NOVPUBShhhhhhhhhh.
How much time had passed in the endless downpour?
Alex slowly raised his head and looked at Ludger.
In those eyes that had once been empty, now burned a resolute light.
—Have you made your decision?
—Yeah.
Alex grasped the hand Ludger offered.
Ludger helped him to his feet.
Not caring in the slightest that his own hand was dirtied by the mud.
—Well, since this is a commemorative moment, why don’t we start by paying back those bastards who stole from my subordinate?
—Hold on. When did I become your subordinate?
—Isn’t it obvious? I made the offer, so I’m the leader.
—I don’t remember agreeing to that!
—Call me Leader.
—What the hell, you’re just deciding that on your own—!
Ludger and Alex stepped into the tavern where the cheating gamblers were.
Not long after, sounds of things breaking erupted from inside, followed by multiple people screaming.
That was how the two of them first met.
“Mr. Alex, your past really is tragic,” Arfa said with pure sympathy.
The other members had no words to offer.
They couldn’t easily pity someone else’s past when their own weren’t much better.
Hans was the first to speak.
“I understand. Because of this damned condition of mine, I’ve been treated like a monster and spent my life running.”
“Well, same here.”
Seridan, arms crossed, nodded with a hum.
“I was branded a lunatic and cast out from the Dwarf village. And come on, it was just once that I almost blew up half the place.”
“That’s your own damn fault!”
Everyone gathered here was the same.
People abandoned by the world.
Or people who had turned their backs on it themselves.
They were the sort of people who, under normal circumstances, would never cross paths.
And yet here they were.
Gathered in the same place, at the same time.
All because of one person.
“It’s all thanks to the Leader.”
“If it weren’t for the Boss, I never would’ve made it this far.”
“Y-yeah. The Boss has done a lot for me too.”
Ludger scratched his cheek awkwardly as everyone looked at him.
“Feels like you’re all giving me way too much credit.”
“It’s not too much. Honestly, it’s just right. Leader, you’re kind of like... a lantern.”
“A lantern?”
“Yeah. A lantern. For people like us—the ones who’ve been cast aside.”
Everyone nodded in agreement with Alex’s words.
Ludger was hoping someone would argue against that, but instead he just felt his face getting hot.
No—his face was getting hot.
“Owner. Are you actually embarrassed right now?”
“Whoa. I think his face is a little red.”
“Hah. Never thought I’d see the day the Boss reacted like that.”
The members sounded as if they’d discovered some rare phenomenon.
“Boss, are you like, really annoyed or anything right now?”
“Why? You gonna stop if I say I am?”
“Uh, maybe?”
“Real vague answer there. Honestly... I don’t feel bad.”
Ludger gave a quiet chuckle.
“The things I’ve done... at least they weren’t meaningless.”
And in that moment—
A small light began to shine from his chest.
This is...
Ludger reached into his coat and pulled it out.
The shard of the Relic he’d acquired at the Kunst Auction House.
It was glowing now.
“B-Boss. That thing—it’s glowing.”
“I can see that.”
All eyes turned to the light.
There wasn’t a soul here who didn’t know that this was the item Ludger had been searching for that night.
Soon, the light faded, and the shard returned to its usual form.
Just a simple piece of a broken object.
“Leader... what was that just now?”
“The shard of a Relic reacted.”
“Reacted? To what? And why now, all of a sudden?”
“That’s what Relics are. They’re mysterious items beyond our current understanding. It’s not unusual for them to activate without warning.”
Curious for some time, Alex seized the opportunity to ask.
“Your goal... is to gather °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° all those shards, right?”
“Yes. From the beginning, my journey across the world has been about finding them.”
Ludger had traveled far and wide in pursuit of the Relic fragments.
That much, the members knew.
But none of them knew why he was searching for them—or what the complete Relic actually was.
“If it’s not too much to ask... can I ask why you’re looking for it?”
