"......Why did you kill him?"

"Because there's nothing good about keeping a dark wizard alive."

"He had already lost his will to fight, and we had him subdued. Yet killing him is......"

Casey stared at Rudger with trembling eyes.

"It's just meaningless murder."

Rudger shook off the blood from his sword stick.

Casey narrowed her eyes at the red marks splattered across the floor.

"Yes. It wouldn't be bad to capture him alive and put him in prison. His ankle was already gone, and he lost his will to fight."

"But why......"

"Because this is my way."

Casey asked, unable to understand.

"Murder?"

"The hellish magic faction he belonged to has been destroyed anyway. There's no point in capturing and imprisoning him. Rather than that, it's better to eliminate him."

Rudger looked down at Delmart's cold corpse with a cold gaze.

"I wonder how many people lost their lives by his hands alone. Dark wizards fundamentally disregard human life, so many people probably died by his hands."

"So you killed him for that? To punish his crimes? Who has the right to exact such punishment?"

"I told you. This is my way. It's not about having the right."

"It was over when we captured him. But I just don't understand why you have to go this far."

What Casey found regrettable wasn't just that Rudger killing Delmart was clearly wrong.

"Why do you have to dirty your hands unnecessarily?"

They could have just captured Delmart and sent him somewhere else.

Rudger's role ended at the point when he neutralized him yet Rudger deliberately took action even though nothing would come back to him for doing so.

"You sound like you're worried about me. Aren't you furious about what I did?"

"......I'm sure I would have been in the past. But I know now that the world doesn't always run ideally and beautifully."

"Is that so?"

Rudger sheathed his sword stick.

"You seem to think I did this with good intentions."

"If that's not it, then what's your reason for doing this?"

"Well. If you ask whether there were no good intentions in this action, that would be a lie."

Rudger stared at Casey.

Those blue eyes showed somewhat self-deprecating colors.

"Even so, I know that this method is wrong."

"If you know it's wrong, then just change it."

"Are you sympathizing with me?"

Casey didn't bother to deny it.

"You've changed, Casey Selmore."

"Everyone changes."

"But precisely because you're like that, you shouldn't forgive me even more."

"......What do you mean?"

"Even if something was done with good intentions, if it's an evil deed, you shouldn't turn a blind eye to it."

"That's......"

Casey was about to say something but pressed her lips shut.

"Don't forget, Casey Selmore. No matter what misunderstandings there were, no matter what circumstances there were...in the end, I am a villain with blood on my hands. It has nothing to do with having good intentions. Everything is proven by results."

Casey swallowed.

The scene from that day floated up on her retina.

The back of a man who could only become ruthless at the death of a boy.

The footsteps of a powerless person who ultimately had no choice but to choose the wrong path.

That's how the Criminal Lord was created in this world.

"Even if that's the image the world has given you?"

"What nonsense."

Rudger snorted as if that was ridiculous.

"This wasn't given by the world. It's what I chose."

"......"

"I made my resolve as a villain, and this is the path I chose of my own will."

To Rudger, evaluations of good and evil made arbitrarily by others were meaningless.

He considers himself a villain and continues evil deeds.

Rudger walked that path because he decided so himself.

"Why do you drive yourself into a corner like that? There's no reason to."

Casey thought about it.

Rudger is a very capable and excellent person and even now, he's doing an excellent job as a teacher at Theon.

Whatever he went through in the past didn't matter.

It would have been enough to just continue the new life given to him now.

Everyone looking up to him, envying him, praising him.

He could have walked such a peaceful path sufficiently, nevertheless Rudger kicked that away and willingly chose a path of becoming bloodstained.

It's behavior that's incomprehensible by common sense.

"Just why?"

"A good person does good deeds with good intentions. There's nothing better than that."

Rudger stared into empty space.

"But sometimes, regardless of one's will, things go wrong. Actions done with good intentions end up with the worst results."

This is a common case in reality.

The intentions were good, but the results of actually carrying it out were terrible.

"What choice do people make in such situations? Do they fully accept their mistakes, or do they make excuses saying that wasn't their intention?"

"That's......"

"It's good when good deeds lead to good results. But good deeds sometimes lead to the worst results. When people experience such things, they try to turn away from the results they created and escape from reality."

