The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#377 Tyrant (4) - Genius and Calamity (E/N: Genius here refers to Trisha, and Calamity refers to Alondre) Let's try a little thought experiment. From the moment your own child was born, they had some kind of mental problem, and for a long time—about 20 years, say—you had to take care of them. But then suddenly the child started speaking normally. Normally you'd be overjoyed. You might feel tears and deep emotion at the child's recovery. But now suppose that child doesn't just reach the level of merely "speaking," but becomes so fluent that they skillfully use a language no one ever taught them, fluent enough to debate with other people. At that point, no matter how blinded by love the parent is, they can't help feeling bewilderment rather than joy, doubt rather than gratitude. Wait, our child isn't like that? A child who hadn't spoken a single word in their whole life for 20 years, suddenly? How? "Actually, my mind has been perfectly clear since a certain point. It's just that something was wrong somewhere in my body, so I simply couldn't express it outwardly. But this time, Her Highness the Crown Princess cured me. Of course, the reason I know this much is thanks to Mother, who has devotedly cared for and taught me all this time." "Oh my...!!" And the time it took for Alondre to then talk down Eleanor, who had been shocked by that absurd situation—a mere 10 minutes. It was a number that made Trisha, watching from the side, shudder without even meaning to. Eleanor, who had hugged Alondre, laughed, cried, and expressed her feelings in every way imaginable, soon fell rapidly into a state of exhaustion. Her health hadn't been good to begin with, and after such sudden, excessive excitement, the backlash had caught up with her. Alondre and Trisha carried her, nodding off yet forcing herself to stay awake, to the bed, and once she had fallen asleep, Trisha asked. "Brother Alondre." "What is it, Trisha?" "That story just now—was it true? The part about your mind inside actually having been fine all along." "Not a chance." Alondre continued speaking as he plopped down into a chair. "What should be called this body's original mind, or soul, was thoroughly shattered. Nearly to the point of being a walking corpse." "Then what about you now, Brother?" "A body that was merely breathing recognized the 'Crown Prince' within your memories, and kneaded the shattered soul like clay, molding it into that very same shape — that's the result." "...In other words, the soul itself belongs to 'this side,' but the brother I know has been overlaid on top of it. Is that what you mean?" "In the end, the main component of a personality is memory. If the memories belong to that side, then even if the backdrop those memories are etched onto belongs to this side, one can't help but think in that side's way." Trisha thought for a moment. 'But I never actually possessed Brother Alondre's memories to begin with — I only ever observed from the outside. So how exactly could memories possibly get copied out of that?' But she didn't bother voicing that question aloud. Whatever it was, Brother had just done his Brother thing, as usual. Trisha had already learned that trying to argue logic with a creature of the species "Crown Prince" would only exhaust her. Besides, that wasn't what mattered right now anyway. 'Wow! I've got an ally now!' In truth, even though Trisha had woken "this side's" Alondre, aside from making Eleanor happy, it didn't do much to help Trisha herself. After all, he'd only just returned from being an idiot to being a normal person — he'd still be at square one, with no knowledge or wisdom built up yet. But if Alondre's personality was close to the Alondre of his original world, then there was no one more perfect to discuss things with. "First of all, Trisha. Your goal is to return to your original world, isn't it?" "That's right." "It's unfortunate, but right now even I find it hard to pin down the cause, let alone come up with a countermeasure. As you know, this body of mine right now is just an ordinary person who's never learned swordsmanship or magic at all." "It's fine. Just being able to consult with you at all is already a huge deal." "I'm glad to hear you say that. But it would be best if you didn't come too often." "Huh?" "Well, if word got out that I'm speaking and moving like this right now, wouldn't there be a certain someone who'd find that extremely inconvenient?" "Oh." There had been no specific mention of who, but that alone was enough for Trisha to understand at once. The Emperor. Uncle to the both of them. A beast wearing human skin, who had climbed onto the throne on the pledge that he'd make his elder brother's child his heir, only to spend his reign, once he actually sat on it, eliminating his nephews and nieces one by one. If a man like that heard news that his brother's — the previous Emperor's — legitimate eldest son had become fully sound of mind again? Without anyone noticing a thing, Alondre and his mother too would end up suffering an "unfortunate accident." "Understood. I'll cut down on how often I visit, as much as I can." "Good thinking. I'll keep playing the idiot for a while longer too." That was the end of their discussion. After that, Trisha spoke as family. "I'm glad you woke up safely, Brother." Alondre didn't answer right away. He remained lost in thought for a moment, and only gave a short answer just as Trisha began to feel puzzled. "Yeah." *** Trisha was an exceptional girl. Overflowing with wit, bright, and basically a walking gift set of competence, you could say. But to put it the other way, no matter how overflowing with talent she was, she was still, for now, nothing more than a "girl." Currently fifteen years old. She was bound to be lacking in worldly experience, and besides, people have trouble easily imagining things they haven't personally gone through. In other words, what this meant was— "Your Highness the Crown Princess. Going forward, it would be best if you refrained from visiting the Dowager Empress's detached palace." —Meaning that faced with some bizarre situation utterly beyond the reach of logic or common sense, even someone like her couldn't help but feel bewildered. On the way back to her own palace after finishing