Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 37

037

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Ira Merton

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Race: Human

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Relationship: Friendly]

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‘Merton?’

She was the young lady of a family owning one of the three largest merchant guilds in the kingdom’s west.

I knew that the Merton County’s territory had many conflicts because it bordered two different races, dwarves and elves, but it also benefited from the trade opportunities that arose from this proximity.

“I, I am so sorry for my rudeness. I am Ira, the daughter of Count Merton.”

Perhaps because I didn’t say anything, Ira hurriedly introduced herself. Her green hair, streaked with silver, was neatly draped down her back. Her fair face turned bright red, reminding me of a carrot, and I almost laughed.

“Gasp!”

“We’re in big trouble. She’s the young lady of the Count’s family.”

The city guard soldiers, who were organizing the crowd, looked like they were about to have a collective heart attack.

They could only stand by and watch as the daughter of a Count of the kingdom was being, at the very least, bothered by a foreigner in the middle of the capital. There was bound to be hell to pay.

I subtly checked their affiliation.

‘It was the 1st City Guard.’

That unit was under the control of the 1st Prince’s faction.

Akad, who was digging into the secret of birth, died a violent death, Beortio was involved with the demons, and now this incident again?

I wondered if Countess Miloa would start experiencing female pattern hair loss from all the stress. Well, to be honest, I was secretly gloating.

I decided to clear up Ira’s misunderstanding, as she was practically twisting herself into a knot in front of me.

“I didn’t come out without any preparation, but thank you for your concern. My companions are also injured, so let’s move to your residence.”

“Ah, I was presumptuous. Thank you! I will definitely visit you once while I am staying in the capital!”

I smiled and nodded at Ira, who was bowing deeply.

“I’ll be waiting. Alfonso, let’s go.”

“Yes. Oh, where are you going, Your Highness! Let’s go together!”

I walked ahead of Alfonso. I quickened my pace and entered a narrow alley between the shops.

There was a hooded figure there.

“It’s been a while, Fran. How have you been?”

“Besides the fact that the guy who told me to visit when I had time hasn’t shown his face, nothing much.”

I had heard about that from Alfonso. But I didn’t have time to go outside the palace. The New Year’s banquet was just around the corner, so I had to practice dancing.

“Why are you here, Fran? And how did the Prince know?”

Alfonso, who came into the alley a step late, was also surprised to see her.

“How did he know? He knew because I called him.”

It was as Fran said.

Before stepping in front of those foreigners, I looked around, and Fran and I made eye contact. She, the magician who controls the seven stars, gave me a look that said I should step up, so I stepped up without hesitation.

Even if that hadn’t happened, I would have stepped up anyway.

“I was very busy. I was going to visit you anyway.”

“Well, that’s fine. I was about to step in, but thanks to you, I saved some trouble. If I had stepped in, things would have become complicated.”

“What’s wrong? You’re trying to get involved in such troublesome things?”

Alfonso asked what I wanted to ask.

“Ira is an acquaintance’s daughter. I’ve seen her a few times when she was young. But, even if that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t have liked what those foreigners were doing, you rascal! What do you take me for?”

Suddenly, she got angry and swung her staff at Alfonso’s head.

Whoosh-

“Oops.”

Whoosh- Whoosh-

Alfonso barely dodged her attacks. Fran’s face was getting redder and redder, and it seemed like she was getting quite annoyed.

I nudged Alfonso, who was dodging towards me, signaling that he should just take a hit and be done with it.

“Ugh!”

“You!”

Whoosh- Thwack!

“Ugh!”

Situation ended.

Fran seemed relieved now and regained her original complexion.

“But why did you call me?”

“There’s something I wanted to check.”

I was hungry, and I didn’t think it was a good idea to continue the conversation in a narrow street.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you like spicy food?”

“I know exactly where you’re talking about. Let’s go.”

***

Royal Secret Service Information Department Chief Secretary’s Office.

Miloa was tearing her hair out while looking at the report in front of her.

Since when was the 5th Prince connected to the Northern Liberation Army? And how did he know that Beortio possessed the Necronomicon [a grimoire, or textbook of magic]?

And other things she had ordered her subordinates to investigate regarding the 5th Prince.

There were many words in the report, but in the end, it could be summarized in one line.

– We don’t know either.

‘How can this be?’

The most terrifying opponent is an invisible enemy. Right now, the 5th Prince was like that to Miloa. She couldn’t figure anything out.

The only thing that came to mind was the absurd idea that the 5th Prince might actually be a contractor of the demons.

Tock, tock.

Miloa’s heart pounded at the sound of urgent knocking.

“Countess Miloa, urgent news!”

Before, she had always received reports with a calm expression even when she heard that sound. But now, she opened her mouth with a trembling heart.

“Come in.”

The 2nd secretary, who came into the chief secretary’s office, flinched at her haggard eyes.

“Tell me.”

“A member of the Imperial Family of the Hamel Empire, who was scheduled to attend the New Year’s banquet, harassed the young lady of the Merton County in the middle of the Barona market.”

“The city guards who were on duty at the time······.”

“It’s the 1st City Guard.”

Miloa quietly got up from her seat and went to the window. She opened the window, put a cigarette in her mouth, and looked down below.

‘3rd floor······.’

If she played it right, wouldn’t she be able to lie down for a few months under the pretext of an injury? Such thoughts flashed through her mind.

“Countess Miloa?”

“I’m not going to fall. Don’t worry and······ Ah, wait. So how did it end? Surely it didn’t end with that foreign bastard dragging the Merton young lady away, did it? Huh? Please tell me that’s what happened.”

“Fortunately, the 5th Prince, who was on a secret mission in the market, stepped in and resolved it.”

