“Please take care of these children.”
“Alright.”

As she bowed her head in gratitude, Homan stood up to see her off, followed by Elsen and Rodin. When Rosen left the mansion, the clear sky began to darken. The wind grew stronger, as if a storm was approaching. The rainy season on the Leman continent began in autumn and lasted through winter. For Clozium, it was autumn that marked the start of the rainy season, arriving earlier than in Karileum, which was situated on the mainland. Rodin, looking at the sky filled with moisture, muttered softly.
“On days like this, bad visitors tend to come…”

Elsen, looking puzzled, asked,
“What are you talking about?”

“Kasha always said that. It’s not like a sudden downpour, but on days when the air feels damp and the rain drips down slowly, that’s when uninvited guests arrive.”

Like many in the business world, Kasha was sensitive to such superstitions. It wasn’t just superstition; Kasha himself was perceptive and had a sharp intuition, which led those around him to believe in these omens as well. On days when the rain trickled down, visitors with bad news or troubling stories would always show up. And those visitors brought turmoil with them.

What kind of news would this rain bring, Kasha wondered.

***

The air grew heavy, and soon the rain began to fall. Kasha, who had been watching the rain from the window of his accommodation near the border of the Rengetti region, tapped the window frame with his finger, lost in deep thought. Soon, he would need to leave the accommodation and cross into Rengetti by the end of the day. But something about it didn’t feel right. He knew that the longer he hesitated, the more regret would remain, yet the uneasy feeling kept him from leaving. It didn’t matter much for him, but he couldn’t risk bringing harm to the mercenaries he had hired or to Russe. Until now, he had thought he could manage somehow, but now that Rengetti was right in front of him, things felt different.

“Why do the ones I want to come never show up, and only the strange ones keep coming…?”

Muttering by the window, Kasha let out a deep sigh and stood up. Just then, the door opened, and Ruth walked in, staring blankly at Kasha.

“Aren’t you preparing?”

“Ah… I should.”

Kasha, who hadn’t done any preparation despite needing to leave soon, looked strange to Ruth, who tilted his head in confusion. He walked over to his bed and picked up his sword.

“Rengetti is considered a relatively safe area, but just in case, don’t you think you should prepare your sword?”

“What’s the point? It’ll just be useless. It’s too heavy.”

“Really, you never learned how to use a sword?”

“Haha, you’ve been living too long in noble society. What’s the point of a brothel owner learning swordsmanship? All it does is give you calluses. My nails break, and I get cut.”

When Kasha mentioned calluses and broken nails, Ruth couldn’t help but laugh, thinking how very like Kasha that was. Kasha, seeing Ruth smile so brightly, also smiled back.

“That’s the first time you’ve smiled properly.”

“Huh?”

“I haven’t seen you smile properly since we left the palace. Looks like you’re a little more at ease now.”
At those words, Ruth’s face became bitter. It was true that he felt more at ease. After a long time of sorting out his thoughts alone, everything seemed clearer, and his mind had grown more generous. But it wasn’t just that. The comfort came because he had given up on everything. The first few days after leaving the palace, he was out of his mind, and for about two weeks after that, he couldn’t even sleep, filled with regret and lament. But once he calmed down and started to think things through, all that was left was longing. The intense anger, hatred, and disgust he had felt when he was with him had all faded, and now all he could think about was how much he missed him. But, even so, it didn’t matter—he couldn’t go meet him now, so it only left him feeling drained.
“I’m not at ease… It’s just that after giving up, I feel a bit of relief.”

As Ruth muttered while fastening his sword, Kasha looked at him with a deep gaze. Among the three who had grown up together, Elsen had been the most practical, and the most selfish and self-centered was Kasha himself. And Ruth was… someone who, though he didn’t realize it, was quite an emotional person. Even when falling in love, Elsen would wait and accept things according to reality, and Kasha himself was the type who could abandon love if it meant protecting himself. But Ruth was different. Once he fell in love, he couldn’t live without that person. His deep affection for his family and friends was rooted in this. Ruth’s life was filled with emotional bonds and feelings, leaving no room for anything else. He didn’t even cherish himself.
That was why Kasha had come to think that he could no longer keep Ruth by his side. Ruth had a place to return to. There was someone he needed to meet. And perhaps that person… might even be waiting for him.
Lovers are always destined to meet. Someday, somewhere… And they would fall in love again… And…

“I’m getting old, I guess.”
Muttering to himself, Kasha stood up as Ruth approached him.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nonsense.”

At this point, Kasha thought he should send Ruth to a safe place. He had a place to return to, and while he didn’t know when that would be, he needed to be sent to a safe location here, for now.

