“Are you listening, Klad?”
“……”
“Klad.”
“How did you know there was a space beneath here?”
Klad, who had been pondering, answered Jake’s call with a question.
Perhaps because he was pleased that Klad had responded, even if it wasn’t the conversation topic he wanted, Jake immediately answered in a bright voice.
“Of course I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know? And yet you dug the ground blindly? Why did you do something so reckless?”
“Reckless? I succeeded in digging through the ground, and thanks to that, I met you, didn’t I?”
“……”
Well, yes. When put that way, there was nothing to say.
“I’ve heard that even dogs dig the ground for no reason and find bones. Did you follow some dog-like instinct and stumble upon this by chance while digging?”
“Then that would make you my bone.”
“A bone? Did you just call me a bone?”
“What? The distance is far so I couldn’t hear well.”
At this point, he was only hearing what he wanted to hear. Somehow the more they talked, the more irritated he became.
Klad scowled deeply and changed the subject.
“What do you want?”
“I need your help.”
He didn’t expect such a direct approach. Honestly, it wasn’t the answer he had anticipated.
‘Not hiding his desperation—how unlike a West.’
Then again, compared to the West name, he had nothing, so it would be hard to pretend to be at ease.
He hadn’t looked closely, but he could feel that the kid called Jake was so weak that the title of Hero was wasted on him. His energy was so feeble that he couldn’t even use the excuse that his body had weakened from being trapped in a cold prison, unable to eat or sleep properly, just waiting for the day of his death.
Perhaps because he lacked power, instead of wielding force, he planned to soothe his counterpart by putting forward the image of “the noble me who, despite being so great, humbles himself and asks for help.”
‘How pathetic.’
It was true that he had been intrigued by how the West kid treated his own death as if it were someone else’s business. He admitted that. But that wasn’t because he wasn’t afraid of death—it was because he knew he wouldn’t die.
The House of Duke West had pushed all their crimes onto the Hero, turning everything into the personal sins of Jake West rather than the House of Duke West. And they had publicly announced that he would be executed.
Would people be pleased by that? Perhaps at first. But as time passed, they would begin to realize, one by one.
That if the Hero disappeared, there would be no one to face the Demon King.
‘Without the Hero, no matter how strong someone is, they cannot kill the Demon King.’
People would beg and plead for them to stop the execution, fearing the Demon King would devour the world. The House of Duke West would drag the Hero all the way to the execution platform before pretending to show benevolence to the wailing masses and halt the execution. They would claim to give the Hero a second chance, cover up all the sins that had been exposed to the world, and after the Hero defeated the Demon King, they would try to let it all fade away as if nothing had happened.
There was no way the Hero, a member of House West, didn’t know this fact.
‘He knows he won’t die, so he can smile even in that situation.’
It was unexpected that they had actually starved the West kid and left him in a cold prison, but originally the Wests were people who mercilessly cast aside even their own blood for their goals, so it wasn’t surprising.
“I’ll say it again—I have no intention of taking you out of here.”
“That sounds like you’re saying it’s not impossible, just that you don’t want to.”
“Think whatever you want.”
Klad waved his hand dismissively toward the ceiling. The blue eyes blinked once or twice in response to his gesture.
Despite Klad’s firm refusal, there was no sign of despair or urgency. As expected, it was clear he had never intended to escape from here in the first place.
Of course. He wouldn’t need to escape.
“I understand what you’re saying, Klad.”
“Understand?”
“You must have been worried I would be disheartened if you said there was absolutely no way to escape. So you said it in a roundabout way—that there is a way to escape, but you have no intention of helping. So that I wouldn’t lose hope. But I never had such expectations to begin with, so you don’t need to worry too much.”
“?”
He didn’t seem to understand at all.
“My request is far more realistic than that. It may be quite a troublesome request, but in return, if there’s anything you desire, I will grant it.”
“Anything?”
“Anything that I am capable of granting right now.”
It was quite a shallow trick. “Jake West right now” ultimately meant a prisoner trapped in a cell, shivering from mere cold, with nothing to his name. Even if the West kid later left the prison and returned to his original life, he could simply draw the line by saying “based on my circumstances at that time, I cannot grant it,” and that would be the end of it.
As expected of a member of the West family, he seemed well-practiced in deceiving others in such cunning ways.
It was irritating.
The more he conversed with the kid, the more it felt like his lifespan was being chipped away handful by handful.
“Will you hear my request?”
At Jake’s urging, Klad let out a short sigh. He knew he needed to hear him out to uncover his ulterior motives, but he really didn’t feel like it. If he had his way, he would just block the ceiling and lie down to sleep, but he couldn’t do that.