I didn't intend for that.

I did it all for your sake.

There probably was no lie in those words.

"They compromise with sin, forgive themselves, and commit the same acts again. That's how people break down. After that, they become monsters."

People who believe themselves to be good and commit any act without hesitation.

People who are convinced it's fine because they had good intentions, even when the results are always the worst.

Rudger saw them as worse than villains.

"So at the very least, I don't turn my eyes away from the sins of what I've done."

Even if the target is a villain.

Even if the situation is a battlefield.

Even if the intention was for someone's sake.

The fact of killing someone doesn't change.

There is no such thing as a good evil deed.

Evil deeds are ultimately evil, and that fact remains like a brand that can't be erased, like the mark engraved on his back since birth.

"Casey Selmore. Can you handle that situation?"

"......I don't know. But I'll try to make the effort."

"That's just like you. That's probably the decisive difference between you and me."

The Casey Selmore that Rudger saw is a good person.

Her intentions are pure white, and even her process is upright, that's why she was used by someone, but Casey Selmore still didn't give up.

"We mustn't overlook it. We're standing in the same place, but we're living in different worlds."

A person living in a different world from himself.

Sometimes there's longing and envy for that different world, but having already decided to walk this path, Rudger had no intention of leaving the world of violence surrounded by barbed wire fences he was in.

"You......"

Casey's lips trembled.

Even though they face each other, talk to each other, and fight together there was something like an invisible wall between this man and herself.

What made it even more miserable for her was that he understood her, but she couldn't understand him.

Now as before, Rudger made her feel defeated.

Even so, she was determined not to remain helpless like that day.

Just as Casey made that resolution and was about to speak.

-Crack-boom!

A huge mountain of ice rose in the distance.

Despite being quite far away and in the dark of night, it was of such overwhelming size that it could be seen at a glance.

The eerie sound of everything around freezing was louder than the explosion of a bomb.

-Whoosh.

The towering ice mountain disappeared again as suddenly as it had appeared. Like a mirage.

However, looking at the residual cold remaining in the surroundings, that wasn't the case at all.

That cold remained in place, stealing heat from the surroundings.

If an ordinary person approached there, they would become an ice statue in less than 3 seconds.

Even a sturdy knight would have their lungs freeze in less than a minute if they went there.

‘So that's why they made people step back.’

As Rudger had such thoughts, after that intense strike, no magical waves could be felt.

"Is it over?"

Muttering that, Rudger slowly moved his feet.

Casey, who had missed her timing to speak, couldn't bring herself to follow such a Rudger.

* * *

The nighttime operation to eliminate the dark wizards ended in success.

Of course, because the fight was so rough, concealing the information was virtually impossible.

Reporters rushed in from everywhere trying to enter the scene, and intelligence department agents and police officers came out to block them.

However, even though they set up guard lines and blocked the reporters, they couldn't completely hide the traces of the fight that occurred at the warehouse.

After all, not only did Sector C where the remote warehouse was located become frozen as if frost had settled, that cold was so strong that even the nearby coastal waters froze.

Even if they tried to block the view from land routes, the aftermath was clearly visible from the seaside.

"My goodness. What happened overnight?"

"I heard from Jacob next door that there were green lights bursting and all sorts of chaos?"

"From what I heard, dark wizards had infiltrated, and the country carried out an elimination operation."

"Really? Well, can't be helped then. Since fishing near the dock is prohibited anyway, we're not really losing anything."

Though the fishermen on the boats chatted like this, their gazes couldn't help but be drawn to where the warehouse had been.

After all, seeing a portion of the sea frozen white was a rare sight even for them.

* * *

"Sister. You really made this into quite an incident."

In Marias Selmore's office, Casey slammed a newspaper down on Marias' desk.

The front page of the newspaper had last night's warehouse incident printed in huge letters.

"What happened to the person who said it should be handled quietly?"

"Why are you saying it like that? It ended quite quietly."

"After freezing the nearby sea?"

"That area isn't where ships pass by anyway, so it doesn't interfere with fishing boats, merchant ships, or cargo ships."

"There are eyes watching, eyes."

