“Wow, I sure am happy.” Ryoko blurted out exactly how she felt. While she didn’t end up married herself, her days were filled with mundane happiness, surrounded by family. Ryoko wished for these days to go on forever and didn’t doubt that they would. Then, she happened to turn her gaze to the yard. Outside the door to the yard, her dog Kuro was wagging his tail as hard as he could.
“Kuro...?” In an instant, Kuro transformed to a tall young man with deep, ruby-like eyes. That’s when Ryoko realized that she was in a dream. A future she had wished for, without her death or reincarnation. “I know, Kuro.” Ryoko looked down at herself to find that she was no longer Ryoko Hayakawa but Herscherik Gracis, the Seventh Prince of the Gracis Kingdom. Herscherik turned away from the dining room and headed to the front door... where he awaited. When Herscherik opened the front door, he welcomed the prince with a smile and an elegant bow.
Herscherik repeated the words that Ryoko had said each time she left. “I’ll be home soon.” He turned around to find the whole family seeing him off with smiles on their faces.
Herscherik awoke in a muggy heat that resembled mid-summer. Even after opening his eyes he could barely see anything, his vision obscured as if by a cloud of smoke.
In fact, his room literally was filled with smoke.
“A fire!?” Herscherik flashed past a state of panic in an instant to reach a “second wind” of calmness. This could have been attributed to the training Ryoko had gone through; her neighborhood was enthusiastic about fire drills. She remembered fondly how her elementary school principal had furiously scolded the students that slacked off during one such drill. “If this was a real fire, half of you would have died. How do you expect to survive a real fire when you can’t even manage a drill!?” He’d shouted at the students lined up in the school yard and then ordered a redo of the drill. If the students didn’t make it out of the building in time or chatted on the way out, the whole school would have to do all of it over again. After several attempts, the principal welcomed the students with a smile as they emerged from the school buildings with a military-grade march and zero chattering.
“I am very proud of you, students. Even during a real emergency, I am now confident that not a single one of you will be left behind.” The last Ryoko had heard, all of the students in her old elementary school still diligently participated in fire drills. If any first- or second-graders talked during the drill, the older students shushed them, and the younger students followed suit as their upperclassmen meticulously lined up and marched out of the building. As the occasion came with respectful glances from their younger students, the older students were eager to show off. The one-for-all style fire drills had been passed down from generation to generation.
Having calmed himself down by remembering that experience, Herscherik immediately dove to the ground. He knew that smoke rose during fires, leaving more breathable air at the bottom. The first thing he had to avoid was inhaling smoke and falling unconscious. After much struggle, Herscherik arrived at the door to his room to find that it had been bolted or barricaded somehow and wouldn’t move an inch.
A trap? There was no doubt in Herscherik’s mind as to who had set this trap—it was all too easy to guess that it had been Grim. Still crawling on the floor, he checked his watch. It was not yet midnight. Did they catch on to us trying to gather evidence...? No, this is much too quick of a reaction for that. Besides, Herscherik doubted that Kuro, who could easily slip into the royal castle, would make such a blunder. Backed into a corner with nowhere to run. On top of being trapped inside his room, Herscherik had guessed that the fire had already reached the hallway right outside his room, judging from the heat and smoke. He glanced at the window with no emergency escape routes, unlike the buildings in his previous life. Herscherik, who wasn’t even five years old, was out of options. Then, he remembered what Kuro had told him. “Don’t leave this room.” Those were the words of his butler of service. Herscherik decided to steel himself.
Herscherik grabbed the blanket he had been using to shield himself from the cold and created water from the magic in his pocket watch. While magic-generated water wasn’t suitable for drinking, and he couldn’t make enough water to put out the fire with just the Floating Magic stored in the watch, he could dampen the blanket. Patting himself on the back for memorizing at least a few spells he could use with the magic in his watch, he repeatedly cast the spell until the entire blanket was soaked. Throwing the wet blanket over himself, Herscherik crawled to the corner of the room with the least amount of flammable furniture. I’m here, Kuro. Herscherik was determined to wait. He covered his mouth with the corner of the blanket and made himself as small as possible. Still, he could feel the heat of the roaring flames approaching him.
