episode_0052

The Red Sword Saint, Kyle Strovane.

He was a hero of the continent who led the great subjugation period against the heretics, a figure who magnificently recorded dozens of pages in history.

A star that reached the highest night sky.

He slew countless dark mages and illuminated the chaotic empire with brilliant light.

At the war’s end, he even died a glorious death.

Such noble actions garnered attention throughout the empire.

People called him “the Fallen Star,” commemorating the hero’s tragic end.

It was a typical biography of a great man.

‘Of course.’

That wasn’t the whole story.

Beyond the screen, there were always stories the audience didn’t know.

Kyle Strovane was no exception.

There were countless untold stories.

-I saved the continent… but I couldn’t protect the things that mattered most.

The man had a family.

A beautiful wife and a daughter who was the apple of his eye.

The hero had initially taken up his sword to protect them, but that choice instead thrust his happy family into hell.

It was a nightmare.

-I ruined everything.

Kyle, who led the subjugation force at the very front.

His martial prowess was overwhelming.

The dark mages, realizing they couldn’t contend with him head-on, devised a trick to bring the star down.

They kidnapped his beloved family.

-Throw down your weapons and surrender.

-If you want to save your wife and daughter, it would be best to follow us meekly.

He couldn’t defy their words.

The star fell without a struggle.

The man was captured without a shred of resistance.

The heretics imprisoned Kyle in a facility no one could discover, torturing him or using him as an experimental subject for dark magic.

They didn’t even tell him if his family was alive or dead.

Kyle could only endure.

For the sake of his beloved family, who might still be alive.

-How do you feel now, Sword Saint?

-You used to block our path so well, but now you’re in the opposite position.

-Let’s see you endure this.

Excruciating time passed.

Stabbed, cut, torn. It was closer to torture than experimentation.

As he was played with by hands full of malice, his steel-like will gradually began to falter.

That’s when someone appeared.

-I’ve come to retrieve you, Red Sword Saint.

It was a boy with thick golden hair and narrowed eyes.

He infiltrated the facility, instantly annihilated the heretics, then calmly approached the iron cage where Kyle was trapped.

His ominous gaze seemed to assess the man’s condition.

-You haven’t turned into a monster yet.

-I was worried I’d be too late in the end… should I say it’s fortunate?

-It would be quite a headache if you appeared as a stage boss in many ways.

Unintelligible murmurs.

The snake muttered indifferently, yet cut the iron bars and released the man.

He quietly helped the man, who was sprawled on the floor, to his feet.

As if to help him escape this place.

-Let’s go together.

The wounded beast was taken in.

They left the devastated facility behind.

The boy took the collapsed man somewhere.

There, Kyle was able to reunite with a longed-for person he had never even dreamed of seeing again.

It was his kidnapped wife.

-She was at a branch outside imperial territory.

-I rescued her while I was cleaning up the remaining heretic remnants.

-As you can see, she’s quite injured… but they say she can recover fully.

-She was lucky.

Kyle cried out, embracing his wife.

His mind, weakening, crumbled.

The snake slithered into that tiny crevice.

He cunningly tempted the once glorious hero.

-From now on, serve me.

-If you do, I will grant you everything you desire.

A calm voice resonated.

His appearance was that of a boy of about sixteen, but his ominous smile resembled the filth of an adult.

The snake whispered an irresistible offer into his ear.

-And if you wish, your daughter too.

-I don’t know how long it will take… but I will surely bring her back.

-The other half of your lost world.

Kyle could not resist.

-I am your master.

From that day on.

The hero began to serve a new god.

***

The promise was eventually fulfilled.

At a moment he never expected.

“Your lost daughter… as promised, I’ve brought her back.”

A faint smile with narrowed eyes.

Behind him, a gigantic mass of flesh writhed.

A bizarre wail flowed from a mouth torn into five parts.

Hundreds of tentacles sprouted from its torso, and just as many eyes clung tightly to its skin.

Sharp teeth protruded like thorns.

It was a horrifying sight that made one’s brow furrow involuntarily.

However.

Kyle couldn’t tear his eyes away.

Instead, he stared blankly, lost in thought, at the dying monster.

Perhaps it was a kind of intuition.

“……”

No matter how twisted the form.

Parents recognize their children.

It was like an instinct.

Not something deduced from given clues, but something understood by a burning emotion welling up in one’s heart.

Kyle, as a father, was no different.

His beloved daughter.

The image reflected in his pupils denied it, saying it couldn’t be, but the man’s heart pounded violently.

As a father, how could he not know?

“……Eileen?”

A short word caught in his throat.

A name he hadn’t spoken in a very long time. Its echo felt particularly painful.

His breath faltered.

Kyle had recognized it.

The monster in his sight, was truly his daughter.

His body stiffened from the choked breath.

The man merely stared at the wretched sight.

“……”

Blinking red eyes.

Though countless eyes were attached, there were distinct red eyes that resembled his own.

He was certain they were the pupils his daughter originally possessed.

Kyle, who had paused for a moment, soon took a step forward.

And then slowly approached the monster.

Crimson blood dripped from his lips, which he had gnawed until they were torn.

His steps were hollow.

“Eileen… my daughter.”

Thud.

His legs finally gave out.

Kyle knelt before the writhing tentacles, collapsing to the ground.

Dry tears streamed down his cheeks.

“How much your father missed you…”

He had known, in truth.

Kidnapped by dark mages, it was a somewhat expected outcome.

Every night he had tossed and turned, steeling himself for it.

Yet.

“……How could you return in such a state?”

The pain of actually facing it was on a different dimension.

Before his daughter, who was once human but could no longer be called human, Kyle clenched his fists.

