The Terminally-Ill Lord Desires Hospice Care

Everything began transforming.
Raul, who had enjoyed keeping small birds as a hobby, came to kill more lives than anyone on the battlefield.
Raul, who had clumsily known how to smile, became an unresponsive doll devoid of reaction to most things after shouldering someone’s coffin.

After countless such changes, the situation had arrived at the present.

“Ho…You must be Lord Raul Berger of the Berger household. I have often heard tales from your sister.”
“Yes, I am at a loss for how to conduct myself when recognized so.”
The one conversing with Raul was none other than Rizehl’s fiancé, the second prince.
Unlike the first prince with his blazing scarlet hair, this man had ashen locks.

“Amidst the unseemly movements from my elder brother and others, I did not expect a loyal subject like you to remain.”
“…I have merely played the scales, nothing more.”
“Regardless of the side, is it not loyalty to act for the nation’s sake?”

Of course, Raul did not particularly like him.
For he had thoroughly investigated the fiancé of his younger sister and knew his usual conduct was unsavory.
Even so, if he could make his younger sister happy, Raul was willing to discard his own principles.

“With a formidable ally like you in my grasp, my brother must be seething with envy.”
As Raul responded with silence, the second prince began making his utmost effort to change the atmosphere.
To him, Raul was the sole card that could oppose the first prince’s faction, so he could not afford to be negligent.

“Now, now…! Ah, yes, I have something to show you, so please follow me!”
“Something to show me, you say…?”
“I hear you are one who distances himself from women, so I sensed we may have similar tastes.”
“……”

Raul could not comprehend what he was talking about at all.
He had simply never loved anyone. It was not that he disliked the women who approached him, but that everything felt utterly pale.

After descending those underground stairs for who knows how long, an ugly world unfolded that even Raul nearly retched involuntarily, despite his usual composure.

“How is it? I thought it would be to your liking.”
“This is…”
“Unlike my father, I dislike directly mingling flesh with women, but I do favor women.”

The underground area was permeated with a cloying fragrance of aphrodisiacs, thick enough to dizzy Raul’s senses despite his resilience to them.
But compared to that overwhelming aphrodisiac aroma, the horrific sight before him nearly made Raul vomit repeatedly.

“Just what are these women…?”
Imprisoned underground were women addicted to aphrodisiacs, shamelessly groping each other’s bodies.
“Is it not beautiful?”
“……”
“I am filled with rapture witnessing their bodies so ardently craving one another’s flesh.”

Raul’s hands trembled uncontrollably.
If such a man became emperor, he would surely tread the same path as the former emperor.

“Come to think of it, I had wanted to confine the Demon Lord’s wife here as well, but alas, it did not come to pass.”
“Pardon…?”
“She pleaded for mercy, saying she carried a child. If I had decorated this place with her, instead of screams, she would have moaned wantonly. She was quite unfortunate.”

Raul felt a deep-rooted revulsion.
He even questioned whether this man was more repulsive than the emperor himself.
Such a repulsive man did not seem capable of making his younger sister happy.

“Speaking of which, about your sister.”
“……”
“I hear you two are not on good terms.”

Raul gritted his teeth. He had simply kept an appropriate distance from Rizehl in public to preserve her reputation.
It was due to the emperor and second prince spreading all sorts of malicious rumors about the five heroes to keep the first prince’s faction in check.
He had merely maintained a distance in public to prevent those rumors from attaching to her – yet the very source of those rumors, the second prince, was now spouting such words.

“…I have simply maintained some distance, nothing more.”
“Is that so? Then how about handing her over to me? Do that, and I shall appoint you as the next Army Minister.”
“Just what are you saying?”
“I wish to decorate this beautiful paradise with her as well. There are instructors who can properly mold her into the right form.”

As the second prince rang a bell, a promiscuously dressed courtesan appeared.
The short-haired courtesan reeked of a lewd stench, as if she had just been fondling the women’s bodies.

“Well now, Your Highness. You’ve brought a guest.”
“Yes, the preparations were completed, correct?”
“Of course. Training noble ladies is child’s play, after all.”

The revulsion churning Raul’s stomach now transformed into an entirely different emotion.

“Just what preparations are you referring to?”
In response to Raul’s question, the courtesan laughed as she took out a small vial.
“Just a single drop of this, and even a maiden who knew not the meaning of carnal lust would instantly become a panting beast…”

But before she could finish that explanation, the courtesan met her demise.
The moment she came within Raul’s reach, her body exploded, leaving not a single scrap of flesh behind.

