You’re Dead Now
‘…It worked.’
The Iron Thorn operative who had spearheaded the plan let out a relieved breath.
For a moment there, he’d honestly thought his heart had dropped clean through the floor.
Kael’s words had sounded as if he already knew everything, and for an instant the man had wondered if their plan had leaked somewhere along the line—but in the end, Kael had entered the match.
‘I was worrying for nothing.’
The hardest part was over. All that was left was to create an “accident” during the fight.
‘No need to worry.’
To make sure the outcome was certain, Kael’s opponent had been chosen with extra care.
‘Unless… he noticed, and came anyway?’
A bad feeling prickled at the back of his neck. But the operative shook it off almost immediately.
‘…Doesn’t matter. The result won’t change either way.’
His opponent had been brought in at great expense. There wouldn’t be any variables.
‘You’re going to die here today.’
Greed glistened in his eyes.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention for a moment! We’ve prepared a special event today just for you!”
The announcer’s booming voice echoed through the underground arena.
“And now, for this match’s participant… astonishingly, it’s Nox’s new commander, our very own captain of the guard!”
The crowd murmured.
The captain of the guard?
What on earth was the captain of the guard doing here?
“A famous face already known to everyone in Nox! The name is… Kael!”
Spotlights cut across the arena as the path opened. Kael, having left his breastplate behind, stepped into the ring with a light, easy stride.
The deafening cheers, the feverish heat of the crowd, the tang of blood and violence in the air—these were all familiar to Kael.
‘Too bad there’s no entrance music.’
Still, this was enough to stir up old memories.
As Kael was about to step through the iron mesh, a man who seemed to be in charge pointed at Kael’s waist.
“...Weapons are prohibited under the rules.”
“Really? Then we should follow the rules.”
Kael unbuckled Balmung from his waist and handed it over.
“...Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Kael walked into the ring.
The audience buzzed as they watched him.
“What’s with him? He’s just a kid.”
“That’s the captain of the guard?”
“Looks like it. I think I’ve seen him a few times.”
“No, seriously—what is the captain of the guard doing here? Has he lost his mind?”
“As if anyone here still has a sane bone in their body.”
“Fair point.”
Kael had only recently begun to gain notoriety, so there were still plenty of people who didn’t know him.
Watching the audience’s reactions, Kael began loosening up his body.
It even felt a little like he’d returned to the fighting circuit. Nostalgic, in a way.
“All right then, let me introduce Kael’s opponent! The living legend of the fight club! The man who’s sent eighteen people to hell with nothing but the ring! The monster of Nox Harbor, Iron Hammer Grid!!”
As the announcer finished, Kael’s opponent began to enter.
Thud. Thud.
Even the sound of his steps carried a crushing weight.
Clank.
The iron mesh rattled. A monstrously built man slowly strode into the arena.
“Grid? That Iron Hammer Grid?”
“Holy hell, Grid’s back?”
“...Isn’t that captain of the guard dead today?”
“I don’t care about that! I’m going all in on Iron Hammer!”
“Me too! I’m betting my whole damn fortune!”
Iron Hammer Grid.
The living legend of the fight club, now retired.
His nickname, “Iron Hammer,” came from the time he had burst an opponent’s skull with a single punch.
Towering over 190 centimeters, his body was packed with muscle from head to toe, an overwhelming sight for anyone who looked at him.
But none of that had anything to do with Kael.
“Yaaawn… can we start already?”
Kael let out a long, drawn-out yawn.
The first time around, it had felt a little special. Now it was just getting old.
“You… don’t you understand the situation you’re in?”
Grid narrowed his eyes. To him, Kael was nothing more than a small cat—something fragile that would die the moment you put a little force behind your hand.
Grid had been paid a hefty sum for the job of putting that cat down.
He didn’t feel even a shred of guilt. Crushing weaklings was, in fact, one of the few things he genuinely enjoyed.
“Your breath stinks. Shut that mouth before I throw up.”
“...”
Kael frowned and pinched his nose as though the stench were unbearable. It was a cheap provocation, but the effect was immediate.
“I’ll kill you as painfully as possible.”
With a bestial growl, Grid charged straight at Kael.
The spectators assumed the fight would be over in an instant.
But the result that actually unfolded shattered everyone’s expectations.
“Aaaagh!!”
Grid’s thick arm bent in a direction no arm should ever bend.
The moment he reached for Kael, Kael had broken it.
It had happened in the blink of an eye.
“What was that again? You said you’d kill me painfully?”
Kael snorted. He wasn’t the kind of man to let a line like that go without consequence.
Grid clenched his teeth and swung his other fist at Kael. Kael leaned his upper body back with effortless grace, dodging it, then kicked Grid in the shin.
Crack!
With the sound of bone breaking, Grid’s massive body collapsed right there. Kael caught him by the shoulder as if helping him stay upright, then said,
“You’re not even worth one fistful of effort, and you still want to die.”
