episode_0067

After being dragged to a secret hideout somewhere on Mount Minerva.

“Kara, was it?”

It was there that I first met Sir Nemo.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Nemo.”

He greeted me, his hand resting on the pommel of the sword he had dropped on the floor.

He seemed like a man sculpted from the very word ‘knight’.

Simple and honest, a man of few words, his presence was heavy but not threatening, like a massive shield placed before me.

But contrary to his unique demeanor, his eyes were filled with pity as he looked at me.

It was because he understood the horrors of the battlefield.

He had to personally train a young girl who had never even wielded a sword before and send her off to war.

Perhaps because of this, his eyes also held a small hint of guilt.

“Let us begin training.”

And at the same time, because of that, Sir Nemo subjected me to an exceptionally harsh and rigorous training regimen.

More severely than anyone else, as if determined that I, still a child, would never face death on the battlefield.

***

Danoana, and Talfinus.

Unlike my fellow trainees, I had no basic physical strength and had never swung a sword before, so I had to build my skills from the very bottom. As a result, Sir Nemo, my master, treated me more strictly than any of my peers.

It was hard.

Simply saying it was hard wasn’t enough.

It was hell.

Unfamiliar surroundings and unfamiliar people, brutal training, and even the surveillance of the Prophets who had abducted me.

Agape had even been left behind in Fallen with a letter and a lilac ring, and Roland was undergoing training to become a Prophet, so I had no chance to see his face, only exchanging letters.

Without the family who had always protected me, I felt utterly alone in the world, and I missed them even more. Among them, I missed Agape to my very core.

But I endured.

Even though I missed them, even though the brutal training tormented me.

Because only if I became strong, if I became a hero, could the person I loved survive.

“Hold your sword straight!”

“Hmph…!”

Whoosh—

Agape.

Whoosh—

I miss you.

Whoosh—

“Faster!”

“Hmph…!”

Was he eating properly, sleeping properly?

Or perhaps, after receiving my letter, he was hurt more deeply than I imagined and was withering away.

If only we could exchange letters, even just once, to know each other’s news.

The Prophet of Light surely heard news of what you were doing every day, yet he told me nothing.

Agape.

“Kara, your sword is unsteady!”

What are you doing now?

“Kara!”

Even if I can’t see your face, I want to exchange letters.

“Kara!!”

I miss you, Agape.

“Kara!!!”

Truly.

***

As time passed, around seven years after I began my training.

Thanks to the experiences and strength of the Hero of Verdure, imbued in her spirit, and my exceptional talent for swordsmanship and aura—which I hadn’t even known I possessed—I broke through realms at an unbelievable pace and reached the fifth realm, the Aura Expert level.

And at that point, the long, arduous training finally came to an end.

Now, as a hero, the moment had arrived for me to go to the battlefield and fight the Legion of Death.

In a way, I felt relieved.

Rather than just training vaguely and endlessly striving for new levels, I wished to cut down the Legion of Death as quickly as possible to meet Agape.

So, becoming a hero felt not like a big reluctance, but rather a welcome relief.

However, that relief did not last long.

“…What did you say?”

Lucas, the Prophet of Light, who had continuously monitored me through other Prophets.

He suddenly approached me and delivered a one-sided announcement.

“Just as I said.”

He held out a lapis lazuli ring, symbolizing the Shahlnu Imperial Family and Impurity, along with a document proving the engagement, speaking in an indifferent tone.

Without a single word of consultation, he had arranged my engagement to that good-for-nothing, Astolfo.

“……”

How, and why, did he, the illegitimate son of the household, arrange an engagement between me and Astolfo, the eldest son, for Astolfo’s benefit?

I wasn’t curious about such reasons.

Anyone even remotely deeply involved with the Impurity household knew that the true power of the household lay not with Astolfo, the eldest son, but with Lucas, the illegitimate son.

What I was truly curious about was something else.

“I plan to leave after I’ve subjugated the Legion of Death.”

“I know.”

“And a man who knows that, arranged an engagement between me and Astolfo?”

My honorifics had disappeared.

It wasn’t a simple engagement; it was an engagement predicated on marriage.

This meant nothing less than completely subjugating me to the Impurity household.

But.

“So what do you want me to do about it?”

“…What?”

“I have not broken our ‘promise’ in the slightest.”

You will become a hero and subjugate the Legion of Death, in exchange for your beloved Agape’s safety being held in my grasp.

Once the Legion of Death is subjugated, you and Agape will be free.

“Which part of this agreement have I broken?”

“Stop playing word games!”

Bang—

I jumped to my feet.

“You’re scheming to make me a puppet of Impurity even after the war ends! An engagement with your household has nothing to do with my freedom!”

“Do you really think so?”

Though related to Shahlnu and holding the position of the Empire’s second-in-command, Impurity’s influence spans the entire continent, wielding power comparable to that of the Prophets, the Emperor, and the Alliance. It’s fair to say they are one of the continent’s rulers.

And you, you’ll be engaged to the man who will become the head of that Impurity household, an engagement predicated on marriage.

At the same time, if Astolfo becomes the head, you will naturally gain power so immense that even a king of a nation would bow their head to you.

You’ll probably be able to control most things on the continent as you wish.

“How can an engagement to the eldest son, who will become the head of Impurity, not be freedom?”

It was sophistry.

And.

My patience, upon hearing that sophistry, had reached its limit.

Clang─────!

“…Oh?”

Crack crackle—

Lucas, who had somehow taken hold of ‘The Book of Perpetuity,’ the Prophets’ armament, and was radiating divinity, looked at Kara’s sword, blocked by a bright yellow barrier of light, and let out a gasp of admiration.

At the same time, he let out a mocking sneer as if amused.

