A Shining Talent

Stay calm.

Just as his only friend had taught him. Grill the meat, boil the vegetables—work through it one piece at a time, and there was nothing that could not be overcome.

So first, I let Ruby in. Drag the moment out for no good reason, and that woman's suspicion would only deepen. I wiped the cold sweat away, steadied my breathing, and only then opened my mouth.

"Is this the last room?"

Not the easy tone I had been using until now. Lower. More serious. A voice fit for the worst and strongest mastermind to appear in Babylonia—Black Wolf.

"……Yes, Captain."

"Estimated time?"

"If you'll allow me to go in alone, I expect about five minutes."

As if in answer to that very thought, the madness had drained from Ruby's voice as well. The calm let me settle further, and I stepped forward and opened the door. A red silhouette stood revealed in the same breath.

"I've been waiting, Captain."

Behind the thin curve of her smiling eyes, a crimson light flickered, ghastly and bright.

Ruby Red. Branch manager of the Mercenary Alliance's capital branch—a mage who forever held herself aloof, with the rank and the power to match. In truth, the sixth member of the novel's worst mastermind organization, Black Wolf. A woman swept into frenzy at the mere sight of blood. The one they called the Red Witch.

I ignored the window that had just surfaced and tipped my chin toward Gafelt's room.

"Clean it up."

I left it at that and stepped out of Gafelt's room without waiting for an answer.

This is how Black Wolf treats his members, as Babylonia describes him. A man who grew attached to no one, who opened his mouth only when necessity demanded it. I hadn't known that, and I'd been running my mouth the whole way here, fishing for information. Of course Ruby had started to suspect me.

So I wrap this up as fast as I can and get back to the Black Wolf mercenary company. If the setting book had told the truth, every member but Ruby Red wouldn't even think to doubt me. I'll go back, find a way to fool her, and if that proves impossible……

…then I would have the members kill her. After that, gather the fiercely loyal ones in one place, run far away, and live. That would be enough.

I was walking with her death rising, unbidden, as the answer to the problem, when a voice colder than anything before it slid into my ear.

"Thirty-two."

"……?"

"The number, until now, of the pieces of trash who dared try to wear the name of Black Wolf."

"Oh, right…… that makes thirty-three."

The sharp bone-shards of the flesh dolls clicked and clacked against one another, then leveled on me. With a sickening crunch, the sixth member of Black Wolf—the Red Witch—chewed her own madness down, packed what remained with rage, and asked, her eyes burning red:

Death had come right up to my face.

Stay calm.

Please, stay calm.

Please, please—don't shake…!!

Nahan understood by instinct. Shake, and you die. If his heart raced, if his breathing broke, if cold sweat ran down his skin—he died.

This is not the nation of laws I lived in. This is a world of monsters that no law can stop. And now one of the highest among those monsters had just turned suspicion of who Nahan was into certainty.

Calm down. Slowly. One thing at a time. Barely forcing his heart down, Nahan began to think with death standing in front of him.

What do I have right now? The pressure granted by the Ex-rank skill Black Curtain, and the information drawn from the original and the setting book—neither too shallow nor too deep.

First plan. Can I pin Ruby with pressure? The answer came almost before he could worry over it. Impossible. Pressure activated only if he felt fear, even for a single instant—and not the Nahan from before the possession. It had to be felt by the Nahan after it.

Then the second. Is there anything only Nahan and the members would know?

……No. That, too, did not exist.

Even in the complete run of Babylonia I got as a reward, and in the bonus setting book, what was written about Black Wolf was limited. He had learned the novel's protagonist, the Hero, the people around him, and the future that would unfold, in detail. The private affairs of the Emperor and of Black Wolf were still beyond him.

The conclusion he reached at the end of all that thinking: I die.

The truth was that even if he were not a C-rank mercenary, but the mastermind captain standing over countless S-ranks, a disaster crashing down this suddenly still left him helpless.

"Haa……."

Fine. Just die. There was no one waiting, even if he went back.

The moment the sigh left him, stifled and heavy, his only friend's voice reached him again.

……Right. Get it together. They had promised, that day. He had nodded. He had hooked his little finger with his friend's. Until he made that dream come true, he could not die over something this small.

Light returned to Nahan's eyes. The thought branded I die crumbled, and a third plan rose in its place.

It was not a skill he had gained here, nor anything about the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠original he had received as a reward. It was a talent Nahan had carried from his previous world—the brightest part of a man for whom everything else had been dark, the one thing only a single person had ever recognized.

Namely—

It was acting.

When the recollection ended, Nahan closed his eyes.

Black Wolf. He had not even appeared yet—this was still the novel's prologue—but someday he would set not only the Empire but the whole of the continent trembling in fear. The head of Black Wolf, the worst and strongest of mastermind organizations.

With a crack, Nahan let the crumbling poker face fall apart and immediately laid Black Wolf over himself.

"……Huh?"

Ruby felt the change in the air for an instant and stumbled back without meaning to. Nahan paid her no mind. He focused on what he was doing. Black energy began to ripple. A gaze sharp enough to cut. Beneath it, eyes dying blacker still. Like a larva shedding its husk to become a butterfly, Nahan—the man who had taken the body—was becoming Black Wolf.

But it still isn't enough. So he called it up. Every sentence about Black Wolf written in the original text of Babylonia, and then he set about combining them. If a piece of information helped even a little, he would take it without picking and choosing, and bend it the way Black Wolf would.

