CH extra 2

Translator: Blushy

Editor: delishnoodles

Rosalia van Chalonge Cruveilheir celebrated her seventh birthday on a ship bound for the Imperial Capital. 

The adults, who were also on board, offered her only a few words of congratulations in the morning and then immediately began a serious meeting for the millionth time. 

They were diplomats from the Belbe Kingdom, and they only had one agenda, which was how to get the Empire’s help.

Rosalia watched the scene with a poker face, and there was resignation in her eyes. 

(Lord Raul or Lord Aquicurl. I might be offered as a hostage to one of them. They might make me a concubine if they like me… but if they don’t…)

The kingdom where she was born and raised may perish; this was how far the Belbe Kingdom had been cornered. 

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Belbe Kingdom, where she was born as a princess, is a nation located in the north-western part of the Eastern Continent. It is a nation with a long history, and the western half of the peninsula at the tip of the continent was now called the Belbe Peninsula. 

Their most stable period in their long history was probably when they were allied with the Lothar Empire… when they were actually a vassal state of Lothar Empire. 

They weren’t proud of it, but they welcomed the peace that came with being a vassal state. 

However, their peace was shattered by the appearance of a group of people who called themselves the ‘Inheritance Sect’… the Holy One Church. They designated the point where ‘Saint Ain’ first landed on the Eastern Continent as the ‘Holy Land’ and have made it their supreme mission to reclaim it.

… The point where he landed was located at the tip of the Belbe Peninsula, and it was in front of the capital of Belbe Kingdom. 

Thus, these two forces fought. 

On one hand is a nation that had accepted to be a vassal state so that they could avoid war, and on the other hand, an army of fanatics who are driven by religion and talk about death in battle as ‘martyrdom’. 

It was one-sided once the fight started. 

According to the Holy Scripture, ‘In the land where the fleet first landed, evil teachings prevailed. They didn’t accept the teachings of Saint Ain, and the King of the land ordered Saint Ain to be captured’. This was being interpreted in the wrong way. 

The King of the Kingdom that existed before the Belbe Kingdom had indeed tried to capture Saint Ain. He didn’t want to capture him because he was a heretic, but because he wanted information about the other continent. The technology of the other continent was superior to this one at the time, and there were ‘craftsmen’ on the fleet who had learnt this superior technology. 

The scholars in later generations cited the ‘technological gap’ as one of the reasons why the Holy One Church spread quickly through the Eastern Continent. Some nations protected them because of their superior technology, and they were able to proselytise on a large scale. 

However, the fleet, who had been suppressed on their continent since birth, were quite fussy at the time. They described that nation as ‘evil’ after having fled. 

The ‘Inheritance Sect’ believed that the nation that persecuted Saint Ain is an evil one. It didn’t matter to them that the dynasty had changed. 

Of course, the Belbe Kingdom did take measures against them. They tried to avoid conflict by making the Holy One Church a state religion. 

… But it wasn’t the same sect. In consideration for the Empire, the Western Sect, which the Empire designates as its state religion, was also made the Belbe Kingdom’s state religion. 

As a result, the Inheritance Sect got even more aggressive. 

To them, all different sects are heretical. Those who do not know the Holy One Church are thought to be unfortunate people, however those that were heretics are considered to be depraved people who have been seduced by the devil. 

… In other words, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. 

Villages were burnt and people were killed each time they caused a ‘Holy War’. 

Even when they eventually took on the name of a nation, ‘Tomis Ashinaqui’, their brutality didn’t stop. 

Then, the last ray of hope, Lothar Empire, was quickly destroyed due to the riots. 

Thus, the Belbe Kingdom endured for the past 200 years while losing their fiefs little by little with each war.

But their time of destruction was about to come. 

Tomis Ashinaqui (the Inheritance Sect), which once only had one city, had completely conquered the eastern part of the Belbe Peninsula, and its national power had finally surpassed Belbe Kingdom’s. The Belbe Kingdom had been defeated a number of times since the time when they held superior national power. In the past few years, Tomis Ashinaqui’s aggression has become more intense than ever. 

This year, the Belbe Kingdom was driven to the tip of the peninsula. Their few remaining farmlands were burnt and their people were unlikely to survive the winter. 

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“Wouldn’t the royal family welcome us more if we joined their royal family?”

“That failed a hundred years ago, didn’t it? The Bungdalto Empire didn’t abandon its neutral status!”

“We should beg the Empire for help.”

“That’s over the mountains! It’s too far! Give us a more realistic plan!!”

“But the political strife between the two Archdukes is so fierce… If we beg for help from one of them then the other side will help our enemy.”

These conversations had been repeated dozens of times on this ship. 

And in the palace, this conversation had been repeated hundreds of times. 

The King made one decision as a result of these repeated conversations: “Beg for help from everywhere and don’t return until you have obtained help from all nations. Use any means necessary to achieve this.”

The King sent his daughter, the first Princess, as a representative for this mission. 

It may seem like Rosalia wasn’t loved by her father, the King, but that wasn’t true. She was raised with love as the eldest daughter. 

He was cornered so badly that he was forced to send away his beloved daughter to be a hostage. 

Therefore, Rosalia was willing to board this ship. As a member of the royal family, she was determined to save her kingdom. 

(I’ll do anything to save my kingdom… I don’t care if I become some old man’s concubine. But… will doing that really save my kingdom?)

That was the only thing that worried her. It didn’t matter what she had to go through as long as her kingdom was saved. But even then, if it’s not saved, then her efforts would be in vain. 

What could be more miserable than that? 

However, her father, the King, thought it was okay and sent her away. 

Regardless of how she was treated, it was better than staying in her kingdom… and falling into the hands of soldiers. 

She understood this since she was intelligent for her age. 

Therefore, she was determined to carry the fate of her kingdom on her shoulders and accept whatever situation she may find herself in. 

However, there were feelings she couldn’t let go off. 

In addition to those complicated feelings, the tension, fear and panic of being entrusted with the fate of a kingdom… overwhelmed her mentally. 

(Oh yeah, I heard the current Emperor is younger than me… I haven’t heard too many good things about him, but I wonder what he’s like.)

She suddenly thought as she was swayed by the boat. 

It was almost time for her to meet her destiny. 

The ship would soon arrive at the Empire.