Jens felt strange again. It was like he had heard these words recently from someone, somewhere. But he couldn’t remember the source.

Struggling not to reveal his peculiar feeling, he quietly unfolded the documents he had brought and placed them down.

“So you’re ‘that man.'”

“Is there any need to speak so indirectly? Aren’t you ‘the Republic’s hero’? A descendant who brings no shame to the name and family of your grandfather, ‘the Star of the Navy.'”

Perhaps because of what the princess had told him, Jens felt immediate aversion to Luten’s words despite them being complimentary. In truth, he had been sick of such empty titles for a long time. He would almost prefer the 3rd Prince’s sneer.

“The Republic’s hero? How easily they bestow the title of hero upon a mass murderer these days.”

“I merely carried out operations according to wartime requirements.”

The 3rd Prince Jorge only sneered at Lüse’s rebuttal.

“What kind of hero sends so many humans to the bottom of the sea? Sir Hero? Are you proud of a name earned that way?”

“…”

“Well, I suppose Imperial citizens aren’t even human to you.”

Jens neither contradicted him nor looked at the 3rd Prince as he stepped back. He heard murmurs from behind questioning whether the Empire hadn’t started the war first, but he didn’t turn around. He simply kept his gaze lowered indifferently.

Even if someone lunged at him threatening to brand “murderer” on his forehead, he had no intention of resisting.

Seeing Jens like this, the 3rd Prince gritted his teeth and turned his attention to the documents Jens had placed down. After quickly reading them, he pushed back his chair and stood up. Bang. The Prince’s chair tumbled over.

“You, bastard…”

The attendants were stunned by the Prince’s seemingly uncontrolled behavior and rushed forward, but couldn’t bring themselves to touch him, fidgeting anxiously.

He looked like he wanted to grab Jens by the collar, who kept his eyes lowered. Barely restraining his impulse, the Prince glared at him with an even more enraged face than before.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Seeing the Prince ignore him and speak only to Jens, Admiral Lüse sighed. Then he addressed Jens.

“Lieutenant. Explain it to him.”

“Yes. Your Highness. The Empire’s 17th Princess Aira Merime von Tilrsimrod der Anarchia, who was expelled from the Imperial vessel Girogssar due to an onboard rebellion, has expressed her desire for asylum in the Republic.”

“Shut up. An Imperial princess seeking asylum?”

“Aira Merime herself signed the documents renouncing her status and requesting asylum. You may verify this through an authentication expert.”

The Prince whipped his head around sharply. One of his attendants quickly came forward and placed a cylindrical device with a round glass on top of the document. The Republic soldiers flinched.

Glowing letters appeared above the Imperial magical device, unseen in the Republic. After examining these letters, the attendant turned to the Prince with a grim face.

“It is indeed the Princess’s signature, Your Highness.”

“…”

The Prince’s clenched fist had been trembling for quite some time. Then he turned to Jens again with a jerk of his chin.

“Then what is that?”

What the Prince pointed to was a guarantee of identity alongside the Princess’s status renunciation document. The name signed in the guarantor column was Jens Will.

Jens struggled to swallow a sigh. Since no one wanted to take responsibility, the Princess’s guarantor position had been left vacant, and when the Republic learned about the Military Academy recommendation and sponsorship documents he was preparing, they dumped the guarantor role on him as well. It was a natural conclusion but extremely troublesome.

He glanced at Admiral Lüse, wondering if he should say more, but the Admiral wasn’t even looking at him, focusing only on the agreement documents. Reluctantly, Jens opened his mouth.

“It’s because the ship Aira Merime boarded was the Nautile, to which I am assigned.”

The Prince glared at him like he was saying something ridiculous. His deep blue eyes seemed about to burst into flames. The Prince took one step closer to him.

Some soldiers behind who knew Jens flinched, but he remained completely still.

Coming close to Jens, the Prince spoke in a voice so low that even Lüse and Luten, who were right nearby, couldn’t hear.

“Jens Will.”

Ah, isn’t this too obvious?

“Don’t you dare look at that child.”

Jens finally let out a sigh and met his gaze.

The Prince’s eyes held certainty. That the Princess had been transferred to the Republic through Jens’s machinations. That he had stolen a treasure that someone like him had no right to touch. The Princess’s abilities, her appearance. And her strength and precariousness too.

That Jens had done all this because he desired her and all those things.

Emotions both verbalized and unexpressed.

All pointing to a single truth.

This Prince was in love with the girl.

It wasn’t what the Princess had implied—desiring her for legitimacy or bloodline. This was simply the face of a young man in love with a girl.

He wanted to hurl naval curses at this young man a couple of years younger than himself who had fallen into a twisted love.

Why don’t you know what that girl you adore knows?

‘You don’t love anyone.’

Though he couldn’t understand how she knew, she had that exactly right.

‘You don’t even love yourself.’

You’re right, Princess.

It’s because I love no one that I can commit acts of slaughter that this Prince condemns without feeling anything.

What hero am I? I’m just a machine part that performs tasks as directed. And a defective part with missing teeth at that.

“Stop this nonsense and return Aira. I’ll give you anything.”

I suppose it’s the same for you, Princess. You too couldn’t bear being there because you’re a defective part meant to be a power source sustaining that enormous Empire.

So you refused to become a part, rejected the meshing of the turning gears, and came here.

But this place is also just a den of monsters with the same massive machinery. Everyone will try to make you a cog in their wheel and push you in.

I hope you realize it before it’s too late. And escape safely.

Like the path I’m trying to find.

“Negotiations belong at the negotiation table.”

Jens cut him off quickly and retreated to where the Republic soldiers were gathered. Click. It felt like being locked back into place. That detestable feeling he always had.

The Prince stared at Jens’s retreating back like he wanted to stab him to death. Then, seemingly having realized something, he gave Jens a pitying look before sitting at the table.

His rationality seemingly restored, his face returned to the cold expression commonly seen in Imperial newspapers. At the Prince’s gesture, Lüse formally began speaking.

And watching like the most uninvolved outsider, the auburn-haired man, Luten Aigis von Brenschlof der Anarchia, tapped his chin as he recalled what he had discovered recently.

The Imperial warship Girogssar had been cutting through the sea with strange movements in the distance. Since the Republic and Imperial forces were in battle, he was probably the only one who had witnessed that ship.

Moving like a ghost, ignoring the waves and only moving straight ahead, the ship had wedged through the international waters of the Servolang Strait and eventually disappeared beyond the horizon.

Later, he saw Republic warships driving Imperial vessels into international waters and annihilating them, and realized that the Republic’s new weapon, naval mines, had been laid there. These mines seemed impossible to avoid through normal navigation.

The Republic’s achievement in enhancing their weapons to such a level was impressive, but even more surprising was the Girogssar that had safely escaped the strait by avoiding them.

Looking back, the Girogssar’s hull seemed to have been slightly lifted above the sea, like an airship flying very low.

It was clearly the power of magic. And that ship belonged to the 17th Princess who had now become a key figure in this agreement. This meant that, contrary to known facts, the Princess had manifested her magic power.

The Princess’s intentions remained unknown. Why she abandoned the Empire for the Republic, why she helped her ship escape—none of this was clear. But what was certain was that a Princess who had manifested magic power now existed outside the Empire. For the first time in Imperial history.

While he was lost in thought, the Empire’s 3rd Prince coldly rejected the unfair agreement created by the 9th Prince, and the Republic’s hero occasionally advised the Commander-in-Chief.

Luten recalled the image of the Princess he had never seen in person, only in photographs, and smiled slightly. Whoever this woman was, she was skillfully playing with these two men.

‘I must have her.’