MTLNOVEL 73
When I returned as a hamster, the situation had already been settled. Having escaped the forest, we were fortunate to meet up with the Blake Knights, who had been waiting nearby.
“His Highness is going to die soon.”
Sen’s voice carried no trace of hope. It was as if an endless darkness had swallowed her whole.
“He was trying to protect me… Shu, if I hadn’t been there, would things have turned out differently?”
Her voice, heavy with lament, sounded unbearably sorrowful.
“He was just an enemy. Nothing more than the enemy’s son. So I thought I’d use him and discard him when the time came. I truly believed I could do that. How arrogant of me…”
Her gaze sank low.
“…If I had known love was such a miserable emotion, I never would have loved His Highness. Prince Lorenz was right. Love is nothing but a weakness. It makes people pathetic, wretched, and frail…”
Cowardly as I was, I felt relieved that I was a hamster at that moment. At least I didn’t have to struggle with what to say to her. I hid behind my helpless form, choosing silence.
Sen didn’t seem to expect an answer from me either. With her head hanging low, she simply kept replaying all the pain she had endured.
I knew it.
I was powerless and inexperienced. In the end, I chose neither Belial nor Lorenz. I hesitated, unable to take responsibility for a single life, and as a result, I failed to stop Belial’s fated death.
The weight of the responsibility I had refused to bear was now crushing me from another angle.
[ Kyle Jane Meinhardt. Estimated time of death: Approximately 170 days remaining. ]
A single system window floated before me. If not for our dire circumstances, I might have felt some relief that Kyle’s lifespan hadn’t shortened.
After a brief hesitation, I called up another system window.
[ Belial Serena Meinhardt. Estimated time of death: Approximately 0 days remaining. ]
Belial’s life flickered precariously, like a candle in the wind. His complexion was deathly pale, and though his chest still rose and fell, the movement was becoming fainter by the second.
It wouldn’t be surprising if he stopped breathing at any moment.
“We found some hemostatic agents in the carriage. Just a moment…”
A medic who had joined us from the waiting unit near the forest approached. He didn’t seem to believe he could save Belial—just that he might be able to hold onto him for a little longer.
I turned to look at her—at Sen, whose vacant expression mirrored her broken spirit. Her tangled brown hair fell messily over her face, but through the strands, her side profile was visible. She wasn’t crying, yet she looked as though she was shedding silent tears.
I wanted to ask someone, anyone—why was our existence filled with nothing but painful, wretched moments?
[ Would you like to use ‘Reload’? ]
For the first time, I didn’t feel relieved seeing that message in the morning.
***
Now that I could use ‘Reload’ again, I returned to my human form and borrowed some spare clothes.
Wrapped in the cloak Kyle had handed me, I sat by the fire. A knight, who had separated from the main group at the last moment, had returned with the bodies of fallen comrades and was discussing funeral arrangements with the others.
Amid the somber atmosphere, Kyle methodically treated his wounds, applying medicine and wrapping them in bandages. I had offered to help, but he politely refused, saying it wasn’t a sight anyone would want to see.
Though the pain must have been severe, he endured it in silence, handling it with practiced ease. It made my stomach churn—he was far too accustomed to this kind of suffering.
“There you are.”
At that moment, Lorenz emerged from the forest’s entrance, having finished his preparations. As he approached, Kyle and the knights sprang to their feet, gripping their swords. Lorenz merely waved his hand dismissively.
“Now, let’s see…”
His gaze swept past Kyle’s shoulder, landing on Sen.
She was holding onto Belial’s dying body, glaring at Lorenz with eyes brimming with rage and grief.
Lorenz’s eyes narrowed as he took in Belial’s condition.
At this point, Belial wasn’t even worth finishing off. He would die soon enough on his own. More than that, there was no reason to take the risk of making a move here, where the Blake Knights stood guard.
A lazy smile spread across Lorenz’s lips as he spoke.
“With Prince Belial’s unfortunate accident, it seems the winner of this hunt has been decided.”
His voice was jubilant—so cheerful it was hard to believe he had just stabbed his own brother.
Not a single trace of sorrow tainted his tone. If anything, he sounded exhilarated, as if he had been waiting for this very moment for a long time.
I turned to look at Sen.
Her hands, clutching Belial’s steadily cooling shoulders, were trembling violently. I couldn’t even begin to fathom what she was feeling.
“That’s not true.”
