Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 190

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I placed the National Jade Bird, which I had purchased from [The Everything Store] a little while ago and had been examining, on the desk.

I already knew it was just a seal made by melting rare materials, but it really wasn’t anything special.

At best, it could be used without ink, and the stamped seal seemed to wriggle as if it were alive, emitting its own magical power waves, making forgery impossible?

It was a bit underwhelming for a treasure made of Adamantium [an exceptionally rare and strong metal] obtained by melting a god’s relic.

“What is this supposed to be…”

I became lost in thought about how this fist-sized seal could either end the Hamel Empire’s civil war early or prolong it indefinitely.

Knock, knock.

“Your Majesty, it’s Alphonso.”

“Come in.”

The guy who opened the door and came in looked at the National Jade Bird on the desk and tilted his head.

“It looks exactly like the National Jade Bird I saw in the newspaper. When did you make a replica?”

“It’s the real thing.”

Alphonso chuckled at my words.

“Your Majesty, you’re quite the joker…”

His words gradually faded at my expressionless face.

“…You’re teasing me, right?”

“When have you ever seen me lie?”

Alphonso slightly narrowed his eyes and stared at me intently.

Even after saying it, I felt a bit bad.

He was the one who had watched me struggle to survive during my difficult times as the ghost prince of the Emerald Palace.

I subtly turned my head and opened my mouth.

“If you don’t want to believe it’s the real thing, then believe it’s a replica indistinguishable from the real thing.”

“Can I touch it?”

“As much as you want.”

Alphonso picked up the National Jade Bird and examined it from every angle.

“Hmm… The National Jade Bird is made of Adamantium, so why can’t you tell the difference? Can’t you just draw an aura on it and know right away?”

Alphonso seemed to think that the National Jade Bird I bought from [The Everything Store] was a replica.

Well, that’s the logically correct judgment.

The divine metal Adamantium wasn’t something you could get just because you wanted it. You had to melt a god’s relic.

Even if you had a god’s relic to melt, there were only a handful of blacksmiths in the world who could make a replica of the National Jade Bird. Perhaps there might not be any in the current generation.

“If you’re curious, draw an aura on it.”

“Uh… Are you serious?”

I gestured with my hand to hurry up and do it.

“Don’t get angry if I break it.”

Alphonso took out a dagger from his chest. Soon, a purple aura filled with poison wrapped around the dagger.

He glanced at me and put strength into his hand.

Clatter─

Sparks flew from the dagger as it scratched the National Jade Bird.

“Huh?”

Naturally, Alphonso widened his narrowed eyes.

The National Jade Bird was fine. Even Mithril [another rare metal] should have been scratched in this situation.

“D, did you really make this with Adamantium?”

“I told you, it’s the real thing. Put it back.”

Alphonso, who placed the National Jade Bird on the desk, looked back and forth between it and me with a haunted expression.

“T, then the National Jade Bird that appeared in the Hamel Empire now…”

“That must be the real thing too. That’s why they’re inviting Antoine Curie, the highest authority on alchemy, to determine whether it’s genuine or not, right?”

Alphonso’s pupils shook uncontrollably within his narrowed eyes. He didn’t seem to understand. Then, he clapped his hands as if he had found the answer.

“The broken relic we got from Danar’s ruins before! You melted that hourglass! The one who did that work… it must have been Gillud, the chief of the Black Anvil tribe!”

The hourglass was swallowed by G-Dragon and reborn as holy water, and Gillud was focusing on Titan research.

Well, it seemed okay for him to think that way.

“Wow, if the 7th Prince, who is confronting Charles, gets his hands on that, it will be very interesting.”

“Well, it would be. But what brings you here?”

Since becoming the chief of staff, Alphonso always brought a subordinate staff member with him to handle miscellaneous tasks.

When he came alone like now, it was usually because of the work of the Dark Heaven, the king’s direct intelligence organization formed after the disbandment of the Lionel Guardian Army.

“We received a request to double the operating funds for the agents in the Hamel Empire.”

It was Lucas’s request.

After barely escaping with his life from the Black Knights’ attack while supporting the Public Assembly in the Ellenbeira region, he had been assigned as the head of the Dark Heaven agents who infiltrated the Hamel Empire three months ago.

“Why?”

“They say that it has become three or four times more difficult to carry out intelligence activities since the marriage of the 11th Princess and the 19th Prince. The existing funds are not enough… If we don’t increase the operating funds now, there will probably be more expenses for the agents’ death compensation.”

The Dark Heaven’s operating funds are separate from the national treasury.

From the beginning, it was made to be funded solely from the king’s pocket.

“Hmm…”

I tapped the desk with my finger and thought for a moment.

They were agents risking their lives in foreign countries for the kingdom. My heart wanted to support them not just twice, but three times as much, but I had to leave some for my own personal expenses.

‘It’s possible.’

I nodded and opened my mouth.

“Tell them I said okay.”

Alphonso’s expression, which had been looking at me with a nervous face, brightened rapidly.

“I understand. I will pass it on.”

“Okay, pack your bags today and leave tomorrow.”

“Yes?”

“You have to deliver that.”

I pointed with my chin to the National Jade Bird placed in the corner of the desk, and Alphonso’s expression, which had been full of color, darkened in an instant.

“Me? That?”

“Who else would deliver such an important thing if not you?”

“You’re telling me to meet the 7th Prince?”

That was a big deal.

It would be a disaster if Alphonso met him and his identity was exposed.

“It must never be revealed that the newly appeared National Jade Bird has a relationship with the Lionel Kingdom. Work with the agents active in the area to figure out how the 7th Prince can naturally get his hands on the National Jade Bird.”

