[ Can a cripple become a guard too? ]
An age in which magic and engineering had advanced.
Five years ago. The following question was posted on the Akasha Intranet's [Guard Open Recruitment Exam Prep Board].
The gist of it was this. The poster had badly injured himself as a child and walked with a limp. Could someone like that become a guard?
A number of comments had been posted underneath.
― No lol. You think the Guard is a joke?
― This guy's fucking insane. Say a burglar's snooping around your house. Would you be happy if the guy the Guard sent over was some crippled ret1rd?
― Give up on that dream and go work in a factory lol
― Absolutely impossible. lol
― The Guard's really gone to shit lololol. Now even every useless piece of human garbage is sniffing around here lololololol
Every last response was laced with insults.
Those bastards….
Normally, I would've been depressed all day, but today, I could smile.
Because it had taken me a full five years to leave this reply.
I pushed up my glasses and posted a comment.
― Turns out I can, you fucking bast1rds
That's right.
I, a cripple.
Today, at long last.
[ Guard Open Recruitment Exam Result : Passed ]
After five attempts, I'd finally become a guard!
***
My name is Samael. I am twenty years old.
I was an ordinary young man without any particular dreams.
There was one thing that made me different from most people: I had a disability in my ankle and lived with the help of a cane.
“Hey! There goes that limping bastard.”
“Limp, limp!”
My childhood nickname was Limpy. Everyone made fun of me by imitating the way I walked. Eventually, that childhood came to an end.
But Limpy still had to eat and pay taxes like everyone else. So I got a job at a factory that cleaned magic tools. It was a place where tools imbued with magic and curses were cleaned.
After working at the factory for about three months, I came to a realization.
Working there for the rest of my life probably wasn't going to be possible.
Too many people went insane after being cursed on the job.
“Heeheehee…! Wooheeheeheehee!! Taste my blade! You puppet foes!”
“Aaagh! Uncle Tom's gone crazy!”
A lot of curses affected the mind. Those who became complete wrecks were simply kicked out of the factory. Workplace injuries weren't recognized, either.
It was a pretty unfriendly world for workers.
On top of that.
‘Feels like my eyesight's been getting worse lately….’
After spending years working in a darkroom where suspicious light leaked out, my eyesight had deteriorated rapidly as well.
That was why I wore those expensive glasses despite being so young.
“Hmm… where'd my glasses go?”
Do you know what happens when a cripple has bad eyesight on top of everything else?
“My glasses. My glasses…. I definitely left them here….”
Looking for your glasses gives you a shitty temper, too.
“Glasses. Glasses! Where the hell are my goddamn glasses?! You fucking son of a……!”
Oops. Such foul language.
After throwing a fit alone in my room, I began to feel a sense of crisis. My easygoing personality had been just about my only good point, and even that was starting to fade.
If I stayed at the factory, my eyesight would only get worse.
So I decided to find some direction in life while I was still even a year younger.
What should I become from now on?
Right.
Why not become a guard, something I'd dreamed of for a long time?
“ You want to become a guard?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm… of all the jobs out there, why that one?”
The factory manager narrowed his eyes as he asked.
Well?
If I had to come up with reasons, maybe because it was a stable civil-service job? Because the workload wasn't all that heavy, and even a commoner could make something of himself?
And because, unlike my father, who'd been a bad man, I wanted an honest profession?
Of course, it wasn't easy.
“You're… crippled. What are you going to do if you're a guard? You think pickpockets are going to be crippled too?”
My physical condition alone disqualified me from field duty.
“I'm sorry, but if you wish to enroll at the academy, please learn your letters first.”
And I didn't have the education for desk duty.
Still, I was Samael, a man who'd rise eight times after falling seven.
After failing again and again for five years, I finally became a guard in the spring of my twentieth year.
Surely spring has finally come to my life too, right?
At the time, that was what I'd thought…….
“…Ah, what kind of fucking retard did they let in?”
Reality disagreed.
“Hurry the fuck up, you bastard. Hurry!”
By now, I, Samael, had found myself in a crisis.
I was in danger of being fired before long.
“You can only use one hand because you need the other for your cane? Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
“No, this is fucking ridiculous. What the hell were the examiners thinking, letting someone like that….”
“Hey, Hikan. What the hell are you doing? You can't even manage one subordinate, you bastard!”
To be fair, I felt wronged.
Me, Samael? I wasn't that useless.
For a cripple to qualify for desk duty, he had to place first on the written exam.
And I'd done exactly that.
More than 110,000 people had taken the Empire-wide open recruitment exam, and I'd ranked first among them.
That meant I was prepared.
When it came to desk work, I could easily do the work of two people.
But that alone wasn't enough.
“Hey.”
“Junior Guard Samael!”
SMACK!
When my senior slapped me across the face, my glasses fell to the floor.
I groped around for them.
“Why can't you read the room?”
“…….”
“Isn't having fucked-up legs enough? Are you missing a screw in your head too?”
“…….”
“When the fuck are you quitting, you bastard?!”
“…I'm sorry. I'll work harder.”
“Work harder? Hah…. You know what? At this rate, your performance evaluation's going straight into the gutter and you'll get kicked out of the Guard anyway. You know what you have to do if you want to keep clinging on here?”
My senior, Hikan, pointed at the wanted posters hanging on the wall.
From the top down were wanted criminals with bounties ranging from hundreds to thousands of gold.
Every single one of them was a criminal who roamed the continent committing outrageous atrocities.
And at the very bottom, five people whose bounties were on an entirely different scale had been grouped together.
