Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 198

<198>

I had expected Charles to rush at me as soon as the battle began, and I was right.

To behead the Emperor of the Hamel Empire at the start of the war? The benefits to the kingdom would be immeasurable.

Facing Charles in our kingdom’s territory, where the Hamel Empire’s guardian dragon, Aurelis, couldn’t exert her full power, was an opportunity that wouldn’t come again.

‘I will kill him, no matter what.’

Clang! Shatter!

Mikael’s sword, imbued with the ultimate technique of magic swordsmanship, shattered the cockpit of Charles’s personal Titan. Everything was going according to plan.

“Kuaaaaaah!! Evan Lionelllll!!!”

Charles roared.

He seemed to have a lot to say, but I wasn’t interested in listening. I aimed my sword precisely at the cockpit of the Juggernaut Charles was riding in and thrust it forward…

Flash!

A dazzling golden light enveloped Charles’s personal Titan.

Whoosh- Bang!!

Mikael’s sword was buried deep in the ground.

Space-time magic.

Teleporting a body as large as a Titan to another location in an instant without a magic circle was impossible, even for an 8-star mage.

The culprit was obvious.

I gritted my teeth, looking at the sky over the Empire’s camp.

“Aurelis! That damn lizard!”

***

A space filled with a subtle light.

A woman of unparalleled beauty sat with her legs crossed, watching Charles’s personal Titan.

It was Aurelis, the guardian dragon who had been with the Hamel Empire since its beginning, in her human form. She covered her nakedness with long golden hair and snapped her fingers.

Crack!

The cockpit door was torn off like paper, revealing Charles, unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.

It was the aftermath of enduring ultra-long-distance space-time magic.

If he hadn’t been an 8-star knight, his body would have been torn to pieces during the teleportation and scattered everywhere.

“Tsk, so weak.”

Aurelis shook her head and stared at Charles. Soon, her beautiful face contorted. She was reminded of a human she didn’t want to remember.

‘He’s the spitting image of the Hamel Empire’s founder.’

Aurelis had earned the right to ascend [to a higher plane of existence], but she was bound to the earth due to a contract she had made with a human long ago.

A promise to protect the Empire.

That was the basis for Aurelis gaining divinity and, at the same time, the shackle that prevented her from leaving the earth.

Many theologians, even Evan, misunderstood Aurelis.

She doesn’t cherish the Hamel Empire.

Rather, she hates it.

She never wanted to make a contract to protect the Empire. She had been tricked by a despicable human’s wordplay.

The motif of the demon in the folktale 『The Foolish Demon Tricked by a Young Man』, which is widespread among humans, was actually Aurelis.

Aurelis could not move a single step because of the shackle of protecting the Hamel Empire, even though the gate to her long-cherished ascension was right in front of her.

She must fulfill the contract to protect the Empire. But if the Hamel Empire lasted for thousands of years, she knew what the future would hold.

She would go crazy.

The funny thing was that even in a crazy state, she would try to keep the contract she made with the Hamel Empire’s founder.

That was more like a curse than a contract.

‘There is a way to reset everything to the beginning.’

Aurelis pondered.

If she passed on everything to Charles, the Emperor, under the pretext of protecting the Hamel Empire, she could be free.

The founder of the Hamel Empire made a contract with the golden dragon Aurelis, not with a nameless water snake from the river.

However, her current ‘intelligence’ would disappear.

She chuckled.

‘Maybe I’m already half-crazy.’

Even if she regained her intelligence, there was a high probability that no trace of her current self would remain.

Above all, it was almost impossible for the water snake from the river to once again experience the miracle of gaining intelligence through the worship of humans.

Because times have changed.

Aurelis’s gaze turned to the Titan Charles was riding in. Unlike in the past, humans would worship such scrap metal more than a giant water snake from the river.

Even so, Aurelis made up her mind.

It was because of Evan.

He, who had reached the realm of a demigod, knew exactly the limit she could not intervene in.

