Even after I had devoured all of 「Wildness」, my body remained insanely hot. Heat seethed within me like a blade heated to its limit. It was different from the fever of an illness.

There was no dizziness or headache. Instead, my mind filled with a frantic urge to move. I wanted to use every last one of my densely woven muscles, just like those battle-crazed orcs.

Liam gave me the answer to this strange phenomenon.

「You are being forged.」

"Forged?"

「Just as a heated sword is hammered and honed to a keen edge, your body has entered that same process. The blood of steel flowing within you is boiling hot to give you a body worthy of your sword.」

Forging.

Yes, if I compared my body to a blade, that was exactly the right word.

「It is the process of advancing toward steel, young descendant.」

I looked at Liam and asked, "What should I do, Master?"

「Do not ask me.」

"Then?"

「Do as your body tells you. Act as your wildness commands.」

Liam glanced at me.

「Move without resting for even a moment. Move so fiercely that you wonder whether your body might break. Abuse your flesh and run until you can barely breathe.」

"..."

「You must not stop until your body cools. While it remains heated, that scrawny body of yours will grow at an astonishing rate. Do not waste this precious time.」

THUMP, THUMP.

My heartbeat echoed all the way up to my head.

「A body with the blood of steel grows stronger the more it is hammered, young descendant.」

The moment Liam finished speaking, I seized my sword.

Then I began moving as my body commanded.

* * *

Have you ever watched a blade heated to its limit become a sword? With every strike of the blacksmith's hammer, the blazing metal bends, then straightens with another blow. Through countless repetitions of that forging process, it is reborn as a sturdy weapon.

That was what my body was undergoing.

Like a blade heated to its limit, my body changed drastically with even the smallest movement. It was as though time had been compressed. A single swing of my sword, and muscle formed in an instant.

My joints creaked. With the sounds of my skeleton twisting and my muscles tearing came the terrible pain of my body breaking apart. I wanted to scream, but I did not. Even the time spent rolling on the floor, screaming and making a fuss over the pain would have been a waste.

Even now, my body was growing. I could feel it clearly.

This was different from the meaningless time I had spent before meeting Liam. That was why I could endure it. Pain that felt as though my body were collapsing and my soul shattering was nothing. Compared with the helplessness I would feel if I failed to take revenge, compared with the emptiness I had felt the moment I lost everything, it was nothing.

『Even before enemies surging like waves, I had to stand my ground.』

『Not because I was an orc who did not fear death.』

『I had too many precious things to flee from this place.』

I moved as the sword commanded.

Even when my arms felt as though they would fall off, I swung my sword. I struggled madly as my wildness demanded. It felt like dancing in a fire. But I would not stop. The moment I stopped, my leap forward would end. I could not allow that. I would never end here. If I could grow even a little stronger, I would gladly throw myself into it.

『For the things I must protect, I cannot run.』

『I must move forward.』

『Because only by standing and fighting can I win them.』

I twisted at the waist, gripped the sword with both hands, and swung. My hair flew and beads of sweat scattered. For an instant, the sword's memories unfolded before my eyes. The wild, dust-choked great plains. The memories of Berik the Great Warrior, an orc charging bravely into countless enemies.

The memories of a warrior who did not avoid an impossible battle, who swung an enormous sword with a resolute face. The heat that had risen in his body and chest reached me vividly. At that moment, the sensation was so clear that it felt as though his soul dwelled within me. From my fingertips to my forearms, even the pounding of my heart, I had become Berik the Great Warrior.

『I still remember the words my father left me.』

At that moment, I was not a small boy but an orc warrior. The instant I completed a heavy swing, steam burst from my body. Sweat dripped down, and through the pale steam I saw a clear mirror.

Beyond the hot steam, my reflection looked very different from before.

There was no boy there anymore.

『There is no paradise where you flee.』

And so my sword finally reached the end of boyhood.

* * *

The first change was that my eye level had risen dramatically. It felt as though I was looking down at the world from far higher than before.

"I'll need to buy new clothes."

「Good. Every last thing you wore before was tasteless.」

"..."

None of my old clothes fit anymore. While searching for something I could wear, I belatedly noticed the stench coming from my entire body. That was what happened after days of moving and swinging my sword without rest.

First, I went into the bathroom and immersed myself in hot water.

As I closed my eyes and washed, I began to feel refreshed. My mind cleared, and it felt as though my eyes were finally opening properly. I toweled off and took out my father's clothes instead of my own.

Unlike me, my father had always had a large build, and his clothes fit my enlarged body perfectly. When I put on the slightly tight shirt, I thought I caught a scent that made me nostalgic.

For a moment, I saw my father's face as it had been long ago, when he would sit me on his knee and tell me old stories with boyish eyes. After that brief pang of longing, I took my sword and left the manor.

Bright sunshine shone outside.

Seolyun stood in the manor's front yard with a wooden sword. She stared at me for a moment as though entranced, then abruptly looked away when our eyes met, her face flushing slightly.

"You're finally out."

"Yes. Have you been waiting long?"

"I wasn't really waiting."

Seolyun seemed a little awkward throughout our conversation. Her attitude had changed.

Though I wondered about that change, I started to explain first.

