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Chapter 241 ~ Parricide

When Zanac saw his brother, filthy, exhausted, and waving at him as if they were old friends who hadn't seen each other in years, he knew things weren’t going well. 

He hadn’t been happy to see him since they were wee lads. He had always been a bully who looked down on him. So now, seeing him looked relieved and happy to see him gave Zanac a bad premonition. 

“Good to see you, brother.”

He said through huffing and puffing of worn out breaths. Prince Barbro felt ready to fall from his horse when the weary clip clop of hooves brought him close to Zanac. 

“Brother… What happened to you?”

Zanac asked with dismay. 

“You have a tent?”

Zanac nodded and led his sibling to the white tent with several guards standing by at the front. 

Now, alone together, Xanax did his older brother the courtesy of pouring wine for the both of them, though he did himself first as compensation. 

Prince Barbro was too tired to make a fuss of this. He accepted the wine in the silver goblet and drank it as if he hadn’t drank for days before slamming the cup down. 

“Brother… you look worse for wear. Just what happened out there? How many do you have left/ What destroyed so many men?”

Prince Barbro cursed and snatched up the bottle from the table, pouring his own cup.

“Goblins… Goblins and peasant trash, among a few others! There were a lot… Between them and the rest, it was around six thousand. I was outnumbered, badly. Carne is in open rebellion.”

The portly younger prince, by comparison, gasped. 

“A peasant rebellion and… monster helpers? You’re joking.”

Barbro simply shook his head. 

“No… No I’m not. We’ve been on a forced march all this time. We had twenty-five hundred originally. Now, there’s only less than a thousand left, and they’ve been chasing us. Wolf Riders decimated my supplies and my cavalry. But they haven’t been engaging us aggressively, but simply tracking us. I’m sure the ones in charge are following.”

Zanac's face paled, and he recalled the words of his sister. 

“We’ve got to go then. We need to inform Father and the other nobles and put this rebellion down…”

The younger prince slumped and rubbed his forehead as his head shook. His face pressing into his hand. 

“Damn it… I was afraid of this. You went too far, brother. Attacking Carne was a bad idea.”

“Obviously… Wait, you mean something else, don’t you Zanac?”

Barbro, from the depth of his guts, felt something strange twisting deep within. And for some reason… he felt the throne start to retreat from him. 

“Don’t you read the notices we get? Carne is the village Master Gown rescued. It was supposed to be one of the territories given to him as a reward for his service back then and when he successfully fend off the Empire. Now, you’ve alienated a powerful ally of the Royal Family at a crucial time, and even sparked a rebellion on top of that.”

Prince Zanac pounded his fists on the table, shaking the bottle and tipping over his cup. It toppled off the edge and spilled the red wine within, down into the muddy ground.

Prince Zanac bent over and picked it up, and when he set the cup back on the table, Prince Barbro's face was pale, his mouth barely open, staring ahead. 

"I… I didn't know."

"You would have, if you bothered reading anything father sent us." 

Prince Zanac said with a scathing tongue, 

"Now what? I came out here to bring you back before you messed it all up, but it seems I'm too late. We'll go back, you'll explain yourself to Father, and what happens after that, happens."

“... Just get me out of here alive, and I’ll be grateful for that. But my soldiers… they’re too exhausted to move. We… should have enough time for a night’s rest. I doubt they’ll want to take on… What do you have?”

“Ten thousand men including two thousand cavalry.”

“That will do.”

Barbro said with a weary, worn out voice.

“Let me rest… and then tomorrow… we can go home.”

Prince Zanac looked up to his brother's broken, exhausted face, pity swelled within his heart.

 "Alright… alright brother, rest, we'll go home tomorrow… I'll have a tent set up for you and see that your soldiers are provided for. Just… rest well."

Words that he hadn’t spoken sincerely to his brother flowed out of his mouth. And Barbro, though he kept his head low, gave his sibling a tiny nod before reaching out for the bottle with trembling, filthy hand that shook so hard that the wine sloshed out and missed the cup when he poured it. 

In the end, he gave up on using the cup and drank straight from the bottle, as he made his way out of the white tent and into the tent right next to it that his brother had readied for his rest. 

This was the first time Zanac ever saw his brother so small and pitiful. 

Nightfall. 

Barbro had slept for hours after he collapsed the moment his body touched something somewhat soft, and it was because he slept early, that he woke up when it was still pitch dark outside. 