What he missed was that she sometimes had no choice but to use her power because of the contract with the Hamel Empire’s founder.

That’s the case right now.

Charles, who ended the civil war and was crowned Emperor yesterday, dies as soon as the war begins? That would be the downfall of the Hamel Empire. The shackle that bound Aurelis prioritized the survival of the Hamel Empire over her own fall.

If she kept hesitating, it was obvious that she would end up like Etrim, fallen by Evan’s hand someday.

Aurelis closed her eyes.

Aurelis, who saved Charles from a place where her influence did not reach, felt the passage to ascension closing.

The sound of the gate to ascension, which she had longed for all her life, rang in her ears like thunder.

Aurelis, who had been motionless like a statue for a while, opened her eyes and got up from the chair. She slowly walked towards Charles’s personal Titan and put her finger in her mouth to take something out.

Her sticky saliva stretched out lewdly, and a golden bead emitting a golden light brightly illuminated the subtle space.

The Orb of Power.

The crystallization of all of Aurelis’s power.

It floated up and entered the mouth of the unconscious Charles. Charles’s throat twitched greatly.

He swallowed the Orb of Power.

Aurelis watched the scene silently.

She had given everything for the Hamel Empire. She didn’t know how much of the Orb of Power Charles would digest.

He could reach the realm of a demigod, the 9-star realm, or become a fool due to the overwhelming power. Or maybe nothing would happen at all.

‘Well, is it no longer my business?’

She was sick and tired of the Hamel Empire now. She didn’t even want to think about it.

Aurelis, thinking of the things she wanted to do before she completely lost her reason, disappeared from the spot with a relieved expression.

Red and blue blood vessels began to appear on Charles’s body, who was left alone.

***

I was a little embarrassed by the unexpected situation.

I had been feeling that Aurelis was watching the battlefield for several days, but I judged that there was no possibility of her intervening.

Interfering in human affairs within her own domain was an act that would greatly diminish her divinity.

But to save an Emperor who was sure to die within the Lionell Kingdom’s territory, not even within the Hamel Empire’s territory?

It was an act of twisting enormous karma.

It was something that would degrade the dignity of a god.

But I couldn’t just think about Charles and Aurelis, whom I had missed. I soon regained my senses and continued the battle.

After Charles disappeared from the battlefield without a trace, most of the Imperial soldiers, who had no idea what was going on, assumed that he had used a magical artifact to escape urgently.

Naturally, the morale of the Imperial army plummeted.

The same was true for the owners riding the Empire’s Titans, the Juggernauts. I joined the kingdom’s Titans and faced them.

It was like a fight between an adult and a child.

We captured 8 of their 12 Titans.

If I send them to the rear, Fran and Gilud will be very happy and quickly modify them so that the kingdom’s knights can ride them.

As the kingdom’s Titans achieved a landslide victory, the Imperial army began to retreat.

When we recaptured the Northwest, we didn’t cross their border, but this time it was different. The kingdom’s army began to cross the Hamel Empire’s border without hesitation.

The impregnable fortresses that the Empire boasted actually hindered the Imperial army’s retreat.

Bang! Boom! Kaboom!

Using airships and thunderous bombardment, they created large passages that we could easily pass through.

The greatest achievement was capturing Cloud Lobitz, who had earned the nickname “Devil of the Battlefield” during the Hamel Empire’s civil war.

It was because the Yellow Tower Master chose an 8-star knight instead of him when he attempted to escape using space-time magic.

It was a bit strange, but I couldn’t say I didn’t understand.

I was aware that there were quite a few people who shunned him, saying that he only blabbered next to Charles. There must have been quite a few who envied him for becoming Prime Minister at a young age.

The Yellow Tower Master must have been one of them.

Anyway.

“Nice to meet you.”

“I am not happy at all.”

Thanks to that, I was able to talk to Cloud just one day after the start of the war.

“It’s surprising that you can speak Lionell so fluently.”

