Chapter 36. Love and Hate (1)
A translucent message stated that Seraphia could not reach the [Affection] state.
◆A character in the [Affection] state is drawn to you and loves you passionately.
◆That character will devote their entire heart and soul to you, sacrifice themselves for you, and willingly offer you everything they possess.
◆If they are a member of the opposite sex, that includes not only their heart, but their body as well!
In short, it was a state resembling love.
No, it did not merely resemble love. It was love itself.
Of course, there were many kinds of love.
However, the love described here apparently included “physical love”.
In that sense, Seraphia could never enter the [Affection] state toward me.
◆Affinity Obstructions—Older Brother, Family, Incest.
◆Unless the Affinity Obstructions are removed, she cannot enter the [Affection] state.
I possessed a powerful determination to kill and destroy Seraphia without fail.
I had merely postponed dealing with her because of what Ian had said.
“Pointless.”
Just as I dismissed the messages floating before my eyes—
There was an insurmountable wall of <Incest> between Seraphia and me.
Of course, Seraphia and I were stepsiblings who shared no blood.
Even so, incest was still incest.
“I heard there were characters who could never reach the Affection state, regardless of what you did.”
Apparently, this was what that meant.
In a way, that was a relief.
Seraphia possessing [Affection] toward me?
....Just imagining it was horrifying.
After all, my Affinity toward her was in the [Hatred] state.
◆Kai’s Affinity toward you has increased significantly!
“What’s with him now?”
Had they all collectively lost their minds?
* * *
Kai’s thoughts were in complete disarray.
Smoke rose from the chimneys of every house in the County. People sat around campfires and ate warm soup. The cheerful laughter of children rang through the air.
It was all thanks to Adrian.
Everything before him had been purchased with the profits Adrian earned during this trading expedition.
By striking the jackpot with a single trading expedition, he had completely resolved the County’s chronic problems.
‘How...?’
Kai simply could not understand it.
Of course, Kai had also personally tasted the monster meat. He knew that it possessed outstanding commercial value.
However, as the saying went, the nail that stuck out was the first to be hammered down.
It would not have been strange for the established merchants to drive Adrian into complete ruin while defending their territory.
Naturally, the quality of his product meant that he could have achieved some degree of success.
Yet according to what the soldiers had told him….
“When we went to purchase the goods, the merchants affiliated with the Merchants’ Guild treated us incredibly well.”
“The merchants even gave us enormous discounts and extra goods while asking us to put in a good word for them with Lord Adrian!”
Rather than being suppressed by the Merchants’ Guild, Adrian had brought it under his influence.
Through it, he had gained influence over the entirety of Freche. And he had accomplished all of that with a single trading expedition.
‘How...?’
Kai could not believe that this had been accomplished by the Count’s delinquent.
Adrian had not gone on a rampage like a delinquent.
He had integrated himself into Freche, created mutual prosperity with its people, and naturally inspired their loyalty.
He had not attempted to resolve everything through strength alone.
Sometimes, he had used cooperation. At other times, he had used trade.
That was something….
Kai could not do.
He could swing his sword and cut down the obstacles before him better than anyone else.
However, he did not know how to build what came afterward.
That was why he could not protect Seraphia. That was why he could not protect anyone.
Adrian, however, was different.
He knew how to persuade people and coexist with them. He was not solely focused on increasing his personal strength.
Adrian also possessed the qualities of a great Lord.
The very caliber of Adrian—the man Kai had dismissed as a mere delinquent—
Was simply different.
It was simply too vast. It was so immense and expansive that Kai could not even begin to measure it.
Consequently, he could no longer call Adrian “the Count’s delinquent”.
Moreover, Kai’s astonishment did not end there.
“How did he return to the County?”
Heavy snowfall had completely isolated White Wolf County from the outside world.
The heavy snow of the north was not something to be underestimated.
The region was already an environment where vegetation struggled to grow.
When heavy snow fell, everything lost its original color.
It was as though the entire world had been engulfed beneath an endless expanse of white.
The moment powerful winds began to howl, they transformed into a blizzard so dense that one could not even see directly ahead.
The words of Bernard, the Head Butler, had not been exaggerated in the slightest.
The County had been forced to prepare for prolonged isolation.
Yet Adrian had returned to the County.
That meant he had broken through the heavy snow.
Moreover, he had done so while leading several carriages filled with Relief Supplies.
“Ah, well, you see….”
