<Yozen Vardikta>

Current grade: S-grade

Maximum Awakening Grade: S-grade

Position: Assassin

Wearing equipment: Dagger of Darkness (S)

Favorability and loyalty: 39/100

‘For a guy who should be easy to get to join, his favorability rating was quite low…….’

Since he had already been betrayed by the low favorability once, he couldn’t feel safe unless he raised it to a certain degree. He needed to make sure he knew what Yozen wanted and what he had to do to earn his favor.

Eventually, Cadel decided to put his break on hold and check on Yozen. A quick chat would be fine.

“Yozen, are you in there?”

After knocking lightly and concentrating on the sounds beyond, he heard Yozen’s voice telling him to come in. The door wasn’t locked. Cadel smiled as kindly as possible and entered the room.

But inside, where he thought Yozen was alone, there was a presence that made him forget his purpose for coming here.

“This, this is…….”

Reflexively stopping, Cadel shifted his trembling gaze. Before him was the dark energy in the form of a human being. A vast amount of dark energy had molded the human form like black clay.

Its existence alone was already bizarre enough. It smiled as if it had a real self, opened its mouth as if talking to someone, and even walked in place towards somewhere.

Yozen turned to Cadel, who was in shock at what he was seeing.

“What’s up?”

He was sitting upright in front of the ‘shadow man’ he had created. He was speaking to Cadel, but his head was fixed on the shadow man.

Cadel, coming to his senses, turned as far away as he could from the crackling mass of dark energy and stepped in front of Yozen.

“I’m just here to talk……. What the hell is that? Is that an imaginary friend or something?”

“It’s a shadow clone.”

“Shadow clone……?”

“Any human exposed to my dark energy, even once, can be monitored no matter where they are or what they’re doing. By using dark energy to outline them in this way, I can feel them even if I can’t see them.”

Cadel didn’t understand how it worked in the slightest. He nodded stiffly and carefully took the seat next to Yozen. The clone showed no sign of stopping its frenetic movements.

“So whose clone is that?”

“The next target.”

“……You mean a target for assassination?”

“Yeah.”

Cadel’s expression turned puzzled at the simple answer. Even though he couldn’t see that expression on his face, Yozen naturally blocked out Cadel’s concerns.

“I haven’t forgotten our agreement. My priority target is the demon, and this guy is next.”

“……I see.”

There was no condition for joining the Knight Order that prohibited Yozen from assassination. As long as Yozen kept his word, everything else was up to him. He’d been living that way long before Cadel met him, and Cadel couldn’t force him to change his ways just because it was unpleasant to watch.

‘As expected, my impressions are different when I only know the title of an assassin and after witnessing the actual assassination.’

From Yozen’s point of view, demons and his own assassination targets would be of equal quality. Cadel thought their essence was nothing special, too. For example, Froch Dominic, Lumen’s father, or Robin Soles, Van’s tormentor. They were trash it wouldn’t be strange to say they were of demon’s descent. They were understood by many simply because they had human blood.

‘In fact, Garuel, who has demonic blood, is willing to die in order to live an upright life.’

As Cadel had thought before, Yozen and he were both fundamentally the same, just with different targets. Maybe that was why they could at least try to understand each other.

While thinking about this and watching the clone’s lively movements, Yozen suddenly opened his mouth.

“Are you upset?”

“Huh?”

“I’m used to it, but it might be offensive to you. If you’re offended, tell me, I won’t do it in front of you.”

Cadel blinked at the unexpected consideration. Yozen’s face was suddenly facing Cadel, not his shadow clone. After a moment’s hesitation, Cadel slowly shook his head.

“There’s no need for that. Because this isn’t a real person, and it’s not something I have any part in.”

“If you don’t mind, that’s fine.”

“……But I have one question. If you can monitor humans exposed to your dark energy in this way, does the same apply to me?”

Could it be that Yozen had created a shadow clone of Cadel with dark energy and observed it while following Cadel? When he asked the question, Yozen created a new shadow clone instead of answering.

“……I see.”

The corners of Cadel’s mouth twitched upward as he looked at his shadow clone, who sat across from him in the same position as him. A burdensome subordinate in more ways than one.

After his conversation with Yozen, Cadel was unable to resist dozing off and went straight back to his room, where he collapsed into a fitful sleep. It was the kind of sleep that made one wonder how many hours had passed since then.

“Cadel. Wake up, darling.”

At the sound of a familiar voice piercing his hazy consciousness, Cadel forced his stubborn eyelids open. Despite his good night’s sleep, his body still felt heavy with fatigue.

“If you don’t wake up, I’ll keep harassing you.”

“Umm…….”

“Ahaha! Look at that expression, it’s cute.”

