Chapter 621: Pure Love

"I actually... really... survived."

Muen walked out of the tribunal, raised a hand to shade his eyes, and felt the warmth of the sunlight, and he actually had the dazed feeling of returning to the human world.

It was too hard.

It really was too hard.

Just a little more, and he would have been crushed into meat paste by that perfect triangle, or directly and fairly cut into three equal parts.

The most terrifying thing in the world was ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) nothing but a jealous battlefield, and one where every side was stronger than you. The empire’s empress, the agency’s ruler, the church’s saintess... he was just a duke’s son, with no power to resist at all.

Like a chicken plucked bare on a chopping block, he could only silently wait for his fate.

And when he thought that this still wasn’t even the complete form of the jealous battlefield he would face, Muen once again despaired over his future to the point of tears welling up.

Sigh, but what could he do?

Since it was the road he chose, no matter how rugged and hard it was, he could only keep walking.

But! One day, he believed he would find a perfect solution for it!

Muen clenched his fist, and because of that harsh future, some spirit returned to him again.

But...

For now, wanting to flip the table and become someone above others was something he could only think about in bed...

"Speaking of which..."

Muen scratched his head and said in confusion, "Being able to interrupt Celicia’s spell, what exactly happened?"

It should have been something important...

Muen’s eyes shifted, and the corner of his mouth suddenly curled into a strange smile.

"Perfect. I’ll find someone to ask."

...

...

"Ho. Didn’t expect you, kid, to actually survive."

In a certain high-end restaurant, Pink Bear leaned back in a chair, shamelessly enjoying the top-tier ingredients Muen had ordered, and muttered with a mouth full of food.

"I was already planning to buy a coffin to collect your corpse. Good thing it was just me thinking about it. Saved a lot of money. Your luck really isn’t bad, kid!"

"This is all thanks to Royal Grand-Uncle’s hard work."

Muen interlaced his fingers and smiled.

"If you hadn’t defended me so hard, I might have been in danger."

"Haha, of course. We’re all one family in the future. If I can help, I’ll help."

Pink Bear laughed twice, then suddenly leaned in, lowered the voice, and asked in a sleazy whisper, "So? Where’s the thing you promised?"

"No rush..."

Muen pushed that greasy bear face away and said,

"You know exactly what kind of situation I’m in right now. If I casually leak something like that, and they find out it came from me, then I’m done."

"Hah. You kid are just too timid!"

Pink Bear twisted open a bottle of wine, gulped down several huge mouthfuls, and mocked him.

"Can’t you learn from me? So-called courage and wisdom are the hard standards for measuring a man’s charm. When have you ever seen me do anything as cowardly as you? Aren’t I still living just fine right now?"

"..."

So-called courage and wisdom meant noticing something was wrong and being the first to run, huh?

Muen’s eyelid twitched, but he still smiled.

"So?"

"What?"

"Has anything big happened in Belrand recently?"

"Ah, you mean that."

Pink Bear scratched the butt, turned the head, and looked out at the noisy street.

"Actually nothing that big... look outside. What’s different?"

"Outside?"

Muen turned to look as well, watched for a while, and asked cautiously, "It seems... livelier?"

After all, that incident had happened not long ago, and Belrand was still in the phase of slowly licking its wounds and recovering, but now Muen noticed there were quite a few more pedestrians on the street, and they were clearly carrying a bit of excitement.

"This is..."

"Watching a show."

Pink Bear said, "Today a foreign envoy will lead a delegation into the city to congratulate the empire’s new ruler on taking the throne. I hear the group is not small, and they brought plenty of good things, including rare treasures and strange beasts that even the empire doesn’t have. Of course everyone wants to go see."

"Which country?"

"A kingdom. The Kingdom of Saint Perod. It’s the first country to send congratulations."

Pink Bear shrugged, but didn’t seem to have any goodwill toward this first country at all.

"Saint Perod..."

A sharp glint also flashed in Muen’s eyes, and he said softly,

"I remember... that night, they sent people to get involved too, didn’t they?"

Back then, among the three Crowned Ones who had joined with the Inner Council to come to Belrand and stir trouble, one had been that Hermann from the Kingdom of Saint Perod.

Later, he died miserably at King Yintuo’s hands.

He just hadn’t expected that after their plot failed, they would be the first to send people over with gifts and congratulations.

"There really was the shadow of the kingdom’s meddling behind that night, and even their moves on the border haven’t stopped, but that old thing is already dead now. No proof, and they don’t admit it. What can you do? As for the border... haven’t they always liked doing sneaky little tricks at the border? Over a hundred years of messing around, and our border line has been forced back more than a hundred miles toward them."

Pink Bear said with a face full of disdain.

"So enthusiastic. What scheme are they up to?" Muen asked.

"Who knows? Over the past few hundred years, those narrow-minded bastards in the kingdom haven’t exactly been short on sneaky schemes. But between nations, how many schemes are there really to use? It’s because they obsess over that kind of thing and lack true breadth that they keep getting chased and beaten by us."

"So are they really here to congratulate?"

"Who knows. But..."

