[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]

Chapter 206 – If It Works, It’s a Revolution (4)

“I can’t take it anymore!!”

The Emperor had gone mad.

There were several reasons for it.

The most basic issue was his temperament.

A coward with little talent and far too much ambition, he was always filled with dissatisfaction and constantly burdened by stress from setting impossible goals.

People like that often end up with cancer or severe mental issues.

The second reason was the war and its aftermath.

The historic, continent-wide rampage of the demonkind had driven the human and intelligent races—led by the Empire—to the brink of annihilation.

Serving as the leader of the Allied Forces, the Emperor suffered extreme nervous exhaustion, while the Second Princess—whom he loathed—rose to prominence as a commanding officer, steadily gaining power.

His own position kept shrinking while hers expanded. It was maddening.

And then came the final straw—a lunatic who moved alongside Linus.

That lunatic was a young man of low birth named Dian.

No one even knew where he was from, or whether he had family. From his days as a low-ranking soldier, he’d stuck to Linus like a shadow.

At first, the Emperor had been quite fond of Dian’s record.

If only every Special Forces member were half as competent as him, the war would’ve ended long ago.

So when the Demon King Slaying Special Unit was founded, the Emperor appointed Linus and Dian as the inaugural members.

He then issued his first directive: find the other three members named in the prophecy.

So Linus and Dian went off and returned with a novice priestess from some remote backwater no one had ever heard of.

Naturally, the Emperor opposed this.

In response, Dian brought another priest—his face bruised blue and blood still trickling from his nose.

This priest claimed to have received a divine prophecy commanding the formation of the Demon King Slaying Unit and the death of the Demon King.

Dian argued that the real oracle recipient was the female priestess he had brought earlier, and that this man had intercepted the message.

The male priest confessed to everything, and the woman—named Lormane—was made a member of the unit.

But the whole process caused a fierce clash of emotions between Dian and the Emperor.

And that was only the beginning.

It happened again when they recruited Celine, the daughter of a northern tribal chief historically hostile to the Empire.

And again when they brought in Kaiden, a lunatic wizard living in volcanic seclusion researching destructive magic.

They were all problematic in some way, and the Emperor hated it.

But every time, Dian would snap—demanding to know why he was even given the job if he couldn’t choose his own people, smashing tables with his fists, threatening to quit and drag Linus out of the capital with him.

In the end, high-ranking war ministers would beg him to stay or plead with the Emperor, and all of Dian’s recruits would be added to the Special Unit.

Even after the unit was complete, Dian would storm into the capital whenever he received an order that didn’t sit right.

Eventually, the Emperor, tired of his antics, issued an outright ban on Dian entering the palace.

So Dian started sneaking in at night instead—slipping into the Emperor’s bedroom.

More than once, the Emperor woke to find Dian standing silently beside his bed, just staring down at him.

He developed neurosis because of it.

Still, despite all the chaos, the Demon King Slaying Unit succeeded. The Demon King was killed. The war ended.

And Dian’s judgment had been vindicated.

That only made the Emperor hate him more.

He had planned to deal with Dian upon his return—but his advisors had pleaded with him not to. After all, what kind of fool topples the man who won them the war?

So the Emperor backed off.

He wasn’t entirely a fool. Since things had reached this point, he decided to try repairing relations and putting Dian to good use.

But then Dian vanished—right in the middle of the victory ceremony.

Linus said he’d simply left. Didn’t know where he’d gone.

He’d refused a noble title, fertile lands, a key post in the capital—he’d turned it all down and disappeared?

That bastard… Was that how he chose to show his contempt for me?

The Emperor dispatched people to track Dian down, but they failed.

If Dian were someone who could be caught that easily, he’d never have made it into the Demon King Slaying Unit in the first place.

The Emperor grew anxious.

A man who had clashed with him so often had rejected every reward and vanished.

Meanwhile, the Second Princess had rapidly expanded her influence, purging all who opposed her.

For ten years, the Emperor lived in insomnia, changing bedrooms constantly.

