Fumble!

“Huff··· gasp···”

The forest of Karognar Domain.

Inside a fortress made from the trees there.

Within that fortress, an orc fled, panting heavily.

“Damn it··· I have to tell the Great Chieftain, tell the Great Chieftain···!”

That orc was the chieftain who ruled this forest.

After accidentally eating a knight’s corpse and rising to the third tier, he had become an executive under the being called the “Great Chieftain.”

He had been assigned to guard this forest for the Great Chieftain.

His task was to abduct people and knights passing through the forest and throw them to his comrades as food.

Thanks to that, he had managed to build a fairly powerful orc settlement in this forest.

‘All that remains is to return to the Great Chieftain!’

He had been preparing this army and getting ready to return to the Great Chieftain.

But as if the heavens had decided not to let that happen, they brought disaster upon the orc.

‘What the hell is that beastkin?!’

The orc chieftain watched the white tiger beastkin rampaging through the fortress’s central square.

- “Orya!!”

As she threw an uppercut accompanied by a thunderous kiai, an orc warrior was sent flying into the air.

She struck the warrior with her elbow and sent him flying, then punched a hole through the solar plexus of the spearman targeting her back.

Then, whenever she was surrounded by a horde of orcs,

- “White Lotus Eight Trigrams!”

She unleashed an explosion of black and white that swept away the entire surrounding area.

Although the girl’s sensed level was the same as his own—third tier—her physical prowess reached the fourth tier, so the orc chieftain hurriedly fled.

‘Damn karma!’

The chieftain cursed the karma that had brought such a monster to him.

There was no place in this world where fiends could set foot.

Even if they were lucky enough to establish a foothold, they would inevitably be driven out within ten years.

That was why fiends did not believe in heaven.

‘What has heaven ever done for me that it’s taking even this away!’

Of course, there was a contradiction in the orc chieftain’s thinking.

He should have dealt with their cannibalistic culture first, but fiends were genuinely proud of that culture, so persuading them was a distant prospect.

However, none of that mattered to the orc chieftain right now.

‘As long as I survive···!’

As long as he, a third-tier being, survived, he would somehow be able to make a comeback.

To do that, he first had to return to the city where the Great Chieftain was.

He threw his subordinates to the white tiger girl as sacrificial lambs and headed for his carriage.

Squeal. Squeal.

After firmly tying the wild boars to the carriage, the chieftain whipped the pigs.

“Hyaa!”

Squeee!’

The cannibalistic boars, raised on human flesh, began running with their eyes dyed red.

With legs powerful enough to make ordinary warhorses look pitiful by comparison, these pigs gave him confidence that no one could catch them.

The carriage quickly left the stables and headed toward the fortress exit.

However, just before the fortress exit, the carriage wheels began spinning uselessly, as though they had caught on something.

“Hmm? Did we get stuck in mud?”

The orc chieftain stuck his head outside the carriage and looked down.

The wheels were not stuck in anything. They were simply floating in the air.

It was not only the carriage that had risen.

The boars pulling the carriage were also flailing in midair.

The chieftain rubbed both eyes in confusion.

At that moment, someone walked toward the carriage.

“Did you think you could escape fate, Cacique (chieftain)?”

Duke approached, his deep voice echoing from beneath his helmet.

The orc chieftain involuntarily swallowed at the imposing presence of the helmet.

“Who are you.”

“That is the wrong question. You should be begging for mercy.”

Of course, Duke had no intention of granting mercy. He had simply wanted to say that line.

“Tsk.”

The chieftain could do nothing but click his tongue, still unable to understand the situation.

“You’ll make a decent snack for the road.”

He took a hunting stone from the carriage and threw it at Duke’s ankle.

However, the moment the stone left the orc chieftain’s hand, it changed course and left him hanging by the neck in midair.

“Gk···”

In the chieftain’s fading vision, Duke’s right hand, emerging from beneath his cloak, was posed as though it were gripping and hanging something.

Only then did the chieftain realize that something was wrong.

Duke flung the orc chieftain, who was hanging by the neck, out of the carriage, then seized the air with his left hand.

Kweeek-!

Thud.

