“BOOM!!!”
The earth-shaking roar thundered through the thick walls and layers of earth, making the candlestick on the table buzz and tremble.
The flame flickered wildly, as if it might be extinguished at any moment.
Edwin Veid jerked his head up.
In the darkness, the once-handsome face was now twisted by hatred.
What on earth was happening outside?
Edwin desperately wanted to rush out and see for himself, but the pitiful pride of a noble, along with his current utterly humiliating status, were like two invisible shackles nailing him to the spot.
“Creak—”
Just as Edwin was about to be consumed by his anger and curiosity, the oak door was pushed open.
Light, along with a swift and agile figure, burst into the room at the same time.
“Edwin!”
“Kelly, you…”
Edwin had just opened his mouth to complain about why she was only arriving now, but Kelly darted forward like an arrow.
Before he could say another word, she reached out and “snap”—pinched out the candle flame on the table.
The room was plunged into gloom.
“What are you doing?!”
Edwin slammed his palm on the table, making the bronze candlestick jump with a loud “clang”.
His fury could no longer be contained, blazing within his chest.
Ever since he had been demoted by that wretch, he had become the most worthless person in Sunset Fortress, living like a rat that could never see the light, forgotten and despised by all.
And now, even Kelly, that sycophant, dared to be so bold?!
“Edwin!”
But in the darkness, Kelly showed none of her usual humble obedience.
Instead, she was brimming with barely suppressed excitement and joy.
“Guess what good thing I brought you?!”
A stiff little paper packet was slapped down onto the table.
Edwin’s seething rage was forcibly choked back by this sudden gesture.
“What is this?”
“It’s gunpowder!”
Kelly’s voice trembled with excitement as she grabbed Edwin’s arm, her words tumbling out like rapid-fire, “It’s the formula Prince Wendy presented! He… he just used a packet this big to blow up that huge piece of granite in the abandoned quarry!”
“Now, General Sera and all the commanders have sworn allegiance to Her Highness! We’re saved, Edwin! The Orcs are nothing to fear! Once Princess Astreia ascends the throne one day, with your talent—”
“Enough!”
Edwin flung her hand away, his eyes practically spitting fire.
Swear allegiance?
You want me to grovel before the wretch who ruined everything?!
Utterly ridiculous!
Yet, the word “gunpowder” was like a bucket of ice water, instantly dousing his blazing fury and forcing his jealousy-crazed mind to calm down.
A wild and daring idea suddenly sprang to mind.
“We need… to verify this again…”
Edwin ignored the flustered Kelly, who was left off balance by his rejection, and instead groped for the paper packet and carefully opened it.
A pungent sulfurous smell, mixed with the unique scent of saltpeter, wafted up.
“Was that Black mixing the gunpowder right in front of you?” he asked without looking up, his voice as cold as ice.
“N-no, he wasn’t.”
Kelly finally sensed something was off.
Her excitement faded, and she became cautious again.
“He… he locked himself in the storehouse and wouldn’t let anyone near. This batch… I secretly mixed it myself according to the materials and ratios General Sera announced.”
Edwin pinched a small amount of black powder, dumped it onto the rough wooden table, and slowly spread it out with his fingertip.
He fumbled for his fire striker, lit it, and brought it close.
“Sss—”
A small, bright greenish-yellow flame suddenly shot up from the powder, making a faint popping sound before quickly dying out, leaving a coin-sized scorch mark on the table.
The wavering light reflected in Edwin’s narrowed eyes, making him look especially sinister.
“I’ve seen those alchemists in the family’s alchemical laboratory trying to crack Dwarven Powder before.”
“This stuff—the color of the flame is off, and although it’s more powerful than the standard Dwarven Powder, with just a small packet like this, you could never blow apart that huge granite slab at the quarry! Impossible!”
“So, our cunning Prince Wendy really did hold something back.”
Edwin tapped his fingers rhythmically beside the blackened mark on the table.
“This formula—either the key ingredient is wrong, or the ratio is off, or… both.”
He picked up the tampered fake gunpowder and weighed it in his palm, his smile growing ever more sinister and twisted.
“But this is good. In fact, it’s perfect…”
“Just enough to become my stepping stone to return to the top—no, to climb even higher.”
“Stepping stone?”
Kelly blinked in confusion, completely unable to understand what he meant.
Edwin didn’t explain.
He simply stared at the faint light on the fire striker, as if he could already see a road leading straight to the heavens.
“Kelly, I have a plan.”
He slowly turned, looking at the simple-minded Captain of the Guard before him, his voice gentle and seductive in a way it had never been before.
“This plan… will be very dangerous. But if we succeed, not only can we regain everything we’ve lost, we can become true masters above all, trampling everyone else beneath our feet.”
He reached out and gently cupped Kelly’s delicate face in his hands.
“Will you… help me one more time?”
“I will!”
Kelly answered without a trace of hesitation, her gaze as firm as stone.
“Really?”
Edwin’s smile grew even softer.
“Even if… it means betraying Humanity?”
He almost pressed his lips to her ear, whispering each word slowly.
The icy chill in his tone made Kelly’s whole body go rigid.
Betray… Humanity?
Those four words crashed down on her heart like a mountain of ice, making it impossible to breathe.
Her right hand instinctively clutched the rough wooden Swan Pendant hanging from her neck.
The cheap trinket had long since been polished smooth by sweat.
It wasn’t some token of youthful romance.
Years ago, during a bitter winter, Kelly and her family had been falsely accused as thieves by a town bully and were about to be beaten to death.
It was Edwin, still just a boy, who used wisdom far beyond his years to expose the real culprit and save her family.
Afterward, Edwin had casually tossed her this wooden pendant carved with the Veid Family Crest, and impatiently said, “Take it. No one will dare touch you again.”
From that day on, Edwin Veid was her god.
He was the anchor of all her beliefs.
But now…
On one side was the homeland that raised her, the comrades she lived and fought with, the precarious future of Humanity.
On the other, the one she would give anything—even her life—to protect, her one and only light.
The girl’s heart struggled in the darkness, racked with pain.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, chest heaving as if she were a fish thrown onto the shore.
Edwin only watched her quietly, neither urging nor forcing her.
Only those eyes, filled with “deep affection” and “hope,” silently spoke…
“We are the same, we should stand together.”
At last.
It felt like a century had passed.
Kelly slowly unclenched her hand from the pendant.
She looked up, meeting Edwin’s devastatingly handsome face, and nodded solemnly with a resolve bordering on sacrifice.
“You can always trust me!”
The smile on Edwin’s face vanished the moment he heard those words.
“That’s… wonderful!”
He let out a long sigh of relief, suddenly pulling Kelly into a tight embrace, as if he wanted to merge her into his very being.
“Thank you, Kelly…”
His warm breath brushed against her neck, sending shivers down her spine.
The young Captain of the Guard closed her eyes in bliss, hugging her beloved’s warm back with all her strength.
In this moment, Kelly felt she owned the whole world.
So, she did not see…
As the two embraced, a ghostly green dagger silently disappeared back into Edwin’s sleeve.
On the face of the former Secretary, there was not a trace of being moved by trust.
Only the relief of a survivor, and the cold, amused appreciation one might have for a useful tool…
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