So... all this gold had been borrowed by the Prince from the dwarves of the Golden Land?
No wonder the Prince could produce so much money at once.
But the Golden Land was the name of a calamity foretold in the goddess's oracle. What had Edgeworth, Prince of Hain, offered those dwarves in exchange for such a huge loan?6
Hela's expression gradually changed.
The Prince was even more furious. "Rhine, how dare you slander me! You clearly prepared that promissory note in advance to frame me!"
Rhine laughed. He ignored the Prince and simply continued, speaking as though to himself:
"It seems I'll have to produce more evidence for you, Uncle. Since Lady Hela is here, why don't I give her a few coordinates and have her take a look?"
The Prince shouted, "You're slandering me! Lady Hela, don't listen to this boy's nonsense!"
Hela opened her mouth, about to say something...
But just then, a Spatial Rift opened on its own, and a doll poked her head through. "Your Highness Rhine, if Hela doesn't want to help, we can run your errands for you."
The doll daughters knew how to see the bigger picture. If the Prince really was colluding with a foreign enemy, then this was no longer as simple as an internal struggle within the royal family.8
To keep their money-grubbing mother from pulling another stunt, one of the doll girls simply stepped through the Spatial Rift and spoke to Rhine.
Rhine smiled. "Thank you, Cistia Hela."
The doll was astonished, her voice soft and bashful. "Oh... Your Highness, you know my name..."7
The Dolls' Father
In theory, Hela's doll daughters were all descendants she had created using the goddess's [Life] authority.
But Hela was, after all, still part mammal.
Making her reproduce asexually was asking a bit much of her.
So, besides their mother's genes, her daughters also needed a father's genes to pair with them.
To preserve the purity of the demigod dolls' bloodline, Hela naturally had to choose the best father she could find to create them.
So, among all those within Hela's reach, who was the best father she could find besides herself?
Naturally,
it was her sisters in the Imperial Guards.4
All three daughters Hela had created so far had used the blood of her dear sisters as their paternal contribution.
So, to make things easier,
Hela had simply named her doll daughters after these sisters and herself.
For example, Cistia Hela was a doll Hela had created using the blood of Cistia Hain, the eldest of this generation's Demigod Imperial Guard.
Of course,
few people knew about this besides the Imperial Guards.
Those with a little knowledge only knew that Hela had a group of dolls who looked like her. Even among those in the know, few could match the three names to the three similar-looking girls.
So,
when Rhine said her name correctly,
the doll girl was touched.
She had thought His Highness Rhine had only become more handsome. She hadn't expected... that he would be so thoughtful.8
"Your Highness Rhine..."
The doll girl murmured Rhine's name, blushing.
The other two doll girls in the Spatial Rift couldn't help feeling a little more enamored with His Highness Rhine, who stood outside. If he could tell Cistia apart so precisely... did that mean he remembered their names, too?
Meanwhile,
unlike the warm, flirtatious atmosphere between Rhine and the dolls,
His Highness the Prince was drenched in nervous sweat.
At that moment,
in a northern county of the Hain Empire, Prince Edgeworth had just completed another transaction with the dwarves of the Golden Land.
Rhine had been completely right.
The Prince really was doing business with Hain's enemies.
As the second in line to inherit Hain, the Prince couldn't resist the allure of the Crystal Throne. To become the ruler of the strongest empire in the mortal world, he had wagered almost everything.
Everything he owned—even his dignity—had been thrown into the pot as a bargaining chip.
And what he didn't own yet had also been pledged as collateral, exchanged for the resources before him.
And the thing that didn't yet belong to him was, naturally, the Hain Empire.
Those ten billion gold swords were one of the Golden Land's investments in the Prince. The dwarves would do everything they could to help him ascend the throne, and once he became king, they would reap enormous profits.7
He hadn't thought his schemes were flawless, but he had never imagined... that Rhine would expose them so easily and strike right at the heart of the matter!2
At that moment, on the other end of the communication array, the Prince wiped the sweat from his forehead with a trembling hand.
