“You’re asking me to take on a request…?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Olicia nodded her head at Klein’s question,
Previously, Olicia had asked Shane a separate favor, which was to see if it would be alright to involve Klein in the imperial matters.
In reality, there wasn’t much need for a princess to ask permission before assigning a task to an adventurer, but wasn’t Shane treating Klein with extraordinary care, contrary to the old rumors?
The man who usually appeared indifferent showed a surprising range of expressions when it came to his younger brother, so as someone who valued Shane as an important asset, Olicia had felt it necessary to ask out of courtesy.
Now, thanks to Klein’s unexpected role in preventing a recent terror incident, Olicia had no reservations about calling on him.
Meanwhile, Klein’s team had temporarily disbanded due to personal circumstances, but he was still in a position to accept requests as an adventurer.
“Do you remember the crocodile beastman you stopped last time?”
“Ah… yes, of course.”
Not to mention how much the journalists had been hounding him over that incident.
Because of that, he hadn’t even been able to attend the Academy lately.
“I’ve managed to uncover some of the deeper connections surrounding them. The problem is the military force.”
“Hmm. Could you explain in more detail?”
“Of course. The current ringleader behind the terror attacks has been revealed to be the King of Haiel.”
“What?!”
Klein was shocked by the magnitude of the matter right from the start and quickly glanced around.
“Don’t worry. Here in Arunvida, your brother takes a special interest in security.”
“Ah… right.”
Given Shane’s personality, he would have been more meticulous about security than anyone, so worrying seemed foolish.
“However, the King of Haiel is merely being manipulated by a certain organization. Not everyone in the Kingdom of Haiel follows the king’s will.”
“Is… is that so?”
It was a relief.
Although Klein didn’t know much about politics, even he understood that a king directly inciting terror against the coalition was a clear sign of an impending war.
“That’s why we’re currently in negotiations with Haiel’s second prince.”
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“Yes, but it’s difficult to deploy a large military force due to the nature of the location. As you know, the coalition is legally prohibited from maintaining private armies.”
“Ah, right. Unless they’re soldiers attached to the council or personal guards…”
“That’s right. But it is possible to hire adventurer teams as mercenaries.”
“So that’s why you’ve come to me.”
“That’s right. You never know when a terrorist attack is going to happen, and time is of the essence in preparing for it. Given the nature of the coalition, they’re at a disadvantage in a speed war, making it difficult to strike before the enemy can prepare. That’s why we’re recruiting known adventurers.”
“For a request like that… yes. I’ll accept. Of course, I’ll need to hear what my team thinks, but if the situation doesn’t allow, I’ll participate even on my own.”
Klein who had always been kind-hearted couldn’t forget the image of the crocodile beastman he had fought earlier; he was suffering in agony. This made him readily accept Olicia’s request.
“Great. I’ll formally submit the request for compensation to the Clayton family.”
Having secured the most reliable person for their forces, Olicia smiled at Klein with a relieved expression on her face.
***
Karhu, the bear beastman who had fought and lost to Anastasia in Arunvida, repeatedly flexed and relaxed his muscles, which seemed ready to burst at any moment.
He lifted a custom-made dumbbell that was too heavy for most knights to handle with ease. He was pumping his muscles and exuding an overwhelming presence.
The sweat he shed during each workout was a reward in itself, but today, his mind was cluttered.
No.
To be more precise, he had more and more moments like this. He kept getting lost in thought ever since two years ago.
This was a side that was uncharacteristic of Karhu, as he usually didn’t think much and acted on impulse.
“Hoo…”
But that’s just what people who don’t know Karhu well would assume.
Karhu constantly ran through countless battle scenarios in his mind.
He constantly ran simulations in his mind, thinking about how he should confront his enemies and how they might counter him.
However, until now, his worries had never lasted long.
The reason was simple. He had never once been defeated.
But two years ago.
His first-ever defeat at the hands of Anastasia had brought Karhu’s simulations to a dead end for the first time.
No matter what strategy he tried, he couldn’t come up with a way to defeat her.
Is it something that can’t be solved with strength alone?
The feeling from the fist that pierced Anastasia’s abdomen at that time was exactly the same as the feeling he had when he tasted countless victories.
