The beginning was simple.
The Demon Dragon descended, and the continent was engulfed in war.
That was all.
That armies were routed, that corpses were used as firewood, that castle walls crumbled like dust—those were merely superfluous afterthoughts, dangling behind the outcome like a tail.
They said war was the cradle of heroes.
It was true.
A woodcutting axe just over a meter long. That was how it started.
One day, I came home with a full load of firewood on my back and found that a monster had hacked my family to pieces.
The memory of something bursting out of me at that moment was still vivid.
When I finally came to my senses, what I found in front of me was a monster crushed beyond recognition.
Ah, there was one more thing.
The fearful, awed gazes of the kingdom's soldiers who had arrived too late.
It wasn't hard to guess that I would be conscripted then and there and dragged to the front lines.
I had no reason to refuse, either.
Setting aside all the other monsters, my thirst for revenge against the Demon Dragon, the greatest culprit of all, was already beyond control.
I was swept up in the war, and blood-reeking days followed one after another.
It was one day while I was fighting grotesque monsters, bleeding all the while, as though it were part of my daily routine.
“Serviceable.”
On the battlefield, after a fierce battle had ended, someone spoke to me.
I had just split a monster with three heads like I was chopping firewood.
As I wiped the blood from my cheek and turned my head, I saw a man soaked in blood just like me.
The only difference was that the silver breastplate he wore was shining dazzlingly. Engraved with golden laurels as if touched by a master craftsman's hand, that armor was the attire that symbolized a knight.
Sweeping back his sweat-soaked golden hair, he beckoned to me.
“Come here.”
Knights and monsters were adversaries who coveted each other's lives, but even they had something in common.
They both treated a soldier's life like that of a fly.
Disobeying a knight was no different from suicide disguised as someone else's doing.
When I reluctantly approached him, the knight felt every inch of my body, then glanced at the monster I had split apart and nodded.
“I am Knight Eldred.”
Having given his name, he continued without waiting for a reply.
“What is your unit?”
“I'm with the 12th Infantry Unit, though.”
“Well, that will not matter once you become my squire. Report as such and come find me.”
A squire, out of nowhere?
But I had no right to say no.
And just like that, I became Eldred's squire. On the battlefield, I guarded his back without fail, and during rest, I took on all his chores. I was with him for his every move.
That was when I first learned how to maintain a sword and armor.
Once, after a battle, I carelessly tossed his sweat- and blood-soaked armor by a stream and got a brutal kick for it. Eldred raged, snarling.
“Use oil to clean it, you idiot.”
“We don't have any.”
“Then collect your own piss and use that!”
For needlessly talking back, I got kicked by Eldred once more.
“You son of a bitch! In battle, your gear is no different from your life. I am angry because you treated it carelessly. And this is a mindset you should rightly learn as well.”
Come to think of it, unlike ordinary knights, Eldred maintained his own sword and armor personally.
Coming from a man like that, it made sense. On the battlefield, you could say your gear was your life. And handling that life carelessly certainly wouldn't be right.
Anyway, that was how I became Eldred's squire and came to fight alongside him at the heart of the battlefield.
Of course, it wasn't without its dangers.
A large monster. That is, it was when a monster appeared with the body of a black bull and the maw of a lizard, easily more than a dozen meters in size.
The soldiers scattered in terror before its overwhelming bulk, and I, too, was unconsciously backing away.
Someone stepped forward.
It was Knight Eldred.
With the corners of his mouth slightly raised, he pointed his sword at the monster.
Soon, his eyes began to burn blue. The blue light pouring ceaselessly from his eyes created an indescribable atmosphere all on its own.
At the same time, shouts erupted all across the battlefield.
- A knight! We have a knight!
- Hold the line! Don't fall back!
Against the backdrop of the commanders' frenzied voices, Eldred charged out.
Like a mountain goat scaling a cliff, Eldred bounded up the monster's body in an instant, all the way to its shoulder.
Then, after steadying himself, he gripped his sword, wreathed in blue aura, with both hands and swung.
It was almost laughable.
Scales that looked as though they wouldn't take even a scratch no matter how hard you hacked at them with an axe were cut through as limply as soft cloth.
THUD!
The headless monster's massive body collapsed limply, kicking up a cloud of dust.
And Eldred, standing tall atop that fallen body, seemed to be proclaiming with his whole being what a knight was.
The legion roared at the sight.
