You told me I was like the wind.

I agree.

My life was like a passing breeze.

* * *

The memories pouring from the sword were nothing short of violent. They shook my very existence as waves sweep over a beach. It was difficult to drive out these intense emotions and memories. I was a mere 「sword walker」, a greenhorn, a boy who knew little of life's joys and sorrows.

But 「Gale」's former owner was a 「sword runner」, a seasoned wandering swordsman who had roamed the entire continent. His voice, so distinct in its assertion of his own existence, swallowed my heart and shook my soul. At this rate, I would cease to be Arhan and become a wandering swordsman from the eastern continent. And I would never return.

"Out of the way!"

"Stop them—!"

"Protect the mages!"

Were those charging toward us Beastfolk, or trained soldiers invading the labyrinth city across a desolate plain?

Was the woman sprawled on the dirt Dorothy the mage, or an unfamiliar mage who had rushed to help me in the 「Racial Duels」?

I could not tell.

The memories were swallowing my mind, dyeing my soul with wind.

"Ugh—"

"Die... Ack."

The mage squeezed her eyes shut.

At that moment, my body became wind.

I thrust the sword held lightly in my hand, driving back the charging Beastfolk. As my opponent was shoved into the air, I swung my sword through empty space.

SWISH!

The Beastfolk's body twisted, red lines scoring its beastlike form. Blood spattered, and the whirlwind my sword created mercilessly sliced through thick hide. A cry like a dog's yelp rang out.

THUD!

One Beastfolk fell.

"Uh—"

More enemies attacked from behind the fallen Beastfolk. A new world appeared before my eyes. A world made of 「paths」. They were different from the 「paths」 I had always seen. These paths were arrows pointing in particular directions. And their directions changed with my sword. The power to touch flows, disrupt them, and destroy them. That was the arcane power of 「Gale」.

"What the fuck is this!"

"Magic? No, it's a little different—"

My body moved against my will.

The swordplay that unfolded was incomparably more powerful and exquisite than anything I could do with a blade, and as beautiful as Seolyun's. It traced a perfect circle. Around that circle, the Beastfolk rose into the air and flew far away, as though swept up in a whirlwind.

But the more perfectly my sword reproduced Gale, the fainter my consciousness became. The world before my eyes kept wavering.

Was I Arhan?

Or a wandering swordsman who had lived through a desolate age?

My mind reeled.

Then Master's voice brought me back.

「Do not let the wind sweep you away, young descendant.」

A stern voice.

「Have you forgotten what I told you?」

I saw eyes like blades.

「No steel in this world is swept away by the wind.」

The pounding of a heart echoed.

Master's voice reached me, as weighty as that heartbeat.

「Is the steel you bear lighter than that of a mere wandering swordsman? Surely not. Do not lose yourself.」

"..."

「Remember, young descendant.」

His voice shook my soul.

「The purpose you set yourself when you first took up a sword.」

Those were words I could not ignore.

The moment Master spoke, the clamorous wind filling my mind vanished without a trace. At the same time, the memory of that unforgettable day blazed like fire. No one's memories, no one's life, could ever cover over the moments of that day engraved upon my soul.

["I will spare you. So forget what happened today and live your life."]

Helplessness.

["Blame your family."]

Fear, resentment, hatred, rage, sorrow.

["If you carry on the Caravan bloodline, I will come for you again. Wherever you may be."]

The thirst for revenge.

["Only a swordmaster can kill a swordmaster, young master."]

The butler's words had sunk into my bones, impossible to forget.

The moment I heard them, I took up a sword. When I first lifted that heavy blade in an awkward stance, I set myself a goal that was both absurd and clear.

Only a swordmaster can kill a swordmaster.

And so.

I decided to become a swordmaster.

"Whew."

I came to my senses.

I had reclaimed myself.

Of course, that did not mean 「Gale」's memories had disappeared. The wandering swordsman's life was still flowing into me through the blade. But now I was not being swept away. I was accepting it instead. As steel that would not budge, I welcomed Gale.

I was the one doing the devouring.

『For you, I became the wind.』

The dwarf-made steel sword in my hand was now only half a sword, its blade broken. The hand gripping it was covered in blood, and the acrid smell of dirt hung around me.

Memories surged.

「Gale」's former owner.

His final memory.

『At blue dawn, I swept away the things that made you fear tomorrow.』

『The lord of the labyrinth city imprisoned me according to the city's laws.』

『You looked at me in my prison and sobbed bitterly.』

『Looking back, I should not have done that.』

『I should have swept you away, not the legion.』

『To a world far, far away, where you would have nothing to fear.』

* * *

At blue dawn, I was imprisoned in the labyrinth city's spire as the price for driving away the legion. The lord had merely followed lawful procedure. If I wished to fight the legion, I should have formally petitioned him, joined the labyrinth city's legion, and taken the field as one of its swordsmen. But I did not. I simply cut down the legion out of nowhere against the faint light of dawn.

