Disciplining the Crown Prince
The Crown Prince of the Paulia Empire, first in line to the imperial throne, the Emperor’s eldest son and Serena’s half-brother. Crown Prince Bryden. Whether you played the game like a normal romance fantasy or ground through it as a veteran open-world RPG, his was a face you were bound to see at least once. And the routes that forced you to meet him were the ones players avoided like the plague.
The main reason the game went completely off the rails the moment you got involved with Princess Serena at the academy was none other than the Crown Prince. Good relationship with Serena or bad, once you tangled with her you’d end up in direct or indirect contact with Bryden sooner or later. Especially if your relationship with Serena was hostile—the choice Bryden offered the player was literally “Assassinate the Princess.” Accept it and you had to pull off an assassination in a romance-fantasy world, which was obviously never easy. Fail and the player got hunted by the assassins Bryden sent to silence them. Refuse the offer and the assassins still came. And if you’d been on good terms with Serena, you got to watch the player taken hostage instead… Every single option screwed you over, so anyone who played Romance Tale despised Bryden.
I was no exception. It wasn’t just because he ruined the game. The guy was utterly disqualified from being either a crown prince or a human being. If you played the open-world RPG route and actually visited the Paulia Empire, you ran into countless people who’d suffered because of him. A degenerate obsessed with gambling, drinking, and women, the so-called Crown Prince would sneak into gambling dens to carouse with street thugs, then mobilize his guards for personal revenge if he lost. He’d throw his status around to torment tavern owners, and if he saw a woman he liked he’d drag her off by force and rape her whether she was married or not.
In a single word, he was this game’s version of Yangnyeong Grand Prince. A lunatic like that should obviously have his position stripped and be exiled, but because he was the only child of the late Empress—the woman the Emperor had loved more than life itself—the legitimacy issues were too heavy. The Emperor simply couldn’t cast him out.
I had no idea where he’d been, but it was probably one of three things: gambling again, drinking himself unconscious, or out finding another woman to violate. As someone who already loathed Bryden, this “welcoming ceremony” was anything but welcome. Why make everyone line up just because he’d crawled back from doing who-knows-what? I quietly hoped I wouldn’t get entangled with him… but the moment I was appointed as Serena’s guard, that hope became impossible.
And of course, the very same afternoon I was summoned to meet him.
Bryden had returned that morning. It was afternoon by the time Serena and I were called to the first-floor lobby of the Imperial Annex after receiving his summons. Technically only Serena had been summoned, but if she went, I naturally had to follow.
When we arrived, Bryden was waiting with his hair a complete mess, clear pillow creases still etched on his face, arrogantly standing with his arms crossed. Look at the state of this Crown Prince bastard… He must have been sprawled out sleeping until the moment he woke up and decided to drag Serena over for another round of harassment.
And just as I predicted, the instant Bryden saw Serena he started berating her.
It wasn’t late at all, yet Bryden was nitpicking anyway.
Serena clearly hated him just as much; she bit her lip hard, shot him a venomous glare, then lowered her head. Bryden gave a sleazy smile, glanced at me, and scoffed.
As she spoke, Serena shot me a sharp sideways look. …The reason the original two guards had gone off to recuperate was entirely my fault, so… yeah, that stung my conscience pretty hard.
“Let’s walk.”
Bryden strode ahead with his guards trailing behind him like a bunch of ornaments, keeping a slight distance as he walked beside Serena. The gap between our group of guards and the two royals was noticeable, but after surviving on Mt. Ksir my hearing had been forcibly sharpened to the point that I could hear their entire conversation clearly.
Oh please. Serena at least used recognition-obscuring magic. This guy was strutting around with a whole parade of guards.
This inferiority-complex-ridden bastard. He knew his own reputation among the citizens was absolute garbage, so he saw Serena—who was genuinely loved by everyone—as an eyesore. It was painfully obvious.
“Hah.”
I couldn’t hold back a snort. The way he kept talking about himself was honestly hilarious. Instantly every eye snapped toward me.
I answered calmly.
Serena looked horrified. Bryden strode toward me with heavy steps while his guards glared at me with murderous expressions.
Serena was mouthing at me to not get us in trouble, but I knew that obedient act of hers wasn’t going to solve anything. No matter how she behaved, Bryden’s assassins were coming for her anyway. I kept my expression perfectly calm and answered immediately.
