Chapter 18 - We Will Rule These Streets Again

"Enough."

I intervened, feeling that someone really would draw blood if I let this continue.

"Lucia, stop."

At some point, Lucia had picked up a chair. She was just about to deliver a chair shot.

SCRAPE

Lucia set the chair down, looking disappointed. Though she hadn't quite let go of it yet.

"Should I call this youthful exuberance?"

The marquis, who had been silently watching the farce from the sidelines, spoke up.

"Now that things have quieted down a little... Daywin, I'd like you to tell me about this boy."

He meant Laward, of course.

Fair enough. Even I hadn't expected Laward to turn into such a killing machine. The marquis must have been dying of curiosity all morning.

"He's a boy I'm training."

Laward, who had been selecting cookies for me and arranging them on a plate, heard me and broke into a satisfied grin.

"An impressive performance. Frankly, I had my doubts at first... I'll look forward to seeing more from you."

PAT

Marquis Fred patted Laward's shoulder.

"Yeah, well."

Laward, however, made no effort to hide his displeasure as he pushed the marquis's hand away.

"Suit yourself."

Oh, right...

He'd always been an ill-mannered little shit...

His attitude changed so completely around me that I sometimes forgot.

In the game, his background was that he'd grown up in the slums, knew nothing of manners, and spoke informally to everyone. Of course, I'd socialized him somewhat by now, installing a politeness function, so to speak...

But with "adult men" other than me, his slum behavior occasionally slipped out. He probably had some backstory like the heroines did.

"Laward, mind your manners."

"... I'm sorry."

After that, Marquis Fred went on about the future of the Sixth District, but I'd already achieved my goal and wasn't really listening. Instead, my eyes wandered in boredom until they met those of a Goddess statue.

Looking at it somehow brought back memories. Not of my days as a paladin. Nor of my days idling away at the family estate.

Much, much earlier than that.

It was as though I could hear a vivid voice coming from that lump of stone.

["Huh? You're really not doing a second playthrough?"]

It was something a junior from college had said to me. The developer who had created this world.

["There are so many events you haven't seen yet! Actually, you haven't seen most of them!"]

["No. I told you, it's not my thing."]

Especially the heroines' age range.

["Just give it one more playthrough. There's even a character modeled after you. Aren't you curious what they're like?"]

["You... Did you ask my permission...?"]

["Haha."]

["I didn't notice at all... There was a character like that?"]

["There was. But you never met them. You went straight onto the hidden ending route on your first try."]

Staring at the statue had unexpectedly brought back a conversation I hadn't recalled even once before. It felt as though memories were being drawn up from deep, deep below, as if I'd dug a well.

["You never even encountered the villains I made."]

Official word from the developer. I had definitely heard that.

["A villain...? What the hell do you think of me...?"]

018

After wrapping up my conversation with the marquis, I headed to the Sixth District. To Houndry's hideout. To Karma's room.

A place I could now safely call my own.

CLICK

Lucia followed me in, closed the door, and stood beside it.

... It was around here.

I pressed the brick I'd located before dawn.

RUMBLE

As the bricks surrounding the safe rearranged themselves, Lucia spoke cautiously.

"Is that why you became Karma? To take the safe?"

"That's part of it, but not all."

"Or was it something like a desire for conquest?"

"Conquest?"

"They say that in the past, people would behead enemy commanders and take their families or subordinates for themselves."

"... I don't have such barbaric tastes."

It was the solitary protest of a man whose life's goal was to steal every last one of the protagonist's women.

"Besides, if that were my reason, you'd be among the people I'd be taking."

"Lucia is... ready, though."

There she went, talking crazy again. I wasn't going to get sucked in. This was the same pattern as our first meeting. If I took the bait, she'd undoubtedly counterattack with, "That wasn't what I meant. How vulgar of you, Master Karma."

And just now, Lucia had mentioned something far more important than that.

Beheading an enemy commander.

"... You knew all along?"

"Um... yes."

Lucia slowly nodded.

"I was at the Subjugation Festival too, but I couldn't help you. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for. I didn't need help. More importantly, where are your sisters?"

"Sleeping in our room."

"That's surprising. I thought you'd want to leave immediately. You can live somewhere else. I'll give you the money. I'm opening the safe anyway, aren't I?"

