...
{3rd Pov}
Ayan, who had now decided his alias would be Karma, began moving carefully through the prison hallway, taking each step carefully as he searched for any room that might contain clothes.
He was unable to strip the dead knights of their armor as he didn’t even know how to unfasten it properly and besides, the heavy plates would slow him down.
He also ignored their weapons such as their swords; its weight would only hinder his escape. What he needed was something simple, and ordinary to cover him up among the crowd. If he fled in rags, he would be too easy to spot and trail once outside.
As he emerged from the imprisonment chamber and checked the adjoining rooms, the rooms that, thankfully, didn’t even have doors for perhaps ease of access, is when he finally found what he was looking for. Inside, a knight’s uniform was neatly arranged alongside weapons and armor. But he knew wearing such attire would be far too conspicuous.
Scanning further, his eyes caught sight of an ordinary set of clothes. Without hesitation, he grabbed them and quickly dressed himself. Just as he finished, however, a voice came from his behind.
“Halt!”
He didn’t even bother to look behind or try to talk his way out. Instead, he simply shouted, “I can return by death!”
Without surprise, the sound of bodies collapsing to the ground reached his ears. He finished adjusting his clothes and turned to see three knights lying lifeless by the entrance of the room. Carefully, he stepped over them, mindful not to disrespect their corpses. Even though he knew he had killed them, he held no personal grievance against them.
It was simply his life over theirs. And he didn’t know if any of them belonged to the category of maniacs he despised, so he chose to respect them in death.
After that, he continued walking, his steps steady but cautious as he crouched, searching for an exit. At the end of a long hallway, he finally found a heavy metal door, with faint light peeking through the cracks, obviously it must be the way out of this prison.
As he slowed his pace and moved closer to the gate, a voice suddenly rang out from outside.
“Oi, who’s trying to sneak behind us? C’mon, man, unless you want to be reprimanded by the captain again, you’d better stop right there,” a knight called.
“I can return by death,” Karma said expressionlessly, his voice flat and emotionless in a creepy way, while silently praying for their salvation after death.
Moments later, the sound of bodies collapsing reached his ears. He finished adjusting his clothes and opened the door, stepping out into the world beyond.
Looking around, he realized the entrance was at ground level with the prison itself had been underground. Perhaps it was a necessity, a way to contain criminals in this world who could range from ordinary athletic humans, like those of Subaru’s world, to extreme superhumans capable of destroying buildings with sheer physical strength or magical might.
Karma noticed a crowd passing not far from the entrance.
The building’s exit led into an alley.
'It is always an alley, huh?', he thought, somewhat amused, before quickly slipping away. Blending into the crowd, he lifted his gaze to the sun, roughly mapping directions in his mind, and began moving back toward the slums.
Now Karma wasn’t stupid. He knew that hiding in the slums might prove even more terrifying than blending into the crowd. But he still had nothing like before, no possessions or money, no allies and currently only the clothes he had stolen, which belonged to gods knew which knight.
Secondly, he had another purpose. He wanted to see if he could catch up with those slave traders who had tormented him in a prior loop. Back then, his defiance had earned him torture that dragged him to the brink of death. Yet, even in that misery, something useful had come of it.
They had exposed the location of their hideout in front of him, mocking him, making him drown in despair as if to say that even if he knew, he could never act on it. But now, that arrogance would be their doom.
'Though I still don’t actually know where that specific landmark is,' he thought for a moment.
In the end, he decided to try his luck once more and asked a Lizardman for directions. The Demi‑human raised a brow at Karma’s question as he was surprised that someone was asking about a place in the slums but eventually gave him the directions. Karma had chosen a Demi‑human since they were normally ostracized, they should know the slums better than humans.
Thankfully, that proved true, though the Lizardman only knew the general direction. Not to mention get information on his first try, he was surprisingly lucky right now, though he knew perhaps now that he wasn't dressed like a gutter rat, people were more than willing to help whom they considered their 'class'.
As Karma traveled, he continued to feel the lingering pain of being beaten all over his body, accompanied by a dull ache of hunger. Thankfully, even if the prison food had been nothing more than plain soup, sludge, and hard bread, he had eaten it earlier in this loop before Satella killed them. Compared to the agony of being tortured and healed again, such hunger and bruises felt like nothing more than a tickle now.
...
“What is this?” Reinhardt’s eyes widened as he looked upon the corpses of knights, guards, and prisoners lying lifeless within the criminal prison. The sheer sight made his breath catch, though not because of fear. The other knights had arrived as well, their faces grim, while the severity of the situation forced Reinhardt to pause.
He couldn’t comprehend who could have killed such a vast number of capable fighters in so short a time. Kneeling down, he examined the body of one knight and realized the man’s heart had been ruptured from within. In fact, every corpse bore the same fatal mark.
“Sir Reinhardt, it is good to have you here,” came a familiar voice. Reinhardt turned, recognizing Gustav, one of the Royal Knights.
“What happened here?” Reinhardt asked politely in his familiar tone, though he skipped the usual pleasantries with his gaze fixed on the man.
Gustav sighed heavily before answering. “We are conducting the investigation. Nearly seven Royal Knights, twenty‑three guards, and seventy‑eight prisoners are dead. Basically, everyone presents during the time this massacre occurred is now gone.”
“We have been trying to determine what happened to them. There are no traces of poison, nor any signs of magic, though we can tell their heart was destroyed for some reason,” Gustav explained, just as a Healer approached.
“Sir Gustav, Sir Reinhardt,” the Healer said respectfully, “our investigators have finished counting everyone, and we have gotten a single lead for now. There is one prisoner missing.”
Reinhardt immediately stepped forward, he looked at the healer, recognizing him. “One prisoner? Sir Rudeus, can I know who it might be? And what was their crime?”
