I am Shohei Abe, an Advisor for the Rising Sun Kingdom.
At work, I am usually just called "Advisor Abe."
Looking down at the foreigner that was just killed by , I changed my arm back from a sharp blade into its normal appearance.
"Haaaih...I had truly hoped to use you to gather up more of the survivors, but you saying that all of the people you’d help awaken would be resistant to the Abyss is just too much..." I took out a handkerchief, wiped my hand casually, and then threw the dirty handkerchief on the other’s body.
"Haaih...it’s such a pity. Wherever you co from I’m sure you’re a promising young man, why’d you have to get mixed up in my business. But still a young genius is just that, you aren’t a powerhouse yet. Perhaps in your next life, you’d know to have a greater guard against those around you. Staying so naïve like this, if you are plotted even once, you will be dood forever. Just like the forr heir, His Highness Takahiro."
Yes, I am a traitor. Not only to the Rising Sun Kingdom—being the definitive nail in the coffin for why none of the royal family mbers, except for the useless waste Takeru could escape—but also to all of humanity.
At this mont, Kain was undoubtedly dead. His head was cut to the ground, and his eyes were destroyed by my sharp blades. The slashes even went deep into his head, completely destroying his brain tissue.
There is still so unwipeable blood and brain plasma on my palm. I have killed so many people. Now I won’t be sad for taking other people’s lives, but this sticky and disgusting feeling is really unpleasant.
This is also the disadvantage of those with a physical strengthening type Gifts. Unlike those who can control the elents, like many in the royal family, and so with other unusual gifts to kill from far away, physically enhanced beast tars must kill with both hands if they are ever in a situation where they can’t use their contracts. Sotis you even have to listen to the screams of the deceased and watch the painful faces of the deceased up close.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t even use my sword to its full potential since I was worried about the mobilization of Abyssal energy inside the sword would put Kain on guard. Since, we still aren’t too familiar with each other, who knows if he has a backhand.
Therefore, I could only physically transform my arm to kill the enemy since at least that way the abyssal energy is still contained within and undetectable from the outside.
Which has led to this disgusting situation where I must shake brain matter and blood off of my hand.
Haaih... If I had the fla ability like the deceased His Highness Takahiro, maybe I could kill people more refreshingly. But, of course, if I was really given the choice to exchange gifts with the ability to manipulate fire or another mysterious gift to kill from far away, I would never exchange it.
The current situation is the best reason. Takahiro and Kain were very powerful, and the contracts I summoned could be destroyed quickly. Even if I fight them myself, the ending will not be much better. But what’s the point of that?
They are both dead, but I —little old ’Advisor Abe’—am still alive.
Killing an opponent with one blow is never sothing to brag about, but a matter of course.
In the battlefield, as long as you use a knife and a gun to penetrate the enemy’s weak spot, you can take their life no matter how strong their abilities.
What really matters is who is the one to do it first. Even if you hold a dagger and the opponent holds a cannon, as long as you hit him first, you will win. A young naïve man like Kain is probably unaware of this iron truth.
So what if you can kill people easily? So what if you can create a loyal army of beast tars resistant to the Abyss? So what if you can make powerful wishes that ignore the natural laws of cause and effect?
Just sneak attack from behind. If one has the intention , a suitable weapon, and Kain’s guard is low enough, even an ordinary person can kill him in theory.
...But by the way, when his contract released wide spread fla attack to kill those spiritual creatures and almost hit by the way, I was so scared that I almost transford on the spot.
I thought it was because he sensed sothing, or he forgot that I was still a "companion" on the field.
As a result, it turned out that his contract’s fla could differentiate between the enemy and , but he forgot to remind in advance. What a guy who lacks the sense of a partner.
Or perhaps, despite his kind and magnanimous deanour, he also secretly looks down on . Considers as disposable.
Just as the Rising Sun royal family did.
I wasn’t always like this.
Once upon a ti, I was simply Shohei Abe, the son of a single mother from a nowhere fishing village that most of the kingdom couldn’t point to on a map. She worked her fingers raw gutting fish and repairing nets so I could afford to buy old, half-torn academy prep books secondhand from the city’s junk piles.
I still rember how the other children looked at whenever I ca ho from the academy dorms during break—half with awe, half with suspicion. "A commoner at the royal academy," they whispered, "must be so kind of joke. Rather than going there to learn useless knowledge and then get rejected by the nobles to only return here in a few years. He may as well learn how to fish." And truthfully, that is exactly how things were going to turn out. At least, at first.
The academy wasn’t kind to those without titles or bloodlines. Every smile hid ridicule; every polite word, a test. I learned to bow lower, speak softer, laugh when they mocked , and offer to carry their books when they called "Abe-kun" with that condescending lilt. I played the role of the humble nobody so well that they began to forget I had teeth.
And slowly, I rose.
I learned the rules of their world: how to flatter without seeming insincere, how to feign deference while quietly steering a conversation, how to make the pampered heirs of noble families feel clever for repeating the things I had whispered to them the day before. The proud are always the easiest to use.
By the ti I graduated, I already had more connections than most sons of dukes. When I entered the court, it wasn’t as a servant, but as a scholar the nobles needed. My policies were praised for their "clarity" and "strategic vision." I was summoned to banquets, seated close enough to the royal dais to taste the wine from the sa bottle as the king himself.
From there, the rest followed naturally.
Royal Advisor Shohei Abe—an unthinkable title for the boy who once slled of saltwater and fish guts. A few more years of careful maneuvering, and the Pri Minister’s seat itself seed inevitable. My rivals had either retired, been discredited, or t unfortunate ends. Each one a stepping stone.
I was at the pinnacle then.
The nobles who had once sneered now bowed. Those who had mocked my humble background and accent now begged for audiences with the King through . The King laughed with as though I were a younger brother, and even the Crown Prince—His Highness Takahiro—treated with warmth and trust.
And I believed it.
Foolishly, I thought myself indispensable. Thought my service, my loyalty, my years of scraping and bleeding to uphold their golden kingdom would finally be repaid in kind.
How naïve.
I can still rember that day with sickening clarity—the day I received the news. A beast tide in the eastern fishing provinces. My ho. My mother. My only family. I had dropped to my knees in the royal hall, dignity abandoned, forehead pressed to cold marble. I begged. I begged the King to dispatch the royal guard to save the village.
He looked down at with that sa calm, benevolent smile he always wore and said, "There has been a surge in beast attacks throughout the kingdom. We have no troops to spare."
No troops to spare.
But I knew better. There was one full squad still stationed in the capital, not on campaign, not in defense of the borders—simply keeping an eye on the royal disgrace. The useless waste, Prince Takeru.
While my mother scread beneath a tide of monsters, those guards were spoon-feeding him anti-hangover dicine and wiping vomit from his silken sheets because that waste spent 99% of his life drunk and the other 1% trying to get drunk.
They called it "ensuring royal safety." I called it spitting on the loyalty of a man who had given everything for their throne.
By the ti I returned to my quarters, the tide had already swallowed the village whole.
The letter that reached three days later said only one line: "No survivors found."
That was the day my faith died. The day Shohei Abe, loyal servant of the Rising Sun Kingdom, was buried alongside his mother.
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