We'll Rule This Street Again
“Stop.”
If I left them any longer, real blood was going to spill, so I cut in.
“Lucia, that’s enough.”
Before I knew it, Lucia had already lifted a chair into the air. Chair shot, imminent.
Scraaape—
Lucia set the chair down with a look of regret, though she hadn’t completely let go yet.
“Should we call this lively?”
The marquis, who had been silently watching the farce from behind, spoke up.
“It’s grown a bit quieter now… Daywin, I’d like you to tell me about this boy.”
Naturally, he meant Laward. Well, even I hadn’t expected Laward to become such a killing machine. The marquis must have been dying of curiosity since morning.
“He’s a kid I’m raising.”
Laward, who had been selecting cookies for me and arranging them on a plate, grinned in satisfaction at my words.
“Quite the performance. Honestly, I had my doubts at first… but I’ll be looking forward to more from him.”
Pat—
Marquis Fred clapped Laward on the shoulder.
“Yeah, whatever.”
But Laward openly displayed his displeasure and shoved the marquis’s hand away.
“Do as you like.”
Ah, right…. He’d always been that uneducated punk…. I sometimes forgot, because his attitude toward me alone was completely different. In the game, as a slum orphan, he was set to use casual speech with everyone, lacking any manners. Of course, now that I’d socialized him to some degree, the formal speech function was installed…. But toward “adult men” other than me, his slum behavior would occasionally slip out. He must have some kind of backstory like the heroines.
“Laward, mind your manners.”
“…I’m sorry.”
After that, Marquis Fred went on at length about plans for District 6’s future, but since I had already achieved my purpose, I didn’t particularly listen. Instead, as I rolled my eyes out of boredom, they locked perfectly with the goddess statue. Looking at it somehow brought old thoughts to mind. Not from my Holy Knight days. Not from the days of loafing around in the family either. From much earlier than that. It was as if a vivid voice could be heard from that lump of stone.
“Hey, are you really not doing a second playthrough?”
Those were the words from a university underclassman—the developer who had created this world.
“There are so many events Senior hasn’t seen yet! No, you haven’t seen most of them!”
“I’m not doing it. I told you it’s not my taste.”
Especially the age range of the heroines.
“Just try up to a second playthrough. There’s even a character modeled after you, Senior. Aren’t you curious what he’s like?”
“You… my permission…?”
“Haha.”
“I never noticed at all… there was a character like that?”
“There was. But you never met him. Thanks to going straight for the hidden ending route in one shot.”
Staring at the statue, a conversation I had never recalled until now suddenly came back to me out of nowhere. It felt like memories being dredged up from the bottom, from deep down, as if digging a well.
“You never even ran into the villains I made, after all.”
The developer’s official word. I had definitely heard something like that.
“Villains… what the hell do you take me for….”
After wrapping up the talk with the marquis, we moved to District 6. The Houndry hideout. To Karma’s room—a place I could now call my own without issue.
Click—
Lucia, who had followed behind, closed the door and stood beside it.
…Around here.
I pressed the brick whose location I had found at dawn.
Rumble—
While the bricks encasing the safe rearranged themselves, Lucia carefully spoke.
“Is that why you became Karma? To take the safe?”
“That’s part of it, but not only that.”
“Or is it something like a lust for conquest?”
“Conquest?”
“I heard that in the past, there was a custom of beheading the enemy general and taking his family or subordinates.”
“…I don’t have those kinds of barbaric tastes.”
It was the lonely rebuttal of a man whose life’s goal was to take all of the protagonist’s women.
“Besides, if that were the reason, you’d be included among those being taken.”
“Lucia is… prepared, though.”
She was saying crazy things again. Don’t get drawn in. It was the exact same pattern as our first meeting. If I took the bait here, she would definitely launch a counterattack with, “That wasn’t what I meant? Karma-nim is so vulgar.” And just now, Lucia had brought up something far more important than that—the words “beheaded the enemy general.”
“…So you knew everything.”
“Mm… yes.”
Lucia slowly nodded.
“I was at the Subjugation Festival too, but I couldn’t help. I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. There was no need to help. More importantly, the kids?”
“They’re sleeping in their rooms.”
