Evade The Hero and Flee!

Chapter 260

Side Story – Memories of a Certain Princess (35)

The meeting ended successfully.

It was an awkward start to the meeting because of Ast’s remarks, but after pulling Ast out, it proceeded very smoothly.  

Everyone seemed surprised by Ast, but they quickly regained their composure and told me their opinions

“The future of the empire doesn’t look bad, does it, Renia?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

They were people who could speak their opinions to me without hesitation.  

These people who advise me freely as a royal family member and soldier.

The fact that there were many such people was also evidence that the future of the empire was bright.

“If only this guy wasn’t here…”

“Yes, Your Highness. It looks like we should receive his resignation letter quickly.”

Renia’s and my gazes went down to the floor at the same time.

“Mm! Mmph!”

There was Ast, perfectly restrained.

“An ordinary person would check why he ended up like this, but…”

“Somehow, being treated like this feels natural for Ast, doesn’t it?  Is it strange for me to feel that way, Your Highness?”

“No? I think Ast’s treatment like this is natural too.”

“I see.”  

“That’s right.”

Renia and I nodded at the same time as we looked down at Ast.  

“Should we untie him?”

“First of all, we have to go back, so…”

“But if we untie him, he’ll make a fuss…”

“That’s true.”

Seeing him squirming and whimpering, it seemed like he would shout ‘Peace forever! Let’s love peace! as soon as we opened his mouth’.

“Who tied this guy up?”

“I heard that the security guards around the conference hall and the servants from the imperial household who were on standby tied him up.”

“Reason?”

“It seems like he was dissatisfied about being taken away after talking about peace when told to speak freely.”  

“So he caused a commotion and got caught?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder if he has a conscience?”

He felt dissatisfied after making such remarks at the meeting. 

“He doesn’t.”  

“Right?”

As expected, it seemed that Ast’s conscience existed in the world but did not exist in this life.  

Since even Renia was saying this much, that said it all.

“Still, we have to untie him, right?”

“Yes.”

I wanted to take him away like luggage, but this was the imperial palace.  

It wouldn’t be good behavior to show people carrying someone like luggage in the imperial palace.

“It’s a shame, but untie him.”

“Understood.”

Starting from his ankles, Renia removed the ropes restraining Ast’s body.

Of course, his mouth was the very last one.

The reason was obvious.

“Phew…! How can you do that, Your Highness! When told to speak freely, I spoke my honest opinion!”

I knew full well what kind of bullshit would spew out.

“You know very well what you just said, right?”

“Yes, I know very well. It’s the sound of a person who loves freedom and peace not submitting to powerful authority and struggling!”

“Renia, what is he talking about?”

“Bullshit, Your Highness.”  

Hearing the word bullshit come out of Renia’s mouth.

Thanks to Ast, Renia had developed a lot too. In a very bad way.

“How rude, Renia! To say bullshit!”  

“I’m sorry, Sir Ast. I spoke my heart without realizing it.”

“That hurts me more!”

Seeing her sincerely apologizing, Ast seemed slightly hurt.

“The meeting is over too, let’s go back.”

“What do you mean the meeting is over! You haven’t even heard my opinion yet, Your Highness!”

“I heard it at the beginning. So did everyone else.”

“There was more important content after that! Conveying that to everyone was the main point of today’s meeting!”

I didn’t even know the main point of the meeting that I hosted.

“What is it?”

It will surely be bullshit, but I’ll listen to it first anyway. Because what Ast says sometimes has some decent content.

Well, of course with the very big downside.

“The 12 ways not to participate in war! With just these, we can choose not to participate in the war!”  

The big downside, most of it is bullshit.

“Alright. Rejected.”  

“Why!”

With an expression that he couldn’t understand the reason, Ast was frustrated.

There’s no way he doesn’t know the current situation.

His acting was so perfect that I couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or acting.

“You’re bringing that up when you know the situation of the continent better than anyone else? Weren’t those ideas you came up with yourself?”

In the past, the report I gave Renia contained the content that the small war triggered by the assassination of the prince of the Merdeah Kingdom and the princess of the Helkas Kingdom could develop into a great war that would embroil the entire continent.  

Ast was the one who told Renia about it.

Thanks to that, even a letter proposing engagement with Ast came from the Areis family. So I could never forget it.

“That’s why I’m telling you. It will be a great war. We won’t know when and where new enemies will appear. Yesterday’s allies may become tomorrow’s enemies, and tomorrow’s enemies may become today’s allies. That kind of war will begin.”

“So we have to participate even more.”

It was an action full of personal interest, but it was the right thing to do from a national perspective for me and the troops under me to move.

“As a quick-witted person, you must know very well. That the military corps given to me is overwhelmingly large in scale.”

Not only royalty but even nobles are allowed to have a certain level of troops for their own protection.  

In the case of frontier viscounts guarding the borders, some even wield military power that even the imperial family has difficulty intervening in.

So it’s not strange at all for a royal family member to have one or two knighthoods.

“I know that. The troops given to Princess were pure soldiers, not forces.”

The difference between forces and soldiers is very large.

“Yes. They follow me not because they support me.”  

It is often misunderstood, but among the royal family, only the emperor officially has troops.

Unless they hold special positions, the rest cannot have troops.

The troops given to the royal family are the knights sent by the emperor to protect the royal family members.

Other than that, there are only the troops sent by their maternal families and the military forces of the warlords they’ve drawn in.   

