The moment I finished my military service, a reincarnation truck ran me over and sent me to a fantasy world.
It was a shame that I had been reincarnated without even getting to see my parents, but still, I was happy enough.
After all, my head was already filled with visions of the happy, happy protagonist's life I had seen in famous novels.
But then......
‘Even so, being reincarnated as a slave is crossing the line......’
There was not even a single grain of rice's worth of romance in the reincarnation I had looked forward to.
Fine, I could accept being born to shitty parents who abandoned me in a forest.
But wasn't it crossing the line by a mile for some bastard worse than a dog to sell a newborn baby to a slave trader for a few coins?
Thanks to that, I was sold from place to place like a piece of junk before I had even put on any real muscle.
I ultimately became a meat-shield soldier in a territory overrun with monsters, but by clinging stubbornly to life, I somehow managed to survive.
“......”
Ivan shed a few tears as he briefly looked back on his past. He had thought he would die after spending his entire life as a meat shield for this godforsaken unit.
‘I guess I'm not meant to die after all.’
After sixteen years of being kicked around, he had finally seized a chance to escape this goddamn cesspit.
“Are you ready?”
As he sank into sentiment while recalling his shitty past, a middle-aged voice came from in front of him.
“Ah, yes!”
Ivan answered loudly, making his voice sound as cute and likable as a sixteen-year-old boy's possibly could.
“You sound confident.”
The middle-aged man spoke with a faint smile. His voice was as friendly as a neighborhood grandfather's, but the presence he gave off sent involuntary chills down Ivan's spine.
The man's identity was every bit as extraordinary as his overwhelming presence.
Ruben Roberto, Director of the Guardian Bureau, an organization under the Imperial Ministry of the Interior that maintained order throughout the vast empire.
In his prime, he had been powerful enough to bisect even a dragon. He had rejected recruitment offers from several renowned institutions and had led the Guardian Bureau for twenty years, making him an extraordinary man in every respect.
And that very Ruben was now testing Ivan to decide whether to recruit him into the Guardian Bureau.
‘I'm fucking nervous.’
He was so tense that his precious little man had shriveled right up.
But he could not afford to make a mistake at what might be the only opportunity of his life.
Joining the Guardian Bureau would make him a genuine civil servant!
The pay was decent, there were all sorts of benefits, and when he retired, the country would even provide a special pension.
‘Maybe I can finally live without a care in the world.’
Ivan gripped his dull-edged sword tightly. As he assumed his stance, he fought to keep the corners of his mouth from rising.
“Your stance is reasonably polished for someone so young. It seems your reputation as the Young Sword Demon wasn't an empty rumor.”
Ruben offered him sincere praise.
Fortunately, the reincarnated Ivan had been born with physical abilities far superior to those of others.
Though only sixteen years old, Ivan was easily stronger than the average adult man, and his talent for swordsmanship was exceptional as well.
After cutting down monster after monster with a body stronger than most people's, Ivan eventually came to be known by those around him as the Young Sword Demon.
‘I never imagined the rumors about me would reach the Director of the Guardian Bureau.’
Ivan shook his head and deliberately humbled himself.
“The title is more than I deserve.”
“Have you ever learned swordsmanship?”
“No.”
Ruben followed up with another question, and Ivan answered at once.
He had not made that up to impress him. As a slave, Ivan had not only been denied swordsmanship lessons; he had been sent out to fight monsters the moment he joined the army.
“I see. I thought there was something rough about your stance.”
“If you give me the opportunity, I will do my utmost to correct it.”
Ivan spoke with desperate sincerity.
‘Please take me with you, even if it's only as an errand boy.’
He was sick and tired of a hopeless life in slavery. Even if he could not become a civil servant, simply escaping slavery would let him live a more comfortable life.
“That depends on you. The test is about to begin, so ready yourself.”
Ruben spoke as he raised his sword. Ivan swallowed hard and nodded.
“The test is simple. From now on, I will launch a total of five sword strikes at you. Dodge all of them, and I'll take you with me. If you fail......”
“If I fail......?”
“Naturally, I won't take you.”
Ruben gave him a mischievous grin and answered firmly.
“Now then, do your best to dodge.”
“Wait......”
SWISH!
