“It’s true that if you want to succeed in anything, you can’t be lazy, …… right?”

Salam shook his head and whispered. Al-Faisal, strolling and chatting with his assistant a few steps ahead, surely wouldn’t hear, but it was loud enough for the Captain following behind to catch. He glanced back, giving a subtle look. Salam lowered his voice further midway.

“Among talented people, there are some who are quite lazy in their daily lives, but among talented people who lead others, it’s certainly difficult to find a lazy one……”

Christoph’s words became vague, unclear due to the heavy fatigue weighing on him. Indeed, mornings, especially near dawn, were always unpleasant. It was slightly different from drowsiness, as if his mind was shrouded in fog.

Al-Faisal was a diligent man. He had heard he’d been like that since he was young. Even now, having aged and retreated from the front lines, he wasn’t lazy at all. Unless there was something special, he always woke up at 5 in the morning for a walk, and he maintained this habit whether he was resting at home or traveling.

“Perhaps that’s how one succeeds.”

“Probably…… I gave up inheriting Tarten because I wasn’t confident I could wake up consistently in the morning.”

“What?” – Salam chuckled. It seemed he thought it was a joke. Of course, it wasn’t the only reason, but it wasn’t entirely a joke either, though Christoph didn’t bother explaining.

Christoph knew another person as diligent as the old man walking ahead. It was the man he had met in the hotel lounge before leaving. Although he had certainly gone to bed later than Christoph, he had woken up looking refreshed and was drinking coffee.

“Haven’t you slept?”

“No. I slept as usual.”

Christoph, still drowsy with half-opened eyes, accepted the coffee Richard offered. He thought to himself: ‘He’s always been like this, so it’s not surprising.’

He had always been the same in Dresden. Since he was a child. Richard went to bed later and woke up earlier than others. He never wasted his waking hours either. Even Christoph, Richard’s rival and someone with a very bad personal relationship with him, vaguely thought that he would be the one to inherit Tarten.

Come to think of it, the old man also always woke up early and spent time in the library before breakfast. Christoph thought he had made the right decision to give up inheriting Tarten early on.

“……Have you showered?”

Christoph, a bit more awake after drinking the coffee, looked at Richard, who was only wearing a bathrobe, with a puzzled expression. Richard’s hair was dry. He looked equally puzzled and shook his head. “No.”

“Then why are you dressed like that?”

“How slovenly,” – Christoph said with a frown, and Richard seemed to finally understand what he was talking about. He grimaced for a moment, then shrugged: “I just woke up.”

“Besides, Christoph, the proper attire for bed isn’t pajamas, it’s being naked.”

“Whether sleeping alone or with someone else,” – Richard said while pointedly looking at Christoph’s pajamas. He even ignored Christoph’s retort: “Don’t confuse the bed with the bathroom!”

“…….”

Christoph frowned as he recalled, if he’d had a little more time, he could have refuted his bed = naked theory. He could imagine how lazily and sloppily he slept.

“Despite his outwardly serious lifestyle……”

Christoph thought it was just like his personality, pretending to be kind and friendly but actually having a nasty side.

“Indeed. I was a bit surprised too. I didn’t expect him to fall for the trap. But why choose such an amateur?”

“……Choose what?”

Christoph’s absentminded question received a reply from Salam. And that reply was completely off-topic, so Christoph blinked for a moment, then asked again. It seemed the subject had changed while he was lost in thought. Moreover, Salam was looking at him with a bewildered expression.

“I’m talking about Rosio……. Where did you overhear that from?”

“Who’s that?”

“Who’s that…… He’s the guy who swung a knife at you yesterday and got stabbed in return. Even if he’s not in the same group, he’s still a colleague. You should know his name.”

“Do you know my name?” – After hearing Salam grumble: “Please don’t ask for my full name,” Christoph remembered what he had forgotten and muttered absentmindedly: “Oh, oh.” Debbie, after taking the man to the hospital, had quietly told him. As expected, it seemed he had been bought by Rashid.

“Anyway, be careful. It seems they won’t leave you alone.”

“Besides them, there are plenty of others who want to pick a fight with me.”

“…… I know.”

When Christoph replied nonchalantly, Salam seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he just clicked his tongue, unable to think of anything to say. He had, after all, witnessed Christoph survive up until now.

It wasn’t anything new. Christoph had been used to hostile gazes since he was young. It was due to the competitive environment surrounding the Tarten inheritance, and also because his personality from a young age hadn’t been docile. And now, it had become as natural as breathing. The wary glances, the whispers behind his back, the presences that lingered and then disappeared.

