RATH 74
TL: Eevee

9. The others’ stories (3)

#4 Their story: A certain Crown Prince’s story.

“Your Highness, the people you sent to the north have returned.”
“Re, really?!”

I threw away the documents that my father the emperor tossed over to me saying ‘if you’re going to be crown prince then you should be able to handle this much’ and hurried over to where the room where my subordinates were waiting.

“Did you find him? You found him right? Or else I’m gonna die? Really!”
“M, milord…”

I pulled up the captain that was trying to kneel back to his feet and hurriedly asked him.

I seriously have no time left now.

Because what’s for certain is that the moment elder sister comes back, I won’t belong to this world anymore!

“I’m sorry, milord. We couldn’t find any traces of the man named Ast in the north.”
“I see.”

As I looked at my subordinates that were nodding with truly apologetic expressions, I pulled out a letter I had been busy writing since last week.

“What’s that, milord?”
“This? A will.”
“M, milord?”

Since I have no chance of living anymore, I should complete my will.

“Damn it, if I knew it was going to be like this I would have married early, and tried this and that.”
“Milord? What’s with that vulgar language all of a sudden?”

What do you mean, vulgar. [Censored] is a sacred act that begets new life.

When a person is born, creating descendants is a natural thing, and it is a duty for me as a member of the imperial family.

“Well, although that has nothing to do with me.”

If I think of it positively, then when I die the succession war would begin again, and participating in that the moment you’re born is a sure way to die.

I suppose I should be glad that I didn’t create a poor child that was destined to be killed the moment it was born.

“I’m the only one that needs to die, after all.”
“Milord could you please listen to us!”

Do I have any need to listen…

“You said you couldn’t find him.”
“Y, yes. But milord is the Crown Prince that will succeed the throne! Even if it is Her Highness, she can’t just do as she likes with milord…”

Mm, I understand what you’re saying. That’s what it would be like, normally. Normally, that is.

“I’m like this because she can.”

Elder sister is a monster. She’s not human.

Even when I was young I thought elder sister was a monster to the point I believed she wouldn’t bleed even if I stabbed her.

There was nothing she couldn’t do, and nothing I could beat her in.

Perhaps if I had been an ordinary person, but I was an overwhelming genius compared to my surrounding peers, but I couldn’t hold a candle to elder sister.

But the moment I became Crown Prince, I thought that I might finally be able to beat elder sister.

Of course, it didn’t mean that I would try to harm my sister who was the greatest factor in my becoming Crown Prince.

I just didn’t want to be pushed around by her any longer.

But…

“…and that is the history of the empire.”

After I became Crown Prince, my father the emperor took me to a secret room in the imperial chambers.

What Father told me, after telling me that the entirety of the history of the empire was inside this room was nothing short of terrifying.

“Is, is this true?”
“Yep, so don’t piss off Atia. You’ll ruin the empire.”

When I heard elder sister’s secret, I understood instantly why even my father, one of the most chaotic personalities in the history of the empire quietly kept his mouth shut whenever elder sister said something.

And since that day, I never ever pissed off elder sister and lived quietly.

To be honest, it was actually quite convenient for me that the only thing elder sister wanted was the man named Ast.

But then I found out that man was actually part of the organization named Howling, whose history shared the empire’s own.

Well, that was alright.

I planted my spies, and also got in touch with families that had their own spies in the organization.

And at elder sister’s pressure to get rid of Howling as fast as possible, I created an situation that even a mouse couldn’t escape from and even made the grand achievement of exterminating Howling.

Thanks to that my standing at court rose, and the entire empire is praising my name.

Except just one. The single critical mistake of letting Ast escape would cost me my life…

“There’s nothing to say to Father. Mother was happy that I’d become Crown Prince, I suppose I should apologise to her.”
“Milord, we’ll hurry and find Ast for you. So please!”
“The imperial festival is about to begin soon. The Crown Prince cannot kill himself just before the anniversary of the empire’s founding!”
“That cannot happen!”

