Chapter 81: The Foolish Ally


    <b>Chapter 81: The Foolish Ally</b>


    ‘They say a foolish ally is scarier than an enemy.’


    The 2nd Prince took a puff of his cigar, recalling a saying he once heard.


    Looking at the current situation, those words couldn’t be truer. A foolish ally was worse than no ally at all.


    An enemy deserving of immediate elimination.


    But, unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.


    Because, regrettably, that foolish ally was...


    “Are you deaf?! When someone speaks, you should listen!”


    ...his own flesh and blood.Everyone had already left the strategy room.


    A ce secured with soundproofing spells, anti-eavesdropping, and anti-recording magic.


    No eyes were watching, but the sight of his sibling shouting like that at her brother was downright pathetic.


    To think that someone like her shared his blood.


    It was hard to believe, but...


    Unfortunately, that’s just how the world worked.


    For every outstanding person, there was always someonecking.


    Just as there were brilliant strategists, there were also idiots who, despitecking ability, had an abundance of confidence and were capable of ruining a nation.


    “Ha, so you’re just going to ignore mepletely now, huh?”


    The girl standing before him.


    The 3rd Princess, frowning, was the very definition of such an idiot.


    “So childish, truly childish. Is that really how you want to y it?”


    His sister asked.


    Surely.


    Ignoring someone was a rather low tactic, and he was well aware of that.


    But he had his reasons.


    If she had even once made a logical argument, he, being the merciful person he was, wouldn’t have let personal feelings get in the way and would’ve listened.


    But all she ever spouted were absurd, nonsensical things.


    - In the witness reports, the pointy ears were mentioned a few times. There’s also a mention of some kind of dark magic.


    There’s no rule saying elves can’t make deals with demons, right? There are always heretics in any race.


    Maybe we should contact the elf chieftain?


    It’smon knowledge that they drop like flies if they stray too far from the World Tree.


    She came up with this highly unfortunate theory, suspecting an elf to be one of the ck Fangs’ leaders, despite everyone knowing elves couldn’t survive far from their homnd.


    - I’m telling you, that potion merchant is suspicious. Just give me a little manpower. The way they’re so desperate to hide their identity... I can feel it! There’s definitely something there!


    She’d even started to demand resources based solely on her ‘gut feeling’ without a shred of logic.


    In this situation, what kind of madmander would take her seriously?


    “I get it. This is revenge, isn’t it? Over that incidentst time.”


    The girl said, causing the 2nd Prince’s expression to falter slightly.


    “Are you still bitter about nearly losing yourmand to me?”


    “It’s not about losingmand. The problem is that if an idiot like you takes the helm, this ship will sink.”


    He replied with a scowl.


    It had already been quite some time since their father entrusted him with handling the ck Fangs situation.


    Though eliminating the ck Fangs wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight, it was true that progress had been sluggish.


    In that gap, this ungrateful wench had started scheming.


    She’d been whispering things to their father, trying to take hismand away from him.


    If she had seeded...


    The empire’s future would’ve grown even darker.


    There was nothing more terrifying than an ipetent person holding power.


    Thankfully, it hadn’te to that.


    “Indeed, it was nothing short of divine intervention.”


    The goddess of victory must be smiling upon the Empire. There was no other way to exin the miracle that hade to the 2nd Prince.


    That bastard Caron had suddenly handed over the hero’s corpse to their side and then died.


    Thanks to retrieving it, the 2nd Prince managed to keep hismand.


    The girl in front of him red.


    She had spent a long time unting her insolence and disrespect, but still, she wasn’t done. She opened her mouth once more.


    “Fine. If that’s what you want to think, go ahead. But that’s not the issue right now.”


    Bang!


    The 3rd Princess mmed her hands down on the table with a thud.


    “We need to investigate the Holy Church! They’re the most suspicious ones right now.”


    Despite the dramatic gesture, her words were, as always, nonsense.


    His younger sister continued, exining how the Holy Church’s reaction to the video released by ck Fangs was suspiciously lukewarm.


    Rather than denying the contents of the video, they had announced their intent to reflect on their past wrongdoings and make changes. That, she imed, was far too strange.


    “The leader of ck Fangs is clearly controlling the higher-ups in the Holy Church!”


    The girl boldly shouted, standing firm in her conviction.


    It was almostughable how ridiculous she looked.


    ‘She actually believes that’s a theory.’


    There had to be limits to how far logic could leap.


    How, exactly, would the ck Fangs leader have managed to take control of the Holy Church?


    Mind control?


