The man known as Chris Morgan
To Chris, who had lost his parents during his infancy, his grandfather served as a second father. He was a man who rose up from the lower classes. Even with the O’ltormea Empire’s expansion being something of a factor that helped him in this endeavor, the Kingdom of Rhoadseria was extremely classist, and as such, his success was something of a miraculous feat.
His grandfather had long served as an aide and advisor to Helena Steiner, Rhoadseria’s general. When Chris was just a boy, his grandfather was effectively a hero. Whenever he recalled how the blood of his exalted grandfather ran through his veins, Chris felt his whole body heat up with pride.
But the pride he held for that legacy would shatter in the face of his cruel reality.
“Hey, Chris. On your way back?”
As Chris headed back to the barracks after his daily training, he found his path blocked by a group of men with suspicious smiles on their faces.
“Yes, it’s my daily routine.”
He had to hold back an annoyed click of the tongue, but doing that would only make things more irritating. They were descendants of knights who had served Rhoadseria for generations, and while they themselves weren’t all that skilled, their families were quite close with General Albrecht. So it was ill-advised for Chris, who didn’t have that kind of pedigree to back him up, to get into trouble with them. Chris answered while looking away, trying to be as inoffensive as possible.
“Ah, your daily routine. You must’ve moved around a lot to be so sweaty... Well, whatever does make you sweaty isn’t something I care about that much.”
With those words, the man who spoke to him looked around.
“What? I thought you shacked up with some noble’s daughter. After all, there’s always women buzzing around you.”
They all knew that Chris was practicing in the training grounds, of course. And still they knowingly made this accusation, all to insult Chris. Their gazes clung to him like mucus, their eyes burning with the dark flames of envy.
Chris was a talented warrior blessed with a handsome appearance, and they found his presence simply far too enviable.
“Nah, doesn’t have to be a woman, does it? Look at that pretty face. Wouldn’t be surprised if men came onto him, too.”
“True, true. I hear his grandfather was really handsome when he was young. Must run in the blood, eh? The White Goddess of War probably mistook him for a woman, too.”
The men’s lips curled up and started laughing. Malicious sneering. Their words were cruel enough to justify a duel under usual circumstances.
Pain ran through Chris’s hands. Red blood ran through his clenched fists, and his shoulders shook with anger. Still, he couldn’t afford to lose himself to anger here. If he would, no one would spare an ear to his reasoning, and his path to knighthood would be severed.
“Catching cold might affect my training tomorrow, so would you mind if I went ahead?”
Chris spoke, trying to maintain his composure. Chris’s feelings were met with nothing but more scorn, but the men moved out of his way as they snickered. They provoked him with words but didn’t dare to lay a hand on him. They had their own positions to take into consideration, after all, which made their behavior all the more malicious.
“Oh, excuse us. Go take a warm bath and wash off, friend.”
“Yeah, you keep on training... Not that I see any of that effort paying off.”
With that tasteless comment behind him, Chris left, feeling the bitter taste of the indignity inflicted on his family’s name spread in his mouth...
The man known as Gennou Igasaki
To the man known as Gennou Igasaki, the world was a dull place. His life was devoted to his clan’s vested wish which would one day be granted. He had nothing in the way of enjoyment, nor did he know love or friendship.
All he had was endless training and slaughter.
He was born to the Igasaki clan’s main family, and was invested in nothing but training to be a shinobi for as long as he could remember. Having become the most skilled warrior in his village, his work was focused only on being a warrior shinobi, gradually building up a mountain of corpses in his wake as he stained his hands with blood time and time again.
Never once had Gennou failed in his work.
While many of his comrades lost their lives one by one, Gennou lived on. He was blessed with the talent to become a skilled Shinobi.
Gennou never considered his work to be fun. And that was because shinobi were those who turned their hearts to blades. A blade is a tool, and tools have no hearts.
Gennou never took pride in his work. Right and wrong, good and evil; such concepts held no meaning. All he did was hone his skill in the name of making his clan’s wish a reality. His heart was like ice. It was but a tool for achieving his clan’s yearned for desire.
Or so it was, until he met that man...
Their meeting was truly a whim of fate. Gennou had heard that his granddaughter, Sakuya, was experiencing unusual difficulties with her latest contract. Stirring himself to check on her, Gennou appeared before that man.
At first glance, he looked like a young man one might find anywhere. But Gennou could certainly see the light shining in the depths of that youth’s eyes. The light of ambition which ran cold and at the same time burned bright.
“You’re falling behind.”
Gennou reprimanded Sakuya, who was trying to follow behind him but was struggling to keep up, panting in exhaustion.
