SBTMK Chapter 1

'Fucking hell—this can't be real—!'

The sound of frantic footsteps filled the narrow, darkened corridor.

He ran like a man who would cut down anyone who didn't move—so those passing through had no choice but to press themselves against the walls and let him through.

"Hey, Sir Harvey. Where are you rushing off to—"

"...Out of my way!"

Someone had the luck to recognize him and called out, but the running man sent back nothing but a sharp cry.

No one who exchanged a look with anyone else had any understanding of what had happened.

Harvey kept running. Toward a single place. Even when he nearly tumbled under the force of his own speed, even when his breath had risen to the back of his throat and his chest felt ready to burst—he could not stop.

"Lord Ayden!"

At his destination, Harvey threw open the worn wooden door without waiting for his master's permission. He had no capacity left to think about being reprimanded for the rudeness.

The room's occupant was perched on a chaise long enough for a grown man to lie across.

A white gown blotched with dark crimson blood and violet toxin proved that the experiment had not ended long before.

Before coming here, Harvey had been told that today's experiment, too, had ended in failure. Which meant this was prime time to be sensitive.

The wisest course with a rabid dog is to leave it alone—but Harvey had reason enough to disturb this one.

"Ah, Sir Harvey."

The man shoved the disheveled blond hair off his face with one hand and smiled at Harvey.

The gaze studying Harvey through those spectacle lenses was raw madness itself. He seemed to be smiling warmly—but that was only a mask.

His eyes carried the clear meaning that if there was no adequate reason for the interruption of his rest, he would flay the flesh from your bones while you were still alive.

Harvey's lower lip trembled as he struggled to avert his gaze.

"Isn't it the knights' mealtime now? What's happened?"

Harvey, who had for a moment forgotten entirely why he was standing before Ayden at all, collected himself only when the question came.

"Fl—Dame Flora—"

Even then, the words would not form easily.

He knew how furious Ayden would be when he heard the news. He had no idea what madness might follow.

"What about Flora?"

The voice that had been performing warmth shifted in an instant.

The upturned corner of his mouth had gone as rigid as the blood congealed against his pale skin.

"She attempted—she attempted an escape—"

"What did you say?"

Harvey closed his eyes. He had done his duty; he felt his breath might simply stop where he stood. No—he thought that might actually be preferable.

"...And then?"

Harvey, trembling with his eyes clenched shut, cracked them open to glance at Ayden at the continued question.

The facial muscles beneath that one twisted smile were twitching entirely out of his control. He had seemed to be trying to appear composed—but this time it was a complete failure.

"How did it go—just answer the question!"

The shout followed, as though even a moment of hesitation was intolerable.

Ayden's pink pupils, fully exposing his fury now, had lost their focus—as if something inside him had broken loose entirely.

"She was armed, and so everyone—!"

Shit! The curse came with a violent shove against Harvey's shoulder. He crashed into the display cabinet behind him with a tremendous clatter.

In that same moment, Ayden vanished from before Harvey's eyes. No matter how many times he witnessed it, the sight of Ayden moving with the speed of a beast never became something he could adapt to.

He had been there—and then he was not, like smoke—and Harvey stared blankly at the empty space left behind until his legs gave way and he sank to the floor.

Flora had attempted to escape, and with her skill she would very likely succeed. The only person capable of introducing any variable was Lord Ayden.

Could Lord Ayden stop her.

And if he could not—

Harvey closed his eyes tightly, tracing the worst outcome through his mind.

'It's a catastrophe. A catastrophe is beginning.'

The stench of blood hung through the castle's lower levels, as if to announce the fierce battle that had been waged there.

Some knights were having their wounds treated by healers. Others lay completely motionless, arrows lodged in their throats.

"...Lord Ayden! Dame Flora—!"

A knight approached Ayden, who was staring at the carnage with an unfocused gaze.

"Where is Flora?"

"She broke through the standoff with the knights and left the castle. She's likely headed for the cliffs—!"

Ayden ran, following the trail of bloodstains, before the knight had finished speaking.

Several mounted knights fell in beside him, guiding him toward where she had fled.

Along the way, knights who had given chase lay injured or dead. He passed them all, and then there was the cliff.

And at its edge, the woman he had been searching for stood in precarious balance.

"Flora!"

"You came. Ayden. Fast as ever, I'll give you that."

Ayden pushed through the line of knights who had their arrows trained on her.

Her silver hair, soaked with sweat, hung in disarray; blood was smeared across her white skin—testament to the battle she had fought her way through.

She looked considerably spent. The arm holding the bowstring taut was trembling, the tremor finely visible even from a distance.

"Why are you doing this? Flora. It's dangerous there. Come here."

If she stepped back one more step, she would fall from the cliff.

Even Flora—praised as Cenkan's finest knight—might die from that fall. There was no training for surviving a drop from a cliff. That was purely a matter of chance.

Ayden spoke as if soothing a child and extended his hand. Flora shook her head.

"Don't tell me you're actually thinking of jumping? You'll die if you fall from there. Flora."

"Dying is better than returning to you."

"Damn it. What in hell is this about?"

The performance of warmth and concern—it slipped in an instant.

"...You killed her. Rene."

Rene. Ayden had to think for a moment about the name. Flora, watching his face, let out a short, bitter laugh.

"Don't tell me you can't remember? I suppose not. It's not as though the ones you've killed with your own hands could be counted on one hand."

A figure who could provoke Flora to this degree. He didn't know whether the woman's name had been Rene, but the face surfaced clearly enough. She'd borne a child by some knight, gone mad, tried to run—and he'd caught her and killed her.

But so what? All of this over that woman?

In an instant, killing intent surfaced in Ayden's eyes.

