The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Give me the people who will be my escorts along with the request for accompaniment.

At a glance, it could be felt as a very rude thing to say.

Perhaps because of that, the Archbishop and the deputy branch manager looked at me in shock.

However, Amelie gazed at me with half interest and half anticipation.

“Y-you bast…!”

“Not bad.”

Amelie, who cut off the words of the Archbishop trembling in rage, smiled brightly.

“As I mentioned before, you have excellent insight.”

“You flatter me, Your Holiness.”

I exaggeratedly swung my arms inward and bowed my head as if performing palace etiquette.

At my exaggerated greeting, Rotulus also looked at me in surprise.

“How many mercenary slots are open?”

At Amelie’s straightforward question, I smiled brightly.

Although she pretended not to be, it seemed she was anxious as she couldn’t use even half the forces she prepared due to one permit disappearing. Her body was rushing.

“Don’t you want to ask how I knew you were a Saint?”

“How many young, bordering on childish, female priests are there that the Archbishop would be considerate of? It would be ridiculous to say you didn’t know with the insight you’ve shown so far.”

As expected, she noticed.

She probably realized from the moment I greeted the Archbishop without pointing out her sitting at the head.

She was a woman whose mind worked to that extent.

“So, how many slots are open?”

“Well, doesn’t that depend on how many slots Your Holiness wants?”

Of course, I would have to show sincerity according to the number of slots she wanted.

When I counter-attacked, her kind-looking mask came off and a mischievous smile appeared.

As expected, there was a reason she was Sophia’s close friend.

“Alright. I’ll give you 10 liters of the highest grade holy water. If you want, I can also bless it.”

It meant the Saint would bestow protection and blessings.

No matter which of the seven gods one believed in, as long as it wasn’t the devil, it would be a moment to shed tears of emotion.

“I’ll give you two slots.”

But it’s worthless.

To an atheist like me, a one-time use blessing with a time limit is not as good as holy water that can be preserved long-term.

So I priced it at one person per 5 liters of holy water.

“Now, you…!”

“I’ll give you 3 liters of the highest grade holy water and an additional 40 liters of high-grade holy water. It’s all the holy water I have.”

Amelie cut off the Archbishop’s words as he was about to get angry at me bargaining and bet more holy water.

“I’ll give you one more slot.”

40 liters of high-grade holy water was not even worth 1 liter of the highest grade. But I generously rounded up and decided to give one more slot.

At my words, Amelie fell into contemplation.

“Actually, this person is…”

“He must be the Mercenary King Philidron Rotulus. What other parrot beastman mercenary would Your Holiness consider important besides the Mercenary King? If not, I wouldn’t have made such a proposal.”

Amelie’s attempt to sell Rotulus’s reputation was stranded before she could even properly open her mouth.

“I have sufficiently proven my insight. I am confident that it will be sufficient insight even inside the ruins.”

So put the value of the permit slots properly on the scale.

Realizing the meaning of my gaze, she laughed as if she was having fun.

“You are truly a formidable person. Have you ever thought about working at the temple?”

“Well, if you include that in the price, I’ll forget about the three slots. Since my value is high, I would be at quite a loss.”

The highest grade holy water of 13 liters and high-grade holy water of 40 liters mentioned earlier meant the price of hiring me.

Amelie slightly raised both hands and made a gesture of surrender.

“I was too greedy. Let me take that back.”

“Then the three slots are yours, Your Holiness.”

Amelie and I laughed at the same time.

“I’ll give you two swords made of sacred iron, although not designated as sacred objects.”

“I’ll give you three more slots. You have secured a total of six slots.”

Sacred iron is iron tempered with divine power by several high-ranking priests, possessing the property of emitting divine power semi-permanently.

Its hardness was no different from ordinary steel, but if a sword aura was created with a sacred iron sword, it would create a blessed sword aura, and if a sword pressure was created, it would create a blessed sword pressure, making it a prized possession.

Of course, if it wasn’t designated as a sacred object, it wouldn’t have the power of the blessed sword pressure with which Precia sent the superhuman-class Death Knight flying with a single blow in Brute.

That power was derived from pouring in the highest grade holy water.

Instead, the fact that it didn’t evaporate over time was a truly great advantage.

Above all, the fact that it couldn’t be obtained on the market, as sacred iron was something only a Pope or a Cardinal-level figure mentioned as a candidate for the next Pope could barely obtain, was significant.

“Don’t you have a magic staff?”

If made into a magic staff, naturally one could use divine magic.

Of course, even so, it would only be low-level magic that consumed less mana, but it was sufficient for dealing with the undead and impure beings.

In the first place, magical combat was usually decided with simple magic.

Someone who uses complicated magic when their head can be shattered and their belly pierced by a single magic bullet is someone with a strange mental state.

“I think there might be one spare sacred iron magic staff…”

Judging by her rolling eyes, it seemed she didn’t have it on hand right now.

Is it among the treasures the Archbishop illicitly accumulated?

Then it would be in Sophia’s hands, so should I swipe one or two nice ones later?

“If it’s one, I’ll give you two more slots. Are you satisfied with a total of eight slots?”

“No! Wait a moment! Hmm, among the artifacts…”

My negotiation with Amelie went on for quite a while, and out of the 20 people who could enter with the Earth Church’s permit, 14 became the Sea Church’s holy knights and combat priests.

And my pockets became thick again.

Very good.

Having achieved all my goals, I leisurely left the cathedral.

“For now, we’ve put out the urgent fire.”

At Amelie’s words, Rotulus nodded.

The original personnel who were trying to enter the ruins were Saint Amelie, Mercenary King Rotulus, 1 archaeologist belonging to Arcana, 3 mages, 2 trap experts, 2 appraisers, 2 explorers, and 18 holy knights and 10 combat priests from the Sea Demoniation who were also renowned, for a total of 40 people.

