I asked,
“That kid’s descendant?”
“I have a bit of a connection to Patrick’s bloodline.”
“What are you talking about? You’re not even with the Holy Knights of Light. How could you be related to someone from Alkahad—ah.”
Noticing the look of realization on my face, she nodded.
“When we first met, didn’t you spout off my past like it was nothing?”
“Hmm. You definitely said you made a backdoor deal with Dame thirty years ago…”
You also mentioned fighting Krotz Benjamin, the vice-captain of Alkahad, fifty years ago.
I had heard that story directly from Neril before the regression, but I never thought it would connect like this.
Neril continued speaking.“Maybe his son… no, judging by the age, probably his grandson. I’m kind of curious what he looks like.”
“Wanna go see? Adwin wants to take a look too.”
“Do we have time for that?”
“For the inauguration of the new Alkahad captain, every big name in the capital including the emperor is bound to show up. It’ll be a good place to gather information.”
Neril nodded.
We left the carriage to the coachman and headed toward the event on foot.
As we walked, Neril told stories from the past.
“Krotz was different from that Dame guy. He actually knew his place. After a few clashes, he raised both hands and surrendered.”
“Hm.”
“Even so, for someone who was the vice-captain of Alkahad, it was funny how thoroughly he prostrated himself. So I let him live.”
This might be the first time I’ve seen her talk about her own past like this.
Thinking about it, she’s lived a long life. There must be a lot of memories I don’t know about.
It’s a strange feeling.
[You know, Neril might be thinking the same thing.]
‘Huh?’
[You’ve got a bunch of memories she doesn’t know either. Same goes for the other party members.]
‘…’
[They’re precious comrades. Try to get to know them. Don’t wall yourself off like you did before the regression.]
I was a bit taken aback.
‘That’s surprisingly mature coming from you.’
[What’s that supposed to mean?]
‘Exactly what I said. That it’s surprisingly mature coming from you.’
[You just repeated yourself, you punk.]
‘Did you have comrades or party members too, by any chance?’
Trail replied firmly:
[No. I never had comrades. And I doubt I ever will.]
I let out a quiet chuckle.
What nonsense—he already has us.
The inauguration ceremony was grand.
We arrived late and got a bad spot, so from where we stood, the stage was nothing but a dot. But my sharp eyesight let me see it pretty clearly.
“It’s the emperor.”
At my murmuring, the others followed my gaze.
“That ant with the crown is the emperor?”
“That’s a hell of a way to talk about the ruler of the empire.”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. He really looks like an ant.”
“You realize that still sounds bad, right?”
That’s when Adwin spoke up.
Riding on Offense’s shoulders, he narrowed his eyes toward the stage.
“My mom said he was quite the handsome man when he took the throne. I don’t really see it though.”
Offense responded.
“Your mom’s that famous Mariana Ayn, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You call Neril ‘big sis’ but call me ‘sir’? That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Hmm… sorry, sir.”
“Get off my shoulders right now.”
I smiled faintly and looked back toward the stage.
Even from this distance, I could see the blood script clearly.
‘Well, well. The emperor’s quite the monstrous criminal too.’
His blood script showed a shocking count of 581 victims.
Outside of outliers like Kaeld, he ranked among the worst I’d ever seen.
Before the regression, the emperor only had a private audience with Kaeld, so this was the first time I’d seen his blood script.
If I had known then, I might have questioned whether the rewards he promised would even be honored.
‘Anyway, that’s not what matters right now.’
I shifted my gaze slightly.
Someone was being presented with the captain’s seal by the emperor.
That must be Patrick Benjamin.
They said he was handsome, but… not really feeling it.
[That’s a very subjective judgment.]
‘…’
[Huh? What’s wrong?]
Noticing the change in my expression, Trail asked.
I let out a quiet breath through my nose and examined Patrick’s blood script.
—“Has sinned against Dame Seide and 231 others.”
Dame Seide.
