The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

“N-no way, right?”

When Amelie asked in an anxious voice, everyone just tilted their heads, wondering why she was acting like that.

The only one in this place who shared Amelie’s ominous premonition was Rotulus, who had experienced many betrayals during his long mercenary life.

Who would dare to strike the backs of the elite members of the prestigious Sea Denomination?

“…”

As Rotulus fell silent with cold sweat, Amelie showed her impatience and gave orders to her subordinate holy knights.

“Look for Mr. Ian right away! It can’t be, but, yes, it can’t be, but Mr. Ian might be in danger! Hurry!”

“…Yes! Understood!”

At her command, the exploration team members began to realize that something serious had happened and dispersed to search the surroundings.

However, they did not feel as impatient as Amelie.

They couldn’t even imagine that Yuan, who took the initiative to clean up during breaks, showed great interest in the ruins, mingled with archaeologists and explorers, and made delicious food out of tasteless preserved food, would betray them.

Besides their friendship, the fact that Yuan showed signs of wanting to make connections with the Sea Denomination while talking to the holy knights and priests of the exploration team also gave them confidence in their trust.

From their perspective, they were just searching for the poor Yuan and his escorts who might have gotten lost in this dangerous ruin.

“We must find Mr. Ian quickly for his safety!”

Logically thinking, there was no way that a mere six people could break through this dangerous ruin, right?

To them, Yuan was a lifeline given by God out of pity for the evil thief’s plot to steal the permit.

That misconception narrowed the search range for finding Yuan.

“There was a huge stele over there! Team 1, follow me that way!”

“There was an old building where we passed by over there! Team 2, follow me towards the building!”

“Team 3, search around the base camp just in case!”

When the searchers judged rationally, they thought that there was a high possibility that Yuan and Jade would be in places where historical materials they had shown deep interest in throughout the ruins were gathered.

So they began searching mainly in such places.

At the point when the holy knights began their search, Rotulus, who had been pondering, first checked the exploration team’s supplies.

In his experience, when someone betrayed, they tended to mess with the supplies.

“The artifacts are gone.”

Although the goal was to quickly descend to the destination, they didn’t just pass by things that could only be obtained in each constellation area or good artifacts found by chance as they passed through various constellation areas.

Among those artifacts, only the valuable ones had disappeared.

“Damn it, they’re gone!”

Rotulus, who tore open the military pack, held his head and broke out in cold sweat.

It was because the military pack that should have been filled with food was filled with only blankets.

“We’ve been duped.”

At his words, the mages who remained at the site hardened their expressions.

Although they were at the end of the entrance to the ruins, there was still defense magic installed in the zone connecting the constellation areas.

Moreover, it was all kinds of killing magic engraved by the successive sages and geniuses of each era’s magic towers produced by the Duplion Kingdom.

In a situation where they couldn’t move forward or backward without a permit, most of the food had been taken.

Although they set up a base camp in an area classified as a relatively safe zone, it was obvious that monsters respawning in the ruins would continue to appear.

Amelie, the Saint of the Sea Denomination, muttered in a low voice as she broke out in cold sweat.

“Fuck, we’re screwed.”

************

Hahahahaha! Ah~! This refreshing feeling!

The deliciousness of betrayal that I haven’t tasted in so long!

Perhaps because I had been living too obediently for a while, it felt like the crazy bastard of Bulgwangcheon had returned after a long time.

As expected, it was fun to strike the backs of those who acted like they could do everything themselves.

But along with the joy, a small sigh escaped.

“Haa, I’ve become too soft.”

I felt like I was being too greatly influenced by this weak body.

As the body weakened, it seemed inevitable that even the heart would soften.

At my muttering, Jade and Precia looked at me as if I were some great demon who had broken through hell.

“That’s what you call being soft? Then what were you like in the past?”

When Jade turned to Precia, Precia, perhaps recalling the weak Prince Yuan, tried to shake her head but flinched.

“…Compared to politically killing the Queen… It might be soft?”

“The Queen? How did you politically kill the Queen?”

At Jade’s question, I waved my hand, saying it was nothing.

“Precia is overreacting. At most, I just reported her embezzlement of royal funds, framed her for abusing me, then dropped a debt equivalent to the budget of a great duchy on her and created evidence that she tried to assassinate me.”

Compared to screwing over the Queen, I only drove her into a dilemma, so I did hold back appropriately.

“That’s overreacting?”

“It is. In the end, I couldn’t get her dethroned even though I made her fall from power.”

By now, the Queen’s affairs would be handled by Germain, the head of the Palace Attendant Department and the King’s right-hand man.

According to a letter from my reliable dog beastman chamberlain, Herion, she was confined to the detached palace where I used to be, even though she couldn’t be dethroned, right?

“But still, that’s too…”

“Ah, the Queen tried to assassinate me in collaboration with Arcana.”

“…You dealt with it gently. You should have said that first.”

Jade was convinced and at the same time surprised, thinking, “If it were Yuan, he would have somehow beheaded her, but to think he would be so merciful!”

No, even now, but back then, I didn’t have the strength to assassinate her while avoiding the eyes of Horazon and Viscount Wiesel.

How could I kill her when those monsters were watching with keen eyes?

Of course, it wasn’t that there was absolutely no way to kill her if I used my head a little.

But if I really killed her, I wouldn’t have been able to divert Arcana’s attention to the Queen’s side when I left the capital.

I was a body that easily drew the spotlight, after all.

