The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

“Aneue! Lize-aneue!”

“What? You still have something to say?”

Lize-aneue grumpily reply.

Her voice, expression, bearing, everything screamed [Don’t get close to me now]. She is clearly in a bad mood. Normally, I wouldn’t approach her when she’s like this either.

But this time is an exception.

“Yes, there’s a lot I want to say to you. You haven’t even cleared up anything yet either.”

“I already refused Jurgen once and for all like you told me to right? What are you dissatisfied with now?”

“I have no problem if you were being honest. But you weren’t right?”

“What are you saying? I was being completely honest.”

“You really are a bad liar you know.”

From the expression on her face, there’s no way she was being honest.

Rather, she looked like she regretted it instead.

“How about we talk while we walk? I have something I wanted to ask you.”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“Is that so…..actually, Christa just found herself a male friend you see.”

“What!? What kind of man is he!? Is he competent!? How old!?”

“That was a lie.”

For a moment, Aneue’s face turned blank.

Then,

“I see. It seems you want to take my lesson after a long time huh?”

“Wa!? It’s just a joke! A joke! But if you couldn’t tell that was a lie then there’s a lot of things you still don’t know yet right?”

Stopping my sister’s hand from reaching the sword on her belt, I bitterly smile.

Aneue thought for a while and then exhaled.

“…..only a short while alright.”

“That will depend on you Aneue. Let’s walk together then.”

I say so and start walking next to her.

Aneue stays silent all the time.

As I thought, I have to create an atmosphere where she can talk to me.

“I have a lot of things I am curious about.”

“Narrow it to one.”

“Alright……only one then. What happened between you and Leo three years ago?”

She probably doesn’t expect that question.

Lize-aneue opens her eyes wide.

She then averted them away from me.

“You said you will answer one question right?”

“…..it’s not related to this.”

“Probably. You haven’t visited the capital too often since then, right? We have only exchanged letters since then too. From my point of view, it looked like you were trying to avoid people you know.”

Lize-aneue looked at me annoyingly and looked up at the sky.

Then.

“…..Three years ago, at the Crown Prince’s funeral. I tried to do something and Leo stopped me.”

“What were you trying to do?”

“I was going to kill Zuzan.”

“That’s…..”

That’s certainly like what Aneue would do.

And stopping her was also what Leo would do.

So something like that happened.

He also has his own secret huh.

“She was both involved with the death of my mother and the Crown Prince. I was convinced that I have to get rid of her before a calamity befalls the Empire……but Leo stood in front of me.”

“Even so…..I wanted to kill that woman. I thought that I could never forgive her. That’s why I try to get past him with brute force but……Leo didn’t give up. No matter how many times I beat him down, he told me that I was wrong and stood in my way.”

“That’s very like him.”

“…….Leo said that justice should be done by the law. But the law is powerless. Aniue was killed but there was no evidence of murder. That’s why I have no choice but to kill her myself……that’s what I thought. That’s why I was trying to make him faint. But he didn’t. Even after I beat him over and over and over……….”

Come to think of it, he locked himself up in his room for a while after the Crown Prince’s funeral.

I thought that he was in shock but maybe he was just hiding his beat-up self.

“Despite all that…..Leo didn’t back down. He said that I was wrong and that Aniue wouldn’t want this. Still…..two of the imperial family members are dead……I just couldn’t shut up and take it so I told him to stop talking about his ideal. I asked him if he understands the feeling of losing their own mother and the brother you have sworn to support. Whether he understands the feeling of those left behind………then he asked me, would happen to Christa if I am gone. My other family members? The Empire? What Aniue was trying to protect? He said what I was trying to do was only throwing away my responsibility and running away.”

“……So how did you reply to Leo?”

Lize-aneue turns her sight from the sky down to the ground. Her expression was very sad.

This is my first time seeing her making such a face.

“….I couldn’t say anything…….I realized that blood got to my head. And before I noticed……I just couldn’t stand being there anymore. I have no right to face the tattered Leo back then…….that’s why I returned to the border like I was running away from him.”

“I see. You can’t forgive yourself so you stop yourself from meeting more people.”

“…..Yeah. I couldn’t forgive myself. I was scared. If Leo didn’t stop me I would have done something stupid. I was scared of myself……I stopped making friends after that. I turned down anyone who attempted to get close to me. Still, I couldn’t abandon you, Christa…….and Jurgen. At first, I thought Jurgen was annoying because how he relentlessly came at me but……… I was grateful for him.”

Before we noticed we were climbing up a hill near the mansion.

Aneue silently climbed it until she reached the top then she just sat there at the bench on top of that hill.

That figure of her was like a different person from my pushy elder sister.

“I will only marry [someone who can die together with me]. Those words were the cornerstone for all this right.”

