Rain on a Cloudless Night

Night had fallen before I knew it.

Oble ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was so thoroughly drunk he could barely keep himself upright. That was on me — I'd held my liquor better than expected, and he hadn't been able to pace himself.

"Oble, that's enough. Let's get you home. Your wife's going to have my head."

"Nngh... just... just one more..."

"No. I'm not about to earn a grudge from your kid before they're even born. Come on. We're going."

I stopped him when he tried to settle the tab and paid it myself. Oble needed every coin he could scrape together for the child on the way. I had no interest in letting a man in his position treat me. I'd collect on the favor later — from his kid. Tell them their old man bought me a mountain of meals.

"I'll walk you home. Let's go."

"I'm fiiine. Fine. Hah... I can get there myself."

Oble shrugged off my support and staggered down the night street on his own. I couldn't leave him looking like that, so I followed.

The cool night air felt good. These streets had always seemed so dark to me. Tonight, they felt unusually bright. Was it the alcohol? Or had I changed as a person? I didn't know. I'd need more time before I could say.

And so I strolled along, taking in the night at an easy pace — until a sound reached my ears.

Shunk—

My gaze turned, slowly.

Oble, who had been walking just ahead of me. I hadn't taken my eyes off him a moment ago. A sword had punched clean through his stomach, its blade thick with blood.

Beyond him stood a man who could scarcely be called human.

Trenba. The one they called Trenba the Troublemaker. He had driven his sword through Oble's chest.

Why? The question formed in my head, useless and incomplete.

Trenba wrenched the blade free.

Thud—

Oble crumpled to the ground. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠amount of blood pouring out of him left no room for hope.

For a brief moment, time seemed to stop. Oble had been my colleague and my friend for a long time. A friend who shared the same trauma I did, who'd thrown in his lot with mine. And now he had been murdered right in front of me.

At Trenba's feet, I saw a familiar pair of boots. The custom-made special boots I'd commissioned. Trenba was wearing them. The thief who'd broken into my inn room had been Trenba all along.

I could see his eyes. They'd never been what you'd call normal, but this was far worse — bloodshot and unfocused, like a man deep in his cups. The wind carried the smell of blood, and with it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a harsh chemical stench that made my nose sting. What drifted from Trenba's mouth wasn't liquor. It was closer to a drug.

Rumors of something being trafficked through the back alleys. Rumors that Trenba had been spotted in those same alleys. A dozen things clicked into place in my mind. But only one of them mattered right now.

Trenba's sword had gone through Oble's chest.

Before I knew it, my body had launched off the ground. The strength flooding through me was nothing like my usual power. Rage had expanded the vitality of my flesh onto an entirely different plane. The distance between Trenba and me vanished in an instant.

At the same time, Trenba's pupils jerked wildly before locking onto ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me. It was a grotesque motion — nothing a human eye should do.

He yanked his sword back into a grip. Veins bulged along his arms as the muscle swelled, and then he swung the same blade that had killed Oble straight at me. The edge came screaming toward my face. The force behind it was no joke. I planted my legs and killed my momentum to dodge. The wind pressure from the blade as it hissed past my nose sent my hair flying.

Trenba had always been a capable fighter. He'd had the strength to match his size, but never like this. In raw power alone, he was at Maria's level. That was a weight class Trenba should never have been able to reach.

His sword came after me again. I'd already gone toe-to-toe with Maria's greatsword. His blade was heavy, but not so heavy I couldn't dodge it. Trenba, though, didn't stop swinging whether I evaded or not.

"Die! Die, you son of a bitch!"

Thick, ugly curses spilled from his mouth. His eyes were drowning in rage.

"Because of you — because of you, my whole life's been ruined!"

Where had the rumors about me among the monster hunters started? With Trenba the Troublemaker's public humiliation. He'd risen to my bait, thrown a punch, and lost. Given how rotten his personality had always been, the mockery never stopped. Trenba had a massive ego. And in exact proportion to that pride, his mind was fragile. So he'd soothed himself by tormenting other people. A small, pathetic bastard, through and through.

"If it weren't for you!"

The sword slashed across my face again. Trenba's blade, loaded with killing intent, was genuinely dangerous. I wasn't afraid in the slightest.

