SBTMK Chapter 1

'Fuck, this can't be happening——!'

Urgent footsteps flooded the narrow, dark corridor.

He was coming at them like he'd kill anyone who didn't move, so the people in his path had no choice but to press themselves flat against the walls and give way.

"Hey, Sir Harvey. Where are you going——"

"——Out of the way!"

Someone managed to recognize him and tried to say hello, but all they got in return was a razor-edged shout.

No one who looked at each other could say what had happened.

Harvey kept running. Toward one place only. Even when his own speed nearly tripped him, even when the breath had climbed all the way up his throat and his chest felt ready to burst—he couldn't stop.

"Lord Ayden!"

Harvey reached his destination and threw open the old wooden door without his master's permission. He had no capacity left to think about being reprimanded for the rudeness.

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

A white coat stained with dark red blood and violet poison proved the experiment had not ended long ago.

Before coming here, Harvey had been told that today's experiment had failed as well. Which meant this was prime time for his mood to be at its worst.

Leaving a rabid dog alone was the wiser choice. Harvey had a reason he absolutely had to disturb him.

"Ah, Sir Harvey."

The man who pushed his disheveled golden hair back with one hand looked up at Harvey and smiled.

The gaze watching Harvey from behind his glasses was raw madness itself. He looked like he was smiling warmly, but that was only the mask.

The meaning lying in his eyes was clear: if there wasn't a good enough reason for interrupting his rest, he'd strip the flesh off Harvey's bones while he was still breathing.

Harvey's lower lip trembled as he barely managed to avert his eyes.

"Isn't it the knights' mealtime right now? What is it?"

Harvey had momentarily forgotten why he was standing in front of Ayden. The question brought him back.

"Dame, Dame Flora is——"

Even so, the words wouldn't come easily.

Because he knew how furious Ayden would be when he heard the news. Because he had no way of knowing what madness he might commit.

"Flora what?"

The voice that had been playing at warmth changed in an instant.

The corner of his mouth that had been curled up was now set just as hard as the blood congealed against his pale skin.

"She's—she attempted an escape——"

"What did you say?"

Harvey shut his eyes. He had fulfilled his duty, and now he felt he might simply stop breathing. No—he found himself hoping he would.

"……And?"

Harvey, who had been squeezing his eyes shut and shaking, caught a glimpse of Ayden at the follow-up question.

The muscles around the corner of Ayden's mouth he'd twisted up were twitching of their own accord. He seemed to have tried to appear composed, but this time it was a complete failure.

"How did it turn out, I said!"

The shout followed—Ayden making clear he couldn't even stand Harvey taking a moment to collect himself.

His pink pupils, making no secret of his fury, had lost their focus entirely, as if he'd completely snapped.

"She was carrying weapons, so everyone——"

Fuck!—and Harvey's shoulder was shoved hard. He collided with a display cabinet behind him, and a loud crash rang out.

In that instant, Ayden vanished from Harvey's sight. No matter how many times he'd seen him move with the speed of a beast, it never got easier to look at.

Harvey stared blankly at the empty space where he'd been—like smoke, just gone—and his legs gave out. He sank to the floor.

Flora had attempted an escape. With her abilities, she'd probably succeed. The only person who could introduce a variable was Lord Ayden.

Would Lord Ayden manage to stop her.

If he couldn't——

Harvey shut his eyes and painted the worst-case scenario

'Disaster. Disaster is beginning.'

The stench of blood hung thick through the castle's lower levels—announcing the battle.

Some knights were having their wounds treated by a healer, and some lay completely still with arrows buried in their throats.

"——Lord Ayden! Dame Flora is——"

A knight approached Ayden, who stood staring blankly at the carnage.

"Where is Flora?"

"She broke out of the standoff with the knights and left the castle. She's probably headed for the cliffs——!"

Ayden ran, following the trail of blood, before the knight could finish speaking.

Several people followed on horseback, guiding him toward the direction she had fled.

Along the way, knights who had been chasing the fugitive lay wounded or dead where they'd fallen. Passing them, he arrived without noticing at the cliffs.

And at the edge of it—the woman he'd been searching for was standing there, precarious.

"Flora!"

"There you are. Ayden. Still as fast as ever."

Ayden shoved through the knights who had arrows trained on her.

Her silver hair, drenched and ruined with sweat, and her white skin—both marked with blood that told the story of the fighting she'd come through.

She looked considerably exhausted. The arm holding the bowstring trembled in fine shivers—visible from where he stood.

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

If she took one more step back, she would fall off the cliff.

And then even Flora, hailed as Cenkan's finest knight, might die. There was no training for surviving a fall from a cliff. That was simply a matter of luck.

Ayden spoke as if coaxing a small child, and extended his hand. Flora shook her head.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of jumping? If you fall from there, you'll die. Flora."

"Dying is better than going back to you."

"Shit. What the hell are you doing this for?"

The patience Ayden had been maintaining behind the pretense of warmth and concern stripped away in an instant.

"……You killed her. Rene."

Rene. Ayden had to think for a moment about the name. Flora, seeing his expression, let out a short laugh of disbelief.

"Don't tell me you don't even remember? Well. I suppose someone who's killed this many people with their own hands can't keep track."

A person important enough that Flora would fly into a rage like this. He wasn't certain her name was Rene, but the face came back to him clearly enough. She'd had a child by some knight, then lost her mind and tried to run. He'd caught her and killed her.

