Hundreds of stars hung in the fractured sky.

Najin silently gazed at the stars that had split the heavens into pieces, each claiming a territory of its own. The sky resembled a shattered window. Blue daylight mingled with pitch-black night in a scene both grotesque and mysterious.

And stars adorned that sky.

Had he seen this landscape knowing nothing, he might have considered it magnificent. Now, however, Najin could not simply admire the mysterious heavens. Those stars felt like someone's eyes.

Dozens—hundreds—of eyes.

Hundreds of gazes were fixed on him.

They were nothing like the looks adventurers and passersby gave him in the city. The gaze of an immense being could make itself felt through sight alone. A sensation of being crushed. Of being pierced. An eerie feeling slowly crawled up his spine.

Najin bit down lightly on the tip of his tongue.

A sharp sting and a faint taste of blood lingered in his mouth. Only then could he shake off his confusion and steady his breathing. He still felt the gazes, but they were bearable.

"For now, all they can do is look. We're near the Boundary," Merlin said calmly.

"The farther in you go, the more they can do. Make words appear before your eyes, whisper in your ear, impose trials. Things like that."

"Near Camlann, they'll just come down to the ground and wander around." Murmuring this, Merlin glanced at Najin. Unlike usual, her gaze was composed.

"You haven't forgotten what I told you last time, have you?"

'You've told me so much that I'm not sure which part you mean.'

"Have faith in yourself."

Merlin pressed a fingertip over his heart. The Merlin he could see was only an apparition, and her finger never actually touched him, but he thought he felt a little warmth.

"There are mountains of precautions and things you need to know... but that's what matters most in the end. Firmly establish your own convictions and do what you believe is right."

She shrugged.

"I mean, don't let those constellations push you around. Well, they're not that dangerous yet."

Najin slowly nodded.

Under the stars' gazes, he headed deeper into the Outer Lands. An entirely new stage. A place where everything he had considered common sense no longer applied. In short, a world where everything was unfamiliar.

"Hey."

Merlin's voice sounded in his ear. Turning his head slightly, he found her watching him with a puzzled expression.

"Why are you smiling?"

Najin touched the corner of his mouth, then chuckled. Why was he smiling? The reason was simple.

'It's the same.'

When Merlin asked what was the same, he answered: it was just like when he first left the underground city.

New landscapes. Unfamiliar things. A place filled with an endless expanse of sights he had never seen. Najin rather liked this feeling that his world was growing larger.

THUD!

He planted his foot firmly, as though determined to leave a trace of his arrival in the Outer Lands.

2.

Beyond the world lay the Outer Lands.

Stars looked down from above, some rather fucked-up things roamed about, and the extraordinary happened as routinely as the ordinary. Yet even here, people lived.

Nations built beside the Boundary. Demon hunters who hunted devils. Armies and knights who stopped monsters and demons from crossing the Boundary and invading humanity's lands.

All sorts of people and factions. In the end, this was a place people traveled to and lived in, so finding somewhere they gathered was not particularly difficult. After walking a little farther, Najin arrived at a tavern.

A tavern, supply depot, inn, and guild all in one.

Najin understood that, though called a tavern, it was essentially a hub that handled every sort of business. Drivers were transporting the supplies piled high there to locations throughout the Outer Lands.

'Those aren't horses. They're monsters.'

Ordinary horses were of little use here, so the wagons were pulled by specially bred varieties or by monsters. Glancing at them, Najin headed inside the tavern.

CREEEAK!

As he pushed open the tavern door, the people gathered inside turned their eyes toward him, as though checking who had arrived. Najin looked back at them. All sorts of people filled the tavern.

Knights clad in armor. Lightly dressed mercenaries. Hunters laying out assorted tools for maintenance.

Their eyes met his. The checking looks soon became curious ones. After all, he was a face they had never seen before.

"What's this? A newcomer?"

"Been a while since we had one."

"Could be a new army recruit."

"For the eastern front? Damn, he's in for a rough time."

"Couldn't he be with a knight order?"

"No way. He's not wearing armor. Knights live for engraving crests on their armor. You've got to wear armor—or at least greaves or a pauldron—to be a knight."

They chattered among themselves, leaving Najin out of it. Half listening, he walked farther into the tavern, held out several gold coins to the owner, and spoke.

"I'd like to hunt wyverns. Could you tell me where to go?"

The proprietor regarded him for a moment, then took only two of the five gold coins Najin offered and answered briefly.

