["Tomorrow, I will kill people."]

You said that on a day when the dawn sky was an unusually deep blue.

["I don't know what sort of life the person I kill will have lived, or how he will die. I won't know what he thinks as he dies, either. I probably never will."]

You spoke calmly. Your face, leaning against the clear windowpane, was deathly white.

["Tomorrow, I will recite a spell I created using everything I have spent my life learning. My magic will tear people to pieces. So efficiently, so simply."]

To my eyes, your face was more transparent than the glass.

["Just by reciting a spell and waving my hand, I will make them disappear from this world. Innocent people who are loved by someone, who love someone."]

It was bound to happen someday.

You were a mage invited by the lord who ruled this labyrinth city. An honored guest he had eagerly brought here to secure a glorious victory in the war that would unfold at the walls. The lord wanted you to deliver a horrific end to as many people as possible with a single spell. He wanted you to destroy lives efficiently and unleash terrifying arcane power to break his enemies' spirit.

You were obliged to fulfill his wishes.

And so you would kill people tomorrow. Even if it were not tomorrow, it would have happened someday. This chaotic age of ceaseless war forced mages to kill. It shouted that destroying countless lives was their only purpose.

As a mage, perhaps killing people was your destiny.

But.

["... I'm so afraid."]

Was that truly your only purpose?

["I don't want to kill anyone. I don't want to take innocent lives, and I don't want to hurt others with the magic I've spent my whole life learning."]

["..."]

["I'm terrified out of my mind. I wish tomorrow would never come. Ever."]

Tears poured from your clear eyes. My heart ached as you covered your face and sobbed.

I wished you would not cry.

I wished you would not grieve.

You, at least, I wanted to be happy.

["Instead of that horrible moment, I wish this moment would go on forever. I wish this dreamlike moment would never end. I want it so desperately. So very desperately."]

So did I.

["If tomorrow comes, and I kill those people... I feel as though I'll lose something precious. As though I'll become something completely different from what I was, something wearing a human disguise."]

["..."]

["That's why I'm so afraid. Terrified out of my mind."]

I watched you tremble and sob.

Then, for the first time since we met, I reached out to you. With my rough, clumsy fingertips, I wiped the tears from your cheek, then found myself stroking its softness. Your clear eyes widened a little. Those eyes, like drops of water, turned toward me.

Soon we were looking into each other's eyes from close enough to touch.

["Do not be afraid."]

When I felt your breath, I knew with certainty.

["Nothing will happen."]

For you, I could do anything.

["When you open your eyes tomorrow morning, nothing will have changed."]

Truly, anything.

["So sleep peacefully, and remain as you are."]

["..."]

["Nothing will change. Everything will stay the same."]

You nodded, looking dazed.

The dawn that day was an unusually deep blue. The windowpane in your room was blue, the walls surrounding the labyrinth city were tinged blue, and the light of dawn reflected by my sword was blue as well.

["All you need to do is remain yourself."]

That day, armed with a single sword, I faced the legion that had come to the labyrinth city alone.

I did not fight as a 「sword runner」 with wings unfurled.

Nor did I fight as a foreigner from the 「Great Land」.

That day, I was one man.

Nothing more than a breath of wind that had blown from far away.

To borrow your words:

I became a gale.

.

.

.

The sword in my hand shimmered hazily. In that instant, the blade I held was no longer the dwarf-made steel sword Daisy had given me, but a sword from the eastern continent, wielded by a wandering swordsman in the distant past.

My appearance changed as well.

The clothes draped over me became scraps of cloth little better than rags, and a worn conical hat settled on my head. The scene before me was no longer a forest of swaying undergrowth, either. In that instant, what I saw became a wilderness swept by blowing sand. Beyond the dust of that sunlit wilderness stood a legion. Enemies I had to defeat.

"Out of the way, human fighter—"

Killing intent poured in from every direction, front and back, left and right. Every attack was meant both to pin me down and to defeat and break me. But attacks like those could not bind me. No blade in the world could dare hold the wind captive.

『Who can defy the wind that blows?』

I swung my sword as though dancing.

The air surrounding me surged with it. A powerful wind whirled, and the attacks pouring toward me wavered wildly. I spun in place with my blade in hand. A free wind blew in time with my turning. The bodies of the enemies surrounding me swayed violently. The raging wind battered them and brought them down.

