The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

We were “Invited” to the castle.

Looking from his courteous attitude, it’s clear that the King has no intention to make an enemy out of us. Well, if this country did something to us it would be something like checkmate for them anyway. They already have to deal with the Sea Dragon, if they pick a fight with the Empire now it would definitely be over for them.

That being the case, it would be better for them to politely welcome us and discuss how to cooperate with each other to deal with the Sea Dragon.

It depends on their size but usually, Dragons are considered as S-class monsters. If you rely on the adventurer guild to fight it, they will either dispatch a party consisting of S-rank and AAA-rank adventurer or put a request to an SS-rank adventurer to deal with it.

If you are relying on the army then you would probably need a considerable amount of preparation and a large number of soldiers to fight it.

At the very least it would be impossible for the Principality of Albatro to defeat it alone.

“This way please.”

“Thank you.”

After thanking the knight who guided me here, I entered the throne room.

Stepping inside, the King was not sitting on his throne. He was bowing his head while standing on the red carpet that laid out below the throne.

The people around him who are probably his ministers are also bowing their heads.

“It is my pleasure to meet you, His Imperial Highness Leonard. I am the king of Albatro, Donato di Albatro. All of this has happened because of our country’s indiscretion. I am very sorry for getting you involved in all this. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for rescuing many of my citizens and children. Thank you very much…….”

“Please accept our gratitude Prince Leonard!!”

The surrounding ministers follow the king and voice their gratitude.

It was an unusual sight.

No matter how larger my country is, he is still the king while I am only a prince. His standing is basically higher than mine. Depending on the situation, we should be of equal standing at best.

Coming down from his throne and bowing his head like this is completely crazy.

Of course, I was frozen on the spot but when I looked at Marc, he has already solidified.

He somehow managed to stay on his knee but I get the feeling that he doesn’t know what to do anymore. It seems he already has his hands full just thinking about how to handle himself.

Thinking that it couldn’t be helped, I walked toward the king, grabbed both of his hands and make him stand.

The king is in his mid-forties. Same as Eva and Julio, he has pale brown hair and green eyes while his facial features are leaning toward that of Julio.

He looked kind but his face is a little too thin so he gives a strong impression that he is often unhealthy.

kneeling down, I started speaking to the King.

“Your Majesty. It is my pleasure to meet you. I am the eighth prince of the Empire, Leonard Lakes Adler. I am sorry for having made a fuss in your country. And you have no need to thank me. I simply help the survivors because they were adrift in front of my eyes. If a ship of our Empire were to meet the same fate, the Principality would surely do the same for us. That is because everyone here should know full well how terrifying the sea can be.”

“H, However!”

“Even so, the country that possessed a strong sense of duty such as yours wouldn’t be able to simply let this go. That’s why I’d like to ask for food and water to supply my ship in return. And since my ship has dumped the treasures that were meant to be a gift to Rondine to rescue the survivors, if you can spare us a small amount of treasure then we would be satisfied with that.”

“Wh, what! So you have gone that far for us! Certainly! Needless to say, our country will compensate you for everything!”

“Thank you very much. And there’s one more thing. I would like to ask Your Majesty about the trouble that plagues your country. If this problem were to be prolonged, its impact will surely spread throughout the continent.”

“……I understand. You are no longer unrelated to this. It would be better for you to be informed.”

I urged the King to sit on his throne.

The King nodded. He went back up to his throne and began to speak with a serious expression.

“As you may have already known this but….. a Sea Dragon is lurking in our sea.”

“I vaguely have that feeling. The storm was so unnatural and its characteristic also matched what my ship’s captain described the rumor of the Sea Dragon.”

“I see….that dragon is called [Leviathan]. It’s a dragon that has been asleep for more than two hundred years.”

“Two hundred years? That’s quite a long period of time for a dragon to be asleep.”

“It didn’t just fall asleep. We made it so. Using an ancient magic tool. Bring that to me.”

The king told a maid to bring out something.

Then, the maid brought out a broken staff.

It was completely broken. Its structure isn’t unusual but it has a giant jewel on the tip of it. It is probably a jewel used to store magical power. I can still feel strong magic power from it. However, that is still only half of its size. Imagining its original state, that thing should be quite an outrageous magic tool.

“Two hundred years ago, this southern region was ruled by a unified nation. However, the Sea Dragon Leviathan entered its active period and summoned storms throughout the area. That nation fought against it. As a result, they managed to make it fall asleep using this magic tool. However, the royal family of the time was already in their decline thus we entered a warring states era. Our Principality of Albatro was originally formed to protect this staff so the legend about Leviathan was passed down to us much more accurately than in Rondine.”

“I see. Because that staff has broken, you launched an investigation in a hurry, correct?”

“That’s right. I am very sorry for getting you involved in all of this. For your ship to be caught inside the storm as well, it wouldn’t be weird if your ship has sunk too….we should have contacted the Adventurer Guild from the start.”

“That was already in the past. Moreover, to subjugate a dragon you would have to pay an exorbitant amount of reward. Not to mention that the information about it will start circulating around as well. I can not blame Your Majesty for that.”

“…..Thank you for your understanding.”

That’s where the explanation ended.

I understand the situation now. Next is to come up with a countermeasure.

What should I do? Even if we contact the Adventurer Guild, it doesn’t mean that they will begin to move immediately. There are only a handful of adventurers who can combat a dragon after all.

Well, I am one of those adventurers but it would be too unnatural for Silver who only active around the imperial Capital to suddenly show up here. I must come up with some kind of reason.

“Your Majesty, What kind of countermeasures do you have in mind?”

“….I think that our only option is to contact the Adventurer guild. Although, they wouldn’t be able to move immediately….”

“That’s still our only option. I want to lend you the power of the Empire as well but if our opponent is a Sea Dragon and the battle has to be at sea then we can’t just settle the matter by dispatching our fleet. It would be better for us to rely on those monster specialists. However, I do have a proposal.”

“Tell me. What do you propose?”

“We should form an anti-dragon alliance with the Principality of Rondine. If they know of the situation, they should understand that this is no time for conflict as well.”

“I thought of that as well but….we have been in conflict with Rondine for a long time. We don’t have any diplomatic relations that we can rely on to establish an alliance with them at this time.”

“That’s why I want to propose this. Please allow me to carry out the alliance talks with Rondine. If the ambassador plenipotentiary of the Empire were to act as an intermediary, they wouldn’t be able to outright decline us that way.”

The King was a little confused at my proposal.

That was because this proposal is too convenient for them.

After a while of consideration, the King gave me a safe reply.

“Can I have some time to discuss this with my ministers?”

“Of course, but Your Majesty should be quick about this. Rondine still doesn’t know the full situation but they should probably have vague information that your country is currently in disorder. They might use this chance to attack.”

“Certainly,…….”

Well, even if I say that I don’t think that things will go in that direction.

Leo is on that side. Even if he has to pretend to be me, Elna is with him.

He should be able to keep up the act somehow and restrain Rondine’s movement to some extent. If I don’t arrive at Rondine he will surely anticipate that I am currently in Albatro as well.

Still, it would be helpful if he can buy me some time.

I want time to think. Using that, I can even go back to the imperial capital as well. The problem is that I would have to use it twice for a one-way trip. I would have to use transfer magic four times in total for a trip back and forth. That being the case, I have to carefully determine the timing for that.

With that in mind, I bowed and excuse myself from the throne room.