Was That Investment Worth It?
“...What exactly are you doing here?”
Luke blinked. He had come running after hearing the commotion, only to find an unexpected face waiting for him.
He never imagined Kael would be here.
“Why the hell does your face look like that?”
“...Pardon?”
But Kael seemed more interested in Luke’s ragged, miserable appearance than in his question.
Luke looked awful. So much so that the handsome young man from before was nowhere to be seen; in his place stood someone who looked like a common beggar.
“You should wash your face once in a while.”
Kael wrinkled his nose and pinched it shut.
“...Is that really what you want to say to me right now...?”
Luke began to tremble, equal parts shocked and betrayed. He had been through hell because of this man, and this was the thanks he got?
“Anyway, let’s save the details for later. For now, why don’t we clean this place up?”
Kael jerked his chin toward the room. It was infuriating, but Luke had to admit he agreed that they should tidy things up.
“...Sigh.”
Muttering that this must be his fate, Luke drew his sword.
“Looks like it’s just about over.”
It didn’t take long to settle everything. The remaining stragglers were nothing special.
Once Luke and Kael decided to get serious, the others stood no chance. At minimum, each of them got an arm broken. And if anyone resisted too hard, they were decapitated without hesitation, which quickly shattered the morale of the remaining men.
“P-please, spare us!”
“Please, just let us keep our lives...”
One by one, they surrendered with the same tired lines.
Those who dropped their weapons and gave up were not killed.
It was, however, a little absurd.
“Funny how the trash that toyed with other people’s lives gets precious about its own.”
At Kael’s sneer, the men rolled their eyes. Human garbage. Kael frowned and spat onto the floor.
It left a foul taste in his mouth.
At the end, Kael checked Turan’s corpse.
He had died in a pitiful state.
The battle itself had ended quickly, but that was only because he’d been lucky.
If I didn’t have Balmung, this wouldn’t have been easy.
The power that burned away curses.
Thanks to that power, he had been able to subdue Turan relatively easily.
If Balmung hadn’t helped, he would have been in serious trouble.
I can’t keep relying on Balmung.
Balmung’s power had limits.
The Baekyeom he had shown at the start of the fight had had a huge impact, but after that, the rest had been up to Kael alone.
If he had neglected his training, he couldn’t have guaranteed victory, and the one lying there could have been Kael instead.
There’s no guarantee the enemy will always let their guard down.
Looking back now, he could really feel how lucky it had been to take down Harkan.
If that bastard hadn’t been careless, Kael wouldn’t have been able to touch even the edge of his clothes.
I don’t know how long this kind of luck will last.
He wasn’t the hero of some comic or novel. If he depended on luck alone, he’d end up dying in some ditch before long.
Steeling himself, Kael found a woman collapsed beside Turan’s body. According to the stragglers they had captured, she was the boss of Bipolar.
She doesn’t look like she got caught up in the fight.
While he was wondering how she had ended up like this, Balmung spoke.
[She’s done for. She’s practically a corpse already. That curse-monger must have done it.]
He didn’t feel particularly sorry for her. It was a fitting end for the head of a criminal organization.
Then Luke’s voice came from behind him.
“...Since things seem to be mostly sorted out, I’d like to hear what happened.”
“You that curious?”
Kael, looking thoroughly sick of the question, gave Luke a brief rundown.
He had slipped in here secretly through Dining, and once the bastards let their guard down, he had finished the job.
Luke’s expression, which had started out as little more than a dissatisfied frown, gradually shifted into open disbelief.
“...Are you completely insane? No, do you have several lives or something? Huh?”
“It turned out fine, didn’t it? Better than dragging it out.”
Luke was left speechless by Kael’s nonchalant answer. No matter how confident he was in his skill, what kind of deranged stunt was this?
“Oh, and this guy seems to be a curse user. You know anything about him?”
“A curse user...? No, why are you asking me that all of a sudden...?”
“Because I don’t know, so I’m asking you.”
“...”
Unable to argue, Luke approached Turan’s corpse.
...One strike.
There were no sword marks besides the one that had pierced his throat.
The blade had gone in once, then twisted to finish the job cleanly.
Precise. Concise.
It was a sword with efficiency so chilling it sent a shiver down Luke’s spine.
After a moment, he opened the corpse’s collar. A tattoo was etched on the collarbone.
A clock face without hands.
The moment Luke saw it, his eyes went wide.
As far as he knew, the meaning of that tattoo was one thing.
The Seven Deadly Sins.
More specifically, the Sin of Sloth.
Having that tattoo means... he was at least an executive.
He’d killed an executive of the Seven Deadly Sins with a single blow?
Luke, who had gone stiff with shock, slowly turned his head.
There was Kael, standing with one leg cocked, scratching his ear with a bored look on his face.
“...Ha.”
The sight of that made a laugh slip out of him before he could stop it.
* * *
“Hmm?”
The young girl tilted her head. Her soft white curls swayed with the motion.
