CICN SS 5

Side Story Chapter 5

“Answer me! I said, who are you?”

The woman pressed Chloe once again.

Every time she did, her loose red hair swayed freely, untied.

Bathed in the intense light that seemed to have captured only the deepest red rays of the sunset, Chloe couldn’t help but blink.

Then, belatedly, he came to his senses.

Am I the one being grabbed by the collar?

Me?

I, the Crown Prince of the Empire?

He was utterly dumbfounded by the hand that firmly gripped and shook his collar.

Everyone, except the Emperor, usually bowed their heads to him.

Even his close friends, Edgar and Curtis, could joke around, but no one dared to grab him like this.

During sparring sessions for martial training, only a handful of people had ever dared to grab his collar.

Of course, it wasn’t because he was the Crown Prince; Chloe had instantly overpowered them simply because he hated being grabbed.

“I…?”

Chloe made a dumbfounded sound as the woman shook him violently enough to jostle his head.

“K-K… I’m Is…”

He almost said his own name, Chloe, in his surprise.

“Is? I’ve never heard of anyone with that name around here.”

The woman tilted her head at Chloe’s words.

Then she stared at his face as if piercing through him.

It was impolite to stare at someone like that, but Chloe couldn’t bring himself to comment.

It was as if her gaze had cast some subtle spell, and he could only remain still.

After a moment, the woman released his collar and snapped her fingers in acknowledgment.

“I know who you are. You’re the young master from the capital staying in the neighboring territory.”

She then crossed her arms and scanned Chloe up and down.

“From the head maid to the kitchen maids, everyone was in an uproar all day—no wonder.”

Having never been so openly scrutinized in his life, he could only stay silent.

But soon, he regained his composure.

“In this territory, is it proper to stare at strangers like that? It’s extremely rude.”

He thought such words might make her flinch slightly, but instead…

“Rude? Good, you said that. That’s exactly what I wanted to say. Is it considered proper in the capital to set traps in someone else’s territory without permission?”

Her voice grew louder.

“Who do you think you are, leaving traps wherever you please without asking! What if children had stepped on them?”

“Children? I don’t know how children would come into this forest. This is clearly a forest where wolves roam.”

“When they’re with me, they can walk around safely!”

She shouted, flinging her hair up in frustration.

Then, in a small voice, she muttered:

“If the trees hadn’t warned me, it would have been a disaster…”

Just as Chloe tried to ask what she meant, the woman threw the trap she had set aside directly at him.

It was a trap immobilized in the center with a wooden stick so it couldn’t move.

“This! This! This! Take them all!”

She threw the traps in front of Chloe.

Seven in total.

It seemed she had found every trap he had set up yesterday.

“And don’t ever come back!”

With that, she spun around and walked into the forest.

Chloe stared blankly at her retreating figure, only coming to his senses once she disappeared.

“Hey, wait a minute!”

He called out urgently, but it was as if she had vanished into the forest in an instant.

The wind blew, and the leaves rustled.

For some reason, that sound seemed like laughter.

[Wolves? It’s much easier to burn them than to use magic to keep them away.]

Seraphina’s voice came from a small, square stone.

Edgar and Kaelun, still half-asleep, looked curiously at the small stone on the table.

[No, more importantly, the thing made for military use… could you not use it to ask such questions? How… overlapping… wolves… why… magic stone… charging…]

Seraphina’s usually clear voice kept cutting out intermittently.

Then, suddenly, there was no sound at all.

Edgar blinked a few times and asked Chloe:

“What is this? Seraphina should be at the capital academy. How…?”

“This is something Seraphina found in the old academy storage. It was originally created by a magician who wanted to communicate with someone far away, but it was never completed. Seraphina was tweaking it again. It worked a few times at close range, so I brought it just in case—and apparently, it even works from a distance.”

Hearing this, Kaelun, now fully sober, jumped up.

“Th-then this is an incredible item! It’s not easy to send messages magically yet—if such a thing exists…”

“Yes, it’s impressive. The problem is, we can’t use it right now.”

Chloe thought of the words magic stone and charging.

“It seems the magic power is depleted. Until Seraphina fixes it back at the capital, it’s unusable.”

At Chloe’s calm words, Edgar squinted and asked:

“But you brought this as an emergency item, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And yet you used it just to ask a question about magic to keep wolves away?”

“That’s right.”

Edgar pressed his still-hungover forehead.

Using something of immense value for such a trivial question—this was a reminder that Chloe truly lived his life as the Crown Prince without lack or restraint.

“By the way, Edgar, did you confirm what I asked?”

“Yes, just in case, I borrowed the Empire’s legal code from the local lord. As expected, the Crown Prince has temporary authority over the territories of the Empire.”

The Emperor ruled the Empire.

As the Emperor’s child, the Crown Prince could also exercise a portion of the Emperor’s authority according to the Empire’s law.

“Good. Then I’ll authorize our use of this entire territory in my name. Get the paperwork ready.”

Chloe said, removing his gloves.

The ring on his finger and the bright emblem on the back of his hand gleamed.

It was one of the few magical items owned by the royal family.

Its pattern emitted a mystical light impossible to forge.

Created long ago, only someone with a royal emblem on their hand could use it.

It remained in the royal treasury for years until Chloe’s birth brought it into use again.

Edgar quickly retrieved royal document paper from his possessions and began writing.

Next to him, Curtis marveled: “How can you write something like this straight through without a pause?”

After a while, Edgar handed Chloe a perfectly completed document.

It stated that the three were appointed by the Crown Prince for a regional inspection, and that all local lords must cooperate with whatever the three requested.

Satisfied, Chloe placed his hand on the final signature line.

His ring shimmered briefly, and a faintly glowing emblem appeared on the paper.

Something impossible to produce with pen and ink gave the document its authority.

“Well then.”

Chloe stood, holding the document.

“Tomorrow, I’ll pay a visit to Lord Solem’s castle.”

He recalled the woman who had glared at him.

She must be Lilian, the daughter of Lord Solem.

Her appearance and behavior matched everything people had said.

And…

“Don’t ever come back!”

Even if she didn’t know he was the Crown Prince, she must have known he was a guest from a neighboring territory. Yet, she spoke to him like that.

Normally, this would be infuriating, but Chloe couldn’t stop recalling her green eyes staring at him.

She must have come alone to the forest.

She had navigated a forest teeming with wolves all by herself—a forest even the royal knights would find challenging.

And she said the trees warned her.

She had thrown all seven traps he had set right in front of him.

He thought there was no way she could have found them all in a single day without seeing him set them.

There’s something strange about her.

If the rumors were true, and she possessed unusual powers, she would surely be a great asset to the Empire.

Chloe recalled her glaring at him again.

Strangely, his mouth went dry, and a tension he couldn’t explain welled up inside him.

“Lilian Shell, huh…”

Chloe murmured her name.

Though he had only heard it yesterday, his lips repeated it as if it were a name he had known for a long time.