Chapter 120 - Different Dreams in the Same Bed (1)

Siorin stepped forward and bowed deeply at the waist.

"The delegation from the Leonberk Kingdom greets His Highness the Third Imperial Prince of Bourgogne..."

"Skip the stuffy greetings."

There was still a long way to go to finish the formalities, but the Third Imperial Prince abruptly cut Siorin off.

"More importantly, which one of you is the prince of Leonberk?"

Even as he said that, the Third Imperial Prince's gaze had been fixed on me from the very beginning.

A gaze like a slithering snake looked me up and down.

I didn't avoid his gaze, nor did I force myself to show respect like the others.

I merely revealed that I was the prince of the kingdom by wordlessly stepping forward.

He glared at me with snake-like eyes, and I faced him as well.

I simply couldn't take my eyes off him.

To think a bastard born with such a terrible combination of traits existed in this world.

Compared to him, even Adelia's traits could be considered lovely.

I checked his traits once again. And I couldn't help but marvel once more.

Could there truly be another bastard as staggering as this in the world?

If he had been born a commoner, his nature would have harmed his family and neighbors;

if he had become a knight, his aptitude would have stabbed his master in the back and turned him into a murderer.

If he had inherited a noble title, his temperament would have ruined the lives of thousands, tens of thousands;

and if he had become a king, his character would have burned down even a thousand-year kingdom without leaving a single foundation stone.

An existence that brings nothing but harm just by being alive.

Yet such a staggering bastard just had to be an imperial prince.

Could there be anything more terrible in this world?

Of course, only from the Empire's perspective.

To all those hostile to the Empire, the Third Imperial Prince before me was like a beacon of light, hope itself.

It was the same for me and the kingdom.

The Third Imperial Prince was like a gift the world had prepared for the kingdom.

I looked at the Third Imperial Prince with infinite goodwill.

Perhaps reading the emotion contained in my eyes, the Third Imperial Prince, who had been looking at me with a somewhat displeased expression, relaxed his face.

It seemed he had arbitrarily misunderstood that I envied or admired him.

Whatever.

I didn't care what he mistakenly thought.

"Oh, how I have waited for a day like today."

At my words spoken with a bright smile, the Third Imperial Prince smirked.

Without even knowing what I had been waiting for.

* * *

I was certainly on the clumsy side when dealing with people.

Perhaps because I had spent too many years as a sword, I was ignorant of others' emotions and clumsy at expressing my own. Not even as empty flattery did anyone say I was good at handling social affairs.

Fawning over someone without meaning it suited my temper even less.

But despite that, I felt no difficulty whatsoever in buttering up the Third Imperial Prince.

It was all thanks to my notoriety.

In the rumors, I was a nuisance to the royal family abandoned by the royal father, a precarious prince who didn't know when his younger brother would usurp the throne and have him confined.

This trip to the Empire was also known to be a result of discord with the king reaching its peak, leading to me being chased out of the kingdom.

The Third Imperial Prince projected his own image onto me.

He arbitrarily misunderstood that his own situation of not being acknowledged by the emperor roughly aligned with mine.

He acted friendly, as if feeling a sense of camaraderie from shared misery.

He even spouted advice that didn't even seem like advice to encourage me.

"From now on, think of me as a brother."

Eventually, the bastard even said he would become my sworn older brother.

How ridiculous it was.

I merely listened quietly to his stories while holding back bursting laughter.

I didn't need to fawn in a way that didn't suit my temper, nor did I need to forcefully create common ground by rambling on about my past.

Even if I just kept my mouth shut, the Third Imperial Prince assumed my feelings on his own, guessed my circumstances, and even gave advice about my future.

"You just trust this brother. Once I succeed the imperial throne, it will be a piece of cake for you to become king."

On the third day since meeting the Third Imperial Prince, the bastard already considered me his person.

And when the fifth day arrived, he even asked me in a subtle tone to lend him strength in an emergency.

Saying that the power of the kingdom and Marquis Montpellier would be a great help.

I couldn't know when this 'emergency' the Third Imperial Prince spoke of would be, nor what kind of situation it was.

But guessing from it, it would definitely not be a normal situation.

I played innocent and asked what kind of situation that was, and what he wanted me to do.

