“How could this happen?”
Anyasis, Rick’s mother and a relative of the Grand Duchess, came to Bale’s chambers.
Bale covered his face with one hand to conceal his exhaustion.
“My son is dead. Does Your Grace intend to do nothing?”
“No, he is not dead. He was merely struck and knocked unconsci…….”
“They say he may never wake up!”
Bale turned his head.
‘Good grief. He should’ve hit him a little more gently.’
He tried blaming Pietro for no reason.
‘No. The problem is the fool who lost his mind after being hit by someone without mana. It wasn’t as if Pietro hit him that many times, was it?’
Three times.
Only three.
Two of those had merely been Pietro poking Rick to check on him.
‘The only proper strike was that simple slash.’
A blow that made use of the flow.
It had been so natural that…….
‘It was perfect. Come to think of it, it has been a long time since I saw such a perfect slash.’
Bale had met countless knights.
Among them had been several highly accomplished knights.
Yet not one of them had ever displayed a slash as perfect as Pietro’s.
That was why he could not understand it.
‘When did he become capable of something like that? He does not even know how to use mana.’
A man without mana had toyed with a man who wielded it.
He had read his opponent’s flow, evaded every attack, and brought him down with a perfect slash.
It was a feat possible only after surviving countless battles and crossing the line between life and death countless times.
Such a thing should have been impossible for Pietro, who had done nothing but run away.
Yet he had done it.
It defied all common sense.
“Grand Duke! Are you listening?”
“I am listening. So please speak more softly. Softly.”
“He must be punished. That Pietro brat! He must be tried for murder.”
“Did I not already tell you that Rick is not dead?”
“They say he may never wake up. If that happens, he may as well be dead. Is that not so? Hmm?”
Bale stared at Anyasis.
What did being a relative of the Grand Duchess amount to, exactly?
Who had given her permission to barge in here and screech at him?
He could tolerate it no longer.
“Madam, what do you take me for?”
“……Pardon?”
Anyasis was visibly flustered.
The air around Bale was entirely different from usual.
The gaze he wore now did not belong to the man who lived beneath the Grand Duchess’s thumb.
It belonged to Bale von Fenrir, Lord of the North, hunter of Demonic Beasts, and self-proclaimed shield of the Empire.
“What must you think of me to enter without permission and question me like this?”
“No, that is…….”
“It was a fair duel. Are you complaining to me because Rick was weak? Should I have every one of Rick’s instructors arrested as well?”
“No, that is not what I meant…….”
“Then what are you trying to say? I had my own son imprisoned because Rick lost.”
A weight unlike anything Bale usually displayed pressed down upon the room.
Anyasis could not utter another word.
“I would like you to leave now. And since when did my private chambers become a reception room?”
“……My apologies.”
Bale waved his hand dismissively.
Then he sank into thought.
‘Pietro.’
Bale had assumed Pietro would lose, yet the boy had produced a miracle.
He needed to determine where that miracle had come from.
Whether it had been coincidence or inevitability.
He needed to see Pietro face-to-face.
***
I had been locked up.
No matter how I thought about it, this was wrong.
“I didn’t kill him!”
The people in the infirmary had said the same thing.
Rick was not dead.
His condition was merely poor.
Severely poor…….
“Ah, hell!”
He had bragged so much about having a Mana Heart, yet one blow had reduced him to that state.
He was completely hopeless.
How did he expect to fight back when demons invaded?
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
A guard carrying a strange bundle stopped in front of the bars.
“What? Is it funny seeing an illegitimate child locked up like this?”
“It is funny. I never thought someone who only knew how to run away would end up here.”
“I should’ve just run away.”
The guard shook his head and opened the bundle.
It was stuffed with letters.
“What are those?”
“Letters thanking you. Rick was not the sort of bastard who only tormented one or two people.”
The guard pushed the letters through the bars.
I watched indifferently as they piled up.
It had happened during a match.
There was hardly any need to thank me.
“Happy?”
Come on. Was a man not even allowed to smile?
