The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

The girl looked up at the night sky.

In the girl’s jet-black eyes, countless specks of starlight was reflected.

A woman approached the girl and asked.

“Astrology? Cough! Wheel of Fortune.”

The woman, ‘Arcana 18, Moon’, asked with a pale complexion and a slight cough.

The girl, ‘Arcana 10, Wheel of Fortune’, silently nodded.

“It seems direct future divination is still difficult after directly witnessing the impeachment incident of the queen consort of the Duplion royal family last time.”

Moon’s guess was met with another nod from Wheel of Fortune.

Although the girl was known as the ‘Reader of the Stars’ who had awakened as a great prophet, directly seeing the future was no easy task.

If done recklessly, there was a risk of not only losing a tremendous amount of lifespan but also developing physical disabilities or magical restrictions.

However, by interpreting signs through magic that was not direct divination like astrology, such burdens could be greatly reduced.

Although the accuracy was somewhat lower, the girl’s innate power of divination could be used to increase the hit rate.

“Then it would be difficult to read the location of the 1st Prince, who inherited the seal of the Four Seasons and Four Disasters for the time being.”

Even if she couldn’t immediately find out the location of the 1st Prince Yuan, there was no intention to blame the girl.

Without Wheel of Fortune’s divination, there wouldn’t have been enough time to persuade the emperor of the Agoslav Empire to move ‘Arcana 03, Empress’.

In that case, the king of the Duplion Kingdom would have succeeded in impeaching the queen consort by winning over the neutral nobles.

Personally, Queen Consort Jamil was worthless to the point of not feeling any emotion, but the position of Queen Consort was different.

For future plans, they couldn’t lose political influence in each country.

Especially in the case of the Duplion Kingdom, it was an important position, so more attention was paid.

At that moment, Wheel of Fortune shook her head. Moon was startled by the girl’s brief reply.

“Don’t tell me… even if you recover your divination power, you won’t be able to know the 1st Prince’s location?”

The girl nodded at Moon’s guess.

“Why is that?”

The girl filled her fingers with mana and wrote letters in the air.

-By escaping from the fate that should have led to death, a large void of destiny has formed around him. If it were now, I might still be able to read the fragments, but if more time passes, he will become a perfect ‘black star’.

A person’s destiny is like starlight.

But starlight also needs to be observed to have meaning.

The destiny of Yuan, who had become a black star, drew in not only his own but also the destinies of those around him.

His destiny had become like a black hole that swallowed everything.

At those words, Moon’s expression hardened.

It wasn’t only the 1st Prince Yuan who had escaped the fate of death.

“Cough! Cough! Then don’t tell me!”

The girl nodded.

The previous generation’s Sage of the Winter Wood, Yekatrice Heightfill, was also a being destined to die.

Although the time for her to meet her end as destined had not yet arrived, the ‘opportunity that would lead to death’ had disappeared from her fate.

Since the opportunity had disappeared, the fate of dying must have also been greatly shaken and distanced.

Moon bit her lip.

“When was her fate to meet death?”

-About 11 months later.

That meant for the next 11 months, Yekatrice could be divined.

But before Moon could ask, the girl already shook her head, knowing what she was going to say.

“You can’t divine the previous Sage of the Winter Wood either?”

When the girl nodded, Moon held her forehead as if she had a headache.

“…I see; she was also a ‘Reader of the Stars.’ Moreover, as the strongest mage among the Four Seasons and Four Disasters, she would be able to counter sufficiently. I had a foolish thought.”

Divination was an act accompanied by great danger.

As such, if a monster who looks down on not just ordinary mages but even dragons were to counter, it was obvious that it wouldn’t end with just Wheel of Fortune dying alone.

Surely, transcendent ‘sal (煞)’ would attach to those deeply connected to Wheel of Fortune.

‘Sal’ was equivalent to a huge fate leading to destruction, so directly divining Yekatrice or those around her was an absolute taboo.

Since she was always a person who didn’t come out of Bastille, it was momentarily forgotten.

“But it’s still a big problem.”

