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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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If one were to ask the people of the Empire of Eshnua who the next emperor would be, opinions would be divided between the first princess and the second prince.
However, within the imperial family, everyone unanimously treated Esmée Bistim Tel Nua, the first princess, as the next emperor.
This was true even for the emperor’s eight other children, excluding her.
She possessed most of the qualities required to succeed the emperor.
Intelligence, charisma, magical aptitude, and more.
While she excelled in all areas except swordsmanship, what shone brightest was her unpredictable intelligence.
It took her only three years to end the conflicts within the imperial family, crush factions, and completely eradicate the root of succession disputes by using nothing but her cold intellect.
Because of this, she was the undeniable heir to the throne.
Therefore, all matters related to the Hero, who could become the empire’s core strength, passed through her hands.
She was the first to receive reports when incidents occurred, the first to review plans for utilizing the Hero, and it was also her job to receive reports on the various day-to-day matters that arose around him.
That’s why Esmée disliked the Hero.
It wasn’t because of the Hero’s seemingly profligate behavior.
Esmée knew her younger sister, Esselua, well.
If the Hero had been a morally bankrupt individual, Esselua would never have stood by his side.
So, regardless of the reports she heard, Esmée firmly believed that the Hero was someone who was pretending to be dissolute, while harboring ulterior motives.
She hated that the Hero was born in the same era as her.
If he had been born after her time, or much earlier so that he could have defeated the Demon King long ago, it would have reduced one of her overflowing tasks.
She had been experiencing days of overwork, and the Hero was one of the biggest culprits causing her workload to increase sporadically.
That was how it had been until just two days ago.
“Aaaaaargh!!!”
“P-Princess! Please calm yourself!”
“How can I calm down now?!”
Her snow-white hair remained silky smooth and voluminous no matter how much she messed it up or pulled at it.
Therefore, her personal maid who managed her appearance had no worries even when Esmée pulled at her hair.
However, it was a different matter when she thrashed about, pounding on her desk.
Esmée’s actions, unable to contain her frustration and seeming ready to destroy her surroundings, were more likely to harm herself than the objects around her.
Among all her outstanding talents, Esmée was so physically weak that she couldn’t learn swordsmanship, and she possessed a smaller and frailer body than her siblings.
The maid quickly rushed in to physically restrain Esmée’s thrashing before she could seriously hurt herself.
The enraged Esmée continued to struggle vigorously, but it was a futile effort.
“What is this person thinking? Why is he defeating the Hero as if it’s natural?! And why did that imbecile from Rudra suddenly drop dead?!”
The initial goal had been to create a connection between the Hero and the Margrave of Itisel.
Unlike the previous Levian Margrave, she was considered to be loved by mana.
From the day rumors spread in the empire that even the battle mage Radnelbandes had set aside everything to focus solely on her education, she had been slated to become a member of the Hero’s party to eventually subjugate the Demon King.
Of course, Lagnis herself wouldn’t know about this, but making it happen had been Esmée’s job, and what she did best.
She believed that if they could create enough reasons for Lagnis to become disillusioned with Itisel amidst the power struggles between the royalist and noble factions and the subsequent war, there was a possibility she could be naturalized into the empire.
If the Hero showed interest, and if they could arrange frequent meetings just enough for her to notice the Hero’s true intentions that Esmée couldn’t understand, like Esselua did, there was a good chance it could happen.
But then an unexpected individual appeared and took all of the Hero’s attention.
Eldmia Egga.
A mysterious man who allegedly wore the guardian emblem of the High Elves.
That alone should have elevated him to a person of interest, but on his first day of visit, he defeated the Hero.
His name had been mentioned during the investigation into Lagnis’s background, so he wasn’t completely unknown.
However, the information Esmée could obtain was limited to his activities in the capital, and she firmly believed he was merely an employee temporarily lent to her due to connections with the Ogatorf family.
Although she had heard that he wore a platinum earring on one side as an external characteristic, what sane person would guess he was a High Elf guardian based on that alone?
There were only a handful of records of humans obtaining such a thing in the first place!
Even she only knew about it because there was an ancestor among the previous emperors who had made a marriage alliance with a High Elf and abdicated the throne, leaving records behind.
If not for that, there would have been no way to recognize it.
She never imagined that her momentary deviation of reading such things when she still believed in romance would be so helpful.
“How could such an idiot have been praised as the future leader of Rudra’s next generation of magic knights?! Do all those Rudra bastards wear their heads as mere decorations?!”