"Houndry isn't dangerous anymore."

"Isn't living in a criminal organization usually the most dangerous option...?"

"I like things as they are."

For some reason, Lucia looked relieved as she said it.

SCRAPE

The secret safe appeared while we were talking. I searched it again, having been too rushed to examine it properly before dawn.

"Hmm."

"What's wrong?"

RUSTLE

I examined the "unsorted papers" I'd passed over earlier. There was another black envelope. The stationery showed signs of having been torn up and pieced back together. At a glance, it looked like clutter, or even trash.

Some of the writing was illegible because it had been torn, but it was enough. The name written there was clue enough.

Amelia.

The Death God's cult had asked Houndry for two lives. One was Romans Hasgard. The other was Princess Amelia.

One of the five heroines. A second-year student in both the magic and swordsmanship departments.

The torn envelope contained a contract for Amelia's assassination.

"The torn envelope must mean he rejected it."

He'd started to throw it away, then kept it as evidence for the time being.

However much he loved money, targeting the royal family was suicide. He couldn't have ruined Houndry, preserved through four successive leaders, over a single contract. The Fourth Karma had accepted only the contract to assassinate Romans Hasgard and abandoned the other one. He might even have mocked the Death God's cult, telling them to know their place.

But... it happened in the game. Laward rescued the kidnapped Amelia, and their romance began.

Perhaps that was the canonical storyline.

Even I, who had reached an ending that only triggered when all the heroines' affection levels hit rock bottom, had saved Amelia.

I'd had no choice.

But the Fourth Karma—Houndry—had rejected the Amelia job. Did that mean the incident I'd seen in the game wouldn't happen in this world?

No.

The game had never said that Houndry was responsible in the first place.

In other words, the Death God's cult had sent contracts to guilds besides Houndry, and another guild had accepted. There were people who had agreed to that madness.

"... Ha."

Something urgent had come up.

"Lucia, I need information."

A shabby tavern.

Amid the loud swearing and pervasive smell of cheap ale, a Houndry guild member named A sat alone at a table in the corner.

"Goddammit."

A slammed his wooden mug down. Foam spilled over the rim and wet the back of his hand, but he didn't even think to wipe it off.

The liquor he'd tossed into his mouth tasted like plain water. No, it was worse than water. It did nothing for him, as though his tongue had gone numb.

Until just a few days ago, one mug of this cheap liquor had washed away a day's fatigue. But not anymore.

'Because now... I've had a taste of it.'

A looked down at his right hand. That power the new Master Karma had bestowed on him that day. That violet mist that had pierced the crown of his head and surged through his body as though it would burst every blood vessel.

The sensation of rampaging, drunk on that power, remained seared into his mind like a burn.

"Whew..."

Breathing heavily, A raised his mug again. He forced its contents down his throat, but liquor still couldn't fill the void. After that overwhelming exhilaration, reality was too dull and powerless to bear.

Withdrawal symptoms.

Yes, he was addicted.

JINGLE

New customers came in with the cold night air and took their seats.

"Hey, barkeep! Get us some booze!"

A loud shout broke the silence.

Four men. Cat emblems adorned their collars. They were members of Lowcat, another of the Sixth District's headaches.

Noticing them, A lowered his head a little. He merely stared blankly at the empty mug in his hand.

"Huh?"

But the bastards spotted him anyway.

"Boss, that guy tucked away in the corner. Doesn't he look familiar?"

A shrill voice. Four pairs of eyes bored into A's back.

"... Yeah. I thought I smelled dog hair."

One of them approached and slammed his hand on A's table. The impact sent the empty mug rolling onto the floor.

"..."

"It is you, you bastard. One of Houndry's fucking dogs."

Chuckling, the man grabbed A's shoulder and turned him around. The reek of alcohol assaulted A's nose.

"You spat on Lowcat and walked out because you didn't like how we treated you, and all you found was Houndry, on its last legs? Look at you now. Fucking traitor."

Traitor. He wasn't wrong. A had originally belonged to Lowcat. But he'd left of his own accord, sick of being a petty thug, stealing in back alleys and shaking down the weak.

What he wanted was power. That was why he'd chosen Houndry.

