Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 179

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“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Are you alright?”

“Alphonso! Hurry and call Baron Schuetz back!”

“Ah! I understand! He probably hasn’t left the palace yet. I’ll be right back!”

Urgent voices from outside the window.

It seemed my conversation with Barisada would have to wait.

“Let’s sort out that situation first, then we can talk.”

“Ah, uh… okay.”

After getting her understanding, I signaled Reina, using three types of magic with distinctly different mana consumption.

It was an application of telegraphic communication, using signals like Morse code from my past life to convey meaning.

I repeatedly sent the signal meaning ‘I’m okay’.

I believed Reina, with her keen senses that could detect even the slightest use of mana, would be able to interpret the signal I was sending.

-This is… Your Majesty, are you perhaps telling me ‘I’m okay’?

And she answered my faith.

I turned to look at Barisada.

“It looks like it might take a while; wouldn’t it be better for you to wait comfortably downstairs?”

There were many things I wanted to hear from Reina, and many things I wanted to tell her.

***

We talked for many hours through the night.

-The guys who were cautious at first have started moving more boldly since yesterday. They must have noticed something is wrong with Your Majesty.

-In fact, there are even people on our side who suspect something has happened to Your Majesty.

Thanks to that, I was able to grasp the situation of both the Arya forces and our allies in much more detail than if I had only heard one side of the story.

-A minority group in the west of the Hamel Empire has taken advantage of the chaos to start an independence movement. The 7th Prince and 11th Princess have temporarily suspended their truce because of that.

I was also able to hear news from the Hamel Empire, which I had been concerned about. Then, day broke, and it was time for Reina to leave for the east.

-I believe you will keep your word that you will follow soon.

That’s how the situation was wrapped up.

Only Alphonso and Schuetz remained in the bedroom.

Alphonso was there to interpret the signals I was sending, and Schuetz was there to take immediate action if something went wrong with my body.

I signaled them to rest for a while.

-…? Could you say that again?

Unlike Reina, Alphonso had a lot of trouble interpreting the signals I was sending.

I had to send the signal that felt like ‘tap, tap tap’ with the intensity of ‘bang! boom!’ for him to barely understand.

Even though he was a 6-star, how could he be so dense? Was it because he reached that level using the expedient of the Origin Bloodwood?

In any case, having succeeded in conveying my intentions, I took a moment to clear my head and stared blankly at my body lying on the bed.

Then suddenly, a plausible hypothesis came to mind as to why my body and spirit were separated.

I hurriedly turned my head and looked at the stairs leading down.

“Barisada, can I come down?”

There was no answer.

“Barisada?”

“… Huh? Ah… just a moment.”

She seemed to have been asleep. Her voice was drowsy.

“Just stay there. I’ll come up.”

Soon she came up.

“I roughly understood what you were doing from watching downstairs. Using magic here consumes the mana your body possesses, right?”

“That’s right.”

“I thought so… But why did you call me with such an urgent voice?”

I took a moment to organize my thoughts and opened my mouth.

“Why did my spirit awaken here instead of in my body? Suddenly, a hypothesis came to mind.”

“Get to the point.”

“I had a thought that my body might be under a serious delusion.”

“Delusion? What kind of delusion?”

“The delusion that it’s the body of a 9-star powerhouse.”

Temporarily, Barisada had possessed my body. Under her control, it unleashed incredible power and blew off seven of Etrem’s heads.

Then Barisada returned to her sword. And when I tried to take control again…

“Aha! So your body didn’t want to hand over control to weak you and kicked you out? And your spirit, having nowhere else to go, came to my house where it used to reside?”

Her analogy was a bit cheap, but it was roughly similar to the hypothesis I had come up with.

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s plausible.”

“If it’s as we assume, there’s only one way for me to leave here and wake up in my body.”

“… Your spirit has to grow to the point where your body is satisfied?”

I nodded heavily.

I would only know what level I needed to reach by trying.

“I’d like you to slow down the time here as much as possible. I want to keep my word that I’ll follow Reina soon.”

“Well, fine. Let’s do it.”

Thus, my training to return to my body began.

***

“Haaam…”

Barisada, yawning, got out of bed and went to the window, opening the curtains first. Evan’s training ground was visible.

Barisada stretched, looking at the blue sky visible through the bedroom window.

“How long did I sleep?”

She paused to count the time.

It had been about three days outside.

Barisada sleeps a lot.

If she wanted to, she could sleep for over a week straight.

It had been like that even before she was trapped in the sword.

Partly because she was a bit lazy by nature, but also because Barisada didn’t find the time she spent sleeping very regrettable.

Having lived since the ancient times, the value of time she and humans thought of had a huge difference.

Perhaps that’s why?

Barisada found it very amusing to watch Evan live each moment so intensely.

‘Is that guy still in the training ground?’

