Chapter 99: 056. Ruppel Olfolse (Part One)
Lunch hour.
As usual, I was out and about in Humite’s marketplace.
Three weeks had already flown by ever since I started my academy life.
While Charlotte and Hais went to get our food, Harman walked up to the bench I was sitting on.
He spoke first.”…Necromancers have gotten rather active lately, your highness.”
He settled down on an open spot next to mine. It was unknown where he bought the fruit juice from, but since he gave it to me anyways, I said thanks and took it.
After taking a gulp of the juice, I replied. “Yeah, I hear you. They aren’t even cockroaches, yet after we deal with one, two more pop out of nowhere.”
I’ve been spotting those bastards every single night lately. Especially more so around the outskirts of Humite – they were gathering in some numbers there.
I made sure to snatch the suckers up as soon as spotting one and interrogated them thoroughly, but the end results weren’t all that much to write home about.
“Seriously though, there shouldn’t be that many Necromancers in the world in the first place, so is it okay for them to send so many like this?” I asked Harman.
“I’m sure they see it as getting rid of those with little lifespan remaining, your highness. Even then, only those with below average skill sets.”
Oh, so they were simply ridding themselves of the ones that were deemed not worth recycling, then?
All thanks to that, I was also going nowhere at the moment, you know?
A groan automatically left my lips. “If they’re this persistent, then that could only mean this ‘Chaos plan’ thing is still progressing forward… What about Aslan’s envoy?”
“He’s still on his way, your highness.”
“And they’re still denying everything?”
“Yes. That’s probably the only method they have at their disposal right now, your highness. They dearly wish to avoid fighting a war within Aslan’s territory. However, that doesn’t mean they’re confident in breaking down the border wall and face off against the Heavenly Army either.”
The Black Order still hadn’t given up on… ‘something’ yet.
And then, the envoy from Aslan hadn’t postponed the itinerary of visiting the empire.
Were they really planning to wage war?
But how were they planning to attack the border region guarded by a massive border wall, the Heavenly Army, and even the Order of the Golden Cross?
Or… maybe they were really unrelated to the Black Order after all?
While I was deeply contemplating the matters at hand…
“Oh! Aren’t you his highness the Seventh Imperial Prince?”
Harman’s head and mine snapped towards the voice at once. A quite beautiful noblewoman in her early to mid thirties was standing there.
Harman was so stunned that he nearly spewed out the fruit juice in his mouth. To meet the established decorum, he hurriedly got up on his feet, placed his hand on his chest, and bowed deeply at the woman. “T-this humble servant greets the Crown Princess Consort, Lady Rose.”
Crown Princess Consort?
I was taken aback and quickly activated [Mind’s Eye] to properly take a look at the noblewoman.
[Name: Rose Darina.
Age: 45
Attributes: Frail constitution, weak mind, confused and chaotic, insanity-laced obsessiveness.
+ I shall definitely make my son the next Holy Emperor! Ah, ah, my beloved Crown Prince! I love you so much!]
After checking out her name through [Mind’s Eye], I was even more taken aback than before. According to the information Harman provided for me in the past, she was the missing Imperial Crown Prince’s second wife.
Rose Darina.
Oh, and she was also the mother of the Third Imperial Prince Ruppel.
I performed a simple little greeting.
She responded with smiling eyes and slowly approached us. “What brings you to this fair city, your highness?”
Although it was only for a brief moment, the way she looked at me wasn’t what you’d call nice. It seemed that she detested me as much as Ruppel.
I smiled back and replied airily. “I began attending the academy through brother Ruppel’s recommendation.”
Since I couldn’t exactly come out and say, I came to torture Necromancers and steal their techniques, I decided to come up with another excuse.
Rose frowned slightly. “My Ruppel did?”
‘My Ruppel’, she said. It sounded like she really cared about her son.
“To think that the Second Imperial Prince, my son, wouldn’t mention that to his own mother. How sorrowful it is, I must say.”
“…Second Imperial Prince?”
I tilted my head in slight confusion.
Who was she even talking about?
Now that I thought about it, out of all my Imperial Family siblings, Harman hadn’t really told me much about those related to Rose until now for some reason.
I whispered in Harman’s ear, “Hey, Harman. Who is this Second Imperial Prince?”
A bout of cold sweat suddenly broke out on his face. “T-that is…”
“Mother!”
It was then, a horse-drawn carriage came to a sudden halt on the street before us. The one who climbed out of the vehicle turned out to be none other than Ruppel Olfolse.
