* * *

They arrived at the castle’s annex. King Mainue had set aside a private area specifically for Mamil. Cadel pushed aside his meeting with the king and went straight to the annex.

The entire group gathered in the reception room to wait for Mamil to show up, but Cadel opened dozens of doors, searching for him personally. The quiet annex was filled with loud footsteps for several minutes.

“I’m still recovering. Do you know that?”

Cadel smiled broadly as he finally found Mamil’s room.

“Master!”

Mamil leaned back in his bed by the sunny window and looked up at Cadel, his complexion was not the best after being unconscious for days, but his expression was one of welcome masquerading as an annoyance.

Cadel rushed to Mamil’s side, checking him over as he spoke.

“If you said you were a recovering patient, why did you leave all your servants behind? What if your condition suddenly worsened?”

“A crowd of people would only be a nuisance. I can take care of myself. I’m not sick enough to suddenly collapse.”

“You’re not a doctor, how do you know? You should have at least one healer around.”

“They sent me because they decided I didn’t need healing. Aish, if you’re going to keep making noise, get out!”

“I’m only saying that because I’m worried! And…….”

Cadel pressed his lips together. He gulped softly as he lowered his gaze to Mamil’s, his expression quickly turning sour. It was all his fault that Mamil was like this. All of that had to be put aside, that there had been a system glitch, that he’d had to reveal an important secret about the world.

But before the words of apology could leave Cadel’s mouth.

“It’s over, and I don’t blame you. So no apology is necessary.”

Mamil cut Cadel off in his tracks, telling him flatly that he didn’t want an apology from him. Mamil was not a man to say things thoughtlessly; he genuinely cared about Cadel, and he tried his best to understand him.

“Your fault is that you left the battlefield in the middle of the war. You neglected the men you were supposed to command, and the chaos ensued.”

“Yes. It’s all my fault, really…….”

“That’s all it is. In the end, you came back and solved a problem that the Blue Blood Knight Order alone couldn’t solve, and ultimately brought peace to the kingdom.”

“But in my absence, Master was badly injured.”

“That was only because I had to stop a mana rampage from the reinforcements. The mana rampage could not have been prevented even if you had been present. It’s not your fault that stupid magicians got into trouble for carelessly messing with the magic circle.”

“Still……!”

Mamil continued, gripping Cadel’s shoulder tightly as Cadel tried to admit his fault. His eyes, always so nonchalant, were shining clearer than ever.

“I don’t blame you for my injury, and I have no reason to think you do. So bury your useless guilt, too. If a disciple apologizes for pushing his master to the limit, it will only make the apology less meaningful.”

“…….”

“Don’t burden yourself with my duties, that’s the last thing I want. No one should bear the weight of war alone. Always think of those who stand by your side, they’d rather have your gratitude and laughter than your apologies.”

To Mamil, Cadel was a cherished disciple, a blood relative of an old friend he had failed to protect. He didn’t want Cadel to live a life of sacrifice for others like Jenga’s. He wanted him to live among those who cared about him, to feed off their love.

He lifted the hand that gripped Cadel’s shoulder and stroked his soft hair, and Cadel’s eyes widened slightly as he seemed to understand. Mamil sighed low, noticing the tears pooling transparently above his gray eyes.

“You boy weeps so easily.”

“Thank you, Master. I really appreciate it…….”

Mamil’s comfort was different from that of the others; he was Cadel’s only mentor in this world, a trusted elder and protector, and even if Cadel couldn’t confide in him and lean on him completely, his mere presence gave Cadel a warm sense of security. To him, Mamil Kipa was far closer to family than the rest of Cadel Lytos’s flesh and blood in this world.

And so, with Mamil’s troubled voice in the background, Cadel sobbed for a long time, feeling far more stressed than he realized, and breaking down in the presence of a trusted adult.

After nearly half an hour of incessant sobbing, Cadel had barely stopped sobbing when Mamil, impatient, raised his voice, complaining of an earache.

“Well, now that I see you’re well, I’ll leave you to it. I have to deliver the Stone of Peace.”

“I’m still not well.”

“From the way you slapped me on the back earlier, it looks like you’ve already regained your health.”

Mamil lightly laughed and waved hí hand, perhaps finding it ridiculous that he kept mentioning the things that had made him sad while sobbing.

“You’d better get yourself together, or you’ll be in trouble if you see the king in that state.”

The puffy-eyed, haggard face was certainly not an appropriate appearance to present before the king. Cadel bowed to Mamil, then strode out of the room with a brisk stride.

The problem came next. The members of the Knight Order, who had been enduring the tedious wait for a few moments of master and disciple time, were shocked to see their commander return with swollen eyes.

“Commander……! What the heck happened?”

Van rushed to Cadel as soon as he descended the stairs, grabbing him by the cheeks and scrutinizing him, wondering if Mamil was in worse shape than they had expected. Meeting his worried gaze, Cadel smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

Meeting her worried gaze, Cadel smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

“It’s nothing like that. Mr. Mamil is fine. We just got a little emotional while we were talking, so…….”

“……Really?”

“Yeah. I’m fine, don’t worry.”

