Raising the Princess to Overcome Death

Chapter 218: The Beggar Siblings – The Prince and the Princess

218: The Beggar Siblings – The Prince and the Princess

"Lies?"

Leo had no time to respond to his accusation. He stared in shock at his comrade dissolving before his eyes.

Yet the person in question seemed unfazed. The young man with light brown hair from the Kingdom of Orun looked back at the prince and spoke.

“We all died surrounded by Nevis? With Lena here? Did I do something wrong? Whatever it was, I'm sorry…”

“Rev!”

Rev collapsed forward like a puppet with its strings cut. Leo pulled him out of the pool of blood and turned him over, but Rev was already gone from this world.

Ironically, at that moment, cheers erupted.

“Hurrah!”

“We’ve won! Prince Leo of Yeriel, hurrah!!”Wiping away his tears, Leo looked up to see Oriax disappearing.

Whether it was because the creature was dead or simply decided to leave, Oriax' massive body crumbled into ash and scattered, restoring the banquet hall to its original state.

Sunlight streamed through the windows, a beacon of hope. The hellscape that had been crawling with maggots and covered in blood and decayed flesh was gone.

The only evidence of the fierce battle that had taken place were the deeply melted and broken wooden floor, the shattered stairs, and the cheering humans. There were no injured survivors; all those wounded had perished and become part of Oriax, unable to return. Only Rev's corpse remained.

Leo raised his fist high, not out of desire but to satisfy the cheering subjects, turning his back on Rev.

Knowing this wasn't a permanent farewell made it easier...

“Sir Hazen.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Identify the fallen. We will provide their families with 1,000 days' wages. Compile the details and report back.”

“Understood. But what about this body...?”

“He saved my life. Arrange for a state funeral. Handle it with care.”

Sir Hazen, who was about to ask about the identity of the half-melted corpse, closed his mouth.

The prince's face, smiling at the cheering crowd, was dark.

Leo approached the exhausted cardinal to check on him. He calmed the cheering soldiers, knights, paladins, and priests, found the evacuated nobles, and left the banquet hall.

However, the ballroom, which should have been untouched, was

“Hurry! The Marquis is injured!”

“Priest! Over here!”

covered in blood. Not as much as before Oriax disappeared, but with limbs scattered, it looked like a slaughterhouse.

“Lena!”

Alarmed, Leo quickly searched for his sister. Fortunately, she was safe, but she was sitting on the floor, crying, while Santian Rauno lay dead, having lost both legs.

“Jenia. What happened?”

Leo asked, comforting the sobbing Lena. Her guard knight, Jenia Zackery, caught her breath and replied.

“There was a fight here as well. Duke Tertan... I'm sorry. I was not enough.”

Jenia reported that Duke Tertan had suddenly turned into a monster. A creature with a bull's head and a massive axe had targeted the princess.

With all the knights, paladins, priests, and guards in the banquet hall, there was no one to stop the creature in the ballroom. The monster was on a different level from those summoned by Prince Eric, and Jenia had only managed to hold it off with some noblemen who knew swordsmanship and the guards who arrived late.

“The princess was almost hurt, but... it was divine intervention.”

“Tian... he...”

Jenia didn't mention Santian Rauno. When the princess spoke, she added, “Oh, that servant pushed the princess away,” with a tone of admiration but not too much importance.

He was just a commoner who had risen through the ranks. Jenia seemed puzzled as to why the princess was crying so bitterly over him.

Sighing, Leo patted his sister's back. The princess, with her makeup ruined and smudged, sobbed even harder in her brother's arms.

“Tian... said he loved me. That fool. That stupid idiot.”

“...Yes. He loved you a lot. Santian really cared for you.”

“I... I...”

The front of his clothes grew hot with her self-reproachful tears. But Leo knew his sister was not to blame.

It was his fault. He thought everything would be resolved by killing Prince Eric.

When he was Barbatos' apostle, he had bewitched Marquis Guidan. He poured divine power into it, making sure the bewitchment lasted long.

