The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

In the deeply dug ice cave, Javan and Arisa relied on the bonfire to fight the cold.

The two were barely outside the detection range spanning several kilometers of the Sage of the Winter Wood, but they couldn’t even properly use cold-proof magic due to being cautious.

“Baby birdie? Aren’t you too cold? Why don’t you take emergency shelter in my arms?”

When the neat middle-aged man Javan winked at Arisa, Arisa let out a sneer.

“Nyahahaha! Sexual harassment! Die! You perverted old man!”

“Sexual harassment, baby birdie~! You don’t know my pure heart at all~?”

Having said that, Javan clapped his hands, saying it was a fun rhyme just now.

Arisa clicked her tongue, saying it wasn’t funny at all.

“You better shut up before I rhyme(press and kill) you. Nyahahaha!” (TN: I don’t get it)

“Oh! Baby birdie! That pun just now was very good! High score!”

“A pun, you say?”

Arisa growled, and Javan kept laughing it off. At that moment, a presence was felt in front of the ice cave.

The two held their respective weapons and tensed up.

This was the middle of enemy territory.

“You’re emitting murderous energy too blatantly, ‘Death’. Learn from ‘The Fool’. You can’t feel any momentum even though he’s on alert, can you?”

At the solemn baritone voice, Arisa lowered her magic staff and grumbled.

“That’s because this perverted old man is too weak, isn’t it?”

At Arisa’s words, a parrot beastman boasting colorful feathers entered the cave and flapped his flashy wings.

“That could be the case.”

At his words, Javan acted like the protagonist of a tragic story, bringing the back of his hand to his forehead as if he was shocked.

“Ah…! Even ‘Chariot’! Too much!”

Despite Javan’s protest, Arisa and the parrot beastman, Rotulus Philidrion, cleanly ignored him.

“Nyahahaha! Welcome. I thought my neck would fall off waiting. I might have become an undead?”

“There should still be time until the operation starts. And Death, you don’t die just from your neck falling off, right?”

“Hey, even so, I’d still die, you know? By the way, what about the others?”

At Arisa’s question, Rotulus let out a small sigh.

“According to the news I heard before coming, ‘Hanged Man’ and ‘Devil’ have almost arrived. However, ‘Lovers’ went off to enjoy a hot spring bath and won’t be participating.”

“Hot spring bath?!”

“Yeah, they said the importance of this mission isn’t that high anyway, so it wouldn’t be a problem if they were absent.”

At Rotulus’s words, Arisa and Javan simultaneously sighed.

Although their task was attacking the seal, it was ultimately to make the Sage of the Winter Wood unable to move recklessly by instilling a sense of alarm.

It would be nice if they could injure her in the process, but even their master who assigned them this operation didn’t expect that much.

“Where is that place? I’ll go beat them up right now, nyahahaha! I’ll go persuade them.”

“Hmm… Where was that place again? Ma? Ma? They said it was a hot spring village near Mount Ma-something.”

As Rotulus couldn’t remember the hot spring destination the Lovers had gone to, Arisa and Javan inwardly cursed Rotulus as a birdbrain.

“I don’t know whether to lament that two people are absent for an already dangerous mission or be glad that at least five people are definitely gathering.”

As Javan smiled bitterly, Rotulus sat in front of the bonfire and said,

“I hope you’ll think positively of the latter. I don’t care as long as I can fight strong opponents.”

The beastman mercenary Rotulus licked his beak with his tongue while basking in the fire.

“The strong opponent should be ordinarily strong. I wish the Sage of the Winter Wood had caught some illness.”

At Javan’s grumbling, Arisa laughed, giggling.

“Nyahahaha! The Devil’s ability, you say? Say something that makes sense. Will it work? That monster catching an illness, nyahahaha!”

“It’s a futile wish, but those who dream are beautiful. And unexpectedly, death from illness is common among magicians’ deaths, you know? Baby birdie?”

“It’s truly a futile wish. That’s because those frail fellows are always holed up in workshops without ventilation, so their bodies become weak.”

The three waited for those who would soon arrive, thawing their bodies as much as possible by the bonfire.

“But it seems like strong momentum has been clashing from the west for a while now. Could it be Devil and Hanged Man fighting?”

At Javan’s question, Rotulus momentarily flinched.

“…No way.”

He also couldn’t answer right away.

****

When we brought back Unicorn and its pack after hunting them, Yekatrice’s eyes brimmed with tears and she suddenly hugged me tightly.

Strangely, there was a sweet scent.

It didn’t seem like perfume, was it the smell of magic reagents?

“Not only the south but also the western great demon! How can I ever repay this favor?!”

Her reaction wasn’t incomprehensible either.

Gathering the mana stones of the five great demons ruling the mountains to block the hole to another world was practically the secret wish of the successive generations of Sages of the Winter Wood, including her.

Of course, even though they were called successive generations of sages, after the hole opened, there were only five Sages of the Winter Wood, including her.

“Master! The time has finally come to fulfill your wish!”

Yekatrice was so moved that she even shed tears.

I knew she would be happy, but this reaction was unexpected.

“Please get off the young master now.”

When Precia gave a hint, Yekatrice blushed and let go.

Then, wiping her tears, she became flustered.

“I apologize. Suddenly, I thought of my master. I was being foolish at this age.”