Among the planned personnel, the archaeologist, trap experts, and appraisers were completely non-combat personnel.

Moreover, given the level of the ruins, one of the three mages and explorers would barely be able to protect their own bodies, so they wouldn’t be of much help in a dangerous situation.

In a situation where 9 out of 40 people were outside the battle forces, one permit disappeared before even entering the ruins, so it was a situation that made one sigh.

Furthermore, the non-combat personnel were people absolutely necessary for finding their way without getting lost in the ever-changing ruins or checking the excavated artifacts.

And the ruins were dangerous enough to need at least twice as many people to protect those 9.

“It’s fortunate that it ended with only six people.”

“Indeed. Instead, we gained six more pawns.”

At Amelie’s words, Rotulus wiped under his beak with his wing feathers.

“No, we can’t simply see them as pawns. Judging by the level of that woman who is that Ian fellow’s bodyguard, we don’t have to worry about his safety.”

“Really?”

It was hard to believe that the Mercenary King of the world acknowledged her level.

“Although it’s hard to tell because she’s thoroughly concealing her presence, if she can conceal it to that extent, she’s not of ordinary skill. If the other four are of a similar level to that bodyguard, we might even be able to receive help.”

“To that extent?”

At Rotulus’s words, Amelie’s face brightened.

“That’s a relief. Once the fool finishes preparing the supplies, we can enter right away.”

*****

Under the bright and warm sunlight, the two soldiers guarding the entrance to the ruins yawned drowsily.

Although the ruins in the center of the city were considered important at the national level, they didn’t put much effort into guarding the entrance.

In any case, it was obvious that if one entered without a permit, they would be attacked by the defense magic and die, so they didn’t want to waste manpower and budget on unnecessary things.

“Yawn~”

The sentries leaned their shoulders against the annoyingly clattering spear shafts and endlessly waited for the shift change time to come.

Then, a beauty with pale skin and fluttering black hair like ebony casually walked towards the entrance of the ruins.

At the appearance of a woman so beautiful that their eyes popped open, the soldiers hurriedly tidied themselves up and argued over who would talk to her first.

After a short squabble, the senior took the lead and politely asked the slowly approaching woman.

“Is your purpose to enter the ruins?”

At the obvious question, the Sword Demon Anastasia silently nodded.

“I will check your permit.”

“I don’t have such a thing.”

“Pardon?”

Anastasia passed by the soldier who asked back in surprise.

The soldier was surprised by her movement beyond his cognition and looked back.

“No! It’s dange-!”

Peww- Kwaaang-!

As soon as she set foot in the entrance, high-density mana beams poured out, and the soldiers tightly closed their eyes and opened them.

The two people who thought a terrible sight would unfold looked around for the woman who had disappeared without a trace.

Kwaaaa- Kwaa-!

They soon realized that Anastasia had entered the ruins alive from the sound of explosions coming from deep inside the ruins.

“Wh-what do we do?”

“…I don’t know either, dammit.”

In the several years they served as soldiers, this was the first time such a thing happened.

Judging that there was no way she would come out alive without a permit anyway, the two decided to pretend it never happened.

A few hours later, the two people who ended up on evening sentry duty again due to their seniors’ bullying would have the same experience because of the Sword Fairy Nayuta.

The only difference was that while the Sword Demon entered quietly, the Sword Fairy cursed them out while kicking their butts as they stood in her way before entering.

On the way back to the inn, Precia asked me gloomily as if she had lost confidence.

“After all, shouldn’t Jade or Mr. Abassael have attended to you instead of me?”

She seemed to feel pathetic about freezing up and being unable to do anything while I negotiated with the Saint of the Sea Church.

Seeing her like that, I chuckled.

“No, you did well enough.”

Certainly, if it were Jade or Abasael, they would have sufficient strength to protect me and could have assisted me by chiming in with my words. But it would have been difficult to persuade Rotulus.

Rotulus did not intervene in the conversation between Amelie and me, but during the exchange, he observed me and Precia as if contemplating.

That colorfully feathered parrot beastman would have rejected my proposal regardless of Amelie’s intention if he felt I would be a hindrance.

But just by having Precia sit next to me, the evaluation of my value was bound to rise.

Although Precia thoroughly concealed her presence as if using a stealth technique, to a transcendent who had established their own mental image, it would rather act as a sense of incongruity and inversely allow them to infer her skill level.

It was also the reason I thought it would be troublesome if Rotulus left the Archbishop’s office.

No matter how transcendent he was, if he didn’t observe slowly, he would have left without noticing the incongruity.

In other words, while my eloquence was the process of persuading Amelie, Precia’s mere existence was the process of persuading the Mercenary King. It was something the mages Jade and Abassael couldn’t do.

Upon hearing my explanation, Precia’s gloomy expression brightened again.

“Is that so! Ah, that’s a relief.”

Precia was relieved by the fact that she was helpful.

Of course, if there was a situation like this next time, I was thinking of moving with Jade unless it was a case where Precia was needed. This should be kept a secret.

As we were almost at the inn, a familiar navy blue hair approached from across the street with an old man.

“There are still a couple of hours left until the appointed time?”

At my question, Sophia answered with a playful smile.

“I thought you would finish your business and come soon. There’s no need to waste time, right?”

Is it transcendent intuition based on divine power?

“Yeah? Then I’ll introduce you to my companions, so let’s go in together.”

At my guidance, Sophia hummed and followed behind me.

The gaze of the old holy knight who didn’t like me made the back of my head sting, but I lightly ignored it.

Tomorrow, we will finally enter the ruins.