***
That dawn.
Dale stepped alone into the central courtyard of the ducal castle and rotated his mana through his heart.
"Rise, wall of ice."
He summoned an Ice Wall for practice, then stepped back and aimed with his fingers.
"Ice Bullet, '12-gauge 00 buckshot.'"
At the moment of incantation, ice bullets formed at Dale's fingertips──
Bang!
A large chunk of ice acting as a shell shattered into fragments, scattering eight ice pellets in a shotgun spread.
"Ice Bullet, 'Barrett M82,' '.416 Barrett (10.6×83mm).'"
Bang!
Next came a large-caliber sniper round.
Needless to say, bullets come in many forms. Depending on the purpose—suppression, lethal, non-lethal—and the situation, countless types exist.
From .22 Long Rifle to 12.7×99mm NATO (.50 BMG).
For birds, humans, beasts, light armor, anti-tank, and even anti-monster rounds.
Thus, the gun and bullet must change according to the objective.
One doesn't need to be an engineer or scientist. Just imagining the scenery of that world is enough.
After that, Dale continued testing his abilities by adding various formulas and targeting the Ice Wall.
A second-circle mage. But with just one additional circle, the world Dale could project into this reality expanded severalfold.
As a painter, Dale had already reached near-perfection. All that remained was to expand the range of tools he could wield.
To overlay the canvas of hellish battlefields he had experienced—without a single embellishment—onto the heart of this empire.
It was then.
"Dale?"
From a distance, a voice called out to him. Turning his head, he saw Charlotte.
She held a rapier in her hand.
Her breathing was heavy, her cheeks flushed. Sweat poured down her body like rain. It seemed she had been training alone with her sword until this late hour, when everyone else was asleep.
"You were practicing magic here."
"Yeah."
Dale nodded and waved his hand to dispel the towering Ice Wall.
"You were training with your sword too, Lady Charlotte?"
"That's right."
Charlotte nodded and sheathed her rapier.
"I was practicing the footwork Lord Helmut taught me."
Since that day, Charlotte's swordsmanship had been improving rapidly under Lord Helmut's guidance. It wouldn't be long before Dale lost in a pure sword duel.
"Do you enjoy learning the sword?"
"Ah, yeah."
Charlotte nodded at Dale's question.
"Um, hey, you know..."
She nodded, then hesitated as if realizing something. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke shyly.
"...I'm sorry for acting out."
Like a child confessing a mistake.
"I mean, in front of you, Young Master Dale... I didn't show proper manners and was rude..."
"You were more than just rude."
Charlotte lowered her head, unsure what to do. Dale held back a laugh and continued.
"Alright, I'll forgive you just this once."
"R-Really...?"
"And it's super awkward, so you don't have to be so stiff."
Dale laughed as he said that. It was a very natural laugh, and Charlotte's face turned bright red at last.
The moonlight at dawn was faint.
"...I really like the weather here."
Charlotte spoke while looking at the moon. Dale tilted his head in surprise at the unexpected comment.
"This cold?"
The freezing temperatures of the Duchy of Saxen were infamous enough to make imperial citizens shiver.
"Even if I swing my sword late into the night, it cools my overheated body right away."
Thanks to that, cooling off the sweat pouring down like rain was no problem. It was the one advantage of the cold here.
"I didn't think anyone else would feel the same way."
Dale had secretly thought the same, so he was a little pleased.
It felt like the wall between them had lowered just a little.
***
Around that time.
Unlike Dale, who thought everyone was asleep, the Black Duke was gazing out the window of his bedroom in the ducal castle.
Watching his son build an Ice Wall alone in the courtyard and cast magic at it.
From Dale's fingertips, all kinds of Ice Bolts burst forth without restraint.
When Sepia first said Dale had a "talent for taking lives," he dismissed it as typical elven exaggeration.
He was wrong.
──He recalled the deep darkness built by the ancestors of the Black Tower.
Unforgivable sins committed under the guise of pursuing truth. The fear most people held toward black mages was not without reason.
A deeply rooted darkness from a bygone era.
Even the current Black Duke owed a great debt to that darkness. And when that darkness combined with Dale's "talent," he imagined the abyss Dale's fingertips might one day project.
A scene even the master of the Black Tower could barely fathom.
It was then.
"What are you staring at so intently?"
Elena, freshly showered, approached her husband. She wore a damp nightgown.
Charlotte had just finished her sword training and appeared before Dale around that time.
"Oh my!"
Seeing them, Elena laughed in surprise.
At this late hour, a boy and girl in the courtyard of the ducal castle.
"Our son is already at that age, isn't he?"
Not knowing the full story, Elena could only interpret it one way.
The Duke of Saxen didn't bother correcting her misunderstanding and remained silent.
