[V7C12] ~A Destined Encounter, Love At First Sight~
Translated by Jodas 7: To the North“Your Highness, Prince Axel, I would like to have a destined encounter with you.”
Prince Axel gave Sevil a skeptical look. Of course he did. As Hütter clenched his stomach, he fought back his desire to make the same face.
Axel kept his voice down as he spoke.
“…Princess, I’m afraid the implication of your words is lost on me.”
“I see. The King of Darwock made his decision in light of his failure to bring me, with the Krewing name, into the Royal Family, did he not?”
“…I do not intend to place the blame on you.”
Regardless of where the blame may lie, the truth was that Sevil’s disappearance was the impetus for the King of Darwock going off the rails.
That in mind, Sevil cut to the chase.
“Then, what if you were to find the missing princess and return to Darwock with her by your side?”
The atmosphere in the room chilled. Both Axel and his aide stiffened with their eyes wide open.
(I didn’t even think of that…!)
It was the King of Darwock who pushed for Prince Axel and Sevil to get married in the first place.
With Sevil’s disappearance, he was unable to obtain the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy’s rubber stamp, so chose to invest his efforts into creating a new Darwock religion. Should Sevil be found, the situation would change.
If Prince Axel brought back Sevil, his fiancee, the King of Darwock would not be able to ignore it.
If he tried to eliminate Sevil, with the Krewing name, and Axel, her betrothed, that would mean making an enemy of both the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy and the Empire.
Sevil addressed Prince Axel’s unease with overflowing confidence.
“It doesn’t matter what the reason for my disappearance is. Perhaps you could claim that I lost my memories as the result of injuries sustained while fleeing from a band bandits and the Wedge Tower nursed me back to health?”
Hütter immediately concluded that this whole thing must have been Sophie’s idea.
There was no way that such a thought would have even occurred to the Barbarian Sword Princess. She would have cut down those bandits with ease, laughing all the while. And all that business about losing memories only happened in the kinds of romance novels that Sophie liked to read.
“Thus, when you came to the Wedge Tower, Your Highness and I had a destined encounter, and we fell for each other. Then, intending to fulfill our marriage as first planned, we travelled back to convince the King of Darwock that the new religion would not be necessary.”
—A destined encounter between the amnesiac Princess and the Prince who’d been chased out by his own King! Smitten with each other, the two of them walked hand and hand to the border on the way to persuade the King… Just what fate lies in store for these lovebirds? Kya~ How romantic!!
(…Yep, sounds like something Sophie would say.)
But there was a big problem with this plan.
In short: in order to convince the King of Darwock, Sevil and Prince Axel actually had to get married.
Then, if Sevil and Prince Axel did get married, Prince Axel’s Lusterian faith would make it impossible for them to get divorced.
(…Would Sevil really go along with such a plan?)
It looked like Axel had the same doubts.
Cautiously, Axel broached the question to Sevil.
“…So, you plan to marry me as initially planned and help persuade my father, then?”
“Persuade?”
Sevil scoffed as she repeated that word.
“You misunderstand. You and I are going to get an audience with His Majesty King Valdemar… Then we kill him.”
She said the last part in a low, sharp voice.
A chill set in across the room. Hütter could feel his veins freezing up.
Prince Axel’s face went pale and whatever he wanted to say in response, his mouth would only flap helplessly and wordlessly. Before Axel could get any coherent words out, Sevil continued to speak with a cold laughter in her voice.
“Whether I disappeared or not, you were planning to do that from the start, weren’t you? …Usurping the throne.”
The faces of Prince Axel and his aide tensed slightly. Her guess must have been on the money.
(…I bet Sevil was probably just bluffing with that one. That said, considering the situation in Darwock, it’s not hard to imagine.)
Perhaps the King was in a rush to build his new religion because he’d uncovered a plot by the Queen’s faction to either assassinate or imprison him.
Alternatively, the Queen’s faction may have decided to hatch a regicide plot following the King’s suggestion of a new religion.
