Charybdis’s mind crumbled more completely as time went on.
Ironically, it was the era of peace that became poison to him.
He no longer wanted to live, but he lacked the courage to end his life.
If only he could have spent his days quietly, alone, in some deserted place, that might have been enough. But even that wasn’t allowed.
He was required to periodically inspect his territory and had to meet with high-ranking officials of the Empire.
That too must have been part of the Emperor’s scheme.
By doing so, the Emperor could show that he was treating a war hero well while simultaneously redirecting public fear and resentment toward Charybdis.
Charybdis was fully aware of all of this, yet he had no way out.
And today, he began yet another territorial inspection of which he had lost count of how many.
“……”
There were hardly any people on the streets.
This was because even the residents of Salos were afraid of Charybdis.
And rightly so. Wasn’t this the very day the monster who killed with just a glance was out walking?
Charybdis gave a self-mocking smile at his own situation, yet still chose routes where he was least likely to encounter people.
In the end, what mattered was showing that he was still alive and well.
So even if he wandered around in these deserted areas, it didn’t really matter.
Someone would have seen him.
Someone would have fled at the sight of him.
Someone would have realized he was still alive.
Ironically, Charybdis felt more at ease now that the streets were empty.
Wasn’t he always the one living in fear of killing an innocent person?
But that day was different.
“Ugh… uhh…”
It happened when he turned into a back alley, as he often did, seeking places devoid of people.
For the first time in a long while, he sensed a presence that wasn’t one of his servants.
Could it be that they didn’t know he was out on patrol today?
Or was this finally the assassin sent to kill him?
Charybdis slowly turned his head toward the direction of the voice.
There, he saw a child.
A filthy, skinny child lay collapsed on the ground.
The result of malnutrition and abuse. If left alone, the child would die.
“How could this happen…”
Charybdis hesitated.
He wanted to help. But he was terrified. Terrified even of such a small, pitiful child. He felt disgusted with himself for that.
Still, despite his hesitation, Charybdis took a step forward.
For him, that single step took immense courage.
But then—
“Go… away!!”
The child hurled a rock, trying to drive Charybdis off.
A child filled with suspicion. A child who trusted no one.
And in that moment, Charybdis felt a sense of kinship.
The way the child trembled, terrified of the world and everything around them…it was like he was looking into a mirror.
Maybe that was why.
Instead of backing away, Charybdis cast off his hesitation and approached.
Even as the child screamed and threw stones at him, he didn’t flinch.
Even as one of the rocks split his forehead and blood trickled down, Charybdis remained astonishingly calm.
“It’s all right…”
He knelt in front of the child and reached out a hand.
He approached with utmost care.
“You’re safe now…”
The child didn’t take his hand.
The child simply stared at Charybdis with wary eyes.
In that tense silence, the child quietly lowered her head.
She had been collapsed on the ground since the moment he found her. Her body had long since reached its limit.
“You’re going to be okay.”
Cradling the child in his arms, Charybdis returned to the mansion.
The man who had always distrusted everyone now wanted to become someone worthy of another’s trust.
***
It took a long time for the child to open her heart.
But Charybdis never rushed her.
After all, he himself suffered from the same kind of paranoia. How could he demand blind trust from someone else?
That was why Charybdis, for the first time in his life, began asking his servants personal questions.
He would ask how to approach children of that age, what they might like, and even about parenting methods.
Perhaps the child had sensed his sincerity. Gradually, she began to trust and follow him.
She ate the food he gave her.
She wore the clothes he provided.
She learned from the lessons he taught her.
In this way, the child slowly became part of Charybdis’s family.
And as he raised the child, Charybdis’s own mind began to heal.
Now, instead of blindly doubting everything around him, he made efforts to connect.
Charybdis who had never been able to adjust to the world after the war, was finally beginning to find his place in it.
“Look closely. This is a wave.”
Now, Charybdis understood.
That all along, he had been no different from a child himself.
Because he didn’t know how to live in the world and had only ever been hurt by it, he simply didn’t know how to love.
Using the child as a mirror, Charybdis began to grow alongside her.
“Ahem, ahem.”
Now, Charybdis was no longer afraid of death. More than that, he worried about the child he would leave behind.
***
His infamy was already well known. Even if he had come to his senses, the sins he had committed in the past would not simply disappear.
He was not a good parent.
Worse still, his reputation could have a harmful influence on the child.
“Let’s see now…”
That was why Charybdis wrote a letter to his old comrade-in-arms and closest confidante, someone who understood him better than anyone else.
What would she think when she received it? Would she be angry that he was asking her to become the child’s guardian?
No, for all her grumbling, she was a kind person. Olga Hermod would honor his request.
Charybdis decided to send a letter to Olga Hermod, asking her to become Yuna’s guardian.
“Oh, right.”
After writing the letter, Charybdis belatedly realized he hadn’t written the child’s name.
“My daughter’s name is…”
In the end, Charybdis added a postscript with an awkward expression.
“Yuna.”
Tap.
He gave the pen a single tap, then added, a bit sheepishly,
“Yuna Salos.”
***
Olga Hermod visited the Salos mansion for the first time in a long while.
It was because her old comrade had sent her a letter filled with utter nonsense.
He had clearly lost his mind.
A daughter, out of nowhere? Had the old man, who had lived alone all his life, finally succumbed to madness?
Olga Hermod felt compelled to act, if only to check the mental state of a monster who could rival an archmage.
Though it had been a while since her last visit, the Salos mansion still had that same gloomy atmosphere. But at the very least, she could tell that Charybdis was managing the territory.
