Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 102

102

I stroked my chin, mulling over their opinions. Then, I turned to Julian when I heard him gulp.

“You’re not suggesting we assassinate the First Prince and disguise it as a suicide, are you?”

“No. After discussing it with Count Clian all night, I realized it’s impossible.”

“That’s right. Even if we disguise it as a suicide and deceive the public, Commander Gallard of the Azure Lion Knights and Count Miloua will never be fooled.”

“Exactly. Therefore, the only way to preserve the nation’s strength as much as possible, without meaningless sacrifices of the kingdom’s people, and without leaving room for future disputes, is for the First Prince to renounce his right to the throne and disappear from the world forever.”

The First Prince renouncing his right to succession and taking his own life in front of everyone.

It would be the cleanest way, indeed.

Frankly, it was a somewhat novel idea.

If it were possible.

“Let’s say we somehow persuade him to step down from the succession battle. Unless he’s a fool, would he accept giving up his life as well?”

“If he realizes that’s the only way he can live, it’s not an impossible story. Hasn’t Your Highness done something similar before?”

Julian said with a grin.

For a moment, I wondered what he meant.

A name suddenly flashed through my mind.

One of my alter egos, Franken.

The genius magical engineer who screwed over the Hamel Empire and the Yellow Tower Master.

By killing Franken at the Horizon held in Aden, Evan Lionel was free from any suspicion or checks.

But the fact that I was Franken was only known to a very few people who were at the Horizon at the time. I glanced at Clian.

‘He wouldn’t have known, would he?’

Feeling my gaze, he opened his mouth.

“I was a little disappointed, actually. Franken, who engraved his name on the minds of people all over the world in just a few days and then disappeared—the fact that he was Your Highness, and you were hiding it from me.”

“How did you know?”

“Your Highness accompanied the group going to Aden at the time of the Horizon. You accepted Count Miloua’s opinion at the National Assembly to foster the magic superconductor industry centered on the Runtia ducal family, and there were several other hints that I can now recognize if I look back.”

He glanced at Julian as he spoke.

It seemed that Julian’s reasoning played a significant role in figuring out that Franken was the same person as me.

“I wouldn’t have been able to deduce it if it weren’t for the secret information Count Clian gave me and the sudden realization that came to me while looking at the night sky.”

I scratched my head slightly and stared at the distant mountains for a moment.

“Of course, I understand why Your Highness hid it. The fewer people who know, the better for a top secret.”

“I appreciate you thinking that way.”

I straightened my posture.

“Then shall we get back to the main topic? Who will persuade the First Prince to disguise his suicide and then… kill himself?”

At my words, the eyes of the two men who looked at each other gleamed.

Clian opened his mouth.

“There is a suitable person.”

“A suitable person? Don’t tell me it’s me?”

“No. He’s coming over there.”

Following his gaze, I turned my chair around.

A smile couldn’t help but appear on my face as I spotted the person walking towards the main palace where the office was located.

***

A few hours before Clian and Julian went to see Evan, at dawn when the east had just begun to brighten.

The Royal Secret Service Intelligence Department, Director’s office.

Miloua was slumped on her desk like a corpse.

– If it’s now, it’s not too late. Take the Fifth Prince’s hand, Miloua.

Thump!

“It’s not over yet!”

She slammed the desk hard with both hands and shouted as she jumped up.

“Ah······.”

Miloua looked around and let out a soft exclamation. Clian, who had been in front of her just a moment ago, was gone.

She quickly realized that what had happened yesterday had been replayed in her dream.

“Hoo······.”

Miloua sighed and walked towards the full-length mirror.

She was a mess.

Her hair was disheveled, and there were white traces of drool around her mouth. There was even sleep in the corners of her eyes.

“I look like a beggar.”

Miloua took out a handkerchief from her pocket, wet it with water, and tidied herself up. Then, she took a cigarette from her cigarette case and walked to the window.

