I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel

TL/Editor: Rungir

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Clang!

The wizards from Lergan and Icarus looked around, shocked.

And after the imperial knights, who'd even arrested the seven top priests, left the royal palace.

"......"

The hall fell silent, as though a storm had just passed through.

'Was it a setup from the start?'

The 5th Princess Diana, who'd reached such a conclusion from piecing together everything she'd seen and heard, looked at Zion in shock.

She was wrong to think Zion would know something about what the 3rd Prince and Lergan were planning.

It was Zion who'd engineered this whole situation.

How cunning must he be to fool Lergan, known as the right hand and brain of Enoch, so perfectly?

Now, she found it believable that the Zion she knew months ago and the Zion now were two different people.

'Maybe he guessed that Lergan made a deal with a demon. That makes sense.'

If she had that kind of proof and knew Zion's original nature, Diana herself might have acted like Lergan.

Then.

"Shall we go on with the award ceremony?"

Zion spoke, looking at Solomon.

Despite nearly being cornered as a demon's ally just minutes ago, Zion's eyes held their usual lazy light.

As if nothing had happened.

"Ah, understood. Let's continue the award ceremony then."

With that, Solomon resumed the award ceremony, looking flustered.

Since the hall was quiet after the recent incident, it wasn't too hard to proceed.

'Doesn't the 3rd Prince suspect anything?'

Diana wondered as she watched Solomon and Zion.

The scene Lergan caused this time wasn't something he could have planned alone.

Clearly, the 3rd Prince, Enoch, was also involved.

But Zion, who was quietly accepting his award, didn't even glance at Enoch.

"Hmm, does he believe they can't be connected? Or maybe……."

Is he thinking of something else?

As she pondered, Diana turned her gaze to Enoch.

On the outside, he sat relaxed in his chair, but the veins on the back of his hand, gripping the armrest, throbbed.

Considering his right arm was gone, he must be quite upset.

Seeing that, Diana's mood lifted.

"......With this, in the name of Emperor Urdios, I grant Prince Zion Agnes the right to succession."

After that, the award ceremony ended without any more hiccups.

Step by step.

Zion slowly left the stage, just like he'd ascended at the start.

Yet for Zion, the name "Zion Agnes" carried a whole new weight for the nobles there than it did at the start of the ceremony.

Even if it was in name only, he was now an official successor, and his first impression had been striking.

Done with his duties, Zion left the palace. As he walked past the nobles, he found himself looking up at a strangely darkened sky.

'Is it time to call him now?'

The succession ceremony was crucial to Zion, so he'd held off responding to it until it was over.

But Zion wasn't planning to end everything just like this.

A black star shimmered in Zion's eyes as he slowly moved forward.

It was time to reap what was left.

---

---

The empire's notorious royal palace dungeon.

"...I was totally tricked."

Lergan's hollow voice echoed through the prison. He was leaning against the prison wall, bound by magic.

'How did he hide it? Those were sure signs of someone who's made a deal with a demon.'

Plus, even the tiniest traces of black magic would have been revealed by the divine magic Arbat Deol, performed by the seven high priests of light.

"But how…!"

Lergan, who'd been mumbling as if to chew on his words, hung his head and stopped speaking.

Whether Prince Zion had mastered black magic was no longer the point.

What mattered was that his carefully crafted plan had been shattered by Prince Zion.

No, from the beginning, Lergan himself had walked into a trap set by Prince Zion.

"How shameful."

Leaning heavily against the wall, Lergan muttered bitterly.

His eyes held no hope.

Insulting the royal family, harming the royal family, plotting to kill the royal family, and maybe even... treason.

Each crime that came to mind carried the death penalty.

Come tomorrow morning, he'd be led to the execution block, and his fellow Icarus wizards who'd conspired with him would face the same harsh sentence.

'If the Third Prince uses his influence, I might save my life, but...'

Even so, he'd have to live on the empire's frigid edges, battered by snowstorms. It was pointless.

Besides, the Third Prince had no reason to help Lergan.

He'd be busy showing he had no part in this incident.

In fact, Lergan remembered how Enoch had looked away when the palace knights arrested him.

"Hehe! I served him loyally, and this is how I'm discarded."

He understood the logic of it, but that didn't make the abandonment any easier to swallow.

A hollow laugh then escaped from Lergan's lips.

Creak-

The sudden noise of corroded metal caught his attention.

"Huh?"

Lergan instinctively turned toward the sound, his eyes filled with questions.

The prison door that had been firmly shut until just moments ago...

It was slightly ajar.

'What?'

Cautiously, Lergan approached the partially opened door and peered outside.

The prison hallway was empty; there were no guards in sight.

And, lying right in front of the door, was a key.

"No way……."

Click-

Tentatively, he inserted the key into the magical cuffs binding his wrists, and they sprang open as if they'd been waiting for this moment.

A look of astonishment washed over Lergan's face.

By this point, even a fool would've grasped the situation.

