Caron wasn’t the only one who showed up. Two knights had their arms tied, hands bound behind their backs, and at the end of their rope stood one instructor holding it.
‘Bickerd, Redington, and Instructor Joan, huh.’
This was another scene that had never appeared in the game.
‘I’ve been thinking this ever since the decisive battle started… I seriously have no idea what those guys are even good for.’
In fact, there were two hidden pieces that occurred during the Dark Beast Squad’s activities.
The first was the reconciliation between Lowell and Rodelin, and the second was the reformed Trash Knights.
I’d been aiming for the first one from the start and moved accordingly, but with the second, I couldn’t even grab a thread to follow, much less ride the flow.
‘Maybe it’s a hidden piece where you pick either the Lucid sisters or the Trash Knights and clear it with one side…’
I wasn’t really disappointed.
Just solving a hidden piece I’d never seen before in one go was amazing in itself.
Kugugugugu-!
‘What’s his problem now.’
Caron was radiating a terrifying aura.
Did someone he really hated show up or something? Well, it probably wasn’t me.
…Probably.
“Pjol! How did it go? Did you manage to convince the lord?”
“…I failed. But I did manage to fulfill my final duty.”
“Ah…!”
“My lord…!”
Baron Kelven’s corpse lay neatly on the ground.
Bickerd and Redington started running toward it.
The rope binding them together made them tumble and roll along the way, but they didn’t care and just kept going.
“Th-they just suddenly bolted…”
Joan let go of the rope, and her face immediately went pale.
Because Caron was looking right at her.
“Go watch them. If it looks like they’re thinking of running, you may kill them.”
“D-do we really have to go that far? They’re grieving so much…”
“Are you sympathizing with the enemy? They say betraying once makes betraying twice easy… looks like it’s true.”
“M-my sword is screaming that it wants blood, you knooow!”
Joan sprinted off like lightning and started circling the knights, keeping watch.
Her sharp eyes and fierce presence said she wouldn’t allow even the tiniest opening. It was the very image of a true instructor.
If you ignored the fact that she was doing it on all fours.
“Tsk…”
Caron clicked his tongue and walked over to where we were.
“Keke, you sure took your time. I thought I’d turn into an old man waiting.”
From the surface down to the bottom of the mine, and on top of that we’d fought a huge battle in the middle.
We’d taken care of Baron Kelven, who made a contract with a Demon, and even reconciled Lowell and Rodelin.
‘If this were a novel, that would be around chapter seventeen.’
It was both a jab and a roundabout way of asking what he’d been doing all that time instead of showing up.
Caron’s answer was simple.
“I got here faster than your head could roll. Is there a problem?”
‘Right. Basically, I should be grateful I’m alive.’
I had no complaints. If anything, I liked it.
‘Everything around me has been crawling with people who don’t match the game, and it was making me nervous…’
But Caron was exactly the same as usual. Proof the story hadn’t veered too far off course.
I couldn’t help but feel relieved.
‘Yeah, Caron. Humiliate me more!’
It’s not because I’m a pervert. I just wanted reassurance that the game was still running along the lines in my head.
“You just arrived sooner than I expected, so you caught me off guard. I was in the middle of cleaning up the corpses.”
“Enough jokes. First, give me a brief report.”
Lowell started her report right away.
They confirmed that Nade was Baron Kelven.
The Demon was defeated, Pjol carried out Baron Kelven’s execution, and—
“…A top-grade mana stone?”
“Yeah, that’s what he called it. I haven’t had it appraised yet, but… you can tell just by looking at it, can’t you?”
Fragments of a top-grade mana stone, packed with pure mana.
Caron stared at the shards for a long moment, then turned his gaze toward me. Knowing his personality, praise was out of the question.
‘He’ll probably smack me on the head like, “You cocky brat, doing cocky things!”’
As if to prove me right, Caron’s hand rose.
He glanced back and forth between me and Lowell beside me.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt like the corner of his mouth had lifted slightly.
“You did something impressive.”
Everyone’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t just that he praised me; he even ruffled my hair.
“You really are suited to being a filthy rat. Ah, being filthy is the highest compliment among rats. You know that, right?”
