The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

“Fuu–…..”

Alone inside my room in Albatro castle, I breathed my lungs out.

I was pent up. Ever since I swapped places with Leo, just how much suffering have I been through.

Honestly, I’m tired. Forcing myself to do something is too bothersome for me.

“I wonder what Leo is doing right now…..”

I’m worried about their side.

Since Elna’s there as well I want to believe that he can imitate the Al-like things properly.

As long as I have to act like Leo, that side also has to put up the act as well.

However, I know that he will have a harder time than me. Leo really can’t act like a good-for-nothing, rather, he doesn’t even have a lazy-bone in him.

After all, it would naturally be difficult to do something you have no experience in.

“Well, worrying alone is useless huh….”

I can’t do anything but believe that they are doing well.

More importantly, I have another thing to think about.

The Sea Dragon Leviathan.

It is undoubtedly a monster that exceeds S-class. There are two ways to quickly subjugate it that I can think of right now.

Whether I go out to fight it as Silver or have the Empire side get us the Emperor’s permission for Elna to use her holy sword. Which path should

I choose?

There’s no reason for Silver to come to the south. We haven’t even put in a request at the adventurer guild yet.

On the other hand, it takes time to send a request for the Emperor’s permission and wait for their reply to arrive.

Both ways are far from ideal.

“What should I do.”

When I was considering my options, someone knocked on the door.

Just leave me alone already, while thinking so, I adjusted my wrinkled clothes and unkempt hair and answer the door.

“Please come in.”

“Excuse me. It’s Eva, I want to say thank you for earlier.”

The person who entered the room is Eva who is wearing a dress.

So she regained her consciousness. I wanted that to happen sooner if possible though. If she did, I wouldn’t have to force my way through like that, with that in mind, I hide my real thought and show her a sweet smile.

“What’s important is that you are safe, Princess Eva. Are you already recovered enough to walk around by yourself?”

“Y, yes…umm…thank you very much for saving me. Everyone told me that we were saved thanks to Prince Leonard. They also told me that you were very kind and courageous.”

“That’s just an exaggeration. The people who tried their hardest to rescue the survivors including yourself were the crew of my ship. If you want to praise someone then they are the ones who deserve it.”

“Then…..as Julio’s elder sister please allow me to express my gratitude. I heard that you dived into the sea to save him without any hesitation. Diving into a place where there might be a Sea Dragon lurking around was absolutely not something anyone could do. You were very heroic to act like that.”

“It’s nothing, I was just carried away by the situation.”

Eva smiles gently to my answer.

Because of that, my cheeks have turned stiff.

This situation, it’s the scene I have seen many times already. From the side that is.

It’s the feverish face noble ladies made when Leo did some great deed. Eva’s reaction is close to that. In short, she’s blushing. For Leo who did a heroic task of saving her people without fearing even the Sea Dragon.

Don’t use that heated gaze to stare at me anymore.

I’m actually Al so I will be troubled if you looked at me like that. Very.

“C, come to think of it how is Prince Julio doing?”

“He just regained his consciousness. He wanted me to thank you for saving his life. He said that you were the ideal prince and want to become like you someday too.”

“Is, Is that so…….”

The elder sister is all heated up while the little brother has nothing but admiration for Leo.

This is bad. If we swapped back this will definitely become troublesome.

What to do? Should I make her hate me?”

No, that’s impossible. I can’t do anything too noticeable to the princess or the prince within Albatro’s territory. There’s also the possibility that they will notice the switch if I did something drastic too.

But if I continue to act like Leo like this, she will fall even further and it will turn into love in the end. I have seen it happen many times already.

Eva’s eyes are already engrossed with a cool prince from a big country.

It’s nothing unusual. Girls her age often prefer the dreamy type and easy to fall in love. Leonard Lakes Adler has qualities that fit the spec of those girls.

He’s a prince, he’s handsome, he’s gentle and most importantly, he can do anything.

I won’t lose to him in the first three departments but the last one is definitely where he is different from me. Yup.

I have the same face but no one ever told me that I’m handsome though.

“Prince Leonard. We have been standing for a while now so how about we continue this inside?”

“Eh, Ahh…..”

Aren’t you unexpectedly bold. This girl. She might be the type that I’m bad with.

I am bad with pushy women because of the trauma Elna gave me ever since I was young. Of course, I’m bad at dealing with Elna herself as well. But she’s a childhood friend and I can understand how she thinks so I can somehow come up with some countermeasures against her.

But when a girl I don’t know that well comes at me boldly like this, I don’t know how to deal with her.

“Ah, am I bothering you…..?”

“No, um….I was writing a report for the Empire. I have to keep writing it for a while so I’m worried that this might be boring to you, Princess Eva.”

“Oh……”

Eva’s face dyes red as she covers it with both of her hands.

Arghhh…… What should I do with her?

I often went out to play in the town, I even played with women before. But I’ve never been approached so forcefully before. Not even once.

I don’t know how to politely refuse her and as long as I’m acting as Leo, I can’t do anything that will tarnish his reputation.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you. I will pay you a visit again. How about we have a meal together next time?”

“If schedule allows then, gladly.”

I delivered a safe answer with a smile, the moment Eva left, I hurriedly closed the door.

“Crap crap crap crap……This is bad…..”

How do I explain this to Leo?

Sorry, the princess fell in love with you?

No no, that’s no good at all.

I have to break her out of it somehow. She’s just admiring the prince who saved her and her brother’s life. If I don’t do anything unnecessary, that feeling of her should calm down.

“Calm down, me. It’s fine. Rather than worrying about this, don’t I have a bigger problem to think about. Let’s do this.”

With such determination, I head to the desk.

Whatever the case, right now I’m Leo. I have to send a letter to the empire to report our status.

But how do I report this?

Should I tell them that we switched places? No, if I do that the upper stratum of the Empire will find out that what Leo has been doing until now was actually my doing. That means they will know that I have enough ability to act as Leo as well.

That will be bad. Very bad.

I want them to keep underestimating me a little while longer.

Is there no choice but to write the report as Leo after all.

“If I’m Leo, how would I report this.”

The situation will definitely change by the time this report reaches them anyway.

I should report the current situation, and write down my prediction on the future huh.

There’s a high chance that the appearance of the Sea Dragon will cause damage to the Empire.

Should I write something like asking Father for permission to use the holy sword to form a good relationship with Albatro as the ambassador plenipotentiary?

By the time this arrives, at worst, one of the countries in the south might have already disappeared, that’s quite a scary story.

“It would be great if they hurry up and put in a request at the Adventurer Guild…..it’s probably impossible though.”

The Principality of Albatro has a thriving maritime trade, their Navy is strong but the army leaves much to be desired. On the other hand, the Principality of Rondine is the opposite. Their army is powerful while their Navy is not.

That’s why every time Rondine attacks, they always use the land route.

To fight the militant Rondine, Albatro has been borrowing troops and weapons from other countries that it has close ties with. Because of that, even though Albatro looks like a wealthy nation, they actually aren’t that rich.

Of course, they are not poor either but if they ask the Adventurer Guild to defeat the Sea Dragon for them, they will have trouble when they have to borrow troops and weapons from other countries.

That’s why Albatro didn’t rely on the Adventurer Guild from the start.

The only way to improve their situation is for them to do something about Rondine.

The Principality of Albatro is now stuck between the dragon and Rondine. If they can somehow deal with Rondine they can focus on the Sea Dragon.

“For now I have to do something with Rondine.”

Thus, the course of action was decided.

With the prediction of future events, I started writing a report to the Empire.