Became The Son Of The Final Boss [EN]: Chapter 9

Ken made a funny face and covered his mouth with his hand.

I smiled.

“Why? I am the Crown Prince of this empire and the legitimate heir to His Majesty. Isn’t it natural for me to study how to run the empire?”

Ken also smiled.

“Is there any possibility that Your Highness will run this empire?”

As expected… it’s Ken.

He blurted out words that could risk his life without any hesitation.

‘Come to think of it, he was the type of character who lived recklessly, as if he couldn’t die while searching for his younger sister. He was the first to rush at Ron Carl Leord, too.’

After organizing my thoughts, I said,

“So, you’re not going to grant my request?”

“I don’t know what the request is, but…”

I cut off Ken’s words.

“Then I won’t ask, I’ll order you. Whether I can run the empire or not may not concern you. But whether I use you or not will be important. If I decide not to use you, you’ll have to rot in prison for the rest of your life.”

The first way to get Ken is not to persuade him, but to break him.

Ken isn’t stupid enough not to understand the meaning of my words.

“Your Highness.”

Looking at Ken, who called me with a sigh, I smiled deeply.

“Now you realize you’ve insulted the Crown Prince, don’t you?”

I continued before Ken could answer.

“Just insulting the Crown Prince is enough to get your head cut off. Moreover, just because there are thief guilds everywhere doesn’t mean they’re legitimate organizations. Theft is clearly a crime, and you were caught by Gail stealing in front of the Imperial Palace. It’s not just petty theft, but belonging to a guild, so you’re part of a criminal organization.”

I paused for a moment to catch my breath and continued.

“Stealing near the Imperial Palace means the target is likely to be a noble. If you hadn’t been caught, it might have been different, but if you’re caught, a lifetime in prison is a happy punishment. Nobles have very strong pride, so they’ll try to kill you instead of imprisoning you, right?”

Ken sighed, “Haa.”

“I tried to make a big score, but I got caught properly.”

At Ken’s words, I ordered Gail,

“That’s enough. Gail, bring me the Deputy Head Butler’s file.”

“Yes.”

My gaze returned to Ken.

“Ken, come with me.”

“What is your request?”

I answered Ken’s question simply.

“I’m thinking of dismissing the Deputy Head Butler, maids, and servants.”

Ken’s eyes widened.

He must have thought it would be a difficult request since I was threatening him with all sorts of words.

I tested Ken as I entered the palace.

“You seem to think it’s nothing?”

Ken didn’t answer for a moment and was lost in thought.

“The Deputy Head Butler and the maids, servants…”

Ken muttered, and as I opened the door to the bedroom, he whispered softly.

“Another prince must have planted people?”

As expected, it’s Ken.

The Ken I set up is a person with quick wit and a fast mind. He can accurately assess the situation with little information and has the insight to see through the other person.

I sat in the chair and nodded.

“That’s right. They’re all from the Atran family academy. Especially the Deputy Head Butler, I heard he graduated at the top of his class? Gail will know when he brings the resume.”

A strange smile spread across Ken’s face.

It was an innocent smile like a child seeing a new toy for the first time, but the way his eyes curved into crescents felt a bit eerie.

“The epitome of incompetence, Crown Prince Arun, is getting rid of Ted Carl Leord’s people, who is considered the next leader.”

Is it because Gail isn’t here? A test for me? Or did he quickly grasp my personality in the meantime? Ken’s tone was unrestrained.

I tapped the desk lightly and said,

“That’s right. Ted, who is righteous, humble, and has outstanding abilities, is clearly the next emperor. On the other hand, as you said, I am incompetent.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ken bowed deeply.

“It’s okay.”

I didn’t care much. Ken’s words were clearly true. It didn’t feel good to hear it to my face, but I needed to show a generous side.

What can I do to make Ken my loyal subject?

‘He was a key companion of the protagonist. There’s no doubt about his abilities.’

Knock-knock!

A knock was heard.

“It’s Gail, Your Highness!”

“Come in.”

Gail came in with the documents.

I gestured to Ken. Gail will definitely distrust Ken.

Nevertheless, it was my order, so he didn’t say anything special, and his expression was as expressionless as ever.

I don’t know exactly how Gail brought Ken, but Ken seemed to know Gail well, and he didn’t show a frivolous appearance when he was around.

After politely receiving the documents, he quickly examined them.

“First, let’s find out about the Deputy Head Butler…”

Before I could finish speaking, Ken opened his mouth.

“Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“Removing them itself can be done with Your Highness’s order, but there must be a reason why you’re entrusting it to me?”

“Of course.”

‘You have to match my intentions to be called a strategist.’

As expected, Ken accurately read my mind.

“You don’t intend to change the rumor that you are incompetent for the time being. You want to avoid provoking Prince Lee’s vigilance and erase the eyes of surveillance.”

“That’s accurate. The rumor that I’m incompetent will change. Incompetent, but now I’ve even lost my mind.”

Ken’s eyes were questioning.

Since I imprisoned Ted’s knights, the rumors about me will be spreading differently.

I didn’t bother to tell Ken that story now.

He’ll find out soon anyway.

“Anyway, is there a way? I need an accurate justification. Of course, the decision maker will be Gail, not me.”

Ken covered the documents and smiled.

“It’s easy.”

This time, my eyes were questioning, and Gail also turned his gaze to Ken.