『Before the wind, we are nothing but dust swept away.』

I extended my foot. Thrusting my sword, I slid its edge along an enemy's weapon. I pressed in, turned smoothly, and broke through the encirclement. For an instant, I became the wind. The moment I broke through, my sword swept gracefully across my enemies' vital points. Red droplets of blood flew in every direction.

"What the fuck—"

The memories of 「Gale」 surged fiercely, sharpening every sense in my body to an uncanny degree. I could see exactly how to move to be at my freest. With a single step, I could cross a vast distance; with a single swing, I could break dozens of attacks.

Amid it all, a fighter with unfurled wings unleashed an attack.

I would not dodge. If I retreated here, I could not break through the encirclement.

What wind in this world ever looks back?

The wind only moves forward.

Unwaveringly.

"Hah—"

My second heart beat as though shuddering. Steel's power filled my entire body, and at that same instant, the two blades collided. Mine prevailed. A deafening crash threatened to burst my eardrums, and my attacker's blade flew through the air. His eyes shook violently.

"How can a mere 「sword walker」's sword be this hard—"

I would not stop.

The moment I thought that, a distinct line appeared in my vision. As soon as I saw it, I thrust my sword along it. A fierce wind blew, and steel imbued that raging wind. A wind none could defy whirled violently, and the bodies of those surrounding me suddenly lifted into the air.

『There is no paradise where you flee.』

I changed my grip on the sword.

The moment I stood before those many enemies, 「Wildness」 writhed and burst forth from within me. My blade traced a broad arc, cutting down several enemies with a single swing. Red blood sprayed. At that moment, someone aimed for my side.

『My duel of honor was not for honor's sake.』

The crude orc sword became the sword of a seasoned knight. With one smoothly flowing movement, I slammed the fighter who had ambushed me into the dirt. It was a feat that amazed even me.

"Everyone's been calling you the Sword Demon. Seems they were right."

Yes.

To others, this skill must look like something a demon would possess.

"Whew."

With a single breath, I recovered the stamina I had spent. The 「mana heart」 that held steel's power replenished its owner's strength in an instant, even with a brief breath. The line drawn within my body became clearer. Every muscle heated like iron in a fire, as though about to melt.

Tension stretched taut.

Then.

"Set them off! All of them!"

Something unexpected happened.

"We don't need to take them down ourselves! It's night now!"

With an explosive roar, whitish powder billowed out like fog. In that instant, my unusually keen senses sounded an alarm. Danger. Signals flooded my mind, telling me to get away.

'... Poison?'

I saw the eyes of the fighters near where the fog had burst grow unfocused and dreamy. But I saw no signs of poisoning. Rather than groaning in pain, they seemed to yield to the drowsiness washing over them. Utterly languid and at ease.

I saw fighters falling asleep on their feet.

Sleep. Drowsiness.

When those two keywords came to mind, Seolyun's voice flashed through my head.

["Sleeping at night where there are Demonkin is no different from throwing yourself into a pit of fire."]

Demonkin.

As I recalled that word, someone shouted in the distance.

"We don't need to take them down ourselves! It's night now!"

Only then did I understand why they had done this.

This place had become a stage for Demonkin.

But.

'I have no idea what's going to happen.'

I knew little about Demonkin.

I did not know what happened if you fell asleep before them, or what they became on nights when the moon and stars were out.

But one thing was certain.

"——!"

It was dangerous.

'It sounds like livestock having their throats slit.'

Grotesque screams erupted everywhere. They sounded like the screams of living creatures, yet also like the voices of devils from legend. Goose bumps rose all over my body.

"We have to get out of here!"

The fighters who had been battling so frantically had all lost their will to fight. As they scattered in panic, I gripped my sword and glared at the approaching fog.

I had a better option than retreat.

『Not to be swept away.』

To become the wind.

『But to sweep everything away.』

My sword traced a circle.

The wind whirling around that circle gathered the whitish powder drifting like fog and turned it into a single whirlwind. I did not know the details, but I had just seen for myself that this became a powerful weapon wherever Demonkin were present. In that case, there was no reason not to use it myself.

"Seolyun! I'll make a path for us!"

This would open a new path.

I would not even need to attack anyone myself. The drowsiness that came at night was a medium that summoned Demonkin, and every fighter who feared it would get out of the way. Just as they had fled to the outskirts of the Pitch-Black Forest to avoid the orcs.

