'Exile, of all things!'
He was beyond delighted, all the way to dazed.
Since letting his pleasure show might get the punishment changed, he knelt for the time being.
"Your Highness. I was in the wrong. I shall never again commit degenerate acts as I did this time."
"Silence. You have lost the qualification to reside in the capital. You deserve to suffer the shame of being expelled from sacred soil. Not that you would have even the courage to draw a blade over it."
He was acting out remorse for now, but... this was fairly absurd.
'Draw a blade over being expelled, my foot.'
In Litania there was a tradition of preserving one's honor through taking one's own life.
And expulsion from the capital was a heavy enough sentence that any other Divine Race member might well have chosen it.
'I have no intention whatsoever of dying, though.'
For Zion Riobelt it might be otherwise, but for Zion Bliese, exile to Deber was not a punishment but a reward.
"Third Prince...... I beg your mercy......"
'Do not bestow it. Don't go soft, just send me into exile in Deber, no matter what. Understood?'
The Litania Empire's foremost undertaking was national enrichment and military strength.
Accordingly the First Prince had charge of colonial governance and the Third Prince of colonial development, and they were competing over the succession.
So going to Deber would also have the effect of escaping the Third Prince's influence.
This Third Prince bastard was a bit off-putting after all.
Once he got to Deber he ought to try getting friendly with the First Prince's side, who at least had a reputation for being the milder one.
'Hm? Hold on.'
Zion Riobelt was nominally of the Third Prince's faction. And yet sending him into exile in Deber of all places......
"Understand it as such and prepare for exile. Ah. The fact that you remain under this prince's management does not change, so I shall send correspondence from time to time. Reply the moment you receive it."
Meaning he'd be put to use as a local spy to observe conditions in Deber, the enemy camp.
This much, well. Even better, if anything.
'He's offering me letters from a powerholder second to none in the Empire, so I ought to snatch them up eagerly.'
Because there would be an enormous number of things he could do with them.
"Now get out. I hope never to see your face again."
"...I pray for your long life and good health."
Zion acted out despondency to the very end.
The Third Prince quietly watched Zion's back recede with its slumped gait.
'The bastard will inevitably plunge Deber into chaos. After an appropriate amount of time has passed, I ought to try inducing a civil war through him.'
It would be easy. He was a master at making enemies, after all.
There was the drawback that he wouldn't have a single ally, but for that it was enough to step in personally and furnish him with some.
He would make Deber a battlefield.
Deber would suffer colossal damage in the process, but.
It did not matter.
'What of it if a mere colony gets somewhat broken.'
If only he brought down the First Prince, the Emperor's seat would be placed in his hands.
***
The moment he returned to his residence he locked the bedroom door and settled in.
"I'm going back, Deber. Heh heh heh heh."
Recalling the things he could do in Deber in a prince's body set his body twitching on its own, but.
It would take roughly a week for the administrative procedures to be completed.
Since it was the execution of a punishment, there was no chance the schedule could be adjusted.
'I ought to spend the remaining time learning magic.'
He had obtained the miracle called the blank attribute.
Thanks to the change that had arisen when the Ring of the Guide responded to him in the Imperial treasury.
'Meaning I can now utilize magic as an asymmetric weapon.'
The problem was that Zion's magic system was rooted in the Deber royal house's secret art.
The characteristic of a secret art is that it comes with several conditions for entry, but in exchange its power is far stronger.
Since he was not of the royal bloodline now, it was obvious his rate of acquiring the royal secret art would be very slow.
...But.
'I have a good feeling somehow? Considering the Ring of the Guide responded to this body, surely...!'
He turned over the voice of the covenant that had come from the sky.
A covenant that had bestowed two miracles.
Presumably it was connected to the Deber royal house.
Wooooong...!
Four days. The span of the sun rising and setting four times.
Holed up in the bedroom the whole while and training nothing but magic, he was able to raise his standing by one more level.
Mana surged and drew a magic circle in empty air.
At a far faster rate than when he had Bliese's body.
"Just as I thought."
Even in Riobelt's body there was no penalty to learning the royal house's secret art.
