Five hundred years ago, the founder, Ruin Alastor, brought the age of war to an end.

Six members of the imperial family who had sparked the wars were judged by the founder’s sword. The sole survivor, the fifth prince, ascended the throne as emperor, and the continent emerged from forty years of the Dark Age to greet a new era.

And so on and so forth.

Kyle, now three years old and someone who had personally lived through those forty years of war now known as the Dark Age, sat on Arian’s lap and listened to her history lesson with a bored expression.

Of course, he had not been bored from the start. The Dark Age had been a full five hundred years ago.

In other words, five hundred years had passed since the Sword Demon’s death. However obsessed with swords and fighting Kyle had been in his previous life, he was still human. Naturally, he was curious about what had become of the world after he died.

And so, when Arian began teaching him at the age of three, his eyes had initially sparkled with interest.

To give a rough summary of the many things that had happened over those five hundred years:

The absolute shitshow of the Dark Age had more or less been patched up, and after various upheavals, the world had become a peaceful mess.

Demons, considered the enemies of humanity in the Sword Demon’s time, were now part of the world. The other races that had risen up to claim dominion over it were getting along reasonably well, too.

Ruin Alastor had been revered as humanity’s hero who ended the Dark Age and as the sword of the empire. The house he founded had received the empire’s northern lands as its domain and was obeying the imperial command to keep watch over the Demons across the sea.

And in that world, the Sword Demon had been born a descendant of Ruin Alastor.

“Our House Alastor is the greatest martial house on the continent, and the most distinguished house in the empire.”

Arian whispered gently as she turned a page of the book she had opened for Kyle to read.

“Mmm...”

Kyle glared at the book before him. There were letters written large enough for a small child to read, and an illustration of the scarlet-haired founder holding his sword high, its brilliant light driving back the darkness.

He had seen this book more than ten times already...

The Sword Demon in him wanted to shout that she did not need to read him this sort of book anymore, but three-year-old Kyle could not bring himself to do it.

He could feel how much Arian loved, treasured, and enjoyed this time together. He simply could not rob her of that happiness.

After all, what had Arian done wrong?

It was not because Arian had committed some terrible, monstrous sin that the beloved son she had borne after ten months of suffering through pregnancy had a hairy-legged Sword Demon from five hundred years ago inside him. This damned thing had simply happened somehow.

That was why Kyle did not want to take away the joys of motherhood she was enjoying.

Besides, deep down, the soft warmth filling his heart felt rather nice.

‘Even if I wanted to hold a sword, this body couldn’t handle it anyway.’

Kyle was currently three. He wanted to take up a sword, but at his age, he could not even swing one properly.

Having been conscious since infancy, he knew all too well the inconveniences of a child’s body. At this age, at least, overcoming his physical limitations through sheer will was impossible...

“There, all finished! What did you think, Kyle?”

“It was fun...”

What fun could he possibly find in a book that had already been read aloud to him so many times? But Kyle told a little white lie, unwilling to spoil Arian’s enjoyment.

“Really?”

Arian laughed, spun Kyle around, and hugged him tight. After three years, he was thoroughly used to this, so he let her hold him without resisting.

“How can you be so clever and adorable? You must be the cleverest, cutest three-year-old in the whole world.”

Well, of course he was. Kyle thought this amid her comforting warmth. His mind was growing drowsy, but he had to give credit where it was due.

“Honestly, he should have seen you, too...”

Her whispered words as she patted his back and stroked his hair jolted his drifting mind awake.

“Mommy.”

Kyle lifted his head to look at Arian.

... At first he had called her “Mother,” but every time he did, she looked so downcast that his heart gave a painful little twinge.

So Kyle had surrendered a little of his dignity and taken to calling Arian Mommy.

“Is... Daddy dead?”

Kyle knew perfectly well how much Arian loved and treasured this time they spent together as mother and son.

He felt a little guilty about dropping such a devastating question into that cherished time. But Arian had been the one to give him an opening, so he decided to be bold and ask.