Direct divination was impossible before as well, but divination was sufficiently possible through roundabout methods like astrology.

That’s how the fate and timing of Yekatrice’s death could be divined.

But now, due to the greatly shaken fate, she had become an opponent against whom even such tricks no longer worked.

Feeling ominous, Moon took out a communication magic tool that looked like a crystal.

“Hanged Man.”

When ‘Arcana 12, Hanged Man’ was called, an answer came as if waiting.

-Oh, what brings the great Moon to call me? I’m recovering from severe damage from the last mission.

Hanged Man was in a state of having suffered tremendous damage from losing a body double that had a part of his soul implanted by a demon in the Bastille Mountains.

Although he said he was recovering, the loss of a soul fragment was an injury that could never be recovered from.

With the nuance that he would refuse if it were a mission, Moon clicked her tongue.

“Cough! You’re exaggerating. I understand the great sense of loss, but you would have shaken it off already if it were you.”

-Haha, even the world-renowned Moon couldn’t shake off the injury suffered in Bastille, let alone someone insignificant like me.

Moon also couldn’t overcome the injury she suffered due to Yuan’s vicious trap.

The physical injury was treated by ‘Arcana 02, High Priestess’ after teleporting, but the problem was the curse that had seeped through the wound.

If Malecob Jeffries, one of the five masters of the Poison Institute and ‘Arcana 15, Devil’, were alive, treatment would have been possible.

But with Malecob’s death, she had to receive curse treatment from his successor, Lowerfel.

However, Lowerfel was not yet experienced and had a stupid side, so he wasn’t reliable.

“I’m not trying to give you a dangerous mission. Rather, it’s something you would like.”

-Oh, what would I like?

At Hanged Man’s question, Moon smiled bitterly.

“I’m thinking of temporarily suspending the plan to unseal using the key and continuing the interpretation that was originally in progress.”

-The interpretation of the Four Seasons and Four Disasters’ seal?

“That’s right.”

At Moon’s affirmation, Hanged Man made an interested sound.

-But wasn’t that a plan that was put on hold after Wheel of Fortune found the whereabouts of the key through divination?

“It was just temporarily focusing the organization’s capabilities on capturing the key. As you know, even reaping before killing the successor and passing it to another successor is quite a difficult task.”

-Hmm~ That’s true. I know it well since I prepared hard for it.

“If the plan had succeeded, it would be different, but since it failed, it’s only natural to proceed with the plan on two tracks until we find the successor again. Weren’t you the one who was most disappointed when the interpretation stopped?”

When Moon sought agreement, Hanged Man on the other side of the crystal ball also agreed.

-If I can research again, I’d be happy to do so.

“So, about that, how much time is left until the substantiation of the interpretation?”

When the result was urged, Hanged Man fell silent for a moment and then answered.

-I don’t know. There’s a lot of accumulated research, so if we’re lucky, it could be as soon as tomorrow, but if we’re unlucky, it could drag on even after 100 years. Even the research team that had just started interpreting 350 years ago initially boasted that it would take 30 years, right?

Sometimes, a problem that had been notorious as a difficult one for hundreds of years suddenly gets solved, while a theory that would dominate the next hundreds of years is created by an unexpected opportunity.

It wasn’t just a day or two that numerous mages lured investors with sweet talk for research.

But Moon, one of the top executives of Arcana, was not someone who would fall for such sweet talk.

“Is that so? Please complete it as soon as possible.”

-I’ll try my best. Ah, to do that, please stop Chariot from trying to kill me first. If such a monster roams around and unleashes murderous energy, I can’t focus on research due to anxiety.

‘Arcana 07, Chariot’.

Rotulus, the Mercenary King of Five Colors, had developed a deep grudge against Hanged Man due to the last mission.

“I understand. I’ll take care of that matter myself. Then, please work hard.”

Moon sighed softly and ended the communication.

Then, as if changing the topic, she asked the girl.

“By the way, what were you reading through astrology?”

-The Sage of the Winter Wood.

The being the girl was referring to meant the Sage of the Winter Wood as a ‘position’, not an ‘individual’.