– Asymmetric Forces of Eden, the Anti-Imperial Violent Organization : Diablo
― Ringleader of the Rebel Group, Lucif : 470,000 G
└ Charges : Serial murder, ringleader of a military rebellion, treason with a foreign power, insurrection, insulting the Imperial Family, and 37 other felonies.
― Serial Killer, Sitri : 55,400 G
└ Charges : Serial murder, treason, theft, and 4 other felonies.
― Warmonger, Porax : 49,700 G
└ Charges : Murder, treason, robbery, property damage, and 15 other felonies.
― Witch, Aribel : 69,700 G
└ Charges : Smuggling and illicit trafficking of weapons and prohibited goods, murder, trafficking in stolen goods, money laundering, tax evasion, and the manufacture and distribution of narcotics.
― Magician, Dantaleon : 41,300 G
└ Charges : Treason, violent crimes under 17 provisions, and murder.
– Diablo, surrender peacefully and come into the light!
– Notice to All Citizens : Please report any information related to Diablo or Eden to your nearest government office. ( Informant Reward : Up to 10,000G )
“You'd have to bring in bastards like these.”
“…….”
“You think you can catch them?”
They were classified as ‘Enemies of the State,’ the most dangerous criminals among all the enemies on the continent.
In other words, they were the vilest and strongest criminals even among the wanted.
I'd seen the evidence photographs on the Akasha Record.
In the case of the serial killer Sitri, human corpses had been piled up like mountains everywhere she'd committed her crimes….
And apparently, if I wanted to stay in the Guard, I had to catch monsters like that.
‘What a fucking joke.’
If you don't want me here, just say you don't want me here.
What's with this bullshit…. Like you could catch them yourself?
“So quit dragging me down and getting me chewed out with you, and fuck off!!”
Yeah.
Can't do that.
I told him that ‘I'd work even, even harder from now on,’ got slapped across the face one more time, and then spent about thirty minutes getting beaten indiscriminately.
All the while, I thought about one thing.
I'm never quitting.
Never!
“Huff, huff… you worthless crippled bastard….”
Hikan panted for breath.
I laughed inwardly.
Water fists.
Cotton fists.
Fucking weakling.
But after my senior left, I had to stop by the outdoor water tap and cough up a gush of blood.
‘Ah, my glasses are cracked too….’
I thought everything was fine.
Apparently, some things weren't as fine as I'd thought.
***
That weekend, I visited my mother's grave for the first time in a while.
Limp, limp….
Leaning on my cane, I limped my way up the mountain.
There wasn't any particular reason.
I just didn't have anywhere else to go, so I came here.
Then I sat in front of the gravestone and stayed there for a long while.
I had nothing to say to my mother, and I wasn't the type to start crying in a place like this.
‘Life….’
It had already been half a year since my appointment.
I'd been working hard in my own way, but apparently, it wasn't enough.
My seniors' harassment got worse with each passing day, and I was slowly wearing down.
They say people become unhappy when they reach for things beyond their station.
Was that what I was doing?
‘Samael. You're going to have a hard life.’
Suddenly, the factory manager's words echoed in my ears.
‘Is it because I'm disabled?’
‘That's part of it, but it's because you can never become a hero.’
‘Pardon?’
‘A male's life is a lineup. From heroes all the way down to those who can never become heroes. Every bit of a male's worth is decided by where he stands in that line. But what about you?’
‘…….’
‘Ever heard the life story of a crippled hero?’
I don't know any crap like that.
Honestly, I don't care either.
I never wanted to be a hero.
I know my place.
I just want to live a decent life.
Just live about as well as everyone else….
Was even that supposed to be this difficult?
“……I guess I buttoned the first button wrong.”
And every button after it had been pushed out of place until I'd reached this age.
No.
If anything, I wished they really were buttons.
You could undo those and button them properly again from the beginning.
But there was no restarting life from the beginning.
Come to think of it, even that hypothetical was a little questionable for me.
Even if I could start over from the beginning, I'd still be a cripple.
Did that mean the real problem was that I'd been born this way…?
That was when it happened.
I stared into empty air and murmured.
“……Oh, Mom? Is that you?”
There was nothing there….
I'd just gotten bored sitting there alone….
“…Fuck.”
Usually, in storybooks, this is when there'd be a little CHIME♬ and your mother would suddenly shimmer into view and go, ‘My son… blah blah blah….’
My mother had nothing to say.
Still, just being here gave me strength.
Like back then, when her silent embrace alone had been enough to comfort me.
I used to come once a year, every time I failed the open recruitment exam.
Was this already my third visit this year?
“……I'm still going to try my best.”
Limp, limp.
As I made my way down the mountain with my cane, I thought to myself.
Let's give it another shot.
Keep a bright expression so I look naturally cheerful.
Stay clean and neat, and maintain my dignity.
Don't shirk work. Work hard and earn recognition.
With the three sacred treasures of a rookie employee held close to my heart.
The next morning.
I went back to work at the Guard.
Limp, limp….
.
.
.
Just as my life was sinking into a swamp and dying, I encountered another enormous turning point.
The gist of it was this.
Our Gesen Provincial Guard, a place that only held petty criminals, received the biggest heavyweight in its entire history.
“Prisoner No. 1208. Get in here!”
A being whom the whole world had been searching for with fire in its eyes, yet whose whereabouts no one had been able to uncover…….
The most dangerous being on this continent had appeared.
At the time, no one in the Guard knew that fact.
Not a single person.
Including me.
“1208! Stand over here!”
My entire story begins with my meeting him.