Ch.275275. Ugly Consequences

The second prince of the Kingdom of Kore, a man whose royal title was recently downgraded from Grand Prince to Prince.

“Urgh…”

Prince Jinseong awoke with a frown as sunlight poured into his private quarters.

With the dazzling sunlight piercing through the paper windows and stabbing directly into his eyes, he couldn’t help but wake up naturally.

-Chirp, chirp, chirp.

The sounds of sparrows living in the lavishly decorated mansion situated in one corner of his residence disturbed his ears, while the breeze coming through the slightly open window subtly stimulated his skin.

“Yaaawn…”

Thanks to this, Prince Jinseong had shaken off most of his drowsiness despite having just woken up. He let out a yawn as he rose from his bedding…

“That woman… is gone.”

He sighed at the absence of the woman he had brought in to comfort his fragile heart, wounded by the recent downgrade of his royal title, but carefully removed the silk blanket covering his naked body.

And the reason there was no wife beside him was simply because Prince Jinseong was still unmarried.

Considering the social norms of the era, where people typically married between the ages of 16 and 20 regardless of gender, it was quite unusual for Prince Jinseong, now approaching his mid-twenties, to remain unmarried.

Unlike modern times, marriage in this world was practically an obligation for those of a certain age, and even without personal consent, strategic marriages were arranged for members of the royal family or at least for children of noble houses.

In an era where not producing offspring was considered unfilial to one’s parents and ancestors, his situation was certainly regarded as strange.

Of course, there was a reason for this.

Back when he still maintained his sanity and was maneuvering to distance himself from the throne, Grand Prince Jinseong chose not to marry to prevent his maternal relatives from harboring strange ambitions and to create a disqualifying factor for himself.

As a bonus, he publicly attributed this to his philandering lifestyle due to his scoundrel-like temperament.

Continuing the royal bloodline was the most important and weighty duty given to a monarch. Considering that a king’s children were deeply connected to succession stability and the nation’s security, this was quite an effective strategy.

But that was all in the past. Somewhere along the way, things got reversed, and the Grand Prince Jinseong, now Prince Jinseong, who had truly become a third-rate thug and villain, was maintaining his unmarried status solely for his promiscuous lifestyle.

…Even if he wanted to marry now, his reputation had sunk so low that no family worthy of a prince’s status would offer a marriage proposal anyway.

In any case, after waking up, Prince Jinseong hastily dressed his bare body and began preparing to go out.

Normally, a prince of his stature would have attendants handle such trivial matters instead of doing them himself…

But because of his foul personality and disorderly conduct, people avoided him to the point where he couldn’t find anyone willing to serve him.

The place he was heading to in broad daylight was none other than the high-class lodging where that damned man was said to be staying.

Unaware that the man was a superior, Prince Jinseong was certain he must be dead by now and was setting out to witness it for himself.

And that’s when it happened.

“What a lucky bastard you are, Lord Prince Jinseong.”

“…What?!”

A voice that should not have been heard in this place—a voice belonging to a despicable creature—came from behind him.

Startled, Prince Jinseong hurriedly tried to turn his head, but the owner of the voice was faster.

[Press down, my devotee.]

-Woong!

What compressed Prince Jinseong’s entire body was a gravity magic that utilized the power of nature.

It was a spell with power somewhere between the usual restraining and lethal magics.

The mechanism of ‘adding weight to an object’ could potentially strengthen an enemy’s attack if misused, but when cast on non-combatants like this, it was the ultimate restraining magic.

A strange sensation, as if something was tightly squeezing his entire body from all directions. It suddenly induced headaches and minor pains, and the body directly receiving the pressure gradually deteriorated in invisible ways.

“Urgh, urrrgh…”

Even in this state, his tongue was so heavy that Prince Jinseong could barely make any sound beyond air escaping from his mouth. The owner of the voice smiled sinisterly at him, raised his hand, and…

-Snap!

With a sound not unlike the snapping of fingers, the pressure constricting his body disappeared. Feeling liberated, Prince Jinseong decided not to hold back.

“Y-you bastard!!!”

He grabbed a decorative sword lying nearby, roughly pulled it from its scabbard, and awkwardly raised it like a club as he charged at the man behind him.

His target was singular: the man who had insulted and enraged Prince Jinseong.

Of course, his action turned out to be the worst possible move.

-Thwack!

“…Huh?”

Before he could make any judgment, a staff was thrust forward like a shot, striking him precisely on the philtrum. The impact itself was shocking, but the additional magical power injected into Prince Jinseong’s forehead during this process was an extra punishment.

-Thud!

Having been struck hard on the head, he collapsed to the floor, which was undoubtedly due to a simple concussion.

And the magical power injected into Prince Jinseong’s body began to rampage wildly inside him due to the precise magical manipulation of its owner.

Starting by damaging parts of the nervous system to prevent proper motor function, this magic touched specific spots in the brain, causing terrible pain throughout Prince Jinseong’s body.

‘Aaaaargh!!!’

Though endless screams of agony flowed within his mind, they couldn’t escape his lips.

He was now in a state similar to a vegetative patient—able to feel all sensations in his body but unable to move it.

As a side effect of the magical manipulation, blood trickled from Prince Jinseong’s nostrils, while blood gradually filled his lungs due to internal bleeding.

He had a mouth, but he couldn’t possibly scream.

The terror of feeling death slowly approaching was in a class of its own, incomparable to other fears.

And as this continued, the shadow of death slowly began to extend its hand toward Prince Jinseong…

Prince Jinseong was granted death exactly 30 minutes later.

※ ※ ※

As Prince Jinseong’s vile body, his cooling corpse, lost strength and lay sprawled on the floor.

“Dead, you idiot.”

Without even trying to hide my obvious mockery and contempt, I kicked his disgusting body.

Some might think: Isn’t there a problem with unilaterally killing someone who is a prince of a nation?

To conclude from the start: No problem. There is absolutely no issue in this situation.

First, there’s the overwhelming justification that the other side hired an assassin connected to cultists to commission murder, but beyond that, this revenge itself was carried out with the tacit approval of the court.

Making an issue of this was literally impossible due to a magical contract.

Anyway, being in a position where I didn’t have to worry about retaliation at all, I now took out something terrible from my pocket to perfectly complete this revenge.

An erotic painting (shunga) depicting unnervingly realistic beasts mating with each other, drawn for some nobles with peculiar tastes in the Kingdom of Yamato.

Furthermore, I placed a set of perverse materials that I had selected from a modern perspective throughout this man’s house, and as a bonus, controlled the magic implanted in his brain to strongly stimulate his lower body with sexual arousal.

Therefore, the cause of Prince Jinseong’s death would be recorded as “died while masturbating to erotic paintings of mating beasts.”

In other words, a cause of death that seemed plausible yet wasn’t—his brain vessels bursting due to excessive sexual stimulation.

To put it crudely in modern terms, something like “died while masturbating to bestiality porn,” which frankly speaking, would make his death itself a dark history that people would hush up.

To be blunt, to become a martyr through death or to be propagandized as such requires a minimum level of virtue, but dying while committing obscene acts stemming from base sexual desires far exceeds that line.

Therefore, I could guarantee:

Unless his name becomes synonymous with infamy and vileness, Prince Jinseong would ultimately have his name buried forever as a dark history of the royal family.