Became the Imperial-Certified Mad Dog

15 – The Boy Still Hasn’t Left

“To awaken Aura while at death’s door, what a promising young man.”

The old man who had been watching Dorothy and Gul’s fight from the rooftop, known as an elder in Yata, was impressed by Gul’s maddened venom and talent that ultimately defeated Dorothy at the cost of his own life.

Even to the eyes of this old man who had witnessed the growth of numerous powerful individuals and geniuses over more than 70 years, Gul was a remarkable talent.

“No wonder Dorothy was interested in him, tsk tsk. Her downfall was wanting something beyond her capacity.”

Conversely, he coldly shook his head at Dorothy, his granddaughter and clan member, who had fallen due to stubbornness and carelessness despite having advantages in all aspects.

“What should I do about this… hmm?”

As the elder stood between the fallen youth and girl, contemplating how to handle the situation, he detected several footsteps and urgent voices from afar.

“The commotion came from this direction!”

“The window is broken!?”

“There’s blood!”

“Must be the ducal guards or Serpe’s organization members. Can’t be helped.”

While taking the lives of the pursuers who would soon arrive would be nothing to the elder, from that moment on, not just himself but even Yata would unavoidably face hostility from Serpe narrowly speaking, and the Lung Duchy broadly speaking.

Since the Lung Duchy was quite an important foothold for Yata’s activities in the empire, the elder, not wanting to lose this relationship, lifted his fallen granddaughter without hesitation.

Just as he was about to cross over the wall and escape from Karma’s mansion.

Clang. With the sound of metal clashing, Dorothy’s chain wrapped around his ankle. Of course, since Dorothy, the chain’s owner, was unconscious, it wasn’t her controlling the chain now.

“Won’t you stop…?”

Following this barely audible voice, the elder responded calmly, though his face hidden by the night sky showed bewilderment.

“…This is surprising, to maintain consciousness even in that state.”

“Where do you think… you’re going, old man… neither you nor that woman… can leave…”

Grip-

Gul’s arm pulling the chain had slight strength in it, tightening around the elder’s ankle a bit more.

“This isn’t mere bravado, I see. Truly remarkable, to still have strength left after such injuries and blood loss. Awakening Aura alone shouldn’t allow this much, perhaps you’ve already grasped your trait?”

“…?”

“Well, whatever the case may be. Boy, release this. I won’t target you or that girl anymore.”

“…You think I’m crazy enough to believe that?”

“This fight is already this child’s loss. Being defeated not once but two or three times, seeking revenge would only bring shame, not honor. I’ll cleanly acknowledge our defeat and failure.”

The elder, declaring he would completely wash his hands of Gul and Serpe, flexed his leg once

Clang. The chains wrapped around his ankle crumbled as if they had rusted and broken.

“!?”

“This old man could kill not just you but everyone in that building within a minute if I wished.”

The elder tried to break Gul’s will by showing the overwhelming power difference. Though it seemed preposterous, considering the strange attack that had just turned the chains to dust, it clearly wasn’t mere bluffing, causing Gul to swallow hard without response.

“You seem clever so I needn’t say much, but don’t speak of us. If Serpe learns of our existence and attacks, we’ll ultimately have to fight you again. Say the intruder died by your hand. About where the body is… well.”

The elder, searching inside his robe that covered his entire body, pulled out a scroll and tore it, throwing it toward the wall.

Bang!-

Immediately after, the torn scroll briefly glowed before exploding, causing the wall to collapse.

“You can explain that they self-destructed and not a trace of their body remained.”

“…”

Seeing Gul only biting his lips and glaring resentfully without any response or further attack, the elder judged that he had accepted the proposal and disappeared into the darkness over the collapsed wall.

Even considering it was a lawn, not a single footprint remained where the elder had passed while carrying Dorothy on his shoulder.

Monster – this was Gul’s last thought before completely losing consciousness.

*

“Hah!?”

“…You’re awake?”

After realizing that dim light was entering through my barely open eyes, I hastily got up remembering the battle before losing consciousness, but the scene after opening my eyes was completely different from before.

Turning my head at the voice from beside me, I saw Karma sitting there with a darker expression than usual, eating an apple from a tray.

“…”

Growl. Though I had many questions – where this was, what day it was, what had happened while I was unconscious – ultimately, human instinct takes precedence over reason, and my stomach growled before I could ask anything.

“…Eat, go ahead.”

Shaking his head as if completely fed up, Karma handed over the tray with apples, and as I reached for it, I realized my arm was completely wrapped in bandages.

Not just my arm – my chest was also being compressed by something firm, and basically my entire body was covered in bandages.

Perhaps they had used strong anesthesia, as I barely felt any pain, so I put aside my curiosity about why I was in this state and moved my mouth to eat an apple.

Crunch. The apple must have been a good one, as even just the sound conveyed its refreshing quality.

“Is this a hospital?”

“Yes, the same hospital you were first admitted to.”

I thought the scenery visible through the window didn’t look like what you’d see from the mansion.

“…How long was I asleep?”

“About a day. Seems your memory is fine, so tell me what happened. Dorothy disappeared without a trace.”

“Ah, well…”

Just as I was about to tell everything that happened that day, I remembered the hazy memory of moving only my body as if drunk, regardless of my will, before completely losing consciousness.

‘That old man…’

That monster of an old man who turned chains to dust, whether by utilizing what Dorothy called Aura or using a completely different ability.

Remembering the warning that old man left at the end, I remained silent for a moment, then reluctantly opened my mouth under Karma’s urging gaze.

“Dorothy was indeed an assassin, apparently hired by those Grizzly people.”