And then, without warning, Dian reappeared.

Of all things, as a professor at the Second Princess’s Special Mission Academy.

A place where, at Nemara’s request, his daughter Kirrin had been placed as Headmaster.

The Emperor had put Kirrin there to maintain some influence under the Second Princess—and, potentially, to use her skills as a dark elf assassin in the future.

But Kirrin, far from a typical dark elf, behaved more like a human. She wasn’t fit for assassination and couldn’t even keep Dian in check.

The Emperor tried to figure out why Dian had returned after ten years—but failed.

Unable to stand it anymore, he demanded answers from the Second Princess, but all she said was not to worry.

To his immense relief, Dian didn’t seem to be doing anything dangerous.

Most of the time, he slacked off. Occasionally, he’d get involved in something—but it was always related to improving the Academy.

Nothing that threatened the Emperor’s authority or the structure of the Empire.

So perhaps he could finally relax…

But, of course, it didn’t last.

That lunatic Dian had started to move again.

He kept coming and going from the capital, holding private meetings with the Second Princess—and recently, he’d even gotten involved with Nemara’s Black Forest.

The Emperor, suspecting foul play, sent out a tracking unit—but heard nothing back.

They’d been taken out by Dian.

And then came the most shocking news yet:

Two of Nemara’s children had shown up at the Security Office.

Nemara… Has he betrayed me?

Did Dian go to the Black Forest and strike some kind of deal?

And behind it all… surely that fox of a Second Princess is pulling the strings…

During the war, she had built a staggering record as a field commander.

While the Emperor’s generals floundered, her forces held off the Demon King’s army in the East, preventing the complete annihilation of the Allied Forces.

She brought that influence back to the capital, took control of the Security Office and intelligence agencies, and became a figure no one dared touch.

She should’ve been killed long ago.

A concubine’s child? Ridiculous.

Back then, she seemed so slow and dimwitted, he pitied her. But it was all an act.

The Emperor’s hands trembled with rage, and worry flickered across the First Prince’s face.

He feared that, in his fury, the Emperor might throw something again.

Unlike the Second Princess, the First Prince was frail and wouldn’t be able to dodge.

“Summon the princes! We must prepare a countermeasure!”

The Emperor roared.

“Which princes should I summon?”

“All of them. All!”

“Uh… all of them… meaning…”

“Are you deaf, boy?!”

Inevitably, a pen flew across the room. The First Prince tried to twist his body to dodge.

But the Emperor had thrown it poorly to begin with, and the First Prince’s awkward dodge lined up perfectly with the pen’s path. It struck him square in the forehead.

“I—I’ll summon them right away!”

Rubbing his forehead, the First Prince rushed out of the room.

Left alone, the Emperor seethed.

No more waiting.

If I stay idle, I’ll be taken down without even realizing it.

I have to move first. Strike first.

Things will not go that damned fox’s way.

# # # #

“Your Highness!”

The adjutant burst in, panting.

“The Emperor has summoned the princes!”

“I see.”

The Second Princess replied indifferently, filing her nails.

“He must’ve heard that Nemara’s children visited the Security Office. For that paranoid old man, it’s enough to set off a seizure. To think Nemara—”

“This isn’t something to dismiss so lightly!”

The adjutant interrupted, voice sharp.

“He summoned all the princes!”

“I’m not deaf. That’s exactly what you just—”

The Second Princess’s hand froze mid-file.

“…You don’t mean that one’s included.”

“Yes! He’s crossing the drawbridge as we speak!”

The Second Princess rose and strode swiftly to the window.

# # # #

“You absolute idiot!!”

The Emperor was grinding his teeth like he might kill the First Prince on the spot.

“You said it yourself, Father—‘all the princes!’”

“You fool! That didn’t mean him! What kind of halfwit calls that one?! You call yourself a prince with a brain like that?!”

While the Emperor was tearing into the First Prince like a rat, the Empire’s secret prince—

Verken—was crossing the drawbridge into the Imperial Palace.

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]