Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 166

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I grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch and immediately got back to work without a break.

Reports from the Ministry of Finance and Economy.

“Hmm…”

The more I looked, the more I groaned involuntarily.

The national treasury was being depleted faster than expected.

There were several reasons, but the biggest was the expenditures for compensation and support.

The recapture of the Northwest and the Western Expedition.

We did our best to minimize casualties, but unfortunately, many soldiers passed away. Many were seriously injured.

These were people who had dedicated themselves to the nation.

It wasn’t enough to just say thank you.

I had a duty to properly compensate them for their sacrifices. So, we spent far more money than originally planned.

It wasn’t without opposition.

-Your Majesty, I understand your heart, but it’s not realistic.

Cliang, who took on the role of the villain and opposed me. I barely managed to persuade him to proceed, telling him that I had a plan.

Honestly, it’s a crisis that makes my heart clench.

The day of the kingdom’s bankruptcy is fast approaching. If Isabel’s final push in completing the mana superconductor is delayed more than expected, we’re in real trouble.

I’d love to go down to the mana superconductor research complex right now and help her with her research, but I’m not in a position to leave my post so easily.

Above all, Reina is heavily pregnant.

The child who will be first in line to the throne will be born soon.

I felt a bit strange and worried.

In the ‘future,’ the children who inherited my blood met strangely early deaths. It was as if they were cursed.

After three children were buried in the ground in a row, not even a hundred days after their birth, I couldn’t bear to look at their faces anymore.

I took my eyes off the Ministry of Finance and Economy’s report and looked out the window at the sky.

‘Will the newborn child be able to avoid that fate?’

I don’t pray to God.

It’s not that I deny the existence of God. It’s that I didn’t ask God for salvation when I was in crisis.

Perhaps that’s why, even though I’m 99% sure that Danarr is the one who gave me the unbelievable system ability and made me regress, I’m reluctant to ask him for help.

I also have some memories of living a previous life in a highly developed civilization that didn’t believe in God.

Yet, now.

The thought of becoming a father again soon made me want to call out Danarr’s name and hope for his blessing.

Dada, dada.

Footsteps that sounded like breaking news were heard.

There’s only one person who runs around Leongung [the Imperial Palace] like that, and that’s Alfonso.

Knock, knock.

“Your······.”

“Come in.”

I said before he could even announce himself.

Alfonso opened the door and stood in front of me. He had a triumphant look on his face. It was the expression he usually had when he had completed a task I had given him.

“Finally! My confidante, Luna, has found Marie’s peculiarity!”

This is why you need to check the progress of work from time to time.

I pushed him a bit in the morning, and he immediately produced results.

By the way, if she’s a confidante… is she the woman who used to be a kitchen assistant in Emerald Palace as a spy for the Northern Liberation Army?

Her real name is Helen Britt, but she insisted on being listed as Luna Britt in the nobility registry. A strange woman.

Well, I admit that the name Helen is an old-fashioned name that reminds me of grandmothers.

Ah, that’s not the point.

“Report.”

“This is breaking news that just came in. An hour ago······.”

I listened to Alfonso’s report.

So, a tragic accident occurred, and Marie revealed her divine power in the process of saving a little child.

Alfonso and Luna didn’t really do anything.

Then why does he have such a triumphant expression?

As if reading my mind, Alfonso hurriedly opened his mouth.

“The important thing here is! Luna was able to find something that others couldn’t notice.”

“Something that couldn’t be noticed?”

“Luna may look a bit lacking on the outside, but she’s been on the battlefield where life and death go back and forth for over 10 years. She’s incredibly good at figuring out whether a child’s injury can be saved or not.”

I scratched my prickly stubble.

“Are you saying the child had an injury that couldn’t be saved?”

“Luna’s judgment is that it was an injury equivalent to a 15cm knife blade being stuck in here [his chest].”

Alfonso tapped his chest.

That’s… you’d need a high priest-level cleric on the scene to even have a chance of saving them.

I was puzzled.

How did she save them?

Even if Marie has the potential to be a saint, it’s still just potential. Marie doesn’t have a god she serves yet.

The ability of a cleric affiliated with a religious order and an unaffiliated cleric was as different as a 6-star knight who uses aura and a 6-star knight who doesn’t.

Could it be thanks to the cleric who was with her?

“Which religious order does the cleric who treated Marie and the child belong to?”

“Her name is Rico, and she’s an unaffiliated cleric.”

Rico?

I’ve heard that name somewhere… Ah!

The cleric I met while checking the condition of the wounded during the Western Expedition. I remember her because she wasn’t affiliated with any order.

I thought it would be nice if she became affiliated with the Danarr Order in the future.

Anyway.

How could two people who don’t serve a god save a child who couldn’t be saved? I gave Alfonso a look that told him to keep talking.

“Luna said that the child’s bleeding was so severe that it seemed like the child would die the moment the two people’s divine power ran out. But! The moment the two people pleaded to Danarr! An enormous light poured out of the child, and the child was saved.”

That was good news.

Thanks to my promotion during the Western Expedition, Danarr’s name has been on the lips of the kingdom’s people. And this is an additional hit?

Danarr, you know how to row when the water comes in [take advantage of a good situation], eh?

