“...Why did you kill him?”
“There’s no benefit in keeping a black mage alive.”
“He had already lost the will to fight and was completely subdued. And yet you killed him...”
Casey fixed her trembling gaze on Ludger.
“That’s nothing but meaningless murder.”
Ludger flicked the blood from his swordstick.
The red stains splattered across the ground made Casey narrow her eyes.
“Fine. Capturing him alive and throwing him in prison wouldn’t have been bad either. His ankle was already blown off, and his will broken.”
“Then why...?”
“Because this is my way.”
Casey asked, as if she could not understand.
“Murder is?”
“The Hellfire School he belonged to has already been annihilated. There’s no point dragging him off to a cell. Better to erase him here and now.”
Ludger looked down coldly at Delmart’s lifeless corpse.
“How many people do you think died at his hands? Black mages are fundamentally indifferent to human life. Countless people must have perished because of him.”
“So you killed him for that? As payment for his sins? And who exactly has the right to demand that price?”
“I told you already. This is my way. It’s not about rights.”
“The moment you captured him, it was over. But I truly can’t understand why you would go this far.”
What Ludger had done—killing Delmart—was undeniably wrong. Yet what pained Casey was something else.
“Why go out of your way to stain your hands?”
They could have just handed Delmart over after capturing him.
Ludger’s role ended the moment he incapacitated him.
Even so, Ludger chose to act with his own hand.
Even knowing there would be nothing to gain.
“It sounds like you’re worried about me. Don’t you feel anger at what I’ve done?”
“...I suppose once, I would have. But I’ve come to realize the world doesn’t run purely on ideals and nobility.”
“Is that so.”
Ludger slid the swordstick back into its sheath.
“You seem to think I acted with some noble intention.”
“If not, then why do this?”
“Well. To say there was no good intention in it at all would be a lie.”
Ludger fixed his gaze on Casey.
In those blue eyes was a trace of bitter self-mockery.
“Even so, I know this way is wrong.”
“If you know, then you can change.”
“Are you pitying me?”
Casey didn’t bother denying it.
“You’ve changed, Casey Selmore.”
“Everyone changes.”
“But precisely because of that, you should not forgive me.”
“What do you mean?”
“No matter how noble the intention, if the deed is evil, you must never overlook it.”
“That is...”
Casey started to speak, then pressed her lips shut.
“Do not forget, Casey Selmore. No matter the misunderstandings, no matter the reasons... in the end, I am a sinner with blood on my hands. Good intent has nothing to do with it. Only results prove the truth.”
Casey swallowed hard.
Her eyes filled with the memory of that day—
The back of a man who could only despair at the death of a boy.
The footsteps of someone powerless, forced to walk a crooked path.
Thus—
The Lord of Crime was born into the world.
“Even if that’s merely the image the world gave you?”
“What a laughable notion.”
Ludger snorted, as if the very thought were absurd.
“This isn’t something the world forced upon me. I chose it.”
“...”
“I steeled myself as a villain. This path was chosen by my will.”
The labels others threw—saint or sinner—held no meaning for Ludger.
He himself had chosen to be a villain and to carry on committing evil.
Because he decided so, he walked this path.
“Why push yourself so far? There’s no need.”
Casey thought about it.
Ludger was competent, extraordinary.
Even now, as a teacher at Seorn, he was fulfilling his role admirably.
Whatever he had experienced in the past didn’t matter.
Just living the new life he had now was enough.
Everyone would look up to him, envy him, praise him.
He could easily have walked a peaceful path.
And yet—
Ludger cast that aside and willingly chose the road drenched in blood.
It was senseless, irrational.
“But why?”
“A good person does good with good intentions. Nothing is better than that.”
Ludger looked into the air.
“But sometimes, regardless of intent, things go wrong. A deed done with the best intentions can lead to the worst result.”
It happens often in reality.
The intent was good, but the outcome turned out disastrous.
“And in such a situation, what will people choose? Will they accept their fault in full, or will they make excuses, saying that wasn’t their intent?”