But—so what? All this over her?

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

"You're dragging up something from years ago now? She was a woman who dared to try running from me. She did something deserving death, so she died."

When Rene had been caught fleeing and killed, Flora had spent a long stretch afterward like a person who'd lost her mind.

Knowing that Rene and Flora had been close comrades, Ayden had watched Flora carefully out of concern. But as the saying went, time was medicine—Flora gradually improved.

……But now she was pulling this charming stunt? He couldn't keep his eye from twitching.

"Don't tell me you want to end up the same way? Throwing away everything—all that wealth and honor you have?"

The tangled fury came rapid-fire alongside the words.

Flora, watching Ayden's pink pupils drift without anchor, smiled with something that didn't reach her eyes.

"What use is wealth and honor earned like this? I'm not happy."

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

"An apology? Sure. Try it, if you can. Get on your knees and beg like a dog."

You insane little——. She was overstepping even beyond the usual limits——!

Ayden had to barely suppress what was rising through his teeth. She was clearly not in her right mind.

Because she wasn't whole, she might also have the recklessness to actually fall off that 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. I'll 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 child who couldn't even speak——"

A child? Ayden tilted his head, unable to understand what she was saying.

And then, without warning, he remembered the Ruel whose face had gone completely black with poison, breath cut off. The only child who had died recently was that one.

An experiment he'd conducted as usual to inject magical power. He'd told the researcher to bring the youngest available Ruel. He'd assumed younger would mean greater efficiency.

The top-grade magic stone he'd imported and the alchemy had seemed to come together correctly—it looked like success—but in the end the child couldn't withstand the power given to it and died.

"I didn't know."

"……I thought so."

Mistress of Meryn Castle, and someone who'd earned the King's trust—the researchers would have handed Flora information about the Ruels without hesitation. So she'd been watching that woman's child the whole time.

"I'll apologize for everything. Flora. Yes? So stop being angry and come——"

Ayden kept his expression pleading while behind his back, he gestured to the knights standing there.

On signal, attack. Understanding without being told, the knights fixed their attention on the tips of Ayden's fingers and watched for the moment to loose their arrows.

"Ayden."

"Yes, Flora."

"If we ever meet again……when we do, I'll kill you. I will."

And that was the moment Ayden closed his fist. Arrows flew ta-da-dak through the air, but the target was already gone from that spot. Ayden sprinted to the cliff's edge and looked down.

The waves crashing against the cliff were fierce, and there was no sign of the person he was looking for.

"Flora!"

Gone. Flora had vanished from sight. His eyes raced over the water, reaching for any last shred of hope. It was no use.

The Haenkan Empire, in the dead of night when everyone was asleep. The Emperor's chambers—busier at night than during the day—were still lit.

〈Your Majesty, the identity of the mysterious body found last month could not be confirmed in the end. And this time——〉

The Emperor, Simen, had been slouched over a low table reviewing documents when he looked up at the Commander's voice in his head.

"Another strange sign?"

〈Yes. It's the Evre region, near the eastern coast. A report came up from the regional magic division today that a suspicious signal was detected in the barrier. I sent a few knights to investigate, but there were no particular traces. The magic division's report was the same.〉

Simen pressed two fingers to his throbbing temple.

"To think someone could be passing through a magic barrier illegally…… People trying to enter the Empire without permission usually target areas without barriers—this one's either bold or brazen. Are they provoking me?"

〈We're also considering the possibility of a new type of magical beast. Their evolution is quite fast.〉

"No. If it had been magical beasts, they'd have been causing problems in the Empire long before now. And there seems to be no connection to the body that was found."

〈I'll look into it further.〉

"Everyone's treating me like a curse—saying things like this have been happening since I took the throne."

……

"I'm starting to think there's a rat hiding somewhere behind all this."

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

Usually their work with magical power was mostly to prevent epidemics and natural disasters and to support regional development, but in areas where magical beasts frequently appeared, or in the outer border regions where invasion was possible, barriers had been installed specifically to manage unauthorized intruders.

The mysterious signals had first started a few months ago.

The Magic Tower had kept its attention on the region and searched it for months, but just last month, a body with unconfirmed identity had been found near a barrier, it was said. And today, a similar phenomenon had occurred in a different region.

The barriers caused poison to spread through the entire body, or paralysis, on contact with anyone who hadn't been granted entry permission. If the magic couldn't be dispelled within the time limit, death would follow.

But again this time—no body, no traces. It was quite powerful magic; one should barely have been able to take a few steps from the barrier……and yet. This was a strange matter indeed, and it piqued his interest.

〈We'll keep searching this time as well, but…… they may not be found until after they're dead.〉

"Report to me again if anything comes up. And if an anomalous signal appears in another region, tell me immediately. This time I'll go myself. If there's someone behind this—if I can determine who they are…… it might help in setting the imperial authority to rights."

〈……Understood.〉

"Go rest."

Erne, the Commander of the Imperial Guard, didn't leave even at Simen's command—he simply stood there in silence.

Simen adjusted his glasses and looked up again.

"Something else?"

〈It's late, Your Majesty. You should retire for the night.〉

"I'll sleep after I finish this."

Erne, as if to say he would hold his post until then, hardened in place like a stone statue and lifted his chin slightly.

That stubbornness.

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