The Scoundrel Prince Sold Out the Empire - Chapter 37

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

Episode 37: A Prince in High Society (13)
“Marquis Remiconin is absolutely delighted. I’m not certain of his exact intentions, but it’s clear he sees you as a new opportunity, Your Highness.”
Winter’s report continued.
“Since taking you into our service, things have progressed more smoothly than ever before. Blen Industries has also seen a surge in business. Inquiries about Refrigerators are pouring in from all quarters, I’m told.”
Smooth.
Yes. It had been smooth.
Time was flowing smoothly.
The worst scene glimpsed in that dream would arrive soon enough.
Winter closed the ledger.
“Your Highness. You’ve been signing off on the window view rather than the accounts.”
……
‘Caught.’
The board was set, the pieces had been moved, and now there was nothing to do but wait for the Third Prince to flip his hand and reveal his cards.
That waiting didn’t sit well with me.
‘To borrow Winter’s phrasing—it’s a game where you can lose even after playing flawlessly.’
And the stakes were staggering.
The lives of most of the Liberation Fraternity’s cadre, no less.
‘I have to stop it. Whatever it takes.’
That thought, that resolve, was stiffening my shoulders.
Visibly enough that Winter noticed.
I rose to my feet.
“Handle the rest yourself. I’m going out.”
“Where, if I may ask?”
“For a walk.”
“Suddenly? You haven’t even finished hearing the report.”
“Just handle it.”
“Shouldn’t you have someone accompany you? For protection?”
“A walk with an escort isn’t a walk—it’s a procession.”
As I walked, the paved road became dirt, and the dirt path became a ravine leading down to the riverbank.
A familiar vista spread before me.
Tokmak Village. A slum where poor Dever folk gathered.
Huts covered with straw matting clustered together like barnacles on a rock.
Across the river, lights on Luminous Street were beginning to flicker on one by one.
‘Still the same. Just one river between them, yet the difference is worlds apart.’
That’s when it happened.
“Get up. I won’t say it twice.”
In a secluded clearing below the ravine, three ruffians had a black-haired girl surrounded.
“Come quietly. A thing like you fetching a good price is the best luck you’ll get.”
“The back alleys of Luminous Street are paying well these days.”
They were talking about her as if she were merchandise to be sold to a brothel.
I descended the ravine.
“Hey.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Just passing through.”
Crack!
The lead thug’s jaw snapped sideways.
I hadn’t even bothered drawing Magic.
‘When your mood’s foul, there’s nothing like a workout.’
Thud! Crack!
The second one took it in the solar plexus, the third in the nose.
I also made sure to break each arm they’d been reaching toward the girl with.
Within moments, all three were writhing in the mud together.
“You bastard…!”
The one trying to get up caught a proper look at my eyes beneath the hood and froze with a strangled gasp.
“Leave. Before I change my mind. And you lot with gray hair—what do you think you’re doing?”
“Th-thank you for sparing us!”
All three scrambled away into the darkness like they were crawling.
I brushed the dust from my hands.
“That helped clear my head.”
The girl wasn’t on the ground.
By the time he looked up, he was watching the darkness where the thugs had vanished, his eyes gleaming.
“Wow! Your fists are incredibly fast!”
“You should thank me first.”
“Thank you! But seriously, you were so quick. I bet all three of them lost teeth. Can I go check?”
“Not this time.”
“Then I shouldn’t go, hehe.”
Laughter echoed across the darkening slope.
A bright, crystalline laugh — clear and unbridled.
Her delight was so genuine that her thick, abundant black hair — dark as pitch and long enough to veil half her face — swayed like curtains in the wind.
‘For someone who nearly sold into servitude just moments ago, she’s taking this far too calmly.’
Now that he was closer, it became unmistakable.
Even with her dark hair obscuring half her face, she was beautiful.
‘The thugs weren’t eyeing her for nothing.’
The girl wrinkled her nose.
There was something oddly familiar about her.
Where had he seen her before?
“You smell nice. Are you someone important?”
“I don’t know. I’m leaving now. You should get home.”
He was about to go when a loud growl cut through the air.
