Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1
Chapter 1. A Shrimp’s Ambition
Scritch. Scritch.
The sound of grinding chalk softly filled the space.
Only after carving the final character onto the floor did I straighten my back for the first time.
“Giselle.”
“Yes, Lady Idir.”
My loyal maid responded simply to my call.
I flashed a small smile at her and struck a match.
Whoosh―!
The magic circle I had painstakingly completed began to burn fiercely.
Feeling the flickering heat wash over my face, I slowly closed my eyes.
“I will become a queen.”
From the moment I was born, my future had been decided.
The successor to the weakest country with the most tantalizing land.
“O you who desire to take my soul.”
The next Grand Duke doomed to suffer, crushed between powerful nations.
Idir Hubert. Also known as the Shrimp Princess.
I was utterly sick of the mockery and pity that always followed me. I would smash that predetermined destiny to pieces.
And I would absolutely have my revenge.
“Answer my wish.”
As I chanted the final incantation, I scattered the red liquid into the flames.
The droplets of blood separated and burned away in an instant, emitting a metallic tang.
The flames gradually died down, and the room fell into a complete hush. A suffocating silence.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
The ticking of the second hand announced the flow of time, which had seemed to freeze for a moment.
“……Lady Idir.”
“……What?”
“It looks like a failure after all.”
“……I know.”
I pouted my lower lip sullenly and rummaged through the books.
‘Another failure.’
I drew a line across “Viper’s Blood” to cross it out. I didn’t even know how many failures this made.
“Sigh.”
I let out a deep sigh and crammed my feet into my hunting boots.
Instead of wasting time sighing, it was far more efficient to go out and gather the next ingredient.
“Lady Idir. I’ve been meaning to ask you since a moment ago.”
Giselle, who was helping me with my shoes, pointed to my chest.
“What is that hanging around your neck?”
At her question, I grasped the small angel statue dangling from my neck.
Honestly, it was a bit tacky to wear as a necklace.
“I bought it because they said the protection of an angel follows it.”
Hearing my words, Giselle’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to ally with a family that can help you, Lady Idir?”
“That won’t do.”
I shook my head firmly and stepped out of the Grand Ducal Castle.
Allying with another family would only prolong my life for a brief moment.
There was only one thing I wanted.
To raise this Grand Duchy I would inherit into a Kingdom, and a powerful nation with strength that no one on the continent would dare look down upon.
“Giselle. I want to become the queen of a powerful nation entirely by my own strength.”
“Does summoning a demon to grant a wish not count as using outside help?”
“Summoning is my own capability.”
I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly.
‘This is also a part of my efforts.’
It was a truly sorrowful thing, but if I didn’t rely even on the power of a demon, this country had no hope.
‘Inheriting the right of succession in a situation like this, it’s obvious what will happen.’
Holding the reins tightly, I recalled one of my past memories.
That night was like a blessing from an angel, with countless shooting stars falling across a milky sky.
“Idir. On the day a century of history fills this country. I shall hand this position over to you.”
That promise was like the entire world to me.
Because that day was…….
“Lady Idir! Watch your step!”
The moment Giselle’s warning dropped, the horse reared its front legs high.
The dagger Giselle threw flew like lightning and pierced the ground.
When I snapped out of it and looked down, a black lizard was squirming, letting out its final shriek.
“How shocking.”
Muttering calmly to myself, I looked around. It seemed we had arrived at our destination before I knew it.
‘I must succeed this time.’
I felt like I would only be satisfied after catching a glimpse of what a grand demon looked like.
Without hesitation, I picked up the lizard that had fallen at my feet and stuffed it into a sack.
It was right after I had ruthlessly captured the lizard alive.
“Aaaaah―!”
An echo reverberated from somewhere in the forest.
“Giselle.”
“Yes, Lady Idir.”
Giselle drew her sword reflexively.
At the same time, another scream echoed as if to announce their presence.
“Let’s go check it out.”
Since we sensed a suspicious presence, we couldn’t just ignore it.
It would only be proper to check who the fool was that had stepped into this place without a shred of fear.
The closer we got to the source of the scream, the louder the commotion grew.
“……I told you, you human!”
Someone’s hysterical shouting was heard in fits and starts.
‘An internal rift?’
I increased my speed while guessing the opponent’s situation. And when I parted the bushes.
“……A bear?”
A massive black bear-like figure huddled up appeared.
“No. It’s a person.”
Looking closer, it was a human.
Seeing that there was no movement, they seemed dead. I pointed to the parted bushes.
