CH 220

The palace’s messenger proved to be Young Duke Arios Summersol. He was in his early twenties and would likely inherit the peerage in a little while. Right now he was apparently helping his father for the sake of gaining some experience.

While expressionless, he exchanged a greeting with Elias.

“I came with a directive from the royal palace.”

After looking at Prince Elias with a cold expression, Young Duke Summersol read out the parchment in his hands.

『

Elias Fulland

You plotted to charge Scarlet Chaudgal, daughter of Duke Chaudgal and your fiancée, with false accusations in order to install another woman as your queen. While colluding with Direck Covini, you accused her in presence of the public and attempted to make her yield by ordering Direck Covini to use force.

Moreover, without apologizing or reflecting on your transgression, you shunned her as 「Decorative Fiancée」 while looking down at her.

The parliament and king unanimously approved of your disinheritance as you, someone capable of such violent and underhanded plots, were judged unsuited to become king in the future.

You have been granted out to the Springcoat family. You shall become their adopted son-in-law and marry a woman as deemed fit by Earl Springcoat.

』

After finishing, he gracefully folded the parchment.

“This is the verdict by the royal palace. …Aren’t you happy to be treated so leniently?”

As Young Duke Summersol laughed derisively, Elias felt dizzy. He was the first prince whose succession of the crown had been decided at the time of his birth. Initially he had planned to calmly admonish the palace that the present king, who was no more than a bench-warmer, had no right to decide anything in regards to himself, but as he got too upset, that became impossible.

“T-Treated leniently, you say? …Don’t screw with me! How is that a lenient treatment! In the first place, what kind of authority do you people possess anyway!?”

No sooner than the other man’s laughter stopped, Elias found himself on the ground.

He had been punched.

“Oh my, oh my, now I see. It’s no wonder that Lady Scarlet, who had been investing so much effort into becoming queen, threw the towel, giving up on becoming queen. If a person like you became king, things would have ended in a disaster. …As far as the opinion of the Three Big Ducal Families is concerned, you should have been arrested. Especially Duke Chaudgal, father of the victim, strongly insisted on your imprisonment, but the present king is a deeply compassionate man. He said that you would be granted to remain free as a noble if some family was willing to take you in and if you could follow the directive. Under normal circumstances, you would have been put under house arrest, you know? I thought you would shed tears of joy that I had come to inform you instead of the knight order, but…” Young Duke Summersol looked down at Elias with a face full of scorn and hatred. “Now then, you mentioned something about having no authority, didn’t you? I can’t quite follow what made you say that the present king has no authority. Are you, as the former first prince, saying that you don’t know who is running the country and controlling the government right now? …This is quite a surprise. That’s almost as if you’re declaring yourself to be unfit as a king.”

Elias knew that he had been punched, but he couldn’t punch back. He understood that he’d very likely be confined for real if he acted up here.

The knight order would be dispatched and he’d be forced into submission.

He wiped the blood around his lips away.

Some of my teeth might have been broken.

“…It is as you say. I’m the first prince. If not for my father passing away early, I’d have become king in due time! And yet that man said that I was too young to take the crown and usurped the kingship, didn’t he!? Why should the likes of ducal families and an usurpator be allowed to tell me, the first prince and the one supposed to become king, what I should do!?!”

Silence dominated the room. A painfully heavy silence.

As the blood slowly receded from his head, even Elias started to realize that he had said something bad. In reality, those were his true thoughts, but he knew that this wasn’t anything he ought to speak of in public.

The present king was popular. All three ducal families supported the king’s reign, and the same also applied to many other nobles. Or to be precise, the opposing faction had been completely purged by the king’s aide.

“…I will take those words back with me and report them just like that. Not to mention the king, but even we hadn’t expected you to indulge in such arrogant thinking. The 【First Prince】 is a dictator so powerful that he excels the present king. Good gracious, that was quite enlightening.”

No sooner than he finished speaking he kicked Elias’s belly.

“Ugh!”

An urge to vomit welled up within Elias, but he frantically suppressed it.

But, just as he did so, his hair was grabbed and he got pulled up.

“Let me make one thing clear to you. ――Princes can be exchanged as many times as needed. Once you piece of shit are gone, someone else will become the first prince. Even without a man to ascend the throne, some guy can take the throne by marrying a princess. So what’s the deal with a shitty, exchangeable pawn misunderstanding his own value and acting like some dictator? The likes of a prince, regardless of whether they’re first, second, or whatever, doesn’t matter at all. The question 『who is king right now』 does. The spare princes are the puppets of the nobles playing the game of politics. And the one who claws his way up after participating in the disgusting contest for kingship while being manipulated, becomes king. You have already dropped out of the race, bitch.”