“I’m hungry.”
“Then go home and ask your mother for supper——”
Wait.
If she lived in Tokmak Village, odds were high she’d have neither one nor the other.
Neither a mother nor a meal.
“Will you buy me something to eat?”
“You nearly went through something terrible and you’re hungry?”
“But I’m free now.”
The logic was so simple that he found himself unable to argue against it.
Far beyond the slope, a vendor selling scraps of food was tidying his brazier.
Zion led the girl to the stall and pressed a gold coin into the vendor’s palm.
“Warm up whatever’s left and bring it out.”
He handed over a gold coin. The vendor’s waist bent in such a deep bow his back nearly folded in half, and skewers were soon prepared.
“Wow, it’s delicious!”
But the owner of the first skewer he handed out was not Zion.
Rather, the girl had snatched it right out of his hands.
Did she not understand the courtesy of yielding first to the one who paid?
She seemed to have no concept of deference at all.
All that remained were six skewers and two chunks of sugar bread.
Zion put one skewer in his mouth.
“It’s good.”
“Isn’t it? The seasoning is perfectly balanced.”
“It’s the Dever style.”
“Mmm, I should try this one too.”
She bit off a mouthful, her cheeks puffing out like a squirrel’s.
The heat brought tears to her eyes, yet she had no intention of setting it down.
“Eat slowly.”
“It’s hot.”
“Which is why you should go slow.”
“But it’s so delicious.”
That was when it happened.
Beyond the slope, at the entrance of a shabby hovel, a pair of small eyes gleamed in the shadows.
A tiny child, staring fixedly at the skewer.
The girl plucked out the largest piece of meat and quickly held it out.
“Want some?”
“…….”
The child approached warily, like a stray cat, snatched the skewer, and bolted.
“Hmph. Not even a thank you.”
The girl stared down at the now-empty skewer, her expression the picture of wounded injustice.
‘You didn’t say thank you either.’
Still, though.
You’re quite the emotional one, aren’t you?
Getting this upset over a single skewer—hardly seems warranted.
Especially since you didn’t even buy it with your own money, and you’re the one who offered it to me first.
“It’s a waste, though.”
“If it’s such a waste, why’d you give it to me?”
“You looked hungry. When someone looks that hungry, you just want to give it to them. But it really is a waste.”
He let out a soft laugh despite himself.
Someone with that much beauty, living in Tokmak Village of all places—she must’ve had her share of hardships.
But this degree of sincerity? That’s a talent in itself.
“Enjoy it. I should get going.”
“Oh, come on! Let me come with you!”
“And where exactly do you think I’m headed?”
“I’ll just tag along for a bit and then turn back. A nice walk, that’s all.”
“Go home. It’ll be dark soon—it’s dangerous out there.”
He walked along the riverbank.
More precisely, Zion walked, and the girl trailed beside him with sugar bread clamped between her teeth.
“I told you not to follow.”
“I’m not following—I’m just walking the same direction. That’s all.”
……
“Over there’s so bright, and here’s so dark. They’re really different, aren’t they?”
“That’s how the world usually is.”
“Which one do you prefer?”
“The dark.”
“Oh! That’s not what I expected! Why?”
It was simple, really.
That’s just how it had become.
“People tend to prefer what they’re used to.”
“Huh. So you’re a dark person after all?”
……Brother?
“Why’d you suddenly use that term?”
“Would you rather I called you mister?”
“That’s disrespectful.”
“See? I knew it.”
“You’re cheeky. Stop talking back.”
“But at least there’s no malice in it—so it doesn’t really bother you, does it?”
“I did think that for a moment, but hearing it from your mouth just now? Yeah, now it bothers me.”
“Then let me say something nice instead. That should lift your spirits, right?”
“Go ahead and try.”
“You’re someone who shines brighter than anyone else, which is why you walk the dark path. That’s cool.”
The girl broke into a radiant smile and dashed away.
“See you next time! I have to go now!”
By then the sun had nearly set, and darkness swallowed her in an instant.
Her jet-black hair melting into the shadows looked just like night folding back into itself.