Kuro noticed the fire at the annex only after he had found numerous incriminating documents. He had changed out of his butler’s uniform and into his signature spyware that blended into the night and found piles of evidence for Grim’s corruption in an office on the third floor of his manor. Thanks to Grim’s arrogance, he believed that he had no need to hide any evidence in his own residence, and as a result Kuro had been able to find all of it with astonishing ease, just as he had been able to sneak into the manor without encountering any barriers nor any real security. Kuro pocketed a selection of evidence that Herscherik had requested and turned to the window as he readied himself to return to the annex—it was then that he saw the hill that hosted the annex glowing red, illuminating its surroundings.
Kuro sprung into action the instant he noticed the fire. He flung the window open and dove out of it without hesitation. In a flash, he grasped the branch of a nearby tree and flipped himself in the air to stand on it. In the same fluid motion, he stabbed a dagger into the trunk of the tree and dove off of the branch. The dagger slowed his fall, allowing Kuro to land on the ground silently. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he sprinted off toward the annex. Despite having to weave through the woods, Kuro showed no sign of slowing down.
When he was nearly at the annex, he heard a subtle whish. Kuro instinctively hid behind a tree. Two arrows struck the trunk of that tree, one after another.
“Nice dodge, Shadow Fang. You live up to your reputation.”
“Who’s there?” Kuro ran his eyes through the woods, searching for the attacker.
How does he know I’m Shadow Fang?
A lanky man with a gloomy aura emerged from behind a tree, as if to mock Kuro’s trepidation. Kuro just barely recognized the man, whom he had seen a few times at the underground guild, but only in passing.
“Don’t look so surprised,” the man continued. “It’s already the talk of the underground that Shadow Fang’s gone missing. Most of them think you were finally done in. I used to be one of them...” He scoffed. “No one would ever think that the Shadow Fang became the Seventh Prince’s butler of service. Not without paying a visit to the Oracle, at least. Whose ass did you kiss to make it up there?” He snarled with envy.
A fellow member of the underground, which normally held its residents until death, had emerged above the surface.
Tsk. Should have kept the Oracle quiet, Kuro thought, but he soon realized that it would have been impossible. The Oracle sold information to anyone who paid, without discrimination. It didn’t matter if the client was a noble, commoner, or even a criminal. This was precisely why agents of the underground frequented the Oracle in the first place.
“Been looking for me?”
“As if I have the time. Got a request to bring you in. Had no idea where you were, so I paid up. Well, telling them the truth about where you’ve weaseled yourself off to wouldn’t have boded well for me or the client. As far as they know, I never found you.”
While Kuro’s professionalism was irked by the man’s lying, Kuro guessed that his client must have been scheming for something extreme for this agent to back down that easily... Although the details of that scheme would never affect Kuro, he was revolted by the thought.
As soon as I’m back at the capital, I’ve got to wipe away my tracks. Otherwise, he would bring about all sorts of trouble to Herscherik. That much was as clear as day.
“And now we’re here ’cuz a new client wanted us to make some noise in this village... You get why I told you all this, right?” The man grinned.
Kuro knew full well. He could sense that he was surrounded by a good number of figures, with no easy escape route in sight.
...15, Kuro counted.
Their weapons gleamed under moonlight in the dark of the woods.
“Our client wants the prince gone. The mansion over there’s already a big bonfire. Now all we got to do is keep you busy or whack you right here to get a bonus. Killing the Shadow Fang won’t hurt my reputation, either.” The man seemed assured of his victory.
Kuro turned his eyes to them, devoid of emotion. He had put his work face on. “Make no mistake...” Why had Kuro, the infamous Shadow Fang, been simply standing there without a word, letting his assailant prattle on? No other reason than to gather information on who was stupid and incompetent enough to attempt such a thing. Of course, Kuro already had a good guess. “Dead men tell no tales.” Kuro had heard enough, and he no longer had any use for any of them.
Kuro cracked his expressionless face, letting out a cackle. His face twisted into a cruel grimace that he had never shown Herscherik.