Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 26

On a sunny day.

Outside, the knights led by Mark continued their jog around the castle.

Inside, the servants’ faces brightened up just because Adelian was absent, and they were decorating the castle extensively with flowers and fabrics.

Thanks to that, every breeze carried fragrance, flying to the deepest part of the castle.

Even in the elegantly decorated office, it seemed to be filled with that excitement.

“Sir Harlon… No, Harlon… Um, Secretary? I’m leaving your meal here.”

A servant who brought a sandwich while humming happily smiled awkwardly upon seeing Harlon, who seemed to be emitting a black cloud in the middle of the office.

“Can’t I… Go out too?”

“Why are you asking me that? If you’ve finished your work, can’t you just leave?”

Harlon’s face darkened even more at the servant’s cold words.

“Even if you can’t take it easy… At least eat while working, Secretary Harlon.”

Watching the servant coldly close the door where the flower scent was blowing in, Harlon looked back at the desk full of documents with a sad face.

“A real person couldn’t possibly do this…”

How could a person betray their faith in humanity like this?

With dark circles under his eyes, Harlon muttered like a madman and started signing documents again.

It never ends, no matter how much he does.

Of course, since these documents have already been filtered once, he can usually just skim through and sign most of them, but…

If he carelessly signs without properly checking and things go wrong, his contract might be extended…

A nightmarish time awaits when he’ll have to say goodbye to the sword forever and continue life with the pen.

“I’m really going crazy…”

He finds himself laughing softly, and even he thinks he might not be in his right mind.

Yet, even in this situation, Harlon couldn’t help but laugh at himself for still checking documents without going on strike.

“Master… No, Young Master… I trusted you.”

No, how could a person do this?

How could they leave Harlon alone with all these documents and just leave?

If this was going to happen, shouldn’t they have just taken him along?

“How can my Lord be so merciless?”

While diligently scanning documents with his eyes, Harlon started to reminisce about the past with one part of his brain.

The day he first came to the castle.

Starting as a servant, then training as a squire, and finally the day he was knighted.

During those times that felt both long and short, what sin could Harlon have committed against Adelian?

‘Perhaps he overheard me gossiping with my colleagues?’

But surely his other colleagues would have done the same.

Harlon’s bloodshot eyes became moist, and small dewdrops began to form.

“I hate my talent.”

If he had recited this while holding a sword, it might have been the beginning of an epic novel about a prodigy, but unfortunately, Harlon’s talent wasn’t in that area.

Still, determined to survive, he bit into the sandwich with a feeling of chewing sand, when Harlon suddenly remembered a letter he had put in his shirt pocket.

“Right… How much lower can I go?”

When he first received the letter from the servant, Harlon couldn’t bring himself to open it on the spot.

He was afraid it might be an appointment letter from Adelian, mocking him and appointing him as a permanent paperwork slave.

In fact, Harlon had dreamed about this the night before receiving the letter, to the point where he wondered if he had a prophetic dream.

But in his current mood, he felt like he was going to be a slave forever anyway, so what harm could there be in seeing the appointment letter with his own eyes?

“Let’s open it.”

Let’s open the letter and see.

To Harlon,

You must have been very surprised by my sudden departure on a journey, but don’t worry.

I will make sure to send your junior, so until then, I wish you the best of luck.

―Adelian

“Huh… Huhuh…”

A laugh that sounded like he had lost his mind escaped from Harlon’s mouth.

Quietly picking up the quill pen, Harlon crossed out the word ‘junior’ written in the letter and slowly wrote ‘slave’ underneath.

“Damn you, employer… You said you’d send someone. You said you’d send someone.”

What kind of ambition is this to catch a wild paperwork slave?

Before that, is he really going to send someone?

“I can’t take it anymore.”

One day of deviation.

No one would be able to stop that.

Harlon finally stood up, pushing his chair back.

Paperwork?

Put it aside for just one day.

What can they do, it’s not like Young Master Adelian is going to come back right now.

“It’s been a while since I’ve done some sword practice… No, should I run until I vomit… Ah, maybe I’ll put on full armor and…”

Weakly. The thought of abusing his body instead of his brain makes a smile spread across his face.

Harlon didn’t suppress the excited feeling in his heart and grabbed the doorknob of the office vigorously.

Crack!

“…Huh?”

What was that sound just now?

Harlon stopped his movement at the sound of something breaking instead of the door opening and looked down.

Clank―

Why is this in my hand?

Harlon stared at the doorknob that had cleanly broken off and was dangling in his hand.

“Huh?”

And as he gently pushed the door with his other hand.

“……”

The door didn’t open.

Harlon’s empty eyes fell on the broken handle and the antique door that didn’t budge.

“Should I break it…?”

Although he had a more agile body compared to other knights, breaking this kind of door would be nothing if he used magic.

Behind that door, a training ground where he could sweat and a sword were waiting.

However, since this was originally Caiman’s office, even though he said that, Harlon couldn’t bring himself to break the door.

Why can’t I get out?

On such a nice day. When I finally felt rebellious.

Harlon’s head turned with a creaking feeling to look back.

A desk full of documents, well-lit by sunlight.

“I guess there’s no choice.”

Until someone opens it from outside, probably until the servant who brings dinner saves him, Harlon sat back down dejectedly and started flipping through documents again.

“Young Master Adelian is a devil…”

Plop, plop.

The tears he had been holding back until now fell, plop plop, from Harlon’s eyes.

* * *

Kiaaak!

Leaving behind the crow that flew away with an ominous cry, we arrived at the entrance of the village and caught our breath.

