I was left speechless, my mouth open.
Trail spoke up.
[The Demon King of Lies, Idria. Seems she’s extended her reach from the Martial King to Mariana now.]
‘So there’s a secret between Idria and Mariana?’
[You won’t be able to see it. Not at your current level.]
Disappointing, but not entirely fruitless.
‘So the blood script wasn’t wrong after all.’
Mariana isn’t guilty.
But that doesn’t mean she’s completely uninvolved in what’s been happening in this territory.
[Not guilty, but not uninvolved?]
‘Remember the Martial King? He knew the Gem of Desolation was draining the life force of the people in his land. He acted anyway. That’s why the names of the territory’s people appeared in his blood script. But…’
[You’re saying Mariana doesn’t know?]
‘Right.’
This reminded me of something that happened during a mercenary job.
One of the guys I worked with stole a client’s treasure.
Clever bastard even hid it in another mercenary’s bag—probably as insurance, in case we got questioned. He’d planned to act innocent while pinning the blame elsewhere.
But back then, the blood script didn’t accuse the bag’s owner.
It pointed straight at the one who planted the treasure there.
This situation was no different.
Trail murmured as if he understood.
[I see. So Mariana’s just being used by Idria.]
‘That’s just a theory—but it’s almost certain. The real question is, what did Idria do behind Mariana’s back…?’
That wasn’t something I could figure out on the spot.
I decided to bring the current situation to a close and slowly opened my mouth.
“More or less understood.”
Tivre tilted his head.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I understand now—I can’t hand Mariana over to you.”
“……! Are you saying you’ll oppose the Order of the Holy Knights of Light?! Lady Xenia, are you just going to let this slide?!”
Xenia reacted as if she’d just heard a dog barking in the distance.
“Hmm? Sorry, my hearing has been getting worse lately
“You—!”
“Sir Tivre. Please return quietly. I’m taking full responsibility for this matter.”
“Even if you’re the Vice-Captain, this is absurd—”
“Are you going to force me to act more absurdly? Like, say… calling the Captain?”
Crack.
Tivre ground his teeth.
After a tense silence, he turned away.
“We’re leaving.”
“Huh? But—”
“Now.”
Without so much as a goodbye, he walked out of the house with his soldiers.
Once the storm had passed, all that remained was silence.
Except—
“Uuuuugh…”
Mariana’s sobs filled the room.
I didn’t know what to say to comfort her. I stood awkwardly, unsure—when Adwin suddenly spoke up in a steady voice.
“Sis. Bro. Grandmo….”
“…….”
“Big Sis, Big Bro—can you give us a moment alone?”
“Huh?”
“I want to comfort my mother. Not you. Me.”
This kid…
Even though he’d been lied to about his father, even though he surely had a million questions…
He was putting all that aside to comfort his grieving mother first.
‘What a good son.’
We exchanged glances and nodded.
“Alright. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
That night, a small incident occurred.
I was fast asleep when I felt a prickling sensation at the back of my neck and woke up.
‘Ugh, does that guy ever sleep?’
I sensed an ominous presence heading this way from afar.
Still distant enough that Xenia and the others hadn’t noticed yet.
Since the others were still tired from the trip, I decided to handle it myself.
In other words, I went out to meet him.
[Yaaawn. What is it? It’s not morning yet.]
‘You keep sleeping.’
[Okay. Will do.]
I swear I could hear ghost snoring.
Smiling faintly, I kicked open the window and leapt out.
After running for a bit, I saw him—masked and radiating killing intent.
With a deep sigh, I spoke.
“You seriously thought a mask would work? Doesn’t suit you at all.”
“……!”
“A high-ranking officer of the Holy Knights of Light, sneaking around in a mask? Come on. Take it off.”
He didn’t remove the mask.
But he didn’t bother disguising his voice either, as if accepting he’d been caught.
“How did you know?”
“I remembered your gait. The way you move.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Apparently.”
“…So the ‘Sword master of No Killing’ didn’t earn that title by gambling, huh.”
The masked man—Tivre—drew his sword with a hiss.
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. This was absurd.
“Doesn’t make sense to me. Didn’t the Vice-Captain order you to retreat? Were you seriously planning to abduct Mariana while pretending to be an assassin? Take her to an interrogation room?”