Everyone waited for Ludger’s answer to Arfa’s question.
“Have you ever felt that this world is suffocating?”
“...Huh?”
They’d expected a clear explanation—but instead, he asked a strange question.
“Have you ever felt like this world is one giant cage—built by someone else?”
Ludger’s words made the others glance around at one another.
They had suffered from the world’s inequality and injustice—but Ludger’s words hinted at something even deeper.
“Sir... is that some kind of riddle?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like.”
Ludger stared down at the fragment resting in his palm.
“The world is a solid cage, built by someone—and those who live in it go about their lives without ever realizing they’re being suppressed.”
Crack.
Ludger clenched the shard tightly.
“This Relic is the key to breaking that cage.”
At first, it sounded like abstract nonsense.
But from the sincerity in Ludger’s voice and the way he held the shard, they could tell—he wasn’t lying.
“Wait a minute. If what you’re saying is true—if the world really is a cage, and that Relic is the key to breaking it...”
“Then the complete Relic... could actually destroy the world?”
No one here misunderstood how dangerous a Relic could be.
Its power was vast, and its effects could vary in limitless ways.
It might not be an exaggeration to say it could destroy the world.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
But Ludger didn’t believe the completed Relic would be dangerous.
“How can you be so sure, Boss?”
“Because the ones who made it didn’t want that.”
“The ones who made it?”
Relics were ancient artifacts.
Whoever had created them must have lived in some long-forgotten age—someone unimaginably brilliant.
But that was likely eons ago. How could Ludger know what they wanted?
Those people would surely be long dead.
Yet somehow, it felt like Ludger really might know.
“But even if you gather all the fragments, they won’t just magically fuse back together, right?”
“Right.”
Naturally, to restore the Relic, an equivalent process would be necessary.
Restoring lost ancient technology alone would require a sum beyond imagination.
“Wait a second.”
Hans suddenly remembered that Ludger had been investing large sums of money.
“Don’t tell me... the reason you’ve been amassing all that wealth while traveling the world...”
Ludger had made a fortune.
Back in his days as <Arsène Lupin>, he robbed the vaults of nobles and crooked merchants.
That money alone could’ve let him live a life of luxury anywhere.
But he hadn’t done that.
He never settled. He kept moving.
So where had all that wealth gone?
Hans had never questioned it before.
But now that Ludger had shared a glimpse of the truth, Hans began to understand.
“It really costs a lot. Recruiting discreet and reputable archaeologists, building institutions to research the Relic... It wasn’t cheap.”
“...So that’s why. That’s why you started a business here too.”
"Something like that."
Even Ludger’s salary as a professor at Seorn was already a fortune most ordinary people wouldn’t earn in their entire lifetime.
And what about Belvotte Rixon’s secret vault?
That man had amassed obscene amounts of wealth through years of illegal dealings.
Ludger had also grown the business under his control as the “Owner” of this place into a thriving enterprise.
Yet he never flaunted his riches.
Aside from investments into the business, he barely used the money at all.
“All of it... just for that one goal...”
Hans couldn’t wrap his head around it.
Neither could the others.
Ludger had called the world a giant cage.
They could understand feeling stifled by it.
But to spend your entire life wandering, hiding your identity, and fighting to break it down—that was another matter entirely.
“Wasn’t it a waste?”
“A waste?”
“All the money you’ve earned. With that, you could’ve bought a huge estate on some fine land and lived the rest of your life in comfort.”
That had been Hans’ dream too.
To look over a vast stretch of land he owned and live in peace, in a home of his own.
Naturally, he couldn’t help but see Ludger’s actions as both baffling and extraordinary.
“I could’ve ignored it all and lived as you say.”
“Then why didn’t you...?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because I just couldn’t sit still. Maybe I’m more like all of you than I thought.”
“Like us?”
“Didn’t I say? Everyone here is someone abandoned by the world. I’m no different.”
At first, Ludger had thought living quietly would be enough.