"First time in the Outer Lands?"

"Yes."

"Hunting wild wyverns is easy. Finding them in the first place is the hard part. If you absolutely have to hunt one, there's a battlefield I could point you toward..."

He looked Najin up and down.

"But I wouldn't really recommend it."

"May I ask why?"

"It's a bit rough to send someone who has rookie written all over him. If I sent you there and you came back a corpse, I'd feel like shit, and those bastards would give me an earful."

With a wry smile, he pointed behind Najin. Several men were approaching with drinks in hand. They set their cups down beside Najin with a clack and joined the conversation.

"You were going to recommend the Hodgkin front, weren't you? That's where the wyvern unit keeps showing up."

"That's right."

"Not there. He'll die for sure."

"Hey, rookie. I don't know what you did back in the Inner Lands, but heading straight onto a battlefield is a bad idea. You don't even know how the monsters here live. This place isn't a pushover."

This was nothing like hazing a newcomer.

Listening to them, Najin felt they genuinely meant to offer advice. He quietly heard them out, then drew the necklace from beneath his clothes and handed it to the proprietor.

His White Horn rank identification.

The proprietor narrowed his eyes, apparently recognizing it. It meant that the person before him possessed the strength of a Sword Seeker and extensive experience with assorted missions. Frowning as though he had an inkling of something, he questioned Najin.

"What's your name?"

"Najin."

The proprietor's eyes widened at his answer. One of the men who had joined the conversation slowly tilted his head. "Najin, Najin..." he murmured, then let out a brief "Ah."

"Najin... as in the youngest Sword Seeker?"

"Isn't Sir Karon the youngest Sword Seeker?"

"You're behind on news from outside. That record was broken weeks ago. I keep telling you to read a newspaper."

"Broken? By how much?"

"Eighteen years old."

"What?"

"He's eighteen."

The man who had asked fell silent.

Not only the men who had joined the conversation but also the patrons sipping their drinks turned to look at Najin. Residents of the Outer Lands might have little interest in what happened within the world, but news of the youngest Sword Seeker was an exception.

It was a momentous event that had shaken the Empire, and news well suited to catching the interest of warriors like them.

"Could you tell me about this Hodgkin front?"

At Najin's repeated request, the proprietor gave an incredulous laugh and fetched several sheets of paper.

3.

"So you want to volunteer to help our unit?"

The wyvern-hunting unit on the Hodgkin front.

Its commander, Gillette Reginpert, smoked as he regarded the boy before him. Sword Seekers and those beyond that realm retained youthful bodies, but even allowing for that, the boy looked young.

'The youngest Sword Seeker, Najin.'

The proprietor's letter of introduction stated that the person before him was the boy who had recently set the Empire abuzz. So that was it. He didn't just look young; he was young.

"What an honor. The Empire's youngest Sword Seeker volunteering to help our unit. What's your reason?"

"I'd like to experience hunting wyverns."

"Nice and straightforward. So you want to join us for a few battles?"

Najin nodded, and Gillette burst out laughing.

"You're an odd one. Never thought I'd see someone come to the Outer Lands to hunt wyverns and immediately volunteer with the army."

"I'd like to learn how to bring down flying monsters, but the Inner Lands didn't offer much."

"True enough. Nothing packs a punch quite like a wyvern."

"I like how straightforward your aim is," Gillette murmured, then beckoned Najin to follow.

"Unless you're planning to work with our unit for a few years, I'm not keen on teaching you our techniques. We'd go to all that trouble training you, only for you to head home in ten days or so, right?"

Gillette continued as they walked.

"This is a battlefield. Not a place for teaching and babysitting greenhorns. I'll let you watch, but don't expect any special help."

He flicked away his spent cigarette and glanced at Najin.

"Get in the way, and I'll throw you out immediately. Keep that in mind."

He was merely allowing Najin to stand alongside them on the battlefield. He was telling him not to forget that he was an outsider. Just then, bells rang across the battlefield, signaling the arrival of the wyvern unit. Gillette clicked his tongue.

"Perfect timing. Let's go."

* * *

The Demon King, sovereign of devils.

Naturally, a sovereign had an army. The wyvern unit was one part of that army. And... where an army appeared was, of course, a battlefield.

CLANG! CLANG!

『"Push forward!"』

CRUNCH! CRACK!

