The Terminally Ill Young Master is the Mad Dog of the Underworld-Chapter 256

[Translator - Pot ]

[Proofreader - Kawaii ]

Chapter 256: Carrying All Lingering Attachments

"Make some tea."

I opened the window at the voice coming from outside.

Ivan was sitting on the windowsill like some damn thief.

"At your age, still breaking and entering in the dead of night. You should really reflect on your life."

"Save your nonsense for your subordinates."

Ivan flicked his finger.

"Move aside, I'm coming in."

As Ivan climbed through the window, I said indifferently.

"You've got dust on your clothes. How filthy."

"..."

"Try to understand. Did you really expect underworld folks to keep their windows spotless?"

I hadn't returned to Grunewald Castle.

I couldn't expose to Ivan that I was the same person as Allenvert.

'I must face Ivan as Karzan, who is both a servant of Intelligence Director Venion and an agent of the Shadow Division, as well as the mastermind behind the Bisakino Brotherhood.'

It struck me anew how many underground identities I possessed.

I'd certainly lived a busy life.

"...Just bring me some tea."

"Tea my ass. Drink some water instead."

I pointed to a half-empty water cup.

"Terrible hospitality."

As Ivan grumbled and drank the water, I said,

"Are you sure that's okay? It might be poisoned."

"There's hardly any poison on the entire continent that could harm me."

"Arrogant bastard. Carelessness is the highway to dying far from home, so keep that in mind."

Ivan sighed at my crude words and replied,

"Karzan, you've completely taken control of the Bisakino Brotherhood."

"Does it seem that way?"

"Yes. It's quite decent power."

It was true that the forces I'd gained in the underworld weren't insignificant, from Nagan, the new leader of the Bisakino Brotherhood, to the newly joined Eisenach clan, and even Zizek's gang.

'By the way, this bastard infiltrated here while easily fooling even Knut and Balthazar's senses.'

But there was no need to wonder about it.

That's the kind of level an 8th tier that Ivan had reached.

'Since the 9th tier is a realm of imagination, a level where even the greatest figures in history are now debated whether they truly reached it or not.'

Whether Ivan's exact level was early, middle, or late 8th tier, the fact remained that he was a rare powerhouse even across the entire continent.

"You still show traces of fierce battle, Karzan. Do you usually act alone?"

"Cut it out. Did you come here to interrogate me?"

Ivan shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, that's not why I came."

His purpose was, of course, to find out whether I was really Karzan or not.

"Let's go up first."

"Starting with dog training the moment you arrive."

"Shut up."

We went up to the roof.

The moonlight streaming down gently was dazzling.

When the trailing edges of night clouds occasionally covered the moon, stars that had been hidden by the greater light revealed their twinkling in the darkness.

'...How beautiful.'

Seventeen years ago, I too had often looked up at the night sky while being chased by Ivan's pursuit team.

"By the way, didn't you pass any information to that disciple-like fellow of yours?"

I asked a question in case of emergency.

"I heard he was there seventeen years ago too."

"That guy hasn't even woken up yet. His injuries are severe, so he'll need to rest for a while."

He got beaten badly, Ivan said.

"The power of the technique you showed at the end was considerable. I remember that martial art too. Wasn't that the

technique used by the previous head of Grunewald?"

I chuckled.

"You seem to have many questions. Can you guess how I learned such an advanced martial art?"

"It's actually absurd. That's definitely a martial art only permitted to direct descendants. Is the Black Serpent Duke cultivating a trustworthy retainer group to strengthen his power? Or perhaps he's planning to marry you to Ulbhild or a daughter from a branch side and take you in as a son-in-law."

"..."

Both Schelde and Ivan were generally imaginative bastards.

Of course, more precisely, they were suspicious and accustomed to various schemes.

"Think whatever you want. What matters isn't how I learned it, but how much I've mastered it."

"That's true too."

Ivan crossed his arms.

"First, I want to confirm that you're really Karzan."

"What should I do for you?"

"Well, hmm."

Ivan grinned wickedly.

"If you're an actor trained by Venion, it would be best to ask about personal things he couldn't possibly know."

Ivan lowered his voice and asked,

"Who was your first love? Was it Amy?"

"...You crazy bastard."

"Hahaha! Your expression is worth seeing."

Ivan laughed heartily.

"Tell me. Who was your first love?"

"It's not hard to tell you, but..."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm the one who's confused. How do you know that?"

"Don't you know? When you got drunk, it was your habit to sometimes bring up old stories. I was always better at drinking than you."

"...Damn it."

I sighed.

"It was Adeline. Of all things to ask about, you had to ask about that."