The boars that had charged with red eyes, displaying their instinct to rush forward, collapsed with a dying cry.

As the incomprehensible scenes continued one after another, the chieftain began crying in terror.

“P-please··· save me···”

As though granting his request, the cord holding the chieftain by the neck came loose.

The chieftain collapsed to the ground and greedily inhaled the air he had missed.

Duke looked down at the chieftain and spoke.

“Your neck does not belong to me.”

Duke turned his back on the chieftain and walked away.

The oxygen-starved orc chieftain could not fully understand Duke’s words, but he realized one thing.

‘I’m alive···’

For some reason, that Grim Reaper had spared him.

The chieftain hurriedly rose and tried to flee.

However, as Duke disappeared beyond the hill, the white tiger girl who had been rampaging through the square appeared from that same hill, and the chieftain could only groan.

“Ah···”

Ignoring the chieftain’s feelings, Duke passed by Ari and spoke.

“I’ve prepared your share.”

“Thank you, Sir Knight.”

“Gain experience and repay Lord Rex. Let that serve as your thanks.”

“Yes, sir!”

Answering with a martial artist’s thunderous kiai, Ari immediately charged at the chieftain.

‘Damn humans···’

Tears and snot streaming down his face at his situation, the chieftain grabbed the axe he had been carrying on his back.

“Wooooo!!!! I won’t be violated!!!!”

The chieftain charged at her with a thunderous war cry.

A few minutes later.

Bang!

The orc chieftain, his solar plexus caved in, was put on display at the fortress exit.

***

After the Orc Fortress Subjugation was over, Rex took some time to assess the battle results.

‘This mission was easy··· Ah, I think my sense of things has gotten strange lately···’

Strictly speaking, the Orc Fortress Subjugation had been an S-rank mission.

It was a fortress with an orc chieftain on the level of a third-tier S-rank adventurer and numerous orc warriors on the level of second-tier A-rank adventurers.

For the citizens, it was a mission whose composition was nothing short of a disaster.

However, it had not been particularly difficult for Ari.

‘Can I consider Ari fourth tier now?’

With that thought, Rex checked her status window.

=========

Name: Ari

Level: 29 > 39

[Combat Stats]

Intelligence 24 > 36

Technique 28 > 50

Spirit 21 > 30

Strength 39 > 49

=========

It was an unbelievable amount of growth to achieve in only half a year.

Rex paid particular attention to her stats rather than her level.

Usually, stats that exceeded one’s level were called overpowered specs, and Ari’s Technique and Strength were both overpowered.

‘Is she bugged?’

Her Technique stat was even at the level of a fifth-tier being.

Rex thought he knew what had caused it.

‘So this is why superhumans cling to fortuitous encounters with masters.’

To think that simply meeting a good master could make her Technique stat grow explosively.

Considering the combination with her skill, it would be fair to consider her a fourth-and-a-half-tier being.

‘As expected of Duke.’

While Rex was feeling proud, Duke and Ari returned.

Ari came running over, her black-and-white tail swishing gently.

“Lord Rex!”

“G-good work···”

“I think I’m about to break through the wall!”

“Already?!”

“Yes! From now on, I’ll smash all of Lord Rex’s enemies!”

Rex was aghast.

If she broke through the wall like this, she would be fourth tier.

To go from the second tier to the fourth tier in half a year.

It was the kind of growth that would make it unsurprising if superhumans killed her out of jealousy.

At that moment, Duke asked Rex for permission in a serious voice.

“Lord Rex. Before we return, I believe Ari needs to meditate here.”

Rex and Ari tilted their heads, but listened to Duke.

Rex sat on the side of his carriage and watched the two of them, while Duke sat her down on the ground and hurriedly began a koan dialogue.

“Ari. Why do you kill?”

The reason Duke was making her meditate so urgently was the realization that had taken root in her heart during this battle.

“Why did you pile up the corpses of those orcs?”

“For Lord Rex, of course.”

“Then what did you realize this time?”

“I’ll slay Lord Rex’s enemies and make Lord Rex’s dream come true.”

At those words, Duke shook his head.

“That is where you are mistaken.”

Killing must never become part of enlightenment.

