Instead of being relieved that my wrist wasn’t cut off, I dug a trap and broke the leg of the baker who had cut my finger. Of course, I’ve done even worse things occasionally since falling to this place. To be honest, frequently.
Forgetting my past life where I enjoyed plenty of law and civilization, I quickly adapted to this place. Here, it didn’t matter, and it was a place where that’s how you had to survive.
Stealing and killing people was fine as long as you weren’t caught by officials, and to survive, you had to abandon common sense and morality. If I had lived by the law, I would have starved to death early on or lived a life worse than death, dragged away by bastards obsessed with the asses of pretty boys like me.
I asked Freckles for information about the person who came looking for me, but Freckles shrugged with a look that suggested he knew nothing. It seemed only Crazy Ox had met him directly. Damn it. I chewed on my lower lip and thought quickly.
For the past month, I had been doing odd jobs at a temple a bit away from the back alley.
The temple hired day laborers every year to help with cleaning during the dry and rainy seasons. Despite the physical hardship, it was difficult to find work as proper as what the temple offered around here, where you could receive food and money without being cheated.
And until yesterday, I was a diligent worker. What is this about? What’s happening? No matter how I thought about it, I hadn’t done anything that would make them report me.
Having delivered all he needed to say, Freckles, instead of returning to his territory, lingered around me with a smirk. He didn’t believe I wouldn’t run away.
I thought about pushing him aside and fleeing, but this alley was Crazy Ox’s front yard. There would surely be people secretly watching me from somewhere.
“Actually, you know. Those people looking for you. They’ll arrive here soon.”
“…That’s shitty.”
“That’s why Crazy Ox told me to find out what you knew before those people arrived. But it seems you really don’t know anything.”
I had hoped otherwise, but as expected, that wasn’t the case. Freckles had come to monitor me before telling me the situation. I sighed and shrugged.
“Really, I have no intention of running away. Actually, I have some idea where they’re from.”
“What is it? Do you really know who these guys looking for you are? Why are they coming?”
“Why should I tell you that?”
This time, I was the one grinning instead of Freckles. It was amusing to see his nose bridge contort. Why would I tell Freckles something that would obviously reach Crazy Ox’s ears? But I wasn’t just bluffing to tease him either.
While Freckles visibly hesitated whether to press me or not, someone walked toward my hut.
Two women with stoic expressions, both with bodies at least a head taller than mine. Moreover, they were both wearing ring mail armor, making the wide open space where the huts were lined up feel suddenly cramped. Somehow knowing where to find me, they approached without wandering and looked down at me.
“Are you Zaher?”
The brown-haired woman at the front asked me my name. I thought it strange to hear my rarely spoken full name so many times today.
Only a low-ranking official would call me by my name, which would only be recorded in the Imperial Registry, but I had already paid the taxes due for the first half of this year, so there was no reason for a low-ranking official to come looking for me.
Besides, a low-ranking official couldn’t emanate this level of intimidation. The sharp, honed blade-like presence was quite terrifying. Could they be knights rather than soldiers? I shrugged lightly.
“What’s with asking something you already know? Yeah, I’m Zaher.”
Freckles quickly jabbed my side as if to say, “Hey, are you crazy?” He wasn’t concerned for my life but for his own. Why should I care? I’m doing this because I value my own life.
If they tried to subdue me for speaking informally and acting arrogantly, I planned to run away immediately without looking back. But instead of beating me soundly for my disrespect, they tolerated it.
Because of this, I revived a hypothesis I had discarded long ago.
“There’s something you need to do. Follow us.”
“Wait a moment. I need to bring some things.”
Ignoring Freckles, who was standing around not knowing what to do, I went back into my hut to gather my belongings. I didn’t have much, but there was something I needed to pack first.
I stuffed a bundle of decaying papers at the bottom of a cotton pouch. Three silver coins I had hidden away—better take those too, just in case—and above all, I needed to organize my thoughts. How should I act to win the second and third rounds?
‘Zaher, Zaher Bliss.’
If my memory was correct, there was a supporting character named Zaher in the side story.
His formal name was Zaher Bliss, the heir to one of the six archduchies protecting the Empire—Bliss. He had violet hair like violets and golden eyes, possessed extraordinary beauty, but his personality was dark, vile, and evil.
His role in the side story was as the only friend of the Demon King when he was still human, but it turned out he was someone who didn’t hesitate to cause discord, play both sides, and betray others for his own safety.
The Demon King, greatly betrayed by this bastard, abandoned hope in humanity. As a consequence, towards the end of the side story, he was brutally killed by the Demon King—a role responsible for both the frustration and catharsis in the side story.
So, both I and that bastard are Zaher.
We share the same name, hair color, and eye color. Moreover, we’re both handsome. Perhaps the orphan Zaher could be of noble origin. Perhaps… the villain Zaher Bliss’s past was that of garbage rolling around in back alleys.
Looking just at the character setup, I seem like that Zaher, but goddamnit, I had abandoned this hypothesis long ago.
Violet hair and golden eyes aren’t common, but they’re still a combination you see occasionally. In fact, if you walk around the bustling area, you can see all kinds of hair colors as if a color wheel had been scattered around. In this world, how could I think I was that high-and-mighty noble bastard when I wasn’t even born into a noble family?
“Alright. I’ve got everything.”
The brown-haired woman didn’t comment on the sack-like cotton pouch I was hugging preciously to my chest. With a gesture of her chin, she told me to follow, and naturally, the two knights blocked my escape routes from the front and back to prevent me from running away.
As soon as we left the alley, the brown-haired woman put me in a carriage. It was a sturdy four-horse carriage that seemed designed for practicality rather than luxury, with the only decoration being a wedge-shaped window attached to the carriage door, but the seat was quite plush and there was little shaking.
I naturally rested my elbow on the windowsill, propped my chin on it, and looked outside. The brown-haired woman sitting next to me clicked her tongue briefly and lowered a dark red shade, blocking my view. I smiled slightly and, keeping a little distance from the window, asked the brown-haired woman.
“It seems the person who ordered you to bring me didn’t command you to treat me courteously?”
“…It would be better for you to watch your mouth in front of them.”
“I think the Archduke of Bliss would find it displeasing if a dirty, smelly hooligan were to be timid and scared on top of everything else. I should at least not appear intimidated.”
A strange light flickered in the brown-haired woman’s eyes. Seeing her perplexed look, wondering what I knew, I silently raised the corners of my mouth in a smile. Unlike my brazen face, joy bubbled up like hot foam in my stomach.
They deliberately came in a carriage decorated with their family crest. The wedge-shaped window is the emblem of Bliss, one of the six archduchies. The brown-haired woman didn’t respond to my mention of the archduke as if I were talking nonsense. From her silence, I read affirmation.
It really was Bliss who was looking for me.
“You too would find it bleak if the person you have to serve from now on were a timid coward, wouldn’t you?”
“…What do you know?”
“More than you do.”
That’s not incorrect. If there’s anyone who knows better than I do what happens to the Empire 10 years from now, let them come forward. Because I was telling the truth, my gaze was firm, and the brown-haired woman instead averted her eyes and muttered.
“Is this finally the right one we’ve found?”
I can’t believe someone actually mutters like that. This place really is a novel after all. Nevertheless, from the brown-haired woman’s words, I was confident that the situation was unfolding according to my assumptions.
Good job pretending to be meaningful. You did well with that completely clichéd and formulaic line. It would have been even better if you had openly said, “We’ve come to escort the heir candidate of Bliss.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