“My lord, just what discourtesy is this…!”
“Discourtesy…”
Raul’s usually expressionless face was ablaze with cold fury.
“You take after your foolish father indeed. What brother could remain calm after hearing such words?”
“But she is just a useless sister you have no need for, is she not!”
“…I warn you, do not open your mouth further. Lest I kill you here and now.”

Calmly wiping the blood from his hand, Raul issued a quiet warning:
“You, no, you are a wretch.”
“You dare address me so…!”
“A wretch like you deserves no courtesy. If such a wretch became emperor, this nation would meet its end.”

Raul shattered the second prince’s right ankle.
“The crime of wagging your tongue so shall end with merely your right ankle.”
“Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!!”
“For the crimes you and your father have committed, I shall come calling at a later date. Of course, that too shall not take overly long.”

Raul was not originally a merciful person.
He simply did not feel rage worth indulging. But if enraged, he could commit any atrocity without batting an eye.

“You piece of shit! Do you think the first prince’s faction will welcome you back after this?!!!”
“….”
“They will surely treat you as a bat bastard and cast you out!”
“That is solely for me to endure. It is not for a wretch like you to concern yourself with…If you insult my younger sister again, I would sooner beg for death.”

Alarmed by Raul’s killing intent, the second prince ended up soiling himself.
“It seems you needed reeducation starting from toilet training.”

Upon returning to the first prince’s faction, Raul received a warm welcome from everyone – except the first prince Azhel himself.
He was not so foolish as to be unable to separate personal and professional matters.

“Very well. I too welcome your return.”
“…”
“But you understand as well, do you not? That this cannot simply be overlooked.”

For a time, even if briefly, Raul had nearly sided with the second prince’s faction.
If they did not properly settle that matter, the integrity of their own faction would undoubtedly crumble.

“I cannot forgive the second prince’s faction, which killed my mother. I intend to erase everything associated with the second prince.”
Raul could not bring himself to respond.
“That means your sister, engaged to the second prince, cannot be easily spared either.”
“…I shall do it.”
“What?”
“I shall take on the role of beheading the former emperor and second prince.”

The first prince Azhel was so startled, he dropped the wineglass he had been holding.
Originally, he had intended to personally carry out beheading his own father and brother.
For even if they were the world’s worst scum, the stigma of killing imperial royalty was not one an individual could bear.

“No, let us disregard that discussion. Your younger sister too shall be spared, so retract those words. That is a stigma I must shoulder.”

Moreover, he himself would surely suffer that stigma as well.
And if Raul, who was already burdened by such infamy, were to commit that act, the outcome was all too clear.

“I must be punished, Your Majesty.”
“I would sooner abdicate than burden you with such infamy.”
“Speak not even in jest of such things. And would it not be fitting for one with so little time remaining to carry it out?”
“……You’re really making me into a bad guy here.”

While Raul spoke as calmly as ever, the emotionless friend deeply irked the first prince Azhel.

“Furthermore, I cannot spare the one who insulted my younger sister.”
“How vexing! Is that so important to you?!”
“Yes. Did you not know?”

Quietly observing this scene, Raul’s teacher the Argos Duke spoke up:
“One question for you, rascal brat.”
“Speak.”
“Let me put it this way. Are you going to end up discarded like a spent rag after such devoted service? This is from experience, by the way.”

To the intoxicated Duke’s question, Raul answered as if it were obvious:
“It does not matter.”
“What?”
“If it is for that child’s sake, I can willingly bear any stigma and live.”
“Oh, the finest of big brothers has appeared. Willing to give his all, body and soul.”
“…I am not the finest brother. Simply.”

Recalling his younger sister’s face, the corners of Raul’s mouth curved ever so slightly into a smile.
Not a radiant smile, but a gentle one like spring sunshine – subtle enough to leave most present stunned into silence.

“I am that child’s only brother.”

Raul loved his younger sister more than anyone else.
None loved Rizehl as much as Raul did, and none was as loved by Raul as Rizehl was.
Watching this scene from afar, Rizehl was left speechless.
This was that utterly hateful brother of hers.
The brother who had broken his promise and betrayed her.
Undoubtedly that devil of a brother who had only thought of himself.

“Brother…?”

Rizehl slumped to the ground at that spot.
She too knew, logically, that the fiancée of the second prince could not be spared. It was clear her brother had saved her life through some deal.
But she had averted her eyes from that reality, firing arrows of condemnation and rage towards her brother. For otherwise, she felt she would go mad.

“I…I…! It was just…because brother did not tell me…so that’s why…!”

Of course, there was no one who would listen to such a childish excuse.