No matter how noble the purpose contained within an enlightenment, the moment killing becomes mixed into it, that enlightenment is muddied.

Ari tilted her head.

“Because it will eventually cause trouble for Lord Rex due to karma?”

“It is not that. Do not use the shock of killing as a means of attaining enlightenment.”

Duke was not a pacifist.

He had been able to create a mountain range out of the graves he made during the fall of the empire, so he had no intention of suddenly preaching nonviolence now.

What he wanted to discuss was a matter of efficiency.

“Raising your realm through killing intent is like quenching your thirst with seawater. Once even the smallest fragment of killing intent takes root in your mental image, you will begin seeking only that while dying of thirst.”

This was not a matter of good and evil.

In Duke’s eyes, enlightenment had no such thing as good or evil.

However, the moment one used killing as a means of attaining enlightenment, a ceiling appeared.

One became addicted to killing intent, and before long, it became impossible to advance one’s realm through any other enlightenment.

“For one who turns the thrill of killing into enlightenment, becoming drunk on blood makes it impossible to use any other means. Not elixirs, not masters, nothing.”

Once that happened, one’s maximum would be the sixth tier—or the seventh tier if one was lucky—and growth would stop.

That was because, from that realm onward, there were very few people of a similar realm left to kill.

Other people did not care, since reaching the sixth tier more or less guaranteed immortality, but Duke intended to raise Ari to at least the eighth tier, so he wanted to avoid that situation.

“If you have turned your enlightenment into words, do not include the word ‘killing.’ If you have honed your mental image, do not draw blood within it.”

Only then did Ari understand and nod.

The koan dialogue ended, and she spent some time meditating.

“I understand. I should build my strength to protect Lord Rex, but remain vigilant so that I do not become numb to killing people.”

Nod.

Although it followed a slightly different path from his own enlightenment, Duke respected it as her enlightenment as well.

Thus, after gaining her new enlightenment, her level had fallen to 36.

Duke praised her.

“Letting go of what you hold is the hardest thing. However, the foundation of the tower you have built has grown all the stronger for it, so you may be proud.”

Rex was also surprised when he saw a level decrease for the first time.

[Levels can go down.]

“If you let go of the impure mana accumulated in your body and your misguided enlightenment, that can happen. Once you cross a wall, however, there is no turning back.”

That was why Duke had hurriedly had her meditate.

If Ari reached level 40 like this, a tiger drunk on blood would be born.

‘It wasn’t in the original story, so this is probably my fault.’

The Ari of the original story had not inserted killing intent into her mental image.

Because she had struggled alongside Rex and climbed upward without any resources, she had keenly understood the weight of killing.

By comparison, Ari in this world had been raised by Duke into an overpowered tiger, so killing could feel somewhat insignificant to her.

‘This is my responsibility, so I’ll have to set her straight.’

While Duke was modifying his plans for her development in that way, Rex, who had been mulling it over alone, spoke to him.

[But I’m curious: does Duke’s enlightenment not have that killing intent either?]

Duke nodded without hesitation.

“My purpose has never changed once since the day I first took up the sword. And I have never once allowed room for killing intent to intrude upon my enlightenment.”

Rex and Ari looked at Duke with admiration as he spoke proudly.

‘For all his extremism, a knight is still a knight.’

‘As expected of my master. Even when he dirtied his hands, he never lost sight of his purpose.’

However, Duke’s enlightenment was somewhat different from what the two of them thought.

‘Killing intent means giving up the late game to accelerate early growth. Why would I make that my enlightenment?’

What Duke wanted was to become the final boss, not a mid-boss.

Above all···

‘A blood-drunk final boss has an ugly ending.’

The biggest reason was simply that he did not want to be ugly.

He would do it if necessary, but he did not take killing for granted. That was the place killing occupied in Duke’s mind.

Naturally, he did not reveal that fact and instead enjoyed the two reverent gazes fixed on his helmet.

‘Yes. This is it. Who would look at a blood-drunk knight like this?’

The charismatic knight Duke was sublime today as well.

***

Rex’s party returned to the Adventurer’s Guild after exterminating the entire Orc Fortress.

