The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character

Episode 33: The Rookie Adventurer Bern (31) – Blanca’s Resolve

Episode 33: The Rookie Adventurer Bern (33) – Blanca’s Resolve

News of the subjugation of the lich spread far and wide, with an earth-shattering impact.

The wicked lich’s scheme to gain power through countless human sacrifices, and the Guild’s all-out war against it.

Despite only the most elite being selected, a significant number of casualties arose, even including the Guild Master, a long-standing pillar and symbol of the Guild.

It was fortunate that they had succeeded in subduing the lich; had they failed, the adventurers involved in the operation could have been annihilated.

And the testimonies of the surviving adventurers and the rescued victims brought even greater astonishment to the people.

“That red-haired fellow. Bern. If he hadn’t volunteered to act as bait, if we hadn’t been able to ferret out the traitors beforehand, we surely would have suffered crippling losses. To think that vile creatures who sold their souls to the lich were ready to stab us in the back… it still sends shivers down my spine.”

“An adventurer with striking red hair freed us from the chains that bound us and led us out of our cages. If it weren’t for him, we would have all been sacrificed.”

“I couldn’t see clearly because of that damned fog, but even just looking at the traces of battle, you could tell he fought a bloody battle against a host of death knights. Even the Guild Master was among them. My vocabulary is too limited to describe how incredible it was.”

The rookie adventurer, Bern.

A young man who, in a short time – less than half a year since becoming an adventurer, achieved tremendous feats, and vanished just as swiftly as his accomplishments mounted.

Those who heard the news couldn’t help but admire his exploits, yet felt a profound regret.

If only Vern had survived, they said, he could have filled the vacant seat of the Guild Master, nay, even surpassed the Guild Master and become a legend.

“Bah! All hogwash!”

…Of course, as is the way of the world, not everyone was pleased with this popular opinion.

The Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters. A tavern in its vicinity.

With a face flushed with drink, an adventurer slammed his glass onto the table, raising his voice.

“To jump into the enemy’s trap alone and crush them in reverse? To overwhelm multiple Death Knights? Absolute bollocks. Might as well say he sliced up a dragon while he was at it!”

At the adventurer’s words, the gaze of several patrons in the tavern converged on him.

A comrade at the same table, with a hesitant expression, tried to dissuade him.

“Lower your voice, eh? People are listening.”

“Damn it, did I say something I shouldn’t have? It doesn’t make sense, logically.”

“There are witnesses, are there not?”

“Those testimonies can be fabricated, so what? If I say I saw flying spaghetti, does it suddenly exist? It does not, right?”

“Hmph.”

The comrade shook his head slowly. He sensed that any words he spoke would fall on deaf ears.

A few adventurers at other tables glanced their way, but the man raised his voice even louder, as if daring them to listen.

“The Guild must be spreading the rumors. Trying to create a tragic hero, to cover up stories that are inconvenient for them!”

There were many holes in the man’s argument.

If the Guild wanted to create a tragic hero, why mention Vern’s name instead of selling the deceased Guild Master’s legacy?

But hatred, by its very nature, isn’t logical.

The man simply needed a reason to justify his envy and jealousy toward the lauded “young hero,” and any reason, so long as it was “plausible,” would suffice. What did truth matter?

*Tling!*

Just then, the tavern’s front door opened, and new patrons entered.

However, the man, already drunk on the truth he’d concocted, paid them no mind, continuing his conspiracy theory.

“Or, perhaps, that Vern was a lackey of the Lich from the start. Rather than some newbie perfectly discerning and countering the Lich’s plot, maybe they were collaborators to begin with, and something just went sideways, killing them both?”

“Ooh, that’s plausible, isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s not like there aren’t capable rookies out there, but the rumors going around do seem a bit exaggerated.”

A few of the adventurers at other tables nodded in agreement.

Some, like the man who started the conversation, simply disliked Vern’s reputation. Others were just looking for something to chew on and responded accordingly.

A rising hero who was actually the Lich’s puppet – wasn’t that just the perfect subject to revile and condemn?

In truth, less than a tenth of the adventurers in the tavern agreed with the man’s claims, but he puffed out his chest as if everyone in the place affirmed his theory.