“Giselle. Track down the person who fled and capture them.”
“Yes, understood.”
Giving Giselle a short command, I hopped down from the horse.
“He’s not dead?”
Examining him again, the man was still breathing.
‘Though it looks like he’ll die soon.’
However, he was not in a normal state.
When I lifted the man’s robe, sticky blood poured down. It was an amount where it wouldn’t be strange if he died right this second.
“Hmm.”
Swallowing a groan, I examined the man’s condition in detail.
There were traces of someone’s hurried hands having been at work. The awkwardly torn shoulder ornament stood out in particular.
‘He must have really wanted to hide his identity.’
A laugh escaped me at the crude disguise.
They had intentionally dirtied the man’s clothes and face, and cleared away everything that could help guess his status.
The opponent must have moved right at the moment we sensed their presence.
They did make a wise judgment in a split second. But…….
‘You can’t fool my eyes.’
Unfortunately, I knew this man’s identity.
He was a man I had first met at a banquet held in the Adorif Empire.
Dressed in a sleek dress uniform, he had politely escorted me, and then sliced a man in half right in the middle of the banquet hall.
“I have executed your command.”
The knight drenched in blood knelt before his master without his breathing being disturbed even a fraction.
I would never be able to forget that low voice reporting calmly.
Deyan Boislav Nemanic.
That was the moment the man called the immortal of Adorif was engraved into my mind.
“Should I kill him, or let him live?”
I began to calculate quickly.
The problem that would arise if this man died in my country versus the future that would come if I saved him and sent him back.
While I was weighing which was better and which was more terrible, Giselle returned.
“Lady Idir. I have bound the suspicious individual.”
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
Seeing the figure struggling while held in Giselle’s grip, my mind was made up.
“Giselle. Let’s pick this man up too.”
“This thing?”
“Yes.”
‘There is a lot to gain from this man.’
Deyan Boislav Nemanic was a man so loyal that one could say he had no ego of his own.
At the same time, he was a powerful wall defending the empire’s border, and a demon-like bastard who loved the battlefield.
“It’s a bit boring. Can I go outside for a moment?”
“In principle, it is impossible.”
However, unlike the public’s evaluation, the man I actually met was incredibly polite and overflowing with elegance.
“That’s why I’m asking.”
“…….”
“Sir Nemanic can just follow and watch me, right?”
“……Only for a very brief moment.”
And he was also quite reasonable.
‘If I make him owe me a debt first, there will be a place to use him.’
Crucially, this man acted as a deterrent to the outbreak of war just by his mere existence.
“Can we load him onto the horse? He’s incredibly heavy.”
I groaned as I tugged at Deyan’s sleeve.
“I will do it.”
Giselle hurried over and skillfully lifted Deyan’s body.
But at that moment, his hand twitched.
“Giselle!”
I instinctively reached out toward Giselle.
However, Deyan grabbing Giselle by the collar was faster.
“Ugh!”
Slammed into a tree trunk by Deyan’s attack, Giselle let out a faint groan.
“Sir Nemanic! What do you think you are doing right now?”
When I shouted in anger, his head slowly turned toward me. Our eyes met in the air.
‘No.’
There was no focus in Deyan’s eyes.
Rather, should I say he lacked reason? At any rate, he was out of his mind right now.
“Hey.”
“…….”
The enemy knight growled low. Like a starving beast.
He slowly advanced toward me.
“Sir Deyan Boislav Nemanic.”
Stepping back hesitantly, I groped at my waist. I could feel the dagger hidden inside my clothes.
There was no way I could defeat a man called the strongest on the continent, and even an immortal, with something like this.
‘Even so, I can’t just stand here and take a beating, right?’
Glance. Blood was still dripping from Deyan’s abdomen.
‘I’ll have to abandon the plan I just made.’
Even if sorting it out became complicated, it was better to kill him than to fall victim to this man’s attack.
‘No matter how much of an immortal he is, he’ll die if a stabbed wound is stabbed again.’
Holding my breath, I waited for the enemy to get close enough, angling for the perfect opportunity.
Finally, when the distance closed enough that my arm could reach him.
Just as I thought Deyan’s large hand was about to cover my vision, it reversed its trajectory.
Thwack!
“Oh dear?”
Astonishingly, the one Deyan attacked was not me, but himself.
Thud―!
Not satisfied with punching his own face, he slammed his forehead straight into the tree trunk right next to him.
And just like that, he lost consciousness.
“……My goodness?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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