Flick, inhale- exhale─

She began to sort out her chaotic mind after waking up.

Miloua looked at the smoke dissipating into the air and recalled herself shouting, ‘It’s not over yet,’ a moment ago.

‘I even shouted it out in my dream.’

It was a word she couldn’t say in front of Clian yesterday.

Why couldn’t she say it?

It’s simple. Because she realized that she had been deceiving herself through her conversation with Clian.

As Clian had said, unless the Fifth Prince died young due to the whims of God, the transfer of the right to the throne to him was an irreversible trend of the times.

She was desperately denying that fact.

‘The Fifth Prince’s head must be full of how to inherit the Lionel Kingdom completely.’

If the rebellion had occurred in the east instead of the south, if the person who became the target of the kingdom’s people’s hatred was a close aide of the Fifth Prince instead of Moriah Runtia, then she and Lucas would also be racking their brains over such a topic.

Inhale- exhale─

Inhale─ exhale─

Every time Miloua exhaled smoke into the air, memories with Lucas came to mind.

– You······ are you perhaps Miloua Christie?

His first meeting with her, looking at her with strange eyes as she was stealing the butler’s cigarette and smoking it in the corner of the garden.

It’s already been more than 15 years.

– I heard you declared that you would break off the engagement and were kicked out? Use this to sell it and use it for living expenses.

Lucas, who came to find her after she was kicked out for unilaterally notifying Clian of the annulment of the engagement against the family’s orders.

– Congratulations on your graduation. Should I call you the Second Secretary of the Royal Secret Service Intelligence Department now?

She was also able to pass the Royal Secret Service thanks to Lucas. If he hadn’t been her sponsor, it would have been impossible to even enter the Royal Military Academy.

– Ugh! It’s true! That woman never said she had a fiancé!

She also remembered how he ruined any feelings she had for him the moment she tried to see him as a man, by messing around with his lower body.

Now, she really doesn’t have any special feelings.

She can even take a bath with him. Seriously.

While she was distracted by such thoughts, the burning cigarette touched Miloua’s finger.

“Ah! Hot!”

Surprised, she dropped the cigarette on the floor. Black smoke rose from the carpet.

“Water! Water!”

Miloua hurriedly picked up the kettle on her desk and poured it on the carpet. Fortunately, it didn’t lead to a fire.

“I worked so hard to get it, damn it······.”

She frowned as she looked at the patch on the carpet. If she had the time, she wanted to turn back time to 5 minutes ago.

Suddenly, she thought that Lucas’s situation was similar to her own.

It can’t be undone.

Then what should she do?

First, she must take the Fifth Prince’s hand as soon as possible. The sooner, the better. That way, the Christie County family will not collapse.

The problem is······ Lucas.

‘I can’t let him die.’

She must save her longtime friend.

The Fifth Prince that Miloua has observed is not an inhuman person. She knows that he secretly takes care of the Fifth Princess, who is alienated in the palace.

But that doesn’t mean he’s soft.

You can tell just by looking at the deaths he inflicted on his relatives, Akard and Damian.

What if Lucas continues the succession battle until the end and loses?

‘He won’t let him live. Absolutely.’

What if he declares defeat right now?

What if Lucas promises to leave for places like the Berington Fortress in the north or the Belkas Mountains in the west and never return to the center?

‘······ He won’t kill him right away.’

Honestly, she couldn’t guarantee it.

It is a big risk to rely on the Fifth Prince’s mercy.

And······.

‘The people around him won’t stay still.’

The Fifth Prince will pursue absolute power. Miloua is so sure of it. He was never going to be a human being who would move according to the tastes of the nobles like the current king.

Just because Lucas gives up doesn’t mean that the forces supporting him will disappear. They might gather around Lucas at any time and stab the Fifth Prince in the back. Regardless of Lucas’s intentions.

It’s something that might not happen.

But it’s clear that it will be an eyesore.

