Chapter 209: 111. An Adventurer’s First Step (Part Two)
Alice found this version of the Seventh Imperial Prince before her eyes truly mystifying.
A person labelled as a mangnani had transformed so much.
Someone who perpetrated random acts of violence for fun and even tried to assault women had somehow acquired the support of the empire’s subjects.
Her grandfather, Cardinal Raphael, once told her that the boy now possessed the ‘right to inherit the throne’ of the Holy Emperor.
As proof, the Theocratic Empire was preparing to bestow the position of ‘Holy King’, which was one step below the Holy Emperor, to the boy. The Imperial Prince himself had no idea about it, but a huge surprise was in store for him when he returned to the imperial palace later.
It’d be a surprise gift from Holy Emperor Kelt himself.
Alice suddenly became rather curious about what kind of face the Imperial Prince would make after the peerage of ‘Holy King’ was bestowed upon him.
‘Without a doubt, he deserves it.’
The Seventh Imperial Prince possessed ample qualifications to become the future Holy Emperor, judging from his previous accomplishments alone.
Holy Emperor Kelt would feel relieved and abdicate his throne to the boy without any regrets.
‘Not only that…’
Alice’s brows furrowed slightly all by themselves.
‘He knew about me.’
An existence that possessed a god’s fragment and was also capable of fighting Vampires off… the Saintess. Her being one was a secret no one in the empire knew. And that’s because she had deliberately hid the truth.
Not only had she perceived how inadequate she was in too many areas, she also understood that the Vampires would target her and try to eliminate her right away if they learned about her status.
-Huh. So this is what happens when a Saintess falls head over heels with hand-to-hand combat?
That’s what his highness muttered out when she managed to block Kasim Derian’s attack, the former inheritor of the sword king title.
In other words, the Seventh Imperial Prince was aware of her being a Saintess.
‘Which means…’
She began suspecting that his highness was a Saint as well. Only a Saint should be capable of sensing another Saint or Saintess, and be able to sniff out Vampires hidden among regular people, after all.
Could it be possible that his highness was also blessed with a god’s fragment?
The possibility for it was great when taking into consideration his abnormal growth speed, his strange magical ability that broke common sense, as well as various other points.
More than anything else…
‘The incidents and events that continue to happen all around him.’
Many events took place with the Seventh Imperial Prince as their focal point. It was as if he was moving under the guidance of the divine to act as their ‘proxy’ and pass on the judgement to those who went against the will of the gods.
In actual truth, the Saints and Saintesses were the bringers of balance who were supposed to subjugate all the beings disrupting the world’s balance.
If the Seventh Imperial Prince was indeed a Saint like her, then he was merely performing his role as intended.
Alice continued to ponder deeply for a while, but then, her shoulders suddenly slumped lower.
‘By the way, hand-to-hand fighting is just a hobby of mine and a way to protect myself…’
She suddenly grew worried that the Imperial Prince now perceived her as a violent hot-head of a woman, and felt somewhat rueful about that.
“I now even have a new identity, so it’s time to enjoy a new way of life,” said Allen.
Alice made a slightly awkward face at that.
For some reason, he seemed to be in a good mood ever since departing from the Theocratic Empire’s borders. Probably because he was in full-on vacation mode right now.
“I always wanted to travel around the world, you see? To wander around this wide open world, and not be confined to the stuffy imperial palace and worry about those infernal Vampires all the freaking time. I wanted to find out what’s up with this world and enjoy what it has to offer, know what I mean?”
To put it simply, he wanted to go on a sightseeing tour.
The truth was, Alice also wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment. She too desired to travel outside the imperial palace, and when she heard of the tale of the first Holy Emperor, a powerful urge to go on an adventure welled up inside her.
The Seventh Imperial Prince prepared meticulously and intensely for this journey. He personally purchased all sorts of items and equipment meant for lengthy journeys, studied and memorised maps of the locations, and even had a new identity prepared to perfectly hide the fact that he was an Imperial Prince.
“This nation has a profession called ‘adventurer’. Apparently, they explore dungeons and fight off monsters. Compared to fighting against Vampires, well… It’s probably only on the level of some goblins and slimes or something. So, like, I was thinking of registering as an adventurer myself. If I do that, then…”
He was like an innocent little kid being really enthusiastic about the prospects of the upcoming adventures. Alice couldn’t help but smile gently at that.
But then…
“Ruuuuun away!!!”
Hans’s fleeing figure leapt out of some bushes behind Alice.
She flinched in surprise and quickly looked back while the Imperial Prince extracted a musket despite his surprised expression.
BANG-!
A Minotaur roared into the night sky. The creature’s bull-like horns were thrust forward. These slightly bent but still razor-sharp horns at least one metre long rapidly closed in on Alice.
“Huh?!”
She reflexively leapt back and extended her hand out at the same time. Divinity quickly awakened inside her, and her left hand powerfully grabbed the incoming horn.
Her feet dug into the ground to support her weight, and she managed to stop the Minotaur’s violent charge dead in its tracks.
Pure astonishment quickly filled up the face of the Minotaur. It couldn’t believe that such a small-statured girl managed to stop it so easily.
In the meantime, Alice raised up her right hand.
“Heu-euph!”
She sucked in a deep breath before slamming her fist down, hard.
CRUNCH-!
