==[Don't Get the Wrong Idea, This Alliance Is a One-Time Thing]==
[OBJECTIVE] - Earn Kai's recognition.
[REWARD] - Kai's affinity increases
[ON FAILURE] - Death
Translucent messages surfaced across my whole field of view.
But the quest contents, and the reward as well.
They weren't merely trivial — they were at the level of being of no use whatsoever.
Only, since the failure penalty was 'death,' it was also not a part I could brush aside easily.
Perhaps that was why it seemed to have been force-accepted.
And this was the third 'affinity' quest to appear, after the tutorial quest and the main quest.
"Affinity?"
Along with my question, translucent messages poured down before my eyes.
====
Affinity is a measure indicating how the person in question thinks of the [Player].
It represents the [Player]'s interpersonal relationships, and consists of "3 stages" by stage and [9 states] by state.
First is the "Discord stage."
A person at the Discord stage is in a state of disliking the Player. The Discord stage consists of the 4 states [Hatred, Disgust, Anger, Conflict].
Next is the "Normal stage," in which the person feels no particular emotion toward the Player.
This stage consists of only the 1 state [Indifference].
Last is the "Interest stage," meaning the person is in a state of active interest in the Player.
According to the degree of interest, it consists of the 4 states [Favor, Friendliness, Trust, Affection].
Arranged in order of state, it can be organised as 'Hatred < Disgust < Anger < Conflict < Indifference < Favor < Friendliness < Trust < Affection.'
====
The contents of the message ran on at fair length.
I looked the contents over calmly.
It wasn't greatly difficult content, so I could understand it quickly.
But that was all it was.
"Why bother?"
There was nothing particularly good about raising affinity.
It didn't grant additional stats.
It didn't grant an artifact like the [Inventory].
And failing that, it didn't grant a special ability either.
There was no need to waste time bound up in affinity.
...Just as I was thinking that, it happened.
◆You there, thinking raising something like affinity is good for nothing!
As though it had heard what I said, translucent messages poured down before my eyes again.
====
Not a chance, I tell you!
There are also 'very special rewards' to be obtained from a person at the "Interest stage," so we recommend you build affinity diligently!
Conversely, you may receive threats to your life from a person at the "Discord stage," so here too we recommend you build affinity diligently!
For your reference, please note that there are also people you can never reach the [Hatred] and [Affection] states with, at the two extremes, no matter how hard you try.
Because hating a person enough to kill them is hard, and loving a person more than your own life is far, far harder!
====
"Hmm..."
Looking at it, it didn't seem entirely useless.
Because, as the message made clear, there existed such a thing as a 'very special reward.'
Whether that was a reward given by the quest itself.
Or a reward given by the person in question, I couldn't tell.
But it was certain it was by no means a reward to be ignored.
And it wasn't only rewards to consider, either.
Because the message was saying that if affinity fell to the "Discord stage," I could face threats to my life.
In many respects, affinity needed managing.
And in that sense, Kai's affinity toward me was [Hatred].
The stage buried at the very bottom of affinity, in which he thoroughly detests me—
◆Kai holds an active aggression to kill and destroy you!
◆Given any trigger at all, Kai will certainly kill and be rid of you!
......Well, so it says.
As though my thinking were wrong and wrong by a long way, the message was making thoroughly sure I understood the [Hatred] state.
It seemed to have been seeing straight through my thoughts and feelings for a while now, but anyway.
"And what am I supposed to do about it."
I waved my hand about and scattered the messages that had surfaced before my eyes.
Sorry, but I don't have the slightest intention of raising Kai's affinity.
And naturally I have no intention of doing Kai's affinity quest either.
A quest only presents a direction, and no more.
The choice of how to achieve the goal is entirely mine.
And there was no law saying that among those choices I couldn't reject the very direction the quest presented.
In other words, the choice not to carry out the quest is likewise mine to make.
Even if the quest was force-'accepted,' whether or not to 'carry it out' is decided by me.
Of course the responsibility for the result is entirely mine as well.
But what of it.
◆Wheeeee-oooo—! Wheeeee-oooooo—!!
At that the message kept sounding its alarm, insisting I had to raise Kai's affinity.
It was strenuously trying to persuade me, going on about not a chance and all the rest.
But I didn't listen.
Not a chance my foot.
"I want to kill Kai just as much."
I too held an active aggression to kill and destroy Kai.