The hand hidden in a black glove slid down and came to rest on his right thigh. Tap. Tap-tap. The movements of Black Wolf, rebuilt inside his head, were reproduced through Nahan.

At last, the second stage.

"Wh—what……? W-wait, something's—!!"

Ruby, backing away in a stumble, caught her foot on a flesh doll and went down hard.

Nahan considered. I still don't know his tone or his accent. Talk too long, and I might draw suspicion all over again. But fortunately, he already had the analysis. Cold-blooded. Few words. Indifferent. On the strength of that, he could choose his next move before a gap opened.

Tap. At last he stopped drumming his thigh and lowered only his gaze to Ruby. If he truly were Black Wolf, the punishment he would hand down to a Ruby who had doubted his very existence was—

"We're going back."

—nothing. That was the correct answer. If the one who errs is a member of Black Wolf, he lets all but the gravest faults pass without a word. With that, he turned away, indifferent.

Nahan understood by instinct. If he had set foot in the third stage, he would have fooled her without even this tension. But the chance is already over. All that remained was to keep acting as Black Wolf, and to pray that Ruby's suspicion ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had loosened.

Of course it won't come undone right away. The character called Black Wolf, now that the analysis was finished, was far too different from the man he had been since the possession. Different enough that if the other members had doubted him the way Ruby had, his head would already have been on the floor. What if she keeps doubting? What if she tells the others? How do I explain nearly a month of change—and how do I make them believe it?

Even as he walked on in silence, his insides only burned blacker. But in the next moment—

"……I'll lead the way."

Ruby gathered up the collapsed flesh dolls with a clap and a clatter, passed Nahan, and took the lead.

Silence. And then more silence. Until they had left the vast, lavish mansion behind, and until the fire Ruby set had burned it down to nothing. When the charred wreckage fell and the earth shuddered, and even the ash blowing in every direction had settled—

"I'm sorry, Captain."

Ruby came in before he had time to turn his head, pulled Nahan into her arms, and buried her face against him. She had started to cry; her voice had gone damp as she murmured into his chest.

"There was secret information that several of the Continent's 10 Strongest had their bodies stolen by unidentified beings……. Because of that, I……."

Nahan stayed silent. Black Wolf would have, without question. Whatever became of his members, only his own goal, wrapped in a veil, would have mattered. But Nahan, unlike Black Wolf, reached out and rested a hand lightly on Ruby's head.

"……?"

There were still no words. But— Someday, if I want to move freely again, acting out a slow change ought to be allowed. As if in answer to that private thought, the startled Ruby wept even harder and clung to him.

"……I'm sorry, Captain. I'm really sorry."

He stroked her hair, slow and gentle.

"……Thank you. Always."

I stroked the bitterly weeping Ruby and stared blankly at the system window that had risen.

Black Wolf's memories. For now, a reward more precious than any treasure—one that would guarantee the life ahead.

A happy, slow life is already off the table. Like it or not, I had become the captain of Black Wolf, the worst and strongest mastermind organization in this Babylonia. If I ran like this, the main quest would fail, of course. I could probably still keep my life, one way or another, so fleeing to the safest place and living slowly wouldn't be all bad.

But facing death this time, I had realized something.

That even if it killed me, I wanted to keep that promise. To keep it, I had to return to my original world—and to do that, I had to steer the original beneath the names of Black Wolf and his company. So what else was there?

The moment I get back, I study all of it. The accent, the way he speaks, the way he carries himself, the members' pasts……. A life I had only been dragging out for the sake of that promise. All I could do was clear the main quest somehow, and go home.

He was sorting what he had gained from what he still had to gain when something he had never expected happened.

Tal—that's Hanryang? So the bad endings really are tied up with Black Wolf? He tried to dig through the original and the setting book for a reason, but he had been immersed to his limit, and his thoughts were slow. I need information faster. And to make that possible—

"Oh, right. Is it the artifact? Viscount Gafelt still seems to be alive, so……."

Drawing the answer out of Ruby was the proper play. In the end Nahan hesitated a moment, then put the information from the status window into words.

"Hanryang met the Emperor."

As Ruby had said before, the members of Black Wolf hated the Emperor. But a bad ending had already begun to accelerate, and he spoke to be ready for whatever might come of it. He was watching her reaction when she seized his hand.

"Q-quickly, Captain. We have to go."

Ruby, gone deathly pale, caught Nahan's hand and broke into a run toward the Blue Magic Tower.

Didn't they say we can't use the gate, because it leaves a record? He swallowed the question he couldn't bring himself to ask, and Ruby muttered, her hand trembling.

"……That crazy woman might kill Hanryang."

The night market of the Babylonia capital. Drunk on the light, the Emperor smoothed her golden hair and wore a faint, glimmering smile.

"How very bright. No different from high noon at all."

Word that the Emperor would make her progress had sent the merchants working as one to light the glow-orbs, and this was the result. Food stood in rows, goods of every kind were laid out, and the shops glittered. A night market had a charm all its own, and that charm shone as if to draw people in—but aside from the Emperor and the guard knights ringing her, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only a single person stood out on the street.

"So? Let Us hear the reason, at least."

The Emperor took up a skewer ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of fruit, smiled brightly, and put the question to that one person.

"Why did you destroy Our carriage?"

At the Emperor's question, the huge man with a thick stone mask pulled down over his face answered, short and blunt.

"You. Will die."

"Now."

"To me."