When painters learned to paint, what did they begin with?
'The line.'
Just a line.
From beginning to end.
'What is a line?'
Raizel traced back through his memories as the Heavenly Demon Seo Seon-ju.
-The journey that sets out from one point and arrives at another.
With that, a kind face came back to him, along with a voice he would never forget.
-That is what we call a 'line.'
The journey that connects one point to another. How faithfully one draws that line as one intends.
That was the fundamental of painting that Seo Seon-ju's mother, who had been a painter, had spoken of.
Their fields were different, but her words had ruled the Heavenly Demon's life for a long, long time.
'The man I was...... was simply scrambling to survive.'
Enemies had surrounded him on all sides.
Back then he had been half mad, unable even to tell enemies from those who were not.
Was that not how he had once misjudged and murdered the old couple who had reached out a helping hand to him?
He never wanted to make a mistake like that again.
Never.
'The journey that connects one point to another......'
From beginning to end.
How was that any different from a life?
To him, a life, too, was nothing more than a kind of 'line.'
And his previous life, he could say with certainty, had never once been drawn as he intended.
'This time.'
But this time would be different.
He would draw this life as he intended.
To that end, he meant to first find a proper 'line.'
The optimal line.
And the best tool for finding that line was the Three Powers Sword Art, the most basic of all basic sword arts.
And so, today as well, Raizel set out for the training ground early in the morning.
'Empty again today.'
Reaching the training ground, he looked around.
'Does no one use this training ground?'
He wondered why it was empty every time he came.
Of course, that was because of a quiet order from the Grand Duke, who had seen Raizel training, but Raizel had no way of knowing that.
'What a waste.'
After that brief stray thought, he pulled out a wooden sword with practiced ease and took it in hand.
Snap.
The outstretched wooden sword lay perfectly level with the horizon.
"Hoo."
As he exhaled, the air around him trembled faintly.
He sensed every one of those tremors, without missing a single one.
Then he chased the air ahead of him as his breath pushed it away.
Whoosh—
The wooden sword cut through that ripple.
At that, all the air surrounding him churned at once.
Strike after strike followed.
Shaking off stray thoughts, he performed the Three Powers Sword Art.
Just three motions.
Only three moves.
A horizontal slash, a vertical slash, a thrust.
Movements so simple they hardly deserved to be called moves.
Yet every sword move in existence was nothing more than an offshoot of these three motions.
The fundamentals that linked and transformed to create an endless number of new moves.
A tree without roots cannot spread its branches.
Again and again, those three moves unfolded through the wooden sword.
Countless repetitions.
With each repetition, Raizel's movements grew more refined and more exacting.
He wanted only one thing. Clarity in the line his sword drew.
That was why he was moving his sword without infusing it with any inner arts at all.
Picturing the countless enemies he had faced, he unleashed the sword art again and again at an imaginary foe.
Then, at some point.
'Almost......'
He realized he was becoming intoxicated by the martial art he himself was performing.
'I am almost there.'
The boundary between life and death blurred, while his limbs came uncannily alive.
His mind grew hazy, yet his vision was as clear as it could possibly be.
He knew this ecstasy all too well.
'Enlightenment is right in front of me.'
But enlightenment was never easily granted.
It seemed within reach, then slipped away, tormenting him.
'Just a little.'
The more it eluded him, the more desperately he threw himself into it.
'Just a little more.'
One step, then another.
Slowly, but he was surely moving forward.
Forward, and forward again.
Until what he aimed for was within his grasp.
And at last, the moment the outline of enlightenment became clear.
'Ah.'
Since no words would leave his mouth, he could only sigh in his thoughts.
Suddenly, he noticed that his surroundings and his own condition had changed.
He had surely come to the training ground in the morning, yet the sky was pitch dark, and his whole body ached.
His arms in particular were shaking and numb. He would not be able to lift so much as a spoon for a while.
But it did not matter.
For he had attained enlightenment.
He closed his eyes and let the strength drain from his tensed body.
His body crumpled limply.
Like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Just then, someone caught his collapsing body.
"Raizel!"
It was a thunderous roar. Raizel's eyes snapped open.
Before his eyes was the Grand Duke, his face furious.
"Raizel, you......!"
Kailan seemed enraged, his face flushed deep red.
Not knowing what was going on, Raizel stared blankly at the Grand Duke before him.
'Anger...... is it?'
His son's attitude only made Kailan angrier.
"Why?! Why do you make yourself so miserable?!"
What those words carried was closer to an anguished cry than a scolding.
"It makes no difference, none at all...... your mana heart is ruined!"
Kailan's voice boomed through the entire castle. It was like a wound echoing through a dark valley.
"What do you gain by going this far......?! You are a mana cripple, so why do you do such useless things?!"
But to Raizel, it was nothing but an abusive outburst out of nowhere.
To grasp the situation, he pulled himself up and looked around.
"I never thought His Highness would get so angry......"
"So he really is a mana cripple?"
"Shh, keep it down."
Now that he looked, the area around him was packed with people from the castle.
Seeing the people gathered in a ring around him and the Grand Duke, whispering, Raizel frowned.
"Look!"
Kailan's furious roar rang out again. Like lightning tearing through a gloomy gray sky, his voice became a blade that choked the breath out of the crowd gathered around them. He pointed at Raizel's arms.
Hands frozen red in the dead of winter, in a wind so sharp that even breathing stung.
His skin, tormented by the bitter cold and pushed to the brink of frostbite, was as cold as if ice ran through it instead of blood, and the muscles of his arms, swung without end, were twitching wildly and giving out as though they had betrayed him.
"You...... are a mana cripple."
Kailan's furious face looked ready to explode at any moment, its redness spreading even into his eyes.
