The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Checking the time on a pocket watch after leaving the tavern, it was quite late.

Of course, not so late that people weren’t still out and about.

Most shops were about to close, except for taverns and inns that stayed open late.

Thanks to that, the night streets were deserted enough to feel eerie, but the street lamps kept it from being dark.

As I ran, I glanced at the lamps, wondering if they were magic lamps, but they seemed to be regular oil lamps.

After all, this wasn’t the capital city, just a fishing village. There was no way they could afford the cost of mana stones.

Even if they could afford it, the money would line the pockets of the lord or mayor.

“Is it here?”

Passing the main street and entering an alley without street lamps, Navi stopped in front of a shabby old tavern in a seedy back alley.

Just the kind of place hoodlums would use as a hideout.

“Seeing as it’s not the government office or a detention cell, I suppose it’s not a major incident.”

I nodded at Precia’s speculation.

The government office wouldn’t be open at this hour, but the detention cells operated day and night.

How fortunate. Since it was a seedy alley, it would be simple to clean up after a bit of a ruckus.

I kicked down the tavern door, imbuing it with mana, and shouted:

Bang!

“Get over here!”

Of course, I had Navi’s power ensure the sound wouldn’t leak outside.

Hmm~! An environment where I can raise hell without worrying! Very nice!

The hoodlums smoking cheap cigarettes and drinking glared at me in annoyance at my shout.

Smoking indoors, what uncouth bastards.

I liked it. It felt like being back home.

I gestured for Precia to stay put.

“Huh? Who’re you? Why’d you break down the door, you crazy bastard!”

Hoodlum 1 approached me threateningly. Seeing him, I held back a laugh and looked behind him with a startled expression.

Easily falling for it, Hoodlum 1 was distracted for a moment, and I seized the chance to strike his head hard with a liquor bottle.

“Smash! Oooh~! Nice!”

This nostalgic feeling in my hand. How many years has it been?

I used to smash a lot of heads before enlisting in the army.

Ah, right. I had knocked the back of that druggie geezer Divet’s head a few months ago.

Still, the feeling of hitting a hoodlum’s head was different from a druggie’s.

The crunch of a hoodlum’s skull really seemed the same no matter the world.

Even with my meager strength, after imbuing it with mana, Hoodlum 1 was knocked out in one hit.

He seemed to be breathing, so I suppose it was just unconsciousness for now.

“Young master, didn’t you say not to cause trouble?”

When Precia asked in disbelief, I laughed merrily.

“Ahahaha! It’s fine. The trouble I meant was cases requiring a messy cleanup or having to leave this city immediately.”

“Ah, I see.”

It’s not like the city guards would mobilize just because I roughed up a few hoodlums, right?

Of course, if I was going to step on them, I had to do it thoroughly.

Suddenly, the hoodlums who had been snickering and watching their colleague get ambushed were startled and grabbed their liquor bottles.

Precious alcohol spilled on the floor.

“Who the hell are you!”

“This bastard’s got a death wish!”

Just common good-for-nothing hoodlums. They didn’t know how to use mana, and far from trained, they were staggering drunk.

I tried to dodge the bottles the hoodlums swung and counterattack… but before they could even reach me, three hoodlums were subdued by Precia’s fists.

“How dare these worthless things try to raise a weapon against the young master.”

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

“Aaaaargh!”

Precia stomped on the hoodlums’ arms, breaking them.

“…Ah!”

My hobby. I sighed in disappointment.

Whether she knew my feelings or not, Precia looked at me with a smile as if she had completed her task.

She looked like a puppy awaiting praise.

“…Well done.”

“Not at all. I merely did my job.”

Separate from the proudly smiling Precia, I was still disappointed.

I had lost my excitement.

Disappointed as I was, I knocked out the hoodlums clutching their broken arms with bottles, writhing in pain, to put them out of their misery.

Indeed, nothing beats booze for anesthesia.

“Navi, where is it?”

Navi pointed to an iron door hidden behind the bar.

The iron door had “No Entry Except Personnel” written on it, but I lightly ignored it and entered.

If you’re a raider, you’re plenty qualified as personnel. Yep, yep.

Where there should have been a break room, there were narrow stairs leading underground.

“I’ll take the lead.”

Precia stood in front of me, prepared for any surprise attacks.

Going down the stairs revealed quite a spacious area.

In that space, I saw Gilbert, Silua, and Jade seated on a sofa, surrounded by a dozen or so thuggish-looking fellows.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?”

“Young master!”

At my question, the restless Gilbert greeted me like a savior.

No, what are you doing surrounded by guys even the weakest one here, Gilbert, could kill half of on his own?

“What? How did you get in here? Are you their friends?”

The scruffy-looking man seated across from my three companions frowned and asked me.

Ignoring him, I asked Gilbert.

“Explain the current situation. Don’t tell me you’re being held captive here?”

Before Gilbert could answer my question, the scruffy-looking man stood up and spoke.

“I don’t know who you are, but are you friends with them? They damaged our expensive goods, you see?”

“Shut up, I wasn’t asking you, punk.”

At my sharp response, the large men frowned and approached me.

“This brat has no manners. A bitter les-“

The thug with a rough appearance tried to grab my collar, but Precia stopped him.

Crunch!

“Aaaargh! My aaaarm!”

Precia grabbed the thug’s arm and broke it with her grip strength.

Then she punched the screaming thug’s abdomen, sending him flying.

Seeing their colleague smash into the wall, the thugs all charged at Precia at once.

But in an instant, they all had one arm broken and were knocked out.

As their clothes disheveled from falling unconscious, I spotted familiar tattoos.

“What? You’re from Twilight Trading?”

