Fortuitous Encounter in the Game Becomes Reality Episode 40
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Fortuitous Encounter in the Game Becomes Reality Episode 40
13. Appearance at the Board of Audit (2)
Just as countless mages once called geniuses hit the wall of the 7th Circle and stagnate for decades without being able to surpass it….
Most knights collapse at the final top-tier stage of Aura Expert, unable to take that single step to Aura Master.
That is why people say Archmages and Aura Masters are "granted by heaven," and why any country will try to hold on to them even by granting a county title along with a fief.
"I pay my respects to His Highness Prince Luke Wyn Linehart, the Sword of the Kingdom."
The average age at which knights achieve Aura Master is 50.
In that sense, the Second Prince before my eyes, who became an Aura Master at the age of thirty-three, is a genius among geniuses when it comes to the sword.
'Of course, he is nowhere near the level where he can compete with the true genius, Duke Olivia Riverdale, who became an Archmage at the age of twenty-three.'
At any rate, Second Prince Luke is a royal who proved his ability not merely by bloodline, and because of that he is immensely popular among young nobles and knights.
His rank in the line of succession to the throne is second.
The Crown Prince, first in the line of succession, is the son of the queen, while Prince Luke is the son of a concubine, so regardless of ability he was pushed back in the order.
However, though he is only second in the line of succession in name, his power base is in no way inferior to that of the Crown Prince.
No, given the support he has from the knights, one could even say he has a slight edge over the Crown Prince.
"You recognized me right away. As expected of an Archmage, is it?"
"You truly possess an extraordinary aura. But the reason I recognized Your Highness immediately is because I have seen you multiple times on broadcasts. Anyone in this country who does not know Prince Luke must be a spy, no?"
Leaving out the old king, I was now face-to-face with one of the power brokers fighting for the position of heir against the Crown Prince, so my actions naturally had to be cautious.
When Baron Walker and I bowed our heads in greeting, Arcia beside us also tactfully bowed her head.
"Raise your heads."
Was he satisfied with my answer?
A voice that, put nicely, was hearty, and put poorly, was needlessly booming, rang throughout the audit room.
With his permission, I lifted my head and was finally able to carefully examine the information through Farsight.
[Prince Luke Wyn Linehart / Aura Master]
Race: Human
Age: 35
Affiliation: Linehart royal house Second Prince / Commander of the 2nd Royal Guards Knight Order
Talents: Aura (Highest), Physical Ability (High), Learning Ability (Medium), Intellectual Ability (Medium), Leadership (Medium), Administrative Ability (Medium)
Traits: Further Enhanced Strength, Arrogant Leader
Relationship: Interest / Hostile Faction
Status: Observing / Intrigued
Not bad stats.
As expected of an Aura Master, his stats were considerable.
However, looking at Baron Walker—who, even if he is not combat-oriented, has one top-tier talent and as many as three high-tier talents—and then looking at Prince Luke, I found it puzzling that his level did not quite live up to his reputation.
That was only natural, since I had thought of him as a genius among geniuses.
But if you can become an Aura Master with stats at about this level, it feels like we could turn all the aspiring mages and knights at the Academy for Gifted into Aura Masters and Archmages.
'Ah, maybe….'
But soon enough, I immediately grasped the difference between everyone at the Academy for Gifted and Prince Luke.
It was the condition called "environment," which cannot be ignored.
Prince Luke is not only of the royal family; his maternal relatives are the ducal House of Anaheim, whose power in the Kingdom of Rhinehearts pierces the heavens.
Realizing that he must have grown up from childhood with an Aura Master as his teacher and nibbling on so-called miraculous and elixirish medicines like snacks, I understood that I should not consider Prince Luke on the same level as ordinary knights.
"Are you trying to gauge my level? For someone who speaks so politely, you are rather arrogant."
"Of course not. How could I ever commit such disloyalty toward Your Highness?"
Is this what they call the seasoned experience of the royal family?
