Thank You for the Meal
The rice on the table was steaming gently. Kain scooped up a generous mouthful of the hot rice and tore into the fried egg in front of him, eating them together. The light salt seasoning balanced the plain rice, while the half-cooked yolk mixed smoothly with the grains and melted between his teeth. What washed away the slight dryness at the end was the miso soup. They must have added finely chopped chili peppers. The broth carried a faint spiciness that cleared his palate as it went down.
"Not bad."
The miso soup had hit his preference for a sharp, spicy flavor exactly right. It might have been a little stimulating for breakfast, but that was precisely his taste.
"I'm glad."
Relieved by his words, Arina lifted a bite of rice to her mouth with her chopsticks. Her cheeks flushed slightly—compliments always seemed to brighten her mood, no matter when she heard them.
Fluffy, slightly dry rice, a half-cooked fried egg, and spicy miso soup. Maybe because they had been living together for nearly two years now, Arina had learned to prepare meals that matched his tastes without needing to be told.
'Two years already.'
Has it really been that long since his sister died?
The news had shocked not only Kain but Arina as well. When she heard the airship had crashed in a mysterious accident and no bodies had been recovered, she had wept uncontrollably at the funeral. She cried until she collapsed from exhaustion. While she lay unconscious, the adults discussed her living arrangements. At the time, Kain had no intention of getting involved.
"Damn it! What the hell is so special about that girl that she gets to join the family?"
If he hadn't overheard Humon Grant—the third son of the Grant family and younger brother of Hughes Grant—speaking, things might have gone differently.
"It's because of her that my brother died! Send her to an orphanage or throw her out on the street—get rid of that nobleman's mistress's daughter right now!"
"Calm down. I know you're grieving, but don't take it out on a child who did nothing wrong."
Huren Grant, the current head of the Grant Merchant Group and second son, shook his head at Humon's outburst. But Kain could tell—while Huren held no outright malice, he felt no positive feelings toward Arina either. If anything, his emotions leaned negative.
'Well, that's only natural.'
His sister had once mentioned that the Grant family had never been particularly fond of Arina's existence.
"Anyway, I can't stand looking at her face! Send her to an orphanage or dump her on the street—just get her out of here!"
Even as Huren tried to soothe him, Humon's resistance remained fierce. Eventually, Huren sighed as if he had no choice but to agree. It was obvious how things would turn out. Abandoning a child under the excuse of unavoidable circumstances was common in the underworld. What disgusted Kain more was their hypocritical pretense.
—Please take care of my daughter.
"Bullshit."
Why did those words keep resurfacing now? His sister's final request kept circling in his mind.
—The fact that I'm asking you this means I trust you that much, you know?
Don't trust me. I'm not that responsible.
After watching him for so long, did his sister still not understand that?
—Arina is my daughter.
He clicked his tongue. None of this sat well with him. What should have been a few days of temporary childcare had turned into a lifetime commitment. She wasn't even his blood relative—she was the child of the man who had stolen his sister away. But there was one fact that irritated him most of all.
'Who the hell thinks they can sell off my niece?'
Arina was his sister's daughter. And he would never stand by and watch his sister's child be driven toward misfortune.
"Hm?"
He approached carefully and lifted Arina into his arms. The Grant family members stared in confusion at the sudden intrusion. Without even turning his head, Kain spoke.
"I'm taking this child with me."
"What?"
"I'm raising her."
He turned his head. His glasses had slipped slightly down his nose, and behind them, his black eyes rippled with an ominous violet glow.
"So stop arguing about selling her off at the top of your lungs. Children absorb these things even in their sleep and carry them in their hearts."
At the sight of those eyes, everyone froze. Like prey facing a predator, their legs locked in place and their breaths grew shallow. An overwhelming despair, as if they might suffocate at any moment, pressed down on them.
"Hahk!"
Only after Kain looked away did they remember how to breathe, collapsing to the floor and gasping desperately. Ignoring them completely, Kain carried Arina out of the funeral hall in silence.
'Brothers really are all the same.'
The eldest had caused a scene at a high-end restaurant. Now the middle and youngest were making a fuss at the funeral? Couldn't they have inherited at least one good trait instead of all the bad ones? Feeling irritated by that fact, he gazed up at the stars in the night sky.
"I already warned you."
He pulled Arina closer to his chest and covered her ears with both hands. His eyes rippled coldly as he murmured in a low voice.
"If you make my sister unhappy, I'll make sure you meet your end."
She should have just cried. Fought openly, gotten hurt, and had a chance to reconcile. Then there might have been room for forgiveness and turning back. How dare they take her as a companion. It was infuriating.
"Don't think you're safe just because you ran off to the afterlife."
Death was more familiar to him than anything else in this world. By that measure, the afterlife was practically his own backyard. Just wait and see. He'd make sure they regretted today's events even after death.
'But first...'
