A Secret Kept in Blood

We all came from different places, but the path back to the dorms was the same for everyone.

“What exactly is the point of all this?”

Ancy asked, but no one answered. She looked around and, of course, our eyes met. This was the first time in my past or current life—outside of a sitcom—that I had seen someone walking around with two black eyes.

“Was that a question for me?”

When I walk with the girls, I usually have to bend my knees slightly under my robes or slow my pace so I don’t overtake them. Today, I was walking slowly because I had a lot on my mind. Falling to the back of the group meant all I could see were the backs of noble ladies, but there was one person lagging behind with me.

“Oh… well, not specifically, but only Ariang ever answers me.”

There is already a girl being bullied in the first-year Imperial class. While the seniors mostly beat the three Duchesses, those three are still queens among the first-years. The seniors “tame” the high-ranking girls by crushing their pride and elevating the Barons’ and Viscounts’ daughters, who in turn take out their frustration on the lower-ranked noble girls. I even saw them trip Ancy earlier.

“You saw the knight’s execution, didn’t you?”

“Did he… do something wrong?”

She’s been treated like her very birth was a mistake lately, so she can barely even get the word “wrong” out. Ancy had originally applied for the Knight course, but after the seniors showed up and started harassing the Duchesses while “guaranteeing” the education rights of the lower nobles, she switched to the Magic course.

Then came the propaganda. She was in a position similar to someone in North Korea saying, “Actually, Kim Il-sung invaded the South,” while being taught that the Korean War was an act of American imperialist aggression. For all intents and purposes, Ancy’s academy life was over.

“He loved a noble lady.”

“What? But why kill him for that?!”

I suppose a girl from an estate on the front lines, where they’re short-staffed and constantly dealing with mountain tribe raids, wouldn’t understand. Knights are high-level personnel; they’re rare, and they don’t want to work for weak lords where the death rate is high. In a place like that, a knight might be more precious than a daughter.

“Because it’s a sin.”

“No, but usually they just…”

She’s getting a bit casual with her speech.

“Parents might forgive, but the Academy won’t. If a commoner harbors dark intentions toward a noble lady, they might do it again. No noble wants to entrust their family’s fate and protection to a knight like that. By harming himself, he vows that he didn’t truly harbor those feelings and never will again.”

“That’s… so strange.”

“Have you ever loved one of your family’s knights?”

“Not like that, but the son of our head knight is my friend. He said he wants to be a knight.”

No class awareness at all. A lord’s daughter who is kind to commoner children. I’m sure the rumors among her subjects are great. Personally, I don’t mind a leader who puts down their authority, but I’ve lived with authority for a long time.

And from what I’ve seen… the commoner child doesn’t know their place, and the noble daughter doesn’t know reality.

“Distance yourself from him. Otherwise, you’re going to get that friend killed.”

“Do I have to?”

“Being at the Academy will naturally pull you apart anyway.”

“…Ariang?”

“What?”

“You… you don’t come out much, do you?”

Somehow, I’d become the “athletic girl.” Lady Le Havre keeps calling me to the dueling room, saying it’s part of the knight curriculum, and no one stops her. I don’t really care since I don’t want to attend regular classes anyway. It gives me a lot of personal time.

And thanks to that personal time, I’ve been able to scout locations for murder and body disposal.

“I have to go out eventually.”

“Until then, can I sit next to your seat?”

“Why are you acting like we’re close?”

I’m grateful she stood up for my country in a school full of propaganda, but that’s it. To be honest, Ancy, who is currently being ostracized, isn’t very helpful to me.

“Well, um, uh.”

“Yes?”

“Ariang, you look just like the knight who saved me during the last war.”

I’ve saved many lives, so I suppose I deserve some gratitude. But the moment I heard that, a thought flashed through my mind: Maybe I should just turn her into the ‘girl who got bullied to death.’

“Is there really a knight who looks like me?”

“The eyes are exactly the same. They were very beautiful.”

I don’t remember her, but I must have saved her too. What a cruel fate, meeting my debtor on a narrow bridge like this. If I saved her only to kill her now, destiny has a wicked sense of humor.

