Surviving As the 5th Prince of the Ruined Kingdom

018

The royal court.

With a trembling heart, I gazed at the judge’s mouth.

“The defendant Evan Lionel is found guilty of inflicting cruel violence upon the plaintiff Akard Lionel. This act severely threatens the order of the royal family and must never happen again. Therefore, this court deems it necessary to make an example, and sentences the defendant to ‘death.'”

What nonsense is this?

The death penalty?

I quickly turned to look for the 2nd Prince.

It was clearly because he kept silent throughout the trial despite promising to help. He was hugging Akard and patting his back.

The 2nd Queen and 4th Princess were watching the scene with satisfied expressions. A touching scene befitting a courtroom drama.

I looked at them with a dejected expression.

Noticing my gaze, Akard opened his mouth with a wry smile.

“Kukkook.”

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…?

.

.

.

I opened my eyes with a start.

My forehead was drenched in cold sweat.

I got up from the bed and checked the time.

4 AM.

An hour earlier than usual.

Today is the decisive day of the royal trial. Perhaps the mental burden caused such a ridiculous dream.

Too early to stay in bed.

I decided to calm my mind and body through mana meditation. Shhh- The mana taken in with the morning air began circulating through my body. Soon the world grew quiet and my mind at peace……

-Kukkook.

“Damnit.”

Remembering Akard’s cooing sound from the dream almost caused my mana to flow backward. I changed plans and headed to the training grounds with a wooden sword.

Swinging the sword like a madman under the moonlight cleared my mind a bit. Indeed, swordplay is the best when one’s thoughts are cluttered.

After sweating out the lingering remnants of the absurd dream, I took a quick shower and returned to the bedroom.

I opened the window and began mana meditation.

One must invest 30 minutes daily in mana meditation.

The mana taken in through breathing circulates the body, enhancing physical vitality. I only need 3 hours of sleep daily, when others need 6 hours.

To reduce sleep needs by half with just a 30 minute investment – what a lucrative deal!

There is no need to invest excessive time.

Mana cultivation is similar to muscle training, so investing time day and night does not lead to efficiency.

Thirty minutes a day.

That’s just right.

“Huu-“

I opened my eyes after finishing my cultivation.

I still haven’t found the special quality of the [Mugeuk Mana Cultivation Method]. It’s definitely a hidden piece, but…… Well, since I’m still at the first level, I expect that if I diligently cultivate, something will change.

‘Enough with the random thoughts.’

It’s a situation where I wouldn’t have enough time even if I organized my thoughts before the trial begins, but for some reason, my mind kept wandering in strange directions.

I clapped my cheeks with my hands to regain focus, gathered the documents I had been reading before bed, and headed to the study.

***

Not all royals gather for a royal trial. It’s physically impossible for them all to gather.

In the Lionel Kingdom, the criteria for royalty extends to the king’s fifth-generation descendants. The 500th anniversary of the founding is not far off. How many royals would there be?

Also, conflicts between royals are more frequent than one might think. If attendance were forced every time, there would be no greater hardship.

Of course, news of a trial being held on a certain date and time for a particular reason is communicated to all members of the royal family.

I surveyed those gathered in the courtroom.

At the plaintiff’s bench in front, Akard’s son was grinning at me. I turned my head, suppressing the urge to rush over and beat him up.

In the audience, there were many royals whose faces I didn’t recognize.

The first prince, the first queen, and her sons and daughters, the princes and princesses, all seemed to be absent.

I saw the second prince sitting next to the second queen. The infamous fourth princess, whose character was as foul as Akard’s, was nowhere to be seen.

My sister was there, looking at me with a worried expression. I smiled faintly and nodded, meaning not to worry since I told her not to come.

Apart from that, nothing else…… Huh?

‘The third prince?’

The third prince, the first prince’s full brother and three years older than me, was seated there. I didn’t recognize him at first because it had been a long time since I’d seen him, and he was wearing glasses, which he usually didn’t.

Why did he come?

There were rumors that this royal trial would finally drive the ghost prince out of the palace. Was he here to see my face before I was sent away, as we shared blood?

I was curious, but I didn’t have time to pay attention to him now. I turned my head toward the most important person present today.

The judge.

In royal trials, the verdict is usually handed down by an elder selected by the royal council.

However.

‘This time, the situation is different.’

It is a trial involving two direct blood relatives of the current king. It cannot be the same as usual.

I looked at the man sitting on the judge’s seat.

A gaunt, emaciated body.

Unkempt hair.

A bored expression.

Philip Lionel.

The current king of the Lionel Kingdom, my father.

I glanced at his status window.

[Relationship: Ordinary]

Neither green nor red, but white letters.

The kind of relationship one commonly sees in the status window of a stranger encountered by chance while walking down the street.

The king and I made eye contact.

Glazed eyes, as if intoxicated by drugs. I calmly met his gaze. He seemed to lose interest and turned his head away.

If someone asked what comes to mind when seeing the king, only one word would fill my head.

A puppet.

An entity devoid of free will, moved here and there by someone else’s hand. That is the current king of the Lionel Kingdom.

The previous succession to the throne was a clash between the royalist and noble factions.

And the winner was the noble faction.

The current king, who was ‘chosen’ as someone the nobles could easily manipulate to their liking, was placed on the throne. History books may later call him a ‘lucky one.’