Before he could even finish his sentence telling him to leave for another place, Ruth quickly covered his mouth. Kasha looked up at him, his eyes questioning why, and Ruth quickly glanced around. Mercenaries were stationed on both sides and in front of the room. They were some of the best mercenaries, hired for three times the normal rate because of their exceptional skill. There was no way they hadn’t noticed an intruder. Kasha trusted them completely, but Ruth seemed to think differently.

As Kasha reached out to grab Ruth’s arm again, he pulled him towards the window and pushed him outside. Kasha thought something was strange, but he quietly followed Ruth’s lead and stepped out of the window. Ruth, checking behind him, followed and grabbed Kasha’s arm, pulling him along.

“What’s going on?” Kasha asked, lowering his voice, and Ruth responded softly in kind.
“It’s strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“It’s too quiet.”

That’s when Kasha understood what Ruth meant. Despite there being around twenty men nearby, the room was eerily silent. At this hour, the place should have been bustling with preparations, but it was quiet. Lost in his own thoughts, Kasha hadn’t noticed the stillness.

“Until just now, when I asked the owner for directions and returned to the room, the hallway was bustling.”
On rainy days like this, the sounds from outside are absorbed by the raindrops, making the sounds inside more noticeable. But as they moved outside, it was far too quiet. As they pressed themselves against the wall, Ruth held Kasha’s arm and stopped him, carefully peeking through the nearby window. His eyes widened as he looked inside, but he quickly clenched his lips and pulled Kasha along.

Just then, a thud echoed from the room they had come from. Ruth quickly pulled Kasha and ran towards the stable outside the accommodation. Kasha, pulling at his arm, asked what was happening, and Ruth shook his head. Kasha understood the meaning of his gesture and bit his lip as he followed him to the stable. Glancing around, just as he was about to look through the crack in the half-open stable door—

“Eh? Rain….”

The young mercenary boy recognized the two of them and was about to greet them, but Ruth stopped him by covering his mouth. The boy, eyes wide in confusion, was pushed aside, and Ruth, along with Kasha, entered the stable. Ruth then pulled the boy down to the floor. Thankfully, it seemed they hadn’t been checked as far as the stable.

“What’s going on? I was just about to prepare the horses,” the boy asked softly, speaking in a low tone. He didn’t seem to fully understand but appeared to pick up on the seriousness of the situation. Ruth, with his finger pressed to his lips, listened carefully to the sounds outside, then began explaining in a lowered voice.

“We need to leave right now. Assassins are inside.”

“That can’t be… We—”

The boy shook his head as if it were absurd, and Ruth momentarily felt a surge of pity for him. His comrades were probably all dead. Despite being trained mercenaries, seeing the decapitated bodies, it was clear they had been killed without the chance to fight back. The assassins’ skills had far surpassed expectations.

“We need to leave. Where can we go? Kasha, who do you need to meet? Someone who can help us?”

After a brief moment of thought, Kasha shook his head. The person he intended to meet wouldn’t be able to protect him in a situation like this. Or perhaps he could, but it was far too dangerous to trust him in this moment. He couldn’t go to him until he figured out who had sent these assassins.

“I know a merchant south of the Rengetti region. Let’s head there. He’ll protect us.”

“How far is it from here?”

“If we run full speed, we should make it before nightfall.”

“Then let’s go.”

At Ruth’s words, the three of them silently mounted their horses. Moving as quickly and quietly as possible, they nodded toward the door. Ruth went ahead, kicking open the door and rushing out, with Kasha and the boy following close behind.

Ruth glanced back toward the inn as they galloped through the rain, and he saw a tall man watching them from a window. The man had black hair and dark skin, and stood with his arms crossed, staring at the room where Ruth and Kasha had been staying. A chilling smile appeared on his face. The moment Ruth saw it, he felt a sense of foreboding.

The man was a hunter. Not one who hunted animals, but one who hunted humans. He knew they had escaped and had deliberately waited in that room for them. It was hard to understand why he would calmly deal with the mercenaries around them and then watch as his true targets fled, but seeing the man’s smile, Ruth understood his intention. The man wanted to chase his prey to the brink of insanity, watching them suffer in fear as he slowly tightened the noose, then take pleasure in slowly killing them at the peak of their terror.

Ruth remembered a time when he had once heard a crazed knight explain that hunting wasn’t just about killing; it was about chasing prey to the brink, savoring the moment of nearly catching it, and then striking at the last second. That memory sent a chill down his spine. The fact that someone would kill for pleasure, rather than necessity, was horrifying, but the way they did it was even more cruel.

Some people, especially those who were confident in their hunting skills, took pleasure in dragging out the kill. Instead of ending it quickly, they would prolong the suffering, watching as the prey desperately tried to escape.

This man was one of those types. Particularly self-assured and cruel.

Increasing his pace, Ruth fought to suppress the shiver that crawled up his spine. He didn’t wonder who had sent this assassin or for what purpose; he was simply horrified.