“I thought they’d want to get out right away, but that’s unexpected. They can live outside. I’ll give them money. We’re opening the safe right now, after all.”
“Houndry isn’t dangerous anymore.”
“Isn’t living in a criminal organization usually the most dangerous thing…?”
“I like it now.”
Lucia’s expression as she said so looked somehow relieved.
Clunk—
While we talked, the secret safe appeared. I searched once more through the safe I hadn’t examined properly because I had been in a hurry at dawn.
“Hmm.”
“What is it?”
Rustle—
I looked into the “unsorted papers” section I had passed over earlier. There was one more black envelope. Traces of the letter paper having been torn and then stuck back together were visible. At a glance, it looked like junk or trash. Some writing was illegible because it had been torn once, but it was enough. The name written alone was sufficient as a clue. The name Amelia.
The Death God Cult had demanded two lives from Houndry. One was Romons Hasgard. The other was Princess Amelia—one of the five heroines, a second-year dual majoring in the Magic Department and Sword Department. The torn envelope was the assassination request for Amelia.
“The fact that the envelope is torn means it was refused, I suppose.”
He had intended to throw it away but had secured the evidence for the time being. No matter how good the money was, touching the royal family was a suicidal act. He could not ruin Houndry, which had been protected through four generations, over a single request. The fourth Karma had only accepted the Romons Hasgard assassination request and abandoned the other. He might even have sneered at the Death God Cult to know their place.
But… in the game, that incident happens. Laward rescues the kidnapped Amelia, and the romance begins. Perhaps that was the true history. Even I, who had seen the ending that only activates when the heroines’ affection levels are dropped to the absolute lowest, had saved Amelia. I had no choice but to save her. But the fourth Karma—Houndry—had refused the Amelia matter. So does that mean the incident I saw in the game does not occur in this world? No. In the first place, there was no mention in the game that Houndry was the one who committed that incident. In other words, the Death God Cult had sent request forms to guilds other than Houndry as well, and another guild had accepted the request. There existed those who had agreed to that mad act.
“…Ha.”
Something that needed to be done urgently had arisen.
“Lucia, I need information.”
A shabby tavern. In this place reeking of noisy curses and cheap ale, Houndry guild member A sat alone at a corner table.
“Damn it.”
A roughly set down his wooden mug. Foam overflowed and wet the back of his hand, but he did not even think to wipe it. The liquor he had poured into his mouth tasted like plain water. No, worse than water. It gave no sensation at all, as if his tongue were numb. Until a few days ago, a single glass of this cheap booze would wash away the day’s fatigue. But not now.
Because I’ve tasted that…
A looked down at his right hand. That day, the power the new Karma had bestowed—the purple mist that had pierced his crown and churned through every blood vessel as if to burst them. The sensation of running wild drunk on that power was still branded into his mind like a burn, impossible to erase.
“Huu…”
A heaved a rough breath and raised the mug again. He forced it down his throat, but still, mere liquor could not fill him. The reality that came after the overwhelming high was so trivial and powerless that he could not endure it. Withdrawal symptoms. Yeah, it was addiction.
Ding-a-ling—
New customers filled the seats along with the cold night air.
“Hey, barkeep! Bring some booze over here!”
A noisy shout broke the silence. Four men. Cat emblems engraved on their collars—members of Lowcat, another thorn in District 6’s side. A, conscious of them, slightly lowered his head. He just blankly stared at the empty mug in his hand.
“Huh?”
But they eventually discovered A’s presence.
“Boss, that guy stuck in the corner over there. Doesn’t he look kind of familiar?”
A voice like it was tearing. Four gazes stabbed into A’s back.
“…Yeah. Smells like dog hair from somewhere.”
One of them approached and slammed A’s table. The empty mug rolled to the floor from the impact.
“…….”
“That’s right, this bastard. He’s a Houndry son of a bitch, isn’t he?”
The guy snickered and turned A by the shoulder. The smell of liquor stabbed A’s nose.
“Didn’t like Lowcat’s treatment, spat and left, and the place you went was just a failing Houndry? What a fine sight. Traitor bastard.”
Traitor. It wasn’t wrong. A had originally been Lowcat. But he had grown sick of alleyway petty thievery and shaking down weaklings for protection money, so he had left of his own accord. What he had wanted was power. So he had chosen Houndry.
