What a Joke
“Now then, this is our adorable new recruit. His name’s Hagen, so take good care of him from here on out. If he doesn’t know something, show him the ropes nicely.”
Kael said it while patting Hagen on the shoulder, where he stood in a guard uniform.
Hagen looked beyond gloomy—more like a man whose soul had already left his body.
“Big Rat, Little Rat, you two are the seniors here, so look after the newbie. Got it?”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
When Tomy and Jack answered, Hagen shot them a murderous glare.
The two of them jerked in alarm and quickly turned their heads away.
“All right, everyone. Give him a hand.”
Clap, clap, clap.
And just like that, Hagen, the head of Iron Thorn, became a member of Nox’s guards, and Iron Thorn naturally fell under the command of Nox’s guard force as well.
Of course, there hadn’t been zero resistance.
From the gang members’ point of view, their boss had suddenly become a guard—no wonder they’d thought this was complete bullshit.
How many people would just go, “Oh, I see,” and accept something like that?
Especially when they’d been reduced to the position of people who had to obey the guards’ orders.
It would have been stranger if there hadn’t been any complaints at all.
In the end, a faction of dissidents rose up, led by several executives. They declared rebellion and even claimed to be Iron Thorn’s new head.
There were plenty of them, too—roughly half of the original Iron Thorn members.
They even went so far as to ambush Kael.
“You think we’d fall for some bullshit stunt like that?”
Dozens of Iron Thorn thugs armed with tools and makeshift weapons had Kael and Luke surrounded.
The rough-looking men glared at them as if they meant to tear them apart and swallow them whole.
Even with enemies closing in from all sides, Kael didn’t look the least bit tense.
He rested a hand on Luke’s shoulder and said, “Luke, do me a favor.”
“...Again?”
“Well, whose fault is it for making a bet so casually? If you didn’t like it, you should’ve won.”
Luke’s eyelid twitched.
He had a lot he wanted to say, but nothing he could actually say out loud.
“...Yeah. Fair enough. If you didn’t like it, you should’ve won.”
Muttering in irritation, Luke drew his sword.
Sching.
The enemies flinched and spoke in flustered voices.
“...You’re seriously going to fight with that many of us? If you just stand still, we’ll only take one arm or so and let you—”
“Ah, if they resist, you can just kill them all.”
Kael cut off the man’s rambling and said it to Luke.
These were the fools who had attacked the guard captain himself.
In other words, they were vicious criminals who might do God only knew what to innocent citizens.
There was no helping it. A stern punishment seemed necessary.
Luke, who had even been granted immunity by his commander, nodded.
“Killing them all is a bit much, so...”
Luke stepped forward and casually swung his sword.
A thin line appeared across the neck of the man who had been talking the most.
Fwoosh!
“I’ll only kill about half of them.”
The moment he said it, Luke launched into a lively dance of blades, and the enemies were swept away like leaves in an autumn wind.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
“P-Please, spare us!!”
“A monster!!”
The men who had come at them so boldly threw down their weapons and started running.
But Luke did not let them get away. He caught every last one of them and made sure they paid for it.
The incident had been such a shock that, not long afterward, the rebellious faction announced their surrender all at once.
“If any of you still have complaints, say so anytime. I’ll take you on personally. If you can get past me, then you’re the boss of this district. Not a bad deal, right?”
Considering how a criminal organization’s hierarchy was built on strength, Kael made a special offer, but no one came forward to challenge him.
That made sense.
The incident where Kael had crippled Grid of the Iron Hammer with his bare hands was already famous throughout all of Nox, not just Iron Thorn.
On top of that, with everything else that had happened, Kael’s reputation inside Iron Thorn had already hardened into that of a man even more vicious and cruel than Hagen.
From that day on, Kael had Iron Thorn completely under control.
So that just leaves one thing.
Bipolar.
Time to catch that rat drunk on its own greed.
A damp underground stone chamber, thick with stale air.
“...Is it finally ready?”
At Cecily’s question, the man in the hood gave a nod.
Who would have thought that preparing a single spell could take so long?
Even she, the one who had commissioned it, had not expected this.
“Is there... any chance it might fail?”
The man slowly turned his head to look at Cecily.
The instant those pitch-black eyes, like a bottomless abyss, met hers, her breath caught in her throat.
“I-I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
“...No need to worry.”
The man turned away again and continued, “It has never failed, not even once.”
There was a dry certainty in his voice.
Seeing his calm confidence, Cecily let out a breath of relief.
“Then... let us begin.”
The man began the ritual of the curse.
The magic circle drawn on the floor began to glow faintly.
Not red, not blue.
It was a dim light, as though rotted blood and ash had been mixed together.
The man’s lips moved. He seemed to be muttering something, but Cecily could not understand a word of it. It was a language she had never heard before.
“Bind the will, bind the flesh, bind the breath.”
The light pouring from the magic circle grew stronger and stronger.
