The three returned to the carriage in an uncomfortable silence. Yuto's expression was grief-stricken, and Flokiro quietly held his hand.

Levian asked neither of them any unnecessary questions. After wondering what expression she ought to wear, she instead voiced a question that was no longer unnecessary, but essential.

"So, Yuto. Why have you come to Belkain?"

Yuto turned as he settled onto the driver's seat. His usually shadowed eyes were darker than ever.

"I believe I told you there was something I needed to find."

His voice was cracked. Levian shook her head with a short sigh.

"Yes, something you needed to find. That's what you told me. But you still haven't told me exactly where it is, or what it is."

"A sword."

"A sword...?"

Puzzlement filled Levian's eyes as she echoed his answer. She could not readily understand why he had ventured into the ruins of a fallen kingdom, a place of deadly peril, for a single weapon.

"It's kept deep inside the royal palace. I need to retrieve it."

Offering no further explanation, Yuto gripped the reins tightly.

That sword, the Precious Sword of Belkain, was more than a piece of sharpened steel. It was the beloved blade Yuto had wielded before his regression, and a keepsake left by his father, King Luke Belkain.

'Father... knew the constellations would kill him.'

Yuto chewed his lip.

Back then, he had been too young to understand the truth his father had uncovered or inherit the sword. So rather than tell his young son the truth directly, his father had left a book that would allow him to carry on his wishes.

'The Precious Sword of Belkain was sealed in a hidden chamber in the underground passage.'

But that had been before his regression, in a world where Yuto had existed as Belkain's prince. In all honesty, he could not be certain the sword would be sealed in the same place in this world.

Even without that certainty, he had to see for himself. He had to see the ruins of fallen Belkain, and find out whether the sword was there.

'Perhaps... Father sealed the sword away in this world, too.'

Even in a world without Yuto, his father had seen through at least part of the truth about the constellations. And he would have foreseen that they would kill him for learning too much.

If so, there was a chance his father had sealed the sword away. With that thought, Yuto raised his head.

Beyond the thick purple mist stood Belkain's castle.

It was difficult to find even a trace of the beautiful, magnificent silver-white fortress it had once been. Half its walls had collapsed, leaving only a bare skeleton, and the spires that had soared as though to pierce the heavens were broken midway up, staring down at the earth at grotesque angles.

Belkain. The place that had symbolized the glory of that name was now little more than an enormous gravestone. His heart feeling as though it were being torn apart, Yuto pulled on the reins.

* * *

The deeper they traveled into Belkain's city center, the more Yuto felt a pulse deep within his chest. It was different from his heartbeat. The Void's aether dwelling deep inside him had sensed something and was responding of its own accord.

'What is this...?'

Yuto's brow furrowed as he held the reins. This place was haunted by the resentful spirits of countless citizens buried with their kingdom on the night of the catastrophe. No—that was not all. Along with the pulsing in his chest, he now felt a nauseating revulsion.

"Ugh..."

He was not the only one who felt it. Levian, who had been anxiously scanning their surroundings, went pale and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"What... is this? Something... other than poison is fouling the air..."

Yuto turned from Levian to Flokiro, seated on his left. Flokiro, too, was frowning, his muzzle wrinkled.

"Aether," Flokiro said, sniffing the air.

"The aether is contaminated. Horribly contaminated."

"Aether...?"

Aether was the energy that made up this world. Places lush with nature were filled with pure aether, while battlefields strewn with corpses were filled with contaminated aether.

Before his regression, Yuto had traveled across countless battlefields with Flokiro, so he was fairly familiar with contaminated aether. Yet no battlefield had ever sickened him like this.

'Most of Belkain's people died here, so the contamination must be severe, but...'

His instincts told him that was not the only reason. The revulsion grew stronger as they neared the city center, and his heart screamed. This sinister aether seemed not merely contaminated, but refined into something even more lethal and evil.

A jolt ran through him.

The current rising from his chest pricked at his mind. Sensing something instinctively, Yuto turned his head. Purple mist drifted all around them. Poisonous fumes rose from patches of ground. Aether refined into evil filled the air.

Beyond all of it, his instincts pointed somewhere. The Iron Horses, which had been heading toward the royal palace, changed course at a movement of the reins.

"Yuto? Where are we going now?"

Levian sounded bewildered. With one hand still over her mouth, she had been rummaging through her herbs for something to ease the nausea.

"I don't know either," Yuto answered honestly.

"But... we have to go that way. There's something over there."

He did not ignore his instincts.

This land had once been the Kingdom of Belkain, and Yuto was its last king. If some terrible, unforgivable sin was stirring in this grief-stricken land, he had to crush it.

The murderous look in his eyes stopped Levian from asking anything more.

"Hah..."

What a complicated man, with secrets in every corner of his life. Levian heaved a deep sigh.

At that moment—

"Halt!"

A loud voice rang out through the mist.

Five figures carrying crossbows appeared atop the wreckage of a collapsed building. Below them, ten more emerged from behind the building, armed with swords and spears.

