「 ✦ Keith | Teaser ✦ 」
The wooden wheels of the carriage rolled smoothly along the dirt road, kicking up small clouds of dust in the afternoon sun. Keith hummed a cheerful tune under his breath, his glacial blue hair catching the light as he guided the horses with practiced ease. To any observer, he looked like nothing more than a well-dressed young merchant—handsome, certainly, with his pale skin and lean build, but otherwise unremarkable.
"Good afternoon!" Keith called out with a warm smile as another carriage approached from the opposite direction. The elderly merchant driving it raised his hand in greeting, returning the smile.
"Beautiful day for travel, isn't it?" Keith continued as they passed each other.
"Indeed it is, young man! Safe travels!"
"You as well!"
Keith's crimson eyes sparkled with genuine warmth as he waved goodbye. What a pleasant fellow, the old merchant would probably think. So polite, so friendly. He'd never know that barely three feet behind Keith's driver's seat, wrapped carefully in canvas and rope, lay the bodies of a young couple who had made the mistake of camping too close to the road the night before.
The carriage continued its journey, passing through a small farming village where children waved from their yards. Keith waved back enthusiastically, even stopping to buy some fresh bread from a local baker.
"My, what a lovely day," he remarked to the baker's wife, who blushed slightly at his charming smile. "Your bread smells absolutely divine."
"Oh, you flatter me, young sir! Are you traveling far?"
"Just to the capital on business. Though I must say, your village is quite picturesque. I almost wish I could stay longer."
They chatted pleasantly for several minutes about the weather, the harvest, local gossip. Keith listened with apparent genuine interest, occasionally laughing at the woman's stories about her grandchildren. When he finally departed, she watched his carriage disappear down the road with a wistful sigh.
What a nice young man, she thought. So rare to meet such polite travelers these days.
The afternoon wore on, and Keith encountered several more travelers—a family returning from market, a pair of merchants heading south, a lone rider on a fine horse. Each interaction was the same: warm greetings, pleasant small talk, genuine smiles. Keith seemed to have an endless supply of charm and good humor.
He stopped once to help an overturned cart, working alongside the grateful farmer to right it and reload the scattered vegetables. When the man tried to offer payment, Keith waved him off with a laugh.
"Think nothing of it! We all need help sometimes."
As the sun began to sink lower in the sky, painting the landscape in shades of gold and amber, Keith's carriage approached a checkpoint on the main road leading to the capital. A small wooden guardhouse sat beside the road, flanked by a simple gate. Three knights in polished armor stood at attention, their hands resting casually on their sword hilts.
Keith's expression remained perfectly pleasant as he slowed his horses to a stop. One of the knights, a middle-aged man with graying hair and kind eyes, approached the carriage.
"Good evening, traveler. Routine inspection, if you don't mind. We've had reports of bandit activity in the area."
"Of course, of course!" Keith replied with an understanding nod. "Better safe than sorry, I always say. Though I must admit, I haven't seen anything suspicious on the road today. Just pleasant fellow travelers."
The knight smiled. "That's good to hear. Still, we'll need to take a look at your cargo, just to be thorough."
Keith's smile never wavered, but something flickered in his crimson eyes—gone so quickly it might have been a trick of the fading light.
"I'm afraid that's going to be a problem," he said, his voice still perfectly friendly and conversational.
The knight's hand moved instinctively toward his sword. "Sir, I'm going to need you to—"
Keith moved with inhuman speed. His hand shot out, fingers piercing through the knight's throat like it was made of paper. Blood sprayed across the front of the carriage as the man's eyes went wide with shock and terror.
"Ah, this is exactly why I told you this was a bad idea," Keith sighed, shaking his head as if disappointed by the knight's poor life choices. The dying man gurgled, trying to speak, but Keith twisted his wrist and the sounds stopped.
The other two knights shouted in alarm, drawing their swords, but they might as well have been moving through molasses. Keith's other hand swept out in a casual arc, and both men's heads simply... came apart. Not cleanly, not quickly. They exploded in showers of bone and brain matter, painting the guardhouse walls red.
