Cover (2)
Chapter 40
“The sacrifice of Sir David, who passed away while stopping the great evil known as Locust…?”
Ray stopped mid-sentence and looked down.
Luna, who had been nestled in his arms rubbing her face, suddenly reached out with both hands and clasped Ray’s head.
Confused by her behavior, Ray blinked and turned around cautiously, only to be startled.
“Damn it! Auntie! Put that potion bottle down! Potion bottle!!”
Saria sighed dejectedly.
“We need to treat…”
“Does hitting someone on the head with a potion bottle count as treatment?!”
“It works well…”
This method had been verified during ten years of dungeon living.
With a disheartened look, Saria put the potion back.
Ray continued speaking, keeping his gaze fixed on Saria.
“Well, Sir David will remain in our hearts as a hero of the Empire.”
“Ray.”
The knights began to sense something strange in the atmosphere.
Didier, holding his injured shoulder, narrowed his eyes.
“Sir David has fallen?”
“Isn’t that right?”
“Then where is the body?”
“Oh, you mean the body?”
Ray flicked his finger, pointing somewhere in the mountains.
“Because the battlefield was so fierce, I feared the body might be damaged, so I moved it to a safe place. Didn’t everyone see it? Hahaha.”
The gathered knights subtly started stroking their sword hilts.
Saria also quietly moved to the side, slipping her hand back into her robes.
Ray, holding Luna tightly to his body, called out urgently.
“Let’s return first! We need to settle Luna too.”
*
As they descended the mountain, the Baron’s Territory was bustling overall.
The battle had been so intense that the ground shook and flashes of light were seen near the baron’s territory.
Terrified residents only relaxed when the baron returned safely and showed his face.
“Ray has returned!”
Children from the orphanage, recognizing Ray from afar, rushed out en masse from the building.
Ray entered the orphanage with Luna cradled in his arms, looking exhausted.
Karen, standing among the children, had red-rimmed eyes.
Ray placed Luna gently on the ground.
“Karen…”
Upon seeing Karen, Luna began to cry.
After hesitating for a moment, Luna took a careful step forward.
“…Karen, I’m back.”
“…”
Karen neither pushed Luna away nor welcomed her back.
Seeing Karen frown silently, Luna mustered her courage.
Slowly approaching Karen, Luna extended her arms.
“Karen…!”
With a sudden movement!
Luna embraced Karen.
Karen’s stiffened arms twitched briefly before falling back down.
Karen didn’t want to forgive Luna so easily.
Karen shouted in a strained voice.
“Luna, you’re different from us, right? You have a mom and dad… So you won’t play with me anymore, right?”
Betrayed by a trusted friend.
Her extended hand, despite the embarrassment, was harshly rejected.
The more she thought about it, the more tears flowed.
She wanted to blame Luna, to tell her how much it hurt because of her, but her words wouldn’t come out.
Luna hugged Karen even tighter.
“I’m sorry, Karen.”
“I don’t care. I don’t have a mom or dad, so go away with your mom and dad!”
Karen’s fists trembled.
Luna, feeling the pain in her heart for hurting her friend, confessed honestly.
“…Now, I don’t either.”
“What?”
“Now I don’t have a mom or dad either.”
Luna lifted her head and smiled through her reddened eyes.
“Now I’m the same as Karen.”
Karen widened her eyes in surprise.
“Really? Luna doesn’t have parents now?”
“Yes. No mom, no dad. Now I’m a real orphan. So it’s okay now. I can stay with Karen.”
“Hic!”
Karen, overwhelmed with emotion, hugged Luna back.
“If you betray me again, I’ll never forgive you! We’ll break up forever!”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“Hic! Stupid! I was scared I’d never see you again!”
“I was scared too. Black, hic! Thank you for forgiving me.”
Hugging each other, the two burst into tears, drawing the other orphanage children who rushed over to cling to them.
Ray wiped his nose and smiled warmly.
“This is such a touching scene.”
Jimmy frowned and commented.
“Crazy bastard, the conversation isn’t touching at all.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Is losing parents something to brag about?”
“Not all parents are parental figures. Sometimes not having them is better than having them.”
“If they don’t even have parents to feed themselves, who will raise those kids?”
Ray chuckled and extended his fist to Jimmy.
“Who will raise them? We will.”
“You’re really a piece of work.”
