Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Impossible Feat
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Impossible.
Mana is invisible, and unless it's mana you've claimed as your own, you can't even sense it.
Even the numerous high-ranking mages gathered here hadn't noticed.
Only one person was different: Croft.
He stared at me with eyes brimming with conviction.
But I couldn't fathom why he was defending me.
Even if he had figured it out, there was no reason for him to look out for me.
—The position of crown prince is one that's constantly tested.
It came to mind.
His words from five years ago, on the day of my investiture as crown prince, when my coming-of-age ceremony took place.
After that, he relentlessly tested me on the "qualities a crown prince must possess."
Needless to say, I failed every single one.
Dozens, hundreds of times.
I thought he'd completely given up on me by now.
'A test. This must be the final one.'
Croft had noticed.
The man hailed as the empire's greatest wasn't just skilled in swordsmanship.
His "instincts" were terrifyingly accurate as well.
Pointing me out in the emperor's presence was something he couldn't do without absolute certainty.
Croft tossed the question at me with full confidence.
A problem like a tightly woven spiderweb, impossible to slip out of easily.
"Sir Croft, what on earth do you mean? If it wasn't the Tower of Light that stopped my son's rampage, then who was it?"
Empress Josephine leaped down from the dais, cradling Carmen in her arms, and demanded.
Was she truly clueless, or simply denying reality?
—"Your Highness Reinhardt. You stopped Prince Carmen's rampage. Why did you do it?"
He'd locked it in.
Of course, I could have slipped away easily.
I could just deny it.
Dismiss it as Croft's mistake, a joke about how the mad crown prince wouldn't do such a thing.
That's all it would take to brush it off.
"The crown prince did it?"
"How could he stop a rampage even the tower master couldn't handle?"
"Even if he could, he wouldn't bother."
The imperial family, including the empress, began murmuring.
The incompetent, unqualified crown prince.
Words I'd heard so often my ears had worn thin.
Even if it were possible, would a madman waste his power saving the third prince?
However.
"And?"
I countered.
"Is there something strange about that?"
What was so strange about it?
"He asked if it's truly strange for a brother to save his sibling."
I'd only done what was natural, so why ask such a thing?
For a moment, a glint flashed in Croft's eyes.
An answer unimaginable from the old me.
In the emperor's presence, cornering him like this would normally trigger my mania.
'If you can't avoid it, turn it into an opportunity.'
I was no longer the foolish, mad fool of the past.
I was an emperor who had experienced everything life could throw.
The conqueror king who claimed half the continent, known as the Blood Emperor.
I had to decide right here.
Dodge, or face it head-on.
Dodging would buy me time for later.
Time to build my strength and strike back at the nobles.
I'd remain the mad crown prince, but I'd gain breathing room.
But facing it directly would raise the nobles' suspicions.
The moment they realized I wasn't the fool they thought, they'd depose me without mercy.
And pick a more obedient puppet.
The current emperor lacked both the power and justification to stop them.
Even so, I chose to charge straight ahead.
This way, I could at least gain Croft.
Tossing the question my way proved he hadn't fully given up on me.
I couldn't turn him to my side immediately, but I'd planted the seed.
And I had a unique weapon no one else possessed.
'I've got a winning chance.'
That's why I'd judged it worthwhile.
Such a grand stage didn't come often.
And I was ready to seize this stage as my opportunity.
"Not strange at all, Your Highness."
Croft replied with a faint smile.
It felt like I'd passed his test for the first time.
Though it was just scraping from -999 to +10 points.
Gaining him meant securing the Imperial Dragon Knights, the empire's strongest swords.
Considering the nobles, imperial family, and even that mad monster Malfiel, it was a gamble worth taking.
···· The mages of the Tower of Light, answer me. Is this absurd claim true?"
Empress Josephine asked, her face still full of disbelief.
The Tower of Light mages and their master fell silent as if their mouths were glued shut.
The tower master finally regained his composure and replied.
"It's true the rampage suddenly stopped. However, mana rampage from double-overlap has almost no documented records. We can't definitively say the crown prince stopped it···."
What is mana?
The fundamental element composing the world.
Yet mages didn't know why it existed.
Not even why double-overlap caused rampage.
They squandered research funds prattling about pursuing truth.
'Rampage from overlapping commands.'
But I knew.
For some reason, what they called "mana" was "nanomachines."
Nano Machines were originally created by this world's humans.
But unauthorized copies glitched and spread across the world. And we called them "mana," imprinting commands to use them.
Even after conquering half the continent, I'd never heard of this.
Which meant only I knew.
This was a weapon, and poison.
Spilling it carelessly could brand me a heretic and cost my head.
But handled discreetly, it would be stronger than any weapon.
'Rampaging nanomachines are far easier, and more abundant, to dominate.'
