The man, Hans, lightly rolled the glass he held in his hand.
With a clatter, the ice inside the glass knocked against the sides and made a sound.
On top of the bar table sat a single bottle of whiskey with a label on it.
Judging by how Hans had already drunk a few glasses before coming, the bottle was half empty, and his face was flushed from the alcohol.
But his eyes were not dull—if anything, they seemed sharper than before, gleaming with clarity.
Hans silently handed the bottle along with the empty glass.
Ludger checked the name of the drink printed on the label.
It was some unknown liquor he had never seen before.
But even with just a faint sniff of its aroma, he could tell it was high-quality.
Ludger filled the glass of ice with the whiskey and took a light sip.
He’d never been much of a drinker to begin with, but in the last three years he had barely touched alcohol, so his body was practically pure.
The alcohol rushed through him in an instant. If it had been the old days, he would have suppressed it with mana, but Ludger didn’t.
“Tastes good.”
“It’s expensive.”
Hans, who had been staring straight ahead even when Ludger walked in, turned to look at him for the first time.
A familiar face he was seeing again after three years.
Others had changed quite a bit in those three years, but Hans looked exactly the same.
“You really haven’t aged at all.”
Maybe that was why the first thing he said the moment he saw Hans’s face came out like that.
Hans took a sip of liquor with an expression that said, Are you kidding me?
“Must be because this face aged too early. Guess it’s lucky it doesn’t get any older than this.”
“Give it ten, twenty years. People will call you baby-faced.”
“Heh. That’s quite a compliment.”
Ludger gave a small laugh.
“So, how’ve you been?”
“You’re only asking me that now? Not very sentimental of you, considering we haven’t seen each other in three years.”
“We’re not the type for sentimentality. Or should we be hugging each other and bursting into tears from joy?”
Hans imagined the scene Ludger described.
No matter how he pictured it, it didn’t suit them at all.
Talking calmly like this now—that was far closer to their usual way.
Realizing he had let himself get dragged into Ludger’s pace again, Hans sighed.
“Boss. You know something? When I heard you’d come back, I naturally assumed we’d be meeting like this.”
“I know. That’s why I came to find you.”
“When others said you’d died during those three years, I didn’t believe them. I figured you’d come back someday. Didn’t think it’d take three whole years, but in the end I wasn’t wrong.”
Hans lifted his glass and stared into its contents.
His blurry reflection wavered in the amber surface.
“When you came back, I thought a lot about what I should say. No, actually—I thought about it a lot. For three years straight.”
Normally, Hans would never say something like that. He’d just complain a bit and sulk.
But three years was a long time.
Long enough for emotions to pile up and—to be poured out with the help of alcohol.
“Why did you do it?”
Hans chose to pursue an answer.
He had no choice.
After the battle ended, Ludger had simply stepped through the dimensional gate he created and disappeared.
No one expected it.
Not even Hans, who had worked with Ludger for so long.
He had been too shocked at the time to think straight, but when only Rine returned through the gate and it became clear Ludger hadn’t...
What Hans felt was deep betrayal.
“You could’ve told me. Or at least given me a hint. Was I really that unreliable? Just a half-wit who’s always ruled by animal instincts?”
The more he spoke, the more the emotions from that day resurfaced.
Hans’s eyes, now sharper and more forceful, glared at Ludger.
He wanted an answer.
Why he did it, and why he made that choice.
“Hans.”
Ludger called his name.
His voice was the same as three years ago—steady, unchanged.
He didn’t try to soothe Hans, nor did he chastise him for being angry.
He treated him as he always had, as if they’d spoken just yesterday.
That very attitude splashed cold water over the fire in Hans’s chest.
As Hans hesitated and fumbled for words, Ludger opened his mouth again.
“The gate I made was one meant to cross into another world.”
He began quietly.
Where that gate led.
What kind of world existed beyond it.
“That place is completely different from here. There’s no magic, no other races. Science has developed to bizarre levels, and the land is unimaginably vast. There are hundreds of nations, and its history is incredibly deep.”
Hans didn’t understand why Ludger was saying this.
He wasn’t even sure what exactly Ludger meant.
He couldn’t help it—
for someone like Hans, who had lived his entire life in this world, the idea of another world sounded like a children’s fairy tale.
But at the same time, he felt it.
That Ludger wasn’t lying.
He spoke with the same calm tone as always, but his unwavering blue eyes proved the truth.
Hans had been around Ludger long enough to guess what he was thinking from his expressions and actions.
And now that he had fully mastered the beast factor as his own, his sharpened senses only added to that.
Hans sat quietly and listened.
“You wouldn’t know it, but I came from that world. This world is actually my second one.”
The truth that Ludger had revealed to no one except Rine and Grander flowed from his lips.
“I wanted to go back. And I wanted to meet ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) my old family. Yes—just for such a simple, petty reason.”
And so he crossed the Crystal Corridor and finally reached Earth.
He met the mother he had missed so terribly.
The meeting wasn’t long, but in that moment, Ludger realized the path he had walked hadn’t been wrong.
The massive knot inside his heart—
the thing that caught his eye no matter how he tried to ignore it, that refused to budge even when he tried to get rid of it—
melted away as if by magic.
“To be completely honest, I wasn’t planning on ever coming back.”
And Ludger confessed something he had told no one.
He had intended that if he returned to Earth, he would never come back to this world again.
Hans was surprised, but as he recalled what Ludger had been through, he nodded in understanding.
Ludger had suffered a great deal.
And what Hans had seen was only a small portion of it.
In fact, it was strange that Ludger hadn’t grown disillusioned with this world or turned hostile toward it.