“The Blood-Soaked Count and I are both of mountain tribe descent, so our eye colors might be the same. But… it’s unpleasant. I heard you were defending him.”

“Defending what?”

I was slightly taken aback by her expression, which showed she had no idea she’d done anything “wrong,” even if it wasn’t a wrong toward me.

“An Imperial citizen naturally shouldn’t like the Blood-Soaked Count. Don’t bring it up. Being compared to him is offensive.”

I didn’t want to talk anymore, so I brushed past her. She kept pitter-pattering after me, though, until… Thud.

“Ow!”

I heard a cry and turned around.

“What was that? Are you okay?”

“Hehe, I let my guard down.”

Does that even matter? Her skill at averting her gaze is actually quite impressive.

*************************************

“Ariang! You came!”

Why is she grabbing my arm? The day after the execution, I had secretly set up our “five-second” appointment.

“Shall we go to the sauna?”

For once, it was the line I had been waiting for. But I kept my expression stern.

“Sigh. Why do you keep doing this?”

I’m the one luring her in now, but if I change my attitude too suddenly, she’ll get suspicious. I treated her with a look of “I still hate this, but I have no choice.”

“Because I want to go with you.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to be alone with you.”

“It’s a sauna. You never know who might walk in.”

“There are private rooms. You haven’t been there? All the first-years come, but you’re the only one I haven’t seen.”

“Are you checking on the first-years? Who comes and who doesn’t?”

“Of course. I had a feeling one person wouldn’t show up. And I was right.”

“What exactly is your goal in seeing me naked?”

“To be ‘secret friends.’ That’s why I shared my secret with you.”

“Hasn’t someone already taken the burden of that secret to their grave? Do you have another one?”

“Still, it’s enough to block my path to marriage, don’t you think?”

“It’s meaningless.”

“Then let’s go somewhere alone and share deeper secrets.”

I didn’t answer and let my expression speak for me. She looked wounded.

“Wow, that’s a look of pure disgust. Am I really that ugly? That’s why I’m so confused; you really seem like a girl, yet…”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I suspect Lady Ariang is a man. I can’t be sure because your guard is so high, but if you are a man, there’s something I definitely want us to do together.”

“I am a woman.”

“Then I’ll apologize! And I won’t bully you anymore.”

I had played hard to get long enough.

“Sigh. Fine. Let’s go.”

“To the sauna?”

“Those places are hot. I don’t like them.”

“Oh, right. They are hot.”

“Two people with no history can’t just align over a secret. I think what you want, Senior, is…”

“Yes, you’ll probably have to hide being a man, so you’ll want a weakness to hold over me too. If we do ‘it’ together, it becomes a massive mutual weakness. Definitely.”

“What exactly is ‘it’?”

“I don’t think you’ve ever seen men who hate you, but even when I told them I was a noble, they’d swarm me the moment they saw an opening. Even when they knew exactly what would happen.”

“Like male mantises. Humans shouldn’t have worse judgment than insects.”

“They say the female eats the male after mating. Is Lady Ariang talented in literature?”

“Pardon?”

“That sounded like an allusion, but I have no intention of eating you.”

You already ate one person, what are you talking about?

“Is that so?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy ourselves until I graduate? Both you and I are destined to live with whatever partners are chosen for us anyway.”

Luckily, by acting like a haughty noble, I avoided her suspecting I might not be one. I can’t imagine how she’d treat me if she thought I wasn’t a noble. In fact, impersonating a noble is a bigger crime than loving one.

“Whew. This way, then.”

“Wait, really? For real?”

Half-believing and half-hoping, Girona followed me as I led her to a spot perfectly overlapping the Imperial campus and the Guardian Knight headquarters—the Sky Castle supply warehouse, where almost no one ever goes.

“You found a place like this? I’ve looked all over the Academy for places where people don’t go.”

It did take some time to scout the location.

“Yes, Girona.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s because I’m going to kill you.”

“Eh?”

What’s with the ‘Eh?’ after I told her I’m going to kill her? Does she think I mean “kill” in some other way? I grabbed Girona’s hand.

“Where did you get this Ring of Protection?”

“Wh-what? All of a sudden…”

“This is something I gave to my sisters.”

