The Terminally Ill Prince is the Mad Dog of the Underworld (Novel) - Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Now with Added Amnesia

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That attendant was clearly late from taking a nap.

‘Wow, I’m hungry.’

My stomach, having starved for days, was gradually awakening and demanding food.

‘Even someone this handsome gets hungry.’

He must also defecate and get eye boogers? Pick his nose when it’s stuffed. How fascinating.

‘Hunger is making me talk nonsense.’

Actually, when hungry, I could just call someone to bring food, but my sharp intuition was telling me that wouldn’t be a good choice.

Once the doctor had come and gone, there’s no way news of my awakening hadn’t spread. Yet the fact that not a single employee had shown up was significant.

Several possibilities came to mind. Either I was quite unpopular, or as Josef said, very few people were permitted entry.

Or perhaps I was being treated like a bomb that shouldn’t be messed with.

‘Hard to be hated with this face, though?’

Even those supposedly beautiful fairies would struggle to look this good. I almost cut myself while curiously touching my nose bridge.

‘He probably wasn’t a difficult person.’

Considering Josef’s comment about staying cooped up in his room, he probably didn’t act like a thug toward subordinates.

If anything, he might have been looked down upon.

‘Surely I’m not being disrespected even by the attendant?’

Anyway, being hungry was making my old personality surface. Before that happened, I opened the door and went outside. Rather than waiting indefinitely, I planned to find the dining hall and have them serve food.

Even if not just for food, I’m the type to actively walk around gathering information in situations like this. There would be many circumstances I could guess from that alone.

‘How hard could it be to go outside?’

…Did you imprison yourself, Allenbert?

Walking through the quiet, empty corridor and stepping outside, a cobalt-blue sea spread out below the castle.

‘Wow, what a view.’

It was all sea and sky. It felt like even the dregs of unknown emotions that had been weighing heavily on me were being washed away in an instant.

The sky was clear and the sea was bright. I suddenly found myself lost in the sight of seagulls flying among the clouds.

A port. This is a port city.

“What a spectacular view.”

In the distance, sailing ships with massive sails could be seen busily entering and leaving port. It was an enormous harbor.

Streets filled with tall, magnificent buildings and streets packed with low, dirty buildings were visible at a glance. Two streets with different colors and saturations.

‘The slums are mostly concentrated on the outskirts.’

When night falls, the residents of the underworld would walk those streets. That’s the world I came from, and where I must eventually return.

‘Come to think of it, this really is a duchy.’

Look at this scale and prosperity that rivals even the kingdom’s capital. This must be the capital of the duchy.

‘And this is an annex.’

The grandeur of the towering main building was incomparable to the annex where I stayed. Beside it were training grounds, stables, warehouses, armories, and several other annexes each serving different purposes.

The view of the inner castle, built by raising walls and mansions on a high hill overlooking the sea, was too vast to take in at once.

‘This is Castle Grünewald.’

The central trading hub located in the inner sea of a nation competing to be the continent’s top merchant country. One of the foremost port cities in the Kingdom of Litvaloir.

It was truly strange. To think I’d be born as the son of the duke who rules this place?

‘A foreign country I’ve never visited in my life.’

But this place had a smell somehow similar to that small port where I spent the latter half of my previous life.

The fishy smell of the sea. The salty wind. The aroma of dried fish. And…

Squawk?

“Hm?”

A seagull that had been flying through the sky and walking by the sea landed nearby, tilting its head.

“You’re not wary of humans.”

It seemed to be one that lived off scraps thrown by sailors.

‘…When I was Karzan, they wouldn’t come near me because of the blood smell.’

Does this mean no blood scent clings to the body of this noble young master Allenbert?

“Or do even birds judge by appearance?”

I’d heard somewhere that even animals prefer good-looking and pretty people. Come to think of it, I was always someone small animals wouldn’t approach. Whether that was due to smell or appearance, even I don’t know.

“I have no food, so go away.”

As if understanding my words, the seagull’s behind looked slightly offended as it fluttered away. Did I gain the ability to read animal emotions? That couldn’t be.

Just then.

“Oh!”

It was a servant. He was shocked by my appearance outside after so long, as if he’d seen a ghost.

“Y-young master Allenbert?”

That voice didn’t sound particularly welcome. Not surprisingly so.