Head of the Holy Knights of Light and Xenia’s father. Alkahad’s current rival.
Patrick had sinned against him.
And, considering he was listed as the representative victim, it was probably the one sin he most wanted to keep hidden.
‘Trail. Tell me the secret between Dame and Patrick.’
[What? Dame?]
‘I’ll explain later. Just check the secret first.’
[O-Okay.]
Soon, a screen appeared.
I first checked the date in the upper right corner.
‘Last night?’
A secret that had happened less than 24 hours ago.
In the vision, Patrick was facing Dame.
Dame sipped his tea before speaking.
“First of all, congratulations, Vice Captain Patrick Benjamin.”
“You should call me Captain now.”
“The inauguration’s not until tomorrow.”
“You’re such a stickler. It’s less than a day away.”
Dame frowned at his slick tone.
Clack.
Deliberately, he set down his teacup with a loud sound and continued.
“No one else is around, so let’s speak freely, Vice Captain.”
“…”
“A lot of people are curious how you rose so quickly in a giant organization like Alkahad.”
“Must be skill, no?”
“No. Frankly, you’re not captain material. Not even vice captain, to be precise.”
Patrick’s face twisted in displeasure.
But Dame kept his sharp tone.
“I’m not saying this because I lead a rival organization. What did you do to the former Alkahad captain to get this far?”
“What do you mean? He just passed the position down to me and retired.”
“That man was still in perfect health. He always used to say he’d only retire the day he entered his coffin.”
“Well, people change their minds.”
“Are you just going to keep dodging the question?”
Dame raised his voice.
“And it’s not just the former captain. I’ve heard that many within Alkahad resent or envy your rapid promotions.”
“…”
“The same rumors float among the nobility. That you’re far too lacking to be the grandson of the legendary Vice-Captain Krotz.”
“Watch your mouth!”
Bang!
Patrick suddenly slammed the table.
But Dame didn’t even flinch.
I’d only ever dealt with hero-rank party members, so I’d forgotten—but Dame was still the third-ranked powerhouse in the Empire.
There’s no way someone like him would be intimidated by the fury of some greenhorn.
And to be honest, there wasn’t a single ounce of dignity to be felt from Patrick.
He opened his mouth, fuming.
“Grandfather, Grandfather! I’m sick and tired of being compared to that name!”
“Such is the fate of those born into great bloodlines. Vice-Captain Krotz was a respectable man.”
“That respectable man couldn’t even lay a finger on the Witch of Carnage and had to retreat!”
Dame’s eyebrow twitched.
“Is that supposed to be a jab at me?”
“Oh, now that you mention it, you went through the same thing, didn’t you, Sir Dame? Truly, the Witch of Carnage does give our organizations a hard time. In so many ways.”
“……”
“Anyway. Hoo. Let’s move on to the real reason we’re here.”
Patrick calmed himself and sat back down.
Then, with a rather vile-looking smile, he continued,
“Earlier, you said quite a bit—just because it was the two of us here. That’s fine. I’ll do something quite excessive too, since it’s just the two of us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Something like this, old man.”
“W-What?”
“Look into my eyes. Right now.”
Huh?
Suddenly, Patrick’s right eye began to glow red.
Even though I was watching through a screen, I got chills all over my body.
That light radiated a terribly ominous aura. It slowly faded… and then disappeared.
Dame stood there, blankly, before asking,
“What on earth did you just do…?”
“And here I thought you’d fold quickly, even with your big reputation. You’re number three in the Empire, huh? I was planning to corrupt you further, but you held on.”
“C-Corrupt…?”
“Why don’t you roll up your pants and take a look?”
Even though Patrick’s tone had suddenly changed—so unnaturally—Dame obediently rolled up his pant leg.
The fact that he followed the order at all… meant he felt it too.
Something very bad had happened to his leg.
“……!”
His eyes widened in horror.
Whoa.
[It’s almost too gruesome to look at.]