Even in this space where time flowed infinitely slower than reality, Evan was not being lazy and was devoted to his training.

One year in the sword was roughly one day outside. It was possible to slow down the flow of time even more, but that was the limit Evan’s body could withstand.

Even if he did mana cultivation once a day in Barisada’s space, Evan’s body outside was doing mana cultivation over 360 times a day.

Mana cultivation takes about 30 minutes each time. It was an impossible number of times to achieve even if he devoted himself to mana cultivation all day long.

On top of that, Evan repeats using mana three or four times a day in the sword, until he’s on the verge of mana exhaustion.

No matter how quickly mana is replenished by [Barisada], it would be strange if his body wasn’t strained.

She honestly found it amazing that Evan’s body was enduring the current time ratio.

It would have been impossible if he wasn’t a transcendent who had reached the realm of 8-star, and if he didn’t have an unusually strong body.

Barisada closed her eyes and searched for Evan.

As expected, he was in the training ground. He was sitting in a lotus position, seemingly in the middle of mana cultivation.

‘Then shall I spend some free time?’

Barisada cheerfully locked the door to prevent any possible mishaps and approached the bookshelf.

More precisely, the bookshelf covered with cloth.

She pulled back the cloth.

『Brother, I’m the Emperor in this Life』

『The Maid’s Double Life』

『I Became the Tyrant’s Knight』

The bookshelf was full of romance novels with provocative titles. What was strange was that there was no author’s name.

In a way, it was only natural.

Because Barisada was the author who wrote the novels.

“Hehe…”

As one novelist said:

The end of a reader is becoming a writer.

Barisada hummed and took out 『I Became the Tyrant’s Knight』, which she was currently writing, and approached the desk.

Her face suddenly turned bright red as she looked up and conceived the plot. Soon, her hand holding the pen began to flutter rapidly.

***

I was confident.

After various experiments, when I heard that the time ratio I could withstand was roughly one year here to one day outside, I thought that was enough.

I had even gained the good fortune of experiencing Barisada’s process of facing Etrem firsthand.

I experienced what the realm of 9-star was like. I didn’t have to wander around in the dark, finding my own way.

It was arrogance.

One month.

Two months.

Three months.

Time passed quickly.

Five years here.

I was still stuck at 8-star.

It wasn’t that there were no results.

The body, which had been repeatedly consuming and replenishing mana hundreds of times a day, was endlessly trained accordingly. Like mithril [a mythical metal], which becomes stronger the longer it is forged.

The time ratio between the outside and the sword began to gradually lengthen, and now one year here was not one day outside. It was less than half a day.

Thanks to that, now that I’ve spent five years here, only three days have passed outside.

Clunk.

Barisada came into the training ground without knocking.

“Again, you’re spacing out. Come on, let’s have some tea.”

If there was any good thing, it was that I wasn’t lonely.

Whenever I was cooped up in the training ground and felt mentally overwhelmed, she would come like a ghost and drag me out.

I reluctantly let her drag me to the first floor.

Sitting on the indoor terrace that Barisada had decorated like a garden, I poured the tea she had made into my mouth.

It tasted sour and sweet.

“What is this?”

“I forgot the name. Just drink it.”

I drank tea with her in silence.

The anxious heart calmed down a bit.

I glanced at Barisada’s face. She was lost in thought, looking at the vines growing along the walls of the terrace.

It was her habit.

I didn’t know what she was thinking; sometimes her face would turn red, and sometimes she would suddenly give a sly smile. It was a bit strange at first, but I’ve gotten used to it now.

It’s a face that’s terribly beautiful no matter how many times you look at it.

Suddenly, she turned her head.

“Why are you staring so intently? Are you smitten?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’re no fun.”

What should I say? It was closer to feeling beauty when looking at a statue of a goddess.

I already have two queens and many family members to take responsibility for. Even if she was 10 times more beautiful than she is now, I wouldn’t fall for her.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For serving me tea like this.”

I shook the teacup and smiled.

“You’re being silly. If you’ve finished eating, go now. I suddenly have something to do.”

“That hobby of yours?”

“Yeah. Soon the epilogue…, ah, you can forget what I just said. Anyway, go now and do mana cultivation, or fire magic wildly, or make holes in the wall with your sword; do whatever you want.”

I was almost chased back to the training ground, where I sat down in a lotus position and closed my eyes.

The training begins again.

The consciousness that had escaped the sword looked into the core of the body.

The small universe I created.

Eight stars were shining in the dark. I didn’t know it before. The light emitted by those eight stars was only a firefly in front of the sun.

‘The sun, the center of the stars.’

Remembering the sun that Barisada possessed, I tried to create the ninth star.

I didn’t even remember how many attempts I had made.

The ninth star, which had taken on a plausible shape, soon shattered and turned to dust.

What’s the problem?

One day.

Two days.