Prince Luke read my thoughts exactly, but since I brushed it off calmly, he did not pursue the matter further.
"Hahahah! You are quite good at hiding your expression. Perhaps you have talent for politics as well?"
When he suddenly burst into laughter out of nowhere, I did not know whether I should laugh with him or just watch, so I simply bowed my head again, saying I was being disrespectful.
"I intend to personally conduct this investigation. You have no objections, do you?"
"If that is the decision of the Noble Board of Audit, I will of course comply." ## New Terms Luke Wyn Linehart = English Walker = English Harrington = English Board of Audit = English Crown Prince = English House of Anaheim = English Academy for Gifted = English
When my gaze turned to Marquis Harrington, head of the Board of Audit, he nodded and replied.
"No issue. The one responsible for this investigation will be His Highness Luke."
"Understood."
At the exchange between me and Marquis Harrington, Prince Luke's eyes twitched.
[Status: Observation / Displeasure]
'Huh?'
Seeing his status change, I was puzzled at first, but soon understood what was going on and sighed inwardly.
'Don't tell me he's displeased because I asked the head of the Board of Audit for additional confirmation?'
From my standpoint, it was the obvious step to take.
Without confirming that this investigation was official, we would merely be giving them an excuse to summon us back anytime for a reinvestigation, whenever it suited their tastes.
The title attached to his traits, "Arrogant Leader," had been bothering me, and now I could see it was a strong reflection of Prince Luke's personality.
'Built like a bear, but so petty.'
There was nothing to gain from getting into a shouting match with Prince Luke, so I bowed my head again to smooth over his mood.
"Please forgive my discourtesy. As things turned out, it's like I ended up double‑checking Your Highness's words. I am still young and lacking in many ways."
"Must you apologize for every little thing like that."
"Thank you for saying so."
When I apologized while invoking my age, he made a face as if to say it was understandable.
After all, everyone knew my upbringing had been far from normal.
"Then let us begin."
The investigation that followed held nothing out of the ordinary.
Naturally so, given how solid our justification was on this side.
As expected, the prince could not find anything to nitpick and accepted my claims as they were.
"It certainly makes sense. From the perspective of the Lawrence territory, there was no other option."
"B‑but because of this, only the Marquis of Ereiven's side ends up suffering one‑sided damage…"
"Come now, surprise attack or not, this still has to be regarded as a proper territorial war. Once you start a war, you must also keep in mind that you may suffer unforeseen losses, must you not? Surely you are not saying that the House of Viscount Lawrence should have suffered a one‑sided defeat?"
"My apologies. That was a thoughtless remark."
I had been worried because our relationship was marked as hostile forces, but he turned out to be unexpectedly fair.
At times, he even scolded the Board of Audit administrators, conducting the investigation from a thoroughly neutral stance.
In that way, about an hour of investigation passed, and when Prince Luke had no more questions to ask, he apparently decided this was enough, tapping the table twice with his finger to draw everyone's attention before stating his position.
"The investigation appears meaningless. There is nothing to indict."
I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
Prince Luke upheld common sense to the very end.
"Your Highness, Viscount Lawrence's son intentionally blasted his half‑brother and the lady of the lord's manor to death."
Marquis Harrington, unable to stand it, added his two cents, but Prince Luke remained firm.
"Just from the materials here, their list of crimes more than warrants the death penalty. For the funeral of losers who overestimated their own abilities, it is not even that expensive, is it?"
"But the Marquis of Ereiven is quite important to our faction…"
Marquis Harrington, insisting they could not just leave things like this, whispered in the prince's ear.
The problem was that such whispers were perfectly audible to superhumans like me and Arcia.
Now that I saw it, it seemed the key members of the Board of Audit, including Marquis Harrington, had all aligned themselves with Prince Luke.
And the Marquis of Ereiven also belonged to the faction of the Second Prince.
It seemed the fact that my relationship with Prince Luke was marked as hostile forces was not his will, but rather due to his ties with the Marquis of Ereiven.
