The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

“Good day, Earl Baelz.”

“Oh if it isn’t Prince Arnold. How can I help you today?”

Earl Baelz is a court noble with no territory who lives inside the imperial capital.

For generations, the Earl of Baelz has been in charge of important offices within the empire. The current Earl Baelz is also a Deputy Minister of Engineering who works in the field of civil engineering and flood control.

Such Earl Baelz was consistently maintaining his distance away from the succession war. Since his position doesn’t directly influence the tide of the succession war, the other three were not actively involved with him as well.

The reason I came here to the residence of Earl Baelz was because I heard a certain rumor.

“Actually, I have heard a rumor you see.”

Earl Baelz is a man in his thirties.

His bald hair combined with his timid appearance made him a person that no woman ever spare a gaze.

However, a few years ago, he was finally settled down. Originally, he is a talented man who succeeded a famous family and even held the position of deputy minister. If he doesn’t make any mistakes in how he looks for a bride, there should be a countless number of good candidates for him.

But, he did make a mistake.

“Ru, rumor you say…….?”

“Yeah, it’s just a rumor but it seems your wife has been flashily playing around every night. She goes around presenting herself like she is a royalty and everyone is wondering where all those money came from. I heard such a rumor you see.”

“Th, that is……that’s just an exaggeration. Certainly, my wife loves to play around but she never did it like that, she was, she was………”

Earl Baelz wipes the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief.

It seems the information that Sebas investigated is accurate huh.

According to Sebas, apparently, the Earl has been complaining about his wife with his acquaintances. His dissatisfaction with her was extreme, he often says that he wants a divorce or if he couldn’t he would commit suicide.

Judging from his reactions, I guess that he finds the action of his wife to be unpleasant. The question here is how far does this man go for her.

“Earl Baelz.”

“Y, Yes!”

He changed his tone of voice, when I stare at him, I can clearly see that he straightened his back.

Is it because a guilty conscience? Or is it perhaps his usual temperament?

“There’s this rumor too. It said that you are using the money embezzled from the empire for your wife.”

“I, I have never done anything like that! I’ve always worked hard as a loyal minister of the empire! Please believe me!”

“Even if you say that. This time, I came here because the rumor has already reached the castle. It will be a big deal if it gets to my father’s ears you know? I want to clear it up before that.”

The blood disappeared from the Earl’s face.

He is an easy to understand man. It might be due to his timid nature that he doesn’t want such a rumor to reach the Emperor.

Can I expect something from this?

“Y, Your Highness! Please lend me your power! Please help me!”

“I have no plan to help a criminal. Of course, Leo as well.”

“I, I really didn’t touch any of our empire’s fund!”

“Then where did that money come from? Your wife couldn’t possibly play around like that with an earl’s salary.”

“It, it came from our savings so it was fine at first……..but it immediately depleted so I borrowed money from my acquaintances and recently I have to borrow from the merchants as well…..I feel bad for my acquaintances but the deadline is already approaching, what should I do…………”

Why did you marry such a woman?

When I was having that incredibly rude thought, the door violently opened.

“Dear! There’s not enough money this month!?”

“Be, Bethina!? Leave at once! I am having an important talk with the Prince!”

The person that came in was a flashy beauty with golden hair. Her age should be the same as mine or slightly older. A young woman when you considered that she married a thirty-ish years old man.

Everything she is wearing is flashy. Her dress is what I often see the women inside the inner palace wearing and the precious metals that adorn her body seem to be real as well.

I can see why he wants a divorce.

“Prince? Which one?”

“H, Hey!?”

“It’s Arnold Lakes Adler. Sorry for disturbing you, Madam Baelz.”

“Arnold? Ah! That dull prince? I heard about you from the son of Duke Horsvath. The miserable prince who got all his good part taken away by his brother right?. What does an incompetent like you doing in our house?”

“……..”

Earl Baelz turned speechless.

Well, the same goes for me. The only person who ever makes a fool out of me in public like this is only Gied so far. She’s probably thinking that it’s fine for her to do it too since Gied can get away with it. But Gied is both my childhood friend and a son of a duke. Their positions are completely different.

Aah, this woman, she’s an idiot. Seeing her in action, I felt sympathy for the Earl.

“G, Get out now…….”

“Haa? Are you ordering me?”

“Whatever just get out already! !”

This is probably the first time the Earl being so enraged with his wife.

Taken aback, Bethina left the room with an unpleasant expression.

“Please forgive my wife’s disrespect! Your Highness!”

“I don’t really care. I’m already used to it after all. But she’s quite an absurd wife isn’t she.”