The chirping of insects was everywhere outside. With his ear attuned to the noise, he also heard the sound of passing feet and the crackle of the occasional torch. 

He got up, did not put on any armor, and instead felt his hand around in the darkness until he found a smooth patch of the tent wall. 

Then, he took out a dagger from his belt, and cut into the fabric. 

Every cut and tear sounded like the roar of forest fire to his nervous, panicked, alert ears. And every heavy breath he took sounded like a gale force wind. But he did not stop. Soon, he made a cut down to the ground and pushed his arm through the gap, then he began to slit the fabric of the other tent. 

‘The throne is mine… It’s fucking mine. You should never have been in the running! You shouldn’t even have been born!’

Every cut he made, every sawing motion of his knife was another curse to his brother. 

‘I’m surrounded by people who don’t see me for who I am. Inept trashes! All they could do is be in my way! Well… at least now, ‘you’ will get out of my way!’

He vowed as the knife reached the bottom of the tent.

Then, ever so quietly, he slipped out of his tent and stepped into his brother’s. His towering stature proved a detriment now. His every footsteps, no matter how careful, was heavy. And his broad muscles were a close fit through the gap.

He sucked his breath, thinning himself as much as possible, and slid himself from darkness to darkness. 

The sound of snoring immediately reached him. Then the rustle of cloth from the blanket over the sleeping body of his sibling. And the smell of spilled wine was still apparent. 

Soon, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and Barbro found the sleeping body of his brother easily. 

He raised his dagger, spread his feet apart, and towered over the short, fat competitor that was his brother. And as if presenting the chance to himself, Xanax rolled over so that he was on his back. 

There was a moment of hesitation when he saw his brother’s peaceful smile illuminated by the little moonlight that mde it through the mesh that served as a dim window. 

But he braced himself. And muttered with quiet resolve. 

“I. Am. The. King.”

He slapped his powerful hand over Zanac’s mouth.

“Mhmmpf!!!! MMMMFFFHPPPHF!!!”

Zanac struggled, not only to speak, but to move. His legs kicked against the soft blanket and made no sound. His fat fingers clawed at the hand that suddenly stole his breath away, to no avail. 

“Shhhhhh This is how it has to be, brother… For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I thought I could just exile you, but it’s clear that I can’t stop at that. So… goodbye.”

Barbro looked at his sibling in the eyes one last time, something he hadn’t done in who knew how long. Then, he plunged his dagger into his brother’s heart. 

The whites were wide as saucers as the pain lanced through the youngest prince. Fear lit up in his eyes as he silently begged with the last moments of his life for this not to be real, or for his big brother to save him. 

Barbro saw it all as his dagger pierced through the breastbone and teared his brother’s heart open, spilling out his life. 

He kept his gaze, until the faint lights went out of his eyes, and slowly closed. 

The now only living son of King Ramposa III stood up, crept back to the slit in the tent, then through the hole he had made. 

He sat on his cot. Shaking, and ruminating on the sense of loss he hadn’t quite expected. 

He didn’t know how much time have passed. Perhaps a few minutes. But it felt like an eternity. Then, he stood up. 

"Alarm! Assassins! Assassins!" Guards! Guards!" Prince Barbro shouted, his bellowing, powerful voice woke up guards everywhere and snapped those standing outside his tent to attention. 

He ducked under the tent door and stumbled outside. 

“An assassin was just in my tent! He came through the side! Hurry and find him!”

Immediately after, the dead body of the second prince was found. 

The guards assigned to guard his tent were hung as they pleaded innocent. 

And by the next day, the army of ten thousand men marched to avenge the death of the second prince against the peasant rebels under the leadership of the crown prince, who adorned the armor Prince Zanac had cleaned for him the day before. 

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

The night after the presenting of Eight Fingers’ leaderships heads, the King prepared a private dinner feast for the heroes who vanquished the cancer and rot that had been infesting his kingdom. 

Directly to his right sat the gold princess, Princess Renner. Normally, that seat would’ve been reserved for her brothers. But now, with them absent, she took the seat by her father’s side. 

To his left were the members of Providence, Alexander, Lilith, Momonga, and Lupu in that order. None wore their usual battle gear, and Rampossa could finally see the true appearance of his kingdom’s heroes. However, Lilith’s true beauty was still hidden beneath the fox’s mask that she asked to keep, despite knowing how much she was breaching etiquette before the king. Although a shame, the old king granted her request, and dinner went delightfully as the two most loyal knights of the kingdom stood on either side of the dining hall’s entrance. 

