episode_0173

000

It is said that in the extreme lands of the northern continent, the snowfield dwarves of the past built and lived in a great kingdom.

Due to an unidentified disaster, their country was destroyed, and the already harsh climate of the northern continent became even more dangerous.

Their great civilization and technology were buried under the raging blizzard, and scholars generally believed that the snowfield dwarves no longer existed.

After the war with the continent, the kingdom, realizing the importance of technology, began to develop the north in order to investigate the dwarves’ technological prowess.

Over many years, people were sent to carve glaciers and snow mountains, cultivating fields and creating a place to live, waiting for the discovery of dwarven artifacts.

However, it is barren land where ordinary people struggle to survive. In the harsh environment, plants do not grow properly, and animals hide, so just solving the food problem was already overwhelming.

And next is the problem of where to live. The kingdom’s engineers put all their efforts into creating a machine that could create warmth in one village, but using magic power was too inefficient, so manpower was needed.

It requires turning a huge turbine, and even if they took turns, they would collapse from exhaustion after only an hour of spinning it.

In the end, whatever they do, there is a shortage of manpower.

Even though the kingdom, along with the academy, holds real power in the continent, most of the land where the former imperial people lived will take time until people can live there again due to the aftereffects of using magic weapons.

Other than that, there is still untouched land that has not been developed by human hands.

They were not blindly devoted to pouring manpower into an industry that may never end.

Those who volunteer to go north are either extremely patriotic or eccentric people interested in dwarven technology.

Therefore, what the kingdom chose to make up for the lack of manpower was “forced labor.”

It’s not about forcibly taking ordinary people and making them work.

If they have committed a crime, but not a crime serious enough for the death penalty, they are dragged to the north and made to work.

Under the supervision of the kingdom’s soldiers, they take turns spinning the turbine all day long.

Next to the artificial flame magic generator, the bitter cold outside is like a lie, creating a sauna-like and sweltering environment that is difficult in a different sense.

Going outside is not allowed, and living in accommodations that replace prisons with insufficient facilities is common.

Of course, not even ordinary petty criminals can come here.

Only serious criminals. In other words, those who might have been sentenced to death under the previous kingdom law are now not subject to the death penalty because the standard for sentencing to death has been raised for the sake of labor.

For example, an idiot who threatens the guild master of the Adventurer’s Guild within the kingdom’s territory, causes a riot, destroys buildings, and injures innocent people.

If not, a heinous serial killer who takes drugs banned by the kingdom and kills several people, but a man who has avoided the death penalty due to someone’s intentions.

Of course, in the latter case, because the crime was so heinous and the nature was violent, he could not live in the same room as other prisoners, and only a dirty and dark solitary cell was allowed.

A young man with long black hair, covering his eyes, and constantly mumbling.

He is easily over 2m tall, and his physique is so large that he seems to have great strength.

However, under the tattered prisoner clothes, black tattoos can be seen.

“I am Kleon. Of the Black Magic Clan. Talcheck’s disciple… I am…”

At that moment, when he was repeating unintelligible words in the darkness.

She appeared from outside the bars.

As if she had been there from the beginning, she naturally opened the space and appeared.

“Ah. I came to see if the Black Magic Clan was in the northern detention center… This is… Hehehe.”

As if she had found something interesting, she brushed back her red hair with a glint in her eyes.

Horns on her head, a tail on her butt.

“A `Black Maker` addict… He’ll be useful, won’t he?”

Perhaps having heard the woman’s voice, the young man also raised his head and looked at the woman.

“Devil…”

“Ishtal. Hello. Self-proclaimed `Kleon`.”

“Y, yes… I, I am Kleon… I am Kleon.”

“…Hehehe. Good. A pitiful human being whose reason and the barrier of the soul have collapsed in just the right way… It makes my protective instinct surge.”

Ishtal said that and licked her lips with her tongue.

“Hey, `Kleon`. Won’t you make a deal with me? I’ll free you from this place… and provide you with `Black Maker`. In return, there’s something I want you to do.”

001

When Kleon and his party stepped into the boss’s room, the huge man was sitting on a huge chair decorated like his throne.