One of the soldiers answered Kai’s question.
“The thing is….”
However, he kept trailing off with a puzzled expression.
Judging by his reaction, he seemed unable to believe what he had witnessed himself.
Just what had he seen….?
“Lord Adrian used magic.”
“....Magic?”
Kai also wondered what kind of nonsense the soldier was spouting.
After all, Adrian using magic?
“We also believed we would be unable to return to the County because of the heavy snow.”
“The snow had piled up almost as high as we were, making it impossible to distinguish one place from another.”
“A Whiteout occurred as well, causing us to lose our sense of direction completely.”
The soldiers’ testimonies continued one after another.
In other words, this was not some “illusion” witnessed by only one or two people.
“But when Lord Adrian placed his hand against the snow, all the accumulated snow suddenly disappeared.”
“The snow disappeared?”
“That’s right! Whoosh—! The snowbanks were sucked away somewhere….”
“From what we saw, it appeared that he was using magic!”
The soldiers whispered among themselves as they recalled what had happened.
“He was incredible.”
One said.
“He looked like an Archmage parting the sea!”
Another exclaimed.
There had not been merely one or two witnesses, but more than a dozen.
Every one of them gave the same testimony.
Naturally, it could not have been an illusion. The possibility that they were lying was also extremely low.
“How could that possibly...?”
Even so, Kai could not readily believe it.
Adrian had used magic?
That was….
Impossible.
Adrian’s talent for Mana was practically nonexistent.
Mana.
Mana was the energy that formed the foundation of the world.
It was an energy found throughout nature and the fundamental force composing the laws of the world.
Therefore, Mana could be considered an almost limitless source of energy.
As such, it was far too much for a single organism—
In other words, a human—to handle.
Simply put, if a human attempted to use Mana directly, they would be unable to withstand its energy and die.
However, humanity’s desire for power eventually discovered an answer.
In the distant past, an individual known as the Great Sage devised a way to process Mana and transform it into a usable form.
Today, that was known as “Available Energy”.
There were two major forms of Available Energy.
Mana Force.
Aura.
Mages wielded Mana Force, while knights wielded Aura.
However, the mechanisms of these two forms of Available Energy did not merely differ.
They “conflicted” with each other.
Those who used Mana Force could not wield Aura.
Those who wielded Aura could not use Mana Force.
In other words, a mage could not become a knight, and a knight could not become a mage.
However, whether it was Mana Force or Aura—
Both were ultimately forms of energy processed from Mana.
In other words, both were founded upon the power known as Mana.
Regardless of which one a person used, they first needed to sense and utilize Mana before they could wield either Mana Force or Aura.
And Adrian—
His talent for such “Mana” was practically nonexistent.
His Mana Sensitivity was zero.
He could neither sense nor perceive Mana.
Therefore, he could wield neither Aura nor Mana Force.
That meant Adrian could not possibly use magic. More precisely, he was fundamentally incapable of using it.
‘Then what in the world did he...?’
Of course, it was not certain that Adrian had actually used magic. It had merely looked like magic from the soldiers’ perspective.
They could not confirm whether it truly had been magic.
However, there was no doubt that Adrian had performed a miracle resembling magic.
Just like—
When he had subjugated the Gelu-Drake. Adrian had blocked its Ice Breath head-on.
By doing so, he had caused the Gelu-Drake to lower its guard before delivering the final blow.
‘There’s something....’
Adrian possessed something special.
Kai did not know what it was.
However, something extraordinary—something resembling magic—had awakened within Adrian.
During the week Adrian had spent away from White Wolf County—
He had awakened something that had lain dormant within him.
That would also explain how Adrian had removed the madness embedded within monster meat.
It was something no one in the continent’s history had ever accomplished.
After countless years of research, humanity had discovered a method of transforming Mana into Available Energy.
However, they had never discovered a method of removing the madness contained within monsters.
They had decisively declared it “impossible”.
‘A power that makes the impossible possible….’
That was how Kai defined whatever lay dormant within Adrian.
Even now, one only needed to look at the territory of White Wolf County, overflowing with life and vitality.
Look at the smoke rising from the chimneys of every home.
Look at the savory aroma drifting gently through the air.
Look at the children who no longer had to starve.
What if—
Adrian had not been here?
What would have happened if Seraphia had accepted the proposal from the House of Viscount Venenon?
Would the soldiers, the residents, and the entirety of White Wolf County have been able to see hope as they did now?
