Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Count Overhears a Secret
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Count Popos attended the crown prince's birthday banquet with a heavy heart.
Lately, even his favorite meat dishes and sweet desserts couldn't soothe his melancholy.
The source of his gloom was the ambitious letter he had sent to the Illusion Tower.
He had sent the same letter more than twenty times already, yet no reply had ever come.
"Ugh, munch munch... sob."
Count Popos sat alone in the corner of the banquet hall, chewing on his meat.
"My, my scenario must have been lacking... cough..."
The letter contained content he had fantasized about for a long time.
Count Popos had been unable to fully enjoy his academy days as a boy due to his unsightly appearance.
Even at his age, he was a total loner who had never so much as dated, let alone married.
To cope, he enjoyed daydreaming about his academy life.
The main theme was being surrounded by the academy's many beautiful female cadets and winning their hearts.
After seeing the Arcane War, he thought that with illusion magic, he could turn those fantasies into a game.
So, Count Popos had outlined a scenario for that game and sent it to the Illusion Tower.
He offered to pay any amount if they would implement it as a game in the illusion world, like COL or Maple Leaf Tale.
"Ah, no, that's not it—!"
Anyway, while he was gloomily eating without talking to anyone...
Rikal, who was nearby, suddenly yelled in anger.
It was due to misunderstandings about the trending user known as "<Profligate Imperial Prince>."
Count Popos didn't play COL much, so he didn't pay it much mind.
Besides, Rikal throwing tantrums wasn't anything new.
Soon after, Leo approached and seemed to be calming Rikal down.
If that had been all, Count Popos wouldn't have cared.
"Ha, haha! Hahaha!"
But amid the commotion, an unfamiliar laugh rang out.
Count Popos looked up to identify the source of the laughter.
"It seems there's some misunderstanding here. Prince Rikal is not <Profligate Imperial Prince>. Why? Because I duoed with him recently."
The source was none other than a certain mage.
In fact, it was Riot, the illusion mage who had created COL and Maple Leaf Tale.
'Wha, wha, what?! The illusion mage was at this banquet too, nyaang?!'
Riot cleared things up on Rikal's behalf and dragged him out of the banquet hall.
Count Popos saw this as his chance.
The perfect opportunity to personally ask for his fantasies to be turned into a game.
'Bu, but this meat is too delicious... my feet won't move... (thwack) What are you doing?! You have to move now, nyaang!'
But the meat in his hand was too tasty to stop eating.
After an internal battle with himself, he finally managed to get moving a little while later.
But at that moment, besides Count Popos, someone else was also leaving the banquet hall.
"Cr, cr, Crown Prince... Wh, where are you going, nyaang...?"
Count Popos called out to Leo first.
He was about to have an important conversation with Riot, and he couldn't have Leo overhearing.
"Oh, Count Popos. I'm just worried about Rikal and going to check on him."
"Ah, in that case, I, I'll... go check, nyaang..."
"You, Count Popos?"
"Heh, heh... I have some personal business too..."
And Leo's destination was the same: Riot and Rikal.
This made it even more imperative that they not go together.
In the end, Count Popos left Leo behind in the banquet hall and chased after Riot and Rikal alone.
Stepping out of the banquet hall revealed the imperial palace's vast garden.
The garden was illuminated by dazzling lights.
Count Popos waddled through the garden, panting heavily.
"...that's why......"
From a secluded corner of the garden came the voices of Riot and Rikal.
They were huddled away as if sharing a secret.
Count Popos approached the voices, breathing raggedly.
The faint voices grew clearer.
"...So why did you use 'Empire's Light' as your nickname again? You should have used something else for your COL name."
Hearing Riot's irritated words, Count Popos froze in place.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ I had helped Rikal out and dragged him into the garden.
Then I pulled him to a secluded spot where no one would come.
"Phew... There, I helped you once, right?"
"Aaaargh! Those annoying bastards! I should have just killed them all...!!"
Rikal, fuming, stomped the ground repeatedly.
He had been at a loss just moments ago.
Some personalities just don't change easily, I guess.
"So why were you hesitating back there? Showing that attitude will just make people more convinced."
"You want me to reveal my nickname right there? In front of all those nobles?"
"Well, you could have just said you were following him out of fandom or something. What choice did we have? Unless you fully reveal your nickname, that suspicion will keep following you. Or just find the real <Profligate Imperial Prince>."
"That's what I've been saying—who is it?! You know, don't you!"
"No, I don't know."
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Rikal tore at his hair.
This must be a real dilemma for him.
Being suspected as <Profligate Imperial Prince> was undoubtedly annoying.
But he couldn't reveal his real nickname either.
I could see why he'd be pissed.
Of course, that didn't mean I planned to reveal the identity of <Profligate Imperial Prince>.
"Sigh... So why did you use 'Empire's Light' as your nickname again? You should have picked something else for COL."
"I didn't think much of it when I made it. How was I supposed to know it'd turn into this?"
"You just wanted to be an idol in COL too, huh?"
"...You wanna die?"
"If you kill me, 'Maple Leaf Tale' announcements will reveal Your Highness's identity, you know?"
As always, the conversation devolved back into teasing Rikal.
