Two days later.
The guild master came to the inn, saying preparations were complete.
Since we were just eating breakfast, we offered him a meal.
“I’ve already eaten, so I’m fine. Besides, I have another appointment to get to.”
“Is that so? Understood.”
“It’s already been arranged, so there shouldn’t be any issues, but here—take this letter of introduction.”
“Thank you. That helps a lot.”
“Don’t mention it. But, um…”
“Go ahead.”
“When I reported to the lord, the Martial King was also present… He looked rather uncomfortable.”
“……”
“I probably misread it. Please don’t mind it.”
No, you probably saw it right.
The laziness of this territory. In other words, its lethargy.
It was the Martial King who caused that.
[What? What do you mean by that?]
‘Well…’
Just then, Neril, who was watching the guild master leave, spoke up.
“By the way, the bread here is terrible. Way too hard.”
“Picky, aren’t you.”
“They actually make a much better black tea here. Let’s wrap up breakfast and get going.”
“What’s the rush?”
“I’m curious. What the hell are you up to?”
She was apparently quite serious—she stood up, her chair scraping against the floor..
“I’ll go out first and get some air. Hurry up.”
She slowly approached the inn door.
That’s when it happened.
Bang!
The door suddenly burst open.
And since it opened inward, and Neril was standing right in front of it—
In short, despite being a magical genius, Neril had terribly slow reflexes, and she got smacked by the door.
“Puh-hehk!”
…Let’s pretend we didn’t hear that.
“Ah! I’m so sorry. I didn’t expect someone to be right there!”
The girl who entered bent her waist in a ninety-degree bow, clearly at a loss.
She radiated such sincere remorse that even the Witch of Carnage didn’t blow up in anger.
Instead, Neril rubbed her reddened forehead and let out a rather ominous chuckle.
“Heh heh… Hoo hoo hoo…”
“Calm down.”
“I am calm. Do I look excited to you?”
“Very… no, never mind.”
“What a funny little girl. Who are you?”
The girl—Xenia—still couldn’t straighten her back as she replied.
“I’m really sorry. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”
Looks like she doesn’t even realize who she’s apologizing to.
An investigator apologizing to a criminal—this was going to be fun to watch.
Neril seemed to have picked up on it and spoke again.
“I wasn’t asking for an apology—I asked who you are. Since you didn’t answer, let me guess. You’re Xenia, right?”
“Yes! I’m Xenia.”
“……”
“Huh? If you know my name, then—”
Xenia straightened up.
She looked at Neril’s red forehead, then awkwardly stepped back.
“The Witch of Carnage.”
“……”
“Ugh. I can’t believe I apologized to you.”
“Why? Want to take it back?”
“…No. Regardless of who you are, this was my fault.”
She bowed her head.
But when she raised it again, her face barely concealed the hostility.
“Did Mr. Mide talk to you about my friend?”
“You mean that little girl named Ophelia?”
At the mention of that name, Xenia clenched both fists.
But unlike before, she didn’t draw her sword.
After taking a few deep breaths, she spoke.
“Yes. Where is she? Did you kill her, after all?”
“……”
Neril, bound by her position, simply stayed silent.
Xenia waited a bit longer, then said:
“Sigh… Fine. Don’t answer. One way or another, once this job is over, you’ll die—no, fall into my hands.”
“Hmph. You don’t say ‘kill,’ so I guess Dame raised you right.”
“Don’t speak my father’s name so lightly!”
“I’m old enough to call even Grandpa Dame by name, sweetie.”
I’ve noticed this before—Neril seems oddly proud of her age.
She hates it when I call her ‘ma’am,’ though.
Anyway, the two of them arguing less than a minute after meeting is exactly what they were like before the regression.
[Shouldn’t you stop them?]
‘Even pre-regression Kaeld couldn’t manage those two. Not even that perfect hero could get them to cooperate.’
[Giving up before even trying? I did not raise you this way.]
‘Yeah, well, you didn’t raise me at all.’
I calmly sipped my milk and turned to Xenia.
“Would you like to join us for breakfast?”
The lord was fifty-five—technically not yet old enough to be considered elderly.
But he slouched like a man twenty years older as he greeted us.
And behind him—
‘That must be the Martial King, Terce.’
The man standing behind the lord with his hands behind his back.
He did nothing—just stood there. But his presence was overwhelming.
Even future heroes like Neril and Xenia couldn’t ignore him.
Feeling side-lined, the lord awkwardly cleared his throat and spoke.
“Ahem. So, you intend to take the request?”
“Yes, my lord.”
As I answered, I checked the list Terce had sinned against.
Wow. Haven’t felt this kind of shock in a while.
– Sinned against Gurt Britz and 2,103,340 others.
Good thing I’d already seen Kaeld’s blood script, where he had 148 million victims.
Without that reference, my jaw might’ve dropped.
‘How the hell… how can one person commit crimes against that many people?’
[So you really can see the sins people have committed.]
‘Yeah. I can’t see the actual crimes—just the number.’
[Interesting ability. So, how many sins does this so-called Martial King have?]
‘Over two million.’
Trail was silent for a moment.
[This one… deserves a closer look.]
‘Agreed. The target’s name is Gurt Britz.’
Without another word, he activated his ability.
This was the first time I got to see a Grade C secret.
Good thing I leveled up earlier—otherwise, this would’ve been a problem.
The screen flickered to black, and then an image began to play.
