Whether empire or kingdom. Even among other races.
Each creates something called status and maintains that system.
One who denies it is one who threatens the system itself.
Those who topple the order of status are branded criminals.
Of all crimes, the gravest crime. That is treason.
Seen in that light, what of what had just happened?
A margrave entrusted with independent authority by the Emperor of the Empire.
A direct royal, born not of a concubine but of a queen.
No one could dare lay a hand on their bodies.
Even the imperial family would find it difficult to treat them carelessly, considering diplomatic matters.
That absurd thing had happened here, now.
And it had been done by one who was not even a noble, but a mere commoner by birth.
“So.”
Yet no one could open their mouth carelessly or step forward.
“Before I start getting suspicious. Shut your mouths, go over there, and quietly drink your liquor.”
The Empire’s mad dog, who would tear into anyone who annoyed him.
A man with a record of having already chewed out even an imperial prince in the past.
“T-this man, at last….”
“How dare you!”
Printz and Evan trembled with rage and humiliation.
To those who valued honor, it was an unforgivable discourtesy.
“At last. How dare I. So. What are you going to do about it?”
But the other party was that mad dog. That Cain.
If he had merely been insane, they would not be watching their step like this.
That man was beyond common sense. A human being God had made wrong.
“That man is the rumored Demon Slayer, is he not?”
“He has crushed demon armies single-handedly several times. I didn’t believe it either, but after seeing it with my own eyes, I’m careful in case even my sleeve brushes against him.”
“He must have killed more demons than the Allied Forces did.”
Demon Slayer. The human who had killed the most demons.
A monster feared even by those beings of hell called demons.
A man whom even death itself did not dare think to take away.
“To think I’d see that man here.”
“I-I shall take my leave. I no longer wish to stay at the party. Whenever I see that man, I think of those whose heads were cut off.”
“Me too! I shall go with you.”
Executioner. A merciless headsman to those who colluded with demons.
A cold-blooded executor who would not hear even the slightest excuse or explanation.
A commoner who lived on after killing more nobles than anyone in the history of the continent.
“O God. I see Your trace here.”
“Did you hear that the Holy Kingdom tried to offer him a seat among the Holy Knights?”
“It’s understandable. He accomplished what even those Holy Knights could not.”
The Right Hand of God. The executor of the sacred strike that crushed demons.
The good that had not once lost or yielded before evil.
The proof one was told to look upon when doubt arose regarding the Great Being.
“....”
“....”
Biting their lips. Clenching their fists. The two men showed their indignation.
They glanced toward a certain young lady standing far away.
Their pride had been damaged. As nobles, as royalty. They had lost face.
They wanted to show her, right now, the sight of them removing this man before them.
They wanted to prove to her just how great they were.
‘But….’
‘…It’s impossible.’
This man. Cain was the living myth of the Demon War itself.
The tale of how he had stopped a demon army alone was still spoken of.
For more than ten long years, Cain had killed demons, and killed them again.
The countless titles he possessed were proof of the past and a promise of the future.
When it came to demons, no one dared stand above him.
The “suspicion” that man spoke of was not mere suspicion.
It was the enormous burden of having to make that mad dog an enemy from now on.
“We shall gradually settle today’s matter at a later time. Margrave Evan.”
“You are welcome anytime. Prince Printz.”
Fortunately, the unity of the alliance did not fracture any further.
Printz, too. Evan, too. They postponed the resolution of today’s conflict to another day.
Everyone let out sighs of relief and was about to laugh and chat again—
“Well, now.”
Demons are better, honestly. Those bastards understood right away.
Cain approached again and grabbed both men by the collars.
And before the guards could even rush in to tear him away.
“Not later. Settle it cleanly here and end it.”
I finally got a moment to breathe, and you’re trying to cause a split.
You damned romance-fantasy male lead bastards with flower gardens for brains.
In the end, he slammed the margrave and the prince into the floor.
***
Little sister. Let me ask you one thing. I can’t understand this.
Why are romance-fantasy protagonists so desperate to cause incidents?
That’s because they grow internally through those events.
Romance must always have hardship and endurance!
They’re in positions where they must not cause problems.
They can’t even grasp their own positions, and they get the “competent man” tag?
They solve it themselves anyway, so in the end, they are competent men, aren’t they?
That’s better than people who solve everything with items or status windows!
“Yeah. They sure are competent.”
I had slammed them down hard enough that they should have been unconscious for at least several hours.
Yet within a few minutes, they immediately came to and got back on their feet.
Naturally, I thought they would get angry. But no.
As if they had made a promise, both of them looked somewhere.
So Cain followed their gazes, and there stood a certain young lady far away.
The instant he saw her, Cain realized. Ah. So that’s the woman.
The romance-fantasy heroine who would become the beginning and end of everything.
‘Her name. I can’t quite remember. …Pastel? Was it Pastel?’
It definitely ended in “tel.” Damn it. The name was hazy.
When he had first fallen into this world, he had remembered everything.
The story. The setting. The names. Like a proper producer, he had put it all in his head.
But everything had been soaked in blood and become a mess.
It was all because of demons. As expected, all demons had to die.
His hands suddenly itched. Ah, won’t a demon show up somewhere?
“In the end, you couldn’t endure even that brief moment without me and caused trouble again.”
A woman missing one eye approached and pressed a hand to her forehead.
The captain of the Empire’s Special Affairs Unit. Yuris Kolhen.
“Your opponents were a margrave and the prince of another nation.”
“So?”