"You're dredging up something from years ago at a time like this? She tried to run from me. She did something that deserved death, so she died."

Even when Rene had been caught fleeing and killed, Flora had gone on living for a time like someone with her spirit extinguished. Knowing the two women had been close comrades, Ayden had watched Flora carefully out of his own kind of concern. But as the saying goes, time is the cure—Flora had gradually recovered.

...And now she was pulling this charming little act? It was impossible not to lose his composure entirely.

"Don't tell me you want the same fate? Throwing away all that wealth and honor you've accumulated?"

The knotted fury poured out rapid-fire alongside the words.

At the sight of Ayden's pink pupils lurching without direction, Flora smiled—something thin and bitter in it.

"What good is wealth and honor obtained like this? I'm not happy."

"So what do you want? For me to apologize?"

"An apology? Sure. If you can manage it, go ahead. Get on your knees and beg like a dog."

Crazy b*tch. There's crossing a line, and then there's this—

Ayden had to barely hold back the profanity rising between his teeth. She was clearly not in her right mind.

Being unhinged meant she also had the recklessness to actually throw herself from the cliff.

He couldn't lose Flora like this. She was Cenkan's asset. Ayden smoothed his expression again and pleaded.

"If you come quietly, I'll do it. Get on my knees and beg like a dog. If that's what you want. So Flora—"

"You killed Rene's child, too. That small one who couldn't even speak yet—"

A child? Ayden tilted his head as though he couldn't comprehend the words.

And then, abruptly, the image surfaced: Ruel—face blackened all the way to the skin with toxin, breath stopped. The only child who had died recently was that one.

It had been an experiment carried out the same as always—to infuse magical energy. He'd told the researcher to bring him the youngest child among the Ruels. He'd assumed the younger the subject, the greater the efficiency.

The top-grade smuggled magic stones combined with alchemy had seemed to align and succeed—but in the end, the child had been unable to bear the power given to it, and had died.

"I didn't know."

"...That figures."

As Merin Castle's mistress and someone who had earned even the king's trust, Flora would have had researchers freely passing her information about the Ruels. So she had been watching that woman's child all along.

"I'll apologize for all of it. Flora. All right? So stop being angry and come here—"

Outwardly pleading, Ayden gestured behind his back to the knights standing there.

Signal to attack. The knights, quick to understand, kept their attention fixed on his fingers and watched for the moment to loose their arrows.

"Ayden."

"Yes, Flora."

"If we meet again... I'll kill you then. Without fail."

Then Ayden closed his fist. Thwip thwip thwip— arrows shot through the air, but the target was already gone. Ayden sprinted to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

The waves crashing against the rocks below were fierce, and there was no trace of the one he was searching for.

"Flora!"

Nothing. Flora had disappeared from sight. His eyes swept frantically across the sea, desperate for any shred of hope—but it was useless.

The Haenkan Empire, in the deep watches of the night when all had gone to sleep. The emperor's bedchamber—busier at night than by day—was still bright.

[Your Majesty, the identity of the mysterious body discovered last month could not ultimately be confirmed. And this time...]

Simen, the emperor, sat hunched at a low table, reviewing documents. He raised his head as the voice of the head of his imperial guard echoed in his mind.

"There's been another strange sign?"

[Yes. In the Evre region, near the eastern coastline. The regional magic division submitted a report today that a suspicious signal was detected in the barrier. Knights were dispatched to confirm it, but no particular traces were found. The magic division's follow-up report was the same.]

Simen pressed his fingers to his throbbing temple.

"To think someone can illegally pass in and out of the magic barrier... Those trying to enter the empire illegally usually target regions without barriers. This one is far too brazen. Are they trying to provoke me?"

[It may be the appearance of a new magical beast, so we are investigating that direction as well. Their evolution is remarkably fast.]

"No. If it had been magical beasts, they would have caused problems within the empire long before now. There's also no apparent connection to the body that was discovered."

[We'll investigate further.]

"Since my accession to the throne, with events like these occurring—everyone treats me as though I were a calamity."

[...]

"I'm beginning to think there may be a rat concealed somewhere behind all of this."

The territories of the great empire Haenkan were administered by the nobility, the magic division, and the Temple of Arzeka.

Normally, magical energy was used primarily to prevent plagues and natural disasters and to support regional development—but regions where magical beasts frequently appeared, and the outer borders where invasion was a possibility, had barriers erected specifically to manage unauthorized entry.

The mysterious signals had first begun several months ago.

The magic division, keeping vigilant watch, had searched those areas for months—only for a body of unconfirmable identity to be discovered near the barrier just last month. And today, a similar phenomenon had occurred in a different region.

The barrier, when it touched someone who had not been granted passage, spread toxin through the body or paralyzed it entirely. If the magic was not lifted within the set time, death followed.

Yet this time, too, no body had been found—no trace of any kind. It was a formidable enough magic that one should not have been able to walk more than a few steps from the barrier... Truly a suspicious affair. And a fascinating one.

[We'll continue searching this time as well, but... they may only be discovered after they've already died.]

"Report back when something turns up. And if an anomalous signal appears in another region, tell me immediately. This time I'll go myself. If there is someone behind this, if we can identify who it is... it may help in setting the imperial authority back in order."

[...Understood.]

"Go and rest now."

Erne, the head of the imperial guard, did not leave at Simen's command—stood motionless in place.

Simen adjusted his spectacles and raised his head again.

"Is there more?"

[It's grown late, Your Majesty. Please retire for the night.]

"I'll rest after I've finished this much."

Erne, as if signaling an intention to remain at their post until that time, stood with the stiffness of a stone statue—chin tilted up just slightly.

That stubbornness.

Simen clicked his tongue as if resigned and turned his attention back to the documents.