It was something that needed to be addressed sooner or later. Now that I was engaged to Emily, I had to have an open and honest talk with Stan and his anger-management issues.
What he said wasn’t wrong. If we were going to become family through marriage, we couldn’t keep stabbing or shooting each other every time we met.
“We can’t keep doing this forever. The cycle of hatred has to end.”
But it can end with me.
Some people might call me selfish for thinking that way.
But so what?
I am selfish. If vengeance has to stop somewhere, then it’ll stop with me.
“Hup!”
I swung my sword.
If a ranged DPS idiot lets you close the distance, he deserves to get beaten down, right?
With that thought in mind, I happily swung my blade.
But then—
Thunk!
Stan blocked my sword with his foot.
His metallic shoe pressed down against the blade I had swung.
“I admit you’ve gotten stronger. But did you really think I’d been sitting around doing nothing?”
“You bastard.”
What a dirty fighter. When the hell had he mastered kicking techniques like that?
And he hadn’t just casually picked them up either.
Tzzzzt!
Rather than striking, the attack felt more like a shove. There was no need to explain what kind of setup that form was meant for.
Thump!
He kicked off the ground to force me back, then used his now-free hands to draw his bowstring.
The arrow nocked on the short bow, packed full of mana despite the shallow draw, shot straight toward my shoulder.
“Tch!”
I barely dodged in time.
This bastard’s close-combat skills are no joke. At this point, I’m already considered upper-mid tier even within the Cradle.
And yet he could still handle me this casually… I guess that’s what it means to be S-Class.
I could already feel the unfair difference in our backgrounds. Someone like me had to bury five final-boss candidates before finally obtaining this kind of power, while this guy just clicks a button and unlocks new skills?
The bastard didn’t even go through some dramatic awakening, and he’s still this strong? Seriously, this is making me bitter.
Kiiiiing!!
I was bitter enough that I had no choice. If he was going to fight dirty, then so would I.
I deployed the Helical Gear. The four legs extending from my back began assisting my movements in real time while intercepting Stan’s attacks.
“You coward…!”
Now that even proper words of praise were finally starting to come out of Stan’s mouth—
I had finally begun to push him back.
The power behind my sword had stabilized, and my movements had become more efficient.
The Helical Gear was helping, sure, but I was gradually getting used to it too.
“This damn bow is made of metal too?!”
I finally found an opening and swung my sword, only for the bow to block it. I thought I could easily slice through some short bow, but that was an unexpected variable.
Swish-swish!
Sky-blue arrows shot upward into the air.
They were hard to see.
And the fact that he deliberately fired them into the sky made them even more troublesome.
I could tell exactly what he was thinking. And that made it even worse.
Was he really confident he could hit me with an extreme arc shot? Was he planning to predict and guide even my movements to that degree?
Was it confidence or overconfidence?
Either way, I couldn’t stop my attention from getting divided.
“Tch!”
Stan pressed down on me with his foot as if trying to crush me into the ground, driving me back with full force.
Was it here? Had he adjusted the arrows so they would fall at this exact position?
Or had he even calculated that I would counterattack?
No. I was overthinking things. This dirty bastard had really put his brain to work.
For someone like me, whose head was always full of unnecessary thoughts, this was the worst possible style to fight against.
“Hup!”
There was only one truly smart move I could make right now.
Subdue Stan before the arrows came down.
So trust myself and don’t let my attention scatter.
Objectively speaking, I had the advantage in close combat.
“Stan Robinhood.”
“……”
“How long are you going to keep this up?”
I started talking.
Shaking the opponent mentally was the foundation of my own dirty fighting style.
“How long are you going to keep treating Emily like a little kid?”
“You son of a bitch, did you just sexually harass Emily?”
“No!”
That leap in logic is insane, you bastard. I said she’s not a child anymore. Who said she became an adult?
This guy’s seriously messed up in the head.
“It was her choice.”
“You must’ve manipulated that innocent girl!”
“I’m the one who got forced into the engagement!”
“So you’re saying you don’t like Emily?”
“You bastard, you really can’t hold a conversation, can you?”
What the hell is wrong with the structure of your brain?
Boom!
I took Stan’s kick head-on and shoved him back.
Training kicking techniques so he could fire his bow with both hands free. He’d really put some thought into it.
But every advantage comes with a weakness. The reach was long, and the power behind it was impressive. Still, it inevitably put a huge strain on his center of gravity.
“Ghk!”
