Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 134

134

<134>

The dazzling light erupted from the Golden Hourglass in response to the Ghost Hand. My vision went white for a moment before quickly recovering.

“Uh oh!”

“The hourglass shrunk!”

“What’s going on now?”

“Fran! What’s happening?”

“I don’t know!”

The group was bewildered by the Golden Hourglass, which had shrunk to fit snugly in my hand.

Unlike them, I had some idea of what was happening. Plus, the system notification window, which had been quiet recently, popped up one after another.

First, I quickly scanned the hourglass’s information.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━×

[Damaged Danar’s Hourglass]

Grade: Mythic

Reverses the time of a desired target.

*Requires repair.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The mythic grade and the simple explanation of reversing time stood out as if magnified.

‘Up to what point is it possible?’

‘What’s the method of reversing?’

‘If used on a dead person, will they come back to life?’

‘If so, what’s the price?’

To cause such a tremendous miracle······.

Ah!

I was so focused on the explanation of reversing time that I belatedly noticed the word ‘Damaged’ and the note that it needed repair.

A wave of disappointment washed over me.

I could roughly guess why it was broken.

It must be because of my regression.

‘Is it even possible to repair?’

I had never heard of a divine artifact, called by various names such as sacred object, treasure, or divine instrument, being broken.

At best, it was about releasing sealed artifacts.

‘Let’s move on for now and check it out later.’

I closed the item information and looked at the notifications.

「Achievement, ‘Finding the Lost God,’ has been achieved.」

「Acquired 100,000 RP.」

「[Faith] has been unlocked.」

The most RP [Reward Points] I’ve ever acquired from achieving any achievement. The last [?] remaining in the status window after [Stats], [Skills], [Support], and [General Store] was also unlocked.

‘Faith, huh······.’

There was one more notification that caught my eye.

「Genie, the librarian of [Library], has recalled forgotten memories.」

Is today the day the secrets of the veiled system are laid bare? I wanted to check the functions of [Faith] and the memories Genie recalled right away.

But the time and place were not right.

The group, who had been briefly taken aback, regained their senses and approached the hourglass, examining it from every angle.

“Oh! Looking at this hourglass up close, it looks like the glass is cracked?”

“Don’t touch it! It might really break.”

“Ooh! Fran, do you happen to know something?”

“······ I don’t know.”

Fran’s lips trembled at Alfonso’s disappointed gaze. It looked like he would explode with a little more prodding.

“Alfonso, even 8-star mages have their own specialties. They’re not walking encyclopedias like you think.”

Fortunately, the quick-witted Austin stopped Alfonso.

Fran, who had lost the place to vent his anger, glared at me. His eyes were telling me to spill what I knew quickly.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

From the moment I ascended to the throne, Fran doesn’t talk to me much when others might hear.

He still speaks informally to me without hesitation when only those who have known me for a long time, like Alfonso or the escort knights, are around, but even she felt it wasn’t right to speak informally to me in front of the kingdom’s officials, like Commander Galad, who were distant.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“I can’t explain in detail what happened in the Guardian’s mental realm, but······ um······ I guess this much is okay. I accepted the trial. I think it’s probably because of that.”

“Trial?”

“Are you saying we’re in the middle of a trial?”

“What kind of trial did you take?”

The group was noisy.

I felt the need to calm them down.

“I don’t know the details of the trial yet either. I have to find out from now on.”

I walked up to the hourglass. Looking at it up close, there were fine cracks here and there.

I squatted down and reached out my hand, then stopped for a moment.

‘This definitely reacted to the Ghost Hand, right?’

With a hopeful thought, I picked up the hourglass with the Ghost Hand.

The hourglass floated into the air.

“Oh! The hourglass is floating on its own!”

“Your Majesty! Are you moving it?”

It works?

The thought that it would have been better if it were a sword instead of an hourglass crossed my mind. I could have used sword techniques.

I carefully placed the hourglass on the palm of my hand and lightly touched the Guardian’s Sword, which Adol had taken, with the Ghost Hand.

‘Maybe that too······.’

Swish, whoosh—

Unfortunately, it passed right through the sword.

