Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The Tech Tree is Elaborate
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“Ugh! This wasn’t in the plan!”
The moment I came to my senses on the bed, I clutched my face.
Damn. Shit. Fuck.
Right after regressing, it’s Imperial Year 514, and I’m the infamous disaster of an imperial prince, Claude, who just turned sixteen this year. This is Lunenbreath Manor, where I’m living after being kicked out of the imperial palace.
For reference, Lunenbreath is my mother’s family.
The family has produced renowned elixir masters for generations… but that’s not important right now.
There are no other summoners behind me!
So what?
No matter what, from my position, wasn’t this the last one anyway?
Of course. This is the final regression granted to me.
But there’s a world of difference between me dying and it all ending, versus there being absolutely nothing after me.
Through the previous nine regressions, I’ve lived over ninety years in this world by the calendar.
That’s more than three times the time I spent on Earth. Thanks to that, this place feels more like home now.
I’ve grown attached to it, good and bad, and now I even feel a sense of mission to somehow save this world from its fated destruction.
Even if it’s not me personally.
If Roah verifies the otherworldly forces I desperately summon and passes that info to the next summoner, the next one can start on much better terms.
If we keep repeating that…
Eventually, someone will succeed, right?
So, for this final regression, my ultimate goal was set to stopping the 5th Wave, which I barely summoned last time but failed to handle.
Of course, if the 5th is the last, hurray.
But if there’s a 6th Wave after that, I planned to just confirm the types and scale of enemies pouring out (which means Roah confirms it too) and then die cleanly there.
I figured the next summoner, knowing about the 6th Wave, would handle even that…
But I’m the last one!
Argh! This is a scam! We got duped by a con artist, everyone! If it was gonna be like this, they should’ve told me from the start it was the last!
Reality is, there’s nothing after me. If I fail this time, this world is completely done for.
That can’t happen!
No way. Absolutely not.
I have to settle everything here and save the world somehow. There are too many people in this world I can’t abandon.
I had hoped someone else would save them in my place.
But now I can’t expect that from another summoner. I have to finish it here, no matter what!
Definitely, somehow, with my own hands…
“Your Highness!”
At that moment, the door burst open, and a woman in a maid outfit rushed in.
“Your Highness! I heard a noise! What’s wrong, Your Highness!”
Seeing her face snapped me back to reality. Whew, this isn’t the time. No matter what, the start of the regression has to follow the plan I set.
“…Head maid.”
“Yes, Your Highness. It’s the head maid. Did you perhaps have a nightmare?”
The woman cautiously examined my face.
Lania.
Lania, who’s always there at the start of every regression, is the head maid in charge of this Lunenbreath family manor.
And though she’s hiding it now, her true identity is my late mother’s younger sister.
If I show a decent side for the next 3-4 years and escape my disaster reputation, she’ll reveal the truth and her identity then.
So, in the end… she’s my aunt, sort of, but choices branch a bit here.
If I want to rush the ‘Elixir Master’ tech tree, I can just reveal Lania’s identity first.
Lania is already a world-class elixir master.
There’s a large-scale elixir production and lab facility underground in the manor used by Lania and the other maids. The moment I deepen my relationship with her, I can use it to produce elixirs needed for the war against the otherworld.
In the sixth regression, I started with this and got some solid early gains, right?
But even so, I could only barely stop the 3rd Wave in the end, reconfirming that order matters above all.
“It wasn’t a nightmare…”
I stared at Lania, putting as much intensity into my eyes as possible.
Lania is a thirty-something woman with plain looks and black hair, completely unlike my mother, who was famed for her golden blonde beauty (which ultimately got her the empress position).
She’s never married, hiding her identity all this while to protect the family trade.
And she’s my perfect ally, never betraying me no matter the situation. Recalling the plan I agonized over until just before the regression, I took slow, deep breaths.
“Whew… Whew… Whew…”
“Your Highness, are you unwell again today? I’m ashamed, but if you’d please take the elixir I prepared…”
“Bring it.”
“Pardon?”