Fist bumping Jimmy paused momentarily, furrowing his brows.
“But what’s this about David?”
“Ah.”
Ray pinched the bridge of his nose.
*
The fourteen warriors who had slain Locust began climbing the mountain again.
Walking ahead cautiously, wary of Saria’s potion bottle, Ray spoke up as the silence among the group grew longer.
“Lord Baron, but who exactly is ‘Titi’?”
Ray knew what Titi, an elf, looked like.
He had participated directly in the rescue operation after all.
Other than appearing somewhat dim-witted, there wasn’t anything particularly remarkable about this elf.
However, given that the baron himself had led the knights to secure Titi, it was clear she was far from ordinary.
The baron groaned softly before speaking.
“Though it’s a secret that must never be disclosed outside the family, if I need your cooperation regarding her later, I suppose I must tell you once.”
“I don’t intend to pry into the secrets of the baron’s family, but…”
“You’ve already stepped into the family’s secrets through this matter. Let me tell you one thing: Titi is an elf related by blood to Lady Resina.”
“Resina? The elf Resina? Are you referring to the Great Hero from six hundred years ago?”
Due to his recent inquiries about Harshia, Ray had become familiar with the names of the heroes from six hundred years ago.
In fact, until recently, Ray had been indifferent, but the stories of the heroes from six hundred years ago were popular enough that even commoners knew them well.
The baron nodded with a sigh.
“That’s the Resina we’re talking about.”
“Wait, why would humans guard the descendant of the elven great hero?”
“I’ll save the details for another time. For now, I’d like to see David’s face.”
“Ah, I should show you. Our valiant David, who fought gloriously against Locust, is laid to rest around here.”
Meanwhile, Jimmy, following Ray without much thought, noticed something.
This direction was heading towards “Kenya’s storage.”
Jimmy stared intently at the back of Ray’s head, thinking it couldn’t possibly be true.
‘Surely not. Surely not.’
But from the past until now,
Ray had never once betrayed Jimmy’s expectations.
“Right here.”
Ray entered Kenya’s corpse storage, grunting as he dragged David’s body out.
Thanks to the low temperature and appropriate humidity, the body retained its shape fairly well.
Of course, it was impossible to completely prevent decay, so the stench of rotting flesh wafted out from the storage.
“David fought honorably against Locust until his last breath.”
“…?”
Leaning toward the puzzled baron, Ray casually suggested.
“How about erecting a grand memorial stone at the site of the battle with Locust? Something like ‘In memory of the noble sacrifice of Sir David, a hero of the Empire’ would be good.”
Swishh!
The baron’s sword was drawn.
Startled, Ray took a step back.
“What, Lord Baron? Why are you doing this?”
On the other hand, Mohamed, inspecting David’s body, winced and reported.
“My lord, it’s indeed David.”
Crack!
All the knights drew their swords, pointing them at Ray.
Finally realizing the situation, Ray gave up and confessed truthfully.
“It’s true. I killed David. I killed him.”
The baron questioned.
“Killed David? You killed David?”
“Yes, I did…”
“Ray, it’s impossible for you alone to harm David.”
Understanding what the baron meant, the knights turned their swords behind them, aiming at Jimmy and Matthew.
Jimmy immediately knelt, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“My lord!! I am innocent!! I knew nothing!! This is all that devil’s doing!! Please spare me, my lord!!”
With Jimmy’s quick move, Ray smirked and confessed openly.
“I did it alone. Jimmy and Matthew are unrelated.”
“What, exactly…”
The baron, revealing a bewildered expression, finally composed himself and asked.
“Why did you kill David?”
“Do you remember when you came to find Alessia with David?”
“I do.”
“That day, David met Luna. He openly lusted after her, and then, on a day of heavy rain a few days later, he broke into the orphanage to abduct her.”
“Perhaps he intended to take her as a disciple…”
“He boasted in front of me that he would extract Luna’s heart to process it into an artefact. So I killed him.”
“David wouldn’t commit such a terrible act… Would he?”
The motive for murder made sense.
The knights exchanged glances and nodded.
Talking about extracting human hearts to make artefacts? If it was a deranged mage, it was entirely possible.
Knights harbored deep distrust towards mages.
However, the real issue was how Ray had killed David.