"Really now," Keith tutted, stepping down from his carriage to survey the carnage. "All this could have been avoided if you'd just minded your own business."
He began the methodical work of loading the bodies into his carriage, humming the same cheerful tune from earlier. Blood soaked into his clothes, but he seemed entirely unbothered by it. The horses, strangely, remained perfectly calm throughout the entire ordeal.
With the checkpoint cleared and the evidence loaded, Keith climbed back onto his driver's seat and guided the carriage off the main road, following a barely visible trail that wound up into the hills. The path was rough and overgrown, clearly seldom used, but Keith navigated it with the confidence of long familiarity.
Eventually, he reached a clearing near the top of a hill, where a single gnarled tree stood silhouetted against the darkening sky. Keith unhitched the horses and began unloading his cargo with practiced efficiency. Five bodies in total now—the young couple, the three knights.
The digging took time, but Keith worked with the patient rhythm of someone who had done this countless times before. The soil was soft here, almost welcoming. As he worked, occasionally his shovel would strike something hard—a bone, perhaps, or a piece of rusted metal. The hill was full of such things, layers upon layers of forgotten remains.
When the work was finished, Keith stood back to admire his handiwork. The fresh graves were already invisible, covered with carefully replaced sod and scattered leaves. By morning, even he would have trouble finding them again.
"Another day, another good deed," he mused to himself, brushing dirt from his hands.
After a quick change of clothes and a thorough washing in a nearby stream, Keith made his way back to the main road. His carriage was empty now, cleaned spotless, looking perfectly innocent once again. He even had time to pick some wildflowers to place on the driver's seat—a nice touch, he thought.
The capital's lights were beginning to twinkle in the distance as Keith drove through the gates. The guards on duty barely glanced at him, just another late arrival looking to find lodging for the night.
He left his carriage at a stable near the merchant district and made his way through the cobblestone streets, his steps light and cheerful. The fancy restaurant he sought was in the heart of the noble quarter, its windows glowing warmly with candlelight and filled with the soft murmur of conversation.
"Keith! There you are!"
A group of well-dressed young people waved to him from a corner table as he entered. His school friends, all bright smiles and eager faces, rising to greet him with embraces and good-natured ribbing about his tardiness.
"Sorry, sorry!" Keith laughed, sliding into an empty chair. "You know how it is—business kept me longer than expected. The roads were absolutely murder today."
They laughed at his little joke, completely missing the subtle emphasis he placed on that last word. Keith picked up a menu, his crimson eyes twinkling with amusement as he perused the evening's offerings.
"So," he said conversationally, "what's good here? I'm absolutely starving."
··—–—⚜—–—···
「 ✦ Hajime Nagumo ✦ 」
"Yue... my weapons and our powers are probably considered heresy to the Holy Church. I doubt they or the various human kingdoms are going to just let us roam free."
"Yeah..."
"They'll ask us to give up our artifacts or try and force us to help them in their war."
"Yeah..."
"If it was just humans we had to deal with, it wouldn't be a huge problem, but those crazy gods pulling everyone's strings are probably gonna be after us too."
"Yeah..."
I paused, my grip tightening on Donner. Two months. Two fucking months we'd spent down here, grinding ourselves to the bone, pushing past every limit we thought we had. And still... that bastard's shadow loomed over us like a goddamn mountain we couldn't even see the peak of.
"And then there's him," I said, the words tasting bitter. "Rimuru Tempest."
Yue's crimson eyes sharpened slightly. Even just hearing that name was enough to make the air between us grow heavy. The memory of our complete and utter helplessness against him still burned like acid in my chest.
"We might end up making the entire world our enemy. No matter how many lives we have, it might not be enough to come out unscathed. And if we run into that guy again before we're ready..." I let the sentence hang there. We both knew what had happened last time.
"So what..." Yue's unconcerned response made me smile despite everything. She looked up at me, and I gently stroked her golden-blonde hair in response. I looked deeply into her crimson eyes, and saw that they were glowing with happiness—and something else. Determination. The same fire that had been driving us both these past two months.
