The day slowly became brighter. The sun rose in the sky like it always did and illuminated certain areas of the city. It might have looked just like any other day except for some things: ashes still let out some smoke, many firms whose entrances were crumbled into pieces, corpses strewn nearby, and there were bloodstains everywhere.
However, even with this clear evidence of the happenings that had taken place last night, the faces of the people cleaning up the mess didn’t look dark, but bright. It was because they had won in the end, and they didn’t even suffer as much damage as they had expected. Although many buildings were broken, many of the bandits had run away without thinking of fighting when they saw soldiers, whom they had thought were gone, rush towards them. Thus, they lost fewer lives than they had when attacking the bandits’ home base.
Yet, it was extremely shocking that bandits had managed to seep inside the city, and the citizens’ response to the incident was complicated. For the stability of the city, the information that Bambis had been cleared from bandits was publicized; thus, even though people felt relieved at first, they couldn’t help but feel fear again. After all, the bandits they expected to be outside of the castle walls were found hidden inside the city. The city was aware of these sentiments and completely flipped the city from inside and out in response. Merchants, those in management, and everyone even remotely connected to this case were captured or taken down. Even if they had won in the end, it was completely humiliating that they had allowed the bandits to attack inside the city; and it didn’t seem like those captured would be released any time soon.
Like that, Bambis slowly regained normalcy, and in the meantime, Zich took a break. Bambis provided a great welcome to Zich, the biggest contributor to this incident. Their treatment was expected, and Zich didn’t refuse their services either. Since his mind was in a mess anyway and he needed some time to think, he was happy for this break. When the case was almost resolved, the city rewarded Zich with many awards and goods. He was even offered a commission, but Zich declined the offer and left Bambis. He returned to where the rest of his group members were: Janmalpi.
Zich stood in front of the lodging where he used to stay. He thought his companions would still be staying there. When he thought of his companions, Zich unconsciously let out a sigh.
“What? Why are you sighing as soon as you come back?” Zich heard a familiar voice. He turned around. Round and beautiful pupils stared back at him. It was Lyla. It seemed like she was returning back from a short errand outside. Elena stood next to her.
“It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, it’s been a while,” Lyla responded to Zich’s greeting. Elena tilted her head down slightly while standing next to her.
Lyla scanned Zich from head to toe. “You don’t seem to be injured anywhere.”
“Do I look like someone who gets beaten up in places?”
“You never know. You might have gotten beaten up by some random guy and wailed for your mommy somewhere.”
“Hmpf!” As she imagined the scene, Elena stifled her laughter. It was a response that Hans and Snoc wouldn’t have even imagined doing, but she was strictly Lyla’s disciple. Although she had received training from Zich briefly, Zich didn’t treat her the same as those two, where he embodied fear itself. Of course, this didn’t mean that Elena didn’t fear Zich at all, and she quickly placed her mouth over her hand and pressed it to stop smiling.
“Elena agrees with me.”
“Yeah, think however you like.” Zich waved his hand and went inside with Lyla. Elena already had plans with Snoc and parted ways with them at the entrance.
“I heard from Joachim that you did some amazing work at the place you went to. He was really happy about it. I didn’t ask about it in detail, but your work seems to have helped considerably in restoring the Dracul family’s name.”
“…Is that so?” With the mention of Joachim’s name, Zich’s response became one beat slower.
“Did something happen there? It looks like something concerns you.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah, very much so.”
With Lyla’s strong assurance, Zich stroked his own face. He wondered if he was failing to hide his expression that it made his emotions obvious, or if Lyla was just really good at noticing.
‘I thought I was hiding it pretty well.’ He thought and replied, “I met Tim at Bambis.”
“Tim?”
“The Werewolf, Tim Platt. He is the guy who would become my subordinates like Joachim and Evelyn.”
“Ah!” Past memories surfaced as Lyla exclaimed, “Wow, what a coincidence. You must have been glad to see him.”
“Yeah, I was very glad.”
“Your voice doesn’t sound like it though. Was he a completely different person than before, like how Joachim and Evelyn were?”
“No, he was different from them. He was completely like how we know him.”
Recalling Tim’s personality, Lyla furrowed her brows. “Wasn’t his personality the worst among your subordinates?”
“Yeah, so he was also the one who I got along with the most.”
Lyla could immediately tell what kind of person Tim was by these words. Then, she shook her head. “But you guys didn’t come together?”
“We didn’t.”
“Well, I mean, you aren’t going around gathering underlings right now.” With her knowledge about the future, Lyla knew that Zich had a very deep connection with his subordinates. Since he was also maintaining a close relationship with Joachim and Evelyn even now, Lyla naturally thought Zich might have also brought Tim along with him.
“But is it all right to just leave that guy alone? You told me his personality is nasty just like before. What if he becomes a Demon Person in the future unlike Evelyn and Joachim?”
“He was already about to become a Demon Person when I met him, and he was heavily involved in the case I was working on too.”
At this point, Lyla began to realize that the reason for Zich’s low mood was connected to Tim. She glanced at Zich and asked, “…What happened to him?”
“I killed him.” Zich’s short statement was enough to shock Lyla storngly. Even if these relationships were from the future, Lyla was well aware of Zich’s concern for the people who would become his subordinates as the case with Joachim and Evelyn showed. She knew Zich probably held similar feelings for Tim, so she was stunned to hear that Zich killed him.
“Let’s go inside first and talk.” Lyla grabbed Zich’s arms and dragged him to his room.
Zich’s lodging was the same as when he last left it. Since he was the city’s savior and this incident had also been a request from the Count who owned this city, Bambis was paying for the lodging. Lyla guided Zich onto a chair and brewed two cups of tea. The white steam rising from the teacup and the fragrant smell of tea tickled the tip of his nose.