However, perhaps having already finished the act, a woman’s naked body was lying at his feet.

“Keuk…”

It must have been at the same time that they met the boss’s eyes. The light of the woman’s life was extinguished and disappeared.

The man, who was rolling the limp woman with his foot, kicked her body and sent her flying into the wall.

With a thud, the woman’s body fell limply, and they couldn’t bear to watch it with their eyes open.

The party felt anger at the man’s heinous act and clenched their fists tightly.

And Kleon realizes. The armor the man is wearing is black, but the parts exposed between the armor are not inner armor but his skin.

All of it was black. Exposed skin except for the face. All pitch black.

“… Black Maker’s side effect…”

Kleon grabbed his sword and looked at the man’s face, his eyes shining with red light.

“… Red. As expected, not of the Black Magic Clan.”

“Who are you guys…? Why are you in this hideout?”

The man called Boss was not flustered even after seeing them, and quietly picked up the black greatsword that was embedded next to him.

“You know who I am, and you’re grabbing a sword and standing confidently in front of me?”

When he spoke in a low voice mixed with intimidation, Quon unknowingly put strength into the hand holding her staff.

“Yes. I heard. They say you’re called `Kleon`. Talcheck’s disciple… I heard you call yourself a member of the Black Magic Clan. But your eyes are red, so it doesn’t seem like it, does it?”

When Kleon said that, the man’s eyebrows twitched.

Then he stood up from his seat and pointed the greatsword at the party.

Kleon also grabbed his sword and stood in front, and Iona looked at the man for a moment before gasping in surprise.

“… Ein?”

When Iona said the name `Ein`, both Kleon and the man who was impersonating Kleon flinched.

“Ein, you said?”

“That’s wrong. I am… Kleon.”

The man groaned, holding his head as if in pain, when he heard the name Ein.

“… It seems there was some truth mixed in with the lies. Talcheck… The point that he’s my father’s disciple, that is.”

“Really, are you Ein? You…”

“Shut up! I’m not Ein, I’m Kleon! Who the hell are you guys!”

The man became angry, raised his greatsword, and charged towards the party.

“Keuk… First, we need to stop this guy… Eustace! Step back a little!”

“Y, yes…!”

Iona and Kleon also looked at him with tense expressions – the person called `Ein`.

They were glaring at their “Teacher Brother” and grabbing their swords.

-00?

“Well, goodbye, Kleon. I’m going to the royal capital with my teacher.”

The young man with red hair – no, he was still a boy – was originally a person who received swordsmanship lessons from Talcheck at the Elesia school.

However, after Lesia disappeared, he left Elesia to follow Talcheck, who went to the royal capital to find her traces.

His name is Ein. He has no surname. Since he doesn’t know the names of his father and mother, he wouldn’t have inherited their surname even if they were nobles with surnames.

Ein’s parents were attacked by bandits on the way from the royal capital to Elesia. His father died on the spot, and his mother was rescued by adventurers before she died and brought to Elesia.

She was pregnant with a child and died a few days later after giving birth.

At that time, the only doctor in Elesia did his best, but it was a miracle just to save the child.

Ein was taken in and raised at the temple of Elesia.

Orphans are not uncommon in Elesia.

As a city of adventurers, there are times when adventurers with children go on quests and don’t return.

In such cases, the Adventurer’s Guild takes responsibility for the children and provides assistance until they become adults.

However, in Ein’s case, his father was not an adventurer but someone from an unknown kingdom.

For the sake of fairness, the Adventurer’s Guild could not extend a helping hand, but the clergy was different.

Under the teachings of the clergy, Ein grew into an ordinary but healthy boy.

He met Talcheck around the time he became the leader of the alleyway.

When Talcheck, who had become a teacher at the school at Lesia’s request, reluctantly taught swordsmanship to the children, he was the one who wielded his sword more enthusiastically than the other children.

The boy’s goal was to become a swordsman who could become stronger and protect others.

At that time, Ein had met Kleon a few times, and since he was learning Talcheck’s sword before Kleon, he would tell him to call himself “Teacher Brother.”

Several years passed, and when Talcheck finally left Elesia. Originally, he was planning to take Kleon with him.

