Chapter 38
Tap. Tap.
A consciousness slowly awakening.
From my perspective, it was an old-fashioned typewriter, but in this world it was the latest model, and its sound tickled my ears.
[Hello. This is Ariel.]
Step. Step.
Perhaps it was because she was a saint, but Ariel rose early every morning to pray, so it was still a little early in the day.
Around this time, Ariel would leave me a greeting through the typewriter.
"Yaaawn..."
Yawning to shake off my sleepiness, I sat down at the desk with the latest-model typewriter Ariel had talked about so much before I left the capital.
Should I call it antique, or say it had the sort of appearance that, from my perspective, belonged in a museum?
In any case, I sat in front of the typewriter and stared blankly at it as it moved.
Tick. Tick.
At first, I wondered how it exchanged messages with someone far away, but surprisingly, its mechanism was fairly simple.
Installing mana cores engraved with identical patterns made each typewriter reproduce the other's movements exactly.
Since both typewriters typed the same characters, they naturally created the effect of two people conversing.
...
Ding!
[The weather in the Holy Kingdom is quite clear today. Abel, I hope it's clear where you are too.]
[Then may Luminous's blessing be with you today as well.]
.
.
.
A little while later, the typewriter stopped, presumably because Ariel had left.
It was a form of consideration.
She had felt very sorry when she realized I had woken up, since I had previously let slip that the sound of the typewriter had woken me.
Click.
"Is that a letter from Lady Ariel?"
As usual, when I got up, Mist, who had been standing quietly beside me, handed me a cup of warm water and asked.
"Well, I guess so?"
"... That's incredible dedication. She's strange to an almost unnatural degree."
Well, I more or less agreed with Mist.
About ten days had passed since I heard the duke's words.
Kaizen and Bella had both been unconscious from the aftereffects of the fight.
There was still the task of earning recognition from Karon of the [Dark Shadow], but I thought:
Most of the [Dark Shadow] had already recognized me anyway. Did I really need to go find that guy first?
Ten days had passed while I told myself he'd come find me on his own.
And now, a week after I'd bought this latest-model typewriter, Ariel had sent me a greeting every single day without fail.
When I'd asked her before, she'd said she had too much to do and scarcely had time to talk except for the brief moment she had during morning prayers.
"Well... That's true, but..."
Slurp.
As I drank the warm water Mist had handed me, I looked at the paper above the typewriter, where the messages I'd exchanged with Ariel were recorded.
I understood that she wanted to maintain our connection.
But a saint taking time every morning to send me a greeting?
To put it bluntly, it was excessive.
But.
"It's not like I want to suspect her."
I saw her as the protagonist of this world's romance-fantasy story, and I had come to roughly understand her way of thinking—or perhaps her personality.
Maybe it was because in my previous life I'd had a job that required me to suspect everything.
After being reincarnated and all, I didn't want to suspect someone that kind.
"I see..."
Mist let her words trail off slightly at my answer. Seeing her reaction, I smiled faintly and asked what I had to do today.
"You said that bastard Kaizen woke up yesterday, right?"
"Yes."
In our fight, Kaizen had pushed his ability beyond its limits to launch an attack.
That attack had left Kaizen's body on the verge of complete collapse.
If I hadn't ordered treatment immediately, his condition had been bad enough that it wouldn't have been strange for him to die on the spot.
Because of that, Bella, who had passed out from mere mana exhaustion, woke after only three days, while Kaizen had remained unconscious until yesterday.
"Hmm. Should I go see him around lunchtime?"
"... May I ask you one question?"
"Hmm...? What is it?"
"Why did you leave both Kaizen and Bella alive?"
I looked at Mist, who had asked the question.
Her eyes clearly showed that she genuinely couldn't understand why I'd spared the two.
At her expression, I instinctively took out a cigar, then put it away again.
Perhaps because I'd been fighting so often lately, my cigar consumption had skyrocketed.
The cigars I'd brought weren't infinite, and even getting more would take time, so I'd been restraining myself from smoking.
