Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 97

097

A small city in the southern Lionel Kingdom.

Before dawn, in a dilapidated house in a slum, a man was reading a newspaper, more than six months old, over and over.

『The Fifth Prince Proposes the Introduction of Statutory Law』

『Statutory Law as Seen in the Daichi Kingdom, the Leader of the Brissen Alliance: Does Law Take Precedence Over Status?』

His name was Julian.

He had no ‘surname.’

In the Lionel Kingdom, not having a ‘surname’ meant one of two things.

Either he was a member of a different race, or he was unregistered.

Julian, who looked human, was the latter.

It was a common occurrence.

You could find plenty of unregistered people just by searching the slums of the royal capital, Barona.

There were three main reasons for becoming unregistered.

First, criminals concealing their identities.

Second, children with unregistered parents.

Third, orphans abandoned in the back alleys.

Julian’s background was the third.

It could be said that there were only a limited number of things a male child from the slums, an unregistered orphan, could do when he became an adult.

If things didn’t go well, he’d become a back-alley thug.

If things went well, he’d become a member of a violent organization.

Julian was a unique case who had escaped that fate.

Despite not being educated, he taught himself to read through storytellers, ‘Tellers,’ who read newspapers aloud to people, and naturally became a Teller in the slums.

Rustle. He folded the newspaper, placed it on a table that looked like it was about to fall apart, and raised his head.

The walls were densely covered with articles he had scraped together, as if they were wallpapered with newspapers. Most of them were related to the Fifth Prince.

He stroked his scraggly, unkempt beard and fell into thought.

‘The reason the Fifth Prince is trying to introduce statutory law…’

Julian carefully recalled the events that had occurred from the moment the Fifth Prince mentioned statutory law in the State Affairs Conference until now.

The Tricolor Cane, which was doing nothing more than acting like a back-alley violent organization under the guise of a republic. The Freedom Members, a group of foolish dreamers who were unaware of the truth, exposed Radwan Runtia’s atrocities to the world.

The Runtia Duchy chose to remain silent, and soon the trashy lords below the rank of viscount began to be swept away.

Then came the Fifth Prince’s complete crackdown on the Tricolor Cane. As a result of the various pieces of evidence that were revealed in the process, Moria Runtia eventually stood trial in the hearing.

Many people suspected that the Fifth Prince was behind it all. And Julian was one of those who was more than suspicious; he was certain.

‘He mentioned statutory law to gain the favor of foolish dreamers and made statements that undermined his position among the nobles? There’s no way that was his only intention… It’s not enough.’

The Fifth Prince, as Julian inferred from newspaper articles and rumors, was by no means such a one-dimensional human being. He was someone who looked several moves ahead when taking action.

A list of the Fifth Prince’s presumed intentions began to unfold in Julian’s mind.

“Cough, cough.”

Suddenly, he covered his mouth as a cough started, accompanied by a pain that pierced his lungs. It was due to the aftereffects of the Red Star Fever [a deadly disease that ravaged the kingdom].

“Damn it, damn thing.”

Knock, knock.

Julian’s eyes lit up at the sound of someone knocking on the front door. He looked as if he had received a long-awaited letter.

Wiping his mouth, he stood up.

***

Creak.

The door of the dilapidated house opened.

A pale-looking man with a scruffy beard came out and scanned Reina.

“Come in.”

He led us into the house as if he had been waiting, and, looking at a chair with bent legs, opened his mouth.

“Please sit in that chair, Fifth Prince. It may look like that, but it’s sturdier than you think. Baroness Reina will probably stand even if I tell her to sit, right?”

I didn’t bother to disguise myself, but he recognized us at a glance. Yet, he didn’t seem nervous at all.

A candle was illuminating the dark interior, and the entire wall of the house was wallpapered with newspaper articles. There seemed to be quite a few articles about me.

It felt like I had entered the secret space of someone preparing revenge.

I tapped his forehead with a ghost hand as he sat across the table from me.

━━━━━━━━×

Julian

Gender: Male

Age: 27

Race: Human

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Relationship: Friendly]

━━━━━━━━

‘Friendly?’

I was intrigued that a human who had led a riot had goodwill towards me.

“The Royal Secret Service would be shocked if they knew. They can’t imagine that the leader of the riot is living alone in this shabby slum.”

“The leader of the riot? I’m just a storyteller who told those who were trying to hang themselves a more satisfying way to do it.”

It was natural that the Royal Secret Service had not identified the leadership of this riot.

Because there wasn’t one.

There was no leadership controlling the riots that broke out simultaneously throughout the south. The riots occurred almost simultaneously in individual regions, so it felt as if there was a leadership controlling them.

“What should I call a person who incited key figures who went around the southern region causing riots if not the leader?”

“Hmm… If you put it that way, I have nothing to say. But if that’s the case, aren’t you also a leader, Fifth Prince?”

Julian’s glib tone.

It was subtly grating on my nerves.

It felt familiar, similar to the way I used my intellectual superiority gained through ‘future’ knowledge and [Library] to converse with others.

So this is how annoying it was.

“You….”

“It’s okay.”

I quickly stopped Reina from warning him in a cold voice. He looked pale and weak, and if he directly received the aura of a 6-star knight, he would probably cough up blood and collapse.

“Cough, cough, cough.”

It was beyond my expectations.