“…I see.”

Karma seemed quite shocked, but since we had already discussed this and the circumstances made it impossible not to believe, he didn’t say anything more.

“I couldn’t ask for details, but I think she’s also the one who eliminated Grizzly.”

“…Setting aside why she eliminated Grizzly, why did she keep targeting Peri even after her employer died?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t answer that far.”

Since making vague excuses would obviously show and only raise suspicion, I chose to remain silent under the pretense of not having heard.

Karma accepted this readily, as it would be more strange for an assassin to reveal all their thoughts and mission details when asked.

“So what happened to Dorothy? No body was found, did she escape?”

“No, she died. I managed to cut her somehow, but she said she wouldn’t leave evidence, tore some scroll she was holding, and her body exploded. I don’t remember anything after that.”

“A explosion scroll…! She even had something like that.”

Though it felt dirty becoming that old man’s puppet, I had no other plausible excuse, so using what he provided, Karma believed my story without much suspicion.

‘To come up with such an excuse in that short time.’

The saying about wisdom coming with age seems not entirely false.

“Anyway, good work. So can we consider those targeting Peri gone now? Or was there someone behind Dorothy?”

Finally, Karma revealed what he most wanted to ask, and I fell silent again.

Clearly, there was an organization called Yata behind Dorothy. That old man seemed to be some kind of executive in Yata, should I reveal this to Karma?

I honestly don’t know how strong Serpe’s forces are. But if Yata has more skilled people like that old man, Serpe would be annihilated even with superior numbers.

That old man gave off that level of power.

“No, there shouldn’t be anyone else, at least from what I saw.”

Though I have no loyalty to Serpe, they’re currently protecting our parents, so they need to be protected.

“…Alright, I’ll believe you.”

Karma didn’t seem to fully believe my final answer, but understanding that I wasn’t in a position to act against them, he accepted it.

“Anyway, rest. I’ll explain to Peri.”

“…No need, just go ask the doctor to remove these.”

“What? You’re in critical condition, the doctor said you need a month of rest…”

Crack-

Karma tried to stop me from getting up, but when I shattered the bandages on my arm using the Aura I learned yesterday, he fell silent.

“The chest area… better leave that.”

Honestly, when my lung was pierced, I thought I was done for, but seeing that I’m alive, that doctor must truly be skilled.

“…What is this guy, really.”

*

“…”

Meanwhile, Peri remaining at the mansion had been depressed all day.

“Young miss?! Young miss! Please open the door, eat something!”

“You’ll really collapse at this rate!”

Though the servants worried anxiously beyond the door, Peri only buried herself deeper under the blankets each time.

The reason she suddenly locked herself in her room was because two servants who had been by her side disappeared simultaneously overnight.

‘Sister Dorothy, Brother Gul, where did you go…?’

Dorothy, who had woken her up every day since her 10th birthday, brushed her hair, and served delicious tea.

Her guard who was annoying for not paying attention to her, yet impossible to hate.

When these two servants, whom she trusted second only to her father Karma in this mansion and uniquely considered her own people, disappeared at once, Peri locked herself in her room out of loneliness and desolation.

‘Dad won’t tell me anything.’

The previous night when her father, not Dorothy, woke her up, Gul who usually stood there naturally when she woke up was nowhere to be seen, and when Peri asked where he was, Karma avoided answering. This consideration, which she felt was excluding her, actually left a deeper wound on Peri.

Though she couldn’t know it in her dreams, Peri’s current state was exactly that of the incompetent young miss who couldn’t do anything alone, as Dorothy had criticized.

‘Could they have grown to dislike me…?’

Likewise unknown to Dorothy, Peri was aware of her position.

‘Did they grow tired of me… who can’t do anything but makes demanding requests…? Did they both get sick of me and abandon me…?’

Despite being in a superior position to them, the fact that Peri thought of their departure as abandonment showed how deeply dependent she was on them.

“…Maybe they fell in love… no, that can’t be…”

Though unfamiliar with worldly matters, Peri knew about love between men and women, and amid various anxious thoughts, she eventually reached the delusion that Dorothy and Gul had fallen in love and abandoned her.

‘…’

Just as her guilt and longing for them was beginning to transform into an unidentifiable sense of betrayal

Knock knock.

“I won’t eat!”

At the door sound she was already sick of hearing, Peri, already immersed in unsettling delusions, responded irritably when suddenly

Creeak-

“Wh-what?!”

The firmly locked door began to physically open, ignoring the lock’s restraint.

Crack. The iron bar wedged between the wall and door to prevent it from opening bent like a twig, and through the opened door gap

“I apologize for being late, young miss. Dorothy had urgent business at home and had to resign unavoidably. She had much to pack, so I helped her, but it took a whole day because there was so much.”

“…Gul!”

Through the physically unlocked door came her most annoying yet most desperately missed guard.

“You, you didn’t leave?”

“? Why would I leave? My job is to protect you until you enter the academy.”

“Th-that’s right? You won’t leave? You’ll stay by my side?”

“Not forever, just until you enter the academy…”

“Anyway! That means you’ll stay until then! Say it’s true!”

“…Yes, that’s correct.”

“You must keep that promise! Never leave me! I won’t forgive you if this happens again!”

“Yes. More importantly, young miss, you look terrible. We’ll need to hire a new maid since Dorothy’s gone, but until then I’ll handle it… First, let’s wash your face and have a meal.”

“I-I know! Get out! I’m going to change clothes!”

Wiping away the thick tear stains around her eyes, Peri belatedly realized her state and fled to the bathroom out of embarrassment.

Though her face was as red as a radish, the corners of her mouth were turned upward.