The Prince Who Absorbs Abilities With a 'Click' - C27

Chapter 27: The New Owner of the City That Became a Dungeon

The preparations for the delegation heading to Balderheim city were completed.

Before leaving tomorrow, I skimmed through the reports placed on my desk one by one.

“Seems like I’m just a figurehead after all.”

Officially, I was the representative of the delegation.

It was a fact that couldn’t be denied since my older brother, the Crown Prince, had chosen and appointed me.

However, this was just a facade.

Even though I had the blood of the emperor in me, I was still only 16 years old.

Naturally, I couldn’t fully entrust everything to myself.

So, a noble was naturally included in the delegation to assist me.

This part was understandable.

It would be strange to send only me after all.

The problem, however, was the identity of the noble accompanying me.

“Viscount Lux.”

Viscount Lux was the vassal of Duke Crest, who had passed away in the recent incident.

However, he was in charge of education at the royal palace, and on the day the city fell, he was teaching me, allowing him to avoid the worst situation.

Even though the Crest family had fallen, he was still aligned with the Crown Prince.

And now, someone like that would assist me?

It was obvious that my older brother’s intention was to keep an eye on me.

“Well, I have to give him credit for being sneaky.”

I sighed and put the report down.

If he was so openly filling the position with his own person, the knights would probably be the same.

It was obvious without even looking.

While thinking this, I heard footsteps outside the door.

Soon, Lynette knocked on the door and spoke.

“Your Highness? A knight sent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived.”

Just as they say, when you talk about a tiger, it comes.

Currently, I didn’t have a bodyguard.

Since leaving the palace without protection was dangerous, my older brother had assigned a bodyguard to me.

“Yes, come in.”

I gave a short answer and stood up from my seat.

The door opened, and a knight who appeared quite young walked in confidently.

“I am Winston, assigned to escort Your Highness.”

Winston, wearing shining silver armor, bowed politely.

When I looked closer, I could clearly tell.

‘He’s really young.’

Winston looked to be in his early twenties at the most.

Of course, just because he looked young didn’t mean I could underestimate his skills.

The knights who protect the royal family are selected from those who are recognized for their abilities in the royal knights order.

Given his age, he might lack experience in actual battles, but he was definitely a capable person.

“Is your name Winston?”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

“How old are you?”

“I’m 21 years old!”

A knight who had just turned 21.

In my past life, he would’ve just recently become an adult, but here, one was treated as an adult starting at 17.

From the perspective of my past life, Winston was more like someone in their mid-20s.

Now that I had asked for his name and age, it was time for the next question.

“Do you have the skills to protect me?”

This might sound rude, but it was a question I could ask as a prince.

Without hesitation, Winston answered.

“Yes! I will protect Your Highness with my life!”

Oh, with his life, huh?

I could definitely feel his discipline.

“Really? Then, if I’m in danger of dying, can you die in my place?”

“Yes, of course! I believe it is a knight’s duty!”

There was no hesitation in his response.

I asked the most important question last.

“So, your mission is to watch over me, right?”

“Yes, that’s-”

Winston froze in shock at the words that came out of his own mouth.

He was so surprised that he covered his mouth with his hand. It seemed like I had hit the nail on the head.

‘He still feels like a rookie.’

Winston waved his hands and desperately started to explain himself.

“No, no! That’s not it at all-”

“Okay, okay. I get it. The Crown Prince must have told you to keep an eye on me.”

It was obvious without even looking.

In fact, I would’ve felt bad if they didn’t assign anyone to watch over me.

‘That’s how my older brother is.’

How much does he care for his younger sibling to assign a monitor like this?

Anyway, the delegation was heading to Balderheim city, which was filled with zombies.

And those zombies were monsters that I controlled.

In other words, the likelihood of something serious happening was close to zero.

Since there were no risks, I honestly didn’t care about having someone assigned to watch me.

‘I’m actually relieved that a naive one like him is here.’

Even if Winston might be skilled as a knight, he still gave off a pure feeling.