Absorbing the rampaging ones seemed 100 times more efficient than mimicking Germin's spell.
I'd make this my weapon.
"I possess the ability to mitigate rampages."
"Mitigate rampages··· Could you explain in detail?"
The Tower of Light master asked calmly.
The other mages' eyes gleamed with intense interest.
Intellectual curiosity, the mage's longing for the unknown.
They focused more intently than during the other princes' demonstrations, so I shrugged naturally.
"I don't know the details. I just thought I could do it."
One in ten thousand was enough.
No need to spill every fact from my mouth.
The key was imagination.
Nothing would elevate me more than imagination.
"So did the crown prince heal Prince Carmen or not?"
"But Sir Croft said so."
"It's weird a swordsman noticed what 8th-circle mages missed."
"Damn, what's really going on?"
The mages clutched their heads in thought.
Once curious, they ignored propriety—even in the imperial palace.
"Why not have someone try double-overlap rampage themselves?"
They even suggested that.
Double command overlap was taboo.
Big or small, rampage could kill.
No mage would risk it.
But they'd witnessed it, so they had to wonder.
"Can't saints mitigate rampages too?"
"Divine power lineage, then?"
"It takes too long. And recent academia says divine healing has almost no effect."
"What about totemism from the southern regions? Records of shamans curing rampages with totems···"
"9th circle? Mana Dominators can heal from afar···"
Absurd theories.
Proof there were no answers.
Then, one tower master stepped forward.
"If I'may be so bold, can you··· mitigate this as well?"
The Tower of Ice master.
He approached and rolled up his left sleeve.
A hand frozen like ice.
[Unauthorized rampaging nanomachines detected.]
[Currently frozen by other nanomachines.]
[Long-term rampage. Time required for mitigation and absorption.]
[Efficiency +200% if absorbed in proximity.]
[Current nanomachine quantity allows max 0.9% absorption, Master.]
"I've sealed the rampaging mana inside for over ten years."
Even a great 8th-circle tower master could only seal it.
This was his way of stirring definite chaos.
For good or ill.
I pondered.
Zero said time was needed for mitigation and absorption.
I couldn't absorb all those rampaging nanomachines right now.
'The die is cast.'
But everyone watched me, holding their breath.
0.9%.
A tiny amount.
Unlike Carmen's, this was an 8th-circle mage's rampage.
The sheer quantity and quality were incomparable.
But the die was cast.
I placed my hand over his left hand.
[Attempting forced absorption.]
[Removing virus from unauthorized rampaging nanomachines.]
My body's nanomachines activated, drawing the rampaging ones into me.
Zero then stripped the virus and began dominating them.
[Successfully dominated 0.9% of rampaging nanomachines.]
[Further execution impossible, Master.]
Just 0.9%, yet half my heart's ring filled.
Equivalent to 1.5 circles.
Filling this much in a day was miraculous.
An immense sense of fullness washed over me. Forcing more would cause my own rampage.
"No change?"
"Guess it was fake after all."
"Tch, figures."
The imperial family clicked their tongues.
No visible change despite touching it.
But the Tower of Ice master reacted differently.
"Uh···"
His body trembled faintly.
"How···"
Incredulous.
His arm was still frozen.
But he felt it clearly.
The dead sensation in his fingertips··· stirring faintly.
His left arm, immobile for over ten years with rampaging mana sealed inside.
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"It'll take some time."
··· No. This is enough."
But he was more moved by grasping the key to rampage mitigation than his own partial healing.
'The Tower of Ice master's granddaughter died from rampage.'
Then that left arm was the price of experimenting on himself to cure her.
He looked around and declared.
"His Highness the crown prince speaks the truth. He truly possesses the ability to mitigate rampages."
····!
Even the Tower of Ice master affirmed it.
Everyone's eyes lit up, especially the mages', like stars.
The eternal mystery of rampages··· solved before them!
Worth celebrating.
But others wore uncomfortable expressions, the exact opposite.
The imperial family.
Especially Empress Josephine.
With Croft and the tower master endorsing it.
Denying it would tarnish Prince Carmen's image too.
··· Thank you, Your Highness Reinhardt."
Planning to gloss over it with mere words?
I smirked and said.
"It's just mitigation. He'll need ongoing treatment from me, or he'll die."
"Ah···"
Empress Josephine's face paled.
The Tower of Ice master's symptoms were eased, not cured.
She'd seen it herself, no choice but to believe.
Of course, Carmen was fully healed, but no need to reveal that.
Above all, she'd die for Carmen.
I now held her heart in my grasp.
And that was it?
···
Holy King Deus.
He, who had thoroughly ignored me, finally turned his gaze my way.
Eyes that could sink you just by meeting them.
But I'd traversed depths deeper than the abyss.
Those eyes no longer frightened me.
[ Feat ] End