The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

“I see. You are going to see her huh.”

“Yes. I judged that this is the best course of action.”

“Well, since her personality is like that, even if we sent a letter she wouldn’t move after all.”

“Yes. If she can’t come to the Imperial Capital then she might come to visit us at the Duke’s territory.”

Father gives several nods to my words.

Franz is by his side, and there is no trace of the timidness he showed me last time.

“Your Highness. May I voice a personal request?”

“Please, Prime Minister.”

“Thank you very much. Duke Reinfeld has been in love with Her Highness Lizelotte for the past twenty years but he has never sent a letter directly to her. Even when Her Highness is at the imperial capital, he has always come through me first. The imperial capital and his territory are not close enough that he can easily move between both cities. Nevertheless, the Duke always handed his letter to me every time. Do you know the reason why he did that?”

“He thought that if he sent it to her directly it would only trouble her?”

“Yes, that is exactly the reason. If it is not too much trouble please send this letter to Her Highness for me, if she hates it then you can just throw it away as well. That was what he said. Among all the suitors, Duke Reinfeld is the only one who took such consideration for Her Highness. That’s why Her Highness only read the letter and received the gift from Duke Reinfeld. This is the story I heard from the generals who have accompanied Her Highness to the battlefield.”

That is quite a surprising piece of information.

It’s not the fact that Duke Reinfeld was being considerate.

It was surprising that my sister always read his letters.

Does this mean?

“For nobles who live far apart because their territories are far away from each other, letters and gifts are their method for them to maintain their relationship. They might not be able to meet each other even once a year after all. Among the nobles who excessively sent many of such gifts to her, one could say that Duke Reinfeld is quite a gentleman. That’s why, even though Lizelotte-sama declined his marriage proposal, she never once refused his letter or gift.”

“I see. So she doesn’t personally hate him huh.”

“Yes. She must have some reason for doing this. Perhaps she decided that she would never marry or maybe it is because of another reason. Nothing could be done if it is the former but if Her Highness has another reason then I want Your Highness to persuade her. If Her Highness clearly shows a dislike toward Duke Reinfeld then we can give up but I don’t think that Her Highness Lizelotte finds him to be unpleasant. That’s why the person himself is quite pitiful.”

The fact that he knows that she read all of his letters means that Franz must have looked through it beforehand.

Since he knew what the Duke was giving her, he must know my sister’s reaction when she received those gifts too.

Franz is good at taking care of others so he must have been giving him advice.

It seems Franz also wanted to see this love bear fruit as well.

“Twenty years……others would find such a person to be persistent. I am one of those people. I told him many times to give up, it’s for your own sake, there’s no use no matter how hard you try, that’s what I told him. Still, Duke Reinfeld was determined, he only said that if his actions are troubling Lizelotte he will stop. To him, Lizelotte is his whole world. No matter how this will turn out, I want to do this for him.”

As I thought, my father is a human too.

He must feel bad for the man who has been trying so hard alone for the past twenty years.

Depending on how one looks at it, it only looks like Aneue is keeping him around because he is convenient after all.

It’s that Aneue. She probably doesn’t notice it but if she doesn’t clearly tell the Duke to not care about her anymore then there might still be hope.

“What if……Aneue says that she doesn’t want to marry anyone? Should we just give up?”

“……if she says that then I don’t see any other way.”

Father grimly muttered.

I want to see her as a bride.

That might be Father’s real feeling but one could say that it is just his own selfishness.

It’s Father. He probably thinks that if Aneue got married, she can distance herself from the succession war.

If Gordon or Zandra took the throne, Aneue might be pinned with some crime and eliminated.

But if she becomes someone else’s wife, she will no longer have the position of an imperial family member. It can mitigate the danger to her to some extent and the Empire will not have to lose a good general as well.

Even if you are an emperor, it doesn’t like you can do anything you like after all.

“Then I will proceed with that. I don’t know whether I can bring back good news but I will do the best I can, please wait for me.”

“I understand. I will leave it in your hand.”

Saying so, I left the throne room.

After I left the throne room I headed to my mother’s place.

I might not go as far as the frontier like Leo but I will still be leaving the imperial capital.

The faction is in Finne’s hands and since the conflict between factions is still calm, it should be fine. Gordon and Zandra have been exhausting each other while we were out of the country while Eric’s faction that is still intact will not risk upsetting father by making a move in a situation like this.

