Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 33

033

Ten minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin.

Cliang, having just arrived at the hall, scanned the audience for a seat. Spotting a familiar face, he walked over.

“Long time no see, Milroa.”

“What are you doing here? Go away. There are plenty of other seats,” Milroa said dismissively, waving her hand.

“Isn’t that a bit harsh for someone who was once your fiancé?”

Cliang, with an indifferent expression, took the seat next to her.

“When are you going to let that go?”

Milroa made it clear she was annoyed.

Still, she didn’t get up and leave. In truth, she had many questions for Cliang.

“Why are you helping the Fifth Prince? What value does he even have? Do you really believe the rumors that the Northern Liberation Army is backed by the Fifth Prince? If so, you’ve been thoroughly deceived. For the past five years, the Fifth Prince hasn’t had any contact with the outside world. Do you think I wouldn’t have investigated that much? He seems to be wandering outside the palace a bit lately, though…”

Milroa was slightly bothered by the fact that she hadn’t had the bandwidth to focus on the Fifth Prince due to the near formation of a new Mana Cave in the South.

“Helping? I don’t know what you’re talking about. The hearing was convened, and I simply contacted the members of the council to encourage their attendance, lest the kingdom’s citizens start gossiping about their absence.”

Milroa frowned at Cliang’s ambiguous response.

“What are you planning by requesting a public hearing?”

“Why ask me when the Fifth Prince requested it? I was curious myself. I hope you’ll share the reason with me later if you find out.”

“Are you really not behind this?”

Cliang simply shrugged, narrowing Milroa’s eyes.

“You wouldn’t have extended your reach to those council members over there, would you?” Milroa asked, looking at Berth and the six neutral council members.

“Oh, are you just finding out? I thought you were very interested in every move I make, even though we broke off our engagement quite a while ago.”

“Whatever, do you know how pathetic you sounded just now?”

“…”

Cliang flinched momentarily at Milroa’s sharp words. Soon, his tightly closed lips parted.

“Isn’t it you who extended your reach instead?”

“Oh my, how did you know? Did you investigate me? You really are clingy.”

“…”

Despite her smiling face, Milroa was inwardly annoyed.

The special privilege against arrest only loses its effect with the attendance and approval of a majority of the Royal Committee members.

With all the council members from the Second Prince’s faction attending, the required votes had risen to fifteen. The thirteen members from the First Prince’s faction were two short.

Thanks to this, she had to suffer unnecessary losses to hear the words ‘I will vote as my heart tells me’ from some of the neutral council members. It was even more irritating because it was her personal loss, not the group’s.

‘Well, I escalated things, so I guess I have no choice.’

Milroa still thought it was necessary to step on Evan once and move on.

At this crucial time to widen the gap with the Second Prince’s faction, it was necessary to firmly trample on anything that could become a variable.

This was a warning not only to the Fifth Prince but also to the other princes and princesses.

“It’s starting,” Cliang said, snapping Milroa back to attention. She saw Evan preparing to take the oath.

‘When did he grow up so much?’

Ironically, although Evan was so concerning to Milroa, it was the first time she had seen him after he had shed the shell of the Ghost Prince.

She had heard stories of him changing, but she didn’t expect it to be to this extent.

“Oath, Evan Lionel is…”

Evan’s oath was clearly etched in her ears.

Milroa didn’t realize it, but her instincts were feeling a strange sense of unease along with the conviction that her judgment had been correct.

She crossed her legs, folded her arms, and watched the hearing.

“Fifth Prince, the special privilege against arrest is not something to be exercised for such a trivial reason as a puppet group called the Northern Liberation Army’s minion being merely a cherished servant.”

Milroa tapped her finger as she watched the giant woman berate Evan.

‘Even dog poop has its uses.’

Milroa was aware of the dirty rumors related to Beortio, and that some of them were true. However, she was only standing by because they were just about to cross the line she had set.

‘Still, he’s a human I’ll have to deal with someday.’

When the time came, she had to deal with him like the Second Prince had cut off the Fourth Prince in one stroke.

Milroa pondered how to completely transfer the assets and power left by Beortio to a royal family member who fully supported the First Prince.

“You were just doing your job. Five years ago, you spread a plague in the North to create a foothold for the Hamel Empire’s invasion, and recently, you assassinated the Fourth Prince, seeking immortality and making a contract with a demon in the process of finding him. It was just a small accident.”

Milroa was dumbfounded by Evan’s calmly uttered words. Unable to understand the situation, she asked Cliang.

“What the hell is he talking about?”

He didn’t answer, but instead looked at Evan with an expression of amusement. Milroa saw a subordinate approaching her with a desperate look.

Milroa’s heart pounded with an inexplicable sense of unease.