…I do?
Still, I knew this was Caron-style high praise.
For him to go beyond simple praise and give me a rave review… things had strayed way too far from the original.
Looks like this run is a bust.
‘But my life’s on the line, so I can’t just restart… I’m going to lose my mind.’
Feeling dizzy from it all, I pressed a hand to my forehead.
The problem was that what came next was even more bewildering.
“Why are you calling a kid a rat? Are you insane?”
“That matter’s already settled. After graduation he’ll become a rat and work for the Empire.”
‘Since when has it been settled?’
But I couldn’t say it out loud, because Caron gave me a faint smile.
An unspoken threat that if I spouted nonsense, he’d rip my mouth open.
Maybe she sensed that, because Lowell pushed me behind her and faced Caron.
“Dreams can change anytime. A man’s fickleness is a scary thing, you know.”
“You mean a woman’s fickleness.”
“Wow, sexist much. And you call yourself a teacher?”
Kugugugugu-!
With me caught between them, Caron and Lowell started arguing.
It was like…
-Don’t fight because of me!
Like I was some tragic heroine torn between two male leads.
It’s the kind of situation everyone dreams of at least once. Except there were two tiny differences: I was a guy, not a girl, and—
“Instead of bickering, let’s ask him directly. The choice is his anyway, right?”
“Are you sure about that? If you’re not chosen, the honor of the Lucid family will be dragged through the mud.”
“You’re really running your mouth today. You scared?”
Also, the one who wasn’t chosen might tear me apart and kill me!
“Anyone with sense works where the support is top-notch. Come to your big-sis with the big backing.”
Lowell thumped her chest as she said it.
‘Well, the Lucid family definitely has big backing, but you aren’t exactly big anywhere.’
Obviously, I was talking about Lowell’s position and standing.
Right now the Lucid family was in a situation where the eldest, Lucia, and the second, Lucas, were competing for the head position.
There weren’t many retainers following Lowell, and the few who did were just drawn to her charm. None of them had any real intention of making her the family head.
‘Even so, just being a member of the Lucid family would mean getting a lot of support.’
In contrast, what Caron was offering was…
“…I hope you make a wise choice.”
Absolutely nothing. Well, maybe the fact that he probably wouldn’t kill me was his version of a perk.
Caron and Lowell.
The rat and the Lucids.
My choice was…
“I’ll think it over calmly.”
“What?”
“Keke, maybe I’ll get an offer from somewhere even better.”
“Somewhere better? As if there’s a place better than our family…”
Lowell trailed off.
She was right to hesitate. Few were the places that could compete with the Lucid family.
The Empire’s Eight Great Houses, the Holy Kingdom, and—
“The Imperial Knight Order…? Is that what you’re aiming for?”
“Dreams are supposed to be big.”
“You think that’ll work? Even I had a hard time getting in there. Well? Aren’t you going to say something to put him in his place?”
Lowell jabbed Caron with her elbow.
But Caron didn’t say a word. He only frowned slightly.
Like something had just occurred to him.
“What? You’re making this awkward.”
“…We’ve wasted too much time. Everyone, prepare to head back.”
Caron issued instructions to the instructors and started wrapping things up.
Under Lowell’s escort, we made it out of the mine safely.
It was the moment the long Trash Village episode finally came to an end.
Caron’s office.
“Aaah, that was rough. Someone showed up ridiculously late and I almost died, you know.”
Lowell flopped down on the sofa.
She must have just washed up; warm steam was still rising from her hair.
Caron unconsciously frowned. Not just at her childlike behavior and way of speaking.
“Don’t you think the problem is that you acted off-plan?”
“It ended well, didn’t it? That’s what matters. Anyway, hurry this up and let me go. I have to go play with Delin.”
Lowell kicked her legs restlessly, and Caron shook his head.
The reason Caron had called her to his office was to get a detailed report.
They had submitted a written report as soon as they got back to the village, but you can’t recall everything perfectly when you’re exhausted.
Besides, there had been some things that bothered him.
“You got taken down by a mid-rank Demon… Is that true?”
“Taken down? Nobody got taken down! It was just a little stab!”
