The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

As I surrendered without any resistance, raising both hands, the old man, Geor, glared at me with a suspicious face.

He continued to emit mana and remained wary of me.

At Geor’s instruction, Silua glanced at me and scurried toward Geor.

Geor stood in front, as if protecting Silua, and sent her behind him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

At Geor’s question, Silua nodded.

“No, I’m not. Father.”

As I thought, that little one was Geor’s daughter.

Geor was already dead at the point when “The Sage of the Winter Forest” started in earnest, so I didn’t know much about his psychology or behavior.

However, the characters influenced by him were still alive, so I could make fragmentary guesses through their descriptions of Geor.

That’s why I deliberately pushed Precia into Geor’s defensive barrier before coming here.

The Geor I speculated was highly vigilant.

With his illness weakening him, that mentality would have grown even stronger.

On the other hand, Precia is too strong.

Just her presence alone could excessively stimulate Geor’s wariness.

Precia wouldn’t recklessly act without my instructions, but if she were by my side now, she would have at least taken a minimal combat stance in response to Geor’s mana.

Then, the experienced Geor would have become even more wary and on edge, and in the worst case, Precia and Geor might have engaged in combat.

Of course, I also intended to train Gilbert with Geor’s security dolls.

“Who are you? And how did you infiltrate this place?”

At Geor’s question, I answered with a question.

“Do you know Abasael, old man?”

At my counter-question, he narrowed his brows.

“Just answer the question!”

At Geor’s shout, I smiled and said, “I am answering the question. You don’t want to hear the method of how I followed the flow of mana from the outskirts of the forest and the guidance of the key from the center to enter, do you? You want to hear why I came here and how I knew the way in, don’t you?”

At my brazen words, Geor narrowed his brows even more.

He seemed to be thinking about Abasael, whom I mentioned, rather than being angry.

“…Nothing particularly comes to mind about this Abasael you speak of.”

As expected, he doesn’t remember.

Well, it’s been over 20 years since Geor went into seclusion.

It would be stranger if he remembered right away.

“Then do you know about Wisel?”

At my question, Geor glared at me as if in disbelief.

“For a mage living in this country to not know about Wisel… Wait a moment.”

He narrowed his brows again as if recalling something.

“Don’t tell me the Abasael you mentioned is the wild boy Abasael who used to hang around that naked thunder pig, the branch family head of Wisel?”

I nodded in affirmation.

“That’s right.”

As a top candidate for the sage title in the past, Abasael had quite a few connections with Geor, the former sage.

Of course, the Abasael he knew was still a young student, and they didn’t have a direct relationship.

That’s why he couldn’t recall it immediately at my question.

“How do you know my wife’s disciple?”

The one with a direct relationship with Abasael was not Geor, but his deceased wife.

His wife, Jaeolin Philip, was a mage famous for being a genius, no less than Geor, who had risen to the position of a sage, or Abasael, who was called a future sage.

If her body wasn’t congenitally weak, they would have been evaluated as the first sage couple in history.

“Fortunately, I came to receive his staff.”

Offering one’s staff to someone meant pledging loyalty for a mage.

“…You? To that arrogant fellow?”

As with most geniuses, there was an arrogant side to them.

The same was true for Abasael.

From Geor’s perspective, I probably didn’t seem outstanding enough to receive Abasael’s staff.

I admit it too. If it weren’t for the special situation Abasael was in, I wouldn’t have been able to become his master either.

“He had bad luck. That’s the only way to put it.”

I became Abasael’s master by taking advantage of his misfortune.

Geor had a face of disbelief, but he raised his hand to release the combat stance of the beautiful doll standing beside him.

“Right, if it’s Abasael, he would know where I… or more precisely, where my wife is. Jaeolin consistently exchanged letters with the wild boy and that naked thunder pig… and attended the funeral too.”

Jaeolin wasn’t the official mentor of Abasael and the Wisel branch family head.

In her later years, she stepped back from research that overworked her congenitally weak body and focused on nurturing the next generation at the magic school.

They were just two of her many students.

However, the influence Jaeolin had on the two was not merely at the level of a teacher.

“Lady Jaeolin is the person Abasael calls his benefactor.”

The reason I know a lot about Jaeolin despite not knowing much about Geor is also because those two constantly thought of her in their moments of decision.

Ironically, the problem is that because of that, Geor and Jaeolin’s legacy falls into Nivel’s hands.

Ten years ago, Abasael shared many stories while associating with Nivel, and among them were stories about Jaeolin.

The ill-fated relationship between Abasael and Nivel ran deep.

“Abasael wasn’t just a student to Jaeolin either. That’s why I sometimes gave him small teachings in passing too.”

Geor smiled as if lost in memories. His attitude of being wary of me also seemed to soften a bit.

“Few people would know about the relationship between Jaeolin and the wild boy, so I’ll trust you for now. Then there are two things I’m curious about.”

“Please ask.”

“One is your identity, and the other is why you came here.”

I hesitated for a moment at Geor’s question.

Is it okay to reveal my identity to him?

Is there a possibility that my location will be exposed to the enemy by informing him?

Various thoughts intricately intertwined, but the calculation ended quickly.

“As an answer to the first question, let me introduce myself. I am Yuan del Azdemian Duplion, the First Prince of this country. It’s an honor to meet you, Sage of Ten Thousand Soldiers.”

At my introduction, Geor’s eyes widened. Then he quickly looked at me with a wary gaze.

“A prince? The child of Queen Jamil?”

