097
A small town in the southern part of the Kingdom of Lionel.
In the wee hours of the morning, in a shabby house in a dilapidated slum, a man was reading and rereading a newspaper that was over six months old.
『The Five Princes Who Proposed the Introduction of Written Law』
『The Written Law of the Daichi Kingdom, the Leader of the Brisen Union, Does the Law Take Priority Over Status?』
His name is Julien.
There is no ‘surname’.
In the Kingdom of Lionel, the absence of a ‘castle’ means one of two things.
Either of a different race or unregistered.
Julien, who is obviously human, is the latter.
It’s a common occurrence.
Even if you just search the slums of Wangdo Barona, you will find countless unregistered people.
There are three main reasons for becoming unregistered.
One, a criminal who concealed his identity.
2. Children with undocumented parents.
Three, an orphan abandoned in a back alley.
Julien’s background was third.
It is safe to say that there are certain things that an undocumented orphan boy from the slums can do when he safely becomes an adult.
If it doesn’t work out, go to the back alley thugs.
If all goes well, you’re part of a violent crime syndicate.
Julien was a special case that escaped that.
Despite being uneducated, he learned to read on his own through ‘tellers’, storytellers who read newspapers to people, and naturally became a teller in the slums.
Rustling, he folded the newspaper and placed it on the table, which looked like it would break, and raised his head.
The walls were densely packed with articles that looked like they had been plastered over with newspaper clippings. Most of them were related to the Five Princes.
He stroked his messy, untidy beard and sat lost in thought.
‘The reason the five princes want to introduce written law······.’
Julien thought back over the events that had happened from the moment the Fifth Prince mentioned the written law at the State Council until now.
The Three Color Staffs, which was doing nothing but a back-alley crime syndicate under the guise of a republic, were free members made up of ignorant dreamers who exposed the atrocities of Radwan Runtia to the world.
The Duke of Runtia chose silence, and soon the trash lords below the Viscount began to be swept away.
The three-color staff of the five princes was destroyed in a single blow. Due to the various pieces of evidence revealed in the process, Moria Runtia ended up standing in the hearing room.
Many people suspected that the five princes were behind it. And Julien was one of those who was convinced beyond doubt.
‘You made a remark that undermined your standing among the nobles by mentioning the written law simply to gain the favor of the dreamers? I suppose that was not entirely unintentional, but······ it was insufficient.’
The fifth prince that Julien had inferred from newspaper articles and rumors was by no means a one-dimensional person. He was someone who could foresee several steps ahead before taking action.
A list of what the five princes might have intended began to unfold in Julien’s head.
“Knock knock knock.”
He covered his mouth as a cough suddenly began, accompanied by a stabbing pain in his lungs. It was the aftereffects of the red star fever.
“f*ck, that shit.”
Knock knock, knock.
Julien’s eyes lit up at the sound of someone knocking on the front door. It was as if a long-awaited letter had arrived.
He wiped his mouth and sat up.
***
Rattling.
The door of the dilapidated house opened.
A pale, shaggy-bearded man glanced at me and Reina.
“Come in.”
He let us into the house as if he had been waiting for us, and opened his mouth while looking at the chair with its bent legs.
“Please sit on that chair, Fifth Prince. It looks sturdy, but it’s more sturdy than you think. Even if I tell Baron Reina to sit, she’ll still stand, right?”
Even though we didn’t come dressed up, they recognized us at a glance. And yet, they didn’t seem nervous at all.
Candles illuminated the dark interior, and the walls of the house were covered 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 for revenge.
I tapped his forehead with my ghost hand as we sat across the table.
━━━━━━━━━×
Julien
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Race: Human
[Stats]
[skill]
[Relationship: Friendly]
━━━━━━━━
‘friendship?’
I was intrigued that the man who led the rebellion was kind to me.
“The royal guard would faint if they found out. They would never have imagined that the instigator of the rebellion would be living alone in a shabby slum like this.”
“The instigator of the rebellion? I am just a storyteller who gives a slightly more satisfying way to those who are about to hang themselves.”
It was natural that the Royal Guard failed to identify the leaders of this rebellion.
Because there isn’t any.
There was no leadership to control the rebellions that broke out simultaneously throughout the South. It was as if there was a leadership to control them because the rebellions broke out almost simultaneously in individual regions.
“What else can we call a man who goes around the South inciting key figures to start a rebellion, if not a ringleader?”
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“Hmm······If you put it that way, then I have nothing left to say. But if you put it that way, isn’t the Fifth Prince also the instigator?”
Julien’s cheeky speech.
It strangely got on my nerves.
It felt familiar, similar to the way I converse with others using my knowledge of the ‘future’ and the intellectual advantage I gained through [the library].
It was so annoying.
“you······.”
“are you okay.”
Reina quickly stopped him from warning him with a cold voice. With his pale features and shaggy body, he looked like he would vomit blood and collapse if he faced the aura of a six-star knight head-on.
“Knock knock knock, knock knock knock.”
It was beyond my expectations.
Even though he only received a small amount of Reina’s energy, he coughed harshly.
How weak are you?
