Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: The Advancing One
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A sunny day.
Outside, the knights, led by Mark, were running laps around the castle.
Inside, the servants—whose faces had brightened simply because Adelian was gone—were decorating the castle on a grand scale with flowers and fabrics.
The wind carried the fragrance flying in, filling even the deepest reaches of the castle.
The elegantly appointed office seemed brimming with that same excitement.
“Sir Halon… no, Halon… um… Secretary? I’ll leave your meal here.”
One servant, humming cheerfully as he brought in a sandwich, spotted Halon in the middle of the office, looking like he was spewing black clouds, and flashed an awkward smile.
“Could I… maybe go out too?”
“Why are you asking me? If you’ve finished your work, you’re free to go, aren’t you?”
Halon’s expression darkened even further at the servant’s curt reply.
“At least… take it slow… and eat your meal, Secretary Halon.”
Halon watched with a mournful look as the servant shut the flower-scented door without mercy, then turned back to the mountain of documents piled on his desk.
“People really shouldn’t be like this…….”
How could anyone betray their faith in others so utterly?
His eyes hollow with dark circles, Halon muttered like a madman as he began signing the papers once more.
No matter how many he finished, they never ended.
These were at least the ones that had been filtered through once, so most just needed a quick scan before signing.
But if he skimped and something went wrong, causing his workload to balloon…
Farewell to the sword forever. An endless nightmare of life with a pen awaited.
“Driving me insane, seriously…….”
A hollow laugh escaped him—even he could tell he wasn’t in his right mind.
And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to strike. The sheer absurdity of himself, dutifully reviewing documents instead, forced a laugh out of Halon.
“Master… no, Young Master… I trusted you.”
No, how could a person do this?
Leave all these documents for Halon to handle alone.
If that was the plan, shouldn’t he have just taken me along?
“What a ruthless lord.”
Even as he scanned the papers diligently with his eyes, one corner of his mind wandered back through the past.
The day he first arrived at the castle.
Starting as a squire, training as a probationary knight, and finally receiving his commission.
In that stretch of time—long if it was long, short if it was short—what crime had he committed against Adelian?
‘Maybe he overheard the casual gossip with my comrades.’
But everyone else did the same.
Tears welled in Halon’s bloodshot eyes, forming tiny droplets.
“I hate my talent.”
If he’d intoned that while gripping a sword, it might’ve launched an epic tale of a prodigy—but alas, Halon’s talent lay elsewhere.
Still desperate to survive, he chewed mechanically at the sandwich like it was gritty sand, jaw working on autopilot. Then he suddenly remembered the letter tucked in his shirt pocket.
“Right… how much lower can it get.”
When the servant first handed him the letter, Halon hadn’t dared open it on the spot.
He’d feared it was an appointment naming him eternal paper slave, complete with Adelian’s mocking laughter.
Truth be told, he’d dreamed exactly that the night before—enough to make him wonder if it was a prophetic vision.
But in his current state, living as a slave forever anyway, what did it matter to lay eyes on the appointment itself?
“I’ll open it.”
He unfolded the letter.
To Halon,
I know you must’ve been shocked by my sudden trip, but don’t worry.
I’ll nab your underling and send him your way for sure. Hang in there till then.
—Adelian
“Huh… hahaha…….”
A deranged laugh bubbled from Halon’s lips.
He quietly picked up his quill, crossed out the word “underling” on the letter, and slowly wrote “slave” beneath it.
“You damn employer bastard… You said you’d send one. Send one, huh.”
What kind of vow was this to capture a feral paper slave?
Was he even sending anything at all first?
“I can’t take it anymore.”
A single day of playing hooky.
No one left to stop him.
Halon shoved back from his chair and stood.
Documents?
He’d clear them later.
What’re you gonna do about it? Young Master Adelian wasn’t due back anytime soon.
“Time for some blade work… no, run till I puke… Ha, strap on the chain mail, full kit for once, huh?”
Heh heh. The thought of abusing his body instead of his brain drew a grin.
Halon didn’t bother suppressing his glee. He seized the office doorknob and yanked it with gusto.
*Craaaack!*
“…Huh?”
What was that noise?
Instead of the door swinging open, something shattered. Halon froze and glanced down.
*Clink—*
Why was this in my hand?
He stared at the doorknob, snapped clean off and dangling from his grip.
“Hah?”
He nudged the door with his other hand.
“…….”
It didn’t budge.
Halon’s dazed gaze fell on the broken handle and the utterly still antique door.
“Should I smash it……?”
He was nimbler than most knights, and with a bit of mana, busting a door like this was child’s play.
Beyond it waited the training grounds, sweat and steel.
But this had been Kaiman’s old office once. For all his talk, Halon couldn’t bring himself to wreck it.
Why wouldn’t it let him out?
On such a perfect day. When rebellion had finally stirred in his heart.
With a groan like rusted hinges, Halon’s head swiveled back.
The sunlit desk, buried in papers.
“No helping it.”
Until someone opened it from outside—probably the servant bringing dinner to rescue him—Halon slumped dejectedly into his seat and resumed flipping through the stack.