Three years had passed since his birth, yet Kyle had never once seen the man who was his father.

Nor had he gone out of his way to ask Arian about him.

That had been his own way of being considerate.

Arian had never spoken of her husband. Since she did not bring him up, neither did Kyle.

In his previous life, he had been born to a mercenary father and a prostitute mother, a relationship utterly devoid of genuine love.

But Kyle’s current life was different. His mother, Arian, was an Alastor.

‘He’s probably dead.’

That was the conclusion he had privately reached, but he had never heard it from Arian herself. Naturally, the manor’s servants never mentioned his father in front of him either.

Better to get an unpleasant experience over with. Hearing it now would be easier on him than waiting until he was older and having Arian tell him in some solemn conversation.

“Kyle! This is the first time you’ve asked about Daddy, isn’t it?”

Arian blinked in surprise. Her cheerful reaction suggested that his assumptions about his father had been completely off the mark.

“Your daddy hasn’t passed away. I’m sure he’s doing perfectly well somewhere very far away. That rotten bastard.”

Kyle blinked at the profanity that had slipped from Arian’s lips. Seeing his reaction, she realized her mistake and tapped her mouth.

“Ahem. Don’t remember what Mommy just said, all right?”

“Mmm...”

“Anyway, Kyle, your daddy is alive and well. A little too well, if you ask me.”

Arian furrowed her brows and stroked Kyle’s soft cheek.

“Are you curious about what sort of person Daddy is?”

“Yeah...”

“Your daddy is—how should I put it? He’s an incredible man. He’s already incredible enough, but he wanted to become even more incredible, so he went into seclu... Um, he shut himself away in a room. Without even knowing Mommy was expecting you.”

What a fucking bastard.

Kyle kept the curse he could not possibly say aloud to himself. That judgment came more from Kyle, Arian’s son, than from Raikal, the Sword Demon.

‘He left someone this beautiful and lovely behind to go train in seclusion? What an absolute son of a bitch.’

He had not even known his wife was pregnant.

“Mommy didn’t want to interrupt your daddy. Well, knowing his personality, trying to stop him probably wouldn’t have helped anyway. Hmm, I did think he could go fuck... No, no. That it would teach him a lesson? Something like that.”

“You did good.”

“Hm? What? I... I did good?”

“Yeah, you did good. Daddy’s mean.”

Honestly, he had been alive for three years, and his tongue still would not do what he wanted. Kyle worked his lips and frowned.

“Daddy made Mommy have a hard time. So he can go f-fuck himself.”

His tongue was not the only problem. He could not easily turn the thoughts in his head into words, either... This immature body was a major reason Kyle did not insist on swinging a sword.

“F-fuck... Ahaha! Yes, he can go fuck himself. But Kyle, you mustn’t use naughty words like that!”

Chuckling, Arian tapped Kyle’s lips.

“Mommy will give you a smack if you use bad words, understand?”

“Mmm...”

What a difficult demand to make of someone who had been born into a mercenary company in his previous life, endured every sort of brutality, and grown up among rough men to become the Sword Demon. Kyle swallowed a sigh and nodded.

“Anyway, your father is alive and perfectly well. He can’t come see you right now because he’s shut himself away, but you’ll be able to meet him later. Kyle, do you want to see Daddy?”

“No...”

“No? Really? Why?”

“I have Mommy...”

“Aaah! Honestly!”

Making a great fuss, Arian hugged Kyle tight.

“That’s right, you have Mommy! And you’re all I need, Kyle. We don’t need that damned bastard... No, no, that bad man!”

“Mom... my...”

Since things had come to this, Kyle decided to ask the questions he had tactfully kept to himself until now.

“Mommy, why do you live here all alone?”

He phrased it carefully to fit a three-year-old’s way of thinking.

The place where Kyle and Arian were currently staying was called Rose Manor. So far, the only people Kyle had met were the servants who lived there.

They were all women. At most, Kyle had been out into the garden; he had never truly left the manor.

