Chapter 22
Cruelly busy days went by without rest.
Every guild in the Empire was troubled by the same question.
Why had the Gate opened three times — once in the Solodom region, once in Gillingham Square, and once in La Rundel Town?
Khalif traveled across every corner of the Empire, just as the word implied.
To find the truth, he scoured the farthest ends of the continent, east to west, north to south.
But he never found the cause.
He entered high-level dungeons so many times that he lost count.
Cutting down monsters, crushing beasts — there were moments he felt like nothing more than a killing machine.
On those nights, he would drink himself senseless and grab Meyna, muttering drunkenly,
“I’m done. I quit.”
But his ever-composed aide would always reply with calm logic,
“If you quit, what will you do with your life?”
“Anything.”
“Anything?”
“Anything that doesn’t involve a sword. I’ll sail, farm, bake bread. I can do all that.”
“Anyone can sail, farm, or bake bread.”
“Damn it. Can anyone be a knight?”
“No. Especially not an S-class knight. So stop saying weak things.”
“……”
“Think about the citizens of the Empire.”
Truly, they were cruelly busy and exhausting days.
The endless work and dangerous hunts were hard enough, but something deeper tormented Khalif.
A slow-burning feeling that rose from his core.
Some might have called it loneliness.
And that loneliness, buried deep in his bones, began to surface — ironically — after he returned from La Rundel Town.
‘Why?’
He often asked himself.
He had just come back from being surrounded by love from the Winslet family, who were like his own.
So why?
***
“Life’s a damn joke.”
April 1st.
The season when young couples dressed in light colors and went flower-viewing together.
But while others were looking at blossoms, Khalif, fresh from slaying monsters, sat down at the dinner table and spat curses instead.
“Those bastard monsters should just stay in the dungeon, eat, shit, and live their miserable lives there. Why the hell do they keep crawling out?”
Overwork, lack of sleep, and loneliness had taken their toll, twisting his temper.
And the one who had to endure all of it was always Meyna.
“I told you I’m not eating.”
“Still…”
“Just seeing something green makes my brain smell monster blood.”
“Sir Lennox.”
“Damn it, why are you saying that too?”
Crash.
A glass fell to the floor and shattered.
The dark green liquid splashed everywhere.
“…I’m sorry.”
Meyna bent down quietly to pick up the shards.
“Leave it.”
“No.”
“I said leave it!”
Khalif snapped.
“If I leave it?”
Meyna asked softly.
“What?”
“If I leave this here, who’ll clean it up?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Hoge? Magia?”
Khalif glared at her with a frightening look.
“If you’ve got something to say, say it. I didn’t get the noble education, so I don’t understand your fancy roundabout words.”
Holding a piece of glass in her bare hand, Meyna stood and looked at him.
***
“Sorry, Sir Lota. It feels like I’m the only one getting invited to nice places.”
“Goodness, don’t say that.”
Kurden clicked his tongue.
“Do you realize you’ve lost even more weight in the past two months, Ma’am?”
Now that he mentioned it, it was true.
Her gray dress, once perfectly fitted, hung loose on her frame.
“Tsk tsk.”
Kurden, looking sympathetic, muttered a few curses aimed at Khalif.
“……”
Meyna smiled faintly but said nothing.
Seeing that, Kurden shook his head quietly.
Straightening his back, he adjusted his glasses.
“Back to work.”
“You must be busy these days too, Sir Lota?”
Meyna asked, trying to sound cheerful.
“Yes. Our top star’s scandals keep exploding like fireworks.”
“……”
“That crazy bastard.”
Kurden flipped through a mountain of paperwork.
Meyna gave a weak laugh.
***
A few days later.
After a week-long subjugation mission, Khalif returned, staggering badly.
He had two women clinging to his sides, both dressed in revealing clothes that left little to the imagination.
Meyna, who had been waiting outside the fortress because he was late, couldn’t bring herself to speak.
“Sir Lennox.”
He brushed past her shoulder without a word.
She stood frozen, staring blankly at his retreating back as he stumbled toward his chamber.
Then, after a long pause, she followed him.
When she entered Khalif’s room, it felt like a hallucination.
A blonde woman lay on his bed in her undergarments.
A red-haired woman in a sheer slip leaned by the window, exhaling smoke.
And Khalif, just out of the bath.
“Why are you just standing there?”
He had only a towel loosely wrapped around his waist.
“……”
Meyna couldn’t answer.
He glanced her up and down, then walked past her.
Water dripped from his wet hair and body, tracing meaningless shapes on the floor.
Despite his unsteady steps, he didn’t smell strongly of alcohol.
Instead, there was a much worse scent.
Hallucinogen.
That sweet, smoky, dizzying scent — the forbidden kind.
Khalif’s entire body reeked of it.
“Didn’t you hear me? I asked what you’re doing.”
He sounded annoyed as he reached the bed.
It was a drug knights and mages used to forget stress.
But it slowly corroded the mind.
So Meyna had begged him again and again,
“Drink all you want, but never that. Never hallucinogens.”
“Do you have something to say?”
She quietly shook her head.
“Then get out.”
He jerked his chin toward the door.
Just as she turned to leave, his voice came again from behind.
“I heard you met Lord Banze while I was gone.”
Without turning back, Meyna left the room.
