The Empire and other nations respected the standing of warriors who had reached the level of a Sword Seeker. However humble their original station or lowly their origins, attaining that realm granted them standing at least equal to a knight's.

In short, they no longer had to kneel before nobles or bow their heads in deference.

'Which means...'

Najin looked ahead at the people wearing uniforms representing their respective organizations. Once, he would have had to bow his head before them. Now, there was no need. He faced them with his head held high.

They, too, addressed him with a basic measure of courtesy. The reception room was a damned mess, still bearing the scars of battle, but it was adequate for a conversation.

"The Schlett Mercenary Company offers you the position of deputy commander, Sir Najin. For a one-year contract, we promise three hundred platinum coins, with an additional thirty as an allowance befitting your station. Payment for commissions would be calculated separately."

The Schlett Mercenary Company was the first to offer Najin a business card. Schlett ranked among the Empire's three foremost mercenary companies and was famous for completing its commissions without fail.

For a company of that stature to promise him the deputy commander's position was astonishing even to the other recruiters. And three hundred platinum coins on top of that? The terms were extraordinary.

The reception room's door had been smashed during his fight with Gerd a short while earlier, so every word spoken inside carried clearly into the corridor. As those waiting outside swallowed hard at Schlett's offer, Najin spoke.

"I decline."

A refusal without the slightest hesitation.

Even those terms weren't enough? What on earth had he been offered? Leaving only his business card behind, the Schlett representative made a forlorn exit.

The next to present a card was a knight of the ducal House Blancia. Renowned as a martial house, Blancia was a distinguished family that had produced countless knights. It had no fewer than six Sword Seekers in its service.

"The Duke of Blancia..."

The knight recited the duke's personal letter, then set out the terms of the contract. The duke had instructed him to adjust the terms at his own discretion and recruit Najin at any cost, so he offered more than Schlett had.

Four hundred platinum coins. A noble title, too.

Yet Najin's answer was no different this time. As though he had merely been waiting for the knight to finish, he gave a curt refusal: "I decline."

"I decline."

To the Rempon Knight Order, which came in next.

"I decline."

To an offer to become an exclusive adventurer for the Loktid Trading Company, the most renowned trading company in the Empire.

"I decline."

Mage towers, adventuring companies, knight orders serving illustrious houses, the Empire's leading armed organizations, guilds from the allied cities, the Order of the Starbody...

"I decline."

Najin rejected every offer they made. No matter how extraordinary the terms, his answer never changed. He merely shook his head, as though such things had never interested him to begin with.

And so Najin left the reception room.

Not one of them could stop him.

When the recruiters gathered outside the reception room returned and reported the news, the leaders of their respective organizations could only ask one question. He hadn't accepted a single offer? Then who was it?

Who had snapped up that prize?

The knight orders under the imperial family were the first suspects. But Najin had returned to Cambria, and the imperial family showed no particular signs of activity. There was no word of an addition to the Royal Guard, nor any sighting of Najin visiting an imperial knight order.

The next suspects were the Order of the Sword, the Order of Starblood, and the knight order under Gerd.

When the recruiters arrived at the reception room, Najin had already been speaking with two Sword Masters, and Gerd had joined them afterward. Hadn't one of the three Sword Masters secured him, then?

But that wasn't it either.

Najin had visited neither the Order of Starblood, the First Pillar, nor the Order of the Sword. There had been no contact at all. The only news was that he had returned to Cambria.

『Then who on earth was it?』

A boy who had reached the Sword Seeker realm at eighteen.

His value was already high enough, but in a few more years, his price would rise further. And if he reached the Sword Master realm? His worth would be impossible to measure.

They had to secure him now.

What bastard had snatched him away?

Several days later, they obtained some information. Najin remained unaffiliated, but he had two sponsors. The leaders of two organizations had been in contact with him since before he became a Sword Seeker and had supported him consistently.

Dieta, head of the Dieta Trading Company.

Marquis Edelmar, owner of the Cambria Foundation.

Of the two, the owner of the Dieta Trading Company drew the most attention. Her name was familiar. Many remembered the incident involving her and the ducal House Arbenia several months earlier. It had ended with a touch of romance rarely seen in this day and age.

The tale of a girl abandoned by her family, and a mercenary who willingly risked his life for her, facing the commander of a ducal house's knights. As they thought back over that story, some widened their eyes. They hadn't paid much attention to the mercenary at the time... but things were different now.

『Send people to Cambria to investigate.』

『He was working under the name Ivan at the time.』

『Focus on his relationship with Company Head Dieta.』

Their investigators in Cambria established that the young man called Ivan had indeed been the mercenary in that incident. They also learned that he had a close personal relationship with Dieta.

Just as the leaders of the organizations discovered this, a play opened in Trevache, the territory ruled by Marquis Edelmar, as though he had been waiting for precisely that moment. It centered on Najin, the youngest Sword Seeker. Watching the marquis begin drawing audiences from across the Empire, those leaders let out hollow laughs.