Prince Yuan is seventeen years old this year. Since he was born several years after Geor went into seclusion, it was natural for him not to know about me.

But Geor’s reaction is quite sharp. Did he have some political conflict with the Queen before retiring and going into seclusion?

“No. I am the child of Concubine Paramella.”

At my answer, Geor was surprised again, his eyes widening.

“Lady Paramella’s?”

‘Lady’? The sage-level mage, one of the fearless Eight Sages of the Magic Path, refers to someone as ‘Lady’?

Considering he’s from the royal family, it’s not like he added an honorific because of her status, as he didn’t particularly use an honorific for the Queen, who is in a higher position.

Is there a secret I don’t know about Prince Yuan’s mother?

For a moment, I quickly reviewed the contents of the novel, but there were no particularly notable paragraphs or sentences.

For now, I smiled and nodded. The contents of the novel are all I can know.

Other than that, there are only the fragmented memories of Yuan that I can’t utilize.

I know nothing.

“…I see.”

Geor nodded and erased all remaining wariness.

“So what’s your purpose for coming here?”

“My purpose for coming here… there are several, but do you not feel anything from the direction of the defensive barrier?”

At my question, Geor looked towards the forest.

“Now that you mention it, there are intruders in the forest. It’s not something to be greatly concerned about, but they’re holding out longer than I thought. What do those intruders have to do with you?”

I answered nonchalantly as Geor looked at me curiously.

“They are my knights. I pushed them into the barrier where your combat dolls are because they needed training.”

Hearing my answer, he expressed his shock.

“What?! Are you in your right mind? Do you know what kind of beings the dolls guarding the barrier are?!”

“Ah, it’s fine. To make sure the one who needs training doesn’t die, I sent Horazon’s disciple as a guardian together.”

At my answer, Geor seemed to become lightheaded, holding his forehead and staggering.

“Wh-what kind of madman are you? Even if it’s the disciple of Horazon, that young lad, isn’t he just a greenhorn? Who’s protecting whom?”

The Horazon he knows is probably just a young knight overflowing with talent.

Of course, that monster was a monster even when he was young, but what he remembers is the super rookie Horazon, not the Sword of the Ten Heavenly Swords.

“Hahaha, it’s fine. But if you’re worried, I’d be grateful if you could adjust the difficulty a bit.”

At my request, Geor waved his magic staff in disbelief.

“It’s done now. We can’t keep standing here, so let’s go inside for now. Have you eaten?”

“No lunch yet.”

“Then let’s eat together, thinking of it as an early lunch. Zillian No. 79, prepare a meal and tea for the guest as well.”

At Geor’s command, the beautiful doll, Zillian No. 79, bowed.

“Executing Master’s order ‘prepare a meal and tea for the guest as well.'”

As Zillian No. 79 headed to the kitchen, Geor patted Silua’s head and nodded to me.

“Come in. I have quite a few things I want to hear.”

“Then thank you.”

I followed him inside.

****

Precia pushed back the swarming doll army with a sword wind, allowing Gilbert to fight the dolls one-on-one.

“It’s not as easy as I thought.”

If her mission was to unconditionally protect Gilbert and escape from here, it wouldn’t have been this difficult, but that wasn’t what Yuan wanted.

Her lord wanted the new knight to quickly become stronger.

That’s why he pushed them into this hellish environment.

“Aaargh!”

Gilbert screamed and rolled on the ground.

It was already challenging to fend off the swarm of dolls attacking like a swarm of bees, but each doll’s strength was also formidable enough to not be ignored.

Precia kicked the side of the doll about to deal the final blow to Gilbert.

“Get up quickly! Do you want to die here?”

“No!”

At Precia’s shout, Gilbert swiftly got up and took a stance again.

He inwardly regretted not skipping the morning training if he had known this would happen.

Not only Gilbert but Precia was also having a tough time.

She had to be careful not to annihilate the dolls and destroy the environment for Gilbert’s growth while also protecting him from getting seriously injured.

If the dolls were ordinary dolls, it wouldn’t matter, but there were monster-like dolls mixed in that even she couldn’t ignore.

“Move! If you don’t move, you’ll die!”

At Precia’s shout, Gilbert moved frantically.

Still, the fortunate thing was that Gilbert was growing in real-time as he was truly moving while putting his life on the line.

Just as the two were diligently swinging their swords, the red light suddenly disappeared from the dolls’ eyes, and instead of attacking, they widely surrounded them.

“Huh?! Wh-what’s going on?”

At Gilbert’s question, Precia also answered while remaining tense.

“I don’t know either. Don’t let your guard down.”

As the two were highly on edge, a beautiful female doll walked out from among the dolls.

“Intruders, this is a message from the Master. ‘I’ll help with your training at the request of your master, so work hard.’ That is all.”

The doll that delivered Geor’s message went back into the crowd of dolls.

Then two doll bodies emerged from the crowd.

Seeing that, Gilbert asked Precia, “It seems the offer to help with training is true, right?”

Precia nodded while gauging the level of the dolls.

“It seems so. At least the owner of this forest doesn’t seem to intend to harm His Highness.”

Even so, she thought she couldn’t just play around here as his escort.

“Let’s quickly deal with this and go to His Highness’s side.”

“Yes!”

Precia and Gilbert charged towards the dolls.

****

“Wow, they’re fighting well.”

I bit into a cookie brought by Zillian No. 79 and watched the fight between Precia and Gilbert, projected by a small doll like a projector.

The cookie was delicious.