The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 94

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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 94
“There’s nothing else for it.”
From the day after I met the Duchess of Stria in the dead of night.
The Crown Prince suddenly began approaching me and pretending to be friendly.
“The Duchess of Stria has shown interest in me, so he’s trying to use that interest in me to raise his own standing.”
The Crown Prince was clever.
‘No—cunning is more like it.’
When he first came to greet me, he’d treated me like I was invisible, but the moment the Duchess of Stria showed favor toward me, he came right over with a smile, acting as though we were close.
“Do you enjoy Mage Engineering?”
“Oh—how did you know that?”
“I saw you reading books in the study.”
……!
“You looked so absorbed. It was rather charming.”
The man’s insane.
‘I wasn’t even in the study that night.’
This cunning nine-year-old Crown Prince had shamelessly exploited what he’d overheard that evening.
By eavesdropping, I’d learned that the Crown Prince’s position was far more precarious than I’d thought—all because the Stria Household had declared political neutrality.
‘I never imagined the Stria Household wouldn’t support the Crown Prince.’
The Crown Prince found his maternal relatives contemptible.
“They’re more useless than the Empress. If she’d lived, I could have gotten far more support from my mother’s side.”
“Both the Duke and Duchess of Stria care only about the dead, ignoring me entirely. Foolish wretches.”
He didn’t even hesitate to insult the dead Empress.
‘That boy’s barely human.’
There was no way he could grow up well in such a household environment.
‘But… Prince Aedellos turned out fine.’
I found myself thinking of Prince Aedellos after a long time.
In a way, I found it remarkable that the Prince had grown up so righteously despite having such terrible parents. I wonder if he’s eating well these days.
“I do feel a bit sorry for the Crown Prince.”
That’s when Pex spoke up gently.
“If there had been even one proper adult by his side, I don’t think things would have turned out this way.”
“True—the Stria Household does seem rather cold about it.”
“It’s always the innocent children who suffer.”
Modi and Frelia agreed as well.
I was somewhat taken aback.
‘So that’s one way to look at it.’
Now that I heard it, there was a point to their reasoning.
The Stria Household, clinging deeply to grief over the dead Empress, did seem somewhat cold toward the Crown Prince—the blood she’d left behind.
‘Still, I find the Crown Prince disagreeable.’
If he wanted to criticize, he could have spared that for the Stria Household alone—but insulting the mother who’d risked her life to bear him crossed a line.
‘Thank heavens I’m not royalty.’
This was why Clavis, who had everything, had turned his back on the throne. Wise indeed.
In any case, thanks to the foul-hearted Crown Prince, the visit to the Magic Engineering Academy had been arranged.
“Nothing bad should happen.”
“Really now.”
To Ian, who couldn’t follow and was worried about it, I glanced idly at the neat edge of my fingernails.
“What could possibly go wrong?”
The dogs at our estate would probably have better luck with prophecy than me.
At my cynical tone, the adults’ faces grew complicated.
……Well, I suppose it wouldn’t.
“Perhaps innate factors are more important after all?”
“Some children are simply born with certain temperaments.”
“Tsk—I can only feel pity for the Empress who’s passed.”
“What should we make for lunch today?”
* * *
Crown Prince Pereus had actually never intended to visit the Deste Estate.
He despised the place.
At first, he’d simply resented how much Prince Aedellos’s reputation had shifted for the better.
Of course, a lowborn half-sibling would never inherit the throne, yet the foolish common folk chattered on about how he’d been chosen by an Angel.
Then he learned that the Duchess of Stria had gone to the Deste Estate to recuperate. His irritation boiled over.
‘Of all places, why the Deste Estate?’
But it seemed the gods took pity on someone like me.
The Emperor summoned me and entrusted me with a task.
“Withdraw the Magic Engineering Academy’s Political Neutrality Declaration and return.”
At the same time, he revealed an enormous secret.
‘Experiments to strip away Clavis’s power were already underway……!’
Moreover, I learned that Angels and Demons—creatures from scripture itself—were real, and that the Emperor had already made pacts with them.
I even met a Demon with my own eyes.
The Crown Prince was seized by a heady, electrifying euphoria.
It felt as though my existence had finally been acknowledged. Intoxicated by the conviction that I was chosen, I became addicted to it like a drug.
When I actually laid eyes on an undead servant, my sense of superiority—that I alone was different from the rest—reached its peak.
At nine years old, Pereus found that feeling intoxicating beyond measure.
He made a vow: he would make certain that sensation an eternal certainty, something he would take for granted his whole life.
And his first attempt toward that goal was this:
‘Beni.’
Inside the carriage heading toward the Magic Engineering Academy.
Pereus gazed steadily at the silver-haired girl sitting demurely across from him.
Beni, her long hair divided into two braids, was quite beautiful.
Her cheeks were full and round—a minor flaw, perhaps—but even accounting for that, she was remarkably pretty. It would be no embarrassment to have her at his side.
‘Even among the capital’s nobility, few match her caliber.’
Unlike the noble children vying desperately for his favor, she seemed to understand her station and sat quietly reading her book.
That refreshed him.
‘And she seems quite intelligent.’
Beni had been absorbed in her reading the whole time. The title was “Introduction to Mage Engineering for Beginners.”
“Does Mage Engineering fascinate you so much?”
“Oh…….”
Beni lifted her eyes from the page, hesitant.