"You saw the situation too. If that monster was left alone, there would have been greater damage. This much is getting off easy."

"Haah. Well, that's true."

Casey knew that fact better than anyone.

It was an operation to eliminate an entire dark wizard faction.

Moreover, during the process, a high-ranking dark wizard went berserk and transformed into a corrupted magic user.

If things had gone wrong, it wouldn't have been strange if not just the warehouse but the entire port had been blown away.

Although the aftermath Marias caused was quite shocking, considering the damage that could have occurred originally, it ended with minimal impact.

"Of course, I was also glad to be able to relieve some stress after a long time."

"That's your true feelings, huh?"

"Why do you keep saying that? I can't freely go around outside like you. And don't complain too much. You helped too."

"Me?"

"Thanks to the help from your fiancé and you, our intelligence agents were able to stay safe. So as your sister, and as a civil servant of the Magic Intelligence Department, I should give proper compensation."

Casey's ears perked up at the word compensation and Marias spoke with narrowed eyes.

"Your sister sincerely congratulates you and your fiancé's relationship!"

"......Are you joking? What kind of compensation is that! Just give me money instead!"

"My, my. You've become quite materialistic while I haven't seen you. And you think I can't give you money if you ask?"

"That......"

Casey was about to say something but closed her mouth and thought carefully.

"Wait a moment. Give me time to choose."

"Take your time."

Marias observed her sister with a smiling face.

She's really cute in these aspects.

Even though she had grown a lot, she still had lacking parts, which made her feel like truly her sister.

"But thinking about it is fine, but I have another appointment, so could you leave my room first?"

"Appointment? What appointment?"

"I have many appointments. Starting with dealing with the high-ranking people of the country who want to question me about what happened."

Marias shook her head as if troubled.

"Really, being a low-ranking civil servant is too hard."

"......What low-ranking civil servant? Is that something someone higher than a director should say?"

"That's a misunderstanding."

Casey snorted.

What misunderstanding.

Someone who could replace even a director.

How could she be so brazen?

"Anyway, I'll think about the compensation separately, so sister just wait."

"I'll look forward to it~"

Casey turned around and left Marias' office.

However, her steps had to stop soon, as she encountered Rudger who was trying to enter at that moment.

"......What?"

"What."

"Why are you here?"

"I came to receive compensation."

"Compensation? Ah......"

So sister's appointment was with Rudger.

Casey moved her lips several times as if to say something.

The conversation she had with Rudger last night still lingered in her mind.

Rudger had drawn a clear line with her.

Even if they cooperate and have friendly conversations, in the end, they live in completely different worlds.

Casey couldn't give an answer to Rudger's response from last night.

Instead, she approached him slightly.

Casey fastened one of Rudger's shirt buttons with her delicate hands.

"Dress properly. You're going to see sister, don't look messy unnecessarily."

Rudger looked down at Casey.

Perhaps because she didn't want to meet his gaze, only her crown was visible.

Whatever perfume she used, she always smelled like clear water.

After fixing his button, Casey quickly left the place.

"......"

Rudger took his gaze off Casey's retreating back and headed to Marias' office.

"Rudger Chelici here."

"Are you here? My sister just passed by."

"We met on the way."

"I see."

Marias opened a small box placed on her office desk and took out a candy to put in her mouth.

"Ah, is it okay if I eat? Or should I give you one? It's quite tasty."

"It's fine."

"Have one."

When Marias insisted subtly, Rudger eventually had to accept a candy.

The moment he put it in his mouth, Rudger almost spat out the candy due to the sweetness that stimulated his entire mouth.

'What, this is crazy.'

Rudger shuddered at something that went beyond being a lump of sugar.

It seemed like even someone with hypoglycemia would get diabetes right away if they ate this.

After forcibly chewing and swallowing the candy, Rudger got straight to the point.

"I want to receive compensation for this incident."

"That's right. Since it's a promise, I have no choice but to tell you."

Rudger prepared to listen attentively to Marias' words.

Marias observed such a Rudger through narrowed eyes.

"I checked several more times recently about that scenery, that clue you asked me about last time. And my conclusion is one thing."

"What is it?"

"The place you're looking for. It's in a dream."