I Obtained the Final Boss' Power-Chapter 50 : Episode 50. The Crown Prince (1)

Episode 50. The Crown Prince (1)
"Unbelievable, they actually failed."
A young man dressed in luxurious clothing muttered within the vast Imperial Court garden.
He wore a look of contempt as he gazed at the bird perched on his shoulder.
"Useless creature. There's a limit to incompetence, you know."
He was the 1st Crown Prince, Orbel. He had just sneered at Aiden, who had been communicating through a spirit as an intermediary.
Not only had he failed to retrieve the spoils from a higher-rank monster, but, after losing in the arena, he also had the precious treasure he'd acquired during the ritual snatched away by Paruzan.
"You're here."
"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince."
Before him, a middle-aged man knelt in formal deference.
This man, entitled to an imperial audience, was one of the Empire's most distinguished nobles.
He was Alber Bisted, Duke and head of House Bisted.
Given the prestige of House Bisted, the heroes who ended the demonkin war, it was hardly a challenge for him to meet with the Crown Prince.
"Alber. You know why I summoned you, don't you?"
"I've heard the news that the commander of the 4th Fortress of the 7th Legion failed his mission."
Having relied on the military, he could quickly catch wind of anything concerning the 7th Legion.
There was no need for small talk.
"That's not the only problem. The intelligence unit we dispatched is also still out of contact."
Even those sent to secure the corpse of the higher-rank monster had vanished without a trace.
Well, not exactly vanished—they had merely sent word that they would no further, which was its own problem.
"Even after we dealt with Rejir, suspicion towards my family still runs high. Not only from the Holy Nation, but the Zodiac faction continues to obstruct us from accessing any magitech support."
Zodiac was the most advanced magitech city in the Empire, and though the Imperial Court could intervene by right, it was also officially recognized by the Holy Nation, meaning any overt meddling would only stir more suspicion.
Currently, Zodiac relied on this fact to shun Bisted.
"Ferus Maclean, the dean of Zodiac—he's the man who witnessed the end of the demonkin war alongside the founder of your House Bisted. Yet I can't say for certain that he harbors any goodwill toward your house."
It was a cold-hearted reality—one wouldn't show favor just because a former comrade had founded a house. But there was a more fundamental reason.
"He saw much and learned even more during the demonkin war. Any suspicious secrets hidden by your house would not escape his notice for long."
"I am... truly sorry."
Alber ground his teeth in anger even as he spoke with courtesy, frustrated by the string of failures.
"But if Bisted were to disappear, that would be troubling in its own way. It was your family, after all, that replenished the depleted ranks of the 7th Legion."
The 7th Legion accepted only those whose deaths would be inconsequential.
Sending just anyone to a place like that was impossible.
So Alber invented justifications for sending people to fill its ranks—even manufactured criminal charges if he had to.
Genuine criminals weren't enough to fill such numbers.
So he added more—by force, if need be.
Even by fabricating crimes where none existed.
"With only savages being sent there, the attrition is swift. Such types are always ready to turn their blades on their own allies."
That was the very reason for the 7th Legion's past manpower shortages.
Even with their lives on the line against monsters, their own self-interest came first, preventing any real teamwork.
Their collar was the torture spell, not unlike chaining up a dog.
"Hence the high attrition rate. Sometimes I wonder if it'd be better to send in a few normal people."
"That is why, in the past, we included some who weren't criminals—since there just weren't enough criminals alone."
Fabricating charges wasn't hard. A high noble of the Empire could manipulate anything below his rank at will.
"But I heard that one of those people was a noble?"
"That's right. There was a baron I'd met at a gathering. Unfortunately, his son and mine got into a scuffle, and things got out of hand."
Luckily, the dispute was settled by a duel.
Alber's son, trained by expert knights, seemed sure to win.
But in the end, his son lost—to an otherwise ordinary boy, baron's son or not.
"That must have been humiliating—especially in front of so many nobles."
"Nobody expected it. At the time, I thought I'd die of the shock, but in hindsight, it wasn't such a bad opportunity."
Alber, who had been keeping an eye on the baron's son who defeated his own, suddenly had an idea.
Someone with that kind of talent might serve as suitable material—and he'd been needing to fill the 7th Legion's spots.
"So you put that boy in?"
"Yes. But since he was of noble birth, the method of getting him assigned was rather complex."
First, he sent a letter to the baron demanding his child.
Of course, the message was sugarcoated—promising the child would be raised as an outstanding knight on account of his remarkable talent.
But the baron, sensing something was off, refused.
He tried a more forceful approach, but to no avail.
With the baron impervious to sweet words, there was only one way left.
"So that's when you requested my help."
"I was most grateful at the time. I couldn't have accused them of embezzling imperial assets without Your Highness's assistance."
Accusing a noble wasn't easy, as they have their own degree of power.
So the process—including framing them with the intelligence unit's assistance—was rather complex.
"On top of that, I had to prevent them from fleeing with their remaining assets along with their family."
"I remember. That was a rather harsh method, too."
"It couldn't be helped—we had to turn an entire domain into a sea of fire."
Baron Seifert's Seifert domain.
Rumor had it that the place burned down and became a ruin because of bandits.
In truth, those "bandits" were former knights of the Imperial Court.
Not only did they brand the baron a criminal, but they made sure he never had a chance to flee, eliminating him outright.
They then leveled the domain and conscripted all the inhabitants as soldiers.
