The Traitor
Deep within the forest, three figures cloaked in thick robes trudged through the drizzling rain, their boots sinking into the muddy ground as they made their way toward their destination. Melchior still couldn't stomach what Melissa had done to Camellia. Unable to keep his outrage bottled up any longer, he finally voiced it.
"Are you out of your mind? Even so, how could you cast a lust spell on a comrade?"
"Still, it was impressive... If it were me, I would've pounced right then and there. The fact that she held back... I have to give her credit for her self-control."
"That's not the point! I'm talking about basic decency here..."
Despite the back-and-forth between Melissa and Melchior, Zeek's expression remained unchanged as he issued them a warning.
"We'll arrive soon. From here on, anything could happen, so you'd do well to stop joking around."
"Yeah, yeah. As you command."
"...That aside, are you really all right with this? After what you said to Ricardo, there's no going back. He's a valuable asset."
Melchior scratched his head and answered in an awkward tone.
"That guy's kid was just born. At the very least, he should hear his child call him 'Dad.' So it's fine. The leader told us the truth because he knew that."
"Right. We're the ones who can die together without it mattering, huh? Suddenly I'm feeling hurt. I want to see my grandkids born too, you know."
"Please shut your mouth. The conversation keeps derailing."
Zeek paid no mind to their antics and pressed forward. He didn't care that the relentless rain had soiled his boots. His hands were already stained with the blood of countless Black Round Table lackeys who had blocked his path. What did a little mud matter?
After walking for some time, they finally arrived before a cave that glowed with a crimson light.
"We've arrived."
They stepped into the cave, past layers of blood magic that forbade entry to the unpermitted, and were met with a shocking truth.
"Leader, what the hell is this..."
"No, what the fuck is going on? Explain!"
Inside the cave should have been the coffin sealing Saintess Media. It was the Goddess's Coffin, an artifact that froze the body's time while preserving only the patient's consciousness. The coffin itself was there. But it stood wide open, and inside there was no Media— not even a single insect.
Faced with this revelation, Melissa and Melchior were shaken. Only Zeek maintained his calm expression.
"Where did Media go? From the look on your face, you know something, don't you?"
"Which son of a bitch kidnapped our comrade? Your wife gets abducted and that's the face you make, you crazy bastard?"
Even as Melissa and Melchior grabbed him by the collar, Zeek's expression stayed perfectly serene.
"Calm down."
"Calm down? Now of all times—!"
"Melissa, let me ask you. Who could possibly bypass the blood magic you set up and enter this place? Our comrades, a handful of royals who know about this, and the Spirit King of the Trees who occasionally visits to treat her?"
"That's right! But... ah."
The Black Round Table, heretics, or any other villains would have been caught by the blood magic.
"They could've broken through the barrier... No, the barrier was intact. Still, the Black Round Table has plenty of people with unusual constitutions. Some might be able to slip through..."
"But remember the nature of this coffin."
The condition for opening the Goddess's Coffin while someone was inside was simple: someone outside had to pull the handle, and the person inside had to consciously permit it. The fact that she was gone meant she had walked out on her own.
"What we needed was certainty. Now I can speak with certainty."
"So Media was the traitor?"
"No, fuck... So Media's the traitor and we were just pointlessly suspecting each other? What kind of bullshit is that..."
"It wasn't pointless."
Zeek, still fiddling with the Goddess's Coffin handle, spoke to them.
"As you can see, opening the Goddess's Coffin requires someone outside to do it. We simply needed certainty about who that person was."
Melissa's face went pale. She seemed to have realized the truth. Unfortunately, Melchior had not.
"The traitor is Media. So the person she was colluding with must have opened it..."
"Recall the conditions of the blood magic cast over this cave."
"It was definitely... No... That can't be... Ah, so one of the royals was the collaborator..."
"If that were the case, Ricardo would have noticed something. And... who among us had the most suitable abilities to be a spy?"
"But if she's the traitor... why didn't the Heavenly Demon say anything to Werner and Camellia? He could've told them!"
"Because she was that precious to him."
Even as he revealed these shocking facts, Zeek remained terrifyingly detached, as if recounting someone else's story.
"I told the Heavenly Demon. I said I suspected her, and that if I confirmed it while working with her, I would deal with her. I asked him to lead the party in my place if I died."
"Don't tell me the reason the Heavenly Demon went instead of you was..."
"He said he would clear his friend's name himself, and that if he succeeded, I should formally apologize."
Ricardo's face also turned deathly pale. Uncharacteristically flustered, he asked Zeek in a trembling voice.
"Don't tell me that certainty was..."
"I was certain there was a traitor. I simply wasn't certain there were two."
Zeek picked up a card that had fallen to the floor and smirked at the jester illustration on the Joker.
"A woman's acting is both despicable and terrifying, isn't it? How could she perform like that..."
"Wait, if that's what you needed certainty about... when did you first suspect Media was the traitor?"
"I knew she belonged to the Black Round Table fifteen years ago. And that she was plotting something... from the very first time we met."
Melchior and Melissa nearly fainted at Zeek's utterly nonchalant reply. They couldn't comprehend how he could marry her and even have a child with her while knowing she was suspicious.
"Fuck, my brain's on fire from all this information."
"Hold on, if you knew she was suspicious, why did you marry her? Did you love her that much?"
At Melchior's question, Zeek's expression finally changed. His blank face grew cold, turning into something chilling, merciless, and filled with ruthless anger.
"...Love Media? Unfortunately, I don't possess such emotions."
"Then why did you marry her?"
Zeek gripped the hilt of the Holy Sword tightly. It was the blade his benefactor had bestowed upon him—the very reason he continued to live.
"To repay a debt."
"A debt...?"
"I am merely repaying the kindness shown to me by my benefactor. And... Werner once told me something. He said that whoever sees the trash should clean it up."
He had simply acted on those words immediately. He had noticed that Werner was in love with Media. That was why he needed to sever that connection before their relationship deepened and Werner suffered an even more painful betrayal—even if it meant mixing his body with a woman he despised.
The woman who had once shown interest in him, the master of the Holy Sword, had later turned her attention to the boy who wielded ten attributes of magic. He could see clearly what she would do, how she would eventually betray them, and how Werner—who had loved for the first time—would react. That was why he had chosen to become the trash who stole Werner's love instead.
It wasn't that he particularly cherished Werner. He simply didn't want someone's first love to end in a nightmare. His own first love had been precious enough that he wished to protect others from the same pain.
He had also noticed that she was targeting the child that would be born between Werner and the noble-blooded Gleicia. That was why he had deliberately distanced himself from Werner, pushing him to flee far away—so that Werner would no longer see him as family, but as a stranger. Even if it meant Werner could escape Media's clutches.
"It's the same reason you spoke so harshly to Ricardo. I didn't want to drag him into this quagmire. Though it seems he's already stepped in..."
With a slightly bitter expression, Zeek turned toward the cave exit.
"Killing the rat at the bottom of this quagmire is the older brother's role. After all, that rat might sink its teeth into his younger brother's heart."