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Chapter : 45
I Was Already Dead
“Did I hide something?”
Charloph swept a hand over the back of his neck. His dark crimson hair tangled in loose waves.
“Isn’t there something you’re hiding?”
“I’ve never hidden anything with a lie.”
He had never intended to hide anything. But at the same time, he had never spoken of it outright, either.
Then… does that count as hiding it?
Everything had begun with his death, and unless he was going to say, ‘I died once,’ silence seemed the right choice.
Benjamin placed a hand on Charle’s shoulder and bent slightly.
“Your breathing’s slowed a bit.”
“Ah… has it?”
“You look drained, too.”
“I’m a little low on energy. The medicine’s quite strong.”
“You mean the sedative the imperial physician gave you?”
Aaron had prepared a breathing stabilizer for him, and perhaps thanks to the medicine, breathing felt much easier.
“The medicine’s harsh, but it works well.”
“I didn’t know the human body could be this fragile.”
Benjamin gently stroked his delicate shoulder. If he gripped it too hard, it looked as though it might crumble.
“Is the questioning over now?”
“Just a few more things.”
“……”
“When you were young, did you ever go to the southern continent?”
“No.”
“Then did the head of the family travel there often?”
“No to that as well. My father considered the southern continent uncivilized.”
Charle understood why he was asking.
Luperitic disease.
He had spoken about it with Aaron outside.
“When you were young, did the head of the family often leave his seat?”
“Yes. He wasn’t around.”
“Then all that time, you were…?”
“Mostly alone.”
Benjamin’s arm tensed.
“You look a little bitter.”
“I wished for an ordinary life, but even that kind of normalcy seems difficult for me in this life too.”
Nothing had really changed since his previous death.
“You seem to move back and forth between the past and the present.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Your verb tenses get mixed up. I think that’s why our perspectives don’t quite align.”
Charloph swallowed. A faint groan was muffled below his throat.
A past now forgotten as if it never existed.
A previous life remembered only by him, forgotten by everyone else.
“Charle.”
Benjamin pressed his lips to Charle’s collarbone. His warm breath tickled the skin.
“Charloph.”
Benjamin rolled the name around, savoring it.
No—what he was savoring wasn’t just the name.
Benjamin lightly bit into his skin. A sharp sting spread across his collarbone.
“Mm.”
Charloph groaned as if scratching the inside of his throat.
A stimulus rose from his waist, his muscles going rigid.
Benjamin firmly supported his side. A large hand held his waist, steadying his body.
“Why do you keep trying to pull away?”
“My body’s starting to feel a bit stiff.”
“The you who kissed me in your sleep and tangled your breath with mine…”
Charloph reached out and covered his mouth.
“What if you freeze up again, still feeling awkward?”
Benjamin took hold of Charle’s wrist.
He lightly bit into his palm, then pressed down slowly with his lips. The sensation was hot and soft.
“Your pulse is small and fragile—just like you.”
He bit into the skin of the wrist again.
“I’ll be away for a few days.”
“Because it’s the monsters’ active period?”
“Most likely. I’ll be gone about three days—don’t skip meals just because I’m not here.”
A knock came at the bedroom door, and their conversation stopped.
“Your Majesty, this is Roskella. The Knight Commander has arrived at the office.”
After that—
The next day, Benjamin left his seat.
Popyuta Border Zone, Sector 1.
A kraken stretched out its legs.
“Don’t let the ink touch you!”
The Popyuta commander shouted.
“When their ink sacs start swelling, create distance!”
Kraken ink was thick with poison. Mere contact corroded the skin.
When the ink splattered, the deck of the warship was stained black.
“These things’ legs are unbelievably tough.”
“Cut them cleanly. If you get caught, you’ll be dragged into the sea—hey, what are you standing around for!”
A kraken tightened its grip around a foot soldier’s waist. His body lifted into the air, and dozens of kraken limbs surged up from beneath the sea.
At the same time, severed kraken legs thudded down onto the deck.
“Eek!”
Crushed beneath them, the soldier struggled free from under the monster’s corpse.
A man in a robe stood nearby.
An officer…?
Because of the dark clouds, heavy shadows lay across him.
“…First assignment?”
“Y-yes! This is my first posting!”
“Tough work. Never turn your back on the deck. They’ll drag you straight under the sea and throw you to their young.”
Benjamin spoke as he removed his robe.
“My strategist almost got dragged under and killed on his first deployment too.”
“Your Majesty. Is that story still being told? Nothing like that has happened since.”
Roskella protested indignantly, but the intelligence officers cut him off.
“They’re hiding below. This could go on forever—better to detonate explosives and draw them up all at once.”
“Bring out the explosives and help the soldiers.”
The soldier felt like he was going to die.
“That’s enough. Go.”
He fled at once. Grabbing his sword and running back toward the monsters was the Popyuta way.
A moment later, the Popyuta commander approached.
“Have you confirmed any results personally?”
“Not yet. But the poison is extremely dense.”
“During the active period, this area being contaminated with poison is common.”
The sea routes were entirely black with poison.