As a prince, he couldn’t frequently meet the duke, so Prince Eric must have taken similar measures with Duke Tertan.

However, Leo hadn’t seen this as a serious problem. He expected the divine power to disappear naturally once Prince Eric died, freeing the duke from the bewitchment...

Then Oriax descended.

'...I'm sorry.'

Leo felt guilt over the faint clue.

In the past iteration when he first met Oriax, Sir Bart died trying to kill Duke Tertan. That great knight.

Hazen, who had been taunted by Oriax, had informed him, but at that time, Leo was marked and rotting. Leaving Lena alone in a den of thugs made it hard to pay attention to Hazen's words.

He wished he had considered the danger of Duke Tertan being able to kill Sir Bart. ─ Leo hugged his sister tightly.

Rev would come back to life.

So would Santian and the fallen knights.

But there was no way to undo the sorrow of his crying sister. Lena would remember this as a dream again. His chest tightened.

  *

From then on, Leo was incredibly busy. Driving out the Ashin-corrupted Prince Eric, and with unanimous support from the nobles, becoming the master of the palace, he had a lot to learn and handle.

First, he met with the knight commanders, generals, the captain of the royal guards, and the commander of Lutetia's defense. He reviewed and commended the knights and soldiers, promising generous rewards for the fallen and the heroes of the battle against Prince Eric.

Then he realized there were more urgent people to meet.

The head chamberlain and the treasurer.

Leo called the head chamberlain to express his future expectations and reviewed the royal family's assets, income, and expenses.

There were many things he needed to inspect personally, but for now, he was satisfied with skimming through the thick ledgers.

Next, he summoned the treasurer, who managed the kingdom's finances, to get a brief report on ongoing projects, budget allocations, costs for preparing Akinen, the overall trade volume and population distribution in the Conrad Kingdom, and tax revenues.

These were issues that couldn't be fully understood without months of investigation, so Leo demanded the treasurer swear loyalty to him.

It was an unusual action for a prince who hadn’t yet had his successor ceremony to take with a newly met official. The treasurer, baffled, nonetheless swore loyalty, and Leo felt reassured.

“But why are we building a port here?” Leo asked, pointing to the Conrad Kingdom map.

There were plans to establish a large port in the southeast of the Conrad Kingdom. However, the treasurer only knew how to procure the necessary materials and labor locally, not the reason behind the project.

Since it was a direct order from Prince Eric de Yeriel, and with him now gone, there was no way to find out, but a clue emerged during conversations with numerous nobles seeking an audience with the prince.

“I believe Prince Eric was trying to check Marquis Dennis Arne.”

It made sense. Leo nodded.

Marquis Arne, the northern border count of the Conrad Kingdom, controlled the land trade route with the Aisel Kingdom and possessed one of the continent's most renowned fleets. Naturally, he owned a port and conducted sea trade, generating immense income.

Having opposed Prince Eric de Yeriel’s legitimacy, Eric seemed to have planned to build a new port between the marquis's eastern port and the southern free port city, Noyar, to impose taxes on the southern sea route.

Marquis Dennis Arne was on Leo’s side.

Leo canceled the port construction. There were more urgent uses for those resources.

Buried in paperwork, Leo slept for two hours. Early in the morning, he had tea with Jenia and then attended the inauguration of Tertan's son, Midian Tertan.

Midian Tertan inherited the vacant dukedom after Tertan’s death. He acknowledged the crimes committed by his uncle, Prince Eric de Yeriel, and his father, and agreed to step down from his position as the western border count. The decision on who should take over that position was another matter to address.

Having attended the inauguration, Leo went on to meet the other royal family members. It had been a while! It wasn't a social visit but to solidify his position.

It was true that Lena and Leo were first in line for the throne, and Prince Eric, born of a concubine, was second.

But they were not the only ones eligible for the throne. There were plenty of third and fourth in line. Leo subtly warned them not to harbor any thoughts of usurping the throne, all while wearing a friendly smile.