If she were a close aide to the Fifth Prince, she would argue that such an eyesore should be quickly removed at the first opportunity.

‘How can I save Lucas?’

Knock! Knock!

“Count Miloua! Urgent news!”

Her heart sank.

What urgent news could there be from the crack of dawn? She was on the verge of getting neurosis [a mental disorder that involves distress but not delusions or hallucinations].

“Come in.”

The Second Secretary, who had clearly stayed up all night, opened the door and entered with hollow eyes.

“The First Prince has disappeared!”

“······ When?”

“It is said that it was after he went to bed early yesterday because he was tired.”

“You mean you don’t know the time he disappeared. Any special features?”

“The window was open, and it was confirmed that one of the swords in the training ground was missing. There are no traces of battle. I wonder if he ran away from home······.”

“For now, tell them to stay calm. I have a place to check for a moment.”

Miloa, who was wearing a coat, was about to leave but stopped for a moment.

She went back to her desk, opened a drawer, and put the gift Clian had left behind in her coat pocket.

30 minutes later.

Miloa swept her hair back in front of the secret passage of the royal castle, through which a sturdy adult male could easily escape.

‘Is it right for me to be tearing my hair out trying to save a guy like this?’

She thought as she put a cigarette in her mouth. Soon, she neatly organized her thoughts and put her hand in her coat.

The gift Clian had given her fit perfectly in her hand. It was a Telliston [a communication device] that connected directly to him, with no security concerns at all.

***

Lionel Kingdom.

The Zodiac Territory located in the southwest.

Lucas, who had arrived early in the morning, took a nap at the inn.

“You’re talking about the Third Young Lady who returned from the royal palace. I heard that she recently gave birth to a baby girl whose father is unknown.”

He learned that his child was a daughter from the innkeeper who rattled off after receiving a bill.

“I heard she lives in an annex in the corner of the lord’s castle.”

“Is there any rumor about whose child it is?”

“There was a rumor that she was the daughter of a royal family, even the First Prince, but it must be a false rumor. Someone who delivered firewood to the lord’s castle recently saw the child by chance, and her hair was green.”

“I see. Thank you. I have business to take care of.”

Lucas, who gulped down the bland soup in one gulp, got up from his seat and left the inn.

For a 6-star knight, infiltrating the lord’s castle was too easy. He carefully avoided being seen by the guards and found the annex that the innkeeper had mentioned.

He was able to find it quickly.

An old maid was sweeping the garden that hadn’t been properly maintained. Lucas secretly circled around the annex, examining the inside of the windows one by one.

When he had gone around about halfway.

“Waaah! Waaah!”

A baby’s cry was heard.

Lucas quickly moved in the direction of the sound.

‘I found it.’

A young woman in a shabby dress was breastfeeding a newborn baby.

‘Roanna, and······.’

He doesn’t know his daughter’s name.

Lucas stared at the baby sucking on her breast with tears in his eyes. The two hands she was tightly clutching. The bracelet on her right wrist caught his eye.

‘Is it a magical tool that changes hair color······.’

It seemed that she didn’t use harsh dyes because she was still young.

For some reason, his heart ached. He realized that he had given the mother and daughter an indelible wound because he couldn’t control his temper.

After watching for a while, Lucas quietly left the spot the moment the child fell asleep again.

He didn’t know why he came all the way here to see the mother and daughter at a time like this when a large-scale rebellion had broken out in the south.

Why?

Why did he suddenly feel like he had to see the mother and daughter?

‘Let’s go back.’

Lucas left the Zodiac Territory, thinking of Miloua, who must be furious at the royal palace. And as he was passing through a secluded forest path that seemed perfect for meeting robbers.

“Lucas, did you see Roanna and your daughter well?”

He realized the reason only after seeing Miloua, who was smoking a cigarette and waiting for him, and Evan, who was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed behind her.

Today is the day he dies.

He must have visited the mother and daughter to see the traces of himself left in the world for the last time.