Her eyes, still damp as though she had only just woken up, were clear. But they were so clear that they felt ominous instead.
“Haaah... what a pain...”
She complained like a sulky child.
She didn’t need to see it to know.
There had been a blunt, severing sensation.
The thread had been cut.
Someone had destroyed one of her dolls.
“It was a pretty usable doll, too...”
That didn’t make her feel attached or regretful.
It was just a pain. She hated things that were a pain.
“...Smells burnt.”
As the thread snapped, there was the faint smell of something scorched.
The girl, Azazel, hugged her adorable little doll and tilted her head.
It was a smell she felt she had encountered somewhere before.
Where had she smelled it?
“...Mm... what a hassle.”
She frowned with her delicate brows and sank into thought.
Then she raised a hand.
A thin wisp of black smoke rose from her fingertips. As she moved her fingers, the smoke traced lines in the air.
The doll might have burned, but traces remained.
If she followed the thread left behind where it had been severed, she could find out who had dared destroy her doll.
“...Never mind.”
But she gave up almost at once.
The reason was simple. She hated hassle.
“...Haaah... sleepy.”
She yawned widely.
Maybe because she had thought too much all of a sudden, sleep was already dragging her under.
“...Should I sleep first and think about it later?”
Her breathing slowed, and the candlelight in the room flickered.
Azazel, the Sin of Sloth, closed her eyes.
* * *
Kael returned as if nothing had happened. He left the remaining stragglers to Hagen. It was a hassle, and Kael judged he was the right man for the job.
“How is it? Confident?”
“...Just leave it to me.”
At Kael’s question, Hagen bared his white teeth in a grin. It was the first time he had ever looked genuinely motivated.
And he fulfilled his role as a hunting dog faithfully. With their leader gone, Bipolar was helpless against the guard’s assault, and before long it was completely dismantled.
“Haa... I’m tired. So tired.”
“...Sir, haven’t you just been lounging around the whole time?”
“Hey now, what a hurtful thing to say. Even if it doesn’t look like it, I’ve had plenty to worry about behind the scenes.”
“...”
Luke glared at Kael with half-lidded eyes.
“Come on, let’s go get something to eat.”
Kael rose and headed out of the room with his hands behind his back.
On the surface, he looked every inch the idler.
But the results he had achieved were impossible to deny.
...I really can’t believe this.
Luke had once judged that this city, Nox, was beyond saving.
How was he supposed to bring a place like this back to life once it had already become a den of criminals?
He had thought the only solution was to wipe the whole thing clean and rebuild from scratch.
But Kael was steadily doing the impossible.
And in a very short time, too.
The methods themselves were so outrageous that they were impossible to believe came from a guard captain, but judged only by the outcome, they were astonishingly effective.
...Though he does look less like a guard captain and more like the boss of a massive criminal syndicate.
Well, that would probably be a trivial matter to Kael.
Kael and Luke headed to the cafeteria.
It was a surprisingly clean, spacious dining hall with good facilities.
“Hm, seems like the investment paid off.”
Kael nodded with satisfaction. Seeing everything finally in order made him feel oddly proud.
Of course, that was only Kael’s opinion.
“...This is the restaurant you promised to set up for me?”
Dining, formerly an executive of Bipolar and now the head of Nox’s special public security guard kitchen, shot Kael a blazing glare.
He wore a spotless white chef’s uniform, a tall hat, and a mask hooked over his chin.
The image of a head chef was immaculate, beyond criticism.
“A noble place that fills the hungry bellies of guards worn out by hard labor. And a place that no illegal deal could dare intrude upon. Isn’t this the perfect restaurant you were talking about?”
“...”
Trembling with suppressed fury, Dining ground his teeth at Kael’s shameless, thick-skinned attitude.
He had a great deal he wanted to say, but in the end he let out a long sigh and swallowed the words circling in his mouth.
“...I’m not really in a position to complain, seeing as I used to belong to a criminal organization. It’s not the restaurant I wanted, but I’ll make do. There’s just one favor I need to ask.”
“A favor? What is it?”
“At least give me some staff. How am I supposed to handle all this by myself?”
“...Ah.”
That was fair. Kael scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish.
Making Dining shoulder all that food alone had been shameless beyond belief.
“That’s on me. I’ll replenish the manpower right away.”
“...At least make sure they know basic cooking.”
“Hahaha, what do you take me for? You’re stating the obvious, aren’t you! Now, hurry up and serve the food. My stomach’s practically glued to my back.”
“...Could you please stop talking like that? It’s extremely unpleasant to hear.”
“Hmm, is it?”
Kael and Luke sat down with trays full of steaming food.
“So, who exactly are you planning to assign? As far as I know, there isn’t a single man in the unit who can cook.”
“Well now, who could it be?”
Kael grinned and stabbed a perfectly browned sausage with his fork before bringing it to his mouth.
And that evening.
Tomy, Jack, and Hagen all received a sudden notice that their posts had been changed.