Who said that dreams are dreams because they don’t come true, and what comes true is called a goal…
If that’s the case, then it was indeed a goal.
It was within reach, and we never doubted that the future we envisioned would eventually come.
If there was ever a worst possible wake-up call, it’s now, I think every morning when I wake up.
Especially when I wake up in the morning, lying on my papers, as I am doing now, it is a sobering reminder.
“Phil-Lynn, His Highness wants to see you.”
“……I’m not here. I’m not anywhere. Tell him I’m gone.”
I said without turning around. The pile of papers stacked high above me…looks like they’re about to fall down.
“No. Who could say that to His Highness in that state? I still want my life.”
Ray…Raymond Welsh Il Larda Ristoradae cowers his shoulders with a sigh. It’s not worth being a childhood friend at all.
“In other words, he’s not in gentle prince mode, but in demon king mode…Who wants to go see a guy like that? Besides, I’m doing the math and it doesn’t add up to three digits. Where did you go, 182 bags of wheat?”
That’s the one that’s slightly pissed off. It’s because I’ve been stuck in this small, cramped data room except for meal times. It’s the third day today.
“Ah, I think you’d better put that aside for now and get going. He’s not in a very good mood, you know.”
“He’s always in a bad mood though”
“I’ll rephrase. He’s in a bad mood like never before.”
“Ray, you don’t have to put stress on every word.”
“Okay, okay, so it’s business as usual. That’s why it’s always the same thing, because he’s been hitting a record high on the Mood Index every day for the last few days.”
When it comes to his grumpiness over the past three days…I can’t even begin to describe it in words for a moment.
The most sullen time I remember was when I served him his usual portable ration biscuits for breakfast this morning…
He had never complained about portable rations at all before, but now that he had developed the habit of eating his young wife’s homemade breakfast together, it was perfectly natural to be dissatisfied with it.
Because he’s been totally fed by the princess of Elzevert…
He doesn’t say anything out loud, but anyone in his entourage knows he likes it a lot.
For him, the act of eating is nothing more than a form of nutrition.
I have a good tongue that can tell if something is good or bad, so I’m not a taste fanatic, but that guy doesn’t know what a decent meal or a harmonious family dinner table is, so he doesn’t have a true sense of taste.
That’s why the food in this case isn’t the ‘meal’ provided, but the ‘princess.’ To be more accurate, I should say it’s the time spent with the princess.
Did he find himself liking her that much?
It’s good to know the tastes of Nigel, the crown prince of Dardinia, but I’m not sure about his tastes in women.
I’m sure he’s got a lot of mature women in his life that are gonna be let down. I guess the reason they are all pretty good women is because he really hates idiots.
Looking at what’s been going on here, I might as well check out Elzevert’s princess a little deeper.
Well, I’m not just worried about lolicons…
Basically, Nigel doesn’t like ‘children’. His “younger brother” and “younger sister” were exceptions because the family correction was working in a positive direction, but he doesn’t like children who can’t reason with their emotions, and he also doesn’t like the fact that they can’t talk rationally.
By the way, the only people who are ‘younger brother’ and ‘sister’ to Nigel are his blood siblings. It can be said that he has little interest in his half-brother or sister.
And Nigel’s criterion for judging them is not necessarily their blood. It’s his theory that age doesn’t necessarily equate to maturity on the inside.
In other words, Princess is not a child, and is the type of person who can get communicate with him properly.
I gave up trying to picture the princess, who had all of Nigel’s personal attention these days.
I can picture the golden hair and the princess-like atmosphere of her young age, but I can’t think of a definite face shape.
I remember her having a pretty face, but…it feels like it’s hazy as a whole.
I’m confident that if she were to be mixed with a blonde haired, blue-eyed girl of the same stature, I would never be able to tell them apart.
Because my impression of that princess is honestly thin.
The princess of Elzevert, known as the Doll Princess or the Ice Princess, has been famous for showing little interest in others.
In the event that she had attracted the attention of His Majesty, even to the extent that she was whispered to be his shadow mistress, she did not show much interest, not even in His Majesty.
…Until now.
I would like to make a note of this because it is said that the fall into a lake back home resulted in amnesia, which somehow gave her a much different personality. I’ve been hearing rumors about her here and there. Maybe she hit her head when she fell into the lake.
Whatever the case, we should be glad it wasn’t a bad change.
Whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate that he liked it…
“I’m busy for the time being. If you need me, you’re welcome to come to…”
“I can’t say that.”
