At that moment, Benjamin was lying on the grass, providing a pillow for his arm to Rapine.

“So, Her Majesty the Queen told me….”

Rapine lay on Benjamin’s sturdy arm, making a flower bracelet and whispering, delivering Greta’s orders in full.

“Huh, huh. Is that so?”

Benjamin gently answered, brushing Rapine’s hair back. A cold sneer hung on his lips.

‘The Queen wouldn’t have known that Rapine is this stupid.’

The man without glasses, having just removed his eye patch, had disdainful eyes. Yet, his voice was as sweet as sugar candy soaked in honey; it was no wonder Rapine was clueless.

“By the way, the Duke of Windsor is not invited to the hunting event next month.”

“Huh? Why? Oh, because you’re here, Windsor?”

Benjamin chuckled, appeasing Rapine’s mood.

“Ah, what a misunderstanding.”

Rapine, still mistakenly thinking she was from Windsor, didn’t know how to contain her joy. She pulled Benjamin’s hand over and filled it with the flower bracelet she made, smiling broadly.

“We’re all going to die anyway.”

“You should have told me earlier.”

Aiban, in charge of escorting Yurisien on his outing, grumbled as he trudged along.

“To deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your allies.”

“…”

“Isn’t that what His Highness always says?”

Aiban stopped abruptly, slightly opening his mouth. Yurisien resumed walking, and Aiban quickly followed.

“Anyway, it’s fortunate.”

“Huh?”

“That His Highness isn’t crazy. Switching his attention to another woman after all that? I had all sorts of thoughts.”

“All sorts of actions warranting all sorts of thoughts.”

Yurisien looked up at Aiban with a smirk.

“What actions?”

Aiban bit his lower lip and looked away. It was so brazen that Yurisien lost interest in probing further. After all, Benjamin’s scheming and meticulous character was something Yurisien had encountered numerous times.

‘It won’t change anything, knowing a few more.’

Yurisien was about to tell Aiban that it was okay and let’s move on.

“…”

Aiban was staring at something intently.

“Huh?”

Upon following his gaze, it was a paper puppet show for children.

“The brave knight said, ‘Poor child, if you have nowhere to go, come with me.’ The child thought, ‘An angel from heaven! Oh, my savior!'”

“Wow, the knight is cool!”

“So, do the knight and the child live together?”

The puppeteer grinned at the children. The children cried out for an answer, but the puppeteer remained silent.

“An open ending.”

Yurisien mumbled. For a puppet show aimed at children, it was odd that the ending wasn’t a happy one. Aiban’s expression, however, was far from normal.

“Aiban?”

“…”

Aiban looked as if he’d heard something he shouldn’t have or didn’t want to hear.

‘What’s going on?’

His clenched jaw was tense, and his tightly held fist was also stiff. It was more like enduring a distant sorrow or despair than anger.

At that moment, a rumor Yurisien once heard flashed through his mind. It was when Yurisien was staying at Windsor’s townhouse in the capital as a young princess.

[Have you heard that story?]

A young lady’s maid looked excited, as if she had heard an interesting story, and started to speak.
[A beastman has entered Eloniac.] [A beastman? In Eloniac?] [What on earth? That’s the Imperial Majesty’s direct squad!]

Unsurprisingly, everyone swarmed with curiosity to hear the story. Like the saying in social circles that gossip begets power, the young woman brimmed with self-importance.

[Well, you all know Commander Mitchel Sieron of the 2nd Division, right?] [Oh, of course. He joined out of respect for Sir Kal Cheren, and he’s a powerhouse, having risen to the rank of division commander.] [Isn’t it so romantic and cool to be here?]

The others chimed in, making a fuss. At that moment, Yurisien was drinking tea. He was surprised that a beastman had joined the Imperial direct squad, but thought it was not strange if the beastman was capable.

‘So, I didn’t pay much attention…’

Yurisien looked at Ivan, who was grinding his teeth with a strange expression. Small world, indeed.

‘That cat beastman, Homunculus, who was picked up by Mitchel Sieron, was Ivan.’

Such an unexpected meeting.

Ivan was unaware of the surprise crossing Yurisien’s eyes.

He only stared at a puppet show actor. The actor didn’t notice Ivan, likely because he was distracted by the children’s cheers.

“Did you get married?”

“Were the knight and the child happy?”

“Uh, well.”

The actor made a living off the pennies of these nosy children but never told them the stories they wanted to hear. If there was dignity, it was dignified; if there was wisdom, it was wise.

“If you’re curious about the next story, let’s meet here again in ten nights.”

He had to keep selling this story. But not Ivan. He wouldn’t be here in ten days. That’s why Ivan wanted to approach the actor and grab him by the collar right now.

‘Say it’s a happy ending.’

Even if it’s an empty word, even if it’s a lie, just say so.

However, Ivan couldn’t move. Not because he knew he shouldn’t, but because he knew it would be pointless.

He just stood there, as if nailed to the spot, lost in the past.

When Ivan, now twenty-two, was nine years old.

The nameless nine-year-old boy was called number 299. He was born, or rather created, in a neighboring country known as a land of barbarians by the Soljeleon Empire. And that too, by the Gypsies whom the Soljeleon Empire so despised and loathed.

[A beast won’t do. They can be tamed, but they lack reason, making them hard to use.] [Not just that, they lack intelligence, making it hard to teach them. We need something else… something more.] [Something with the intelligence of a human and the brute strength of a beast!]

The Gypsies wanted a human with beastly traits, and the result was the hybrid beastman 299.

‘The Homunculus, considered by the Soljeleon Empire as the heretical, atrocious act, was a blessing of power to the heretics themselves.’

To them, 299 was a ‘living blessing’ because up to number 298 were all failures and hence discarded.

Curious as he had the body of a beast but the intelligence of a human, 299 wondered if he truly was a blessing. Why was he suffering then?

Daily experiments on his body, continuous battles with beasts, and moments when he would lose his sanity and rampage like a beast…

All called 299 a ‘living’ blessing, but 299 didn’t feel alive. His body breathed, his eyes blinked, his body moved, and his heart beat. That was it.

At just nine years old, 299 had done a big job. He managed to infiltrate the Soljeleon Empire silently like a cat. It happened to be a night in the Hopgrand Earldom, and a night market was open due to the fall festival.
To 299, the night was one of two things. Darkness greeted within prison bars, or darkness met amidst the tearing and being torn on the battlefield. However, the darkness 299 encountered in a foreign land that day was slightly different.

[Beautiful.]

Where orange-hued stars descended to illuminate the pitch-black night, everyone was laughing. They were all indifferently happy. Faces 299 had seen until then had only been filled with terror, terror, terror, and anger.

Absently standing, 299 bumped into someone.

[Oh, child. My apologies.]

It was a knight wearing a helmet. He extended his hand toward the stunned 299 and offered a candy stick he had bought from a passing merchant as a gesture of apology.

[Are you alright?] [What is this?] [Huh? Candy?] [Can…dy?]

Seeing 299 just staring blankly at the candy, the knight momentarily wore a strange expression before taking 299’s hand and placing the candy directly into 299’s mouth.

A strange sweetness spread full in the mouth. It was a novelty too large for the tongue to handle. However, 299 couldn’t spit out the candy. Because, for the first time, 299 felt the sensation of being alive.

While 299 was quietly savoring the candy, the knight introduced himself.

[I’m Michel Cieron. What’s your name?]