Chapter 120
These days, the life of Erna Bellos, the First Princess of the Bellos Empire, could be described as extremely simple yet busy.
"Sister! Should I just tell him? That you put on perfume every day, stare into the mirror... and even study makeup while waiting for my brother?"
"...Your Highness, please, please don't...."
She had to travel back and forth between the North and the center, cultivate relations with people, make regular appearances at the Magic Tower, and learn magic.
Time was passing so quickly that she almost wished she had more than one body.
"No, but you don't pay attention to her at all! You gave her the position of Grand Duke of the North and told her to manage it well, but you never come unless something really special happens!"
"That is because the North is being managed well, and because His Highness the Crown Prince trusts me, is it not?"
"It's because of the distance! The distance! Then what about the Holy Kingdom...? The Saintess of the Holy Kingdom isn't even in the Holy Kingdom—she's in the Imperial Palace, tagging along with my brother from time to time, isn't she?!"
Flinch.
Estella Neive, Grand Duke of the North, the North's pillar, and its commander-in-chief, realized that her body had reacted on its own to First Princess Erna's words.
Even while knowing she shouldn't, she chastised herself for daring to harbor such thoughts.
"...The Saintess drinks tea with His Highness the Crown Prince and such?"
She could not suppress the curiosity welling up inside her.
"Exactly! Sister, you really need to get a grip! My brother only has one body! He's busy! He doesn't even have time to come all the way to the North and pay attention to you!"
"...."
At First Princess Erna's continued words, Estella lowered her gaze slightly.
"But isn't that because circumstances require it...? The Holy Kingdom has already become a vassal state of the Empire, and can practically be considered part of the same country now... From the Saintess's perspective, looking after the Empire's sacred power takes priority... and the Great Temple is in the center of the Empire, too...."
"Of course that's true, but just because my brother is so... so busy! It's not like he has to go so far as not even sending you a single message!"
"...You haven't said a single thing wrong, but may I ask you one question?"
"Of course!"
"I honestly don't know why you pay so much attention to me. Of course, it's an honor, and I actually like it very much... but I found myself vaguely curious... I'm sorry to ask such a question."
After finally blurting out the question she had kept bottled up, Estella was about to prostrate herself in apology when—
Thunk.
"Hm, don't bow. Well, I suppose you could think that way. Just... just think of it as me making a bet with one insolent little brat."
"A bet?"
"Yes."
Erna supported Estella and slowly helped her to her feet.
"Well, that insolent little brat was talking with me about romance and all sorts of things, and then he went and claimed he was the greatest romance expert in the Empire, you know? Ridiculous! With me, Erna Bellos, standing right here so confidently! How could someone so short—though he is still growing, of course—anyway! How dare a little brat like that claim he knows more about romance than I do! I couldn't stand it! So I decided to coach you myself! And learn magic, too!"
"...."
An insolent little brat.
Estella immediately guessed who the insolent little brat First Princess Erna meant.
There was only one person in the Empire who occupied a position worthy of being called "an insolent little brat."
'Could it be Sir Theo?'
Lady Erna and Sir Theo seem to be on good terms.
To think a member of the imperial family and someone outside it could be so close.
'I'm envious... No, that's not it... I mean... um.'
Estella concealed her complicated feelings and responded appropriately to Erna.
"I see. Sir Theo and...."
"Yes! So, Sister, just trust me! I'll bring you and my brother much closer! My brother told me that if I stopped causing trouble, talked less, and kept my extravagance to an absolute minimum, I might become so precious to him that he could put me in his eye without it hurting!"
"...I-I see."
Estella continued nodding as Erna poured out her words in a torrent.
Come to think of it, the day when she would head to the capital to deliver various reports was approaching.
'I will be able to speak with His Highness the Crown Prince... for the first time in a while.'
At that time, she wanted to tell His Highness the Crown Prince about various things.
Just as their conversation was wrapping up.
"Oh, right. You might not be very curious, but my lips are tingling so much I can't keep it to myself."
"Pardon?"
"My brother, you know, my second brother. Bedin Bellos! Can you believe he secretly tagged along on the mission to the Eastern Continent after begging me not to tell anyone? What on earth is he thinking?"
"...His Highness Prince Bedin secretly joined the mission to the Eastern Continent... Are you saying he is there now?"
"Yep! This is a secret, okay? But I felt like I absolutely had to tell someone! Ah, I feel so much better!"
Estella was hit with shocking news.
Why? Why was Bedin there?
+ ++++
No matter how blinded by love someone may be, once they convey their feelings directly,
if the answer they receive is not clear, anyone can recognize that it is a rejection.
"How sad."
He had known for some time that he was not the only one by her side.