“I’m grateful too.”
After taking out every letter, the guard straightened and bowed deeply.
It seemed Rick had tormented him plenty as well.
Just how far had Rick’s vicious behavior spread?
“Let’s see.”
He had attempted to rape a tavern owner’s daughter.
When the owner tried to stop him, Rick had beaten him for daring to lay a hand on a noble.
The shock had left the owner struggling to speak properly.
“Ha!”
Rick had forcibly taken someone’s tax money.
He had claimed that he needed it and would return it after using it for a while.
When they begged him to return it because they could no longer pay their taxes…….
“He cut off his hand?”
I had only read two letters, and they were already like this.
Wondering whether those had been the worst of them, I unfolded the rest.
Most contained similar stories.
Had I known what kind of bastard he truly was, I would have cut off his head instead of striking it.
Since I was going to be imprisoned anyway, I should have actually killed him.
“So they had plenty of reason to thank me!”
Hearing so many words of gratitude made me feel strangely proud.
Some people even called me handsome, something I had never heard before.
There were even a few confessions of love……though they could not have been sincere.
“Hehehe.”
TAP.
There was one letter I had not opened yet.
What could its sender possibly be thanking me for?
“Let’s see what you’re grateful for this time. I can hardly wait…….”
This letter began in the Imperial city of Keskullinya…….
“What the fuck! It’s a chain letter!”
A strange letter had been mixed in with the others.
It said I had to write seven copies containing the same message and include money with each one.
If I did not, I would be cursed.
RIP! RIP! RIP!
Damn thing.
I threw the torn pieces aside.
Being locked up was already irritating enough, and now even the letters were tormenting me…….
“It won’t really curse me, will it?”
I should not have torn it.
I began searching for every scrap scattered around the cell.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
“I’m busy! If you brought more letters, just leave them there.”
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
“Ah, fuck! I said I’m busy. If I don’t write these, I’ll be cur…… Alfred?”
Head Butler Alfred stood outside with a mild expression.
“By order of His Grace the Grand Duke, I have come to escort you.”
Alfred opened the barred door and indicated that I was to come out immediately.
But I still had to gather the scraps and write seven copies of the chain letter…….
Surely the old man summoning me was not the curse, was it?
***
Father sat with a solemn expression.
“It has been a long time.”
“I saw you a few days ago.”
The muscles in Father’s face twitched uncomfortably.
“……I meant that it has been a long time since we met like this.”
That was true.
Father did not know it, but for me, it had been ten years.
“I suppose so. Time truly flies. To think we live in a world where a man can win a fair duel and still get thrown in jail.”
“Ahem! You should have gone a little easier on him…….”
“I was fighting someone with a Mana Heart who could use mana and had trained extensively. He was genuinely trying to kill me.”
“…….”
Silence descended.
This was uncomfortable.
Father was not the sort of person to summon me without a reason.
I decided to stop letting him beat around the bush and strike directly at the point.
“Why did you call me?”
Father’s eyes brightened as though he had finally found something to say.
He truly was hopeless with words.
“Well……hmm…….”
“Well, hmm, what? Are you going to say I did well? That I was magnificent? Or perhaps…….”
The corner of Father’s eye twitched.
Was that not it?
“Then…….”
“Join the Demonic Beast Subjugation Unit.”
Had I heard him incorrectly?
I leaned in, holding my ear right next to Father’s mouth to ask him to repeat himself.
“The Demonic Beast Subju—agh! Move away. Can you not hear me perfectly well from where you were sitting?”
“You must be serious. The Demonic Beast Subjugation Unit?”
“Do I look like a man who spouts non—no. What in the world happened to change you so much?”
A great many things had happened.
An enormous, tremendous, truly ridiculous number of things.
But I did not want to explain them.
It was not as though Father would believe me even if I did.
The same was true of anyone else.
Perhaps the Saintess who had given Melina the ring might understand.
“Did you do something you cannot speak of? You did not sell information about the North to secure a powerful patron, did you?”