Until just a while ago… it wasn’t like this.
Memories of the past flickered in A’s vacant eyes. Before Marquis Fred had led soldiers to wipe out Houndry. And in the days when the fourth Karma was still alive. Trash like Lowcat would run at the mere sight of Houndry’s emblem. The nights of District 6 had belonged solely to Houndry. A had wanted to live as a predator under the shade of that power. He had not hesitated to betray his comrades and enter the enemy’s fold.
“You lot follow some guy you don’t even know the identity of now, huh?”
A’s eyebrows twitched minutely. Not missing that tiny reaction, they excitedly started babbling.
“The rumors are all out. After getting your asses kicked by the marquis, the leftovers gathered and propped up some guy who rolled in from god-knows-where as the fifth.”
As he spoke, the one next to him chimed in with a sneer.
“Barely fifty people. And the new Karma’s origins are unknown.”
They sneered right in A’s face.
“Isn’t it obvious without looking? They just grabbed some no-name thug from somewhere, sat him as a puppet, and are coping with mental victory.”
“Shut your damn mouths!”
Unbearable rage burned through A’s brain. Houndry’s future, the path I chose, can’t be like that.
Crash!
The chair toppled backward and bottles rolled on the floor. A charged like a beast and grabbed the collar of the Lowcat guy snickering right in front of him.
“What the hell do you know to run your mouths! That person… that person is!”
Whoosh!
A swung his fist. Yeah, just show them. If I blow this guy’s jaw off and crush the screaming bastards’ skulls—
Thud—
“…Huh?”
But he was weak. A was weak. When Houndry was strong, he had swaggered relying on the guild’s prestige, and without the black mist Karma bestowed, he could only swing a wobbly fist. A was that pathetic of a man.
Stagger.
A moved his feet with difficulty, bracing against the wall.
“Ugh…”
The metallic smell of blood filled his mouth. His ribs were cracked; they stabbed with every breath. They had shown no mercy. After thoroughly beating a sandbag that couldn’t even resist once, they had spat and disappeared.
What a sight.
A looked up at the night sky with his swollen eyes. It was miserable. Having his forgotten position confirmed felt like that. The fourth Karma had tempered Houndry. He had put swords in their hands and ground them daily to harden bone and flesh. But the fifth was different. If the fourth Karma made them rely on him, the fifth made them dependent.
“Just one more time, that power…”
A limped into the familiar alley. He was about to go straight to Karma and beg for the power to take revenge on Lowcat. But the moment he entered the hideout—
“Huh?”
A’s steps stopped. The first-floor lounge was packed. One, two, three… all the remaining Houndry members. A squeezed between them without understanding why. They weren’t drinking or chatting as usual. As if by prior agreement, they were silent, gazes fixed on the center.
“Everyone’s here.”
Karma, who had walked out cutting through the darkness, spoke. His distinctive voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly lodged in the members’ eardrums.
“I’m giving you your first mission.”
Just then, Karma slowly turned his gaze and seemed to look at A standing by the door. Bloodied face. Swollen eyes. Torn lips. It felt as if he had scanned those and moved on. At the same time, Karma—Daywin—thought.
The Death God Cult definitely subcontracted to some other guild somewhere in this District 6. The problem is who.
The back alleys were already full of rolling trash. There was no time to investigate each one, gather intel, and identify them. No time, many suspects. Only one method.
If I wreck them all, I’ll find out.
Just grab every suspect, hang them upside down, and shake them out thoroughly. One of them was bound to have the request letter. Start with the guild Lucia said was most likely.
“We’re hitting Lowcat.”
Karma casually tossed out a single sentence.
“Power—I’ll give you as much as you want.”
Purple mana starting from his fingertips rose like a heat haze and in an instant filled the entire hideout.
Wooooom—
In that moment, A’s pupils shook.
Ahh…
A trembled.
As expected… Karma-nim is…
He looked up at him, gasping with overflowing breath. Declaring they would hit Lowcat meant reclaiming Houndry’s infamy. Truly, conquest. The baseness vanished from A’s eyes. In its place, a vast ambition heated his chest.
Houndry is… going to rule this street again.