Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 35

Surviving as the 5th Prince of Hellmanguk – 035

035

The RP [Renown Points, a game-like currency] I had painstakingly gathered.

I used almost all of it working with the Northern Liberation Army.

– In Beortio’s study, there’s a secret warehouse hidden behind the third bookshelf to the left of the fireplace.

– If you clear the desk in the corner of the medicine room, there’s a passage leading to the basement. If you go there, you’ll find the ‘real medicine room.’

Austin was practically jumping out of his seat with each piece of information I gave him. I felt a strange pleasure each time, but my heart ached as much as the RP melted away.

Especially when finding out the recipe for the poison used on Beortio, I was genuinely shocked.

Those seeds of pain eventually returned as sweet fruit.

「Achievement, ‘I am a Prince of this Nation!’ has been achieved」

「[Support] has been unlocked.」

「[General Store] has been unlocked.」

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‘Support? General Store?’

Besides those two, there were countless messages piled up during the hearing. Skimming through them roughly, my eyes stopped on one message.

「[Deception] skill has been registered.」

「Achievement, ‘The One Who Laughs in Hiding’ has been achieved.」

「Achievement, ‘A Hard Worker Who Doesn’t Rely Only on Opportunities’ has been achieved.」

‘What is this?’

There really was a [Deception] skill in my skill window. It seemed to be because of my mouth that had been running wild.

It wasn’t [Speechcraft], and it made me feel a bit bad. They could have just called it [Evan-style Bullshitting].

Well, besides that, I achieved many achievements and gained a lot of RP by experiencing various relationship changes with those in the hearing hall, which made my heart feel full.

Even roughly estimating, it was more than enough to recover everything I used to bring down Beortio.

‘Well, RP isn’t important….’

Oops, I had a moment of being full of myself.

RP is definitely important, but an even bigger reward is the unlocking of the features in the status window.

I wanted to check it out right away, but the place wasn’t suitable. Alfonso would be waiting outside the hearing hall, and in the audience seats….

‘No one’s there?’

Clearly, before the fanfare exploded and the notification windows popped up in droves, I could feel Miloa and Clian’s gazes burning the back of my head.

First, I used Ghost Hand [a magical ability] to push all the notification windows into the corner of my vision and left the hearing hall.

“Prince Evan! You were amazing!”

Alfonso greeted me with a smile and a curve at the corner of his eyes. His expression wasn’t much different from when he was hiding his true colors, but somehow the feeling was a little different.

I smirked and opened my mouth.

“Let’s go, Chief Aide.”

“Loyalty! I will serve you.”

Yeah. You should be loyal, of course.

Considering the headaches you’ve given me, really.

“Your Highness, please put in a good word for me with Senior Austin.”

“About what?”

“Surely there will be people who think I’m a traitor who leaked information about the Northern Liberation Army.”

“That’s right. You told me everything to save your own skin. And any message to Austin has to go through you anyway, right?”

“……”

Alfonso was silent for a moment.

“Haha, haha. Wouldn’t it be inconvenient for Your Highness if I, the Chief! Aide! disappeared without a trace? Please… save me!”

He’s so brazenly begging for his life.

I shook my head and passed by Alfonso. I was eager to return to Emerald Palace and check the newly opened features.

***

Dawn had not yet broken.

Waking up at the same time as usual, I opened the window wide and took a deep breath of the chilly air.

The snow that had fallen overnight covered the garden.

I stared at the scenery for a moment, then turned my head towards the door.

“Alfonso.”

“Yes! I’m coming in!”

Alfonso, who had been waiting, came in with water for washing, a towel, and a cup of cold water. I took the cold water he handed me and washed my face lightly.

I don’t know when Alfonso sleeps.

‘Well, he’ll sleep when he can.’

Soon, the manpower of Emerald Palace will be replenished. Even if he can’t sleep properly right now, he’ll have plenty of time to nap when he becomes a real Chief Aide. I didn’t need to worry about it.

“Keep watch.”

“I will guard it like an iron wall!”

Trusting Alfonso, I began Mana Meditation.