The drums and horns joined in, thundering across the battlefield, and that day's battle was crowned with humanity's victory.
But the war was long.
Even after Eldred displayed his godlike might that day, several victories and several defeats followed in a tense back-and-forth.
The knights, Eldred included, were certainly exceptional, but not enough to end this grueling war itself.
Before I knew it, the 12th Infantry Unit, my original unit, was gone. The remaining troops were reorganized, and the legion's infantry units were reduced to seven.
The food on the table changed, too.
Since I always prepared Eldred's meals, I noticed that the spread once full of meat and wine had at some point turned into bread and thin stew.
I also noticed that the shadows on Eldred's always-neat face had deepened.
One day, as I lived with that slowly creeping unease.
Eldred called me out to the barracks training grounds late at night.
“Watch and follow.”
Eldred slowly drew his sword. Then he swung it lightly.
From the middle upward, from top to bottom, and then horizontally as he turned his body.
Even though he swung lightly, I could feel restrained power in each transition. Afterward, Eldred gave me a look as if telling me to try, and I performed what he had shown me as closely as I could.
“......Hmm.”
Eldred came over and corrected my stance for each movement, tapping my arm or kicking my shin as needed.
“You are putting too much strength into it.”
Eldred's teaching was harsh. If I made even the slightest mistake, he didn't hesitate to kick me.
Driven by the stubbornness born from rolling on the ground, I swung my sword ever more precisely.
Even so, there was no end to Eldred's dissatisfaction.
“You half-witted brat, a sword is just a sword. It all depends on how you wield it!”
How many months passed like that?
For the first time, instead of curses or kicks, Eldred let out a small, incredulous laugh.
“You monstrous bastard.”
Another half year passed after that.
Honestly, for such a long war, those were pretty good days.
By day, I killed monsters, and by night, I learned the sword from Eldred.
I had more than enough real combat experience. Funnily enough, there were even times I looked forward to battles, wondering how I could put what Eldred taught me to use.
One day, while I was swinging my sword until the blisters on my hands burst, Eldred asked with an uncharacteristically serious expression.
“Where did you say you were born?”
“The Reblia Mountains.”
“Not the stinking place you rolled around in. I mean where you were truly born.”
“That's...... I don't know?”
“Are you an orphan?”
“I have a mother. Though she's passed away.”
“It is an age when that is true of everyone. Did she not tell you anything in particular?”
“I didn't even get to hear her last words.”
“Is that so? How very strange.”
What was so strange about it?
That aside, the war situation only grew worse as time passed.
Accordingly, Eldred's face grew darker by the day. After that, he would often ask me questions while thoroughly drunk.
“What did you do before you came to the battlefield?”
“I just lived in the mountains. I cut down trees and made charcoal.”
“Ridiculous. A charcoal burner who can read and write? And what about that accent?”
“My mother taught me.”
“At this point, I am more curious about that woman you call your mother than about you.”
After that, whenever Eldred drank, he wanted to hear what kind of life I had lived before the war broke out, treating it as something to go with his drinks.
Every time, the conversation ended with him being suspicious of me. Of course, I had no idea what was so strange.
Then one day, Eldred, who had set out with a detached unit to cut off the monsters' retreat, did not return.
That day, too, I was sitting idly in front of the tent, waiting to learn the sword once Eldred returned.
A man whose right shoulder ended in empty space approached. The breastplate he wore was the same as Eldred's.
“Are you Eldred's squire?”
To the weary question, I calmly asked in return.
“Is he dead?”
“Yes. It was a trap. Eldred opened a path of retreat. The fool. As if anyone will remember him for sacrificing himself like that.......”
Tsk, tsk. Clicking his tongue, the knight suddenly looked at his own torn-off right arm and let out a sigh. Then he beckoned to me.
“Eldred had last words.”
“What were they?”
“He was curious about your name.”
Only then did I remember that I had never told Eldred my name.
There was nothing particularly strange about it. That was all our relationship amounted to.
Eldred had always called me things like ‘squire,’ ‘you,’ and ‘you brat.’
But at the end, he had been curious about my name. What had he been feeling?
“It's Riyan.”
“Good, Riyan. You will succeed Eldred. It was requested by a knight of the kingdom in return for service paid with his life, so it will be honored without fail. Kneel, Riyan.”
Eldred's request?
When I knelt, what followed was a rough slap.
