After five months staying in the village atop the mountain, I was finally beginning to see the end of the construction on the white road that had become a gas pocket.
The integration of the two villages seemed to have progressed quite far in just one month.
But I was feeling a bit disheartened.
“Hey! ……What’s wrong?”
General Wageris, who had come as usual, lowered his voice at the sight of my dejected figure.
Celine, who had accompanied him, furrowed her brows in distress.
“Even for someone as steadfast as Your Highness, learning who it was that tried to assassinate you……”
“Ah, no, no. It’s not like I’m shocked. Well, the assassin came from a really unexpected place, but it was so absurd that I ended up thinking, ‘What does it even mean to be an adult?’ That’s all.”
As I answered Celine and straightened up from my slumped posture, General Wageris, seeing that I had recovered, raised his voice in his usual tone.
“Even hearing from the minor lord and his son, the names of people in the palace who find the First Prince disagreeable shouldn’t have come up, right? How is it you know now?”
“As for palace affiliates, even Lady Asha did not think they would appear from the start. If someone close to the imperial throne or their blood relative becomes suspected of assassination, they risk losing their right of succession.”
Just as Werel says, neither Duke Lucaios nor Duke Eurasion needs to cross such a dangerous bridge.
They shoved me over here and are simply leaving me alone for years; my value as a succession candidate keeps dropping.
Making it look like an accident is certainly possible, but it shouldn’t have been so urgent that they needed to target me so persistently.
And yet they pressured a minor lord and risked exposure.
I thought something strange had happened in the imperial capital while I was away, but it was completely different.
“Whose grudge had I bought?”
“……Tadare Liek Weterai Idan.”
“Who?”
It was no wonder General Wageris didn’t understand my answer.
It was someone I had forgotten too; I only remembered after Sephira pointed it out.
After all, I had only met him once.
Ikto, who had met him, stated only the facts dispassionately.
“A religious figure who aimed for the seat of next bishop. While guiding His Highness Asha and the other princes visiting the imperial family’s grand cathedral in the palace, he suffered severe injuries at the hands of the criminal guild during the assassination plot orchestrated by the Edenbal family.”
I had remembered the name of Litriomas of the Edenbal family since he was on the culprit’s side, but I honestly hadn’t remembered the other person’s name.
Helcov spat out his words with a groan at the circumstances of the request he had heard from the assassin.
“This is ridiculous. Even though they escaped unharmed, he resents the princes who desperately managed to flee, claiming he was severely injured because they abandoned him.”
When I brought up the city where the Saipool group is based, I learned from the minor lord’s son—who longed for the city—that a man named Idan had been speaking resentfully toward the imperial family.
“Hah? What’s that about? No, more importantly, that guy’s in the imperial capital, right? Why would he send assassins to a place like this?”
General Wageris, dumbfounded by the misdirected resentment, asked about the practical matter.
“Actually, it seems this Idan person fell out of the bishop competition because his appearance was ruined by injuries, and on top of that, he’s been demoted to this region.”
Appearance is highly valued in representatives.
The same is true for the Emperor; apparently, in the past there was a prince who was removed as crown prince for the reason that he could no longer stand straight due to injuries from a fall from a horse.
So the tent incident was likely aimed at causing conspicuous injuries rather than killing me, in order to lower my value even further.
Petty. So petty.
But even small malices, if accumulated, can lead to irreversible consequences.
And the one who planted them can feign complete ignorance.
The imperial guards are only so capable; they probably deliberately chose and slipped in guards who had it in for me.
And if they vented their frustration with the current situation by dragging me, who had nothing to do with it, into it, it’s a matter of guilt by association.
Perhaps because they had needlessly strong leadership, the dissatisfaction toward me spread throughout the entire imperial guard and turned into a rebellion.
As a result, the imperial capital panicked as well, and Idan also ended up pressuring the minor lord through the Saipool group.
“It seems Idan is currently in a position to be entrusted with Hobart’s church, and rumors have been heard from that direction. Namely, that due to aftereffects of his injuries he is still in constant pain, and he is a fallen-from-the-capital figure who lashes out not only at church personnel but even at believers.”
What Werel said was essentially the assessment of Idan that the minor lord’s son had heard.