“……If I am left behind, I don’t know what I would do. That being said…….I don’t want to make someone else feel that pain either. I am a soldier. I have already prepared for my death. But…… I can’t accept the death of someone who is not a soldier.”

“That’s why you kicked Duke Reinfeld out of the army right? “

“Jurgen is excellent. I can leave him to manage the troops or I could have him be my chief of staff. But he can’t die together with me. I couldn’t let him feel the pain I felt.”

“But you still can’t cut ties with him. He is your closest friend isn’t he?”

“……I don’t know how he thinks but from my point of view, he is an old friend. But like you said. I shouldn’t be binding him with me. I……….was spoiled by him.”

That’s why she said that huh.

She was clumsy, or how should I put this.

Perhaps her time has stopped since that day three years ago.

She turned her mind away from everything and only focused on her duty as a soldier.

I can’t blame her. Aneue was the one who was the closest to the Crown Prince. She was watching him, supporting him. Like I am with Leo.

If Leo is gone…….I wonder what would I do?

This is difficult. I will probably act the same way as Aneue.

But what would I do if someone stopped me?

Aneue has been living with feelings that have nowhere to go.

“I can’t say that I understand Aneue’s feelings. I haven’t lost anyone after all. The Crown Prince was someone I looked up to but our relationship as a family was shallow. I only have my mother and little brother. No one important to me has been taken away. But I have something that I can say.”

“What is it…..?”

“I think of you as a family. Christa too, Mother too, Leo’s probably too. That’s why the life you lived makes me sad. I don’t think you will be able to find happiness if you keep living like this.”

“I am not looking for happiness. The happy ideal I drew…….it was already shattered three years ago.”

“Leo will make a happier deal for you. that’s why please look toward the future too, Aneue.”

There was no persuasive power behind those words.

It was only an advertisement that Leo who just entered the succession war will be able to make a better ideal than the late Crown prince.

Leo is often compared to the Crown Prince and He himself is trying to be like him.

However, no one ever says that he was comparable to the Crown Prince. The current Leo is like an inferior version of him.

But.

“I will make up for what Leo is missing. We can surpass even our elder brother. We will show you something much better than the ideal future you drew with him. That’s why please try to see it.”

“….You have grown. The ideal I drew together with Aniue was much grander than you think you know?”

“That’s how I want it.”

Saying so, I stare into Lize-aneue’s eyes.

Her eyes are different from usual.

They were peaceful.

“…..it really is a strange feeling to see my little brother grow up.”

“Is that so? Then you might even feel strange if you saw Leo now you know. That guy also grew up after all. Everyone has grown since the Crown Prince passed away. Duke Reinfeld as well. There’s no way that was a good ending for a man who has been striving to be a man suitable for you. I don’t mind if you don’t want to marry him but you don’t hate him right?”

“I guess…..he is a man who works hard for my sake. I think I like him quite a bit. Of course, I don’t see him as a member of the opposite sex though.”

“Then let’s tell that to him. It would be wasteful to break ties with him after all.”

“That’s true but……”

Aneue seems nervous.

Don’t tell me.

“It’s awkward for you isn’t it?”

“O, Of course, it’s going to be awkward!? I just said that to him right? What should I say if I meet him now!?”

“It’s fine, isn’t it. If you properly being honest with him, I’m sure that person wouldn’t mind it at all.”

“But I do! I can’t fix this on my own! You have to talk with him and told him what I say! That’s the best method!”

“You really are a troublesome person…….”

“What are you saying? If you are my little brother then you should put in the effort to help your sister here! Since you lent your hand to Jurgen, I won’t let you say no to me now alright!?”

Haa, I should be helping Jurgen with his proposal but how did it come to this.

If it’s Jurgen then if Aneue just said [Sorry, I said too much] then he would break down with tears of joy in no time. But it seems her pride won’t allow her to say that huh.

As I thought, she really is a troublesome person.

Well even if it’s just a little, it’s good that Aneue has returned to herself.

Let’s do this slowly. Nothing good comes from rushing things after all.

While I was thinking so, someone came up on the hill.

“Nn? Aren’t you the butler of Duke Reinfeld?”

“I, I finally found you! Th, there’s a report coming for both of you, Your Highness! There was a purple signal fire rising from the South. It seems that something is happening there that will threaten the whole Empire!”

Purple signal fire is signifying the highest level of emergency. Once you lit it up, it will be relayed to the Imperial Capital via relay stations installed in various places.

It was the signal that was used when the Crown Prince passed away on the battlefield three years ago.

And now that signal has risen from the south.

“Leo…….?”

I involuntarily look to the south.

It was the same as that day.

It seems that the turning point of fate always comes when you are least prepared.

Together with Aneue, we started running out at the same time.