“Quite the willful one.”
Still, though.
Someone who shines brighter than anyone, walking the dark path.
She’d paid her debt for being saved.
His mood had lifted.
“Though we probably won’t meet again.”
There would be no more walks before the Public Execution Ceremony.
After that—no matter which way things turned out—much would change, he suspected.
Encounters like this one would become impossible.
“Be careful out there. I won’t be around to save you next time.”
* * *
The way back felt somehow unsettled.
Clusters of people gathered at every street corner, murmuring to one another.
And at the newsstand in front of the grocer’s.
The moment the front page caught Zion’s eye, he stopped dead.
[Rebellion Ringleader Zion Brizé to Face Public Execution!]
[Where Will the Crown Prince of a Fallen Kingdom Breathe His Last? Dever Seyel Announced as the Venue!]
‘The Third Prince was on the move.’
Zion picked up a newspaper and laid a Gold Coin on the counter instead of small change.
“Keep the difference. That’s my drink for the day.”
“Y-yes, sir?!”
He read through the printed text again and again.
Public Execution Ceremony.
Dever Seyel.
The answer he’d been waiting for was spreading across the entire Royal Capital on paper, carrying the scent of ink.
‘Decided this quickly, did he? Thorough fellow.’
Then again, there was nothing wrong with it from the Third Prince’s perspective.
Considering the future the guide at the Branching Point had revealed, Seyel had distinct advantages over the capital.
‘More of the Fraternity’s comrades would come seeking access, for one.’
Seyel would be a hundred times easier to infiltrate compared to the capital.
It was as though he’d moved the bait—and the entire fishing rod—to where the larger schools swam.
‘And they’d come more recklessly, more eagerly, with less caution.’
The last royal of Dever losing his life in Dever’s own heart?
The implications were staggering.
In a sense, it was the greatest insult one could deliver to the people of Dever.
That was when it happened.
“Extra Edition! Extra Edition!”
A boy in a flat cap came charging down the street, clutching a bundle of newspapers.
“An Extra Edition?”
The Crown Prince’s Public Execution Ceremony was already in the papers—what could warrant another Extra Edition?
Zion glanced around him once more.
The texture of the unease was different. It wasn’t simply a reaction to the execution announcement—it was something else entirely.
The crowd was churning with a different kind of dread.
Some people hurried to lock their doors; others quickened their pace, cradling children close.
‘Something’s off. The execution alone wouldn’t provoke a reaction like that.’
What was he missing?
The execution comes to Dever.
Exactly as intended.
Exactly as intended, and yet—
A clammy sensation crept along the back of his neck, unsettling and persistent.
Let me think through this again.
Who would react to the Crown Prince’s execution?
‘Me. The First Prince. The Elves.’
These were the reactions he’d anticipated.
And then… if he had to add anyone else—
No. If he must add anyone else—
There were those who would rage most violently at the announcement.
Those who could not bear to watch their lord’s head fall upon the block.
The Liberation Army.
“Damn it.”
Even in those days, reduced to servitude in a foreign land, the Aristocrat had been strict about propriety.
That schooling broke through now, and the curse escaped his lips anyway.
What would the Liberation Army do—especially the Liberation Fraternity, most of whom were marked Wanted Criminals—upon hearing their lord’s neck would be severed?
‘They’d move to stop it. They’d try to sabotage it.’
Then what was the fastest, most effective move the Liberation Fraternity could make?
What was the most valuable hostage in all of Dever?
Understanding struck him like lightning.
Shriek!
The sound of something tearing through the air.
‘Too late.’
And then—
Boom!
Searing heat.
A catastrophic shockwave.
His body lost all agency and began to tumble freely through empty space.
In other words, the explosion was hurling him through the air.
A flight among flames and shrapnel and ruin.
Zion laughed, a hollow sound.
‘I think this every time…… they work fast, these children of ours. They learn well, don’t they.’
The Liberation Fraternity’s response to news of Crown Prince Zion Blizé’s Public Execution Ceremony.
Their first priority was, unsurprisingly, an immediate terror attack and death threat against the Ninth Prince.
Damn it.

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