T/N: Hi it’s Eliza. From this chapter onward, Garuel’s way of addressing Cadel will be changed from “Commander” to “Knight Commander” to distinguish him from Van. In the raw, Van calls Cadel “단장” and Garuel calls him “단장님”, with “-님/-nim” being a suffix of polite tone. So I’m going to make this change and edit the earlier chapters so you can tell who’s saying what lines.

To sum up, each member has their own endearing term when addressing Cadel.

Van: Commander

Lumen: Leader

Lydon: Darling

Garuel: Knight Commander

Hopefully, we will know about Yozen’s soon. Now let’s get to the chapter!

__________

It sounded like the tearing of flesh, and it sounded like the splashing of blood. In fact, Cadel was pretty sure the wet liquid that splashed down his face was blood, no doubt about it.

But when he opened his tightly shut eyes, gasping for air. What was in front of him was not Yozen, who had dozens of scales embedded in him, but his alter ego, who had swallowed up the scales and was melting away.

Cadel reflexively wrapped his arms around his neck. In his eyes, distorted with pain, he could see Yozen, who had somehow moved behind Count Keinstein.

‘He switched places.’

Yozen was holding the Count’s mouth shut in the same position as his first alter ego.

“You have strange powers.”

Muttering to himself, Yozen touched the Count’s palm, which trembled like an aspen tree. It was only a light touch, but the Count dropped to his knees in an exaggerated, terrified fashion.

“Why are you stopping me from doing my job? Did you get paid by this pig?”

The Count couldn’t scream, even though Yozen wasn’t gagging him. Maybe it was the gripping hand that took the place of his mouth, or maybe it was the killing intent that paralyzed him like a poison.

Cadel looked back and forth between the Count and Yozen. His throat burned. Each breath felt like a sharp foreign object, and a cough continued to emerge.

‘It’ll be hard to even have a proper conversation in this state.’

The Count’s lifeline was already in Yozen’s grasp. Even if he were to immediately cast a barrier, there was no guarantee that Yozen’s dark energy wouldn’t pierce it.

After a moment’s hesitation, Cadel forced a voice that didn’t come easily.

“Then why do you want to kill the Count?”

Yozen’s brow creased at Cadel’s question. But the corners of his mouth still twitched into a smirk. The blindfold made it difficult to read Yozen’s mind as he wore this strange expression.

He shook the Count’s head slowly from side to side in his grasp.

“Because this isn’t a human.”

“……What do you mean?”

Since the Count was definitely a human being, what Yozen meant by ‘not being human’ is ‘the absence of humanity.’

It was probably true that Yozen had been killing trashy nobles. But had Count Keinstein done something evil that deserved to die? What the hell did he do?

Feeling a strange tension in his stomach, Cadel turned to the Count, but he was only mumbling a prayer with his eyes closed as if he was afraid of everything around him.

“This basement is a feeding trough for this pig.”

Yozen’s tone was relaxed and easygoing. He pulled the Count’s head up by the hair, forcing the crouching Count to his feet, and stabbed him in the back without hesitation as he rose to his feet.

“Kkyah! Argh! Aaaah!”

A loud scream echoed through the basement. Cadel’s alarmed gaze landed on the dagger piercing the Count’s side. As Yozen relentlessly pulled the dagger out, a strange-colored liquid oozed from the wound, a mixture of gunk and blood.

“This is where the Count devoured the children he collected.”

“……What?”

“Sometimes he devoured their virginity, sometimes he devoured their future. He devoured both body and soul. After devouring so much, the children who were left with nothing but empty shells were mercilessly thrown away. Just like livestock.”

Now Cadel wondered what he was hearing.

Cadel blinked dazedly, forgetting that the Count had been stabbed. In the meantime, Yozen had plunged the blade into the Count’s screaming eyes. The Count bit his lip to stifle a scream, the dark energy dripping in front of him.

“I heard you threw them in the trash, sold them on the black market, donated them to some magicians as experiment objects. Is that true?”

Yozen leaned down to ask, and the Count, ducking as far as he could to avoid being stabbed, nodded with difficulty.

It was an affirmation.

‘……No way.’

The Count looked more cowardly than most children, so the affirmation was probably just a way for him to survive Yozen’s sarcasm. Cadel tried to deny it, but his brain had already accepted the Count’s atrocity.

“So what you’re saying is, the Count took the children to…….”

“He robbed them, he abused them, he enjoyed it, so he’s not human, he’s just a lowly pig who doesn’t know fodder from filth.”

