Chapter Content
Prologue
“Did he arrive safely, I wonder.”
“He should have arrived safely.”
“Damn bastard, having even one friend isn’t any help. If he was going to leave, he should’ve just left—why leave the sword behind…… tsk.”
“It must have been his resolve to leave no attachments. And in part, I believe it was for Your Majesty’s sake.”
Now the emperor of Tylers, Adrian Tylers, who had become the hegemon of the continent, sipped his wine with a bored expression.
A war that had been vicious.
He recalled enemies who, like fanatics, kept charging even after their limbs were severed.
“A crafty old man. Unlike those other idiots who only cling to their god, that man is still sharp.”
“The fact that he rose to the papal seat must be proof that it wasn’t mere luck. Although the war has ended, it’s still too early to relax.”
The man standing beside the emperor revealed a bitter expression.
The pope who ruled the Holy Empire of Ru was cunning to an extreme.
Even at an age well past fifty, he never stepped down from the papal throne.
Why?
The moment he stepped down, the Holy Empire of Ru would lose its chance to recover once again.
“Isn’t it true that the Holy Empire really lacks talent? Watching an old man desperately trying to prop up a collapsing nation is quite satisfying.”
The final war that took place in Lutein Gorge.
The victor was the Tylers Empire.
However, it was also a war in which the Tylers side suffered tremendous losses.
The sword said to be the strongest in the empire, Ian Kailers, went missing.
The empire’s finest special operations unit that followed him also vanished like dust.
“We must bring down Duke Laika, Your Majesty.”
“We need to cut off all his arms and legs. Although Ian has left, the legacy he left behind still remains.”
“Your Majesty will be able to handle it well.”
Adrian recalled his last conversation with Ian Kailers.
---
“This battle will be my last. I plan to leave, Adrian.”
Ian Kailers, who had come to see him before departing for Lutein Gorge, calmly delivered the notice.
At the words that he would leave, Adrian let out a dry chuckle.
“If you leave, the special operations unit won’t survive easily, will it?”
“I know. Given your personality, you wouldn’t bother protecting a unit that no longer has me.”
“Don’t you know me a little too well?”
“The moment I disappear, Duke Laika will desperately try to eliminate them. I’m not worried about Seros, but the others won’t be able to endure it.”
At the highest place of the imperial palace where the emperor resided.
Ian Kailers, who had been gazing out the window of his office, let out a sigh.
His political enemy, and the emperor’s uncle, Duke Laika, was a man of ambition.
Had Ian Kailers failed to enthrone Adrian as emperor, he would have become the emperor of the empire himself.
Fortunately, the empire’s knights followed Ian Kailers wholeheartedly.
The master of all the empire’s knights.
The number of knights who could move at a single word from him was countless.
Within the empire, his influence was that immense.
He was even assessed as holding greater power than the emperor.
“Can’t you just stay?”
“If I stay, wouldn’t your authority decline?”
“That much I can endure. If it’s to capture the Guide of the Sword.”
“There’s no longer time to be at ease. I couldn’t leave this place because I was worried about the special operations unit kids. In the meantime, the situation of my family has been spiraling to the worst.”
He turned his gaze northward, revealing eyes filled with concern.
An emotion he had never shown even once.
In the Holy Empire, he was called the White Devil, but among the empire’s knights, he was known by another name besides the Guide of the Sword.
“You cold-blooded bastard. Even when the special operations units you raised with such care were dying off, you didn’t grieve even once.”
This was not Ian Kailers’s homeland.
Nor was it a country he had to protect at the cost of his life.
The reason he had held his position for the past fourteen years was a promise to the previous emperor.
A request to suppress Duke Laika and make Adrian emperor.
And the request to remain in the empire until the war ended was not one he could easily abandon.
“To die on the battlefield as a knight is an honor. If I grieved, their honor would be diminished.”
“Do you think the special operations unit knows? That the man who had wanted to leave long ago stayed because of them.”
One rumor that reached him four years ago.
A rumor that his father had passed away.
