The Scoundrel Prince Sold Out the Empire - Chapter 7

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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 7: Acquiring the Void Attribute (3)
‘Banishment? Truly?’
More shock than joy washed over him.
If he showed too much relief, the sentence might be changed—so he dropped to his knees at once.
“Your Highness, I have erred. I swear I shall never again commit such a ruinous act.”
“Silence. You have forfeited your right to dwell in the capital. It is only fitting that you suffer the shame of exile from this sacred land. Though I doubt you possess the courage to even draw a blade in protest.”
He was performing remorse, certainly—but the absurdity of it all was difficult to stomach.
‘Draw a blade because I’ve been exiled? Preposterous.’
In Litania, there existed a tradition of preserving one’s honor through self-annihilation.
For any other divine being, exile from the capital would have been a sentence grave enough to warrant such a choice.
‘But I have no intention of dying.’
For Zion Riobert, banishment to Deber would be no punishment—it was a reward.
“Your Highness, I beg your mercy…”
‘Don’t show it. Steel yourself and send him to Deber without hesitation. Understood?’
The Litanian Empire’s foremost objective was National Wealth and Military Strength.
Accordingly, the 1st Prince oversaw the governance of colonies while the 3rd Prince handled colonial expansion—both locked in succession competition.
Being sent to Deber would free him from the 3rd Prince’s sphere of influence.
This one was proving to be somewhat shallow.
Once in Deber, he’d do better to cultivate ties with the 1st Prince, who at least had a reputation for competence.
‘Wait a moment.’
Zion Riobert belonged to the 3rd Prince’s faction. Yet to exile him to Deber, of all places…
“See that you prepare for exile with that understanding. Ah—the fact that you remain under this prince’s supervision does not change. I shall send you occasional dispatches. You will reply at once upon receipt.”
A spy on the ground in enemy territory Deber, then. How convenient.
This was hardly a hardship.
‘A letter from the second-most powerful man in the empire? I’d be a fool to refuse.’
There would be far too much he could accomplish with such a tool.
“Now, leave. I trust I shall not have the displeasure of seeing your face again.”
“…I pray for your long and prosperous reign, Your Highness.”
Zion maintained his façade of defeat to the very end.
The 3rd Prince watched in silence as Zion’s receding form grew smaller, shoulders hunched.
‘That one will inevitably plunge Deber into chaos. In due time, I shall use him to provoke an internal rebellion.’
It would be simple enough. He was well-versed in the art of creating enemies.
The weakness was that he would have no allies there, but that was easily remedied—he need only introduce them himself.
Deber would become the battlefield.
In the process, Deber would suffer catastrophic damage.
But that was of no consequence.
‘A mere colony—what does it matter if it crumbles?’
Once the 1st Prince was brought low, the imperial throne would fall into his own hands.
* * *
The moment he returned to his quarters, he locked the chamber door and settled in.
“I’m going back, Deber. Hehehehe.”
At the thought of all he could accomplish there with a prince’s authority, his body trembled with barely contained excitement.
But administrative procedures would take roughly a week to conclude.
As the sentence was official punishment, there would be no flexibility in the timeline.
‘I’d best use the remaining time to study magic.’
He had obtained the Void Attribute, an extraordinary gift.
The change had come thanks to the Guide’s Ring resonating with him in the Imperial Treasury.
‘Now I can wield magic as an asymmetric weapon.’
The problem was that Zion’s magical system was rooted in the Royal Secret Magic of the Deber royal house.
Secret arts were characterized by stringent conditions for entry, but in exchange offered vastly superior power.
Since he no longer possessed royal bloodline, mastery of the Royal Secret Magic would proceed at a glacial pace.
…However.
‘Why does my intuition feel so sharp? Given that the Guide’s Ring responded to me, surely…!’
He recalled the voice of the covenant that had descended from the heavens.
A covenant that had bestowed two extraordinary gifts.
It must be connected to the Deber royal house somehow.
A deep hum resonated through him.
Four days. The span of four sunrises and sunsets.
Cloistered in his chamber the entire time, immersed in magical practice, he achieved another breakthrough in his cultivation.