Someone wanted Lergan to escape from prison.

'Could it really be the Third Prince?'

Not many people within the palace could pull off something like this.

Among them, the most likely person to do this for him would be Third Prince Enoch.

This act contradicted what Lergan knew of the Third Prince's character, but a ray of hope was kindling within him.

"Right, he wouldn't dispose of me so casually."

Lergan was widely recognized as Prince Enoch's right-hand man. A level 7 high-ranking magician and a top-tier magician of the Summoning Tower, he had boundless potential for future growth.

Perhaps, after weighing the benefits and drawbacks, the Prince had decided it was better to save him.

'I may have to operate in the shadows now, but it beats dying.'

Just as Lergan completed his thought.

Creak, creak!

The adjacent prison doors burst open, and the Icarus wizards who'd been arrested alongside him in the palace started to emerge.

"Master Lergan!"

The wizards who'd spotted Lergan instantly approached him.

'Are they suggesting we should all escape together?'

Lergan, with a glint in his eye, quietly addressed the wizards.

"We're going to quietly slip out of here."

"Understood."

With his cohorts, who seemed to grasp his intentions, Lergan began to ascend the dungeon stairs.

It was almost as if they'd been summoned by someone.

By the time Lergan and the wizards reached the prison entrance, not a single guard was in sight.

'It's confirmed.'

Confidence flooded Lergan's gaze.

"We're heading to the imperial palace."

Finally, Lergan and the wizards, having escaped from the dungeon, began to move, their footsteps silently swallowed by the palace's darkness.

Thud, thud!

Having navigated the palace for over a decade, Lergan was well-versed in its more desolate corners. He'd already plotted the quickest route to the imperial palace, bypassing any bustling areas.

Moreover, all the wizards of Icarus were the cream of the crop, ensuring a swift pace.

'We're fortunate.'

Even though they only traversed less populated regions, it was possible to encounter a few people. But there wasn't a single soul that crossed Lergan's path until they came within sight of the imperial palace.

Was even fate favoring him?

His eyes radiated hope as they approached their destination.

'Just need to cross that garden……!'

Thud, thud!

Finally, the moment Lergan and his fellow Icarus wizards stepped into the expansive garden in front of the imperial palace...

"Are you arriving now?"

A chilling voice resonated through their ears.

At that, the wizards reflexively swiveled their heads toward the voice's origin.

Crack!

The wizard trailing at the rear of the group was bisected.

Blood erupted from the wound.

"……!"

The wizards' eyes glazed over in shock at the abrupt event,

A woman, her feet stepping on the blood-soaked earth, gradually revealed herself.

Her eyes, a striking red that would be noticeable anywhere, and a mesmerizing beauty.

It was Liushina.

"I thought I was going to perish from waiting."

The millennia-old witch, her crimson eyes brimming with a ruthless will to survive, grinned at Lergan and the Icarus wizards.

"You are……."

Lergan's eyes quivered as he gazed at her.

He couldn't understand why she was here.

'If this red-eyed woman is present...'

Thump-

A soft footfall interrupted Lergan's thoughts.

It was a sound he recognized.

A unique, compelling stride.

Zion Agnes.

The discarded prince, the forsaken pureblood, the shame of the royal family.

The owner of all these titles, a man who defied each of them, was slowly emerging from the shadows.

And then, comprehension dawned on Lergan.

"Could it be that all of this......!"

The snare set by Prince Zion hadn't concluded with Lergan's arrest during the ceremony.

The knights' timely arrival at the imperial palace.

Their escape from the dungeon subsequently.

Even the peculiar lack of individuals along the way.

Everything was part of the elaborate trap devised by Prince Zion.

Lergan's pupils quivered uncontrollably.

"You see."

Zion's eyes slowly curved into a crescent moon shape as he looked at Lergan.

"I prefer to personally deliver the reckoning."

Zion.

---

---

He had never planned to entrust the fate of everyone implicated in this incident to others.

Those who had dared to bare their fangs at him would be completely uprooted, obliterating even the slightest possibility of a comeback.

Such was the temperament of Zion Agnes, or rather, Emperor Aurelion.

The adversaries were already ensnared perfectly, and there was more than enough justification to eliminate them. Zion wouldn't let this chance slip away.

"This despicable......!"

Lergan spat out with a look of revulsion.

Zion's thoroughness and relentlessness were indeed bone-chilling.

Nonetheless, there was still a way out of this predicament.

'There are only two enemies.'

There were no other signs of opposition, of that he was certain.

He had no clue why only two had appeared, but if they managed to kill those two, escape was a possibility.

"Ready yourselves for battle."

A hushed voice emerged from Lergan, his composure regained.

Did he grasp Lergan's thoughts?

Whoosh!

A potent surge of magic emanated from the Icarus wizards around him.

"Yes, that's what makes this all the more exciting."

Zion, observing the scene with a smirk, also began to radiate an aura of darkness deeper than the night itself.

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