Yet Anastasia had held firm and even launched a counterattack.
What’s more, although Felice’s warhammer hadn’t dealt him a fatal blow, Anastasia’s strike had left Karhu with shattered bones and ruptured organs.
What was the difference?
Without any knowledge of Origin power, Karhu couldn’t understand that gap.
“You’re always working hard.”
The one who approached Karhu was the rabbit gentleman.
“Hmm. Rabbit of the Clown, I hear you went outside recently. Was there an order from higher-
ups?”
“Master does not take orders from anyone. It was simply that master became interested in someone present there.”
“Haha, of course. That one always acts according to their own will. So, what brings you here?”
It wasn’t the first time that clown had whimsically snatched someone else’s mission just because he found it amusing.
Driven purely by a chaotic instinct, that same impulse must have led to sending this rabbit gentleman to the underground auction.
“Recently, Karhu, I’ve heard you’ve also been lost in thought quite often.”
“Huh? Ah, yes. There’s a problem I just can’t seem to figure out.”
“That’s unexpected.”
“What? Hey, I do think about things too, you know.”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just, I’ve never seen you ponder something for this long.”
“Well, that’s true. But when you say ‘also’, does that mean the clown’s got something on their mind too?”
Unlike Karhu, who belonged to the Legion of Wrath, Alice, the rabbit gentleman’s master worked independently.
Or rather, could they even be called a force in the first place?
Though the Nameless organization had its shortcomings in terms of cohesion, with many of the commanders not getting along and barely knowing what the others were up to most of the time, there was one thing they all had in common: they followed orders from above.
Yet there was one exception. The only one who ignored those orders, and had the authority to do so, was Alice, the rabbit gentleman’s master.
“Yes, Karhu. Just like you, master has been deep in thought every day lately.”
“But is that really so special? That clown spends every day wondering where to make an even bigger mess to build a reputation.”
“I can’t deny that, but… this time it seems a bit different. Ever since two years ago, after returning from the frozen lands with you. Do you happen to know anything?”
At those words, Karhu paused and fumbled through his memory.
After the battle with Anastasia that had played over thousands, tens of thousands of times in his mind.
Come to think of it, what had happened after all the bones and organs in his body had been shattered?
“Now that I think about it, I have forgotten.”
“Forgotten… what?”
“Gahahaha! So even that clown was a warrior after all!”
“…Why are you suddenly talking to yourself?”
“It’s nothing. Your master too must be reflecting on her first taste of defeat, just like I did.”
“Defeat…? Are you saying master was defeated?”
At the time, since the Nameless had to remain concealed, Alice’s trademark rabbit gentleman hadn’t participated.
So all the rabbit gentleman knew was that their mission had failed, and they had returned.
Though it wasn’t even a proper mission failure.
Alice had merely tagged along unilaterally on the mission Karhu had been assigned.
“Yeah. Hmm, I don’t remember it too well because my whole body was hurting, but as far as I remember, there was a human… what was his name? Anyway, there was a gloomy-looking guy. I had a fight of my own. While I was getting, I mean… while I was fighting fiercely, that clown suddenly ran back to me and shouted ‘monster’ at the human.”
“Master called a human a ‘monster’…?”
“That’s right. And it was quite a scream, just like you’d expect from someone like that. Gahahaha!”
After that, Karhu brushed it off, saying it was only natural to grow through defeat, but the rabbit gentleman’s expression remained tense.
To him, Alice was his reason for existence, his spiritual anchor.
He couldn’t just stand by and watch his master waver.
Besides, didn’t she who has never paid attention to anyone recently begin to show interest in that masked man?
***
On the other hand, Alice herself was sitting in a room filled with rabbit dolls. She was repeatedly recalling the events of that day.
“How could a human… interfere with time?”
Alice.
The girl with half black, half white hair, as if split vertically, murmured as she thought of a boy she’d met two years ago.
Back then, the black wall that had imprisoned Shane, the place Alice had named the circus tent, was a space she had created herself.
In that world which was completely severed from this one, Alice could wield her reality-bending powers as she pleased.
“A single human having two pasts in the same timeline… it doesn’t make any sense…”
In that place, Alice would usually scan through the person’s life, tamper with their memories at will, and throw them into confusion.