The charge was that villagers had abetted the baron's crimes.
The baron's son had even collective punishment foisted on him.
"Thanks to that, it looked convincingly like the work of bandits. I'd like to thank you again for your help."
"No, leave the gratitude to those who were dragged off. The Empire only stands thanks to them."
It's the 7th Legion that protects the Empire from ferocious monsters.
Without them, higher-rank monsters would have overrun the Empire by now.
"Of course, there must have been innocents among those dragged off. But that's unavoidable."
There were always shortages in the 7th Legion.
Whenever that happened, criminals alone couldn't fill the ranks, so they had to conscript anyone they could accuse of something.
It was undoubtedly evil—but the barrier against the demon realm couldn't be neglected either.
"But if non-criminals enter the 7th Legion, maybe it will change for the better? At least compared to brutal prisoners, they'd fight less among themselves."
"Ah... Then I wasn't completely in the wrong after all."
"I'm not doing evil,"
Alber reassured himself. "This is a good deed for the sake of the Empire."
As he repeated this to himself, crown Prince Orbel suddenly had a question.
"By the way, you haven't found those 'bandits' yet, have you? They used to serve under me, protecting me—how odd that they vanished."
They'd once protected imperial royalty. They couldn't have been defeated easily.
Yet after that day, those men abruptly disappeared.
"And those guys... they ignored the order to set a moderate blaze and went so far as to burn not only the domain but the mountains as well."
"That's been bothering me, too,"
Alber admitted.
In any case, they succeeded in capturing Baron Seifert's son and much of the populace.
But where had those mercenaries disappeared to?
'And why did the intelligence unit sever ties with us?'
First, there was Louis Seifert being spotted in Zodiac. Then, after Paruzan's stampede, contact was lost with Kadim.
Lately, troubles were breaking out left and right.
It was the same for Crown Prince Orbel, who found a new complication added to his list recently.
"Anyway, you'll have to clean up what Aiden, the commander of the 4th Fortress, failed to handle. First, we need to recover the 'Great Devil's Gift' from Paruzan."
The 4th Fortress had applied for an arena battle with the 5th Fortress and suffered a crushing defeat.
As a result, the 4th Fortress lost the very item Crown Prince Orbel coveted.
"But trying to sneak in and take it back is no longer possible."
The intelligence unit had been used up and was now out of contact.
Besides, since the location was the demon realm, it was impossible to dispatch troops carelessly.
"Who said we'd be sending someone? We're going to make them come to us."
Crown Prince Orbel.
Black magic power, something no human should possess, surged from his body.
****
After completing the construction of the fortress wall, Ferus left the fortress.
He not only repaired the wall but also patched up the soldiers' broken equipment and any magitech devices that had become unusable.
The performance of Paruzan's magitech devices, including the R-Type Guide, was now better than ever before.
Ferus also took the documents acquired from Aiden and meticulously copied them onto new paper.
Gifted with deft hands, he needed to see something only once to reproduce it perfectly. With these, Ferus returned to Zodiac, leaving Louis with the message to visit Zodiac anytime.
"It seems the dean of Zodiac has disappeared."
"Then we won't have to do those exhausting wall repair jobs anymore."
Tyr and Habe, former members of the intelligence unit, finally began to feel liberated.
It was a relief to be free from repairs, but it didn't mean true freedom.
"You idiots! What's the point of not fixing the wall anymore? Just look at the state we're in!"
They were currently doing laundry at the river next to the fortress.
While it was the cleanest water around in the demon realm, making it suitable for laundry, the problem was that, as officers, they were doing chores meant for soldiers.
"Why are we the ones doing this nonsense?!"
"Damn it!!"
Why were they, who should be employing torture spells to set soldiers to work, doing this themselves?
The answer was easy to find.
"Louis Seifert... that damn—"
"Shut up! He could be listening right now!"
They'd learned just how monstrous Louis Seifert's hearing was through daily life.
No matter where or when in the fortress—one wrong word, and he'd materialize like a ghost.
"Don't you remember? When we called that orphan a brat behind his back...?"
"Eek!!"
The three had gone through hell together.
Forced to imitate beasts with unwillingly, dragging carts—just thinking about it made them retch.
From that moment, they had become completely unable to disobey Louis.
"I want to go home... Let me go home!!"
At last, Alpher burst into tears.
"I want to see my mom!!"
Had this intelligence unit always been so emotionally dead, carrying out orders with such coldness? Now, here they were, on the verge of tears.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Up until Louis's voice rang out behind them.
"Eek!!"
Once again, Louis appeared like an apparition, and they froze, trembling like powerless herbivores.
"Why are you thinking about desertion in the middle of doing laundry?"
"Desertion...?"
"You said you wanted to go home. Doesn't that mean you want to leave the fortress?"
The three shook their heads in denial.
Louis, indifferent, explained his reason for coming.
"I've got something to tell you, so follow me."
"What do you want to talk about?"
"I have a feeling the Crown Prince's side will be making a move soon."
Despite flinching, the three followed behind Louis.
"Oh, one more thing..."
Suddenly, Louis paused.
"You three don't have mothers, remember?"
At those words, the three felt as if their insides had twisted and their guts knotted up.
"And you don't have fathers either, huh?"
They almost retched, but managed to hold it in.
"What's with the faces? You should be smiling."
Because you mustn't show a wrong expression in front of that demon.
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