The Path of Ruin-Chapter 118: The Ninth Floor of the Palace

Kael blinked and just stared blankly.

Hakon, meanwhile, raised one eyebrow slightly and spoke nonchalantly.

"Were you having a dream or something?"

Kael paused. Still groggy from sleep, he processed what Hakon had said, and then his brows furrowed.

"Was I... mumbling something...?"

Hakon shook his head.

"No, you just laughed a little."

Then, after narrowing his eyes slightly, he added, as if he were trembling.

"It was quite creepy, if I do say so myself."

Kael let out a soft sigh. He stretched as he slowly got up from his soft bed. Then, though, he suddenly paused.

"Wait... why are you even here?"

Hakon looked at him as if he hadn’t understood the question.

"Why wouldn’t I be here? I just came to tell my disciple to get ready because we have something to do."

"Well, that’s the point... You could’ve just called me to your room..."

"I did. But none of the servants could wake you up. And since you locked the door, they couldn’t get in."

"Oh..."

Kael couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

"What... time is it?"

He glanced out the window to see if he could spot the sun. Since the room faced east, the sun usually illuminated the room directly around sunrise.

But now... it wasn’t there.

It had moved well beyond the window’s line of sight...

It was past noon!

’Holy shit, I overslept!’

Apparently, spending the whole night at the library had its downsides!

Who would have thought!

"It’s okay to oversleep a little sometimes. I know you spent the whole night at the library; you really got absorbed in it. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again, and we are good."

"..."

Kael hung his head in defeat.

"It won’t happen again."

Hakon, in turn, smiled.

"Anyway. Get ready quickly. As I said yesterday, I’ll give you a tour of the Shadow Recon Division."

"Has my registration been processed and approved...?"

"Of course. As I said, I’m considered one of the department’s founding members. All they need to do is check who the recommendation letter is from—they’ll approve it without even looking at the content."

"..."

This... was actually a bit concerning from the department’s security standpoint. If a matter that should be carefully reviewed—simply because it came from Hakon—could be expedited to the point of being completed in just a few hours without even checking the content, it seemed like there was a major loophole here.

’Whatever...’

But Kael didn’t really care about that.

"Okay, just let me change my clothes."

And that’s exactly what he did. After splashing cold water on his face a few times, he changed his clothes. He untangled his hair from its chaotic mess and tidied it up a bit. Then he returned to Hakon, who was waiting for him outside his room.

"Let’s go, I’m ready."

*******

A significant portion of the departments was largely divided into sections on the first, second, third, and fourth floors of the main palace.

Of course, the areas and rooms allocated to each were quite spacious. A department could occupy a truly vast area, proportional to the number of its members.

What Kael was curious about, however, was the location and size of the Shadow Recon Division—a unit handling highly sensitive and classified operations. After all, they couldn’t have assigned such a small space to the department dealing with the Empire’s dirty work... could they?

After thinking like that, the first thing he learned was that the section allocated to this department was on the ninth floor.

This was not a floor anyone could just stroll up to. Just like the library, the palace operated in such a way that access to the upper floors required a certain level of authorization.

And the ninth floor was truly high up. According to Hakon, the palace consisted of a total of twelve floors. For a palace that initially seemed to reach all the way to the sky, twelve floors seemed... rather few at first. But when he considered that each floor was several meters high—unlike ordinary buildings—it seemed more reasonable. Heck, some floors even had mini-floors, after all!

All that aside, the ninth floor was truly a place reserved for those of high rank. Even the noticeable decrease in the number of servants and knights in the corridors was a sign of this, and upon thinking about it a bit more... there would be only three floors separating him from the Emperor himself!

Just three floors!

The Emperor!

The man who had conquered the entire Venis continent in just seven years!

When Kael realized this fact, he felt both exhilarated and unable to stop an unsettling tension from enveloping his body.

Then he paused, and a completely different—yet still related—matter came to mind.

There were only three floors between the Shadow Recon Division and the Emperor...

And Hakon was one of the founding members of that department.

His entire expertise lay in secrecy and assassination, no less.

As someone who wished for the Empire’s downfall, why hadn’t he... killed the Emperor by now?

Was the power gap between him and the Emperor really that immense?

Then again, what else could it be? This man had conquered the entire continent in seven years; it would be absurd if he weren’t insanely powerful.

Hakon had once said there were six stages of following a Path. Seeker was only the third of these.

The Emperor was definitely in the sixth and final stage. If he were in the fifth stage... that would be a bit of a letdown. Because the man he’d imagined as the Emperor was, in the truest sense of the word, like a god. An entity too powerful, unreachable, and even difficult to comprehend...

The thought that there might be someone above him in the world was unsettling.

These were the things he was thinking about as he moved toward their goal on the ninth floor alongside Hakon.

But, then...

"...?"

Suddenly, the world seemed to stop.

First, his steps slowed.

Then he came to a complete standstill.

As his eyes widened gradually, his lips—which had been pressed together for minutes—parted slightly and remained open like that.

"A- ah..."

It was as if time had stopped flowing. He just stood there, frozen solid.

"Hm, Kael?"

And Hakon noticed it too. His eyebrows furrowed quickly, and his eyes narrowed.

"Did something happen?"

Kael didn’t answer. Hakon, growing even more uneasy, noticed that he was staring at a certain point.

He tore his eyes away from Kael and turned them toward the spot where his gaze was fixed.