It was around this time that Cadel began to feel something was wrong with his excessively heavy body, which could not be attributed to fatigue. He felt a soft touch on his lips. The person who filled Cadel’s field of vision when he opened his eyes with difficulty was none other than Lydon.

He reflexively tried to call out Lydon’s name, but something bit his lower lip and tugged teasingly. Something moist and warm skimmed across his puffy skin. The tickling sensation slowly brought him to his senses.

It took him a moment to realize that Lydon was on top of him, kissing him in a way that bordered on harassment. Cadel’s eyes widened at this startling realization, and he quickly tapped Lydon on the shoulder.

“Hey, what are you doing― Oof……!”

Lydon crushed Cadel, kissed him on the side of the mouth, even pecked at words of astonishment, then rolled onto his side as Cadel’s face flushed to the point of bursting. There was no shame in his shameless grin.

Cadel scrambled to his feet as soon as he was free of Lydon, covering his lips with the back of his hand.

“What are you all of a sudden? Coming to people’s sleeping places without permission…….”

“Hmph, do I have to get permission to kiss you while we’re married? You’re so mean, darling.”

“We’ve never been married!”

He was awakened from his sleep by an unexpected disaster. Cadel sighed deeply, rubbing his lips that had become numb from overuse. Because he had been exhausted since the morning, he was tired from the start of the day.

Lydon ignored him and rolled over, then shifted his position so casually that he laid his head in Cadel’s lap, hugging his waist and burying his face in his flat stomach.

“I like you, Cadel.”

His stomach fluttered with warmth at the affectionate and cute confession. Cadel looked down at the blond in his arms with a dumbfounded expression on his face and shook his head in disbelief. Lydon, who always did ridiculous things, was just being Lydon, but Cadel was also to blame for falling for his cuteness every time.

“I don’t think it’s even lunch yet. What is everyone doing that you’re here alone?”

“They went to sweat.”

“Sweat?”

“Training.”

Was he saying that they were training as a group this morning? Even Lumen? Cadel thought Garuel would have stopped it since he said Lumen needed a break, but Cadel couldn’t fully believe him. Wasn’t he the person who went out to buy alcohol right before his own funeral? He sometimes showed unreasonable behavior in unexpected places, so Cadel couldn’t rest assured.

“Did Yozen come along?”

“No. I went to see him to see if he could fight, but I couldn’t see him. I can’t feel him or smell him. What a strange human being.”

“He’s just a little special.”

“He’s only human, after all.”

As Cadel gently stroked Lydon’s grumpy head, his puffy face turned to look at him.

“Am I better than Yozen?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t ‘Huh’ me. Cadel, of course I’m better, right?”

Cadel had no desire to individually measure affection for his subordinates. But if he hesitated to answer here, the next few days would be bothersome. Cadel patted Lydon’s cheek and replied calmly.

“You ask for the obvious, of course you’re the best.”

“I know it!”

Lydon’s mood quickly softened, and he smirked, placing his fingers on the back of Cadel’s hand. It was an honest change of emotion, indeed, and Cadel smiled a little, as if it were cute, and shook his grasped hand lightly.

“Why didn’t you follow the training?”

“There are a lot of people nearby. If I’m there, we’ll be immediately recognized as the Scarlet Scales Knight Order, right? I didn’t go because I thought it would be a hassle.”

“……Was it?”

The Emperor had been informed of the Knight Order’s’ stay in Yingchen Village, but no one but him knew their current whereabouts. Lumen’s critical condition, Garuel’s identity. There was much that was better kept secret.

Most people didn’t recognize knights from their faces, so they didn’t have many restrictions on their behavior, but Lydon was a different story. Unless he was using the [Wings of Illusion] or an illusion technique, his presence as a fairy was unmistakable. The Scarlet Scales Knight Order had once made a name for themselves as a knightly order with a fairy, so his presence was a testament to the Order.

‘I didn’t know Lydon cared about that…….’

Now that he thought about it, even when they were staying at the inn, Lydon would always move around in the form of a little fairy unless he was in the room, and even then he would only appear through windows that were not easily seen by people or only late at night. Cadel never thought there was a reason for this behavior.

Cadel gently rubbed Lydon’s forehead with his free hand, his voice soothing.

“Then come with me to see the sights. While we’re there, let’s eat at the restaurant.”

“Is that okay?”

“Just put on the Wings of Illusion and go. All you have to do is get rid of your wings. I’ll release it as soon as we get back.”

“Okay, great.”

A small part of Cadel’s chest tickled at the innocent smile on Lydon’s face, the one that said anything was okay if it was with him. Cadel cleared his throat, coughing unnecessarily, and climbed off the bed with Lydon.

T/N: Happy Lunar New Year!!! May the Year of the Dragon be filled with confidence and courage. Wishing you all prosperity and joy.