The person welcoming them was not the receptionist, but the guildmaster.

“Oh my, everyone. I’ve been waiting for you. There happens to be someone waiting to meet you, so might I ask you to spare some time?”

The guildmaster rubbed his hands together with enough vigor to make his head look as polished as his bald pate.

Rex felt uncomfortable about the request to meet someone, but he could not bring himself to refuse.

That was because···

“Please, I beg you!!”

The guildmaster was begging so humbly that Rex felt too sorry to refuse.

Above all, this guildmaster had actively helped Rex during the previous clan commotion.

Rex clearly remembered the devotion of the middle-aged man who had worked to keep the incident from reaching the lord’s ears, even sacrificing the few hairs he had left.

So, if only for the sake of this likable uncle, Rex decided to grant his request.

“Alrigh···t.”

“Thank you!”

The guildmaster bowed repeatedly as he guided Rex.

As Ari and Duke followed behind him, Duke sensed a familiar mana through his extrasensory perception.

‘Hmm? This is···’

Familiar third-tier mana and the guildmaster’s attitude.

From those two things, Duke predicted that the guest in the parlor was a superior knight.

‘Hmm··· I don’t know what this is about, but I should at least say something.’

In the original story, Rex and Hana learned about each other a little later than this.

Duke had no intention of rigidly following the original story’s flow, but there was no reason not to follow it when he could.

Duke immediately sent a telepathic message to the superior knight.

[I am seeing you for the first time today.]

Duke unilaterally announced that and ended the telepathy.

The superior knight was briefly flustered by Duke’s voice echoing in his head.

However, the superior knight was a veteran in his own right, so he quickly understood and nodded.

‘He already knows that I came looking for him.’

Originally, Hana herself should have come to find Duke.

However, because the count was watching her, it was difficult for her to contact him personally.

Thus, the superior knight had come to find Duke on her behalf, but the problem was the method he had used.

Unable to locate Duke’s whereabouts, he had no choice but to investigate him, and during that process, he had discovered that Rex was Duke’s liege.

However, no matter how careful one was, a background investigation was inevitably rude.

Thus, the superior knight had been wondering how he should treat Rex, whom he was meeting for the first time, and Duke, whom he already knew, but Duke had just provided him with the answer.

‘He means he’ll overlook the background investigation, so I should show respect to Lord Rex, his liege.’

Rather than hold their rudeness against them, Duke was advising him to pretend that the person he was after was Rex the S-rank adventurer, not Duke the knight.

‘How considerate.’

Although he was a somewhat dangerous man because of his telekinesis, the superior knight was relieved that he was fundamentally a knight.

There had been a slight misunderstanding, but the superior knight understood Duke’s demands.

Once the superior knight had finished preparing, Rex entered the parlor.

“Greetings. I am Waite, a superior knight of Sneria Domain.”

“Hello, Mr. Waite.”

Rex returned the greeting while desperately suppressing his fear.

‘Why is he so polite for a knight?’

Rex formed a favorable impression of the superior knight,

‘So this is Lord Rex. He’s remarkably skilled at concealing his tier.’

while the superior knight judged Rex’s first impression to be that of an unknown powerhouse who habitually used honorifics,

‘Hmm. As expected of Hana. She trained him well as a knight.’

Duke praised Hana, who was not present.

Amid the three mismatched impressions, the conversation began.

“Lady Sneria wishes to commission you, Lord Rex.”

The superior knight added that Rex could refuse at any time if he did not wish to accept.

As he looked at the commission the knight offered him, Rex nodded.

‘Hmm. A joint mission in a city occupied by a fourth-tier fiend? It doesn’t seem too dangerous.’

With his danger-sensing mechanism broken, Rex nodded, thinking that it seemed reasonably fine,

‘As expected. This man is definitely a monster. I should report this to the intelligence department.’

and the superior knight’s misunderstanding deepened even further when he saw that.

‘Hmm? Why is this story starting like this? What did I do? Hm··· I don’t know. It would have been nice if Hana had come instead of this man.’

Duke was off in his own little world.

Thus, amid the three divergent impressions, the negotiations proceeded with surprising harmony.