After striking my cheek with his one remaining arm, the left, he began to recite something with an indifferent face.
Something about upholding chivalry, protecting the subjects, pursuing justice, punishing injustice...... Of course, the words barely reached my ears.
So Eldred is dead.
“......And so, from this moment on, you are Knight Riyan. It is a shabby knighting ceremony, I admit. Understand that this is a battlefield. In any case, it will just be a repetition of what you have been doing with Eldred all along, so there is nothing in particular I need to tell you.”
Saying it was a keepsake, he handed over the sword Eldred had used and left just like that. The only farewell he left behind was that he would be moving to headquarters since he had lost his arm.
Several years passed after that.
Just as that knight had said, I simply repeated what I had always been doing.
If anything had changed, it was that, with Eldred no longer there, I honed the swordsmanship he had taught me on my own.
Meanwhile, routed troops gathered in twos and threes and were reorganized into new units, over and over again.
In the process, my standing gradually rose, and before I knew it, rumors began to spread that I was the knight who represented my legion.
And that was when I recreated what Eldred had once shown.
Everything about the situation was similar.
A gigantic monster that no one dared even approach, an army scattered in panic, and in the midst of it all, I could clearly feel eyes on me.
‘If you knights don't step up, then what are we supposed to do?’
Their inner thoughts came through so fiercely that I charged forward before I knew it.
Stepping forward while everyone else pulled back was frightening.
But the will Eldred had left behind was greater than that.
I barely managed to steady myself. Just as he had done.
‘Watch me, Eldred.’
Was it a reward for the courage I had mustered?
The moment I stepped forward, along with a sensation as if the world were turning over, I felt an unprecedented power welling up.
- It's aura! Blue aura!
- He's a knight! He really was a knight!!
Shouts from all around pierced my ears.
Are they talking about how I look right now? Is this the same thing Eldred showed back then?
Proving it was easy.
It was as though the flow of time had slowed. The monster's scales, rippling in the distance, were crystal clear, and I could read every single strand of the wind brushing past my cheek.
At last, I had become a true knight.
At the same time, the image of Eldred from the past came to mind.
And in that moment.
I realized what I had to do.
Following in his footsteps, I dashed toward the monster. Then, when I had shot up its body all the way to its shoulder, I raised my sword just as Eldred had.
A pale blue light, so cold it seemed to sting, flowed out, riding on my will.
That aura coiled around the blade like a snake. I was certain where and how I had to swing my sword, as though I had received a prophecy.
Just as Eldred's had, my sword cut through the monster's neck.
After that day.
The name I had given to Eldred lost its use.
- The Undefeated Knight!
- The Sword of the Kingdom! The Brightest Star!
- The Savior of Humanity!
And the epithets people created took its place.
I didn't feel good about it.
I wasn't a sword, I wasn't a star, and I was even less a savior. I was just a young man who hated monsters.
As for being a knight, I wasn't sure. In a corner of my heart, I had always wanted to be like Eldred.
If he saw me now, would he tell me I was worthy of being a knight?
Suddenly, I missed him.
From then on, I always swung my sword with a nervous anxiety lodged somewhere in my chest.
How long would this miraculous string of victories go on, and how would people's eyes change when the end finally came?
KRAAAAAH—!
That worry turned out to be needless.
Because on the day I finally cut down, with my own hands, the Demon Dragon that had reigned over the skies.
I had to look at a sword that had pierced through my chest from behind.
“I am sorry.”
I could tell just from the voice.
It had been a grueling war that lasted more than ten years. How could I not recognize the voice of a comrade who had been with me for more than half of it?
Feeling my chest tighten sharply, I slowly opened my mouth.
“Why?”
“......The Demon Dragon has fallen, but the renown that bastard left behind remains.”
I lifted my head with effort.
At some point, the knights had formed a circle and were pointing their swords at me. Familiar faces. Every one of them was a comrade who had stormed across the battlefields with me.
“.......”
Finding the reason wasn't hard.
The Undefeated Knight.
The Savior of Humanity.
The Brightest Star.
And the first and last Dragonslayer to have felled the Demon Dragon.
The legion was already ready to leap into a fiery pit for my sake.
And the subjects I encountered bowed their heads as though they were receiving a god.
But the heavy burden left by the epithets I had never wanted must have made the king's tiny heart tremble.
‘How tiresome.......’
