Chapter 1
The Adrasia Empire rules the center of the Fogel Continent.
It bears a golden eagle as its symbol and is counted among the continent's three great powers. Its imperial capital, Wilt, was thriving as usual today.
A major figure appeared at the Adventurers' Guild in that imperial capital.
"Amazing... It's the real thing..."
"Hey, those horns are from a King Minotaur, aren't they..."
"Seriously...? That's an AAA-rank rare monster... Did he defeat it alone...?"
Everyone's whispers were words of astonishment.
The object of their attention was a black-clad mage dragging along a pair of enormous horns. He had black hair and wore a long black robe as well. The only distinctive feature was the silver mask covering his face.
The receptionist, already accustomed to his appearance, handled him without surprise or fuss.
"Good work, Silver-san. Here is your reward."
I was Silver, an SS-rank adventurer. The receptionist called me by my alias and handed over my reward with her usual smile.
A quantity of gold coins the adventurers there had never seen before was set down.
Naturally. King Minotaur was a monster specifically designated by the Adventurers' Guild. A huge bounty had been placed on its head.
Until recently, it had not been in imperial territory, but an A-rank adventurer had formed a large party to hunt it and failed, after which it made its way into the empire.
That was why I was the one who defeated it.
"Thank you. Sorry to trouble you as always."
"Not at all. You're the one helping us. We're proud to have Silver-san, one of only five SS-rank adventurers on the continent, at our Imperial Capital branch!"
The brown-haired receptionist said this with a smile.
I gave a wry smile, set down several gold coins, and headed for the guild entrance.
"Um... Silver-san. What's this?"
"It's my treat. Have a drink. But if another high-difficulty quest comes in, send it my way first."
"Ah, yes! Understood!"
The receptionist happily clutched the gold coins. The adventurers in the guild were even more delighted, breaking into a rowdy celebration.
I was an adventurer who only accepted high-difficulty quests. So the guild gave me priority for such quests. But some adventurers resented that. It was important to let them blow off steam this way.
I wasn't exactly free to do as I pleased, either.
Thinking that, I quickly left the guild and headed for my usual inn.
There, I took off the silver mask and black robe and changed into clothes befitting the upper class. I had to be very careful about this sort of thing.
"It'd be a disaster if they found out that a prince was working as an adventurer, even if only nominally."
"If you are aware of that, please exercise some restraint, Prince Arnold."
The one who appeared without a sound and called me by name was Sebastian, a butler who had served my mother. He was a blond old man over sixty, yet his back was ramrod straight, and he wore his butler's uniform impeccably.
As his noiseless appearance suggested, he was an unbelievable old man whose abilities outside his butler's duties showed no sign of declining.
And as this butler had said, my name was Arnold Lakes Adler. I was the seventh prince of this empire.
"How many times have I told you not to appear without a sound, Sebas?"
"It is a habit, so please forgive me."
"And I don't want to hear a lecture. Whatever the 'Dull Prince' does is his own business, isn't it?"
I had a twin younger brother.
He excelled in martial prowess, was brilliant, and had a good personality. He was a genius who reached the top level at anything he tried.
Though we had identical faces, people constantly praised him as refined and graceful, while they freely said I lacked presence and ruggedness. I heard he had no shortage of marriage proposals, which was irritating even though he was my own little brother.
I, on the other hand, was a useless, listless, hopeless prince. I had done nothing but play around since childhood, and so many brilliant tutors who had served as my instructors gave up on me. My reputation quickly spread throughout the capital and then the empire, earning me the nickname "Dull Prince," because my brother had supposedly absorbed all my good qualities. Even now, everyone in the castle looked down on me and continued to whisper behind my back.
No one expected anything from me. Despite being royalty, I was at the bottom. That was who I was as a prince.
"Please do not concern yourself with what such petty people say. None of them know your true strength."
"I don't care. That's simply how I'm treated. It's not like they have any right to lecture me about my duties as a prince."
It was a hypocritical argument, considering I deliberately behaved that way, but thanks to it I could live as freely as I pleased.
However.
"I understand your reasoning, but we can no longer afford to ignore the situation. Please return to the castle at once."
"...What happened?"
"General Dominic has passed away."
"That old general?"
He had been an honorary general of the Imperial Capital Guard. He had already retired; although he had no particularly distinguished battle record, he had fought on the front lines for over fifty years and survived.
For his achievements, he had been appointed honorary general of the Imperial Capital Guard and held a position something like an adviser.
He was elderly and suffered from a heart condition, but his condition should not have been severe enough to cause his sudden death.
The word assassination flashed through my mind.
"Could it have been one of 'the three'...?"
"The details are unknown. However, the culprit probably won't be investigated."
He was a blunt man who easily made enemies, but if this was an assassination, there was only one likely reason.
Recently, General Dominic had involved himself in the succession struggle. He had always been a man who criticized the princes and princesses, but he had taken a liking to one prince and begun supporting him.
Those who saw that as a threat—in other words, the leaders in the succession struggle—must have assassinated him. That was probably what happened.
He was only an honorary general, after all. The empire had suffered no real loss. His death would be handled as a death from illness.
The only one who had suffered damage was the prince who had lost an ally.
That prince was the eighth prince, Leonard Lakes Adler. My twin younger brother.
"Leo naturally gathers allies... It's not as if he built a faction intending to claim the throne, though..."
"The problem is that he was seen as a faction. From now on, Prince Leonard will be recognized as an 'enemy' by those seeking the throne."
I sighed at Sebastian's words.
Of the imperial heirs vying for the throne, three were particularly influential: the second prince, the second princess, and the third prince.
