Snow in Ruinxen
"......It's snowing."
Just before leaving the desert, Adel had been culling monsters to prepare for winter. Now, before he knew it, he was facing the season in Ruinxen. He should have returned with Mahal Arram by now, but he was still lingering here. He needed time to sort through his thoughts.
"Ruinxen's winters are terribly cold. Especially with all the heavy snow—it can easily leave you stranded."
Sure enough, the snow pouring down outside the window was a full-blown blizzard, blanketing everything in white.
"Mm."
Adel turned his head.
"The water is ready. Please enjoy it, Adel-nim."
"Hm. What about you?"
The boy standing behind him was about Adel's age. Unlike the typical thugs of this lawless land, he seemed trained as a proper servant. Quietly, he offered Adel the blanket draped over his arm. Polite as he was, Adel noticed something else in the boy's movements entirely.
His steps are even, and he makes no sound.
He stood out from the common ruffians of Ruinxen. This was the gait of a professionally trained assassin.
Ralka is a priestess who commands undead, not an assassin... And the other executives, the so-called 'administrators' of Ruinxen, don't move like that either.
Adel eyed the boy closely.
It's assassin-like, but not quite like the ones from Geukjin. I've killed a few of theirs, so I know—they glide a bit more smoothly.
Was it just that he was a kid, lacking full training? Adel shook his head.
No, that's not it. The way he plants his foot from the start is completely different.
Intrigued, Adel couldn't quite gauge the boy's skill, but judging by his steps alone, he wasn't cut out for servant work.
"The Queen Spider commanded me to attend you during your stay. If you need anything, please tell me."
The boy was impeccably courteous. He seemed accustomed to this role—perhaps he'd served someone before coming here.
"Did you receive any training elsewhere before arriving in Ruinxen?"
"No. As far back as I can remember, I've been in Ruinxen. The Queen Spider took me in, she says."
[A war orphan, huh. You see them everywhere.]
Yeah. You see them everywhere. It's that kind of era. Now, though... Kalderet murmured lazily, his face buried as he spoke, and Adel replied with a wry smile.
'I was picked up in the desert too.'
But even so, orphans didn't come out of the womb with an assassin's gait. Adel instantly saw through the boy's lie.
If he's one of Ralka's underlings, lying to me wouldn't be easy... So why hide his identity?
"Do you have a name?"
"No. The Queen Spider simply calls me Lu."
"The name of a low god of fog."
"Yes."
Adel nodded. The boy had a presence as faint as mist itself—fit for an assassin.
"It suits you."
"It's not a name. Just a label."
Adel shrugged awkwardly at Lu's firm denial.
"You say it like you want one."
"Someday, someone will give me a proper name."
"What about the Queen Spider?"
"She took me in, but that doesn't mean I have to follow her forever."
Adel chuckled at Lu's bold words. They reminded him of his younger self.
"If she heard that, she wouldn't let you off easy."
"It's fine."
"You've got some spine for someone with a presence like fog."
Adel took the towel from Lu's arm and waved him off.
"Be careful, though. Pride is something you flaunt when you have power. Whatever your backing is, kid."
He fixed Lu with a steady gaze.
"But I don't hate that kind of attitude. I'll call if I need you. Rest until then."
"Understood."
Adel stared at the closed door long after Lu left.
"Lu... Lu of the Fog... Not a name that rings any bells, but it feels familiar somehow?"
He tilted his head, but since it wasn't etched in his memory, it probably wasn't anyone famous on the continent. He brushed it off. Still, the name lingered oddly on his tongue.
Bubble... bubble...
Adel sank into the warm bathwater, eyes closing in bliss. It had been ages since he'd done this, and languid comfort enveloped him.
"......Feels good."
But he hadn't come just to relax.
"Things got complicated. My original goal's been met, at least... And luckily, Mahal's loose lips spilled everything easily."
Submerged in the tub, Adel began piecing together the information he'd gathered.
"Confirmed: he's in league with the Forgotten Ones. If I recover the spirit stone and head back, I can stop the monsters from pushing south into the desert."
[But the real problem lies elsewhere.]
"Right."
Adel sighed softly, tilting his head.