“It’s not over there! Luna said that it wasn’t just a simple treatment.”

“What are you talking about now?”

“The two people’s treatment wasn’t just raising the child’s life force, but it was close to returning the injury to the past when it didn’t exist. In other words! Marie may have gained the power to manipulate the ‘time’ of the human body. Huh? Why do you suddenly have a serious expression?”

“That’s something you need to keep quiet about.”

The nail that sticks out gets hammered [proverb: those who stand out are targeted].

The Pantheon [realm of the gods] is an unknown area to me as well. It’s right to reveal Marie when I can reveal her safely.

“But, so what happened to the two people and the child?”

“Luna took the initiative to take them all to Baron Schutz’s hospital. The two people who treated the child used too much divine power, so they lost consciousness as if they had fainted.”

“Is that so?”

I wanted to talk to Marie and the cleric named Rico right away, but it seemed impossible today. I also have an appointment with Inquisitor Lawrence in the evening, so the time is a bit tight.

‘Is it more important to settle my bad relationship with Lawrence first?’

***

A neat dinner that wasn’t excessive.

Lawrence scanned each of the dishes laid out before him. The cuisine of his homeland, the Kingdom of Florence, accounted for nearly half of the table.

He could immediately tell that Evan had put a lot of thought into him.

“I heard that your hometown is the Kingdom of Florence. I hope this suits your taste.”

“Thank you.”

The two focused on their meal without speaking.

When they were full to some extent, Evan spoke first.

“Whenever there was something going on in our Lionel Kingdom, Cleric Lawrence always came, and I was always saddened that I didn’t have good memories of those times.”

“Is that so?”

Lawrence answered with an awkward smile.

He was an ambitious man.

If he hadn’t been born with divine power, he would have run to sit on the throne of the Kingdom of Florence, even if he had died in the power struggles.

His goal as a cleric of Yuria, the God of Judgment, was the Pope. That goal collapsed in one mistake.

“It was a really unfortunate incident. If only Beortio, that witch, hadn’t died during the hearing······.”

Lawrence’s eyes twitched.

‘Did he call me to tease me?’

It was a word that touched his reverse scale [sore spot] to the point where he momentarily thought that.

“I wanted to apologize to you for the great damage you suffered because of what happened inside the kingdom.”

Lawrence’s anger subsided at a surprisingly fast rate at Evan’s words that followed.

A mere apology is not necessary.

And Evan, whom he knew, was not a person who would make a mere apology.

“Wasn’t it because the demon who was playing with Beortio lost interest at the right time? Your Majesty has no reason to apologize to me.”

Lawrence drew a line that Beortio’s death was not related to Evan.

Evan smiled and opened his mouth.

“I’m grateful that you think so. Still, I think it’s a pity that such a great cleric like you had your future blocked by an accident that happened in the kingdom.”

“Yuria only gives trials that I can handle. It’s something I have to overcome.”

But there’s no saying that you shouldn’t receive help from someone.

“Cleric Lawrence, you don’t have much time left to return to the Yuria Order from the Pantheon, do you?”

“That’s right. There are only six months left.”

“The Yuria Order will take into account your achievements so far and give you a suitable position. Maybe… about a bishop?”

Lawrence nodded silently.

Considering those who return from the Pantheon and start with the position of Archbishop, it was close to impossible for him to reach the position of Pope.

“If the Lionel Kingdom declares that it will raise the Yuria Order to the level of a state religion, wouldn’t that be enough to offset the accident that happened in the kingdom?”

Lawrence’s eyes widened.

“A state religion, you say?”

“Not a state religion, but a state religion level. If we declare a religious order as the state religion in our kingdom, which has no state religion, there will be quite a few problems. It would be clearer to say that we will support you so that you can become one of the top three religious orders in the kingdom.”

Lawrence’s mind became busy.

Even if the Lionel Kingdom is a small country, if Evan promises to give that much support, he can fully recover his position that was tarnished by the Beortio case.

He was about to bite the carrot that Evan was waving, but he suddenly came to his senses.

‘There’s no way he’d make such an offer for free.’

He definitely wants something.

There’s no way he’d make such a big offer to restore his relationship with me.

Lawrence looked straight into Evan’s eyes and asked.

“Why do you offer this?”

“Those who have committed sins must be judged accordingly. I really liked that phrase written in the Yuria Order’s scripture. I hope that the teachings of the Yuria Order will spread widely to the people of the kingdom in governing the Lionel Kingdom.”

That doesn’t make sense.

There must be something more he wants.

‘Evan Lionel, what do you really want from me?’

Lawrence focused on Evan’s words that followed.

“And as you know, a new god has appeared in the kingdom this time, right?”

“Are you talking about Danarr, the God of Time and Fate?”

“That’s right. Isn’t he the first god to directly step up for our Lionel Kingdom? As a king, I want to build even a small temple for him with a grateful heart. I heard that large religious orders like the Yuria Order sometimes form deep relationships with the religious orders of newly divined gods… How is that possible?”

In the wilderness of gods called the Pantheon, Danarr was like a newborn Harry [helpless and vulnerable].

He needs a guardian to grow.

Yuria, the God of Judgment.

In Evan’s opinion, she was in many ways not lacking in becoming Danarr’s guardian.