“Where are we going, Mom…?”
It was a memory from childhood.
I was holding Mother's hand as we walked through a crowded place.
Mother, who normally answered my questions in her gentle voice, was unusually silent that day.
She only looked at me with deeply troubled eyes.
Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Imperial citizens had gathered where Mother took me.
Some kind of event was being held there.
The streets were full of people laughing, shouting, and making merry.
There was even a woman walking around with a keg strapped to her back, selling beer.
“Yo, brother!”
Some drunken young man held out his fist toward me.
“Yo…!”
I bumped it with the fist holding my cane.
As a child, I got swept up in the excitement too.
Then a question suddenly occurred to me.
Did something good happen?
Why did Mother want to come here?
Around then, the event began.
Atop a tall structure resembling a watchtower, two guards climbed up with a man between them.
“Kill him!”
“Kill him!!”
The crowd began shouting.
They chanted for someone's death as though reciting a slogan.
Apparently this wasn't an ordinary performance.
It was an execution ceremony.
I remembered reading about them in books.
An event where a bad person was killed in front of everyone.
“No! Please spare him!!”
“You mustn't kill him! This is the Imperial Family's scheme!”
“Why can't any of you understand?! Do you even know what kind of person he is?!”
On the other side, however, people were screaming themselves hoarse in protest.
That was strange.
If a bad person was dying, shouldn't everyone be happy?
As I tilted my head, unable to understand what was happening—
I realized who the man on the execution platform was.
His identity was the Enemy of the State, ‘Clown’ Goel Bitroshun.
Ranked second on the continent's bounty list.
My father.
“Kill him!”
“Kill him!”
“Kill him―!”
As the whole world hurled curses at Father, my hand was squeezed painfully tight.
It was Mother.
She stared calmly at her husband standing on the execution platform.
I don't want to remember how time passed after that.
There was some sort of ceremony, Father made a shocking declaration, the citizens were horrified, Father laughed—
and finally, there was the execution.
Maybe I whined about something.
Maybe I simply stared blankly.
I don't want to remember that either.
There is only one memory that forces its way back no matter how hard I try to bury it.
On the way home.
Mother knelt down, hugged me, and sobbed as she said,
“Samael, you must become a good person…….”
EP5 ― Somehow, a Big Shot (1)
“This way, please.”
I followed Black Knight Parthenon across the fortress's red carpet.
Even at a glance, the carpet looked soft and plush.
It was the kind of luxury product that would've taken four factory workers like my former self several days of work to produce.
“The leaders of the Northern Faction are waiting beyond there. Everyone awaits Lord Ermasa with solemn hearts.”
As for Ermasa—
it was the alias I'd hurriedly made up.
Samaer….
Ermasa….
“Let us proceed.”
Before long, Parthenon reached toward the door, then hesitated.
A bandage got in the way of his left hand.
Why did the Black Knight's right hand have a bandage?
Well, you see…….
This had happened about 2 hours earlier.
Black Knight Parthenon came to the underground prison to retrieve me.
At first, I thought I was going to die yet again.
But his behavior was strange.
“For the sin of failing to recognize an honored guest, I wish to repay it with a finger.”
Parthenon drew a dagger and brought it down on his own finger right in front of me.
THUNK!
After severing his ring finger, he lowered his head.
“Please forgive this foolish man.”
I didn't really understand what was happening.
But one thing was certain.
He had completely mistaken me for a genuine member of the Spider Society.
“Raise your head. I shall forgive you.”
I was about to add that forgiving him did not mean I intended to help him.
That was when he stabbed the dagger into the ground before me.
SQUELCH!
Then he offered his own neck.
“If you will not come north with us, then my life is already forfeit. Please kill me here and now.”
There was no other way.
Crying inside, I answered,
“……Let us go.”
Afterward, he returned the Spider Society coat to me.
That was what had happened 2 hours ago.
And now, as a supposed member of the Spider Society, I was entering the Northern Faction leadership conference room with my hood pulled up to conceal half my face.
‘The Spider Society?’
Only a few hours ago, I met a real member of the Spider Society.