"Um. But Mist, why are you asking that now?"
There had been plenty of time to ask such a question.
"You didn't say anything when Bella woke up and had a meeting with me, either, did you?"
"... Judging by Kaizen's personality, I determined that he would be of no benefit to you, Lord Abel."
"..."
"Although he accepted the final blow head-on thanks to your consideration, the outcome had already been decided by the middle of the fight. But Kaizen couldn't accept the result."
It was the first time I'd seen Mist speak so softly, and I was slightly taken aback.
"Bella is fine. She already seemed to have submitted to you, Lord Abel."
'Submitted?'
When I'd visited her a few days ago, there hadn't been any sign of that.
Could she mean when Bella gave up resisting at the end?
"But Kaizen is different. He's not the sort of person to submit to strength."
"... That is true."
Slurp.
I took a sip of the warm water, which I was gradually finishing.
As Mist said, judging by that bastard Kaizen's personality, I didn't think he was someone who would ever bow his head to me.
If he were the sort of person to submit in the first place, he wouldn't have pushed his ability until his body was on the verge of breaking apart.
"But I wasn't trying to make him submit, was I?"
"... Pardon?"
***
'I'm alive...'
That was Kaizen's first thought when he regained consciousness.
'Why?'
Aside from his dislike of submitting to strength, Kaizen was fairly quick at assessing situations.
The final blow from Abel that day.
Seeing Abel's attack, which was like a massive planet swallowing his own strike, Kaizen had accepted his death.
But he was alive?
"Oh, are you awake?"
As Kaizen, drugged and dazed, continued thinking while staring at the ceiling, an irritating voice reached his ears.
He rolled his eyes toward the source and saw Karon, the unwanted butler who was always smirking.
"Wow, what an incredible body. To regain consciousness in a mere ten days. Seriously, if nothing else, you should thank the parents who gave you this body, Lord Kaizen."
"..."
"The doctors were absolutely aghast, you know? They said, 'How is a vessel that contained mana run this wild still alive?'"
"..."
"Hmm? Lord Kaizen, is there something you want to say? Your mouth is moving, after all."
Karon spoke in that comical manner as he slowly approached Kaizen.
Swish.
"Now, try saying something. I'm a merciful man when it comes to brave men like you, Kaizen."
Karon grinned slyly and brought his ear close to Kaizen's mouth.
Filled with an emotion rising from his very core, Kaizen spoke.
"Please... shut... up."
Every word Karon spoke in that comical tone made Kaizen feel as though his entire body were vibrating.
No, in reality, every time Karon spoke, Kaizen's entire body truly ached.
Hearing Kaizen's words, Karon stared at him for a moment, then opened his mouth with a smile spreading across his whole face.
"Ahaha. Oh dear, that might be difficult. Humanity advanced by creating language and communicating, didn't it? As a fellow human, I would find it difficult to accept an act that directly denies humanity's progress by making someone keep their mouth shut."
Karon rambled incoherently, shaking his head with a sad expression as though he'd heard a truly unfortunate story.
'Damn...'
Why was he talking about the origins of humanity's progress just because Kaizen had told him to shut up?
On top of that, there were countless things to object to in the idea that he was refusing Kaizen's request for that reason, but
Kaizen's only frustration was that his condition was so poor he couldn't even produce his voice properly.
'Damn...'
Karon would clearly keep talking for at least an hour.
Kaizen despaired at the sight of Karon like that.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Just as Kaizen was deep in despair, he heard someone knocking on the door.
To Kaizen, it sounded like an angel's voice.
No matter how crazy that bastard Karon was, he usually put on a mask in front of guests.
Creak.
"Excuse me."
Kaizen rolled his eyes as far as he could toward the door to see who had entered.
It was a dark-skinned maid he'd never seen before.
"Hmm? Mist, what brings you here?"
"The thing is..."
Bang.
The door stood fully open. The sight of a man stepping through it burned itself into Kaizen's eyes.
"Hey there!"
