Gotcha
“Huh?”
The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. The moment she said she'd caught me, it just came out.
Caught?
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
“Excuse me? Won-ae?”
“Yes?”
Watching her smile with such innocent, sunny ease, a single thought flashed through my mind.
I've been scammed.
“Oh my, when did I ever scam you?”
“Then what do you call this, if not a scam?”
First she played the victim and demanded I take responsibility. The moment I agreed to take responsibility, she pounced — caught. This was fraud, plain and simple! …That's what I wanted to say, but I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth.
Grrrrr.
Her eyes were telling me, in no uncertain terms, that if those words left my mouth, she would kill me.
I wasn't ready to die yet.
So I decided to shut up.
“No, of course not. Won-ae would never scam anyone.”
“Exactly.”
An awkward silence settled over us after that.
It was Won-ae who broke it.
“Eun-rang — no, since we're engaged now, I'll just call you by name.”
“I'm sorry, what? Engaged?”
“Yes. You said you'd take responsibility, didn't you?”
It was true that I had said that.
But what I'd meant was that I'd make it as if the whole thing never happened.
It was never a proposal of engagement, of any kind.
“I don't recall ever saying I'd get engaged to you.”
“So then… you're saying you won't take responsibility after all….”
She started playing the tragic heroine all over again.
Having been ensnared once already, there was no way that trick would work a second time.
“Crying about it won't change anything.”
“Tch.”
There it is.
Looking back, even her initial stunt must have been a highly calculated maneuver.
I almost fell for it, too.
Her acting had been so natural that suspicion never even crossed my mind.
She was a good friend, sure — but not once, not for a single instant, had I ever considered marrying her.
I don't have enough time to focus on getting stronger as it is. Engagement? Give me a break.
I had no idea why she'd even brought it up, but I had zero intention of playing the role of her fiancé.
“Put your hood back on already. I'll pretend I saw nothing.”
“Could you really forget such a pretty face?”
“Shouldn't you be embarrassed saying that about yourself?”
“What's there to be embarrassed about? The fact that I'm pretty is just that — a fact.”
It was true that Won-ae was a beauty.
But that beauty didn't work on everyone.
In my case, the Won-ae I'd known before my regression was burned far deeper into my memory than the Won-ae I'd met after it.
“If you're that confident, go find a man more handsome than me and make him your fiancé.”
The moment those words left my mouth, her face darkened.
It had been half a joke, so I hadn't expected her to react like that.
“I don't want to.”
“Ah — my bad. That was a slip of the tongue.”
The instant she said it with a perfectly straight face, I hastily admitted my mistake.
That last remark might have been a touch dangerous.
“I should get going.”
“Ah….”
With that, she turned and left the room.
I had apologized, but I'd apparently already hurt her feelings.
Ha… if you were going to react like that, you shouldn't have joked about it in the first place….
It stung a little, feeling wronged, but I kept it to myself.
In situations like this, a man opening his mouth is a crime — a summary execution, no trial needed.
And believe me, I know that better than anyone.
I'd spent years catering to that queen of a woman before my regression. I knew it very well.
When a woman is angry, the man bends.
That was the habit, the instinct, carved into my very bones.
Come to think of it… how are those two snakes doing these days?
Of all the targets I'd sworn to destroy — my ex-lover, the one who'd stabbed me in the back, and the man she'd cheated with.
I'd planned to return and have my revenge, but time had been hard to come by.
Once things settle down, I'll have to look into it.
And with that, I tossed another log onto the smoldering fire of vengeance in the corner of my heart.
“What did you just say?”
“W-well… Lord Lasbei, who had gone to defend Territory 15… has died.”
Swish!
The reporting demon's head tumbled across the floor.
The Poison Baron, having severed it with his own hand, slowly clenched his fist.
“Lasbei. Attend me.”
“Here, my lord.”
At the Poison Baron's summons, a demon opened the door and entered.
He bore nearly the same face as the Lasbei Han Jin had killed.
“Your younger brother was struck down, they tell me… and how, pray tell, am I meant to receive this news?”
As he spoke, the Poison Baron raised his demonic aura.
The Poison Baron was a demon noble of baron rank. Lasbei, by contrast, was a demon who had only just entered the intermediate ranks.
Demons were said to be the strongest race among the demonkin — but between those who held a noble rank and those who didn't lay an abyssal gulf.
“Kgh—!”
Lasbei vomited blood, yet refused to bend his knee.
Sympathy for a sibling's death? No such thing existed among demonkin.
That doomed fool of a brother! Why did he have to go to a place like that?!
The emotion Lasbei harbored was not grief, nor regret — it was resentment.
Resentment toward the younger brother who, despite being an intermediate demon of the strongest race among demonkin, had been bested by a mere human and dragged his kin into this humiliation.
“Shall I deal with it myself, then?”
“N-no, my lord! I will go and handle it personally!”
Lasbei swallowed the bait the Poison Baron had dangled.
His instincts had screamed that refusing it meant death.
“Then I shall trust you. Once.”