Just as with the Ring of the Guide, the secret art's efficacy was being granted as though royal blood were mixed into his present body.
'Definitive proof that the covenant is connected to the royal house.'
He stroked the ring on his middle finger.
The Ring of the Guide, which grants efficacy only to those of the royal bloodline.
He searched his mana circuits and felt out the formless connecting passage linking him to the Stem of the North Star.
To have the efficacy granted even though the body had changed.
Could it be that not only royal blood but even the soul was recognized?
"Ah, that's right."
He abruptly realized one fact.
"It's already time for the magic to activate? Heh heh heh."
The line of Zion's mouth twisted.
When he set the magic in the Imperial treasury he had put a one-week limit on it.
Measured from the present moment, the remaining time was three......
"Two. One."
Switch, on!
***
On days when there are no authorized visitors, the Imperial treasury is sunk in darkness and stillness without a single guard.
Since thousands of assorted detection sensors, each worth 1,000 Luon, are installed there, there is no need to go to the trouble of putting people inside and inviting temptation at the sight of goods.
And so today too the day should have passed in darkness and stillness as usual, but.
Tik, tidik.
Light bloomed in the darkness.
It was a tiny, tiny light, but because the space was pitch-black without a trace of light, it stood out enormously.
Before long the light stretched out long and drew a single magic circle above the Stem of the North Star.
[Quere Stellam Orbita. Second efficacy, issue forth.]
The three magical efficacies possessed by the Stem of the North Star.
The first of them was amplification. An efficacy that strengthens the power each time the owner manifests magic.
And the name of the second efficacy was Homing.
Put simply, it was return magic.
The light moved and wrote letters in empty air.
[You stupid bastards. You didn't even take separate measures for an artifact enchanted with space-class magic?]
[Well, since I'm the only royal left, you presumably judged that return magic activatable only by the royal bloodline wasn't even worth guarding against.]
It was the same as with the Ring of the Guide. Since it would never be activated, they had left it be, figuring what did it matter whether return magic was there or not.
But.
At times, complacency leads to extreme loss.
[Open, passage of space. Move, starlight.]
Flash! The instant the magic circle blazed brightly. The entire darkened space filled with light.
And immediately afterward.
Beebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeebeep!!!!!!!!!
Amid the detection sensors, having detected the magic activated within the treasury, wailing like mad.
Mana mutated the space. It opened a path leading to where the thing rightfully belonged.
Bzzzzzzzt!
It wasn't as though the Empire had taken no measures at all.
This place was the Imperial treasury, no less. The Emperor's private treasure storehouse was guarded against possibilities amounting to one chance in ten thousand.
[Indeed, you had blocked spatial movement itself admirably.]
Space-class magic cannot be activated inside the treasury. Because a barrier into which an enormous quantity of mana stones had been invested was installed there.
But. But, you see.
[There's no way the likes of the Empire's magic could block this Zion Bliese's magic.]
CRASH!
A bursting sound like glass shattering. Fragments of light warping.
The treasury, its staff gone, sank into darkness once more.
But unlike before, the stillness that had pressed down on all sides was gone.
Beebeebeep!
Because the detection sensors were still wailing like mad.
Which also meant an uproar was scheduled to break out across the entire Imperial Palace.
"Custodian Chief, the Stem of the North Star is gone from among Deber's legacy items!"
"What? Good heavens, how can that be! That staff is the most precious of all the Deber articles!"
The Stem of the North Star was the staff used by Deber's kings and at the same time the sacred object symbolizing the royal house.
That was not just a figure of speech, it officially symbolized Deber.
Because in official diplomacy they had used the circuit-engraving magic enchanted into the staff like a state seal to leave an impression.
Which is to say, the Stem of the North Star is the Deber Kingdom's state seal.
"We must find it, without fail! If we fail to find it, every last one of tonight's shift will be executed! Myself included!!!"
The guards attached to the control room scattered in all directions. Everyone still within the Imperial Palace who had not yet gone to sleep was a subject of investigation.
"Third Prince. First Prince. I beg you to forgive the impertinence."
Even the first and second in the order of succession to the throne submitted to the investigation, so it would not be amiss to say the only exception was the Emperor.
