Became the Imperial-Certified Mad Dog

Becoming a Bodyguard for My Enemy (2)

‘How are you feeling?’

An hour after the contract between Karma and Gul was established, Karma took Gul to the hospital first, putting aside everything else, fearing he might actually die if left untreated.

‘Every time I cough, it feels like my insides are going to spill out.’

‘…How is he even alive?’

Even after removing all clothes for disinfection, Gul looked like a mummy with bandages covering wounds spread across his entire body, leaving even less skin exposed.

Karma was shocked by the boy’s resilience, who maintained consciousness, let alone breathing.

‘If you’re okay with it, I’m thinking of discharging… what do you think?’

‘Never mind my condition, but the doctor cut up my only clothes with scissors because they were interfering with treatment. You want me to go out looking like this?’

‘I thought you might say that.’

Karma pulled out some small clothes from the paper bag he was holding and threw them to Gul.

‘With your eye for detail, how did you manage to get every size wrong? Wow, how do new clothes somehow smell like a widower? Must be your sense of style.’

‘…’

Karma almost snapped at Gul’s every sarcastic comment, but-

Knock, knock-

‘Come in.’

‘Excuse me, I need to check the patient’s condition…’

An elderly doctor entered the room with a weak knock, and Karma stopped talking and made way for him.

‘I need to check your condition, could you raise your arm?’

‘Here you go, thank you for treating me.’

At the doctor’s request to raise his arm, Gul’s previous rudeness vanished completely, replaced by a polite greeting and smile that would win any adult’s favor.

‘!?’

Karma’s eyes widened involuntarily, and he lightly slapped his cheek, wondering if he was hearing things due to fatigue.

‘So young, yet in such a terrible state… But you must have a strong constitution… You’ll recover quickly if you just take your medicine and meals regularly.’

‘It must be thanks to your timely treatment, doctor. Thank you so much.’

The wrinkled doctor smiled knowingly at the continued humble thanks, while behind him, Karma barely held back a cynical laugh.

‘I don’t know how this happened, but please make sure he rests, my lord. If any wounds open up, bring him to me right away.’

‘Ah, yes, I’ll keep that in mind.’

After informing Karma, the guardian, of the examination results, the doctor gave his final instructions and quietly left the room.

‘You… actually know how to speak politely?’

In response to Karma’s feigned amazement, Gul immediately mocked him with the same irritating smile he had been showing until just now.

‘My mom and dad probably think I don’t even know how to speak informally?’

‘…Then why do you speak like that to us?’

‘Polite speech is for people worthy of respect. What’s there to respect about social trash like you that would deserve polite speech?’

‘Ah geez… the way you talk…’

Karma felt anger rise at the overflowing malice in the sarcasm, but somehow feeling like getting angry would mean losing to this cunning boy, he pretended to remain calm.

‘Well, anyway, let’s walk a bit if you can get up.’

‘Have you seen my knife?’

‘Your knife? Ah, that strange-looking knife? Was it called a Gurkha?’

‘…You know about it?’

‘Someone showed me one as part of their collection before. Said it was a foreign knife. Impressive that a kid like you can use it. Though your parents seem like they couldn’t even handle a kitchen knife.’

‘Well, my parents are rather naive…’

Even the boy who fearlessly wielded knives against the largest mafia in the duchy was still a child, scratching the back of his head when his parents were mentioned.

‘Having such a strange knife and being able to cut off adults’ limbs… who taught you how to fight?’

‘My grandfather was a mercenary back then. The knife is his keepsake.’

‘I see.’

At the mention of keepsake, Karma didn’t ask any further.

‘I moved your knife to our house. You’ll be living at our place from today, so let’s go together.’

Gul, who was putting on the clothes Karma gave him over his bandages, silently nodded.

‘By the way, kid, what’s your name?’

‘Gur Raven.’

‘Unusual name. You have a family name too, were you nobles in the past?’

‘…Don’t know. It’s not important. Let’s get going.’

While saying he didn’t know, Gul seemed somehow reluctant to talk about his name.

Karma, who had been watching this reaction closely, suddenly remembered something.

‘Just asking out of curiosity, but could your name Gur possibly be derived from Gurkha…’

‘Hey, don’t make assumptions!? There’s no way a person’s name would come from something like that! I’ll kill you if you make fun of my name!?’

Thump-

When Gurkha was connected to his name, Gul’s face immediately turned red as he threw a pillow at Karma’s face.