It felt endless.
Benjamin lifted his gaze from below the deck and asked,
“What about inside the extermination force?”
“We’re short on manpower. The active period has only just begun.”
“The Third Imperial Knight Order will be dispatched soon. As for anything else you need, send a telegram to the palace. Supplies will be provided without shortage.”
The navy commanded the monster extermination force, effectively serving as the border zone’s shield.
Even when the imperial family dispatched troops, the core was always the Popyuta navy.
“How do you see it?”
“The command of the force is the commander’s responsibility—why ask me?”
“You used to command it yourself, Your Majesty. You laid the foundation of the extermination effort and established the current system.”
“There’s no need to thank me for what’s obvious.”
“It was so obvious that people forgot.”
“Being forgotten doesn’t mean it ceased to exist.”
The Popyuta territory.
Within it lay Border Zone Sector 1.
Protecting Popyuta and exterminating monsters was the commander’s duty.
“Because everyone forgot, they assumed it was only natural.”
If it was past Benjamin who built the system and commanded the force,
Then the one who inherited that system was the current Popyuta commander, Count Popyuta.
“We’ve finished preparing for the collection of monster remains. Since you came personally, will you collect them yourself?”
Benjamin rested his hand on his scabbard.
“Bring the explosives.”
“They’re already prepared.”
The officers pulled explosive charges from the cargo.
“Detonate them.”
The explosives went off beneath the sea, and the kraken surged upward.
Benjamin drew his sword.
He thrust it into the creature’s mouth and slashed sideways.
“Store its head intact in the container.”
Benjamin sheathed his sword, gazing up at the cloud-choked sky.
The extermination force finished the last kraken by driving a blade into its mouth.
Its teeth clattered as it sank slowly into the water, foaming.
“Isn’t it strange? There’s a border zone buried beneath this vast sea, and yet poison keeps seeping out. It doesn’t spread outward with the current—it stays contained within.”
“No telling what’s buried down there.”
“Yes. Sometimes I want to go down and see for myself.”
The waves were restless, as if a storm were coming.
Something doesn’t sit right.
A grave for monsters…
A place where monsters and death converge.
I have no connection to that.
What did you go through, Charle?
“Kyung.”
A white ball of fur plopped down beside Charle.
‘Your name is Rian. There’s no other name that would suit you.’
Rian—an ancient word meaning white soul.
No other name would do.
Whenever its name was called, Rian would sit and press its body flat to the ground,
As if that were its rightful place.
It naturally sought out Charle’s side.
“Your Majesty, are you here?”
The maids approached Charle.
“Dark clouds are gathering. Please take shelter.”
Charloph was on his way back from the imperial archive.
Tap, tap, tap—rain soon poured down.
“I’ll fetch something to cover you. Please stay under the eaves!”
And so they waited there,避ing the rain.
The sticky dampness of the mud seemed to clutch at his ankles.
The shadows were unusually deep, and Charloph felt as though he were stepping squarely into them.
They held him fast.
“Rian, stop it.”
Rian pressed its white forepaws into the mud, stomping hard. The white paws quickly turned black.
It would be better to head back now.
“Your Majesty! We’ll escort you back to the palace!”
The maids returned with coverings.
“The weather’s getting worse.”
“Was the smell of earth always this strong?”
Charloph narrowed his eyes. It felt as though something were dragging him downward.
“Rian, come here.”
It wasn’t even sunset yet, but it was far too dark.
He should leave this place.
“Oh! Your Majesty!”
The covering flipped up into the air.
Wind and rain lashed sideways. His breathing slowly stalled.
The reason was right in front of him.
“My, it seems this father has misjudged the timing.”
A presence approached.
Pyotr came forward, leaning on a cane.
The scent of wet earth.
A dense, ominous aura brushed the back of his neck.
Their steps coincidentally aligned.
“Ah, I’ve been absent lately, as my illness has worsened.”
Pyotr’s complexion was dark. His hands were blackened, and his eyes were yellowed with jaundice.
“You’re using a cane.”
“Ah, it’s simply that the time has come.”
Pyotr clenched the handle of his cane.
Madness glimmered in his eyes, glowing a sharp yellow. A murky aura swelled around him, as if engulfing his body.
Crunch.
He ground his teeth.
“The time is coming.”
Pyotr clasped Charle’s hand.
His hand was mottled with dark scorch-like marks.
They had once been worse, but now remained like faded scars.
“I will reclaim you. It isn’t over yet.”
Something about him was off.
His eyes thinned; his mouth and gaze sharpened to narrow slits.
Where once he seemed consumed by deep, unknowable hostility and loathing—
Now he seems balanced.
As if—
This were the person he was always meant to become.
“For someone who once deemed soil too base to touch, that state of yours is rather…”
“It’s only a trivial detail.”
Pyotr narrowed his eyes.
Darkness fell over everything.
The shadows were deep—and this wasn’t imagination.
The dim shade opened its maw wide, and just as Charle drew in a thin breath—
“Why have you come all this way?”
Someone cut off that breath.
