Chapter 54
The Kill Order
Even though I had stopped walking, Karl said nothing.
The silence felt ominous, and finally, his lips moved.
“Actually, there’s one more thing I’d like your help with, Vice Commander.”
“…? What are you talking about all of a sudden? What is it?”
His continued silence felt even more foreboding than before.
Under the stars that sparkled like tears, he suddenly gave a bitter smile.
“I mentioned before that I have a younger sister, didn’t I?”
“…Yes. You’ve told me before. Even on Founding Day.”
“She’s sick.”
I felt puzzled by the sudden mention of family, but I asked anyway.
“Is she hurt?”
“No, she’s been ill since childhood. But you know… with my ability, I can’t cure illnesses.”
“….”
“Isn’t it a completely useless power? They call it the Ability of Healing, yet I can’t even heal my own family.”
With a bitter smile as if he had bitter medicine in his mouth, Karl suddenly asked:
“You’re wondering why I’m telling you this all of a sudden, right?”
“….”
When I didn’t respond, he answered himself.
“The truth is, I found a way to cure my sister. But it’s a little dangerous. And it requires a lot.”
“….”
“To cure her, I need a monster. If we implant a parasitic-type chimera synthesized from a monster into her body, it can cure the illness. His Majesty the Emperor said so himself.”
“….”
“That’s why I brought you here briefly with Lord Raymont’s help. Among us, capturing a large monster isn’t easy, so I wanted to ask for help. I apologize for deceiving you.”
What on earth is he saying now?
My mind went blank.
It felt as if the ground beneath me was collapsing.
Amid these tangled thoughts, I barely managed to voice a single question.
“…It was you?”
I asked again, stammering, my lips trembling.
“You… the one who brought the monsters to His Majesty, it was you?”
That’s when I noticed Karl’s clothing.
Even though he claimed to have rolled down the snowy hill, his clothes were perfectly clean, not a single snowflake on them.
The implication was simple.
“You… awakened your teleportation ability. That’s how you’ve been secretly bringing monsters to the palace all this time.”
It all made sense.
The story about rolling down the snowy hill was a lie.
He must have used his teleportation to move down the hill and pretended to have fallen in front of me.
That’s why his clothes were clean.
Why hadn’t I realized it until now?
Karl had appeared unexpectedly in various places countless times, yet I always thought it was because I was distracted or tired and hadn’t sensed his presence.
No. He had been moving using his ability whenever no one was watching.
Now that I think of it, even during the Founding Day event, Karl had a conversation with a suspicious man called a “partner” in the garden.
Was that “partner” also a subordinate of Ernante?
So he had been in contact with Ernante’s subordinates all along.
I should have been suspicious much earlier.
As I was regretting not realizing this sooner, Karl’s voice came.
“That’s right. I’ve awakened my secondary ability.”
“Wait, but when we did the ability tests, there were no signs of a secondary awakening in you?”
The people the commander said had shown signs of secondary ability awakening were Maximilian, Oscar, and Caroline—just these three.
Since Karl wasn’t mentioned, it meant there were no visible signs in him.
Yet that wasn’t true.
Karl smiled and explained why.
“Manipulating test results is easy. I am, after all, the Vice Commander.”
“….”
“Still, I felt a bit disappointed. Every now and then, I would teleport when no one was looking, and nobody noticed. Not the Commander, not the Vice Commander. You all just didn’t pay enough attention to me, did you?”
Karl gave a lighthearted smile, as if to lighten the mood.
It was the same smile he always wore, the one that had once made me feel at ease.
But now, that smile brought me no comfort.
“You’re insane. Are you really going to go along with such a crazy plan? If your sister is precious to you, you should be more careful! Implant a monster into her body?!”
I shouted, and Raymont, who had been quietly listening, stepped between us.
“Lord Schunestern, please calm down. His Majesty saw the potential, so—”
“Shut up!”
This was between Karl and me.
I had just been betrayed again by someone I valued.
After Ernante, now Karl had struck me in the back.
No third party like Raymont had any right to interfere.
I barked at him and then turned back to Karl.
“This isn’t something I can let slide. I’ll tell everyone immediately.”
“Vice Commander, my sister has less than a year to live if things stay like this.”
“….”
“I had only one rope to grab onto. Chimera… there was no other way.”
“….”
“Please… please, for my sake, for my sister’s sake, won’t you cooperate? I humbly ask this of you.”
Even if he had deceived me, Karl had been a longtime friend.
And now, for the sake of his precious family, he was asking politely.
It would be a lie if I said my heart wasn’t moved.
But no matter how important he said she was, I couldn’t back down this time.
“I’ll stop His Majesty’s research. By any means necessary.”
I, as a time-returner, knew what would happen if Ernante continued his research.
I still vividly remembered how many Brausenberg people had died from Ernante’s chimera attacks.
I couldn’t convince Karl by talking about that, so I simply said:
“I’m sorry, Karl.”
I waited for his response.
If he said he would step back, I might have let today’s events go unnoticed.
If the monster supplier Karl withdrew, Ernante wouldn’t be able to continue his research anyway.
But instead of Karl answering, Raymont’s sharp voice came.
“So, it comes to this.”
Raymont glared at me and drew his sword.
Immediately, Karl stepped in front of him.
“I’ll try to persuade him further. Please put the weapon down.”
“Do you see any sign of him being persuaded? And His Majesty gave the order himself. If Lord Schunestern refuses to cooperate again—”
Raymont continued, his gaze fixed on me, emphasizing every word.
“Shoot him.”
Ernante had said it himself: if I resisted, I was to be killed.
Since this was delivered by his personal guard, it couldn’t be false.
Hearing that, I didn’t feel anger.
“So, he said to kill me, huh?”
My voice came out dry, even to my own ears.
A completely neutral tone, without anger or sadness.
Raymont seemed to notice and asked:
“You’re calm. Not distressed?”
“What could I possibly feel distressed about? To feel betrayed, you have to have had some expectation of the person first. If you never trusted or expected anything from them, how can you feel betrayed?”
“‘That person’? Did you just call His Majesty that?”
I raised my sword at the now-hostile Raymont.
“I don’t want to show respect to someone who told me to die, whether emperor or anything else.”
“…Then, for His Majesty’s sake, I must eliminate him here.”
Karl stepped in front of Raymont again.
“Both of you, stop. Lord Raymont, calm yourself, and Vice Commander, lower your sword. Let’s find a compromise through conversation.”
“Karl, step aside.”
I turned my gaze toward Raymont while speaking to Karl.
“I want to capture you intact if possible.”
Even if Raymont wouldn’t understand, I wanted to let Karl pass, but he was still trying to persuade me.
If he kept talking nonsense, I would have to arrest him too.
Even if it meant cutting off his limbs.
Karl flinched and spoke, trembling:
“Vice Commander, I—”
Before he could finish, Raymont forcefully shoved Karl aside and rushed toward me.