In the off chance that the House of Duke West knew he was staying here and had sent the Hero, he needed to prepare countermeasures.
“Tell me what the request is first.”
“I cannot speak until I receive a definite answer that you will absolutely grant my request.”
“How can I give a definite answer when I don’t even know what the request is?”
“This is not a matter to be spoken of lightly. I cannot do so, even for your sake.”
“Fine, I’ll grant your request.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Of course it was a lie.
Once he uncovered the ulterior motive, he would have no more business with the West kid.
“Then would you first obtain a contract?”
“What?”
Klad let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity.
Surely obtaining a contract wasn’t the great request itself. Was he planning to make him sign a contract swearing to absolutely fulfill his request and keep the secret?
‘What shameless audacity.’
The contract the West kid mentioned wasn’t just a piece of parchment where you wrote the contents and signed. A contract was a document imbued with various curses that could result in anything from losing one’s sight to death if the promise was broken—naturally, it was difficult to obtain.
Without even telling him the contents, he had the nerve to insist he grant his request, and on top of that, he wanted him to sign a contract?
Was he insane?
“Signing a contract means you must also absolutely fulfill its contents.”
“I know.”
“You haven’t forgotten that the other party can request any one wish as compensation for granting the request, have you?”
“I do not forget what I have said, Klad.”
“How do you know what request I might make?”
“I haven’t told you the contents of my request either, so this much should make us even.”
It seemed he wasn’t completely without conscience.
‘What on earth is he thinking?’
He had met many Wests over the years, but this was the first one whose thoughts were so impossible to read.
Was his cunning so extreme that it was difficult to grasp his thoughts? Or was he a fool who didn’t even know what he himself was saying?
“Contracts aren’t something you can just obtain by trying. If it’s difficult to tell me what this request is, I’ll back out before getting in any deeper.”
Breaking a signed contract wasn’t difficult, but he didn’t want to be led around by the words the West kid was wielding.
Klad even raised both hands toward Jake, making a gesture of backing off.
“But this matter must not leak outside. A contract is absolutely necessary to prevent that.”
“That’s your business. I don’t have the skill to produce a contract I don’t have.”
“……”
A brief silence passed.
This was indeed a good timing to build suspense for effect.
If he waited a bit, the West kid would pretend to reluctantly back down. He would make it abundantly clear that “I have nothing to lose, but I’m yielding for your sake.”
“Very well. It’s not an easy decision to make, but I trust you, so I’ll take the risk.”
See. The situation was unfolding exactly as predicted without a single margin of error—it was almost laughable.
“Because I trust you.”
He even mentioned the words emphasizing trust once more. When it came to mind games, he was the lowest of the low, unlike a West.
Jake stared at Klad without blinking his blue eyes, then continued very carefully.
“I would like you to find someone for me.”
“Someone?”
The House of Duke West wants to find someone? He didn’t know who they were looking for, but wouldn’t it be faster to find them directly without outside help?
Klad narrowed his eyes and glared at Jake.
Was this person’s request really connected to the House of Duke West?
“I must find the lost descendant of the West family who is hiding somewhere. Absolutely—before my father does.”
***
“Klad?”
Several seconds had passed since he explained the details of his request, but no response came from Klad.
‘Why isn’t he answering?’
He was anxious, worried that Klad might have been someone planted by the Duke.
Jake pressed his worried face even closer to the hole, as if he might push it through.
“Klad….”
“What do you know?”
So he was listening!
Jake was so relieved that Klad had responded that he failed to notice how his voice had sunk endlessly low.
“That’s not what’s important right now.”
“I’d like to hear more details about that story.”
“I want to tell you in detail too, but unfortunately I don’t have time to explain. For now… Huk!”
Jake was speaking when he urgently pulled his head back. If he hadn’t, his eye would have been poked by a finger.
‘Wh-what is this…’
The distance between the upper and lower floors had clearly been considerable. What on earth had he done for the hand of someone on the lower floor to reach the ceiling?
It was bewildering, but Jake wasn’t given time to ponder.
Crack crack crack,
Starting from where Klad’s fingertips touched, slowly, the floor began to crack and tear away.
Crunch, cru-crunch,
The hard stone floor that Klad’s hand touched crumbled like soft clumps of dirt.
Beyond the torn floor, Klad’s face was visible. This was the first time seeing that face so close.
Unlike before, coldly sunken black eyes glared at Jake as if they would bore right through him.
“Now you should have time to explain.”
At Klad’s voice, colder than his gaze, Jake could do nothing but nod his head stupidly.