It showed Martial King Terce overlooking the territory from atop a high castle wall.
I tilted my head.
‘Doesn’t seem like an old memory. His face looks just like now.’
[Look in the upper right corner.]
‘Hm? Oh.’
Unlike the previous visions granted by the Eye of Omniscience, this time, text appeared at the top right corner.
—
December 10th, 1529, 7:00 AM
—
‘It’s showing the time now.’
[That’s another effect of leveling up. Helpful, right?]
‘Very. The Eye of Omniscience really is magnificent.’
[Haha. Thanks.]
‘Why are you thanking me when I said the Eye is magnificent?’
[Don’t you think I’ve been getting treated a bit unfairly lately?]
In any case, I turned my attention back to the screen.
December 10th, 1529, 7:00 AM.
That’s this morning.
In other words, this secret is about something the Martial King did this very morning.
He committed a C-grade secret just this morning?
I tilted my head in confusion.
And then—
“The Mercenary Guild is up to something useless again. Just in case, I’d better take more than usual today.”
Terce muttered that to himself, then pressed his index and middle fingers together and shoved them deep into his mouth.
…What the hell is he doing?
“Ugh. Uuueegh…”
He gagged a few times, and soon vomited something up.
Covered in disgusting digestive fluids, what he pulled out was a red gemstone, roughly the size of two finger joints.
‘What kind of insane ritual is this now?’
Though I mumbled that, I already had a suspicion.
The man held the gem high in the air and shouted,
“Come, grant me your strength again today! More power, to me!”
The red gem began to glow.
Moments later—
Across the territory, something like a summer heat haze began to rise.
It floated upward into the sky, gathered together, and was absorbed into the gem.
The Martial King then casually wiped the gem off with his sleeve—and swallowed it whole again.
“Phew… Been doing this for twenty years, and I still can’t get used to it.”
He tapped his abdomen, as if checking that the gem stored in his stomach was still safely in place.
Click.
And with that, the vision ended.
Trail spoke in a bewildered tone.
[I’ve seen all kinds of maniacs in my life, but that one’s a first.]
‘……’
[What does that insane display have to do with this Gurt Britz guy?]
‘Nothing. Gurt was just one of many victims.’
[Huh?]
‘Let’s test it. I should look into some others.’
I randomly selected ten names from the list written in blood and used the Eye of Omniscience.
And every one of the ten had the same vision as Gurt.
So then, Gurt wasn’t chosen because he suffered a particularly unique or terrible crime.
The Martial King Terce committed the same level of sin against everyone in the territory!
[What the hell are you saying?]
‘Don’t you get it? Just like this morning, he committed the same crime against all 2 million residents of the territory. He stole their life force.’
[Life force?]
‘Vitality, stamina, spirit—call it whatever you want. Anyway, this place became the Land of the Lazy because of that bastard Martial King!’
And I’d already known this.
What I didn’t know was how he stole the territory’s life force.
‘Remember the quest from before regression? The one that said to kill the Martial King?’
[Yeah.]
‘He took advantage of the chaos brought on by the Demon King of Lies and Deception and massacred every single person in the Lior territory. Back then, we only knew there were no survivors—we didn’t know how they were all killed.’
He must’ve used that mysterious gem inside his gut to drain everyone’s life force.
In other words, he starved them to death.
The Martial King, who had stolen the life force of over 2 million people, had become monstrously powerful.
So strong we couldn’t even dream of capturing him alive.
It took all of us, attacking at once, to barely bring him down.
If Neril hadn’t used her trump card—Disintegration—we might’ve been the ones who died.
[Disintegration?]
‘Yeah. A spell that completely erases someone from head to toe—obliterates them from the world. It was Neril’s hidden card.’
[……]
‘Anyway, because of that, we didn’t even get a chance to examine his corpse, and the quest ended with that nagging mystery still unresolved—how he absorbed all that life force. Now it makes sense. He’d hidden his weapon inside his own body.’
What on earth is that gemstone?
And why is the Martial King doing something so insane?
How are we supposed to stop him?
My thoughts were a mess.
And then—
“Lord, allow me to handle things from here.”
“Sir Terce…”
“You’ve been worn down in many ways lately. You accepted this request boldly, but in the end, they’re just mercenaries. Hardly worth your time.”
At the Martial King’s words, Neril scoffed.
On the other hand, Xenia seemed quite flustered—perhaps unused to being treated like this.
Realizing neither of them would give a proper response, I quickly opened my mouth.
“It saddens me to hear such words from the great Martial King I have always respected.”
“This quest has gone unresolved for twenty years. It’s nothing more than a long-winded definition of ‘impossible.’ Don’t give the lord false hope.”
“……”
“Lord Viscount, let us go.”
The Martial King, outrageously rude, jerked his chin toward the door—right in front of the lord himself.
And that told me everything I needed to know about their relationship.
The Martial King’s towering fame. The weakened, feeble viscount.
Terce had already become the true ruler of Lior territory.
The viscount glared at Terce, but lowered his gaze immediately under his What, are you a barking dog? expression.
“Mm… Ahem. I see. Very well then, I’ll leave this to you…”
“You may not.”
I calmly cut off the lord’s words.
The Martial King’s brow twitched.
“What did you say?”
“I must apologize for one thing, Martial King. I lied to you. I’ve never respected you.”
“……!”
“The lord and I were not finished speaking. If there’s an unwelcome guest here, it’s you. Would you kindly leave?”
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