Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Declaration to the Continent
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“How exactly?”
“By using Luna of the Virgin Palace, one of the Twelve Archbishops whom I captured as a prisoner in the Dragon Mountains.”
Virgin Palace Luna. She was one of the Empire's archbishops who had clashed with us in the Dragon Mountains alongside Marquis Crank and Treasure Bottle Palace Dingo.
She had surrendered to us, and I had proposed that if she truly followed me, I would rescue her mother, who was being held captive by the Golden Lion Church.
‘I haven’t heard her answer to that proposal yet, but I can at least keep the promises made until then.’
The successor issue had kept me too busy to execute the plan, but the original scheme had been for her to publicly announce that she alone had survived ‘due to Iberella’s scheme.’
“If we just announce that Darkan defected to the Empire as an insider, people will see our family as incompetents who couldn’t even keep track of a single retainer. But if we release Luna’s statement alongside it, that assessment will flip completely.”
That’s how the world works. If you only announce that ‘there was a spy within the family,’ attention naturally focuses on which family it was.
But if you declare, ‘The prestigious Shield Family had a spy planted in it,’ ‘Four marquis from the First and Second Imperial Princes’ factions, along with four of the Twelve Archbishops, all died,’ and ‘A single young imperial princess orchestrated the whole thing,’
‘then the focus shifts to who that audacious princess could be.’
On top of that, Iberella had a history of meddling in the Philador Kingdom’s rebellion in the past.
If we tied this incident to that one, it would bring the old event back into the spotlight as well.
“Naturally, the imperial princes within the Empire will start seriously checking Iberella, and the nations of the Alliance will change their view of her too.”
“...Smear campaigns aren’t really my style.”
Father’s gaze shifted to Darkan’s head rolling on the floor.
“But we must repay what’s been done to us. The Shield Family of Carviot, guardians of the kingdom, never tuck tail before an enemy.”
Finally, Father’s permission had come.
‘I’ll need to refine the plan with Dwayne.’
I had to polish the sticky treat for Iberella into something prettier and more presentable.
A stormy three days passed.
My brother and sister were still holed up in the Trial Chamber, putting themselves through hell and showing no signs of coming out.
Some might worry that the trials in the Trial Chamber were too harsh, but at least in this moment...
I envied them.
‘I wish I could just take the trial myself.’
The successor matter had pushed it back unexpectedly, but I already had mountains of work piled up.
First, I needed to pioneer new trade routes with the cyclopes and lycanthropes beyond the existing elf routes.
Second, deliver the processed wyvern wing scales to the Wendinel family so they could develop a dispel weapon to shatter great magic armor.
Third, as payment for helping with the wyvern hunt, I had promised Set to procure the herb Paeonia to save Ishwar, one of the Great Three Sages of the Osiris Kingdom.
And finally, the fourth.
I had to undermine Iberella’s position. To do that, convincing Luna was essential.
None of these could be delayed—they were all critical.
‘The trade routes will be handled by Baron Geibel anyway, since he’s in administration. Aria will take care of the dispel weapon. And treating Ishwar can wait until we get Paeonia from the archipelago.’
After parting ways with Set and Aria in the Beast Forest, I’d received replies from both.
Research on the dispel weapon would take time, and Ishwar’s condition in the Osiris Kingdom wasn’t immediately critical.
So, the only thing I could do right now was one.
The condition for Luna’s surrender: rescuing her mother, the Virgin Palace held by the Golden Lion Church.
Three days ago, after finishing my talk with Father, I sought out Luna.
“...Can you really save her?”
Luna had anticipated what I wanted to say without me even bringing it up, asking just that one question.
“I’ll do my utmost.”
I answered her question with just one sentence as well.
“...Hah. If you’d said ‘I’ll definitely save her’ like before, I could’ve refused with a clear conscience.”
“Honestly, failure’s far more likely. Sorry for blabbing so ignorantly back in the mountains.”