And the moment that rumor was revealed to be true, he intended to abandon all his positions and leave.
“They wouldn’t know. There’s nothing good in knowing.”
“Fine, I won’t tell them. That aside, it’s fine for you to make requests of me, but do you think I’ll just sit by and watch the Guide of the Sword leave for another country?”
“You won’t just watch. State your condition.”
Emperor Adrian was a rational man.
The very act of delivering such a notice in the first place was for the sake of negotiating with him.
“You really have no idea how to show emotion, even to a friend.”
“Adrian.”
He called his name in a dignified voice.
He knew.
That he could no longer stop him.
“My condition is this: I will answer the call of the Tylers Empire. Once should be enough.”
“……After this battle ends, we’ll have to announce that you and the special operations unit have officially gone missing, won’t we?”
“It doesn’t matter. In any case, the situation of the Tylers Empire isn’t so dire that it needs you immediately.”
Over fourteen years, countless talents had been lost.
But over those same fourteen years, outstanding talents had also remained.
All of this was thanks to Ian Kailers.
The disciples he had raised were now active as the backbone of the empire.
Among the knights called the Empire’s Eight Swords, as many as three had learned the sword from him.
If Seros, the vice-commander of the special operations unit, followed him and left, only two would remain, but even they were enough.
Of the Eight Swords who had aligned themselves with Duke Laika, there were only two.
The remaining three all followed Adrian, the emperor.
“I accept.”
“Can’t you at least think it over a bit before agreeing?”
“Knowing that you’re not such a foolish emperor, is there any need?”
“To use the word ‘foolish’ toward the emperor. Tsk…….”
“Do you want my head for lèse-majesté?”
“I wouldn’t even dare dream of such a thing, my friend.”
From the start, he didn’t even entertain such a foolish fantasy.
To capture Ian Kailers would require a considerable amount of force.
With the war only just coming to an end, there was even less reason to unnecessarily expend national power. Thus, in truth, Emperor Adrian’s decision to leave Ian Kailers be was a rational one.
If he tried to capture Ian Kailers here, not only would all the bonds built up so far be destroyed, but it could even turn them into enemies.
“Keep in touch from time to time. If there’s ever a need for the emperor’s name, request it anytime. And if you survive, send Aron to at least let me know whether you’re alive or dead.”
“I will.”
Watching Ian Kailers reply curtly, the emperor smiled, then suddenly asked as if struck by curiosity.
“I only know that it’s another country, but I don’t even know where your hometown is, or what your real name is. Even if you’re leaving, couldn’t you at least tell me that much?”
“Is that one of the conditions required for me to leave?”
“……You really are heartless.”
When the emperor shook his head, Ian smiled for the first time and turned his head northward.
“I don’t want to be watched by you.”
Chapter 1: Return After 15 Years
Whiiing―
A wind filled with biting cold fiercely swept across the snow-covered plains.
In such a barren land existed the Ragnar Family.
The Ragnar Family was called a great family of frost knights that had taken root in the Daon Kingdom, one of the Seven Kingdoms.
No, they had certainly been called that once.
However, the Ragnar Family was gradually falling into ruin.
The Monster Mountain Range that lay directly beside the Ragnar Territory.
As another territory bordering that mountain range was breached, monsters had, before anyone realized it, been pushed all the way to the front of the lord’s castle.
It was the moment when the fortress built along the Monster Mountain Range and the sturdy walls lost all meaning.
“Head of the family, it’s an orc legion.”
A young man clad in armor climbed atop the castle wall.
The young man with white hair and crimson eyes nodded at the words of a middle-aged knight.
There was no solution.
Even the previous head of the family had died in battle while trying to protect the iron mine, and now the number of knights remaining in the territory did not even reach two hundred.
He had never imagined that stationing nearly all of their forces at the fortresses and castles would turn into such a blunder.
“……Is there truly no way?”
The young man called the head of the family lamented.
His name was Pramo Ragnar.
Originally, he had not been the eldest son, but the second.
As the second son of the territory, he had been in a position where he could never ascend as heir.