He needed to investigate this incident. A sudden airship crash? Unknown cause? Not even a body recovered? There were far too many questions. And events with too many questions always hid something behind them.
'I'll find out for sure.'
And then he'd kill them. He'd make them regret ever laying a hand on her. Grinding his teeth, he quickly sent a message to his subordinates. Uncover every detail of this incident, from start to finish. Only after that did he remove his hands from Arina's ears.
"Let's go home. To our house."
Kain whispered softly into her ear. That was all a child needed to hear. Hostility, vengeance, words filled with malice—those should never reach her ears. Children absorbed such things even in their sleep and carried them in their hearts.
"……"
While lost in those memories, Kain finished his meal and stood up with his empty bowl. He placed it in the sink and walked straight to the living room sofa.
"I made breakfast, so can't you at least do the dishes, Uncle?"
Arina voiced her complaint, but Kain didn't even look up from his smartphone.
"That's why I said we should just order delivery."
"Ordering delivery just to avoid doing dishes doesn't make sense."
With a resigned sigh, Arina began putting on rubber gloves.
'Still no word...'
Two years had passed since that day, yet the incident remained unsolved. Even with the full intelligence network of the underworld mobilized—the same network that could uncover anything in the world, even the color of the Empress's underwear or the number of chest hairs on the Magic Sovereign—they had found nothing.
'What the hell is going on?'
This had never happened before.
'Pride' not contacting him meant he still hadn't found a single lead. That guy handled everything himself so as not to bother Kain with minor details, only reporting truly important matters. No contact meant nothing unusual was happening in the underworld—and that the task Kain had assigned had made zero progress.
After two years, even impatience had faded. At first, he had scolded them for being so slow. But now, even that frustration had dulled with time. Yet the determination itself hadn't faded. Once he set his sights on something, he pursued it to the end. He might forget favors, but he never forgot grudges. That was his creed, and because of it, no one who owed him a debt had ever survived. Not even the nameless child who had bullied him in his youth and sent him to a graveyard.
"Hey, kid."
Staring at his smartphone was only making him more irritated. He turned it off and tossed it onto the sofa, then called out to Arina.
"Come to think of it, the entrance ceremony isn't far off, is it?"
Benedict Academy. The continent's premier magic academy, founded by Ern Benedict—the Magic Sovereign—in the western magic kingdom. Following his belief that "magic should be equal to everyone," the academy accepted students regardless of status, whether commoner or noble, as long as they possessed talent and ambition. The average admission age was twelve and above. Fortunately, Arina had already passed the entrance exam and been recognized for her talent.
'That was the first time.'
The first time this kid had asked him for something. She had dreamed of becoming a mage. He still remembered clearly how she had fidgeted awkwardly during dinner, unsure how to bring it up.
'Well, it's a relief.'
Her dream was to become a mage. If she had wanted to be a spirit master or a swordsman, just thinking about it gave him chills. The Empress and Tugwi were both insane in their own ways. Among the Absolute Beings, the Magic Sovereign was the only one who could be considered relatively normal. The reason he had chosen to settle in the Ellemental Kingdom wasn't just because it was his hometown—having the Magic Sovereign nearby was also a factor.
'And the facilities are better than anywhere else.'
Like smartphones, for example. This was the Ellemental Kingdom, where magic had advanced alongside magical engineering. In terms of technological civilization, it was centuries ahead of other nations. Naturally, there was no more comfortable or convenient country to live in. In the southern Empress's territory, for instance, sending a letter meant tying it to an arrow and shooting it.
"Yes, but why?"
Arina tilted her head at Kain's sudden question.
"The uniform will be delivered here once it's ready. Should we go buy the other things we need?"
Things like a bag, school supplies. Even with a smartphone, a wristwatch might be useful too. Or maybe he should just get her the latest smartphone model while they were at it.
'What else might she need?'
Kain casually organized a mental list.
"What?!"
Arina froze for a moment before exclaiming in surprise. She hurried over to him, her voice filled with excitement.
"Are we going out?"
"Yeah."
"Together?"
"Obviously?"
"You're not just throwing me a card like usual?"
"Well, it's been a while since I went out. Might as well get some fresh air. If you don't want to, that's fine too."
"No! I want to! I really want to!"
Arina nodded quickly, as if afraid he might change his mind. Her light brown hair swayed with the motion, and the scent of apple shampoo reached his nose.
'She's really diligent.'
At her age, shouldn't she want to sleep in as much as possible? Even though making breakfast was already tight on time, she had still washed and dried her hair. She was diligent to a fault. Now he understood why his sister had said raising her wouldn't be much trouble.
Watching her small back as she headed to her room, wondering what to wear, Kain shook his head slightly.
"Just wear whatever."
Let's see. They had about an hour before departure. Picking up the smartphone he had tossed aside, he let out a long yawn, wondering how to kill the time.