novelraw Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5
“Hmm-hmm~ hmm~”
It was the kind of day that made a tune slip out on its own.
Baron Horn sniffled the whole time as he carefully wrote out his Confession Document.
That was because I had firmly warned him that if any part of the story contained in the evidence I possessed was omitted, he would be severely punished.
Thanks to that, every last one of Baron Horn’s assets could be returned to the state without a single thing missing.
“But was what you did to Baron Horn today not a threat?”
“Huh? What threat did I make?”
“To be honest, I am not even sure how I am supposed to apply this.”
“You learned that all you have to do is make it obvious you have a mad prince backing you.”
Douglas kept tilting his head slightly from side to side.
Yes, I had never intended to change your honest way of thinking.
I had merely shown you that when your suspicions were solid, even appropriate pressure alone could produce meaningful results.
“But then, does that really mean Baron Horn is joining the Audit Team under me?”
“Yes.”
“He can start working with you as soon as tomorrow.”
What Baron Horn had confessed to was enough to warrant execution.
But that was only possible if I truly had hard evidence.
Without physical evidence, there was no way to punish him except to kill him on my authority as a prince.
So instead of punishing him, I chose to make active use of him.
“But publicly, you still must not say that he is an Audit Team employee.”
“If you do, it will become troublesome to catch the others.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And as team leader, keep an eye on Horn at all times in case he starts taking bribes again.”
“Yes, sir.”
From what I had seen, Baron Horn was definitely an intelligent man.
He was the kind of person who could still look for a way to survive even under serious psychological pressure, and who could even gamble on challenging a prince.
Honestly, he was the first person I had seen in this country whose mind worked this well.
So while I was at it, I might as well put him to use.
“Then before we officially announce the Audit Team, perhaps we should negotiate salaries......”
Knock, knock, knock.
Just as I was about to move on to the next step, someone suddenly knocked on the office door.
What was that?
I had not ordered the officials to do anything else today.
“Come in.”
The one who entered about three seconds later was not one of my subordinates.
“Good day, Your Highness.”
A woman dressed in a gown made of subtly luxurious fabric, with impeccable manners.
A maid?
Did I have maids too?
“What brings you here?”
Having no idea why she had come, I asked at once.
The maid calmly explained her purpose.
“Her Majesty the Queen has invited Your Highness to dine with her this evening.”
“Will you accompany her?”
The Queen!
“Ah.”
“Right.”
“Of course I should.”
“By what time, and where should I go?”
“Please come to the Great Hall by 6:30 p.m.”
What was that?
“Ah.”
“Very well.”
“Yes.”
“Please excuse me.”
As I watched the maid quietly leave, I turned to Douglas for a moment.
“Douglas.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How does my family seem to you?”
“Pardon?”
Douglas was visibly flustered by my question.
I had thought he would tell me plainly from an objective point of view, but perhaps speaking about royalty was difficult after all.
“I had the image of being kind but foolish, the sort of easy mark everyone could take advantage of, right?”
“And lately that has suddenly changed.”
“Yes, sir.”
That one he answered easily enough.
“So how have you always thought of my family?”
“Expressing opinions about the royal family is severely punished as Lèse-majesté.”
“It is not slander.”
“I am asking for your opinion.”
“Go on, tell me.”
At my persistent urging, Douglas' eyes wandered helplessly.
Then, after pondering for quite a while, he answered in a quiet voice.
“I have always thought of you as a very harmonious family.”
After all that hesitation, the answer I got was that we were a very harmonious family.
That did not sound especially good.
“You are not saying that because you do not know about my siblings, are you?”
“No, sir.”
“I know that Your Highness is the First Prince, and I also remember the exact ages of your younger prince and princess siblings.”
So there were two sons and one daughter.
And I had become Acting Regent because I was the eldest, the First Prince.
“Do all the citizens know how Father collapsed?”
“I do not believe so.”
“Even I am only aware that His Majesty collapsed during a meal.”
Good grief, so it was not just some ordinary collapse from old age?
