The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

Going back a little in time.

Elna was assigned as Mitsuba’s escort at the inner palace but the big part of that job was guarding Christa.

When Mitsuba and Christa took separate actions, she is always with Christa and Mitsuba accepted it as a matter of course.

That day, Christa went to visit Rita who is training inside the castle and Elna also went with her.

“Tadahhh! Look look! Kuu-chan!”

“What is that….?”

Rita who was at the castle square took out a coin to show it off to Christa.

At first glance, it looks like some shabby coin.

Still, Rita shows it off proudly to Christa.

“I wonder–? Do you want to kn–ow?”

“Eh, tell me…..!”

“Unn, what should I do? I wonder?”

“Fine! I will ask Elna! Elna, tell me.”

“Eehhhh! ! ? ?”

Christa walked with her small steps toward Elna who was watching over then nearby and asked her.

Seeing that Elna shows a bitter smile.

Naturally, it is something that Rita, a knight candidate, uses so as an imperial knight herself, Elna also knows what it is.

However, Elna turns her gaze toward Rita while wondering if she should really intervene in a children’s conversation.

Seeing the look of wanting to show off a new toy to her friend on Rita’s face, Elna thinks about the old days.

She thinks of herself when she proudly shows off new swords or magic tools she got her hands on to Al and Leo.

“Right….it’s a secret tool for the knights so I can’t simply tell you what it is. If you win against me in a game then I will tell you.”

“Game….?”

“Yes. it’s an easy game. I will hide a stone somewhere and if Your Highness can find it then it will be Your Highness’s victory. Rita, you come here too.”

“Ye–s.”

Rita said so curiously while paying close attention to Elna’s actions.

It might not be on the level of admiration but Elna who is a famous Onee-san is still someone interesting to her.

Elna picks up the stone that had fallen on the flowerbed and places it on her palm to show them.

“Rita. you join too. I won’t tell Her Highness Christa what it is if you win against me.”

“Really!? Rita will do it!”

“Un, it’s good that you are so energetic. Alright, this here is a simple stone. I will now hide this stone. Please pay attention okay.”

“Un……!”

“I won’t let it out of my sight–!”

Elna moves the stone in her right hand to her left while thinking that the two of them who are staring so intensely at it looked amusing. Then she switched the stone back and forth between her hands.

At first, it was at a speed that the children were able to catch up, but eventually, she sped it up until it became invisible to their eyes.

Unable to understand what is happening in front of them, the two only staring blankly at the scene but Elna soon stops her hands.

The hands that were opened have now become a fist and Elna pushed them out in front of the two with a smile.

“Alright, where do you think it is?”

“Unn, which one～～?”

“I have no clue……”

“It must be this one!”

“Y, you can’t! Rita! We have to cooperate here! I will take the right and Rita should take the left.”

“OOHH!! Kuu-chan is so smart! That’s it! Rita will take the left!”

“I will pick the right….!”

Elna’s smile got even wider after seeing the children used their child-like logic and came up with the answer.

However, Elna had no stone in both of her hands.

Since the stone that should have been there disappeared, their eyes turned into dots but soon Christa shiveringly muttered something.

“E, Elna ate it……….”

“I, I didn’t! It’s in your breast pockets!”

Elna points to the breast pockets of the children to clear that huge misunderstanding.

Hearing that, they notice that their breast pockets are bulging and look inside them.

Then.

“OOHH!!?? THERE ARE TWO STONES IN RITA’S POCKET!?”

“Two stone………Elna, cheating……..?”

“I didn’t cheat. It’s the stone Your Highness just saw.”

“But there’s two now!”

“I cut it.”

“Woww!! Amazing! You are so amazing, Elna-nee!!”

“……….”

Despite Rita’s excitement, Christa remembered what Al said to her.

The word he said was [My Sword].

At that time, Christa thought that he was just saying it as a metaphor.

Christa looked at Elna and convincingly nodded.

“Elna is a sword…..touching is dangerous……”

“W, why!?”

While having such a conversation, Elna was a little relieved.

When she first began escorting her, Christa made a small wall between them.

To get rid of that wall, Elna told her stories about Al. she wouldn’t be able to act as her escort if she is on guard against her after all.

In return, however, she ended up telling Christa many stories about Al’s uncool side but Elna put it as a necessary expense. Al was the one who asked her to do this after all.

Now that she opens up to her, Elna is confident that Christa is now trusting her properly.

“Elna, since both of us were wrong, who is the winner…..?”

“Hmmm, since it is my victory then I will be the one who will explain it to Your Highness. Rita, let me borrow the coin. Both of them.”

“Yes! Elna-nee.”

So she is going to call me that from now on huh, while thinking so, Elna receives two shabby coins from Rita. Then she handed one to Christa.

“Please hold it properly alright.”

“Un…..”

“Alright then, like before, I will hide this coin again, please do pay attention.”