My father is very sensitive toward the immigrant’s issue. If someone aims to take Leo’s down while he is moving to resolve that issue, Father will definitely be furious. Eric will not do such a stupid thing like that. That’s why there shouldn’t be any conflict inside the capital for the moment, at least on the surface.

Of course, there is still a lot going on behind the scene. The conflict between merchants of each faction is one of those. That’s why I can’t bring Finne with me this time. She is the trump card of the Ajin company after all.

“Looking at it like this, we really do have a shortage of manpower huh.”

Sebas must be left here for Finne’s escort too.

The defense around me might be thinner but it’s way better than letting Finne be defenseless. I only have to worry about my identity being exposed, there’s no danger to my life. I can just be more careful than usual.

Leo has Lynfia with him and Finne has Sebas to protect her. It would be easier for me if there was an escort who could move around freely, but there’s no one like that around after all.

Unfortunately, I can’t rely on Elna this time because she has another mission assigned to her.

“It’s not like I can just settle with any strong person too. I can’t let someone I can’t trust to guard me after all. Haa……excuse me. It’s Al.”

“Al!? Come in now!”

When I visited my mother’s room inside the inner palace, she told me to get inside with a loud voice.

Immediately realizing that there is something wrong, I quietly enter the room.

Mother is hugging the shivering Christa.

“Christa!?”

“UuUu….Uuu……..”

“She suddenly started crying without saying anything. She probably saw something again.”

my mother who is acting as Christa’s parent naturally knows about her precognition ability.

She always comforts Christa and letting it pass but if Christa became like this then letting it go away on its own is not an option here.

I lower myself down to Christa’s eye level.

“Christa. Are you alright? It’s me, Al.”

“……Al-niisama………..Al-niisama!”

Christa who has been hugging Mother came to hug me.

Her body is slightly shaking.

I continue to stroke her head until she calms down.

When Christa finally calmed down, she tried to open her mouth but she couldn’t.

“……Christa. What did you see? Did you see something scary?”

“Christa. Talk to Al. He might be able to do something about it.”

“….Uu….UU………”

“Christa?”

“…..a small hut……and a lot of children……”

Christa begins to speak little by little.

She talked about what she saw in bits and pieces but at the end, she muttered this,

“Ri, Rita is……”

“Rita?”

“She’s dead……! Right in front of me…..!”

“Wha!?”

“No way……”

That gave me a shock.

In the past, Christa’s vision has been a hit and miss.

However, in terms of accuracy, the futures that directly involved Christa are more accurate.

The death of our eldest brother was the death of her close relative, and she was there when Kiel was under attack.

In that sense, the future that happens before Christa herself is a very probable future.

But this timing is the worst!

“Al-niisama……save Rita……!”

“Al……”

“…..I just said goodbye to Father………..”

“Eh……? No! Al-niisama! Don’t go!”

Christa desperately clings to me. Her small hands are tightly holding my clothes.

What to do?

Should I tell father that we should give up?

No, he will not accept it. I need a reason. And if I explain about Christa to him, Christa’s ability will be known. Although it doesn’t have absolute certainty, a magic that let you see the future is very beneficial to the country.

That’s the worst-case scenario. It will put Christa in danger and she will be forced to see something that she doesn’t want to.

However, we don’t have anyone we can rely on right now.

“Al. I will ask the Emperor somehow. If I do that.”

“……even if I stay, I will not be able to remain inside the inner palace all the time.”

Besides the consorts and their guards, the only ones that are allowed to stay inside the inner palace are female members of the imperial family or princes that are less than twelve years old.

Even if you are a prince, you will not be allowed to stay in the inner palace after a certain age.

If something happens in this place, my reaction will be delayed.

If Lynfia is here then I can ask Mother to assign her as her guard but that option is impossible to me right now.

Even if it’s Silver, if I suddenly appeared inside the inner palace, there will definitely be punishment.

“Looking at the situation, it seems that Christa herself will be involved in some kind of incident. We need to place an escort as close as possible by her side. And the woman who is skilled enough to be her guard is…….”

“……..there’s only one I can think of.”

“Right.”

If the situation is like this then I can only ask Elna.

I have to ask her to turn down her mission and stay by Christa’s side.

If that doesn’t work then I will have to come up with a new move.

“But Elna was assigned a mission. In terms of risk, she is on the same level or even greater than mine.”

She was assigned a mission as an imperial knight while I was assigned as a prince. Even children can tell which one of us should choose their own assignment over this.

Depending on the reason she uses, she might even be removed from the imperial knight order.

Still, we have no choice but to rely on Elna.