“I said bring it. That elixir. I’ll drink it.”
“Ah! Yes! Right away!”
Lania ran out toward the hall with a startled face. I ground my teeth at my familiar yet horrific physical condition.
“This damn trash body… I never get used to it at the start, huh?”
My stomach churned, my head was foggy like it was filled with mist.
And as if I had neuralgia or arthritis, my whole body creaked and throbbed.
How did it get this bad?
This bastard, at just sixteen, guzzled strong liquor like water and had such a poor appetite that his nutrition was always a mess?
But digging deeper, there’s a fundamental problem overriding all that.
My late mother, Empress Railin. She was the emperor’s second wife.
The emperor had six children with his first empress.
Then, around the time he took in my barely twenty-year-old mother as a consort, dazzled by her beauty, the previous empress died in childbirth.
Naturally, Mother rose to the empty empress position, gave birth to me afterward, and earned even greater favor from the emperor.
With things like that, how friendly do you think my older siblings looked at me?
Especially the root of all evil, my second brother Jes, who was ruining me in ways I couldn’t even imagine.
“Your Highness! I brought the elixir!”
Then Lania hurried back holding a small elixir vial.
“It’s the same elixir as the one I gave you yesterday evening. The taste isn’t great, but if you sip it slowly…”
“Give it here.”
I snatched the vial and poured it straight down my throat without breathing.
Gulp, gulp…
“Your Highness is finally drinking the elixir I made…”
Lania’s eyes welled up with感動, tears glistening.
And well she might—Lania had offered this elixir to Claude every single day without fail, ever since he caused a huge incident at the palace a year ago and was exiled to the manor.
-Your Highness, this is a special elixir I prepared for your health. It’ll improve your condition, and who knows, maybe even make you grow taller again. The smell is a bit off, but… I made it specially for you, so please, have some.
But the asshole Claude threw the vial in Lania’s face just from smelling it.
-Ugh! What the hell is this? You dare tell the imperial prince of the empire to drink this disgusting crap? Get it out! I don’t even want to see it—scram! Don’t show your face again if you don’t want to die!
Ah, Claude, you bastard.
Seriously, why the hell did you live like that? Anyway, despite that, Lania kept bringing the elixir to Claude’s face every day without fail.
After learning this, I always built a good relationship with Lania in every regression—no one else, but her for sure. She’s blood-related, my aunt after all.
“…It’s making me feel a bit better.”
I let out a long sigh and looked at Lania. Here, she looks shocked staring into my eyes (as always in past regressions), and later she told me she was surprised because my corpse-like eyes suddenly returned to normal.
“Your Highness’s eyes…”
“Hm? What about my eyes?”
“Oh, no. Sorry, not now but before… Did you perhaps take the elixir I gave you yesterday evening?”
As if.
The memory’s fresh right after regressing. Just last night, Claude grabbed the elixir Lania secretly left on the table and chucked it out the window.
But telling the truth would leave no way to explain Lania’s current sense of dissonance. I followed the safest route I’d used multiple times in past regressions.
“No. I drank half, hated the taste so much I threw it out the window.”
“Half? So you still drank half?”
“So what? Truth is, I’ve taken a sip or two of the elixirs you gave before now.”
“Really? Then that explains why Your Highness looks so… this morning.”
“Why you acting weird from the morning? Do I look that strange?”
“…No. Your Highness? May I ask how you’re feeling right now?”
Lania wiped her teary eyes and asked. I added a bit more acting, pressing my temples with my fingers.
“Feeling’s always shitty. Hm… no. Actually, something’s different today?”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. My gut always felt like it was boiling hot… that’s gone. Weirdly calm now.”
“So the anger has subsided? The heat in your chest?”
“And my head’s clear. It was always foggy and dizzy before, but now it’s refreshing, and everything around is sharp?”
“…Then I can tell you today.”
Lania suddenly put on a grave expression and bowed her head toward me.
“Your Highness, the main ingredient in this elixir I gave you is a detoxifier. You’ve been continuously poisoned all this time.”