"Dale came to you earlier, asking you to accept Lady Orhart, didn't he?"
Elena giggled playfully.
"Could it be love at first sight?"
"Do they make a good pair?"
The Duke asked, without much thought.
"Well, I suppose..."
Elena shrugged and trailed off.
"It's a mother's duty to help her son be honest with his feelings."
After speaking, she reached out and touched the back of the Duke's neck.
"And it's also a wife's duty to wish for her husband's happiness."
Understanding her meaning, the Duke turned and kissed her. After the kiss, he spoke, pushing past his embarrassment.
"I love you always, Elena."
"Fufu, you're so sweet."
Just as Elena wished for her beloved family's happiness, the Duke fulfilled his "duty as a husband."
***
Elena's decision after witnessing her son and Charlotte's "secret meeting" triggered an unexpected butterfly effect.
***
Some time later, on the outskirts of Saxen City. In the slums, where vagrants, beggars, filth, and animal entrails lay scattered.
Thanks to a recent urban relief project, the area had regained some vitality.
All under the name of the Duchess of Saxen, Elena.
Leading the ducal supply corps into the streets, she distributed necessities to the hungry and destitute.
Every week, she personally visited the slums to give food to children, blankets to the needy, and arranged guild contacts to help vagrants find work.
──And that day, Elena wasn't the only one from the ducal house visiting the slums.
Her maids and the ducal guards were present, of course.
"Dale, escort Lady Charlotte properly."
As a noble, it was his duty to care for a lady, so she ordered Dale to personally look after her maid Charlotte.
"Yes, Mother."
Using her own schedule as an excuse, she arranged for the two to spend time together.
"Thank you as always, my lady!"
"My lady, you look healthy as ever!"
"Was your journey here comfortable?"
"Thanks to Lady Elena, we were able to stay warm this winter!"
The people of the slums looked at Elena as if beholding a saint.
'So this is my mother's work.'
Dale stepped forward to follow her example.
"Oh, Y-Young Master!"
He shook hands with starving vagrants and pondered ways to help them rise again.
Charlotte also smiled warmly and extended a hand of kindness.
"Oh dear, how could a noble lady touch someone like me...?"
"Please don't say that."
Just as the two began to drift out of Elena's line of sight, a crying child ran toward them.
The child looked to be about four or five years old.
"What's wrong?"
Charlotte gently stroked the child's head, urging him to speak instead of cry.
"Help me, sister! My mom, my mom...!"
He tugged urgently at Charlotte's sleeve, pointing toward the end of a hidden alley behind the slums.
"W-What should we do?"
Charlotte gasped in confusion.
"Let's call someone over there and go together..."
"There's no time! Please, come quickly and see my mom!"
The child's cries grew louder as he urged Charlotte.
"..."
But while Charlotte was flustered, Dale remained calm.
'Suspicious.'
He imagined the end of that hidden alley, out of sight of the ducal guards.
At that moment, a sense of unease crossed Dale's mind.
"...!"
A disturbing possibility flashed through his thoughts.
And when he sensed eyes watching him from afar, that possibility became certainty.
'A senior operative from the Sif Guild.'
Though dulled compared to his past life, Dale's battlefield instincts were still sharp.
'They must be targeting the daughter of the Divine Sword, hired by the Holy Swordsman.'
So Dale smiled quietly.
'A perfect chance to test my abilities.'
This wasn't a mock duel between knights. Nor was it a battle against green-blooded monsters like orcs.
It was a chance to unleash his full power under the guise of self-defense—without worrying about others watching.
A chance to hone his true talent: killing living humans.
It wasn't about winning or losing.
'How far can I overwhelm them?'
That was all he wanted to know. With his second circle formed, and his combat-optimized magic refined again and again. Plus, the new techniques expanded through the "second form" of his Shadow Cloak, which he hadn't revealed to anyone.
Bringing ducal knights along was one option.
But if he and Charlotte, two unguarded children lured by innocence, went alone, the enemy would surely take the bait.
Confident they were the spider spinning the web.
"Let's go, Charlotte."
Dale took Charlotte's hesitant hand and led her forward.
***
'They've taken the bait!'
Thanks to Elena's relief efforts, ducal personnel had begun appearing in the slums—truly a stroke of luck.
Jade, a senior operative of the Sif Guild's "Kaleidoscope" branch, spun his dagger and reversed his grip.
"Do not lay a single scratch on the eldest son of House Saxen."
Their target was not Dale, but a mere maid of House Saxen.
He knew full well how dangerous it was to touch someone from the ducal house—especially Saxen. But in the face of the promised fortune, reason doesn't always lead to rational decisions.
"Subdue the little girl and escape the duchy swiftly."
They waited for the prey to approach the mire of the slums, lured by deception.
Confident they were the spider spinning the web.