As it happened, the training ground was empty. Of course, of the castle's three training grounds, it was the only one that was.
'Not a bad spot at all.'
Raizel took a full turn around the empty training ground. Wooden swords were piled high in one corner.
Next to them lay heaps of straw dummies, long spears and shields, but he had no need for any of that. The sword was all he cared about.
He picked up a wooden sword and stepped out into the middle of the training ground. His body fell into a stance on its own. Even in an unfamiliar body, it was no great problem. His soul had already all but become one with the sword.
His body began to move as fluidly as flowing water. The wooden sword in his hand moved slowly, unfolding the forms of the Three Powers Sword Art.
The Three Powers Sword Art.
The sword art that was the very first step for anyone beginning the martial arts.
'The Three Powers.'
What were the Three Powers?
Heaven.
Earth.
And Man.
Those were the Three Powers.
And at the same time, they were the intent of the Three Powers Sword Art.
Warriors who never got past first-rate usually thought of the Three Powers Sword Art as a mere technical exercise.
But those who broke through the wall between first-rate and peak came to grasp the true meaning of the Three Powers as they crossed it.
The Heavenly Demon had been no exception.
'Heaven.'
The wooden sword shot skyward.
Heaven, the place no human could ever dare to reach.
And so, a goal and an ideal.
'Earth.'
Thooom......!
Raizel's foot came down hard on the sandy floor of the training ground.
The earth shuddered beneath his step.
Earth, humanity's roots and its reality.
The very foundation of life.
'Man.'
The wooden sword lunged swiftly straight ahead. As if an opponent stood right before it.
Man, standing between Heaven and Earth.
The mediator of the world, and its protagonist.
But......
Heaven had forsaken him.
And he had lost his roots.
Raizel clenched his back teeth.
'Even so.'
His jaw, clenched with all his strength, finally began to tremble.
'Even so......!'
Even so, was he not still living?
His sword pointed toward the heavens. An instant later, it fell. But it did not stop there. The path his sword traced went on and on. And it kept moving forward.
That was the intent of Man as the Heavenly Demon Seo Seon-ju understood it.
His roots, which were his past, would carry on through his life.
So long as he lived and breathed.
So long as he did not forget his past.
And so.
'The master of my life is me, and me alone.'
The Three Powers Sword Art, performed for a long while, came to an end.
Breathing hard, he glared at the tip of his blade, which pointed straight at the horizon.
The beads of sweat on his forehead and his chest heaving with ragged breaths did not bother him in the least.
He simply stared at the tip of his sword, holding on to a single thought.
'At the end of this road, without fail......'
Without fail.
'I will drag you down. Heavenly Slaughter Star.'
***
Meanwhile, in the Grand Duke's office.
"......Then let us do it that way. It will take more effort than last year."
Grand Duke Kailan, who had summoned the Knight Commander to discuss next spring's frontier subjugation, suddenly raised his head and looked out the window.
Just then, a boy caught his eye, practicing a sword art alone in an empty training ground.
That boy was his one and only son, Raizel Esselklein.
'That boy......'
Sword training, with his mana heart ruined. What a pointless waste of time.
The minimum requirement for becoming a knight was 'being a mana user.'
In a world like this, no matter how hard Raizel, with his broken mana heart, honed his swordsmanship, could he defeat even a half-baked knight?
He would be better off spending that time getting more sleep.
Kailan frowned. No, he tried to.
Just then.
'Wait.'
Something caught his eye.
'That is......'
The lines Raizel's wooden sword drew.
Their paths captured the Grand Duke's gaze.
'That is......?'
The movements could not have been simpler. Taken one at a time, each was the most basic of basics.
Truly basic movements, with nothing special about them at all.
The kind of things a newcomer to swordsmanship would learn.
But if one took a step back and looked at that simplicity, the impression changed.
A simplicity that had seemed colorless and odorless became a clean purity.
Basic forms that had looked unskilled became framework and foundation.
Kailan's eyes wavered.
As if he could not believe what he was seeing, Kailan kept blinking, until at last he even raised his hand to rub his eyes.
"Your Highness?"
When the Grand Duke turned his head mid-conversation and fell silent for a long while, Knight Commander Haven Sladin called to him.
But Kailan did not so much as stir, as if he had not heard. Haven called the Grand Duke again.
"Your Highness?"
Still the Grand Duke did not respond. He just kept staring at something outside the window.
Haven rose from his seat and went to the Grand Duke's side.
Then he looked out the window at what the Grand Duke was watching.
"Is that not the Young Master?"
Haven, too, spotted Raizel in the middle of the training ground.
Soon, his eyes filled with astonishment.
"Young Master......"
The boy had only arrived at the Grand Ducal Castle today.
What was more, had it not been said that when he arrived, he had been wandering the snowfield in thin clothes?
The knight who had found Raizel and brought him to the castle had testified to the boy's face, blue and frozen from the cold.
And yet, even on the very day of his return, the Young Master could not rest easy.
Most likely because of the burden and guilt weighing on his heart.
Even though the one whose heart must be hurting most was none other than the boy himself......