“It is not ‘so.’ Please look at those people’s eyes right now.”
He turned his head toward the nobles gathered among themselves.
The people who had been whispering something flinched in surprise and quickly scattered.
They were frozen stiff, as if afraid they might meet Cain’s eyes.
“There’s nothing there.”
“They are all likely cursing you. Saying that a mere commoner injured nobles. Royalty.”
“It’s fine as long as none of them comes forward and says it to my face.”
Humans were creatures who could curse even God behind His back.
Cain himself had cursed the Emperor mercilessly on the battlefield.
So he could tolerate a bit of gossip behind his own back just fine.
“I cannot tolerate it.”
Yuris seemed to think differently.
“It is thanks to you that they can even hold a party like this. And yet instead of words of gratitude, they slander you?”
“Yuri. Let me ask you something.”
“Do not change the subject. Please promise me you will be careful.”
If it had been an ordinary commoner, he would have been torn limb from limb alive on the spot.
It was only because he was that Cain that they were enduring it and letting it pass.
To put it the other way around, the moment he was defeated even once, or weakened,
they would certainly rise up like a swarm of bees, saying they would kill Cain.
Yuris prayed and prayed again that such a thing would never happen.
Because if it did, she would be the first to stand on Cain’s side.
“That woman over there. Do you know who she is?”
At that, Yuris turned and checked the young ladies.
As befitting the captain of the Special Affairs Unit, she had memorized the entire list of attendees.
Soon, she recalled a matching description in her mind.
“Mm. She is a young lady from the Kingdom of Kasen named ‘Estelle Lunarian.’”
“Ah.”
Estelle. Right. It wasn’t Pastel, it was Estelle.
Now I remember a little. Yes. That was definitely her name.
“Estelle. So that was her name.”
“Could it be that such a type was to your taste? I did not know that a delicate lady would be your ideal….”
There. Yuris could say no more and only watched his reaction.
Cain’s eyes, glaring at her, burned fiercely.
It was his own way of conveying sincerity: say one more word and I’ll kill you.
“That was not the case?”
“Absolutely not.”
Estelle. The romance-fantasy heroine. The woman who would stand at the center of every incident.
As befitting a protagonist, she was kind-hearted and fairly capable.
But in this world, unconditional goodwill was worse than hideous malice.
Suspicion was needed more than trust. Vigilance more than embrace.
‘Because she can’t do that, she gets tossed around everywhere. The male leads clean up that shit. And innocent people die for no reason.’
Since the world is insane, people at least should be sane. Is that it, little sister?
Do you think that’s possible? To survive in a mad world, you have to be even madder.
There’s no way love built on devouring innocent lives could be beautiful.
Why did you have to add demons to the setting instead of just writing a romance fantasy?
“So we’re just entering the early part now….”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. Talking to myself.”
Originally, the alliance celebration party could not have been this lavish.
In the original work without Cain, the war was still ongoing.
Because they had not managed to end the First War against the demons in victory like now.
The kingdoms were half in ruins, and even the Empire had barely caught its breath.
In any case, the competition among the male leads over the heroine begins. Bang!
‘I wanted to kill off even the demons of the Seven Deadly Sins so nothing would happen at all, but.’
Unfortunately, until the protagonists appeared on the main stage,
not even the slightest trace of the demons of the Seven Deadly Sins could be found.
It meant the true demons would appear only when the protagonists appeared.
In the end, what Cain could do was kill other demons.
Kill. Kill. And kill again, climbing to a high position.
‘And in the end, I came this far.’
Just as he wanted, he had gained the qualifications to join the main stage.
Look. He had slammed down a margrave and a prince and was still perfectly fine.
Despite this being a romance fantasy with a fairly proper status system setting,
he, who was nothing more than a commoner, received no restraint at all.
“How is your work as captain of the Special Affairs Unit?”
“The same as always. Like before.”
“It must be nice there without me.”
“I dislike it because you are not there, Lord Cain.”
“Oh. Is this a confession?”
“Yes.”
A conversation passed between them, impossible to tell whether it was a joke or sincerity.
A man and a woman. A commoner and a noble. A former captain and a former subordinate.
“Yuri.”
“Yes. Lord Cain.”
“A thought suddenly occurred to me. Could there be contractors here as well?”
Contractors. Traitors who joined hands with demons and committed acts of treason.
In exchange, they were said to obtain powerful strength and enormous wealth.
According to rumors, demons even granted wishes beyond reach.
Depending on the situation, contractors could be more vicious than demons.
They caused division. Assassinated someone. Even carried out sabotage.
One of the countless epithets that followed Cain. Executioner.
That name had come from killing every last contractor.
“Indeed, demons were highly skilled at coaxing nobles.”
“Only those who’ve eaten meat know its taste. You have to have possessed something before to be easy to tempt.”
“There were far too many traitors colluding with demons. Thanks to them, the back of my head was always itching. But there are none here. We completed the investigation, and each nation also affirmed that such a thing would absolutely never happen.”
“Is that so?”
In truth, Cain had vaguely thought that something was a little strange.
He had considered dismissing it as, So that’s just how male leads in romance fantasy are.
But he had also held on to a certain possibility that that was not all there was to it.
What if someone had stirred up the winds of conflict among the male protagonists?
What if someone had relayed strange words so that today would become the beginning of a rift?
“Yuri. There’s a saying.”
Ta-da. There is no such thing as absolute.
“Lord Cain?!”
With a single leap, he closed the distance in an instant.
And hurled his fist toward the female protagonist of the romance fantasy, Estelle.