“Sir Knight, may I ask for one more favor? I came up with a very easy way after looking at the documents. I can send the Deputy Head Butler out tomorrow, and with that justification, I can change all the servants and maids.”

* * *

Ken said he would show the results.

“It’s a matter of life and death, so he’ll do well. He’s not incompetent.”

Left alone, I recalled the work with Ken and muttered.

I don’t completely trust Ken at this point.

That’s why I issued an ‘order’ instead of a ‘request’ and even put a safety device on it.

If Ken doesn’t do the job I entrusted to him well, he’ll have no choice but to choose between rotting in prison for the rest of his life or being killed by nobles.

“Let’s focus on the Breath of Wind.”

After dinner, I decided to dedicate my time solely to the Breath of Wind.

‘Since there are only a few quests right now, it’s time to focus on breathing techniques and spirit contracts.’

Of course, I didn’t forget to read my mother’s spirit book carefully.

It was good to build strength step by step, reading and reviewing whenever I had time.

“Hoo…”

Every time I exhaled, mana struggled to escape from the mana hole [a reservoir of magical energy within the body].

The Breath of Wind was to firmly hold that mana in the mana hole and allow it to settle completely.

How much time had passed?

When the moon was hanging in the window, I summoned a spirit very carefully.

It was just a sylph [an air spirit], but it made me realize that I was living in a medieval fantasy world.

“I can’t use the Chain of Wind here.”

I didn’t have to worry about how to use the skill. The usage and power were imprinted in my head the moment the skill was created.

If there wasn’t a system called the status window, I would have had a lot of trouble in this world. Living without power in an era where the logic of power dominates is difficult.

‘Of course, applying the skills is something I have to think about. First, contract with at least three sylphs. The battle is a problem after that.’

After organizing my thoughts, I sent the sylph back to the spirit world and chanted a spell to make a contract with a new sylph.

Now the mana hole was bigger than a baseball.

With the feeling of mana escaping, the wind blew.

A sylph that looked exactly like the sylph I had sent back a little while ago was looking at me with big eyes.

‘Lower spirits cannot communicate in the intermediate world. But that day I clearly heard the sylph’s voice.’

While writing Hero Karen, I set the spirit master as a fairly detailed job.

One of the three strongest companions of the protagonist Karen was a spirit master, and he becomes a top-level spirit master before the final battle with the final boss, Ron Carl Leord.

As it was an important supporting character’s job, I wrote quite a bit about spiritism.

I thought about yesterday’s memories and the settings I wrote.

‘Spirits all have egos. According to the primordial covenant, they respond to the summoner’s contract and lend their power. Only high-level spirits can communicate with the contractor in language.’

The contract with the second sylph was made.

The mana hole had grown, but it was still difficult to maintain the sylph for a long time. Moreover, I had used mana when I summoned the sylph a little while ago, so the small mana hole was quickly running out.

-It is an honor to contract with the Wind Companion I have only heard of.

I opened my eyes and lightly waved my hand at the sylph returning to the spirit world.

“As expected, I wasn’t mistaken that day.”

I decided not to tell Gail that the lower spirit greeted me.

‘It’s not for nothing that I have an S-class talent.’

A new world where I exist.

The talent of Wind Companion is not a talent I set.

I finished the Breath of Wind.

The status window was newly updated.

“Oh, the Wind Companion level went up?”

It seemed that contracting with one additional lower spirit gave me experience.

There was also a change in bonus stats.

-Talent Level Up Reward: Bonus Stat 15.

Including the existing 5, it is now 20. 20 was a number that could open a quest.

‘If I open it with a bonus stat of 20, the difficulty will be low. In the future, skill proficiency will also increase, and if the quest I am currently performing is completed, I can get more bonus stats, so I should save this.’

It is basic common sense that the better the reward for successfully completing a difficult quest, I saved the bonus stats without using them.

I looked at the status window as a whole.

-Arun Carl Leord (Lv6)

-Lowest Spirit Master

-Crown Prince

Talent

-S Wind Companion (Lv2)

Skill

-S Breath of Wind (Lv6)

-A Chain of Wind (Lv1)

Quest

-F Get Gail to Acknowledge Persistence

-F Starting is Half the Battle

As the level of the Breath of Wind rose, the mana hole became a little bigger, and the mana that was running out was filling the hole completely.

I closed the status window and summoned two sylphs at the same time.

“Sylph!”

The sylphs appeared. They looked like twins, but their impressions were subtly different.

‘It definitely takes a lot of mana to summon both at once.’

The reason why I summoned the sylph again was in the spirit book left by my mother.

-Summon spirits as often as possible. Just by summoning spirits and spending time with them, the affinity with the spirit increases, and you can resonate with the spirit much more naturally.

-Affinity is directly related to combat power. The higher the affinity, the more the spirits react to the contractor’s will rather than direct commands.

I let the sylphs roam freely until the mana ran out. At first, the sylphs were just standing there, but soon they were walking around the room, or going outside and flying around, and soon returned to the spirit world.

And at that moment, a small voice was heard.

“Your Highness.”

It was Ken.

I opened the door slightly.

“As expected, you’re not sleeping.”

It’s late at night.

“What’s going on?”

At my words, Ken smiled.

“I’m going to clear all the eyes of surveillance tomorrow morning.”

He must have asked Gail for something separately earlier, and he seems to have secured evidence according to the justification.

I nodded.

“Shall we hear it first? How are you going to change the Deputy Head Butler, servants, and maids?”