However, when that position became vacant due to Kleon’s refusal. He was the one who took that position in order to become stronger and learn more from Talcheck.

Talcheck seemed to hesitate a little at first, but when Ein persistently asked, he took him to the royal capital as if he couldn’t help it.

Talcheck, who went to the royal capital, not only allowed Ein to use the training facilities of the Knights, but also took him to Horseshoe Mountain, saying it was a special training place.

However, Talcheck often left his seat without saying a word in order to find Lesia, and in the meantime, Ein continued to train even alone and was growing as a swordsman.

It was quite shocking when such a teacher brought a girl one day.

After that, in addition to Ein, that girl – the adopted daughter of the teacher, a child named `Iona`, and other disciples began to practice swordsmanship under Talcheck.

Most of them were children of nobles. Every one of them was stupid, arrogant, and liked to treat people’s efforts as foolish.

Most of them couldn’t endure Talcheck’s training for even a day and ran away.

Ein began to have the childish idea that he might be a special human being because he could endure the swordsman’s training that even the nobles couldn’t.

But soon, Ein felt something he had never felt before – a “wall.”

Ein, who was in the middle of training. Because he encountered a group of thieves who had sneaked into Horseshoe Mountain, he ended up fighting them.

Ein’s individual skills were superior, but there were many of them.

Moreover, in the middle of the fight, they used something like a drug, and their physical abilities exploded.

In the end, with injuries all over his body, he was on the verge of death when he was rescued by Talcheck and the Knights who had chased after them, barely managing to survive.

`Am I not a special human being…?`

Ein’s delusion-like thoughts gradually grew.

Even when he was with adventurers, he would overdo it and ruin the job, or he would recklessly swing his sword to catch criminals in the royal capital and injure unrelated people.

The more he failed, the greater his disappointment in himself became.

Ordinary people, as they experience failure, get rid of the excessive self-consciousness typical of adolescence.

They learn that they are not the center of the world and that they live in the world with other people.

But Ein couldn’t do that.

Why? Because isn’t that so? The always special human – the “hero” – has a tragic birth, grows through trials, and is praised in the end.

If he, who lost his parents as soon as he was born, is not a special human being, then how else can he be compensated for this life?

He needed proof.

Proof that he is a special human being.

That’s why he became even more reckless, and even ignored Talcheck’s instructions.

Contrary to what he was aiming for, he only became aware of his powerlessness.

What came to Ein’s mind was “that drug” that the group of thieves, who had given him his first defeat, the beginning of all tragedies, had used.

He found out from the Knights’ information that they were not just a group of thieves but remnants of the Empire, and that they had come to recover items from the Imperial era that had been left behind on Horseshoe Mountain.

Ein searched Horseshoe Mountain thoroughly and eventually found a front-line base that the Empire had used.

And, inside, there was also the `drug` – Black Maker.

Ein, who had taken the drug, thought that he had finally completely broken free from Talcheck’s control and tried to wield his power to make up for his mistakes so far.

And the incident occurred.

As he secretly used Black Maker, black tattoos gradually began to appear on his body, and black began to appear at the ends of his red hair.

As he used the drug, only his anxiety accelerated. Even so, Ein, who could not stop himself, went on a relic exploration quest with his companions.

Because it was a relic that no one had ever explored, he had to be careful, but Ein, who was thirsty for activity, believed in the power of the drug and forced himself to accept the quest and start working.

The result of his arrogance can only be described as terrible.

The guardians of the relic were all powerful, and when all of his companions except him had fallen.

Ein instinctively felt danger and committed the act of using the drug one more time while he was already taking it, something he had never tried before.

When he came to his senses, the surroundings were devastated.

The guardians were shattered to pieces and scattered on the ground, and as he looked at the collapsed surrounding scenery, wondering if he had done it, he laughed in intoxication with power.

There was something soft under his feet.

It was his companions who had been fighting back-to-back with him until just now.

Ein, who had completely gone berserk due to the side effects of the drug, had killed not only the guardians but also his companions on the spot.

The adventurers who had heard that Ein had gone on a quest recklessly, and Talcheck, who had followed out of concern.