Even with colleagues in the same group, it was rare for anyone to formally tell him to ‘be careful’ like Salam. Except for Debbie and Jack, those who frequently worked in the same group as him due to work style hardly ever spoke to him casually, even just on a social level.

He didn’t mind much either. He had never cared about such things. Even if someone targeted him, he was usually the one to defeat them, and it was rare for him to be defeated, but in those cases, it was likely the opponent was someone he could hardly go against from the start.

Sometimes there were troublesome cases he couldn’t handle carelessly, but in most of those cases, it wasn’t because Christoph was inferior to his opponent. Rather, most cases involved external factors. Therefore, this time wouldn’t be a problem either.

……He had thought so.

“Christoph, wait a moment.”

After the half-hour walk ended and Al-Faisal returned to his room safely, Christoph was about to return to his own room, instead of the indoor gym as usual, when the Captain, after calmly closing the door, walked over to Christoph and began to speak.

“That guy decided to return to Saudi Arabia without joining the group. He’ll have to rest for a month or two.”

Christoph looked at the captain who was speaking in a very indifferent tone and with the same indifferent expression. Christoph’s face clearly said: ‘So?’.

“He said that Assar is in Vienna.”

The Captain clicked his tongue, but Christoph only raised an eyebrow slightly. He felt like he’d heard the name somewhere, but he couldn’t recall as it wasn’t an important figure. The Captain frowned as he read Christoph’s expression.

“He’s Prince Rashid’s son. He’s a good-for-nothing who only causes trouble and squanders money on frivolous pleasures, so Rashid doesn’t like him much either. Though he’s an illegitimate child with a foreigner and has no right to the throne, he’s still a member of the royal family.”

At this point, Christoph finally understood and nodded indifferently: “Oh.”

“So, he’ll attack me?”

“Don’t say it so lightly. I said he’s a member of the royal family.”

The Captain frowned and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Moreover, he’s getting older, his foundation isn’t solid, so his position is quite precarious, and he seems to want to gain his father’s trust.”

“The fact that he wants to harm others to gain trust is wrong from the start. That’s why his father doesn’t like him.”

Christoph snorted and muttered. Salam, who was surreptitiously eavesdropping on the conversation, also clicked his tongue in exasperation.

“No matter what kind of person he is, if we provoke him, it will become a political headache.”

“Depending on the situation and the degree, but probably, ……nine times out of ten, it will.”

The Captain stared intently at Christoph and said. Salam also nodded as he looked at Christoph. While the two of them looked at him with concern, Christoph remained nonchalant.

Given this man’s circumstances and the extent of Christoph’s involvement, he wouldn’t be let off easily. That’s why the Captain – who usually overlooked most things to a moderate extent – was trying to warn Christoph.

“Moreover, no matter what you think, remember your background is also a factor. There’s no guarantee they won’t exploit that if something happens.”

As the Captain was about to conclude his cautionary words with a gentle: “Okay?”, one of their colleagues, who was walking briskly behind them, suddenly spoke up.

“With such a prestigious family, what are you afraid of? Even if you beat a royal family member to death or stab a colleague with a knife, look, aren’t you still living well? It’s good to be a rich young master.”

The man scoffed brazenly as he walked past Christoph and glanced at him. He was in the same group as the man Christoph had stabbed yesterday. He already had a grudge against wealthy people.

Christoph gave him a cold glare, then tilted his head and spoke slowly.

“I don’t know since when a family that thrives on gossip became so prestigious, but the reason you’re saying that without daring to attack me isn’t because of my family, it’s simply because you’re an idiot.”

Salam calmly placed a hand on his forehead as Christoph muttered derisively: “He’s not confident he can win head-on, so he only knows how to bark from the sidelines.”

“It’s because you keep provoking them like that that you have more and more enemies……” 

Salam whispered like a sigh. At the same time, the man, as if enraged, suddenly spun around and strode towards Christoph.

“I had no intention of provoking him. What’s the fun in hitting a sandbag?”

Christoph muttered as he dodged a fist swinging towards his face. The man, not nearly as daunting as a sandbag, was immediately struck in the face by the butt of the pistol Christoph had just pulled from his pocket.

However indifferent and harmless it may have seemed, in the hands of Christoph, who never showed mercy or restraint, the man’s nose began to bleed profusely. His lip was also torn, and he’d surely lost a few teeth. (Later, when recalling that moment, Salam said that Christoph’s emotionless face, splattered with blood on his face and hand, was more terrifying than the man’s scream.)