Just moments ago, Dame’s right leg had been perfectly fine. Now it was mangled.
It had blackened like rotten mud left standing too long—and was oozing.
That black, dripping flesh looked like the face of a demon straight from hell.
Sweating coldly, Dame shouted,
“What did you do to me?!”
“I think you’ve already got a guess.”
“……”
“You’ve heard of the Demon King of Corruption’s authority, right? I corrupted part of your body. Originally, I aimed to corrupt it up to your thigh, but it stopped at your knee. Still, not bad.”
Dame bit down on his lip hard.
Blood trickled from his mouth, but he didn’t even try to wipe it as he shouted,
“How the hell are you using the Demon King’s authority?!”
“I had a stroke of luck a while back. No point in asking, though—I won’t answer, so don’t waste your breath.”
“Y-You bastard…!”
“Stop getting worked up and think carefully. What do you suppose will happen if that partial corruption spreads to your bone marrow?”
Dame trembled, then spoke in a voice that was practically forced out of him.
“You think you’ll get away with this? This is an abnormal phenomenon! Every last member of the Holy Knights of Light will come after your head!”
“Heh. My former captain said the same thing.”
Oh. So that’s how it is.
‘That guy… He did the same thing to the previous Alkahad captain.’
[Right. Everyone was suspicious of Patrick’s abilities. He was far too young to serve as a division captain.]
‘Exactly. That’s how he took control of Alkahad in the capital—using tricks like this.’
Makes sense. Who could possibly stay calm when their own body is slowly turning into a monster?
“I won’t bend to such threats! Even if my entire body becomes corrupted, I’ll see to it that you’re punished!”
Huh. So he’s got some spine.
Even as Dame shouted with burning rage, Patrick didn’t look the least bit fazed.
“Yeah. The former captain said the same thing.”
“W-What?”
“He tried to arrest me too, even if it cost him his life. But then I showed him this, and he gave up.”
Shff.
Patrick pulled out a dagger.
Then, without warning, he lightly sliced his own palm.
Drip.
As a decent amount of blood spilled across the table, Dame suddenly reacted.
“Urgh!”
He grabbed his leg and groaned in pain.
Hurriedly, he checked—and found that the corruption, which had reached only his knee earlier, had now climbed to his thigh.
“Do you get it now? If you try to harm me, you’ll automatically transform further.”
“……”
“You can’t arrest me. You can’t reveal my crimes. ‘Harming me’ doesn’t just mean physical attacks.”
“……”
“If you tarnish my name, or accuse me falsely—any action that I interpret as being ‘targeted’ will trigger more corruption. From now on, until the day you die, you’ll have to focus solely on praising my name.”
Gnash.
Dame ground his teeth.
Patrick chuckled and kept going.
“Oh, and by the way, it’s not just Alkahad.”
“…What?”
“There are people in the Holy Knights of Light who are already corrupted. Some noble heirs, too. And of course, a few guild heads and guard captains.”
“……”
“Everyone who opposed—or might oppose—me taking the position of captain is probably already walking around with a body part wrapped in heavy bandages. Heh.”
“……”
“So? Don’t you think everyone’s going to come together now… to celebrate my promotion to commander?”
I could only click my tongue at the guy’s sheer villainy.
Patrick’s right eye.
The Gem of Corruption can take many forms: a tree, a rock, a human, a monster—even the Black Sun.
And yes, it can become a human eye.
Which means…
‘That right eye of Patrick’s is the Black Sun that appeared in the capital before the regression—the Gem of Corruption itself.’
Hmm.
The Gem of Desolation I got from the Martial King has proven incredibly useful.
I imagine the Gem of Corruption will be just as versatile.
Honestly, when I first came to the capital, all I could think about was how to somehow deal with the Black Sun.
Even I hadn’t considered the idea of wielding the sun in my hand.
[Wait—are you saying…?]
I smirked and replied,
‘If it’s just an eyeball… I can carry it around, right?’