@Robbini

Coendara and the princess didn't get married. An earlier chapter said that the marriage was delayed again and again then she returned to her family. In this chapter, he even calls her his "fiancee" not his wife.

interesting

Old man only wanted to retire in peace. Now this :'(

all according to ... ok just stop that already

Huh, who would have thunk?

thanks for the translation. the plot thickens. looking forward to the next chapters :3

Ah yes the good ol switcheroo

oh shiiiiiieeeett

Uh oh, how much you wanna bet this Zeon guy is even worse than his father.

hmph, the old fairytale of the prince who found a princess when he went wandering where he shouldn't and doomed her and the child both. I like this version of it.

NEXT TIME, ON HENKYOU NO ROUKISHI - BARD LOEN: Will Bard be able to thwart Lord Coendera's plan to infiltrate his son into the line of succession? Is Joulran, the real son of the King, in danger (the answer is yes)? What is the mystery of the "double whirlpool"? Find out... um... probably at least three chapters from this one, innit?

@Ironclad
Maybe he expected the king to succeed, maybe he just safeguarded bets he made in the first place. And basically only him, his subordinates & family, the prince & Aidra know of the event, and it's not really good to mention it. Because, she was essentially seduced by another guest living in her husband's mansion. You can debate it many ways, but an affair took place, and not very long after the marriage. If that got out, her reputation would become even worse.

As for killing Joulran... a baby death at such a time would make his plans to switch his son for Joulran bit more difficult, and he might've hoped Joulran would've died seeing as they're responsible for fending off invasions.

As for the whole reverse psychology plan being too convoluted, look how much effort he put into it ? He didn't spend time with his wife (who he married strictly for political reasons) , housed her in a separate building and then told his guest one time not to go there. Basically he was giving up nothing for a longshot of a plan to succeed with a massive profit if it did.

And when it wasn't showing the results he was after, he was proceeding along with another plan which had more viewable goals.

@Ironclad Fair point, it is true that all this crap don't seem to have anything with Bard... at first glance, he is a retired HERO < keyword, a person like him always will have old rivalries even if he himself doesn't recognize it, Aidra left the seal with him for some reason, and as reason of people can be all manner of things we can only wait for the author to give us more answer, this chapter didn't try to finalize anything... this was only the prelude.

Using the term you used before, this would be an ultra exposition if in one single chapter ( or two ) the author had tried to shove in our throats all this plot, and this happens often, but he/she chose to use 11 chapters to introduce us with the world and its characters.

@alacaelum It still could have been worked into the earlier chapters better. You would think we would see more of the King or the priest earlier on at least. It all seems so distant from Bard's story. If we heard more about the priest's envoy arriving and that putting Coendra on edge over a few chapters I'd be fine. Maybe Joulran mentioning something his mother said about his father or reciting that poem. I get the feeling this was cancelled and the author's just trying to wrap it up fast.

@Robbini Because one could easily directly interfere with the other. I agree his marriage to Aidra was political, but the reverse psychology honeytrap plan is just too convoluted. If he seriously expected the King to succeed, he would have kept Joulran under his thumb or die by crib death rather than let him and Aidra return home where his plans could be thwarted.

@Ironclad

Who says he couldn't have been working on two plans at once ? One being them becoming the local hegemons (in good progress), the other taking advantage of the king's stay there, which in this case ended up like this.
And frankly, I mean baited, because he said 'NEVER EVER GO THERE' (reverse psychology) instead of explaining why or otherwise even showing some form of affections towards Aidra.

@Ironclad Friend if you didn't know who the King is you should read the chapters again, there is a scene in one chapter where Bard is in an inn and receive free wine in commemoration of the king coronation, and the priest being an envoy of the king ( one of considerable status ) say a lot about possible developments of the king's interest in that area.

I am saying i knew all that was explained in this? NO, i guarantee you i was caught off guard. And about exposition, I think you may be a little too high on the internet craze of this term, i mean to write a story there is a need to expose facts of the story, this chapter only gave us answers of what is happening and as I said before there are loads of little facts scattered between the chapters that now that we have the bigger picture all make sense, there is no asspull here.

And now before you might get offended, I just wanted to point these facts to try and alleviate your confusion ( if you are confused ) so if in some case i did offend you i already apologize. ( just being safe here, never know when someone might get offended )

What's with this exposition vomit? A prince and kingdom we've never heard of up to this point and a relationship that was the stuff of fairy tales. It doesn't make any sense that Bard or anyone else wasn't confided in now. It's a pretty big coincidence already that she dies just after Bard leaves, unable to pass on any information. The seal being found under such bizarre circumstances, it could have never been discovered. Real strange coincidence it's found just as the prince takes power. How exactly is Coendra planning to get around the seal appraisal? Swap it out at a later time? That would be awful convenient.

So many coincidences. Such a cliche succession plot. So much less entertaining than Bard's bucket list and meeting random people. It feels like they're rushing to an ending. Real shame.

@Robbini Baited is a bit much. If this was all Coendra's master plan he wouldn't have been so aggressively expanding into Pakura's domain, gaining the prince's ire. He said it himself, he never actually expected the prince to overcome all the chaos in the capital. Now he's scrambling to place his ideal successor.

The best possible ending would be Bard deciding none of this succession nonsense matters, ensuring Joulran's safety, Coendra's plans blowing up in their face all on their own, and Bard being able to put his duty as a knight behind him and live for himself by continuing his journey.

@Batzilla

Basically this ambitious asshole got married to the woman the MC protected in order to tie their two families closer together.
The prince of another kingdom later stayed at his place for some time, and got baited into finding her and then fell in love with her.
The prince later became king and now is seeking to get his woman and child back , now that it's safe.
The asshole is trying to pass his son of as the king's son in order to ... let's just say infiltrate the king's bloodline, essentially trying to usurp the family bloodline with the future generations to come.
And he's been harassing the MC in order to get the things he needs to convince the priest that this man is actually the king's son.

Im still confuse

Bard is gonna wreck his shit so hard.

Wow, this chapter explained everything so neatly.