And I'd been deeply shocked.
He was an old man whose pale body looked as though he might die any day.
In fact, he'd genuinely been on the verge of death.
Yet he was different from ordinary people.
His gaze was clear.
His voice held a strange power.
The way he expressed his thoughts was astonishingly logical and coherent.
I was supposed to imitate the gravitas of someone like Song Chien?
‘Me…?’
Why…?
My limping steps carried me to the end of the red carpet and into the conference room.
Countless important people were there.
And they all looked at my face.
“That man is….”
“Younger than I expected….”
As I heard them whispering among themselves, I instinctively realized something.
My life in the Guard is over.
My face has been shown to everyone.
There's no way I can keep living in Gesenna after this.
Fear made it difficult to move my feet.
I was so nervous that it was a miracle I didn't collapse on the spot.
Limp.
Limp.
Limp.
As I walked slowly—
passing behind the high-ranking figures of the Northern Faction—
I desperately worked my brain.
What do I need to do to survive?
Do not oppose their opinions.
That followed Father's advice.
‘People only try to see what they want to see.’
Even storybooks worked that way.
Apparently, if something strange happened while the protagonist was having fun, nobody complained.
But if something was even slightly wrong in a story where the protagonist suffered, the author received an angry 5,700-character message.
Do not pretend to know things I only vaguely understand.
I know nothing.
The 「All-Seeing Eye」 is an impressive one.
If I get cocky, I'll end up in a situation I can't handle.
So never pretend to know something I don't.
That way, I can stay out of the center of events.
★(Important)★ 3. Do not do anything that draws attention.
The moment I stand out, everyone's attention will fall on me.
I'll have to speak a lot.
And these brilliant, extraordinary people will quickly realize that I'm nothing more than an insignificant cripple.
Never!
Do anything!
That draws attention!
Immediately after making that vow, I quietly sat down in a chair.
But—something strange happened.
The instant I sat down, every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me.
Some looked flustered.
Some frowned.
Some wore satisfied smiles.
Why?
“L-Lord Ermasa….”
A flustered Parthenon approached, bowed his head, and whispered to me.
“This is… the seat of honor….”
Huh?
Ah!
‘Fuck.’
Good God.
I'd been so nervous that I'd sat in the first empty chair I saw—
and it was the seat of honor!
This was where the Count was supposed to sit!
The damn round table was the problem.
A round table was originally intended to eliminate the seat of honor and create an atmosphere of equality.
But there was clearly still a seat of honor.
Because one chair was different.
And I was currently sitting in a chair decorated with gold.
I'm already making a mistake like this?
‘I think I'm going to throw up….’
I was belatedly about to stand when—
“Even if you are from the Spider Society, do you truly believe you have the right to sit in the seat of honor in this chamber?”
A middle-aged man with a brown beard shot his feet and questioned me.
He was frowning.
He was scary.
‘The right?’
Of course I don't have it…!
I hurriedly tried to stand.
But then a balding middle-aged man on the other side shouted,
“Then who should sit there if not the Spider Society? Count Hamuan?”
“Insolent!”
The brown-bearded man roared.
“How dare you invoke His Excellency the Count's name so disrespectfully!”
“What are we, Imperial pigs? We are citizens of the glorious Republic of Eden! And this is a conference gathered to discuss Eden's internal conflict!”
What?
What's going on?
They're suddenly fighting among themselves.
‘Am I allowed to stay seated?’
I wanted to cry.
I'd broken the third of my 3 survival principles immediately after entering.
I didn't want attention.
For now, I simply maintained a solemn expression.
Then the Black Knight flinched again.
Why now?
Looking closely, he was staring at my crossed legs.
Oh.
Crossing my legs was a habit.
Because I couldn't properly control my left leg while sitting, I always crossed them like this.
The seat of honor was taller than the others, and its position was elevated too.
Everyone had seen me cross my legs.
I didn't know much about aristocratic etiquette.
But even I knew that crossing one's legs was the sort of posture a superior took.
“…….”
“…….”
The room fell silent.
I froze too.