He even knew that she had been receiving quite a lot of gifts from them.
Yet the only reason his feelings had not changed was that he believed their relationship was different from those others.
But.
"Emotions are truly ironic, aren't they? Love grows uncontrollably when you don't give voice to it... then begins to shrink the moment you do."
The moment he confessed and heard her answer, he realized it.
They were not looking in the same direction.
"My heart felt empty. And I spent a long time thinking about what I could fill that emptiness with."
What was he to do, and how was he to live?
Bedin agonized over those questions at great length.
The answer to them came very quickly.
"My brother runs himself ragged for the Empire day and night, while I, his little brother, had spent all this time wanting only to hide behind a woman's skirt... I finally understood why he had tried so hard to train me."
Live for the Empire.
He regretted the past in which he had gnawed away at the Empire, resolving never to let such a thing happen again.
He wanted to work hard to be of greater help to the Empire than the harm he had caused.
But the time he had spent being lazy was not quick to reward him.
As a result, Bedin's gaze naturally shifted to the side.
"Once I admitted that I could never become my brother, my skills started improving quickly. I'm not my brother. I'm not as remarkable as he is... or as cool... I don't have his charisma, either."
Even so, if there was one thing he and his brother had in common.
There was only one.
"Sol Bellos."
The power of the great prophet who was said to have swallowed the sun and wielded it.
That power was an exclusive privilege of the Bellos imperial family.
Since its source was the same, even if his method of wielding it was a little different,
could he not wield it powerfully?
Bedin had pondered that, and then he encountered the cannon.
Cannon, artillery piece—whatever it was called did not matter.
"...Marianne gave back exactly as much as I gave her. Do you know how ideal that is? Put in 100 flames, and she spits out exactly 100 flames. What an ideal figure she cuts."
What mattered was simply that this new invention, the cannon, had shown him a new horizon.
The one and only being that returned all the power intact no matter how passionately he treated her!
His heart could not help but grow hot.
And this was the result.
"Ggh... sob... W-what kind of crazy nonsense...."
The aftermath lay spread out beneath the feet of Second Prince Bedin.
"I'm speaking from the bottom of my heart, and you call it crazy nonsense? That's harsh."
Those hailed as the elite forces of each country lay there with hollow expressions.
Some were dead, some were on the verge of death, and some rolled their eyes desperately as they sought a way to survive.
They had been piled beneath Bedin's feet, forming a hill.
"Jinseong has chosen to walk alongside Cheongryu... a nation that chose to enter the Empire's shadow, and you think you can launch such a pathetic attack?"
Bedin looked down at them with cold eyes and then—
Click.
He brutally rammed Sol Bellos's flames into the cannon.
There was no need for control. If he simply poured in all his strength and drove every bit of his heartbreak into it...
Boom!
Marianne, the cannon, understood his pain completely and displayed that power to the world in full.
"After making this much noise, my solo act is over. I wanted to put on a somewhat more impressive show... and show my brother how much I've changed."
And now he had to debut Marianne to a bunch of mere small fry like these.
What a regrettable and tragic story this was.
Bedin muttered as he confirmed that every elite soldier sent by the Taewon Coalition was dead and got to his feet.
He had originally wanted to spare a few, but sadly Marianne had not allowed it.
"I suppose I'll take at least their heads and ask for an analysis."
Playing the youngest had been quite fun.
He had bantered with the knights and even tried doing laundry.
Perhaps it was because he had been living a life unbefitting a member of the imperial family.
These days, Bedin found it strange that the people around him treated him like royalty.
Because to Bedin, the standard for royalty had always been the Crown Prince, his older brother.
He still thought himself nowhere near that standard.
'Still, etiquette is unavoidable... I'll just have to make an effort to approach the knights without formality first.'
With that thought, just as Bedin was about to collect the heads of the enemies.
Shnk!
"...?"
A blade pierced through Bedin's abdomen.
+++++
"...Is that true?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
He had wanted to act like a gentleman.
"You mean Second Prince Bedin was wounded by the enemy while trying to stop their surprise attack?"
"...Yes. His life is not in immediate danger, but the blade was coated in a curse, and he is currently unconscious, they say."
Even so, he had intended to show at least a minimum of human mercy.
But now there was no need. No—even if there had been, he no longer wanted to.
"Is the Kingdom of Taewon prepared to endure the sun's wrath?"
We can curse him ourselves, and if he needs a beating, we should be the ones to give it.
No matter how much of a leaking bucket he was from within, being treated like one from without was not something we could simply ignore.
"Prepare for war."
I slowly rose to my feet.
"Erase the nation called Taewon before the academy is completed."
That nothing remains once something falls out of the Empire's favor.
I will carve that into the history of the Eastern Continent.