The One Who Must Be Protected
Even if you cannot be certain that the person you have found is ‘Raven,’ if their appearance and impression match the known information, erase all traces immediately. Do not waste even a moment waiting for a report and further orders. As always, the principle is to act first and report later.
“But we’re already short on manpower—”
“We will stop accepting new requests for the time being. All ongoing commissions will be temporarily suspended as well.”
The command was incomprehensible. The statement was certain to inflict serious damage.
Immediate, worried protests rose up, but Edardo brushed them all aside. Once more, he drove the point home to his closest aides—his own siblings.
“Keep this in mind. Covert contact would be ideal if possible, but the highest priority is to erase his traces. He must not be allowed to fall into anyone else’s hands.”
It was unmistakably the order of someone who knew ‘Raven.’
The young emperor of the Ardal Empire, Kian Ardal, sensed the anomaly.
A small but unmistakable twist in a reality that had seemed utterly devoid of hope. A powerful movement strong enough to be felt even though it was not directly connected to him.
Every current was flowing toward the search for a single individual.
‘The major associations, the leading information organizations… even the Republic and its rebel faction, the Revolutionary Army, are paying attention.’
He thought he finally understood why ‘he’ had been absent so often. The movements resembled nothing so much as someone searching for a particular person—or perhaps something.
‘Raven… was it?’
Just who was this man?
Kian pressed a slightly bent index finger to his lips and narrowed his eyes.
‘……This flow was created by the association heads.’
It meant every association head was focused on the matter.
‘They are the leaders of an independent force that maintains mutual respect with every nation. Their power is immense.’
In other words, if handled well, he could secure the support of every association head.
“Stigma.”
He called out to the man who was watching over him.
“You summoned me.”
“Can you discreetly dispatch people to locate a man named ‘Raven’?”
Kian had decided that securing this ‘Raven’ was absolutely necessary.
Only then would even the slightest possibility emerge of escaping his position as a puppet emperor.
‘Now, while he is away, is one of the few opportunities I have.’
For the future of this nation, he had to be found. The young emperor clenched his fist tightly.
“…….”
“…….”
Stigma, having received the order, stared at him in silence for a moment.
The strange quiet lingered only briefly before he bowed his head with elegant grace. A refined voice perfectly suited to his refined demeanor followed.
“Understood.”
“…….”
Every faction was moving to locate their master.
Even the information guild Aurell, which had refused the commission, was ultimately chasing after their master…
“The flow is favorable.”
The association heads were satisfied.
“No matter how skilled the master may be, he cannot evade the eyes of so many.”
News of his discovery—or capture—would arrive soon.
With that weight lifted, they finally had room to breathe. Only then did the association heads bring up the whereabouts of their youngest member, long forgotten.
“By the way, where has our youngest gone off to this time?”
“He disappears often, but this absence seems unusually long.”
Of course, they only mentioned it in passing. They made no move to search for him.
He wasn’t the sort to die easily. And his relationship with the rest of them was hardly warm.
“He couldn’t possibly have found the master, could he?”
“Come now, surely not.”
Thus the association heads lightly dismissed the topic.
They had no idea that their youngest was currently dangling bait like an anglerfish right beside the master they so desperately sought, luring him gently into his own maw.
And then.
A man returned to headquarters.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a tempting talent.’
Each stride down the corridor carried a faint undercurrent of excitement and joy. Daniel quickened his steps, eager to reach his office, the corners of his mouth lifting ever so slightly.
‘That level of skill and such an impartial attitude.’
The scene he had witnessed by chance while leading a slave-liberation operation against illegal slave traders refused to leave his mind.
After wiping out the vile monsters who sought to trade innocent people and cleaning up the aftermath, he received belated word that some escaped slaves were being pursued by hunters. He had rushed out without hesitation.
The tracks were crushed and blurred, causing him to wander a little. In the end, he found the younger of the two siblings first—the one who had drawn far more commotion than his older sister.
A boy being chased by monsters that had poured from a nearby Gate. Just as Daniel was about to step in, alarmed by how precarious the situation looked—
The Gate spat out a man instead of more monsters.
Yes. ‘A man.’
The man landed with casual ease, showing no sign of panic, and the Gate vanished behind his back. That alone made the situation easy to infer.
He had closed it. That Gate.
‘And he must have done it alone.’
If he had lost comrades inside and survived alone, it would have shown in his expression or bearing. No one who had just desperately rushed to save a ragged, worthless-looking child the moment he spotted him could remain unmoved after losing comrades.
Moreover, he had seemed to realize the child was an escaped slave, yet still chose to help…
‘Perfect.’
Daniel quietly withdrew after watching the man, guided by the younger sibling, meet the older sister.
‘He’s ideal as a comrade.’
Enough skill to close a Gate by himself, and a fine character willing to gladly help an escaped slave.
This one had to be secured.
What had his name been? Daniel mulled over the name he had barely caught from a distance and opened the door to his office with an animated expression.
“……Lord Daniel?”
The aide, who had been trembling in his seat while the troublesome leader vanished alone after assigning dangerous work in hostile territory and leaving cleanup to his subordinates, shot to his feet.
“Where have you been all this time?! We’ve just received new information…!”
“New information…?”
Daniel stopped in place and folded his arms.
“Shouldn’t there be something you need to report first?”
It was the same content every time, but that didn’t mean it could be skipped.
People come first for us.
“……As for the rescued slaves, those who wished to return to normal life were helped to settle in suitable places, as always. Those who wished to join us were brought in with full force.”
“And the investigation into those leaking information about slave traders to our side? Have you uncovered their true intentions?”
“It is not certain, but we believe they belong to the information guild Aurell. As for what they want… we still don’t know.”
“Aurell…?”