The city of Hobart is governed by a great lord who manages the surrounding area, and is the headquarters of the Saipool group.
I had been worrying only about the imperial capital, and had not imagined there was someone right here openly resenting me.
General Wageris summarized the story with an annoyed look.
“So what? In the end, he resented children for not saving him from a life-threatening crisis, and to vent his own pain and decline, he’s trying to take it out on the nearby prince?”
“Seems like it? He’s in Hobart thanks to some blood relation connection, apparently. Since he was someone trying to become a bishop deeply involved in politics, he probably has contacts who can grasp the military operation schedules in this region.”
I really do wonder why that resentment isn’t directed at the Edenbal family.
*Why is it that when he resents me, he relies on the Saipool group, the core organization behind the criminal guild? Shouldn’t he resent them instead?*
*Certain evaluation of General Wageris’s statement confirmed.*
*Statement? Ah, that I should fight for self-defense too? Certainly, I can see why I was targeted—because I seem like an easy target to take frustrations out on since I’m weak.*
In that case, rather than venting resentment on the dangerous Saipool group, targeting weak me allows him to secure his personal safety while satisfying his grudge.
What a worthless man.
“……Well, I am grateful he was in such a convenient place, though.”
When I muttered that without thinking, General Wageris roughly grabbed Helcov and moved him to the corner of the room.
“Hey, is this kind of thing daily life in the palace?”
“No way.”
“That remark just now—you were clearly used to scheming.”
“Well, about that…… it’s because he explicitly said he’d crush them.”
“Crush what?”
“The criminal guild.”
General Wageris twitched his ears to confirm he had heard correctly.
“It’s not a mishearing. Even you should know by now that he’s the type who does what he says he’ll do.”
“The marquis you mentioned before who is enthusiastic about crushing the criminal guild—he is my superior.”
As Ikto stated the fact casually, General Wageris started to say something, so I decided to warn him first.
“General Wageris, you’d best not make too much fuss over me. I have many enemies; if you are seen as an obstacle, you will be eliminated. I do not have the power to save you then.”
“Hey, saying that at your age. So you’ve done enough to get yourself killed, huh?”
“It seems like a fence that wasn’t there when I was born. I simply realized one day that things had become this way, so even if I have an inkling why, I don’t remember doing anything to deserve it.”
In truth, by the time I established my sense of self, I was already unfortunate as the First Prince.
If I were to say when I incurred resentment, it was when my father became Emperor.
But I won’t say something that could be so easily misunderstood.
If by any chance it reached Father’s ears, I would hate that.
I do not want to be hated by my affectionate father.
“We’ve established a prospect for solving the problem. This means we can finally move regarding the assassination. It’s reasonable to think so, right?”
“……Shall we bring the minor lord back and make him talk?”
General Wageris still seemed to have something he wanted to say, but he appeared to turn his attention to the matter at hand.
“If we do that, in the end the Saipool group that created the criminal guild will get off scot-free. At worst, they could cut off the captured assassins like a lizard’s tail and be done with it.”
We have the army here, we have witnesses, and their headquarters is close.
Here, to some extent, my name as a prince carries weight.
It was not in the schedule, but I should take any action I can to prevent Terry from having trouble in the future.
“Ah, right. Contact with the imperial capital should be coming soon. I hope there are letters from my brothers.”
Letters occasionally sent during the monthly exchanges using fast horses with the imperial capital.
I can’t mention the Saipool group, but I want to report that there is finally a prospect of returning.
Excited about whether a letter would come, I looked up; surrounded by adults, my gaze naturally drifted upward.
So the object placed on the shelf entered my view as well.
I saw an artificial light different from flame.
*Sephira, check the crystal.*
*Confirmed. The lamp signaling reception is lit.*
The crystal with a portion of its pedestal glowing was a voice transmission device developed by Werel with my modifications.
The left wing of the palace where I stayed was too quiet, and a bell would ring too loudly, so for the reception signal I had borrowed the mechanism from a small lightning lamp—a tiny electric light.
In other words, it was signaling a communication from the paired crystal left behind in my room in the imperial palace in the capital.
Scheduled Update
Next Time: Eastern Military Conflict 2