Saying so, Elna switches the coin back and forth between her hand like she previously did

She then raised the speed until they couldn’t see the coin anymore and put her fists in front of them.

“Alright, where do you think it is?”

“Breast pocket!”

“Your left side back pocket.”

“Both of you are incorrect.”

Elna opens her hands.

There were no coins in there nor in their breast pocket.

The two keep looking for them but they couldn’t find it in the end.

“Now, Your Highness Christa, please take out the coin I handed you earlier.”

“This…….?”

“Yes. please place it on your hand just like that, Rita too, put your finger on that coin.”

“Yes!”

“Alright, please look closely okay. [Bande].”

With Elna muttered a word infused with a small amount of magic power, a thin thread of light extends out from the coin.

It then led to a pocket on Elna’s skirt.

Elna takes out the coin from her skirt pocket with her free hand and shows how it is being connected by a thread to Christa’s.

“These coins are called [Munze] (TLN: Kanji, Bond coin). They are magic tools that act as one. If you say the password while touching one a thread will extend from it to its counterpart. This thread is basically visible only to the person touching the coin. People who are good at magic are one thing but there should only be a few people who can see through it.”

“Amazing….then I can contact my friend with this?”

“Sometimes it is used for setting up a secret meeting and there are some that use it for its tracking purpose as well. One person can hold on to a coin and sneak inside the enemy’s camp while another person carries the second coin to stealthily follow in. As the production can not keep up with the usage, only the knights in the area around the imperial capital have it but it will eventually spread throughout the Empire. That being the case, Rita, don’t lose it okay? Since you are a knight apprentice, it is only being lent to you after all. Your instructor gave it to you because he wanted to see if you can take care of it right?”

“Y—es!”

It’s great that she’s energetic but Elna still sighed at her laid back reply.

Ignoring such Elna, Rita and Christa went away to play at the castle square.

“Will she really be able to become a knight like that……….”

There has never been a case where a knight apprentice at the castle became an imperial knight.

However, Elna expected Rita to be the first person to do it. She thought that Rita needed to be by Christa’s side after all.

If she becomes an imperial knight, she will be able to become an escort of the imperial family members. Rita, who is not from the Brave house like Elna, could become Christa’s personal guard if Christa wishes for it.

With such a future in mind, Elna focuses her mind.

To protect that future, Elna must crush that cruel future first.

As Elna affirmed her resolve, she heard Christa’s screaming voice as she was calling Rita’s name.

“RITA!”

“I’m fine! I’m fine! Ah.”

Rita climbs up a pillar in the square and when she looks down at Rita, she loses her balance and releases her hand.

Rita is falling down to the ground.

However, Elna instantly responded and lightly caught her.

“Seriously, a knight shouldn’t make a royalty worry about her alright? Rita.”

“Ahaha…..sorry.”

“Rita! Are you okay!? Are you hurt!?”

The pillar was not that high.

Even if she falls, there shouldn’t be many injuries. That was something that Elna learned from experience.

In the past, she once called Al out here for a special training session. As expected, Al who couldn’t do exercise at all fell from it and he only received some scratches.

However, Christa’s dismay here was abnormal.

It must have been related to the future she saw.

“I’m fine, see. I usually do this much you know.”

“Stop it! Don’t do something so dangerous anymore!”

“Your Highness, please calm down a bit.”

“Rita! I can see the future you know! Rita will be in danger! That’s why, Nghn!?”

Elna quickly closed her mouth.

Elna watches the surroundings while keeping her hand on Christa’s mouth.

After she confirms that there is no one around them, Elna lets out a sigh and looks at Christa.

“Your Highness, Al told you that you have to keep that a secret right?”

“……..He did…….I’m sorry.”

“Since you already told her it couldn’t be helped but Rita you have to forget what she said earlier alright.”

“The earlier thing? I got it!”

“Rita answers her with a smile.

Elna didn’t forbid her to speak about it.

Even if Rita told others about it, it will be treated as childish nonsense, and even if Elna didn’t tell her to be silent about it, she doesn’t think that Rita is the type that would start spreading rumors.

Rita, who grew up among various children can read the mood as a child could so it should be fine, that’s what Elna thought.

However, Elna did not know.

There is someone whose presence even Elna couldn’t detect nearby.

And the fact that she is a maid of a person who they should keep this secret away from the most.

“I have to report this to Zandra-sama.”

Saying so, the brown-haired maid shows a thin smile.

She has been tailing Elna according to Zandra’s order and she just got an unexpected windfall.

She was extraordinary to be able to tail Elna around without her noticing.

Even when she had been thoroughly trained, she still had cold sweat at the fear of getting noticed. If she is just another one of Zandra’s assassins then she would probably have been found already.

However, for Elna to be her guard also added credibility to that truth.

The truth that the Third Princess Christa has the ability to see the future. In other words, she is someone who possesses an innate magic.

Harboring such confidence, the maid slowly disappeared into the darkness.