This time, I didn’t block his vicious kick.
As the metal sole slammed hard into my shoulder, I decided to trade flesh for bone.
Advanced Illusion Magic
[Sensory Distortion]
I disrupted the sensation in the leg supporting his balance.
Someone as skilled as Stan would normally have no trouble fighting even if one of his senses was numbed.
But this time was different.
Because he had committed all of his weight to one leg while kicking me, paralyzing that leg left him with no way to recover.
His other leg was still in the air, and both hands were occupied with the bow and arrow.
So falling was inevitable.
“Hup!”
I swung my sword.
This time, victory was mine.
“Not so fast!”
At that moment, a crossbow fired.
Stan’s judgment was fast. The instant he threw away his bow and arrow, he planted one hand on the ground while drawing a preloaded crossbow with the other.
As expected of a seasoned elite soldier.
Even in a moment like this, he still tried to counterattack without missing an opening.
“Hmph!”
But it’s not like I’d bet everything on just this one attack.
A counterattack? I’d expected that much.
The reason I deliberately took that kick was to land the most certain finishing blow possible.
Clang!
The Helical Gear deflected the crossbow bolt.
And finally, I swung my sword toward the opening Stan had completely exposed.
“……”
“……”
Part of me wanted to cut him down, but I held back. I’m not as reckless as Stan is.
My sword stopped right in front of his eyes, and with that, the fight was over.
“I win.”
“Seems so.”
“Sit down, you son of a bitch.”
Thud!
Instead of cutting him, I kicked Stan in the side while he was down and slumped onto the ground nearby.
Even while clutching his waist, Stan quietly sat down in front of me.
“I know you’ve got a lot of complaints.”
“……”
“And I know that just means you care about Emily that much.”
“……”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No.”
This bastard ignored everything else I said, but the moment I asked if he trusted me, he answered immediately? Seriously, the more I deal with him, the more irritating he gets.
“She deserves to be happier.”
“I think so too. There are probably better options for her than a guy like me.”
I understood how Stan felt.
Honestly, even from my perspective, this whole thing was strange.
Confessing your love to someone who already has two fiancées?
You could see exactly where that road led. She’d probably end up suffering emotionally more than anything else.
“But she says this is what she wants. She says she could be happier, sure, but this level of happiness is enough for her.”
“……”
Look at this bastard shutting his mouth only when the conversation turns against him.
Seriously irritating.
“Just learn to moderate yourself. Before anything else, remember that the one making your little sister cry tears of blood is you.”
“……I know.”
“Yeah. So tone it down.”
I didn’t think I could stop Stan. This guy literally had anger-management issues.
A side effect of his ability. A way to make his cold, dead heart beat again.
The reason Stan got swept away by his emotions was because of the life he had lived.
And that life had always been about protecting his family. For their sake, he had killed his own emotions, maintained absolute composure, and pierced through the heads of his enemies.
The reason his heart burned hot was because he needed a way to escape that cold-hearted state, even if only for a moment.
That was why Stan had to be like this.
Even if only occasionally, he needed something that would make his heart pound violently.
“From now on, when you come to see me, carry blanks instead of live rounds.”
That way, even if he impulsively pulled the trigger, at least I wouldn’t die.
Boom! Boom!
The arrows he had fired into the sky finally came crashing down far off in the distance.
“So it was just a bluff, you bastard.”
He’d fired them without any actual calculation?
***
I gave up on trying to persuade Stan.
Changing him was impossible. And honestly, it wasn’t something that should be done either.
Sure, he was a crazy bastard who aimed headshots at me whenever he lost his temper, but what could I do? That was just his condition.
You could basically call Stan’s situation a form of PTSD. And what could I do about it? Even if it was the kind of relationship I wanted to throw away, we were tied together as future in-laws now, so I had to put up with it.
What a miserable situation.
I’m the one who got forced into the engagement, yet I’m also the one who has to bear all the risk.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
The past few days had been an absolute storm. Seriously, I thought my head was going to explode.
But in the end, I succeeded.
I managed to give up cleanly.
Not everything in life can be resolved in a positive way. That’s just how it is.
It was when I dragged my exhausted body back to the cradle.
“Johan….”
Yuna was there.
Her eyes shimmered with tears as she looked up at me with an expression of disbelief.
Just looking at her face was enough to make me feel guilty.
Was it because she was pretty? Seriously, just seeing her made me feel like the bad guy.
“I-Is it true you’re getting engaged to Miss Emily too?”
