@Goobers: I thought it was a translation error, so checked the Raws, and turns out her title is "第二皇子", which does normally translates to "2nd Imperial Prince", so the translation is accurate.
I think, the Author might have tried to use the meaning of "2nd Child of Emperor", but didn't really get it through properly, hence the odd translation.
@Legalll That's probably THE twist/point; as far as I could tell he didn't mention any specific conditions about winning or losing the duel beforehand.
It could probably go like this: two 1v1 semi-finals, the losers of the previous semis would then be pitted against each other and the "ultimate loser" gets to be the next king in line. Also a possible bonus incentive is that the "winners" get exiled or executed.
...Premise seems interesting, but doesn't have much substance behind the novelty. It doesn't hold up under basic logic. The king should be used to handling obstinate people, but he clearly has no idea how to handle his children. It is like he is unfamiliar with the word 'ultimatum', which no actual ruler would not be aware of.
If princes and princesses are being kept in the royal building, they are being either groomed for political marriages or trained for specific purposes. The crown heir would be closely monitored and wouldn't be allowed to streak. And if they did, they would be imprisoned while being educated while their position is passed to the next one who should have been also trained for being a backup heir. The third prince's health should have been easily evaluated by any trained physician.
Lastly, there was no reason for the fourth illegitimate prince to let loaf around.
Being king is still technically a job position that people have to be trained for.
If the king was intelligent, he'd automatically thrust the role of heir on the fourth prince, have the first prince the head of the military, the second prince as minister of magic and logistics, and the third prince as head of finances. The caveat would be that until the fourth prince had an heir of his own, the others would automatically fill the role if and only if he died and his death was their fault. Thus the first prince would ensure the military protected the heir from foreign military, the second would protect the heir from magic and assassins, and the third prince would ensure that the populace doesn't rise up to overthrow them.
Who better the protect the king than the ones next in line who don't want the job?
@Goobers for your reply, the chinese translation Im using as a base actually say it as "皇子" as in King's child and not just as King's son. It was used even in the later chapters so I though it would be better to leave it that way
"Prince" is fine since she is a contender for the throne
its the same situation as real life Poland had a female King instead of Queen, since under their interpretation, "Queen" is just the job title of King's consort with no ruling rights, not a female counterpart of King
the same way "pilot" and "stewardess" are unrelated
so she is a female "Prince" with a claim to the throne instead of "Princess" without a claim
皇子, 子 has a dual meaning depending on context the same way "men" has a dual meaning
@TL: use a better font like wild words. It looks ugly with font like this. Also get someone to read it over for grammar. Too many mistakes to make it smoothly readable
@Diamona That's the thing, none of them want to be a king nor do any kind of job closely related to the kingdom, they just want to have the benefits of lazing around while surrounded by luxury, in the novel
the fourth prince addressed his siblings about exactly what you said in the third paragraph, where he literally said, if he became king he would bring them down with him by giving each of them a ministry and have to participate in the administration as he tries to lessen his powers an responsibilities (aka a parliamentary monarch), and the three literary cursed him for saying that
And about the king not sending an ultimatum to them, is also answered in the novel,
when he forcibly tries to make the fourth prince into the crown prince, the fourth prince literally flees from the castle to escape the inheritance of the throne, only coming back for real after making the king go back on his ultimatum and with a "new candidate"
, so basically the king needs to literally corner all of them into a corner until one of them has no escape from the throne, and he has to be careful not only about their talents but also their popular support, that in this chapter is what the 1st prince did, destroy his popular support by acting like a complete idiot pervert, which the king sent an ultimatum to anyone who tried to repeat what the 1st prince did
So, yes, a crown prince has an education, something that they all kind of have, but the thing is they have all the capabilities and talents needed to rule, they just don't want to rule, that's the difference each of then could be a great king of a certain attribute, by CK3 terms, the thing is they don't want to become kings, that's the whole thing it's a complete inversion of the succession war trope, they are all trying to push the responsibility to each other
Interesting premise, and for a first time translation I'd say it's not too bad. The scan could use a little cleaning, but otherwise a decent job overall!