“Wow, I can’t believe you’re being so nice to me. Is the sun going to rise from the west tomorrow?”
“Unfortunately, a miracle like that would be too difficult even for me. But if you want to drink tea, I can serve you tea whenever you want.”
“You’re lying so casually. It would be a relief if I ask for tea and you don’t throw the cup at me, saying that it’s too troublesome.”
Lyla suddenly felt an intense desire to throw the cup in front of her at the cheekily-smiling Zich smiling cheekily. The hot tea inside the cup was an added bonus. However, Lyla quickly changed her thoughts. The way Zich made fun of her in a cheerful tone and his cheeky sarcasm was the same as usual, but Lyla felt that there was something definitely off about him.
“…Are you sad?” It was a question that came out of nowhere.
Even without an explanation, Lyla and Zich intuitively understood the question’s subject matter. Zich rubbed the handle of his teacup with his thumb.
He replied, “It was sad. I can’t deny it.”
“Even for you, it must be difficult to cut off a precious connection with another person. It can’t be helped.”
“Are you comforting me?”
“Of course. I’m not twisted like you. I can try to understand my companion’s sadness.”
“I’m grateful for that.” Even for Zich, he experienced a new type of emotion as Lyla called him her companion, especially after he buried a past companion.
“What about the funeral?”
“I did a simple funeral by myself. I cremated his body and spread his ashes in a nearby lake.” Even though it was difficult to secretly take Tim’s corpse out of the collected heap of bandit corpses that were treated like trash, Zich felt bitter about just leaving Tim’s corpse like that.
“It must have been a lot of work.” Lyla quietly nodded. Only the sound of sipping tea could be heard in the room for a while. Lyla then glanced at Zich. Even though it was an uncomfortable question, she needed to ask, “Why did you kill him?”
Zich put down his cup. Lyla gulped her saliva. She didn’t think that Zich would get very angry, but there was a high possibility that this question would get on his nerves.
Fortunately, Zich’s voice was calm as he replied, “He was trying to do bad things. I couldn’t help it. Since I’m a guy trying to do kind acts, I had to stop him.”
“Yeah,” Lyla quietly replied as if she was patting his heart. However, in all honesty, in Lyla’s perspective, this was not a bad situation for her at all. What she feared the most was Zich deciding to walk the path of a Demon Lord. Moreover, her worry had increased since there was a recent trigger that might make him want to become a Demon Lord. Even though Zich had fortunately accepted her request and stayed quiet for now, Lyla couldn’t be sure that he would never fall back onto the path of a Demon Lord.
However, Zich had killed Tim and returned back, even though Zich had gotten along with Tim the most among his subordinates in the future.
‘Even though he knew who Tim was, Zich still killed him because he tried to do evil deeds.’
In other words, Zich had done a kind act even while sacrificing someone precious to him; and this was definitely a different path from a Demon Lord. Lyla felt a bit relieved by this. Among the two main concerns that pressed down her heart—her mysterious past and Zich’s path to becoming a Demon Lord—Lyla felt as if one of her concerns had been addressed. It was to the extent where she felt a spurt of goodwill towards Tim whom she’d never be able to meet.
‘Moreover, I didn’t think that Zich could be this emotional.’ According to her perspective, Zich was feeling sad about a person ‘he might possibly know in the future’ and not someone he actually formed a relationship with in the past. And Zich was wavering for the first time since Lyla met him.
Of course, since Lyla didn’t know that Zich was a regressor, this was a small misunderstanding. Overall, Zich’s current attitude didn’t fit a Demon Lord’s at all.
“Okay!” Lyla hit the table. “When you’re feeling down, it’s good to do something different! Let’s go out! I’ll escort you around!”
Lyla smiled brightly and reached out her hand towards Zich. It was such a beautiful smile that if there were a hundred people nearby, every single one of them would have fallen in love with her. Zich stared at the hand she put out and moved his gaze towards her face.
“No, I actually have one more thing I want to consult with you about.”
“Ah? One more?” What could there be besides Tim’s death? Moreover, Zich of all people was asking for a consultation.
‘This might be really serious.’ Lyla prepared her heart a bit more than before and sat back down. “Okay, so what’s the matter?”
“I’m just asking this, but am I perhaps a kind person?”
“Did you eat something wrong?” Lyla had really been sincere about being more caring and kind to Zich who had to kill someone precious to him and was even asking for advice. However, Lyla couldn’t help but spit this question out as soon as Zich asked if he was a kind person.
“Tim said…” Then, Zich relayed exactly what Tim had said to him before he died to Lyla.
Looking as if a Demon Lord had been murdered by an anteater’s nail, Lyla slowly changed her expression.
“Um…so what you’re saying is…” Lyla clutched her head with both hands. Zich was familiar with her reaction because it was exactly the same thing he had gone through.
“Zich is really…a kind person? No, but the concept of hypocrisy…” Lyla acted like someone who was accepting an extremely difficult idea—no, an idea she detested. Her reaction was a form of self-defense. “No, a hypocrite is someone who puts up a kind front and does bad things in the background, so this is a different matter.”
Lyla continued to mutter by herself. Her extreme strain at Zich’s question was annoying to the point that her beauty couldn’t cover it, but Lyla had no leisure to pay attention to other people’s thoughts. “Yeah, people who do kind acts are definitely kind people. And what Zich does are definitely kind acts. Even though he uses excessive violence on bad guys, there are bad guys in the end.”
Lyla lifted her head and stared at Zich. She looked like a frog that was about to be hit directly in the face by a rock carelessly thrown by a child. “Huh, what? Zich…is…really…a kind…person…?”