They had realized that some people had recognized the star's light before it began to shine, and had gotten in line ahead of them.

『The winner of this scramble is the head of the Dieta Trading Company.』

『The one who secured the youngest Sword Seeker is Cambria's merchant magnate. Watch out for her.』

Alongside Najin's name, Dieta's began to spread among the Empire's powerful figures.

"Please call me Dieta, the investment genius who won the youngest Sword Seeker's favor with a single meal."

"Where did that suddenly come from?"

Najin tilted his head at Dieta, who was beaming at him. Lately, her smile never seemed to leave her lips. She looked as though everything in the world delighted her beyond endurance.

"I picked up a coin off the ground, and it turned out to be platinum... no, a diamond. No, not even a diamond? What should I call it? A star?"

Glancing at her radiant smile, Najin chuckled. He had a fair idea why she had been so happy lately. From what he'd heard, her company's share price was reaching new highs every day.

Its designation as one of Cambria's three leading trading companies had long since been replaced by Cambria's foremost trading company... and apparently, its expansion into the base established in the imperial capital was progressing steadily.

'Another month or two, was it?'

He had heard she would move to the capital and begin expanding in earnest. Though the preparations left Dieta with a relentlessly busy schedule, she was still smiling, as if she enjoyed the work.

"Well, putting that aside."

Dieta stopped smiling. She let out a long breath and narrowed her eyes.

"Najin. You."

"Yes?"

"You weren't twenty-eight, or even in your early twenties. What is this?"

She pointed to a frame hanging in her office. It displayed a newspaper clipping, with Najin's photograph beside enormous lettering that read, "Najin, the Youngest Sword Seeker, Attains the Realm at Eighteen."

"Unless there's something wrong with my eyes, I believe that says eighteen."

"..."

"There! You're looking away again...!"

As Najin averted his gaze, Dieta slapped the table and pointed at him.

"You said you were the same age as me!"

"I never said that."

"You said there wasn't much of an age gap...!"

"Two years isn't much of an age gap, is it?"

"No, that's... Ha. Honestly..."

Dieta swept her bangs back.

"You're two years younger than me..."

"So it turns out."

"I just assumed you were older."

Later, much later, if they became lovers, wouldn't she have to address him affectionately as the older one? Dieta had indulged in that fantasy, smiling furtively beneath her covers before falling asleep. The memory made her face turn scarlet.

'Instead, he'd be the one calling me his older girl... Huh?'

That wasn't bad either, was it?

Dieta covered her mouth with her hand. She had imagined it for a moment, and it seemed rather appealing.

"Dieta?"

"Y-yes?"

Her shoulders gave a little twitch at Najin's voice.

"I'm sorry I misled you about my age. I feel as though I missed my chance to tell you..."

"You don't need to apologize. I was just surprised."

Dieta smiled faintly.

"Anyway, congratulations, Najin."

She handed him his letters. They had arrived for him while he was visiting the imperial capital. She pointed to the two letters at the top of the thick stack.

"One is a congratulatory letter from the emperor."

A letter bearing the imperial family's crest.

"And the other is from the knights of Atanga."

And a letter bearing Atanga's crest.

Both congratulated Najin on attaining the Sword Seeker realm. Taking the letters, he fell silent for a moment. The fact that he had become a Sword Seeker struck home anew.

He had been born in an underground city where no stars could be seen.

His name had been known nowhere.

Not even the fact that a person like him had existed had been recorded anywhere. In effect, Najin had been no different from someone who did not exist.

But not now.

Not anymore.

His name had spread across the Empire. The name Najin would be recorded in its histories alongside the title of youngest Sword Seeker. He had engraved proof of his existence into the Empire's history.

'But this is only the beginning.'

From now on, he would leave far more records behind.

He had not the slightest intention of settling for adding a line or two to the Empire's histories. He would make them rewrite those books in their entirety. And why stop at history? The myth that began with King Arthur would have to be rewritten as well.

He would make it happen.

With his own sword, and nothing else.

Looking at the letters, Najin smiled.

The sprawling landscape of the underground city.

Within his greatly expanded inner world, Najin sat atop a wall. When he lowered his gaze a little, he could see a lake below, entirely out of place there.

The lake Merlin had begged for so desperately.

In the lake he had barely managed to recreate upon becoming a Sword Seeker, Merlin sat with her feet in the water, splashing about. Glancing at her as she played in the water, Najin spoke.

"Merlin."

"Hm? What is it?"

"About the dragons you and Arthur defeated."

The two dragons sealed beneath Stonehenge.

"Could you tell me about them in detail?"

"I was going to, even if you hadn't asked."

Merlin curled her lips into a grin.

"You've become a Sword Seeker, and you've laid a solid enough foundation. It's time you properly reached the starting line, isn't it?"

"I'm not at the starting line yet?"

"Of course not. You need at least one star before we can call it a beginning, don't you?"

She flicked a finger. Rippling droplets scattered through the air from her fingertip, then hung suspended, glittering.

"One is a white dragon, and the other is a red dragon."