The Sages of the Four Seasons bear a special destiny, so they possess the destiny as an individual and simultaneously the destiny as a sage.

Moon knew it intellectually but couldn’t precisely understand what it meant.

The world seen by the Reader of the Stars was a world that couldn’t be seen by those who were not diviners.

This feeling was similar to how a person who cannot see understands the phenomenon of a rainbow in their head but cannot fully comprehend it.

“What did you read?”

-Succession.

Moon was surprised by the girl’s short answer.

“That can’t be! The divined succession is 10 months later… No, is it an aftereffect caused by the disappearance of the fate of death?”

The key to the seal was in a missing state, and after the operation to loosen the seal that had blocked the dimensional hole last time, strange signs were detected in the Bastille Mountains.

Perhaps it was because the Sage of the Winter Tree had changed.

Contemplating the selection of personnel to dispatch to the center of the Bastille Mountains to observe the situation in the Winter Tree Forest, she stroked the girl’s head.

“You should also go inside and rest since it’s late at night.”

In her heart, there were many things she wanted the girl to divine.

But she couldn’t thoughtlessly urge her.

It wasn’t just the risk, but divination wasn’t something that could show everything one wanted just because one wished for it.

The girl nodded and entered the mansion that was solely for Wheel of Fortune.

Moon looked up at the night sky and let out a deep sigh.

“The only plan that fits properly is borrowing the power of the Sun God’s Church to deal with those filthy demon worshippers in a scheme of killing with a borrowed knife. It’s really not easy.”

The filthy traitors who tried to sell the world to the demons of the Demon Realm were also enemies that could not coexist with Arcana.

If necessary, even if it consumed the organization’s power, exterminating them while chipping away at the strength of potential enemies would be the best thing.

Feeling suffocated, she took in the night air and followed the girl inside.

*******

An old knight wearing heavy armor and accompanied by a small number of subordinate knights was riding a horse in a hurry. He stopped for a moment and looked at the scenery of the beautiful resort city.

“Are my eyes strange? Why does it look fine?”

At the old knight’s question, a middle-aged knight who seemed to be his subordinate also blankly looked at the city as if he couldn’t understand.

“My eyes seem strange too.”

At the subordinate’s answer, the old knight muttered.

“I’m sure I received an urgent call saying a dragon was attacking the city and brought this old body here.”

“I will find out what happened.”

The middle-aged knight rode his horse directly towards the city.

And not long after, he returned to the old knight with a troubled expression.

Unable to open his mouth, the old knight asked.

“What did they say happened?”

At his superior’s question, the middle-aged knight reported the facts he had learned while wiping his face with his hand.

“Well, it turns out the dragon was actually an illusion created by demon worshippers to bring chaos to the city.”

“What, an illusion? An illuuusion?!”

The old knight had rushed day and night for three days without rest upon receiving the urgent request for help conveyed by magic.

He had resolved to even lay down his life to protect the nation, but hearing that the dragon was fake, he not only lost strength but also felt anger welling up.

“C-Calm down! Your Excellency, the Protector of the Nation!”

“Do I look calm!! These bastards!”

“Your Excellency! We came too hastily and lacked information! Didn’t we move in a straight line with the minimum number of personnel to move as quickly as possible!”

Ziliville City immediately sent a request for help upon the appearance of the dragon.

A few hours later, after the Sun God’s Church made an announcement, they immediately withdrew the request for help, but by then, the old knight and the elite knights had already departed.

Since they moved the shortest distance to cover a five-day journey in three days, there was no time to receive updated information.

Adgale, one of the five transcendents representing the kingdom and the Protector of the Nation, let out a deep sigh.

“Since it turned out like this, how about resting well in this rare resort city? Aren’t you quite tired from the forced march?”

When the middle-aged knight suggested it, the knights’ eyes sparkled. Seeing their appearance, Adgale laughed in dismay.

“Hohoho, sure. It would be nice to rest a bit.”

The knights cheered at their lord’s decision.

The group of knights led by Adgale leisurely entered the city.