"For tonight alone I shall forbid the use of the word impertinence. Find the culprit without fail. His Majesty will not so much as turn his attention to such a trifling affair, but as a representative of the Imperial house I can by no means look on idly."
The First Prince's order. The Third Prince went a step further.
It was also a response to the deliberate phrasing 'a representative of the Imperial house.'
"If there is even the slightest cause for suspicion, you may not shrink from torture. I permit it in the name of Garon Riobelt. Hang all responsibility on this prince's name and give investigation and rooting out the highest priority."
With the patronage of two princes added, there was nothing to hinder the search.
Screams rang out here and there, and not even the smallest clue was overlooked; all were made subjects of investigation.
"Custodian Chief. The last person to visit the Imperial treasury was His Highness the Ninth Prince, Zion Riobelt. Shall we summon him?"
"What?!"
The Custodian Chief flinched. However much they had the First Prince's and Third Prince's authorization, the Ninth Prince was a subject to be handled cautiously in a somewhat different sense.
'Considering the Ninth Prince's disposition, that piece of trash......'
Even if it had been the Emperor's order rather than the two princes', it was obvious he would nurse a grudge and retaliate if it displeased him.
...Besides, there was no chance the Ninth Prince was the culprit.
Even if he had the intent to commit the crime, he couldn't be the culprit because he lacked the ability.
Still, one never knew, so a minimum of verification would have to be carried out.
"If the Ninth Prince has visited the Imperial Palace today, summon him immediately and investigate."
"His last visit was one week ago."
The Custodian Chief's face crumpled violently. With irritation scraping at his mind, he ended up laying hands on the man.
SMACK!
"You stupid bastard! By common sense, could His Highness the Ninth Prince, huh? be the culprit when he hasn't even come to the Imperial Palace today! Instead of wasting time on this, go find a culprit with more solid circumstances behind him!!!"
"I-I'm sorry...!!!"
The slapped guard ran off in a hurry. And as he went, he thought to himself.
'Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have said anything. There's no way that delinquent Ninth Prince has the means to rob the Imperial treasury in the first place.'
Watching the guard run off, the Custodian Chief was thinking the same thing.
'If the Ninth Prince had done something when he entered the treasury, the sensors would already have caught it at that point.'
The Ninth Prince as the culprit? Intent aside, it was impossible in terms of intelligence and ability.
He was in truth the most suspicious in terms of circumstance, but no one at all suspected Zion Riobelt.
No one at all.
***
A dark interior. A single small oil lamp alone illuminating the documents on a narrow desk.
A shabby space in which one could glimpse circumstances requiring economy not merely in lighting magitech devices but even in lamp oil.
It was the command post of the Order, one of the Deber Liberation Army's two heads.
"Hooooo......"
Duke Arist let out a sigh, deep creases forming between his brows.
However much he handled the figures and pored over the documents, the hole would not be filled.
Because the Deber Liberation Army, defined as a rebel force by the Empire, was in no position to hold a proper source of income.
Calling itself an army corps while being unable to properly operate even a single tank was the reality of the Deber Liberation Army.
"If only we could receive a loan from one of the overseas great powers......"
But there was no nation that would lend money to the Liberation Army.
A loan is fundamentally a monetary transaction between state and state. Until the Deber Liberation Army met the conditions of a 'state,' even requesting a loan was impossible.
"Master Arist. Send me to Gizkal. I shall lead the comrades there myself and come back."
"That I cannot do."
Arist flatly refused Leianna's proposal.
Because she meant going as mercenaries for the Gizkal Federal People's Republic to earn money.
However badly they needed money, he could not let Leianna and the Liberation Army's fighters sell their lives in a futile place.
"But, Master Arist. If we fail to repay the debt in time, the Republican Assembly's grounds will be sold off."
This was the problem.
After they were reduced to a fallen nation, the place they had set up to serve as a face for them at least abroad was precisely the Republican Assembly.
An organization that officially had no relation whatsoever to the Liberation Army, a rebel force, and that sought to achieve Deber's peaceful independence democratically.