But whatever our relationship had been until now, that was no concern of mine.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

I raised my hand in greeting like some neighborhood good-for-nothing. The servant flinched and trembled.

“Everything alright?”

“Y-yes.”

The simple-faced servant rolled his eyes and backed away hesitantly. Familiarly, this was similar to Josef’s attitude.

‘This is absurd.’

Did I borrow money from him at some point? This wasn’t the face of someone meeting their master’s son, but rather someone encountering a debt collector.

“My fever’s gone. It’s not contagious.”

The servant broke into a cold sweat as if that wasn’t the issue.

“S-sorry, young master. I have urgent business…”

I didn’t bother stopping the fleeing servant.

‘His gait lacks strength.’

Perhaps he doesn’t get enough to eat?

‘Anyway.’

Compared to the busy main building where people hurried about, this place was as quiet as a remote island.

With only the distant shouts of warriors training at the practice grounds, I freely wandered the unguarded annex.

“Ah!”

“Young master?”

“…”

The employees I encountered either gave awkward greetings while looking at me with uncomfortable eyes or avoided me without saying a word.

Without exchanging any particular words, I observed their emotions: difficulty, awkwardness, indifference, avoidance, dismissal, wariness, pity, unfamiliarity, curiosity.

“…That’s really Young Master Allenbert.”

“First time seeing him.”

“There’s no one else so handsome and beautiful. Can’t be mistaken.”

“So it was true he woke up.”

Gazes and whispers followed me like shadows wherever I went. It felt as if my very act of going outside was an event here.

“But isn’t this the first time he’s walking around outside like this?”

“You’ve been here two years, right?”

“About that.”

“Then you wouldn’t have seen him. Long before that…”

I listened carefully to the conversation fading with their footsteps.

‘Can’t hear well.’

The strong wind from the distant sea carried away their conversation.

‘If only I could use mana.’

From brief observation, my body was in quite a peculiar state. While there was dissolved mana inside, there was almost no mana flowing through the meridians.

It was like a sewer whose channels were blocked from being left uncleaned for too long.

‘Just how many years was he cooped up in that room?’

In any case, at seventeen, if he were from another noble family, he should have been busy preparing for his coming-of-age ceremony and proving his worth.

Just from the state of his body and mana, it was easy to tell that Allenbert had wastefully spent his most important adolescent years shut in his room.

And that was quite serious.

‘In my past life, I was already leading an organization at this age.’

Just as I was thinking that such casual eavesdropping wouldn’t be enough to figure out how this greenhouse flower had withered.

“But shouldn’t we quickly… ?”

“…True, but at this point…”

I stopped in place when I heard whispers suggesting they were about to report this to someone. I tried to see their faces immediately, but they had already disappeared.

‘Wow, how blatant. Isn’t this a bit much?’

At this point, it was hard to tell if this was voluntary seclusion or effectively imprisonment.

‘Always prepare for the worst assumption.’

At least since no one was openly blocking or detaining me, I had to consider that my situation wasn’t quite at the point of losing freedom.

‘Whether the past years of seclusion were voluntary or not.’

If even the annex where I stay has this atmosphere, it would be reasonable to assume I have almost no allies in this den-like ducal castle.

‘Who’s enemy and who’s ally.’

Whose side are these people managing the annex on? Which brother are they reporting to about me? Allenbert, just how isolated were you?

‘…Why is there no sign of my mother, Lusatia Grünewald, coming to see her son who just woke up from a fever?’

While the Duke father might have many children, for a mother, children would be at most one or two.

‘And what was Josef afraid of that made him seal his lips?’

It was like walking alone in fog on a moonless night – such loneliness and confusion.

I suddenly felt dizzy.

‘Allenbert, you were a pitiful one.’

…However, this weak boy is me. While I as Karzan died long ago, isn’t I as Allenbert just now awakening?

If even I were to abandon Allenbert’s self, it would be too pitiful for this boy’s soul to be forgotten without anyone looking back.

‘That won’t do.’

Anyway, everything is still just speculation. As we piece together the fragments, the hidden picture will eventually emerge.

“What’s all this fuss about? Whether he woke up or stayed collapsed, what difference does it make?”

Just as I was turning around lost in such thoughts, someone’s loud and reckless grumbling tickled my ears.

‘See?’

Remember, truth is friendlier with backbiting than with pleasantries. With my experience from the underworld, I hid in a corner where people’s gazes couldn’t reach.

