times, unnecessarily panting as if out of breath, when the King asked me.
"What do you plan to do going forward?"
"I'll see the Empire's movements with my own eyes and bide my time."
The King gave me a profound look.
Feeling burdened by it, I kicked Montpellier again.
"Urk!"
The bastard screamed as if he were dying.
After my private audience with the King, I dragged the Marquis of Montpellier back to the prince's palace.
"What's my reputation like in the Empire?"
The marquis hemmed and hawed, reluctant to answer.
"Be honest."
"A-An incompetent eldest son, a greedy and selfish petty villain."
After much hesitation, the marquis spoke, and I smiled in satisfaction.
Confirming my expression, he continued his report.
An opportunist who stole his late uncle's achievements,
or a puppet prince propped up by the North's lords.
A headache for the Leonberger royal family, lacking both virtue and talent, with nothing to recommend him but his position as heir.
Even in the Empire, there were calls to block my succession out of concern for the kingdom's future—a true piece of trash.
That was the Empire's evaluation of me.
Everything had gone exactly as I'd planned. To avoid needless suspicion, I'd repeatedly instructed the marquis not to report my feats to the Empire, and he'd carried out my orders flawlessly.
But why? Why did it feel so unsatisfying?
"An irredeemable bastard, but if handled right, he'd hand over his entire country like the fool he... Gah!"
I kicked the marquis for pouring out insults without restraint. He rolled across the floor screaming, then looked up at me aggrievedly.
"Your Highness told me to be honest..."
"You could have summarized it properly instead of ranting with such glee."
The marquis shut his mouth, about to protest.
I glared at him and asked.
"If I head to the Empire's heartland, predict the reactions of their nobles and the Emperor."
The marquis pretended to ponder briefly before answering.
"The Emperor and seven-tenths of the nobles won't pay much mind, but the remaining three-tenths will try to win you over."
I asked who those three-tenths were.
"Among the eastern nobles of the Empire..."
"Keep it brief. Just the highest-ranking ones."
The chattering marquis clamped his mouth shut at my words. After a long pause, he named the highest among those likely to court me.
"The 3rd Prince and 5th Prince would seek to win Your Highness over."
I understood his meaning immediately.
Princes trying to sway even me from a remote minor kingdom meant they were in the thick of succession struggles, their factions weak enough to need such allies.
I asked about the two princes.
The marquis answered my questions in relative detail.
Both had weak maternal clans and shaky foundations. The 5th Prince was clever and virtuous, rapidly building power, while the 3rd Prince was hot-tempered with a rough tongue, struggling to gather support.
"Hot-tempered with a rough tongue that repels people..."
Words that sounded familiar, an evaluation I'd heard many times before.
"A wastrel, huh."
Just like what they'd said about me.
"The 3rd Prince appeals to me more than the 5th."
The marquis, dodging calling his own nation's prince a wastrel, startled and looked at me.
"Feels like we'd get along."
I flashed him a sly grin.