The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

“It has become really troublesome.”

“Seriously. This is a pinch for us.”

The next morning. I immediately invited Sebas and Finne to my room for a strategy meeting.

As expected, Sebas seems to understand the seriousness of the situation.

“A pinch? Isn’t this a chance for Leo-sama to show off his ability?…..the knights were equally allocated by His Majesty as well and Al-sama should know how excellence Leo-sama is right?”

“Haa….”

“Th, that sigh just now is to make fun of me right!? I know that much!”

Hearing Finne’s shout, I reluctantly start explaining.

Actually, Finne’s idea is not wrong. Only half of it that is.

“This festival is both a chance and a pinch. It is a chance because there’s a possibility for Leo to become the ambassador plenipotentiary. The reason that it is a pinch at the same time is if one of our three rivals become the ambassador plenipotentiary, the distance between us that we finally managed to close will widen again. Although we are now the fourth faction, we are still considerably weaker than the other three. If one of them takes the position, the other two can still somehow manage but we don’t have that kind of leeway. Unless there is a drastic change, we will have to drop out of the succession war.”

“Is, is that the case!? Th, this is bad! We have to hurry and do something about it!”

Finne started to panic. She gets up from her chair and pacing around the room.

I leave her alone and address Sebas.

“Did you gathered the information?”

“There aren’t many available, Your Highness. It seems like the knight order just heard about it yesterday themselves. This matter must be mostly decided by His Majesty and his close aid alone.”

“If that’s the case then the tricks we have up our sleeves are limited. The issue here is all depending on each of the candidate’s ability and luck huh…..”

Will a rare monster appear? Will we encounter them? These things really depend on luck.

No matter how strong you are, there’s no meaning if you don’t have the opportunity to show it.

“There is another piece of information. The knights are expecting the venue of this festival to be the eastern part of the empire.”

“Eastern part? Why?”

“ The eastern part is originally the area where the damage from the monsters is the greatest, it is also the area that the adventurer’s subjugation can’t keep up with the monster population. Also, our knight order was dispatched to other areas but the eastern part was untouched by the previous knight dispatch.”

“So he left the eastern part alone to let it serve as the festival venue huh. That’s certainly what my father would do.”

As expected, the knight can’t be expected to hunt monsters in every corner of the empire. I thought that there would be some places they couldn’t cover but it seems that place is the eastern part huh. If the area that was damaged by the monster becomes the center of the festival it surely will be crowded with tourists. The rebuild will be easier as well.

This is really like father.

“The festival’s flow is like this, the knights will be dispatched to the eastern part and hunt the monsters there for several days, after that you will have to pick a unit that you are confident in then His Majesty will give out his judgment and decide the winner. Additionally, the story has already spread so the merchants are starting to flow to the eastern part as we speak.”

“It is their business opportunity after all, the merchants will not miss it. The scale of this festival has gotten bigger huh…..The influential people from all over the world will come to see it, this is going to be troublesome.”

“A, Al-sama! I came up with a plan!”

“Let’s hear it then.”

Finne claps her hand and raised it up.

I don’t expect anything from her but it would be a waste not to hear it. Finne is not a good strategist but she isn’t an idiot.

She might be able to come up with something strange as well.

“I think it is fine as long as Al-sama is the winner!”

“It was idiotic of me to placed hope in you…….”

“Finne-sama. Arnold-sama must act as an incompetence one. It would be unnatural for him to suddenly show some competency here.”

“Ah, that’s right…..b, but there’s no other way we can win with a certainty left isn’t it……..?”

It is as Finne says, for me to take the first place is the most certain way to do this. This is because of the participation of Silver. Of course, the other candidates and their knights can’t possibly hold a candle to him.

However, if we do that, we will lose our trump card and it would be difficult to make Leo the emperor. If I carry it out, it will lead to separating the valuable popularity.

No matter how I think about it, it is a bad move.

“We have to come up with something else.”

“But there are only a few hands we can play in this situation. The other candidates can play the hand like luring a rare monster to the eastern part or they could find out the location of a rare monster in advance but our side lacks human resources to do that.”

