Published: January 4, 2026
After sending Byron off, I was in my room, touching Leviathan.
Leviathan, the demonic sword, and also my loyal dog.
Since its "personality" was intense, I wasn’t worried about betrayal or anything like that. But I wanted to understand exactly what it could do.
So, while touching Leviathan, I asked what it was capable of and tried out small-scale tests.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
When I gave permission, the maid Zoe entered.
I kept touching Leviathan, wondering what she wanted, but Zoe didn’t say a word no matter how long she stayed silent.
Curious, I looked at her again.
“What’s wrong? You look pale.”
Zoe’s face was drained of color, looking like a corpse.
When I asked, she flinched and then sank down trembling, bowing deeply to me.
“What’s going on?”
This was definitely serious. I stood up from my chair and faced Zoe.
“Th-this…”
With trembling hands, Zoe held out a small leather pouch with both hands.
I took it and opened the pouch.
There was gold inside.
“What is this? That’s quite a large sum… about five hundred reens, huh?”
Just after saying the amount, I realized something.
Zoe was a maid at Prince Thirteen's Residence; she was paid better than those working elsewhere.
But still, she didn’t earn enough to save up five hundred reens.
Besides, not long ago, she was about to be sold to a brothel due to lack of money.
There was no way she could have such a large sum.
“S-someone I don’t know brought this. If you give this to your master to drink, the, the reward is this.”
Her voice was trembling, and what she said was vague and confusing.
I took the small bottle Zoe handed me next, opened the cap, and sniffed it.
“What is this?”
“It’s… a sleeping drug.”
“...I see?”
“I'm sorry!”
Her voice lowered further, and Zoe pressed her forehead to the floor, apologizing profusely.
“So they want me to mix this into my drink or something, and when I lose consciousness, hand me over to them?”
“Y-yes!”
“I see.”
I watched the terrified Zoe and thought.
It was probably those Almeria people again.
They failed in their previous ambush, so this time, they tried to bribe a maid to kidnap me.
They must really want to get their hands on me.
But putting that aside, I looked at Zoe.
“Look up.”
“Y-yes...”
“I understand. But why did you bring this to me?”
“B-because I can’t betray Master! You helped me, and you care about the village too.”
“Hmm.”
“But they threatened to kill me if I didn’t, and shoved this medicine and money at me. But I still couldn’t betray Master. Uh, uh…”
Still panicked, Zoe repeated “but” many times and struggled to say what she meant.
Even so, I got the gist.
“You were threatened and handed a large sum, but you couldn’t betray and came to report this, right?”
“Yes!”
“Alright.”
I turned around, went back to the chair I had been sitting in, and quickly scribbled on a piece of paper on the table.
Then I returned to Zoe and handed it to her.
“What’s this…?”
“A reward. They tried to buy your betrayal for 500 reens, but since you didn’t betray, I added a zero.”
“One more zero… 5,000 reens!?”
“Yeah, I put my signature on it. You should collect it from the treasurer tomorrow.”
“N-no! I can’t accept that!”
“It’s a reward for not betraying. Take it.”
A reward for rejecting betrayal and a huge sum.
Zoe was so overwhelmed by everything happening one after another that she was in a daze.
“Th-thank you... Master is really generous...”
“More importantly, there’s one thing I want you to do.”
“—! I’ll do it! Anything!”
“Okay, I’m going to drink this medicine now. When I lose consciousness, hand me over to them as they say.”
“...Eh?”
“After handing me over, escape immediately and hide. They will definitely try to silence you.”
“.........”
Zoe was stunned and couldn’t respond.
Watching her, I mentally simulated what I needed to do.
☆
When I woke up, I was in total darkness.
My hands and feet were tied, and I was lying on something like hay.