Abel, the one who hadn't been injured even once despite Kaizen giving it everything he had, was waving casually with a relaxed smile.
"..."
And behind Abel stood Bella, her hair brown.
"Wow, you're really awake. Can you talk? I came because there's something I want to discuss."
Saying that, Abel pulled out a chair, placed it beside the bed Kaizen was lying in, and sat down.
"I... can."
"Oh, I wasn't really expecting you to be able to talk... Ah, and we have something to discuss among ourselves, so could everyone else step outside for now?"
Abel said that as he looked at Mist and Karon.
Mist and Karon looked at each other briefly at Abel's gaze, then bowed at the same time and complied with Abel's order.
"Understood."
"Understood."
Kaizen almost doubted his ears at Karon's serious voice, which he'd never heard before.
Creak.
Thud.
The two bowed to Abel, paid their respects, and left Kaizen's room.
'What the...'
Kaizen, who had watched the entire scene, was so dumbfounded he was on the verge of developing an ulcer.
Karon, who hadn't budged no matter what Kaizen said or threatened, was acting that seriously?
He hadn't eaten anything because of his injuries, but the sight was shocking enough to make his stomach hurt.
"..."
Abel, who had been quietly watching Kaizen, immediately explained why he had come.
"Kaizen, we don't really have anything to talk about for long, do we? It's not as though we're close friends or anything."
"..."
"What I want to say is simple. Obey my orders. How about it?"
'Just as I thought...'
To be honest, Kaizen had expected this to some extent.
When he wondered why Abel had spared his life, this was the first answer that came to mind.
"I... refuse..."
To be honest, nobles and knights trying to recruit Kaizen this way had appeared from time to time.
And Kaizen had always rejected such offers.
His so-called blood father, who always got drunk and beat him.
But even that so-called father acted like a gentle lamb in the face of power.
The sight had seemed so ugly that, even as a child, it was etched into his soul.
It was better to die than live like that.
That was the foundation of the person known as Kaizen.
***
"Then what about a contract?"
I had more or less expected Kaizen to refuse.
But in my current situation, I needed to keep people as capable as Kaizen and Bella close by, at least for the time being.
An unidentified organization was targeting me. When dealing with such an organization, the more talent I had, the better.
At my sudden words, I felt the gazes of Bella and Kaizen, both of them silently staring at me.
"Here's what the contract says."
If you complete a certain amount of my assignments, you will earn the right to challenge me.
"The right to challenge?"
At Bella's mutter, I smiled and opened my mouth.
"Ah, the right to challenge. More precisely, the right to challenge for the duke's position. You choose both the time and place. How about it?"
There was something I'd been thinking about.
What attractive condition could I offer them right now?
As I thought about it, an answer came to me.
The duke's position.
"Well? Isn't that fairly attractive?"
To be honest, I had no particular interest in power.
No, rather than saying I had no interest, in my previous life I'd often seen people ruin themselves chasing power, or come across information about them.
Powerful people who committed atrocities so vile that they made me wonder whether what they were doing could even be called human.
Because of those experiences, unless I truly needed it, I wanted to let power go rather than pursue it.
You think that's only because I don't understand? That once you've had a taste of power, you can never escape it?
Then I'll put it the other way.
I'd rather cast power aside than become a monster like that.
'Besides...'
I had a feeling.
A feeling that if I stayed in the duke's position, work would come pouring in.
"I'll accept your proposal."
"I... accept..."
In that sense, Kaizen and Bella were not a bad hand for me.
They were capable, and though they were illegitimate children, they carried the blood of the Nebula ducal family.
Then, once everything was over, I could dump the work on these two and retire.
.
.
.
After finishing my conversation with Kaizen and Bella and stepping outside, I looked at Mist standing by the door and Karon, Kaizen's butler, beside her.
Karon, a member of the [Dark Shadow].
And the only man in the [Dark Shadow] who still did not recognize me.
"Lord Abel, might I trouble you for a moment?"
That man addressed me in a cautious voice.