"Hahaha! No doubt about it."

Ivan laughed heartily.

"No matter how great an actor might be, it's impossible to know all such information. Moreover, they couldn't copy all these subtle reactions, the way you handle your gaze, changes in tone, and speech patterns."

Ivan, having convinced himself, said,

"Karzan, what the hell happened? You were definitely dead. That's an undeniable fact."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Don't be too greedy. I can't tell you that much."

"I really can't understand it. Even your body itself has changed from back then. Your level isn't quite what it was then, but..."

Ivan pointed at me. freёweɓnovel_com

"Your rough and impure internal mana has become extremely pure, and there's even a kind of power hidden that even I'm feeling for the first time."

The fact that even a powerhouse like Ivan, having grasped my mana to this extent, still couldn't notice the 'Mask of Aminicrus' was actually quite strange.

'Even with the Light Star and the Dark Star technique...'

How could its performance be this good?

Could this possibly be an artifact made directly by Geninghen?

"...Anyway, Karzan."

Ivan asked,

"It's surprising. Not only that you're alive, but that you happen to belong to Grunewald's Shadow Division. Moreover, instead of hiding your identity, you're revealing it. Is your goal revenge after all?"

"..."

These absurd bastards.

They're making assumptions again, just like Schelde did.

'Well, to anyone watching, it is a suspicious situation in many ways.'

The problem was that the very person they suspected as the mastermind, Venion, actually had little involvement in this.

'Even Venion would find it strange.'

He must be curious about how I keep impersonating this person called Karzan.

'Well, hmm.'

Of course, they wouldn't believe I was reincarnated, and I had no intention of telling them.

If it were the Venion I knew...

'He might assume there was such a story in Grunewald's library.'

The librarian Ludan had a nature of recording various stories.

'Oh, good.'

It seemed like it would make a good excuse.

I could say that during my most constrained period of seclusion, I happened to encounter the story of a man called Karzan, and out of admiration, I adopted that man's name as an alias.

'That works.'

Having finished my thoughts, I looked up.

"Shit, you startled me."

Ivan's gaze was cold.

"Why are you glaring at me like that?"

"If you're really Karzan."

Ivan moved his hand to his sword hilt.

"You'll eventually become our greatest enemy. It would be right to kill you here."

I chuckled.

"Since you don't have the will to do it, you're stalling, aren't you? If you have something to say, don't dawdle and just say it."

"..."

Ivan made a strange expression.

"You're still the same. Even right before death, your cunning mind worked amazingly well."

"Do you still remember our conversation from seventeen years ago?"

For me, it felt like less than a year, so it was vivid.

"Yes. ...How could I forget?"

Ivan, who had put his sword hilt back, said,

"I've gained much broader autonomy than you think. At least my being here tonight isn't 'His' command."

There was no need to explain who the 'He' Ivan referred to was.

"Well, if you're an 8th tier powerhouse, you'd be counted among the twenty fingers and toes on the continent. Wouldn't it be ridiculous to still live like a slave?"

"...What's with the toes in your comparison?"

Ivan shook his head.

"Let me be honest. Killing you wasn't my will."

I looked straight into Ivan's eyes.

"Does that matter?"

"It matters. Back then, I didn't have the ability to carry out my will, but now, as His close associate, I can act 'under my own judgment' to some extent."

"It sounds like you're going to let me off this time."

Ivan replied,

"Yes. I feel I need to let you pass once to wash away the debt in my heart."

"Amazing. The petty bastard has become much more generous."

I clapped and jeered.

"Karzan, I don't know what happened, but you're still weak as a bug right now. Even your victory over Schelde wasn't achieved through your pure skill alone."

"So?"

"What He was concerned about was your potential, not your present."

"And?"

"Let me be clear. Neither Grunewald nor Valkenhain can match the power of Him who has completely dominated the day and night of Flanders. Much less your individual power. You can't even match me alone."

Ivan asked,

"Can you dare to frustrate His long-cherished wish?"

"I don't care whether I can or can't. I'll just do it."

"...Is that so."

Ivan turned his back with a face as if he had understood something by himself.

"Your identity will remain 'undiscovered' for now. Tonight's meeting never happened."

"If that makes you feel better, let's do that."

"And one more thing."

Ivan said with his back turned,

"Your grandfather's grave still remains. Go visit it someday and offer alcohol."

"...!"

I asked in surprise,

"Are you saying you tended to his grave?"

Ivan answered,

"Yes. I visited every year on your death anniversary. Now I see it was a useless act."

"..."

Damn it, I couldn't hate this bastard as much as the Dark King.

"Ivan, answer me one more thing."

"What?"