Alphonso’s expression became serious.

Was it a difficult task?

If it doesn’t work out, couldn’t you just subtly place it where it’s easy to find on the 7th Prince’s frequent travel route?

***

Klaus Lovitz.

He was sipping tea in his office, enjoying a precious moment of rest.

Klaus was in a good mood these days.

Everything was proceeding according to his plan. The marriage of the 11th Princess and the 19th Prince was also a work he had put his heart into.

Klaus put the teacup on the table and glanced at the newspapers he had been looking at until just now.

『Antoine Curie, the world’s most recognized alchemist, asserts that the National Jade Bird obtained by the 19th Prince Charles Han Hais is undoubtedly genuine.』

『The 7th Prince vehemently protested, saying it was impossible.』

‘Now we’re over the 7th ridge.’

The scene of Charles performing the emperor’s enthronement ceremony came to Klaus’s mind.

‘Antoine Curie has publicly announced that the National Jade Bird is genuine, putting his name on the line. The neutral forces will start to move.’

There were neutral forces who had been wavering between the 7th Prince and the 11th Princess.

Those who followed the missing 1st Prince.

Of course, they all knew that the 1st Prince was dead. They pretended to value justification on the surface, but most of them were just unable to choose because they were agonizing over which side to join to protect their own safety.

‘Bat-like humans.’

But that was over now.

Klaus had used the National Jade Bird, a relic that symbolized the choice of the emperor, to present the justification that the neutral forces had been clamoring for to the world.

Among those who followed the 1st Prince, there were a small number who supported the 1st Prince because the will left by the emperor designated him as the next emperor.

They would move first.

Then the rest, who were weighing Charles and the 7th Prince with justification as their shield, would have no choice but to move.

All that was needed was to create a small crack in the breakwater built between the two evenly matched forces.

The National Jade Bird was a relic that could play that role perfectly.

‘The problem is that it’s useless otherwise.’

Klaus vowed that he would have to melt the National Jade Bird again someday and make a dagger out of it.

‘If things go according to plan… it will be a year at the latest.’

A breakwater that has been cracked will have a hole in it the next day and will collapse in two days. Klaus was confident that Charles could ascend to the throne in that amount of time.

‘Still, it’s better to move it forward if possible.’

Klaus turned his head slightly and looked east.

‘Lionel Kingdom….’

He felt a sense of unease whenever he thought about the Lionel Kingdom, as if a thorn was stuck in his throat.

It was because of information, the lack of information.

It was extremely difficult to obtain intelligence about the Lionel Kingdom.

Klaus had recently heard rumors that intelligence agency operatives around the world were calling the Lionel Kingdom a tomb of no return.

That meant that carrying out intelligence activities in the Lionel Kingdom was a matter of risking one’s life.

‘It must be because of Rak K and Stella, right?’

They were obviously pouring an enormous amount of money into counterintelligence.

‘If only Dongmok could move….’

In the Hamel Empire, there was Dongmok, one of the world’s leading intelligence organizations, but they professed neutrality and were only focused on preventing foreign intervention.

Unlike the forces that Klaus treated as bats, they were a true neutral force that only those sitting on the throne could wield.

The more he thought about the Lionel Kingdom, the more his head throbbed.

‘It’s a long-awaited break, so let’s stop thinking about work.’

Klaus emptied his mind and enjoyed the pleasure of tea ceremony while admiring the scenery outside the window.

Knock, knock.

“Klaus-nim. The reports from each department have been compiled.”

“Bring them in.”

The break time was over.

Klaus sighed as he looked at the mountain of documents brought by his subordinates and resumed his work.

He first looked at the report from the intelligence department.

He had been focusing on identifying the rats lurking around him recently. There were guys who kept getting on his nerves.

Judging from the fact that Dongmok’s eyes hadn’t reached them, they seemed to be spies from the 7th Prince’s side… but he couldn’t be sure.

‘Did they just focus on cutting off the tail?’

Klaus’s expression frowned at the report, which twisted that simple statement and wrote it out in a long, drawn-out manner.

He wanted to step in and identify the rats himself, but it was clear that he would collapse and die from overwork if he did.

‘There’s a lack of talent, a lack of talent.’

Charles was such a talented person that he didn’t even bother to look at ordinary talents. Charles’s camp was run mainly by a small number of elites.

Klaus was certain that if the situation continued where a small number of people were in charge of excessive work, a major accident would occur.

The future was important.

The 11th Princess’s forces had quite a few people who, even if they didn’t meet Charles’s standards, could still do what they were told.

They must not be allowed to turn their backs.

The head of the intelligence department was the same.

He was a representative of the ordinary officials who followed the 11th Princess.

‘I should give him a little more chance.’

Thinking so, Klaus put away the report from the intelligence department.

And a week later.

Klaus received a report from the intelligence department that the rats seemed to have withdrawn. He was smiling pleasantly, thinking that his politics of trust had worked.

He didn’t know what those rats had done when they flocked to the 7th Prince’s camp.

Tada-dada-dak- Clang clang!

Klaus’s heart became uneasy at the loud noise of someone running into the office.

“Klaus-nim! B, big trouble!! The 7th Prince, the 7th Prince announced that he has the real National Jade Bird!!”

“……”

Klaus rubbed his ears.

He must have been hallucinating. He was the one who stole the National Jade Bird. There was no way it could be in the 7th Prince’s hands.

“Can you say that again?”

“The 7th Prince, the 7th Prince announced that the National Jade Bird we have is fake and that he has the real National Jade Bird.”

He heard correctly.

Ah! It’s fake.

He must have made a replica.