I too would certainly kill and be rid of Kai given any trigger at all.
Which means that, in reverse, my affinity toward Kai was likewise [Hatred].
Even if the quest's failure penalty is death, I can simply kill Kai first and be rid of the affinity quest itself.
From the start I had no intention whatsoever of leaving Kai alive.
Does leaving the Legion Commander of Frost alive make any sense at all?
If Kai's fall had been because of Seraphia, my thinking would have been different.
There would have been room to leave Kai alive.
Because killing Seraphia alone would have been enough.
Without Seraphia, Kai would not fall, so raising Kai's affinity and drawing him into the allied forces would have made him a tremendous force.
But Kai did not become a Death Knight through Seraphia.
He became a 'Lich' by himself.
Kai transcended everything by his own will, and even without Seraphia he could turn dark... that is, fall, entirely on his own.
So along with Seraphia, Kai too had to be killed.
Above all, Ian regretted only killing Seraphia. About killing Kai he did not offer a single word, let alone regret.
In other words, there is no harm in killing Kai this very moment.
If I followed my heart I would have killed Kai during the standoff earlier.
And yet the reason I didn't kill Kai was very simple.
"He's strong after all."
Because I could not kill him.
He was far too strong.
It was only because Kai had focused on subduing me; if he had drawn his sword with killing in mind, I would have died on the spot without even reacting.
Bluntly put, even the me of my previous life, the allied forces' Predator, could not have handled Kai.
As Covert Operations Captain of the Special Warfare Corps I carried out a great many missions. Through them the Imperial Army Legion Commanders I removed with my own hands were fairly numerous.
I clearly possessed combat power above a Legion Commander's.
And yet Kai, who was the Legion Commander of Frost, was the sole exception.
Once, in the middle of a mission.
That time I ran into Kai.
Barely escaping with my life was the most I could manage.
If that was so even in my previous life, then now, having gone back to the past, I was even less of a match.
Of course Kai had gone back to the past as well.
Right now he was not the Legion Commander of Frost but merely the Head Knight of House White Wolf, and even so a monster is a monster.
"So the Royal Guard sending him offers wasn't an idle rumour after all."
At this point in time, having gone back to the past, Kai's age is now twenty.
He was two years older than me, but his talent and attainment were at a level that twenty years could not have bridged, let alone two.
That is, if I had not gained Ian's abilities.
Now it was not so.
Through Ian's ability, Solo Level Up [EX], I can grow stronger without limit.
Through Ian's ability, Player's Will [EX], I can use Predation [S+] without limit.
So there's no time to be doing this.
Affinity and all the rest of it — I'm busy growing.
"First, let's go replenish some nutrients."
Ignoring the noisily blaring messages, I headed for the Lord's castle dining hall.
***
The Frost Proving Ground, which Adrian had left.
A deep and heavy silence had settled over the place.
Kai stood blankly in the centre of the proving ground, mastering the fury rising in his chest. And at the fury that would not readily be mastered, he ground his teeth.
It felt as though fury had dyed his reason crimson.
It was fury at Adrian, and along with it a reproach directed at Kai himself.
A reproach at himself for having been 'overwhelmed,' however momentarily, by Adrian.
However much he thought about it, he could not understand why he had felt the emotion of terror toward Adrian.
Kai stood in the centre of the proving ground for some time with his eyes closed.
"—ir Kai! Sir Kai!"
Then, at the sound of someone calling him, he snapped back to his senses.
When he came to himself, the Head Butler, Bernard, was calling out toward Kai.
Beside Bernard, Seraphia was struggling.
Her already snow-white skin had gone past pale to bloodless.
Beads of cold sweat had gathered on her white, clean forehead.
Her body, delicate as a thin flower petal, swayed as though blown about by the wind.
Had Bernard not been holding her up beside her, she was precarious enough that she would long since have sunk to the ground.
The force of Kai's presence, his fury beyond containing.
Because she could not withstand it.
And not only Seraphia.
Even the soldiers could not withstand Kai's presence and had sunk to the ground.
Kai hurriedly realised his mistake and gathered his presence in.
Only then did a gasp of relief — Ahh—! — burst out across the whole proving ground.
Kai bowed his head deeply toward Seraphia.
"...I have shown you a disgraceful display. I am sorry."
"N-no, it's all right..."
Seraphia weakly waved a hand as though to say she was fine.
Naturally, by anyone's reckoning she was not fine.