The moonlight beyond the spire's window was dim.

The curved crescent moon resembled your smile. You had made a romantic of me. The moon glittering between dark clouds looked as though the sky itself were smiling.

I felt no loneliness.

My life had always been solitary.

You had merely passed through it for a moment.

After you passed through, my world grew old and faded, and everything but you crumbled into meaninglessness.

The lord asked whether I regretted it.

I answered that I did not.

I was glad you had not been swallowed by the hatred filling this war-riddled age. It was enough for me alone to be drenched in red blood and pluck withered flowers. Enough for me alone to keep a faded sword beside my pillow, never sleeping in peace.

Even if I never saw you again, that was all right.

A single moment's sweet dream could sustain me for a lifetime.

How many souls had my sword swept away?

How thick was the blood soaked into the wilderness, and was it justice or evil?

None of that mattered in this moment.

The world was wind, and in the end, everything would be swept away and forgotten.

But perhaps what the night sky offered me was not a smile after all.

In the blue night, I heard a scream.

"Save me."

It was your voice.

Hearing that piercing scream, I left the spire. The guards' watch was lax, the ropes binding me were loose, and a single kick shattered the bars.

When I emerged outside, the labyrinth city was burning.

Its blue walls were red with blood, and beneath the flames lay blackened corpses. Countless lives had fallen asleep beneath the moonlight. The crescent moon still shone brightly.

As though smiling upon those who slept forever.

"Please save me."

Sword in hand, I went to you.

You were a terrible sight.

Your snow-white silk nightgown was charred black and torn. The white skin I had only ever imagined lay exposed, marked with livid bruises and red bloodstains. Your beautiful face was streaked with tears. Sobbing, you were looking at me.

Calling to me.

"..."

I cut through the necks of the guards holding your head as though harvesting grain. Every time my blue sword danced in the moonlight, bright red blood scattered. With your eyes squeezed shut, you surrendered yourself to me. Your sobs, your flowing tears, your trembling body were cold.

"I only wanted today."

Once you had calmed a little, that was what you said.

"I wasn't asking for anything grand. I only wanted a happy today to repeat forever, instead of a terrible tomorrow. So why?"

The labyrinth city fell.

It was an ordinary destruction.

It had repelled one invasion, but failed to repel the second and third. I saw savage soldiers rampaging beneath the blue walls. Cavalry mounted on armored horses. Their faces, bursting into chilling laughter, were familiar.

My homeland.

They were soldiers of the 「Great Land」.

Invaders loyal to the great conqueror who held the largest territory on this continent. They were not foes the labyrinth city's bookish men could repel. However capable its lord might be, how could mere walls stop the mightiest conqueror on earth?

With you on my back, I could not flee far. The fastest legion on the continent would permit no survivors. Mounted soldiers from my homeland surrounded us. I saw a general holding a spear. He was an enemy I could not defeat. This was a great legion I could not sweep away.

You were sobbing.

But I would not give up.

For you, I could become anything.

"I have a proposal."

"A proposal?"

"In accordance with the will of the Father Who Never Sleeps, I demand a sacred trial by combat."

"... Are you serious?"

Trial by combat.

A tradition handed down in the 「Great Land」.

"Yes."

The Father Who Never Sleeps.

A duel offered to the great chief god they worshipped. By this tradition, if you fought and defeated every enemy facing you, your life would be spared regardless of what had happened. And at this moment, the enemies before me were an army more than ten thousand strong, every one of them a thoroughly trained, terrifyingly powerful fighter.

"You're mad."

"..."

"Do you know? In a trial by combat, we never give our enemies a gentle death. We will trample your belly open beneath our horses' hooves, stab your abdomen and chest with spears to spill out their contents, then stuff what spills out into your mouth and make you eat it. For the Father Who Never Sleeps loves blood, death, and pain."

"I know."

"Very well, if that is what you want."

I knew this was madness.

A battle I had no chance of winning.

But.

"Why are you—"

"I chose this because I love fighting."

But for you, I could do anything.

Truly, anything.

"That's a lie."

"..."

"Don't lie to me."

You were wise.

So you knew what was in my heart.

"What will change? What will doing this change?"

"..."

"Can you defeat that terrifying army?"

"There is no knowing."

"No. We do know. And even if you win, nothing will change."

You wept mournfully.

"Even if we're lucky enough to survive, nothing will change."

