That is Swearing Allegiance to the Dear

So... all this gold was borrowed from the dwarves of the Golden Country by the Prince?

No wonder the Prince could produce so much money at once.

However, the Golden Country is a disaster foretold in the goddess's oracle. What conditions did Edgeworth, the Hain Prince, use to borrow so much money from those dwarves?

Hela's eyes gradually changed.

The Prince, however, became furious: "Rhine, you're slandering me! That IOU was clearly something you prepared in advance to frame me!"

Rhine smiled. He completely ignored the Prince and just chuckled to himself, saying:

"It seems Uncle needs me to produce more evidence. Since Your Highness Hela is here, why don't I give you a few coordinates and have Your Highness Hela go take a look."

The Prince angrily retorted: "That's your slander against me! Miss Hela, don't listen to this brat's nonsense!"

Hela heard this, opened her mouth, and was about to say something...

However, at this moment, a spatial rift automatically opened, and a doll poked its head out: "Your Highness Rhine, if Hela is unwilling to help, we can run errands for you."

The doll daughters understood the bigger picture. If the Prince was truly colluding with external enemies, then the matter would be more than just an internal royal struggle.

To prevent their mother, who was blinded by money, from causing any more trouble, the doll girl directly appeared from the spatial rift and said this to Rhine.

Rhine smiled: "Thank you, Cystia Hela."

The doll was greatly surprised, her voice soft and shy: "Eek... Your Highness, you actually know my name..."

27. The Dolls' Father

Although theoretically, Hela's doll daughters were all descendants created by Hela using the goddess [Life]'s divine authority.

However, Hela was still a mammal to a considerable extent.

Forcing her to reproduce asexually was a bit difficult for her.

Therefore, besides the genes from their mother, her daughters naturally needed a father to pair with.

To ensure the bloodline purity of the demigod dolls, Hela naturally had to choose the best father she could find to create the dolls.

So, within Hela's reach, who was the best father she could find besides herself?

Naturally, it was her Imperial Guard sisters.

The three daughters Hela had created so far all used the blood of her own good sisters as their fathers.

So, to save trouble, Hela simply named her doll daughters after these sisters and herself.

For example, this Cystia Hela was a doll created by Hela extracting the blood of Cystia Hain, the eldest sister of the current generation of Demigod Imperial Guards.

Of course, not many people knew about this matter, except for a few Imperial Guards.

Anyone with a little knowledge only knew that Hela had a group of dolls that resembled her, and even among those who knew, it was difficult to match the three names with these three similar-looking girls.

Therefore, when Rhine accurately spoke her name, the doll girl was moved.

She originally thought that His Highness Rhine had only become more handsome, but she didn't expect... he was so thoughtful.

"Your Highness Rhine..."

The doll girl murmured Rhine's name, her face flushed with shyness.

From the spatial rift, the other two doll girls also couldn't help but feel more admiration for His Highness Rhine outside. Since His Highness Rhine could accurately identify Cystia... did he also remember their names?

Meanwhile.

Unlike the pleasant, ambiguous atmosphere between Rhine and the dolls.

His Highness the Prince was currently sweating profusely with nervousness.

At this moment, in the northern counties of the Hain Empire, Prince Edgeworth had just completed another transaction with the dwarves of the Golden Country.

Rhine was not wrong at all.

The Prince was indeed making deals with Hain's enemies.

As the second heir to Hain, the Prince could not resist the temptation of the Crystal Throne. To become the king of the strongest empire ruling the mortal world, the Prince had gambled almost everything.

Everything he possessed, even his dignity, had been thrown in as a stake.

And what he did not yet possess was also mortgaged to obtain the resources before him.

And that thing that did not yet belong to him was, naturally, the Hain Empire.

The one billion gold swords were one of the Golden Country's investments in the Prince. The dwarves would fully assist the Prince in ascending the throne, and when the Prince became king, the dwarves would make a fortune.

Although he didn't think his actions were seamless, he never expected... Rhine could expose his plan so easily and strike at its core!