Magic Knight Gwillo Vus Belluin.
The young lion of Rudra.
A man who would have been called a viscount if just a month had passed.
At only 18 years old, he was a talent recognized to that extent.
He was one of the geniuses invariably mentioned when people who liked to talk about the “Age of Heroes” spoke.
That’s why she had planned to invite him and arrange a meeting with the Hero according to her plan.
“What genius?! What an imbecile! Who wrote the report on this guy?! How could his ‘excessive pride as a noble’ be dismissed at that level?! It’s negligence! I’ll have them severely punished!”
“Princess, please…!”
Due to her small stature of less than 150 cm even at 18 years old, Esmée’s thrashing was not at all threatening.
The arms and legs she swung in anger were so weak they could hardly even penetrate a doll.
But the words she uttered were by no means light.
The old butler watching the not-quite-struggle between Esmée and the maid quietly sent someone to prepare documents on who the investigators were.
“Huff… huff… Olend!”
As expected, Esmée, who lacked physical stamina, quickly tired out.
Although she still didn’t seem to have calmed down, the reason she called the old butler’s name was clear, so he bowed slightly and answered.
“We have already sent a letter to Rudra.”
“What did you write?!”
“The death of Lord Guilbe and its cause. Also, content proving it was a fair duel, the time of transfer of the body and belongings, and a request for an envoy to discuss this matter.”
“And the deadline?!”
“We emphasized that they should prepare to come immediately, today.”
“Very good! Prepare for an outing at once!”
“Although we urged haste, it will still take some time for the envoy to arrive…”
Olend, who was raising his upper body while trailing off, saw Esmée trying to tear off her work dress with force, and the maid half-screaming with a tearful face.
He sighed and bowed again.
Esmée shouted over his head.
“Those guilty ones committed the crime, why should I wait for them first?! It’s Eldmia! Prepare to go to the academy!”
“I shall obey your command.”
As Olend was about to leave the room, still bowing and turning his body 180 degrees, Esmée added:
“Also prepare and submit documents on those who submitted the report on Guilbe!”
“They are already being prepared. I will ensure you can review them in the carriage.”
“Excellent!”
Hoping that there would be valid reasons for their erroneous reports, Olend left the room.
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“Lord Eldmia!!!”
“Please! Please teach us!”
“Marry me, Eldmia!”
“Lord Egga, please…!”
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
That Lord of the Rings bastard.
He was much more famous than I thought.
What? The young lion of Rudra?
Call him the dog of Rudra instead!
She had anticipated falling into madness again, captivated by Eldmia’s charm, but due to his fame, that madness far exceeded her expectations.
Lagnis smiled at me as I was utterly exhausted from trying not to break my fairy tale knight mode while being tormented endlessly since morning classes.
“Now I can understand that ridiculous confidence of his.”
“It’s truly nothing but useless information.”
Although the information was junk food in itself, the man’s death was very beneficial to Lagnis.
With the rights and wrongs clearly established, even the empire was siding with us, and thanks to the super-premium frog-in-a-well Guilbe, whom no one could have imagined, she explained that we might even be able to extract compensation from the Kingdom of Rudra.
“If it had been within Rudra, it might have been different, but he came all the way to the empire and acted so arrogantly. The next envoy will probably feel like they’re losing all their hair.”
Moreover, he wasn’t just some ragtag individual, but a strong candidate for the next leader of Rudra’s Magic Knight Order.
Given that he had been so insulting and disrespectful, Lagnis said that if Itisel decided to pursue the matter, it would be possible to push the narrative that he had intended to provoke a war with his insults.
Still, it was surprising that he had that much ability.
“His skills were terrible. He would have lost after lasting about ten rounds even if he fought Cheryl .”
“…Perhaps he lacked practical experience.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
His body, covered in buffs like some kind of strengthening thing or whatever, was quite sturdy.
Maybe he died without fully demonstrating his skills because he had little experience of being hit and underestimated me.
Was it because the memory of Delt, who had reacted to my attack and accepted his death, remained in a corner of my mind?
Everyone who fell short of that seemed lackluster.
The standards of strength in this other world were truly beyond my understanding.
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[Damn ELdmia is really fucking over EVERYONE up in this world lmao, i wonder if this new short ass princess will also wanna fuck him]
T/N Come on, we appreciate you and thank you for the chapters, that last sentence was foul 😭
Probably fuck him in the literal sense since so far all the heroines are mentioned by name in the chapter titles