What do you mean, can’t happen.

Elder sister is strong.

Her faction, personality and background is all strong, but the woman herself is also powerful.

Judging by what I heard from Father, even the power that elder sister showed us when the man named Ast first ran away was basically just a joke to her.

Even Father, who was once called the Sword Disaster said that it was physically impossible to defeat elder sister in combat.

There’s no way that I, who just became a swordsmaster could win?

I have no confidence of being able to handle elder sister’s anger.

It’d be much easier to just kill myself before she arrives.

“Alright, let’s die.”
“Milord!”
“You cannot!”
“We, we’ll work harder!”

Hahaha.

Even if you lads say you’ll work harder it still doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to find the man named Ast.

You’d have found him already if you could, right?

No, even before that, I wouldn’t have lost him in that perfect scenario, right?

“So, let’s just die.”
“Milllloooooooorrrrd!”
“You can’t do this, milord!”
“Let me go, damn you all! I need to die now if I want to die cleanly! The moment elder sister returns is the moment I understand that death is happiness!”

At the actions of the fellows who stole away my will while grabbing onto my trousers, today as well I failed to write up my will.

Alright, let’s believe in my trusty subordinates a little more.

Because if I can just give elder sister the human named Ast as a present, I can become the emperor without any problems!
Then I’m happy, sis is happy, and peace arrives to the imperial court as well, so it’s a happy ending for everyone!

…So please, Sir Ast.

Before elder sister returns please… please get caught.

I’ll be really good to you once I become emperor, so save me!
Please!

#5 Their story: A certain pursuer’s story.

“It seems that he’s not there either, Your Highness.”
“Hmm~ I thought that the southern plains would be the best region to start a farm in.”

All Her Highness did was droop her head a bit with a slightly regretful expression.

…But as one who has served Her Highness for a long time, I know.

Her gnawing her lip like that while her face is saying nothing is wrong is a sign that she is extremely angry right now!
If I rubbed Her Highness the wrong way right now then I would have to put up with a very hard life for the forseeable future, so at times like this I need to stay still and not annoy her.

Didn’t Sir Ast say it as well? Even if you just sit still you’ll make it halfway already.

“Very well, it’s already been over a year, yet we cannot even find any traces. The empire is truly incompetent.”

If I back her up here then Her Highness will torment her subordinates, and that resentment will come back to me.

And if I defend the empire right now then she’ll say why couldn’t we find Sir Ast yet.

That’s right. This is all Sir Ast’s fault.

Her Highness wants him bad enough that she’d even destroy an evil organization that boasted a thousand year history!

Why can’t he just surrender quietly and come over!

Of course even I would be scared enough to run away.

But if people are suffering this much then isn’t it a matter of courtesy to just let yourself get caught?

Especially since His Highness the Crown Prince’s head is on the line!

“Hmm… should I kill my sweet little brother first before I keep looking…”

Behold! Even today our Crown Prince’s life is under threat.

“Your Highness. The imperial festival is going to begin soon. It’s still the anniversary of the founding of the empire, shouldn’t His Highness still be present?”

And today as well, I worked hard to prevent the empire falling into chaos!

This is the very definition of what a knight should be, in service to her country.

As if she understood my feelings, Her Highness smiled brightly at me.

Mm. Yep. Brightly.

“Is that my problem, Reia?”
“It iiss!”

I’m sorry, milord Crown Prince.

I don’t think I can protect you any longer.

To me who was just shivering, head bowed low to the ground, I don’t think I have the power to protect you anymore.

Unless a miracle happens, His Highness is as good as dead.

And miracles are miracles, because they don’t happen…

“We found Sir Ast!”
“It’s here, a miraaacclleeee!”
“Re, Sir Reia?”
“Reia does that every now and then, ignore her and tell me.”

My shout startled the information officer who made a shocked expression, but at Her Highness’s words he began to calmly speak.

Anyway, they said that the emperor was chosen by the heavens, His Highness was a truly blessed by the heavens!