“That’s how I can ask you to spare my life when I’m captured like this, isn’t it?”

Cloud, who didn’t seem like he had been captured in enemy territory, had a relaxed expression.

“So, are you going to ask me to spare your life?”

“I was going to, but… I’ve changed my mind. Just send me off as painlessly as possible.”

“Is it because of your loyalty to the Emperor?”

He chuckled.

“Loyalty makes me cringe. You can think of it as the regret felt by a foolish strategist who didn’t properly recognize the other party’s capabilities.”

“That’s a shame. It would have been fun if I had met you before Charles.”

“Well… I don’t think it would have been fun for me? Didn’t you come this far on your own? Unlike Charles, who wouldn’t have been able to ascend to the throne without me.”

Cloud closed his mouth for a moment and then opened it again.

“A child born as an illegitimate child of a noble family and oppressed as a magic-unawakened person eventually rose to the position of Prime Minister. Isn’t that a wonderful life enough? It would have been a little more wonderful if I had become the Prime Minister who made the Empire the strongest country in the world, but I’ll be satisfied here.”

His expression didn’t seem to have any regrets about life.

I looked at Alphonso.

“Take him away. If he wants something to eat, get it for him.”

“Understood.”

The next day.

The name of Cloud Lobitz, who was called the Devil of the Battlefield, disappeared from my [List of Names].

***

The fact that a war would break out between the Hamel Empire and the Lionell Kingdom was a foregone conclusion. Naturally, the attention of each country was focused on the war between the two countries.

And when the results were revealed, the world was shocked.

『[Breaking News] The Hamel Empire’s Shocking Defeat!』

『The Hamel Empire’s Emperor Flees in Emergency, But Whereabouts Unknown?』

『The Devil of the Battlefield, Cloud Lobitz, Disappears into History with a Single Defeat』

It was the fact that the Hamel Empire, which was known to have投入 [invested] more than three times the military power, had been miserably defeated, and it was because of the appearance of the Titans.

『Analyzing the New Weapon, the Titan』

『Anonymous Official Reveals That Our Country is Also Developing Titans, But Laments That the Lionell Kingdom’s is Out of Standard, At Least Two Generations Ahead』

『The Brissen Alliance Remains Silent. Comparative Analysis of Titans and Tanks』

As the world was buzzing like that.

Even with reports that the people of the kingdom were cheering for the kingdom’s great victory, I couldn’t be intoxicated with the joy of victory.

Missing Charles was painful.

The war, which could have been ended early, was likely to be prolonged.

The Hamel Empire is vast.

It’s really damn vast.

Not to mention the population.

No matter how much we advance with the kingdom’s airships and Titans, we can’t cover all of that vast front.

A situation may arise where we win the battle but lose the war.

Of course, I am confident that the war will eventually return to the kingdom’s victory even if it is prolonged. However, in the meantime, the kingdom’s soldiers and civilians will suffer enormous damage.

‘Aurelis!’

I repeated the name of that damn lizard who had once again twisted the situation in my mind.

‘Where did she disappear to? Did she really disappear?’

I couldn’t figure out what was going on at all. I couldn’t feel Aurelis’s energy at all, who should have been in control of the entire Hamel Empire.

‘Besides, Charles is still missing…’

I stroked my rough stubble and stared at the map depicting the Hamel Empire’s damn vast land.

Tap, tap, tap.

I heard someone running.

I knew it just by the sound. It was Alphonso.

“Your Majesty! The Emperor has appeared in the Imperial Capital!”

No matter how I thought about it, the fastest way to end the war was to capture Charles.

I found the Hamel Empire’s Imperial Capital on the map. It’s so far away. It would take two or three months to push forward with ground troops.

I lowered my gaze a little.

The Elf Forest that the mad Emperor of the Hamel Empire, who dreamed of immortality in the past, burned down. The place now called the Cursed Forest came into view.

The Elf Root Path that I had cherished and cherished.

Has the moment to use it finally come?

If not now, when else would I use it?