But what was given to me was a military corps itself.

No matter how royal, it was too powerful forces to be given as guards.

“It seems His Majesty loves you a lot.”

“That does seem to be the case. But isn’t there a reason why I’m receiving such exceptionally good treatment?”  

You took that reason with you.  

I didn’t say it out loud.

Who knows what problems might arise in the future, I can’t casually give such information to someone like Ast, after all.

“I don’t know.”

“Yes. Sometimes not knowing is best.”

“I don’t know the reason why Your Highness receives exceptionally good treatment from His Majesty the Emperor, so I don’t know anything about the military or the war either. So let’s not participate in the war!”

I almost unconsciously nodded my head.

Renia was already nodding her head and about to say ‘That’s right’.

“Renia, get a hold of yourself. Think about what nonsense Ast just spewed.”  

“Well, since I don’t know, in war… Hat!”

“Tsk!”

Renia’s nodding head stopped, and Ast, who was watching her, clicked his tongue briefly.  

“That was grade A bullshit.”

“Thank you.” 

“That wasn’t a compliment…”

Seeing Ast adhere excessively to etiquette and express gratitude, I felt my head throbbing.

“I need to get some headache medicine from the doctor before we leave.”

“Oh no! For Your weak Highness to get a headache! This is not the time! You should rest well for about 3 years and…”!

Ast was treating me as an invalid just because I said I had a headache.

Of course, his real intention was to tell me to lie in bed and not participate in the war.

“Ast, haven’t you heard the conclusion of the meeting yet?”

“I didn’t get to hear it because I was trying to talk about justice and got miserably detained here.”

Although his words were useless, I endured again and again thinking about the expression Ast would make soon.

“We march in a month.”

“What?”

“We participate in the war next month.”

The detailed plans were already in place.

How many troops would be dispatched, which areas they would be sent to, what specific strategies and tactics would be used, who would be the vanguard, who would be the overall commander, and finally who would be the next commander if the commander died.

“The rest is for the empire’s officials to resolve.”

Personnel to handle the most important logistics were prepared separately.

Since it has come up several times in history.

“Ast, you just have to come along.”

“Oh… Me, a lover of peace, on the battlefield!”

Looking down at the despairing Ast, I smiled in victory.   

And a few months later.

“Kill them all!”

Pacifist, where did you go?

#46 Their Circumstances: A Certain Dragon’s Circumstances 

“There is no problem, human.”

“That means…”

“Yes. This child has been completely liberated.”

The head of the Karan clan bound by the covenant sighed.

“What about Ast?” 

“I checked him as well but found no abnormalities.”

“Does that mean the fragments of evil have been completely removed?”

“No. That will never happen.”

Fragments of evil. It was the name that almost brought ruin to us dragons, whose numbers were already small.  

The fragments of evil scattered across the world after the Evil God was sealed away.  

Even we, called the most powerful race on earth, were unable to completely remove the fragments of evil.

“As long as evil exists in the world, the fragments of evil will continue to exist.”

The fragments of evil continue to gain power by feeding on the evil that arises in that race.  

Even if they temporarily disappear, they will naturally reappear after a few thousand years.

“Just because this child has no issues now doesn’t guarantee that problems won’t arise for you and the descendants of our race.”

So the covenant must continue.

“Is that so?”

I looked at the complicated expression on the face of the Emperor of the Empire as he sighed.

“Don’t you need our power?”

“It would be helpful. But isn’t there a threat just as great?”

That’s true. The fragments of evil had various side effects.  

But,  

“Don’t worry. Fragments of evil that parasitize dragons will not harm you humans at all. Unlike fragments of evil that have parasitized humans, a Demon King will not be born.”

The Demon King. The being called the Apostle of the Evil God.  

A monster who could sacrifice his own life to bring ruin to the world, turning all living things around him except humans and elves into an army of evil.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. As I said before, the end for those who possess fragments of evil is the opposite of the evil the fragments have absorbed.”  

This was not something we figured out. It was the result that the entire dragon race raised up and asked the gods to confirm.

What the fragments of evil parasitizing our race drew out was the longing to increase the number of our race. More precisely, the desperation to make our race more numerous.  

And the fragments of evil devoured that evil to bring death to our race.

“So don’t worry, human.” 

“How can death not be a concern?”

“Well… I’m sorry about that.”

No matter the covenant between us, they were still a race dying in our stead.  

An apology was the least I could give.

“Amazing…”

“I understand the implication, but dragons have their own circumstances.”

While most dragons have arrogant personalities, the dragon lords who send them out as envoys are not stupid.

“An apology is the least I can do.”  

If it allows the covenant to continue, I can apologize as much as needed.

“No. Any more would be a burden, I think.”

“Then let’s leave it at that. And one member of our race will likely be dispatched here. Give him an appropriate position and allow him to move around Ast so he can monitor him.”

“Another dragon, you mean?”

The slightly surprised emperor nodded at my words.

“It seems the fragment passed to Ast but he shows no reaction, so he needs to be watched.”

His role would simply be to watch from close by and report back to our race.  

I assured the emperor we would not interfere in human affairs at all, so he allowed us to infiltrate one of our members.

And some time later.

“What is this?”

The first regular report sent by the dispatched dragon.

The report letter contained,

<This bastard seems crazy, no?>  

Full of agony and curses from the dispatched dragon.

https://ko-fi.com/ippostranslations