Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure

There was silence at first as we sat there in the carriage.

The fourth prince sat across from me, but he wasn't looking at me. Instead, he was looking out the window of the carriage as if he was enjoying the ride.

For me, that just meant that I had to sit there awkwardly since there was nothing for me to say.

After a bit, when we moved away from the eldest prince's manor, the fourth prince finally turned back to me.

He looked at me with narrowed eyes without saying a thing which made me feel even more awkward.

Even though he looked at me like this, I still didn't have a single thing to say.

Finally, the fourth prince broke the silence by saying, "I'm sorry about getting you caught up in that."

I revealed a visible look of surprise when I heard this.

After all, I never would have imagined that the first thing out of the fourth prince's mouth would be an apology.

Apologies and princes, they just didn't seem to match…

I raised my hands and waved them before saying, "Your highness, there's no need for you to apologize. This matter isn't your fault, it was all the eldest prince."

The fourth prince revealed a bitter smile when he heard this, but he didn't explain why he had this bitter smile on his face.

Instead, he just said, "From now on, it won't be just the eldest prince who will be coming to bother you. The other princes will also take notice after what you've done and they won't leave you alone, unless…"

His voice trailed off when he said this.

I couldn't help slightly knitting my brows when I heard this because I had some idea of what he was implying and what he was implying was not good for me…

Seeing that the fourth prince wasn't saying a thing, I took a deep breath and said, "Your highness, I'm not looking to take any sides in this matter. I just want to live out my life in peace, without getting involved in this."

After I said this, I carefully looked at the fourth prince and waited for his reaction.

I knew that he wouldn't be happy about this since I was basically refusing him to his face, so I was waiting to see how to deal with him.

But to my surprise, I found that the fourth prince suddenly revealed a wide smile as he said, "Is that so? You really just want to stay out of everything?"

I couldn't help raising a brow as I didn't understand why he would look at me like this, but I just gave a simple nod.

Then the fourth prince gave a chuckle as he said, "Very good, very good, it seems that I was worried for nothing."

I was even more confused when I heard this.

The fourth prince stopped laughing after a while and he looked at me to say, "I fully support your idea of wanting to stay out of the succession race. It's best if you remain neutral during all of this."

I just looked at the fourth prince, wondering if he was alright.

I had thought that he was trying to get me to join his side, but now he was telling me to remain neutral.

Naturally I knew just how much value a connection to the elves and the dwarves would be when it came to this succession race, but the fourth prince didn't seem to care.

It wasn't that I was hurt by this, I was just very confused.

The fourth prince then revealed a serious look as he said, "But it won't be easy to stay out of this. There will be many people that will want to drag you into this matter no matter what you want, so you'll have to be prepared for that. People like my eldest brother…"

His voice trailed off when he said this.

But I couldn't help knitting my brows again when I heard this.

It wasn't that I was confused by the fact that he said this anymore, but because of the fact that he still called the eldest prince his eldest brother like this.

It was clear that they were on opposite sides and were destined to fight, yet the fourth prince still acknowledged him as his brother.

This was completely different from the fourth prince in the game that I knew.

But then again, this was a few years before the plot of the game.

There were many things that could change in the span of a few years.

So could it be that something had happened between now and then that had changed the fourth prince like that?

I know that I shouldn't get myself involved in this matter, but as a gamer…I couldn't stop my curiosity.

I was able to hold myself back in the end though.

I looked at the fourth prince and said, "Then what should I do so that they'll leave me alone?"

The fourth prince was pulled out of his thoughts and he turned to look at me, but he didn't say anything as he revealed a hesitant look. It was as if there was something that he wanted to say, but he didn't know how to say it.

After a long moment of hesitation, he still said, "It isn't as if there isn't a way for them to leave you alone, but it depends on what you plan on doing."

I revealed another confused look when I heard this as I asked, "What does that mean?"

The fourth prince hesitated a bit more before saying, "It depends on if you're willing to trust me or not."

I still looked at him with that confused look, but I also slowly gave a nod.

The fourth prince saw this and said in a decisive voice, "As long as you borrow my name, they won't be able to make a move against you. You'll be able to do what you want without worrying about anything."

There was silence that followed after his voice fell before I revealed a wry smile.

After beating around the bush like this, we still came back to the same thing.

He was still telling me to fall under him, to become one of his subordinates so that the others would leave him alone.

It seemed that I really couldn't escape this fate.

But when the fourth prince saw this wry smile of mine, he suddenly said, "It's not what you think at all. I will not give you any orders and I will not use you for my own gains. I will completely leave you alone even if you borrow my name."

I knitted my brows deeply this time as I looked at the fourth prince, trying to figure out what he meant by this.

No matter how one looked at it, this didn't seem like a fair deal for him.

He had no reason to do something like this.

The fourth prince saw the way that I looked at him and he said, "All I need from you is to maintain the deal you have with our kingdom. As long as you keep providing our kingdom with ores from the Dwarven Kingdom, I don't need anything else from you."

After saying this, he reached his hand out towards me as if waiting for me to take it.

I looked down at his hand before looking up at him.

It didn't seem like there was any deception here, but he was the evil villain prince…

Still, for now, it didn't seem like there was anything to lose from taking his hand so I slowly reached out for it and shook it.