Free Web NovelChapter 5: No ego
"Execute him?!" Nora reacted sharply to Ari’s suggestion, her voice laced with sudden panic.
’This is bad. I need to come up with a contingency plan immediately,’ Ruthless analyzed, his gaze narrowing slightly behind his mask of innocence. ’I didn’t expect to run into this level of hostility right out of the gate. But looking closely at the data... this Ari has an intelligence of 25. Before this, Nora and Yara only had 15. That marginal difference must be why she exhibits a baseline layer of caution that the other two completely lacked.’
"Forgive me, but is it really possible to just execute someone right away simply because I might be a spy?" Ruthless spoke up, pitching his voice to sound fragile, trembling with feigned terror. "Wouldn’t it be better to report me to the Princess first?"
Ari did not react outwardly to his plea. Her expression remained stone-faced, cold, and entirely detached as she looked down at him.
"I don’t want to bother the Princess over trivial matters," she stated bluntly.
"But surely, just killing someone immediately... it is immoral, isn’t it?" he pressed, playing the part of a naive child clinging to a broken societal concept.
Instead of answering, Ari began to close the distance between them, stepping forward with a heavy, deliberate stride. The murderous intent rolling off her was palpable. Ruthless immediately dialed up his performance, letting his eyes widen and his shoulders shake with simulated fright.
"Boy, don’t forget that you are like a fluffy puppy in this world," Ari sneered, looming over him. "By the look of it, you’re a pure one who hasn’t seen cruelty and immorality with your own eyes."
’Amusing,’ Ruthless thought, completely unbothered.
"Nevertheless, I do not trust you," Ari commanded, her voice dropping into a harsh, aggressive register. "Bow your head before me!"
Sensing the immediate danger, Nora nervously tried to intervene on his behalf. "Hey, Ari, this is going a bit too far..." she started to protest. It was obvious she didn’t want to see the boy she had "saved" humiliated, but Ari cut her off with a sharp glare.
"I don’t care. Do what I said!" Ari barked, her eyes boring into Ruthless with a fierce, frigid authority.
’Let’s run a quick risk assessment,’ Ruthless calculated, his mind moving with absolute clarity. ’Currently, I am threatened with immediate execution. The probability of her following through is high—or it could be a psychological bluff. Regardless, the most efficient protocol is to plan for the absolute worst-case scenario. Relying on Nora is useless; she lacks the authority to override a guard. To survive, I need to get into the good graces of those with actual status as soon as possible. Therefore, only one viable path remains.’
Having calculated the highest percentage of survival, Ruthless acted.
He dropped to his knees. Without a single moment of hesitation, he lowered his upper body all the way to the pristine white floor, bowing his head deeply before Ari’s boots. Because his face was pressed toward the ground, he couldn’t see her reaction.
’It seems women in this world prefer submissive men who offer zero resistance,’ he noted, his internal state perfectly flat. ’If that’s the baseline psychology, playing the role of an obedient dog is the most efficient path to achieving my objective. Later, I will need to rigorously study the core personalities of the princesses and queens.’
"That’s enough. Raise your head and stand up," Ari’s voice echoed from above, the sharp edge of her hostility slightly blunted.
Ruthless stood up instantly, his movements fluid and perfectly compliant as he looked back at the guard. Ari’s face remained entirely unchanged, but when he glanced at Nora, her expression had dramatically shifted. Her eyes held a mixture of deep disappointment and profound pity.
’She feels pity because, by her flawed logic, I have just been stripped of my dignity,’ Ruthless scoffed internally. ’How sentimental. If it serves my ultimate goal, I am entirely prepared to be humiliated for years. Pride is a useless variable. It is the exact emotional flaw that prevents inferior players from winning on the chessboard, causing them to make inefficient moves.’
In truth, Ruthless possessed no ego to bruise. Dropping to his knees didn’t trigger a single spark of shame or anger; it was merely a tactical maneuver executed to preserve his asset—his life. He harbored absolutely no desire for petty revenge, discarding the foolish mindset of "I’ll make you pay for this in the future" before it could even form. Wasting cognitive energy on vengeance without a guaranteed profit margin was a completely unproductive allocation of resources.
