Ivan’s office.

Najin sat on a luxurious sofa that looked out of place in the underground city, waiting for Ivan. About an hour later, Ivan opened the door and came in.

“Ha, what a funny bastard.”

Ivan entered chuckling over something, then wiped the blood off his face and forearms with a wet towel. It wasn’t his own blood; it had splashed onto him. Najin glanced at the towel as it turned dark red.

“Finished?”

“Yeah. He opened his mouth fast. Looks like you really broke his spirit. I only pulled out one or two before he spilled everything.”

Ivan kept tossing something into the air and catching it. A closer look revealed a human tooth. It wasn’t difficult to guess whose it had been.

“You little bastard, you’ve done me proud. Where’d you sniff out a guy like that? He’s just what I needed. My underlings have been doing such a lousy job lately, it’s been pissing me off no end...”

“I’m very pleased,” Ivan muttered, settling onto his chair.

“So, was he manageable? First time fighting someone who uses mana, wasn’t it?”

“Not my first. How many times have I sparred with you?”

“Boy, that was instruction.”

Beating him within an inch of his life counted as instruction?

While Najin pondered the definition of the word, Ivan asked another question.

“Any injuries?”

“My arm’s sore from dragging him around, but nothing besides that.”

“Huh. A boy who can’t even use mana beats the shit out of someone who can, without a scratch? You really are something.”

Despite his muttering, Ivan didn’t seem particularly surprised. He reacted as though he had expected as much. Looking at his expression, Najin reflected that there was a reason he had gone after an officer without hesitation.

[“You’re asking who you can take on?”]

[“Well, you’re not up to going toe-to-toe with me or that Spider bastard yet...”]

Ivan had told him once.

[“Aside from Horse, you can probably take on any of them.”]

[“They’ve got a few bastards and bitches strutting around calling themselves officers, but you’d probably win one-on-one.”]

[“Provided you don’t fight them on their turf.”]

Except for Horse the Spider, the rival organization’s leader, Ivan had said any of them was worth taking on in single combat. Najin had simply trusted him. Ivan’s judgment was always accurate.

“Ivan.”

Still, there was something he wanted to know.

“What exactly is mana?”

“What else? It’s fucking great.”

Ivan answered as though the question were absurdly obvious.

Naturally, that wasn’t the answer Najin wanted. He stared at Ivan in silence. Ivan shrugged and continued.

“Being able to use mana means you’ve taken your first real step as a warrior. Whether you’re strengthening your body, producing sword aura, or executing sword techniques, mana underpins it all.”

Mana: energy accumulated within the body.

“The more mana you accumulate in your body, the stronger it gets, and the higher its limits rise. You can pull off all sorts of crazy feats a human body normally couldn’t.”

Like this, for instance.

Ivan spread his hand wide. Frix’s tooth, presumably pulled out during the torture, rolled across his palm.

“Watch closely.”

With the tooth resting on his palm, Ivan lightly closed his hand. When he opened it again, the tooth crumbled into powder.

“Of course, learning mana doesn’t make everyone like me. What matters is the training method you use to build it up. Pick up any old method, and you’re likely to screw yourself over. Even if you get stronger right away, there’s a definite ceiling.”

“So a mana training method is essential if you want to reach Expert level?”

“That’s right. You need to know how to use mana before you can even think about producing sword aura. Why? Want to learn?”

“It would be nice, if I could.”

Ivan chuckled.

“I’ll teach you later.”

“I’ve been hearing that for five years now.”

“Later, boy.”

That was his signal to leave it there.

Najin said no more. Pursuing the subject would clearly get on Ivan’s nerves. He backed off without crossing the line Ivan had drawn.

“Now, let’s get down to business.”

Ivan broached the subject.

“A civil war’s coming. Get ready, Najin.”

2.

Horse the Spider is preparing for civil war.

That officer told me.

He hasn’t received orders directly from Horse lately, but directives keep coming down from above. Prepare for war. Gather supplies. That sort of thing.

Looks like all that talk about protection money at old Hogel’s smithy was groundwork for taking his weapons. Infiltrating my organization was probably part of the same plan.

The bastard’s really fucking around.

I knew he was crossing the line, but I didn’t think he’d committed himself to this. No idea where he found the balls, but it looks like he means to pick a real fight with me.

He must have something he’s counting on.

Horse isn’t crazy enough to start a fight without thinking it through. Anyway, I don’t know what he’s banking on, but...

Whew. The thing is...

Civil wars are fucking awful, you know?

Watching people die for a pissy little patch of land in this pissy little city makes me sigh before anything else. Why do you think I didn’t finish Horse off when I went to war with him?

Past a certain point, there’s nothing but losses.

People die, productivity drops, and the streets turn gloomy as hell. Whether you’re fucking at a brothel or getting wasted at a tavern, you feel like absolute shit. Looking at that mess takes all the fight out of you.

I’ve rambled on long enough.

Here’s the point.

I’m not letting this civil war drag on. I mean to finish it fast and clean it up fast.

So we’re going to strike first.

I’ll tell you the details tomorrow. I need to talk to Offen today.

Whatever happens, be ready.

