“What are the two princes doing here this late at night?”
“Wow, what happened to the Earth to get like this?”
They might look like mere middle-aged nobles, who had just come out of training and were still covered in sweat, but…
‘The cavalry commander, the field marshal, and even the senior officers of the supply unit…’
In fact, every one of them represented the rank of Major General or higher by the standards of my previous life.
“Duke Anas Poilievre is on his way to us!”
...and finally Duke Annas Poilievre himself appeared.
The purple-robed knights who followed Cale were confused.
“A-, General!”
The General was the distant and most senior commander of these Imperial Knights that the Second Prince had brought, thinking that they were on his side.
The Second Prince's facial expression was a sight to behold; He must have pulled them behind him without telling the general, thinking that the matter would pass peacefully.
Of course, a prince is higher in rank than a general or a duke, but the problem is that neither of them has been appointed crown prince yet.
'So, even the Second Prince wouldn't want to disturb the powerful Bolivier Family.'
General Annas, his reddish-gray hair neatly slicked back, knelt down on one knee.
“May the blessing of the Ruler of Genesis be upon you, His Highness Prince Evren, and His Highness Prince Kyle.”
“It's been a long time, General.”
“The absence has been long. But at this late hour...!”
After responding to the villain, the general turned his black eyes towards the protagonist: "Your Highness Prince Cale. Why were you planting such mines in the ground? Aren't these materials banned even in the palace due to their danger?"
“……!”
“Did you do it to hunt monsters in this area? If the First Prince had not contacted me…!”
Fortunately they received the call late at night; Otherwise, the Bolivier family present in the secret training field would have been seriously injured.
“And you, Gedric!”
The general shouted at the knight commander who followed Cale: “If you had to go out to escort the Second Prince, why wasn’t I notified?”
“For.. I have received an order that the matter requires urgent processing.”
“The only person who can give you orders is His Majesty the Emperor and only me!”
“……!”
He was sweating profusely.
By the way, Lillian did not feel any guilt towards this knight leader.
'He's the one who accepted a bribe from my grandfather to get Ramio into the Knights.'
He was a man more gifted as a merchant than as a knight.
The protagonist drew an emotionless expression as usual: “General. This is a misunderstanding. It is true that we used explosives, but it was not dangerous at all-”
At that moment, Lillian silently pressed the photographic stone.
Registration and documentation; This was her strategy to survive in this world.
[Huh, huh...]
While the two camps were facing off, an oval visual display floated in the air as if suspended by invisible threads.
In the video, an adult man appeared sobbing... and holding a glowing blue ball...
[S.. It will be fine if I just do what His Highness the Prince ordered me to do, right…?]
He was muttering madly before burying the mine in the ground.
[A-, now I'll put this-]
The Bolivier family members were stunned to see this.
“Isn’t this the second prince’s assistant?”
“It must be Mr. Cedric Ben...”
“Oh my God...!”
“Isn’t that the sparkle of power seeping out of that ball?”
In the video, Cedric was in agony due to the contamination of his soul.
'And in the end, I showed up too'
Because I had to hold his hand to treat him.
The veil of debris seemed to affect even the video, as no matter how much I looked at myself, I was unrecognizable as Lillian.
General Annas Poilievre could not hide his admiration: “…what amazing skill.”
Those around the general agreed when he said: “Indeed, Duke.”
“Even a Rank A Dominant wouldn’t be able to remove such contamination immediately...”
“To control the ability without destroying the soul.”
“But-”
The elders of the Bolivier family began to look at the protagonist with completely dissatisfied looks.
“What in God’s name is going on here?”
“…….”
Lillian stared coldly at the protagonist who couldn't answer.
'His insides must be churning with rage right now.'
There was no personal confrontation between her and this man. In Cale Tarania's eyes, Lillian was so insignificant, that he found no reason to care about her either in her current life or in the original novel.
In fact, many others were merely spectators in Lillian's life. However, seeing him in this situation was satisfying, and the reason was to see him abandon his subordinate like this…
The villain spoke first: "Well, it's clear as you can see. Kyle, how could you ask your subordinate to do something like this?"
He was proud of his reputation as a noble prince compared to a villain...but this incident would create a rift in that reputation. This could be seen in the expressions on the faces of the knights already standing behind him...
“…Yes, I am sorry that things have come to this.”
“By the way, I will interrogate this man myself.”
“……!”
“You certainly have no objection, since he used 'illegal' bombs.”
The protagonist's features froze when talking about the fate of his assistant.
The real battle has not begun yet.
'This doesn't even qualify as a qualifier'
However, winning is always better.
* * *
After moving away from that noisy area, the shadows clung to Lillian like a flock of sheep.
"Miss! Eat plenty!"
“You idiot, look at the time!”
“Here, take more pillows!”
Lillian received a shoulder massage from Margaret, and drank the juice one of the shadows offered her without hesitation. She had suffered all day, so she had every right to enjoy this much luxury.
'The Bolivier family's looks were good too.'
They were a generation-neutral family.
'In the original novel, they moved to the Second Prince's camp because of Iris's help...'
Because they will need crucial help later...
'But if I behave better next time as well, the results will be great.'
...But where is the person I should talk to about this?
Lillian looked around.
“But, where did His Highness go?”
Speaking of which, Sir Elias was not there either, and some of the shadows whose faces were accustomed to him had disappeared.
Jean simply replied, "He left for a little while. He has some things to settle in the back."
“Really?”
The shadows all nodded as they smiled: "Rest now, miss. This time, you will reach the castle when you wake up."
* * *
In the darkness, white snow piled up lightly.
Efren was sitting on a rock, crossing one foot over the other.
“I suffered a lot while doing things I was not used to.”
“Khhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
“Lately, there are a lot of things I'm doing for the first time.”
On the other side covered in snow, Kyle was on his knees, panting.
“By my standards, this was not an effective strategy at all.”
“You, ugh, Efren...!”
“But it was a strategy worth it.”
Some of the Knights of Dawn were lying with their eyes closed. It is not possible to know exactly which parts have faded in this situation, and what remains of them will soon be covered by snow.
“Hoo”
In fact, Evren was feeling slightly bored while all this was happening. He knew that Cale would try to trap him, and that he would bring trivial things with him as expected from the Pavel family's thinking.
'I could have erased them all obviously'
Then the Second Empress was going to mobilize the Pavel, Taillard, part of the Imperial Palace, and other powerful families. He already knew that war would break out.
If he had been the former Evren, he would not have chosen war so easily for fear of going berserk.
'But now I own Lillian…'
The Ruler of Victory stood by his side.
Moreover, humans only understand the language of fear. If he wiped out about 40% of the empire's population, nothing would be difficult after that.
And yet…
Evren smiled slightly as he looked at his brother who was groaning:
'It's really interesting'
It is not Lillian who interests him, but her intelligence. To attract the Bolivier family to undermine Kyle's position...and how did she know that their secret training field was nearby?
Anyway, she was very curious about him.
'Since Lillian was the one who revealed this matter, I have to respect her style to the end.'
He saw a lot more interesting moments than he expected, so he was satisfied.
Eren got up and stomped hard on Kyle's head.