‘Is the hourglass the only thing that can interact?’

I turned my head slightly and sighed in disappointment, and my eyes met the six-legged lion statue guarding the hourglass.

Not only did it have six legs, but it was also somewhat different from the lions I knew.

First of all, the huge size. It was almost as big as an elephant.

The shape of the mane was also unique. It was shaped like clouds swirling around it.

There were also webbed feet like a duck on its hind legs.

“Your Majesty, why are you staring so intently at that lion statue?”

Alfonso tapped the lion statue with his hand wearing the Guardian’s Gauntlet.

Fran and Austin were horrified to see that.

“You idiot! I told you not to touch anything carelessly earlier!”

“Alfonso! Statues in ruins are often guardians to keep out intruders!”

Alfonso, startled, quickly stepped back. Fortunately, the lion statue didn’t suddenly turn its head and bite his head off.

I carefully raised my index finger and tapped the lion statue.

No change occurred.

However.

I had a feeling that if I touched that with the Ghost Hand, something would happen again.

“Everyone, come here for a moment.”

I led the group away from the lion statue. I took a deep breath and ‘tapped’ it with the Ghost Hand.

Flash—!

“Ugh! What is it now!”

“Your Majesty, what have you done!”

“Following the hourglass, now the lion statue!”

Unlike the bewildered group, I squinted slightly and was prepared. I was able to witness the lion statue shrinking in real-time, like the hourglass.

Shrinking?

No.

The mane that resembled clouds was gradually shortening. It was closer to the time of a fully grown adult being reversed.

As the elephant-sized creature shrank to the size of a kitten, the light that had been emitted subsided.

“What is that?”

“A cat?”

“The lion statue turned into a cat statue······ Ah! It’s wriggling! It seems to be alive!”

“Alfonso! You touch it.”

“Huh?! What if it suddenly gets huge and bites me!”

“I’ll take responsibility and save you. You touch everything you’re told not to touch, but what’s with not being able to do it when I tell you to touch it?”

While the group was chattering, I quickly scanned the information window that appeared in front of me.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━×

[Haerion]

Danar’s divine beast.

Still a small and weak being.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Confirmation complete.

There seemed to be no danger.

I passed by Alfonso, who was being pushed by Fran, and carefully picked up the wriggling Haerion from the floor.

It sucked here and there on the palm of my hand as if looking for milk without even opening its eyes, and soon lost its energy and fell asleep.

As the description said, it was truly a small and weak being.

The group gathered around me.

“Except for having two more legs, it’s no different from a kitten.”

“The little guy is quite cute.”

“Cu, cute.”

Austin’s slightly raised voice was particularly clear in my ear, and I glanced at her. She was twitching her hand, wanting to touch Haerion.

“Will this guy grow up to be a huge lion like before? Is it even a lion? Anyway, will it become like that?”

Now that I knew its identity, it seemed okay to share it.

“It’s not a lion.”

“Yes? Does Your Majesty know its identity?”

“Haerion.”

“Haerion? What kind of creature is it? A magical beast? A divine beast? A mythical beast?”

“It’s definitely a divine beast. Other than that, I don’t know much yet either.”

After telling them the identity of the creature sleeping on my palm, I slowly looked around.

Nothing special stood out anymore.

“There might be a secret space, so it would be good for everyone to split up and investigate.”

“That’s a good idea, Senior Austin.”

“I’ll take that side.”

“Then I’ll go in the opposite direction······.”

Everyone scattered and began their investigation.

I couldn’t move directly because of Haerion sleeping on the palm of my hand, so I used the Ghost Hand to scan the walls.

There were no particular results.

‘It seems like I’ve gotten everything I can get here······.’

I looked at Haerion, who was snoring and sleeping on my palm.

The Hourglass of the Gods and the divine beast Haerion.

It felt like I had obtained something great from the ruins, but there was nothing substantial. The hourglass was damaged, and it was questionable how many years it would take for Haerion to become an adult.

The Guardian’s weapon was the most substantial thing.

······.

But what is the trial given to me after all?

It seemed like the system would have the answer.