Serena was silently screaming Why would you say that! but this was all for her own good.
The Crown Prince stared at me silently, but he couldn’t hide the faint tremor in his pupils.
Whoosh! The sewer-rat boss immediately threw a punch at my face. After sparring with the Crazy Old Man, this looked like slow motion. I leisurely tilted my head just enough to dodge it. Bryden’s expression twisted in disbelief.
“Aran! Brother, what are you doing to my guard!”
When Serena screamed, Bryden cracked his knuckles with exaggerated bravado and rolled his neck side to side before snarling.
Whoosh! Whoosh! I dodged the next two amateur punches, then the kick that followed. After I evaded even that pathetic kick, Bryden looked ridiculous flailing around. Gnashing his teeth, he bellowed at his guards.
The guards serving under Bryden were all rotten-hearted knights who were basically no different from street thugs with a bit of strength. Not one of them hesitated; they all stepped forward. Starting a sword fight inside the palace would be a huge hassle, and I couldn’t just fry them all with Lightning Shield either…
Guess I’ll have to subdue them without using my hands.
The survival training I’d gone through on Mt. Ksir—disguised as bare-handed training—had taught me how to freely manipulate the formless mana that overflowed on the mountain. How did I learn it? I don’t even know. I could simply see the flow of mana and manipulate it with my hands, so I picked it up naturally. Thanks to that, even though I knew none of the basic theory of magic, I could copy any magic formation I saw, and the same went for aura.
And being able to see mana with my eyes and manipulate it directly meant…
I hate that it feels like I’m following the Crazy Old Man’s advice, but…
Everyone who comes to Mt. Ksir says the mana crushes them, making it hard to control their bodies and giving them terrible headaches.
But I’m fine?
That’s because you have a special constitution. Untrained civilians can’t last even half a day on Mt. Ksir even if there are no threats. Mana that has been condensed to the extreme is like that. When it’s moderately abundant it is a blessing, but once it crosses a certain threshold it becomes a terrifying poison.
Keeping my hand hidden behind my back so Bryden and his men couldn’t see, I gently moved my fingers and forcibly gathered the surrounding mana into one spot, compressing it. The Crazy Old Man had said no one else could do this, and if I refined the technique it would become my own powerful weapon. Lately I’d been realizing how right he was.
At my gesture the mana rushed toward a single point like it was being sucked into a vacuum cleaner. I limited the range precisely to where Bryden’s guards were standing. While the mana density around us grew noticeably thinner, the single spot where the fifteen guards stood became extremely concentrated.
The reaction was immediate.
“Ugh… my head…”
“Huk… I-I can’t breathe properly…”
“W-what is this…? My body… something’s wrong…”
Crushed by the overwhelming mana, their movements grew sluggish. They creaked like broken machines, complained of headaches, and began collapsing one by one. The area where Serena, Bryden, and I stood remained completely fine, so Bryden shouted in confusion.
Despite his roar, the guards displayed symptoms of acute mana poisoning and completely lost consciousness. Once every last one of Bryden’s guards had fainted, I stopped condensing the mana. The heavily concentrated energy scattered at once and returned to nature.
Bryden had guessed correctly, but without any proof there was nothing he could do. I put on an innocent face that said What are you talking about?
Honestly, even if I had used real magic I doubted this incompetent fool could have detected it. When Bryden showed no sign of backing down, Serena stepped in.
“This damned… ugh…”
Since his reputation inside the palace was already terrible, Bryden bit his lip, called for his steward who had been waiting in the annex, and had the unconscious guards carried away. After getting thoroughly humiliated while trying to find fault, he left without another word, practically fleeing. Once everything was over, Serena approached me.
Serena tried to suppress the twitching corners of her mouth, crossed her arms, and attempted to look solemn.
The way the corners of her mouth refused to stay still told me she was thoroughly delighted. I grinned and answered.
Instead of answering I simply stared at her quietly. Serena, who had been frantically making excuses, trailed off, glanced around nervously, and asked in a small voice.
“Ah~ After using so much strength I’m exhausted and starving. I wonder if there’s a generous lord somewhere willing to treat her loyal guard to some high-class barbecue~”
When I lightly teased her, Serena gave me a sidelong glare.
Watching Serena walk ahead, I thought that at least working as her guard definitely wouldn’t be boring.