Elias widened his eyes. And just like that, his head got slammed against the floor.

“Ugh!”

“…I volunteered to become the messenger as I was curious about the dipshit who got tricked by the mistress’ daughter of that Springcoat scum, but now I’m regretting it as it’d have been better to have left it to the knights. ――Oh right, you’re already a Springcoat, aren’t you? So it’ll be just fine for you to suffer in that family. Even though that trash of an earl enticed my elder sister with his wiles and married her against all opposition, he abandoned my sister after the marriage and spent all his time messing around. He even spent my sister’s money to give his lover an allowance! On top of that, he marched into the mansion with his lover’s brat as soon as my sister passed away, and after abusing my sister’s daughter, he drove her out of the house! That deed, something like spitting on my sister and our ducal family, seemed to have infected my sister’s daughter with a festering hatred,” Young Duke Summersol snarled with a voice brimming with hatred and spite. “That family and its family head are enemies for me and my family. Even though that scum, who doesn’t know anything but how to fuck around, used up all his family’s fortune, he additionally fired all the servants, who had served his family for generations, and found himself in an even worse dilemma. It was planned for him and his ilk to slowly but painfully get crushed, however now I’m looking forward to you actually struggling to keep that place going. …Well, that is as long as you won’t 『put under house arrest just to kill yourself』 after the authorities hear my report.”

With that biting remark being his last words, Young Duke Summersol left the room.

＊

Elias remained huddled, unable to move. He was overflowing with grief rather than mortification.

…I’ve been watching a glittering illusion.

Back when Dad was still alive, he had gently caressed my head while telling me, “Strive in your studies since you will become the next king. Grow into a fine king who can live up to everyone’s expectations.”

Believing in those words, I made an effort in my studies while supporting my father. Even those around me thought that I’d become king. And they kept telling me so, too.

But, that glittering illusion had been shattered into small pieces by Young Duke Summersol.

A puppet of the nobles. The parliament members manipulate us as they please.

…A house arrest for just having slighted the likes of a ducal family’s daughter? But, it looks like I have even less value than that girl. Princes are exchangeable pawns, and it sounds like I dropped out of the competition for the throne.

I was mistaken in believing that I’m more important than everyone else. I was so inferior that I couldn’t do anything, even when beaten up by that ducal son, and I’m even below that arrogant commoner.

＊

At that point, he recalled Indra. Moreover, Young Duke Summersol’s hateful face.

He hated Earl Springcoat. Primrose as well, I guess. After all, they were the ones who drove out his nephew…Indra Springcoat.

Primrose talked like she was worried about him, but as far as the rumors go, she participated in his abuse. And even if not, she’s the daughter of the mistress who was allowed to live in luxury on the dowry of the ducal daughter. It’s only natural for Young Duke Summersol, who seemed to have been close to his sister, to hate them.

Moreover I got enticed by Primrose, tricked and accused a ducal daughter, and tried to disgrace her in public. Scarlet must have overlapped with his sister in the eyes of Young Duke Summersol. A seething rage and hatred had gleamed in his eyes when he was looking at me.

That very Scarlet has become friends with Indra, his sister’s child. It’s pretty clear with whom the Summersol family, which had heard of that, had sided between me and the ducal daughter. Not only did Scarlet excel in protecting herself, but she also had outstanding foresight, just like her mother said.

＊

He kept crying.

Everything was over.

Everything had fallen apart.

…At this point, he didn’t even think that he still wanted to marry Primrose. Just like her father, she wanted to marry a good-looking man with wealth and power.

If she had married me, she’d have likely wasted the royal family’s money to play around, just like her father. Her manners are unacceptable and she’s incapable of studying. That’s the kind of woman she is.

Yet, she excels only when it comes to seducing men.

I wonder what kind of face she’s going to pull once she hears that I’ve become her elder brother…

Even Genius, who stayed with me through thick and thin, has left. I resented him as he departed with his parents without calling out to me, but right now no one is calling out to me.

I, who have turned two of the three big ducal families into enemies, didn’t possess a sliver of the power I arrogantly believed to have had.

And thus he kept crying at his miserable self.