It was a presence that even the healthy soldiers of the county castle could not withstand.
It was not a kind Seraphia, born frail from the curse of frost, could withstand.
Inside that small, delicate body of Seraphia's, an absolute cold called 'frost' flowed out ceaselessly and was freezing her.
If she is not treated periodically, her body freezes little by little until even moving becomes difficult.
If that is left alone, in the end even breathing becomes difficult, and finally the body freezes completely and death follows.
But the northern Snowy Mountain does not have much.
Seraphia's treatment could not be carried out when it should be.
And the northern Snowy Mountain, where a brutal cold howls through every season of the year.
Seraphia was living every single day in pain.
"Sir Kai, are you...... all right yourself?"
And even so, Seraphia was worried about Kai.
She was that sort of person. Seraphia.
A person who cherishes and looks after her people more than herself.
A woman for whom staying up several nights for the territory's residents was nothing at all.
A true Lord who would not refuse to fill the bellies of her residents before easing her own illness.
A Seraphia entirely unlike the wastrel Adrian.
You would never think they were the same blood, and in fact they were siblings with no blood between them.
Fortunately the late Count left everything of the house to Seraphia, not to Adrian.
That was by no means forged; it was the late Count's will.
And by about now the courier would have delivered the will to the Crown.
Before the Crown began its formal investigation and an official decree came down, a minimum of three months would be needed.
If Adrian were dealt with before then, the Crown might view it as suspicious.
One way or another Adrian was the rightful heir of House White Wolf.
Three months.
The time remaining until the authority of young lord currently granted to Adrian is stripped from him.
Exactly that long, and no longer.
Only until then does Adrian stay alive.
If that time passed and Adrian was still in the house.
If he pressed his authority as rightful heir and used the family's assets as he pleased—
If exploiting the territory's residents were not enough—
If in the end he tried to take the position of Lord from Seraphia......
CRRRK!
Beneath Kai's two fists, clenched roughly, unmistakable killing intent settled.
***
The dining hall located within the Lord's castle.
"I-I am sorry! We have run completely out of ingredients at the moment..."
The head chef came toward me, cold sweat trickling down.
And all the while the head chef watched my face for a reaction.
'What was this one's name.'
Unfortunately the name wouldn't come to me.
I couldn't even remember the name of Bernard, the Head Butler.
There was no chance whatsoever of remembering a head chef.
But I had a memory that the food was excellent back when I was at the house. I could faintly recall at least that he was a fairly skilled head chef.
"You've no ingredients?"
"Th-that is correct..."
The head chef bowed his head deeply, like a criminal.
Bluntly put, is it even conceivable that a Count's house, high nobility, has run out of ingredients?
But it was perfectly possible.
The place where the White Wolf county sits is the northern Snowy Mountain.
A wretched environment where brutal cold continues through every season of the year.
The varieties of plants that grow there were extremely few, and accordingly the animals that lived there were markedly few as well.
Put simply, there was a shortage of things to eat.
Nor did the county have anything like mines or specialty goods. Having not a damn thing to its name, it was also considerably wretched financially.
It was a county in name only; in practice it was a territory worth less than a barony.
"Weren't you cooking a turkey earlier?"
"Th-that was what was left over from the funeral this time..."
In other words, it was an ingredient they had been hoarding and hoarding.
And they had tried to serve it to me, and Kai had spilled it on the floor.
Honestly, that bastard is no help in any number of ways. And I had wondered what a turkey dish was doing there.
'So Bernard served that to me?'
Turkey is an extremely precious ingredient.
An ingredient so precious it isn't brought out except on a special day like my father's funeral.
It wouldn't be that Bernard brought out the turkey because he thinks well of me.
The principle of the young lord's order...... didn't quite fit as an explanation either.
'He must have thought I'd throw a fit.'
That was most likely it.
It seemed he had brought out a precious ingredient out of concern that I'd throw an almighty fit if served food that tasted bad.
Because to the people here I was 'the Count's wastrel.'
You could tell just from the head chef in front of me now, at a complete loss.
Look at those eyes, rolling this way and that until he screwed them shut.
Isn't that the very picture of a man bracing hard for the fit to come?
"Is there nothing at all to eat?"
"Th-that is..."
"You've got the entrails you throw away, haven't you?"
"We do have those, but..."
"Go and bring them."
A brief silence.
"Dung...? No — entrails?"
The head chef's face went blank with bewilderment.