The Strongest Dull Prince’s Secret Battle for the Throne

Chapter 103: Inspiration

Not today either huh..

Around ten days have passed since the letter was taken.

There is still no contact from Gordons side today.

So this would mean that things are going as I expected huh.

I let out a small sigh.

Is it a difficult situation after all?

Finne asks worriedly as she serves me tea.

I tried to give her an assuring smile but Finnes expression only gets cloudier.

Yeah, a little bit.

Thats a lieit is actually really difficult right?

So you notice after all huh.

I scratched my head and let out a huge sigh.

At first, we were supposed to get that letter and expose the wrongdoings of the Southern Nobles. On top of that, if the South resorts to a rebellion, we plan to use the extremist in the military to suppress them. 

However, Gordon keeps the letter to himself so that the battle will not end with just a small skirmish. Thats really Gordons way of doing things. 

With that as the case, we can no longer use our original plan. If a large-scale civil war does happen, the Empire will definitely be weakened.

Gordon probably understands that as well.

Worst of all, even if he doesnt understand that, Sonia should.

If they insist on doing that then that means they have some kind of plan ahead of them.

If theres a civil war, the only way for us would be to use it to make an achievement for Leo. Thats the only option. But until then we still have a grace period. I want to prevent the civil war but I dont know how to go about it.

We cant report this to His Majesty?

Leo already tried to do that and I already stopped him. I understand his feelings butthe succession war wont end with just this one case. If Leo reports what happened to Father, he will definitely look into it but in return, it will ruin Leos future. Moreover, even that might not be enough to solve the matter. We need to come up with another way to do something about it.

Cant we make Rebecca-san be the one who makes the appeal?

There is no way to confirm that she is the knight that Earl Sitterheim entrusted his letter to. We were robbed of the evidence to back up her statement. Gordon will just pretend to be oblivious even if Rebecca makes an appeal anyway. Well, it will be the same even if Leo makes an appeal himself, they surely wont hide the letter where we can easily find either so Fathers evaluation of Leo will grow worse. At worst, he might be taken off the Southern investigation altogether. If that happens, they wont need Leo to hand in the letter anymore, we will be completely treated as an outsider after all. No matter how we move, Gordon still has the advantage.

I still doubt Gordon would be capable of such a cunning move but right now he has a strategist called Sonia by his side.

If we make a poor move, we can definitely expect a counter.

However, if we give up on stopping the civil war, Gordon will be able to do whatever he wants.

Sebas said that I shouldnt worry so much about it since the civil war is likely to happen anyway regardless of whether we obtain that letter or not but to me, giving up without doing anything will leave a bad taste.

We cant just settle it as we dont have enough power to stop it.

The best outcome that could come out is that we can avoid the civil war.

Even if I set aside my feelings, if a large-scale civil war occurs, Leos evaluation will be lowered to some extent because he will be blamed for the fact that he discovered that letter too late.

The Empire, the people, and our progress in the succession war. Stopping the civil war will benefit all of those.

Authis is bad.

I have ordered Sebas to search for the letter but I supposed even Sebas wouldnt be able to pull it off either. Should I start preparing and cooperate with Leo as Silver?

I cant help but regret it. Time will never come back.

I still cant help wondering if I should have done more at that time.

That defeat came from our lack of intelligence and understanding of the situation. If we dont have that then we cant perfect our preparation. Even so, I should have been able to cautiously move around as Silver back then.

If I started to move as Silver from the start then I wouldnt have to be worrying about exposing my secret.

Still, that has a fatal flaw.

If you do that, it will be exposed that Silver is cooperating with Leo-sama personally. Up until now we still have the excuse of suppressing the monsters after all..

Right, an ancient magic user plunging himself into the succession war. Theres no doubt that there will be a backlash from that.

If I assist Leo by using transfer magic back then, the line that I have drawn so far will crumble.

Silver was allowed to use ancient magic because he is the Guardian of the Imperial Capital and its people. If Silver moves to assist a single person in a political conflict instead of a monster outbreak or the Empires crisis, I dont know what kind of rumor will spread. With Sonia on their side, she will definitely use it well to our disadvantage. Even if they give the letter to us, it doesnt change the fact that Sonia is still on Gordons side. On top of that, those who support Zandra will definitely use it to their advantage as well.

