The Fifth Lord
Still, none of it could compare to the White King’s guaranteed reward.
The offer to hand over any city he wished was that outrageous—an open declaration that he would accept making enemies if it came to that.
And becoming a city’s ruler would bring Mysteries and titles along with it.
In truth, the answer had been decided from the start.
In every way, siding with the White King is the better deal.
The White King was a living legend.
The Star Guardians? They never moved unless it concerned the stars or the goddesses.
The White King, by contrast, had no restrictions. He had never placed any on himself. That was why he was free.
If I cultivated enough favor with the Four Lords beneath him, I could even turn them into allies.
With those monsters’ help, toppling an entire kingdom would not be difficult.
Overwhelming force, pure and simple.
The problem is that the moment they discover I’m human—or just some nobody—I’m dead on the spot.
I had managed to cover for myself so far, but my own power still fell short of theirs.
The second the bluff was exposed, my head would roll.
Being revealed as human would end the same way.
But that, too, is something I can fix by growing stronger.
Rapid growth was the only answer.
And looking ahead to the future, siding with the White King was still the correct choice.
As long as my humanity stayed hidden, that was enough.
“On second thought, I find the White King and the rest of you more to my liking. Caw.”
“……Then?”
“I’ll be counting on you. Caw.”
“I knew you were a man of real scale! I knew you wouldn’t dance to the tune of those Star Guardians!”
The Death King was overjoyed.
He was genuinely, purely delighted.
He had been well-disposed toward me from the beginning, so my not betraying his expectations only pleased him further.
Making a decision this quickly was the best way to keep a relationship solid.
Hesitating or weighing options only eroded trust.
You have received ‘White King’s Recognition’.
Warp has been activated under the qualification of ‘Fifth Lord’.
A waypoint has been generated in ‘Kramdel’.
Achievement ‘One Recognized by the White King’ has been added.
Honor has increased by 100.
……Exactly as expected.
The White King had been listening to this conversation as well.
The instantaneous response made that certain.
Under the White King’s protection, warp within Kramdel had originally been impossible except at designated locations.
Yet with his recognition, a waypoint had been created inside the city.
It meant I could now travel there whenever I wished using the Teleport Book.
I had given a clean decision, and he had answered just as cleanly.
If I had chosen the Star Guardians, he would not have let me leave quietly.
The outline was clear now.
The White King had sensed a threat in me and issued a warning.
He had clearly decided that becoming a Star Guardian would eventually make me a danger to him.
So he had waited for my choice, reward in hand.
Had I become a Star Guardian, I almost certainly would not have left Kramdel unharmed.
Whether the Star Guardians would have actively protected me was also doubtful.
From the very beginning the White King had stepped forward and threatened the Giant of Annihilation himself.
The Star Guardians’ reaction, by comparison, had been lukewarm.
If I hadn’t known him, I would have mistaken this interest for pure goodwill.
But that would have been a fatal mistake.
The White King did not know me—yet I knew the White King.
His ability to detect danger was so extraordinary it bordered on reading the future.
All of this goodwill sprang not from complete trust, but from wariness.
He had even eavesdropped on my conversation with the Death King.
I am walking on thin ice right now.
From this point on, the moment the White King sensed a threat from me—or even the possibility of one—he would eliminate me without hesitation.
Just as I could not trust the White King one hundred percent, he could not fully trust me either.
Truly thin ice.
One wrong step and I would fall.
No matter how well I act, he will still harbor at least a sliver of doubt.
Above all, I was human.
Not even a human of Pangenia, but a player.
Even if I played the Corpse Crow to perfection, even if the Heart of the Iron-Blooded Lord masked my emotions, the White King never trusted appearances alone.
That was why he intended to keep me close and judge me for himself.
A double-edged sword.
I had gained the strongest possible ally—yet I could never afford to show a single opening.
“I can’t wait to see those Star Guardians’ faces twist tomorrow!”
The Death King laughed heartily, as if the future this choice would bring was so satisfying he could barely contain himself.