After a moment, I took a deep breath, then spoke aloud my hopes and convictions in order to carve them into my soul.
"I'll protect you, and you'll protect me. As long as we watch each other's backs, we'll be stronger than anyone. We'll beat down anyone who stands against us and bust our way out of this shitty world!" I paused, my voice growing harder, more resolute. "And someday... someday we'll be strong enough to face that bastard again. This time, we won't be the ones left in the dust."
Yue held her hands up to her chest, as if carving my words into her own soul as well. Her deadpan expression crumbled, fading away to reveal the most beautiful smile in the world. In that smile, I could see it—the same burning desire for strength, the same need to prove we weren't just insects to be crushed underfoot. Her reply was the same single syllable she always gave, but this time it carried the weight of our shared resolve.
"Yeah!"
··—–—⚜—–—···
「 ✦ Rimuru Tempest ✦ 」
The afternoon sun filtered through the windows of Café Lumière, Fuhren's most expensive establishment, casting golden patterns across the marble floors.
I leaned back in my plush velvet chair, savoring the absurdly overpriced atmosphere. After the chaos at that ball in the Heiligh Kingdom—where apparently I'd become public enemy number one to the Holy Church—this independent mercantile city felt like a breath of fresh air.
No religious fanatics, no political fuck, just commerce and the sweet sound of coin changing hands.
The book "Time and Existence" lay open on the mahogany table before me. Across from me, Daisy sat with all the dignity a cat could muster while wearing custom-made heart-shaped sunglasses. Her white fur practically shone in the sunlight, and those piercing blue eyes behind the ridiculous eyewear seemed to judge every patron who walked by.
"You know, Daisy," I mused, flipping through the menu, "sometimes I think you enjoy the attention more than you let on."
She flicked her tail dismissively, as if to say 'of course I do, peasant,' before returning to her people-watching duties. The money from my relentless quest-hunting as a top-ranked adventurer had certainly paid off—we could afford to live like this for months if we wanted to.
I was debating between the 'Ethereal Cloudberry Tart' and the 'Sunset Dragonfruit Parfait' when a shadow fell across my table. Looking up, I found myself staring at what could only be described as a walking fashion magazine cover.
Holy hell is she damn hot.
The young woman standing beside my seat was... well, stunning didn't quite cover it. Early twenties, with an entire denim aesthetic that somehow managed to look both casual and high-fashion at the same time. Tube skirt, jacket over a black turtleneck, a cap that tilted at just the right angle, black boots that probably cost more than most people's monthly rent. Golden embroideries caught the light, matching the elegant earrings that framed her face.
What's with all the recent encounters with supermodels? I thought to myself, fighting the urge to straighten up in my chair. Instead, I kept my expression neutral and leaned back slightly, going for that perfect balance of interested but not desperate.
"What's up?" I asked casually, as if drop-dead gorgeous women stopped by my table every day.
Her response was like a slap in the face.
"You," she said, pointing directly at me with zero hesitation, "took the book I wanted from the library."
I blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"
"And," she continued, her voice carrying a fierce edge that made several nearby patrons turn to look, "you bumped into me earlier and didn't even apologize."
Daisy and I exchanged a look. Even through her heart-shaped sunglasses, I could see her 'what the hell is wrong with this human?' expression. I racked my brain, trying to remember bumping into anyone, especially someone who looked like her.
Coming up blank.
"Listen, I think there might be some—"
Before I could finish, she grabbed a chair from the neighboring table—where a very confused elderly couple was enjoying their afternoon tea—and dragged it over to mine with a scraping sound that made everyone in the immediate vicinity wince.
"Hey!" the old man protested, but she was already settling into the stolen chair like she owned the place.
The secondhand embarrassment I felt was next level.
"Iu," she said simply, extending her hand. "And you're going to make this right."
I stared at her for a moment, then at Daisy, who had somehow managed to convey 'your life, your problem' through cat body language alone.
"Rimuru," I replied, shaking her hand. "And I'm still not entirely sure what I'm making right, but... okay?"