"Sword training, even on a day like this......"
Haven could not finish. As if choked up, he simply bowed his head hard and looked away.
Haven had turned his head away, choked up, but Kailan kept his eyes on Raizel.
As if he refused to miss a single moment, as if even the time it took to blink was too precious to waste, he kept his eyes wide open and burned the sight of his unfamiliar son into his mind.
'Seven years.'
It had been seven years.
From his old memories rose the day, seven years ago, when he had sent Raizel to the Imperial Palace.
-Don't worry.
Sending away his only child, not even ten years old yet, had been anything but easy.
On top of that, the boy was being sent away as little better than a hostage.
How lonely and frightened he would be in that strange palace.
No matter what injustice befell him, there would be no one to speak up for the boy......
Had the boy somehow sensed the nights he lay awake with worry?
-I'm fine. You said an Esselklein never runs away, Father.
Nine-year-old Raizel had hidden his fear and comforted his parents instead.
-So I won't run away either.
He had been such a clever child, one to be proud of.
A truly good child.
But.
'It is my fault. I......'
Now he was a cripple with a ruined mana heart.
He would never be able to use sword energy.
'Because I failed to protect him.'
Kailan's shoulders began to tremble.
'Whatever it took, I should never have sent him to the Imperial Palace. Whatever it took, I should have protected him. Even if I lost everything...... I should have kept that boy safe, at least.'
He forced his eyes open even wider. If he did not, his face would crumple in an unsightly way, and he knew it.
"......Sladin."
Kailan quietly called to the Knight Commander. He still had not taken his eyes off Raizel outside the window.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Haven Sladin answered. He looked at the Grand Duke, and his expression turned sorrowful.
"Do you see that?"
The Grand Duke went on calmly. Haven turned his head toward the window.
"Is that not the Young Master?"
Kailan nodded.
"Yes. My son, Raizel."
"......Yes."
"Can you see what he is doing?"
"......He is practicing his swordsmanship."
At that, a small, scornful laugh escaped the Grand Duke.
Why would he laugh like that? When Haven looked puzzled, Kailan went on.
"I will ask again. Do you understand what he is doing?"
At that, Haven looked at Raizel more closely. The longer he watched Raizel, the more astonishment spread across Haven's face.
Only then did Kailan take his eyes off Raizel and look at Haven.
"What do you feel?"
Haven swallowed dryly. His gaze, following Raizel's wooden sword, trembled faintly.
Carved into movements he had taken for merely simple was a measureless span of time. Haven could see it.
Yet Raizel was a boy who had only just turned sixteen.
Which meant Raizel had worked several times harder than anyone else.
So desperately, so fiercely, that even Knight Commander Haven Sladin was left astonished.
What was more.
"Precise...... and meticulous......"
The foundation of that effort was a dazzling talent.
A genius was pouring his whole heart into it, so given enough time, no one would be able to match him.
At least in the forms of the sword art.
When it came to technique, that is.
Soon, a voice thick with both emotion and grief came out.
"It is like...... It is like Your Highness in your youth."
Grand Duke Kailan in his youth.
Remembering those days, Haven's eyes strayed to Kailan's right arm before he knew it.
To be precise, to where his right arm had once been.
Noticing that look, Kailan let out a hollow laugh.
"......Is that how it looks?"
The finest general of the North.
Slaughterer of all other races.
And.
The Sword of Esseldria.
The man once called by those names had lost his right arm and could no longer hold a sword.
The Grand Duke in his youth.
Those words were the highest praise Haven Sladin could offer as a knight.
Yet at the same time, they were the most bitter words in the world.
That was exactly why the Grand Duke had laughed so hollowly.
"That is...... That is how it looks, then......"
Himself, who had lost his right arm and right eye and could fight no more.
And his only child and heir, whose mana heart was ruined and who could never use sword energy.
Were they not in truly similar straits?
"......Sladin."
"......Yes, Your Highness."
By now, a dreadfully dark sorrow flowed through the Grand Duke's office.
For a long while, Kailan could not get the words out, and his lips only moved soundlessly, over and over.
"That boy, Raizel......"
Then, at last, he spoke.
"He was worth all the life I have left and every deed I have ever done, and I would not have regretted the trade...... He was my only hope, and my future."
Watching the Grand Duke say it, Haven was crushed under a weight of emotion beyond words.
He watched the Grand Duke, steeped in regret, until he could no longer bear that despair and bowed his head.
'O God.'
Then he clasped his hands and poured out his resentment to a god who did not answer.
'Why do You make us so miserable?'
Look at that dazzling talent.
He was surely the stuff heroes of the age were made of.
And yet.
And yet......
'For all that shining talent, a mana cripple.'
Why was the world so cruel?
Yet despite his bleak circumstances, with no future in sight, Raizel in the training ground went on swinging his sword.
On.
And on.
Until the sun set and night settled over the whole world.
The boy looked so desperate and pitiful that it almost seemed like some kind of ritual.
And that was why it was so wretched.
Seeing it, many pitied or mocked the Young Master's sorry state.
Several days passed like that, until one day.
Things finally came to a head.