"Ah, I've changed quite a lot, haven't I? To explain—"

"No. You don't need to explain. I'm more used to conversations with swords than explanations in words."

Seolyun tightened her grip on her wooden sword.

"Tell me with your sword later. I think that'll give me my answer."

"If that's what you prefer."

Right.

I would find a round of sparring easier than a long-winded explanation too. And crossing swords with Seolyun always helped me. She was a genius, after all.

Besides, wasn't there something I needed to deal with now?

"By the way, did anything happen while I was shut up inside?"

"Anything like what?"

"The child who visited before coming back, or a suspicious mage appearing."

Before leaving, the pitiful child I suspected of being a dark mage's servant had warned that they would return. And mages never made empty threats. That was a historically proven fact. Petty bastards with supernatural powers always settled their grudges...

"No one's come yet."

Fortunately, it seemed I was not too late.

「A slow-moving fellow, isn't he?」

Liam chuckled at Seolyun's reply.

「Let us go outside the village, young descendant. Don't you want to try out your new body?」

This time, I agreed with Liam.

An insane amount of strength stirred within my rapidly grown body. I was not as hot as before, but my heart was still beating fast. I wanted to swing my sword with this strength.

Desperately.

* * *

As Liam suggested, I went to the village entrance and looked around.

Since I had buried the wardstones, no black aura lingered within the estate. But beyond the places where I had buried them, an ominous aura hung so thickly that it was incomparable to before.

「So he wasn't slow to act. He couldn't even get near the place.」

"It seems the wardstones worked."

「Didn't I tell you they were good, young descendant?」

Apparently, the dark mage who had visited the estate had no intention of giving up on this place. I decided to visit each of the spots where I had buried a wardstone.

"Walking here feels unpleasant somehow."

Perhaps because the dark mage's aura had grown much stronger than before, even Seolyun now showed discomfort. She drew the sword at her waist and walked with it pointed at our surroundings.

We were walking in silence when I spoke.

"What's that person doing?"

In the distance, I saw someone behaving strangely.

A small figure. Looking closer, I saw a shabby child, with a face covered in bruises and blotches of dust—the sort of orphan beggar commonly seen in the slums.

The ragged child was digging up the ground with bare hands, anxiously muttering something. The moment I saw that, I asked Seolyun.

"Could that be—"

"Yes. The kid who came before."

Just as I had suspected.

I studied the spot the child was digging up.

The place where those bare hands were diligently scooping out dirt was...

'Where I buried a wardstone.'

I immediately realized why the child was doing that.

'The dark mage sent this child.'

There could only be one reason.

The orc elder's wardstones had thwarted the dirty tricks he meant to play on this estate. Frowning, I walked toward the child. Perhaps hearing my footsteps, the child stopped frantically digging and turned toward me. Our eyes met.

"Ah, ahh."

The child's eyes were trembling violently.

"D-don't come closer. Please don't. No, don't come."

The muttering was quiet, but I heard it clearly.

Don't come closer. What did that mean?

As my habitual Suspicion rose, I instinctively scattered 「paths」 around me. They spread in every direction, and one of their many branches caught an unfamiliar presence.

'Three beyond the bushes. Three beings, though I don't know what they are.'

As Liam had said, sensitivity was the strength of my 「path」.

The instant I detected those presences, I shouted.

"Three unfamiliar intruders are hiding over there! Be careful!"

As soon as I shouted, the bushes stirred.

Then the intruders revealed their hidden forms.

"What the..."

Their appearance was utterly alien.

They were not assassins carrying daggers, nor knights clad in armor, nor savage raiders wielding axes. They were not beings that could fit into any such category.

「It's been a long time since I've seen those.」

They were much larger than me even after my sudden growth, and the features of their mangled faces were grotesquely twisted. Their bare upper bodies were covered in stitches, like dolls sewn together. The thick veins bulging here and there were gray as rock.

I knew instinctively. They were not human.

No, were they even natural living creatures at all?

The signs of life I sensed through my 「path」 were far too alien. The information reaching my mind was utterly unfamiliar and bizarre. As that strangeness stirred a faint fear, Liam spoke.

「Golems. Ugly dolls that mages command.」

The moment Liam finished speaking, a flash of light gleamed beside me.

A beautiful, swift straight line. It was Seolyun's sword.

"Get a grip, Little Gladiator."

The tip of Seolyun's thrust reached the golem's chest in an instant. But her sword failed to cut straight through its body. Instead of a clean sound, a hard clang rang out, like metal striking metal.

CLANG!

The instant she sensed something wrong, Seolyun frowned and darted backward.

"They're tough. As if they're wearing armor."

Seolyun lowered her body and changed her sword stance.

I had never seen that stance before. Had she developed a new technique while training here on her own? Curiosity briefly stirred, but this was no time to admire Seolyun's new technique.

「Golems are unpleasant dolls made by mages with distasteful hobbies, stitching together and combining the bodies of various creatures. And most are very tough.」

"..."

「Dealing with such golems is exceedingly simple.」

I drew my sword.

「Break them into pieces. Like cracking eggs.」

At the same time, my 「mana heart」 surged into action, sending tremendous power throughout my body.

「They are perfect meat shields for testing your strength.」

Truly tremendous power, beyond comparison with anything I had possessed before.

"I'll take them on."