“Now then. Providence, the reason I have arranged this feast is not only for conversation, but to deliver to you the promised compensation for your achievements and magic items you’ve given me.”@@novelbin@@

The old king raised his hand, and Gazef brought upon a chest with its lid open, revealing roughly thousands of shiny, silverish white, platinum coins. 

“This is the monetary reward for my request and for the magic items of the Eight Fingers’ leaders. Many were high class magic items with powerful enchantments. I am grateful that you would leave them to me.”

Yuuji smiled softly and lowered his head slightly. 

“It is our intention from the beginning. We will gratefully accept your largesse. Thank you very much.”

The monetary rewards they’ve received amounted to several tens of thousands in gold. It was well beyond what they should’ve received for the request the King made for the adventurer party Providence, and the market price for such equipment. 

The amount was enough to buy a nice mansion near the inner circle of the royal capital with enough to spare for all four of them to live the rest of their lives in luxury. 

Though, considering Yuuji’s and the other’s current richess, it was still a paltry amount. 

The old king nodded in satisfaction with a low groan in his throat. 

“Unfortunately, your promised estates and titles would have to wait until we have… cleansed our ranks. But, it will not be long. That I can promise.”

Rampossa III said with almost a low growl as he spoke every word with gravitas. Within his old and tired eyes, Yuuji could still see the strength, determination, and conviction of a powerful King. 

Yuuji could not help but pity the old king. Although he was far from being a good monarch, Yuuji still respected his drive, conviction, and determination to protect his kingdom and make it better. 

It was truly a pity. 

If his eldest son was even slightly less foolish, arrogant, and blind than he was, the old king might’ve felt more assured in leaving his crown and throne for him and let him, his second son, and his brilliant daughter carry the burden that had been crushing him for decades. 

‘Well, at least, things couldn’t get worse for him, right?’

With the crown prince out of the picture for his crimes, the second prince, with his strong and more reasonable, would be a better dealing partner for the Kingdom of Nazarick, especially with Renner helping puppet him from the shadows. 

At the very least, the old king would still be able to see his kingdom flourish in his final years, under the banner of Nazarick. 

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Midnight. 

Yuuji rested on his bed, surrounded by Aika, Alice, and Aria on top and either side of him. 

It was a far cry from the comfort his own bed within Nazarick could offer, but the girls had fallen asleep before they return, so they stayed the night within their suite in the royal palace. 

Just as he was about to fall asleep, a lovely, familiar voice resounded within his mind through a message spell. 

[“My love, I apologize for contacting you while you were resting.”]

[“There is no need for apologise, Albedo. You know I love hearing your voice.”]

[“Hehe~ I love hearing your voice too, my love. I’ve missed you.”]

[“I miss you too. What happened? It seemed you contacted me for something urgent.”]

[“Yes. There is something I need to inform you regarding the war between Carne and the crown prince.”]

[“What is it?”]

[“The crown prince has managed to regroup with the second prince’s troop as expected. But according to our scouts, the crown prince had just murdered his brother and took over his army. They will be advancing to Carne as soon as the sun raised above the horizon.”]

Yuuji paused and took a moment to process what she had just said. 

[“...Truly, even I didn’t expect him to be this low. He must’ve also riled up the army by putting the death of his brother on Carne, didn’t he?”]

[“Indeed, my love. And from Carne’s search on the crown prince’s camp, the little magician girl you traveled with as an adventurer found her lost sister who the crown prince seemed to have brought along as his toy. She was dressed to imitate the leader of the Blue Rose, and they’ve already begun to spread to the adventurer’s guild in E-Rantel.”]

For a crown prince to dress up a sex slave as the leader of an Adamantite ranked adventurer party and abuse her, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine what Blue Rose would do once they’ve heard of this and the impact of them leaving the Kingdom. 

But, clouded by arrogance and perversion, the prince seemed to only be able to see what’s in front of his nose. 

[“Hah… It seems like we’ve underestimated just how foolish the crown prince truly was. Good thing his days are numbered.”]

Yuuji shook his head, slightly stirring the slimes who were sleeping nuzzled around his neck. 

He rubbed them softly and kissed them, and they reciprocated before going back to sleep. 

[“Albedo.”]

[“Yes.”]

[“Accelerate our preparations for Renner’s take over. Because of his stupidity, we’ll have to go ahead of schedule.”]

[“Understood, my love.”]