Chapter 123: Those Who Have Always Been on High
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 123: Those Who Have Always Been on High
The veterans’ decision was swift, and their actions followed suit.
Many things were beginning to change.
That night, Alto summoned all his wives to the bedroom.
“Uwaaaaaagh!!!”
And there, he thoroughly subjugated them.
Airune reached a climax so intense she couldn’t even swallow her own saliva; she could only let out beastly cries before eventually fainting.
“Oppa, Oppa!! Stop! Please!”
Even Narupa had her spots so relentlessly targeted that she ended up with her eyes rolled back, her hips thrust up in a pathetic display. Yarismal’s back arched like a bow as she erupted in fountain after fountain of fluid.
“Haa… haa… hngh…!”
Even Eris lost her composure, her tongue lolling against Alto’s chest in a daze as she came.
After sending even Eris over the edge, Alto slumped into a chair. Airune, having barely regained consciousness, knelt before him and took his member into her mouth.
“Slurp… mgh…”
“Rune.”
“Chup…”
“From now on, I intend to do whatever it takes to protect this family.”
“Mmph…”
“To do that, the house must be peaceful, at the very least.”
His voice, usually so gentle, was now low and commanding.
“Can I count on you?”
As a sign of her total submission to her husband, Airune sucked so deeply that her cheeks hollowed out.
* * *
A man appeared in Lukart.
“Who goes there! Halt, halt!”
“Ah, I’m not a suspicious person.”
The man who produced a letter from Count Dakuus and an official decree from the Duchy was none other than Donovan.
“Is Crown Prince Esante doing well? It has been quite a long time.”
“I will escort you immediately!”
The urgent news was delivered to the Crown Prince’s office at once.
Esante rushed out to greet him, grabbing Donovan’s hands.
“Donovan! Hahahaha! What brings you here? To think you’d come all the way to see me personally!”
“Have you been well? Since we live in different places, it’s been difficult to visit.”
“Yes, yes. Come inside. Ah, would you like one as well?”
Inside the carriage, the Crown Prince offered both a drink and a woman simultaneously.
Even in front of Donovan, the Crown Prince had his trousers down, receiving service from the Lukart Adventurer Guild Branch Manager.
“I am fine. It seems Your Highness is personally managing the mental reformation of the women of Lukart to comfort Alto Bertrand. It would be impolite of me to lay a hand on a woman Your Highness is currently correcting, or on the list of gifts intended for Alto Bertrand’s arms.”
Esante gave a satisfied smile at Donovan’s roundabout refusal.
He then grabbed the back of the Branch Manager’s head and shoved himself deep inside to finish his business.
“Guh, ack… cough…!”
“Phew. That is the King’s seed. Do not leave a single drop; savor it and swallow.”
“Ugh…”
Tears pricked her eyes, but she barely managed to suppress the urge to vomit.
After gathering all the fluid and forcing it down, she opened her mouth to show it was empty. The Crown Prince then roughly kicked her out of the carriage.
“This is a time for great men and heroes. A mere wench shouldn’t be so tactless as to intrude.”
“Your—Your Highness… Aaaagh!”
Cast out of the moving carriage, the Branch Manager’s head split open against a rock, though she fortunately survived.
However, the Branch Manager had already been branded by the residents as a key figure who had done nothing to help Alto when he left Lukart.
Because no one helped her, she was left with a large, bulging scar running from her temple to her forehead.
The happy ending was that from then on, no man—not even the Crown Prince—ever sought her out again.
Truly, pleasure follows pain.
“So, for what reason has the Hero of the Duchy come to seek this Prince?”
“It is nothing much.”
Donovan finally took a sip of tea after the Branch Manager had been discarded.
It was appropriately sweet and bitter, something that would have paired well with a cigar. This was a side effect of the top-quality cigars Count Dakuus used to smoke.
“The women in the Duchy, possessed by demons, have risen in revolt. It seems the demon that possessed them backflowed from the Aztera Dungeon.”
“You call that nothing much?!”
Esante furrowed his brow in shock.
He had thought the Duchy was coming to bow down because of the Victory Commemoration Ceremony for the Final War, but in reality, the Duchy was being torn apart by a Dungeon Backflow and the Black Rose Movement.
“According to my intelligence, I heard it only happened in Aztera. You’re saying it’s the entire Duchy?”
Watching the Crown Prince foolishly reveal the limits of his information, Donovan realized once again that neither the Kingdom nor the Duchy had a bright future.
He felt like a man who had already secured a new job and was just about to resign from his current one.
When he was part of the Duchy, he felt frustration and despair, but now that he had solidified his decision to defect to Hus, he could only laugh as if watching a fire across the river.
“It is the result of the Duchy’s desperate attempts to suppress the news out of shame that they were bested by women. The suppression worked, but the inside has rotted and festered.”
“Is this not a disaster! The Kingdom and the Duchy are blood allies; why did you not ask for aid? It is obvious that the Kingdom will be next after the Duchy!”
“Your Highness, the Duchy may be in trouble, but the Kingdom has nothing to fear, does it?”
“What?”
“Your Highness, I heard the Kingdom possesses the most powerful hunting dog in humanity.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Despite his words, the corners of the Crown Prince’s mouth twitched.
Even though he knew he should hide it, his vanity urged him to show off.
Donovan knew Esante well.
He was an incompetent “intellectual” who had vast knowledge but had never truly made any of it his own.