Yuto glared at the fifteen who had suddenly appeared. They were too well outfitted to be the looters and bandits who scoured Belkain's ruins. Their equipment would not have looked out of place on a city's regular soldiers. The crossbows aimed at them from the rooftop were not even single-shot weapons, but repeating crossbows.

"Heh heh. What brings a young lady of House Marigold to this shithole of a city?"

One of the men aiming a crossbow from above the carriage sneered. He seemed to have guessed Levian's identity from the Marigold crest engraved on the carriage.

"You don't even have any guards. Don't tell me that little brat and one Evomon are your escort?"

"Oh, don't worry. We're not complete fucking animals. First, put down your weapons and kneel where you are. Then we can talk."

As they snickered, Yuto continued studying them. They were not even all human. Among those carrying spears and axes below were several orcs, green-skinned hulks well over two meters tall.

'What is this...?'

He had often heard that orcs, as well as looters and bandits, had made their way into Belkain's ruins. But seeing orcs band together with humans puzzled him. Most nonhuman races, such as elves, were not particularly fond of humans, but orcs went beyond dislike to outright hostility.

Orcs would not join humans without some special reason, yet here they stood beside them, spears in hand, just to commit robbery? It made no sense by anything Yuto knew.

"Hey, are you deaf? I said drop your weapons and get on your knees!"

One of the men on the roof bellowed. Yuto spoke.

"Flokiro. Protect Levian."

He did not wait for an answer. He immediately activated Void Step. Black mist engulfed him with a rush, and he leaped through space in succession, reaching the rooftop in an instant.

"Huh?"

Not one of the five crossbowmen had seen through his movements. Far from turning their crossbows, they had not even realized he was above their heads.

Black haze poured from Yuto's back and formed two hands.

CRUNCH!

The hands slammed straight down, literally flattening two men.

SPLURT!

Blood burst out like popping balloons, spraying in every direction.

"Aaargh!"

The remaining three screamed and tried to turn their crossbows, but once again, Yuto was much faster. He slipped beneath a crossbow in an instant, an obsidian dagger already in his hand.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

His dagger plunged into a man's belly, chest, and throat in three quick thrusts.

"Gah!"

The man thrashed and clutched the wound in his throat, but he could do nothing to stop the blood pouring from his belly and chest. As he staggered, Void Touch seized the other two and tore their upper bodies from their lower halves through grip strength alone.

"Wh-what the hell?!"

The men below shouted at the screams erupting overhead. They, too, had no idea how Yuto had appeared on the roof, but they did not hesitate as the crossbowmen had.

"Grab the bitch!" someone roared.

Three spearmen charged toward the carriage with shouts, and Flokiro sprang from the driver's seat.

BOOM!

Two flames Flokiro hurled struck the bandits and exploded. He immediately moved to deal with the remaining man, but before he could, vines writhed up from the ground and coiled around the man's legs.

"Aaargh!"

It was Levian's magic. The man fell facedown and struggled, but the more he thrashed, the tighter the writhing vines squeezed his body.

"Ugh...!"

Levian gritted her teeth. Unlike the Blood Wolves she had killed yesterday, the person before her now was a human being, just like her. Having lived her entire life as a noble family's daughter, she could hardly have killed anyone with her own hands before.

"Don't kill him!" Yuto shouted.

"Keep him restrained! I have questions for him!"

With seven bandits still left, there was no particular need to spare that one. But Yuto did not want Levian to commit murder for something so trivial.

"A-all right!"

Hearing Levian's loud reply, Yuto jumped down from the roof. Even among his Void Skills, Void Step consumed an enormous amount of aether. Since he still had no idea what was happening in this city, he intended to avoid wasting any more aether than necessary.

"You little bastard! What the hell are you?!"

The bandits shouted as Yuto leaped from the roof. One tried to thrust a spear at him, but before its tip could come anywhere near him, Void Touch slammed the man into the ground.

CRUNCH!

The human burst against the ground like a swatted fly. At the wet splatter of blood, the two remaining humans screamed in panic. The three orcs' eyes, however, grew bloodshot.

Orcs were physically superior to humans. Violent by nature, they did not fear battle. One charged Yuto with a savage roar.

THUNK!

A bolt buried itself in the charging orc's eye. At some point, Yuto had taken up a crossbow he had brought from the roof.

THUNK! THUNK!

He deftly drew the string and fired. The crossbow's draw weight was far beyond what a fourteen-year-old boy could handle, but that posed no difficulty for Yuto, and his aim was chillingly precise. In moments, bolts had pierced both the orc's eyes, and another had lodged in its unarmored throat.

"Grrrk!"

Unable to control its charging body, the orc fell and rolled across the ground. The other two roared in fury at the sight. Wary of Yuto's crossbow, they charged with their thick arms shielding their heads.

Seeing this, Yuto tossed the crossbow aside and picked up the spear lying near the man he had just crushed like a fly.

'This brings back memories.'

He leveled the spear with a savage smile. Before his regression, Yuto had won countless battles without anything like Void Skills.

The sword was not the only weapon he knew how to wield.