'It wasn't like this... until just recently.'

Memories of the past flickered through A's vacant eyes. Before Marquis Fred had led his soldiers in to wipe Houndry out. Back when the Fourth Karma was still alive.

Petty criminals like Lowcat had fled at the mere sight of Houndry's emblem. The nights of the Sixth District had belonged to Houndry alone. A had wanted to live as a predator beneath the shadow of that power. He'd willingly betrayed his comrades and joined their enemy.

"Heard you're following some guy you don't even know now?"

A's eyebrow twitched faintly. Catching that tiny reaction, they eagerly started running their mouths.

"Everyone's heard. The scraps left after the marquis kicked your asses got together and hailed some nobody from god knows where as the Fifth."

The man beside him joined in with a sneer.

"Barely fifty people. And nobody knows where your new Karma even came from."

They jeered right in A's face.

"Isn't it obvious? You found some no-name punk, installed him as a puppet, and now you're pretending you've won."

"Cut the bullshit!"

Unbearable rage burned through A's brain. That couldn't be Houndry's future—the path he'd chosen.

CRASH

His chair toppled backward, and a bottle rolled across the floor. A lunged like an animal and seized the snickering Lowcat thug by the collar.

"What the fuck do you know?! He... He is...!"

A swung his fist through the air.

Yes, he just had to show them. Knock this bastard's jaw off, then crush their skulls as they screamed—

TAP

"... Huh?"

But he was weak.

A was weak.

When Houndry had been powerful, he'd swaggered about, relying on the guild's prestige. Without the black mist Karma bestowed on him, all he could manage was a shaky punch.

That was the pathetic man A was.

A staggered, barely managing to walk as he braced himself against a wall.

"Ugh..."

The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. Perhaps his ribs were cracked; a sharp pain stabbed him with every breath.

The bastards had shown no mercy. They'd gleefully beaten a punching bag that couldn't fight back, then spat and left.

'What a fucking sight.'

A looked up at the night sky through swollen eyes. It was miserable. That was how it felt to be reminded of his place, the place he'd forgotten.

The Fourth Karma had trained Houndry. He'd put swords in their hands and drilled them every day, hardening flesh and bone. But the Fifth was different.

Where the Fourth Karma had made them rely on him, the Fifth Karma had made them dependent.

"Just one more taste of that power..."

A limped into a familiar alley. He intended to find Karma immediately and beg for the power to take revenge on Lowcat.

But the moment he entered the hideout...

"Huh?"

A stopped in his tracks.

The first-floor lounge was packed. One, two, three... Every remaining member of Houndry was there. Not knowing what was happening, A squeezed into their midst.

They weren't drinking or chatting as usual. As though by prior agreement, they were silent, their eyes fixed on the center of the room.

"Is everyone here?"

Karma spoke as he stepped out of the darkness. His distinctive voice wasn't loud, but it rang clearly in every member's ears.

"I'm giving you your first mission."

As Karma slowly swept his gaze around, he seemed to look at A standing near the door. His blood-covered face. His swollen eyes. His split lips.

A felt as though that gaze had passed over each of them.

Meanwhile, Karma—Daywin—was thinking:

'The Death God's cult must have subcontracted the job to another guild somewhere in the Sixth District. The question is which one.'

The back alleys were already full of human garbage. There was no time to investigate them one by one and gather intelligence to identify the culprit.

Too little time, too many suspects.

There was only one way.

'I'll find out if I fuck them all up.'

He just had to round up every suspect, hang them upside down, and shake everything out of them. One of them was bound to have the contract.

He would start with the guild Lucia had named as the likeliest candidate.

"We're hitting Lowcat."

Karma tossed out the words with casual indifference.

"I'll give you all the power you need."

Violet mana rose from his fingertips like a heat haze, filling the hideout in an instant.

HUMMM

At that moment, A's pupils trembled.

'Ah...'

A shuddered.

'Master Karma... I knew it.'

His breath coming in great, overwhelmed gasps, he looked up at him. Declaring an attack on Lowcat meant reclaiming Houndry's infamy.

This was conquest itself.

The servility vanished from A's eyes. In its place, immense ambition set his chest ablaze.

'Houndry... will rule these streets again.'