Chapter 8
“Alright. I’m going to dig you up and bury you so you can never crawl back to the surface again. Who wants to go first?”
A cold smile curved on his lips.
…Can he actually talk to monsters?
An orc-looking creature slowly raised its hand.
“Uuuh.”
“Oh? So you were just planning to crawl back into the rift and disappear, is that it?”
“Uuuh!”
…Wait. They’re really communicating? He understands orc language?
‘What am I even watching right now?’
As my eyes wavered in shock, the man continued smiling gently, still holding the gardening shovel.
“I don’t feel like letting you go.”
The moment his gaze settled on the monsters, they turned into ash and vanished.
‘What… was that?’
While I stood among the evacuated civilians, staring in disbelief—
The man shoved the remaining monsters into the ground and drew a sealing formation.
He completely erased the rift.
After finishing the entire ritual, he lifted his eyebrow with a vicious expression.
“Another day of world peace secured.”
What kind of nonsense is that …?
But I didn’t have time to examine him further. He muttered that he needed to seal the next rift and disappeared in an instant.
“W-what was that?”
At my mutter, a knight passing by said,
“You must be seeing Lord Aldehyde’s power for the first time.”
“Aldehyde…?”
That lunatic is him?
The strongest man who suddenly appeared and unified the continent—someone who hadn’t existed before my regression.
“He resolved the rift in just five minutes without a single injury. Truly amazing. Some call him a mad dog, but that’s nonsense.”
That much was true. If not for Aldehyde, there would have been hundreds of casualties.
But—
‘Something feels wrong.’
I had been used by too many people in my previous life to simply accept someone as a hero.
There is no such thing as purposeless goodwill.
Just as I have a purpose in doing good deeds—to die well—
He must have a purpose too.
After that day, I chased down rifts across the capital, using knowledge from my previous life to evacuate people in advance.
But Aldehyde.
That man was always faster than me.
He would arrive first, seal everything neatly, and mutter things like, “The world’s peaceful again today.”
The more it happened, the more suspicious he became.
And then—
The day of the mass suicide incident caused by the giant poison butterflies arrived.
***
The western port city, Vane.
A small rift opened beneath the lighthouse cliff.
It was a critical situation.
Hot water, like lava from the rift, heated the air.
Knights shouted desperately.
“Emergency! Evacuate immediately!”
“All civilians, evacuate!”
If time dragged on any longer, the boiling water might flood the area.
Once the lighthouse keeper and fishermen had fled—
There was one woman calmly sitting on an empty bench, reading a newspaper.
Brown hair. Brown eyes.
Me.
Sienna Vuitri.
I pulled out a small seashell-shaped hand mirror and smiled.
‘Brown hair, brown eyes. Good.’
This mirror was an ancient magical artifact from the Vuitri family treasury.
Rumored to have been created by the witch from the legend The Little Mermaid, it could alter one’s appearance.
Why disguise myself?
‘Because this poison butterfly is truly dangerous.’
I planned to secretly observe how Aldehyde would handle it.
Nearby, Aldehyde and the Imperial Knights stood close to the rift.
The monsters would emerge soon.
But the mad dog, Aldehyde, looked completely indifferent.
Then—
A monster burst out of the rift.
The kraken-like creature lashed out with its grotesque tentacles.
“Bold.”
Aldehyde simply extended his hand.
No incantation. Nothing elaborate.
And the monster shattered into pieces, crumbling into dust.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘How strong is he?’
The monster was dealt with in an instant.
Too easily.
“Next phase.”
He reached toward the remains and murmured a short incantation.
A sealing formation spread across the ground.
That location would never produce a rift again.
“Next rift…”
He seemed to sense it.
“Opposite side. Near the cargo warehouse.”
“W-what? That’s where the civilians evacuated to!”
A sudden additional rift.
He narrowed his eyes.
Across the docks stood old warehouses—wet wooden floors, broken crates, and damp ropes giving off a sour smell.
The vibration of a forming rift spread there.
I knew it too.
It had happened there in my previous life.
I immediately ran toward the civilians.
“This area is dangerous. Please move further back!”
As soon as I finished speaking, they felt the tremor and hesitated.
Aldehyde was giving evacuation orders on the opposite side.
“Get all civilians out.”
As the knights rushed to move people, I moved as well.
There was something I had to do.
I had intentionally worn a gray hooded robe.
The poison butterflies scatter toxic pollen that disrupts human emotions, causing depression and suicidal impulses.
I had worn this type of robe often in childhood.
For a brief second, I remembered a foolish boy I once met while wearing it.
“Take a teleport scroll!”
“Yes!”
“Moving!”
Everyone was in chaos.
‘Now’s my chance.’
I placed my hand on the ground.
Ordinary stabilizer mages can only stabilize humans.
But I was different.
‘I can stabilize even non-living things.’
Very weakly.
The toxic pollen that drives people to despair.
In my previous life, many rescued victims later committed suicide because of it.
But if I stabilize the pollen itself—
Its unstable nature would shift, and it would instead calm people instead of harming them.
‘But I have to do it secretly.’
If it became known that I could stabilize non-living matter, that would be dangerous.
After finishing quickly, I lifted my head—
And Aldehyde’s gaze briefly met mine.
‘What?’
His eyes felt… strange.
I stiffly adjusted my robe.
Soon after, I teleported to the safe zone with the other civilians.
Everything had gone according to plan.
Except—
I still hadn’t figured out Aldehyde’s purpose.
And that look in his eyes bothered me.
‘What was that?’
It had lasted less than a second.
But it was intense.
Suddenly, the knights with telescopes shouted.
“W-what is that?!”
“T-the poison butterflies are dying all at once?!”
The safe zone was about thirty meters away.
Through a telescope, the situation was visible.
I leaned forward and looked—
And my eyes widened in shock.
What is wrong with him?
Why do his eyes look like that?
***
The giant poison butterflies turned to ash without even screaming.
Aldehyde remained expressionless.
As if brushing off dust.
It was instant death.
It took less than a minute.
As the last butterfly vanished, the sea fog cleared.
His adjutant, Paul, carefully asked,
“Lord Aldehyde… Is something wrong today? You seem different.”
“Yeah.”
Aldehyde muttered flatly.
“I spotted a gray robe.”