They subdued Ein, who was holding a greatsword stained with the blood of his companions, his hair completely black.

“You… what is that you’re doing…”

Talcheck stared at Ein’s face without being able to smile at all.

“That’s wrong… I’m a special human being…”

“You stupid bastard…! Look at yourself! Even your hair has turned black…! Are you even imitating Kleon!”

When he heard the angry rebuke, Ein lowered his head and stopped.

Ein was eventually arrested on the spot, tried, and sentenced to forced labor in the north.

Originally, it would not have been strange for him to receive the death penalty, but the high-ranking people of the kingdom were reluctant to kill “Talcheck’s disciple,” who could be used as a force in case of emergency.

It was a famous story that Talcheck had drawn his sword on the spot and tried to cut off Ein’s neck, but was stopped.

On the transport carriage heading north, Ein quietly lowered his head and muttered.

`…Yes. Only villains like the Black Magic Clan would do such a thing… `Ein` would never do such a thing. `Ein` is a special human being… Then… what am I…? I’m not `Ein`…`

As he screamed madly and slammed his head against the wall of the carriage, Ein, thanks to his enhanced strength, broke through the wall of the carriage and fell outside.

When the surprised guards ran up to try to subdue him, he saw his reflection in the ice.

His hair, which had turned completely black, was truly “of the Black Magic Clan.”

And Ein decided to rationalize himself.

He is not Ein. Ein is a special human being who will become a hero. It was not `Ein` who was in such a miserable state.

The only “Black Magic Clan” he knew was one person.

He had only met his face a few times as a child and had the same teacher, but.

When it came to the Black Magic Clan, only his face and name came to mind.

“That’s right… I was Kleon…!”

002

Although he was addicted to drugs, the weight of the greatsword he wielded was threatening.

An unstoppable slash of speed erupting from his bulging arm muscles.

Moreover, he was Talcheck’s top disciple. Although he had a conflict with him at the end.

If you only count the time he learned the sword from him, it was longer than Iona or Kleon.

Iona rolled on the ground to create distance from Ein.

She had tried to block the sword but was pushed back by the force.

“Iona! Don’t try to take it head-on!”

“I know…! Keuk…”

Even though they were fighting one person, both Kleon and Iona felt like they were fighting two, no, more than three people at the same time.

There were many people on the continent who boasted monstrous skills with pure force, but `Ein` was doing movements that would have been impossible otherwise thanks to the drug doping.

That being said, bringing out the power of the magic sword now, without Galatea, could provoke the remnants of the Empire, who might be hiding somewhere, and put Quon and Eustace in danger.

“Die… you dirty clansmen…!”

When Kleon’s gaze turned to Iona for a moment to worry about her, Ein immediately rotated his body as if he had eyes in the back of his head, and swung his greatsword at Kleon’s head.

He had told Iona not to take it head-on, but Kleon instinctively raised his sword to block it without even having time to dodge.

“Keuk, euuuut…!”

He involuntarily made a sound at the enormous force. Staring at the sparks flying between the red sword and the black greatsword, he put strength into his whole body and tried to push it back.

“We’re not… the same clan…!”

While Kleon and the man were clashing swords evenly with voices mixed with injustice and anger.

“Guardian! May the power of the monstrous god be upon you! `Strength`!”

At that time, Quon’s voice echoed, and a red aura covered Kleon’s body.

The spell to enhance strength was cast, and with the feeling that his body was becoming lighter, Kleon began to push back Ein’s sword.

“Haaat!”

At the same time, Iona, who had narrowed the distance again, swung her sword, aiming at the relatively vulnerable joints of the armor.

But-

“Trash…!”

As Ein shouted that and turned his eyes red, something similar to magic pressure burst out from his whole body, pushing back Kleon and Iona at the same time.

Kleon and Iona couldn’t help but look surprised at the black magic mixed in with it.

“What was that just now…”

“Did he become able to use magic power thanks to Black Maker…?”

Black energy was seen flowing out from Ein’s whole body.

It was not difficult to tell that he was already on drugs.