“Most people would call that getting hit. If you don’t like that, I’ll amend it to ‘almost died.’”
“Grrr…!”
Lowell trembled in frustration, then let out a long sigh.
“I let my guard down. Guess I still have a long way to go.”
“Hm…”
At the moment, Orobas was recorded not as a sixth-grade Demon, but as a mid–high fifth-grade one.
On top of his demon magic Wandering Storm, Mana Backflow had been added.
It created a convincing excuse for why it was possible for Lowell to be injured.
‘That punk Zero… he even planned for a situation like this?’
That had to have been the case. This was all Zero’s handiwork.
From the situation, to the flow of the battle, to the Demon’s abilities.
In the short time between leaving the mine and returning to the village, he put together a flawless cover story and handed it to Lowell.
Caron didn’t doubt it. In fact, he believed it.
Because he trusted Zero.
‘Even if there’s some lies mixed in, it doesn’t matter.’
If Zero had struck some kind of deal and profited from it, that too was part of his skill.
And failing to see through it was part of Caron’s own ability.
“I’ve told you before, relying on mana alone is something only amateurs do.”
“Ugh! I get it, okay! I messed up, so drop it already!”
“I’ll take that as a sign you’ll answer my questions sincerely.”
A fairly detailed Q&A followed.
Tired out, Lowell stopped overthinking and just told him what had happened.
Aside from the parts related to the Demon Orobas, there wasn’t much she needed to hide anyway.
“If Wandering Storm collides with itself, it reflects… I never would have imagined a tactic like that.”
“Right? Copying a Demon’s Demon Magic… you have no idea how shocked I was watching it.”
“I told you before. He can watch someone use a technique and copy it.”
“I didn’t know that included magic! And Demon Magic is way harder than normal magic!”
Even thinking back on it, it was hard to believe. He’d used Demon Magic, and not just any magic—he reproduced one he’d seen only minutes before.
It was a talent that could only inspire shock.
“Well, it’s not completely impossible. There was a precedent of someone pulling off something similar back in his student days.”
“Yeah. The problem is that that student was Elester. That annoying old raccoon geezer.”
Elester was an Archmage, a man who had reached the highest heights possible in a human body.
And now someone had a talent on par with that Archmage?
“A genius… huh.”
Techniques, secret arts, magic, and now even Demon Magic.
If the techniques Zero could use kept increasing…
‘He’ll become an incredible monster in the future.’
He was the key to taking down the Second Legion Commander.
He needed to be secured ahead of time. No, she had to get him, no matter what.
“Don’t get any ideas.”
Maybe he’d noticed what Lowell was thinking, because Caron fired off a warning.
“About what?”
“Like I said earlier, Zero’s already agreed to become a rat.”
“Come on, that’s a waste of talent for a rat.”
“It’s even more of a waste for him to work under you.”
“Can’t I just borrow him for a bit and give him back?”
“Denied.”
“Ugh, whatever! I’m just going to take him! If you don’t like it, file a formal complaint with my father!”
Lowell flailed her arms and legs as she shouted, like a child throwing a tantrum.
But Caron didn’t respond. He just kept silently writing his report.
‘Is he mad?’
Lowell peeked her head over the back of the sofa.
There was a lot of force behind the hand scribbling with the pen.
“What, are you giving up? Then I’m taking him.”
“If you can, go ahead.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? Doesn’t sound like you’re giving up.”
“It means there’s no point in us fighting over him.”
Caron’s words were cryptic.
Tilting her head, Lowell suddenly recalled what had happened earlier.
“I felt this back in the mine too… do you actually think that brat Zero can get into the Imperial Knight Order?”
“…Of course it’s impossible.”
“Knew it.”
Only the Empire’s very best talents could enter the Imperial Knight Order.
Even noble children trained professionally from a young age rarely broke through.
There was no way a mere commoner like Zero, with his… memorable face, could get in.
At least…
“…not through the official route.”
–TL Notes–
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That bet between Caron and Adonis!
Did Zero jump out of frying pan into the fire!?
And Elester is damn remarkable himself…Perhaps the Emperor word that he might have a breakthrough is also true,His growth after war with Legion commander must have been amazing back then