“The Corpse Crow as Fifth Lord?”
“Not an ordinary Corpse Crow—one that passed through the Gate of Myth.”
“If the White King himself has recognized him, there is no room for objection.”
“Hah…….”
Murmurs filled the square.
Monsters from all across Kramdel packed the plaza in front of the White King’s palace for the announcement of the fifth lord.
The monsters who saw me were half-convinced at best.
Some clearly wondered whether I was truly powerful enough to stand alongside the other lords.
But if the White King and the Four Lords had acknowledged me, there was no room for dispute.
“……You will regret today’s decision without fail.”
The Giant of Annihilation and the other Star Guardians left Kramdel wearing expressions as if they had bitten into something foul.
At the end Dramut looked back at me with complicated eyes, but I paid it no mind.
Dramut had never wanted me to become a Star Guardian in the first place—he already knew I was human.
Besides, even without their recognition I remained the master of stars. I was still the Star’s Successor who owned two stars.
In the face of that truth, anyone else’s acknowledgment had never been necessary.
“Kramdel’s fifth lord—Randolph, King of the Corpse Crows.”
The White King spoke first.
At once the surroundings fell deathly silent.
Watching the departing Star Guardians and their sour faces, the White King and the Four Lords looked thoroughly entertained.
Before the Star Guardians had fully left Kramdel—
“Everyone, welcome him!”
“Randolph! Randolph!”
“Our new lord!”
“Long live Kramdel!”
The monsters cheered and shouted without exception.
The Star Guardians’ expressions grew even darker.
It felt as though a river had been crossed that could never be uncrossed.
I never imagined a day like this would come.
Yet the situation before me still felt unfamiliar.
To think I would live long enough to receive cheers from monsters.
The number of monsters I had hunted alone probably exceeded every creature gathered in Kramdel right now.
Kramdel itself had nearly fallen once because of me.
……It was a brief welcome ceremony, yet one that would be remembered forever.
Leaving the celebration behind, I departed Kramdel.
Choosing a city as a reward could wait; returning to the Knight’s Garden was the priority.
If I lingered in Kramdel, my true nature might be exposed.
“This place is……? Isn’t this the Knight’s Garden?”
Isaac, who had crossed over through the Teleport Book, tilted his head in confusion.
His expression made it clear he could not understand why a Corpse Crow would deliberately visit a human city.
Crack!
I tore the core from my chest.
“Ghk……?!”
Isaac recoiled in shock.
He had never imagined a monster would remove its own core.
But what followed made his mouth and eyes stretch wide enough to tear.
“A—a human……!!”
Because the Corpse Crow had become a human.
Fully restored to human form, I slowly loosened my body.
This body really is the better fit.
Staying as a Corpse Crow for too long left me stiff. Returning after so long made every muscle in my body cry out in happy relief.
Then I spoke to Isaac, who was still frozen in astonishment.
“Nothing has changed, Isaac.”
The promise to serve for one year remained exactly as it was—whether I was human or Corpse Crow.
“Y-you’re really human?”
“Yes.”
“……After causing that entire mess?”
He still looked as if he could not believe it.
That the very person who had become King of the Corpse Crows and reduced Kramdel to that state was human—of course it was hard to accept.
I would have felt the same.
“Then, perhaps……?”
Isaac looked at Isabella.
The half-dragon wings vanished from her back.
“Y-you swindlers!”
“You’re hardly one to talk.”
Isaac himself was human, yet he had been posing as a half-dragon inside Kramdel.
Leaving Isaac with his jaw practically on the floor, I surveyed the Knight’s Garden I had returned to after so long.
The atmosphere is bleak.
For some reason it felt even more depressed than before.
First of all, every window was shut.
Closed windows meant something threatening was inside the city.
Yet Marquis Weiser was, surprisingly, a noble who genuinely cared for his people. The citizens had never feared him.
That pointed to an entirely different presence—a third party that had appeared in the city.
Who?
