If I Were Reborn, I Wouldn’t Marry You - Chapter 120

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 120
I have no idea what possessed me to come all the way to the Underworld.
Like someone flushed with fever or drunk on wine, I simply walked toward my destination—and found myself here.
At least I had the good sense to disguise myself properly.
The moment Prince stepped into the boundaries of the Underworld, his eyes gleamed as he searched for a target upon which to unleash his fury.
It was his true nature, suppressed by the need to maintain the facade of a gentle and kind Crown Prince within the Imperial Palace.
Now that he had entered a place where he could indulge that nature freely, Prince’s eyes glittered with an eerie light.
He was well aware that if this hobby were discovered by others, it would be catastrophically troublesome—so ordinarily, he would have been far more cautious.
But today, his emotions churned with unprecedented turbulence, making restraint difficult.
To make matters worse, no suitable target presented itself.
It was still broad daylight, and the Underworld’s day began only after sunset—a logical inevitability that Prince’s fractured mind failed to process.
He was tempted to fabricate a pretext and slaughter the Viscount of Perington’s lackeys operating in the Underworld.
‘Why shouldn’t I? They’re nothing but parasitic toadstools thriving in the shadows anyway.’
Just as Prince was about to surrender to impulse, a middle-aged drifter caught his eye.
The man was clearly lost, as if he had wandered into the Underworld by mistake.
How foolishly he displayed such incompetence in the Underworld.
It was naive, even simpering.
To anyone’s eye, he seemed utterly unconnected to this place.
Prince deliberated briefly.
When members of the Underworld died, their deaths were dismissed as murders born of grudges or casualties of factional struggles—nothing that escalated matters.
But outsiders were different.
Yet Prince ultimately surrendered to his impulse.
‘Judging by his clothes, he’s a commoner bordering on destitute… and many have stumbled into the Underworld by mistake and perished, so…’
Having fabricated justification for himself, Prince drew the blade hidden within his garments and attacked the middle-aged man.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
Thus the middle-aged man met his end at Prince’s hands.
Only after hacking away with enough ferocity to release all his pent-up rage did his mind finally clear.
A heavy breath escaped him.
It was then, as Prince steadied his ragged breathing.
The corpse—unmistakably that of a poor, middle-aged man—began to transform slowly.
His hunched frame straightened and grew taller; the wrinkles etched by hardship gradually faded from his face.
As the corpse continued its subtle metamorphosis, not a trace of its original appearance remained.
Only the corpse of a man in his early twenties—clearly of noble birth—lay before him.
With blood clearing his mind, it now whispered an ominous warning.
Only an artifact crafted by a high-ranking mage could achieve such a perfect transformation.
And such artifacts were treasures so rare that even most nobles struggled to possess one.
“Nothing goes right today. Truly, it’s an unlucky day.”
Prince clicked his tongue in irritation, wiping away the blood carelessly as he examined the corpse’s face.
Then he froze in shock.
The corpse’s identity was that of Grand Duke Orkian, who should have been resting at the Separate Palace by now.
“…!”
My mind reeled.
This was catastrophic.
If it had been a noble of the Empire, it would have been troublesome, but we could have managed to suppress it somehow.
But the man before me was not.
A member of the Imperial Family sent as an envoy had died—there was no way the Tervan Empire would simply let this pass.
“How am I supposed to handle this?”
Prince began contemplating suitable individuals he could frame for the crime.
Fortunately, he knew several desperate people from the lower echelons of society who were in dire need of money and had much to lose.