Well, since there was no immediate solution anyway, lightening the mood might be best.
...That was just a joke I tossed out thinking that.
But because of that conversation, big trouble ensued.
Rustle—
"...!"
"...Huh."
A rustling sound interrupted my conversation with Rikal.
And on top of that, suspicious breathing seemed audible.
Rikal and I hurriedly lowered our voices.
"Someone there? No way..."
"...It's too dark to see. They didn't hear us, did they...?"
Rikal looked genuinely scared, uncharacteristically so.
He seemed almost in a panic.
If the source of the noise was a person who had overheard us, Rikal would probably want to die right then.
I could sense his thoughts from his trembling eyes.
"Probably not. It can't be a person."
Usually in these situations, it turns out to be a passing cat. That's the trope.
Build tension like something's about to happen, then nothing does—that's the cliché.
"Pr, pr, Prince..."
But cruelly, the cliché didn't play out.
A twist on the cliché that would cause massive ripples.
From between the bushes emerged a potbellied, ugly noble.
"Count Popos...?"
Rikal muttered in surprise upon seeing his identity.
Apparently, Rikal knew him too.
Judging by his attire, he seemed to be a central noble.
Popos, huh? It rings a bell for some reason.
More importantly, he probably didn't hear us, right?
"Em, Empire's Light, you say...? What does that mean, nyaang...?"
Damn. He heard.
I slapped my forehead, realizing we were screwed.
Rikal was already shaking and sweating bullets.
"No, no way... The Third Prince is Jebit... nyaang...?"
"Wha, what? Hahaha! What are you talking about? The Third Prince as Jebit? No way a playboy like that could be Jebit! Hahaha!"
I desperately tried to cover for the dazed Rikal.
Even though I openly insulted him, he didn't react—he was that out of it.
Once exposed, Rikal was socially dead.
He must have felt like the sky was falling.
I forced a smile, praying this Count Popos hadn't heard properly.
"Do, don't lie, nyaang...! I heard everything about nicknames and idol stuff, nyaang..."
"Ah..."
Thud—
Rikal finally collapsed to the ground.
This Count Popos... Despite his looks, he annoyingly doesn't fall for tricks easily.
He just seemed stubbornly opinionated.
"Pr, Prince as Jebit...? Then all the previous Empire's Lights were imposters, nyaang?"
Neither Rikal nor I answered.
Rikal seemed completely broken.
I didn't trust myself not to screw up Rikal's future with a wrong response.
By the way, why does this Count Popos talk like that?
Is it okay to speak to a prince that way?
A moment later, Rikal regained a bit of composure and spoke.
"...Count Popos."
"Uwheee?!"
Rikal shot to his feet and placed a hand on Count Popos's shoulder.
Then he gripped it hard enough to crush it.
Count Popos let out a weird pained noise.
"...You'll have to die here."
And Rikal drew his sword.
I hurriedly grabbed his arm.
"W, wait a second, Your Highness! Even so, this is too much! And killing him here will get found out eventually!"
"So what? Count Popos has no wife or kids anyway—no one will miss him."
"Th, that's a bit hurtful..."
"No, even so, you can't just kill people! Put the sword away first!"
I barely calmed Rikal down.
In the end, we explained the rough situation and asked Count Popos to keep it secret.
Rikal still seemed to think killing him was best.
But I didn't want to watch an innocent person die right in front of me.
Besides, Rikal was the one at fault here—killing Popos made no sense.
"I, is that so, nyaang... You make me feel a bit bad, Prince..."
"...I don't want to hear that from you, Count."
"But why the speech pattern...? Is it okay to talk to the prince like that?"
"Count Popos has always been like this. Even His Majesty gave up. Everything else is fine, but if he doesn't talk like that, he chews his cheeks and it hurts or something..."
"Dieting is... No, never mind."
There were a ton of things I wanted to point out.
But the situation was already far from normal, so I shut my mouth.
"I, I can keep the secret, nyaang. But not without something in return, nyaang...!"
"What do you want?"
"Illusion mage Riot. Why won't you reply to the letters I sent, nyaang!"
"Letters?"
Letters?
I racked my brain, recalling recent mail.
Nothing special lately...
"...Ah! Count Popos!"
Then it hit me.
Those long letters I'd stopped reading and just tossed lately.
The ones with disgustingly detailed galgame stories and character setups, begging me to make one.
The sender's name was Count Popos.
"Galgame... No, so you were the one requesting that game."
"Yes, nyaang...! Why no reply, nyaang!"
"I replied at first. I said no."
"B, but...! Please make it, nyaang...! I thought maybe my scenario was bad, so I already wrote up to the 28th revision, nyaang...!"
"No, that's not the issue..."
How on earth did a hardcore otaku like this emerge in this world?
Did the creator of the first galgame in my past life look like this?
It felt disrespectful to compare, so I silently apologized to that pioneer galgame developer.
"A, anyway, make that, and I'll keep the secret, nyaang...!"
"No, I'm an online game developer...!"
And so, Count Popos's condition was this.
Make a galgame, and he'll keep the secret.
I pondered, alternating glances between Rikal and Count Popos, who awaited my answer desperately.