“I know. They will definitely do that but I can also do something similar as well. I can just drive the monster to the east as Silver myself.”

“Y, you can’t! Doing something like that….!”

Finne was the first to oppose my proposal.

Looking at her, I and Sebas make a bitter smile.

She is really similar to Leo.

“Right, if I do that I might put the people living in the eastern part in harm’s way after all. That’s why we will not do that. Leo would never approve of such a method as well.”

In terms of personal feeling, it is the plan that I absolutely don’t want to take. My pride as an adventurer won’t allow me to do that. But if there’s no other way left, I might have to do it. However, that’s not the case now. If the other candidates besides Leo turn out to be tyrants then it would be a different story but what is at stake right now is only mine, Leo’s and our mother’s life. As expected, I can’t make the people suffer just for mine and my relatives’ life.

“Is that so……I’m glad.”

Feeling relieved, Finne takes a breath and immediately lowers her head.

“M, my deepest apologies…I have blurted out a hasty remark again! Of course, Al-sama would do something like that!”

“It’s fine, just say what you thought. Your opinion is always just after all.”

“What do you mean…..?”

“It means that he likes you Finne-sama.”

“Ma, Maa!!”

Even though I didn’t say it myself, Finne’s face turned red and she covers it with both hands.

It’s fine for you to get embarrassed by yourself but the one who said that was Sebas. Not my word.

“I don’t remember saying that I like her though?”

“Then do you hate her?”

“No, that is…..”

“So, let’s settle that you like her then. Isn’t that great Finne-sama.”

“Yes!”

Looking at Finne’s cheerful smile, I am getting exhausted.

In the end, we can’t come up with a good idea so we decided to make it our homework and end the meeting.

————-

The next day, I took a guild request as Silver.

This is because the guild has notified me that a high-rank quest has come in.

I rarely move out twice in a month before. It seems like the matter about the increase in the monster population inside the empire is true.

Well, it doesn’t mean that the monster that appeared is strong enough to trouble an SS-rank adventurer like me. The monster that appeared this time is a Red Cerberus. It is an extremely strong variant that turned the table on many adventurers before so the guild has issued out a bounty for its head. Its rank is AAA, the same rank as the King-Minotaur I took down previously.

Cerberus itself is a rare monster that originally doesn’t exist inside the empire. It must’ve run away from other adventurers and entered the empire’s territory.

I quickly subjugated it, while thinking: don’t go wander into the empire when the empire is so busy right now!

As expected, it wasn’t killed in a single blow, it went down after I hit it three times with magic. At the last blow, its body was almost gone but its fang was still intact so I decided to bring that back as evidence of subjugation.

As I was performing such adventurer’s work, a group of cavalry approached me from a distance away.

They are riding here with quite a speed. I wonder whose cavalry it is? The lord in this area should have been informed by the guild that Silver was heading here for Cerberus subjugation though……

“You there! Was the explosion just now your doing?”

“What if it is? How about giving me your name first?”

While answering the question that came over my back, I recovered the fang and turned around to face the cavalry.

Then I froze.

Because I found an unexpected person.

“…….! ?”

Riding on top of the horse was a beautiful girl.

She has long sakura-colored hair and jade-colored eyes. Her straight back and strong look give me the impression of a strong elegant sword. 

I know who she is. I know her well.

Since I haven’t gotten involved with her for several years, I didn’t recognize her voice but as soon as I saw her figure I know who she is. Rather, if you are talking about a person with sakura-colored hair and jade-colored eyes, there’s only one person who fits that description in the empire.

“I am the captain of the third corps of the imperial knight order, Elna von Amsberg. I heard that a Cerberus has been rampaging in this area but, perhaps you already subjugated it?”

Amsberg.

Just by hearing that name, the surrounding countries would start to tremble.

They are the descendant of the hero who took down the demon king who shook the continent 500 years ago.

After defeating the demon king, the emperor at the time want to pull the hero to his side however, the hero said he did not need the status of the duke, marquis or count. He refused every reward offered to him and was about to set out on a journey. The emperor came up with a proposal to that hero, he offered the hero a special peerage, a peerage that only one exists in the whole continent.