Without even giving him time to catch his breath, Ruben suddenly swung his sword at Ivan.
Ivan jumped in fright and sprang backward. Ruben moved with a sharpness utterly unthinkable for a middle-aged man.
Ivan barely avoided Ruben's sword strike by a hair's breadth.
But he could not relax.
“......!”
Ruben's second strike was already driving toward his side.
“Hup!”
Ivan held his breath and leaped upward this time. He tucked his lower body up hard and avoided the sword flying toward his flank.
‘Has that madman gone senile?!’
Ivan stared at Ruben in horror.
If he had failed to dodge either the first or second attack, he would have died on the spot.
This was supposed to be a test, yet the man was actually using killing blows.
Barely swallowing the curse that had almost burst from his throat, Ivan calmed his pounding heart and prepared for the next strike.
He opened his eyes wide and tracked the direction of Ruben's sword.
SWISH!
Ruben's sword came for the space between Ivan's eyebrows, then abruptly changed course toward his abdomen. Ivan's dynamic vision, honed to its limit against monsters, did not lose track of it.
Ivan twisted at the waist to avoid the sword, then countered with a strike of his own.
It was not an impulsive act born of anger.
Now that the test had begun, he could not stop it. In that case, he needed to do something—anything—to make a better impression on Ruben.
“Oh?”
Fortunately, a small sound of admiration escaped Ruben. Ivan gritted his teeth.
He only needed to dodge two more attacks to pass!
Imagining his happy life as a civil servant, he squeezed out every last ounce of strength he had.
At that moment, Ruben murmured quietly.
“You're better than I expected. Then let's see if you can dodge this as well.”
Before the words had even left his mouth, an attack incomparably faster than the previous ones shot out.
Ivan's eyes widened.
The sword strike flying toward his neck had suddenly split into two.
‘What the hell is this now......?’
It happened so abruptly that his body moved before his mind could judge the situation.
He blocked the strike aimed at his neck with his sword and ducked his head, narrowly evading the other.
The sword strike Ivan had avoided slammed into the ground and carved an enormous scar into it.
Clap, clap, clap.
Ruben applauded.
“Congratulations. You pass.”
Ruben's face blossomed into a broad, deeply satisfied smile, but Ivan could not smile at all.
The ground where the sword scar had formed had caved in as though a bomb had exploded there.
Had he tried to block that strike with his sword, both the blade and his neck would have been sliced clean through.
“......”
Ivan's expression stiffened completely.
Ruben, by contrast, spoke calmly as though it were nothing of consequence.
“That power is called aura. You must have heard of it.”
“Ah... yes.”
“Fewer than ten people have ever detected my aura during this test. Your ability exceeds my expectations.”
“I-is... that so......?”
“Indeed it is. You may take pride in yourself.”
“But......”
Unable to suppress the faint laugh escaping him, Ivan asked Ruben a question.
“What would you have done, Director Ruben, if I hadn't dodged your aura?”
“What else? Something terribly unfortunate would have happened.”
“Ah......”
“Well, you dodged it splendidly, so is it really worth worrying about? More importantly, your reaction seems rather muted. You've just been recruited into the Guardian Bureau. Others have collapsed on the spot because they couldn't contain their joy, yet you don't look particularly happy.”
Ivan barely suppressed the fury surging from the depths of his chest.
He had nearly died, and what? He didn't look happy?
‘Goddamn it.’
Those other people who had supposedly collapsed from happiness had probably fallen because they had pissed themselves, not because they were overjoyed.
Much as he wanted to unleash a hearty torrent of curses right then and there.
“I don't like forcing people. If this isn't what you want, I'll have no choice but to withdraw my offer......”
“No! It is my family's... no, I don't have a family, but I will consider it the greatest honor of my life!”
The instant Ruben showed signs of changing his mind, Ivan reversed course without hesitation.
‘Fine. Fuck.’
The desperate one had to endure. What did nearly dying matter?
A peaceful life as a civil servant awaited him from now on.
When he pictured that future with a mind as still as a clear lake, the rage boiling inside him vanished as if by magic.
“Good. Welcome to the Guardian Bureau.”
Ruben nodded in satisfaction and smiled.
“We'll be leaving at once, so pack your belongings and come out.”