“…… Dumbass.”

Christoph looked down at the man cowering before him and muttered. Then he frowned as he saw the blood on his hand.

“Salam, wet wipes.”

“I don’t have any. What am I supposed to do if you suddenly ask for wet wipes in the middle of a hallway……”

Salam’s flustered voice came from behind as he hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief. However, a small packet was placed in Christoph’s hand. A wet wipe. And a quiet voice spoke at the same time.

“A cold wet wipe is fine, right?”

Christoph paused for a moment while wiping the blood, then calmly turned to look. Richard was there.

“Even though you said you had so much work to do that you couldn’t sleep, you still had time to come here and watch the commotion.”

“I’m not heartless enough to ignore the screams outside my room and just focus on work. I didn’t expect such an unscrupulous person who looks down on everyone and easily spills someone else’s blood.”

“So, you even brought wet wipes with you?”

“If you’re going to keep walking around like that, give it back. Well, anyway, getting blood on you is a daily occurrence for you, so it’s probably nothing new. It suits you.”

Richard snorted coldly and held out his hand, but Christoph ignored him and continued wiping his hand. Just as Richard scoffed: “With a face like a Dalmatian* covered in red spots,” Christoph sullenly wiped his face with the clean side of the wipe.

Richard looked down at the man clutching his face and groaning. He shifted his gaze to Christoph, who had finished wiping the blood from his hands and face, and was now wiping the blood off the butt of his pistol.

“A broken nose and a few teeth…… If you had used your bare hands, it wouldn’t have come to this, but your short temper, your aversion to physical contact with others, still hasn’t changed. Can’t that mental illness be cured?”

Richard clicked his tongue softly. Christoph glared at him for a moment, then said in an irritated voice.

“What do you mean by provoking someone with a mental illness like that?”

“Provoking? Did I say anything wrong?”

“It’s not just wrong words that are provocative.”

Christoph threw the wipe away. Richard easily caught it, folded it neatly, and said calmly in a sarcastic tone: “If you don’t like it, don’t cause this kind of trouble within earshot.” Then he looked up and greeted the awkwardly standing Captain next to him and Salam, who was trying to help the fallen man up, in turn: “Good morning”, he said politely and gently.

The Captain scratched his head, looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then nodded in response to the greeting and looked at Christoph.

“Anyway, don’t ignore what I said, and get going. We’ll depart for the convention center in three and a half hours, so assemble at nine o’clock.”

The Captain gestured to Salam and prepared to leave, then walked towards the man. The man, helped up by Salam, slightly lifted his bloodied face and glared fiercely at Christoph.

“A PSYCHO?! THAT GUY IS A SERIAL KILLER! A CRAZY MURDERER WHO ENJOYS HURTING PEOPLE! HE’S NOT JUST A PSYCHO, HE’S INSANE! SOMEONE LIKE THAT SHOULD BE LOCKED UP IN PRISON FOR LIFE! HE SHOULD DIE!”

Christoph just glanced at the man yelling furiously, then turned away. Richard, who was about to return to his room, also watched the man for a moment before turning to Christoph and nodding. 

“We have three hours left, enough time to change out of bloodstained clothes and take a shower.”

The man continued to yell, his mouth full of blood.

“Just live your life stuffed with drugs, you damn addict! With that pretty face of yours, you should just let filthy beggars rape you to death, crying and enduring it, while suffering from that touch-averse mental illness! Hmph, neglected by your own mother since childhood, so you grew up to be like this, huh?!”

Richard’s footsteps stopped.

Christoph continued walking impassively as if he hadn’t heard anything, only realizing Richard had fallen behind after taking a few more steps, then glancing back.

Richard silently looked down at the man without saying a word. The man glared intensely at Christoph, his ragged, blood-mixed breaths coming in gasps, then, sensing Richard’s gaze looking down at him, his eyes widened as he looked at Richard. Then he froze, holding his breath and shrinking back. Both Salam and the Captain, who were standing next to the man, also fell silent.

“Knowing your own capabilities, it would turn out like this, yet you still let your anger flare up, insisting on getting the last word in, and then unable to bear your own rage, you end up like this. Being called a brain-dead isn’t unwarranted……”

Richard slowly spoke. His low voice was chillingly cold. It was like slowly pouring ice water into one’s heart.