Since he was still so young, he had not insisted on going outside, either. The manor was more than large enough for this little body.

Still, there were several strange things about the situation.

As far as Kyle knew, Arian belonged to the main line of House Alastor.

According to the account of the current Alastor family tree she had given him several times, she was the second daughter among the head of the house’s six sons and three daughters.

He did not know the precise pecking order. But a child of the main line had borne a son, and even after three years, Kyle had yet to see a single relative’s face.

‘Is she being confined here?’

Kyle had not been born into a distinguished house in his previous life. Even so, he knew that life within one was not nearly as glittering and splendid as it appeared from the outside.

Hadn’t that age of war itself begun with a succession struggle among the imperial family?

‘Arian is isolated from her family. That’s why none of her relatives came to congratulate her on the birth.’

Once his thoughts reached that point, his three-year-old body began producing emotions of its own accord. Kyle wanted to cry simply because he felt sorry for Arian—for his mommy.

“Ah... Well, about that...”

Arian looked up at the ceiling, an awkward expression on her face. Of course she felt awkward. She would have to explain the family’s complicated, sordid infighting to her three-year-old son...

“Mommy is, um, you know? Hiding.”

Just as he thought. Kyle pressed his lips tightly together, desperately holding back tears. The poor woman. At that moment, he made up his mind. Once this body grew big enough to hold a sword, he would restore Arian’s dignity, even if he had to turn the whole house upside down.

“If they find out I... uh... came back without asking, they’ll all make such a fuss. And they’ll tease me, too. Fath... the head of the house will probably be angry as well. So, um, I’m hiding.”

“Wha?”

No, hold on.

That was not quite the reason he had imagined. The sorrow that had engulfed Kyle a moment earlier receded far into the distance. He opened his eyes wide and clutched Arian’s clothes.

“You’re... hiding?”

“Yes, that’s right. Uh... Somehow, um, I suppose you could say I missed my chance to tell them...”

Was she serious? The reason he had not seen a single relative’s face in the three years since his birth was simply that Arian had come home in secret and given birth in secret?

Kyle stared at her, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. His damned little body apparently found even this absurd situation terribly upsetting, and tears began dripping from his eyes of their own accord.

“K-Kyle?! Wh-why are you crying?!”

“Ugh... Uuuh...”

He did not know why he was crying either. Kyle wept, feeling his dignity crumble yet again. Arian went deathly pale, gathered him into her arms, and sprang to her feet.

“M-Mommy’s sorry! Mommy, Mommy was only thinking of herself. You must want to see your relatives, too!”

That was not why he was crying. But his body, swept up in a child’s emotions, would not obey him.

“L-let’s go.”

Hugging her suddenly tearful son, Arian resolved to face the things she had been quietly avoiding all this time.

“I’ll let you meet your relatives. Let’s go see them!”

And so, three years after his birth, the Sword Demon was going to leave Rose Manor to meet his relatives.

The descendants of Ruin Alastor, the man who had killed him five hundred years ago.

“Ah...”

Kyle squirmed desperately in Arian’s arms. Ruin Alastor’s descendants? Of course he wanted to meet them. According to Arian’s stories, House Alastor was the greatest martial house on the continent, so its descendants would naturally be renowned warriors of the present age.

“Ah, not—not yet...”

Being reborn as a baby had forced him to surrender his dignity in many ways. But that did not mean Kyle had no pride. In front of his mother, Arian, perhaps he could bear it, but in front of Ruin Alastor’s descendants...

He did not want to stand before them in the body of a three-year-old who lisped like this, whose eyes drooped shut after the slightest activity, and who could barely control his own limbs.

“Not yet? What do you mean, not yet?”

“A-a little... A little later...”

Clinging to Arian, who looked ready to scoop him up and set off to visit their relatives at any moment, Kyle pleaded desperately.

“I wanna go when I’m five...”

By five, surely he would be able to speak more properly than he could now.

No. He absolutely had to.