There was one thing that I found out when I was out experimenting this and that.

The fact that Caliban’s speed was much faster than I originally thought.

He was so fast to the point that he had already ‘summoned’ them and returned here right before my fist reached Nicholas’ head and made it explode.

We concluded that it was probably the case because he was a ghost, which meant he wasn’t quite affected by the principles of the Material Realm.

[ ‘Skill: Swordsman’s Focus’ has been activated! ]

[ Reflexes and cognitive abilities have been heightened ]

That also meant I could afford having a conversation with him even when my senses were heightened.

While the world significantly slowed down around me, I asked Caliban, who was already back inside the Soul Linker.

You called them all already?

So, there were a few people who’d immediately come when I called them over if I were to tell them that ‘it was an emergency’.

Caliban should know who they were.

[Of course.]

As expected, he gave me such a clear answer, living up to the trust I had given him. But soon, he continued in a slightly uncomfortable voice.

[...But…]

He looked at my fist that was about to touch Nicholas’ head.

[Is it really okay for us to do this?]

What was that?

Are you trying to say that ‘We shouldn’t kill him’, or ‘Think about the aftermath’ or—

[Nah. Don’t you think he’d get off too easily like this? You know, after all that he had done.]

“...”

Wow, guess Nicholas disgusted him that much, huh?

I agree wholeheartedly with that though, so I won’t complain.

Well, don’t worry about that.

I said with a smirk.

You know that I’m not the type who’d half-ass something like this.

[That’s true.]

...

Somehow, hearing him agreeing with me in such confidence made me feel more complicated than happy… Anyway, I ignored that and activated some of my skills in sequence.

[ Using Skill: Image World! ]

[ The advantages you have currently are shared with nearby targets! ]

After that one, I casted Caliban’s Unique Skill; the ability to share buffs with people around me.

I specified the target to be Nicholas, whose head was about to be pulverized by me.

[ ‘Mastery: Iron Man’ is shared with target. ]

[ ‘Skill: Swordsman’s Focus’ is shared with target. ]

[ ‘Skill: Desperation’ is shared with target. ]

[ ‘Skill: …. ]

Like this…

This bastard wouldn’t die peacefully.

●

It was known that most deaths that would be categorized as a painful death at a glance, actually weren’t as bad as expected.

Like burning at the stake for example. It was said that the rate of people dying from suffocation because of the smoke was higher than them actually dying from the fire.

But…

The situation that Count Nicholas was going through was extremely strange.

It began with the man before his eyes throwing a punch at him all of a sudden.

He wasn’t the kind of person who’d indulge himself in fistfight, but it didn’t mean he had no ability to immediately deal with this kind of sudden attack.

It was just, his death came upon him so quickly, leaving him without any time to react.

As soon as the man’s fist contacted his head, it just exploded, and his consciousness was immediately cut out.

Or, rather…

That was what was supposed to happen.

Instead of that…

The moment the man’s fist touched his face, time immediately ‘stopped’.

Well, not really. Actually, it was just his senses became heightened due to the effect of ‘Swordsman’s Focus’ that Dowd had shared with him.

And after that…

“...!”

Pain that made him feel like his soul was being torn apart struck him.

“---!!! -!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

It made him wish that he’d just die from that.

In fact, he prayed so hard to the existences above so that he’d die immediately and end this pain.

However, let alone dying, he didn’t even lose his consciousness. Or rather, he was not ‘allowed’ to lose his consciousness.

This was the effect of ‘Desperation’s stat boosts, coupled by enhanced vitality from ‘Iron Man’ Mastery.

Even when his whole body was being torn apart by the Blue Devil’s Authority, ‘Pulverization’, he could still clearly feel all the pain thanks to his heightened senses.

His skin being torn apart, muscles dismantled. The Demonic Aura even penetrated into the deepest part of his internal organs, mashed his insides to an extreme degree and returned his whole body to nothing. He felt pain that was filled with indescribable malice all over his body—in each of his cells, muscle fibers, the ends of his bones.

And during that whole process…

Even though his whole body was torn to pieces, he tenaciously survived. His nerves remembered all the pain he suffered from every single part of it.

It was as if he had lost his mind. His mouth was agape because of the pain that penetrated deeply into his soul, but he couldn’t let out a scream.

Only a second or two had actually passed.

However, to him, whose nerves were slowed down by the Swordsman’s Focus, it felt like an eternity had passed.

And, during that moment…

He managed to capture something with his optic nerve that had not been crushed to bits yet.

The eyes of the man who was using his fist to ‘pulverize’ him.

-...

His clear pair of eyes.

So clear and so calm to the point that it was hard to believe that he was doing such a horrible thing to someone else.

Not only that, there was also some kind of ‘aloofness’ under his gaze.

As he met those eyes in the world that was flowing slowly, as if it had stopped…

Count Nicholas suddenly shuddered.

-Ah, I see.

A realization struck him.

He wasn’t sure how to describe it, but…

This realization made him feel some kind of ‘joy’.

-I see, this man is the same as I am, he’s—

However, before he could even finish his line of thoughts…

His consciousness was completely severed.

Forever.

●

“...”

“...”

A rare sight was unfolding.

Where the empress and chancellor, sharing similar thoughts as both of them were having a meltdown at the same time.

While Dowd was amused by the thought that it took a headless body of a high-ranking noble to unite the two people whose relationship was like oil and water, Sullivan suddenly asked him in a deeply subdued voice.

“...I know that hearing it directly from you won’t help me understand anything, but I still have to ask. What made you do this?”

“He’s disgusting, so I killed him.”

“...”

Thankfully, the chancellor could relate with this reason. Because in her eyes, Count Nicholas was indeed a disgusting human being.