Looking around briefly, the bastard answered in a subtle tone that if the emperor made the wrong choice, he would use any means necessary to correct that mistake, and for that, he needed more allies.

He spoke smoothly, but in the end, it was no different from saying he would start a civil war if the emperor handed the throne to another imperial prince.

The Third Imperial Prince said that if such a day came, the kingdom and Montpellier would have to raise an army and lend their strength.

I readily accepted the bastard's proposal.

Saying that if such a thing really happened, I would mobilize the maximum number of troops.

"As expected! I believed you would understand my intentions, little brother!"

The Third Imperial Prince was immensely pleased and heavily patted my shoulder.

Without even knowing what I meant when I said I would raise an army.

If he had known, he definitely wouldn't have been happy.

"Still, just in case, we should leave a document."

The Third Imperial Prince pulled a piece of parchment from his coat.

"Don't misunderstand. It's not that I don't trust you. This is merely a formal procedure. In the distant future, when I become emperor, this document will be the evidence that proves your merits."

The bastard demanded a written oath, just like I had done to Marquis Montpellier.

It was a document that explicitly stated a promise to mobilize troops in an emergency.

I sealed it without hesitation.

Although that seal was not of the Royal House of Leonberk, but rather stamped by applying ink to Marquis Montpellier's identification plaque.

The Third Imperial Prince grinned from ear to ear upon seeing the seal of the Montpellier family stamped on the oath.

He had said he needed the support of the kingdom and the marquis, but in reality, a signature from a high-ranking noble of his own country would be far more useful than one from a weak nation that wasn't even his own.

Coming to his senses belatedly, the Third Imperial Prince asked me why I had substituted the seal with Montpellier's.

I answered the Third Imperial Prince, asking if this wasn't much more trustworthy than the promise of a prince who hadn't even succeeded the throne yet, and that the Montpellier family and I were in the same boat and were essentially one entity.

The bastard immediately accepted it and was exceedingly pleased.

As if to repay this, he called a Mage to tend to the injuries of the Iron Lions and the others.

He seemed to care nothing for the fact that those injuries were sustained while swinging swords at his own country's knights.

Going a step further, the bastard said he had heard I was very interested in the knights' spars, and gave me information about the families located along the delegation's route and the knightly orders they commanded.

It was tantamount to handing over his country's military intelligence to me, a prince of another country, as a so-called gift, to the point where I wanted to crack open his head just to see what was inside.

What was even more surprising was the fact that there was no one around the Third Imperial Prince to stop him.

Not even the old knight presumed to be a Paladin, nor the Mage who seemed to have quite a profound mastery, restrained him.

They merely watched what the Third Imperial Prince was doing with blank eyes.

Watching that sight, I could tell.

There was no longer anyone by the Third Imperial Prince's side who could offer loyal advice; only greedy jackals who flocked to him hoping for some scraps remained.

The Third Imperial Prince stayed with me for several days straight after that.

If one of his royal guards hadn't pressed him, saying he had an appointment with another noble house, the bastard would have followed me around the entire way until reaching the imperial capital.

"It's a shame, but we'll have to part ways here."

The bastard had a genuinely regretful face.

"Let's meet again in the imperial capital."

The bastard reached out his hand to me. I reluctantly grasped that hand.

Grab.

Unable to overcome his own passion, the Third Imperial Prince suddenly hugged me.

"In the future, people will record our meeting in history and praise it."

He whispered to me in an agitated tone, and then swiftly mounted his horse.

It seemed he wanted to play a hero game that didn't suit him at all.

It was an exaggerated tone, and theatrical gestures. It was also an action that definitely showed he was conscious of the surrounding gazes.

Absurdly, the bastard seemed to believe that today's events would be recorded in history.

I agreed about half of it.

My meeting with the bastard would definitely be recorded in history.

The only difference from his thoughts would be the fact that that history would be a story about the kingdom's independence and ascension.

"Are you sad to see him go?"

As I was standing blankly, Ranger Yorden stealthily approached and asked.

"No way."

"I thought you were missing him already. Not even blood brothers would get along so well in this world."

"You seem to have a lot of free time."

Seeing him come over for no reason and run his mouth, he seemed bored.

I gave the Ranger a mission so he wouldn't be bored.

"Go and find a suitable place to set up camp."