Somehow feeling it would be disrespectful to ride horses through there, we dismounted and tied the reins to a dead tree at the village entrance when Kane softly spoke.

“When you said my sister was alive. I thought, maybe…”

Though he seemed calm as if talking about someone else’s story, the emotion contained within felt like it was sticking to my skin.

Kane continued speaking in a monotone voice as he took one step, then another, into the village.

“That she might have luckily survived and be here.”

Waiting for me.

Taking another step, and walking ahead of me, Kane’s words that seemed to scatter in the wind reached my ears.

“Actually, at first I thought it was a lie. I responded instinctively, losing my reason for a moment, but then I wondered if it might be a ploy to deceive me.”

It was certainly a move I made intending to shake Kane, but…

“That’s not… The case.”

Even as I answered, I felt a bitter taste on the tip of my tongue.

It wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t as much as a lie. However…

“She is alive.”

“I see. So she is alive.”

I wonder how much he read from my words, and why I’m not speaking comfortably about everything. I felt like I could grasp what was going on in Kane’s mind, yet at the same time, I felt hazy.

The three of us silently walked into the village from the entrance.

“It’s… Quite clean, though…”

Luna tried to lighten the somewhat lowered mood by looking around and speaking in a tone that suggested everything was fine.

Except for the almost collapsed houses and the silence without any animals, in a way, it was a quiet forest.

However, as we went further in, we started to see dishes and miscellaneous items that hadn’t been completely cleared away.

Rough-looking wooden cups that seemed handmade but had already rotted, and broken dolls.

It was vividly felt that this was once a place where people lived, made their own dishes, and dreamed of happiness, so I let out a sigh.

And when we reached the innermost part of the village.

“This is…”

A small mound appeared along with a gravestone carved from stone.

A communal grave.

Human sacrifice by a cult in a small, remote village.

The village smelled of blood as if it had rained blood, with houses charred by fire and people horrifically displayed.

Other slash-and-burn farmers who occasionally visited for trade and small peddlers must have been shocked by the sight and just ran away.

And after that, for several years, it was battered by wind and rain, disturbed by wild animals, and eventually became a mess.

I couldn’t bear to show such a sight to Kane, who had just returned to his hometown.

“I don’t know who was here or what their characteristics were.”

So I told Alkaido. To at least make this place clean.

I was afraid that if we cleared everything including the houses, there would be nothing left and all of Kane’s memories would be damaged.

I asked him to just clean up the horrible traces and hold a funeral.

“With time passing… Many bones were lost, and some bones had gone outside the village. We couldn’t match them one by one.”

Even if there was some risk, that much I could do. It was a courtesy I could show you.

Kane silently approached the gravestone, knelt down, and stared at it without moving.

I thought he might shed tears, but Kane just stared at the grave with sunken eyes.

Until the shadow of the gravestone cast by the setting sun slowly passed over Kane’s knees.

Until the sky, which was turning orange, gradually mixed with purple.

Luna and I just watched Kane’s back without saying anything to him.

* * *

In a book I read in Adelian’s study, there was a saying.

It said that forgetting is a blessing given by God.

But why don’t memories fade away?

Kane could still vividly recall.

The feeling of the air that day. The heaviness of the wind. The acrid burnt smell and the smell of blood that seemed to pierce his head before his nose.

Even without closing his eyes, if he just decided to recall, he could remember the feeling of the sharp stones touching his feet.

He couldn’t forget that day.

“Big brother, let’s play.”

“Kane, I’ve baked an apple pie.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll teach you how to set traps, Kane.”

The voices from his memories were as vivid as if whispering beside him.

The acrid smell of blood and the sweet smell of apples seemed to linger at the tip of his nose.

Every place his eyes touched overlapped with the happy past and that day when everything was burning and covered in blood, Kane slowly closed his eyes, opened them again, and let out a faint breath.

In front of the grave where Adelian had gathered and held a funeral for his family and the villagers that he couldn’t collect himself.

Kane thought that Adelian was more merciful than any god looking down from above.

“I.”

Kane slowly stood up, firmly planted his feet on the ground, and turned to look at Adelian.

A face that seemed arrogant and overbearing, the very image of nobility.

But with an incredibly light tone and behavior.

That’s why someone might think Adelian is a fool with nothing but pretense, full of flaws, and without proper possessions despite his good looks, but Kane knew the reality was different.

“I don’t think you’re incompetent.”

The rumors he heard about Adelian while being with him, both inside and outside the castle.

A dirty, filthy, greedy, incompetent trash.

A stain born to the Kruger family.

But now, in Kane’s eyes, Adelian was.

“Of course, that’s how it should be if you’re going to accept my future, right?”

Kane slowly raised the corners of his mouth at those words, spoken with a laugh as if they were just casually thrown out.

“I swear here and now.”

At dusk, when the sun was almost setting and the moon was just rising in the sky.

At the moment when the two stars called God’s eyes rose, Kane swore.

“That I will become stronger than anyone else.”

The passing wind wrapped around Kane and blew towards Adelian.

A small leaf brushed against Adelian’s cheek and flowed away.

“To be your equal.”

Kane’s golden eyes met Adelian’s blue eyes.

“No. To become more than that, to be your business partner.”

Monotonously yet calmly, but the impact of those words was powerful.

Adelian, unable to help himself, recited the one thing that came to mind as he stared, as if nailed in place, at what appeared before his eyes.

[Kane Raynare―The Advancer]

Representative Traits: [Unforgettable (SS)] [Genius (S)] [Appearance (A+)] [Physique (S+)]

Hidden Traits: [Toughness (A+)] [Jack of All Trades (C+)]

“The Advancer.”

The one who advances on the path of a ruler.