The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

At night, it was dark, and I was rushed, so I had just haphazardly gathered things, unsure exactly what I had taken.

“Let’s see. Originally in the storehouse, there were 48 cooking knives, 2 of each size, 12 pots, 5 frying pans, 9 meat tenderizers, 4 portable magic burners, and 3 each of cutting boards, ladles, tongs, turners…etc. Quite a lot of stuff.”

I took out the cooking utensils one by one, examined them, and put them back before checking something else.

“Next is that pervert’s collection?”

In the 4th Palace was the secret collection of the former 3rd Prince from around 80 years ago.

The secret room full of items too inappropriate to be made public was located in a remote area befitting his tastes, making it easy to sneak in.

I had swept up the entire collection of the former 3rd Prince, but let’s see what useful items there were:

The ‘Knives of Tontons’ which were used by a serial killer. A ‘Curse Scroll’ made of human skin from some barbarian tribe. A ‘Mummified Mermaid’, a ‘Lamb Skull’ used for demon summoning, the ‘Spell Book of Necromancy’ of the supposedly worst necromancer Billy, a ‘Mana Stone with Trapped Souls’ good for black magic.

The rest were either obvious fakes or probably just useless junk.

Originally, the one who was supposed to obtain the items from that room was the crazy woman who appeared as an Arcana executive, but now that I have them, I’ve prevented the enemy from being strengthened.

I put away those unsettling items and moved on to the next.

“Let’s see, next is the forgotten war fund.”

Around 120 years ago, the king at the time, Prince Yuan’s great-grandfather or so, secretly stashed away a war fund and military supplies in the 7th Palace in case war broke out.

That expectation proved accurate exactly five years later, but unfortunately, the middle-aged king passed away from a heart attack 2 years before the war broke out.

While the officials who had directly gathered the war funds knew of their existence after the war began, only the king knew where they were hidden, so they were unable to find them, and the funds were forgotten.

The war funds I discovered consisted of 20 boxes of gold bullion, 30 boxes of silver bullion, 250 boxes of mana stones, 500,000 arrowheads, 5,000 iron swords, promissory notes from the Top 5 merchant guilds exchangeable for 300,000 tons of wheat, and promissory notes from a renowned stable exchangeable for 1,000 horses.

So they had gathered all these funds and supplies, but ended up fighting the war without them. I couldn’t help but wonder how this country didn’t collapse, but then I recalled that war was the one Dalanta was conscripted into.

No wonder the commoner Wisel family was newly ennobled as Viscounts.

Come to think of it, it’s fortunate Precia was told to keep watch outside. If she had seen this, she would have insisted I report it to the royal family. It was easily predictable for the morally upright knight who tried to save even her enemies.

“Last is…nothing much.”

What I obtained from the 8th Palace was a dusty teddy bear sitting in the warehouse.

The cuddly-looking teddy bear was a gift received by the cathedral located within the palace around 20 years ago when the Imperial Church and the Kingdom’s Church had an exchange.

The bishop of the cathedral at that time gave it as a gift to the young princess, but as the princess grew older, the teddy bear was naturally relegated to the warehouse.

Its effect was an amulet that drives away demons, particularly effective against nightmares.

It was so effective that when a Grand Duke ranked succubus sent her avatar to the protagonist Jade, he was able to repel it with this teddy bear.

Against other demons, it was said it could only drive away low-ranking ones with difficulty, so its ability was rather one-sided.

“Well, that’s just how fantasy novels are. The plot convenience of obtaining situationally appropriate items is part of the fun.”

Of course, from my firsthand experience, there may be undepicted elements hidden, like the legacy of my damned ancestor or Aquila’s mana circuit that allowed me to feel the pain of hellfire across my body.

Perhaps there were other landmines I was unaware of hidden inside these items too.

The most suspicious was the perverted collection from the 4th Palace, which is why I took all the items regardless.

Since the enemy was originally supposed to obtain them, I couldn’t leave any unknown risks behind.

“Your Highness, it’s the time you mentioned.”

