The World Has Become Kinder to Her

“I’d like to rest for a while.”

The truth was, Kenneth wanted to resign. But there could come a time when the power that came with being the commander of the knights would be necessary, so he pragmatically requested an extended leave instead.  

Following the reclusion of Frederick, the tower master, and now the indefinite leave of Kenneth, the empire’s greatest swordsman, the emperor was bewildered. The nobles of the empire, sensing that something was brewing beneath the surface that they were unaware of, grew anxious.  

Kenneth couldn’t accept Lotus’s death as a mere accident. They had only spent a single night together, but even in the brief conversations they shared, he had glimpsed her sharp intellect.  

She was the kind of woman who could infer ten meanings from a single sentence.  

She was too smart to attempt saving a child from drowning on her own, knowing full well how difficult that would be. So why had she jumped into the river? What drove her to make such a decision?  

Kenneth began re-investigating the incident at the Venus River that led to her death. He personally went out to gather information and even hired members of the intelligence guild. He meticulously retraced Lotus’s steps from the month before her death.  

But the investigation only revealed that she had done what she always did—meeting with Frederick or another secret lover, attending parties and gatherings.  

What stood out was that in the few days before her death, she hadn’t met with either Frederick or any of her other lovers. Still, it wasn’t particularly strange.  

Lotus often left some time between meeting her lovers.  

There was nothing unusual or meaningful in her actions. The investigation hit a thick fog.  

Kenneth had always been skilled at decapitating enemies, whether they were people or monsters, and devising large-scale military strategies on the battlefield, but solving the cause of someone’s death was not his forte.  

It was only natural that his investigation hit a wall, but Kenneth couldn’t accept that.  

“Why? Why on earth…?”  

Why had she died? Should he accept that she simply acted on impulse, saving a child without thinking of the consequences and losing her life in the process?  

While he was busy with the investigation, the agony that clawed at his heart—the bitterness and despair—was somewhat suppressed.  

But as months passed without any meaningful clues or evidence, Kenneth began to crumble.  

Throughout history, the one thing humans in grief and despair have most often sought out was alcohol. But Kenneth, having reached the level of a master, possessed a body far superior to that of an ordinary person.  

He couldn’t get drunk on any ordinary amount of alcohol, and even if he did, he could easily expel the toxins from his body using mana. So, he began mixing his drinks with drugs.  

‘Should I kill them all? Wipe them out? You have the power, don’t you?’  

Melinia, a drug said to grant sweet hallucinations to those who consumed it, only gave Kenneth a feeling of lethargy and powerlessness, along with the destructive hallucinations he used to hear when fighting White Grub monsters.  

His body, built for survival, resisted the effects of the drug, so he wasn’t experiencing its full potency, but that didn’t matter. His mind was already breaking down, and now his body was slowly starting to follow. It was only a matter of time before he became addicted.  

「End your wandering and return to the frontlines, Sir.」  

“Commander, snap out of it! What on earth is wrong with you? What’s eating away at you? Is it true, like the rumors say, that Lotus’s death is what’s driving you like this? No matter how you act, it won’t bring her back!”  

It was all too loud.  

Listening to the emperor’s letters, constantly demanding his return, or hearing his vice-commander and knights telling him to get a grip, though they knew nothing, was far worse than listening to the whispers brought on by Melinia.  

When his body grew lethargic and weak from the drug, the pain in his heart, soaked in despair, seemed to ease just a little.  

Even with such unbearable pain, Kenneth didn’t attempt suicide. Was it the survival instinct he’d had since childhood? He hated himself all the more intensely for it.  

It was around the time when Kenneth’s self-loathing had reached its peak.  

That night, he sat in Count Owen’s mansion, using moonlight as his only companion while he drank liquor mixed with Melinia. He had consumed enough to make a normal person collapse, yet he still appeared unaffected.  

Aside from his slowing heartbeat, the lethargy spreading through his body, and the annoying whispers starting to seep in, nothing was different from usual.  

At that moment, something sharp pierced through the window, grazing right past Kenneth’s nose. It was a weapon that an assassin would use.  

The attack had clearly been aimed at his neck, but even in his lethargy, Kenneth’s body moved reflexively to avoid the blow.  

‘Should I chase them or not?’  

His instincts whispered to him. The weapon had been aimed at a vital point, but the killing intent had been weak.

Kenneth rose to his feet. Despite the drug coursing through his system, he wasn’t particularly worried.  

In truth, when he wandered around in a drugged state, it wasn’t he who was in danger—it was those who crossed paths with him. The only issue was that, unlike usual, his control over his strength became unpredictable.  

***  

Many people wanted Kenneth dead—from his stepmother and those who cooperated with her, to military figures from other nations.  

Having faced assassins sent by them both in his daily life and on the battlefield since childhood, it was only natural that Kenneth would become intimately familiar with their tactics.  

‘Top-tier. Quick and stealthy, specializing in luring targets.’  

The assassins moved without a sound, and their movements were flawless, as if they had cast a Haste spell on their feet.  

Kenneth followed them with the amused feeling of an adult watching a child’s antics.  

The assassins seemed to be heading toward the outskirts of the capital but eventually veered into the massive slum within the city.  

Whoever had sent them was an interesting character.  

Unlike most parts of the capital, the slums were lively even at night.  

Drunken men staggered through the streets, scantily clad women lured them, and fights broke out in various corners.  

The noisy chaos of the slums concealed the movements of both the assassins and Kenneth.  

The assassins entered a rundown inn, heading up to the third room on the second floor.  