"..."

"Even if I barely survive this, countless lords will invite me again. Then I'll be thrown back onto a battlefield. Even if I survive that, I'll go to another battlefield stained with blood. Until I die, until I return to the earth. That's my fate. I understand now..."

"..."

"So don't do something pointless. Let's just die here. Don't try to stand against this cruel world. Let's just die as we are..."

Perhaps you were right.

But you did not know.

You did not know what I dreamed of.

"Do not worry."

I had resolved to become the wind for you.

"You need only remain yourself."

A wind that could sweep away anything.

"So simply watch."

The next day, the Great Land's army dragged me to Perma, the Iron Kingdom's steel city. They intended to establish their authority by showing everyone this grand execution ceremony. There was an enormous fighting pit there.

And the spectators gathered in the fighting pit were all laughing uproariously.

The spear-bearing legion surrounded me with indifferent faces, and in a corner, you crouched and sobbed. All I had been given was shoddy armor and a single sword.

Everyone was sneering.

But I saw none of it.

I saw only you, sobbing.

Over your tear-streaked face, I saw the radiant face I had once known.

["My name is Dorothy."]

Would you remember?

The small smile you wore as you whispered your lovely name?

["Dorothy, the mage of Oz."]

Would you remember that this smile had made me a storm?

"Let the trial by combat begin—!"

Did you know the purpose I had set myself at blue dawn, looking at you in your snow-white silk nightgown? Did you know I had decided to become not a wind swept away by something else, but a wind that swept away everything? Probably not. Yes, never.

"Hngh!"

As the legion's sharp spears pierced my body, you closed your eyes. As my shoulder shattered, my knees gave way, red blood flowed, and my entrails spilled out, you did not open them. Clear tears welled and streamed from the corners of your eyes. I watched only you, biting your lovely lip in anguish.

Even if pointed spears shattered my bones, horses' hooves mercilessly trampled my muscles, and the spectators' jeers and sneers wore me down, they could not break my soul. For my soul was made of you alone.

Neither the pain assailing my body, nor the dust, nor the spilling blood could bring me down. My heart was utterly still. In that stillness, the sword in my hand slowly sliced through the air. As it cut, my wings shone brilliantly.

"You, told, me."

Blood bubbled into froth.

"I was, like the wind, you said."

I wrung out even the smallest remnants of my strength.

As I swung it, my blade snapped in half with futile ease. The broken blade spun and struck the ground. The spectators sneered.

And.

"I, agree, with, you."

The wind blew.

The gale gathered around my sword and became a whirlwind. That fiercely swirling wind lifted your sobbing body.

As you had once said.

You became the wind.

"My, life was, like a passing, breeze."

Wind beyond the laws of nature surged upward. Belatedly realizing something was wrong, the legion shouted to seize the woman. But how could mere humans catch a rising wind with their hands? You rose and flew far, far away. Toward the sky with its faded smile.

Some soldiers in the legion raised their bows.

I did not allow them to loose their arrows.

Holding my broken sword,

I dragged my ruined body forward and stabbed their throats. Blood scattered, and a soul seeped into the harsh wilderness. Struck by the hooves of a horse thrashing about after losing its rider, I tumbled backward. Even as I vomited blood, I did not release the broken blade in my hand. A thrusting spear pierced my back. A brutal kick struck my head. But I fought. I did not stop.

My eyes were fixed on you alone.

"Fly, away. Become, a wind so swift, and fierce that no one can catch you."

Like the broken sword,

my body broke and crumbled too.

But even battered beyond recognition, I would never fall. Until you flew away and vanished from my sight, I would rise again and again.

"Yes, just as, you said..."

Your figure slowly blurred.

I could not tell whether you were blurring because you were drawing farther away, or because my consciousness was failing. The sounds around me ceased. Dorothy, the mage of Oz, was swept up in a whirlwind and flew farther and farther away. Toward an unknown world no one could know...

"Like a gale..."

Sunlight too dazzling to look at adorned the sky. To the very end, I never knew whether you had flown away completely, fallen along the way, or merely risen a little before sinking absurdly back down. I had to leave the outcome to the sky.

For only the sky knows where the wind will blow.

Yes.

Only the sky...

That

was the end of a wandering swordsman.

.

.

.

I opened my eyes.

When I came to my senses, an intensely powerful wind flowed through the sword in my hand. I understood clearly the final principle it held. As a faint drowsiness settled over my body, I looked ahead. There was a fierce battlefield, fighters tangled together in combat.

And.

There was one very peculiar path, unlike anything I had seen before.

「Young descendant.」

"Yes."

What I had to do was clear.

「Sweep them away.」