Twilight Trading was a black market dealer that owned a massive underground market.

While Boutique serviced only an extremely small portion of high-ranking nobles, Twilight Trading dealt with everyone from commoners to high nobles. They had a hand in everything.

They even had branch offices in the Empire and several kingdoms beyond just this country, so they handled a very wide variety of goods.

If Boutique was a high end department store of the black market world, Twilight Trading was a general store.

The information I knew about this city was from after it had been turned to ruins by a crazed mermaid, so I didn’t know there was a branch office here.

I glanced at Jade. Really, how impressive to already be caught up in this kind of trouble, as expected of a protagonist.

“You there, don’t even think about running and sit still.”

At my words, the scruffy-looking man who seemed to be the branch manager flinched. As I thought, he had been planning to bolt.

“Are you the branch manager here?”

“W-well… yes.”

“Gilbert, explain what happened.”

“Ahaha, about that…”

Gilbert explained what happened after we parted ways.

To summarize, they had been sightseeing late into the evening while snacking, and as it got dark, they tried to return to the inn.

But on the way back, some crazy bastard carrying a crate suddenly dropped it even though they didn’t even brush past him.

Then he abruptly shouted at them to pay for the expensive pottery in the crate.

Threatening to either call the guards or have them come with him, not wanting to make a big scene, they followed.

And upon following, they found themselves surrounded by thugs like this, unable to do anything, so they sent Navi to me.

That was the full story of the incident.

Hardly even an incident.

“So in other words, you fell victim to blackmail fraud?”

As I glared at the branch manager bastard, he glanced at Precia.

That’s right, Precia’s the scary one here.

“I-it’s not fraud! It really was expensive pottery!”

“Cut the bullshit.”

Dismissing the branch manager’s words, I approached the sofa and Gilbert and Jade naturally stood up.

As I sat on the sofa, Precia, Gilbert, and Jade surrounded me as if guarding me.

The branch manager was quick-witted despite his scruffy appearance and immediately bowed his head to me.

“It’s common knowledge to anyone with half a brain that Twilight Trading are thugs. So how much did you demand?”

At my question, the branch manager broke out in a cold sweat and glanced around.

“N-not much…”

“They demanded 8 million duples.”

At Gilbert’s words, I looked down at the wooden crate on the low table.

Inside were shattered ceramic pieces.

I suppose that’s the jar they used for this scam.

“8 million is not much…? Come to think of it, my precious wrist is aching because of the thugs guarding downstairs.”

At my words, Precia emanated a murderous aura. I lightly laughed, bolstered by that aura.

“Will you give me that ‘not much’ money as medical fees?”

The branch manager was sweating buckets, looking like he might melt.

“N-no, that’s…”

“But this kind of blackmail scam is usually done to someone who looks like they have money, so why did you try to defraud my companions?”

My companions’ and my attire was neat for travelers, but we didn’t look wealthy.

Of course, if a dwarf saw us, they would recognize that Jade’s cloak and Sylvia’s clothes were made from hard-to-obtain monster materials.

But it would take a dwarf’s level of skill to identify materials just by sight.

“Th-that’s…”

The branch manager’s gaze turned to Gilbert.

Gilbert of all people?

Gilbert’s outfit was ordinary.

He wore a sword and leather armor made by a Blantzbarg artisan, so he could pass as a mercenary, but not a young master from a rich family.

Alternating my gaze between Gilbert and the branch manager, I realized the branch manager’s eyes were focused precisely on Gilbert’s wrist.

“I see. You recognized it was made by dwarves? You have a keener eye than I thought.”

On Gilbert’s wrist hung the bracelet which contained the sword crafted by dwarves that was originally the second prince’s birthday present.

Properly appraised, it could easily fetch over 10 million duples. Considering it was commissioned directly by the queen, it might even go for three times that.

I spoke while propping my feet up on the table.

“Hand it over quick, 8 million duples for my medical fees.”

At my brazen demand, the branch manager wiped his sweat and spoke.

“8 million is too much for medical fees!”

“Then a cheap piece of pottery being worth 8 million isn’t too much?”

“Th-this pottery is truly a pricey item!”

“Ha! Haven’t you heard that if you get caught scamming, you lose a hand? This won’t do. Gilbert, Precia, subdue him.”

At my nod, the two of them twisted the branch manager’s arms and laid him on the table.

“First, I should cut off a hand to knock some sense into him, right? Gilbert, hold his arm still so he doesn’t struggle.”

As I drew a dagger from my waist, the branch manager screamed.

“Aaah! If you touch me, Twilight Trading won’t let it slide!”

Twilight Trading’s scale was global. If we made an enemy of them, it would be a huge headache. But…

“Yeah, the boss of Twilight Trading won’t give a damn about a branch manager of some unimportant rural branch office losing an arm.”

They weren’t the types to bat an eye at dumping a thug like this in the ocean.

“Well, since executives are also company assets, they might demand around 50,000 ducats for an arm.”

At my muttering, the branch manager looked up at me in surprise as if wondering how I knew.

“Ah~! 50,000 ducats for an executive’s arm, that’s cheap! Cheap! So 100,000 ducats for both arms?”

“…200,000 duples for both arms. Please spare me, hyung-nim! If I lose my arms, my underlings will kill me!”

“Get real! Who’re you calling hyung-nim? Just your face alone is about three times older than mine.”

How badly did he treat his underlings for him to worry about them killing him?

“Aaaargh! Please spare me! Hyung-nim! N-no, Your excellency! Young master! Boss!”

I whispered in the ear of the screaming branch manager.

“If I spare you, what will you do for me?”

The branch manager looked up at me as if he had seen a demon.