It wasn’t like this in the past, but now Ray has a hard time with Nigel. When he gets in front of Nigel, Ray is like a frog being stared at by a snake.
Maybe we’re all like that, more or less.
In the first place, none of us, who are collectively known as the Crown Prince’s aides, can beat Nigel in any one thing.
He’s clear-headed and clear-eyed, and his sword skills are superb.
It is said that the heavens never give two things, but as far as Nigel is concerned, it should be said that he has been given three or four things, not two. The only person who can stand on a par with him in anything is His Highness Al, at best.
That Highness is said to be a once-in-a-century sword genius. The most important thing to remember is that no matter how much he is praised, he just laughs off his personal skills as if they are meaningless in front of a large number of people.
“You guys look like you’re having a lot of fun.”
There was a frosty voice.
A voice that seemed to come from the depths of the permafrost.
It was His Highness Nigel, the crown prince of Dardinia and my boss Nigel…with flowing silver hair and an absolute zero degree gaze.
“Ah, um, that…”
Ray, too, freaked out.
“It sure takes a lot to meet you, Ragphil Eridian Il Regzelsnowdill Iltik Altheidel Exanidium.” (***lmao, seriously though, take these names with a grain of salt. I tried TT_TT)
He says my full name without choking or getting stuck.
It’s definitely harassment to say my full name every time.
After all, it’s an absurdly long family name, and I’ve never been able to say it without making a mistake, even to myself. Probably my other brothers are the same way. I don’t like my full name because I can’t even remember it.
In general, it’s not right for people with such a long family name to get married to each other. And what’s more, they even gave me a name that is so hard to remember.
It’s a hassle, so I’ll call myself Phil-Lynn. I’m not the Count of Altheidel Exanidium or anything else…just Phil-Lynn with no title or anything. It was none other than Nigel who first started calling me that.
“So, your highness…Phi, Phi, Phil-Lynn, that…”
If you’re going to follow up, at least don’t chew. And while you’re at it, you should at least think of a reason to defend yourself, Ray.
“Ah…Your Highness, good day.”
“It’s not good at all. When did you become busier than me? Ignoring the call of your Lord is a very different way of being an aide, don’t you think?”
A magnificent smile… from a distance. But I would never make that mistake now that I’m being shown it at close range and receiving a cold sarcastic attack. It is an unmistakable sneer.
But if I’m going to stand there with this kind of thing, there’s no way I can be this guy’s milk brother.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry to have made you come all the way over here.”
I’ll give him a condescendingly polite tone and give him a bow as per the court etiquette instruction book.
“Quite so.”
He laughs through his nose. My sarcasm is completely meaningless to this guy.
I don’t know when it happened, but this arrogant, sarcastic behavior has become a good fit for him. It’s a nice way of saying that dignity had been added.
…It used to be different.
“Are you really that unhappy about not being able to meet the princess?”
He stared at me silently and glared.
Wow, it’s a statue.
But this guy would never say it out loud.
Nigel has always tried not to say his own personal will.
He has learned his lesson from the time when he was dismissed from his post as a guardian when he was a child.
For goodness sake, it’s okay to be a little selfish, though…
This guy, who prides himself on his ironclad self-control, hasn’t always been like that. It’s a given that children of royalty and aristocrats grow up to be selfish. It’s no wonder that people around him are exceptionally fond of him.
Well, Nigel was hardly in the nature to be selfish from an early age. He was a shy and sensitive child to the point that people around him were worried about him, and people who only know Nigel now would probably think he was a different person if they saw him as a child.
He rarely asserted himself strongly, but he was a lot kinder than he is now in his gentle Crown Prince mode…Though I noticed that Nigel has already become the current ‘Gentle Crown Prince.’
I feel a lot of responsibility for that.
I’m not the only one who should have stood by Nigel’s side, no matter who it was…It was a long time ago now, but that’s just a repetition.
“You should just go see her for a minute.”
“I have no reason to visit.”
“What?”
What reason would a husband need to go to see his wife, I wonder.
“You don’t need to go without a purpose…If you’re going to say that, then just get on with the investigation.”
Uh-heh, it’s bad…
I think it’s fine to just go see her.
“…The calculation is wrong over here.”
Nigel just casually looks at the document and points to the middle of it with a thump.
“………Seriously?”
Give me back my time from when I was wrestling with this pile of documents.
How do you know that from just a quick peek? You should have done this whole thing from the beginning, you academic genius.
Whenever this happens, I think that scholars are a kind of alienated people.