At Herion’s knock, I put the teddy bear back in the storehouse and stretched.

What I had acquired so far was still far from enough for me to survive.

I needed to preemptively secure more, be it objects or talents.

******

  It was nearing dinnertime, and Queen Camille Buez de Bares von Duplion was making her way to her reception room, narrowing her eyes at the unexpected visitor.

   Her mood was not good, and all the ladies in attendance held their breath, careful not to be seen.

   The Queen was known for her temper, and when she was in a bad mood, it was hard to handle, even for the more emotionally desensitized ladies of the court.

   Arriving at the reception room, the Queen found a pink-haired girl and a lady with royal blue hair sitting on the luxurious guest sofa.

   The Queen’s narrowed brow furrowed even further.

   “Get out, everyone.”

   At the queen’s harsh voice, the court ladies who had been preparing the refreshments and tea in the reception room quickly set them down on the table and prepared to leave.

   They were in a hurry because they knew that the queen’s order to leave would come back to haunt them if they didn’t leave properly.

   When there were only two guests in the dining room, the queen and the two women, the pink-haired girl arrogantly crossed her legs and said mischievously.

   “Hey, you’re so scary. Isn’t the queen’s strength incredible?”

   As she giggled while saying that, the dark blue-haired lady sitting next to her let out a small sigh as if she had given up and sipped her tea.

  Seeing the two of them, the queen didn’t even bother to sit down in the master’s seat and shouted.

“Why! You’re here again! I did what you asked, and you’re the ones who couldn’t deal with that idiot!”

   In response to the Queen’s anger, the pink-haired girl let out a distinctive laugh as she grasped her stomach.

“Nyaahahahaha, my Empress, you’re the big boss. You can go to the war right away, don’t you think?”

   When the girl asked for agreement, the royal blue-haired beauty lightly dismissed her and said to the queen.

   “That’s not what we’re here for, so please calm down, Queen Consort. We’re not here to reprimand you specifically.”

   The lady’s words struck a nerve, and the queen’s eyebrows twitched.

   “Reprimand? How dare you say that to the Queen of this country!”

   The Queen Consort and her backers, the Arcana, were only allies out of necessity, not subordinates.

The very use of the word reprimand showed the lady’s perception of the queen.

   As the queen’s anger reached its peak, the pink-haired girl once again grabbed her stomach and rolled on the couch.

   “Nahahahahaha! Nivel still has the worst word choice! Nyahahahaha!”

   “Hush, Arisa, I apologize. I just wanted to tell you that the previous fiasco wasn’t the fault of the Queen Consort; I mean….”

   As the beautiful lady called Nivel stammered in embarrassment, the girl called Arisa wiped away the tears that had accumulated from laughing and said.

   “Hah~! I haven’t laughed so hard in a while!”

   “You laughed in the middle of the market street even before you came here!”

   “Ah~! Was I? Well, let’s get past that. Our Queen will forgive Nibel’s slip of the tongue with a generous amount of grace. She’s not very good at respecting others because she’s a lowlife.”

   At Arisa’s words, the Empress sat back in her seat, knowing that, despite her displeasure, a needless argument would only add to the unnecessary consumption of time and emotion.

   “So, if this isn’t about last week, why are you here?”

   Nivel answered the queen’s question.

   “I’m here to inform you that the king’s temper has been ruffled by this latest fiasco, so I’ve put the assassination of the First Prince on hold for the time being, and I’m also here to inform you that the king will use the First Prince to get rid of the Queen Consort….”

   Bang!

   “What the hell?! Say that again!”

   As the queen slammed the table and glared at Nivel with bloodshot eyes, Arisa once again grabbed her stomach and laughed.

   “Nahahahahaha, it’s Nivel after all, nahahaha!”

   “Ah! No, I thought it was….”

   Looking at Nivel’s embarrassment, Arisa buried her face on the couch and laughed until she cried.

   “Arisa!”