He collapsed during a meal?
Was it poison or something?
“All right, I understand.”
“You have worked hard today, so go home.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I will be heading to the training grounds.”
“You are not even a knight anymore, so— ah, never mind.”
I almost asked why a man who was no longer a knight would be going to the training grounds, but I stopped myself.
He was probably the type who went to the gym after work.
In any case, having a solidly built man like that in the Audit Team did give it a certain air of authority.
“The Queen.”
“A prince.”
“A princess.”
“Hmm.”
Before dinner, I checked whether there was anything in the documents in my office related to my family.
This seemed to be the sort of household that even held regular family dinners, so it would not do to go in knowing absolutely nothing.
They were probably already finding me suspicious as it was.
If I showed up completely ignorant, they would think I had truly gone mad.
“At least I am not an only child.”
In a situation where there was even a chance the king had been poisoned, the existence of siblings was a good thing no matter what.
Any faction would hesitate before killing off the entire royal line one by one.
Who stood to benefit from the king’s collapse?
“Haah, there is seriously too much to do in this country.”
Letting out a deep sigh, I looked out the window at the sunset.
I should handle things one at a time.
They said there was another prince, did they not?
No matter how harmonious we might look from the outside, a prince coveting the throne could still have done something reckless.
“Should I start taking a royal food taster around with me from now on?”
Struggles among royal siblings were common enough in any country.
So I needed to keep my wits about me.
My life might depend on it.
“I really should have been the Acting Regent.”
“Must you bring that up again while we are eating?”
“But it is true!”
“Who knows what kind of trouble that idiot will cause again?”
“At the very least, the throne has to be mine.”
As it turned out, the very topic I had been worried about all day—the throne—came up at dinner.
“What kind of way is that to speak to your brother?”
“Apologize, Catalina!”
“No!”
And those words had come from the mouth of a teenage girl, no less.
“I like Brother because he plays with me.”
“That is only because you are just as stupid as he is.”
The prince was even younger than that teenage girl.
A struggle among royal siblings?
I was almost embarrassed that I had used such a weighty term.
“Be the mature one again today, Noel.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Douglas had been right.
Our family was simply a harmonious one.
My mother, the Queen, was a positive person who viewed the world with almost startling optimism.
My sister, in her mid-to-late teens, was prickly enough to fume about wanting royal power for herself.
My younger brother, who looked even younger than she was, was just... well.
Round-faced and adorable.
“But Noel, I hear the officials have been saying you have become stricter lately?”
Even the scolding that came up while we were eating sounded like the sort of thing one might hear in any ordinary household.
“Take it easy.”
“There are even rumors going around that you have been shouting lately!”
“I told them off sharply—there is no way a gentle, kind child like you would do such a thing!”
Hearing that, I quietly thought to myself that it would probably be better not to correct her.
“No.”
“Brother does need to raise his voice a little.”
“What kind of prince grovels before his own officials?”
“Catalina.”
“You must not say such nasty things.”
“People would rather have a leader who can actually run the country, even if he is a little mean, would they not?”
The teenage girl neatly said exactly what I had wanted to say.
That was right.
This was no time to preserve pleasant family dinners.
The very fact that the officials surrounding us were snickering as though they were watching a comedy routine showed exactly how little authority this royal family had.
“Catalina.”
“What?”
When I suddenly called her name, Catalina flinched.
But there was no need for her to be startled.
She had opened the way for a good conversation.
“Do you think all I have been doing lately is raising my voice a little?”
“What?”
“I have been hunting the officials down like rats.”
“Noel?”
At my words, everyone in the Great Hall was startled all at once.
“Brother, you used to say that even if living kindly made you seem foolish, kindness was what remained in the end.”
“If you live like a fool, all that remains is loss.”
“Since when were kindness and foolishness the same thing?”
Seeing me answer with a smile, the Queen looked utterly shocked.
“Noel.”
“What on earth are you saying all of a sudden?”
“Your father and I never taught you that!”
Looking at the horrified Queen, I gave her a quiet smile.