However, fifteen years ago, when his older brother and the family’s heir, Kyle Ragnar, went missing, he had inherited the position of head of the family.
At the sight of Pramo lamenting in despair, the middle-aged knight beside him remained silent.
Pramo looked at the knight and opened his mouth.
“If the lord’s castle is breached, it’s over.”
That said, he could not recall the soldiers already deployed to the fortresses and castles.
If they retreated now, with monsters pouring out of the Monster Mountain Range, there truly would be no retreat left.
The moment the fortresses were breached and two castles fell, the Ragnar Territory would be finished.
No matter how it turned out, they were headed for ruin, but even so, Pramo did not touch the forces deployed on the front lines until the very last moment.
“Even if I die here, I will remain and fight to the end.”
The commander of the Ragnar Knight Order closed his eyes at the resolute figure of Pramo.
An orc legion numbering close to a thousand revealed itself right before the lord’s castle.
The monsters of the inland and the monsters of the Monster Mountain Range were different.
They were about three times stronger than inland monsters, and their hides could never be pierced by ordinary swords.
But Pramo tightly gripped the hilt of his sword as if it did not matter.
Then, turning his body toward the soldiers, he drew his blade.
Srrring―
“This may be our final day.”
Pramo began speaking calmly as he looked down at the soldiers whose eyes were filled with fear.
The soldiers remaining in the lord’s castle numbered only five hundred.
Though they were said to be soldiers worth a hundred each, holding out against powerful monsters would not be easy.
“But I, Pramo Ragnar, will fight to the very end and protect the Ragnar Territory together with you! You too, raise your weapons for your families, neighbors, and loved ones!”
Pramo raised his sword high, spurring the soldiers on.
All that remained in the lord’s castle were five hundred soldiers and fifty knights.
Whether five hundred and fifty could stop an orc legion numbering a thousand was uncertain, but Pramo intended to fight to the end.
After finishing his brief speech, Pramo turned his body again and thought of someone.
‘Brother…… are you still alive?’
The one who had been called the prodigy of the Ragnar Family since childhood.
Kyle Ragnar.
He wanted to see his brother’s face one last time, wherever he might be.
‘I wanted to be someone I could be proud of before you. But the situation isn’t so easy.’
Pramo did not possess talent in swordsmanship.
A body that could not even accumulate mana had tormented him endlessly.
However, now was not the time for self-reproach.
At the sight of the approaching orc legion, Pramo shouted.
“Prepare for battle! Archers, get ready. And the Ragnar Knight Order, hold the walls.”
At Pramo’s command, the soldiers erased their fear and swiftly climbed the walls.
All that could protect them was a single weapon in their hands.
“Fight to the end! We must buy time for the territory’s residents to evacuate safely!”
There was only one reason they were preparing for a final, desperate stand.
It was to buy time for the residents to safely leave the lord’s castle and enter another castle in the rear.
Pramo briefly watched the long line of evacuees, then turned his gaze away.
A group of soldiers preparing for a siege.
And the burly orcs charging in, kicking up a blizzard of snow.
Though it was a final desperate resistance, every soldier and knight remaining in the lord’s castle stood there prepared for death.
Whiiing―
At that moment, a fierce gale swept through.
A wind carrying a cold so sharp it chilled the bones.
The snow piled on the ground scattered in all directions.
When the blizzard finally cleared, six figures in robes revealed themselves before the advancing orc legion.
Srrrk―
The hood of the one standing at the very front was blown back by the wind.
As it fell away, snow-white hair was revealed, proof of the bloodline of the Ragnar Family.
Kyle Ragnar.
He was the heir of the Ragnar Family who had vanished fifteen years ago, and the Empire’s Sword, Ian Kylerus.
At twenty-eight years of age, not a young age by any means, Kyle did not regret the life he had lived.
No.
If there was one thing he regretted, it was that he had been forced to watch the downfall of his family.
The reality that he could not offer any help at all was agonizing.
“I’ll make you regret setting foot on Ragnar land.”
“I will do so, my lord.”