The prerequisite for being a scholar is to have a vast amount of knowledge of the history of about five thousand years from the founding of the unified empire to the present, as well as the imperial archaic language and the divine language, so it’s not surprising.
Even if you are admitted to a university on a whim after a lifetime of luck, it is commonplace that you will not be able to keep up with the classes. It’s amazing that they exempted you from the paper test for the university entrance exam just by passing it, though.
That’s the type of person he is.
I was an inferior student who took five years to finally complete the beginners curriculum while being ignored by Nigel. Even if one is an inferior student at university, you are still an elite in the general public.
If you clear the introductory curriculum, you are given a certain status, regardless of where you come from. The current me is one of the ‘consuls’ of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
But Nigel is different. I’ve been told that Nigel is a ‘special’ person, even in a university full of people with different abilities like that.
“Why is it that because of Esalkar’s political upheaval, we have to turn over the books on disaster relief supplies…Well, we found out about the fraud…”
A week ago, a political change occurred in the neighboring country of Esalkar.
The current king who was pro-Dardinia, was imprisoned, and his brother, the Grand Duke, ascended the throne. At the same time, he declared the princess of Ishtra, one of the five great powers, to be crowned queen, and unilaterally broke the treaty of friendship with Dardinia.
That message came to Dardinia this morning, but we already knew about it three days ago.
This is because the Duke of Grachies, whose territory is in contact with Esalkar, got information almost the on the same day immediately.
“It’s not easy to move an army, Ragphil Eridian.”
Tsk, you’re still in a bad mood.
…But, after all, do you still want to move the army?
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
We could use our stockpile of disaster relief supplies to provide food for the expeditionary forces. This would allow us to re-supply our warehouses and correct any injustices, thus killing three birds with one stone.
“………Are you sure?”
It’s Nigel who doesn’t end with just simply moving the army…His calculation doesn’t simply add up to +2. Maybe Nigel has been hearing about the injustice for some time.
You might call him a super-rational mind if you want to put it better, but it’s just poorly done in my opinion.
“…When you’ve finished calculating that, both of you should come to the conference room.”
“If you want an exact number, it will take hour.”
“Then it should be done in an hour. Shion will be there by then.”
“…Archbishop Gittice.”
“Ah.”
Nigel gives a small nod.
The “Shion” this guy is referring to is his brother, His Eminence, Archbishop Shion of Gittice. His Eminence Shion has renounced his position as a prince and is currently supporting Nigel from the shadows as Archbishop of the Luthia Orthodox Church, the state religion of Dardinia.
His Highness Al, another of his peers, was assisting the military side of the Central Division as a divisional commander, so it’s quite a good balance.
The reason why His Highness Al didn’t join the Kingsguard was due to Nigel’s recommendation. As part of his duty as a crown prince, Nigel himself was registered in the Kingsguard for a period of time, and since he had a firm grip on the Kingsguard at that time, he didn’t admit that there was a need to widen his pipe any further.
His Highness Al is almost the highest ranking military officer in the world. His Highness Shion…No, His Eminence Shion would eventually become the Supreme Cardinal of the Luthia Orthodox Church.
The Supreme Cardinal is the highest rank in the Luthia Orthodox Church, and with the exception of the first generation, the position has always been held by a royal cardinal of Dardinia.
Luthianism is roughly divided into two sects, the Western Church and the Orthodox Church, but although the two have the same roots in the same religion, they have changed over time after the split to become very different religions.
The most obvious example of this is probably the name of the supreme leader and what he is.
The Western Church crowns the existence of the Pope, the beloved Son of the Mother Goddess and the authority of the Pope they claim to have over the secular monarch.
It is the pope who actively intervenes in politics as it is the pope who bestows that title on the monarch, and most of the empire and the countries close to it have the Church of the West as their state religion.
In the Empire, the Pope is even supposed to bestow his imperial honors upon an emperor when he is crowned.
On the other hand, the Orthodox Church is sometimes described as the Eastern Church to the Western Church, but it is properly called the Luthian Orthodox Church, abbreviated to Orthodox Church. It has a clear separation of church and state, with the sovereign being the greatest protector and supreme authority of the church, who has been given the kingship by the Mother Goddess.
The head of the clergy is the Supreme Cardinal, which is the cardinal who governs the Cathedral of St. Philosius, the headquarters of the Orthodox Church. However, the Supreme Cardinal is not positioned as the head of the Western Church, as the Pope is. If I had to say, he is the head of the college of cardinals.
“The state religion of Esalkar is Orthodox.”
That one word made sense to me.
The state religion of Dardinia is also Orthodox.