Mana flowed through him, etching a magic circle into the empty air.
Far faster than when inhabiting Blije’s body.
“As expected.”
Even in Liobelt’s form, there was no penalty to learning the Royal Secret Magic.
Just as with the Guide’s Ring, the bloodline flowing through this body—royal blood itself—seemed to grant him access to the art’s functions.
‘Clear proof that the covenant is tied to the royal house.’
He caressed the ring on his middle finger.
The Guide’s Ring, which granted its functions only to those of royal blood.
He traced the circuits of mana, feeling out the invisible connecting passage that linked to the North Star Staff.
The function persists even though the body has changed.
Could it be that not merely royal blood, but the soul itself is recognized?
“Ah, that’s right.”
A thought suddenly struck him.
“The spell should be triggering soon, then? Hehehehe.”
Zion’s lips twisted into a smirk.
When he’d set up the magic in the Imperial Treasury, he’d left a one-week time limit.
From this point forward, the remaining time was… three.
“Two. One.”
Switch, on!
* * *
On days when no authorized personnel entered the Imperial Treasury, it lay submerged in darkness and silence, utterly unmanned.
Thousands upon thousands of detection sensors—each worth a thousand Luon at minimum—had been installed throughout, making it unnecessary to station people inside and risk tempting them toward theft.
And so today, as always, the day would have to pass in that darkness and stillness, but.
Tick, tick-tick.
Light bloomed in the darkness.
It was a tiny spark, yet in a space utterly devoid of light, it stood out sharply.
The light then stretched out in a long line, tracing a magic circle above the North Star Staff.
[Quere Stellam Orbita. Second function, I command you—activate.]
The North Star Staff possessed three magical functions.
The first was Amplification—a power that strengthened the user’s magic each time it was manifested.
And the second function’s name was Homing.
In simpler terms, a return spell.
Light moved through the air, writing words in the void.
[You fool of fools. You didn’t even place separate safeguards on an artifact with spatial magic enchanted into it?]
[Well, I suppose with only myself remaining of the royal line, they judged a return spell that only royal blood could trigger wasn’t worth defending against.]
Much like the Guide’s Ring. Since it would never be activated, they likely left the return spell unguarded—what difference would it make whether it existed or not?
But.
Carelessness, from time to time, leads to grievous loss.
[Open, you gateway of space. Move forth, you starlight.]
Brilliant! As the magic circle flared with radiance, the entire darkened space flooded with light.
And immediately after.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!!!!!!!!!!
The detection sensors, having registered the magic activation within the vault, shrieked madly.
Mana warped the space itself, tearing open a passage to where it needed to lead.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The Empire had not left things entirely undefended.
This was, after all, the Imperial Treasury—the Emperor’s personal treasure vault, guarded against contingencies one in ten thousand might represent.
[Yes, they’ve blocked spatial transposition quite effectively.]
Magic of the spatial school could not be activated within the vault’s interior. A vast array of Mana Stones had been invested in a barrier that prevented it.
But. But then again.
[As if magic devised by the Empire could possibly obstruct the spellcraft of Zion Blije.]
Shatter!
A sound like glass breaking. Fragments of light twisted and shattered.
The vault, now bereft of its staff, fell dark once more.
Yet unlike before, the oppressive silence that had pressed down upon the space was utterly gone.
Beep-beep-beep!
The detection sensors still screamed their alarm madly.
Which meant chaos was about to engulf the entire Imperial Palace.
“Director, the North Star Staff has vanished from among Deber’s legacy items!”
“What? Good heavens, how is that possible? That staff is the most precious item in all of Deber’s collection!”
The North Star Staff was both the scepter wielded by Deber’s king and a sacred relic that symbolized the royal house itself.
It is not mere speech, but officially symbolizes Deber.
The reason being that in official diplomacy, the enchanted circuit imprints on the staff functioned like a seal, leaving an official mark.
In other words, the North Star Staff is the seal of the Kingdom of Deber.
“We must find it—we absolutely must! If we don’t, everyone on duty tonight will be executed! Myself included!!!”