“That is...”
“When good deeds bring good results, all is well. But sometimes those good deeds end in ruin. Then people turn away from the result and flee into excuses.”
That wasn’t my intention.
I did it all for your sake.
No doubt, those words were not lies.
“But they compromise with sin, forgive themselves, and repeat the same acts. That is how people break. And afterwards, they become monsters.”
People who believe themselves righteous and commit any deed without hesitation.
Even when the result is always disastrous, they convince themselves it is fine because their hearts were pure.
Ludger saw such people as worse than villains.
“That is why at the very least, I don’t turn away from the sins I commit.”
Even if the target was a villain.
Even if the battlefield excused it.
Even if the intent was for someone’s sake.
The fact of taking a life does not change.
There is no such thing as a righteous evil deed.
Evil is evil, and it leaves an unerasable brand.
Like the mark carved on his back since birth.
“Casey Selmore. Could you bear that weight?”
“...I don’t know. But I’d try.”
“That answer suits you. And it’s the decisive difference ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) between us.”
To Ludger, Casey Selmore was a good person.
Her intentions were pure, her methods straight.
Which was why she had been taken advantage of.
And yet Casey Selmore had not given up.
“Never forget. Though we stand in the same place, we live in different worlds.”
A person living in a different world from himself.
Sometimes he envied that world.
But once he chose this path, Ludger had no thought of leaving it.
He lived within the barbed-wire fences of violence.
“You are...”
Casey’s lips trembled.
Even as they stood face to face, talking, fighting side by side—
Between them stood an invisible wall.
What made it worse was that he understood her, but she could not understand him.
From the past to the present, Ludger always made her feel defeat.
Yet she swore she would not remain powerless as she had that day.
Casey resolved this, and was about to speak—
Crackkkkk!
Far away, a colossal mountain of ice erupted upward.
Even at such a distance, even in the dark of night, its sheer size dominated the view.
The ghastly sound of everything freezing over was louder than any bomb’s blast.
Shhhhhh.
The iceberg that rose so suddenly vanished just as abruptly—like a mirage.
But the chill it left behind was real, draining heat from the air.
An ordinary person approaching would freeze solid in less than three seconds.
Even a sturdy knight would not last a minute before their lungs froze.
So that’s why he told people to fall back.
At the same time Ludger held such thoughts, no further ripple of mana could be felt after that fierce strike.
“It’s over, then.”
Muttering so, Ludger slowly began to walk.
Casey, having missed the timing to speak, could not bring herself to follow.
* * *
The nighttime operation to sweep out the black mages ended in success.
Of course, the battle had been so violent that concealing the truth was practically impossible.
Reporters rushed in from all directions trying to enter the scene, while intelligence agents and police officers blocked their way.
But no matter how tightly they set up guard lines and held the press back, they could not completely hide the traces of battle in the warehouse district.
How could they?
The remote C-sector, where the warehouse had stood, was not only frozen over as if covered in frost—
The chill was so powerful it had frozen the nearby coastline as well.
Even if the land route was sealed off, the aftermath was plain to see from the sea.
“Good grief. What on earth happened overnight?”
“I heard from my neighbor Jacob there were green lights bursting everywhere, like chaos itself.”
“They say black mages infiltrated and the government launched a sweep operation.”
“Really? Well, then it can’t be helped. Fishing’s already banned near the docks anyway. Not like we’re losing anything.”
The fishermen chatted like that, but their eyes could not help but stray toward the site of the warehouse.
A part of the sea frozen pure white was a rare sight even for them.
* * *
“Sis. You really blew it up this time.”
Inside Marias Selmore’s office.
Casey slapped a newspaper down on her sister’s desk.
On the front page was a giant headline about the previous night’s incident at the warehouse.
“So, where’s the person who said this had to be handled quietly?”
“Why put it that way? That was about as quiet as it gets.”
“You call freezing the whole nearby sea quiet?”
“That area’s not used for traffic anyway. No fishing boats, no merchant ships, no freighters are inconvenienced.”