Luna shot me a glare.
“Then I don’t have to say anything about betraying the prince myself, right?”
“Of course not. That would ruin your standing in the Empire. Instead, just play the tragic archbishop who survived until I rescue your mother.”
With that, I wrapped up our secret backroom deal(?) with Luna and began preparing in earnest.
Scratch, scratch.
I was lost in drafting a strategic outline with Dwayne to flesh out the detailed plan.
“......”
Scratch, scratch!
I moved my hand even faster across the paper.
“......”
Scratch scratch! Scratch scratch!
“......”
‘Ugh, this is really getting on my nerves.’
Truthfully, being swamped with work didn’t bother me.
Even though I was working myself to death, everything was going according to plan, and we’d uprooted the family’s longtime traitor.
Yet the reason I envied my brother and sister in the Trial Chamber was...
One person sitting right in front of me, staring blankly as I worked on the documents.
...Scratch.
No matter how hard I tried to fix my gaze on the papers, that piercing stare felt like it would bore a hole through my forehead. In the end, I had no choice but to set down my pen.
“Mother, do you have something to say?”
“......”
Mother, Elena von Carviot, had spent the entire three days barely acknowledging my words while staring fixedly at me alone.
Sigh.
‘This can’t go on.’
I’d waited, thinking she’d speak eventually, but it had already been three days.
“Mother, as you can see, I have a lot of work to do. If there’s nothing you wish to say...”
“You’ve truly changed.”
That was the first thing Mother said after staring at me silently for three days.
After the chaos at the gate, she must have heard the rumors about me.
Yet true to a mage’s nature, she had observed me directly with her own eyes before drawing a conclusion.
For a full three days, no less.
“No, calling it a simple change in personality doesn’t explain your dramatic transformation.”
Mother’s scrutinizing gaze, which had examined every inch of me, now met my eyes.
Those eyes, shining clear as starlight, were impossibly deep.
“Over the past three days, I’ve been checking if perhaps your soul had been swapped with someone else’s, or if you were a demon pretending to be my son.”
‘...You can verify that?’
Mother casually dropped the bombshell without a care for my reaction and continued.
“But no. The resonance of your soul, your habits, your gaze... everything screams that you’re truly Jerome. No, more accurately... your soul’s quality has elevated.”
In three days of observation, Mother had arrived at an answer close to the truth.
A title like ‘One Who Has Reached the Ideal’ was well-deserved.
“I pondered why you challenged the successor trial that day. Probably to build a pretext, right?”
Jerome’s exploits were already widely known in Banten. Anyone would peg him as a top candidate.
In such a situation, stepping down without justification would inevitably leave people unconvinced.
Ares and Mercy would be the first to refuse acceptance.
But Jerome had failed to enter the Trial Chamber.
No matter the reason, it was a done fact.
So, even if he relinquished the successor position, while some might regret it, most would accept it.
That’s the nature of Banten’s heir position.
“But that’s not the only reason you chose that day. Darkan was one of Mercy’s key backers. With him down, the successor is as good as decided, Trial Chamber results be damned. The one you want is probably Ares, right? That stubborn boy could fortify Banten better than anyone.”
...She was too spot-on; I had nothing more to say.
“I won’t deny it. For me to rampage freely in the south, Banten needs solid support. In that regard, brother’s better than sister.”
“Why is that?”
A succinct question, yet laden with far more meaning.
“I won’t ask how you hid your abilities from your father and me all this time. Maybe you had your reasons, watching your accomplished siblings and choosing to sheath your claws.”
“......”
“But I can’t comprehend why you’d give up the successor role. With your current abilities, you could aim for Banten’s heir yourself.”
‘Aim for it, huh.’
Despite her words, Mother, I, and everyone knew.
I wasn’t just aiming—I was the closest to the successor position.
“Mother, as you heard from Father, I’ve promised Prince Julius to head to Olivia.”