Each of these three had a faction of their own, and the odds were overwhelmingly high that one of them would ascend the throne.
The other heirs to the throne had two paths before them. One was to join one of their sides, or at least remain neutral. The other was to oppose them and seek the throne themselves.
If they chose the latter and lost, then given the personalities of the three, they would face exile at best and execution at worst. That punishment would also extend to those involved with them. In Leo's case, that meant our mother and me.
And Leo had unwittingly ended up choosing the latter.
At this point, joining a faction or declaring neutrality would be pointless. There was no helping it now.
"We'll have to make Leo emperor..."
"Is becoming emperor yourself not an option...?"
"Do I look like emperor material? I'm the man who's dumped every troublesome thing on my brother, you know. I'll do the same this time."
I had wanted to live a carefree life as an adventurer, but at this rate I'd be marching straight to the execution block.
It was a tremendous hassle, but I had no choice.
I would have to work behind the scenes for my brother.
■■■
Back at Imperial Sword Castle, the sword-shaped castle in the center of the imperial capital, I immediately headed for Leonard's room.
However, I ran into several ministers and nobles on the way.
"Well, well, Prince Arnold. You look well today, as always."
"Thanks to you."
"Yes, you certainly look enviably carefree every single day, Prince Arnold. Prince Leonard, by contrast, is apparently diligently practicing all sorts of skills every day."
"He's more capable than I am."
"Precisely! And I hear that, following your three older siblings, he's planning to join the succession struggle. You can't afford to lose, Prince Arnold."
"Now, now, it would be cruel to compare Prince Arnold with Prince Leonard! Even though they are twins, there's a difference in talent between them!"
"Oh! Quite right, quite right. My apologies."
"Don't worry about it. It's all true."
Saying that, I walked past them.
They all bowed reverently, but every one of them was making fun of me. Their obsequiously rude tone and words came from knowing that I would neither complain to the emperor nor be listened to if I did.
Of all the imperial family, I alone was not treated like royalty. The nobles and ministers in the capital, unlike the provincial nobility, looked down on me from the bottom of their hearts.
Well, that was because I behaved that way.
I saw no reason to change my behavior. Precisely because no one paid attention to me, I could act as Silver and do whatever I wanted.
If I wanted to do as I pleased while holding the status of a prince, I had no choice but to put myself in a position like this.
Thinking that, I arrived at Leo's room.
"I'm coming in."
"Brother..."
I entered without knocking and found Leo sitting in a chair with his head bowed. He was eighteen. Naturally, we were the same age, but because of his composure, people often took Leo to be older.
We looked exactly alike, but while Leo kept his hair neatly arranged, mine was a mess. Leo wore his clothes properly, whereas I wore mine carelessly. His back was straight; I slouched. Once we had grown a fair bit, people stopped mistaking us for each other.
My twin younger brother Leo's face was utterly haggard.
Seeing my own identical face so downcast brought my mood down as well.
"I heard. Looks like that old man is dead."
"Yeah..."
"They say it was probably an assassination?"
"...Most likely."
At least he wasn't naive enough to say, "There is no way our older brothers and sister would assassinate him."
Considering the circumstances, assassination was the most likely possibility.
"What are you going to do?"
"...I don't want to fight among the family."
"I thought you'd say that."
Leo had absolutely no intention of seeking the throne.
The people around him had simply been inspired by his character and gotten carried away. Dominic had been the foremost among them.
As he had just said, Leo himself had opposed fighting among family for the throne.
However, blessed with talent and an excellent character, Leo was becoming a fourth power behind the second prince, second princess, and third prince, regardless of his own wishes.
That was why the man who had been egging him on was assassinated.
But that didn't mean Leo would be left in peace. No matter which of the three became emperor, a bleak future awaited him.
"You're already being recognized as an enemy. If you don't join the succession struggle, death is all that awaits you. The same goes for Mother and me."
"Yeah... I know... I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. More importantly, tell me what you're going to do."
"...I have no choice but to join the succession struggle."
Leo announced it with an expression of grim resolve.
If it had only been a matter of his own life, he probably would have backed down even if his life were at stake. But the possibility of those around him being harmed drove him to seek the throne.
In the end, that's simply the kind of person he was. That's why everyone was eager to help him—and to see him become emperor.
From my perspective, he seemed almost too kind to become emperor, but there was no point in saying so now.
Now that things had come to this, we absolutely had to make him emperor.
"I'll help too, though I may not be much use. For now, gather allies and build a faction. Once it grows large enough, they won't be able to lay a hand on you."
"Yeah... What about you, Brother?"
"I'll look for allies myself. But don't get your hopes up. The powerful ministers and nobles basically belong to one of the top three factions."
"I know... Thank you, Brother. Though I think you'd be better suited to be emperor than me..."
"Don't be ridiculous. If I became emperor, I wouldn't be able to live a life of leisure. My life plan is to take a beautiful wife and spend my days having fun. That's why I'm going to make sure you become emperor, no matter what!"
As I said something thoroughly self-centered, I patted Leo on the shoulder.
His body was trembling faintly.
Well, I suppose that was only natural. Even Leo, for all his talent, saw the top three as monsters.
In terms of ability, the empire would be safe no matter who became emperor. Naturally, their factions were formidable as well.
But no matter how powerful they were, they were not invincible. Precisely because the three were fighting among themselves, Leo had a chance.
"For now, let's start by gathering allies and earning Father's recognition."
"Right. In the end, Father is the one who decides the successor."
"Now then, how are we going to earn recognition from His Majesty the Emperor?"
And so began the two of us twins' bid for the throne.