I sat down on a rock that was good for sitting on the altar and looked at the group busily investigating around. Everyone was enthusiastic, putting their ears to the wall and tapping it.

It was enough even if I was missing.

‘Should I check Faith first?’

***

Cliang, Miloua, and Julian.

They, who could be called the brains of the kingdom, gathered in the Royal Secret Service conference room as soon as they finished their official duties.

Everyone’s expression was bright.

Good news had flown in from Bellington Fortress in the morning.

The content of the telegram, which was made up of a special signal system that only Miloua and Julian could interpret, was really simple.

-Successful excavation of the ruins of the gods, acquisition of sacred objects and divine beasts.

Cliang looked at Julian and opened his mouth.

“Julian, when will His Majesty the King be back, around yesterday?”

“Considering the time he departed from Bellington Fortress, I think he will arrive in about an hour and a half.”

“There’s still time. Let’s continue the story we were talking about before His Majesty arrives. Count Miloua.”

“Wait a moment.”

Miloua manipulated the magic tool.

The core forces of the Lionel Kingdom were gathered at Bellington Fortress on the screen.

“We definitely made it this far, right?”

“······ Yes. Even if we don’t use the elves’ Root Path, if our plan succeeds, the Hamel Empire won’t be able to pay much attention to our troop movements.”

“The ones who invaded the northwest of the kingdom were not the neighboring lords, but the Hwangwon Province and the Hwangtap Lord, where the Hwangtap [Yellow Pagoda] is located. At the time, it was a land with nothing, so there was no conflict, but······.”

Miloua trailed off.

Julian took over.

“Now it’s a different story. Grace Steel, which was treated as a useless stone, has become the core material of the magic superconductor. In addition, the northwest is very easy to mine because most of the Grace Steel is exposed on the surface.”

He looked at the provinces of the Hamel Empire adjacent to the northwest, which the kingdom had lost, one by one, and continued.

“The provinces that are currently mining Grace Steel in the northwest are Byeokram Province, Jeokheung Province, Eunhwa Province, and Hwangwon Province. These four provinces.”

“If the Emperor falls, the troops of those provinces will show signs of moving at once.”

“But it will be difficult to mobilize troops immediately without even holding a funeral.”

“Also, each of the 13 provinces of the Hamel Empire is no different from a kingdom. Historically, there are many provinces that are worse than other countries. If the defense forces of the neighboring province are empty while the Emperor has fallen? They’ll quickly stab a knife in. That short time is the golden opportunity given to us.”

Miloua and Julian went back and forth.

Cliang suddenly smiled bitterly.

Unlike the Hahyeon Kingdom, which was the predecessor of the Lionel Kingdom, the fact that it was able to escape from the Hamel Empire’s subordination was due to the empire’s unstable infighting, not the kingdom’s power, was recalled.

‘If it’s His Majesty, he will be able to write a new history.’

He thought of Evan’s face, quickly erased his expression, and returned to the meeting.

And as time passed, the three people, realizing that Evan’s return time was approaching, hurriedly finished the meeting and headed to the airship dock.

“I see it over there.”

Julian discovered the airship, Black Wyvern, flying across the dark night sky.

“Julian, you’ve come back to life and your eyesight has gotten better?”

“I ate something good, so it should have gotten better.”

“Give our Count Cliang a sip too.”

“I’m very healthy.”

“Pfft-”

“······.”

He just smiled awkwardly at the couple’s conversation, which somehow stimulated strange imaginations. He just waited for Evan to come out of the Black Wyvern.

The Black Wyvern quietly docked.

The stairs were installed, and Evan and the group who had left Bellington Fortress walked down.

“Your Majesty! You’ve worked hard.”

“You’ve suffered a lot.”

“Congratulations on the successful excavation of the ruins.”

The three bowed and welcomed Evan. Their gazes were fixed at once on the small creature held in Evan’s arms.

“A cat?”

“Could that be the divine beast?”

“Cu, cute!”

Evan scratched his head and opened his mouth.

“Let me introduce you. Haerion, the divine beast of the order that will become the national religion of the Lionel Kingdom in the future.”