Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 263

“Logan McLane… Logan McLane… Wow. He keeps surprising us, and not in the way we thought.”

At the Second Prince’s muttering, the usually calm face of Leos, who was standing beside him, showed a tiny bit of worry.

All the advice he had confidently given about the McLane Kingdom had been wrong, so the Prince’s grumbling sounded like criticism aimed at him.

“I wasn’t good enough. I am sorry, Your Highness.”

The advisors for each prince in the fight to be Emperor were supposed to be neutral. They were only there to judge the prince’s skills and give the Emperor honest reports.

But, it had become normal for the new Emperor to kill or lock up his brothers (who were his rivals) and their advisors too. So, the advisors had to do everything they could to help their prince win.

Of course, Leos had to do his best to help the Second Prince win.

And the Second Prince knew this.

The total score in the fight to be Emperor still favored him.

Also, the recent ‘operation’ on the allied small kingdoms had worked because of Leos’s plan.

“No, no. If you weren’t good enough, who would be? It’s just that he is strange….”

The Second Prince clicked his tongue quickly.

“What’s the biggest reason we didn’t see this coming, forgetting what happened before?”

Leos answered the question right away.

“Because Logan McLane is doing things that don’t make sense.”

“How so?”

“The McLane Kingdom clearly has a secret source of money, and it’s quite large. But, they’re using it in a strange way.”

“Strange?”

“If they had that much money, they didn’t need to build up the army so fast and deal with the problems it caused. With that much money, they could have easily built the army over at least five years.”

“But he put up with the problems to build it in just one year, right? Was he trying to get rid of the nobles in his own country?”

“He could have just crushed them after the army was ready. He was already in charge before that, so if he had only done fair things, no nobles would have dared to fight back.”

“Then why did he bother doing that?”

“There are two reasons. One is that he’s so impatient that he couldn’t wait….”

“That’s not it.”

Leos nodded at the Second Prince’s statement. Considering what he said and did before the Emperor, that was clear.

“Then there’s only one reason left.”

Leos paused before speaking carefully.

“He knows about our Empire’s ‘Grand Plan.'”

Leos himself, who said the words, and the Second Prince, who heard them, couldn’t help but look worried.

“Yes. That would make sense. But, in another way, it doesn’t.”

The Second Prince smiled sadly.

How could a king of a small country know the plan that only the Emperor, his direct advisors, and the princes in the fight to be Emperor know?

The Emperor’s plan, which he had been quietly building for 20 years?

Anyone who knew anything about the Imperial Family’s security would never believe that.

Leos also smiled sadly as he rubbed the small magical tattoo on his temple.

“…Is he just guessing?”

“He doesn’t seem like a fool who would risk the country’s future on guesses.”

“Yes. I guess not. Then how did he find out?”

“That’s impossible to know. I am sorry.”

“Do you have any guesses at all?”

“…No.”

“Yes. I see. Goodness, he’s a troublesome fellow….”

The Second Prince, who was tapping the armrest, asked again.

“What can we be sure of now?”

“We should find out where their money is coming from in a month or two.”

“What do you expect?”

“We think it’s either a rare mineral mine or old ruins.”

“Either way, he got lucky. Not good for us…. But if they were selling ore or relics, we would have known, right?”

“The only things the McLane Kingdom sold to our Empire were grains.”

“Then?”

“While working on the allied small kingdoms, we found out that a lot of money went into McLane. We know it wasn’t grain, and we’re finding out the details of the deal.”

“Only to the allied small kingdoms? Only grain on our side?”

“Yes.”

“…He must know about the Grand Plan. If not….”

Leos agreed with the Second Prince but didn’t answer.

He could give advice, but the Prince had to make the final decision.

While he was waiting, the Second Prince suddenly said something surprising.

“I think I should go.”

“…Yes?”

“Since the invitation came, I’ll go myself. Get the ‘Ghosts’ ready.”

“Your Highness!! You don’t need to go that far!”