No one would dare oppose a prince who had returned as a swordmaster, defeated Ashin, and commanded the nobles and knight orders. Yet, one could never be too cautious. Leo realized how sensitive and suffocating the supreme position of king and prince could be. He had to constantly be vigilant and suspicious of everyone.

‘I need to issue a state of alert.’

Now that the successor had changed, although the nobles had pledged their support, there was no telling what thoughts they might harbor. On his way back to his office, Leo turned and headed to the captain of the royal guards' office. He ordered the palace guards to be reinforced and then, recalling something, he searched the entire palace.

The palace wasn't just run by the head chamberlain and the treasurer.

He also met the judges responsible for the kingdom’s laws and punishments, the chief of protocol who managed royal affairs with the chamberlain, the master of the stables, the chief falconer who coordinated royal hunts, the master chef, the chief sommelier, and the head maid.

There were countless people he had to meet. Among them was one who began talking incessantly as soon as the prince arrived.

“I heard Akinen has been changed to Akine. Your Highness should hurry. We’ve prepared a new ceremony; please try on the outfit and review the revised procedures. Where is the princess? Where is Princess Lena de Yeriel...”

The etiquette officer. He emphasized the differences between the coronation and the successor ceremony, looking worriedly at the returning prince.

Doubtful if the prince knew proper etiquette... Haha. That was what Prince Leo was most confident in.

Though they shared achievements, Leo Dexter was best in swordsmanship, Rev excelled in hunting, and Leo de Yeriel was unmatched in etiquette. The meticulous etiquette officer was left speechless by the prince’s display of Arcaea Empire’s etiquette.

He concluded that as long as the prince and princess moved together, there would be no issues and returned to his duties.

Thus, Leo continued his tour of the palace. He checked on the repairs of the banquet hall, which had been wrecked during the battle with Oriax.

Then he noticed that while the floorboards had melted, the wood paneling the walls was intact. Upon inquiry, he learned that the floor was made of ordinary wood, while the wall paneling was coated with ambergris, a premium material.

Ambergris was the saliva of the balaena, a whale-like creature in this world. Wood treated with it emitted a subtle fragrance and was fireproof.

Naturally, it was incredibly expensive.

It was so valuable it could be exchanged for gold, and it didn’t melt in Oriax' blood... Leo thoughtfully touched the wood and returned to his office. The piles of paperwork from yesterday were still there.

Thinking he might have to stay up all night, Leo felt tired. Recalling the etiquette officer’s advice, he got up to clear his head and went to find his sister.

The princess’s room.

Lena was in despair.

Despite being in the palace, she was lost in thought, unable to focus.

She didn’t speak like a tragic heroine, though. Lena welcomed her brother, chatted, and recommended the Count Lopero family for the vacant western border count position.

It was a knightly family that had split from the Tertan dukedom. Leo vaguely remembered the name Tadian Lopero, the captain of the guard who protected Philas Tertan... That was it. He had died.

“Don’t just sit there. Help me out. I’m busy as hell.”

“...Shall I?”

After a moment's thought, Lena nodded obediently. She said she should do something and settled in Leo’s office.

Yes. Working was better than being holed up all day. Leo recalled how his sister had often stayed confined to her room.

She spent almost half her day sleeping. She could sleep all day if she wanted, perhaps as a survival strategy when she was hungry. She rarely exercised...

Right. The only time she exercised was when she joined the Rauno family and learned 'Hiberuna' from Santian.

Feeling somewhat melancholy, Leo sat at his desk and began dealing with the paperwork. Lena sat on a wide sofa, occasionally taking a few documents to read and

“Sign this.”

returning them. Leo checked the contents before approving them.

Scratch, scratch.

In the quiet evening, the beggar siblings quietly processed the paperwork.

Though they could no longer be called beggars, when a maid brought snacks, they shared them out of habit without asking for more.

It was an evening, three days before Lena and Leo’s Akine.