I can’t guarantee how things will turn out.

“... Hmm.”

Najin walked the streets, recalling what Ivan had told him. Ivan had said to prepare for civil war.

‘Civil war, huh.’

Najin knew little about civil war. The last one between Horse and Ivan had happened when he was very young. He could only guess from the way adults recoiled whenever the words came up.

[“Be ready.”]

[“I can’t guarantee how things will turn out.”]

Najin kept turning Ivan’s final words over in his mind. If Ivan, who always spoke with certainty, would say something like that, it must be serious.

“He says to get ready, but...”

Najin tilted his head. He had no idea what he was supposed to prepare. For now, he tried picturing a map of the underground city.

The underground city of Atman was divided into three broad territories.

The central district was under Ivan’s control and had a point of access for trading directly with the world above. Major facilities clustered around that access point, making it prime real estate.

Next came the mining district.

An outlying area some distance from the center, it was under Horse’s control. Numerous quarries there extracted ore, the underground city’s resource.

‘The mining district, the mining district, the mining district...’

From what he’d heard, it was like a maze.

Horse’s residence was connected to the mines, supposedly filled with all sorts of traps. Ivan had explained that it was a stage where Horse, formerly a ranger in the world above, could make full use of his abilities.

[“Horse is a ranger.”]

[“Rangers surpass knights when it comes to stealth, covert techniques, traps, and ambushes.”]

[“They’re outmatched by knights one-on-one, but on their own turf, they can beat several knights.”]

[“Never fight him on his turf.”]

[“Even I couldn’t be sure of winning without Offen.”]

Najin imagined storming the place.

Mines tangled together like a maze. Skilled fighters who could emerge from anywhere, and the traps Horse would have laid.

“Tch.”

That wouldn’t be easy. If he barged in feetfirst as he did in Ivan’s territory, he’d have to be prepared to come out with several holes in his body. Trying to devise a strategy in his head, Najin eventually let out a long sigh.

Thinking ahead wasn’t giving him a proper feel for it.

He felt he would have to see it and experience it at least once to know what to do. As he wrapped up that train of thought, the underground city’s third territory suddenly came to mind.

The central district. The mining district.

And finally, the landfill.

The landfill lay farther below, down those rugged cliffs. Trash already discarded from above was sifted through once more and piled there at last. A place where rubbish, filth, and corpses were buried.

That was Hakan the Junkie’s territory.

Najin knew very little about it. He wasn’t the only one. Ivan, too, seemed to know little about Hakan the Junkie or the landfill.

[“Hakan the Junkie? I don’t know much about that one either.”]

[“They were here before I fell into this city. I hear they were here before Horse fell into it, too.”]

[“Truth is, I don’t even know whether it’s a bastard or a bitch.”]

[“All I know is they’ve been there for ages, making and selling drugs. I’ve never seen their face either.”]

Someone powerful enough to rule a territory.

And an alchemist who made drugs.

That was all anyone knew about Hakan the Junkie.

‘Not information I need for this civil war, anyway.’

Najin sorted out his thoughts. He didn’t know how the civil war would unfold, but he would find out tomorrow. Ivan had said so.

TAP

On his way home, Najin stopped walking.

He had stopped at the edge of the square. From a distance, he gazed at the sword embedded in its center, still concealed beneath the tent.

「Draw the sword.」

「You can draw the sword.」

The words still circling in his mind had not gone away. Najin stared at the tent-covered sword for a long time, then left the square.

3.

TAP

The quiet sound of a drinking cup being set down echoed through an old tavern. Ivan and Offen were its only occupants, sitting and drinking.

“So.”

Offen was the one to break the silence.

“So you’re going to wage a civil war?”

“I have to.”

“And we’ll strike first?”

“That’s how we finish it quickly, isn’t it?”

“So you want my help?”

Ivan drank without a word in response to Offen’s question. His silence served as his answer. Offen frowned and ruffled his hair.

“I’m not keen on it.”

“Just this once.”

“I seem to remember hearing that a few years ago.”

“Help me this once. I’m not confident I can handle it quietly alone.”

Ivan tipped his cup again.

Storming in alone and wreaking havoc? Honestly, he could do that if he wanted. But that was far removed from his goal. He wanted a swift, clean resolution, not to herald the beginning of a drawn-out civil war.

“... What a pain.”

“Horse is about to start something. I don’t know what, but he must have something. So we need to get rid of him quickly.”

“Tsk.”

Offen clicked his tongue.

“This is the last time. Ask me for help again, and I’ll split my own skull open with this cup. Keep that in mind.”

“Thanks.”

“That aside, what about you?”

Refilling his empty cup, Offen casually tossed out a question.

“How long are you going to leave Najin like that?”

“...”

“You’re not planning to teach him a mana training method or anything? You know he’s been ready to learn for ages.”

“I know.”

“Then why won’t you teach him?”

“Because he’s too fast.”

Ivan let out a long sigh. Leaning back in his chair, he spoke honestly. They had known each other since their days above, so Offen was the one person Ivan would bare his heart to.

“Najin learns everything too fast. The more time passes, the more it scares me. I can’t get a sense of how far he could go.”