Through the image transmitted by the array,
he watched Rhine.
And Rhine watched him.
In his nephew's eyes, the Prince saw disdain and mockery.
Traitor.
He could almost hear his nephew calling him that.
The Wicked Prince (Why the Hell Did I Pick This Title?)
Rhine had found evidence that the Prince was colluding with a foreign enemy. He had even invited Hela of the Imperial Guards to use spatial transportation to retrieve more evidence of the Prince's crimes.
The Prince was stunned.
Fear and nerves left his mind blank in the face of this perilous situation. For a moment, he couldn't think of a single way to respond.
The study's atmosphere grew oppressive.
The Prince couldn't believe his downfall had come so suddenly. In the blink of an eye, he had gone from a schemer operating behind the scenes to being dragged into the open by Rhine and beaten mercilessly!
If Rhine produced more evidence, the Prince would be finished.
Colluding with a foreign enemy was no trivial matter.
Depending on what evidence Rhine had found, the worst-case scenario was that the Sanctuary would intervene directly on charges of blasphemy, nail the Prince to a crystal pillar, drain his divine blood, and then burn him to death!
Just then, Hela's doll daughters happily agreed to the Prince's request and waited for him to give them the coordinates.
It seemed that tragedy was inevitable.
The Prince's ambitions would come to an end today.
However,
at that very moment, the strangest twist of all happened.
Rhine was about to speak, but suddenly remembered something.
He examined the promissory note in his hand, looking it over from top to bottom, then frowned solemnly.
Then he crumpled it up and tossed it aside.
"I was mistaken. This promissory note is fake. Sorry to have bothered you, Uncle."
With that,
Rhine left the Prince's residence, brisk and decisive.
Without the slightest hesitation.
"Fake...?"
The Prince gaped, his heart pounding.
That promissory note was obviously real!!4
The crisis had appeared out of nowhere, and vanished just as abruptly.
Rhine was gone. No one would expose his secrets now, and the Prince let out a deep sigh of relief.
But after a brief moment of respite, a chill settled over him.
Fear surged again, sinking right into his bones...
The Prince clenched his fists and ground his teeth. "Rhine... what exactly are you planning?!"
.
After leaving the Prince's residence, Rhine went somewhere quiet.
Rhine: "Lady Hela?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, a Spatial Rift opened, and Hela appeared beside Rhine with a bright smile.
Hela: "Did you need something, Your Highness?"
Rhine smiled. "You could say that."
After Rhine left, Hela hadn't stayed with the Prince for long and had soon taken her leave as well.
Neither Hela nor the dolls were surprised by the outcome of Rhine's confrontation with the Prince.
His Highness Rhine had simply done what their mother did more often than she ate or drank.
Find leverage, then blackmail and extort.
Prince Rhine had clearly known about the Prince's collusion with the Golden Land for quite some time.
Gathering information was a skill.
Knowing how to use it was an art.
There was no denying that Rhine had chosen a very clever moment to confront him.
Just as he had when he visited Dreamland.
This time,
the Prince had again used the Imperial Guards as his shield.
Now, besides the Prince and the Prince himself, one of the Imperial Guards, Hela, also knew of the Prince's crimes.
That changed the situation considerably.
If the Prince had been the only one who knew, then in a fit of rage, the Prince might have tried everything he could to silence him.
It would have been a foolish move, but it was still an option.
But now, things had changed.
With Hela watching,
silencing him was no longer a realistic option.0
I Wanted to Refuse, but Your Highness Offered Too Much
If the Prince suddenly died one day, no matter the cause, Hela would know the Prince was responsible.
And she would also be able to conclude that everything Rhine had said was true.
At that point, the Prince would be in grave danger.
The Imperial Guards might not care much for the moral codes of the mortal world, but they still had to obey the ironclad laws written into the divine oracle.
When it came to royal infighting, the Imperial Guards were happy to sit back and watch.
Before you continue