The guards from the control room scattered in all directions. Everyone still awake within the Imperial Palace became a subject of investigation.
“Your Highness. Your Highness. Please forgive any discourtesy.”
Even the first and second in line for the throne had submitted to questioning—which meant the only exception was the Emperor himself.
“For tonight alone, we shall refrain from using the word discourtesy. You will find the culprit without fail. His Majesty may take no interest in such trifles, but as representatives of the Imperial House, we cannot overlook this.”
The 1st Prince’s command. The 3rd Prince went further still.
His response was deliberate—a counter to the intentional phrase “representatives of the Imperial House.”
“If anything seems suspicious, do not hesitate to torture. I permit it in the name of Garon Liobelt. Place all responsibility under the name of this prince and make the investigation and capture your absolute priority.”
With both princes’ backing, the search faced no restraint.
Screams echoed throughout the Palace, and even the smallest clue was never overlooked, treated as an investigative lead.
“Chief Administrator. The last person to visit the Imperial Treasury was the 9th Prince, Zion Liobelt. Shall we summon him?”
“What?!”
The Chief Administrator flinched. No matter the permission from the 1st and 3rd Princes, the 9th Prince was a delicate matter for different reasons.
‘The 9th Prince—considering that wretch’s temperament…….’
Even if the order came from the Emperor himself, if he took offense, he would surely harbor a grudge and seek revenge.
Besides, the 9th Prince could not possibly be the culprit.
Even if he had the motive, he lacked the ability—making him an impossible suspect.
Still, for the sake of caution, at least a minimal confirmation was necessary.
“If the 9th Prince visited the Palace today, summon him at once for questioning.”
“His last visit was a week ago.”
The Chief Administrator’s brow furrowed sharply. Irritation clawed at his mind so intensely he struck the guard without thinking.
Crack!
“You stupid fool! How, in any sensible world, could the 9th Prince possibly be the culprit when he hasn’t even been to the Palace today? Instead of wasting time on this, find me a real suspect with actual evidence!!!”
“I-I apologize…!!!”
The struck guard ran off in haste. And as he went, a thought crossed his mind.
‘Damn it, I shouldn’t have said anything. In the first place, that reckless wretch couldn’t possibly have the means to rob the Imperial Treasury.’
Watching the guard hurry away, the Chief Administrator harbored the same thought.
‘If the 9th Prince had done anything when entering the Treasury, the sensors would have caught it already.’
The 9th Prince as the culprit? Setting aside intent, it was impossible in terms of intelligence and capability.
Though by the circumstances he was the most suspicious, no one suspected Zion Liobelt.
Not a soul.
* * *
A dark interior. Only a single small lantern illuminates the scattered papers on a narrow desk.
The squalid space revealed a situation where even lamp oil had to be rationed, never mind magical light sources.
This was the command headquarters of Kyeolsa, one of the two heads of the Deber Liberation Army.
“Sigh……”
Aristh, the duke, exhaled deeply, his brow furrowed with profound lines of worry.
No matter how many times he manipulated the numbers and sorted through documents, the holes would not fill.
Designated as rebels by the Empire, the Deber Liberation Army could not possess legitimate sources of income.
The Deber Liberation Army, calling itself a military force, was the reality of an organization that could not even operate a single tank properly.
“If only we could secure a national loan from one of the foreign powers……”
But there was no nation willing to lend money to the Liberation Army.
A national loan, by nature, was a financial transaction between nations. Until the Liberation Army satisfied the conditions of being a “nation,” the very request for a loan was impossible.
“Aristh, sir. Please send me to Gizkal. I will lead our comrades there and return myself.”
“That is not possible.”
Aristh flatly rejected Reyanna’s proposal.
She intended to go as a mercenary for the Gizkal Federal Republic and earn money to bring back.
No matter how desperate their financial straits, he could not allow Reyanna and the Liberation Army’s fighters to sell their lives in a futile cause.
“But, Aristh, sir. If we cannot repay the debt on time, the Republican Assembly’s headquarters will be sold off.”
This was the problem.
After the nation’s fall, the Republican Assembly was arranged as a place where at least they could maintain some semblance of dignity abroad.