“…Kleon. I can’t penetrate that man’s thick armor and skin with my power alone… If the Imperial Army’s magic tools don’t react to divine magic power-”

When Iona and Kleon made eye contact for a moment, their hands overlapped.

Iona changed into her form as a holy sword on the spot and was held in Kleon’s hand. It was a beautiful sword decorated with red jewels.

“What… is that form…? A holy sword…? Are you a hero!!!? Are you a special human being!!!”

And perhaps that appearance stimulated Ein, he screamed and became furious.

“There’s a limit to getting angry unreasonably… You bastard!”

The next moment, Kleon’s body – his silhouette stretched out like a snake and dashed out of the place at full speed.

`That’s… Rubera’s…`

Eustace knew that movement.

Kleon’s appearance was exactly the movement of an assassin.

Rubera’s swordsmanship stored in Iona is reproduced.

Although Iona’s sword form was shorter than Barisada, that was the part that Kleon had to adjust.

“Wind Pond…!”

Kleon’s sword, which had slipped into Ein’s arms, was swung horizontally.

At the sudden change in Kleon’s movement, Ein frowned and tried to block Kleon’s sword with his greatsword.

But, the moment the Holy Sword Chevalier and the black greatsword collided.

A blade made of magic power popped out from Chevalier, passed through the sword, and cut open Ein’s stomach.

[Got it…!]

“No, it’s shallow…!”

Iona shouted as if she had done it, but Kleon clicked his tongue as he saw him not flinching even in pain and reaching out his other hand to grab his body.

“Quon!”

“A, yes! Let there be light! Flash!”

At Kleon’s signal, when Quon stretched out her hand, a sphere of light flowing out of her hand flew to Ein’s eyes and burst out with intense light.

Eustace also covered his eyes with his hands as he had been told in advance, so he was able to prevent his eyes from going blind from the light.

“Kuaaaaak! You bastards!!”

Ein raised his voice in anger and waved his hands around, but Kleon was already gone.

Once again, he crouched down and this time went behind him, kicked the ground, and jumped into the sky.

His body spins in the air, leaving an afterimage, and a slash is swung.

[Sky Pillar!]

Instead of Kleon, Iona’s voice echoed.

With a swish! The back of the man’s neck was cut, and a lot of blood spurted out.

“───!!!”

The man let out a scream that was not a word.

Quon and Eustace were convinced of Kleon’s victory with the previous attack.

But Kleon was different. The sensation he felt in his hand.

Not enough-!

“Damn it, it’s shallow again…! What’s wrong with this guy’s body…!”

The strength of his body was high, so he couldn’t cut through to the vitals and only managed to inflict an injury.

When the blindness caused by the flash ended, the man quickly swung his greatsword.

“Damn it…!”

Kleon, who was still in the air, quickly released magic power from Chevalier’s sword body and used it as propulsion to avoid the attack.

“You move around so well… To injure me, Talcheck’s disciple, with a sword…!”

“Sorry, but we also think so… Rather, Ein. It seems like you’re worse at using Talcheck’s sword than us?”

[I agree.]

“Shut up!!!”

And the next moment, there was something he took out from his pocket.

Of course – it was Black Maker.

“You have it on hand!”

Kleon quickly tried to approach and break it, but even if Kleon, who had created distance once, was fast.

It couldn’t be faster than breaking a glass bottle while simply holding it in his hand.

To absorb the drug into his wound.

Soon.

The blackness spread even to Ein’s face.

Only his eyes were still red.

Black magic power was seen rising from the blackness of his whole body.

Was it just his imagination, but a pair of something blunt seemed to be growing on his forehead.

“■■■■■■──!!”

A scream that seemed to burst his eardrums echoed.

“Is it round 2…”

[Making Quon and Eustace escape is-]

Something like a tail popped out of what was Ein and attacked the ceiling of the entrance.

The entrance could be seen collapsing.

“Damn it.”

[…We have no choice but to defeat him.]

Kleon and Iona look at the being who was once their Teacher Brother.

Is it because they are strange that they don’t feel any sympathy or mercy for him?

Or is it because that man is not worth it?

What is certain.

That killing him here now would be good for Talcheck, for them, and for Ein himself.