The veins standing out on his forehead writhed as if they were passages for his pent-up rage to tear its way out of his body, and the twitch at the corner of his mouth spoke for feelings suppressed for far too long.
Now it was neither words nor expression, but pure, bottled-up grief itself that made its presence known.
On legs trembling from sore muscles, Raizel took a step back.
As the distance opened by one stride, the right side of Kailan's coat came into Raizel's view.
Where his right arm should have been, there was only an empty sleeve, flapping in the winter wind.
Set against the muscular forearm on his left, it made for an indescribably pitiful sight.
"......You cannot do it. You have fallen by the wayside. Every effort you make is doomed to failure, I tell you."
Was it a declaration, or a confession?
A verdict, or grief?
Were those words meant for Raizel alone?
"There is nothing you can do now! Do you understand?!"
Kailan's shouts now broke off in pieces and sounded like wailing.
The crowd's eyes reddened.
He took one deep breath, then went on in a somewhat calmer tone.
"As Kailan Esselklein, Grand Duke of Esseldria, I command it."
White snowflakes began to fall, one by one.
The words Kailan spoke next were a decision that struck Raizel like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
"As of this hour, Raizel Esselklein is strictly forbidden from entering the training grounds. Furthermore, Raizel Esselklein is forbidden from using any weapon, the sword included!"
Kailan whirled to face the people surrounding him and Raizel, the castle's servants, and shouted.
"Moreover...... anyone who knows Raizel Esselklein is using a weapon and keeps silent, anyone who sees him entering a training ground and does not report it, and anyone who helps him, will be severely punished!"
At that, the servants bowed as one. A sign of obedience.
'An excessive punishment.'
The situation was turning against him. Raizel looked at the Grand Duke with eyes full of displeasure.
But he knew when to back down. The Grand Duke was the master of the castle. There was no way he could overturn this decision.
'It cannot be helped.'
One step back, for the sake of moving forward.
He would just have to put up with that much. What else could he do?
"Raizel Esselklein."
Turning back to Raizel, Kailan spoke.
"Go back to your room at once. Vestia!"
"Y-yes! Your Highness!"
At the Grand Duke's call, Vestia came running out from among the servants.
"Until I order otherwise, watch him and make sure he does not leave his room."
"......Yes. Understood."
A gloomy answer. She bowed her head, then quickly moved to support Raizel and headed for the Young Master's bedchamber.
Snow fell on their retreating backs.
***
"Bring the healer at once."
After Raizel had gone back to his bedchamber, leaning on Vestia, Kailan spoke to a servant nearby.
"Th-that may be difficult, Your Highness."
The servant answered, looking at a loss.
"What do you mean?"
The anger had not yet fully left Kailan's face, so the servant facing him was tense.
"So much snow fell last night that the roads are blocked......"
He meant that the heavy snow had blocked the roads, so it would be hard for the healer Gowen to reach the inner castle.
The castle's people, who had lived in Esseldria all their lives, did not so much as blink at an ordinary blizzard. So if they said the healer could not reach the castle because of the snow, it truly meant it was impossible.
But no blizzard would be an obstacle to the finest of riders. The problem was that there was no rider in the castle skilled enough to bring the healer back right away.
Except for Kailan himself.
The sight of Raizel collapsing with a pale face a little while ago, and of his young son seven years ago, straining to smile to hide his fear, would not leave his mind.
Like a brand that could not be erased.
"Then I will go myself."
He did not deliberate for long. Kailan went straight to the stables.
Then he mounted a horse himself and rode off to fetch the healer.
Before long, Kailan arrived in front of the healer's house. He had ridden through roads buried in snow, and the tip of his nose was red from the cold.
Bang, bang, bang!
Dismounting, Kailan pounded on Gowen's door at once. A moment later, Gowen opened the door and poked his tired face out.
"......What brings Your Highness to my home?"
The Grand Duke, showing up out of nowhere in the middle of the night. Could he have come to arrest him? But he had never committed any crime.
When the startled Gowen looked tense, Kailan spoke.
"I need you, right now."
"Pardon?"
Gowen asked back, bewildered.
"It concerns Raizel."
Kailan's face was quite grave. Whatever had happened, it was not a matter to brush off lightly. So Gowen thought.
"You told me before."
Kailan intoned, his voice grown heavier and deeper.
"That you felt him use mana, even though his mana heart is ruined."
Gowen knew at once what Kailan was referring to. He remembered how, a few days ago, the Grand Duke had angrily told him to stop spouting nonsense when he made his report.
The Grand Duke was bringing that up now.
"What you said then...... Were those words you can stand behind?"
Gowen swallowed dryly.
Few people could nod confidently in the face of the Grand Duke's stern expression. Even if it was the truth, even if they were innocent, everyone shrank in the Grand Duke's presence.
Would Gowen be any different? He was a man far from bold to begin with. So this was the best answer he could manage.
"......Might I answer after I have checked once more?"
Gowen rubbed his sleepy eyes. No, in truth, he was not sleepy anymore. Whatever drowsiness had been coming on had fled completely at the Grand Duke's visit.
"Very well."
Turning around, the Grand Duke jerked his chin at his warhorse standing in the yard.
"Get ready and come out."
Gowen ducked his head in a bow, then hurriedly threw on his clothes. As he pulled a fur-lined robe over himself, he recalled the Grand Duke's face from a moment ago. One corner of his chest grew heavy.
'So in the end, even His Highness is a father who cannot help himself...... is that it?'
Something that could make even the Iron-Blooded Grand Duke race through snowbound roads without stopping for breath.
That must be a father's love.
Gowen followed the Grand Duke to the castle.
The snowfall grew heavier.