The tense silence stretched for a moment, filled only by the distant murmur of the city and the howling wind, before Ari finally spoke.
"I know that almost all spies from rival continents hold an immense amount of contempt for us, just as we do for them," Ari explained, her posture relaxing into a determined stance. "Out of love for our homeland, neither we nor they would ever lower ourselves to our knees. But it appears you truly are not a spy. Since you lack that spine, we are going to the Princess. She will decide your fate."
’It isn’t love for a homeland,’ Ruthless noted silently, a ghost of a smirk hidden behind his blank face. ’It’s a fatal attachment to your own ego. You are simply terrified of having your pride shattered in front of an enemy. That is your stupidity, and ultimately, it will be your vulnerability.’
Ari stepped closer, pulling a pair of heavy metal handcuffs from her tactical pouch. She caught his wrists and clicked them into place.
’I don’t see the tactical necessity of restraining a demographic that is already establishing itself as physically pathetic, but I suppose it satisfies their standard formalities.’
With his hands bound, they finally breached the perimeter and entered the city of Syoga. The scale of the settlement was massive. Immediately past the threshold lay a sprawling, chaotic bazaar packed with vendors shouting over crowds, selling practically any commodity imaginable.
"The Princess doesn’t stay confined to a single estate," Ari said unexpectedly, looking around the crowded thoroughfare. "We don’t have her current coordinates."
Nora instantly chimed back into the conversation, the vibrant, oblivious smile returning to her face as if she had successfully wiped the awkward humiliation from her short-term memory.
"Then maybe we should ask old Koro the butcher?" she suggested. "He usually keeps tabs on her whereabouts almost all the time."
"Good idea," Ari agreed briefly.
They pushed forward through the dense matrix of sights and sounds. The atmosphere was saturated with the heavy, rich aromas of the marketplace. Children darted between stalls playing games, while parents managed transactions at nearby storefronts. To their left, a vendor was preparing hot, intricate dishes that smelled magnificent.
’I will need to acquire sustenance later,’ Ruthless noted, his biological systems reminding him of his baseline needs.
As the night deepened, massive torches along the pathways flared to life. They didn’t burn with normal wood or oil; the fire was blindingly bright, radiating a clean, pure illumination that left no smoke.
’Is this fueled by an anomaly? Some kind of magic?’ he questioned, filing the observation away.
Finally, they navigated to a large, open-air stall.
"Hey, hi, Koro!" Nora called out cheerfully, approaching a thickset man who was aggressively preparing meat behind a wooden counter. "We’re looking for the Princess regarding an official matter. Do you happen to have her current location?"
Koro looked to be about forty years old, sporting deep, sun-darkened skin and a thick, rugged beard. Surprisingly, when he spoke, his voice was remarkably soft and gentle, a complete contrast to his imposing, violent appearance.
"Hey, hi, Nora. How are you?" the butcher asked, breaking into a warm smile. "Did you manage to secure that tiger?"
"I encountered it, but capturing it alive didn’t work out—I accidentally killed it, haha," she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck with a look of mild disappointment.
"Just what was to be expected from a top student of the Vizentia Academy!" Koro laughed.
"Oh stop, you’re just praising me..." Nora giggled, her ego thoroughly fed.
’Vizentia Academy,’ Ruthless noted, his mind categorizing the term. ’Highly probable that it represents a prestigious institutional training ground for their military assets.’
"As for the Princess, yes, I know where she is," Koro continued, leaning over the counter. "Right now, she’s over at the business district. I heard there was some kind of operational disruption there, and she’s currently resolving the issue personally."
"Oh, I see. Thanks for the tip, Koro! We’re off then, we have urgent business!"
With their destination locked in, the trio turned away from the market stalls and began heading toward the towering spires of the business district, step by step.
