Ch.85Looking Back to Speak (5)

The next morning.

The caretaker handed me a note. It was from Allen, the Royal Guard Bureau agent disguised as an art dealer. The message said he had arranged an appointment with Professor Osrant Koch from the Department of Literature for the afternoon, and I shouldn’t be late.

Since there was no specific mention about companions, we discussed all going together, but ultimately decided that Kain would go alone.

The situation was already strained with him pretending to be “Anna’s research assistant.” Bringing Lily, who would attract attention with her height and beauty, or Maria, who was educated in a monastery rather than an academy, would be burdensome in many ways.

“I don’t know anything about academy life. If I have to explain who I am, it would require unnecessary explanations, which wouldn’t be helpful.”

Instead, the women decided to try decoding William’s diary. The first half of the third volume contained that obscene content, but the latter part consisted of letters exchanged with others.

“Maria, isn’t that too much work?”

“I don’t plan to do it all anyway. But we can at least determine whether the decryption key is ‘hope’ or not. We just need to substitute the first letter to confirm. Who knows? Maybe we’ll discover something as we piece things together.”

When Kain expressed admiration, Maria seemed quite proud.

“Not bad, right? I was lying down to sleep last night when it suddenly came to me.”

“Maria. Are you sure you don’t want to join the cipher department? You’ve got talent.”

“Shut up. I’m perceptive, not smart. Besides, if I keep doing this, I feel like my lifespan will shorten. Even so…”

Maria’s lips twitched as she changed the subject.

“Anyway, I don’t want to. When are you leaving?”

This made it awkward for Kain and Lily to press further about what she meant.

“I’m going early. I want to look through some materials at the library too.”

* * * * *

The Southern Academy was different from the Capital Academy in many ways.

The campus was larger, but the buildings were lower. They said it was because the ground was somewhat soft. Perhaps because of this, walking on the grass gave a pleasant feeling of stability as the earth gently embraced one’s feet.

The atmosphere among students was different too.

In the capital, everyone was serious and proper. It wasn’t that they were particularly well-behaved. The person who just bumped shoulders with you might be the eldest son of a count without a castle, or perhaps the youngest son favored by the Elector.

So there was a strong atmosphere of being moderately friendly while maintaining distance. This was a suitable academic climate for Kain, who had a strong loner tendency.

But not here. Even the professors seemed full of energy.

Because of this, on his way up to the central library, Kain passed by literature department professors and students who were drinking alcohol in broad daylight with flower crowns on a wooden statue, embracing each other’s shoulders;

Art students who were either painting or drinking because they couldn’t bear to look at their own paintings while sober;

And music students whose performances couldn’t be distinguished between talent-driven acting or alcohol-induced melodies.

The most decent ones were the geology department students, who were passed out drunk and sleeping. If not for the lone fluttering geology department flag, he wouldn’t have known which department they belonged to.

‘Artists steeped in pretense and vanity, self-proclaimed.’

It might look pathetic to an older Royal Guard Bureau agent. But to Kain’s eyes, it didn’t appear that way.

In truth, he envied their optimism.

Being able to act foolishly comes from having faith. Faith that tomorrow will be uneventful, just like yesterday and today.

Kain recalled his student days. It was a time when he had little interest in anything other than studying hard to succeed.

Even then, the world might have been threatened by something unknown. Perhaps someone nameless ran in all directions to protect the ordinary days of people who knew nothing.

He hadn’t told Boehm, Bom, or even Lily, but when he joined the Security Bureau and was given his unique codename, and when he went on secret missions, he felt a subtle pride in becoming that nameless hero.

Had the world changed because of it?

It had changed. For the worse.

People complained more. Politics within the Empire became chaotic, and the same was true for other countries surrounding the Empire.

Turmoil within the Empire intensified. Security Bureau agents who used to carry out missions outside the Empire now focused more on resolving internal issues.

Having seen, heard, and experienced much in the Security Bureau, Kain didn’t think it was because the Emperor was incompetent. Rather, he believed the Emperor was preventing things from getting worse precisely because he was the Emperor.

But people were repeatedly disappointed. What they expected from the Emperor and the Empire was something simpler and easier than that.

‘A tomorrow better than today.’

Days of exhaustion, thanklessness, and wearing down. The more work done, the more that came back were damage claims, curses, and reproaches.

For a while, he endured by thinking, this is just work. It’s only work.

Kain gradually became indifferent and numb. He didn’t get angry, but he didn’t laugh much either. Security Bureau work ultimately happened within certain boundaries, so it was all the same.

He thought he just needed to avoid burnout until retirement. But during that time, he didn’t realize he was slowly erasing himself.

‘Maria once called me an eagle.’

An eagle that carefully observes the world but wants to avoid getting hurt by coming too close. A bird that doesn’t come down unless it’s a critical moment.

It was true. And he knew Lily liked this aspect of him.

He had merely observed without emotion because he was worn out and numb, but Lily believed he was looking at her without prejudice.

Family. Appearance. Scars. She said that beyond all that, he treated her simply as a “person,” and that Kain was the only one who had ever seen her that way.

By the time Kain, too exhausted to even be surprised, came to his senses, Lily had already come too close.

His relationship with Lily had crossed the line long ago.

She was stubborn. Insubordinate. Sometimes she acted fatally seductive in ways that made him wonder where she learned such behavior, but when he approached, she would get flustered and hiccup. He knew she only heard what she wanted to hear from him.

