novelraw Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75 : Chapter 75
Chapter 75
The House of Viscount Haitry in the Reime Kingdom had remained neutral for generations, siding with neither the noble faction nor the king's faction.
It was not so much that they wanted to remain neutral, but rather that no faction was interested in a minor provincial domain, but Viscount Haitry was grateful for his family's tradition.
For a viscount with no ambition to enter central politics and no particular aspirations, his small domain, where he was king, was more important than anything else.
Thin and long, without any ambition.
That was the proud family motto of the viscount's family and the current viscount's life goal.
A life goal he thought could never fail.
That is, until this morning.
“……”
The viscount's eyes went to the two feet resting on the dining table.
To put one's feet on the dining table.
Was he asking for them to be cut off, or to be sliced?
He wanted to call a knight and have them cut off for sure, but then his thin life would also end.
“Is something bothering you, Viscount?”
At the call of the man who had put his feet up, the viscount, who had been startled, answered in a polite voice.
“Ah, no, Your Highness.”
Right, if the chair is uncomfortable, you can put your feet up.
What's the big deal about a dining table.
He could understand putting his feet on the dining table and eating greedily with a delinquent posture.
No, he had to understand.
Because the man in front of him was none other than a prince.
And a mad prince at that, Trimia, whom even he, who lived modestly, tucked away in the provinces, had heard of.
“Uh……”
The viscount cautiously opened his mouth.
“By any chance, what brings you here……”
He looked out of the domain with trembling eyes.
This morning, when he received the report that hundreds of soldiers were rushing towards the domain, he thought his heart would stop.
And when he heard that the one leading those soldiers was Trimia, it really did stop for a few seconds.
If his beloved wife hadn't hit him in the solar plexus to bring him to his senses, he might have died of a heart attack.
‘Ugh……’
The anxious baron's gaze shifted from the window to the prince.
What business would the second prince have in a provincial domain?
It must have been to deliver a message to participate in the succession battle.
‘Absolutely, absolutely not.’
He had no intention of putting his name in the line of succession to the throne, and even less intention of supporting the second prince.
Even if a sword were to be put to his neck, he would protect his thin and long life.
As he was making such a resolution, the prince, whose eyes met his for a moment, opened his mouth with a faint smile.
“It’s nothing much.
I just stopped by on my way.”
“Yes?
Ah, yes!”
It was welcome news, but he couldn't let his guard down.
The opponent was a mad prince.
A person to whom common sense did not apply.
“Where are you headed?”
“I’m on my way to Moner.”
“Moner?
Moner… Ah!
You mean the duchy of the hero!”
Once he had confirmed the purpose of the visit, he could breathe a sigh of relief.
Now that the immediate problem was solved, curiosity raised its head.
A curiosity he would normally not have even given a thought to.
“What is your business there……?”
At that question, the prince lowered his arrogantly propped-up feet, leaned his upper body forward, and brought his face right up to the viscount's, saying.
“Ah, it seems the viscount did not know.
Moner has requested for help.
The very existence of the kingdom is at stake.”
At the sight of Trimia approaching like a snake coveting its prey, the viscount, terrified, flinched and moved back.
“Yes?
What is that supposed to mean……”
“Well, it seems Orcs are invading Moner.
Viscount, have you ever seen an Orc?”
No way.
Orcs did appear in the mountains around the domain, and every spring he would send soldiers to clean them up, but a viscount whose dream was to live a thin and long life had never once gone to exterminate them himself.
The prince, noticing this from the viscount's wide-eyed expression, raised the corners of his lips slightly and said.
“Orcs are greedy creatures.
A monster that can never coexist with humans.
Their bodies are three or four times larger than a human's, and they chew on humans with tusks the size of your face.”
That was not true.
An Orc's tusks were more of a symbol of status and strength, and although they might be used for ramming during battle, they were a tool completely unrelated to eating, like a deer's antlers.
Of course, the pure and ignorant viscount had no way of knowing this.
“Such……”
“Is that all?
They swing their axes to dismember humans and greedily devour their corpses.”
That was also not true.
The monsters of the continent did see humans as prey, but the monsters in the forest of demonic beasts were different.
The only humans who entered the forest of demonic beasts were Moner's soldiers and knights, so they were hard to catch, and even if they were caught, humans, who were full of muscle, were tough and bland.
The only ones who coveted humans were the Goblins who had been pushed out of the forest.
But Trimia continued to add lies with a nonchalant face.
The viscount, having even forgotten the report that his own soldiers had killed Orcs a few days ago, focused on Trimia's explanation.
“…They are a species that creates the clang of metal and the fire of sulfur with just their breath, and they take women to forcefully bear their young.”
The Orcs in the prince's explanation were a monster of the century, a suitable mix of the legendary demonkin, but the viscount, facing the serious face of a royal, had no choice but to believe.
“…As you may have heard, from what I have seen myself when I went to Moner……”
How could he not believe when a royal, and a prince at that, was explaining the appearance of a monster he had seen with his own eyes with such a serious and solemn face.
By the time his explanation was over, the viscount, his face pale, shouted.
“W-what will we do if such a devilish creature is unleashed upon the kingdom?!”
The arms that he had firmly crossed, vowing not to be deceived by the prince, were now uncrossed, and the viscount clasped his hands as if in prayer.
Seeing the pale and desperate viscount, Trimia said with an incredibly solemn face.
“That is why.
That is why I am going.”
This was a prince who had deceived the snakes of the political world by feigning madness for over ten years.