The roads were well maintained, and the infrastructure seemed properly developed.
“Hmm.”
As she glanced at the scenery along the street, Olga Hermod made her way straight toward the Salos mansion.
The atmosphere in the mansion had changed so dramatically compared to her last visit, it was almost shocking. The servants who used to carry an air of constant dread now seemed relatively normal.
Only then did Olga Hermod realize that Charybdis hadn’t gone completely mad. In fact, he’d come to his senses.
It must be thanks to that so-called daughter of his.
Olga Hermod waved off the servants offering to guide her and headed alone toward Charybdis’s office.
Sure, he had come to his senses. But that didn’t excuse the ridiculous nonsense he’d written. He deserved a scolding.
And, like it or not, Olga Hermod’s decision turned out to be the right one.
“……”
Olga Hermod stopped walking just as she neared the office.
There was the scent of blood.
It was a smell she could never fail to recognize. She was someone who had practically lived her entire life on the battlefield after all.
“This crazy bastard.”
Olga Hermod thought Charybdis had finally gone so mad, that he ended up killing the daughter he used to boast about.
The moment she became certain of it, she threw open the office door without hesitation.
But what she saw then was far from what she had expected.
“Huh…?”
Charybdis lay dead, and in front of him stood a girl holding a kitchen knife.
The situation was easy enough to guess.
But it wasn’t easy to understand.
Why? Why did the daughter he was so proud of attack him?
It was baffling.
It was such a strange sight that even Olga, a master of illusion magic, momentarily doubted whether she was seeing an illusion.
“Why…?”
Olga Hermod closed the office door behind her to keep others from seeing, then murmured toward the girl.
The girl, with flowing pink hair and a fluttering dress, was lovely….but her eyes were chillingly cold.
This wasn’t a spontaneous act.
The moment Olga Hermod asked her question, she understood.
The girl hadn’t killed Charybdis in a moment of impulse. She had intended to kill him from the very beginning.
Then when did it start? Since when did the girl harbor such hatred toward the man who raised her like his own daughter?
“Because he killed my family.”
“……”
That one sentence held so much within it.
Olga Hermod recalled something Charybdis had once said.
– We’re all going to die. Karma always comes back around eventually.
This was karma.
The karma Charybdis had built up over his life had finally come back to him.
The girl must have planned from the beginning for Charybdis to take her in.
For a fragile-looking girl to kill a monster on par with an archmage, her only option was to win his trust and get close to him.
And that’s exactly what she had done.
Appearing so weak that no one would ever suspect her of being an assassin.
Displaying open weaknesses so that he wouldn’t grow suspicious in other ways.
Saying things like, “I’m just like you”, and “That’s why we can understand each other.”
With that symbolic mask, she had slowly gained his trust and prepared for this very day.
Until the moment he was so open to her that he wouldn’t even be suspicious if she took out a blade right in front of him.
Up until the moment he died, was Charybdis smiling as he watched his beloved daughter clumsily peel fruit with a kitchen knife, saying that she wanted to prepare some for him?
“…Huh.”
Olga Hermod covered her mouth. She felt a chill run down her spine at the sheer precision of the girl’s plan.
Charybdis must have been sincere.
He must have truly repented and chosen to change… for her.
And even that wasn’t enough. He had reached out to Olga Hermod, whose reputation extended far beyond, all for the girl’s sake.
Everything he did… he did only for her.
And all of it had gone exactly as the girl had planned.
“He was a pitiful man.”
“I know.”
“Did you really have to kill him? Did you hate him that much?”
“I don’t know. I don’t hate him now. But still, I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised to.”
“……”
“Because I believed I had no other choice.”
Olga Hermod gripped her staff tightly.
Charybdis was a villain, and one day, he was bound to pay the price for his deeds.
That was an inescapable fate.
And so, what moved the girl was not emotion…but justice. For that justice, she had killed even her own feelings.
She had resolved to kill the one who had treated her like a daughter.
Just as Charybdis had said, his karma had returned to him—
—in the form he feared most.
“What were his last words?”
Olga Hermod asked.
Even while tormented by guilt, the madman who had desperately tried to avoid death…what was his end like?
“He didn’t say anything.”
“……”
“He just… didn’t say anything at all.”
“I see…”
Olga Hermod knew.
Charybdis had been just as gifted a mage as she was. Or, when he was in his right mind, even more so.
The moment his heart was pierced, he must have understood everything.
Perhaps too many words had come to mind all at once, and that was why he couldn’t speak at all.
The last image of Charybdis that Olga Hermod remembered was that of a crazy lunatic, thrashing about in terror at the thought of dying. To the point where he would kill even civilians in his madness.
But the handwriting in the letter she had received painted a different picture. It was that of an ordinary father thinking of his daughter.
“…Go.”
Olga Hermod spoke.
She wanted to believe that Charybdis had truly changed.
She chose to believe in the humanity that seeped through a single letter and to follow what it asked of her.
As his longtime friend, she had to make a decision. Charybdis had asked her to take care of his daughter.
And if that were the case, then rather than standing by and watching the girl be dragged off to the execution grounds, it was right to give her a chance.
Was this truly the right choice?
With Charybdis already dead, she had no way of knowing.
“Just never show yourself to me again.”
Still, she wanted to believe that Charybdis had changed.
That he had repented for his sins, accepted their weight, and become the kind of man who worried about his daughter’s future.
Olga Hermod chose to live within that illusion.
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