“Countess Milroa, urgent news. Ten minutes ago, the Inquisitors of the Pantheon raided Beortio’s mansion.”

The Pantheon, a collection of all the faiths existing on the continent. The Inquisitors belonging to it had the authority to search even the king of a country without notice.

In the past, a tyrant who had plunged the continent into a vortex of war after making a contract with a demon had granted them such absurd authority.

Of course, if the result of searching someone like a royal family member was ‘insufficient evidence,’ the backlash would be enormous. The fact that they had moved meant that Beortio had done something far beyond the line Milroa had set.

Milroa’s eyes met Evan’s, who was glancing at her.

He smiled.

– Interesting news, isn’t it?

That’s what he seemed to be saying.

‘It’s the Fifth Prince’s scheme!’

Milroa’s instincts screamed.

He was clearly trying to make the absurd words the Fifth Prince had uttered a moment ago ‘true’.

***

Thump!

The sound of a desk being slammed hard made her shift her gaze away from Milroa. Beortio rose from his council seat, panting.

“Fifth Prince! Do you think this hearing is your personal playground!”

He was pretending to be angry, but the faint anxiety in his eyes was obvious.

‘He must have been like that from the moment I mentioned the demon.’

I looked around at the Royal Committee members, who still had bewildered expressions, and finally looked at Chairman Berth.

“Today! Before discussing the validity of the special privilege against arrest that I exercised, I would like to accuse a member of the royal family who made a contract with a demon five years ago, causing the downfall of the North, and assassinated the Fourth Prince! To the members of the Royal Committee and the citizens of Barona who are watching this hearing, Chairman, please allow me to speak.”

Some of the council members from the First Prince’s faction, who had been bewildered by my bold statement, seemed to realize that the atmosphere was turning strange.

They looked back and forth between Beortio and me, and their attack began.

“This hearing is to determine the validity of the special privilege against arrest exercised by the Fifth Prince! It is not a place to listen to ridiculous nonsense!”

“That’s right! Chairman!”

“We must remove the Fifth Prince and start the vote immediately!”

However, there were also those who were on my side.

Namely, the council members from the Second Prince’s faction.

They looked back and forth between me and Count Cliang, and then smiled and protected me.

“Oh ho! Didn’t you hear what the Fifth Prince just said? Accusing a member of the royal family who brought about the downfall of the North. It may not be in line with the purpose of this hearing, but how can we just let it pass?”

“That’s right! Are you also involved with Council Member Beortio?”

“What! You bastard! What are you talking about when you know I don’t even want to go near that woman!”

The council member who had blocked my statement rolled up his sleeves and shouted at the council member who was trying to implicate him with Beortio.

The council members from the First Prince’s faction and the Second Prince’s faction were shouting at each other. In an instant, a physical fight broke out.

Crash! Thud!

Desks were overturned and fists flew.

‘What a mess.’

It was a scene I had seen somewhere before.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Chairman Berth, who was presiding over the meeting, slammed the gavel roughly.

“Everyone be quiet!”

As expected, the former Commander of the Third Knights. His lion’s roar, filled with mana, silenced the noisy hall at once.

“Fifth Prince, that’s an interesting story. As one who loves the kingdom before being the chairman of this hearing, I am curious about that statement. And… the Inquisitors of the Pantheon have found their way to the audience seats.”

The Inquisitors, wearing white robes and covering their faces with the hoods of their robes, were stationed in the audience seats of the hearing hall without anyone noticing.

The council members, who had been too busy fighting each other to notice, held their tongues at their appearance.

Their appearance here meant one thing.

‘They found the Necronomicon [a grimoire or textbook of magic].’

The reason they weren’t arresting Beortio right away was because I had made a deal with them in advance when I reported that I, a prince of the Lionel Kingdom, had to prevent the royal family’s dignity from being dragged to the ground by accusing her.

I looked at Beortio, who was pale. The confident appearance he had when he was pushing me earlier was long gone.

The focus of his eyes was blurred and moving erratically, as if he was in a panic.

All the better.

An opportunity to push him without giving him a chance to refute.

“Five years ago! Just a few months before the Darkbloom Fever spread in the North! Everyone knows that Council Member Beortio’s husband, Duke Elbart, died of a mysterious fever. As a result, Council Member Beortio inherited a huge fortune and large farms.”

One of the council members who had been whispering quietly muttered.

“That was just a mysterious death…”

I immediately cut him off.

“That’s not true! That was the beginning of the Darkbloom Fever! The Northern Liberation Army has been tracking the Darkbloom Fever, which suddenly appeared out of nowhere and drove the North into a land of death. As a result! They found out that the fever Duke Elbart suffered from at the time was the source of the Darkbloom Fever! Beortio, who coveted the Duke’s vast fortune, assassinated the Duke with the seed of the Darkbloom Fever obtained after making a contract with a demon!”