Just as he was about to speak again,

one of the two newcomers approached him and asked,

“What was that?”

“I said, that Vern b*stard was a Lich’s lackey, huh?”

The man answered reflexively, but quickly realized that the voice asking the question wasn’t his tablemate’s, but belonged to an unfamiliar woman. He stopped mid-sentence.

“And who are you?”

She had sky-blue hair and eyes.

Her height was average, and her build, visible beneath a beige cloak, was slender.

A sword hung from her belt, but she didn’t appear particularly threatening, perhaps due to her overall delicate appearance.

“Take back what you just said.”

A demand, short and to the point.

Had any of the woman’s acquaintances been present, they would have recognized the barely restrained fury simmering beneath her composure. But a drunken man possessed no such insight.

It was merely irritating that a woman who appeared far weaker than himself, one who likely only played at being an adventurer, was issuing him orders.

“What the hell are you? Who the hell do you think you are, ordering me around?”

“Bern did his best in the fight against the Lich, and as a result, many were saved. Stop making baseless assumptions when you don’t even know the circumstances.”

“Ha! His best, my ass. The idiot didn’t know his place, went sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, and died, that’s all─”

That was as far as the man got.

Because the woman grabbed the back of his head and slammed it into the table.

*Thwack!*

The dull thud reverberated throughout the tavern, and the food on the table flew into the air before settling back down.

The man’s body twitched spasmodically, then went limp, all strength gone.

“What, what the—!?”

The man’s companion at the table, panicked, instinctively drew his weapon, but he couldn’t bring himself to swing it.

The woman’s eyes.

Normally, sky-blue eyes conveyed a cool and clear image, but not hers.

They burned like flickering flames, and seeing them, he froze like prey before a predator.

Overwhelmed by the ominous atmosphere, the other adventurers in the tavern were equally subdued, holding their breath as they stared at the woman.

And to those adventurers, she,

Blanca, declared.

“If there are any amongst you who doubt Bern’s prowess, his skill… send them all to me. I’ll let them see for themselves, if the rumors are true or inflated, just as you’ve witnessed now.”

With each syllable chewed and spat out, the adventurers swallowed hard.

Those who had been happily tearing Bern down alongside the man earlier, flinched, avoiding her gaze.

Even the roughest of adventurers couldn’t help but tread carefully, so utterly ferocious was the aura Blanca now exuded.

“Ahem, Sister. Enough now. I think they’ve all understood well enough.”

As if to break the tense air, Renya, who had entered the tavern with Blanca, spoke to her.

Blanca glanced at Renya and pulled her hand away from the back of the man’s head.

Renya offered a generous tip to the tavern keeper, asking him to clean up the mess, and the owner, who had been watching the atmosphere with anxious eyes, eagerly nodded.

The group moved to the tavern’s third floor, a space reserved only for special guests, where the Eastern Branch’s secretary greeted them with a look of utter exasperation.

“Hey, you lot? Didn’t I explicitly tell you not to cause trouble? The guild’s already in a bad mood, and if a rivalry springs up between headquarters and the Eastern Branch, then we’ll truly be in a pickle, you hear?”

Blanca answered the secretary’s words with a lukewarm response.

“Then you shouldn’t have summoned us here for testimony or whatever it was in the first place. Or at least prevented that kind of nonsense from being uttered.”

“Hey, the only reason I was chosen as the Eastern Branch’s guide for you lot is because of you, are you seriously going to do this!?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“Knowing the average temperament of you adventurers, why are you acting so sensitive? Or what, are you going to beat down everyone who speaks ill of Bern from now on?”

“If necessary, I will.”

At the unwavering pronouncement, the secretary sighed deeply.

His head throbbed with a growing headache, but in truth, he couldn’t entirely fault Blanca’s attitude.

The person who extended a hand in her time of need.

The person who helped her achieve her lifelong goal of revenge.

A man who risked his very life to save her.

Even one element alone would be enough to inspire gratitude, or perhaps love, but it was Bern who achieved the impossible trifecta.

The bureaucrat, remembering Blanka’s relentless tears and exhausted collapses, desperately convinced himself that this situation was preferable to that one.

“So, what’s the situation at headquarters?”

“A mess.”

The bureaucrat answered Blanka’s question curtly.