“Y-Yes...”
Darkness blanketed the forest. The average person wouldn’t be able to walk through this place, much less run, but the two were sprinting across it.
We must hurry... For that person may be the one we have been waiting and hoping for.
The Elder Council had already given their assent. All that remained was to stand by that youth’s side and gauge his worth.
Impatience spurred Gennou’s body forward. It was the first time he’d felt this sensation since he’d become old enough to sit upon the Elder Council. He felt rather like a fine blade which had finally located a fencer worthy of wielding it.
“Grandfather!”
Sakuya’s shout tore through the dark night. She seemed to have noticed a murderous intent lurking in the shadow of the trees. A black shadow suddenly blocked Gennou’s path, with a low, menacing growl. But Gennou’s expression never faltered, and he unleashed a silvery flash from his staff, cutting through the darkness.
“Out of my way...”
Cutting down the monster that stepped out from the darkness with a single slash, Gennou once again hastened his gait. All to return to the side of the young master he believed was worthy of his service...
The man known as Akitake Sudou
Gentle rays of morning sunlight shone through the curtains, illuminating Sudou’s face. He was in the pleasure quarter of the kingdom of Rhoadseria’s capital, Pireas, lying in a room of a brothel.
The area had an assortment of establishments, from rundown places a manual laborer might spend a day’s wages to the sorts of high-end stores they wouldn’t be allowed to enter even if they put forward a whole month’s salary combined. Incidentally, one couldn’t make use of these establishments’ services without paying up front.
If one weren’t a noble, or someone of similar status, or extremely wealthy, or crucially didn’t have a referral of proper status, they wouldn’t be admitted entry to such establishments.
After all, this was a source of funds for the organization, whose influence stretched across the western continent, as well as one of their bases of operations within Rhoadseria.
“Morning already, is it... My, I wish I could just lay back and sleep for a while on days like this.”
His head throbbed with the pain of the morning after the night before. Fatigue spread over his body.
But while he felt terrible, his body was already up and prepared for battle. Whether he was hungover or sick mattered little. For men like Sudou, the words “day off” had no meaning.
“I suppose I did let myself go yesterday... It’s been quite a while since I did that.”
The indescribable aroma of sexual fluids mixed with perfume tickled his nostrils. More than five empty bottles lay around he room. Apparently Sudou had quite a bit to drink before he even brought a woman into this room, so he’d opened quite a few of them just over the course of the previous day.
“Mmm... Is it morning...?”
A young woman spoke from beside him with a sleepy voice. She was one of the most desirable women in this brothel run by the organization. She was a first-class woman not just in terms of appearance, but also in terms of her conversation skills and manners; a veritable gem that enticed men.
A woman of her class doesn’t get picked by the client. Rather, she picks her clients. There was, in fact, a long line of people waiting to spend a night with her.
That said, her hair, which had been done up beautifully last night, was now awfully disheveled, and she was lying limp on the bed like a fish washed up on the shore. Seeing her like that was something of a killjoy, though the cause of her present appearance did mostly fall to the reckless abandon with which Sudou had used her nubile body...
Hmm, this was something of a compromise, but perhaps I should bring another woman or two next time...
Having spent years in this world of savage warfare since his summoning, Sudou’s body far exceeded the limits of what was humanly possible, though his age and appearance would not suggest so. It wouldn’t be exaggeration or pretense to say that he could likely handle five women in one night, but this was the only woman who caught his fancy last night, and so he made do with her alone.
Frankly put, by now only the finest of things would suit Sudou’s palate. The finest wines, the finest foods and the finest women. He may have looked like an unattractive middle-aged man, but he had all the choices and options available to him. He was living in the sort of luxury and affluence he never would have imagined possible during his life in Japan.
On the surface, he served the Empire of O’ltormea, but from the shadows of that role, Sudou had obtained a victory that made him into a winner, as far as his life was concerned.
But on the other hand, a beast was constantly stirring within his heart. And no matter how much luxury he showered himself with, that beast thirsted still, hungered yet and craved on. Something he’d never awakened to during his peaceful life in Japan.
“Yes, but you can stay asleep. You kept me company quite a bit last night, after all. I’ll be sure to put in a good word about you to the establishment.”
With that said, Sudou slapped the woman’s exposed, peach-like buttocks. And as if lured in by his words, the woman once again slipped into slumber.
She didn’t know. She had no way of knowing that the man she had just spent the night with was a devil was a devil plotting to wash the world over with blood...
She didn’t notice. She had no way of noticing the earsplitting wailing echoing in that devil’s heart...
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