“……”
“Even setting aside the insubordination, you don’t even have the skill to pull it off. You really think you can abduct Mariana without us noticing?”
“Heh. A wandering mercenary like you wouldn’t understand.”
His voice was beginning to carry a murderous edge.
“Xenia may be called a God’s Agent or whatever, but she’s never truly shown her power. Everything she’s accomplished was by riding on the Captain’s reputation.”
In truth, Xenia had surpassed even the Captain long ago.
‘Well, I guess she wasn’t that well-known before joining Kaeld’s party.’
Even the fact that she could wield Agril was known to only a handful within the Holy Knights.
Tivre’s confidence probably came from ignorance.
Still, something didn’t sit right.
“There’s more than just Xenia in Mariana’s house.”
“Hah. The Witch of Carnage? You think that woman cares enough to interfere? Sure, she won’t help me—but she won’t go out of her way to stop me, either.”
“Then what about me?”
“You weren’t even part of the equation.”
I gave a short laugh and asked another question.
“What if, by some chance, you do get caught?”
“No point worrying about what won’t happen.”
“You say that, but you’ve already been caught.”
“Exactly. Which means—you’ll have to die now.”
“What’s got you so desperate? Do you have some personal grudge against Mariana or something?”
Tivre, surprisingly, answered like he was offering me a parting gift.
“You know the only way to move up in the Holy Knights, aside from pulling strings like Xenia? The importance of the missions you complete.”
“Go on.”
“An incident involving possessions across an entire territory? That ranks as a Special A-Class mission in our system. If I resolve this myself, I can aim for the next promotion.”
“……”
“It’s unfair for someone like Xenia, born with everything, to steal this opportunity from me. So tonight, I’ll correct that injustice.”
The only thing that’s going to get corrected is your skull.
I cracked my knuckles lightly.
“Got it. Let’s get this over with.”
“I’ll give you time to draw your sword. Go ahead.”
“Nah. Just come at me.”
“…What?”
“I said attack. I’m sleepy.”
He must’ve realized I was serious, because he ground his teeth again.
“Don’t regret this. O heavenly god, I call upon your sword to—Ugh!?”
Crack. Crackle.
His teeth flew beautifully through the air.
I had closed the distance in an instant and launched a kick into his jaw.
“Gaaahhh!”
He flew several meters up before falling back down.
Thud!
This time I punched him directly as he fell.
“Guh!”
He spat blood and was flung far away.
I slowly approached him.
“Even heaven wouldn’t answer the prayers of someone like you. If I were god, I’d ignore them too.”
“Ugh… What are you? Is this a dream…?”
“You wish.”
“This makes no sense… I’m ranked among the top thirty in the order… There’s no way… someone like me could lose to a punk like you!”
“But you did.”
“GRAAAAH!”
Where he found the energy, I don’t know—but he suddenly jumped back up, charging with full intent to kill.
I’ll give him credit for one thing: even after that beating, he still didn’t let go of his sword.
“Die!”
But it was just too slow.
Suddenly, I remembered Kaeld’s sword from before the regression.
I’d thought about it many times.
Pondered over it again and again.
If we ever fought seriously, who would actually win?
And compared to that—
“You’re way too slow.”
I twisted my body lightly and dodged his sword strike.
Then I opened my palm wide and slapped him across the cheek.
Slaaap
“Urgh!”
His head spun a full 90 degrees.
I saw the few remaining teeth in his mouth scatter to the ground.
….
I doubt even Xenia could regrow those. What now?
I grabbed the neck of the now-unconscious guy and dragged him along.
I figured I should be quiet while going in, since Neril and Xenia were probably asleep—but the two of them were leaning out of the second-story window, silently watching me.
“Oh. Um. Good evening.”
“Back from a walk?”
“No. As you can see, I was in a fight.”
“That is a walk for you.”
That’s how you see me, huh.
Neril’s indifferent reaction made sense, given her personality.
But Xenia’s response was unexpected.
“So he came after all, Sir Tivre.”
“You knew?”
“Rather than ‘knew,’ I just guessed. He had that whole ‘We’ll see about that’ face when he left.”