At the end of the corridor they were in, right where they were about to pass by... three people were standing there.

They had broad smiles on their faces. They were chatting as if discussing something quite funny.

The first man looked like a relatively stocky, short nobleman. His hair, a dark shade of blue, was quite short.

The second one was more muscular and had a more... noble appearance. His grayish hair and overall appearance were neater. He was also above average height.

The third one, however... was the person Kael kept his eyes on.

He had his back against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, and he was laughing.

He looked to be in his early forties, with faint wrinkles visible on his face. His body was quite thin, yet surprisingly muscular. His clothes, however, were the finest-looking of the three. Although he was dressed more simply than most nobles, Hakon could tell he was a noble the moment he looked at him.

His pale-looking blond hair fell to his shoulders. He had no beard. His smile was like that of an angel descended from heaven. He had bright blue eyes—the color they said the sky used to be centuries ago.

"Oh..."

The moment he saw the man, Hakon’s eyes widened slightly.

Right before his eyes, in the corridor they had to pass through, this man was chatting with people who looked like his friends...

Was the very man Kael intended to kill.

He was the traitor responsible for the downfall of the recently collapsed Kingdom of Arcanoa.

He was the brother of that kingdom’s late king.

He was the man who had killed Kael’s mother.

He was Musthar V. Arcanoa.

"..."

Hakon, of course, knew who this man was. After Kael joined them, he had made it clear that his goal was to kill this man, and so Hakon had conducted a thorough investigation into him.

Musthar V. Arcanoa was not an easy man to reach, as he was under the Emperor’s protection. His status was quite high, and it was said that he had made a deal with the Emperor.

Alas, there were even those who claimed they had known each other long before. After all, the Emperor had spent his childhood as a citizen of Arcanoa. This was a well-known fact. It was, after all, the sole reason the Kingdom of Arcanoa had been left for last.

However, regardless of that, Musthar V. Arcanoa was not someone who spent his time at the palace. On the contrary, after being declared a duke by the Emperor, he was the one responsible for Arcanoa’s former territories and the surrounding areas.

Now, the fact that he happened to be at the palace at this very moment was quite a surprising coincidence.

And also bad luck.

"This... isn’t good, huh."

After Hakon’s words, Kael finally moved for the first time.

He clenched his fists. If he’d pressed a little harder, his fingers would have pierced his palms. He was barely restraining himself from lunging at the man he saw. His jaw, trembling from clenched teeth, was a clear sign of it.

Years later, the man he’d dreamed of killing every night was finally standing before him.

The man responsible for the fact that his life wasn’t the one he’d seen in his dreams was right in front of him.

The man who had taken his entire life away and turned it into something no different from hell was laughing as if he were having fun, chatting with his friends.

Kael felt so furious that his head, spinning endlessly, ached as if it were about to split open.

But, then...

"You’re a logical person, Kael."

Hakon’s, his Master’s, whispering voice echoed in his ears.

"Musthar V. Arcanoa is both stronger than you and a man so influential that you can’t touch him right now. He’s on the same level as the Lockhend Family we’re so worried about—or perhaps even higher."

Finally, his nails managed to pierce the skin of his palm.

And as the pain helped him clear his mind, even if only a little, Kael closed his eyes as warm blood seeped between his nails.

"Don’t throw away your entire life—everything you’ve done so far—over a single fleeting thought."

He hated it.

But Hakon... was right.

He hadn’t survived this far for nothing. He hadn’t come this far just so the man who took his mother’s life could take his too.

Admitting it was agonizing.

But... it wasn’t time yet.

So, he calmed himself down as much as he could.

He smoothed out his expression. He stopped clenching his teeth and loosened his fingers.

"Good. Now... let’s continue. Hold yourself together, bear with it. Okay?"

Kael... just nodded and did nothing else.

Hakon, meanwhile, let out a deep sigh, then began moving again. Kael followed him.

Together, as if nothing had happened, they approached the corridor where the trio was conversing.

Before long, they could hear what they were talking about.

"I’ve heard you keep turning down marriage proposals, Lord Arcanoa."

After the portly noble’s remark, Musthar V. Arcanoa smiled and waved his hand dismissively.

"I’m not thinking about getting married yet—maybe in a year or two. There are still plenty of beauties to bed. I can’t commit to just one yet."

"Hahahaha, you’re right..."

They were passing right by them just as they were having this conversation.

This man... he was exactly as he remembered. A womanizer, incorrigible... a total scumbag.

Kael clenched his teeth again. His mind was so clouded after hearing the voice of the man he hated the most and hearing what he was actually saying... that he couldn’t hear anything else he said.

Ah, how much he wanted to rip that jaw off his skull...

How much he wanted to tear off his fingers one by one and make him eat them...

To gouge out his eyes and pour boiling water into the sockets...

Such savage scenes were playing out in his mind that all he saw was red. He was on the verge of losing control.

But he had to hold himself back...

And that’s exactly what he did.

They didn’t catch the trio’s attention even for a moment, despite passing right in front of them.

Even as they moved away from them, Kael couldn’t stop his head from spinning.

But, in the end, he managed it...

Once they’d passed through a few more corridors and moved far enough away from the trio, they could no longer hear their conversation...

That was when Hakon felt himself finally relax.

Kael, however, was far from relaxed.

His eyes seemed to burn with a flame Hakon had never seen before.

His expression was so cold... that even Hakon couldn’t help but feel uneasy seeing it.