her meeting with Alondre. Trisha stared blankly at the face of the knight who had abruptly blocked her path and unilaterally unloaded a tirade at her. That's right. A knight. To put it more specifically, the Golden Cloud Knights currently under Trisha in her status as "Crown Princess." Derek Vagraupf, knight captain of that very Golden Cloud Knights. Standing behind him were two knights, one of whom was the very man who, when Trisha told him not to follow her, had said "understood" to her face and then flatly ignored it and tailed her anyway. "I'm sorry. My ears seem to have gone a bit deaf just now, so would you mind saying that one more time?" At Trisha's words, knight captain Derek's eyebrow twitched. He spoke in a tone that sounded like he wanted to sigh but was holding it in. "Your Highness. The Golden Cloud Knights are the ones responsible for Your Highness's safety. And yet, not only did you dismiss your escort on a whim, you went of all places to the Dowager Empress's palace. This kind of conduct is a problem." "I didn't even leave the imperial palace grounds — I only went from one palace to another within the grounds. Do I really need to drag a knight along for that? And why exactly is going to the Dowager Empress's palace a problem?" "Well, because negative energy might rub off, mightn't it. If Your Highness were to lose your sanity, His Majesty would be terribly grieved." "......?" Trisha's thoughts ground to a halt. She spent a moment organizing her thoughts about the situation. The knight captain of the Golden Cloud Knights — the very order that belonged under Trisha, the "Crown Princess" — had just scolded his own liege for going somewhere of her own accord, then handed down an "order" that she not do so again from now on. When Trisha, his own liege and the very person he was supposed to be protecting, questioned him about it, he responded with an attitude as if to ask whether he really had to spell out even something this obvious. And on top of that, he had treated the palace where the previous Emperor's wife, this nation's Dowager Empress, resided as if it were some contaminated zone. What's more, the supposed source of that contamination was the previous Emperor's legitimate eldest son — in other words, what he meant was "go somewhere an idiot is, and you might end up with something wrong in your head too." '...Could it be that this moron messed with his own brain during aura training and went insane?' That was the most reasonable interpretation Trisha could come up with. Because otherwise, she had no confidence at all that she could explain this absurd situation any other way. The problem was, it seemed that Trisha was the only one who found the current situation absurd at all. The Crown Princess was being reprimanded by her own knight captain right at the entrance of her own palace, and yet no one nearby showed any sign of anger or bewilderment at the sight. The knights wore faces that said this was only natural, the officials sidled away as if unwilling to get involved, and the servants peeked over, curious about what was going on. Ah-ha, Trisha realized something. So she put on a gentle smile for the knight captain and played coy. "Ha ha, understood. It seems I've caused trouble by acting on my own. Everyone's gone through quite a lot because of me." "Ahem, no. How could serving Your Highness ever be called trouble. I merely offered my sincere counsel, so please don't let it upset you." "Of course! Why on earth would I be upset?" From the moment she parted with the knights, through entering the Golden Cloud Palace, all the way back to her own room — no, even after she got there — the smile never left Trisha's face. That is, on the surface, anyway. 'Well, how about that. I was a moron too. To think I didn't even properly grasp my own position.' Trisha had once privately assessed that, to the current Emperor, she was essentially a "pretty bird in a cage." But she'd lacked any real, concrete sense of what that actually meant. 'No matter how good the bloodline, no matter how pretty the looks, a pet is still just a pet, after all.' Let's think about it simply. Say there's a company, and that company's president absolutely dotes on his pet dog. Then how would the company's employees treat that dog? Of course they wouldn't mistreat it. They'd look after it reasonably well, feed it when necessary, and shower it with all sorts of praise in front of the president. But if it climbed up onto the table where people eat, they'd recoil and shove it off, and if it clawed up the wallpaper, they'd scold it too. And above all, if the president said this dog was going to be the next president, everyone would go "huh?" or just laugh it off, praising the president's sense of humor. That was exactly Trisha's position right now. The Emperor doted on her to some degree, and merely "pretended" to treat her decently since she, unlike the imperial family before her, didn't look like she'd drop dead right away — but not a single soul actually believed she would truly become the next Empress. 'God, I want to wreck them. I really, seriously want to wreck them. I think I could at least take his head clean off.' Frankly speaking, the current Golden Cloud Knights shared nothing but the name with the Crown Prince's Golden Cloud Knights that Trisha knew — in truth, an entirely different group altogether. In particular, that so-called knight captain or whatever he was clearly looked even weaker than his own subordinates at a glance — to the point that if someone just handed Trisha a single rapier, she could carve him up on the spot. But what came after that, she couldn't handle. "...Hah. Looks like sorting this out is going to take quite a while." First, cry in front of the Emperor to stir up some sympathy, then try opening a back channel through the servants, and also try opening a line of contact with Mother Beatrix. In order to pull off palace intrigue under these absolutely shitty conditions, Trisha made up her mind to run around 42 different schemes simultaneously. It truly was the kind of diversity and planning prowess befitting a genius. *** "First, let's see about fixing up the Golden Cloud Knights, shall we." "Huh?" "Don't you worry. If you hit it diagonally, it'll work out somehow." And then the calamity moved.