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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue. Friend
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1.
I stood atop the stairs leading to the emperor's main palace and looked down.
Countless bodies already lined the steps.
The night sky, which should have been dark, was stained red by flames erupting from the ground.
I calmly gazed upon this hell. And I smiled bitterly at my friend, who was cutting his way through that hell to climb the stairs.
Perhaps I had known for a very long time that this day would come.
Despite the rebels having breached the palace, I felt surprisingly refreshed.
The fact that I was the last knight defending this palace, and that my friend was the leader of the rebellion aiming to drag down the mad emperor, only sharpened my focus.
"Welcome."
Slamming the sword in my hand onto the ground, I forced a smile.
I figured the pain was mutual.
For me, who had no choice but to defend the palace, and for him, who had to overcome me.
He ascended the stairs, clad in silver armor engraved with the blue wolf insignia of his house.
His face, usually so full of mischief, was contorted.
Suppressing his emotions, he spoke.
"Surrender. You know what the emperor is doing, don't you? Surrender now and disarm. Then you will live. I guarantee it."
I could even hear the desperation in my friend's voice.
But I had only one answer to my friend's plea.
I scoffed and waved my hand dismissively.
"You know that's nonsense, don't you? Let's not waste each other's time."
"...Kain. Please."
"What's the point of a dog surviving if he can't even protect his master's house? Just this once, you be the one to yield."
Watching him walk steadfastly toward me, I suddenly remembered the day I first met him.
Was it the day he first entered the palace at the emperor's invitation? That was ten years ago already.
I was silently swinging my sword in the Imperial Guard training grounds when he approached me and said…
-My name is Halo, first son of Duke Leston. I'd like to see the Imperial Sword Style for myself. How about it? They say that among those our age, you're the best in the Empire.
Such an impudent brat.
I ignored him at first, but after I refused, he became incredibly persistent.
What was it he said? Something about being curious about the skills of the guard dog protecting the Imperial House?
Still, for a former slave who came here just to fill his belly and a brat who'd been raised like a flower in a greenhouse, we clicked surprisingly well.
After trading blows a few times, a friendship naturally formed.
"Come to think of it, you always had a rebellious streak, Halo. I knew you'd succeed in this rebellion eventually."
"You can still say things like that at a time like this?"
"What's the harm? I'm a dead man walking, might as well say what I want. It's better than calling a near-stranger a 'dog', isn't it?"
"I'm not even asking you to surrender. Just run. With your skills, you can break through the siege and escape."
"I can't do that."
"Why, for God's sake."
In response to his uncomprehending question, I gestured with my chin toward the main palace where the emperor resided.
"The emperor is still alive, how could I? If you really want to save me, then subdue me, enter the palace, and kill the emperor. That's the only way."
"Why must you go so far…"
"You think His Meticulous Majesty truly trusted me? A slave of lowly birth?"
As for our great and mighty Emperor… he's a real son of a bitch.
In his youth, they called him a genius. Said he'd become the greatest sage king in the history of the Orias Empire.
When the former emperor passed away in an unfortunate accident and the current emperor ascended the throne, the people's expectations were high.
But this is the end for the emperor who ascended the throne with everyone's blessing.
Dethroned by rebels and facing judgment.
The reason for his downfall was unprecedented.
「The emperor has made a pact with a demon and is hatching a vile scheme!」
What was more shocking was that the absurd rumor was true.
What kind of genius thinks of trading his own soul in a pact with a demon?
Maybe the demon offered a high price for imperial blood.
"His Majesty, that bastard, distrusted his subordinates so much he even tampered with their souls. What a magnificent bastard, isn't he?"
The black magic the emperor cast on me when I first entered the palace was so powerful that even now, an urge to rip my friend's throat out washed over me.
It meant the emperor was still meddling with my mind through his black magic.
Suppressing the murderous impulse, I pulled my sword from the ground.
Still, it seems that bastard emperor's time is almost up.
Normally, I would have run Halo through, following the emperor's will, but the compulsion wasn't that strong anymore.
The emperor's power had weakened considerably.
I can't leave the front of this palace... but it seems I have enough control to choose my own end.
And so, I raised my sword and slowly descended the stairs.
This kind of end is better, anyway.
Better than being the last knight who fled, betraying his master.
"It's better to be the foolish villain who served his idiot lord to the very end. Right, Halo?"
That's how I should be remembered.
What a stroke of luck, to be able to decide my own epithet in the history books.
That's why I feel better now than I ever have.
"Let's cross swords one last time."
One strike.
A single strike is all it will take.
Suppressing the seething impulse, I pushed forward with a single thought in mind.
"Do you remember our sparring record?"
"One draw, nine losses."
"And that one draw was only because I went easy on you when you said you had a stomachache."
"Kain."
An azure aura flowed from Halo's body.
The pure form of mana I had always envied.
