CH 70

The sense of danger won over his pride. As soon as they returned to the room, Carlton said, a bit intimidatingly, “I’m sorry.”

Luisen blinked, bewildered. ‘He wasn’t mad?’ Luisen wondered. “Why the sudden apology?”

“My duke, you were angry I called your benefactor a fraud.”

“Sure, at first, but…”

“You ignored me.”

“I did?”

“On the deck.”

“That’s because you were angry first, wasn’t it? If you weren’t mad, why did you glare at me like that in Morrison’s room? You even ignored the chair I placed for you.”

“…Isn’t that guy, Morrison, a bit strange?” Carlton couldn’t say that he was jealous, so instead, he turned the conversation around. Besides, his words weren’t without merit. That man was weird in many ways.

Luisen agreed, nodding, “A little.”

Apart from being grateful to Morrison, the young lord realized the merchant was a bit strange. ‘So, Carlton’s upset because Morrison kept on misunderstanding our relationship!’ He convinced himself. ‘Of course my companion would hate that. I was quite popular in the old days though, so this does give me a bitter taste in my mouth.’

“In any case, I apologize. My words were too harsh. Of course you’d get angry if I insulted someone you admire.”

“It’s fine, I’m sorry I yelled at you in the restaurant. Actually, I was only angry at that moment; none of my anger lingered.”

In fact, Luisen was more melancholic than angry when the mercenary called the one-armed pilgrim a fraud. He was being childish–he desperately wanted the other to also respect the person he admired.

“Let’s make peace?” Luisen reached out this hand. ‘Is this the right way to do it?’

Carlton grabbed the young lord’s hand without hesitation. Copying something he’d seen somewhere, Luisen embraced him and patted him on the back.

‘Alright. That was an excellent reconciliation. I guess issues can be solved without one person kneeling to another, huh?’ Luisen felt incredibly proud from learning something new. “Come to think of it, you do have reasons to be suspicious. I also had some doubts when I saw you had a pilgrim’s pass as well. I wonder if he really was a pilgrim.”

Carlton couldn’t have been the only one in the world who happened upon a pilgrim’s pass illegitimately. The pre-regression timeline’s kingdom was in a chaotic situation; it would have been easier to pretend to be a pilgrim during that time.

Because doubts had alrighty taken seed in the young lord’s mind, the mercenary’s words had a greater effect. Luisen said, “Actually, it doesn’t matter whether or not he’s a true pilgrim. Whether or not he’s a conman.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s a fraud?” Carlton was taken aback.

“He saved me from death and opened my eyes to the larger world through his teachings. The fact that he is my benefactor and savior doesn’t change.”

Words can be crafted at any time. However, it’s hard to keep up consistent behavior.

“He had obtained medicine for me even on stormy days. In the winter, he yielded the area in front of the fireplace for me. He always gave me half of his food whenever we had scrounged up something to eat. I’ll believe in his actions. That being the case, he’s someone I like, so please don’t insult him in front of me. Understand?”

Whoever the one-armed pilgrim was, he was eternally Luisen’s saint. Regardless of anyone’s opinion. “Once again, he’s someone I like, so no more insults!”

“Yes…”

“Let’s sleep now. I’m tired.” Luisen slipped out of his clothes and dove into bed.

Carlton stood, dumbfounded, for a while. Who does the young lord like? He felt a chill in his chest, as if the cold river breeze had enveloped him. They had apologized to each other and made up. Still, he felt a strong, lingering sense of defeat.

***

The night passed, and the morning light arrived. Luisen woke, a little late, and rubbed at his eyes. At first, he rushed to start moving before realizing he could stretch out and be languid on his bed. It was great to be on the move without having to walk.

Luisen rolled his body up in the blankets before his eyes found Carlton. He was sitting at the edge of the bed, with a complicated, contemplative expression on his face. “What’s with you? Did you sleep at all?” the young lord asked.

“Yes.” Carlton replied absentmindedly.

The ship traveled peacefully. They ate in the on-board restaurant, looked around the cargo, took a walk on the deck, and spent time playing card games with Morrison.

All the people on board were merchants like Morrison and their employed mercenaries. Luisen took his absentminded companion to the eatery and ate–as expected, the food was pretty tasteless.

After eating, they strolled around and, falling into a routine, went to the cargo hold to see if Morrison’s luggage was intact. This time around, the merchant and his crew also joined in on their day and boisterously played card games nearby.

Though the young lord thought that the boat ride would be boring, the ship ride was actually rather pleasant. Because the passengers were mostly professionals, no one was particularly self-indulgent or rowdy. Most of them quietly spent time within their own groups.

The time flowed by at a leisurely pace. Luisen loved this relaxed mood.

As they were in the middle of a river, the fear that someone would pop out and stab or bite him from the back had vanished. They’ll float peacefully for three days. He was anticipating that.

However, those anticipations were dashed far too soon.

