“Vice Commander! Emergency!”

Someone rushed in urgently, startling Kabillon, who had just started his day after a honey-like three-day vacation. It was Luke, his subordinate, who stopped him while he was on his way towards the training grounds.

“Why.”

“The Commander…”

As soon as the word ‘Commander’ came out, Kabillon sensed something and promptly interrupted Luke.

“Damn it, are we going on a mission?”

Seeing Luke’s face full of anxiety and urgency, as if he needed to pack up immediately, it was clear that Seiden’s departure syndrome had struck. Scratch…

Luke’s face was visibly pale and full of urgency, as if he needed to pack up immediately, indicating Seiden’s departure syndrome was in full swing. In response, Luke scratched the back of his head and replied,

“Yes, well, that’s correct, but, it seems the saintess has found a place suspected to be the habitat of reknil.”

“What? Reknil?”

“Yes. It’s said to be a demon of the arachnid family.”

A demon of the arachnid family. Kabillon furrowed his brows and pondered deeply, soon recalling a demon with eight legs and grimacing. He then let out a cold sigh.

Reknil are demons that not even those who had been on this ground for years, like him, had ever seen in person. It seemed to be classified as a high-ranking creature. It seemed to move in groups. Damn it, it looked like they were in for another round of trouble.

“But what do you mean by ‘that’s correct, but’? What else is there?”

“Well, the Commander is acting a bit strange. No, quite a lot.”

At that, Kabillon stared intently at Luke. The Commander acting strange…

Ever since he knew Seiden, Kabillon had never seen him acting strange. But if Luke, who was experienced in monitoring Seiden’s mood, said this much…

“Why. What’s going on?”

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Kabillon quickly became serious and asked. Luke approached him and whispered something in his ear. Kabillon’s face subtly contorted as he received a briefing on the situation during his absence.

Kabillon immediately headed to the command post where Seiden was supposed to be. Normally, the training grounds where knights should be bustling with morning drills were empty. No one wanted to disturb Seiden in his ‘strange state’.

As they left one by one, Kabillon understood why they were so frightened. Dozens of thick books were scattered around Seiden. It was definitely a bizarre scene.

“It’s really strange, isn’t it? He’s reading books all day!”

Luke’s words were true. Seiden was reading a book. It might have been a strange sight to Luke, who had only become a knight for two years and didn’t know Seiden’s different side, but Kabillon knew that Seiden often enjoyed reading. After all, Seiden was the only son of a prestigious marquis, so it wasn’t surprising.

Nevertheless, Kabillon immediately realized why the knights were so terrified and jittery. Dozens of thick books were scattered around Seiden. It was definitely a strange sight.

“What was he thinking that he’s flipping through books like this and that? Tossing books aside as he pleased and then suddenly getting angry, throwing things around the training ground haphazardly? He trained non-stop from early morning until evening yesterday without showing any signs of fatigue… It felt like his whole body was soaked in sweat, but without any sign of exhaustion… It felt like he was soaked in blood instead.”

Luke relayed Seiden’s condition, and just thinking about it made him shudder.

Kabillon also knew well the sight of Seiden suddenly training like a madman. Swinging his sword for hours, smashing everything as if not enough, his eyes shining brightly like he was about to go mad were indeed chilling.

“But the more serious issue is this. The knights are avoiding training because they don’t want to be around him, and he’s not saying anything about it.”

That was a truly serious problem. Seiden despised those who played tricks or slacked off, and if they were caught absent during the designated training time, it would be a day of hellish training. While he couldn’t understand the knights who ran away despite knowing that, he could somewhat empathize with their feelings.

“Commander.”

Kabillon called out to him cautiously, approaching Seiden sitting as still as a rock, but his eyes, buried somewhere in a large book, didn’t move at all. Kabillon glanced through the titles of the books scattered around him.

《The Dark Curse》

《The Vein of Curses》

《The World’s Most Complete Detoxification》

《The Origin of Black Magic》

《What Happens to Those Who Are Cursed?》

《1,001 Cases of Curses, You Can Never Escape》

《Curses, Amplification, and Curses》

The titles of these utterly bizarre books had something strange in common. Curses? Kabillon’s eyebrows twisted in confusion. After pondering for a while on how to interpret this bizarre situation, he decided to try conversing with Seiden once again.

“Ahem, Commander?”

Seiden’s lips, which remained motionless until his second call, elicited no response.

“Kabillon.”