At this moment, on the other end of the communication matrix, the Prince wiped the sweat from his brow with a trembling hand.

Through the image transmitted by the matrix.

He looked at Rhine.

And Rhine was also looking at him.

The Prince read contempt and mockery in his nephew's eyes.

Traitor.

He could almost hear his nephew cursing him like this.

28. The Scoundrel Prince (Why did I even choose this title?)

Rhine had found evidence of the Prince colluding with foreign enemies and had even invited Hela of the Imperial Guard to use spatial teleportation to retrieve more evidence of the Prince's crimes.

The Prince was stunned.

Due to fear and nervousness, facing this extremely critical situation, his mind went blank for a moment, and he was unable to come up with any countermeasures.

The atmosphere in the study became extremely oppressive.

The Prince couldn't believe that his downfall had come so abruptly. In the blink of an eye, he had gone from a behind-the-scenes schemer to being dragged out into the open by Rhine and severely beaten!

If Rhine were to present more evidence, the Prince would be finished.

Colluding with foreign enemies was no small matter.

Depending on the evidence Rhine found, the most tragic outcome might be the Sanctuary directly intervening with charges of blasphemy, impaling the Prince on a crystal pillar, draining his divine blood, and then burning him to death!

At this moment, Hela's doll daughters readily agreed to the Prince's request and awaited the Prince to provide the coordinates.

It seemed that all tragedy was predetermined.

The Prince's journey would be declared over today.

However, Just then, the most bizarre reversal occurred.

Rhine was about to speak, but he suddenly remembered something.

He looked at the IOU in his hand, examined it up and down, and frowned seriously.

Then he crumpled the IOU into a ball and tossed it aside.

"I was mistaken. This IOU is fake. Uncle, my apologies."

With that, Rhine left the Prince's mansion decisively and cleanly.

Without any lingering hesitation.

"Fake...?"

The Prince was dumbfounded, his heart trembling violently.

That IOU was clearly real!!

The crisis appeared as suddenly as it disappeared.

Rhine left, and no one would expose his past anymore, which made the Prince breathe a deep sigh of relief.

However, after a moment of relaxation, a chill enveloped the Prince.

Fear kept coming, even penetrating his bones...

The Prince clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, "Rhine... what exactly do you want to do!!"

Leaving the Prince's mansion, Rhine walked to a quiet place.

Rhine: "Lady Hela?"

As soon as he spoke, a spatial rift opened, and Hela appeared beside Rhine with a smile.

Hela: "Your Highness requires something?"

Rhine smiled: "Something like that."

After Rhine left, Hela did not linger with the Prince and also withdrew.

Regarding the outcome of the confrontation between Rhine and the Prince, Neither Hela nor the dolls were surprised.

Prince Rhine was merely doing something their mother did more often than eating and drinking.

Grasping leverage and then extorting.

Prince Rhine had clearly known about the Prince's collusion with the Golden Land for a long time.

Gathering intelligence was a skill.

But how to use intelligence well was an art.

I have to say, Rhine chose an extremely clever time to reveal his hand.

Just like when he visited Dreamland.

This time, the Prince once again used the Imperial Guard as his shield.

Now, besides the Prince and the Prince, there was one more person who knew of the Prince's crimes: the Imperial Guard Hela.

This made the situation vastly different.

If the Prince had been the only one aware, then the enraged Prince, in a fit of anger, might have tried every means to silence him.

It was a bad move, but not without its merits as a plan.

However, now, the situation had changed.

Under Hela's gaze, it was no longer feasible for the Prince to kill to silence witnesses.

29. I wanted to refuse, but Your Highness gave too much.

If the Prince were to suddenly die one day, regardless of the cause, Hela would know it was the Prince's doing.

And she would also be able to conclude that everything Rhine had said was true.

By then, the Prince's situation would be extremely dangerous.

Although the Imperial Guard had little interest in mortal ethics and morals, they still had to abide by the ironclad laws written into the divine oracle.

The Imperial Guard was happy to watch the royal infighting unfold.