Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 119

The Empire’s Turmoil (9) – The Imperial Prince and the Royal Prince

“Greetings. I am the firstborn of the King of Rudek, His Majesty Zeurasia.”

After Luluria and Rufa finished their talks, Zeland introduced himself and a small uproar ensued among the people of the Empire. I didn’t blame them. When I heard the Prince would be coming with us, I acted the same.

General Gafor turned his eyes at me, silently asking for confirmation and I nodded.

“…Ah, my apology. Pleased to meet you. I am Tsetsedra, the fourth son of His Majesty Emperor Drac. Did Prince Zeland come all the way here to greet us?”

“Yes. I asked the King to let me accompany you on your journey. I thought it was impolite if no royalty accompanied you, a prince from another kingdom.”

“I appreciate your courtesy. I will be sure to inform my father about this. Gafor.”

“I will report this to the Emperor as soon as you depart, sir.”

Tsetsedra nodded in satisfaction at Gafor’s words.

“Then, let’s talk about the rest while we’re on the road. Luluria, are you ready?”

“Of course,” Luluria, who was already on horseback, replied with a smile.

“Gafor. Please take care of everything here while I’m away.”

“Please leave it to me. Please be careful on the way. Roa-dono, I’ll entrust the Prince and the princess in your care.”

“I promise to bring them back safely,” I replied.

After that, we finally set off on the journey back to Rudek.

***

“I’ve heard about what has happened. It must have been difficult.”

Although the movement of Prince Zeland who was riding in front of me was still a bit awkward, he still tried to talk to Prince Tsetsedra.

“Yes. If it’s not for Sir Roa’s advice, who knows what would happened…”

“I heard about that earlier too but, what exactly did Sir Roa do?”

Zeland looked at me with shining eyes. He was really curious, it seemed. Tsetsie turned to me and asked if he could tell Zeland. To be honest, my explanation about the details of how I know about the rebellion has a lot of holes, but Prince Zeland probably wouldn’t notice it. On the other hand, Lapilia-sama who would most definitely notice the holes in my story was currently absorbed in talking with Rufa and Luluria so it should be fine.

I nodded to Tsetsie and he started his explanation.

“Then, I will tell you but before that, Prince Zeland please you can just call me Tsetsie. Sir Roa calls me that, so it’s awkward if you, a prince, to call me with an honorific.”

“I understand. Then, please call me Zeland.”

“Alright then. First, it all started when the ship Luluria got stranded…”

(T/N: So since the drifting ship chapters, I’ve been trying to remember the adjective for a ship that got kind of lost in the sea and recently I finally remembered…it’s stranded. I’ll be using ‘stranded’ instead of drifting from now on.)

Tsetsie started his explanation as if reading a storybook. He also explained the stranded ship incident in quite great detail, even though he wasn’t there personally. Luluria must have told him

Prince Zeland is the eldest while Tsetsie is the youngest…they must feel as if they have a brother they never had. 

“Even though we’ve already come this far, I’m glad nothing happened.” Said Wichkarlt, who was next to me.

We were almost at the entrance of the Yolos Corridor on Rudek’s side.

“Me too. Still, don’t let your guard down.”

But as Wickharlt said, we’re almost at the entrance. There were close to the 4000 soldiers we’d left at the entrance. If anyone wanted to attempt something, it should be when we were still deep in the corridor, not here. If anyone attacked us right now, we would be able to fend them off easily with the additional 4000 soldiers.

While secretly letting out a relieved sigh, I watched the Imperial Prince and the Royal Prince excitedly talking about the stranded ship incident.

***

“Hey, can we stop by Gedland on the way to the capital?”

Inside the fortress where we would be spending a night, at the dinner table, Luluria asked.

Normally, I would say that we can’t do that, but now there’s a special circumstance where we had no choice but to stop at Gedland first.

“Well…. As long as things went smoothly we need to stop at Gedland first…right?”

“Huh? We will?…. Ah, I see.” Luluria immediately understood Zedland’s meaning, while Tsetsie looked puzzled.

“Why?”

Luluria gently explained things to Tsetsie.

“We will be receiving brother-in-law on the sea. After all, it will be quite impossible for us to go to Gorber. Rudek and Gorber just have had a big war recently. There’s no way Gorber will allow Rudek’s soldiers to enter their country, right? That’s why we will go to Gorber’s sea territory by ship and receive brother-in-law there. Am I right?”

“Yup.”

To be honest, I was quite surprised inside. How did she figure things out this fast? I was told about this just before we left right when the imperial messenger who had been working to arrange this in Gorber returned.

That imperial messenger was currently in Rudektrad waiting for Tsetie’s arrival. Regardless of whether the meeting between Tsetsie and the other King succeeded or not, that messenger would return to the Empire with Tsetsie’s group.

I heard from the messenger that Gorber’s side said something along like, Just tell us when you would like us to send Philemas to the sea. Also, do you only need Philemas? How about the other prisoner? 

Their attitude toward Philemas was quite indifferent.

Because Rudek also didn’t want Gorber’s soldiers to come near the border, the negotiation between Rudek and Gorber went smoothly.

Next, if the negotiation between Tsetsie and the King also went smoothly, we would be going to Gedland and then we would take a boat to Gorber’s sea territory to retrieve Philemas. After that, we will escort Tsetsie and his entourage back to the Empire.

“I’m glad we can go to Gedland. I also want to greet Rufa’s adopted father, General…Zackhart, right?” (Luluria)

Once again, I was shown how fast Luluria’s brain works. She must have played a crucial role in helping Tsetsie when the rebellion happened. I now understand why General Gafor wanted Luluria to come with Tsetsie.