It was called the “Brave” it is the highest rank among the imperial aristocrats, its standing is even higher than that of a prince, and they practically don’t need to bow down to anyone except the emperor.

But no one ever complains about such treatment. That is because they are worthy of it, no they are more than worthy of it because of their military gains that have accumulated for hundreds of years.

The guardian of the empire. Elna is the successor of that “Brave House of Amsberg”.

And she was the one who protected my weak self from the bullies when I was young. She called me a weakling and gave me a spartan training and the thing she planted inside me made me unconsciously can’t deal with her, my natural enemy. I dare say, what she did back then was actually bullying.

Because of that I unconsciously step back, I couldn’t speak but then I remembered that right now my face is hidden behind a silver mask so I managed to pull myself back together.

That’s right, right now I am not Arnold, I am Silver.

I am not afraid of Elna!

“Don’t you know just by looking? Seem like the lady from the Brave house doesn’t have such a good eye huh.”

“What did you just say……?”

Ah….

C, Crap ! ! ? ?

I have been talking like this for years so I unconsciously used such a tone on her.

Th, this is bad!!

“Judging from that appearance, you are the SS-rank adventurer Silver, right? Just because you are a little well off you seem to be quite cocky huh?”

Elna smile at me.

But I know. Elna often smiles while she is angry. This is undoubtedly her angry smile.

Th, this is bad….. I don’t want to get involved with Elna. if I don’t smooth things over now…..

“You have been active around the imperial capital so they start calling you the guardian of the capital lately right? Is it that? Can I take this as a challenge toward our Amsberg house?”

“Guardian of the Capital is only something that the people called me. I didn’t call myself with such a name and I am not interested in such a nickname either.”

Al, Alright. How this.

I appealed to her that I am not her enem-………….

“Are you saying an insignificant nickname like our Amsberg house’s is uninteresting to you? Or are you saying that you thought nothing of our name in the first place? Either way, that is clearly a provocation right?”

AHHH—! ! ? ?

It’s over! Her first impression of me is so bad, no matter what I say she will take it the wrong way! In the first place, Elna super hated losing. Once you start a fight with her, she won’t be satisfied unless she wipes the floor with her opponent.

Kuh! If it comes to this then!

Let’s clear away this long-standing resentment. It seems impossible to build a friendly relationship with her like this anyway.

As I collected myself, I give Elna a condescending laugh.

“Fuu, you seem to be quite conscious of my reputation. The Brave house really values their fame huh. To think that you are so small-minded to the extent that you can’t even tolerate others being complimented.”

“Wha!? You! I will not forgive anyone who dares to say such an insolent thing about my house!”

“Who is the insolent one here? I was subjugating a monster according to the guild’s request. But from what you said, you intended to hunt it if I haven’t already right? Isn’t that a provocation toward the adventurer guild as a whole?”

“I have no such intention! It was for the people!”

“Captain. Please calm down. Even if there was a miscommunication, if there was a request from the adventurer guild, we would be in trouble. Moreover, we have to hurry to the capital as well.”

“Kuh….! Silver! Remember this! The one who is protecting the empire is us the Brave house, the knights, and the soldiers! Not some adventurers like you!”

“I will remember it. I might immediately forget about it afterward though.”

“Damn you…..!”

Looking at the enraged Elna leaving, I thought to myself that I’ve finally done it. But at the same time, I feel refreshed after I managed to let out my long years of resentment.

Elna joined the imperial knight order when she was eleven, she is a genius among geniuses. Since she was often assigned important missions, we hardly met since she became a knight. When we met once in a while, because she doesn’t have much time, all we managed to do was a short conversation.

However, this time I was able to gain an upper hand against her. Ahh, it felt so good! Now I understand how a bullied child feels when they get their revenge on the bully.

“It doesn’t change the fact that I created an unnecessary enemy though……”

What am I doing…….

If the Amsberg house decided to be hostile toward us then it will entirely be on me…..

“I screwed up……..”

I head back while scratching my head.