When she said that while looking young, it sounded like someone who hadn’t died long ago, but she must have died at least half a century earlier.

Given her characteristic as a ‘reader of the stars’, she must have been taken in at a very young age, so it was natural to think of them as parents.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. No matter how old you get, everyone has someone they can’t forget.”

Especially for someone like her who has been in seclusion all her life, it would be even more so.

“And Precia did the hunting, I didn’t do much.”

At my words, Precia shook her head, saying it was absurd.

“No! If you hadn’t shattered its skull, it would have been much harder!”

Indeed, the skull of Unicorn that was dissected on the spot was completely shattered.

Perhaps my arrowhead created cracks when it lodged into its skull, and it seemed to have shattered along the cracks while fighting Precia.

If put that way, I could claim to have played a part.

Yekatrice grabbed Precia’s hands and shook them up and down.

“Thank you so much, Miss Precia.”

And then she also clasped hands with Gilbert and Silua and expressed her gratitude in the same way.

We would be subjugating great demons three more times in the future, so the gratitude felt a bit excessive.

“First, about the byproducts…”

“Ah, the sealing mana stones are enough for us.”

When I started to speak, Yekatrice naturally handed over all the byproducts to me.

“But is it okay? Jade also worked quite hard.”

Blocking escape routes is the alpha and omega of great demon subjugation.

Just maintaining the blockade of escape routes during that earth-shaking duel was hard work.

When I looked at Jade, he gave me a wry smile.

“It’s fine, as Master said. Rather, in a position to repay a favor, I can’t ask for byproducts on top of that.”

At Jade’s words, Yekatrice nodded her head as if it was natural.

They both quite had the qualities of a pushover.

Indeed, if they become allies, I’ll have to tighten the reins firmly.

In the novel, how many incidents did they get involved in because of that pushover nature?

At that moment, Yekatrice clapped her hands, saying she had a good idea.

“Ah! Benefactor, since you’re a magician, how about I make you a magic staff with Unicorn’s horn? With this horn, I could make a top-grade magic staff.”

At that suggestion, I smiled and shook my head.

“No, it’s fine. I already have a good magic staff.”

Aquila’s grimoire was equipment that even dragons coveted.

Yekatrice was by no means inferior to Aquila, so she could sufficiently make a magic staff of the same level if she wanted to.

However, no matter how good the horn material was, it would take too long to make a magic staff that surpassed Aquila’s grimoire.

If it was of the same level, there was no need to make it.

“And with the byproducts, I plan to make my exclusive doll. It would be good to make a sword for that doll with the horn.”

I also considered making a sword with the horn and giving it to Gilbert, but an excessively good sword tended to eat away at one’s skills.

So I decided to give it to a doll. Of course, the one making the doll wasn’t me, but Silua.

At my words, Silua hit her chest with her fist, telling me to trust only her.

“Oh… Is that so?”

Yekatrice looked dejected, seeming disappointed.

“If you want to reward me, there’s something I’d like your help with after we subjugate all the great demons.”

At my request, she shouted that she had been waiting.

“Just say it! I’ll help you with anything I can help with!”

Very good.

Now that I’ve obtained high-quality personnel, I should obtain everything that can be farmed in the Bastille Mountains before leaving.

With the help of just Yekatrice and Jade, I could even overturn the entire mountain range.

“Just your words are reassuring. Ah, before that, I prepared countermeasures against Arcana that elder Dalanta warned about.”

“Countermeasures?”

Yekatrice looked at me with an expression of ‘Is it necessary?’

Certainly, she was strong enough in the Bastille Mountains to kill nearly half of Arcana’s executives, even if they all rushed in.

That is, before she caught the illness.

Among Arcana’s executives, there was a sorcerer specializing in diseases and curses.

‘Arcana 15, Devil’. The Disease Master, Malecob Jeffries.

As a sorcerer and a doctor, he was practically the nemesis of all sick people.

Especially for cases like Yekatrice where the illness becomes fatal if it worsens, it was even more so.

“Well, it won’t hurt to be prepared, right? Plus, if we effectively hold back Arcana here, the risk of the great demon subjugation being interfered with will disappear too.”

At my additional remark, Yekatrice simply agreed.

For her right now, the most important thing was the sealing mana stones that held her disciple’s freedom, not Arcana’s assassins, who were like flies.

If I were the master of Arcana, I would definitely send Arcana 15.

Because among the executives, there was a reader of the stars like Yekatrice, ‘Arcana 10, Wheel’.

The worst case was Devil, but the one to be wary of wasn’t just Devil.

The ones expected to come included ‘Arcana 00, The ‘Fool who employed all sorts of illusions and tricks.

‘Arcana 01, Magician’, the Shadow Tower Master and Supreme Mage.

‘Arcana 06, Lovers’ who were two as one.

‘Arcana 07, Chariot’, the Five-Colored Mercenary King famous as a superhuman.

‘Arcana 09, Hermit’, the master of stealth and assassination.

‘Arcana 13, Death’, who led the army of the dead.

‘Arcana 16, Tower’, the Master Mage inheriting the genealogy of all soldiers.

These were roughly the ones expected to come.

Of course, others might come beyond my expectations.

“You won’t regret being prepared.”

It doesn’t matter which one comes.

Because I know how to make any of them feel the shittiest way possible.