After ascending to the throne, the current king did attempt to break free from the shadow of the noble faction. By marrying the daughter of the Bairn Marquis family, which belonged to the royalist faction—the ‘Northern Flower,’ my mother.

And the result was…well.

It’s not for no reason that I ended up like this.

“It is time. Let us begin the trial.”

A cracked voice.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The king announced the opening.

He looked at Akard, who was standing on the plaintiff’s side opposite me, and spoke.

“The plaintiff, Akard Lionel, claims that the defendant, Evan Lionel, assaulted him by surprise, causing him unspeakable humiliation and requiring treatment from a bishop-level holy knight. Plaintiff, is this the absolute truth without a shred of falsehood?”

“It is the truth! Had it gone slightly worse, I might not have been able to stand here today!”

“So it seems.”

The king nodded and looked at me.

“Defendant, any rebuttal?”

“I did not commit assault. It was a fair duel.”

My sincere answer.

“Lies!”

Akard immediately shouted loudly.

“I request the Marquis Gavis, who accompanied me, as a witness! He will reveal that this scoundrel’s words are blatant lies!”

“Acknowledged. Bring forth the witness.”

The unsightly Marquis Gavis, with what is commonly called a courtier’s beard, stood at the witness stand.

“This witness is sworn to the sacred······.”

It felt like watching a play.

The judge, who should render a fair verdict, did not take any action to uncover the truth of the incident despite being able to mobilize the royal intelligence service.

He merely appeared irritated by this trial.

The witness, sworn to tell only the truth, was not even present at the scene, yet portrayed me as an infamous rascal disrupting the royal hierarchy.

“······ I submit this sword as evidence, which I hid with trembling hands back then! The blood of the Fourth Prince still remains on it! Behold this gruesome trace.”

When he raised the sword I used to beat Akard as if it were a legendary holy sword, I was startled by his meticulous preparation.

“Defendant, any rebuttal?”

“As I have said repeatedly, it was a fair duel.”

“Lies! For a duel to be valid, one must throw a gauntlet at the opponent, and the opponent must accept it! I never received any duel challenge.”

I opened my mouth, resolving to carry a gauntlet from now on.

“As I did not have a gauntlet, I substituted with a handkerchief. Last year, at the royal banquet hall, when there was a duel between Heinri Lionel and Ascent Lionel, Heinri, who did not have a gauntlet, threw a napkin, and the duel was established. There are many precedents in the records of substituting other items for a gauntlet to request a duel.”

“The handkerchief?”

“Here it is.”

The king merely glanced at the handkerchief I submitted with a gloomy expression.

I was slowly growing weary of participating in this play.

If I, the defendant, felt that way, how must those in the audience seats have felt? Some were even yawning and elbowing their neighbors.

I gazed at Akard, who was wearing a smug expression at the prosecution bench, and the Marquis Gavis, rubbing his hands like a fly at the witness stand, and muttered softly.

Now the play is over.

“I request a witness to clear my name.”

“A witness?”

The king’s face, which had been consistently gloomy, changed for the first time. Unexpected? Surprise? The change was so slight that it was hard to pinpoint the exact emotion.

– The 5th Prince has a witness?

– The 3rd Princess?

– You forgot? Relatives within the 4th degree cannot be witnesses.

– Then who will defend the 5th Prince? How will he withstand the 2nd Queen’s wrath?

– Well, it happens occasionally. Do you know? Maybe one of the former royal faction members.

– Even after seeing the Beiern Count’s family get wiped out in one fell swoop, they couldn’t have come to their senses?

The murmuring from the gallery grew louder. It was hard to make out what they were saying exactly. Well, they were probably muttering something like “what kind of madman would testify for me.”

**Thump! Thump! Thump!**

“Silence!”

It was only after the king struck his gavel that the gallery finally quieted down.

“Defendant, I understand you did not request a witness in advance. As you know, those gathered here are not idle people. Is the witness waiting? If this is an attempt to buy time, I will dismiss it.”

“The witness is waiting.”

The king’s eyebrows twitched.

“Who is it?”

“Count Cliang.”

!!

The courtroom fell silent at my words appointing the chief clerk of the Royal Treasury Department, the left arm of the 2nd Prince, as a witness.

Arcad in front of me had a dumbfounded look, as if he didn’t understand what was going on.

“Daaamiaaan!”

The 2nd Queen’s scream echoed through the room.

It seemed she had guessed that the 2nd Prince was trying to use the royal trial as an opportunity to deal with the 4th Prince. She was quick to judge the situation, unsurprisingly after spending over 20 years in the palace.

“Calm down, this is the royal court.”

“You! You how could you! Eh-“

“Oh my!”

The 2nd Queen, whose face had turned beet red, suddenly collapsed. The 2nd Prince quickly caught her.

Despite appearing to be in her 20s, the 2nd Queen seemed to have high blood pressure. Well, she needed to manage it at her age of 40s.

The 2nd Prince looked at one of the palace guards assisting with the trial and spoke.

“It’s better this way. You there, have my mother escorted to the royal chambers.”

I looked at Akard, who was still making a foolish expression amidst the chaotic atmosphere.

‘From today onwards, I will no longer see his face.’

I became a little curious about what kind of judgment would be passed on him in this world where they casually behead delinquent boys.