“We certainly rescued a lot of people, and taking down the Lich has boosted the guild’s reputation… but we’ve lost just as much.”

A considerable number of elite adventurers were gone.

The guild master, a symbol representing the Adventurer’s Guild and the only Rank 5 adventurer, was gone.

Furthermore, significant costs had been incurred for request fees and various cleanup operations.

“Some are saying the guild master was too hasty. That he should have at least tried to negotiate with the royal family or other nobles, to get their cooperation or support.”

Blanka narrowed her eyes.

“Defeating the Lich was something that needed to be done quickly. He had already turned several Rank 4 adventurers into his underlings, spread them throughout human society, and filled the dungeon with all sorts of monsters. Do you know what kind of catastrophe would have occurred if he had successfully completed the ritual?”

“I know, I know. I know that the guild master made a quick decision, so we moved relatively quickly, and that if we had argued with those damned royals, they probably would have passed the buck, and negotiations might have taken years, okay?”

The bureaucrat lit his pipe tobacco with a frustrated air.

“The guild master is a product of a time when the guild still strongly identified as a vigilante group. So, he made a decision to save people, first and foremost. And many lives were saved thanks to this operation. But it’s also true that the guild suffered losses as a result.”

Whoosh, the smoke painted patterns in the air.

“With the guild master’s position vacant, there will probably be a fierce political struggle within the Adventurer’s Guild for a while. And judging by the current atmosphere, the Adventurer’s Guild will… become more ‘rational’.”

Rational.

Blanka was not ignorant of the meaning hidden within that word.

One does not engage in losing propositions. One calculates gains before acting.

Prioritizing the organization’s profits over the crimson lives or laughter of others.

The guild, thus changed, would likely grow stronger.

But, it would become all the colder for it.

Blanca mused, abruptly.

How would Bern, of all people, receive such a guild, such adventurers?

He who called the irrational, loss-bearing act of accepting a single flower offered by a dirt-smeared child as payment to fight a mighty monster, “the romance of an adventurer.”

He who proudly declared becoming an adventurer was among his dreams.

Could he still like adventurers, so utterly transformed?

Blanca didn’t think so.

Therefore, she spoke.

“Does a guild master have to be strong in combat, necessarily?”

“Hmm? Well, not particularly? In the previous guild master’s case, it was an accumulation of experience, accomplishments, and so on. But why?”

“I think you, the secretary, should become the guild master.”

“……. ……? ……??”

Blanca continued, calmly, towards the secretary who was dumbfounded, as if wondering what he had just heard.

“The guild will need a new symbol, regardless. Despite boasting a handful of Rank 4 members, whether or not there’s a Rank 5 powerhouse determines the organization’s standing. I’ll take that role. So, you should aim for the pinnacle in administration.”

“Oh, oh, Sister! You harbor such grand ambitions! This Renya will serve you with utmost devotion!!”

“Renya, you also need to improve your skills further. You should expand your party, too. Well, proposing a party merger to Karina wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”

“That would make five people: warrior, scout, healing mage, battle mage, and an all-rounder. The balance seems rather good!”

The chief clerk’s eyes flickered.

Frozen by the tale that had begun unfolding before him without permission, the clerk could only manage a single, bewildered word.

“…Why?”

“Because, otherwise, what Bern did won’t be ‘foolishness.’”

If everyone lived only selfishly and rationally, anyone who showed kindness or goodwill would become a simpleton.

Blanca did not want Bern to become that.

The romance of the adventurer he spoke of, the dream he yearned for, she wanted to transplant it into reality.

That, above all, was Blanca’s offering to the adventurer Bern, and her own personal resolution.

‘…Farewell, Bern. I hope that, even from there, you will watch over me.’

*

“Achoo! Groooan…Catching a cold with this body is a first for me…”

[More like, why is it *only* a cold? Even if he’s as skilled at soul manipulation and multiple processing as a demon, the worst case scenario for a fragment destroyed wrong could be utter ruin.]

“Falling from a horse is dangerous, you know. A person can up and die in a flash. But if you land right, you might just end up with a bruise. It’s all like that, see.”

So went the Crown Prince, utterly unaware of the misunderstanding and resolution brewing in a certain girl’s heart, far away in a distant kingdom.