It felt as if a cold ice pick had been driven into his heart.

How could life be so cruel?

What was the point of clinging to life, if it was to witness this?

“I truly… truly missed you.”

His voice gradually became soaked with tears.

His sanity felt like it would snap at any moment, but Kyle strained his eyes open with all his might.

There was still something he had to conclude.

It was a duty Kyle had to undertake himself.

It was also a responsibility he couldn’t pass on to anyone else.

Eileen let out a pained moan.

It sounded particularly pitiful, as if saying she couldn’t bear it any longer.

He wanted to put her at ease now.

A metallic scrape.

Kyle drew the sword from his waist.

The squirming tentacles were reflected on the cool surface.

The father, who had stood speechless for a while, soon raised his sword towards his daughter.

It was a cruel scene.

“Now… rest.”

My poor child.

You lived a life punished for merely existing; how could the world fathom that pain?

But since you came into being because of me.

I shall bring your end with my own hands as well.

“Do not forgive your incompetent father.”

The sword gleamed precariously.

Just as that horrific scene was about to unfold.

“Stop.”

Someone appearing from behind obstructed the attack.

A shadow gripped his arm, preventing it from moving. Turning around, Kyle saw the snake smiling.

The boy asked calmly.

“You’ve gone to such trouble to bring her back, why are you so eager to send her away?”

“……Commander-nim.”

Kyle suppressed his sobs and replied.

“There will only be pain this way. I wish for this child to be at peace now.”

“I share the same wish.”

“Then… please let me go.”

Transparent red eyes gazed at the snake.

One or two tears fell from his pupils, stained with sorrow.

“I wish to end it myself.”

“Oh my… it seems you’ve misunderstood what I said.”

“Pardon?”

“I am a person who meticulously keeps promises. I wouldn’t call such a half-hearted conclusion keeping a promise, would I?”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“Just watch quietly.”

The snake motioned the man to step back.

Then he placed his palm before the giant tentacles.

Black darkness slithered around him.

The scattered shadows soon converged into a single point, hanging on the boy’s fingertips as a sharp light.

At the same time, the snake recited an incantation.

“Shatter.”

*Shatter!*

A sound like breaking glass was heard.

Immediately after, black cracks appeared in the air, tightly surrounding the giant monster.

A landscape shattering into tens of thousands of fragments.

His surprise was momentary.

The boy opened his narrowed eyes and snapped his fingers.

“Rewind.”

*Snap!*

White pupils revealed between his eyelids.

Following the mesmerizingly gleaming surface, the entire space was covered in dark shadows.

Seconds of blackout.

One.

Two.

Three.

“Stop.”

*Snap!*

Once again, his fingers clicked, and the darkness-covered surroundings brightened.

The cracks were now cleanly erased.

“Commander-nim? What exactly did you… Ah?”

Kyle, bewildered and looking around, soon discovered it.

The monster’s vanished form.

And a single girl lying before his eyes.

“……”

Delicate features, red hair reaching her shoulders, gently closed eyelids.

She looked exactly as he remembered her.

Kyle stared blankly.

Wondering if he was seeing a hallucination.

The snake, who had been calmly smiling, spoke softly to the man.

“The promise has been kept.”

Eileen was there, without a single wound.

With trembling hands, Kyle checked his daughter’s pulse.

She was alive.

He could feel her warm body temperature on his fingertips.

That intensely clear sensation let him know that the scene he was witnessing was not a dream.

The father tightly embraced his daughter’s body.

“Eileen…!”

The snake smiled faintly.

“She’s alive, she’s alive…! My God.”

“She’s merely exhausted and fell asleep. She’ll be able to open her eyes healthily after just one day.”

“Ahhh…!”

A miraculous story.

His world, which had been shattered in half, was now complete.

The man wept and bowed his head.

“Ah, Commander-nim……”

He straightened the sword he was holding.

Kneeling on one knee, he plunged the sword tip into the ground. Then, he raised his hands as if in prayer.

It was the stance swordsmen displayed when pledging loyalty to their master.

The hero murmured.

“My God.”

It was worship steeped in fervent emotion.

The squad members standing in the same space also knelt, following the man’s example.

All of them had witnessed a miracle.

Kyle clasped his hands neatly together.

And then, with very precise pronunciation, he savored the silent prayer offered to that being.

Towards the sacred resonance.

“All according to your will.”

A hymn that flashed for a moment.

“All according to your will.”

Even as all the worshippers recited their prayers, the god merely stood calmly.

With a faint smile playing on his lips.

The boy thought only.

‘It’s a happy ending, thank goodness.’

A heart wishing for the happiness of others.

Perhaps, a heart far too soft.

***

Meanwhile.

Irene was watching the scene.

She was entranced by the miracle she witnessed for the second time, but soon snapped out of it at the next scene.

It was the snake lightly coughing.

“Cough…”

A low cough.

The boy covered his mouth.

Dark red bloodstains appeared on his pristine white glove.

It was, unmistakably, hemoptysis.

“Uh…?”

The fox-like girl let out a startled sound without realizing it.

She was flustered by the unexpected sight, but the boy calmly wiped the blood from his mouth.

As if he were accustomed to it.

“……”

The surrounding squad members seemed not to have noticed.

Each of them had their eyes closed and heads bowed.

Only Irene had noticed.

*Snap!*

The snake lightly snapped his fingers, erasing the bloodstain.

The boy briefly glanced around, then sent Irene a faint smile.

“Shh.”

His index finger raised to his lips.

It was as if he wanted her to keep it a secret.

Irene couldn’t react. She merely stared with wide eyes.

At the slit-eyed boy standing calmly.