The neat conclusion left Cadel speechless. He didn’t think he could watch a human die before his eyes, no matter what.

Count Keinstein deserved to die, quite literally. There was no twisted falsehood in Yozen’s words, and the Count’s withdrawn demeanor confirmed it all.

That the man he’d been guarding for days could be such a horrible monster was chilling to him. A bed far too large for a single person, a soundproofed iron door, a long table with an unknown purpose, and an assortment of tools he thought were weapons.

Cadel felt sick to his stomach. He felt a primal rejection. He couldn’t help but feel nauseous at the stench of someone who had given up being human.

“Are you going to try to convince me to let the law take care of this, with the obvious, ‘because killing is bad, no matter what’ line?”

“…….”

“Don’t. I don’t know about yours, but no country is more generous to its nobles than Dunkelhai.”

The Count’s complexion became dull as he was unable to stop the bleeding from the wound, and he was now looking at Cadel, not at the dagger that threatened to pierce his eye. He was staring at Cadel, begging for his life. A new sob escaped his lips he bit down hard to keep from screaming.

“I have to kill him quickly. We can’t let him breathe the same air as the surviving children, can we?”

Are you sure you still want to protect the Count?

Yozen’s voice was thick with anger as he asked.

‘That can’t be possible.’

If what Yozen said was true, then the Count wasn’t worth living, and Cadel didn’t want to save him, didn’t want to use his power for him.

However, his mouth just wouldn’t open.

What Cadel wanted to say was that he was wrong, so kill that guy right away. However, the words to kill someone did not come out easily.

It was not that he was uncomfortable with death. He had killed many monsters in his time. He’d killed demons similar to humans, and even though it was a fundamentally different matter, he didn’t want to go through the philosophical agony of the reverence of life, not here, not now, not for these humans. Why did he hesitate? Was it shallow morality?

“I…….”

Cadel’s face twisted into a pained expression and his voice grew harsh. Subconsciously, he avoided the Count’s gaze and stared at the floor, but not before Cadel continued.

“Please, please save me! Don’t let him kill me! I, I know I’ve done wrong, I’ve done terrible things. I’ll never do it again! I’m sorry! I’ll take my own punishment if I get out of here alive! So, please, just spare my life…….”

The Count, who had remained silent until now, began to desperately beg for his life. Perhaps it was the contempt in Cadel’s eyes that made him impatient, for he let out a shrieking cry and clung to his only survival rope.

Yozen didn’t stop him, didn’t threaten him, just held him in place, silent as if waiting for Cadel’s answer.

“I…….”

If the Count survived this place and did as he said, if he paid his dues, if he atoned for his past sins and spent the rest of his life in service, then it might be worth sparing him.

It would give him another chance at life, a chance to become a stronger man than he was before. He was a cowardly man, and he might play up his fake humanity for the rest of his life for fear of retribution.

As he’d told Garuel, there was no consistent good or evil in the world. There was every chance he could be rehabilitated.

But.

“I…….”

Chances are not infinite. When someone’s chance is taken, someone else’s chance is gone. Cadel knew that better than anyone.

The Count was not worthy of a chance. The children who really needed a chance were being trampled to death. To give him a chance would merely increase his chances of rehabilitation, but to take it away would create people who would have the strength to live with his death.

It was a deeply personal weighing, but Cadel could not ignore the consequences.

“I don’t protect that person. Do whatever you feel like.”

The Count’s screams of betrayal echoed in his ears. Cadel didn’t dare look at him. Thankfully, the Count’s screams didn’t last long.

“Well thought out.”

There was no sound of the dagger moving or the sound of skin being torn. The Count’s scream cut off without warning, followed by the dull sound of his body falling to the floor.

It was a split second. The Count’s life ended in an instant. As the terrible silence that filled the space slowly swept over Cadel’s face, Yozen’s toes caught at the edge of his vision.

“Now I’m wondering what your name is.”

He lifted his head to see Yozen’s clean, bloodless face. Yozen’s mouth still formed a perfect arc, and Cadel suddenly remembered their first meeting.

“You don’t seem very scared of me.”

“……Why should I be? You’re helping me.”

“They’re usually scared. Your breathing is steady. It’s easy to listen to.”

Cadel could only answer him like that because he didn’t know who he was. He couldn’t see Yozen’s face.

But now that he was face to face with him. Cadel was afraid of Yozen.

“……Cadel. Cadel Lytos.”

Cadel felt like if he took one false step, he’d fall headlong into the depths of his malice.