What followed was perhaps the most bizarre afternoon I'd had in weeks, and considering my recent track record, that was saying something. Iu was direct to the point of being aggressive, never backing down from an argument, and seemed to take personal offense at everything from my choice of drink to the way I held my fork.
"You can't seriously be ordering the dragonfruit parfait," she said, eyeing my menu selection with disdain.
"Why not? It sounds fancy enough."
"It's overpriced sugar water with fancy presentation. The cloudberry tart at least has some substance."
"Since when did you become the food police?"
"Since I started having taste buds."
Daisy actually removed her sunglasses at that point, fixing both of us with a withering stare that clearly said 'I'm surrounded by idiots.'
But here's the strange thing—despite the constant bickering, I found myself genuinely enjoying the conversation. Iu was sharp, witty, and completely unimpressed by my adventurer status or the expensive surroundings. She gave as good as she got, and there was something refreshing about someone who wasn't trying to butter me up or ask for favors.
"So what's your deal anyway?" I asked between bites of the cloudberry tart (which I'd ordered just to prove a point, though it was admittedly excellent).
"I'm a scholar," she replied, cutting into her own dessert with surgical precision. "Hence why I needed that book you took."
"Which book? The one on the table? You can borrow it."
"Now you offer. After making me sit through your terrible conversation for an hour."
"My conversation is delightful, thank you very much."
"Bullshit."
Hours passed like this. We moved from the café to Fuhren's famous Grand Library, where our discussion about various subjective ideas grew loud enough to earn us disapproving shushes from every other visitor.
"See, this is where you—" Iu starts, gesturing dramatically at a shelf.
"That's not even the right section," I interrupt. "Philosophy is over there."
"Are you calling me stupid?"
"I'm calling you wrong, which might be worse."
Iu just had opinions about everything.
"You can't just flip through a first-edition manuscript like it's a tavern menu!" she hissed as I examined a particularly interesting treatise on magical theory.
"It's a book, not a religious artifact."
"Some books are religious artifacts, you barbarian!"
The librarian, a stern-faced woman who looked like she could reduce grown men to tears with a single glare, appeared beside our table like a disapproving specter.
"Out," she said simply.
"But we were just—" I started.
"Out."
Even Daisy, who had been lounging on a nearby windowsill, seemed to nod in agreement. As we found ourselves unceremoniously escorted to the library's front steps, Iu turned to me with that same fierce expression she'd worn when she first confronted me.
"This is your fault," she declared.
"How is this my fault? You're the one who started shouting about manuscript preservation techniques!"
"I wasn't shouting, I was passionately explaining!"
"Same thing!"
Daisy meowed once—a sound that clearly meant 'humans are stupid'—and began walking away from both of us. Despite everything, I found myself grinning.
"Well," she says, adjusting her cap, "that was educational."
"Speak for yourself. I still don't know what book I supposedly stole."
"Time and Existence," she says pointedly, glancing at the volume tucked under my arm. "The one you're carrying right now."
I look down at the book I'd completely forgotten about. "Oh. This book."
"Yes, that book."
"In my defense, I checked it out properly."
"After I'd already reserved it."
"Well why didn't you say so earlier?"
"I did say so! That was literally the first thing I told you!"
She paused, and for just a moment, I caught something that might have been a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. And damn, her smile was pretty. "You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
"The book," she said, pointing at the volume still tucked under my arm. "I still need it."
"Library's closed now, thanks to us. How about tomorrow?"
"Fine. Same café. And don't be late."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
She turned to leave, then paused. "And Rimuru?"
"Yeah?"
"Next time, apologize when you bump into someone."
I watched her walk away, still not entirely sure when or if I'd actually bumped into her, but somehow not caring about the details anymore. Daisy trotted back over, sunglasses somehow perfectly positioned despite her recent abandonment of us.
"Well, Daisy," I said, scratching behind her ears, "I think we just made a friend."
She gave me a look that clearly said 'if that's what you call friendship, I'd hate to see you make an enemy.'
Fair enough. Some friendships, apparently, were built on mutual irritation.