Became the Imperial-Certified Mad Dog

A Tsunami Starts from a Small Wave

Karma’s group made their final schedule to have a late lunch at a nearby restaurant before returning from their last shopping at the bookstore.

‘Ha, Serpe’s boss really has his guts hanging outside his body.’

There was someone who found it absurd that Karma was casually strolling the streets with his daughter despite her being attacked just the day before.

An assassin dispatched from Yata, a dark guild existing overseas.

Her name was Ruby, like the jewel that shared the color of her blood-stained eyes. She was the only assassin girl remaining in the duchy to eliminate those who ruined their operation.

‘There’s a limit to being careless about safety.’

She wasn’t targeting Serpe’s father and daughter, only aiming for the life of the interferer, so she left them alone.

If they had been the targets, she would have already infiltrated the bookstore, killed them both, and slipped away quietly.

‘…So, what’s the relationship between this mysterious interferer and Serpe?’

An unidentified presence that could be one person or two. She was certain that at least one of them was related to Serpe.

‘Huh?’

Ruby, who was tailing them stealthily from a building at some distance from Karma, tilted her head when she spotted the boy who last came out of the bookstore.

‘That kid…’

He was a boy who had suddenly appeared at the mansion since yesterday, not listed among Serpe’s organization members provided by the Yata guild and Grizzly.

‘He seems a bit younger than me… and he’s carrying swords.’

Though it might just be that Karma hired a homeless boy as a servant out of sympathy, the boy with two swords in sheaths tied to his waist looked more like a guard than a mere servant.

‘The kid’s using Gurkha.’

Though it was a rare sight in the Empire, Ruby quickly recognized Gul’s blade as it was occasionally seen in Weicheon, an eastern country far from where Yata’s headquarters was located.

‘How cute.’

Ruby couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of a boy younger than her carrying swords, pretending to be a guard.

‘Maybe he picked up swords out of loyalty to that little miss.’

Given Gul’s age and the fact that Gurkha wasn’t an easy weapon for a young boy to handle, Ruby thought of him as a boy dreaming of being a knight protecting a princess rather than a guard.

‘…Something doesn’t feel right.’

And at this sight that others might have found endearingly innocent, Ruby’s expression turned sour, as if something had scratched an important pride or trauma.

‘Should I just kill that daughter too, mission be damned.’

Even without considering Gul, the sight of Peri looking dissatisfied despite having everything – parents, wealth, love – triggered Ruby’s inferiority complex and sense of inadequacy.

Though she was a cold-blooded assassin capable of massacring large mafias, Ruby was still a young girl who couldn’t fully control her emotions.

Thus, overcome by her feelings of inferiority, she accidentally leaked a small amount of killing intent.

Though ‘leaked’ might be too strong a word, as it was actually just a minor emission that would have caused only a slight chill in someone directly facing her.

However

‘!’

Right after she accidentally leaked her killing intent, the boy who had been watching Peri and Karma from behind with an expressionless face turned his head precisely toward Ruby’s location, like an owl detecting the sound of a mouse.

‘What…!’

When the boy she had dismissed as nothing reacted to her killing intent, Ruby was startled and jumped off the building while withdrawing her killing intent to hide her position.

‘…’

Her reckless decision to jump from the building was dangerous but wise at the same time. If she had delayed even a moment longer, Gul’s gaze, which could have detected her presence, ultimately failed to notice her existence.

‘Aren’t you coming?’

At Peri’s pouting voice urging him on, Gul had no choice but to turn his head away.

‘Oh no, my shop!?’

‘Ugh… it hurts…’

Thud. Meanwhile, Ruby, who fortunately avoided breaking any bones by landing on the awning of a street vendor’s stall, let out a helpless laugh despite groaning from the pain in her waist that she couldn’t completely avoid.

‘Haha… so it was him…’

She couldn’t help but realize her own naivety in failing to recognize a dangerous enemy – it wasn’t the boy who had been naive, but herself.

That gaze, which she couldn’t believe came from a boy younger than herself, made even Ruby, who had killed countless people and seen many assassins stronger than herself at Yata, shrink back for a moment.