Perhaps due to embarrassment, his words weren’t the usual provocative jabs but rather the kind of whining typical of a child his age.

‘Pfft.’

Though hit squarely by the pillow, Karma laughed, feeling satisfied at finally getting one over on the constantly irritating kid, which made Gul even more upset.

‘Don’t laugh! Aren’t you embarrassed making fun of someone’s name at your age!?’

‘Nope, not embarrassed at all, especially when it’s teasing a rude kid like you.’

*

Abruptly changing topics, in the Empire, besides the knights and military that protect the imperial family and citizens from foreign enemies and disasters, there exist several other groups.

They are all organizations whose existence is not disclosed to ordinary citizens and officially do not exist, dealing with issues that cannot be handled officially or that they prefer to keep under the surface.

Among these shadow organizations, the Cerberus Unit, considered one of the two major powers within the Empire in terms of capability and achievements, operates to maintain and protect the imperial family’s safety, true to its namesake of the mythological guard dog of the underworld.

‘What?’

Gladius, who held the role of commander with real authority in the Cerberus Unit, unconsciously asked his subordinate to repeat.

‘Well, the Marcosius guys are making a fuss. They’re asking if we stole their assignment again. They say turning a blind eye once or twice is one thing, but this is the fifth time, calling us arrogant bastards with no basic business ethics or sense of fellowship.’

‘What the hell are they talking about? What did we steal?’

Gladius frowned, unable to guess what this complaint from another department with different purposes could be about.

‘If it’s about their assignment, isn’t it about those illegal slave traders?’

The Cerberus’s intelligence network was top-tier among the Empire’s shadow organizations, second only to specialized intelligence gathering units.

Therefore, they maintained at least basic information about cases assigned to other units.

‘Yes, they’re criminals who’ve been illegally creating slaves for the past 20 years. They’re organized in cells, so whenever we got close to something, they’d cut ties and lay low. The higher-ups finally decided to take serious action recently.’

‘Come to think of it, isn’t that related to the rumors going around the underworld lately? You know, about that maniac who specifically targets slave markets and cuts off everyone’s limbs.’

This was quite a famous rumor in the industry, even without Cerberus’s intelligence gathering.

‘Other units’ people said they witnessed it was a child, so I thought it was a new recruit from Marcosius.’

‘I thought the same, so I didn’t dig deeper…’

Unable to comprehend the situation, Gladius, his subordinate, and Natasha simultaneously held their foreheads, with the commander speaking first.

‘So to summarize, the Empire finally decided to deal with these slippery eels they’ve been after for 20 years, and then, with perfect timing, some kid who has nothing to do with us shows up and takes them down?’

‘That’s how it seems to be…’

‘Huh.’

Gladius couldn’t help but let out a cynical laugh at the absurdity, even as he said it himself.

If they reported this to their superiors, they’d definitely get yelled at for writing fiction, and he couldn’t blame them.

‘First of all, it wasn’t our people, right?’

‘Of course not, we don’t even have any kids in our unit to begin with.’

‘True enough.’

‘Then I’ll let them know this has nothing to do with us.’

While the situation was giving him a headache, fortunately, they were dealing with a rival unit competing for achievements rather than superiors who needed every detail explained, so simply telling the truth would suffice.

However, just as Natasha was about to leave, Gladius, having realized something, stopped her.

‘Natasha, wait a moment. Don’t say anything to them, just leave it.’

‘Huh? But why?’

The subordinate tilted her head at the commander’s incomprehensible instruction.

‘And have our idle people look for that limb-cutting kid.’

‘Yes…? What are you planning? Surely not…’

‘Don’t jump to conclusions, just have them look into it for now, and if possible, tell them to bring the kid in.’

The subordinate who caught on to the commander’s intention looked at Gladius dubiously as he stroked his thick brown beard.

‘Even if we’re short on people, still…’

‘I’ve been annoyed by them constantly talking about their new recruits anyway, this is a good opportunity.’

Despite telling others not to jump to conclusions, the commander himself was already excited, imagining the next step.

Natasha realized he had already made up his mind and wouldn’t listen to anyone, and bit her lip in rising irritation.

‘Who even has time for this… the vice commander will be annoyed if we ask for this…’

Not wanting other members to suffer from the commander’s ridiculous impulses, she wanted to take on the burden herself if possible, but if she stepped aside, there was no telling what other trouble the commander might cause.

Finally, Natasha resigned herself and headed toward the room where the only available new vice commander was.