『"Aaaaagh!"』

『"Push! Push them back!"』

『"Left flank! They're coming from the left flank!"』

The clash of blades and spears. Loud shouts ringing out. The place Najin reached while following Gillette deserved the name battlefield in every sense. Soldiers held the front line, and knights moved among them.

『"Wyverns! It's the wyvern unit!"』

And Najin's targets were there as well.

Figures cast shadows over the ground: wyverns flying high overhead, with demonic warriors riding on their backs. This was the force known as the wyvern unit.

Najin glanced beside him.

The wyvern-hunting unit had arrived with him, led by Gillette. It was a mobile strike force organized solely to deal with the wyvern unit.

"Move."

Gillette gestured as he gave the brief order. At his signal, some men anchored large ballistae in the ground, while others dragged rattling chains. Stakes were fixed to the ends of those chains.

Najin quietly watched them.

Ultimately, he had come here to find a way to hunt flying targets, and people who hunted wyverns for a living made excellent examples to learn from. Soon, one by one, they began to move.

THWUNG!

Najin paid no attention to those beginning their barrage with the ballistae. His eyes were fixed on the men holding chains. Without any means of attacking at range, how would they hunt creatures flying so far away?

Unless one was a Sword Master, there was no way to cut a target tens of meters away or bring down a flying monster. A swordsman who had not attained transcendence could only cut what his sword and sword aura could reach.

An unreachable distance.

The gap between sky and earth.

How did they overcome it?

RATTLE!

A soldier standing beside Gillette provided the answer. Gripping his dangling chain, he began running across the battlefield while swinging it. Then, with a heavy thump, he kicked off the ground and hurled the chain high into the sky.

The instant the fast-flying stake pierced a wyvern's hide and lodged inside, he leaped using the chain's recoil. Najin watched the soldier twist his body and wind in the chain he held, soaring into the air.

It wasn't just one soldier.

Swinging their chains, the soldiers began racing across the battlefield. Rather than directly targeting the flying wyverns, the unit's mage created footholds they could use to leap. The soldiers operating the large ballistae drove chain-linked bolts into the cliffs.

As though casting a net.

The soldiers began running along the net they had created. Some ran across the battlefield; others ran atop chains secured firmly to the cliffs. Only one thing distinguished them from the other soldiers scattered across the battlefield: the chain stakes in their hands.

"Hey, rookie."

Najin turned. Gillette stood there grinning. The commander of the wyvern-hunting unit tossed him a chain stake.

"Unless you can extend your sword aura tens of meters, a chain stake is essential for wyvern hunting. I'll lend you one."

Gillette shrugged.

"Mind you, you'll need at least a month of practice swinging the chain before you can use it, so it won't be eas—"

As Gillette murmured this and began to swing his own chain, Najin darted past him with a sharp footfall. "Won't even let me finish," Gillette said with a wry smile.

'He's charging off with plenty of enthusiasm, but...'

How could it possibly be that easy?

There was a reason a separate wyvern-hunting unit existed. Handling a chain stake was no easy task, and striking a flying wyvern with the stake was harder still.

Only select soldiers who had spent years learning to handle chains and mastered the chain stake could join this unit.

Rumors abounded about the youngest Sword Seeker and how he had turned the Empire upside down, but the battlefield demanded practiced skill and instantaneous judgment, not talent. With enthusiasm alone, he'd fall flat on his face. Thinking this, Gillette was just about to click his tongue.

The chain rattled as it swung around.

Najin began spinning the chain stake. At that moment, Gillette's eyes narrowed. He stopped swinging his own chain and stared hard at Najin.

Where he held the chain, his grip, the speed of his swing, the angle of the stake...

The more details Gillette checked, the more his eyes narrowed. Something felt wrong. Hadn't that boy set foot on this battlefield for the first time today? Hadn't he only just been given a chain stake?

Then what were those movements?

Every motion was precise. Practiced. He was no rookie. The image of a seasoned soldier who had spent at least several years in the wyvern-hunting unit overlapped with the boy. Was Gillette imagining things? Even that thought soon vanished.

TAP!

THWUNG!

Najin kicked off the ground and hurled his chain stake. The instant the stake sliced through the air and buried itself deep in a wyvern's belly, he used the chain's recoil to launch himself upward. Twisting in midair, he wound in the chain and accelerated his body.

Every movement was perfect.

Even Gillette, the commander, could find no fault.

"Hah."

Gillette Reginpert let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Is that bastard insane?"