This can be said to be natural because when the Church once tried to intervene in the succession to the throne of Dardinia, Dardinia rejected the Church, and the Orthodox Church was created by splitting off from the Western Church at that time.
In a sense, it would not be wrong to say that it was Dardinia that created the Orthodox Church.
At the time of the establishment of the Orthodox Church, it was only Dardinia that made the Orthodox Church the state religion.
In recent years, however, more and more countries have begun to convert to Orthodoxy.
I think this is simply because Orthodoxy has many advantages for the monarch.
Religion can be a major political force that cannot be ignored.
Esalkar made the Orthodox Church the state religion with the king from three generations ago.
Unlike the Western Church, which severely suppresses not only the Orthodox Church but all other religions as heretical, the Orthodox Church allows people to believe in other religions. King Esalkar himself converted and announced a change in the state religion, believing that this tolerance was appropriate for the state religion.
Almost fifty years later, more than 80 percent of the population of Esalkar is Orthodox.
“…Has the Church said anything to you?”
Ray, an atheist, scowled lightly.
I don’t think His Eminence Shion would do anything to avenge Nigel, but the Orthodox Church and Dardinia are not completely united, even though they have a deep bond with each other. The Orthodox Church will have its own agenda.
“It’s not that there is no reason to shoulder this one over there.”
“Reason.”
“…The Cardinal of Lagunasia, who happened to be visiting the Royal Palace, is being held captive with the King. He said he would cooperate by all means.”
“…I see.”
Cardinal Lagunasia is one of the three Cardinals of Esalkar. He is a deeply religious man and has a strong voice in the cardinal corps.
A special envoy has already been sent by Philosius to Esalkar’s capital, Virua.
The headquarters of the Orthodox Church is the Cathedral of St. Philosius in the ancient capital of Dardinia, Al Fador.
The people of Dardinia are largely unaware that the Orthodox Church is the state religion of Dardinia, and that other countries believe in it as well, since it began as the state religion of Dardinia.
But there are many students from neighboring countries who come to the seminary in Philosius to study in the Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox diocese is not confined to a national framework. For better or worse, the line is drawn differently from politics.
“For the release of hostages?”
I ask.
“Of course…The Church will never abandon Cardinal Lagunasia. He would be the best hostage.”
‘The Orthodox Church does not intervene in politics.’—That is the principle.
But that doesn’t mean they are indifferent to politics.
The state of the Church changes depending on the state of the powers of the moment. The church has its own intelligence network, purportedly for self-defense, and in some cases even hires a mercenary army.
“Maybe we’ll let him go.”
“You can’t. He’s a little man who can’t make a decision to kill on his own while taking the throne. I will not release a hostage.”
“……You sound like a mistake not to kill.”
“The coup will fail if we don’t kill at least the royal family.”
“Why?”
“As long as the King and Crown Prince and their children are alive, no matter how much the Archduke may urge that he is the King, it is only a presumption.”
“………What does that mean?”
“Think of it in terms of our country. Father…If we deposed His Majesty King Gladis IV, would Uncle Najek’s accession to the throne be accepted? No matter how much you imprison them, as long as I or Al, the heir to the throne above, are alive, that throne is only temporary. That’s just something to think about for a moment.”
He says that the more time passes, the less successful the coup will be, even if you kill them.
“Why?”
“Because I can see it. I have to crush all of the other options and make my position rock solid while astonishment shuts down my ability to think. Just as everyone else realizes there are no other options.”
‘A coup is a race against time,’ says Nigel.
“In that sense, it’s already out of time. Killing him now would only add to his notoriety, and it’s out of the question when the other countries already know it’s a coup in the first place. It’s also bad enough that they have the princess of Ishtra as the queen empress.”
“Because it has a string?”
“That’s partly true. But bringing in the forces of Ishtra gives the country a reason to be united in an anti-Orthodox and united country.”
‘I shouldn’t make a big proclamation about it.’ I mutter stupidly.
“Even if we are fighting inside, we can unite with a common foreign enemy…Such a story will be swept away.”
“…I’m sure you could pull it off, coup d’etat…”
Listening to the way Nigel was talking, it seemed like this guy would definitely succeed.
“What’s the point of me staging a coup? In its current state.”
Our King is His Majesty King Gladis IV.
But when people think of the supreme authority, they probably think of Nigel.
Nigel is in control of both the government and the military.
“……None.”
He is, after all, the crown prince.
The title of king will eventually come around without any effort.
I’m sure he never wanted to be that kind of thing.
Nigel frowned at my answer in a boring way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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