The 2nd secretary’s answer saved Miloa.

“The 5th Prince?”

Her feelings for the 5th Prince, which had been down in the depths of hell, improved very slightly.

“At least we avoided the worst. Okay, you can go now.”

After the 2nd secretary left, Miloa lit a cigarette.

Sip- Haa-

She exhaled smoke and tried to picture the 5th Prince’s face. It didn’t come to mind easily.

‘I need to meet him in person and talk.’

There was no need to make a separate appointment. Rumor had it that the 5th Prince would escort the 3rd Princess to this year’s New Year’s banquet, so that would be the place.

‘I’ll have to use my charm after a long time.’

Miloa put the cigarette on the ashtray for a moment and stood in front of the full-length mirror, gathering her breasts to the point of pulling up her soul [a figure of speech indicating she was trying to look her absolute best].

Indeed, she wasn’t dead yet.

She raised the corners of her mouth in satisfaction, then flinched when she noticed that the area she had been tearing her hair out earlier was sparse.

She had to quit smoking, she had to quit smoking.

***

“Three servings of Hellfire Pit. I understand. Please wait a moment.”

As the restaurant employee went out after taking the order, Evan and Fran took off their hoods.

“Ah, I felt like I was going to suffocate.”

Evan asked at Fran’s grumbling.

“Why don’t you just use perception interference magic? Or an artifact?”

“I just came out to buy bread at the market in front of my house, wouldn’t it be funny to go that far?”

“I guess so.”

“What about you?”

“Ah, I have my reasons······.”

Evan couldn’t bring himself to say that he didn’t have the money to buy an artifact and trailed off.

“But why did you tell me to visit? I clearly told Alfonso to return all the magic books. Is there anything that this guy didn’t return?”

“Hey, no. I returned everything to the kid without missing a single one.”

Alfonso insisted on his innocence with a serious face.

“That’s not it. It’s a good thing it’ll take some time for the food to come out. Take a look at this.”

A magic circle the size of a human head floated above Fran’s right palm.

Normally, it wouldn’t be easy to allow others to see a constructed magic circle, but for Fran, who had once served as a professor at the Red Tower [a prestigious magic institution], it was a piece of cake.

Evan looked at the magic circle spinning on Fran’s palm as if it were fascinating.

“I heard that the students of the Magic Tower study magic by looking at the magic circles directly constructed by the professors, but seeing it in person must be worlds apart from self-study.”

“Well, that’s why everyone grits their teeth and tries to get into the Magic Tower. Anyway, do you know what will happen when this magic circle is activated?”

“Hmm······ It’s a magic circle that causes [Ignition] on Alfonso’s head for 10 seconds? The temperature is······ about 700 degrees?”

“What?! Fran! No wonder I felt uneasy!”

Alfonso was startled.

“Shut up and watch. I’m not going to activate it.”

Fran glared at him, gave him a look, and looked back at Evan.

“Now, I’m going to ‘slightly’ modify this based on that.”

The magic circle nearly doubled in size. The mana circuits filling the interior became incomparably more complex than before.

Fran checked the spinning magic circle, nodded as if satisfied, and opened her mouth.

“Can you interpret this magic circle?”

Evan stroked his chin for a moment, looked at it, and tilted his head and asked.

“Isn’t it just that you doubled the duration of the previous [Ignition] and raised the temperature by about 1,000 degrees?”

Evan leaned forward and began to point to various parts of the magic circle densely packed with mana circuits with his finger.

“Is there really a need for this part and this part? I think it would be activated even if you just connected it with one line? Also, this part is degrading the firepower that you raised again. But why is this isolated circuit here? It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the activation of the magic.”

Evan’s words were casual.

Alfonso, who saw Fran’s constructed magic circle as something like a mobile hanging over a newborn’s head, nodded, saying, ‘Ah, I see.’

On the other hand, Fran’s expression became more and more serious.

‘What is this guy, really?’

What Evan had just done was like looking at a thick pile of clay covering a sculpture and finding the original appearance of the sculpture hidden inside.

If ordinary magicians disassemble the magic circle one by one to find the answer, Evan was closer to finding the answer first and then analyzing the magic circle later.

It was a kind of intuition.

And that was at an absurd level.

The basis for the magic circle that Fran had just constructed was only [Ignition], but at her level, it was easy to create a magic circle that even the professors of the Magic Tower would have to work on for a long time to interpret.

‘It’s the same as what that idiot used to do.’

Fran knew one person like Evan.

Red Tower Lord, the youngest Magic Tower Lord in history.

In fact, Fran didn’t even know to what extent Evan’s intuition would be demonstrated. She had the ability to quickly remove the clay covering the sculpture, but she didn’t have the ability to see the sculpture inside.

7 stars? 5 stars?

Perhaps that intuition might be blocked from the 3-star level.

But.

If that intuition is demonstrated in magic that surpasses 7 stars and reaches 8 or 9 stars. If it’s at a similar level to what the Red Tower Lord has.

Fran, not Richard Bayren, the friend of the Northern Sword, felt a burning thirst.

With a serious expression, she snatched Evan’s hand.

“You, quit being a prince and become my disciple. You’ve mastered the core? You’re still a 1-star, right? Let’s somehow destroy it and walk the path of a magician again. I’ll help you. If you don’t believe me, I can swear on the seven stars that roam my head.”

Evan, who didn’t know what was going on, couldn’t help but be embarrassed.

“Yes?”

“I’ll even help you escape from the palace. Let’s go.”

“Uh······.”

Tock, tock.

“Your meal is ready.”

Evan’s face brightened at the arrival of the employee.

“Let’s talk after we eat.”