“If I followed that lesson, Mother, the country would collapse.”
It was only natural that Yeramerian was crawling with Corrupt Officials.
Just look at the state of our family.
Look at the officials openly giggling at the things our family said.
Even the cleaners tidying the hall clearly took the royal family lightly, so why would any truly bold bastard have reason to fear us?
“Yeramerian may not be a great power, but it is hardly a place where one would say the country is collapsing.”
“That is true.”
“It would be more accurate to say it has already collapsed.”
The Queen still saw the world as a garden in bloom because her own life had not changed.
But this was no situation in which the world could be viewed so easily.
“Do you know how many people are dying of malnutrition or ending up in Prison over petty crimes?”
I was not saying that we should kill all those sneering officials around us and build royal authority through tyranny.
I was only saying that, at the very least, we should stop looking so easy to push around, Mother.
“Noel.”
“Do you know how much of our budget we have been spending on welfare to prevent exactly those things?”
“And even that is going into other people’s back pockets.”
At my words, the family dinner, which had at least been somewhat lively, turned cold in an instant.
The maids, the head chef, and the others around us could not hide their shock at all.
“Mother, until just a few years ago, you were teaching economics to the nobles of Yeramerian.”
“Just analyze the current state once—whether from a macro perspective or a micro one.”
“Noel.”
“It is a complete mess right now, Mother.”
At my firm words, even the Queen seemed to lose her voice for a moment.
“So do not go around explaining that I am kind and gentle.”
“Tell them I am trying to overturn the country.”
There was still a great deal I did not know about the Queen.
All I knew was that there was no economist in Yeramerian who could rival her.
Then at the very least, I needed to make this one point absolutely clear to both the Queen and everyone else present.
“And it would be even better if Mother overturned the economy together with me.”
Could the Queen collapse too after hearing something so sudden?
I was worried, but there was no helping it.
The Yeramerian royal family was in no position to be hearing nonsense about being kind and gentle.
“So the rumors were true?”
“You really have been going around shouting?”
“I curse too.”
“And if there are people I do not need, I will cut them off without hesitation.”
At my firm stance, the Queen let out a small sigh.
“Noel.”
“That is not what one would call dignified royalty.”
“The dignity of royalty comes from the strength of the kingdom.”
“At least while I am serving as Acting Regent, please remember that.”
Only after hearing the words “Acting Regent” did the Queen finally fall silent.
Then she lightly pressed a hand to her forehead.
“To think it is you saying such things, and not Catalina.”
“Just trust me a little and wait.”
I answered confidently as I cut into the meat that was growing cold.
“......To think Brother is saying things like this.”
The girl who had been looking at me as though I were repulsive now stared at me as if I were something new.
But for the moment, I pretended not to notice her gaze.
How had she turned out like that in this cheerful little household?
I would have to figure that out later.
“Then may I ask what your plan is now?”
Having slowly regained her composure, the Queen asked me the question in a calm voice.
Hopefully that was a positive sign.
“My plan?”
“It is far too broad, and there is too much of it.”
I slowly chewed the meat in my mouth and thought.
Let us see.
How was I supposed to explain things briefly and forcefully to people who knew nothing about state affairs?
Especially in a situation like this, with so many ears listening.
“Ah!”
“I do have a plan that begins as soon as tomorrow.”
No, that was not right.
I should make use of the fact that so many ears were listening.
“Killing Corrupt Officials.”
“Killing?!”
Everyone, including the Queen, jolted in shock.
Killing?
That expression had come from Prince Noel’s mouth?
The reactions were so transparent that I calmly nodded.
“Y-you mean that figuratively, right?”
“Yes?”
The Queen asked me in a trembling voice.
I could feel how desperately she wanted the answer to be no.
The same unease showed in the eyes of the officials around us.
“That depends on the situation.”
Each and every shocked face entered my sight.
But I made no effort to show that I had noticed.
All you spectators, spread the rumor now.
Tell them that Prince Noel is planning to bite the Corrupt Officials to death one by one.