“No matter how stupid you are, you should know to watch your mouth. Next time, it might not just be broken teeth or a nose, but your head might fly off. If you’re not the kind of psycho who doesn’t care about increasing his enemies, then you’ll just have to live your whole life in fear and anxiety.”

The words were delivered in his usual gentle tone, but no one dared to say something. Amongst his colleagues, who were watching him with pale faces, too afraid to even blink, the man could only stare wide-eyed at him with a blanched face.

After he finished speaking, Richard was silent for a moment, then tilted his head slightly. He didn’t take his eyes off the man. As if considering whether to stop at just words, or……, he looked down with cold, emotionless eyes, like a reptile’s, truly contemplating what to do next.

But Richard’s silence was broken by a cold voice.

“If you’re going to keep at it, give me your room key. I need to shower.”

Christoph was holding out his hand. His expression was as indifferent and cold as usual, only with a slight crease between his eyebrows.

Richard silently looked at Christoph, then sighed. He glanced at the man once more and turned away. He started walking again.

Christoph followed behind Richard, one step behind, heading towards the room without looking back. Finally, they entered a door not too far away at the end of the hallway.

When the door closed, the sounds from the hallway outside were blocked. It was a thick door, enough to keep the screaming outside from being too bothersome.

Christoph took off his outer jacket and tossed it into the laundry bag. Although it was a dark color and not easily noticeable, he could still smell the faint scent of blood, indicating quite a bit had splattered on it. When he looked in the mirror by the door, he saw his face, despite having wiped it with a wet wipe, was still dotted with red. Christoph, who had maintained an indifferent expression, finally frowned with displeasure.

“If you don’t want to look like a crazy murderer, you should hurry up and wash up. No matter how ‘pretty’ your face is, do you think it still looks good covered in blood?”

Christoph raised an eyebrow as he looked at Richard, who had said that coldly.

“Seems like that comment bothered you quite a bit. It’s funny, though—those words weren’t directed at you, nor did I say them, yet you glare at me. What’s even more ridiculous is that someone like you, who doesn’t hesitate to spew words a hundred times more venomous, isn’t qualified to react like that, don’t you think?”

As Christoph looked at him with a puzzled expression, as if asking: ‘Why are you snapping at me? Why are you irritated?’, Richard looked back at him with a sharp gaze.

“I don’t care. Whether you’re unscrupulous, have haphephobia, or have a shitty personality…… I’m going crazy over you, I want you so much I don’t know what to do with myself. To the point that I rush out the moment I hear a little scream.”

Christoph fell silent. A flicker of bewilderment crossed his impassive face as he couldn’t immediately refute that illogical and unreasonable argument. But in contrast, Richard looked at him resolutely, without hesitation or embarrassment.

‘Just because you’re going crazy, does that mean you can spew venomous words?’; ‘Then what about the three venomous lines you just spouted?’; ‘Is there any crazy person in the world who speaks so calmly?’…… These questions mixed together, making Christoph unsure where to even begin. His lips moved slightly a few times as if to say something, but then, feeling irritated with himself, he furrowed his brows.

“How do you know that guy would actually do that?”

“Are you crazy? Then even more so.”

Richard chuckled as if in disbelief, then started tapping his fingers on the table as if agitated just thinking about it. He tapped quite forcefully with his fingertips.

“I know you have a lot of enemies around you. With your erratic personality, it would be strange if you didn’t have enemies. But at the very least, I won’t stand idly by when someone says things like that in front of me. I’m even angry at you for silently listening to those words.”

Christoph wanted to say: ‘Take a look at your own behavior before saying such things’, but he stayed silent, thinking he would only get another strange argument like: ‘I’m allowed to.’

He felt strangely perplexed.

He recalled his words, that he couldn’t hold back the things he wanted to say any longer. And at the same time, he vaguely realized that he would continue saying those things, little by little, at different points in his life. Without giving Christoph a chance to refute them.

Christoph just stared at him with mixed feelings of anger, confusion, and incomprehension. But Richard, seemingly unaware of what was going on in Christoph’s head, just jerked his chin towards the bathroom with a dissatisfied look. And with his next words, Christoph instantly forgot all those complicated thoughts.

“Go wash that dirty face. It’s filthy.”

It was the first time he had heard that in his life.

‘Filthy, me?’

Christoph had uttered those words countless times but had never heard them directed at himself, so he was quite shocked that day when he heard them, though he’d never thought of himself as someone with obsessive compulsive disorder.