Wiping away the blood trailing long from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, I raised my head.
“You know better than anyone that I never wanted any of that.”
I saw my comrades' faces flinch. Awfully wary, for men facing someone with a hole in his chest.
Among them, a knight with an equally weary face spoke.
“......You have become too dangerous. All the more so because of your origins. As long as you live, the kingdom will surely fall. You can hear it too, can you not? The people's rage toward the royal family and the nobility. Your intentions do not matter. The circumstances will make it so.”
He was a comrade I had relied on, one who calmly assessed the state of battle no matter the situation.
But now, that cold clarity was tearing me apart alive.
“I am sorry. I do not know if it will be any comfort, but we will make sure you are remembered as the hero who felled the Demon Dragon and met a glorious end.”
This time, it was the comrade who had always pursued justice and led by example who offered consolation.
It wasn't even funny. So this was what came of the justice he had always cried out for.
I smiled bitterly.
“You nobles are always like this. Expendables, expendables, expendables.......”
Blood pooled in my mouth again.
Coughing as if wringing out my lungs, I struggled to continue.
“You never see people as people. I've been through it until I was sick of it, but I still thought you lot would be different.”
I caught my breath again.
“Go and tell the king.”
“.......”
“That the blood on his crown...... will never be washed away.”
Then I closed my eyes.
‘Eldred, it seems this is as far as I go.’
A brief sense of relief.
After that came the emptiness of knowing it was all over, and I let go of my sword and fell to my knees. Along with the sound of metal striking the ground, a sense of exhaustion took over my entire body.
With blood gushing from my mouth, I lifted my head.
A sky stained by the sunset.
Across it, a single star was falling.
***
Consciousness, which had been dyed black as if by a sudden blackout, returned abruptly.
How much time had passed, and where had this newly aware consciousness begun? The faint consciousness that remained like embers groped about in every direction before finally opening his eyes.
BOOM...... BOOM...... BOOM.......
The heavy beat of a drum that seemed to resound in his chest.
The first thing his opened eyes saw was a rough dirt floor. And bloodstains that had hardened black, who knew how long ago.
‘A battlefield?’
Riyan slowly raised his head.
Stone walls, faded red, surrounded him in a circle on all sides.
How many tiers? Two, three, four.......
It wasn't a battlefield. At least, he had no memory of a battlefield looked down upon by crowds screaming at the top of their lungs.
Suddenly, he felt that the weight in his two arms was different. Unconsciously, he lifted the heavier one—his right hand.
He saw a sword gripped in his bony hand.
A crude one-handed sword.
About sixty or seventy centimeters long. The edge was ruined. The pommel was far too light, throwing off the balance, and there were hairline cracks visible; it looked like it needed a blacksmith's attention immediately.
Naturally, it had no decoration. Nor did it look like it had been made with practicality in mind.
It was just a sword. A broken one, at that.
‘I don't think this is hell.’
Riyan himself couldn't reach a definite answer, but the panting before his eyes provided the proof in his stead.
A tail dragging along the ground like a mace, a scaled hide that wouldn't even notice most blades, and a massive maw that could crush and devour a small child in a single bite.
‘A monster.’
Why was there a monster in front of him?
And with countless crowds looking down at him, no less.
Is this the afterlife?
Or is it a dream?
He didn't ponder it for long. Out of habit, Riyan spun the sword once to gauge its weight.
Then he drew his right foot back slightly and lowered his upper body just enough.
- Kill him! Kill him!
- Chew him up! Chew him up and swallow him!
Perhaps anticipating the blood that would spray out through torn skin, the arena, gripped by excitement, was spiraling into frenzy.
And as if the monster had sensed that atmosphere as well, its reptilian eyes were suddenly covered by a thin membrane.
Riyan knew.
It was practically an instinct for that monster. Something it did to protect its eyes right before it charged.
Riyan took a short breath.
Whether this place was hell or a twisted dream didn't matter.
Nor did this frail body, in which he couldn't feel even a handful of strength.
Because every sense he had honed over the past ten-odd years remained intact.
He thrust out the right foot he had drawn back and kicked off the ground hard. Then he straightened his bent upper body and, using the rebound, swung his right hand.
‘A sword is a sword.’
Whether it was a legendary blade or a rusty iron sword.
A sword is just a sword.
But depending on who wields it, its trajectory can reveal the truth.
A pure white line traced a horizontal path.