To think we’d find Sir Ast at this timing, he was seriously about to die!

“Mph, pfft… ahahahahaha!”
“Y, Your Highness?”

I was thinking to myself, when all of a sudden Her Highness started laughing in tears.

“Emergency, it’s an emergency!”
“What happened!”
“Her highness is laughing so hard she’s crying!”
“Damn it, emergency alert!”

Because of that the room Her Highness was in was on red alert!

“Y, Your Highness? What’s the matter? Are you going to kill the Crown Prince right away? Or are you going to begin a second world war when not even ten years have passed since the last one?”

This is bad. Even I’ve only seen the princess laugh like this only three times in my entire life.

For the record, the first time was when she and Sir Ast carried out a plan that decimated the neighbouring country that was once considered a military superpower, and the other two times where when Sir Ast escaped from the imperial court and Howling respectively.

Her Highness’s laugh is that dangerous.

If you only talked about the results, the first time was when the neighbouring military superpower was pushed to the brink of ruin, the second marked the beginning of the end of the Great War, and the third the end of the thousand-year history of the evil organization.

Not even I could predict what Her Highness’s fourth laughter might bring about.

“Reia, you know Ast. There was a lot he knew how to do, but he always made other people do it instead.

Not even caring about how my stomach was churning around, Her Highness was saying something completely unrelated.

But who am I! A veteran who’s served Her Highness for almost twenty years!

At times like this my job is to find the answer she wants me to say myself!

“Sir Ast extremely disliked working, after all.”

He was the man that said making other people do the work they could do instead of you was the best.

And as if to prove his own words, Sir Ast would always push his duties onto me as if I was in charge of them…

“And I know this from what happened at Howling as well, but Ast has a habit of digging his escape routes in advance.”
“Yes, and that’s why we’re suffering so much…”
“Then Reia. If you put these two facts together, there’s something fun you can find.”
“If you put these two together?”

If you put his leaving his work to other people, and a habit of digging out his escape routes in advance then what would…

“Ah! You mean!”
“Indeed, Reia. It’s simple. The man named Ast even gets other people to dig his escape routes for him.”

At Her Highness’s satisfied smile I immediately offered a rebuttal.

“But Sir Ast always said that one was always liable to have their foot cut by their trusted axe, would he really leave the building of his escape routes to other people?”

Sir Ast’s distrust of people was extreme.

Even during the Great War he was the first to discover the enemy traps and spies.

Although he would say weird things like “of course it would be this cliché here!” or “don’t you even think about using the same old tropes!” but he was still someone who enjoyed blindsiding his enemies with their own traps.

And because of that, he was someone who always trusted that even his subordinates could betray him at any time, and so Ast was a somewhat untrustworthy superior to his subordinates.

“Yes, people, that is. But Ast is very well acquainted with a race that never betrays yet is the best at creating escape routes, is he not?”
“Ah!”

That was it. Ast didn’t trust people.

But Ast had very close relations with other races that weren’t people!

Especially dwarves! Ast could just call over the dwarves that not even the emperor could see easily whenever he wanted!

If it was the dwarves that disliked meeting humans and yet hated breaking promises more than death, even Sir Ast could trust them.

“And so I set people on all the races that Ast had relations with. And so I find that there’s a place where the Black Anvil clan, elves, and even a gnome is all gathered in?”
“Wh, where is that?”

The Black Anvil clan that were extremely closed-off even by dwarven standards, and the elves whose beauty made them susceptible to the evils of humanity.

And when you also had a gnome who rarely met up even among their own race, this was not normal by any stretch of the imagination.

“Hahaha, Ast really is an amusing man. I didn’t even imagine it.”

At my question, Her Highness the imperial princess smiled widely and said.

“To think he would hide in Yugrasia, right in the heart of the empire. Not even I could have imagined it, you know?”

It had been a year since we began roaming around the empire in search for Sir Ast.

We made our preparations to return back to the imperial court for the first time in a year.