He looked clearly stunned to find Rose here, and quickly dashed straight towards our location. A bright smile bloomed on her face while she stared at her son, and once he got close enough, she heartily embraced him.
“Ah, ah, my beloved child Ruppel! Your mother has come to see you. How could you be this adorable, my son? If your father, the Crown Prince, sees how well you’ve grown up, he will be most pleased!”
“N-no, the thing is… mother…”
While stuttering away, Ruppel shifted his gaze around and his expression hardened instantly after spotting me.
Well, he must be feeling pretty embarrassed right now. He was a young man who’s already come of age but was currently being hugged and fawned over by his mother in public after all.
Was this why? You know, the reason why he was labelled as a mama’s boy back in the imperial palace?
“My son, have you enjoyed your meal yet?”
“M-mother, please think about the dignity of…”
“Your mother personally cooked your meal today.”
What a wholesome sight between a mother and her son this was.
I mean, it’d be pretty hard to see any other mother/son combination that cared about each other to this degree within the Imperial Family, after all.
Just as I began clicking my tongue out of this bitter feeling…
“Ah, ah, my dear Ruppel, the Second Imperial Prince! You must handle the upcoming matter well, my child. Please speak well to Aslan’s envoy. You understand, don’t you? My dear Ruppel! My beloved first son!”
I froze up on the spot and alternated my gaze between Ruppel and Rose.
Yo, hold up. What was she even talking about? Not the Third, but the Second Imperial Prince?
“What does she mean?” I spat out a question at Harman almost reflexively. “Second Imperial Prince? Not the third?”
Ruppel gritted his teeth as he glared at Harman.
The latter hurriedly whispered in my ear, “I’ll explain later, your highness.”
…Was there some other circumstance at play here?
“M-mother, please get on the carriage for the time being. It’ll trouble me greatly if you chose to take a stroll alone, you know. What if you get lost like the last time and…”
“I understand, my child.”
Rose nodded, but before climbing aboard the carriage, she ever so briefly shot me a rather unpleasant glare first.
In the meantime, Ruppel took out an ‘item’ from inside the carriage. “It’s the thing you asked me for.”
He then tossed the item in question – a book.
I caught it and took a look. It was wrapped tightly in a cloth. Steel chains must’ve tightly bound it because I could sense the distinctive hard texture under the fabric, too.
It seemed that what I was holding right now was the ‘thing’ we talked about the last time, the grimoire used by Necromancer King Amon.
However, I forgot to celebrate this acquisition and simply stared at Ruppel. “Brother, just what happened…”
“You don’t need to know.”
That was Ruppel’s curt reply as he disappeared into the carriage. The vehicle set off and soon went beyond my field of view.
I could only frown a little while staring at the back of the carriage. “…Harman, what’s going on here?”
He let out an audible groan.
He might’ve been the vice captain of the Paladin Corps, but that didn’t mean he could freely discuss the matters of the Imperial Family.
“Are you still going to disobey even if I order you as a Heresy Inquisitor? How can the Third Imperial Prince become the Second?”
I glared straight at Harman’s face.
More cold sweat began flooding down his face. He eventually plopped down on the bench before opening his mouth.
“…This matter is something that even the nobles of the Imperial Court avoid discussing, your highness.” Even though he massaged his temples while looking at me, he still carried on regardless. “If you command me to answer, then I’m compelled to do so, but still, I implore you not to tell this to anyone. Please.”
“I don’t have anyone to prattle to, anyways.”
Harman groaned again before starting his tale.
Rose Darina.
She was apparently deeply in love with the Imperial Crown Prince and gave birth to his child after becoming his second wife.
That child was the Second Imperial Prince. But even before the baby got to enjoy the outside light, the umbilical cord got entangled around his throat and he ended up dying in her womb.
“Wha?!”
“…It was a horrific tragedy, your highness. Despite the presence of various Priests by her side, they couldn’t bring the dead baby back to life.”
Rose was shocked by what happened.
She had already selected potential names for her baby by then, too. If it was a boy, Ruppel, but if it was a girl, Lucy.
However, her child was stillborn. Rose ended up falling in the clutches of shock, and sorrowfully wailed out while clutching the baby.
The Imperial Crown Prince also found it heartbreaking and bestowed the peerage of ‘Second Imperial Prince’ on the baby before giving it a proper funeral.
But even then, Rose still couldn’t escape from her sorrow. She spent every waking day in tears. The Crown Prince apparently stayed by her side and tried to soothe her somehow, but she showed no signs of getting better.