She also believed that Dowd wouldn’t do something like this for no reason, even though he usually did a lot of things that would attract a lot of attention. Which meant, the count had it coming.

While that was good and all, the aftermath that his action would bring was a completely different matter entirely.

“...”

Sullivan tried to keep a cool head.

She could look for the reason, hold him responsible, and resent him while asking why he did that all she wanted later.

Because for now, her priority was to analyze this emergency situation and put up some countermeasures.

But, even when she tried to think positively, did all the best she could and tried to resolve this matter as smoothly as possible…

The most ideal future that she could reach after all the political maneuvering she could do was…

“...Dowd, with this, a civil war will definitely start.”

That was the inevitable outcome.

“The Upper Nobles Association, who has been cowering so far, would use it as an excuse to start one. They’ve been somewhat behaving well all this time—”

“Really? Do you really think they’ve been behaving well?”

Dowd said in a flat tone of voice. Hearing that, both the empress and chancellor’s bodies stiffened.

Because they noticed what he was trying to say from the nuance of his voice.

And truly, what he said afterwards confirmed their thoughts.

“Just be honest with me. You two are already aware of it, no? Those guys have been itching to fight you. An excuse? Ha, they don’t need one, they could just make it up and do it if they want to.”

“...You’re right.”

The empress said while looking at the count’s dead body lying on the ground with a frown on her face.

“But still, giving them a ‘reason’ in this way will breed a completely different problem.”

Her point was, since the civil war was inevitable, ‘when’ it would happen became a very crucial variable.

“The Upper Nobles Association holds most of the military. If a civil war happens when we aren’t prepared enough, we’ll be easily crushed by them. This is the reason why both Sullivan and I had been trying our best to not give them the excuse to—”

“I just need you to buy me a moment. Just hide the fact that I killed him.”

However, Dowd’s nonchalant reply shut the empress’ mouth.

From his tone, it seemed like he had expected that the Upper Nobles Association would react like this.

And it seemed like he already had something in mind.

“Burying your heads in the sand like an ostrich is okay. This sort of thing is possible as long as both of you work together anyway, no? Just tell them that he died in an ‘accident’, not because he was killed by someone. This much will do, for now.”

If giving those guys the reason to do it was the problem, then you just had to hide that ‘reason’. That was what Dowd was trying to say here.

Even if the Upper Nobles Association tried to investigate, both the empress and the chancellor could just abuse their authority and block them from even questioning such a ridiculous cover story.

However, there was still a problem with this plan.

“...But, that still won’t stop them. They’ll definitely do anything to get that reason.”

If they were to use such means, the Upper Nobles Association would pull off all sorts of dirty things to face them head on.

“Nicholas Comital Household…and by extension, the Upper Nobles Association, were the Magic Tower’s biggest sponsor. With what they have, there’s a high chance that they’d ‘call the soul’ of Count Nicholas and ask him the truth, or even attempt a limited-resurrection on him. The Magic Tower is definitely capable of doing that…”

To that, Dowd let out a snort.

Because he was familiar with all those means that she mentioned.

In the middle of Chapter 5 in the original game, there was a scene where Count Nicholas would strangely be resurrected through a Magic Tool brough by the Magic Tower during a boss battle. It wouldn’t be strange if the Magic Tower really did resurrect him this time.

However…

“If anything, I’d hate it if he doesn’t return to life once again.”

“...What?”

“Killing him once is not enough.”

“...”

“I really hope he'll come back to life again, so that I can tear him apart more carefully next time.”

“...”

Hearing that, the empress and the chancellor could only stare at him speechless. Ignoring them, Dowd just smirked before continuing.

“We know the civil war is approaching, so don’t you think it’s better for us to make it so that it ends a little quicker?”

“...Have you come out with a plan for that?”

“It was just something I came up with on a whim.”

After hearing the chancellor’s question, Dowd immediately replied without hesitation.

His reply came so quickly that both the empress and the chancellor narrowed their eyes at the same time.

…This man.

…This person.

No matter how they looked at it, it seemed like he had killed the count by accident. After all, considering his disposition, this man was someone who would never plan to ‘kill’ someone and actually committing it like this.

But…

Somehow, he already had the way to ‘deal with this situation’ in his mind.

In that short period of time.

…What kind of a monster is he?

Every time, he surprised me…

The empress and the chancellor thought so to themselves while letting out a groan inwardly. Meanwhile Dowd continued with a calm voice.

“Of course, we’re gonna be busy from now on to prepare for that.”

He was right.

But, the thing here was, he sounded too calm. Then again, this man was someone who had declared that he could just end a whole civil war quickly, and he came out with that plan on a whim.

“...I’ll have to deal with a few things I have to take care of first though.”

Hearing that, the empress and the chancellor couldn’t help but hold back their murmurs, unable to even guess what kind of terrifying acts this man would do next…

●

“...Mr. Dowd.”

Lucia hurriedly called out to Dowd, who was standing before her eyes.

She was actually quite pleased to see him after a long time, but the moment she heard his words after he suddenly barged into the chapel made her almost lose all of that feeling.

“...Could you…repeat that again…? My hearing isn’t so good these days…”

“Let’s go on a date. Tomorrow. Downtown.”

First of all, there was a lot to be said about this part.

A date invitation? So suddenly??

Him and me??

This already made her chest tightened, but the other thing he said was even more ridiculous than that.

“...No, no, not that. The other thing that you—”

“Which one? The part where I told you to bring Yuria with you?”

“...”

“Or the part where I told you, if you want, I’ll bring two leashes, one for you.”

“...Are you trying to say that Yuria wearing it around is already a done deal?”

“Yes.”

“...Also, downtown?”

“Yeah?”

So I didn’t hear it wrong…

At that moment, Lucia’s vision darkened.