* * *
“What do you mean…!”
The heated atmosphere of the debutante ball froze like scalding water meeting ice when the shocking news arrived at its peak.
The situation had become too awkward to continue the party, and the debutante ball ended in disarray.
After calmly seeing off the guests who hurried home, we gathered in the Family Drawing Room with heavy expressions.
“Grand Duke Orkian was found dead in the Underworld?”
Lester, whose temperament was quick to flare, asked the moment everyone had taken their seats.
Father nodded gravely in confirmation.
Why a member of a foreign nation’s Imperial Family, visiting as a state guest, had been discovered as a corpse in the Underworld was shrouded entirely in mystery.
“How could this….”
As I sighed at the unbelievable news, Father organized and shared some of the information he had gathered so far.
“It seems he went out in disguise, wanting to see the Capital alone. He apparently wandered into the Underworld by mistake and got into a confrontation with some disreputable group there.”
According to the explanation, it was an accident born purely from the convergence of misfortune upon misfortune.
Yet this layering of coincidence felt ominously wrong.
“Are you certain?”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one with an uneasy feeling.
Leonhardt asked with a cold expression.
“A member of the Tervan Imperial Family died in the Arcadia Empire, which borders on being an enemy nation. This incident may have been orchestrated with deliberate intent.”
If anyone held a grudge against Grand Duke Orkian, now—during his visit to the Arcadia Empire—would have been the perfect opportunity.
“However, Grand Duke Orkian doesn’t seem to have any true enemies.”
Grand Duke Orkian was such a late-born child that he was even younger than the Crown Princess’s offspring.
He was far removed from the line of succession to begin with, and his own nature was modest and gentle.
As a foreign royal, the rumors we heard might not be entirely accurate, but he was not the type to make enemies.
“That may be so. His Majesty the Emperor isn’t inclined to think along those lines either. However, because this happened so suddenly, it appears the plan is to simultaneously inform the Tervan Empire of Grand Duke Orkian’s death and conduct a detailed investigation into the incident.”
Father added in a measured tone.
“I heard the Crown Prince will be overseeing the investigation.”
I had found the source of my unease.
I exchanged a glance with Leonhardt.

* * *
Though I hadn’t conducted a particularly deep investigation, the outline of the incident quickly became clear.
In truth, knowing merely Prince’s cruel disposition made it far from difficult to deduce.
“As suspected. Those who confessed to murdering Grand Duke Orkian were people from Viscount Perington’s faction, and Prince’s whereabouts were unclear at the time of Grand Duke Orkian’s death.”
Moreover, there were quite a few people who died in similar locations to Grand Duke Orkian in similar ways—dozens of corpses over several years, they said.
All of it was presumed to be Prince’s doing.
“Isn’t he insane?”
Harsh words escaped my lips unbidden.
I had grown careless, thinking Prince had settled down.
To think he’d been committing such atrocities behind the scenes.
I exhaled a heavy sigh before asking.
“There’s no evidence, is there?”
“The Underworld is Viscount Perington’s territory, after all.”
It was the answer I’d anticipated, yet I couldn’t help my frustration.
“If my character were even half as rotten as his, I would’ve simply disposed of him and been done with it.”
But I was far too much of a decent person to commit such acts, and as long as Prince remained Crown Prince, I couldn’t act on circumstantial evidence alone.
“Still, now that we’re keeping watch, no more unidentified corpses should appear in the Underworld.”
At Leonhardt’s hollow consolation, I managed a weak smile.
“Why must we suffer the mental anguish because that madman is the Crown Prince?”
Leonhardt agreed with my sigh-laden words.
Yet our troubles were far from over.
The Emperor of Tervan, upon learning that his beloved son had died miserably in a foreign land, flew into a rage and declared war.
Since the justification lay with Tervan, we made desperate efforts to prevent the war, but found no viable solution.
Prince merely continued to wear the face of a well-meaning Crown Prince, feigning effort.
Since Tervan and Arcadia had been on the verge of concluding peace talks, this war arose purely because of Prince.
Yet ironically, Prince suffered the least damage from this war.
Because Leonhardt became the commanding general and went to war.
“We should chain Prince up and send him to Tervan—why must you go to war instead!”
As I raged in fury, Leonhardt spoke to me in a gentle, consoling voice.
“If he goes, we lose. We need to secure victory here, or at least negotiate a ceasefire….”
His words weren’t wrong, but it was only natural that my resentment toward Prince deepened and grew.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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