It was time for dinner, and the passengers flocked to the on-board restaurant. Luisen commented to his companions that it was a shame the meals on board were disappointing and how regretful his meal at the famous restaurant in Mittil was cut short.

At that moment, someone stumbled into the restaurant. His slow and unsteady steps–like a person suffering from muscle pain–attracted everyone’s attention; the entryway was entirely blocked.

“Hey you! Hurry up and move!” A mercenary, who was waiting to enter the restaurant, got annoyed and slapped the man on the back. He had hit the man very lightly, but the man fell forward with a thud. “W-What?!”

The fallen man did not rise again. Bewildered, the mercenary looked at the man and shouted, “This man is dead!”

”What? What are you saying?” The people in the restaurant exploded with interest. A group of fellow mercenaries approached. At first, everyone had thought that the shouting man was spouting nonsense; however, the fallen man stood up again. This time, though, his neck had been turned completely around. Only then could the people present clearly see what it was.

It was a corpse.

A corpse was moving.

“Argh! Aaaaaaackkk!” The muscular–almost mountain-sized–mercenaries screamed as if they were going to faint. In the blink of an eye, Carlton jumped across the table, wrapped his arm around Luisen’s shoulder, and unsheathed his sword. The restaurant became a pandemonium.

“Groooannn”  The moving corpse was incredibly slow. It simply ambled about; it didn’t really try to threaten those present. Soon afterwards, the mercenaries, returning to their senses, ushered the corpse into a far corner.

“What is that?”

“Huh? This person–isn’t this person from the Allos Caravan?” Someone had recognized the corpse.

Simultaneously, Luisen finally noticed the moving corpse. “Isn’t that a Ghoul?”

“A Ghoul? Like the ones from stories?”

Supposedly these were caused by souls that have suffered after the original person died an unjust death–the body starts to move as if it were alive. That existence was called a Ghoul. Since the body was once a living being, public opinion was divided on whether or not a Ghoul should be considered a monster. People were also divided on the origin of these beings–spontaneous generation? Natural occurrence? Evolution? Curse? Epidemic? Even in the future, nothing had been confirmed.

Luisen was of the opinion that it was a curse or an epidemic rather than supporting the theory of natural occurrence or the after-effects of a wronged soul. If all people who were wronged became ghouls, shouldn’t everyone at the duchy become a ghoul and chase after the young lord?

In any case, Ghouls weren’t threatening monsters. It was gruesome to see corpses amble about, but these things were too slow and weak to attack properly.

“Isn’t there a lot of those up North? Specifically in the Northern Regions?” In the previous timeline, while living as a nomad, Luisen had encountered many Ghouls. It wasn’t common, but the monsters weren’t unusual either.

“What are you talking about? If those things were common, it wouldn’t be the nobles who’d run the kingdom. It’d be the Priests.”

“Really?”

Carlton was shocked at Luisen’s tranquil nonchalance. ‘Was this person always this bold?’ While the two talked, the mercenaries succeeded in tying up the Ghoul’s hands and feet. Perfectly timed, someone from the Allos caravan rushed in. “T-This… How did this…”

“Hey you! What the hell happened?!”

“Who’s the leader of your caravan? Come out and explain yourselves!”

The surrounding people began to rebuke the man; in response, the man hesitated for a moment before closing his eyes and explaining all that had happened.

The ghoul here was a servant from the Allos Caravan that had died early this morning. Last night, after the ship sailed, the man had collapsed from a high fever. At the time, the members of the caravan were suffering from the enteritis pandemic that plagued Mittil. However, contrary to their expectations, it wasn’t enteritis, and the man’s condition continued to deteriorate until he finally died at dawn.

“Honestly, if that were the case, then we should have turned the boat around! Why did you hide it?!”

“That’s… We’d suffer a huge loss if the boat turned around…”

If the boat returned back to port because of the Allos caravan, the caravan would have to take responsibility for all the merchants and mercenaries on board. They had already lost a lot of money in the venture in the South–they had hushed up the situation because they were reluctant to lose more.

“Where’s your leader? We’re already in the middle of a crisis–what is he doing?”

“Our boss is also down with a high fever.”

“What?”

“All the people from our caravan have collapsed.”

“Wait a minute. So, it’s an infectious disease?”

An infectious disease.

At that one word, everyone fled from the man from the Allos caravan and the Ghoul. In an instant, the restaurant was filled with an air of anxiety and fear.

The people on the boat all shared the same destiny before they landed at their destination. Everyone ate the same food, drank the same water, and shared same space. That meant that, in this situation, no one here could escape the spread of the disease.

News of the epidemic spread quickly. They were in the middle of the large river, so people couldn’t get off the boat. The pleasant and comfortable ship–the floating bedroom that gently cut through the river currents–quickly became a moving prison.

TL: Just do it Carlton, admit your jealousy~ I wanna see how Luisen reacts!