The man’s voice gathered force as well. Every word that left his mouth seemed to cleave the air like a blade.
Each time the man’s fingertips scored through the empty space, the pattern of the circle shifted as if it were alive.
At last, the ritual entered its final stage.
In a dry voice, the man recited the last spell.
“The doll does not resist.”
The carefully prepared curse flew toward Kael.
“...You called for me?”
Hagen, who had rushed over at Kael’s summons, asked with a begrudging expression.
“Yeah, I just thought we could talk for a bit. So, how’s guard life treating you?”
“...It’s manageable, I suppose.”
The look on his face and the words coming out of his mouth did not match at all. Then again, how could it be manageable?
Not long ago, Hagen had been the king of this city.
The ruler of the night, with hundreds of subordinates under him.
And now he was reduced to a mere guard.
Kael looked Hagen over in silence.
He wore a shabby guard uniform. For some reason, it suited him surprisingly well.
“...Do you have a problem with something?”
“No, nothing like that. That guard uniform suits you better than I expected.”
“...Thank you.”
“Your face looks like you just bit into shit, though.”
“I-I don’t think it does—”
“Haha, I’m kidding. Relax your face.”
“...”
Hagen’s eyelids twitched.
His emotions surged up all at once. If he let his guard down, he felt like he might burst into tears. To think he’d ended up being toyed with by some brat like this...
“Actually, I called you here because I had something I wanted to ask.”
“About what...?”
“Tell me everything you know about Bipolar.”
The moment the name Bipolar came up, Hagen’s expression hardened.
“...Those guys are, how should I put it, a creepy bunch. The kind of people you don’t want to associate with.”
“Hmm...”
“They may look a little like us at first glance, but they’re completely different. Honestly, I don’t want to be grouped together with them.”
His voice was thick with restrained anger.
Hagen seemed to genuinely despise Bipolar.
“So why ask about Bipolar all of a sudden...?”
“Ah, nothing major. I just figured it was about time to clean them out.”
“...What?”
Hagen blinked blankly.
“Didn’t I tell you before? I never intended to leave this city as a dump forever.”
“W-Well, yes, but...”
“You hate Bipolar, don’t you? Pretty badly, I’d guess.”
“...Yes, I do.”
“Same here, actually. Creepy, disgusting things should be swept away as soon as possible, don’t you think?”
For a moment, Hagen looked startled, then his mouth curled slowly into a grin.
“That’s absolutely right.”
“There you go. That’s a real smile.”
Kael gave a small snort and smiled too.
That was when it happened.
...What’s that?
Something had caught Kael’s eye. A black dot, or something like it.
He rubbed his eyes, wondering if he’d seen it wrong, but nothing changed.
Some unknown thing, like black smoke or a pitch-black earthworm, wriggled through the air.
At first it had been faint and blurry, but its shape slowly grew clearer.
...A worm?
Even at a glance, it was disgusting and unpleasant.
The black worm drifted as if swimming through the air, then suddenly began inching its way toward Kael.
...What the hell is that?
Kael frowned.
He had no idea what it was, but some instinct told him it wasn’t going to be good news if it got any closer.
The instant Kael tried to rise from his seat—
Crackle!
A golden spark burst to life right in front of him.
At the same time, the black worm let out a shriek that raised goosebumps all over his skin.
Kiieeeeeek!
The worm shattered into tiny grains and scattered into the air.
Kael watched the whole thing with a faintly disgusted expression, then blinked.
“...Did you just see that?”
“...Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“No, never mind.”
Hagen didn’t seem to know anything.
There was only one person Kael could ask about this.
...Hey, old man.
[...Hmm?]
Balmung’s voice was thick with sleep, as if he’d just woken up.
Kael had briefly wondered whether a sword could even sleep, but he pressed on with the question anyway.
You didn’t see that just now, did you? Some black worm-looking thing flew at me. What the hell was it?
[And here I thought it was something important. Ignore it. It was probably some petty curse.]
...A curse?
[Yes. The sort of thing fools like that are always doing. Nothing for you to worry about. I’m going back to sleep, so don’t disturb me.]
He’d said his piece and was already going back to sleep?
“...What a joke.”
Kael let out a hollow laugh.
The light pouring from the magic circle faded away.
The man in the hood let out a sticky breath.
“...Did it succeed?”
“It did. Now we only have to wait for the curse to take root... ghk!”
As the man continued his flat explanation, blood suddenly gushed from his mouth.
Shuddering violently, he dropped to both knees and began coughing up enormous clots of blood.
The blood that had been spilling from his mouth soon started pouring from his eyes, nose, and ears as well. It showed no sign of stopping.
“M-Master?! W-What is this, all of a sudden?!”
Cecily screamed and rushed forward, but the man held out a hand to stop her.
The moment she saw the bloodshot eyes in his face, Cecily froze in place.
...My curse failed?
The man was seized by a tremendous shock.
His curse had been rebounded.
What he was experiencing now was the backlash.