Then she smiled shyly.
“I think it’s fascinating. The fusion of magic and technology, I mean. That’s how so many remarkable and convenient Magitech Devices have been developed.”
“You care deeply for the Empire.”
“No, no! I’m nothing special, I—I didn’t mean anything so grand…….”
Beni knew her place.
Pereus found he rather liked that about her.
‘Her only shortcoming is being a commoner.’
Fortunately, Beni’s aunt appeared to be on good terms with Molle Rebus. With the right handling, she might yet be incorporated into the nobility.
‘At that level, well…….’
Even humble bloodlines wouldn’t be an obstacle.
‘Especially with that silver hair—the same as my mother’s.’
Pereus began to imagine Beni standing beside him as he grew older.
* * *
I’m only pretending not to notice, playing the part of a well-behaved seven-year-old.
I caught on long ago to the way that arrogant brat’s eyes rake over me, measuring, assessing.
‘Still just a child, after all.’
You can’t even hide your rudeness properly, can you?
‘……No, I don’t want to feel some warm, fuzzy sentiment about how childish this all is in the first place.’
Sigh, Your Highness.
‘How have you been?’
I miss you so terribly right now.
‘Just a little longer and I’ll be free.’
For a while now, high gray stone walls have been streaming past the carriage windows in an endless line.
“We’re almost there.”
The Crown Prince spoke up at last.
“That’s the Wall of Infinity—one of the Magic Engineering Academy’s greatest symbols.”
“The Wall of Infinity, you say?”
“A barrier built by the Academy’s founding generation themselves. The techniques used in its construction became the foundation for all of the Empire’s defensive fortifications.”
“How amazing……!”
“Its name comes from the fact that it would take enemies an extremely long time to breach it.”
“I see!”
Who asked you?
‘The little fool’s already trying to lecture me. And here I’m holding this introductory text—are your eyes just decorations? Is that what they’re for?’
Yet apart from that irritation, the Wall of Infinity truly did have a remarkable appearance.
Like cupping one’s hand above the eyes to shield from sunlight, the long, towering Wall of Infinity encircled only half of the Magic Engineering Academy.
The entrance, by contrast, was lined with densely planted ornamental trees that served in the wall’s stead.
‘Can you even build it this way?’
But my disappointment melted away the moment I stepped inside the Academy.
“Wow!”
I couldn’t help but gasp as I descended from the carriage.
“Miss, please stay close to my side.”
Verity, who had parked the carriage, took my hand, and I immediately squeezed back, clinging to her.
‘I nearly bolted off like a child, forgetting my age.’
Seeing is indeed believing. A hundred lines of text cannot compare to what the eyes witness firsthand.
A vast plaza stretched from the entrance where we stood to the imposing central building that towered at its heart.
Buildings of varying scales dotted either side, with no order or unified design—which made them all the more fascinating and peculiar.
‘That building is so ornate, while the one beside it looks as austere as something from science fiction.’
What captured my attention most were the Magitech Devices undergoing experiments throughout the grounds.
I pointed to one of them.
“A broom that flies through the sky!”
“An Automatic Cleaning Broom. It seems to be a failed project—it refuses to clean and only flies about in the air. But judging by the white lab coat……”
Verity studied the person riding the broom intently.
“……they appear to be a graduate student. When the dark circles under the eyes stretch down to the middle of the face, that’s when you’ve reached the Doctoral Program.”
“Oh dear……”
“Don’t pity them. They’re foolish creatures who couldn’t escape even after finishing their master’s degree.”
“Beni.”
The crown prince called to me.
“I must now proceed to the main building to carry out an Imperial Order.”
He pointed to the imposing central structure that rose at the heart of the plaza.
“Wait here and conduct yourself properly while you observe the grounds.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
I bowed my head respectfully.
“Thank you so much for bringing me to such a wonderful place!”
“If you wait obediently, I’ll buy you something delicious.”
“B—”
I quickly closed my mouth.
‘Damn, I almost cursed.’
Then, as if nothing had happened, I broke into a wide smile.
“I’m deeply grateful for your kindness.”
He regarded me approvingly, then boarded the carriage once more with Rashid, his commander of the guard, heading toward the central main building.
Verity and I moved through the grounds holding hands, observing the Magitech Device experiments.
Click—
I immediately cast a Protective Barrier. Simultaneously, Verity uttered an incantation to prevent sound from escaping.
Now our conversation could truly begin.
“The captain-general did contract with a Demon, yet didn’t come along. It seems Antemma Research Institute business has made them cautious.”
“No, that ruins my Korea delivery service voucher!”
“And there are watchers.”
“How many?”
“Two. They’re weak enough that subduing them without killing would be difficult.”
“Then we proceed as planned.”
We looked toward the main building of the Magic Engineering Academy that the crown prince had entered.
In “Clavis at a Glance: Part 2 — The Empire,” there was a scene like this.
[Fairy: The directors of the Magic Engineering Academy are all cowards and stubborn fools, but they’re wonderful fellows who love the Academy more than anyone.]
In his study hung a flag symbolic of the Magic Engineering Academy.
A blue banner crossed by a quill and a wrench.
“Found it!”
At the moment I exclaimed, Verity shifted her body to shield me from the watchers’ sight.
I extended my arm and pointed at the window where the flag hung.
“Open.”
The window swung wide.
“Transmit!”
With a snap of my fingers,
the objective was achieved.

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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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