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the sack lying beside me and dragged it toward Lorenz.
And then, I turned the heavy sack upside down.
‘Proofs’ spilled out in a cascade. Monster cores. The blue ores, extracted from the bodies of the beasts, gleamed vividly, as if they had absorbed all of our sorrow.
“You said the one who brings more wins, didn’t you?”
We had gathered an overwhelming number of cores. That probably meant only one thing—that those damn wizards had sent wave after wave of reinforced beasts to kill us.
They had likely been watching for the perfect opportunity to strike Belial. There was no way they had engaged in a proper hunt.
Even if they had, they would never have fought as desperately as Kyle did. The Blake knights’ hatred and fury toward these wretched monsters were beyond imagination.
Clatter.
The ores landed at Lorenz’s feet with a crisp sound. He didn’t bother to count them. No—he didn’t even need to. Instead, he simply stared at me.
It was the gaze of a hunter waiting for the right moment. Or perhaps that of a serpent, measuring when to swallow the most tempting prey before it.
Either way, it didn’t matter. I had no intention of quietly stepping into his trap or letting myself be devoured.
“I see. The true victor, then. Do you have a request?”
“……”
“Kyle Jane Meinhardt.”
At that, Kyle stepped forward, clutching his injured shoulder.
“Kyle Blake,” he corrected.
That name carried weight. It was a declaration—that he saw himself not as a prince of Meinhardt, but as the Grand Duke of Blake.
Kyle’s voice was cold as ice.
“If I do, will you grant it?”
“That is the rule of the hunt.”
“Do not trespass into my domain. In any way.”
Kyle growled low, the sound feral. The knights behind Lorenz stiffened, almost drawing their swords.
Only Lorenz remained unfazed, smiling at Kyle as if amused.
“You mean to say, ‘Don’t touch the North’?”
“The North, the northern settlers, and my people. Leave them alone, and there will be no bloodline left to challenge Your Highness. Not even a half-blood.”
“Hm.”
Lorenz’s gaze drifted from Kyle to Sen, then over the knights before finally settling on me. He studied me for a long moment before nodding as if he understood something.
“Very well. I swear it. I, Lorenz Serena Meinhardt, will not trespass into Kyle Blake’s domain.”
The moment those words left his lips, Kyle turned and led me away.
The knights, who had been packing up, loaded the wounded onto the carriages. Some mounted their horses, gripping the reins tightly.
“We’re leaving!”
Following Kyle, I glanced back, watching Lorenz until he was but a distant figure.
That cruel and shameless man still wore a smile.
As if he were celebrating his perfect victory.
***
A few days after the hunt, the emperor—who had been confined to his sickbed—breathed his last.
And, as expected, the one who ascended the vacant throne was the First Prince, Lorenz Serena Meinhardt.
It all happened while we were preparing to return north, gathering our belongings after reaching the capital.
The coronation was grand beyond words.
Every street was adorned with dazzling decorations, and the imperial palace provided food and wine in abundance. People—young and old—poured out of their homes to celebrate the new ruler’s ascension and welcome the new era.
It was a festival.
Even though a prince had just risked his life in a battle against his own brother, no one seemed to find it tragic.
And the emperor had died so suddenly. No one would have been surprised by his death at any time, but the timing was… too convenient.
Yet, no one questioned it.
The empire had been in turmoil without an emperor for too long. More people felt relief than sorrow.
“Didn’t the people support Belial more? Then how…”
I muttered absentmindedly, staring at the boisterous streets in disbelief.
Kyle answered flatly, “They side with power. The powerless can only go where the tide takes them.”
“But still…”
“They’re just trying to survive. The tide has already turned. The lives of the powerless always flow that way—submitting, adapting.”
“……”
I wasn’t searching for some grand meaning in Belial’s defeat.
Even if he had become emperor, there was no guarantee the Meinhardt Empire would have been any better off.
But to erase someone you once believed in, as if they had never existed—wasn’t that too cruel?
A life so easily forgotten… it was too wretched. Too lonely.
I stepped into the waiting carriage.
As the empire stretched before us—radiant, festive, and blissful—a suffocating silence wrapped around me.
Sen and Kyle sat buried in that deep, endless shadow.
Reaching out, I pulled the carriage curtains shut, sealing away that dazzling world from our existence.
Clatter. Clatter.
The carriage rolled forward, carrying away the three most ill-fitted, miserable souls in the empire.