He had no way of knowing which came first, but there was no way the Queen’s faction would be willing to abide the current King sitting on the throne much longer.
Sevil placed a hand on her own chest and smiled gracefully.
“Now that the King of Darwock has gone mad, it would be impossible to bring the situation under control unless the King is either killed or in captivity. I am simply offering my support to help that happen.”
“…After we take His Majesty into captivity, what do you intend to do?”
“I intend to do whatever I want. I wouldn’t mind doing a spot of sightseeing in the northlands.”
Sevil then stopped herself, then added a detail she had neglected to mention.
“Ah, keep in mind that all this about a destined encounter is merely an act. I already have my sights set on a man, so I have no intention of seducing you. You have nothing to worry about on that front.”
(You… That’s just rude!)
Nevertheless, he was surprised to hear that Sevil had a man she liked. Whoever that is must have it quite hard.
In that sense, perhaps Prince Axel was better off not being the target of Sevil’s affection.
With a tense expression, Prince Axel held his glasses steady. The sweat dripping down his face did not escape Hütter’s attention.
Prince Axel kept his voice down as much as possible as he asked Sevil:
“…You mean to say you want me to take you back to my country to seek an audience with the King. Then, we approach the King and capture him when his guard is down?”
“I’ll leave the choice whether to capture or kill up to you. I don’t mind either way.”
Her violent suggestions just kept coming. Her audacity gave even a third-rate con man a stomachache.
(Well, either way, the Wedge Tower has already decided to take a stand against the King of Darwock who has joined hands with Monsters. Sevil’s plan to deal with the King of Darwock is not a bad idea.)
Prince Axel seemed to still be conflicted. He fell silent for a moment until, with an expression of anguish, he muttered under his breath.
“…You have nothing to gain from this plan.”
Despite his frazzled nerves after fleeing from his father’s tyranny, Prince Axel was fundamentally a diligent and honest man.
However, he lacked the imposing presence he needed to survive as royalty. The sort of presence the Black Lion Emperor and his sister had.
Just as Axel said, Sevil did not stand to gain anything from her plan of following her fiancee to Darwock.
Nevertheless, Sevil slowly weaved her fingers together over her crossed legs.
“I have my own reasons. Besides… It would suit me to put both you and the Wedge Tower in my debt.”
Hütter idly wondered if she was just growing stir-crazy and was looking for an excuse to go wild in battle.
(Sevil prefers things to be clear and simple… But from time to time, she can be pretty hard to read.)
She would obsessively value things that others dismissed as worthless.
She would do a cost-benefit analysis, then knowingly choose the worse option with a big smile.
For her, calculations were but a tool to justify acting according to her whims.
…Sevil was one of those infuriating kinds of people.
“I would like to bring my comrades along with me on this mission. A girl genius whose mastery of a Magical Flying Device will prove invaluable for reconnaissance, as well as a handsome young aide-de-camp…”
She had to be talking about Tia and Wren. He never thought he’d ever hear them referred to as a ‘girl genius’ and an ‘aide-de-camp.’
As Hütter held in his snide laughter, Sevil raised a hand and pointed towards him.
“In addition, I would like to bring our Empire’s greatest illusionist: The Dream Mage, Sir Caspar Hütter!”
(Excuse me!?)
Desperately suppressing the urge to shout, Hütter whispered pointedly towards Sevil.
“…This is my first time hearing about this, you know?”
“We are going on an extracurricular excursion. Why wouldn’t our instructor come along with us?”
He’d never heard of such a violent field trip before.
Seeing Sevil’s complete lack of restraint or remorse, Hütter was certain.
Sevil chose Hütter to stand in on this meeting because she intended to rope him into her plans from the very beginning.
That part of her was no different from the Black Lion Emperor.
Prince Axel shot Hütter a look of suspicion, but perhaps because Sevil was in front of him, he nodded regardless.
“Acknowledged. Then, I suggest we work out the details and present this suggestion to Assistant Headmaster Miriam.”
“Indeed!”
(What do you mean ‘Indeed!’? Stop dragging me into thinggggsssss!!)