“Your Highness, the things I said earlier were not sincere…”

Winston continued to try to explain himself, but I just smiled and nodded.

It seemed like he didn’t realize that the more he explained, the more it would make the other person confident.

‘He’s really naive about the ways of the world.’

That’s probably why it was fun to tease him.

I wanted to tease him a little more, but since I had things to do, I waved my hand.

“Alright, I got it. You can leave now. We’re leaving tomorrow morning, so get ready.”

“Understood! I will see you tomorrow!”

Winston, who had been making excuses a moment ago, returned to his knightly demeanor and immediately left the room.

Now, I was alone in the room…or not, as Lynette was still there.

“Lynette? Why are you still here?”

Even after my dismissal, Lynette stayed put.

She was fidgeting with the hem of her dress and lowered her head.

‘What is it?’

Lately, I had been feeling like Lynette was defying my orders.

Has my authority as a prince fallen so low that even a maid disregards me?

‘Could this be a sign of a coup?’

As I entertained various wild thoughts in my mind, Lynette’s face turned red.

After a moment, she spoke in a small voice.

“U-um, Your Highness.”

“What is it?”

“You’re leaving tomorrow, right?”

Lynette’s voice trembled. She seemed unusually nervous.

“Yeah? But why?”

My leaving had nothing to do with Lynette. She would still be staying here.

“Well…um…”

Lynette’s face grew even redder, and her fingers fidgeted more urgently with the hem of her dress.

“Since you’ve only been inside the palace all this time…I’m worried.”

“Mm?”

Ah, I understood now. It seemed like Lynette was worried about that.

I knew the truth about the situation, so it didn’t matter to me, but to an outsider, it probably looked like I was heading into a city full of zombies.

In other words, it would look like I was walking into certain death.

I guess Lynette was just concerned for my safety.

‘How thoughtful. She’s even thinking about my safety.’

Lynette was definitely like family, someone I would have to keep by my side.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts and decided to ease her worries.

“It’s okay. I know what kind of state Balderheim is in, so don’t worry too much.”

“That’s not it…”

Lynette kept trailing off.

Her cheeks turned even redder, and her eyes darted around.

“I…I was just wondering…if you’re uncomfortable at all…”

“Uncomfortable?”

What could possibly be uncomfortable? There was nothing like that.

After all, I was a prince. Even though I was just the figurehead representative of the delegation, I would be traveling comfortably in a carriage, so what could be uncomfortable?

“Yes…so…”

Lynette’s voice grew smaller and smaller.

“If you go outside, it will be very difficult for you…so I…I want to help you…”

What? Help with what?

Lynette’s face turned even redder as she continued speaking.

“So…I mean…Your…desires…”

“Desires?”

“Yes… When you go outside, you probably won’t be able to fulfill them, so I thought it might be safer if you…fulfill them today…”

I still didn’t understand what Lynette was talking about. Why was she suddenly talking about desires—

“Ah.”

Lynette’s face was now completely red, even to her ears.

“I understand.”

After finishing what I was doing, I immediately turned on my smartphone.

Tomorrow, I would briefly leave the Imperial Palace.

While I had been living safely within the walls of the Imperial Palace, that would no longer be the case.

I couldn’t fully trust the delegation or the knight Winston.

The only ones who could protect me here were my dungeon monsters.

“Surely, they won’t attack me?”

One concern was that I had never actually met the zombies.

They had never seen me either.

I had only given orders through the smartphone game, but we had never face-to-face encountered each other.

So there was a chance they wouldn’t recognize me and might attack.

“Just in case, I should set up safety measures.”

The safety measure I was thinking of was to issue orders to the zombies in advance.

“Do not initiate an attack when the delegation from the Exion Empire arrives.”

That way, at least I wouldn’t be suddenly attacked.

Of course, it would be easier if the zombies recognized me, but even if they didn’t, I could control them through the smartphone, so it wasn’t a problem.

“Still, I need to keep running Dungeon Master.”

For precaution, I planned to continue running the game tomorrow.

The most important game for me right now was Dungeon Master.

