The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

For a moment, I was shaken. My pulse raced, and my head became complicated with all sorts of possibilities.

Thump, thump, thump.

‘Long ago’ ‘should have died’ ‘fate’ ‘you’ ‘how’ ‘are alive’

In the span of three heartbeats, I dissected Yekatrice’s words and compared them with the vast amount of information I had, narrowing it down to three hypotheses.

First hypothesis, Yekatrice discovered an unknown factor that could have killed me, which I was unaware of, and that factor should have killed me long ago without it being strange.

Second hypothesis, Yekatrice can know a person’s fate through future foresight or physiognomy, and she read my death, which was part of the novel’s content.

Third hypothesis, Yekatrice knows that Arcana tried to kill me. That’s why she asked how I was alive.

I fiddled with the rosary around my neck and examined the three hypotheses.

In the case of the first hypothesis, it’s not impossible, but she wouldn’t have used the expression ‘fate’ if that were the case.

If it wasn’t to tease me but purely out of concern, she would have directly stated why it was dangerous.

For the second hypothesis, there’s a high possibility.

In the novel, Jade often recalled that his master looked up at the night sky.

Jade didn’t have such an ability, but she might have the ability to read a person’s fate through astrology or physiognomy.

Lastly, for the third hypothesis, it branches into three more possibilities.

If Yekatrice was Arcana’s collaborator that I didn’t know about.

If she had found out detailed information about Arcana as an enemy.

…And if she had also read the novel like me.

I asked, feigning composure,

“My fate was to die, how interesting. What makes you think that?”

It didn’t matter which of the three hypotheses was correct. I could assume all possibilities and use them.

Yekatrice answered my question carefully,

“If it sounded unpleasant, I apologize. To tell you the truth, I have the ability to read a person’s fate through the stars.”

“Reader of the stars.”

At my words, Yekatrice looked at me in surprise.

“You know?”

“Yes, I’ve read quite a few books.”

There were many titles such as reader of the stars, listener of the devil’s whispers, reciter of death, but they all referred to extremely rare innate foresight ability holders.

Arcana’s prophet, Arcana 10, the ‘Wheel’, was also a reader of the stars.

Then, is the second hypothesis correct?

I don’t know. It’s foolish to think everything she says is true.

If I put my mind to it, I could sufficiently act as a prophet using hot reading and the Barnum effect.

Even if there’s no falsehood, it’s common to the point of being classic to intentionally conceal information and deceive others.

“Readers of the stars often have short lifespans. Knowing the future comes with that much danger.”

A prophet could lose their life with a single foresight.

Moreover, innate prophets couldn’t not see the future even if they didn’t want to.

“The reason I was able to live to this age was thanks to being taken in by my master, the former Sage of the Winter Wood, learning how to seal my innate power, and drastically reducing encounters with others.”

Yekatrice said she had only used foresight once so far after releasing the seal, to find the location of her successor candidate.

That successor she found was Jade.

“Of course, even if it’s a seal, it’s merely placing a heavy stone to prevent foresight from randomly popping out, so I sometimes read people’s fates with the power that occasionally leaks out. I even learned astrology to try to control it to some extent.”

“So that’s why you said I had the fate to die.”

She nodded.

“Indeed, I understand why you need to bring this up first.”

“…Huh? I haven’t fully explained why the favor and your fate are related yet?”

I chuckled, looking at the puzzled Yekatrice.

“In short, you’re curious if I’m in cahoots with ‘Arcana’, those bastards, right?”

At my blunt words, Yekatrice and Dalanta looked at me in surprise.

“Why are you so surprised? Twisting a person’s fate isn’t an easy thing to do. Since Arcana is about the only bunch capable of doing that, it’s natural to suspect my relationship with Arcana for escaping the fate of death, isn’t it?”

Even for Arcana, twisting a person’s fate wasn’t an easy thing to do.

That’s why they’re trying even harder to kill me.

In fact, there are more monsters besides Arcana who can twist fate, but that’s not important, so let’s skip that.

Yekatrice looked at me with a surprised yet intrigued gaze.

“As you said. You revealed that you are enemies with those who opened the hole to another world here 600 years ago, Arcana, but it’s true that I’m suspicious.”

“And yet you let such a suspicious person inside?”

At my question, she gave a cold smile.

“That’s because the Red Eye’s mana stone you had was real. And this land is ruled by the Sage of the Winter Wood.”

A murderous intent like transparent ice formed at the end of her gaze.

The sensation of my whole body freezing was to the point where the pressure I felt when I first entered here felt like child’s play.

If I was identified as an enemy, she was going to kill me and my companions.

It was a great fortune that I brought the Red Eye’s mana stone.

Otherwise, I might have died without even having a conversation like this.

“Good. I quite like it.”

When I smiled brightly, Yekatrice made a dumbfounded face as if she hadn’t expected it, then laughed.

“Hohohoho, you’re an interesting person. I tried to threaten you to some extent, you know.”

“That’s why I like it. It means you’re definitely hostile towards Arcana. All the more reason to close the hole to another world and set you free.”

It’s fine even if she doesn’t become a companion who travels together.

She will definitely move in a way that benefits me.