“Yuna, cut the act. I know this was your doing.”
“Tch. Still, Princess Ariel really leaves no openings, huh? We agreed to keep it secret, and she went and exposed it anyway? Crafty as ever. She figured out my plan?”
“……”
Her acting really was incredible.
If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve completely fallen for it. She was clearly trying to prey on my guilt.
“Why’d you do it?”
“Because I felt bad for Emily?”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean. You think I don’t know you? You’re the type who thinks you’re the most pitiful person in the room.”
“That’s true.”
She let the engagement happen because she felt sorry for Emily?
No, she probably thought the person she’d pity most afterward would be herself for having to suffer through it.
I’m sure that’s what she was thinking.
“To use Emily to suppress Princess Ariel’s authority.”
“I thought you said you weren’t going to do that anymore. You said you’d get along.”
“I never said we’d get along. And isn’t this gentlemanly enough already? At least I’m not openly baring my fangs like before.”
So now you’re just going to scheme from the shadows?
Pull Emily onto your side and secure the upper hand?
That was even scarier.
“Whatever. Just handle it amongst yourselves. Let me know when you reach a conclusion.”
“Come on, how could we decide something this important on our own?”
“Did I get to decide this all-important engagement?”
“Well, you were the one who went and signed the papers today, so that’s true too, isn’t it?”
If she couldn’t talk, at least she’d be less irritating.
I seriously don’t know how she manages to be this shameless.
If it weren’t for everything Yuna had done for me, I would’ve gotten angry already, but it felt like she’d saved my life more than ten times over by now, so I couldn’t really say much.
At this point, it probably wouldn’t even be wrong to say my life belonged to Yuna.
Of course, Ariel had helped me just as much, and Emily had saved me too.
What the hell? Looking at it now, I’ve really been living the life of a debtor.
Well, nothing I can do about that.
“By the way, Johan. It’d probably be best if you didn’t go wandering outside for a while.”
“Why?”
“I think His Majesty the Emperor has started throwing a fit.”
“Ah.”
Had it already come to that?
I’d been so preoccupied with the Emily situation that I’d fallen behind on what was happening in the world around me.
“The rumors have already spread through the streets. Rumors that the Emperor was behind all sorts of crimes. Illegal gambling dens, fighting pits… all the mud beneath the surface is starting to rise.”
“Then I guess the Emperor’s about to move into the next phase.”
A simple yet effective method.
You can’t punish the dead.
So he would die carrying all the sins upon himself and smother the flames that way.
A decision made for an Empire that had been rotting from within for a long time.
In his final moments, the Emperor intended to shake the very foundation of the nation not through law, but through power and intrigue.
***
The streets were overflowing with rumors.
Rumors that the Emperor was actually the leader of Eclipse.
And they weren’t just rumors. He truly was Eclipse’s leader.
Evidence was already surfacing one piece after another, and the violent attempts to suppress it were only fueling resentment.
“I suppose people must finally feel secure enough to live their lives. The same people who once trembled in fear of being caught in terrorist attacks now hate me instead.”
Dissatisfaction within the Empire was growing.
All grief and anger were being directed toward a single target.
This was one grand performance. And the leading actor was Emperor Abraham.
“Don’t you think so, Baron?”
“Your words are absolutely correct, Your Majesty.”
This performance had another purpose as well: to drag the trash that even the Emperor himself had yet to identify up into the light.
The Emperor himself had been exposed as the source of endless corruption and depravity.
Naturally, the scum who had committed crimes in secret came flocking in hopes of attaching themselves to him.
If he had been a virtuous ruler, perhaps things would be different, but when the highest authority was stained with filth, it would be stranger if the flies didn’t gather.
“Mhmm, this tastes excellent. Truly excellent.”
Abraham responded with a sinister smile toward Baron Fokel, who had subtly offered him both wine and bribes.
“Haha, I’m relieved to hear that. Knowing it suits Your Majesty’s palate makes all the effort put into brewing it worthwhile.”
Wine so remarkable that even Abraham himself was impressed.
How many people had been squeezed dry to produce a single bottle of this wine?
There were so many things in this world that remained unseen.
So many people who had committed evil out of sight.
…And so many hidden pieces of trash waiting for their opportunity as well.
“Baron Fokel, I shall remember your name.”
“It is an honor for my house, Your Majesty.”
Emperor Abraham cast himself into the filth.
So that he could personally eliminate the things hiding within it.
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