Sigh- Haa-

About 30 minutes later, I opened my eyes with a refreshed feeling and asked Alfonso.

“It snowed a lot, what’s the condition of the training ground?”

“If you wait a moment, I’ll sweep it quickly.”

“Oh, thanks for your hard work. Soon the manpower will be replenished, so you’ll be free from chores, just hang in there.”

“Haha, I understand!”

Alfonso disappeared like the wind. I could see him quickly walking to the training ground with a broom. While waiting, I didn’t have much to do, so I checked the status window.

━━━━━━━━━×

Evan Lionel

Gender: Male

Age: 14

Race: Human

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Library]

[General Store]

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RP: 61,897

Support ▶

━━━━━━━━━

It had changed a lot from the beginning.

First of all, age.

The Lionel Kingdom and its surrounding countries use the Korean age system from my past life, so I turned 14 with the new year.

It feels like a lot of time has passed, but it’s only been a little over a week since the hearing.

‘Stats and skills haven’t changed much, so there’s no need to open them. Support is….’

I imprinted my existence on the citizens of the Lionel Kingdom and achieved the ‘I am a Prince of this Nation!’ achievement. Thanks to that, the Support feature was unlocked.

I tapped the arrow (▶) next to Support with Ghost Hand.

━━━━━━━━━×

Berington: 25%

Lockdaron: 19%

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Barona: 10%

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━━━━━━━━━

Administrative districts above the baronial level in the Lionel Kingdom appeared in a row.

The numbers like 25% and 23% probably indicate the percentage of people in that area who support me.

The northern region is high, and the southern and eastern regions are practically wiped out.

Maybe they don’t even know I exist. They might only know that there are two princes in the kingdom, the 1st Prince and the 2nd Prince….

If I average it out, it’s about 5%?

‘Oh, it’s dropped.’

Some areas have dropped slightly from yesterday. Not by much, about 1-2%. At first, when Support was unlocked, it only went up.

It felt like watching a falling stock chart, and my heart ached.

Support is important.

Because it’s closely related to the [General Store] that was unlocked together. I hurriedly opened the [General Store].

A store window appeared, selling all sorts of items, starting with miscellaneous goods that weren’t even treated as items when touched with Ghost Hand.

‘Ah….’

The Lockdaron steel sword that was available for purchase until yesterday disappeared. I wasn’t planning on buying it, but I felt a bit bad that it was taken away.

To soothe my sad feelings, I spent 1 RP to buy a bag of famous Barona chocolate cookies from the royal capital.

The Ghost Hand shone brightly, and the surrounding mana began to tremble.

Gooo-

The palm of the Ghost Hand, which had grown about twice in size, cracked open and dropped a bag of cookies.

I quickly snatched it up.

I could feel warmth from the packaging, as if it had just been made.

I took out a cookie and bit into it.

“…It’s delicious as expected.”

Sometimes it’s even more delicious than what they actually sell. I would be really sad if this chocolate cookie disappeared from the list because the support dropped further.

I don’t know how this is possible.

If I could make the support of all regions 100%, would something like the anti-magic sword [Varisada] used by the founding king of Lionel appear on the list?

‘Then there would be two Varisadas?’

It’s an absurd miracle that would make the stigmata [marks resembling Christ’s crucifixion wounds] obtained by saints and saintesses laugh.

The shock I felt when I first used the [General Store] was really… I seriously considered once again what the Rosa System wanted from me.

Well, I didn’t find the answer in the end.

What’s certain is.

‘I must never get caught.’

If someone saw me, they might misunderstand that I was receiving a hideous object from a contracted demon. I should buy a big [Hyperspace Pouch] and pretend to take it out from there.

“Hoo….”

Speaking of [Hyperspace Pouch], I suddenly sighed.

I can’t buy it with RP.

I can’t get it from the [General Store] because the support is low. I can’t get it in reality either.

The reason is very simple.

I have no money.

I’m so broke that I miss the money Alfonso stole when he said he was buying magic books, and the allowance my sister gave me.

The dignity maintenance expenses that should be paid to me from this month will be paid normally. But that’s really just pocket money.