“…Aren’t you going to say anything? I kind of beat up one of your subordinates.”
Xenia crossed her arms, looking thoughtful for a moment.
But soon she answered with a playful smile.
“After traveling with you, Mister Mide, I made a decision. And after meeting Mariana today, that decision has only become firmer.”
“Huh?”
“The things the Order of the Holy Knights says. The teachings my father passed down. I’ve decided to forget them all.”
“…”
“And to judge with my own eyes from now on.”
“Hmm.”
“Sir Tivre ignored my orders in pursuit of a promotion. I don’t feel like showing mercy to someone like that. And besides…”
She glanced briefly at Neril.
“This works out, actually. I had something I wanted him to do after all this was over.”
“Something you wanted him to do?”
“Mmhmm. I’ll tell you later.”
I tilted my head but decided to let it go.
Then I noticed that both of them had something at the corners of their mouths.
“You were eating something?”
They answered in perfect sync.
“She woke me up because she was hungry.”
“Neril woke me up saying she was hungry.”
“Based on your usual behaviour, who do you think I’m going to believe?”
“Uh, hmm? Who knows.”
Wow.
The two of them, enjoying a late-night snack together?
Guess you really do live long enough to see everything.
I said to Neril,
“Can you hide this guy for me? Just until this whole mess is over.”
“Sure.”
She gave a little flick of her hand.
Tivre vanished from my grip as if it had all been a lie.
On top of that, Xenia murmured a short prayer.
“I cast a prison spell. Even if he wakes up, he won’t be able to move.”
Neril yawned once and asked,
“Where should I stash him?”
“Leaving him in this house would just be a nuisance for Mariana.”
“Yeah. Somewhere people rarely go would be best.”
“Should I sneak him into the dungeon beneath the castle? There should be plenty of empty cells.”
“Please do.”
“I wasn’t actually volunteering, but fine. I’ll do it tomorrow.”
You two are really starting to get along too well.
Whatever.
Time to head in and get some sleep.
I waved to the two of them, wishing them a good night. And they both spoke at the same time:
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Come join us for a bite.”
I was about to say no, but Trail spoke up.
[Let’s eat.]
‘Weren’t you asleep?’
[I woke up cause I was hungry. Probably because of all that exercise.]
I was the one who did all the exercising, though…
The next morning.
When I went down to the kitchen, only Neril and Xenia were there.
Neril looked queasy, covering her mouth, while Xenia looked completely unaffected.
In front of them were warm soup and bread.
“Neril, why aren’t you eating?”
“I can’t believe you’re fine. We ate and drank until dawn yesterday.”
“Yeah. So?”
“…Forget it.”
Neril turned to me with a pale face.
“Good morning.”
“Did you raid the kitchen without permission?”
“These are ingredients from our wagon. I’m not that shameless.”
“Hmm. Where’s Mariana?”
“Dunno. Still asleep, I think.”
Click.
Just then, the door opened.
It was Adwin.
He walked toward us with a weary expression, his head lowered. With a sigh far too heavy for someone his age, he spoke.
“This is too little. I’m sorry. I’ll make a proper meal.”
“It’s fine. I couldn’t eat even if you did.”
“…?”
“Where’s your mother?”
At Neril’s question, tears suddenly welled up in Adwin’s eyes. He wiped at them and replied.
“She just fell asleep a little while ago.”
“A little while ago?”
“Yeah. She stayed up all night. We talked about Father and… a lot of things.”
I narrowed my eyes and asked,
“Don’t say ‘a lot of things.’ Be specific.”
“…”
“Adwin. We’re trying to help you and Mariana. To do that, we need information, right?”
He hesitated for a long time, then finally spoke as if steeling himself.
“I told you I can see souls, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve seen my mother’s soul all my life with those eyes. It’s vast and magnificent, completely unlike anyone else’s. I thought that was just normal. I mean, she’s the seventh-ranked person in the Empire or something.”
Naturally, I expected him to start talking about some hidden backstory involving his father or something.
But what he said next was so far from what I expected that I couldn’t keep a straight face.
“And?”
“It wasn’t that. While I was comforting her last night, I felt something… off.”
Something off?