   At Nivel’s pleading look, Arisa barely managed to contain her laughter and said instead,

   “Nahahahaha, giggle, giggle, hoooo~! Nivel said that since the King invited the First Prince to dinner, he was trying to keep our Queen in check, so if you want help, we’ll help you.”

   Arisa’s explanation didn’t cool the queen’s temper.

   “I don’t need your help with a job like that! Get out of here!”

At the queen’s outrage, Arisa jumped to her feet, laughing maniacally.

   “Nahahahaha! She said Nivel ruined it~! Nivel ruined it~!”

   “Arisa, I can’t help you!”

As the two tried to argue, a vein formed in the queen’s neck.

“Get out of here now! And next time, make sure it’s someone other than you!”

   The queen’s anger was justified.

   But her wish was not granted.

   * * *

   I arrived at the appointed hour and strode to the First Palace, the King’s residence, the Inner Palace, and asked.

“Herion, how much money do I have at my disposal?”

   I’ve gotten my hands on some hidden military funds, but they belong to the royal family.

It’s money that’s long since vanished from everyone’s memory, but I can’t use it with impunity because it’s a kind of misappropriation of public funds.

   I knew that if I spent beyond what I had, the Empress Dowager, who had always eyed me with suspicion, would start tracking the money.

   “There are 60,000 ducats left from your own pocket and 50,000 ducats left in the budget for the first half of the year.”

   My allowance was my pocket money, and the budget for the palace was the money used for the maintenance and management of the palace.

   The salaries of servants, court ladies, and soldiers were separate.

   A loaf of rye bread the size of a face cost about 3 ducats, so roughly speaking, 3 ducats is about 1,000 won, which translates to about 20 million won in pocket money and 16.6 million won for the maintenance of the palace.

   Even if it was pocket money, the amount of maintenance money was too small.

   No matter how small my palace was compared to others, it was still not enough for the first half of the budget to manage one palace.

   It would take at least three times that to properly manage it, but Herion is having a hard time.

   “Wait a minute. I don’t remember spending any money.”

   Prince Yuan remembered playing in the garden and reading books, but he didn’t remember splurging.

   “How much do you get paid in tribute a year?”

   “Seven thousand ducats.”

   “Seven thousand…!”

   No, you damn woman!

I can’t have the dignity of royalty on a budget of less than two and a half million a year!

   Somehow, for a prince, I didn’t have enough social clothes.

   It would be very embarrassing for the nobles to wear the same clothes to social gatherings or to be seen wearing a few clothes back to back.

   In other words, the queen had drastically reduced my allowance, essentially blocking my social debut.

   The tactic is blatant, as Prince Yuan, who has no support base, cannot even enter the social circles of the nobility.

“You’ve collected 60,000 ducats from such a small amount of money.”

   Herion smiled bitterly in pure admiration, then hid his expression.

   “That’s because the prince is so conscientious.”

“Yeah? But not anymore.”

   I grinned mischievously, and Precia and Herion looked at me in surprise.

   “I’ll talk to my Royal father today about the palace maintenance fees. I’m sure there will be enough money in the budget to give us some breathing room.”

Of course, just because the money is coming in doesn’t mean we can stop spending it.

Even if the king increases the budget, it’s the queen who ultimately runs the palace.

   If she cuts the budget over time, it will be back to normal.

   Herion was surprised by my words and stopped me.

   “No, I’m fine, and if you’re going to ask the King for a favor, you should do it for yourself.”

   I smirked at his advice.

“Don’t be mistaken. This is for me, too.”

As you can imagine, it takes more than just diet and exercise to remodel this rotten body.

   The only way I could make myself human was by regularly consuming elixirs straight out of a novel.

   But to do that, I had to spend money like it was being pumped into my veins.

   “Prince…!”

   I didn’t mean to, but Herion and Precia, as well as the knights temporarily escorting me, looked at me as if they were impressed.

   It’s embarrassing to look at them like that.

   “We’re here, by the way.”

   I gaped at the largest building in the palace.

   Now, let’s get down to business, shall we?