“…..my wife came to me when she was seventeen. She is the daughter of a local noble that was famous for her beauty, I fell for her the first time we met. After that, I gave her everything she wants because I don’t want to get hated but things escalated. Right now she misunderstands that she herself is some kind of royalty or a high-ranking noble…..”

“Of course, I think that it is your wife’s fault but it is also your responsibility as her husband for encouraging her as well. If you are her husband then you should give her a scold for her behavior right.”

“Yes….it is as Your Highness says.”

Perhaps his heart is already completely broken.

The figure of the Earl hanging his head down is really tragic.

Well, what to do now. It seems I will have to adjust my plan from this point on.

The original plan was to gradually gain the Earl’s trust but if I left him alone, perhaps this might actually lead to suicide.

Can’t be helped then.

“Is the reason you haven’t divorce her yet because you still love her?”

“Yes but….when I report to His Majesty that I married her, he was very pleased….we received a lot of congratulatory gifts as well.”

“I see. That would make it hard to divorce her huh.”

The reason I took notice of Earl Baelz wasn’t just his weakness regarding his wife.

It is also because Father took a liking to him too.

I am probably looking at the next Minister of Engineering right now. Earl Baelz who is loyal to his job and doesn’t play around too much is very easy to trust from an employer’s perspective.

If he knew the Earl’s circumstances, the Emperor would support the divorce himself. However, there’s no way that he can know so deeply about every single one of his subjects.

Right now, he needs someone to act as an intermediary.

“Earl Baelz. I know that you are not an idiot. You must know the reason why I am here right?”

“Y, yes….to add me to Prince Leonard’s faction correct?”

“Yeah. if possible I want to spend more time to gain your trust but…..it seems that we can’t afford that much time huh. I will ask Leo to convey your situation to Father. Then, if Father’s response is in support of your divorce then do it immediately. I will handle the letter to your wife’s parental house so don’t worry about it.”

“Is, is that true!?”

Earl Baelz looks at me as if he is looking at his savior. Just how much cornered are you.

Well, it’s a little selfish but this is also for the succession war. Let have the madam taste a little tear shall we. It is all about suffering the consequence. The difference is that the Earl has his uses while his wife has none.

But how do I explain this to Leo? It’s him after all, let’s have a talk with him face to face.

But I want to spare him the sight of that woman if possible. The madam could give Leo a women trauma after all.

“Earl Baelz. Sorry, but can you write an appeal letter to Leo?”

“A, a letter?”

“Yeah, immediately. It would be easier to persuade him that way.”

“Persuade?”

“Leo is a good guy you see. If I just talked about the matter myself, you might end up having me as a middleman right. You don’t want that correct?”

“Y, yes, I will write the letter right away!”

As prompted by me, the Earl began writing the appeal letter to Leo.

Even though he is an Elite that was born into a house of a court noble and succeeded the house as its head, to think that one woman could make him become this miserable.

As I thought, you have to choose your wife carefully huh.

For a moment, the women in my surroundings such as Finne and Elna cross my mind.

Just imagining them as my wife is already terrifying. There seems to be a lot of trouble no matter which one of them becomes my wife. Let’s stop thinking about this.

No matter what, I like my woman to be normal.

“Y, Your Highness, is this alright….?”

“Let me see it.”

My face distorted when I take a look at his letter.

What is written there is the Earl’s statement, complaining about his wife’s wrongdoings. All of the dissatisfaction he has with his wife seep through each letter.

I sighed at the letter’s content which already could be more accurately described as a curse.

“Make sure to be careful with honey traps after you start cooperating with us alright.”

“Y, yes! I will no longer look at any woman! I will faithfully serve Prince Leonard and Prince Arnold to the utmost of my ability!”

“Don’t get me wrong. We just need your help. Your Lord is still His Majesty the Emperor. Not us.”

“Pl, please forgive my rudeness.”

I need to put a nail in that.

If he treated Leo like his lord we would only create ourselves an extra enemy. I want to get rid of those possibilities as much as possible.

“Alright, I certainly received your letter. You will know the result in a few days so wait patiently.”

“Yes! Thank you very much.”

After that, I left the Earl’s mansion.

When I left the mansion the madam stared at Earl Baelz from behind his back but well, I hope he can be more patient for a few more days.

In the end, when I let Leo read the letter, [Why did he marry such a person?], such a natural question was voiced by Leo. Well, after I convinced Leo and have him relayed that to father, father fully support the Earl’s divorce and the divorce itself proceeded in no time.

Well, to father, it must be unbearable to see his ministerial candidate’s future get crushed by some local noble’s daughter.

With this, Earl Baelz joined Leo’s faction and Leo’s influence grew slightly stronger.

TLN: by the way Bethina is the name of the most beautiful woman in heaven that can lure any man to death.