The dimly lit room, illuminated only by two candles, greeted Kenneth as he stepped inside. His eyes narrowed slightly.  

“The hospitality here is terrible,” Kenneth remarked.  

“My apologies. I had to check whether our guest was in a state fit for conversation,” came a voice from the direction of an old, decrepit wardrobe. Moments later, the wardrobe door opened, and a man stepped out.  

It was a man with striking purple hair—Theodore.  

It seemed he had arrived via a hidden passage connected to the wardrobe.  

‘There’s another one,’ Kenneth thought, noting the presence of a second person who had yet to reveal themselves. He glanced at Theodore and spoke in a detached voice.  

“…So, it was you. The one who took control of the information and assassination guilds and cleaned up the underworld.”  

“Rather than ‘control,’ let’s just say it’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” Theodore replied with a sly smile.  

“You were also the one meeting with Lady Estelle besides Frederick Abran.”  

Finally, the mystery behind the people watching Lotus was starting to unravel.  

The smile on Theodore’s lips deepened.  

“I’m glad to see you’re someone I can have a conversation with.”  

“It seems you didn’t have much luck with ‘him,’” Kenneth remarked.  

As soon as Kenneth finished speaking, the second figure appeared from the shadows. It was Frederick, who had been concealing himself with an invisibility spell—the other presence Kenneth had sensed upon entering the room.  

“What’s going on here? Kenneth, how did you figure all that out, and Theodore, how did you guess that he would know?”  

There had been rumors that Frederick had become a wreck due to drug addiction, but standing before Kenneth now, he looked much better than expected.  

Perhaps it was due to his association with the sage standing before him.  

As Kenneth remained silent, Theodore calmly explained, answering Frederick’s questions in a smooth tone. However, despite his seemingly gentle voice, there was a clear note of condescension in his gaze and speech.  

It was an amusing sight.  

“I mentioned before that the people I hired to watch over Lotus had been discovered by Count Owen. If you connect that with the assassins used as bait, you can start to piece things together. If Count Owen lacked even this level of deductive ability, the Bahamur Empire would have lost the war against the Charis Empire. In that sense, it’s fortunate. As for why I anticipated this situation, the reasoning is similar. If I couldn’t predict something like this, I’d have to renounce my title as a sage, wouldn’t I?”

“Muscles only on your tongue, huh? Makes me want to cut it off,” Frederick muttered irritably. The banter between the two men was amusing, but Kenneth had no intention of letting this drag on.  

The whispers of hallucinations worsened as he stood face to face with the two men who had been closely involved with Lotus before her death.  

‘Frederick’s magic is strong, but his strength has weakened because of the drugs. You’re still less affected by the drugs, so you could kill them both right now.’  

It made sense, but it was pointless. Kenneth had no intention of cutting down people left and right unless they were enemies on the battlefield, so he quickly spoke.  

“So, what is the reason you both called me here?”  

“You still have feelings for Loti, don’t you? That’s why I’m proposing a deal,” said Frederick.  

“We’re proposing an alliance,” Theodore added.  

Frederick had made the first suggestion, and Theodore the second. The two immediately started bickering again.  

“Wow, look at this guy’s character. You offer me a deal, but to him, you propose an alliance? Why the discrimination?”  

“If you hadn’t become a drug-addicted corpse, I might have used a more refined and dignified word,” Theodore replied with a smug smile.  

“But they say he’s on drugs too! So why?” Frederick snapped back.  

“Perhaps because he started later than you, and as a Sword Master, his resistance to substances is much stronger. Judging by his reasoning, his mind still seems intact, and more importantly, he could slice both of us down right here, right now,” Theodore said sharply.  

His words hit hard. Frederick turned his gaze to Kenneth, looking at him as if to demand an explanation. Kenneth answered in his usual indifferent tone.  

“I’m not going to kill you. It’s too much of a hassle.”  

Though Frederick remained a formidable mage, facing him in earnest would be risky. One of them would surely die if it came to that.  

“Who said I’d go down easily? If I weren’t behaving myself… maybe a meteor spell would knock some sense into you both!” Frederick grumbled.  

“If you recklessly use a meteor spell, I’m sure Manores would devour you whole,” Theodore quipped.  

Despite Frederick’s grumbling, his behavior reminded Kenneth of the Frederick he once knew, and oddly, it brought him a sense of familiarity and reassurance.  

Theodore turned his attention back to Kenneth.  

“I’m aware you’ve been investigating Lotus’s death. And as you suspect, there is indeed someone who led her to her death.”  

“…But I’ve found nothing. Maybe it really was just an unfortunate accident,” Kenneth replied.  

“That’s true if you investigate through ordinary means. But if you’re willing to accept the stories of myths and legends, the truth can be uncovered.”  

Myths and legends? Was Theodore suggesting that Lotus’s death was connected to some sort of demon? Kenneth’s thoughts raced, and his gaze locked with Theodore’s.  

“Are you telling me that the one I must face is a demon?” Kenneth asked.  

“Yes,” Theodore answered decisively.  

Kenneth was momentarily stunned by the bluntness of the reply.  

He didn’t believe the man before him would joke about something this serious.  

Still, accepting the existence of demons, creatures spoken of only in legends and folklore, wasn’t something that came easily.  

“They are cunning beings, skilled in deception, and excel at spreading distrust, anger, and malice among people,” Theodore added.  

In that moment, the sword that had lost its purpose was presented with knowledge of the greatest and most dangerous foe it could face.