“Do I look like someone who would do that?”
Father opened his eyes wide and examined every part of my face as though he meant to chew through my features.
“You never had the nerve for something like that.”
That was strangely insulting.
“Then how were you capable of such a thing? You used to tremble whenever you held a sword, yet you turned Rick into a living corpse.”
“Well, after living for so long, perhaps I naturally came to understand the principles of nature.”
“……Sixteen years counts as living for a long time? Since when?”
Let us say from now on.
“That is simply how it happened. The sword went click when it settled into my hand, and then, snap! I understood it instinctively.”
“……It went click in your hand, and then you understood it with a snap?”
That man’s hands were trembling.
Surely he did not think I was mocking him.
“You wretch!”
He caught me.
“Go to the Demonic Beast Subjugation Unit immediately! Once you are there, they will thoroughly straighten you…….”
“No.”
Father, who had been shouting with the veins in his neck bulging, froze with his mouth open and blinked.
He seemed unable to believe what he had heard.
“Did you just tell me no?”
“Yes. I don’t want to. I refuse.”
Father sprang to his feet and grabbed the sword lying on his desk.
“I shall personally cut off your legs so that you can never run away again!”
“Why does everything come back to me running away?! I said I refused. I didn’t say I was running!”
“Silence!”
The loudest person here was you, not me.
“I don’t have a Mana Heart, and I can’t use mana. What would I do there? Are you telling me to become a burden on the unit?”
“You will display that magnificent swordsmanship of yours!”
“How am I supposed to drive a sword into a Demonic Beast without mana?”
A sword without mana could not leave so much as a scratch on a Demonic Beast.
Father knew that as well, so he merely moved his lips with an awkward expression.
The old man had clearly thought of only one thing.
“……Then form a Mana Heart before you join.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to become a criminal. You know how vicious Imperial law is.”
The Noble Military Service Act.
At least one child from every noble family had to join the army.
That was why the army had been mentioned during the match.
They had intended to enlist the illegitimate child.
And make it look respectable while they were at it.
“Joining the Demonic Beast Subjugation Unit can fulfill that obligation.”
“Why? Are you planning to pull some strings outside?”
Father drew his sword.
“You would do well to control that tongue of yours.”
This time, Father was right.
I had crossed the line.
My remark had insulted not only Father, but Mother as well.
“Hmm. I apologize. I’ll restrain myself.”
“I shall forgive you once. Then you will join the Demonic Beast Subjugation Unit…….”
“I’ll enlist.”
“No, why?”
Because I had to protect the Empire.
Because I had to keep the promise I made to Melina.
To do that, I needed to enter the heart of the Empire, not wander through the remote reaches of the North.
I had to follow her wishes, learn the First Emperor’s swordsmanship, and become a Sword Saint.
“……Very well. You ill-mannered wretch. Do as you please.”
“Have you given up on the Demonic Beast Subjugation Unit?”
“Do your eyes not make your answer clear? I do not know your reason, but I have no intention of forcing someone who wears such a gaze.”
Instead of answering, I bowed my head in gratitude.
“Damnable brat. Fine! You won the duel, so I shall give you a reward. What do you want?”
“A very expensive, sharp, hard, high-quality sword?”
Father threw whatever he could grab at me.
Naturally, it did not even graze me.
“To ask for something so trivial. Where do you think you are? This is the North! The North! You could enter any smithy you see, ask for a sword, and they would offer one without hesitation.”
“I’m sure they would.”
“You wretch!”
It was obvious that he was becoming angry for no reason.
He wanted to give me something better, but could not, so this was how he expressed it.
“There is something else I truly want.”
“……What is it?”
“I want to enter a dungeon.”
Father’s face stiffened instantly.
“What dungeon are you talking about?”
“You already know. The dungeon no one has cleared. What other one could I possibly mean?”
Father clenched both hands into fists.
His chest rose and fell.
He was more agitated than before.
This was no false display of anger.
“Do you truly wish to die?”