The Scoundrel Prince Sold Out the Empire - Chapter 21

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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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Chapter 21: The Long Game of Two Zions (6)
“Let go! I said let him go!”
“Director Dachion, I’m afraid the person I serve is not you, but the Crown Prince.”
“Your Highness, how could you commit such an outrage! Installing bombs?!”
“You’re laboring under a terrible misunderstanding, Reicho. I merely happened to be in the vicinity.”
Dachion thrashed against Winter’s hold, struggling in vain.
Reicho hung limp, his limbs dangling in stunned resignation.
A question surfaced in my mind.
‘What percentage of the wealth they think they’ve lost today was built on the exploitation and subjugation of Deberian people?’
Nearly all of it, almost certainly.
The crime of bribing officials and working Deberian laborers like slaves.
The crime of selling what should never be sold, all to line their own pockets.
Now it was time to settle the account.
“Winter, strike him. Keep going until he’s lucid enough to answer my questions clearly.”
Winter, receiving the order, drove his fist straight into Dachion’s solar plexus.
“Ugh! Gasp—”
“Director Dachion, would you like another?”
“No, that’ll do.”
I’d thought the loss of his entire fortune had knocked him senseless, but a single punch was enough to restore his wits.
A man who imposed suffering on others without hesitation proved remarkably fragile when facing his own pain.
“Dachion.”
“Yes…”
“Reicho.”
“Yes…”
“Good. Now we can have a proper conversation. Let’s keep this brief and be done with it. Can you deliver the promised investment funds?”
Silence.
Silence.
The two men said nothing. They couldn’t.
The trap had been designed with full knowledge of that fact.
“Your Highness, if you grant us a little time, the funds can be transferred without difficulty. After all, the deadline is still quite far off.”
Unlike Dachion, whose ruin was sealed by the explosion, Reicho could still recover if given time.
For now, at least.
Assuming, of course, that someone’s mercy permitted it.
“Why should I? We had a contract—let’s honor it. Tomorrow. If you haven’t transferred the funds by tomorrow, the collateral passes to Blen Industry, per the agreement.”
Dachion’s stake in Brown Defense. Half of Reicho’s farmland.
These were the collaterals each man had pledged.
Should they fail to deposit the investment funds by the agreed date, the contract stipulated that collateral would be surrendered in place of cash, and they would receive Equity Shares in Blen Industry.
“Then I shall transfer my Equity Share in Blen Industry to you, Your Highness. How is that?”
It was a share destined to generate substantial future returns, but immediate liquidity was what mattered now.
Unless the Crown Prince couldn’t do arithmetic, he would never refuse such an acquisition—
“Very well. However, I believe a fair valuation would be roughly five percent of what you believe it’s worth. Does that suit you?”
“Five percent? Just because my circumstances are difficult, you—” He swallowed hard. “I’ll look for another buyer.”
So he was counting on negotiating leverage from my difficult position?
There were plenty of other entrepreneurs willing to deal; he’d only made the offer because I was standing right here.
“I doubt very much you’ll find one willing.”
Cruel delight—the most accurate description of the emotion playing across the Crown Prince’s face.
Reicho’s heart felt as though it had plummeted.
“The truth is, Blen Industry’s technology remains incomplete.”
To be precise, Lumio won’t register the improved patents unless I give the order.
“Your Highness, were you planning this from the start when you proposed the partnership?”
The question came from Dachion, each syllable ground out through clenched teeth.
“Planning? Anyone hearing that might think I’d orchestrated a terror attack myself. But surely the Deberian Liberation Army was targeting you—the one they call a Palace External Traitor.”
One hundred percent true. Yet judging by how Dachion’s body began to convulse and shake, he believed not a single percent of it.
Not that it mattered whether he did or not.
“So I’ll see you both tomorrow. Hahahaha!”
* * *
A glass filled with golden liquid clinked against empty air.
“Well done, Winter!”
“Your Highness, you have earned your rest as well.”
Winter drained his drink with a satisfied smile.
When I think about the money that’s come in, I can’t help but feel good about it.
“Seventy-five percent equity in Blen Industry, point-three percent in Brown Defense, Reicho’s farms, and futures investment returns on top of all that.”
The futures profits in particular felt like I’d simply inherited the liquidated funds that Reicho had lost.
It was all thanks to having taken the opposite position from Reicho.
‘With this much money… damn. This is the biggest sum I’ve ever handled in my life.’
“Should I have the dwarf make another Handcrafted Magical Automobile?”
Just imagining it made my shoulders dance with delight.
“Winter, let Madam de Galerie know I’m coming over!”
“I’m afraid not, sir.”
Winter’s expression turned serious.
“What? Why not!”
“You said you wouldn’t sell the Brown Defense securities. Your coffers may be fuller, but there are many places to deploy capital.”
“For instance?”
“You could invest more in Blen Industry to accelerate its growth, or place funds elsewhere and continue generating returns.”
Neither option appealed to me in the slightest.
Still, if I had to put this money toward business ventures, there was one particular application that made sense.
“Didn’t you say Brown Defense’s stock price has risen from all this?”
“Yes. The returns have increased by approximately seven percent.”
It was absurd—assets growing because of a terrorist attack.
But then again, Brown Defense manufactures military equipment.
It’s the sort of business that gains value when the threat of war increases.
“Still, is there a particular reason to hold Brown Defense securities? The larger your stake, the better—and holding securities with no immediate upside is simply a loss in potential future value.”
“I have information suggesting otherwise.”