“But after talking with my family and looking back at the path I’d walked, I realized something. Where I should live. Yeah... foolish as it sounds, I ended up loving this world more than my original one.”
And that was why he handed his research data to Rine and sent her back alive.
Because he was certain that one day she would come to save him.
“I didn’t tell you or the others because I thought it would be better for all of us that way.”
Ludger set his glass down and gave a self-mocking smile.
“I was wrong.”
“Boss...”
Hans stared at Ludger’s face, then—perhaps getting emotional—downed the remaining liquor in one go.
“Enough. Why spoil good alcohol with all that heavy talk? Forget everything that’s passed. Let’s just enjoy this reunion.”
Ludger blinked at him in surprise, then chuckled softly and nodded.
The empty glasses were filled again.
With a soft clink, the two glasses touched.
“Come to think of it, drinking like this reminds me of the old days, doesn’t it?”
“The old days, hm.”
“You know. When you called me and I first came into Rederbelk.”
The memory made Ludger’s shoulders shake with a small laugh.
“I remember. I turned you into a werewolf and we wiped out the Red Society.”
“Feels kinda similar now. The mood and all. Well, without the smell of blood and corpses.”
Hans added:
“So that makes it better, doesn’t it? It’s peaceful.”
“Peaceful... yes. That’s true.”
“Boss, you’ve changed a bit.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I don’t know... it feels like you’re a bit more honest with your emotions than before.”
Hans said it as if he’d spoken frivolously and told Ludger to just ignore it, but Ludger shook his head.
“Looks like you’re right. I’ve changed.”
“Oh, really? I just said it in passing.”
“If a person doesn’t change after three years, that’s its own problem, isn’t it?”
“From what I saw, you looked exactly the same after several years.”
“It only looked that way. As the world changes, people change with it. And a peaceful world has finally come around.”
The word peaceful seemed to bother Hans a bit.
“Hmph. I don’t know about that. Sure, the Theocracy of Bretus disappeared and the demons are gone, but there are still plenty of fights going on in this world.”
“You must have seen quite a lot.”
“After you disappeared, we had to return to our original places. Well, we all agreed on it. You know how things were at the time.”
Powerhouses from all over the world had gathered in one place and fought.
They succeeded in defeating a common enemy, but what remained afterward... was the awkwardness of strangers suddenly forced to face one another.
Especially since Owens members were, officially, considered part of the Demon King’s Army.
“No one demanded responsibility or anything. But instead—well, you could say the fact that we did anything at all was erased.”
Hans scratched his head.
In other words, they were treated as if they didn’t exist from the beginning.
Because it was acknowledged that they had uncovered the Holy Sovereign’s plot and had tried to resist.
Of course, not everyone agreed with that.
“Alex is the prime example.”
“Alex? Ah, right.”
Not only Alex—Phantos as well.
The two had fought the allied forces, including the knight orders.
Even if those on the scene turned a blind eye, others wouldn’t.
Phantos was a different case and had been taken away by Sir Iron Mask Lupholdt, who said he’d handle it.
But Alex couldn’t be dealt with that way.
“What happened to Alex?”
“Well, first off, Alex was taken to the capital. If nothing else, the fact that Commander Lutus himself brought him says enough.”
“No trouble happened, right?”
Hans snorted.
“You think that guy would get into trouble? He’ll get dragged into annoying things, sure, but nothing too bad. Better to ask him directly.”
Hearing that, Ludger let go of his unnecessary worry.
If Hans said to ask in person, then Alex clearly had enough freedom to come here on his own.
“More importantly, how have you been?”
“What do you think? After you disappeared and Owens basically lost its center, everyone just lived doing whatever they wanted. I helped out with Royal Street for about a year since someone had to keep it running.”
“I see.”
“After that, well... I’d saved up some money, so I did what I wanted. Built myself a house.”
Hans had a dream.
To spend the rest of his life peacefully in a private home overlooking a beautiful wheat field.
To sit in a rocking chair as the sun set, drink a beer, check the newspaper and see what had happened that day.
A simple, leisurely life.
“I spent everything I had saved to buy land and build a house. And just in case, I even built a big warehouse.”
“Is the land in the Empire?”
“Yeah. The Empire has the best location, and it’s not like I’m in a position to freely leave it.”
Information regarding Hans was treated as top secret.
Hans—who could transform into the Beast of Jévaudan—was practically a strategic weapon in human form.
Because of that, the Empire provided convenience for him.
Well, it was less about kindness and more about making sure he didn’t leave their sight.
“I know what their intentions are. But hey, if they’re giving, I might as well use it properly.”
“You managed to come all the way to the capital, then. Weren’t they watching you?”
“Not really watching. They just send someone regularly to check if I’m still at home. But it’s not like I’m forbidden from going places.”
“How?”
Hans grinned and answered Ludger’s curiosity.
His right arm snapped and twisted, transforming into a jet-black wing.
A raven’s wing.
“You know something? I can fly now.”
“You were already able to fly with the Beast King’s power.”
Ludger gave a small laugh.
Seeing Hans put his abilities to good use made him realize Hans had grown too.
“The Beast King’s power isn’t efficient. Afterwards I get starving, and besides, I always wanted to try copying you—transforming like a raven.”
“Is there a reason you had to?”
“Because it looks cool. That’s all.”
“Ah.”
Hans burst out laughing, clutching his stomach.
As they continued their lighthearted chatter, the bar door opened.
“Ah, am I late?”
Alex walked in, seeing Ludger and Hans already there.
Ludger looked over Alex’s outfit.
It wasn’t his usual comfortable clothes—he was dressed in the extravagant fashion nobles wore.
But what drew Ludger’s eye most was Alex’s left ring finger.
The sparkling gemstone on it was unmistakably a wedding ring.