“If you wish, I’ll make that promise vanish. Consider all I’ve done for the Ikenia royals in Edirne up to now.”
Given Mother’s past actions, it was a proposal so outrageous it made her seem like a stranger.
‘She must regret it.’
She’d undoubtedly brought it up with Father.
But since Father and I had already settled it, he wouldn’t budge, so she came to me directly. Obvious without seeing.
“Whether they called you a worm in the past or not, it doesn’t matter now. If the current you became Banten’s heir, the Carviot Count Family could surpass the Sword Family and solidify as the kingdom’s greatest house.”
That was the reason, after all.
Mother’s prediction wasn’t wrong. If I stayed in Banten, with brother and sister supporting me, it could become the kingdom’s unrivaled premier territory.
But if the Empire crushed the Alliance, what use were such empty titles? Mere salt pillars before the waves.
Still, I couldn’t say that outright.
“Mother, Banten is too small to contain me.”
“Banten is too small?”
Mother’s eyes widened round.
Calling this vast land—comparable in size to one of the Five Nations—small must have struck her as absurd.
“Banten is hemmed in up top by the Dragon Mountains and the Holy Empire, the Beast Forest to the side, and kingdom territories below. There are natural limits to expanding influence.”
“The same holds for other territories. The kingdom forbids territory wars.”
Exactly. That’s why I chose Olivia.
“It forbids territory wars and fights with the Alliance, but what about other powers?”
“Other powers...? You don’t mean...”
Father apparently hadn’t mentioned this part.
“That’s right, Mother.”
The core of my plan.
“I’m going to swallow the Archipelago.”
The Empire’s pristine grand hall.
Byzantium, deemed the most noble among all royal palaces on the continent—this was the palace where the Empire’s emperor resided.
A certain old man lounged on the jade throne at its center, chin propped lazily as he listened to a holy knight’s report.
“...Thus, bearing Your Majesty’s sacred will to form a Wyvern Knight Order in your service, your great spears and the holy servants of the Lord set forth on the noble expedition, only to depart for the Lord’s side...”
As the holy knight’s report dragged on with endless florid rhetoric, the old man smirked and raised a hand.
“Ahh, enough, enough. So, to sum it up, two of the four marquis following the princes and four of the Twelve Archbishops kicked the bucket, right?”
At the bluntly crude phrasing, the reporting holy knight paused to compose himself before answering the emperor’s question.
“Yes. Though it pains me to say it, we suspect they may have been called by the Lord.”
“Called by the Lord, my ass. They overreached against Iberella, got cocky, and lost everything like total idiots—and you wrap it up nice?”
“...I am humbled.”
Unable to refine his words further, the holy knight could only resort to formalities.
“Idiots. Squandering the Empire’s precious forces so pointlessly. Chopping their heads off wouldn’t even be surprising.”
The old man remained utterly nonchalant despite the massive loss of the Empire’s elite.
Stretching languidly, his eyes met those of the mountain of a man standing behind the throne.
“You think so too, don’t you, Duke Kaiser?”
The man’s name was Kaiser.
One of the three dukes guarding the Empire’s capital inner citadel.
“...Your Majesty. Marquis Schopf was a capable defender of the outer capital, and Marquis Crank a fierce general who kept the vile Alliance dogs from the central front. This is no light matter.”
The old man—no, Emperor Pedro von Hekaron III—covered his mouth and laughed at Duke Kaiser’s reply.
“Kukuku, is that so? No wonder empty words spill from my subjects’ personal retainers. I’ll watch it.”
“...I am humbled.”
As Emperor Pedro laughed with barbs laced in his words...
Bam!
A holy knight burst through the audience chamber doors, rushing in.
“What is this?! How dare you act so rudely in His Majesty’s presence!”
“F-Forgive me! It was such an urgent matter!”
The holy knight bowed his head and shouted.
“The Carviot Count Family has issued a statement to the entire continent and sent an official letter of protest to the Empire!”