“Ray, David was a high-ranking mage. Even if you are an extraordinary genius… I just can’t understand. Did you kill David alone?”
“Indeed, I almost died myself.”
“Explain precisely.”
“Understood. So… I pretended to be a child.”
“Ray, you are a child.”
“I acted like an ordinary child.”
Correcting his statement, Ray roughly explained the situation at the time.
“…And thanks to landing the first critical blow on his magic circle, I managed to kill him.”
Listening to this, Jimmy slammed his forehead into the dirt.
Only then did Jimmy realize the real reason why Ray had refused treatment for his scars, claiming they were cool.
“Hey, you bastard!! How could you hide causing an incident that nearly burned the whole orphanage?! And from me too?!”
“There was no point in telling others. Besides, if things went wrong, Jimmy and Matthew might have taken the blame too.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Ray faced the baron.
“My lord, can you cover this up somehow?”
“Cover?”
“Can you tie David’s death appropriately with this incident and bury it?”
Ray frankly requested.
A high-ranking mage’s death is serious business.
Just tossing David’s head in some plausible location won’t resolve the matter.
This was an issue that required direct intervention from someone with power like Count Philips to neatly wrap up and handle carefully to avoid getting caught.
If Count Philips refuses Ray’s request?
There was no choice. Just quietly stick out his neck and die.
“Please consider David’s reputation too. It would be embarrassing for him in death if word got out that a high-ranking mage was killed by a nine-year-old, wouldn’t it?”
“Ray, I get it. Shut your mouth.”
Sighing deeply, the baron glanced at the knights.
They were all loyal knights who would fight without hesitation at the baron’s single command.
The baron pondered.
It didn’t seem like Ray was lying.
Considering everything Ray said, the odd behaviors of Ray and David before and after the incident fit together like puzzle pieces.
From a practical standpoint, it was more beneficial for the baron to say David fell in battle against Locust rather than admitting he was killed by a nine-year-old child.
However, covering up David’s cause of death would require compelling the knights to lie under oath.
That was a dishonorable act for both the baron and the knights.
The baron, who had remained silent for a while, looked around at the knights.
“I have a request for you all that is dishonorable and goes against knightly ethics. This isn’t a demand. You don’t have to comply.”
Mohamed knelt on one knee, addressing the troubled-looking baron.
“Don’t worry about it. I am the baron’s sword. I will obey any order.”
The other knights also knelt on one knee and cried out.
“We will obey any order!”
“…Thank you all.”
The baron, suppressing the overwhelming emotions, patted each knight on the shoulder.
Seeing the situation likely resolving positively, Ray lost his tension and stumbled, sitting down.
“I apologize, my lord. But at that time, I had no other choice.”
“Ray, if there are any other incidents, speak up now.”
“Um… During the pursuit of the dark wizard, I killed some gang members in the Dinor region using sword aura. They were from the Georgia Family. The only witness was Mr. Pietro.”
“That’s fine.”
“Uh… That’s probably all. I think.”
“I’ll try my best to accommodate your request.”
“Thank you. Phew… Finally, it seems things are wrapping up.”
Ray’s shoulders swayed left and right.
As he muttered these words, Ray felt his consciousness fading.
“Ah, maybe I overdid it.”
Simultaneously, Ray’s vision turned black.
*
“?”
Ray blinked, looking at the ceiling.
It felt like he had closed his eyes for a moment, but everything had changed.
He was clearly facing the baron in the mountains earlier, yet now he was lying alone in bed.
Looking at the familiar ceiling, Ray realized he had fainted.
It took a while for his rigid mind to start functioning again.
“Fortunately… I’m not in jail.”
He confessed to killing David.
If the baron hadn’t intended to clean it up, Ray would surely be locked up in prison by now.
“So, the David issue is fully resolved? It’s fortunate, but… Ouch, my whole body hurts.”
Groaning, Ray got up from the bed and belatedly noticed the bandages wrapped around his elbows and knees.
“Ah, my joints were destroyed.”
Surrendering, Ray lay back down and absentmindedly turned his head, only to be startled.
A beautifully dressed woman sat in a chair opposite the bed, glaring intently at Ray.
Startled, Ray looked out the window. The sun was still high in the sky.
Stammering, Ray managed to say one word.
“Eh, Mom? What are you doing awake at this hour?”
The woman sighed deeply before speaking.