Out of sight, out of mind, living out his days peacefully in some hidden corner of the world.
That had once been his dream.
But reality had not allowed that.
His nature, the fate he had been dealt, and this world—none of it gave him that permission.
“There were countless chances to walk away. It’s not like this is some noble mission that has to be completed. There’s no obligation, and failing wouldn’t mean death.”
Even knowing that, he couldn’t stop.
He couldn’t bring himself to stop walking forward.
Why?
Surely he knew that the road ahead would be paved with blood and thorns.
“In the end... I think I was just angry.”
Yes.
He was just angry.
“I fought because I was angry. And once I started, I began to see others abandoned by the roadside.”
So he reached out to them.
Pulled them up.
Led them.
And walked forward together.
“It’s really nothing special. A petty, shallow reason.”
“......”
No one could speak.
The weight of emotion in Ludger’s quiet murmuring was something they all felt deeply.
“No. It’s not shallow at all,” Alex said firmly.
“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have made it this far.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
It was then that Phantos, who had been quietly listening, finally spoke.
“That’s surprising. I figured someone like you would have a far grander ambition.”
“Isn’t this enough?”
“Collecting Relics, sure. But your reason for doing it... it’s more modest than I expected.”
“Modest, huh.”
Ludger chuckled.
“Maybe it’s even more modest than you think.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, just talking to myself.”
Phantos sensed it right away.
Ludger was still hiding something more.
“Somehow this turned into a real heart-to-heart conversation.”
Ludger said it with a wry smile, and the others laughed softly.
It had started as a moment to comfort Alex.
Somewhere along the way, it had become a confessional for all of them.
“U-um, I have something I’m curious about.”
Perhaps thinking she wouldn’t get another chance, Bellaruna shot her hand into the air.
“What is it?”
“Well... the Boss knows all our pasts... but to be honest, we don’t know anything about yours.”
Everyone collectively thought, Huh, she’s right.
“Come to think of it, we don’t.”
“Now that I think about it, we really don’t know what the Leader used to do.”
“Doesn’t Hans know?”
“M-me?”
Hans, suddenly put on the spot, broke into a cold sweat.
He looked to Ludger, silently asking for help.
When no reply came, Hans quickly deflected.
“W-well, it’s not like I know everything. And even if I did, it’d be weird for me to blurt it out.”
“Come on, Boss. We’ve come this far together. You could at least tell us.”
Seridan backed Bellaruna up.
“Same here. Honestly, I’ve been dying to know about the Leader’s past.”
“Me too! Me too!” chimed in Alex and Arfa.
“Hmph.”
Even Phantos nodded, accepting the momentum.
“O-of course, the Owner has always supported us, so...”
Only Violetta hesitated, trying to remain loyal to Ludger.
“Violetta. Be honest. You’re curious too, aren’t you? This might be our only chance.”
“...Well, a little...”
Faced with Seridan’s bluntness, even Violetta had to raise the white flag.
Naturally, the atmosphere shifted.
All eyes turned to Ludger.
Moments like this only happened when there were this many people together.
Ludger sighed inwardly.
Just look at those eyes—clearly saying they wouldn’t let him dodge or run away.
If there had been a mistake, it was letting himself get swept up in the emotion and speaking sincerely.
“Well, we’ve come this far. Wouldn’t be right to keep hiding it now.”
“Wait, Boss. Are you seriously going to tell us?”
“What, you think I’d lie? We’re going to be walking together from here on. It’s time you knew.”
At those words, Violetta’s previously cautious eyes lit up.
Phantos, who had feigned indifference, twitched his tall beastkin ears straight up.
“I’d always planned to tell you eventually. So I’ll just say it now.”
Everyone felt sweat forming in their palms.
Why were they so nervous? It wasn’t like this was some life-or-death battle.
But in the hush that descended like morning dew, Ludger finally opened his mouth.
“I was royalty.”
Everyone sucked in a breath.