The King trusted his son, enchanted by his extensive pretension of knowledge, but everyone who worked with him knew the truth.
They knew how much the Prince’s words and actions contradicted each other.
He would claim it was a time to endure pain while constantly acting for his own convenience.
If his simple behavior was like this, what would it be like when he took charge of major national affairs?
Donovan thought the Prince who just kept his mouth shut and dozed off because he wasn’t interested was actually better.
“The fate of the Duchy hangs by a thread. Your Highness, please, release the hunting dog’s leash and give the command.”
“How can you be so certain there is a hunting dog?”
“The fact that Your Highness is personally ruling Lukart is proof enough.”
“Ruling Lukart?”
“I heard that since Your Highness began your personal rule, the Dakuren Dungeon has been purified, and the Magic Tower Dungeon has been rendered as good as headless.”
“Is the news that fast…?”
“Is this not all thanks to Your Highness’s sincerity, shown personally to comfort the soul of the hunting dog that left home?”
“Oh, you…!”
The smirk on the Crown Prince’s face was truly a sight to behold.
Esante liked battle in a “manly” way.
He thought the image of himself commanding an army was magnificent.
Because he was born a Crown Prince, he could command an army if he wished, but because he was born a Crown Prince, he could not recklessly take to the battlefield.
That was why he followed Count Dakuus and Donovan around.
To him, Alto Bertrand was nothing more than the finest weapon in his collection.
He couldn’t help but like someone who recognized that beforehand and even praised him.
“This is the most confidential of confidential matters. If you run your mouth anywhere, the only place we shall meet again is the execution ground.”
He played the role of a mastermind, issuing a pointless warning.
Even though Donovan was a citizen of the Duchy and couldn’t be summoned to the Kingdom’s execution grounds.
“Of course, Your Highness.”
“I shall personally write a letter to Hus. Rest assured. By the way, I am still curious about the mysterious method used to defeat Villen of Dependence during the Final War.”
“Your Highness.”
“What is it?”
“Actually, Levantello went to Hus first.”
“What?”
The Crown Prince’s expression soured as information he was completely unaware of surfaced.
“At the time, from Levantello’s perspective, the roads to Lukart and the Royal Capital were blocked. In his desperation, he went to Hus to request aid, but Count Dakuus refused.”
“Dakuus? By what authority does that man refuse a request from the Duchy?”
“The pretext was that the Duchy dared to try and use the Kingdom’s hunting dog as they pleased, but his true feelings seemed to be elsewhere.”
“His true feelings were different?”
“Yes.”
Donovan scanned the surroundings before leaning into the Crown Prince’s ear.
“He said that since the Kingdom still hasn’t given the rewards for clearing the Dakuren and Magic Tower Dungeons, the Duchy would be even worse…”
“What an insolent man!”
The Crown Prince slammed the table in rage.
“To think that being given the chance to serve the Kingdom isn’t enough to show lifelong gratitude and loyalty!”
Donovan was internally stunned.
He had guessed as much, but this was truly the fundamental mindset of these rulers.
He hadn’t even expected the Prince to say it out loud.
He had caught a glimpse of just how much they looked down on those beneath them.
It left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“I hereby present the letter from that insolent man and the official decree from the Duchy.”
Donovan, who remained prostrate without losing his balance even in the moving carriage, presented the letter. The Crown Prince tore open Count Dakuus’s letter first, following his own whim.
As he read through it quickly, the Crown Prince surprisingly didn’t explode in anger immediately, but his face turned red and purple as if he were having trouble digesting the contents.
Dakuus, you’re going to owe me for this.
“Your Highness, please do not be so angry. Aside from that old commander being upset, he is merely acting spoiled toward Your Highness.”
“Acting spoiled? An old man acting spoiled?”
“The fact that he sent the letter through me is a safety measure, showing he has no intention of truly defying the Royal Palace’s will. However, the Count’s ‘spoiled’ behavior isn’t entirely without merit. If it is said that there are no rewards despite the achievement of clearing dungeons, the other lords of the Kingdom will also feel slighted.”
“The opportunity to serve the Kingdom is the reward itself.”
“The throne is a lonely place. Who could possibly know or understand that weight? Only those chosen, only those born to it, can understand and become King.”
“Those words are true. There have been many times when I felt I wanted to chirp and fly as freely as a morning bird.”
What a load of bullshit.
In terms of freedom, there probably hasn’t been a Crown Prince as free as him in history.
“So, put on the leash and swing the whip.”
“The leash and the whip?”
Donovan leaned in even closer than before.
“Petition His Majesty the King to order the rescue of the Duchy, and once that task is complete, give the order to Hus. Tell them to return Alto Bertrand to Lukart. Tell Hus to return the overqualified hunting dog they’ve been keeping to the hands of the Royal Family.”
“That is excellent.”
The Crown Prince laughed with satisfaction and poured wine instead of tea.
“It just so happens the Victory Commemoration Ceremony is approaching. At that time, I shall summon all the veterans, including Alto Bertrand, and restore my prestige—and the prestige of the Kingdom.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
Donovan joined in the flattery, clinking his glass.
“Since you said all the veterans, I will bring Yobeste even if I have to drag his corpse.”
“Hahahaha! Forget the dead ones! This Crown Prince is not such a narrow-minded man that he wouldn’t even permit death!”
Yobeste, I guess I owe you one.
In many ways, the taste in his mouth was nothing but bitter.