She realized it was all Gul – the one who had interfered with the kidnapping and disturbed the hidden corpses.

‘What a blessed young lady…’

She had loving parents, status, money, and even a perfect knight to protect her.

Yet her hatred deepened for Peri, who acted as if she was unhappy despite having everything.

‘Hey, stop right there!? You ruined my business!? How are you going to take responsibility…’

Jingle-

Ruby, annoyed by the vendor who had been making noise since earlier, carelessly pulled out a leather pouch from her clothes and threw it at him.

When the vendor opened the pouch with curiosity, it contained enough imperial coins to amount to a considerable sum.

‘Keep it all, just don’t go whining to the guards.’

‘…Of course, of course!’

As soon as the money came in, the vendor who had been yelling and spitting just moments ago had a blissful smile on his face, and Ruby left the stall, disgusted by this contradictory behavior.

*

Meanwhile, the Yata guild wasn’t the only one interested in learning about Gul.

‘You can’t find anything?’

The Cerberus, the imperial shadow unit, was also interested in Gul’s existence, particularly regarding the seemingly orchestrated attacks targeting only slave markets.

‘Yes, we confirmed that he attacked the slave market in Lung’s duchy and had a sword fight with some thugs nearby, but strangely, we can’t find anything after that.’

‘Lung’s duchy… from the ducal family to the peacekeeping forces, how is it that there’s not a single reliable informant there?’

Gladius sighed at Natasha’s report, which fell below expectations.

It wasn’t so much a lack of ability on the part of Natasha, his close aide, but rather the uncooperative attitude of Lung’s duchy itself that was the problem.

‘Could he be dead? For example, by Serpe?’

‘Serpe? Ah, that duke’s plaything?’

Though they were the largest mafia in the duchy, they were only famous within the duchy and not particularly influential in the capital, so it took Gladius some time to recall Serpe’s name when he heard it.

‘Those ducal bastards, what are they hiding so desperately?’

While nobility preaches the virtue of integrity, reality differs from ideals, and most nobles of significant standing fill their coffers through various means.

Naturally, the Empire isn’t unaware of this.

However, investigating and punishing every such case would lead to endless work and inevitable resentment from the nobility, so the Empire turns a blind eye unless there are conspicuous victims or damages that cannot be covered up.

For a ducal house, the Empire’s tolerance would be incomparably more generous than for other nobles, but even so, the Lung duchy was particularly uncooperative, as if they had something to hide.

While Cerberus, led by Gladius, was focused on imperial safety rather than rooting out corruption and had no interest in Lung duchy’s misconduct, their suspicious behavior couldn’t help but draw attention.

‘By the way, Commander, speaking of Lung’s duchy, something else happened today.’

‘Again? Don’t tell me it was that kid we’re looking for?’

‘No, while the peacekeeping forces suspect so, it looks different to me. Let’s take a look.’

Natasha handed over a summary report of the Grizzly family massacre, explaining who the Grizzly family was and their situation to help Gladius understand.

‘When trouble comes, it pours…’

Though there were some suspicious points, with three horrific murder cases already occurring in what was supposed to be a peaceful duchy, even Gladius, an outsider, felt sympathy for the local peacekeeping force’s handler.

‘…Something smells fishy about this. Natasha, look into this as well, separate from the kid’s case.’

‘If you say so…’

‘Yes, send some personnel.’

‘The vice-commander already refused, saying he doesn’t want to do it, and we don’t have any available personnel…’

As Natasha was considering whether she should go herself, Gladius suddenly stood up from his desk.

‘!? Surely not!? No matter what, you’re the commander!?’

‘Don’t worry, I have that much sense of responsibility…’

Natasha’s face turned pale as an ominous thought struck her, and she tried to stop him before he could speak.

‘Ah, yes… then why did you stand up?’

‘I’ll have to persuade him myself.’

‘The vice-commander? Will he listen?’

‘Well, I can sweet-talk him into it. More cases have come up too. This should be enough to satisfy him that it’s worth his attention.’