"We meet again, Shura!"
Francis grinned as he saw me. The 4th prince Francis was said to be one of the most ambitionless princes of the empire. He had no desire for the throne and was as easy going as a kid, despite being excellent in both combat and studies.
I've met the 4th Prince Francis, 11th Princess Jane and 2nd Prince Lorcan before. Although Lorcan and Jane had kept their distance from me, it was way different for Francis who talked to me like I was his equal.
"It's been a while, fourth prince."
I greeted him politely, a common courtesy I had to show to the imperial prince.
"Aww, C'mon man. Don't treat me like we are distant. Call me Franc, that should suffice."
Francis said as he bumped his palm on my shoulders cheerfully.
The force behind the palm was no joke, even though he had just casually patted me.
"Mind your words, Francis. Greetings, Earl Shura. It's a pleasure to meet with you again. I hope you're fine."
The white haired beauty, the eleventh Princess Jane rebuked Francis shortly before greeting me with a face devoid of emotions.
"Indeed. The pleasure is all mine."
I was currently inside the room provided to me by the emperor, and 4 of the emperor's children had volunteered to come along with me, and partake in this fight for the throne of the Drisica Kingdom.
I looked at the other people in the room. One was a woman as heighted as me, while the other was a bit shorter, and looked really pale. To the point that he looked sick.
"Greetings to the prince and princess."
I greeted the other two at once since I didn't even know their names.
"This woman here is our third sister, the imperial princess Diane. And that is 7th prince Ali."
Francis introduced me to both of them, or at least told me their names. As one would expect, the royal bloodline had done wonders to both of them.
"Third princess is a half-elf, her mother is the sister of the Elf empress of the eastern continent."
That's why!
Her blonde yet sufficiently attention grabber hair and those small yet pointed ears. No wonder she is so beautiful. Elves were creatures that were blessed by the gods since ancient times with longevity and beauty. Her breasts were disappointingly a B cup at most, but other than that, everything about her was beautiful.
"Let me guess, the seventh Prince is a half-vampire?"
I said, my nose getting high in the air for deducing something so complex.
"Hah…hahaha!"
The seventh prince who had been standing like a ghost first chuckled a bit before laughing out loud.
"...Umm…about that. Please refrain from comments that might get you in trouble. There's no way the emperor would marry a demon, not to mention a vampire. Seventh prince is just naturally ill and is pale in colour. Inside the royal palace, nobody is allowed to talk about it."
Francis said and I immediately zipped my mouth. Garnering a chuckle from Diane and a click of tongue from Jane.
"Who is this orc?"
"Well, he is my personal knight."
I replied to Francis's query as we started getting ready to leave without any delay.
***
'An orc as a knight? Is he really that much of a fool to waste his first ever knight slot on an orc?'
Jane pondered as she packed her belongings.
To be totally honest with herself, she didn't dislike Shura. Granted he looked more of a demon than human, that wasn't a reason to blatantly hate someone. On the contrary, she liked him more because of that.
If someone saw the title of the books that she was currently packing in her bags, they'd get shell shocked.
[Handsome Demon, Please Be Gentle.]
[My Husband is a Charming Devil.]
[My Shining Knight from Hell.]
Yes, this extremely cold and elegant princess's favourite genre was romance novels in which a human girl falls in the hands of a handsome devil.
Shura seemed like the reincarnation of all the demon protagonists she has ever read about, but better.
How could someone like him exist? Of course, the princess who barely had the knowledge of just the central continent hadn't seen the whole of the world. And so, Shura seemed like Lucifer who had come straight out of hell to drag her down with him.
But unlike the novels, her story didn't go according to the plot. The first time she met with this handsome demon was during his engagement!
How dare someone call dibs on him when she didn't even know he existed! Blasphemous!
But Jane wasn't delusional due to her fantasies. She was trained since childhood to hide her emotions from people so they can never take advantage of you by reading your face. She easily hid her likeness for Shura, which was more of a crush than actual liking.
After all, what she was liking about him was solely his physical body, and it was still too early for her to judge his personality.
As everyone knew, there was no reason for Francis to join in this event because he didn't covet the throne, but he was dragged by his little sister to join anyway. Francis and Jane were both the children of the same mother.
So was true for Jane. She was way below in line to compete for the throne. The only princesses that stood a chance to compete for the throne were the 3rd princess Diane and 5th princess May.
She was joining in this event just so she could follow Shura and get to know more about him.