Pink Bear rubbed the chin, those pitch-black eyes rolling once, as if remembering something, and suddenly gave Muen a strange smile.

"I can’t be sure whether the congratulations are real, but from a certain angle, they might truly be different this time."

"What do you mean?"

"I heard this delegation is led by a certain genius from the kingdom who has been hidden from the world."

"Oh? A genius, here for what? To pick a fight and save face?"

Muen idly spun his red wine glass, having no interest at all in those so-called geniuses.

Just think about who was around him. A certain chosen protagonist leveling up like riding a rocket, a certain empress who was the youngest Crowned One in history, the Silent Bureau’s Swordbearer who, as an Evil God vessel, could contain part of a Divine Authority... even that soft-looking saintess, not to mention her own affinity with holy light, was also the kind of ruthless person who could set arrays like tossing pebbles just by reading books.

Genius?

Was there anyone more genius than those people?

Even if he came to pick a fight, it would still...

"Pick a fight, heh heh. In a certain sense, you could say that."

Pink Bear gave two sleazy laughs.

"According to my back-alley news, that genius’s most important mission... is to propose to Celicia."

"Pfft."

Muen sprayed a mouthful of red wine and stared at Pink Bear in shock.

"Propose? He wants to marry Celicia?"

"It’s marrying up!"

Pink Bear wiped the red wine off himself in dissatisfaction and corrected him.

"Celicia is the empire’s empress now. Who has the right to marry her? Of course it’s marrying up. He wants to become the empire’s consort prince, the prince consort. From then on, the two countries get along, exchange what they have, a joyous occasion, a joyous occasion."

"...Such a cliché plot. Is he also a prince?" Muen rolled his eyes, not expecting he would suddenly gain another competitor.

What is this, some ancient romance novel scraping the bottom of the barrel?

"I heard he’s the kingdom’s seventeenth prince."

"Never heard of him."

"That old thing in the kingdom has a lot of kids. Not hearing of him is normal. But this seventeenth prince is especially mysterious. If it weren’t for this trip as an envoy, the empire’s intelligence agencies wouldn’t even have noticed him. Looks like he really has something, and the kingdom has been hiding him since he was young."

"Oh."

"Hm? Kid, you don’t look worried at all."

Pink Bear raised an eyebrow.

"Someone’s coming to cuck you, put horns on you, steal your spot. Aren’t you going to fly into a rage for a beauty? Slam the table already! If I were you, I’d rush over right now and smash that bastard’s carriage axle!"

"Give it a rest. He’s not actually here to take a bride. Why get excited so early? If I go smash his axle now, I’d just be causing trouble for Celicia. And besides, even if we talk about it, why would I be worried?"

Muen spread his hands and shrugged at Pink Bear, looking quite relaxed.

"With Celicia’s personality, do you think there’s even a one-in-ten-thousand chance she agrees?"

"Uh..."

Pink Bear seriously thought for a while.

"No."

"Exactly."

Muen sneered.

"Whatever genius, whatever cuckold, in front of true pure love, they’re nothing but clowns. If he really dares to cause trouble, I’ll use my power of pure love to blow him up!"

"You kid..."

Pink Bear stared at Muen, speechless.

"You have the right to say the words pure love?"

"Believe me. For each of them, it’s pure love!"

Muen clenched his fist and declared seriously.

"..."

"Alright, enough talking. I’ve got something to do too, I’m leaving first."

Muen patted Pink Bear’s shoulder.

"Oh, right, my dear Royal Grand-Uncle. Before I go, I have a gift for you."

"A gift?"

Pink Bear’s eyes lit up.

"You kid have that kind of good heart?"

"Sigh, isn’t it to thank you for helping me just now? The thing you want, I can’t give it to you for now, so I can only repay your kindness in another way."

Muen looked sincere.

"What is it, what is it?"

Pink Bear couldn’t wait.

"Red wine? Cigars? Or..."

"Haha, how could something like that express my thanks to you? Look over there!"

Muen pointed, and the expectation-filled Pink Bear turned the head to look.

Then...

Pink Bear saw the former saintess, slowly putting on brass knuckles, opening and closing the five fingers, and walking over this way.

"Oh? Oranriel."

The former saintess seemed to have not lost the gentle calmness from when she was in office. She smiled and said,

"I heard that in a place like the tribunal, you openly displayed something pretty unbelievable. Can you explain it to me?"

"N-No... that... misunderstanding... misunderstanding..."

Feeling the sense of death drawing closer, Pink Bear turned back in grief and fury and roared,

"Bastard, you sold me out!"

"Didn’t you sell me out too?"

Muen smiled.

"Good friends are supposed to share hardship, aren’t they?"

"Who’s good friends with you? Watch your generation, you little bastard, I... ah! Misunderstanding! It really is just a misunderstanding! Listen to my explanation!!"

Watching Pink Bear scream and beg, bear paws gouging deep grooves into the floor, yet still unable to change the fate of being dragged away.

After everything settled down, Muen swirled his red wine glass and gazed out at the bright spring scenery.

"Now it’s balanced. Feels good."