At worst, Silver might be branded as a threat and I will not be able to act as him anymore. The Empire has that much trauma regarding ancient magic and the imperial family.

In that case, we will exchange our trump card for the letter. Thats a risk I can not take.

Haa.its useless to think about it huh. At that time, my movement was too much restricted.

Well, it doesnt strictly apply to only that time though.

Moving as Silver comes with a number of restrictions in the Imperial Capital.

Thats why the timing I can do that is very limited.

If I cant find any way to solve this soon, I will probably tell Leo to go report to Father.

Cant we negotiate with the Southern Nobles?

They most certainly have a hand in the Southern Incident you know? Negotiating with them is.

I stopped my words there.

They certainly refuse to negotiate with us so far.

However, from now on, there will definitely be a moment when they want to do that at least once.

Finne..you are a genius.

Yes?

Sorry, but can you call Leo here for me? I have come up with a good plan.

Saying so, I started writing down the plan that came up in my head on paper.

Seeing that, Finne was confused but she immediately left to call Leo for me.

Nii-san, did you really come up with a good plan?

Wait a minute. Hmm, thats all the problem I guess? The rest is the escort. We are stuck unless we can find one huh.

Hmm, I grumble in deep thought.

Looking at me, Leo takes up the paper I messily wrote my plan down and looks at its content.

Nii-san, are you sane?

Of course. Even so, I am not the one who will enact it though.

Leos cheeks cramp up at my light reply.

The one who will implement the plan I thought up will be Leo.

What kind of plan is it?

In a nutshell, its a bait and switch.

Eh?

We will get into the enemys base and quickly take control of it. Most of the Southern Nobles only fall in line because they are afraid of Duke Kruger. If we defeat the Duke, they will all give up immediately.

They dont have a second in command who can take his place and it will be meaningless for them to continue with the civil war.

The reason they start a civil war this time is not to take over the Empire. They only want to force the Emperor to make a compromise to secure their own safety.

If we can capture Duke Kruger, they will lose their leader who can negotiate on an equal footing with the Emperor, and their organization will be disbanded.

If the civil war is too small-scale it will serve no use. The Emperor will not compromise because of a small skirmish. In other words, it is a plan that wont be effective unless it is large-scale.

I think that it would be nice if we could really negotiate with them though

Thats how ingenious this plan is. No matter how much they refuse to negotiate, there will at least be a chance for them to do so.

Right before the civil war started. They will definitely accept negotiation if the Emperor sends out a messenger. I understand what you want to say but..

You are in a position that has a direct responsibility in case of the Southern Rebellion. You can claim the role of the negotiator by appealing to Father that you want to recover your honor. Of course, if you are motivated that is.

Thats not the problem for me. I personally agree with this plan. It can reduce the damage we can expect from a civil war. It will be for the best if this plan works out.

Thats right.

A surprise infiltration into the enemys headquarters. If we can make a decisive blow with this, it will completely stop Gordons plot and the people of the South will not be sacrificed in vain.

However, there are many challenges.

First is the infiltration unit.

The unit you can bring along will be a small number of escorts. Unless they are elite forces, this wont go well. Even if you bring Sebas and Sieg, you still need a unit with a considerable fighting power.

But we cant use imperial guards, you know. Our intention will be too clear and they will be on guard against us if we do that.

Thats right. Thats why I have to seek out such a unit.

Onto the second point.

The negotiation with Gordon.

The other challenge is the negotiation between us and Gordon when he hands that letter to us. We cant make any poor promise to him.

It would be troublesome if he told us not to move at all huh.

Well, yeah. Now onto the last one

The third one.

To raise our chance of success, we need approval from the Emperor.

I dont think Father will approve of our plan.

The plan is obviously dangerous, and if you are taken hostage, it will affect your future. Compared to deploying the army, there are a lot of factors to consider.  Thats why we need to find more materials to convince him.

How should we raise the chance of our success?

For the time being, I will assemble an elite force that wont raise our opponents guard up. the unit we use this time must meet those two requirements.

Despite the fact that Leo will head out as the envoy we will not be using the imperial guards.

Our enemy will definitely let their guard down but that is still not enough.

We need to find a way to keep the enemy off their guard and find another elite unit beside the imperial guards.

This is tough.

Well, its way better than having no plan at all. We can minimize the damage and stop the civil war that way. The hurdles are high but it is worth trying.

Thus began our strategy meeting.