“That’s something to be grateful for. But before that, you’ll have to clear my suspicion first.”

“Clearing up misunderstandings is a simple matter. However, I’d like the proof to be done in a space with just the two of us.”

At my request, Dalanta narrowed his brows.

“Are you saying you can’t trust me? Isn’t today the first day you got to know Yekatrice as well? If we’re talking about trust, I, who made the Wiesel family a county, should be more trusted.”

“No. It’s not that I don’t trust you, Elder, but it’s best to have as few people know as possible. You can think of it as a secret that can’t be carelessly shown to others, like a secret technique.”

At the mention of a secret technique, Dalanta reluctantly agreed as if he had no choice.

“Of course, if you two really trust each other, it doesn’t matter if the one seeing my proof is Dalanta instead of Yekatrice. However, I ask that whoever it is keeps what I show them a secret.”

It meant that if they truly trusted their friend, they should acknowledge it if their friend acknowledged it, regardless of the reason.

At my words, Dalanta grumbled and got up from his seat.

“Hmph! I’ll be warming up the cold dishes in the kitchen, so you two figure it out.”

As Dalanta made way, Yekatrice said with a smile,

“Please understand that the elderly tend to get very lonely.”

“Hahaha, you’re just worried about your friend.”

“Shut up! Stop gossiping and quickly put up a barrier or go to a room!”

At Dalanta’s shout coming from the kitchen, Yekatrice took out a magic staff from her subspace and lightly tapped the floor.

Then she and I were teleported to a space I had never seen before.

“This is my magic workshop. You can rest assured since even Dalanta can’t intrude here recklessly.”

If Geor’s workshop felt like a factory full of various doll parts and machines, this place felt like a library endlessly filled with books.

It seemed the atmosphere of workshops differed greatly depending on the magician.

“Impressive.”

I exclaimed with sincere feelings.

Each and every book here not only contained vast amounts of mana as grimoires but also served as an element that constituted this workshop.

Now that I had properly learned magic, it felt like looking at a magnificent and intricate architectural structure.

“I didn’t construct this workshop alone, but it has been passed down and developed through generations.”

Come to think of it, the novel described Jade’s workshop as being like a library.

“So how are you going to prove it to me? It’s usually more difficult to prove innocence than to prove guilt.”

It was a ridiculous statement based on the presumption of guilt.

I lightly shrugged at her gaze, looking at me with interest.

“Before proving, I’ll have to tell an old story.”

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, even longer ago than the typical beginning of ‘once upon a time, a very long time ago’.

So long ago that when a tiger smoked for the first time and choked on the bitter first puff, it coughed in pain.

It’s a story from the era people call not just legendary, but mythical.

Right after the primordial will roughly created the world, light and darkness, heaven and earth…

At the end of a largely unfilial and vulgar mythical narrative, the world’s order was established by seven gods symbolizing natural elements.

One day, in the mythical era ruled by the seven gods, a certain shepherd claimed to be the son of the sun god, the chief god.

Many people who worshipped the seven gods accused the shepherd of blasphemy, and the seven gods each imposed a great trial on the shepherd to prove that he was the son of the sun god.

By overcoming the seven trials that were filthy, underhanded, and incomparably dangerous, the shepherd ultimately proved his own words by gaining godhood.

At that point, it no longer mattered whether the shepherd was truly the son of the sun god or not.

Even if he wasn’t the real son, it had become a situation where the sun god had to claim him as his son for the sake of his authority as the chief god.

The seven gods, whether by their own will or by others’, blessed the shepherd who would become a new god and promised to grant him a wish each, engraving it on stone tablets and giving them to the shepherd.

The shepherd, who received the seven stone tablets containing omnipotent wish-granting powers, ‘wisely’ did not use those tablets and lived peacefully herding sheep until he ended his life as a human and ascended to the realm of gods.

Leaving the tablets scattered in the human world.

The seven gods and the shepherd’s omnipotent tablets caused great strife in the world, and it was a separate story that a few countries were erased and born.

“It’s the myth about the Shepherd and the God of Struggle.”

“It’s a famous story.”

“So what does that myth have to do with your proof?”

At Yekatrice’s question, I smiled and drew out mana.

“It has a very big connection.”

With my mana, or more precisely, ‘the mana of the inheritor of the mana circuit of Aquila, the Witch of Dry Drought among the Four Disaster Witches’, I stimulated the seal passed down through blood by my ancestor.

Then, eight magic circles appeared surrounding my body.

“This is!”

Yekatrice was shocked to see the magic circles floating above my body.

Among the eight magic circles, one was a sealing magic circle engraved by the Sage of the Winter Wood in the distant past.

“That’s right. This is the magic that seals ‘Pandora’, the tombstone engraved with the ‘Promise of the Seven Gods’ that my ancestor completed by joining forces with the Four Seasons and Four Disasters magicians.”

My body contains the seal of the seven tombstones imbued with omnipotent wish-granting powers.

And to obtain this seal, I had to die without fail, and the ones who wanted to break the seal more than anyone else were the group of lunatics who wanted to dominate fate, ‘Arcana’.

It was proof of why I absolutely could not join hands with Arcana.