“Knock knock knock. ······ I’m sorry. My body is reacting on its own. As expected, you are the swordsman of the future.”
“Is this a sequela of the Red Star Fever?”
“You see. If it weren’t for the prince, I would have died long ago. I barely survived thanks to the free Generol that was distributed in the slums.”
It felt strange.
In the ‘future’, a person who would have died from the Red Star Fever survived because of me and led a rebellion.
“Then I am also your savior. So, would you like to tell me in detail why I am the instigator of the rebellion?”
“When you mentioned the written law at the State Council, you clearly said this, right? Anyone who fights back against a monster threatening their life should be recognized as acting in self-defense, regardless of the monster’s identity! Knock knock knock.”
Julien, who had passionately shouted out what I had said at the State Council, coughed violently again.
He wiped his mouth and continued speaking.
“Your Majesty, with that statement, didn’t you plant hope in the hearts of the people of the kingdom who were suffering from the tyranny of the nobles? Even I, an unregistered person, wouldn’t you naturally associate the monster who threatened my life with the nobles, and the one who fought back with the suffering people of the kingdom? Wasn’t that your intention?”
Unregistered Julien.
He was the first to perceive what I meant by introducing a written law, something that no one had noticed before.
I don’t think it’s because the people around me are incompetent that I didn’t notice.
They had never experienced the life of the lowest of the low. It would not be easy to understand the feelings of those who faced the deaths of their family, lovers, and friends on a daily basis due to the tyranny of the aristocracy.
It might have been because of the difference in eye level.
Maybe he didn’t show it because he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.
“So you’re saying I incited a rebellion?”
“At the very least, when you were trying to implement a policy of suppressing the southern nobles, you would have wanted strong support. I thought that if no rebellion had occurred over time, the prince could have taken action himself.”
I shrugged and opened my mouth.
“As expected of a storyteller, you have a rich imagination. If I incited a rebellion and the royal guards found out, I would be expelled from politics in an instant. Do you think that would happen?”
“You just have to avoid getting caught, right? Just like you’ve always done.”
His way of thinking was similar to mine.
At this point, it would normally be considered as hate speech against my own kind, but I didn’t feel any particular emotion.
“Think whatever you want. But how did you know I was coming?”
“Didn’t you raid the headquarters of the Three-Colored Staff Group, which had been chased by the Royal Guard for over 20 years? I thought you would be able to find a place where a storyteller with a square mouth like me was staying at any time. It’s earlier than I thought.”
Tracking down Julien wasn’t difficult.
[Library] While searching for common denominators among those who caused civil unrest in each region, I naturally found out that I had met a storyteller who coughed frequently.
“Earlier than expected?”
“I thought that we would have to wait until there were three or four more places like Baron Lirus’ territory where all the residents were wiped out before we could meet. I am very happy that you came so early, as it has resolved the question that has been bothering me for so long.”
“question?”
“I was curious. Behind the prince’s insistence on introducing a written law, did he also have admirable feelings toward the people of the kingdom who live like livestock?”
“You questioned the obvious.”
“Isn’t the current reality that what is obvious is not happening? Knock knock knock.”
The conversation was interrupted for a moment when Julien, who had been responding with a strange smile, coughed again.
I waited for his cough to stop before asking.
“Why did you start a rebellion?”
“I wanted to proclaim to the X-like children who created this X-like world: Those who cannot dream of a future would rather choose death than become livestock.”
I took my eyes off Julien for a moment and looked around.
As we talked, the sun began to rise and the newspaper articles covering the walls became more visible. Eighty percent of them were related to me.
I looked at him again.
“You seem very interested in me… Didn’t you think you could wait a little? I think you’ve shown the future to the people of the kingdom quite a bit. It’s almost the South’s turn.”
“··· I······ Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock!”
Julien, who was about to answer, coughed violently. And the pungent smell of blood stimulated his olfactory senses.
He wiped the blood on his palms onto his trouser cuffs and then opened his mouth.
“I think I don’t have much time left. What if the prince is a different person on the outside than on the inside? If we’ve been fooled again, won’t our future be hell? A royal family that pretends to understand the feelings of the lower class… It’s even scarier.”
“So what is it like when you actually meet him?”
“At first glance, it seems like I was worrying for nothing… but you never know. There are many kings in history who were once good rulers but then turned into tyrants.”
“I’m glad that your first impression is okay. But even if we stop here, I think I can show the Southerners a future soon. If we leave it like this, the Southerners will shed blood for no reason. As the one who incited the rebellion, how do you think the royal family should come out to calm this situation down?”
“If we make it a law that severely punishes the Duke of Runtia, the tyrant of the South, and the local lords who have caused the uprising, and the nobles who treat the people of the kingdom like livestock, everyone will quickly return to their livelihoods.”
“You’re saying the obvious. It’s impossible right now.”
“If that doesn’t work, there are other ways.”
“say it.”
“Kill the First Prince. The moment it is decided that the heir to the throne is the Fifth Prince, there will be hope for the Southerners who have been rebelling. If we deal with them who can dream of a future… we will be able to negotiate without the heads of the Southern nobles.”