A loud, gruesome exploding noise resounded out and blood splattered everywhere. Its horn broke in her grip as the huge body at least four metres tall was ruthlessly crushed into the ground below.
The monster spasmed periodically, but that was all it did.
It had been instantly killed off. She actually obliterated a monster four metres tall with a single punch.
Just as Alice began calming her breathing, she felt a pair of strange gazes landing on her back. She looked behind her.
The Seventh Imperial Prince and Hans were staring at her in pure stupefaction.
“…Aht! Uhm, this… Well, it’s, uhm…” Alice hurriedly hid her hands behind her back, completely oblivious to the fact that blood had already splattered onto her face. She forced out an awkward smile and said something. “Y-you’re correct, your highness! I’m also looking forward to it. T-this journey, I mean!”
She belatedly tried to reply to what the Imperial Prince had said earlier. But he and Hans muttered out their honest impression of this event instead.
Firstly, the Seventh Imperial Prince: “By any chance, have you seen the Fighter in the Wind?” [1]
And then, Hans speaking in an impressed voice: “I’ve already heard that the Priestesses of the Theocratic Empire are truly fearsome individuals, but even then, your strength is truly otherworldly, my lady!”
While listening to their opinions, Alice could only make a depressed face.
**
The fiefdom of Elusha was famed for being the land of adventurers.
This territory was located quite close to the capital of a nation renowned for its magic, and as such, quite a lot of magicians called this place their home. In addition, mercenaries, adventurers, and countless travellers frequently visited the fiefdom as well.
Not only that, the area next to the territory was commonly referred to as the ‘forest of demonic beasts’, due to how often monsters popped up from there.
Perhaps that was the reason why adventurers always flocked to Elusha.
“Have you heard? The news regarding the Lome Kingdom’s civil war.”
“Oh, the one about how the Second Prince there was in bed with the Vampires all along?”
“I hear he got his head chopped off after being judged guilty by the heresy inquisition.”
“Looks like the civil war over there came to an end all thanks to you know who.”
“Right. I heard that it’s all because of that person.”
“That person, you say?”
The conversing mercenaries seemed a little confused, so the adventurer chatting to them nodded and explained it, “You know, the Seventh Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire.”
The mercenaries clamped their mouths shut.
“T-that’s right. I heard about that. He alone went around slaughtering the Vampires, didn’t he?”
“That’s not all. He even subjugated an undead army numbering tens of thousands, apparently.”
“…I’ve been thinking this every time I hear about him, but they all sound like a really tall tale, don’t you agree?”
The mercenaries chuckled hollowly. Of course they had all heard about the rumours by now.
The stories from the Theocratic Empire, some more coming from Aslan, and now, the tales were coming out of Lome Kingdom too.
And the Seventh Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire was at the heart of all these rumours shaking up the continent right now.
Many of the rumours sounded way too over the top; such as him saving an Imperial Prince from a deadly curse, then installing a discarded princess as the next ruler of Aslan, or even saving a kingdom on the brink of destruction brought on by a bloody civil war, etc, etc…
In all honesty, all those things sounded like feats straight out of a fairytale. They sounded like a far-too common fantasy found pretty much everywhere. But perhaps, that was the reason why these stories held such a power to entrance its listeners.
As the mercenaries and adventurers chatted away, a group of visitors arrived at the adventurer guild.
The gathered masses’ gazes were directed towards the source of heavy clunking noises, followed by metallic clacks.
The adventurers’ eyes opened much wider.
A knight kitted out in silvery-white armour from his head to toe was standing by the entrance.
The adventurers spotted rune letters engraved on the white armour’s surface and sighed in admiration.
“Aren’t those… magic armaments?”
“I guess he’s a scion from a wealthy family?”
They then glanced behind this knight. A girl and a young man were following him from behind.
The girl seemed to be in the latter half of her teens, with golden locks and the attire of a Priest. Her hands were equipped with gauntlets.
The other man seemed to be in his late twenties, with a slender physique and carrying a considerably large luggage on his back.
A white knight, a monk, and perhaps a peddler. What a peculiar combination this was.
The adventurers were curious about who they were, but their curiosity didn’t last for long. They simply retracted their gazes and resumed their conversations.
The knight in the silvery-white armour strode towards one of the Adventurer Guild’s counters. And while taking out the horn of a Minotaur from seemingly out of nowhere, he asked the receptionist, “I want to register as an adventurer.”
The guild’s receptionist standing behind the counter was a physically imposing man. He couldn’t help but stare at the Minotaur’s horn with wide-open eyes, then sneaked a glance at the knight in silver-white armour. “Your name?”
The Seventh Imperial Prince under the dwarven white armour…
Allen wanted to enjoy his stay in the city of magic, Elusha, not as an Imperial Prince, but…
“It’s Allen. Allen Rufus.”
…As just another adventurer.
< 111. An Adventurer’s First Step (Part One and Two) > Fin.
(TL: “Fighter in the Wind” in [1] is actually a South Korean martial arts biopic released in 2004 that tells the story of Choi Yeong-Eui/Masutatsu Oyama, who travelled to Japan during WW2 and later founded the school of now-famous Kyokushinkaikan Karate. Fun fact: Mr. Karate from SNK’s fighting games are based on him.)
(TL: Also, I’ve decided to change “divine king” to “Holy King” to be more consistent with “Holy Emperor” theme.)