'His first impression wasn't great, but is he actually not a bad person?'
Naturally, my reaction could only be this.
His personality may be somewhat arrogant, but he does not appear to be an utterly rotten person.
I even found myself thinking that such arrogance might be only natural for a prince.
"Are you asking me to act unreasonably now? Enough, this conversation is over."
"It can't be helped then. Understood."
Marquis Harrington, evidently not wanting to continue a war of words with the prince, withdrew his argument with a look that said there was nothing more to be done.
"I do not like beating around the bush, so I will get straight to the point."
"You have my full attention."
However, it seemed the prince had not attached much importance to the investigation from the start.
From this "main point" he suddenly brought up, it was clear he had come here with a different purpose.
Which meant the good conduct he had shown during the investigation might well have been calculated. ## New Terms Harrington = English Luke = English
"I'm competing with my older brother for the throne. Right now the two sides are evenly matched, but your appearance has stirred things up."
The position of crown prince has already been granted to the first prince.
But as the second prince has become an Aura Master, the crown prince's position is becoming little more than a formality.
The second prince's camp is arguing that the crown prince's position should be reexamined, and it has been effective enough to put the king in a dilemma.
They may say the two factions are evenly matched, but despite the first prince having legitimacy and the title of crown prince, the fact that the second prince has surged this far meant the tide had already completely turned.
For now they were similar, but the balance of power was in a state where it would not be strange for the scales to tip at any moment.
"Especially Marquis of Ereiven is one of the mainstays of my faction. And yet you dealt a serious blow to his power."
"My apologies."
"Ah, I'm not particularly blaming you. As I said earlier, the incident with Marquis of Ereiven was entirely his own fault. Still, if Young Lord Lawrence goes over to my brother's side, even a small disturbance could snowball into something much larger. So before my brother makes his move, I intend to reach out first."
Even if Marquis of Ereiven's strength had been cut in half, I thought it still would not be enough to affect the overall trend.
But the problem was the existence of me and Arcia, who seemed to have fallen out of the sky all of a sudden.
We possessed not only individual ability, but also money.
The power we would now be able to build was enough to upset the balance between the two tense factions.
If we were to side with the crown prince's faction, Prince Luke would inevitably be in trouble, and if we sided with Prince Luke, we would deliver a blow to the opposing camp's momentum.
In particular, since Arcia and I each came with our own factions and also bore the title of talents who would lead the kingdom's future, we were a two-for-one asset that would also help with public relations.
So his making this offer was perhaps inevitable.
"I'm not yet in a position to jump into politics. Above all, I haven't even been granted a title yet."
"The fact that you haven't been granted a title yet makes it all the more meaningful."
"Pardon?"
"If you take my hand, I'll make sure to use my influence so that you can receive the title of 'marquis' for your worth as a great mage and your merits from the recent war."
I had to widen my eyes at Prince Luke's proposal.
If one were to name the most famous title among the five ranks of nobility—duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron—it would probably be 'earl.'
That was because an earl was a high-ranking noble, one who was called a grand noble or a great lord.
If one included the lower nobility, there were easily more than 1,000 viscounts and barons combined, but there were only 22 nobles holding earldoms.
So if Arcia and I obtained earldoms alone, we would become powers that wielded tremendous influence in the kingdom.
However, the two titles at the top of the five ranks, marquis and duke, were both grand nobility, yet their weight was on an entirely different level from that of an earl.
In the Kingdom of Rhinehearts, there were only two ducal families, and only five marquis families.
"Is that even possible?"
"It would normally be difficult. But I can make it possible. As for the territory... yes, Marinkov would be good."
Marinkov was a large city located in the north-central part of the Kingdom of Rhinehearts, and among the king's direct domains, it ranked among the top five in size, excluding the capital.
Its location was also between Lawrence territory and the capital, so it could be called ideal.
Thanks to that, my resolve to keep a neutral stance wavered.
I had no desire to get tangled up in a war of power, but the bait he had thrown was simply too large.