And the grounds and building where that Republican Assembly sat were in danger of having their ownership transferred to another party.
"You know how it is. If we lose ownership, the Empire will buy it up without question. And then they'll shame and humiliate us in every possible way."
For example, by demolishing the assembly building and putting up an Imperial house memorial hall in its place.
It was horrifying just to imagine, and they absolutely had to find the money.
"A method... hnng. Even if the sky falls there is always a hole to climb out of, and yet I wonder whether there is any need for the hole for money to be quite this absen......t?"
Arist let his words trail off. And then he stared blankly at the change unfolding before his eyes.
A single strand of light falling onto the desk. Drawing out a magic circle as though it were someone's handwriting.
At that moment.
The lamp flame went out for an instant and lit again.
Space splitting. Something rising up.
He could identify it from its silhouette alone. Never mind that the appearance was familiar and well known to him, this was an item he had wanted to reclaim so badly that he had dreamed of it more than dozens of times.
"...The Stem of the North Star......!"
The sacred object symbolizing the royal house. The king's magic staff which, using its built-in projection magic, had effectively doubled as the state seal.
That very item was now before his eyes.
The Stem of the North Star floated bobbing in the air and then settled softly into the hand he extended.
Hm. He could feel its weight.
Hm. He was composed.
For a man who had just taken into his hands a sacred object he had wanted to reclaim even in exchange for his life, his mood was...... his heart was......
"Haaaaaaah!"
When Arist sprang to his feet and let out a scream, Leianna jolted in alarm and assumed a defensive posture.
"Vice-Commander, what is—...... Eeeyaaaaah! The Stem of the North Star!"
She screamed along with him.
It was the moment a sacred object that should have been sealed in the Imperial treasury, deep in the heart of the Empire, returned to where it rightfully belonged.
"How on earth!"
"And why on earth!"
"The Stem of the North Star, our Deber's sacred object in my han....... Hah!"
With a gaze in which the light of hope flashed, Arist cried out.
"A loan! Leianna, prepare envoys to send to other nations at once."
The Deber Liberation Army was not a state and so could not receive a loan from another nation.
But. With the Stem of the North Star, the story changed somewhat.
One of the conditions for an ethnic force to be recognized as a state.
To possess a symbol representing sovereignty, such as a state seal used in signing diplomatic documents.
A wrinkled hand gripped the staff tight.
"Now that we have reclaimed the Stem of the North Star, we can request a loan, a loan. A hole to climb out of has appeared, ho ho ho."
Fifty-five years ago, Deber, robbed of the sacred object, had been reduced to a state where it could not even establish diplomatic relations with other nations.
Having lost the Stem of the North Star, in a mere five years it had fallen to the status of a colony.
Such is the importance of sovereignty and the symbols of sovereignty to a nation.
Put the other way around, it meant that from this very moment Deber could once again hold an ember of life in its mouth.
"I shall prepare them at once, no, I shall go myself!"
Leianna ran out in high spirits, and before long vitality began to circulate throughout the entire Liberation Army.
'I know not which noble person returned the sacred object to us, but I offer my sincere thanks.'
At the very hour Arist paid his respects to empty air with a heart full of gratitude.
The very party who had brought the Deber Liberation Army such enormous good fortune, the Crown Prince of Deber and Litania's trash prince, Zion, was......
"Oh, woe is me. So much for a prince's dignity, oh dear."
Carrying his luggage bag with his very own delicate princely hands, wandering through filthy back alleys.
"Even so, I'm a prince, isn't this a bit much."
Total confiscation of assets.
Prohibition on being accompanied by attendants.
The two conditions attached to the sentence of exile.
They were also the reason he was walking through the oldest slum alleys of Deber's royal capital, Seiel.
"Ugh, well. At least I arrived in Deber safely."
A prince's assets would have been colossal, however little he knew of them, and having those taken was a bit disheartening, but.
'Money can be earned.'
For the vanished Zion Riobelt this situation would have been like hell, but.
For Zion Bliese it was a situation much like everyday life.
"Well then, shall I go earn some money."
Zion, smiling broadly, sent his gaze deep into the darkness-covered alley.