There was a time when even meeting Trenba's eyes had terrified me. He was strong and I was weak. When his fist came down on my shoulder, it left bruises. But now his threats felt like a child's tantrum. It wasn't because I'd gotten stronger. It was because I'd finally understood how ugly and inadequate a human being Trenba truly was.

His life was over because he'd lost to me. The sheer pettiness of it was almost pitiful.

"Trenba."

Rage surged up from somewhere inside me. Killing intent rolled through my eyes.

"Why did you go after Oble?"

Trenba flinched — just for a second — when that killing intent hit him. Fear rising from instinct. The natural terror of death that every living thing carries. I already knew the answer to why he hadn't come for me first.

"You were scared of me."

Trenba had originally planned to ambush me in my inn room. Instead, he'd ransacked the place and run. The reason was simple. He was afraid of me. He'd already faced the terror of death once before. The first time I awakened Instant Death Magic was thanks to a fight with Trenba. That day, he'd come within a breath of dying by my hand. If I had closed my fist around his flame, he would have been finished. That memory had stayed with him as a nightmare he couldn't erase.

So instead of attacking me first, Trenba had chosen Oble. To let go of reason at the smell of blood and force a fight with me. To forget his own fear, he'd used Oble as a sacrificial lamb. The thought of it made my teeth grind.

I didn't know what he'd bought in those back alleys. All I knew was that the thing standing in front of me was no longer human. This thing was a monster. A man-eating monster. And that monster was right here.

"You were never someone worth associating with. Not from the start."

I'd believed that every monster hunter carried their own pride. They slew monsters to protect ordinary people. Even if they were worn down by reality, even if they died to the beasts they hunted and their minds weren't entirely whole — I'd always believed that justice and pride lived somewhere inside them.

Today, I understood otherwise. Not every monster hunter is a good person. As long as they're human, there will be villains among them. There are monsters who have abandoned justice and lost their pride.

Trenba swung again. I drew up the power in my legs to match him. The muscles in my thighs swelled to their limit. Every ounce of kicking strength I'd forged through training poured out at once. My legs braced against the earth, and that force transferred cleanly into my arms.

I'd taken my gauntlets off to drink. My hands were bare — but that was fine. Even if the bones shattered, they could still carry this much power.

KRAAAAAANG!

My fist met the flat of Trenba's swinging blade. I'd put so much force into it that the iron plate of his sword buckled and bent.

"What?"

Trenba's eyes flew wide. He couldn't believe a human fist had crumpled the iron of a sword. I didn't care what he believed. The opening his shock created was all that mattered. I wasn't stupid enough to let it go.

A crimson eye opened on my wrist. The pupil rolled once and locked onto Trenba. Inside his body, a white flame of life was burning. A flame I should have extinguished long ago, now vivid in my sight. Why hadn't I snuffed it out that day? The regret flickered through me, but what mattered was now. Even if I was late — I would remove this monster from the village.

I reached for the flame of his life.

Tuk—

My hand settled against Trenba's chest.

There was a time when Trenba had seemed impossibly large. He had always been fear. Always been terror. Now he looked small enough to fit in the palm of my hand.

Fear began to frost over Trenba's eyes, too late. A cold wind passed between us. His reason might not have understood, but his instincts did. The same thing that had happened that day was about to happen again.

"G-get away from me!"

Seeing me close in, Trenba tried to swing his bent sword. An ugly last thrash. But his entire body locked up. I'd seized the flame of his life in a brutal grip.

"I've made up my mind, as of today."

"Ghk— gahhk—"

Trenba's body shook. His pupils jerked wildly toward me, asking what the hell I had done to him. So I decided to tell him. That what happened that day had not been a dream.

I crushed Trenba's flame with everything I had. He foamed at the mouth, his eyes rolling back. The flame in my grip thrashed a few times. It didn't matter.

Shff—

The flame in my hand went out. The man who had spent his whole life looking down on me, treating me like a weakling, collapsed without a sound.

Thud-crash—

Trenba's corpse rolled across the ground. I felt nothing looking at it.

I left Trenba where he was and went to Oble. His body was already cold.

Oble had decided to retire from monster hunting so he could live for the future. The world hadn't even permitted him that.

Instant Death Magic can kill anyone. It cannot save anyone. I resented that fact.

That day, I lost an old friend.

Rain fell from the sky and wet my cheeks. The weather today had been clear. And still my cheeks were wet.

That fact was unbearably sad.