“Sis…ters?”

I have many similarities with my sisters, but I’m said to be more strikingly beautiful and my hair color is slightly different, so people don’t easily make the connection. Well, that’s my face for you. My sisters were also famous for their beauty. I don’t feel it as their brother, but if that kid from the Merlano estate was crazy enough to risk his life for them, it must be true.

She still looked like she didn’t understand, so I spoke in my original voice.

“What? Don’t you recognize me?”

Girona’s expression finally froze, and her pupils dilated.

“Knights! Kniiiights! Mmph!”

Interaction between knights and ladies is fundamentally forbidden, but a lady calling for them is fine. Naturally, they should be called in a crisis. But I had no intention of letting her call them.

“Why? Isn’t this the man’s voice you wanted so badly?”

“Mmph! Mmmph! Mmmmmmph!”

Subduing her wasn’t difficult. I ensured neither light nor sound could escape. I dragged Girona deep into the warehouse.

*************

“I’ll ask again. Who is the man in the mask, and was it just the three of you plotting?”

With my bare hands, I can pull out teeth and nails. I’ve pulled out tongues, crushed temples until eyes popped, and punched faces until heads exploded. It doesn’t suit this face, but I’m a “strength build” character to the point of being overpowered.

“I don’t know, I really don’t know!”

“Why lie? Do you really think you and Trieste could have pulled this off against me alone? Tell me who’s behind you, and I’ll let you live. This is not a lie.”

“You’ll let me live?”

“Well, you probably won’t be able to return to the Continent, though.”

If I felt like it, I was willing to show the “mercy” of pulling out her tongue and teeth and sending her to a brothel in a desert kingdom across the sea, beyond the Papal States. Such measures are actually a hassle, so I’m leaning toward killing her even if she talks. But since getting information is more important, I didn’t reveal the full plan.

“…”

“Need more time?”

“Kniiiights! Mmph! Mmmph!”

I tore her finger off and then shoved my foot into her mouth as she tried to scream. For a Baron’s daughter to be so obsessed with her supposed superiority is just stupid. And she was blinded by lust. Normally, if you think a man is hiding in a noble girls’ academy, your first instinct should be to report it. Her mindset—wanting to play with me because I seemed like a man with a secret—isn’t normal. Of course, she wouldn’t have had proof until she stripped me, but at the very least, she should have gathered public opinion to pressure me.

“I guess you have no intention of talking. I’ll hear it from those more important than you, then.”

I had no intention of letting her live anyway, and letting her scream more wouldn’t help. I put my weight on her mouth and neck and stepped down. I snapped her neck bone right then and there.

“Ugh… cough… urk…”

Even so, her mouth twitched as she let out a groan. Human life is persistent.

“If you atone, I’ll let you go peacefully.”

She was too mangled to make a sound anymore. She used the blood from the hand she’d held to her neck to write a word. An insult. I laughed when I saw it.

“Yes, that’s better.”

Without hesitating further, I gouged out her eyes and dismembered her body. There is a dark magic that can reproduce the last image captured in a corpse’s pupils. Sky Castle is a repository of magic, so such magic might exist in their records.

“Finally, it fits. You really were stubborn.”

Even so, it took a long time for Girona’s breathing to stop. Unlike living things, corpses can go into the Inventory. In other words, the Inventory is the ultimate way to confirm a kill. If it’s dead, it goes in; if it’s breathing, it won’t go in no matter how hard you try. I took out water from the Inventory, washed it over the scene to clean up, and slipped away.

As I left, I wore the armor of a Sky Castle Guardian Knight for a while. Then, far from the scene in another empty warehouse, I put the armor back in the Inventory. Fortunately, no one saw me.

I had just returned to my Ariang form and was headed back to the dorms when…

“Ariang?”

“Gasp! Oh. Why?”

I was a bit startled, but I played it cool. It was Ancy. Why was she wandering around these back paths? Nobles are usually taught not to use back paths.

“What are you doing?”

“Heading back to the dorms.”

“Ah! Wait, what?”

Ancy looked horrified.

“Hmm?”

“Ariang. You have blood on you. Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

Damn it.