From his rambling account, the Duchess wasn't here, nor had she put him up to this. It had been a very long time since he'd last seen her. He had fallen for her at a ducal banquet, spoken with her privately, and sworn her blind loyalty.

Without her even asking, he had sent her information about the first Duchess and gifts, neglecting his family and wives to devote himself blindly to her. Apparently, she had sent replies thanking him. But it didn't sound as though any of her letters spoke of an affair or whispered words of love.

"Our love isn't anything so base! A brat like you could never understand it!" When I pointed that out, all he did was shout things like that.

So this had all been the work of a married man in love—or obsessed with an affair—acting on his own? The conclusion made me sigh. Of course, the Baron couldn't have fallen for her entirely on his own. The Duchess must have led him on.

Seen another way, it was a frightening talent: making someone fond of her, then keeping that affection alive until he went this far. If she had entered politics or stayed in the capital, she might have turned the whole kingdom upside down. But now she would grow old alone in some corner of her house.

Fortunately, it seemed I wouldn't have to change either my plans or my schedule for reaching the capital. Surely another man like this wouldn't turn up.

"My beloved Maria, I prepared all this for you. There's a child I prepared for you, too. And..." He was half out of his mind now, babbling incoherently.

There was no one else involved, so it was time to finish things as planned and head back. I picked up the sword the Baron had dropped. It was an ornate blade. I drove it deep into his chest as he babbled. His body shuddered, then went still.

I let go of the sword and stepped back. Against the wreckage of the room, the Baron sat with his own sword buried in his chest. Even at the end, his vacant gaze remained fixed on the portrait.

I clenched my hand. In my previous life, I would never even have dared consider doing this. But to survive in this world, I'd had to do worse, and I would have to again. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was on my hands. Rubbing them against my clothes didn't seem to wipe it away. After rubbing for a long while, I sighed. My hands were trembling.

No matter how much I tried to ignore it, killing someone like this was hard. Even with a mind that had endured countless deaths, I couldn't help being shaken in this young body. Once I admitted that, my hands stopped trembling. That was a relief.

I pulled myself together and made an even bigger mess of the room. I slashed the portrait with the sword and splashed wine over it. When I stepped back to look, it resembled the room of a man who had gone on a drunken rampage and killed himself. A close inspection would turn up oddities, but his wives would surely do their best to overlook them. And if they did get suspicious and investigate, that was fine too. No one would connect it to a young boy camped dozens of kilometers away.

A few things that looked expensive lay scattered on the floor, but I ignored them all and left. Instead of retracing my steps, I continued down the underground passage. A secret passage in a noble's mansion was bound to have a hidden exit outside. Sure enough, after running along it, I found stairs leading upward and an iron door fitted with a mechanism.

I climbed the stairs and examined the closed door. Its mechanism consisted of a wheel and leaf springs. The edges of the door were polished smooth, as though it had been used more often than I'd expected. I turned the wheel hard, and the door opened easily.

RUMBLE.

I climbed through into the interior of a half-collapsed house. It seemed abandoned—or disguised to look that way. The house stood in an isolated spot a short distance from the village.

RATTLE.

Once I stepped out, the door closed again, perhaps thanks to the leaf springs. The entrance to the underground passage was remarkably well made. Though it was iron, it was hard to distinguish from the rest of the floor. Even with my strength, opening it from this side looked difficult. But I had no reason or need to open it again.

I left the house. It stood a little way from the village, surrounded by nothing but ruined houses, as though some incident had caused this part alone to be abandoned. It was still dark. Dawn was a long way off, but so was the camp, and I needed to hurry.

"Time to go." I slung my sword across my back, took a deep breath, and started running again.

By the time the sun was rising, I had made it back to where the party was camped. Everyone was asleep except the soldier on watch. Avoiding him was easy: his eyes were half closed, and he stared blankly in one direction. I approached the carriage quietly. Just as I was about to climb in—

"You're only just getting back?" A voice stopped me. A girl's voice, still thick with sleep. It was the Baron's daughter. She sat leaning against the carriage in her traveling clothes.

"Haven't you slept yet?" "It wouldn't be polite to fall asleep before everyone was back." She answered with a shy smile.