With those words, the Poison Baron withdrew his aura.
“Haah… haah… haah….”
Lasbei hurried out of the chamber, gasping for breath.
Poison — a demon noble bearing the rank of baron.
He had come from the Snake clan, the weakest of all demon races, and so Lasbei had secretly looked down on him. But today, that notion had died.
So that's what it means to hold a noble rank, is it…?
Fear of the Poison Baron took root in him — and at the same time, a tiny seed of greed began to sprout in his heart.
What if… what if I could take that rank for myself?
A member of the weakest race, the Snakes — and yet, if a demon of his caliber seized that rank, what then?
Then I could tear that Poison apart with my bare hands. Who knows — I might even challenge for the throne of Demon King.
And so Lasbei spread the wings of his imagination, soaring into fantasy.
Never knowing how hollow, how utterly worthless, such dreams were….
“Haha! I, the great Lord Lasbei, have come in person to capture you, human—!”
Nameless Footwork.
First Step.
Heaven-Breaking.
BOOOM! Swish!
A strange demon had shown up shouting at the top of his lungs, and before I knew it, my feet had already moved and killed him.
“Ah. I probably shouldn't have just killed him, huh?”
He was a demon, clear as day.
And a demon would have carried a decent supply of information.
Ah… damn. Wasted opportunity.
I resolved to handle things more slowly next time.
Intermediate demon Lasbei has been eliminated.
Calculating experience….
LEVEL UP!
“Huh? He was an intermediate demon?”
He'd died so easily I'd naturally assumed he was a low-grade demon.
Well, if anything, intermediate meant it was a win for me.
Just then, Jin Baek-rim came over.
“Huh? My lord, wasn't something just happening here?”
“Nothing at all. Anyway, shall we start today's training?”
“Yes! I'm in your hands!”
Baek-rim drew his spear.
I had also replaced my broken sword hilt with a spear.
“Hup!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three thrusts came at me in an instant.
I spun my spear and parried all three.
“Put a bit more power into your arm.”
“Shift your center of gravity a little more forward!”
“Keep the weight on your back foot!”
The day after I woke up, he had come to me and begged for instruction.
The residents here were growing in number, he'd said, and he couldn't rely on me alone forever — or so he claimed.
I told him he was welcome to lean on me as much as he liked, but his stubbornness was ironclad, and in the end we settled on combat coaching.
I knew he had talent, but it was this much?
I'd had him try out a whole array of weapons to find the right one, and the perfect fit had turned out to be the spear.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
All I'd done was offer a few words of correction, and the power running through his spear transformed.
They say such people exist — hear one thing, understand ten. I'd only ever heard the phrase. Now the living proof stood right in front of me.
A true genius.
I was a fake genius, forged through relentless effort.
But the Jin Baek-rim before me was the genuine article.
“Whew.”
Every time I watched him swing that spear, a shiver ran down my spine.
What if my footwork were layered on top of that spear?
Clang!
Then, the moment I shifted from defense to offense, the balance we'd been holding collapsed in a single breath.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Baek-rim, you're too aggressive. Learn a defensive spear style too — if you want to become a spear that protects.”
Clang!
My spear struck Jin Baek-rim's wrist, and his weapon slipped from his grip.
“I've… learned something.”
With those words, he sank to the floor.
Every time I face him, he grows stronger.
It was hard to believe his level had only just crossed 100.
I could use a spear well enough, but I was hardly a master of the craft.
Maybe I should find him an actual teacher at some point?
If this kept up, I'd run out of things to teach him — and he might end up leaving my side.
A talent like this? I can't let it slip away.
Truthfully, I'd been mulling this over since yesterday.
And the conclusion I'd reached was this.
Reign — the special ability I had gained this time.
If I could use it to grant him my mana….
Then all I have to do is teach him my footwork.
As for the restriction clause at the end — that would only ever trigger if he betrayed me.
That is, if Baek-rim ever betrayed me at all.
“Baek-rim.”
“Yes, Master?”
At some point he had started calling me Master, and I had started calling him Baek-rim in turn.
“How would you feel about entering my service?”
“I'm sorry — what?”
“If you don't want to, forget it.”
“N-no, wait, am I not already under your lordship?”
Yes, the hierarchy of lord and vassal existed between us.
But that wasn't what I wanted.
“I'm asking whether you'd serve as my direct knight.”
“……!”
His eyes went wide at my words.
Those eyes were shouting, Me? A guy like that wants ME?!
“If you'd rather not—”
“No! I want to!”
The answer came crashing over my words.
He must have been desperate.
“Aren't you the leader of the survivor group? Is it all right to decide something like this on the spot?”
“They'll probably say it's about time, honestly. Everyone here is so grateful to you, my lord.”
That was something I hadn't considered.
I'd never imagined they might feel gratitude toward me.
“And the truth is, I feel that same gratitude. If you hadn't saved us that day… I don't even want to imagine what would have happened.”
As he said it, Baek-rim shuddered from head to toe.
“So please, make me your knight. I will serve you — my master, my lord — for all eternity.”