Unlike the tainted mana the emperor had injected into my body, this was a sublime mana rooted in a pure bloodline.
That mana formed an aura that began to reach for my throat.
Vwwwm.
A clear hum resonated from Halo's sword as he pointed the blade, now condensed with pure mana, at me.
"Please. You can be happy. You can live freely! Do you intend to live and die as a guard dog?"
Halo's voice cracked at the end.
He pleaded with me, his voice raw.
"The young master of a ducal house, worrying about a slave's freedom. I'm truly honored."
I smiled as brightly as I could at the anguished Halo.
"Alright, I'll be happy."
With those last words, I surged toward him.
It was over in an instant.
The black mana flowing from my body ravenously devoured Halo's azure mana, and my sword pierced his body.
But that was as far as it went.
A searing pain suddenly erupted in the center of my chest and spread throughout my body.
I smiled as I looked down at my chest.
Halo's sword had pierced straight through the center of my chest.
And my sword…
"Why did you turn your blade at the last second, you son of a bitch!"
"Ah, a mistake. Shame I missed."
It had merely pierced Halo's right shoulder.
Halo scowled, glaring at me. Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought I could see tears in the eyes of this damn ruffian.
Careless fool.
"...A hero shouldn't be crying after killing the villain. Pathetic bastard."
Blood welled up in my throat.
I spat the blood onto the ground and weakly gripped the sword piercing my heart.
The most troublesome bastard in my life, yet also the one ruffian who cured my boredom.
Unlike me, a slave who had lived his entire life bound by fate, he was a noble who had always forged his own path.
He stood at the opposite end of the spectrum from me. Yet somehow, we clicked.
No, there's no need for such a grand description.
A single word is enough.
"Friend."
The friendship between the Imperial Palace's mad dog and the ducal family's ruffian of a firstborn son finally came to an end here.
The ruffian first son became a hero.
The Imperial Palace's mad dog, a villain.
For someone who lived his entire life without a will of his own, isn't this an ending beyond my station?
"Kain. You damn fool."
Halo glared at me, gritting his teeth.
I just smirked at him and said.
"This is the first and last decision made by a man who lived as someone's dog for twenty-nine years. I'd appreciate it if you'd respect that."
I could see a storm of emotions on Halo's face.
But in the end, the only thing left on his face was emptiness.
As if he had expected this all along, a hollow voice escaped his lips.
"Was this really the path to your happiness?"
I couldn't answer that question easily.
I wasn't sure if it was the blood rising in my throat or the question itself that left me speechless.
But one thing was certain.
"At least I'm less miserable now. I suppose that means I'm happier than before."
With those final words, my vision slowly faded to black.
I could feel the cursed mana that had sustained my body until now begin to dissipate.
"...Any last words?"
Halo asked in a flat tone, and I answered quietly, closing my eyes.
"As if I have any."
This was the end I chose for myself, after living for twenty-nine years as someone's slave.
2.
His words kept echoing in my ears.
-Was this really the path to your happiness?
Happiness.
What is happiness?
Did the word 'happiness' ever suit me, an orphan who never knew his parents, a slave his whole life?
…I don't know.
A slave, a guard dog with his soul bound to the Imperial House, didn't even have the freedom to seek his own happiness.
Still, there was something I truly wished for.
To live as I please.
To do whatever I wanted, even if people called me a good-for-nothing ruffian.
My wish was to live like him, just as he always had.
Find the family that owned and abused me as a child and get my revenge, then slice off the mad emperor's head.
What's so great about happiness? Achieving everything you want to—that's happiness, that's freedom.
By the way, what is this?
I definitely died.
If I'm dead, shouldn't these stray thoughts have stopped?
I've been feeling incredibly warm for a while now… Don't tell me those demon bastards are preheating a fiery hell for me?
Honestly, it'd be pretty unfair to end up in a fiery hell.
The emperor was the bastard who sold my soul to a demon, so why am I in hell because of him even after death…?
"A healthy birth."
"The third young master finally has a son!"
Suddenly, my vision snapped into focus.
Countless people were looking down at me. Among them, a middle-aged man held me, his eyes welling with tears.
"My son. My son…"
After crying for a long while, the man handed me to someone else.
And then, a very familiar face came into view.
"Our youngest grandson."
Halo.
He looked exactly how I'd imagined that bastard would look when he got old.
"Heh heh, for a newborn, his gaze is so fierce. How curious."
Youngest grandson?
A newborn?
Are they all possessed by a demon or something? Why are they spouting such nonsense…?
But then.
"Waaah!"
…Waaah?
Why is a sound like that coming out of my mouth…?
***
And so, I was reincarnated.
The lowly guard dog, born a slave, reincarnated as the youngest grandson of the ducal house led by the hero who saved the empire.
To be more precise.
As the youngest grandson of my friend, Halo.
A Mad Dog Lives in the Duke's House.