Hachinan tte, Sore wa Nai Deshou! - Chapter 102.1

Hachinan tte, Sore wa Nai Deshou! Side Chapter Part 1 of 4

The Circumstances of a Certain Highness

T/N Peter’s point of view starting from the Duke of Nuremberg’s coup

“Your Highness, there is something strange going on the Imperial City.”

“Strange? What’s happening?”

“It looks like the military is on the move. There are signs of fire from some of the facilities and buildings.”

As usual, I listened to the ramblings about my shitty father and honorable brothers. I had been enjoying a barbeque party and camping in the forest outside the Imperial City, when a vassal who was on night watch jumped into my tent with such an announcement.

When I stepped outside to inspect for myself, I saw a fire coming from the Imperial City.

Even though it’s late, is seems that quite a few military forces are moving in.

It can’t be a military exercise…right?

“Your Highness…”

“Wah, Emera you look great in your sleepwear.”

“Your Highness, now isn’t the time for such a joke.”

My personal wizard, Emera, had just come out of her own tent, wearing her signature cold expression as she heard my compliment

I was just trying to lighten the mood.

And I wasn’t trying to flatter her, Emera is just very beautiful and cold.

Well, that’s one of her many good points.

“Your Highness, it looks like a coup d’état.”

“Figures.”

Before I knew it, Marc, the escort who was standing next to me, acknowledged his agreement with just one word.

Marc is an amazing swordsman, but he is one of few words.

He’s very stealthy, so sometimes I don’t even notice him when he’s right by my side.

He’s in the business to protect me, and he’s not the type to cut corners.

“I wonder who pulled off the coup?”

“Who could it be but the Duke or Nuremberg.”

“Yeah.”

The emperor’s election was a close call.

For a young, ambitious man, why would he be happy with that result.

But no matter how he predicted the number of votes he would get; he wouldn’t be able to beat my damned father.

The Duke of Nuremberg had by far the best background to be an emperor, but the empire wasn’t in turmoil.

So, the conservatives who didn’t like the chaos, otherwise known as reform, decided on my father without much thought.

It may seem unreasonable from the young Duke of Nuremberg’s point of view, but if the reforms failed, things would be worse than they were currently.

Many aristocrats probably felt that they couldn’t make a gamble like that.

To the Duke of Nuremberg, he felt they were swept away by inertia.

Is that what they call the gap that occurred between generations and statuses?

“This is a problem.”

I can’t help but wonder how I’m going to get back to the Imperial City tomorrow.

I don’t want to be caught and executed out of the blue.

“For now, it’s safe here, but…”

“Emera, I think we’ve become a group of people without any roots.”

Even if we went back to the Imperial City, it would have been taken over by the coup army long ago.

Speaking of which, what happened to my damned father and brothers?

“Would you like to run away to somewhere else?”

“That’s dull. We’ll see how it goes for a while. But first, we’ll set up a perimeter and go back to sleep.”

This hunting ground is a secret place that only we know and use.

The coup army will be too busy to look for us, and we can check the Imperial City in the morning.

“Your Highness…” Emera hesitated.

“The coup troops won’t come here anyway, and even if they do, we know where to go. The trick for survival is sleep…Or, does Emera want to sleep with me?”

“You say funny things when you’re sleepy.”

“Well, I’m going to bed.”

I went back into my tent and into my bed. The next morning, I sent out some spies.

Even though they were secret spies, they were part of my team: the son of a tavern owner and the son of a mafia boss.

Right after the coup, the Imperial City was on high alert, so if a nobleman’s child entered, they would be caught immediately.

In that respect, my men know the back roads of the Imperial City and are perfect for gathering information.

“We’ll just have to wait here for a while.”

A few days later, we moved further away from the Imperial City, deeper into the forest, waiting for my men to bring me the information.

As expected from the son of a tavern owner and mafia leader, even after the coup d’état they worked well and brought significant information to me.

“The people from the imperial and electoral families and those who were in the Imperial City are under house arrest?”

“They could have been killed.”

“Since the coup’s mastermind is the Duke of Nuremberg, what about the Imperial Army?”

“I’d say about 40% died.”

“Whew, this is all my father’s fault.”

The previous Emperor, who was a staunch domestic politician, wasn’t very well versed in military affairs.

Undoubtedly, the Duke of Nuremberg had been working towards this even before his death.

Otherwise, a coup d’état couldn’t have happened so easily.

So, this was a result of His Majesty the Former Emperor as well.

“So, what should we do?”

“I’m going to need more information.”

For the next week or so, we gathered information while remaining holed up in the depths of the forest.

It seems that the Duke of Nuremberg has almost succeeded in taking control of the Imperial City.

There are many noblemen who usually boast about their family history and dignity, but they’ve been wagging their tails at the Duke of Nuremberg because they fear for their lives.

“A delegation from the Kingdom of Helmut that had come as a goodwill delegation was placed under house arrest and several wizards were killed…”

“That’s a diplomatic problem, isn’t it?”

I think it’s foolish to end a ceasefire that has been in place for two hundred years.

What was the point of fighting with no reason?

“If we’re going to go to war with the Helmut Kingdom in the future, we shouldn’t touch them until the Civil War is over.”

“I understand why wizards might have been killed.”

“Emera, what’s on your mind?”

“For those soldiers who can’t use magic, they are worried about wizards suddenly unleashing their magic. Didn’t they just overreact and kill them?”

“They’d rather cut them down first then let them shoot their magic?”

“Yes, sir.”

Emera theorized that the wizards were not killed on the Duke of Nuremberg’s orders, but rather the soldiers killed them in over-defense.

Is this kind of thing where no matter how carefully planned something is, there will be unexpected discrepancies in its execution?

No matter how good Duke Nuremberg is there’s no way he could control all the actions of the soldiers.

“If you get hit by magic, you will be seriously injured, even if the magic is light. Even a weak ‘Fireball’ can cause severe burns when it hits.”

“Sure, that might not be great…”

They were slayed before they could unleash their magic.

But there were only a few casualties, so some of them must have escaped.

“The Duke of Nuremberg is pursuing the whereabouts of Count Baumeister and his party. At any rate, I hear they are searching with considerable pomp and frill.”

“ ‘.Osbert, you should check it out.”

“I may just be part of the mafia, but where there’s light, there’s also shadow. And the Imperial City Is made up of shadows.”

That’s who I was talking about, the son of the mafia boss.

He’s really adept at gathering information. Osbert came back with even more information.

“Among the Electors, it seems that Duke Philip is the only one who managed to escape. I heard the guest house she was packed into was a hellish mess…”

He relayed that the floor was littered with corpses of coup d’état soldiers who couldn’t stand up to Duke Philip’s men and the floor was stained red with blood.

“The coup troops asked beggars to clean up the bodies, you know.”

For the mafia, getting information from the beggars is child’s pay.