He coughed violently, even though he had only received a fraction of Reina’s aura.

Just how weak was he?

“Cough, cough. … I’m sorry. My body is reacting on its own. As expected of the future Sword Empress.”

“Is it the aftereffects of the Red Star Fever?”

“You recognize it. If it weren’t for the Prince, I would have died a long time ago. I barely survived thanks to the Generol [a medicine] that was distributed for free in the slums at the time.”

I felt strange.

In the ‘future,’ a person who would have died from the Red Star Fever had survived because of me and led a riot.

“Then I’m also a benefactor. So, would you tell me in detail why I’m the leader of the riot?”

“When you mentioned statutory law at the State Affairs Conference, you clearly said this, didn’t you? A person who retaliates against a monster that threatens their life should be recognized as acting in self-defense, regardless of the monster’s status! Cough, cough.”

Julian, who passionately shouted the words I had said at the State Affairs Conference, coughed violently again.

Wiping his mouth, he continued.

“Didn’t you, Prince, instill hope in the hearts of the kingdom’s people who are suffering from the tyranny of the nobles with that statement? Even I, an unregistered person, naturally associated the monster threatening life with the nobles, and the person retaliating with the suffering people of the kingdom. Wasn’t that your intention?”

Julian, an unregistered person.

He was the first to realize something that no one else had noticed among my intentions in mentioning the introduction of statutory law.

I don’t think it was because the people around me were incompetent that they didn’t notice.

They had not lived the life of the lowest of the low. It would not be easy for them to understand the feelings of those who routinely faced the deaths of family, lovers, and friends due to the tyranny of the nobles.

It must have been due to the difference in perspective.

Perhaps they didn’t express it because they couldn’t bring themselves to say it.

“So you’re saying I induced the riot?”

“At the very least, you wanted to receive strong support when you tried to implement policies that would suppress the southern nobles, right? I thought that if the riot didn’t happen even after time passed, you might have taken action yourself.”

I shrugged and opened my mouth.

“You’re a storyteller, so you have a rich imagination. If I induced a riot and the Royal Secret Service noticed, I would be kicked out of politics in an instant. Would I really do that?”

“Wouldn’t it be fine if you weren’t caught? Like you’ve been doing so far.”

His way of thinking was similar to mine.

At this point, common self-loathing would occur, but I didn’t feel anything special.

“Think what you want. But how did you know I was coming?”

“Didn’t you raid the base of the Tricolor Cane, who had been chased by the Royal Secret Service for over 20 years? I thought you could come to a place where a storyteller like me with a loose tongue stays at any time. It’s earlier than I thought.”

It wasn’t difficult to track Julian.

By finding the common denominators of those who caused riots in each region through [Library], I naturally learned that they had met a storyteller who coughed frequently.

“Earlier than you thought?”

“I thought I would be able to see you after two or three more places like Lirus Barony, where the territory’s people were all killed, appeared. Thanks to you coming so early, the questions I had been wondering about have been resolved, so I’m very happy.”

“Questions?”

“I was curious. Did you have a compassionate heart for the kingdom’s people who live like livestock in the back of your mind when you advocated for the introduction of statutory law?”

“You questioned something obvious.”

“Wasn’t the fact that the obvious wasn’t happening the reality of the present? Cough, cough.”

The conversation was briefly interrupted as Julian, who was answering with a strange smile, coughed again.

I waited for his cough to stop and asked.

“Why did you start the riot?”

“I wanted to declare to the bastards who created this damn world that people who cannot dream of the future would rather choose death than become livestock.”

I briefly took my eyes off Julian and looked around.

As the east had broken and it had become brighter while we were talking, the newspaper articles that filled the walls were seen in a little more detail. 80% of them were articles related to me.

I met his eyes again.

“You seem very interested in me… Didn’t you think about waiting a little longer? I still think I’ve shown the people of the kingdom the future quite a bit. It was almost the south’s turn.”

“… I… Cough, cough. Cough, cough!”

Julian, who was about to answer, coughed particularly badly. And the fishy smell of blood that stimulated the sense of smell.

After wiping the blood on his palm on his pants, he opened his mouth.

“It seems like I don’t have much time left to live. What if you are a different person on the inside and outside? Wouldn’t our future, having been deceived once again, be hell? A royal who pretends to understand the hearts of the lower class… It’s even scarier.”

“So, what is it like to actually meet me?”

“At first glance, it seems like I was worried for nothing… But I don’t know. There are plenty of kings in history who were once benevolent but turned into tyrants.”

“I’m glad the first impression is good. But even if you stop here, I think I’ll be able to show the people of the south the future soon? If I leave it as it is, it seems like the people of the south will shed meaningless blood. From the perspective of someone who incited the riot, how should the royal family come out to calm this situation?”

“The heads of Duke Runtia, the tyrant of the south, and the lords of the regions where the riots occurred. And if it is stipulated by law that nobles who treat the people of the kingdom like livestock will be severely punished, everyone will quickly return to their livelihoods.”

“You’re saying something obvious. It’s not possible right now.”

“If that’s not possible, there’s another way.”

“Tell me.”

“Kill the First Prince. The moment it is decided that the successor to the throne is the Fifth Prince, the people of the south who started the riot will have hope. If it’s against them, who can dream of the future… Negotiations will be possible without the heads of the southern nobles.”