While I had realized that the smartphone game was connected to reality and I should level up characters like Kang Ha-Yoon and Seo Ji-Won, that wasn’t my priority at the moment.

“My life comes first.”

Ignoring the alarms on the top bar, I immediately opened Dungeon Master.

Soon, two dungeon lists appeared on the screen.

[You currently own a total of 2 dungeons.]

【Master Dungeon】

• • Dungeon Owner: Skeleton Gunner (C)

【Balderheim Dungeon】

• • Dungeon Owner: None.

[Please choose the dungeon to operate.]

“Right now, it’s definitely Balderheim.”

I didn’t need to worry about the Skeleton Gunner.

It had been an F-ranked skeleton that had killed a B-ranked incubus and taken the dungeon owner position.

It would run the dungeon just fine without me.

I tapped on the Balderheim Dungeon.

[You can appoint a dungeon owner for the Balderheim Dungeon.]

[The dungeon owner will assist the master in managing the dungeon efficiently.]

[The dungeon’s atmosphere will be influenced by the dungeon owner’s traits.]

When I selected the dungeon, a prompt appeared asking me to appoint a dungeon owner.

Looking at the Skeleton Gunner alone, I could tell how important the dungeon owner was for managing the dungeon.

“But who should I appoint?”

The problem was that the only monsters in Balderheim were zombies.

I quickly checked the monster list.

【Monster List】

• • Zombie Head (?) × 1

 

• • Mimic (D) × 1

 

• • Zombie (?) × 46,329

“Wow.”

Over 40,000 zombies?

Excluding the zombies, there was only one Zombie Head and one Mimic, and all the zombies were listed with a question mark for their level.

Normally, the level of creatures like the Mimic would be clearly labeled, just like the Skeleton Gunner, which was labeled as C-rank.

“Could it be because the zombies are from an apocalyptic world?”

When I thought about it, the Skeleton Gunner had evolved using an evolution scroll, but the 40,000 zombies were infected beings starting from the “Zombie Head” sacrificed by Kang Ha-Yoon.

Naturally, the Zombie Head was also an entity that had crossed over from the apocalyptic world.

“It’s possible.”

It seemed that since the zombies were not officially evolved creatures from this world, their levels were marked with a question mark.

“Now, who should I appoint as the owner?”

The theme of Balderheim was zombies.

Rather than summoning new monsters, it seemed best to utilize the apocalyptic zombies.

“Then, I guess it has to be this one.”

[Appoint ‘Zombie Head’ as the dungeon owner.]

【Dungeon Owner: Zombie Head (?)】

I appointed the entity responsible for creating this situation as the dungeon owner.

The mansion of Duke Crest remained magnificent.

Since the city’s fall, the only change was that the owners of this place were now zombies.

Two zombies, holding a treasure chest-shaped Mimic, headed to the basement of the mansion.

Inside the Mimic was the Zombie Head, who had now become the owner of the Balderheim Dungeon.

However, the Zombie Head still showed an aggressive demeanor.

“Raaahhh!”

Unable to bear it any longer, one of the zombies closed the Mimic’s lid.

Thud—

“…”

The basement of the mansion grew quiet again.

The zombies moved around, searching every corner to see if any living humans were around.

At that moment, a desperate voice echoed.

“Please! Help me!”

The zombies turned their heads toward the sound.

Deep within the basement, a prison with iron bars was visible.

Behind the bars, a man was screaming.

“Krk?”

The two zombies holding the Mimic reacted when they saw the human.

This was because the human looked incredibly familiar.

“Krk!”

Before long, the zombies remembered who the human was.

Yes.

This man was the one who had stolen the Mimic and fled.

Thanks to him, they had been able to move freely, but they didn’t understand why he was now locked in a prison.

“Please! Please save me! No, please! That bastard, the Duke, locked me up here!”

The human’s voice grew increasingly desperate.

“I’m not on the humans’ side anymore! I’ll do anything! Please, just save my life!”

The person begging for his life was Mark.

He was the captain of the guard responsible for the northern wall.