“Jealous?”

“Jealous, my ass. You know it too.”

Ivan grinned.

“Who the hell doesn’t know how someone with that kind of talent ends up in this godforsaken city?”

“...”

“Let’s say I’d taught him mana early on. Sure, in a few years he’d be churning out sword aura. The empire’s youngest Sword Expert was twenty-three. He might even break that record.”

Najin was that good.

“But. But the thing is...”

Ivan swallowed the strong liquor. Letting out a rough breath, he said,

“What good would that do in this trash heap of a city?”

A place where discarded things piled up.

A mire where filth and ugliness gathered. A landfill where heaps of rubbish became mountains.

“What do you think happens the day the empire’s youngest Expert comes out of a place like this, and word reaches those bastards above?”

They would dispose of him.

Before seeing the brilliance of his talent, they would see the origins of the person who possessed it. And the fate of anyone who fell out of their favor hardly needed explaining.

“Sorcery, black magic, worshipping false stars, apostasy, being some cursed fucking spawn of Camlann. They’ll slap charges like that on him and execute him. Or make sure he can never hold a sword again. We’ve seen it more than once, haven’t we? How they handle things above.”

Ivan had been a knight.

Offen had risen to a high position in a mercenary company.

Both knew all too well how society above worked. They had personally witnessed and experienced how the high and mighty handled things, and what became of everyone who offended them.

“It is fucked up.”

“Yeah. Fucked up. And if they execute him like that, do you think they’ll stop at killing Najin? You and I will lose our heads too.”

Chuckling, Ivan stuck a cigarette between his lips. He lit it and exhaled a long breath.

“You have to live with what you’re given. Cross the line and reach for something beyond your grasp, and you’ll only end up miserable.”

“So you’re going to leave him as he is?”

“This is just right. If he stands out any more, those bastards above will hear about him.”

“Well... it’s not that I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Offen swirled his cup as he spoke.

“But he already knows how to use mana.”

“...”

Ivan’s hand froze as he tipped his cup.

“What?”

“He knows how to use mana.”

“Don’t tell me you taught him?”

“No. Never.”

“Then how?”

Offen shrugged.

“I don’t know either. He doesn’t seem to have any mana stored in his body, but he uses it. Sometimes he moves fast, you know? Whenever he does, mana flows through his body.”

“... Does that make any sense?”

“That’s why I said I don’t know. Najin doesn’t seem aware of it either.”

There was no mana to be sensed from Najin.

He had never learned a mana training method, nor had he accumulated mana within his body. Those were undeniable facts. Yet someone who had stored no mana in his body was using it to strengthen himself?

‘Does that make any sense at all?’

Ivan frowned.

‘If that’s true, it’s just like...’

It defied common sense, but Ivan knew of one historical figure whose existence made it possible.

“Looks like you thought of the same thing I did.”

Offen grinned. Swirling his cup, he laughed. Something that defied common sense. A being who did such things without a second thought, denying the very foundations of every existing mana training method. There had been precisely one such being in human history.

The Constellation, the Sword of Selection.

Arthur, the great hero who had led the age of humanity centuries ago.

The life of that great hero, whose very existence defied common sense, contained many incredible stories. Among them, many singled out the exceptional nature of Arthur described in the epic’s opening.

“Arthur moved swiftly with mana’s aid without accumulating it, and even produced sword aura.”

Offen muttered the words with a grin.

That was covered in the opening of The Life of Arthur. Words that disregarded common knowledge and the foundations of mana training.

「Mana is not something to accumulate.」

「It is something to tame as it flows through the world.」

Those two sentences were the only explanation of how it had been possible. The tale was so outlandish that imperial histories treated it as apocryphal...

Yet it appeared in countless storybooks.

Ivan and Offen thought of the same thing. The book Najin always carried with him. Surely that story was in it too.

“... So.”

Ivan gave a disbelieving laugh.

“You’re saying Najin is learning mana the same way as King Arthur, that Constellation in the night sky? That’s utterly ridiculous...”

“I don’t know if he is. I only brought it up because there’s no other way to explain it.”

Ivan fell silent.

Whether Najin was learning mana the same way as King Arthur, as Offen suggested, or using it through some bizarre method no one knew about... either possibility meant the same thing.

Najin was more exceptional than Ivan had expected. Delaying his instruction and trying to hide him would accomplish nothing.

“There’s no point trying to hide him or slow him down. He’ll be producing sword aura soon. He’s already produced a fragment of it. Half a year at the latest.”

“...”

“Once that happens, word will definitely reach the people above. Then everything you said will happen.”

They would try to kill Najin.

They would try to dispose of everyone connected to him. And Offen and Ivan would be the first to go.

“So choose.”

Offen set down his cup.

TAP

The sound lingered through the tavern.

“Kill him now.”

Now, before he rose to prominence.

Dispose of Najin now, while they still could.

“Or teach him.”

Otherwise, place their bet on Najin.

If he could surpass Sword Expert and reach the next level, even those above wouldn’t be able to dispose of him. They couldn’t cast aside someone who had attained that degree of power.

In short, it was a gamble.

Faced with those two choices, Ivan drank in silence.