The first rays of morning lit up her smile, but unfortunately, it meant nothing to me. It wasn't the kind of smile the Duchess used to charm people, either.

"But don't tell me you've come back empty-handed. You said you were good at hunting." She tilted her head as she looked me up and down. Her expression was puzzled, but her eyes had grown keen. "There wasn't as much worth catching as I expected."

I shrugged, then went back for what I'd left at the edge of camp and dragged it over. It scraped along the ground. When the soldier on watch saw me hauling something several times larger than I was, he jumped.

"Oh! Is that a wild boar?" The soldier made a fuss over its enormous size. Everyone who had been sleeping under blankets woke up and came out to stare at my catch. I dragged the boar up to the carriage and shrugged at her. "I only managed to get one. Everyone was asleep, so I left it outside."

At my words, the sharpness left her eyes. She sighed and rose. "I'm glad you came back safely." She sounded relieved, but I could hear a hint of frustration beneath her words, as though she'd waited for nothing.

The soldiers and the others chattered over the boar I'd brought back, and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. I could have arrived at least an hour earlier, but I'd caught it just in case. It had proved far more useful than I'd expected.

But why had the Baron's daughter stayed awake waiting for me? A clueless young master might have mistaken it for a sign she'd fallen for him, or that she was kind enough to wait out of the goodness of her heart. I couldn't entertain either thought for a moment. I stared hard at her back as she climbed into the carriage.

* * *

Breakfast afterward was lively, thanks to the boar I'd brought back. "You stayed up all night just to catch this? Pathetic." Though the boar's size had surprised him, Manuel belittled me as usual. Naturally, the rest of us pretended not to hear. The visiting siblings from the Baron's family watched the exchange with curiosity.

Manuel grumbled, but everyone else was pleased. Food on the road was rarely good. The soldiers, who did the heavy work, butchered the boar on the spot, and its meat went into the breakfast soup. After eating our fill of a meat soup rather too hearty for breakfast, we set out again, leaving the domain behind and heading for the capital.

As we continued toward the capital, I wrestled with whether I could leave the Baron's daughter, Valea, alone. The Baron would have harmed me even if I went back in time again, so I couldn't let him live. Valea was different. She seemed dangerous, and her ability was formidable, but with the Baron dead, I had no way of knowing whether she would harm me. She hadn't wanted to obey him, either. Still, leaving her alone didn't sit right with me.

Fortunately, she kept her mask on until we reached the capital. A week later, we finally arrived.

* * *

The capital of the Kingdom of Carlos. The city where Knight Carlos, who had defeated the Demon King alongside the hero, returned to his ruined hometown and founded the kingdom. Before that, the city had been known by another name, but after he founded the kingdom, it was renamed Palma after his sword.

Before us stretched a vast city encircled by towering walls, several times the size of Meseta, the city in the Duke's domain. "Wow..." As we passed through the gates, the soldiers seeing the capital for the first time kept exclaiming in wonder. The Baron's son and daughter were busy looking around, and even Brother Manuel's eyes darted in every direction.

I was genuinely impressed too. The city was far bigger than I'd imagined. Buildings five stories tall and higher, countless people, carriages, and horses. Yet the streets weren't particularly dirty, and they didn't smell bad. The kingdom's capital was far busier and more crowded than Meseta, the chief city of the ducal domain, but it was still a pleasant city to look at.

We passed through the gates without being inspected and headed straight for a residential district. The house where the Duke and his family stayed when they came to the capital was, naturally, smaller than the one on the estate. Still, it was an elegant three-story mansion in an upscale neighborhood, befitting his station. People were waiting in front of it: a middle-aged man who looked like a butler and several maids stood by the door.

"Welcome." They bowed to Manuel, but what the butler said next was addressed not to him but to the Baron's son. "We've received a message from the Baron's household by communication magic. You are to return at once." He handed the young man a letter. It bore the crest of the capital's Magic Tower—a letter sent by magical communication.

The Baron's son opened it and frowned, looking stunned and at a loss. "What is it?" his younger sister asked. He handed her the letter. Valea read it and let out a quiet exclamation. "Oh! Father has died."

When she looked up, her face was full of sorrow. But I remembered the exclamation she'd let slip a moment earlier. There had been joy in it.