016. Hunting Competition (4)
“Oh, don’t come…!”
Hearing the scream, the group’s gaze naturally turned towards the source of the sound.
There, they saw a knight retreating, dropping his sword on the ground.
Others who seemed to be similar to him were also frozen in fear, trembling uncontrollably.
Observing their reactions, Owen narrowed his eyes.
In such a place, they needed to be alert and act together, but their attitudes were incomprehensible.
“Why would a medium-sized monster…?”
As Owen puzzled over this, Keres Viscount, who had examined the monster, narrowed his eyes and muttered.
It was only after she spoke that Owen realized how the situation had unfolded.
Originally, this area was inhabited by small demons, so it was a place where knights and wizards capable of dealing with small demons mainly hunted.
However, when a medium-sized demon twice the size of a small demon appeared before them, it was enough to throw them into a panic.
Owen silently cursed and drew his sword from its sheath.
The smoothly drawn blade was instantly covered in a sinister black aura.
“Krrrk!”
Perhaps due to the sharp aura of the sword.
With just one swing, the demon, as large as a lion, was cut in half.
Owen, who killed the demon without hesitation, sheathed his sword and then realized what he had done.
‘Without any hesitation…’
He muttered under his breath as he looked at the half-cut demon’s body.
‘…I killed it.’
I killed something that was alive with my own hands.
Without any hesitation or guilt.
The sensation of killing something that was breathing at his fingertips still vividly lingered.
The feeling of cutting through flesh, penetrating the body of life-.
“Duke?”
As Owen stood motionless for a while, Kyle approached, puzzled by his state.
“Why are you like that?”
Only after hearing his question did Owen finally come to his senses.
He tried to calm his trembling fingertips and spoke.
“Nothing, just-“
Owen struggled to come up with a plausible excuse in his pale mind.
After managing to think of something reasonable, he spoke again.
“I was wondering why there’s a medium-sized demon here.”
When Owen mentioned what he had heard from Countess Ceres earlier, Kyle quickly understood.
“Oh, because of that… That does feel a bit strange to me too. Why would a medium-sized demon be here?”
With Kyle’s puzzled inquiry, Countess Ceres shrugged.
“I’m also puzzled since this is the first time for me to encounter such a case.”
At her response, Kyle narrowed his eyes slightly.
“That makes me even more uneasy. If this is due to a ‘distortion’…”
Distortion.
A term referring to the breaking of the existing framework.
“No way. Distortions only occur due to external influences, right?”
Richard voiced his opinion in response to Kyle.
“That’s right. For example, like the influence of holy power.”
Nodding in agreement with Richard’s words, Kyle continued.
Since demons are fundamentally creatures of darkness, they strongly react to holy power, which is of the light attribute.
If holy power attempted to infiltrate from the outside, they willingly broke the existing framework to fight against it.
“Holy power…?”
As the term holy power was mentioned, Owen, who had barely managed to control his emotions, stiffened once more.
Holy power.
There was only one thing Owen could think of when he heard that word.
Bella.
The protagonist of ＜Empire’s Flower＞.
A saint who appeared after 200 years and could use holy power for a purpose other than ‘healing’.
“Your Highness, do you have any information?”
From Noble mtl dot com
Countess Ceres immediately asked Owen, sensing something in his reaction.
Struggling to compose himself, Owen opened his lips.
“…No, none.”
It was true that Bella’s confrontation with demons in the north was the trigger for her awakening.
However, that was only within the Taylor Viscount’s territory where she was adopted.
Moreover, it was still a month before the original work was supposed to begin.
‘It must be a coincidence.’
So, Bella had no reason to use holy power in the ‘Forest of Eyes’ before the original work started.
Owen cleared his mind and moved on, trying to shake off his thoughts.
* * *
The group moved a little further into the central area, slightly deeper in.
As if they were expected, demons poured out.
In response, each of them began to sweep away the demons with their respective powers.
There was no room for hesitation.
Hesitation could lead to injury.
Naturally, Owen also had to kill the demons.
Once, twice.
Repeating the act of killing demons, Owen gradually became indifferent to taking lives.
“It seems acceptable to harm life.”
Even if the target to kill is a demon, it would be difficult for him, who had lived in the 21st century society, to accept it nonchalantly. That’s what he thought.
However, as the situation unfolded and he repeatedly killed, he became unfazed.
Before coming to the hunting grounds, he had wondered if he could really kill the demons properly. It was almost comical to worry about not being able to do his job like Owen.
What bothered him more was the lack of hesitation in taking lives.
Even though the opponent was a demon, he had never killed a living being before.
How did he become so natural and nonchalant in his actions?
“Is it Owen’s influence? Or is it me being strange?”
Lost in thought for a moment, Owen exhaled and gripped his sword.
Rather than pondering such thoughts, it seemed better to catch one more demon.
How much time had passed?
