Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure

Chapter 760 The real destination

Over the next few days, I was dragged to several other towns and cities.

The visit to each town and city went the same way where we were greeted by the nobles and I was shown off to them.

The reactions from the various towns were different, but at the same time, there were similarities between them.

The first town was the one that had the strongest reaction as almost all of the nobles were against punishing me. But in some of the other towns, it was clear that there were nobles that weren't certain about this.

These nobles didn't seem like they supported my capture like this, but they also didn't have enough power to stop this.

These were nobles that were strong enough to be considered powerful in their own territories, but this was a decree that came from the king. Not to mention, the fourth prince was also here escorting me to the mines where I would be punished.

If they were to do anything to help me, there was no doubt that they would be punished as well.

So even if they didn't support it, they had no choice but to pretend that they didn't disagree.

Though it was clear by the looks in their eyes that they didn't support this.

I made sure to take mental note of these nobles for the future.

They were most likely the ones that the fourth prince would spare.

Though it was also possible that they just didn't feel this way towards me and were still committing certain crimes, so the fourth prince would still be cleaning them up. Still, they made a good impression on me since they didn't instantly judge me.

Like this, we made our way to the western border where the mines were located.

However, it wasn't as if the mines were our final destination in the first place.

From the very beginning, there was a certain place that we were heading towards.

It was a city that was on the western border.

No, to simply call it a city on the western border wasn't doing it justice.

It was the largest city in the western part of the kingdom and it was a city that was ruled over by a duke.

Since it was the capital city of the west, it was naturally...Vayne City.

This was the territory of Duke Yuletide and the Yuletide Family.

They were the target this time.

We had come up with this entire plan just to take care of Duke Yuletide and the Yuletide Family since they were the last obstacle that had to be cleaned up before I took over the kingdom.

This was a family that had been plotting against the royal family for all these years and had remained hidden all this time. If I was to allow this family to continue to exist during my reign, then there was no doubt that they would become a problem in the future.

So I had to take them out here and now before I took over the throne.

When we arrived in Vayne City, we were surprised to find that…

"Your highness, is this really all necessary?"

That was the first thing that Duke Yuletide said when he saw me in the cage.

The fourth prince knitted his brows when he heard this before saying, "Are you saying that you wish to defy the royal decree?"

Duke Yuletide didn't panic in the face of these accusations and calmly said, "No, of course not. I'm just saying that there's no need to treat Duke Zwein like this, right? He is the hero of our kingdom, the one that saved us all during the war. Someone like this shouldn't be treated in such a manner, right?"

With the way that he said this, we might have actually believed that he was concerned about me if we didn't know what kind of person he really was.

But what surprised us even more was that it wasn't just Duke Yuletide who was acting this way.

The other nobles of the city all seemed like they were willing to speak up to me, even though they shouldn't have had the status to speak up for me. They should have been too afraid of the royal family to speak up for me like this, yet here they were all supporting Duke Yuletide.

It seemed that he really had quite a bit of power in this Vayne City that he could get these nobles to support him like this. Especially when the other side was the royal family.

The Yuletide Family had really built up their power well over the generations…

That was what made them troublesome to deal with.

Or at least they would have been troublesome if we didn't find something that we could use against them.

It was their hidden secret and where most of their power lay, which was why we were certain that we could deal with them.

It was also the reason why the fourth prince had come up with this plan.

The fourth prince just silently listened to all of the protests of the nobles with a calm look on his face. It was as if he wasn't bothered at all by the words that they were saying.

But in reality, it was different under the surface.

The fourth prince was filled with disdain towards these people as he thought to themselves, "What hypocrites. They sell themselves to the Yuletide Family and betray the kingdom, yet they can speak of loyalty to the kingdom like this."

Finally, the fourth prince said, "Are you all done?"

The nobles were surprised to hear this from the fourth prince.

Duke Yuletide slightly knitted his brows before asking, "Your highness, is there a problem?"

The fourth prince just calmly said, "This isn't a matter of who has a reputation as a hero or not, this is simply an enforcement of the laws of the kingdom. We must show that no one is above the laws, not even those at the top or else anarchy will spread through the kingdom. Do you understand?"

Duke Yuletide was a bit caught off guard when he heard this, but he eventually said with a helpless sigh, "Yes, I understand."