"If my brother really is one of the Forgotten Ones... things will get messy. He was the only one in the tribe I thought I could trust."
No sense of betrayal, though. In his past life, he'd only seen Merka as marginally better suited to lead than Syrin. And anyway, Adel planned to unify the desert himself.
"If it's rotten, cut it out. What worries me is, if he really is Forgotten and I recover the spirit stone, he'll think his cover's blown. He'll be on guard against me for sure."
Merka had shown zero interest in the tribe's succession struggle. Adel had chalked it up to his brother's calm nature.
But what if it was because of the cult?
He shook his head.
Doesn't add up. Even if he's not direct blood, he's still Hien's eldest. And he's well-liked in the tribe. Why choose the cult...?
Adel knew the future, but not perfectly. Like events before his birth.
I don't know my brother's past.
Any connection to the cult was a blind spot. He couldn't complacently assume based on the Merka he knew.
"Merka as a Forgotten One..."
[Why? Wondering what to do?]
"No. If it's true, I'll use it. Maybe track down the cult's leadership through him. Could be a golden opportunity."
Adel's eyes gleamed.
"Those bastards are like cockroaches—hiding everywhere, infesting the world. But with good bait, I can wipe them all out in one go."
[Cold-blooded. Didn't you think well of him?]
"I did. But the people I need for my plans? I keep them because they're necessary, not because I love them."
Talent for the greater war ahead. For his plan to save the continent, Adel vowed to set aside personal feelings.
[Humans can't live alone. Even gods can't. Just as gods exist from human longing, every being needs someone to rely on. Have you ever given your heart to anyone?]
"I have."
[Past tense, huh.]
"Yeah. They betrayed me. 'Sacrifice the few for the many' sounds like bullshit from the few's side. So I made up my mind."
Leaning against the tub's edge, Adel declared,
"I'll be the few that crushes the many. As the one and only ruler."
[Hm...]
Unlike before, Kalderet—the god of void, irony of ironies defined by lack—eyed Adel with an odd look, as if concerned for his emptiness.
[Well, reliance is mutual. Even if you don't want it, someone might worry for you. Like that girl who gave you the chakram, say.]
"Kasla? Pfft, not her."
Adel waved it off, but Kalderet just shrugged at him.
[Who knows with humans. Not even gods. Anyway, what's your next move?]
"If I'm right, Merka ditched Mahal for sure. Whatever his ties to the Forgotten cult, he chose them."
[Certain?]
"Mahal turning into a psycho killer is proof."
[How so?]
"Like I saw earlier, he's timid and cowardly. But there's madness inside. No limits to his depravity. Classic lunatic."
He hadn't glimpsed his own depths yet, but he could snap any moment. And the result? A mindless slaughterer butchering humans indiscriminately.
[You think the demon spirit stone caused it?]
"Yeah."
Drawing from his past life's knowledge of the future, Adel could guess Mahal's transformation.
"The Forgotten Ones must've fed him a demon spirit stone. Like how it drives monsters berserk, it turned him into a raving murderer."
Mahal's on Merka's side, not the cult's. But Merka cast him out.
Coerced by the cult? Using them? True believer? Possibilities abounded, facts pending.
"At least, if the spirit stone's where Mahal said, Merka's cult ties are confirmed."
Adel felt his own limits keenly. He knew the future from his past life, but he'd emerged from the desert five years later, recognized for talent.
Those five years are a total blank for me. I have no idea what happened on the continent then.
He knew exploiting that blank period would be his biggest variable this life.
"Might be lucky, actually."
Adel had found the best way to fill that gap. If info was his weakness, gather intel.
And the perfect place was right here: slave city Cratel.
Even isolated in the desert, he'd remembered news of Cratel.
In the next half-year, Cratel falls.
Cities vanishing in wartime was commonplace. The question was who toppled it.
Slaves were the weakest class, yet universal across kingdoms.
They're everywhere on the continent. And being everywhere means they have the most ears.
There was the man in Cratel. The one who razed it, freed countless slaves, and built the continent's top intel guild, Tensha, from them.
It was time to meet him, Adel thought.
"Liberation King Karono."