In fact, crying in front of Mamil made him feel better. He smiled through his puffy eyes, and Van breathed a sigh of relief. The next to approach was Lydon, who burst out laughing as soon as he saw Cadel’s face in front of him.

“You’re so ugly, darling! Did that magician turn you into a carp? I’m going to have to go kick his ass!”

“Isn’t that what you also look like when you cry?”

“I’m pretty when I cry, isn’t that why Cadel likes me?”

He reached out and covered Cadel’s eyes with his hand, proudly proclaiming his beauty. For a moment, the pressure pressing against his eyelids startled him. Then a cool chill crept over his skin.

If he was going to meet the king, he’d better be clear of swelling. The members gathered around Cadel as he received his massage in silence, ignoring Lydon’s teasings. They had to be assured several times that he was not depressed, and ten times that Mamil was not bullying him before they were relieved.

As he was receiving the annoying attention of those members, Cadel suddenly realized something. The world he now called home, the relationships he’d made here, all of it a strand of hope in a world that had been destroyed countless times before, a strand that had barely survived, a strand that had been ‘tested’ by the system and faced the prospect of being burned to the ground, but it would not go down easily.

But it wasn’t the safe completion of the system’s ‘test’ that mattered. It was to find a way for the world, which had barely survived the crisis, to move on peacefully, without facing another ‘test’.

The Demon War was only the end of the story. Victory was not enough for true peace.

* * *

After handing over the Stone of Peace to the King, Cadel stayed in the Mainue Kingdom to await the Emperor’s next assignment. King Mainue was generous in his favors to the Scarlet Scales Knight Order for defending his kingdom and finding the Stone of Peace, but as long as they remained within the walls of the castle, they could never fully rest.

Back home in the Mainue Kingdom, Lumen was forced to meet familiar faces every three days for unwelcome conversations, Van had to suppress his murderous intentions toward the curious nobles who flocked to him because of the Knight Order’s fame, and Garuel and Yozen roamed the streets only at night to avoid being seen. The only one who was excited was Lydon, who treated the royal cooks like servants, constantly sampling new desserts.

And leaving them behind, Cadel was left with a daily headache.

‘Thinking about the system is not enough to make me lose control, though I do give it a good dose of moderation as it is dangerous to think too much at once.’

Every day, he searched for the system’s true purpose and a way to restore peace to this worldline. He refrained from delving into it all day, just in case, but there were many other things that required Cadel’s brain.

The rebuild of the Demon Realm summoning circle that Sellev had left behind was stalled, and letters from magicians were flying in with their whining. Cadel happened to be staying close to Mamil, so the two magicians met day and night, checking formulas and experimenting with the magic circle.

Cadel would either labor busily all day, or be alone with his thoughts and in a serious mood, or else he would melt into his bed with exhaustion and collapse. There was no member of the Knight Order who would drag such a commander outside for personal greed, not even Lydon, who would sneak into his room in the middle of the night, cuddle up to him, and fall asleep.

And so the Scarlet Scales Knight Order went about its tedious routine until a new letter from the Emperor arrived.

“So this is our new dispatch area, what do you think?”

Unfolding the map, Cadel winked at the assembled group. Though he had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was matted from hard labor, a smile of satisfaction flashed across his face.

His gaze was fixed squarely on Lydon, who stared blankly at the dot on the map Cadel had pointed out, and then, with a twinkle in his eye, lunged forward.

“The sea? Are we going to the sea, Cadel?”

“Yep. We’re going to an uninhabited island here. The White Kingdom has asked for our help in their search, and they’ve got a lot of islands to cover.”

Lydon’s excitement was far more palpable than Cadel could have guessed, and as he went off to find paper and pen so he could decide what snacks to take to the island, Cadel’s gaze shifted again, this time to Garuel.

The White Kingdom was his home, home to the Twilight Knight Order, which Garuel had led. Cadel locked eyes with Garuel, and the corner of his mouth tugged up bitterly.

“If the search is for multiple islands, I don’t think we’ll be collaborating with the Twilight Knight Order, so there’s no point in staying hidden.”

“That’s right, because the Scarlet Scales Knight Order is the only one on this ‘Fe’alr’ island we’ll be traveling to, and it’s a small island, with a relatively smaller monster population than the others.”

The Twilight Knight Order was focused on the larger, more dangerous islands, and it would be unreasonable for them to divide their forces on a small, uninhabited island like this, so they called in reinforcements for a relatively simple search.

“It seems like a waste of troops to go to such a place. I’m surprised the Emperor decided to do it.”

Lumen shrugged as he listened. He was right, it seemed like a waste to have a force the caliber of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order deployed in a place as small as Fe’alr Island.

“Let’s think of it this way. We’ve already found two Stones of Peace, so we should give the other Knight Orders a chance to find them, and in the meantime, it’s not a bad idea to take a break from exploring, right?”

While choosing only the dangerous areas for their expedition might be more efficient in the short term, it also meant that they wouldn’t be able to utilize their strength when it really mattered. The Emperor also seemed to realize that it was better to conserve energy than to keep pushing the Scarlet Scales Knight Order.

Thus, two days later, the Scarlet Scales Knight Order’s march to ‘Fe’alr Island’ was set. They crossed the sea on a ship loaned to them by King Mainue.