Seeing Leos’s surprised face, the Prince gave a cold smile.

Maybe the Emperor wouldn’t care about such small things. Even if he knew about the Grand Plan, that small kingdom could never stop the Empire.

‘But I have a bad feeling.’

The black eyes of the Second Prince, Baros van Ares, shone.

A month after the McLane Kingdom announced the royal wedding, winter was coming.

A group was crossing the border from the east of the McLane Kingdom, facing the bitter wind.

The large group, with what looked like over a thousand people, kept moving.

From the front of the group, where carts and people were lined up, a voice filled with annoyance spoke out.

“Weddings, especially royal weddings, are usually in the spring, right? Why in the middle of winter….”

“Well, they must have their reasons. Don’t worry about things that don’t matter and focus on what we have to do, Roy.”

“Yes. I know. It’s just that the weather is too cold….”

Ragon understood his young subordinate’s grumbling.

A mid-level knight wouldn’t really feel this level of bitter wind.

‘It’s not the weather, it’s his heart that’s cold.’

It was the same for him.

‘Where did things go wrong?’

Their homeland, the Kingdom of Tria, was the strongest of the seven allied small kingdoms at the eastern end of the continent. It had been the leader since the alliance began.

But last summer, the Duchy of Tahiti, which was called a duchy but wasn’t very big (only as large as a big piece of land in the McLane Kingdom), suddenly wanted to talk about changing the voting rights of the alliance.

Normally, they would have ignored it. But, surprisingly, four countries, including them, agreed right away, and the position of leader of the alliance was changed.

It didn’t make sense, but it wasn’t a big change for the alliance.

However, the Kingdom of Tria, whose power had dropped quickly, was already struggling. The new alliance decided that they had to reduce border security and lower taxes on merchants.

Tria was a kingdom in the middle of the Small Kingdom Alliance. They got most of their money from taxes on trade between other kingdoms. This was normal for them.

But because of where it was, Tria couldn’t leave the alliance.

“We have to find a new way to survive,” they said.

So, they were on their way to McLaine with a big trade group, using McLaine’s royal wedding as an excuse.

This was a plan to create a new way for the royal family to make money, instead of just helping trade happen. It was a trip to start trading directly.

Ragon was in charge of the delegation. He felt the weight of this trip on his shoulders. If they failed, what would happen to Tria?

The rest of the leaders felt the pressure too. The people in the group looked worried. They were so focused on their problems that they didn’t even notice the new sights around them.

Even though they were all worried, something made them stop and stare.

As they rode closer to the eastern edge of what used to be Douglas Duchy, they saw it: hundreds of people, spread across the fields, were shooting crossbows.

The crossbows looked different from any they had seen before, but what was even stranger was the clothes the people were wearing.

“Who are those people? They don’t look like soldiers…”

Before he could say that their clothes looked like those of farmers, Tamil, the McLaine knight who was guiding them, spoke up.

“Ah, that’s the village self-defense force. They’re training.”

“Self…defense force?”

“Yes. The King has ordered that all the men in each area be trained to keep order themselves.”

Ragon wanted to argue with several things he heard.

First, many of the people shooting crossbows were women. Second, shooting targets didn’t seem like training to keep order, but more like hunting practice.

But more than that, he was curious about something else.

“Those crossbows look powerful. Are you giving weapons like that to regular people?”

“Oh, they’re probably only giving them out during training. They wouldn’t actually…”

“If they weren’t going to use them, why would they be training? Of course, they’re giving them out. Not to everyone, but to the villages.”

The two men were shocked by Tamil’s firm answer.

“Ah… haha. McLaine knights must be so strong that they can give weapons like that to regular people… I guess?”

“Oh, even knights have to be careful with these fast crossbows. They can shoot right through normal armor. Knights who can’t use Force to protect themselves are in real trouble.”

“…Excuse me?!”

Was it only dangerous to regular knights?