Would he have been able to witness Seraphia’s tears of overwhelming happiness?
No.
He would not have.
The exact opposite would have happened.
The County would have been filled with despair instead of hope.
Tears of misery rather than happiness would have flowed down Seraphia’s cheeks.
Adrian had created this.
He had protected them.
He had protected Seraphia and the entirety of White Wolf County.
Kai quietly closed his eyes.
Approximately a month and a half remained until the Royal Decree arrived.
Kai had intended to kill Adrian after that.
Once Seraphia had definitively obtained the position of Lord, he had planned to kill Adrian and eliminate him permanently.
But perhaps—
The thought suddenly occurred to him that Adrian might not need to die.
Instead, White Wolf County might actually need Adrian.
Furthermore, if his objective was to protect Seraphia, then perhaps Adrian—not Kai—was the person truly capable of protecting her.
Therefore, if only for the briefest moment—
—Kai! Look at this! I’m really good at it, aren’t I?
—Please be careful! You’ll hurt yourself!
Kai found himself wondering whether he and Adrian might be able to return to the way they had once been.
* * *
A translucent Affinity message suddenly appeared before my eyes.
◆Kai’s Affinity toward you has entered the [Conflict] state!
◆A character in the [Conflict] state clashes with your opinions, actions, emotions, and objectives, resulting in disputes.
◆That character is highly likely to cause friction while interacting with you.
◆But worry not!
◆Love and hatred are separated by only a single sheet of paper!
◆If you resolve the conflict amicably, you can strengthen the relational cohesion between yourself and that character, leading to a more creative and change-oriented relationship!
◆Remember that a relationship without conflict is merely static, emotionless, and conservative!
Following Seraphia, Kai’s Affinity had also risen.
Of course, Kai had only reached the [Conflict] state.
However, considering that he had previously been in the [Disgust] state, his Affinity had risen by an astonishing two stages.
In other words—
“Has he lost his mind?”
It seemed both of them had completely lost their senses while I was away on the trading expedition to Freche.
There was no other way to explain it.
“Could there have been something wrong with the Gelu-Drake meat?”
Since the Gelu-Drake had possessed powerfully imprinted Dragon Genetic Factors, it was possible.
Whatever the case—
“Pointless.”
I waved my hand and dismissed these messages as well.
My Affinity toward Kai was also in the [Hatred] state.
I possessed a powerful determination to kill and destroy him without fail, so I casually ignored his Affinity regardless of how it changed.
The residents’ Affinity was one thing.
But Seraphia and Kai’s Affinity was none of my concern. More precisely, I did not have time to care about it.
“Let’s go hunting.”
I needed to evolve my abilities and become stronger as quickly as possible.
I needed to gain experience and fully utilize Ian’s abilities.
Furthermore, I needed to secure merchandise to sell during the next trading expedition.
I had no time to concern myself with Affinity. Nor did I have time to laze around.
Every moment I wasted delayed the spread of the Predator Merchant Company’s name.
That would delay my search for Ian.
It would also delay Ian’s discovery that I was in White Wolf County, which would merely grant the Emperor more time.
Ten years.
I needed to complete every preparation within that period.
With that in mind—
“Their population is gradually declining.”
The decreasing monster population in the Snowy Mountain Region was somewhat problematic.
No living creature possessed an infinite population.
The monsters of the Snowy Mountain Region had merely survived its brutal environment.
Their numbers had never been particularly large.
It was not a major problem yet, but—
“It’s also a problem that I have to hunt them personally every time.”
The current method of supply had its limits.
The Predator Merchant Company was not merely a tool whose purpose would end once I found Ian.
It was a valuable merchant company that would become a reliable source of funding for the Coalition Forces.
I intended to make the Predator Merchant Company the greatest merchant company on the continent.
Therefore, I considered the problem and eventually found a clue to its solution.
Ironically, that clue came from my memories of my previous life.
More precisely, I had obtained it from the “Emperor”.
“If I use an Ice Troll....”
I could utilize an Ice Troll’s Regeneration.
Even if an Ice Troll’s arms or legs were severed, they quickly regenerated.
It did not matter whether it was a limb, belly meat, or any other part of its body.
Everything regenerated almost immediately.
If I made proper use of that ability—
Could I not supply monster meat indefinitely?
“I should go capture one immediately.”
I headed straight toward the Northern Snowy Mountains.
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