“Young Master Adelian is a devil…….”
*Plip. Plop.*
The tears he’d held back until now fell from Halon’s eyes.
* * *
*Shrieeeek!*
We caught our breath at the village entrance, leaving the cawing crow behind.
Somehow riding through felt disrespectful, so we dismounted and tied the horses to a dead tree at the gate. Cain murmured low.
“When you said my brother was alive. I wondered, just maybe.”
His tone was even, like recounting a stranger’s tale, but the emotion clung to my skin.
Without pause, Cain stepped into the village.
“That kid got lucky and survived. Maybe he’s waiting here.”
For me.
Another step ahead of me. His words, fading into the breeze, reached my ears.
“At first, I thought it was a lie. I lost my head for a moment and went along, but maybe it was just a ploy to toy with me.”
I’d stabbed that line purely to rattle him, sure…
“It’s… not.”
Even as I answered, bitterness coated my tongue.
It wasn’t a lie. Nothing so outright. Just…
“He’s alive.”
“Yeah. Alive, at least.”
I could sense him piecing it together from my words—why I wouldn’t spill everything outright—yet it all felt hazy.
The three of us walked silently from the entrance, slow and steady.
“Still… it’s kinda tidy…….”
Luna forced a casual tone into the heavy air, glancing around.
Minus the collapsed houses and total lack of animals, it was almost serene, like a quiet woodland.
But the deeper we went, the more remnants appeared: unwashed dishes, odds and ends.
Rough-hewn wooden cups, rotted away. A broken doll.
Traces of people who’d once lived here, crafting their own tableware, dreaming of happiness. I let out a breath.
Then, at the village’s heart.
“This is…….”
A small mound beside a hand-carved stone marker.
A mass grave.
A human sacrifice by some cult in this remote hamlet.
The village reeked of blood like a crimson downpour, houses charred, bodies grotesquely displayed.
Passing pioneers or peddlers would’ve fled in horror.
Years of rain, wind, and scavenging beasts turned it to ruin.
I couldn’t let Cain—finally home—see that.
“I don’t know who was who or what they looked like.”
So I’d told Alkaido to clean it up, at least.
If they tidied every house, nothing would remain, and Cain’s every memory might shatter.
Just erase the gruesome traces. Hold a proper funeral.
“Time passed… lots of bones dissolved or scattered beyond the village. Couldn’t match them one by one.”
Some risk was fine. The least I owed him.
Cain approached the stone wordlessly, knelt, and stared without moving.
I half-expected tears, but his sunken gaze just lingered on the grave.
Until the setting sun’s shadow slid gently across his knee.
Until the orange sky bled into purple.
Luna and I said nothing, just watched his back.
* * *
One book in Adelian’s study had a line like that.
Forgetting is the blessing bestowed by the gods.
So why wouldn’t the memories fade?
Cain could still recall it vividly.
The air’s clammy touch that day. The leaden weight of the wind. The acrid smoke and coppery blood assaulting his mind before his nose.
He didn’t even need to close his eyes—just will it, and he felt the sharp gravel underfoot.
He could never forget that day.
“Big bro, let’s playyy.”
“Cain, I baked apple pie.”
“Tomorrow I’ll teach you traps, Cain.”
Voices from memory, vivid as whispers at his ear.
Acrid blood mingled with sweet apple, haunting his nostrils.
The happy past everywhere his eyes touched overlaid that blood-drenched inferno. Cain slowly shut his eyes, then opened them, exhaling faintly.
Before this grave—where his unclaimed family and villagers lay, gathered and buried by Adelian in his stead.
Cain thought Adelian more merciful than any god peering down from above.
“I…”
Cain rose slowly, planted his feet firm, and turned to face Adelian.
An arrogant, imperious noble’s face through and through.
Yet so flippant in speech and deed.
Some might dismiss him as all bluff, no substance—riddled with holes, looks aside, a brainless fool. But Cain knew better.
“I don’t think you’re incompetent.”
Being around Adelian, hearing the rumors inside the castle and out.
Filthy, depraved, nothing but greed—an impotent wretch.
A stain on the Kruger name.
But the Adelian before Cain’s eyes now…
“To claim your future, of course you have to, right?”
Cain’s lips curved slowly at Adelian’s playful lilt, tossed off like a jest.
“I swear it here.”
The sun nearly gone, moon just cresting. Twin stars—eyes of the gods—rose.
“I will become stronger than any other.”
A passing breeze swirled around Cain, carrying toward Adelian.
A blade of grass grazed Adelian’s cheek.
“And thus your equal.”
Cain’s golden eyes met Adelian’s blue.
“No. A greater business partner still.”
Flat and calm, yet the words carried immense weight.
Adelian, caught in that piercing gaze, murmured the one phrase that surfaced unbidden, staring fixedly at what bloomed before him.
[Cain Reyners—The Advancing One]
Representative Traits: [Unforgetting(SS)] [Genius(S)] [Appearance(A+)] [Physique(S+)]
Hidden Traits: [Tenacity(A+)] [Versatility(C+)]
“The Advancing One.”
The one advancing down the sovereign’s path.