Half right and half wrong.

Through [Library], I grasped the circumstances that Duke Elbart was assassinated. I also knew that Beortio had used a homemade poison made by combining various poisonous herbs obtained from the Mana Cave.

I stopped halfway because the RP [Resource Points] consumption was too much to grasp even the detailed truth.

‘There was no need to do so either.’

What does the truth matter?

A cadre of the Northern Liberation Army who infiltrated Beortio’s mansion nicely placed a cage containing mice infected with Darkbloom Fever in the corner of the medicine room, which was full of bizarre medicines.

It wouldn’t be too strange for mice infected with Darkbloom Fever to be there, in a place where there were also corpses of stillborn newborns.

The Inquisitors who found the Necronomicon by now would have found that too.

“So, then. You spread the Darkbloom Fever in the North as a price for the contract you made at that time?”

I quickly jumped on the bandwagon of the commendable opinion that someone had muttered.

“Everyone knows that a huge price is required to make a contract with a demon. Everyone remembers the shocking incident in which a simple young man collected the hearts of 100 children to become a mana awakener and was caught. How much of a price would have been required to kill even the Duke of the kingdom! To become a member of the Royal Committee! To live as a powerful figure in the kingdom!”

Honestly, some people might think it’s a bit of an excessive price.

“Even so, it’s a bit much to drive the North into a land of death…”

“And! A year later, only the farms owned by Beortio had a bumper crop in the midst of the great famine. Everyone remembers that.”

The great famine that had come to the South for the first time in 100 years. Using that as an excuse, Beortio had opposed the supply of military rations to the North.

In fact, this was because the location of Beortio’s farms was so excellent.

So what?

Everyone else had a bad harvest, but she alone had a bumper crop?

It was a perfect topic to tear apart.

“Indeed… Beortio’s influence became unbelievably strong as a result of that. He also made a huge fortune due to the soaring food prices at the time.”

“Certainly… It was as if the energy of the whole world was helping that woman.”

“But, that was 5 years ago, and why suddenly the assassination of the Fourth Prince that happened recently?”

I realized it was time to deliver the final blow.

“Recently, the Northern Liberation Army, which was investigating Beortio, learned one more shocking fact. That she was preparing to make a new contract with a demon!”

“A new contract?”

“For what purpose?”

I took a deep breath and continued.

“Eternal life! Beortio was plotting a new scheme to transcend the lifespan of humans allowed by God. She was trying to plunge the kingdom beyond the North into a cauldron of chaos and obtain eternal life based on that blood! The experiment for that was the assassination of the Fourth Prince! And to turn that suspicion away from herself! To the Northern Liberation Army, she shot the Fourth Prince’s heart with an arrow of the style mainly used by the Northerners!”

She’s the one who spread the Darkbloom Fever in the North, so what’s the assassination of the Fourth Prince? Even after the hearing is over, the public opinion must be driven so that everyone thinks so.

The suspicion that had been directed at the Northern Liberation Army will remain only in the minds of a very small number of people.

The truth is weaker than you think.

I meticulously fabricated the Darkbloom Fever, but the reason why the only evidence of the assassination of the Fourth Prince was a few arrows and forged documents in the secret warehouse of Beortio’s mansion.

…In fact, the lack of time also played a part.

“Noooooooo!”

Beortio’s ear-splitting scream.

It seemed that she had regained her senses after being in a panic. I, who had been happily chattering, clicked my tongue softly.

“I, I didn’t assassinate the Fourth Prince!”

“Oh, so you admit that the other things are true. Starting with the assassination of your ex-husband, Duke Elbart.”

“That’s not something like Darkbloom Fever!”

Still, it seemed like she wasn’t in her right mind. Beortio, realizing that she had misspoke, hurriedly covered her mouth with both hands.

I toyed with her, going back and forth between truth and lies.

“So, it’s an assassination. It wouldn’t have been Darkbloom Fever at the time. It would have been a more vicious variant that was created and spread as Darkbloom Fever. Perhaps you don’t like the name Darkbloom Fever given by the Northerners?”

“N, no! Th, this is someone’s scheme!!”

I looked at the Inquisitors in the audience. I fixed my gaze on the one whose pattern embroidered on the robe was embroidered with gold thread.

The highest-ranking person among the Inquisitors here.

“The Necronomicon, was it found in Beortio’s mansion?”

“…Yes.”

I felt a sense of displeasure with my question in the heavy voice.

Did he realize he was being used?

It’s none of my business.

There’s no time to analyze even the Inquisitor’s mind right now. The only thing that needs to happen is for the facts to flow out of his mouth.

“Is there any greater evidence than this?”

I asked, looking around the audience.

At that, Beortio screamed.