Not an individual. Some group that posed a threat to the city had to have arrived.
Or had the city’s master changed in the meantime?
The odds were low, but given Marquis Weiser’s situation it was not impossible.
With those questions in mind I moved deeper toward the city center and finally spotted a man.
He was drawing water, carefully scanning his surroundings.
“Hey.”
“Who…… ah! Young Master Heir?”
The man recognized me.
The people of this city knew me as the “Successor of the Knight King”—the one who had protected the city, prayed for the knights carved on the monument, and been praised by Priest Andrew.
Yet his expression was oddly uneasy.
“Has something happened in the territory?”
“Th-that is…… it would be better if you left for now.”
“Why?”
The citizen glanced around, then carefully approached and whispered into my ear.
“……One of the Eight Heroes is in the city right now.”
My brow furrowed instantly.
The Eight Heroes?
Surely not those Eight Heroes—the ones who had been playing at being heroes in Wilhelm’s place after the Great Expedition to the Demon Realm?
The citizen’s face was not merely dark; it was filled with fear.
Which of the Eight Heroes could have appeared to put that look on his face?
“Which of the Eight Heroes?”
When I asked, the citizen swallowed hard and answered.
“L-Lord Maxim, sir. If the Young Master Heir enters the city now, something terrible could happen. Before any of the soldiers see you, please hurry and—”
“Hey! Who’s over there!”
“Huk!”
The shout of soldiers nearby made the man jump.
Reunion
Two armed soldiers.
Not Marquis Weiser’s men.
The armor and crest were different.
Maxim. Maxim, of all people.
The soldiers he had brought were occupying the city.
But why was he here?
I had heard that, as one of the so-called Eight Heroes, he was receiving successor training under Duke Scien.
Yet Maxim was nowhere near a true hero.
He was nothing more than a deserter who fled first after being hired.
Even now, just thinking of that time made my teeth grind.
Maxim had been the captain of the Kaiser Mercenary Group.
A powerhouse who led three hundred men and whose name was known across the continent—I had trusted him enough to sign a contract, and paid for it in blood.
The moment Ahram appeared in the first hell, the Swamp of the Dead, the bastard had fled without looking back.
And that man was one of the Eight Heroes? A passing dog would laugh.
If Maxim is here, it has to be because of Duke Scien.
His presence made the reason roughly clear.
It was surely related to some deal between Duke Scien and Marquis Weiser.
He had probably gotten involved to resolve the matter concerning Serengeti.
Even so, no matter how far Marquis Weiser’s house had declined, it was strange.
Allowing another man’s soldiers to swagger through one’s own territory was as good as abandoning the land.
Or he is so cornered he can no longer spare attention for the city’s affairs.
Either way, the situation was clearly bad.
“What’s with this combination?”
“Faces I’ve never seen before.”
As the soldiers sauntered closer, I spoke quietly.
“Knock them out cleanly.”
“What are you—”
Swish!
That was all.
The soldiers dropped to their knees without even managing a proper death cry.
Isaac and Isabella.
Their speeds were nearly equal.
They had knocked the two soldiers unconscious almost simultaneously.
Under normal circumstances that would have been impossible.
Isaac was Level 10, and in pure speed he had no equal.
The reason Isabella could match him was simple.
Isabella
Her level had risen.
When I first met her in the desert she had been Level 8; after passing through Kramdel it had climbed.
Not only that—she had passed through the Gate of Mystery and obtained a useful Mystery of her own.
To think she actually obtained the True Mystery of the Flying Dragon.
It had been one of the Mysteries I myself had aimed for when first entering the Gate of Mystery.
The gate had transformed into the Gate of Myth and my original plan had changed, yet I had never imagined Isabella would bring that one back.
Thanks to it, her speed now equaled Isaac’s.
Assassins were agile by nature, after all.
I turned to the still-flustered citizen and said,
“You saw nothing of us.”
“Ah…… yes! Yes, I saw nothing at all.”
The man hurriedly bobbed his head.