“This is… actually very strange,” the Healer replied carefully, a peculiar expression crossing his face as he glanced at the report in his hand. “We had several criminals here such as slave traders, murderers, and others. But the only one missing is a man who had been imprisoned for the crime of stealing.”
“What did he steal?” Gustav asked.
The Healer replied awkwardly, “It was bread. He is suspected to be a slum dweller who stole a loaf of bread from a stall in the marketplace. He was declared guilty and sentenced to three years of imprisonment.”
Silence followed, heavy and suffocating. Reinhardt clenched his fists, although his expression didn't change as the perfect Sword Saint. The Kingdom of Lugunica had been suffering from countless problems in recent years, and the plight of the impoverished people, especially the slum dwellers was one of the most glaring issues.
The class division between them and ordinary commoners was vast, with difference that seemed impossible to bridge. Yet Reinhardt felt a deep pain in his chest at the thought that a man could be imprisoned for three years over something as simple, as desperate, as stealing bread.
He could already guess the truth: the man must have been starving, driven by necessity, with no other choice at that moment.
But in the end, law was law. And it had to be enforced, regardless of circumstance.
“What was his name?” Reinhardt asked, though he never expected the reply that followed.
“Actually… his name was never recorded,” the Healer admitted. At once, silence fell over the group again.
By now, everyone understood what had truly happened. That man had simply become a prisoner so that the knight who captured him could look good in his monthly report.
After all, while knights rarely dared to oppress ordinary citizens of Lugunica for fear of damaging their reputation, the same restraint did not extend to demi‑human minorities or slum dwellers. Their reputations were already tarnished, their lives already ostracized by the nation.
In fact, nobles and knights often made slum dwellers scapegoats for crimes, whether those crimes were ones they never committed or petty acts magnified beyond reason. It was a convenient way to ensure that ordinary people continued blaming those “gutter rats” for their problems, while the powerful maintained their image of righteousness.
Reinhardt sighed, his resolve hardening, as he decided to quickly search for the lone survivor. He didn’t know if that person had truly killed everyone or not, but at the very least, the survivor would be the only witness to this massacre and Reinhardt needed to find him.
So he prayed to Od Laguna for a Divine Protection, one that could reveal the location of the person he sought, even without knowing his name or face.
[Divine Protection of Karmic Ties has been acquired]
Reinhardt opened his eyes, not astonished by the sudden blessing as he expected it. This new, powerful Divine Protection could locate anyone, not by their identity or face, but by the weight of their actions that tied them to other people.
Without hesitation, he began his search for the man who had stolen bread, imprisoned for three years, and now stood as the lone survivor of this tragedy where every knight, guard, and prisoner in Lugunica’s northern border prison had perished today.
However, his Divine Protection received no answer. Reinhardt frowned, confused for a moment, wondering if perhaps it required time to respond. Yet he could feel something strange. So he decided to test it differently to see if this was a useless Divine Protection or not by asking another question and was surprised when he received a clear answer.
Encouraged, he tried again, asking where his father was. The response came instantly, accurate and consistent with his father’s usual routine.
Finally, Reinhardt repeated the question, this time focusing on the person responsible for killing everyone here. His eyes widened as the answer reached him.
“Is everything alright, Sir Reinhardt?” Gustav asked, noticing the shock etched across Reinhardt’s face.
Reinhardt chuckled softly, masking his unease. “Nothing to worry about, Sir Gustav. I was simply attempting to use my Divine Protections to locate the culprit. Unfortunately, I have failed… It seems we can only wait for the investigation to continue.”
Though Reinhardt would never speak of it aloud, the answer had truly shocked him. The Divine Protection revealed that the person responsible for killing everyone here was in the Augria Sand Dunes or more specifically, within the place he had once tried to reach before… the Pleiades Watchtower.
He knew that only two beings could possibly reside there: the Great Sage of legend and the sealed Witch of Envy. Yet he also knew it was impossible for the Witch of Envy, considering her imprisonment, and there was no reason for the Omniscient Sage to slaughter people at random.
Even so, Reinhardt trusted his Divine Protection. It had not failed him and the person was indeed located there.
Resolving himself, he decided to search for the sole survivor, the man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread again. But once again, the Divine Protection remained silent… until finally, an answer came directly from Od Laguna itself.
[Such a person does not exist]
Reinhardt froze in place for a moment. He had never expected to receive such an answer. Even if it wasn’t Od Laguna directly speaking to him, he could feel the intent clearly, translated by his Divine Protection into comprehensible words.
How could a person who was officially recorded simply not exist? Were the records fabricated? Reinhardt felt unsettled, though it would make sense if a false record had been created merely for the sake of appearances. He still held onto the faint hope that the knights would not truly imprison someone for such a minor crime.
“Can I know who is the one that arrested that man, the bread thief?” Reinhardt suddenly asked the Healer.
After a short while, several patrolling knights were summoned due to the massacre that happened, and among them Reinhardt finally met the knight who had apparently been responsible for arresting that man.
Unfortunately, the only answer he received was confirmation that there had indeed been such a man arrested for stealing bread. And Reinhardt’s Divine Protection proved that the Knight was not lying.
Finally, Reinhardt decided to use the arresting knight as a clue and link. Using his Divine Protection of Karmic Ties once more, he sought the truth and this time, he received a different response.
[Error… Unobservable]
'Unobservable?', His eyes remained perfectly calm, his expression steady, thanks to the Divine Protection. But inwardly, he was unsettled. Where could the man have gone to become unobservable? Was he hidden within a chamber made of that rare stone that weakened Od Laguna’s connection?
He would know if he tried again another day. For now, he followed his duties, returning to his mansion to meet with his lady. Yet unease lingered in his heart.
To be continued...