* * *
It felt like the thin thread connecting him to Sean had been severed.
It wasn’t a sensation he could simply ignore.
‘Why?’
He tried to find a reason, but nothing came to mind.
Normally, Raizen would have brushed it off, but this involved Sean.
He couldn’t overlook anything related to him, no matter how small.
Before he could even think of a reason, his instincts and emotions had already pushed him to act.
“Kieeek!”
Even as he stood frozen, monsters continued to pour in.
They came rushing forward with a singular purpose—destruction and slaughter.
Fear and hesitation were foreign concepts to them.
Even as their kin’s corpses piled up at Raizen’s feet, they did not stop.
Thunk. Slash.
“Kieeek…!”
“Graaah!”
The battlefield was filled with the sounds of flesh being torn apart and dying screams.
The ground had long since lost its original color, now soaked in the blood of both humans and monsters.
The wave of monsters seemed endless.
Just when it looked like they had been wiped out, more would appear.
The knights of the ducal house and the small group of reinforcements sent by the emperor were visibly exhausted.
“This wave isn’t over yet! Stay sharp, everyone!”
Duke Pantheon’s voice rang out like thunder.
Even though it wasn’t a magical spell with a buff effect, morale instantly surged.
“Yes, sir!”
“Haaah!!”
Most of them were struggling to muster their remaining strength, but only Raizen remained calm.
It wasn’t just one or two monsters—it was an entire horde.
Yet his face showed no signs of panic or fear.
In fact, there wasn’t a trace of emotion at all.
His expression remained eerily blank, completely unbecoming of someone who had only just graduated from the Royal Academy and reached adulthood.
‘Too many.’
The sheer numbers annoyed Raizen.
He had expected this mission to take a while, but this was excessive.
If not for these monsters, he could have investigated the unsettling feeling that continued to nag at him.
‘Maybe I should have sent letters after all.’
He had deliberately avoided contacting Sean.
He had thought it would make Sean more anxious, and the thought of Sean waiting for him had, in a way, made the stifling frustration of this mission a little more bearable.
‘But why did I do that?’
Raizen slashed through a monster’s throat, lost in thought.
Honestly, he felt like he needed to teleport to the ducal estate once a day just to see Sean.
The only thing stopping him was the last shred of rationality he had left.
He couldn’t afford to leave, not even for a moment, in a situation where anything could go wrong at any time.
If he couldn’t leave, he should have at least sent letters.
He already wasn’t receiving real-time updates from the ducal estate.
‘If only we had something like a phone…’
Despite the existence of magic and mystical forces, this world remained frustratingly archaic in many ways.
Harnessing magic properly wasn’t easy, and crafting high-quality magical tools was even harder…
“……?”
Raizen suddenly froze.
‘What did I just think about?’
It was only for an instant, but this battlefield was more chaotic than any warzone.
The moment Raizen stopped his attack, a monster lunged at him, seizing the opportunity.
“Young Duke—!!”
A nearby knight shouted urgently, but he was too busy fending off his own opponents to help.
The monster’s clawed foot aimed for Raizen’s left shoulder.
Its talons, as deadly as any weapon, were just about to sink into his flesh—
“Kiiiiiik!!”
Suddenly, small fireballs shot out from all directions, striking the monster.
As it reeled in pain, Raizen swiftly finished it off with his sword.
“……Just now, that was…?”
“Magic? The Young Duke of Pantheon can use magic?”
The surrounding noises clung to his mind like an irritating buzz.
Staring down at the monster’s corpse with indifferent eyes, Raizen let out a sigh, annoyed.
He hadn’t planned on revealing that he could use magic yet.
But now that it had happened, there was nothing he could do.
‘Not that it really matters.’
Raizen had spent a long time contemplating how to project his image—his very existence—more widely and effectively to the world.
It felt like the only way to free himself from the cursed fate that loomed over him.
A pitiful form of self-reassurance.
No matter how much people praised Raizen Pantheon as a remarkable talent, the reality remained unchanged—he was constantly anxious about the curse that could strike him at any moment.
‘Tiresome.’
Wiping away the monster’s blood splattered on his face, Raizen stared blankly into the void.
He just wanted to see Sean.
Once this round of monster waves subsided, he would write to him.
It wasn’t even a difficult thing to do—so why hadn’t he done it sooner?
[Are you sure Sean will be fine without worrying?]
“……”
[If so, then he won’t only think about you anymore. He’ll start looking around, get distracted by other things, and eventually… he’ll forget you.]
As if it had been waiting for this moment, a malicious voice began to invade Raizen’s mind.
∗ ∗ ∗
He had no idea what he had been thinking or how he had made it back to the duke’s estate.
Only when he stumbled into his room did all the tension drain from his body, and he collapsed onto the floor.
‘I almost died.’
Even recalling the moment sent a chill down his spine.
His heart was still pounding loudly—thump, thump.
He placed a hand on his chest and tried taking deep breaths, but calming down wasn’t easy.
His body continued to tremble uncontrollably.
[Idiot.]
At the sound of the voice echoing in his mind, he lifted his gaze.
At his feet sat a small fox with white fur tinged with a faint blue glow.
‘A divine beast…’
This little one had hatched the moment Minsoo lost control and had protected him.
He didn’t even want to imagine what might have happened if it hadn’t been there.
“Phew…”
[Idiot! I told you to be careful!]
The divine beast slammed its tail against the floor with a sharp thud.
Its voice, still that of a young child, carried clear frustration.
Had it really warned him to be careful?
Maybe it had, maybe it hadn’t.
Either way, his mind was too foggy to think properly.
“No, I just…”
Had he truly not anticipated Minsoo’s actions?
If he had thought about it just a little more—if he had been even slightly more vigilant—he could have avoided this.
But he hadn’t.
‘Careless.’
Had he been too elated because of Raizen?
Or had he still not fully accepted this world as his own?
Or perhaps… had he unconsciously clung to the idea that he was the protagonist and let his guard down?
“Ah…”
There wasn’t just one answer. It was all of the above.
“This is seriously frustrating…”
[Enough. What’s done is done.]
The divine beast’s firm tone cut through his spiraling thoughts.
When he looked back at it, those brilliant golden eyes were fixed on him, unwavering.
“…Hello.”
It felt appropriate to at least greet it.
The beast averted its gaze slightly before responding.
[Yeah, hi.]
“Earlier… thank you. Really.”
[I know.]
Though its tone was blunt, it seemed somewhat embarrassed.
“Can you see the future?”
[It’s intuition. I don’t know exactly what will happen, and even if I do, I can’t tell you. All I can do is warn you…]
“I see.”
[So from now on, you have to listen to me. Got it?!]
“…Okay.”
He agreed readily, but the divine beast didn’t seem satisfied.
It tapped the floor with its tail again and let out a huff.
But aren’t foxes part of the canine family?
Why does it act like a cat?
[You’re lying. You don’t mean it.]
“I do, really.”
[Don’t make me laugh!]
The divine beast suddenly raised its voice.
There was a tremble in it—on the verge of tears.
Sensing the need to calm it down, he reached out a hand, but the little creature flinched away.
“What’s wrong? I mean it.”
[No, you don’t.]
“Why do you think that?”
[Because…]
The divine beast hesitated before sniffing, its golden eyes welling up with tears.
[You still think of death as an escape.]
Tears trembled in those golden eyes as they finally turned fully toward him.
* * *