A star with a sasaeng fan aiming for one’s neck is miserable. (Sasaeng are the crazy k-pop fans that stalk idols, invade their privacy, and do crazy things)

“By the way, the Sea Saint must have realized by now that I’ve betrayed her, right? She must be agonizing.”

Amelie is standing at a crossroads with two choices.

Should she go back the way she came and half-forcibly seize the permit stored in the ‘Artifact Management Office’ in the Ursa Minor area, or should she forcibly break through since there aren’t many areas with defense magic left anyway?

The former could hold back the enemy’s ankles for quite a while, and the latter could cut down the enemy’s forces.

Either way, it was beneficial for me.

Amelie would probably choose the former.

In the end, the ones who would suffer were her loyal subordinates, and if she lost them, the upper echelons of the Sea Denomination who feared her political intervention would try to somehow bring her down.

Although she seemed invincible with the family heirloom of divine power theft, it wasn’t quite so.

The more such destructive power was wielded, the more politically disadvantageous it became.

If she arbitrarily wielded a power that seemed omnipotent without justification, she would be branded as a tyrant and all the priests would hang her upside down.

No matter how much she was a Saint favored by the God of the Sea, she couldn’t compare to the entire Denomination, so if a rebellion occurred, even the God was likely to abandon her.

The more destructive and fearsome the power one possessed, the more one had to refrain from wielding it to solidify one’s position.

How long would it take to go back and forth inside the ruins with distorted space-time without food in the current state of exhaustion?

If done well, they might not be able to leave the entrance of the ruins until I left the ruins.

“But the permit we have is the one Sophia obtained, so won’t it harm the Earth Denomination?”

Jade’s point was plausible. Amelie also knew that my permit was from the Earth Denomination.

“It’s fine. I’m not going to return this permit.”

“Pardon?”

I laughed like a mischievous child at the two who looked at me in surprise.

“Think about it. If I return the permit, the Earth Denomination will also be treated as an accomplice. But if the scammer who betrayed them runs away without even returning the permit, what will they think?”

At my question, Precia and Jade’s expressions became strange.

“Well…”

“…They were also scammed?”

“That’s right!”

When I snapped my fingers in affirmation, the two looked at me with an expression pondering whether I was human or a demon.

“I’m not returning it purely for the sake of the Earth Denomination.”

Prideful people don’t easily believe that they have been deceived. But as time passes and it becomes clear that they have been scammed, they naturally accept the damage to others for their own rationalization.

They think, ‘If even I, who am outstanding and excellent, was deceived, it’s only natural that those inferior to me were also deceived.’

It’s usually easier to trick prideful and moderately smart people than to trick stupid ones.

They show gaps here and there, thinking they won’t be deceived.

At my words, Jade and Precia spoke at the same time.

“Of course you wouldn’t.”

“Of course you wouldn’t.”

It was very unfair. Even if the Earth Denomination lost the permit, they could easily reissue it with their power, but the conflict with the Sea Denomination couldn’t be resolved with the power of the two Denominationes alone.

“This Prince is pleased that you two seem to get along well.”

At my words, the two objected simultaneously.

“No! We’re not in sync!”

“No! Who says that!”

I think you’re getting along well though? By the way, do you still have a rivalry even though your fields are different?

I swallowed my words and looked around.

“We’re almost at the promised place, are we there yet?”

To coolly strike the back of Amelie’s head, I didn’t go back the way I originally came from where Amelie set up camp and passed through the area I had passed by, but went to a different area.

Since each area of the labyrinth was not one-way but two-way, it wasn’t difficult to shake off any possible pursuit.

In that way, I rearranged the map in the appendix of the novel’s ending according to the rules at the current point in time, and following that, I passed through three undiscovered constellation areas that were shortcuts.

Before I knew it, I had reached the Corona Borealis area, which led to the depths of the Labyrinth of Constellations.

There were several paths leading to the depths, but the Corona Borealis was an area where no monsters or traps appeared, so it was a place where many exploration teams passed through as a middle route.

Jade took out the magic tool celestial timepiece from his inner pocket and checked the time.

“There’s still quite some time left until the promised time.”

Inside the labyrinth, the space-time was a distorted space, so common timepieces couldn’t measure the common time of each area.

Therefore, the magic tool that organizations operating multiple exploration teams must carry was the celestial timepiece that recorded the flow of mana in the ruins and represented it as the movement of constellations.

The movement of the constellations was the same in all areas, so the time could be synchronized by having each constellation come to the center.

In other words, it could be said that the 4th-dimensional axis of time was distorted, so a virtual 5th-dimensional axis was set to measure it.

After all, time itself was also a unit system defined by humans.

It was a fairly expensive item, but it wasn’t something that cost as much as calling it a celestial compass, and it was an item that could be obtained from magic towers.

In the case of the Wiesel family, each member of the exploration team possessed one.

*********

“Are they hiding and resting over there?”

The Corona Borealis area, where a shrine was placed on a field surrounded by huge rocky statues in the shape of a crown, was the tomb of some ancient king.

I was sitting and resting in the shade of the statues of ancient warriors holding swords when people opened the entrance door and crossed over to the Corona Borealis area.

I hid and checked to see if they were my companions, but it was a different exploration team.

“Young Master, why are you smiling?”

“Ahem!”

At Precia’s question, I cleared my throat and erased my mischievous smile.

“No, it’s nothing.”

It’s just that it feels like I found the next driver to hitchhike with.