Even Roy, a good knight, wasn’t sure he could fight for long even with armor that used Force. That’s why he thought Tamil was exaggerating.

“Ha!” Roy scoffed. “You are joking. Do you think we are weak because we are from the Alliance?”

Tamil just smiled calmly. “Not at all. Why would I look down on guests that my King told me to treat with great respect?”

“So,” Roy pressed, his voice rising, “you really mean what you said about those crossbows?”

“Yes,” Tamil said simply.

Roy’s face flushed red. *He thinks we’re all talk,* Roy thought angrily. Without thinking, he blurted out, “Then, let’s see if those weapons are really as strong as you say. Let me test one.”

“Roy!” Ragon snapped, his voice sharp. He knew Roy’s pride was hurt, but this was going too far.

But Tamil calmly agreed to Roy’s request.

“Well, go ahead.”

“He really looks down on us…”

Roy, who had stepped forward bravely, came back looking sad after a crossbow bolt pierced his armor and stuck in his arm.

The whole group was shocked.

– They’re giving weapons that can kill knights to regular people?

– Are they crazy?

Everyone was confused, but there were more surprises to come.

Three days after they crossed the border, they arrived in Douglas City.

They were amazed by what they saw on the main street of the city, where the mayor welcomed them.

“Come on, come on! Imperial silk straight from the capital! Only 10 gold coins per bolt!!”

“10 apples from the southern Disen region for just 1 gold coin! Sale, sale!!”

“Get your Raftan cures for sickness here! Keep your family healthy!”

“Handicrafts from the Taren region~! Handicrafts from the dwarves’ city of Taren~! Come and take a look!”

The cold winter wind seemed to have no power here. The streets were packed and noisy. It was a huge market, bigger than anything they had ever seen in the Small Kingdom Alliance.

“Hasn’t the rebellion just ended…?”

“I heard it ended quickly, but this is very different from what I expected.”

Roy, looking just as surprised, repeated Ragon’s words.

“If we’re just going to trade, we don’t even need to go all the way to Gran.”

“I agree.”

If they didn’t need to sign a formal agreement with the McLaine royal family, they could just sell their goods here.

Plus, they saw something else that caught their attention.

“Excuse me, why are you building waterways inside the city?”

“It’s a project run by the royal family. It’s a sewer system, built to send household wastewater to farms.”

A man named Thompson Rendoval, the mayor of Douglas City, kindly answered Ragon’s question.

“A sewer system?”

“Yes. We’re building it not only in the city but also in the larger villages outside the city. The smell has gotten better.”

“So, that’s…”

“Lord Ragon, that is…”

Seeing Ragon’s confused face, the city expert from the delegation came closer and explained quietly.

Mayor Thompson, perhaps noticing the delegation leader’s expression, just smiled and looked away. After hearing the explanation, Ragon looked at the construction site with new interest.

*I thought things would be bad because of the chaos of the last few years…*

Three civil wars in 4-5 years.

To think that a country where even the royal family had changed was getting back to normal like this.

*If a major city in the provinces is like this, then the capital must be…*

Ragon was smart. He saw this one thing and understood a lot more about McLaine. He was impressed by the completely different sight than he had imagined, but he also felt a little sad.

He thought about his own country, which was getting worse because of just one agreement, let alone a civil war.

But that’s why he made up his mind again.

*I have to make this contract work.*

Considering the fast crossbows he had seen earlier and how well McLaine was doing, it was clear that opening up trade routes would really help his country.

*There won’t be a bigger delegation than us. I’ll talk to the king directly.*

Ragon strengthened his resolve.

More than a week later, they arrived in the capital, Gran.

He couldn’t help but frown at what he saw.

There were carriages with golden dragon flags everywhere, and he heard a troubling rumor.

The Second Prince of the Empire had come to celebrate the King’s wedding in person.

Ragon’s plan to have a private meeting with the king was ruined by the fact that McLaine’s royal castle was busy welcoming a completely unexpected guest.