Five hooded figures stood behind Kyle, and one of them stepped forward and spoke to him.
Kyle answered without even glancing at him.
“Seros, go all out.”
“Of course. I will do my utmost to cut down the beasts that invaded Ragnar.”
The one called Seros removed his hood.
A sharp-featured man with black hair and black eyes.
He drew his sword.
“For someone like the vice-commander, why are you suddenly so serious?”
At that, another man interrupted Seros and pulled back his hood.
A man with green hair and eyes, and bronze-colored skin, bared his white teeth as he spoke to Seros.
“Shut it, Acacia.”
“Is there really a need to be tense? If we were weak enough to fall to mere orcs, we’d have died on the battlefield long ago.”
Acacia’s words were polite, but his tone was not.
As he grumbled and scolded Seros, Kyle shook his head.
“Stay alert. The monsters of the north are different from those you’ve faced so far.”
“……Understood, my lord.”
At Seros’s words, Acacia, who had been interrupting him, quickly changed his expression and nodded.
The undefeated commander who had known only victory across countless wars was Kyle Ragnar.
And he had spoken.
Do not be careless.
‘Then I’ll follow that advice.’
Acacia nodded and tightly gripped the handle of his short spear.
In the meantime, the orcs had advanced right up to them, and Kyle drew the crimson sword at his waist.
Woooong―
The red blade resonated with Kyle’s touch, its blade trembling violently.
“Ragnar will not fall. I did not return to witness such a sight.”
At Kyle’s murmur, the sword in his hand emitted a powerful chill.
“I’ll wipe them all out.”
Kyle raised his sword and charged forward.
He kicked off the ground, leapt, and brought his blade crashing down.
One orc, charging ferociously without restraint, tried to block Kyle’s attack with a crude weapon.
But the result was miserable.
Chjjeojeok―
Its body was split cleanly in half from top to bottom.
Normally, when humans or monsters are cut, blood flows.
But no blood gushed from the bisected orc’s corpse.
A power that froze even hot blood in an instant.
“The commander’s power is fascinating no matter how many times I see it.”
Acacia, half-dazed, stopped fighting the orcs and stared at Kyle.
Kyle was radiating an overwhelming presence, white flames billowing from him.
Not only that, but Seros, following behind him, was also displaying his full prowess, wielding the Blade said to be usable only by Masters.
Their ferociously strong momentum swept through the orc legion like crashing waves.
The six, including Kyle, relentlessly severed the orcs’ necks, their sword paths without the slightest deviation.
They had always done so.
Because cutting the neck was the cleanest finish.
Kraaaah!
Just then, a massive orc appeared, one that looked more than twice the height of a human.
Enraged at the sight of humans slaughtering his kin without even six of them being stopped, the giant orc let out a savage roar.
But it could not have known that this roar would be the last cry of its life.
“Hyaah!”
As the giant orc charged like a raging bull, Kyle advanced as well, lightly stepping on the heads of the tightly packed orcs before him.
He leapt into the air and brought his sword down.
Jeojeok―
The greatsword the giant orc was holding failed to withstand Kyle’s strength and cracked.
“You can’t block it with a sword like that.”
Boom―!
Kwaaaang―
Kyle swung his sword two more times in succession.
With the second strike, the greatsword shattered into pieces, and with the final strike, the giant orc’s body was split in half.
When the giant orc fell after only three sword strikes, the orcs that had been charging fiercely confirmed that their leader had been cleaved apart and began to retreat.
“You will not return alive.”
Cold air flickered like flames and burst violently toward the orcs.
While Kyle crushed the orcs with overwhelming force, Seros also unleashed black Blades, swinging his sword again and again.
In just one hour, they achieved an unbelievable feat.
Not a single one of the thousand orcs survived; all of them lay fallen upon the frigid ground.
“And from now on, you won’t even dare to covet this place.”
Speaking in a low voice, Kyle grabbed the hair of the giant orc that had been cut in half.
As if collecting a trophy, he dragged the giant orc and walked toward the lord’s castle.