I hesitated, then asked,

"About Adeline. Is she living well?"

"She's living well."

"...I see."

That's a relief.

I felt relieved, then asked what I was really curious about.

"Did she get married by any chance?"

"I don't know. Whether she has a lover, a husband, or is alone."

Ivan replied,

"But she seems to be taking in orphans."

...That's what I had always been doing.

Ivan left, but I remained lost in thought, gazing at the back alleys of Grunewald.

'The Dark King, Grandfather, Zamuel, and Adeline.'

I think of the buried hatred and buried longings.

"But somehow tonight my head is full of thoughts of you, Adeline."

In truth, I had often seen Adeline's happiness in dreams.

Sometimes holding her husband's hand, sometimes the three of them with a child.

Other times living freely alone, these scenes I watched from beyond a glass prison.

'She looked happy.'

That was probably the happiness Adeline had dreamed of.

The happiness she had wanted to share with me.

'Anyway, if you're happy having left me, that's the right thing.'

Indeed, Adeline in my dreams was doing very well.

But why...

Why don't I want to see her happy without me, even while I bless her?

'My choice was definitely right.'

I couldn't let her live as a widow, longing for me for life.

Rather than that, it was right to leave it as unfulfilled love.

...But.

"Take care, Karzan."

I also thought of the tears in her eyes as she left.

"...I shouldn't have pushed her away so foolishly."

Looking at the sleeping city, I muttered.

Suddenly, loneliness as vast as death pressed down on me.

'Damn it, what is living?'

Why is it so difficult and painful?

"What is living?"

Crying over the same partings as everyone else, sometimes losing sleep over the same pain as everyone else.

What's so different and great about the same partings everyone experiences that I'm making such a fuss?

'...I am actually afraid, Adeline.'

I fear your heart that will have changed after so much time has passed.

That you were briefly insane back then, that you regret why you gave your heart to such a man for a while...

I imagine your contempt, remembering as life's trap the time that remains as memories for me.

'You might have forgotten me and met someone better, someone perfect, regretting your momentary folly while being happy in the present.'

When I thought that way, it felt like a knife was stabbing and tearing through my chest.

Even though it was love I had abandoned.

"...It hurts. It hurts. It's cold and painful."

I muttered a name as cold as a winter night.

"Adeline."

Sometimes there's a person whose longing becomes hatred when it goes too far.

A name I curse not to be happy without me, then tearfully repeat "I'm sorry."

There's a name I'll never meet again in my remaining life. A

person I can't bear to call, so I named it longing instead.

'How can I escape from this emotional hell? How?'

I don't know.

'Regret is useless.'

Regret doesn't bring back relationships that have already ended.

'Therefore, regret is for me.'

Only after regretting fully, only after realizing that regret was useless, do I finally understand.

'That good times have passed and will not return.'

That the present, with pus flowing beneath the chest hollowed out by loss, feeling pain with every wind that grazes the wound, is the process of wounds slowly healing.

And that I must accept, understand, bear all that sadness and move forward, I was repeating to myself.

'But tonight my heart is too cold.'

Having shed a layer of vengeance and madness, a lonely, solitary, and pathetic man remained.

I see that man's eyes.

'Were you crying, Karzan?'

Now that I think about it, crying was neither wrong nor shameful.

Cry to your heart's content.

Tonight I hoped no one would come near me, yet also hoped someone would come near me.

"...Adeline."

I spoke words that would never be heard nonetheless.

"Be happy. Our connection ended very long ago, and I hope new happiness will be with you now."

Thus I will carry all lingering attachments and unforgotten feelings.

"...When all revenge is over someday, we might be able to share old stories once."

Then I should appear in Karzan's form.

"Haha."

I wiped my eyes imagining that future that would never come...

"...Boss. What are you doing?"

Then Zizek's voice came from below.

"Zizek."

Of all people, this guy.

I quickly wiped my tears.

"I couldn't sleep, so I was looking at the moon."

"You're unusually pathetic today."

"Indeed."

I chuckled and asked,

"Zizek, how was this fight?"

"There wasn't much I could do."

"Are you frustrated?"

"Of course I'm frustrated."

The heart that always seeks to improve.

The heart that rages at being weak.

Zizek reminded me of Zamuel in many ways.

"You said you're learning Eisenach martial arts?"

"Yes."

"I'll watch. I'd like to observe as well."

"Oh, is that okay? It would be an honor for me."

"Yes."

Since there was no way to calm my agitated and troubled heart, I wanted to dance with swords under the moonlight.

'Bury the longing in your heart again.'

Because I still have much left to do.

[Translator - Pot ]

[Proofreader - Kawaii ]

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