But there was something I had overlooked.

I knew little about Demonkin.

In other words, I was ignorant.

"No! Little Gladiator!"

Seolyun's voice rang out behind me.

"The Demonkin are already here! If you go on like that, you'll be in danger—"

Instead of saying more, Seolyun rushed toward me. As she drew closer, I failed to properly grasp what she was saying.

"——!"

Then, before I could think, pitch-black darkness engulfed us. Absolute darkness, without a sliver of light, poured over us, and every sound vanished with it. Complete silence and complete darkness. Arriving without warning, that darkness awakened an instinctive terror.

At the same time:

"Are you familiar with the continent's creation myth?"

A deep, sonorous male voice reverberated like an echo. From every direction.

"Ironically, the words of devils are quite logical. They spout far more persuasive and worthwhile words than the idealistic, irresponsible words of angels."

Whenever the voice sounded, it felt as though an invisible hand were squeezing my throat. Breathing was difficult. My five senses failed me, as though I had sunk into deep water. Along with it, bright laughter rang out here and there. Laughter bursting with utter delight.

Mad laughter that did not belong in this situation.

"What a splendid night, little human boy."

As the laughter echoed, a flame blossomed in the darkness. The faint flame drove back the darkness and revealed what had been hidden within it. A man stood there. A man with neatly swept-back hair, dressed in jet-black formal attire, brimming with elegance.

From the moment I saw him, the word "noble" kept circling in my mind.

What other word could describe him?

I knew the moment I faced him.

Demonkin.

A noble of the night stood before me.

"I invite you to a delightful night that will never end."

His alluring voice rang clearly, as though he were whispering in my ear. Before the approaching man, I felt like a tiny insect. As though I had become a lowly creature permitted neither to resist nor to take any action at all.

But then.

"Oh."

As helplessness gnawed through my entire body, heat rose in one corner of my chest, as though a fire had ignited.

"You have something interesting, don't you?"

The sudden heat spread throughout my body like a spreading fire. With it, my fading mind gradually grew clear. My lucid, unclouded mind began to drive out the darkness.

"That is... not something a human can possess."

It was as though

I were waking from sleep.

The heat that had arisen in my chest soon warmed the inside of my head. Heat surged as though my head were on fire. Starting at the crown, it seared the inside of my skull, then my eyes and the bridge of my nose. Strangely, this unfamiliar, intense heat felt familiar.

It was a heat I had experienced before.

["Heir of steel, your still-unpolished sword cannot cut through the arcane."]

Yes.

The orc elder I had met at the sacred ground.

Sherdik, the great orc shaman.

["So when darkness you cannot withstand descends upon you, this shall help you."]

The heat that had washed over me when he stroked my head, saying he would give me a gift.

["This is a gift bestowed by the orc shaman Sherdik upon the descendant of a great warrior."]

In that instant, his gift began to devour the darkness.

* * *

"Puh-heh-heh."

High in the mountains, the orc shaman Sherdik looked up at the stars drifting across the pitch-black night sky and let out a thoroughly orcish laugh. Having read the movements of the constellations, Sherdik knew what predicament his faraway "human friend" was in. He was watching the trial faced by a descendant of steel, one he had thought he would never see again.

"Yes. That unpolished sword of yours still cannot cut through the arcane. Puh-heh-heh. So for now, entrust yourself to my little helping hand."

Seated in the sacred ground, Sherdik laughed coarsely.

"The gift I, the orc shaman Sherdik, bestowed upon a great warrior's descendant is finally showing its worth. Puh-huh-huh. This Sherdik has still got it, after all. Everything followed the fate I read."

The orc shaman Sherdik bared his teeth and laughed heartily once more. A gift-giver could only feel satisfied when the recipient put the gift to proper use. In that sense, Sherdik was delighted that his gift was finally showing its worth.

A gift that could not even be compared to a mere five wardstones.

A grace not ordinarily bestowed upon any race other than orcs. A blessing that even among orcs could belong only to noble souls acknowledged as great warriors. Gazing up at the stars in the night sky, Sherdik could not conceal his delight.

"Those things are always putting on airs. I wonder what faces those whelps the devils shat out will make. Puh-heh-heh!"

The sacred ground.

A thoroughly orcish laugh resounded across the holy land.