Bang!!
He drove Grid straight into the ground.
Grid rolled his eyes back and blacked out, but Kael had no intention of stopping there.
Pow!
Kael’s fist slammed into the face of the unconscious Grid. The blow shattered his nose in one shot, blood gushing out in a torrent. At the same time, the supposedly unconscious Grid jolted awake.
“Uu… ugh…”
“How’s that? Feeling a little clearer now?”
Kael smiled as he spoke in a gentle tone.
His voice was soft enough, but from the receiving end it was downright chilling.
Grid’s face drained of color with fear.
At the same time, his whole body began to tremble like a leaf.
“I’ve got a question for you. You’ve got two choices.”
Kael grinned.
“Want to answer after a beating, or just answer now? For the record, I don’t care which.”
The answer had already been decided.
Kael’s question was simple: who sent you, and did they tell you to kill me?
Grid spilled everything Kael asked him, and once Kael had sorted through the facts, he nodded with a satisfied expression.
Kael turned his head and looked toward the Iron Thorn operative sitting in the stands. The man who had dragged him into this mess. Kael formed the words with his lips.
‘You’re dead now.’
The next instant, the Iron Thorn operative broke into a frantic run.
Kael glanced at Luke nearby as if this had all gone exactly as expected, then mouthed again,
‘What are you doing? Go catch him.’
Luke frowned and let out a deep sigh.
“Haah…”
...Seriously, this is such a pain.
The fleeing operative ran hard enough, but he never had a chance of escaping Luke’s grasp. He was caught not long after he’d fled.
“That was a very cute little stunt you pulled, wasn’t it?”
Squatting down, Kael looked at the captured operative.
The Iron Thorn member, trussed up with rope, was already so swollen in the face he was almost unrecognizable.
The interrogation was over, and the cross-checking too. Just like Grid, this bastard had confessed to everything.
Beating him had helped vent some of Kael’s anger, but...
“That’s one thing. Money is another.”
The fight club was still gambling in the end.
Most of the spectators had bet on Grid, and only a tiny handful had backed Kael.
What absurd odds.
Kael’s return on investment for betting his entire fortune was an eye-watering twenty times his stake.
1,000 gold had instantly ballooned into 20,000.
‘And if you add compensation for mental suffering on top of that…’
These were the bastards who had tried to kill the captain of the guard.
If he tacked on damages for the insult alone, he could squeeze at least another 10,000 gold out of them.
“Luke, let’s go collect our money.”
Once Kael had made up his mind, there was no reason to delay. He headed straight for the Iron Thorn hideout.
Fortunately, it wasn’t far from the fight club.
Honestly, Kael had gone in expecting them to put up some resistance, but to his surprise, the Iron Thorn members had flung open the front gate and were waiting for him.
“...The boss is waiting for you.”
Not only that, they said they’d personally escort him to where the boss was.
What on earth was this development?
Kael shot Luke a glance, and Luke wore the same sour look.
When they opened the door to the room the operative had led them to and stepped inside—
“...I’ve been waiting for you.”
Hagen sat in a chair with a cigar in his mouth, trying to look important.
Kael blinked at him for a moment, then asked,
“What the hell are you doing?”
“...Ahem! Truthfully, I’d been thinking for a while that we should at least get acquainted, but things have been busy lately and I couldn’t find the time…”
“I said, what the hell are you doing?”
As Kael scowled and strode toward him, Hagen panicked and waved both hands.
“W-wait! There’s been a misunderstanding! I had nothing to do with that incident! My subordinates acted entirely on their own—”
Kael snorted.
“I already heard the whole thing on the way here. And since when does a boss not take responsibility for what his underlings do?”
He smiled as though he were thoroughly enjoying himself.
Only then did Hagen realize it.
This was not someone he could talk to.
...Swallowing hard, Hagen asked,
“W-what do you want?”
“What else? Money.”
Kael smiled.
“On top of the money I won this time, I’d like a little compensation for emotional distress. All told, let’s call it about 100,000 gold?”
“O-one hundred thousand gold...? What kind of absurd—”
“Hey, that’s pretty cheap for trying to kill the ‘special commander’ personally appointed by the Imperial Palace, isn’t it?”
“T-the Imperial Palace...?”
Hagen’s voice trembled thinly.
“What, you didn’t know?”
Kael chuckled and pointed toward the ceiling.
“Use your head. How do you think some brat with milk still on his face ended up sitting in a place like this?”
“W-wait... then don’t tell me...?”
“Getting the picture now?”
The worst possible assumption flashed through Hagen’s mind.
His whole body began to shake uncontrollably.
Hagen’s face had already gone as gray as ash.
When he still couldn’t get the words out, Kael bared his teeth in a grin and drove the final nail into the coffin.
“You’re dead now.”