The Ranger, who had spoken up for no reason and got nothing out of it, pouted and disappeared far ahead with his subordinates.

"I told you to watch that mouth, that mouth!"

"Why do we have to suffer because of you, captain!"

I chuckled as I heard the voices of the fading Rangers.

"Your Highness."

I turned my head and saw Siorin there.

Perhaps having suffered quite a bit mentally while traveling with the Third Imperial Prince's group, his handsome face had grown as haggard as could be over the past few days.

I was tired too.

I was also considerably exhausted from dealing with the Third Imperial Prince.

The bastard was terribly talkative and completely lacked tact.

The only reason he didn't throw fits with his foul temper was because he felt an unfounded sense of camaraderie with me, and because I readily gave him what he wanted.

Despite that, dealing face-to-face with a rare piece of trash was extremely exhausting work.

Only after he left did I feel like the stench was dissipating.

But what could I do? This was only the beginning.

The fishing had only just begun.

And the bastards who would snap up the appetizing bait known as the kingdom and Montpellier were still scattered everywhere.

"Now, where was our next destination?"

"It is House Montaigne. According to the information the prince handed over, they do not have Paladins, but an elite group of renowned knights, the White Falcon Knights, are under the family's command."

At Siorin's answer, I looked back.

"Our next opponent is the White Falcons."

The Iron Lions responded loudly.

"White Falcons or white pigeons, we'll crunch them up and eat them all!"

"Is that so? Then we'll be having bird meat for dinner tonight."

Just in time, Yorden, who had returned from scouting, heard my words and grimaced.

I thought you told me to find a campsite.

I cleanly ignored the Ranger's complaint.

* * *

After the Third Imperial Prince left, we stopped by House Montaigne and smashed the White Falcon Knights, and then passed through two more territories, smashing two additional knightly orders.

Now, the imperial capital of the Empire was very close.

I brought the delegation's procession to a halt and ordered a rest.

No one had shown it so far, but it would have been stranger if the Iron Lions and the soldiers hadn't been mentally exhausted while passing through the Empire, which was no different from enemy territory.

While the knights rested, I called Nicolo into the carriage.

"How is it? Are things going well?"

At my question, Nicolo's eyes sparkled as he showed me a piece of paper.

It was a large map densely covered in tiny writing.

On the map drawn with the delegation's travel route, the information of the knightly orders the kingdom's knights had faced so far was written in tiny letters, and the information about the imperial knights recently handed over by the Third Imperial Prince was also recorded without a single omission.

"One hundred knights and one thousand five hundred soldiers. It is not so difficult to grasp the approximate number of stationed troops if we calculate based on the Empire's general organization."

I smiled with satisfaction at those words.

From the beginning, I came to the Empire to observe its situation; the spars were nothing more than a means to an end.

The delegation's route had also been planned with military movement in mind from the start, and the return route was newly selected to gather information on fortresses and families we hadn't managed to figure out on the way here.

In other words, I was currently extracting the Empire's military intelligence from right in the middle of the Empire.

Slipping through the arrogance and negligence that had solidified over the long time the Empire had reigned as an absolute powerhouse. And receiving help from a foolish imperial prince.

I took the map from Nicolo and entrusted it to Gunne.

Because even if something happened, she would be able to slip the map away without anyone noticing.

Sending Nicolo back, I looked around the campsite for a moment.

Although we were right in the middle of the Empire's territory, which could be considered the center of the enemy camp, the expressions of the knights and soldiers were relatively relaxed.

It was thanks to the victories they had achieved through the spars so far.

They were as confident as a victorious army, not shrinking back in the slightest.

I hoped that all the knights and soldiers of the kingdom would become like them.

I earnestly desired for them to be reborn as soldiers of the kingdom who wouldn't be intimidated by the name of the Empire and could fight confidently.

And I believed that such a day would come eventually.

As I was watching the soldiers while picturing the distant future, I suddenly felt a gaze.

Turning my head, Gawain was looking at me.

He didn't avoid my gaze. He seemed to have something to say.

I gave him a subtle glance.

After I went into the carriage and waited a moment, Gawain appeared.

"Say what you have to say."

He hesitated for a long time at my words before opening his mouth.

"What on earth did you do to my body?"