Still deeply engrossed in something, his gaze remained fixed on a page of the book. But seeing that his pupils weren’t moving, it seemed he wasn’t actually reading.

“Yes. I’m reporting after returning from my leave.”

Then there was silence again. He was definitely stranger than usual. With a determined look, Kabillon was about to speak to Seiden, prepared to face any situation. But Seiden spoke first.

“How can I do it without hurting?”

The words that suddenly came from Seiden’s mouth were completely unrelated to what Kabillon had braced himself for, leaving him momentarily speechless. Kabillon blinked in confusion and dumbfoundedly asked.

“…Yes?”

Without hurting…?

Kabillon’s mind raced to catch up with the disconcerting question, then he wondered. Was it about a monster? Could it be that he was pondering over how to kill a monster without causing it pain? Had he come across something in a book about curses? Or was he looking for a curse that could kill a monster painlessly?

Could he have gone mad in my absence? Kabillon swallowed his suffocating assumptions and smiled faintly.

“Without hurting… I wonder if there’s no way to kill without pain, but if you hit the vital spot in one go, wouldn’t they die relatively painlessly?”

Kabillon answered calmly and skillfully.

“You already prefer that method, Commander. So don’t worry. They would have gone without pain. In the name of the holy deity, may those who went painlessly rest in peace.”

Then, with a benevolent face, Kabillon made the sign of the cross and prayed for the souls of the monsters that had died miserably by Seiden’s hand. Seiden looked at Kabillon following his calm and tidy answer. His eyebrows were furrowed as if to say, ‘What nonsense is this?’

Kabillon’s kind smile froze at the unexpected response.

“…Yes?”

“What does it matter to me whether those monster bastards die in pain or not.”

Kabillon was the one taken aback now. Then what does he mean by not hurting?

“Then?”

After maintaining silence for a while, Seiden then uttered something surprising.

“When doing it with a woman.”

Seiden’s voice was as gruff as usual.

“I was asking if there’s a way to do it without hurting her.”

Despite being prepared for anything, Kabillon couldn’t help but drop his jaw at the shocking statement. It was a good thing Seiden’s gaze returned to the void, not noticing Kabillon’s astounded expression.

“….”

Seiden was too preoccupied to care about Kabillon’s reaction. He recalled the pained expression on Bellota’s face when accepting him. Despite being so wet, the look of agony on her face didn’t fade easily. At the same time, recalling that scene always made blood rush downwards uncontrollably.

“Damn it. Perverted bastard….”

When Seiden finally muttered a self-deprecating curse, Kabillon’s eyes widened even more. Inside him, a flame of surprise and shock blazed fiercely. But the person who had thrown the log into the fire looked shamelessly calm, merely lost in thought again.

This was truly a shocking statement. Firstly, as far as Kabillon knew, Seiden had never been involved with women.

While knights were not sworn to celibacy like priests, they found their own ways to satisfy their desires. But Seiden was never linked with any woman, a fact Kabillon could proudly attest to as his loyal subordinate.

He had various thoughts that maybe Seiden took care of it secretly, but there was no need for that. Due to his overly handsome appearance, despite the nickname ‘mad dog,’ many young ladies wished to be involved with him in any way.

But all attempts by those beautiful young ladies were futile. Seiden had no interest in anyone during his prime years of youth. Kabillon once suspected he might be gay after seeing him throw away unopened love letters from ladies into the trash can.

But such suspicions were thoroughly dispelled by looking at his expressions of extreme disgust towards sweaty men after training, and his threats to make them sweat from every pore with overnight drills disguised as training.

The second reason Kabillon was shocked by Seiden’s statement was because Seiden’s concern seemed justified given how monstrously large his ‘part’ was.

There was no need for men to bathe together, but Kabillon had unintentionally seen Seiden n*ked a couple of times. What he saw could indeed be described as a weapon.

He had thought himself well-endowed, but he had never seen anything of such barbaric size before. Kabillon’s spine tingled as he thought and recalled that a man who was carrying such a thing, with a temper like that and a lust for blood like that—it must be quite tortuous for Seiden to satisfy his desires. Kabillon always paid silent respect to whoever had to endure Seiden’s desire.

Yet Seiden had never fallen for any woman, leading Kabillon to wonder if he might be impotent. But then this question! The Mad Dog of Kanbremes is worried about a woman!

Kabillon’s curiosity about when Seiden had engaged in such audacious acts and who the woman who captured the mad dog’s heart exploded in his mind.

Suppressing all his impatience, Kabillon nodded calmly.