For example, making them believe they’d done something they hadn’t.
Or the opposite was also possible.
Because Alice enjoyed the confusion it caused, she had tried the same trick on Shane. But the result was completely unexpected.
Manipulating Shane’s memories had been impossible from the beginning, and Alice knew full well that even reading them was only possible because Shane had allowed it.
In the midst of her own growing confusion, the words that came out of Shane’s mouth were enough to captivate her.
[Is the place where you stand now filled with chaos, clown? Or is it simply a path already set, and you are merely walking it?]
Those words left Alice deeply unsettled.
The girl who had always reveled in the chaos of others was, for the first time, thrown into chaos herself.
“A path already made…”
According to the boy and according to his memories, the chaos and confusion Nameless was currently causing were all part of a predetermined conclusion.
But was chaos and confusion that already had a set outcome truly chaos and confusion?
No.
Chaos and confusion were things that no one could predict, where nothing was ever fixed or determined.
That’s why the boy’s next words felt so irresistibly sweet to her.
[Don’t you want to ruin the chaos that’s already been created?]
Ruin the chaos that’s already been created?
That would be the purest form of chaos, the ultimate disorder.
If the rabbit gentleman and Karhu were mistaken about anything, it was that Alice wasn’t troubled at all.
She was simply waiting for the future the boy had hinted at to arrive, because it was just so—
“Boring~.”
She was bored.
Even the missions of the organization, which she once found thrilling, no longer stirred much excitement in her.
It was simply because the time the boy had spoken of felt drawn out.
Alice closed her eyes. She was anticipating the chaos the boy would bring.
***
Shane, who was deep in sleep, wandered through his dream.
It was no different from any other dream.
A vision of himself from before his regression.
That time when he was sealed inside his consciousness due to the envy that awakened inside him.
It was during the early days of the war between the organization and humanity.
At the moment when the human alliance crumbled and each side drew their swords against one another, the organization revealed its presence to the world.
Among the first to be invaded was the Kingdom of Haiel.
Since it was positioned between the Empire, the coalition, and other countries, the Kingdom of Haiel was the perfect passageway for movement to other regions.
In his memory, the consciousness of envy muttered to itself.
“Now that she’s moved, the fall of the Kingdom of Haiel isn’t far off.”
She.
The one who became the second legion commander after Shane who was the first legion commander.
Elquiness, the Spirit King.
Originally, she was a prominent conservative within the organization; she was more focused on protecting her own race of Spirits than attacking humans.
However, at some point, she began to hate humans.
The Spirit King’s wrath was something humans could hardly withstand, and the Kingdom of Haiel which became her first target likely wouldn’t hold out for long.
And indeed, in just a matter of days, the Kingdom of Haiel was completely reduced to ruins.
At that time, the consciousness of envy watched the scene created by the Spirit King.
The land no longer held any recognizable form. As if it was enraged
The wind no longer embraced the people; it started cutting through everything it touched with sharp precision.
Even the once-mighty royal castle was reduced to mere ashes by fire.
Water flooded the world.
The enraged four great spirits utterly destroyed the Kingdom of Haiel. They wiped out every single human and annihilated any living thing that approached.
It was a sight of nature’s own rejection of the human race, the return of everything to nothingness.
If the Spirit King had not retreated into seclusion, the Empire would have fallen without even Shane’s intervention.
In the dream, the consciousness of envy gazed indifferently at the scene before turning away.
To him, the Spirit King’s wrath mattered little. All he needed to do was stabilize the Kingdom of Haiel afterward and make sure the kingdom could once again serve as a passageway.
However, as Shane watched the scene unfold in the dream, it all felt unnatural to him.
“What is this?”
He had experienced dreams related to his past life several times before, but those dreams only occurred when he encountered or recalled someone from his previous life.
There was no reason for him to be dreaming about the second legion commander, someone he had never spoken to in his past life.
“What is it that you’re trying to show me?”
Only then did Shane begin to interpret the dream, and he finally understood.
“Divinity. It’s the Mountain King’s divinity.”
The divinity was reading something and showing it to Shane.
It was connecting him to the Spirit King right now.
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