“There are still eyes watching.”
“You saw the situation yourself. Leaving that monster unchecked would have caused far worse damage. This way, we got off cheap.”
“Haa. True enough.”
Casey knew that better than anyone.
They had destroyed an entire faction of black mages.
And in the middle of it, a high-level black mage had gone berserk, transforming into a corrupted magical beast.
If things had gone wrong, not only the warehouse but the entire harbor could have been obliterated.
The devastation Marias unleashed was terrifying, but considering what might have been, the damage was minimal.
“Besides, it let me blow off some stress for the first time in a while.”
“That’s the real reason, isn’t it? Huh?”
“Why say that? I can’t move around freely like you do. And don’t nag me too much. This incident helped you too.”
“Me?”
“Thanks to your fiancé and the aid you gave, our agents got out alive. So as your older sister, and as a public officer of the Magical Information Bureau, I owe you proper reward.”
At the word “reward,” Casey’s ears pricked up.
Marias smiled slyly, eyes narrowing.
“This big sister sincerely congratulates you and your fiancé!”
“...Are you kidding me? That’s a reward? Just give me money instead!”
“Oh, really. Have you turned this materialistic while I wasn’t looking? And do you think I couldn’t give money if you asked?”
“That...”
Casey started to reply, then closed her mouth and thought.
“Wait. Give me some time to decide.”
“Take your time.”
Marias watched her sister with a bright smile.
Yes, she really was adorable like this.
Even if she’d grown a lot, she still had gaps—proof she was still her little sister.
“But it’s good to think carefully. I have another appointment, so why don’t you leave my office for now?”
“Appointment? What kind?”
“Oh, many kinds. For one, the high officials of the nation who want to drag me over the coals about what happened.”
Marias shook her head as though troubled.
“Honestly, being a low-level official is too much hardship.”
“...Low-level? You’re higher than a bureau chief and you say that?”
“That’s a misunderstanding.”
Casey snorted.
A misunderstanding? Hardly.
Her sister could replace directors at will.
How could she be so shameless?
“Anyway, I’ll come up with a proper reward later. Just wait patiently.”
“I’ll be expecting it~.”
Casey turned her back and left the office.
But her steps soon halted—she ran right into Ludger coming in.
“...What?”
“What.”
“What are you doing here?”
“To receive my reward.”
“Reward? Ah...”
So that was the appointment her sister had mentioned.
Casey worked her lips but couldn’t find words.
Last night’s conversation with Ludger still echoed in her mind.
He had drawn a clear line between them.
No matter how they cooperated or spoke as allies, they lived in entirely different worlds.
Casey still hadn’t found an answer to that.
Instead, she quietly stepped toward him.
She fastened one of the buttons on his jacket with her slender hands.
“Dress properly. You’re seeing my sister. Don’t let her look down on you.”
Ludger looked down at her.
She avoided his gaze, showing only the crown of her head.
Some fragrance—whatever perfume she wore—always carried the scent of clear water.
After fixing his button, Casey briskly walked away.
“...”
Ludger pulled his eyes off her retreating back and entered Marias’s office.
“Ludger Cherish.”
“You’re here? My sister just left.”
“I met her on the way.”
“I see.”
Marias opened a small box on her desk and popped a candy into her mouth.
“Mind if I eat? Or would you like one? They’re surprisingly good.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Try one.”
Under her gentle but insistent urging, Ludger had no choice but to accept a candy.
The instant it touched his tongue, the overwhelming sweetness nearly made him spit it out.
‘What the hell...’
It was something beyond a lump of sugar.
Even a hypoglycemic would get diabetes instantly from this.
Grinding it between his teeth, Ludger forced it down and went straight to the point.
“I want my reward for this mission.”
“Yes, of course. A promise is a promise.”
Ludger readied himself to listen.
Marias studied him through narrowed eyes.
“About that scenery, that clue you asked me about before—I checked a few more times. And I reached one conclusion.”
“And that is?”
“The place you’re searching for—it exists inside a dream.”