Officially, an organization with no connection whatsoever to the rebel Liberation Army—one dedicated to achieving the peaceful and democratic independence of Deber.
That Republican Assembly’s headquarters and its building now faced the danger of ownership passing to another.
“You know it as well as I do. If we lose ownership, the Empire will undoubtedly buy it. And they will subject it to every conceivable form of shame and insult.”
For instance, demolishing the parliamentary building and constructing an Imperial Memorial Hall in its place.
The very thought was appalling, and the money had to be found by any means.
“A method……ugh. Even when the sky collapses, there is always a hole through which it may rise, yet I cannot fathom why there should be no hole from which money emerges…?”
Aristh trailed off, then stared blankly at the transformation unfolding before his eyes.
A beam of light fell across the desk, sketching a magical circle as if drawn by someone’s own hand.
In that instant.
The lamplight extinguished, then blazed alight again.
Space tore open. Something rose forth.
The silhouette alone was enough to reveal its identity. Familiar, intimately known in form—but more than that, it was the very object he’d dreamed of reclaiming dozens of times over, so desperately that sleep itself had become a prayer.
“…The North Star Staff…!”
A sacred relic symbolizing the royal house. The king’s magical staff, embedded with Imprint Magic that served as an official seal in all but name.
That object was now before his eyes.
The North Star Staff drifted through empty air, then settled gently into his extended hand.
Yes. He could feel its weight.
Yes. It was real.
To hold in his grasp the sacred relic he would have traded his very life to reclaim—yet the feeling, the emotion within him…
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Aristh shot to his feet with a cry, and Reyanna startled, immediately falling into a defensive stance.
“General, what—no! The North Star Staff!”
She cried out in unison with him.
The sacred relic sealed away in the Imperial Treasury, the heart of the empire, had returned to its rightful place.
“How is this possible!”
“Why now!”
“The North Star Staff, our Deber sacred relic, in my hands…. What—!”
Aristh’s eyes blazed with a light of hope as he cried out.
“National loans! Reyanna, prepare messengers to send abroad at once.”
The Deber Liberation Army was not a nation, and thus could not receive national loans from foreign powers.
But. With the North Star Staff, that calculation changed entirely.
One of the conditions for an ethnic faction to be recognized as a nation.
The possession of a symbol of sovereignty—such as seals used in signing diplomatic documents.
His weathered hand gripped the staff firmly.
“Now that we’ve reclaimed the North Star Staff, we can petition for national loans, for loans. A new path has opened, hah!”
Fifty-five years ago, when Deber was robbed of the sacred relic, it became a people unable to establish diplomatic relations with any other nation.
Within merely five years of losing the North Star Staff, it had fallen to colonial status.
Sovereignty and its symbol were so vital to a nation.
Conversely, from this moment forward, Deber could once again kindle the spark of life.
“I’ll prepare it at once—no, I’ll go myself!”
Reyanna dashed out with exhilaration, and the entire Liberation Army began to stir with renewed energy.
‘Whoever this noble was who returned the sacred relic to us, I am truly grateful.’
At the very moment Aristh bowed in gratitude to the empty air.
Zion—the one who had brought such great fortune to the Deber Liberation Army, the crown prince of Deber, and the worthless prince of the Litanian Empire—was…
“Good grief, my station. There goes any princely dignity.”
Carrying a suitcase with his own delicate royal hands, he wandered through filthy back alleys.
“No matter what, this is hardly befitting a prince, is it?”
Total confiscation of assets.
Prohibition on attendants.
Two conditions attached to his exile sentence.
Which explained why he was walking through Seiel, Deber’s capital city, in its oldest and most impoverished slums.
“Well, at least I arrived in Deber safely enough.”
If he’d been stripped of a prince’s wealth—which would have been enormous—that was regrettable.
‘Money can be earned again.’
For the vanished Zion Riobelth, this situation would have been hellish.
But for Zion Blije, it was merely routine.
“Well then, shall we go earn some money?”
Zion smiled crookedly, his gaze sweeping into the depths of the darkness-shrouded alley.

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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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