“I elevated a powerless girl to Expert level, and now she repays kindness with enmity?”

“Shut, up…!”

Crack crackle—

Even as I poured power into my sword, the barrier of light did not budge.

Even for a Prophet, who holds a non-combatant role, the Prophet of Light possesses an immense amount of divinity, enough to have reached the rank of Consul.

With him holding his armament and protecting himself with all his might using divinity, the strength of a hero who had reached the Expert level was insufficient to kill him.

But.

The barrier groaned and strained—

He could protect himself, but he wasn’t strong enough to kill Kara.

Because of this, neither he nor Kara could budge, and they continued their standoff for a long time until he was the first to speak.

“If you kill me, your beloved will die, regardless of our ‘promise’.”

“……”

“And you, too, will be ostracized by those who hold real power on this continent, forever reduced to the status of a fugitive.”

“……”

“Don’t you understand? With the power you possess right now, you can do nothing but listen to my words.”

He scoffed at Kara.

“You haven’t even reached the Master level; you’re barely an upper-Expert with mediocre skill. Is it so hard to understand that if you try to kill me, only you will suffer?”

He emphasized his mocking words once more.

“With your half-baked strength, you can neither kill me nor protect what you love!”

“…I know.”

“What?”

Crack crackle—

“That’s why…”

Suddenly, the nature of the aura on my sword began to change.

Before, it had simply been an overwhelming quantity of aura and unique operational skill, meant only to overpower with brute force.

A deep hum—

Now, the aura’s power and purity, everything, showed a distinct difference from before.

Seeing that, Lucas was certain.

“You…!”

Shatter—

The barrier of light shattered.

Boom────!!

A surge of refined red aura stormed forth, and amidst the crimson aura, blood mixed in, staining the surroundings red.

“Gasp…!”

He hastily dodged, narrowly escaping death, but a long scar formed from Lucas’s neck to his side.

“Cough!”

His face turned pale as he coughed up blood onto the floor.

Clink—

And at some point, Kara was on the table, holding a blade to his throat.

With a sharp tone she had never uttered in her life, Kara warned him.

“This is your final warning. Cancel the engagement immediately. Otherwise—”

She pressed the blade against his throat.

“—I’ll cut you down right here, regardless of any ‘promise’.”

“……”

Looking up at his cracked mask, the torn Book of Perpetuity—the Prophets’ armament—and the red aura shimmering above Hero Kara’s shoulder, an aura whose very nature had transformed, Lucas burst into laughter.

“Heh,”

Manically, no. Like a person already driven mad.

“Cough…! Heh, hahahahahaha───! To hate it so much that you would break through a level with the sole intent of killing me! That man, and you, you two are truly a pair of lunatics, there’s no doubt about it! Hahahahahaha───!”

He cackled maniacally, as if he weren’t a dying man, pouring out incomprehensible words.

When I still looked at him with an uncomprehending expression, he stopped laughing and said,

“You still don’t understand? I mean, you broke through a level at the same time you broke my barrier just now.”

“I… broke through a level?”

At his words, I focused my senses inward.

“……”

Just as he said, the five stars that were originally there had increased to six, resonating with my spirit.

Noticing that fact, I looked at Lucas again, and he nodded as if to say, “I told you so.”

“Was this your intention from the start?”

“To a certain extent.”

He slowly stood up.

“Still, I was skeptical. Who would have thought you would forcefully break through a level yourself, driven by the desire to kill me for arranging a marriage-based engagement, no matter how much you despised me and Impurity?”

Tap tap—

“But the gamble paid off. And you even unleashed your hatred for me for all to see.”

Lucas began to heal his wound with divinity.

“Then what about the engagement?”

“The fact that the engagement was arranged is true. But if you think about it calmly, you’re just an engaged couple, not married, so isn’t it a bit too sensitive to react that way?”

After healing all his wounds, the bloodstains on his robe also vanished completely.

“Anyway, by the time the war ends, you’ll be holding the position of Vice-Commander of the Shahlnu Stellarum. With that much prestige and influence, breaking a single engagement will be a simple matter of time.”

Well, of course, it would be good for me if you and that good-for-nothing actually got married, but.

“……”

His eyes behind the broken mask spoke the truth, but it seemed he hadn’t truly expected my engagement with Astolfo to succeed in the first place.

Rather, it felt more accurate to think that he had done this to make me break through a level quickly, and to use me as a puppet for a little longer even after the war ended.

Clench—

The sense of achievement from breaking through a level instantly vanished.

Instead, a foul, clinging emotion, like dirty sludge, created by the fact that he had ‘engaged’ me to that good-for-nothing with a petty scheme, and that he had done this to use me as a puppet for longer, made that sense of achievement vanish without a trace.

I looked at him once more.

He stared intently at me, awaiting my reaction, as if expecting gratitude for personally sacrificing himself to make me break through a level.

‘Disgusting.’

And so, his face felt even more hateful and repulsive.

So I shook the blood from my sword onto the already shattered engagement document on the floor, and tried to escape the place as if fleeing.

Just then.

Thud!—

A lapis lazuli ring suddenly flew at me. As I caught it, he spoke.

“Wear that ring during public appearances.”

“What if I don’t?”

“Agape will die.”

“……”

He was serious.

Regardless of any ‘promise,’ he genuinely intended to kill Agape if I didn’t follow his words.

So, I had no choice but to put that repulsive ring into my pocket.

Grind—

Clenching my teeth once more, I left the place.

…Unaware of how great a tragedy this ring would later bring.

***

‘…Agape?’

Three years later.

In the middle of the Allied Forces’ encampment, I encountered the man I loved most.

In the worst possible situation, looking my absolute worst.

With that filthy object on my ring finger.