I’d seen it in a dream, so it wasn’t a lie exactly, but if pressed on whether I actually knew something, the answer would be awkward.
Because I didn’t know why it would rise.
“Winter. Let’s say Brown Defense securities surge three or four times over. What would have to happen?”
“Well. The most obvious would have to be war, wouldn’t it…”
Winter trailed off, maintaining his characteristic poker face, though his nostrils flared ever so slightly.
What is this bastard thinking?
“Your Highness. Surely you don’t mean…?”
“You’re thinking that since I started the terrorist attack, I wouldn’t hesitate at war, is that it?”
“My suspicions were correct. You truly are a frightening person, Your Highness.”
Correct about what—I’d gotten it completely wrong.
And if we’re talking frightening, Winter’s scheming mind was far more so.
“Never mind that. Tell me how you think Reicho and Dachion will react. I’ll be seeing them again tomorrow, so it’s best to prepare.”
“There’s no real need to speculate.”
Winter continued calmly.
“In games of chance, men who’ve lost everything usually show one of three reactions. They demand their losses back through violence, or they beg for one more chance, or they grab whatever’s stacked on the table and run. Wouldn’t you say it’s much the same?”
Winter seemed indifferent to which path Dachion and Reicho chose.
But I—or rather, Zion Blije—needed to know which way they’d jump.
“The drinks taste particularly good tonight. Care for a glass at a proper establishment? Somewhere outstanding. We’re free for the evening, so let’s enjoy ourselves.”
“I have plans.”
“Sir?”
“Things to do. I have them.”
I stood up.
* * *
“Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it all!”
Dachion spewed curses without pause, pressing hard on the accelerator as the car shot down the main road at speed.
Vroom!
“Ninth Prince. I swear I will repay this debt.”
Dachion was fleeing under cover of darkness.
Even though the building he’d sunk his entire fortune into had been destroyed in the terrorist attack, tangible assets remained—real estate, valuables, bonds and such.
Which was precisely why he had to flee tonight.
Because he’d scraped together dangerous money for Cheongsang Garden.
For instance, his patron’s discretionary funds.
If he remained in Seiel, what little remained would be seized, and he’d end up destitute.
Better to abandon some real estate and slip away with all the smaller, precious valuables he could carry.
‘Lucky there’s no family to complicate things.’
He was planning to leave Deberian. If he crossed into the neighboring Gizcal Republic or even went overseas across the sea, there would be no need to worry about pursuit.
Only one thing bothered him….
‘The name Dachion will be remembered as a wretched coward who fled after his family’s ruin.’
The Palace Internal Traitors and Palace External Traitors—ten men most zealously devoted to selling their nation to the highest bidder.
Among them, Dachion possessed the least wealth and power.
The source of a towering inferiority complex accumulated over decades.
‘If only the Cheongsang Garden had been completed. If I could have made it a place where gold flowed like a spring, as planned. I could have surpassed every last one of the Palace External Traitors.’
It was all because of the ninth prince. Someday—somehow—I will repay this debt in full.
“Zion Riobert. My rage shall never…….”
“Did you call for me?”
Dachion’s words died in his throat. The automobile was racing forward at speed when a figure suddenly appeared in the passenger seat beside him.
Hair the color of spun gold.
Eyes a deeper crimson than blood itself.
The Ninth Prince—Zion Riobert.
“You needn’t bow. Be grateful for this prince’s magnanimity.”
…….
“You don’t seem to be in the mood for jokes. Not that I blame you.”
…….
Dachion held his silence, straining to make sense of what was happening.
“It’s been a long time, Dachion.”
The Cheongsang Garden had exploded only yesterday.
In barely a day, and yet “a long time”?
“Five years old, I think. The last time I saw you was when the late king still lived.”
In that instant, goosebumps erupted across Dachion’s spine.
“Your Highness. What do you mean by that?”
Without warning, Zion seized Dachion by the collar, and both their bodies cut through the air.
The driverless automobile continued on for a moment before crashing headlong into a brick wall.
In the meantime, the two bodies hovered briefly in the void before landing on solid ground.
“I am Zion Blije—the Crown Prince of the nation you betrayed.”
Dachion’s entire body went rigid as a thousand-year-old sheet of ice.
“Your Highness. This is no jest.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“How did you use Magic? A Divine Being using Magic? Surely not a Magical Tool…….”
And then—the transformation unfolded before his eyes.
Thump.
Dachion’s knees struck the ground.
The stubborn old man, the one who felt nothing but displeasure each time he had to bow, vanished entirely.
“Will you still deny it, Dachion?”
Space folded, and realms stitched together.
Through the passage thus created emerged a divine object.
The Polar Star is the one and only star that never wavers.
It is the guiding star that countless souls trust and follow.
The Star of the North Branch took the form of a tree growing toward that eternal star.
A frost-touched birch, magically worked into silver-white radiance.
Branches splinter upward in ever-finer divisions, cradling a point of starlight that holds dominion over space.
Light extends along its runes, emanating a Magical Power Pattern unique to the Deberian royal house itself.
“You recognize it. How could you not?”
“A Divine Being holding the Star of the North Branch…… How? What is this?”
“You mean to ask how I was granted its function when I am not of the royal bloodline? Did I not tell you—I am Zion Blije.”
An elegance suffused his entire being. Majesty flowed from him.
At its center, anchoring like a counterweight—unwavering conviction.
A thing far too graceful and vast for any degraded prince to bear.
“The royal house…… Your Highness the Crown Prince…….”
Zion aimed the Star of the North Branch at Dachion.
“Traitor to your homeland. The time has come to pay your debt.”

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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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