He knew the head of that organization was called the King of the Underworld. For such a person to show interest in them—was this something to consider an honor?
“It may be because so many of the poor are being captured by slave traders. Aurell rose from the slums, and the poor are the very source of Aurell’s power.”
The poor were prime prey for slave traders. There were no repercussions for snatching and selling them.
Aurell’s power lay in information. They gathered it through the poor. If the number of poor who brought them all kinds of information decreased, Aurell would lose the root of its strength. From their perspective, slave traders were indeed a nuisance.
“Well, that’s only speculation. We’ll investigate that part more thoroughly with time… Anyway, what were you about to say?”
“Ah, yes. The association heads have suddenly begun actively searching for one particular person…”
Searching for a person?
Daniel raised an eyebrow, his expression deflating as though the wind had been taken out of his sails. He leaned against the wall.
“What? The association heads searching for someone is something we’ve known about for ages, isn’t it? I was actually hoping someone could look into a person for me—”
“No, until recently they had been acting covertly, pretending they weren’t searching at all. But a short while ago they suddenly began moving openly. And the name of the person they’re looking for is—”
“—Look into someone named ‘Raven.’
“—‘Raven,’ most likely.”
“……What?”
“Pardon?”
Meanwhile, Raven, the very center of all these converging currents, was—
“You’re refusing?”
“In the end, yes. As I said earlier, I have things I must do…”
“Then there’s no helping it.”
“Thank you for underst—”
“We’ll just have to take you by force.”
“?!”
He was currently being held at knifepoint, his feet quite literally bound.
Just one more day and he would have reached the capital. To run into this kind of disaster when he was almost there…
His green eyes, which had been staring blankly into space, slowly shifted to take in the woman who had pinned him down. A beat later, utter bewilderment rose across his face.
‘……How on earth did it come to this…?’
Even as he was rendered speechless by the absurdity, the cold sensation of a blade against his throat remained vividly clear. As if this were his last chance, the woman’s fierce voice rang out.
“I’ll ask again. Do you still have no intention of becoming my eleventh husband? It would be better for you to become mine willingly.”
“……”
That wouldn’t be willing at all, would it?
“Ah, if the number eleven bothers you, don’t worry. I’ve grown tired of the rest anyway. If you wish, I’ll kill them all off.”
A statement that perfectly proved she was an unparalleled piece of trash.
As expected, trying to lure even bandits had been a dangerous move. He had momentarily overlooked the fact that a criminal’s way of thinking would not be ordinary.
Raven, whose peaceful journey had suddenly gone awry, let out a faint sigh and retraced his own mistake.
So… it had all begun when he encountered the bandits.
From the threat to hand over everything he possessed to the declaration that they would kill everyone to eliminate any future trouble. For Raven, who wandered the world, such situations were commonplace. He had intended to handle it without difficulty, but—
“Wait a moment.”
“……Boss?”
A woman had interrupted.
“That face is too good to kill.”
She had lamented that even among the nobles she managed with all sorts of harsh discipline, such a face was rare.
Seeing her openly interested in his face, Raven thought he might be able to pass through peacefully without any hassle. He had made a subtle attempt at persuasion. He had even added a slight, charming smile the way he had done with the innkeeper auntie, but it had still been persuasion.
……And then everything went wrong.
“……I’ve decided.”
His wrist was seized.
The woman, smiling with satisfaction at having found a way to keep him without leaving any future trouble, shouted loudly.
“I will take this man as my husband!”
……Even thinking about it again, it was absurd.
His neck stung. Raven, pulled back to reality, raised his hand and grasped the blade that was digging slightly into his skin as if urging an answer. At the hint of defiance in his attitude, the woman’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m sorry, but…”
“You’d better answer carefully. You have children with you, don’t you?”
Ah. The children.
……Wait. ‘Children’?
The hand gripping the blade, which had been about to shake it off, froze. His green eyes rolled, and he finally spotted Dan being held captive right beside Dee.
‘……Why are you there?’
You were supposed to follow secretly from far enough away that no one would notice.
His bewilderment lasted only a moment. Blood from the cut on his palm dripped onto his chest. As if displeased that an artwork had received an unnecessary flaw, the woman yanked his wrist. Only then could Raven refocus his attention on her.
‘What should I do?’
The little ones had been taken hostage because of him. Ignoring whether they lived or died simply because it was bothersome and tiresome was not something a human—let alone an adult—should do.
The Guardian Spirit ??? asks why you aren’t cleaning this up already.
The Guardian Spirit ??? declares that he does not recognize this marriage.
He strongly insists that proceeding with a marriage against one’s own will to someone who is not even a good person is utterly ridiculous.
And above all… he says that in any situation, your own well-being must come first, child.
……The Guardian Spirit ??? picks up his sword and rises from his seat.
Stop.
I hesitated for just a moment, but for someone like the Guardian Spirit to try to intervene in something so trivial… Don’t you know that intervening without being called increases the karmic burden even more?
‘……There’s no choice.’
Raven let out a soft sigh.
The Guardian Spirit had said that he himself must come first, but that was wrong. Wasn’t it obvious that the life of someone with only one life held greater value than that of someone who could die countless times without it showing?
The children came before this worthless life that would not leave a trace no matter how many times it died.
‘I suppose I’ll just have to die once.’
If a person willingly died right before their eyes, they would panic and reveal an opening. That much of a gap would be enough to rescue the hostages and clean up the rest.
If this one life could eliminate everyone in front of him without causing any other harm, then it was a gain.
Calling the Guardian Spirit for something like this would be inefficient, and above all, it would be embarrassing. This was better. Having made his decision, Raven was just about to press his neck against the opponent’s blade when—
The Guardian Spirit ??? says to call him instead—
“What’s going on? Who’s the bad guy here?”
An unfamiliar voice cut in.