He could no longer be with Lily indifferently as before.

At some point, he found himself staring blankly at Lily more often. Having their bodies close to each other no longer felt awkward.

Very occasionally, he wanted to talk to her for no reason at all.

When he saw her lips pursed into a circle. When she smiled with her bare face after washing. When she twisted her wet hair up with a towel, revealing her pale, slender, long neck.

When she wore thin clothes that revealed her deep cleavage and came close enough for their chests to touch. When she approached playfully after he backed away in embarrassment.

When she covered her mouth for a small yawn. When she nestled beside Kain and chattered, “This happened before.”

When she hid delicious things like a squirrel and brought them out one by one to share when needed.

He also knew that Maria was subtly creating such an atmosphere. He knew Lily was trying to get deeper little by little. He knew everything, but Kain became increasingly talkative.

Kain, who never would have told stories like the one about the old man from the Eastern Union, was now sharing. Even if it had nothing to do with the current situation, it was something he had heard during work.

Kain became afraid as boundaries kept loosening and walls crumbled. At this rate, one side would eventually fall.

‘If Lily truly becomes precious to me. If we come to share love. If she grows so important to me that the Shadow would show her to me.’

A worry that would have been unimaginable when he treated her only as a combat agent now gripped Kain’s heart.

So Kain became afraid.

Because he had already experienced how things turn out when he becomes emotional.

* * * * *

The library was relatively quiet. The librarian gave Kain books about the Seven Heroes without asking who he was. After rereading Professor Osrant Koch’s book, he got hungry and went to the cafeteria, blending in with the students.

It was a sandwich with deboned grilled trout, grilled onions, grilled olives, and melted cheese. The texture could have been dry, but a mustard sauce mixed with fruit juice, vinegar, and honey complemented it perfectly, creating a clean taste.

With some time left, he sat on a bench by the fountain and recalled the contents of the book. It was a story he already knew from reading it several times, and it was also the source of the materials Anna had included in the mail coach for reference, so he could recall it vividly.

The Demon King rose from the desolate northeastern wasteland during a time of war.

The Shadow’s mist spread from the northeastern wasteland to the Empire. The Shadow brought out nightmares and terrible delusions from people’s minds. Monsters attacked people gripped by fear.

This was why there was confusion in the early records. It was difficult to distinguish whether the terrifying monster stories told by frightened people were delusions or real. They were later confirmed to be “real monsters.”

Countries that had been fighting each other until then joined forces to form a crusade. The Empire. The Eastern Union and the Southern Kingdom. The pagans of the North and West declared their own jihad, or holy war, and raised armies to fight the Demon King.

But even a battle-hardened veteran would find it difficult to overcome the fear in their own heart. Even if they barely suppressed their fear, what followed was long, persistent harassment and ambushes.

From the seemingly empty shadows emerged human wrists, lower bodies without upper bodies, flying eyeballs, and the like. Coming from the shadows, they appeared from under conference tables, from corners of warehouses, from the darkness of night.

The Demon King’s power was strongest during the new moon when the moon was almost completely obscured. On that day, they had to halt their advance and illuminate all camps as bright as day.

Holy knights, inquisitors, and clergy who could perform divine miracles collapsed from overwork.

High-grade weapons meant to burn evil with sacred fire were continuously deployed in wasteful and meaningless battles.

This too was the Demon King’s strategy. When the main force attacked, these fighters couldn’t use their power properly, and the damage continued to accumulate and grow.

Yet even in the midst of this, there were those who endured with willpower.

They became beacons for people engulfed in fear. They overcame their own fears, shouted at people to come to their senses, and encouraged them that they could overcome.

They blew the advance trumpet themselves, shot the signal arrow announcing the start of the war, seized the master’s drum and beat it, and struck the gong. Those with strong willpower, those who overcame fear, those who awakened others and brought them to their senses.

In particular, seven among them showed exceptional valor. As the crusaders’ morale broke, defeatism prevailed, and offensives continued to fail, the commanders proposed a reorganization plan.

To reorganize the troops with these seven as vanguard leaders.

With the approval of the Pope and the Emperor, the troops were reorganized into seven. To match the number seven, each unit and warrior was assigned one of the seven virtues.

Arius, a monk of the Two-headed Eagle Faith who became the Apostle of Temperance.

William, a former holy knight of the Mercy Knights who became the Knight of Chastity.

Arianne, a Samaritan born between the Empire and the western pagans but abandoned and neglected, who became the Lady of Humility.

Roberta, a gamekeeper who later became known as “the woman loved by all,” the Kindness.

Günther, the Patience, who grew up as a duke’s illegitimate child, fell to become a prisoner, and joined the crusade to receive forgiveness for his sins.

Hans, the Diligence, who introduced himself as an alchemist but was merely a wandering medicine peddler.

And Leonardo, the Charity, originally a pirate from the Eastern Union who formed and led a mercenary group.

With the Seven Heroes at the vanguard, soldiers driven by fear and terror followed them. Though their numbers dwindled, the power of fear and terror grew stronger, and the offensive intensified, but they could not withstand the valor of the Seven Heroes.

After much sacrifice, they defeated the Demon King, and peace came to the world.

The story should have ended there.

Goodbye. They lived happily ever after, and the curtain fell.

But it wasn’t so. The story continues. The heroes couldn’t bring the story to an end. So isn’t the end now crawling into the world?

Kain stood up. It was time to meet the professor.