***
The dormitory where Ivan lived had always resembled hell.
Sharing a room with twenty men who reeked of shit was torture to begin with. The so-called beds made from bundled straw, along with the rats that cheerfully greeted him from atop them every morning, were nightmares in their own right.
But what tormented him most was the unchanging routine.
As Ivan quietly surveyed his dormitory, he could not stop the tears welling from his eyes.
‘How many times did I decide to end my life in this place......?’
But as of today, his life in this hell was over!
“Salvation comes to those who endure~”
Ivan even hummed cheerfully as he packed in a flash. His luggage amounted to nothing more than a few sets of threadbare clothes and underwear.
He left without a shred of regret. As a final farewell, Ivan spat forcefully on the bed to which he had grown so attached and walked away.
“You're here quickly. Have you packed everything?”
“Yes! I made sure not to leave a single thing behind!”
Ivan answered brightly, his steps so buoyant that he felt he might take flight.
“It's good to hear such a spirited answer. I wonder whether you'll still have that spirit once you get there... No, it's nothing.”
Ruben started to mutter something as he watched the excited Ivan, then stopped himself.
Ivan tilted his head but soon dismissed it as unimportant.
“Then I'll be taking Ivan and leaving. Before that, I've paid the price in full, so I'd like you to hand over his slave contract.”
Ruben gestured to the lord who owned Ivan.
“Would I ever refuse?”
The lord bowed deeply and immediately handed the slave contract to Ruben.
He was a man who could make a mere lord crawl on the ground.
That was Ruben Roberto, Director of the Guardian Bureau.
WHOOSH.
The moment Ruben received the slave contract, he burned it. Ivan felt the spell formula engraved on his chest disappear.
He had always been capable of slipping away under cover of darkness if he chose, but the slave-binding magic engraved into his heart had forced him to remain there until now.
‘Finally... finally... finally......!’
Ivan screamed in triumph inside and gazed at Ruben with an ecstatic expression.
“...That's an unpleasant look.”
“My apologies.”
One remark from Ruben made him compose his expression at once.
“My business here is finished, so I'll be going. Take good care of yourself, my lord. I sincerely hope your name never appears on the Guardian Bureau's list.”
Ruben had delivered it lightly as a joke, but the lord's complexion turned blue-green in an instant.
The Guardian Bureau was an organization capable, when circumstances demanded it, of wielding absolute power even over nobles of the highest renown.
Before leaving, Ivan looked one last time at the comrades with whom he had spent four years.
It was not as though he felt any affection for them. Most had been too busy despising or mocking him for being a slave.
Even so, he deliberately looked at them because...
‘You, you, and you are all dead now. Once I get promoted and come back, I'll—!’
He wanted to firmly commit the faces of everyone who had tormented him to memory. Among them, Ivan glared at one particularly conspicuous face.
The unit commander in charge of Ivan's unit.
The son of a bitch who had tormented Ivan worse than anyone because he knew a slave could not fight back.
When Ivan fixed him with blazing eyes, the unit commander subtly looked away.
‘Pretending not to notice won't save you, you son of a bitch.’
If no one else, he would remember that man. With that vow, Ivan turned away alongside Ruben.
“Ah.”
Before leaving, Ivan cautiously spoke to Ruben.
“I'm sorry, but may I say a final farewell to my comrades?”
“Will it take long?”
“Probably a little while.”
“Then I'll go on ahead. Try to finish quickly.”
“Yes! I won't be long.”
Ruben readily granted Ivan's request.
Ruben set off first, and once he was some distance away, Ivan approached his comrades.
“All right, boys, I'm leaving. I've memorized every bastard who tormented me, so bear that in mind.”
“Ah, Ivan......”
The soldiers caught in Ivan's gaze fidgeted helplessly, unable to get their words out.
“And Commander.”
“Ahem... y-yes.”
When Ivan called to him with a smile, the commander cleared his throat and turned his head.
Ivan could not stop smiling at the man's flustered face.
He slowly approached the commander and whispered quietly into his ear.
“You're dead too, moron. Until I return after making something of myself, do your best to survive here breathing in monster shit.”
The commander's face turning deathly pale in an instant was truly a magnificent sight.