I had a feeling.
This had crossed the line.
No.
I couldn't keep doing this.
Even if I ended up looking ridiculous, I had to stand now.
I planted my cane and began pushing myself up.
“The Count is entering!”
***
Ermasa, the crippled young man.
The instant he opened the door and entered, everyone wondered the same thing.
‘…That young bastard is really from Spider Society?’
The Count's retainers might not know.
But even the high-ranking figures from Eden couldn't be certain.
That was how mysterious the Spider Society was.
So they had no choice but to judge him by his appearance and behavior.
What did he look like?
His chin and lower face were pale.
The rest of his face was concealed beneath a hood.
That was certainly mysterious enough.
And his behavior?
From one angle, he seemed tired.
From another, he seemed bored.
‘What is with that attitude?’
‘Is he trying to act important…?’
‘Does he even know what kind of place this is?’
The territorial control of the vast Gesenna region.
Beyond that, Eden's power and political standing.
Those were what this conference concerned.
Everyone here had shed blood in the Civil War.
And their hearts were swollen with anticipation for the fruits they expected to reap in the future.
Yet the man called Ermasa seemed utterly consumed by boredom.
‘As though none of this matters in the slightest….’
Still, one thing was certain.
“Allow me to escort you, Ermasa. As this is not a specially prepared conference chamber, please sit wherever you are comfortable.”
There was no way that rigid, suspicious Black Knight Parthenon would treat an ordinary person with such deference.
“…….”
At last, Ermasa walked into the conference room.
With each limping step, the powerful figures grew more tense.
There was a slow weight to his movements.
More precisely—
because they already believed he was an important person, they perceived weight in the way he walked.
Then they nearly recoiled in horror.
‘This insane bastard!’
‘How dare he sit there!’
That seat had been prepared for Count Hamuan.
Yet the Spider Society man sat there as though it were perfectly natural.
And as though that weren't enough—
he crossed his legs.
That was a posture only permissible when a ruler was listening to reports from those beneath him.
‘How dare he……!!’
The Spider Society was special.
It was the Republic's supreme decision-making body.
But that didn't mean one could behave arrogantly before this many powerful figures.
Yet a man who surely knew that—
had crossed his legs.
‘……??’
Suddenly, a dangerous thought passed through the minds of the powerful figures.
He sat in the seat of honor.
What if he was someone for whom that was acceptable?
For example—
an Elder of the Spider Society?
But didn't he seem far too young to be an Elder?
Even from the lower half of his face alone, he was clearly a young man!
But…… there was one kind of being that could explain that.
Some of them knew the face of a being who still appeared middle-aged despite being hundreds of years old.
The great Leader of Eden—
Lucif.
He was a powerful figure who had reached some transcendent realm and achieved Rejuvenation.
In other words, what if that young man before them was—
‘……an Elder-level member of the Spider Society who has reached the realm of Rejuvenation?’
Just as they reached that absurd conclusion—
“The Count is entering!”
Every powerful figure in the room stood.
Ermasa did the same.
The door opened, and the Count entered with his retainers.
His steps were quick and hurried.
Count Hamuan appeared gentle on the surface.
For an Imperial noble, his disposition was unusually mild and amiable.
As usual, he entered the conference room with a smile—
then froze.
So did the retainers accompanying him.
Because someone was already standing before the seat of honor.
“Ahh. I heard the reports. It is truly an honor to finally meet one of Eden's mysterious decision-makers in person.”
“…….”
“I hope the journey did not leave you fatigued?”
The Count offered the first greeting.
The powerful figures waited tensely for a response.
Ermasa remained standing and stared silently at the Count.
Several seconds of silence passed.
Someone's breath caught.
Then Ermasa finally opened his mouth.
“Sit.”
And with that, he abruptly dropped into the seat of honor and leaned back against it.
Count Hamuan's eye twitched.
The powerful figures were horrified.
Just now—
Ermasa had spoken down to Count Hamuan.
***
‘I was fine because I'd been sitting.’
That was what I'd been trying to say.
Then the strength went out of my legs.
I wanted to die.