Compared to the amount of funds needed for my grand ambition to unite the remaining forces of the North beyond the Northern Liberation Army, it’s like a speck of dust.

I even thought about actually running the ‘information guild’ that Alfonso had jokingly mentioned before.

‘That’s ridiculous.’

Just because you can get information or items worth 1 crown [currency] for 1 RP doesn’t mean the value is absolutely 1:1.

RP is much more precious.

I also thought about doing business using the [General Store], but it’s not profitable. With the current low support, there are only slightly better items than miscellaneous goods, and at best, I can only make about 2-3 times the profit.

It was a bit ambiguous to use RP for that.

The risk was too great. If someone became suspicious of the origin of the items and started investigating, there would be nothing more difficult than that.

‘How do I get money?’

In my vision, with only those thoughts in my head, I spotted Alfonso waving his hand with a broom.

He was telling me to come out and train now that he had swept the training ground. I nodded to him.

I tapped my head to clear my mind and took my practice sword to the training ground.

It’s only a matter of time before I can’t keep my life alive by running my mouth. I must also have the power to protect myself.

Whoosh- Swish-

After warming up lightly, I began to train the Guardian Swordsmanship with mana.

1st Form: Mountain Split.

2nd Form: Shadow Cut.

3rd Form: Flash Thrust.

4th Form: Crush.

It’s too much to use mana beyond this.

Because mana, the fuel of magic power, is exhausted. There’s really no answer to this. They say that if you gain great enlightenment, your level will rise in an instant, but that’s only the story when you’ve surpassed at least the 3-star level.

Before that, diligent training is the fastest way.

Ah! There is one more thing.

Elixirs.

Especially if I could get the Sky Flower that grows in the Elf Forest….

Ah, it’s back to money again.

“Your Highness! I can see anguish in your sword.”

“Sh, ut, up, you bastard! Hurry up and bring back the money you stole.”

“Kya! I felt like the sword energy grazed my neck. You are excellent!”

I spent the morning with such complicated thoughts.

After lunch, I left Emerald Palace.

The place I headed to was Akasha Palace. The residence of the 3rd Princess Annette Lionel, my sister. Was it 5 years? It was the first time since I became aware of my past life.

Is it because it’s the princess’s palace?

It was definitely different from Emerald Palace. Did it feel like something was sparkling?

Even though it was midwinter, flowers were blooming in the garden. Not artificial, but the kind that really blooms in winter.

Well, my impression of seeing them was obvious.

‘That must be incredibly expensive.’

Does my sister have a lot of money in various ways? Well, I heard the story that there were many guys making gift attacks here and there.

The reason I was looking for my sister was….

“Evan, you were great. You’re different from yesterday.”

“Thank you. It’s thanks to my sister’s guidance.”

It was to learn to dance.

In a little while, there will be a New Year’s banquet hosted by the royal family. It was because I decided to escort my sister there.

I don’t know why there’s no dance in the [Skill] window.

All there is are things that turn people into human butchers.

Still, I have some talent for dancing, so I was able to dance plausibly in a few days. Of course, only when I match with my sister.

If someone asks me to dance at the banquet, I’m going to refuse.

“Really, a banquet with our Evan… I’m so moved.”

After dance practice, my sister suddenly dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief during tea time. Hmm, it’s awkward.

“But, you seem to have a lot of 잡념 [japnyum, Korean for 잡념, meaning cluttered thoughts] today. Is there anything you’re worried about?”

“Ah, I was wondering how I could make money.”

“Ah….”

My sister nodded as if she understood.

She is my sister who has survived in the royal family while receiving higher education. I didn’t explain it in detail, but she knows that I have a close relationship with the Northern Liberation Army. I don’t need to explain why I need money.

“There’s a good way.”

She stopped as she brought her hand to the teacup.

I raised my head and looked at my sister’s sparkling eyes.

“These days, there are many young ladies who want to have tea with Evan. Among them, there are only daughters from wealthy families.”

Uh… um….

I lowered my gaze slightly from my sister.

Evan Lionel, 14 years old.

My heart was still winter.