    If there were a mage powerful enough to cast mind control on dozens of archbishops or higher, ck Fangs wouldn’t even need to struggle. They could just brainwash the entire empire and be done with it.


    And besides...


    ‘The truth behind this incident is a little different than what’s been told.’


    He had already met with Cardinal Dominic and learned the real story.


    The truth was that this incident had been caused not by ck Fangs, but by Cardinal Caron’s own mistake. During an experiment, a holy relic had gone berserk, resulting in the gruesome deaths.


    ck Fangs had simply been clever enough to use it to their advantage, making it look like they had passed judgment.


    ‘Admittedly, it sounded a little suspicious when I first heard it.’


    But he had confirmed it through cross-examination.


    Through Asmodeus, he had verified that the leader of ck Fangs hadn’t stepped out of his quarters in thest ten days.


    He had also received confirmation that none of the ck Fangs’ leaders had been near the cathedral.


    So, the most usible exnation was that one of ck Fangs’ lower-tier informants had stumbled upon the scene and filmed the footage.


    It was impossible for ck Fangs’ leader or any of their high-ranking members to have been involved in the massacre.


    It was far more natural to conclude that it had been a tragic ident during an experiment rather than someone’s deliberate crime.


    “That guy Dominic is suspicious too. Didn’t you see his eyes? They’re just like the fanatics you see following ck Fangs in the streets.”


    His foolish sister tried to nder Cardinal Dominic.


    But the 2nd Prince wasn’t the kind to be swayed by such baseless usations.


    From his direct conversation with Dominic, he had found the cardinal to be surprisingly reasonable.


    Dominic understood that the bnce of power had shifted and that the Holy Church was no longer in an equal rtionship with the Empire.


    He had acknowledged that they wouldn’t dare challenge the Empire.


    All they wanted was to serve as useful subordinates.


    He was clearly someone who understood his position.


    ‘It’s unfortunate that we can’t manufacture the Holy Grail due to external scrutiny...’


    But the fact that they could now use the Holy Church as their subordinate wasn’t a bad oue.


    In a future battle with ck Fangd, the Holy Knights would willingly side with the Empire and y a crucial role.


    “You’re deliberately trying to ruin the Empire, aren’t you?”


    The girl in front of him pounded her chest as if she were about to explode from frustration.


    Thinking about it, her ignorance was unsurprising.


    After all, none of this information had been shared with her.


    Why would he share such knowledge with a traitor who had tried to stab him in the back?


    “If I were inmand, we would’ve wiped out ck Fangs in a single day!”


    His sister shouted, her voice so loud that spit flew from her mouth.


    The urge to tell her that if she couldn’t think, she should at least stay silent rose to the tip of the 2nd Prince’s tongue.


    “If you can’t think, at least shut up. Are you trying to unt your ipetence?”


    So he simply said it out loud.


    The 3rd Princess trembled, clenching her fists tightly.


    However, she said nothing more.


    Well, if she had the intelligence of anything above a monkey, she would’ve realized it by now. No matter what she said, there was no chance he’d ever consider her opinion.


    The girl stomped out her frustration and made her way to leave the strategy room.


    …Or at least, she tried to leave.


    But then the 2nd Prince’s sharp intuition—an almost divine instinct—warned him.


    “What are you nning to do now?”


    That foolish girl was about to cause another problem, he knew it.


    At his question, the 3rd Princess halted her steps and scowled.


    “I’ve found that potion merchant. I used my own people to track them down, and I’ll use my own people to deal with them. This isn’t your concern, so keep out of it.”


    As expected.


    She was about to waste the royal guard—elite forces meant to face ck Fangs—on some ridiculous investigation.


    In this situation, the 2nd Prince knew exactly what he needed to do.


    “Wait. I’ve got something for you to do.”


    “What? You just said you couldn’t trust me with anything...”


    The 3rd Princess’s face twisted in frustration.


    She had figured it out.


    She knew his n was to give her a meaningless task to keep her upied.


    But whether she noticed or not, it didn’t change anything.


    “Father entrusted me withmand. Surely, you wouldn’t prioritize your private investigation over Father’s orders.”


    With an amused smile, the 2nd Prince subtly reminded her that he’d report her actions if she overstepped her bounds.


    His sister ground her teeth in fury.


    She screamed in frustration, mmed the door, and stormed out.


    Her behavior was utterly pathetic.


    ‘What a disgrace.’


    She was so desperate to meddle that one could almost mistake her for a spy for ck Fangs.


    With foolish allies like her running rampant, the future of the Empire looked bleak indeed.


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