“Stop it. Your voice is too loud.”

‘Oh, don’t stop him, I’m fine with this.’

This was an opportunity to learn Young Master Allenbert’s true reputation and situation, things difficult to hear directly.

“Did I say anything wrong?”

That’s right. Keep talking.

“It’s just the truth, how many years has that young master been in seclusion? Seven years already? His elder siblings have all established themselves, and even the youngest master has properly learned swordsmanship. He’s achieved nothing and proven nothing during all this time.”

So there are no good-for-nothing rogues or idlers among the siblings? Having capable competitors isn’t good news.

“Being heir is out of the question. The only thing he has going for him is his face, and even that has such serious flaws that he can’t even be sent off in a political marriage…”

Now why is that? With looks this good, are there no noble ladies in this country who could live off his face?

I waited for the next words while holding my breath.

“Well, with mixed foreign blood, other noble houses wouldn’t welcome him.”

‘Foreign blood?’

This was an interesting story.

Could that foreign race be something like fairies? Looking at how handsome he is, quite an unusual bloodline might be mixed in.

“Anyway, I wouldn’t have lived like that. Living like a greenhouse flower with no desperation, no desperation at all. Like an idiot.”

But this b*st*rd’s words are harsh. Listening on, his mouth seemed quite loose.

“Stop it, Marco. I’m scared someone might hear. Damn it.”

His name is Marco? Good, I’ll remember you.

I’m a man who equally remembers both favors and grudges. Just as I remembered Josef, I also engraved the name of this impudent-mouthed b*st*rd in my mind.

“How would you know the minds of the noble ones? And honestly, if I had gone through what the young master did…”

“You fool. Who’s worried about whom? The truly pitiful ones are people like us. No matter how hard we work and bow our backs, we have to feed our families with money that’s not even worth one meal for the noble ones.”

That’s true. I nodded inwardly, feeling like Karzan.

‘But your mouth is too reckless and rough, Marco.’

If he had worked somewhere other than this annex, that mouth would have brought great trouble.

‘They’re everywhere. Those types who can’t help their mouths that itch if they don’t badmouth someone behind their back for even a day.’

If you go to back alley taverns, you’ll usually find such fellows gathered together, spouting nonsense about how the country is this and the king is that.

However, it would be hasty to punish that reckless mouth now. Compared to the insults I’d heard while rolling around in the underworld, this was nothing.

‘Sometimes you need to act like a deaf and blind man.’

That’s when the man trying to stop Marco said something that couldn’t be ignored.

“Don’t be like that. He’s going to die young anyway, right? It’s better for us if he just stays quiet and passes away without causing trouble.”

‘…Die young?’

What’s this about now?

“Right. So even if he’s wandering around outside now…”

I quietly left without listening to the rest.

‘Die young? Me?’

Then a forgotten memory surfaced.

‘An incurable disease of unknown cause.’

In other words… this guy was terminally ill.

A young master who could only wait helplessly for death, with no cure possible even with the duchy’s wealth. That was the true identity of Allenbert Grünewald.

‘This is crazy, good grief.’

Even from the perspective of Mad Dog Karzan, who rose from a street orphan to an underworld bigshot through all sorts of adversity, this was simply a disaster.

‘What’s with this difficulty? And here I thought this life would be easier.’

Being born as a duke’s son, I thought I could play behind-the-scenes like the Dark King.

And I won’t deny that I was secretly excited about being reincarnated as a noble young master with looks beyond mere handsomeness.

But as they say, fortune comes with misfortune? The more I learned, the stronger my premonition that a thorny path awaited me.

‘It’s fine. There must be a way.’

In this world, there surely exist legends of gods, saints, and elixirs that can even revive the dead. If they don’t exist, we’ll find them. Sitting quietly waiting for death isn’t who I am.

That’s when I saw a boy running toward me, sweating from his feet, having spotted me from afar.

“Oh my, young master! I’ve been looking everywhere! How could you walk around without saying anything? And after being sick too!”

“Oh.”

I could tell at a glance that this was the attendant Josef had mentioned.

‘He looks a bit dim-witted.’

He seemed much more easygoing than Josef.

‘Perfect.’

If I play it right, I might be able to get some useful information through that mouth.

Perhaps that’s why. Right now, that fellow looked like a golden goblin holding precious goods.