No matter how wrong it seemed, she couldn't help but want to know someone who had directly come out of her fantasy. She had full plans to abandon her plans if she ever learnt that Shura was an enemy of the empire, or had a foul personality. But she wanted to first be with him for sometime, then judge for herself.
'I am sorry, Ena.'
Jane sincerely apologised to her childhood friend Ena in her heart. She was after her best friend's fiance even when she knew that he was already engaged. She couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt. Yet, there was thrill even in this guilt.
[Affair with my Bestfriend's Husband.]
And then, Jane put the last book of her collection into her spatial pouch.
***
"I wonder why Jane dragged me into this. But it should be fun since Shura is going too, right? We should spar sometime if we get the chance."
Fourth prince Francis talked to himself as he put a pair of clothes, his favourite sword gifted to him by the emperor, and dozens of bottles of wine inside his spatial pouch.
After discussing with Shura, it was decided that all four of them would go with him and Shura had given them an hour to go and pack their things. Since they were going to war, it would surely take them time.
'Gaining a kingdom before my ascension won't be that bad, would it? Even if I don't gain it, I can lay low and learn about war and strategies from General Elexis!'
The ambitionless fourth prince, chuckled as he thought. Between all his brothers, he was truly the least ambitious. But that didn't mean he had given up on the contest for the throne. It was just everyone's assumption that he won't be a threat, and he was enjoying this misjudgement to his heart's content.
'These people can fight among themselves and make enemies left and right. I'd rather become a friend of all.'
That was the fourth prince's goal from the beginning. Of course, he doubted that his brothers 1st and 2nd brother didn't take him as a threat, since no matter how low he laid, he was still an imperial prince. Not to mention he was even ahead of the 3rd princess Diane if he actually showed his intention for the throne.
'Nah, the old man will not retire for at least another 50 years. It's best to lay low and learn for now.'
Shaking his head, the fourth imperial prince tied his spatial pouch around his scabbard and looked at the large mirror in front of himself.
Setting a bit of his hair that had become messy, he smiled at his own reflection.
'Let's see if any devil women are pretty or not?'
One thing that nobody had even doubted the fourth prince to be.
The fourth prince was a total playboy.
***
'Father isn't a fool.'
Diane thought as she packed her own supplies. Unlike everyone else, she was actually making decent preparations. From maps of the Drisica kingdom and its borders to books related to devils and the economy of the Drisica kingdom.
She prepared her bow and arrow, along with her green jewelled dagger that her mother had left to her before leaving back to the eastern continent.
'He must have seen something in Shura that we can't see. Why else would he entrust him with such a big quest.'
Diane thought as she inserted her dagger in the small yet stylish scabbard attached to her waist.
Then, she slowly but gently rubbed the scabbard with emotions.
'I'll definitely meet you, mother. Someday for sure! Just you wait.'
Apart from becoming the empress of the Sahhan Empire, one thing that everyone knew about Diane was her strong will to go to the eastern continent to meet her mother.
But the eastern continent wasn't a place for the weak, that's why she had been accumulating her strength all this time. To one day finally become strong enough to venture into the blue seas and go to the eastern continent, since there were no known portals that allowed for intercontinental teleportation.
***
'The heir of Dulwak, but so very incomplete.'
The seventh prince Ali thought. He was a magician through and through, since his physical body was very weak due to his illness that he had carried since his childhood.
It was said that the seventh prince was one of the strongest people throughout the whole continent, even stronger than most of his brothers and sisters. But it was a pity that he was supposed to die young. Everytime he used magic, his life force would drain away like water in a desert.
It was truly a waste of talent. Ali liked to compare himself to the genius Magi Prolus, one of the strongest and the most outstanding magicians throughout history.
Even he had a disease that had taken his life before he could accomplish anything in life.
Ali liked to read a lot about history and knew a lot about historical figures, even the once dead geniuses that never got a time to shine.
'The heaven truly envies geniuses.'
One thing that shocked him the most during all his history hunting was the fact that there were so many geniuses in history that had died before ever getting a chance to properly bloom. Some died due to various political plots, some died due to people being afraid of their talents, some died due to people's envy and some died of diseases that had no known cures.
'I don't want to become one of them.'
Ali was determined to somehow solve his own medical condition, and the best bet to that was something he had recently learnt about.
'Devil's Tears, a cure to extreme physical conditions.'
It was Ali's goal to sneak into the Darpal Kingdom and find the cure for his own disease. He couldn't care less about the game of thrones.
***
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