The surroundings seemed to have quieted down after all the demons had been defeated.
Only then did Owen catch his breath and observed his companions one by one.
The rest seemed unaffected, looking familiar, except for Richard, who seemed a bit tired as it was his first hunting competition.
“There are many demons. You must be tired.”
As Richard spoke, sweating, Keres, not as a viscount, nodded as if to say he wasn’t.
“No, Your Highness. It is my duty as the guardian of the far north.”
As the two once again tried to show a model relationship between lord and vassal, Owen quietly slipped away from between them.
Kyle found Owen’s attitude intriguing and spoke up.
“It seems the viscount is not accustomed to such things.”
When Kyle spoke, Owen turned his head to look at him.
It was surprising to Kyle that a nobleman like Owen was not interested in such matters.
To avoid drawing attention to it, Owen casually replied, “I’m not used to it. To be precise, I’m not interested.”
He was well aware of how the royal family behaved through “The Flower of the Empire.”
And what ‘Owen’ thought of the royal family.
Owen easily mimicked ‘Owen’ with an indifferent voice.
“I’m not a royalist, so there’s no reason for me to do that.”
Perhaps thanks to his skillful imitation of ‘Owen,’ Kyle looked at Owen with a curious gaze.
“I’ve heard you’re sharp and cold, but it seems you’re even more so than I thought.”
It was quite intriguing how indifferent Owen was to the royal family.
It must have been different from the nobles he had encountered so far.
“You seem to be different.”
In response to the intriguing tone, Owen lightly replied.
In “The Flower of the Empire,” Kyle had also stated that he had little to no interest in the royal family.
Instead, he disliked or even hated them, not wanting to show off.
“The same goes for me. I’m a Topjun, after all. Do I have any reason to take the royal side when the royal family restricts the ma-tops?”
“The same goes for me.”
The royal family had many enemies.
More precisely, they were so fearful that they made many enemies.
The ma-tops and the Verdin Viscount.
Perhaps because both sides were powerful, the royal family easily became afraid and rejected them.
As a result, Owen, despite being a viscount, could not attend the grand council, and the ma-tops were not allowed to build ma-tops in the capital.
It had been ongoing since the founding of the empire, making it difficult to criticize.
With absurd claims like “Are you now ambitious for politics?” or “Are you trying to swallow the royal family,” the royal family and the nobles were on guard, making change difficult.
As a result, both the ma-tops and the Verdin Viscount.
They abandoned stepping into the capital and giving up on entering politics.
Their alternative choice was to strengthen the foundation of military power and capital.
“…There seem to be more similarities between us than I thought.”
Kyle muttered softly, as if finding it intriguing.
At his reaction, Owen’s eyes twinkled.
It didn’t seem like the other party disliked him as much as he had thought.
“If we get to know each other, maybe we can become friends.”
In the original work, Owen and Kyle often clashed due to their respective positions, but that was all within the original story.
Since Owen had no intention of being with Bella, there was no reason for the two to fight anymore.
If I give up the position of the male lead, naturally Kyle and Bella would end up together.
“Topju.”
So, becoming friends wouldn’t be a bad idea.
‘Owen’ had no friends, so making one like this would be good for my social life as well.
“Do you have someone you’re close to?”
“Someone I’m close to, you say?”
At Owen’s sudden question, Kyle responded with a puzzled expression.
To which Owen nodded and added, “Like a friend.”
“Well…”
Kyle seemed lost in thought for a moment, then spoke up again.
“I tend to be closer to magic than people.”
Listening to Kyle’s words, Owen thought the original author was truly harsh.
How did the main characters end up with such complicated human relationships?
The female lead with foster parents who see her as a tool, the male lead abused by his biological parents, the sub-male lead who only knows magic and isolates himself from people, and the villainess with a trashy family.
What a terrible harmony.
Owen sighed and blurted out a question.
“So, do you have an interest?”
“What do you mean?”
“Being friends, I mean. I’ve taken an interest recently.”
As embarrassed as he was to blurt out these words endlessly, there was no helping it.
Unless it was a hunting competition, Kyle would always be holed up in the magic tower.
As abrupt as it was, if he didn’t speak up now, they might never become friends.
Owen took a short breath and boldly spoke up.
“If you’re interested too, I’d like to be friends.”
“…Sure.”
Prepared to hear some nonsense, Kyle nodded easily, rendering his preparedness futile.
“Let’s do that. However.”
Instead, he added a condition.
“Commoners speak freely among friends. If you agree to abide by that rule, I’ll do the same.”
If other nobles heard this, they might think he was joking.
Nobles often spoke formally even among friends.
There were exceptions, but generally, they didn’t speak informally from the start.
Unless at a young age.
Perhaps Kyle thought Owen would be the same.
Unfortunately, what was inside Owen wasn’t someone who had lived as a noble all his life.
“Agreed.”