A naive viscount who had not even dipped a toe in politics was not even a mouthful.
“My older brother and His Majesty the King wanted to go themselves, but they could not, as the Empire is covetously eyeing the kingdom.
The kingdom's knightly orders and soldiers must be wary of the Empire.
So shouldn't I, at least, risk my life to protect the kingdom?”
Trimia went on to emphasize that Moner was the kingdom's only hope and the nation's last bulwark, and the viscount, who was on the hook, trembled and said.
“How could such a thing……!”
Now, in his mind, the malicious rumors he had vaguely heard about Trimia were gone.
He was just moved by the fact that a prince, who had inherited noble blood, had stepped forward to protect the nation and its people.
“So, you see……”
So the viscount had no choice but to nod at the prince's following request.
“Would you mind lending me some soldiers?”
“Yes, yes!
Of course I should!
Although they may be lacking compared to the royal elite troops, I have soldiers whom my knights have trained themselves!”
At the viscount's answer, the prince smiled quietly as if satisfied, and at that sight, the viscount's misunderstanding deepened.
‘Indeed, that is the face of one who has prepared for death!’
***
After leaving the House of Viscount Haitry, Trimia went around to other small and medium-sized domains, gradually increasing his size.
There were not a few lords who saw through the prince's act, but the prince's justification was so clear that the small and medium-sized lords could not refuse.
In the first place, to the prince, they were not even a target for negotiation or persuasion.
-You can't help when I'm trying to save the kingdom?
-Are you a spy?
-Ah, or do you know someone in the Empire?
Do you receive a salary from the Empire?
Do you own a building in the Empire?
-This bastard is a spy!
When he came out like this, they had no choice but to give him even the militia, crying and eating mustard.
And he didn't just take them.
If they tried to send a hastily assembled force.
-It seems they will only be a burden to Moner if they go.
It seems there are forces who wish for the kingdom to fall.
He would bring up things like being a spy or an ideological examination, so the nobles had to give up a part of their elite troops, holding back their tears.
Every time, the prince would smile quietly and say.
-Just think of it as being bitten by a mad dog.
The lords who had actually been bitten by the mad dog trembled and could not hide their tears the night he left, but the prince, who had inherited the royal bloodline, grew in power day by day.
And so, Trimia, who had come to lead a force of twelve hundred, faced the marquess in the drawing room of Marquess Dmitry, who was called the leader of the king's faction.
“Your Highness.”
The prince's gaze briefly touched the marquess, then, as if uninterested, he turned his head and picked his ear.
“Your Highness.”
Twitch, a vein popped on the marquess's forehead, but the prince didn't even look at the marquess and said.
“What?”
At the voice dripping with annoyance, the marquess's reason was on the verge of snapping.
The marquess knew what the prince was up to and what he wanted.
Because petitions and appeals to save Moner were pouring in day after day due to the rumors he had inflated.
If the prince requested for support, he was going to refuse flatly and pressure him to send back the soldiers he had gathered.
‘That, that son of a bitch!’
The marquess did not know.
Whether it was pressure, threats, or appeasement, you had to be able to talk to do it, and Trimia, who was called the madly beautiful prince, was not someone you could talk to.
Since he had no intention of talking, the conversation didn't even start.
He wanted to leave, but he couldn't.
“Thank you for taking the time to see this old man, but there is a lot of work in the domain……”
As the marquess spoke in a troubled voice, the prince turned his head, glanced at the marquess, and said in a nonchalant voice.
“Ah, was I bothering a busy person?
My apologies.”
So Trimia was indirectly saying that he was bothering the marquess.
And then he lay down, pointed to his stomach, and grinned.
“How about it, will you try to go, even if it means stepping on me?”
‘This, this, this!’
The marquess, whose hands were trembling with anger, wiped his face and calmly returned to the sofa and thought.
Where on earth did it go wrong?
To be precise, it was from the prince's appearance.
He had intended to press down on the ignorant prince's arrogance with logical and rational counterarguments and a sharp tongue, but the prince had lain down on the floor right in front of the door as soon as he entered the drawing room.
And then he had started to spout whatever he wanted, looking up at the ceiling with a dazed expression.
“The sky is clear.”
“It looks like it will rain today.”
“The stars are particularly bright tonight.”
“Haha, look at that cloud, doesn't it look just like a demonic beast ostrich?”
The marquess couldn't even be sure if the prince's madness had relapsed or if he was faking it.
No, he didn't need to be sure.
Whether he was faking madness or was actually mad, the moment he tried to use a knight or a servant to move the prince, there would be bloodshed.
Then who would step forward and call that outrageous behavior an act?
They would just think that a madman was doing something crazy.
‘To use madness as a card……’
For a moment, he suspected that the prince might actually be normal, but seeing him lying on his back with his belly exposed, that suspicion disappeared.
That one was mad, and properly mad at that.
Among the lowlifes, he was the king of lowlifes.
“Hoo……”
Looking at the madman who was lying on the floor spouting nonsense, a sigh came out on its own.
The prince who heard it said in a feigned concerned voice.
“Marquess, if you're tired, go and sleep.”
At those words, he reluctantly lifted his head, and the sly smile on Trimia's face greeted him.
The prince slightly moved his hand and pointed to his own pale belly.
“Step on me.”
The marquess's tightly clenched hands trembled.
‘Endure, endure, endure……’
The master of the marquess's family, who had reigned for hundreds of years as a staunch supporter of the royal family, seriously considered treason on that day when the sky was clearer than any other.