“You must surrender,” the defeated soldier said.

“It is your only chance of survival. The grassland champions take no prisoners. Those lunatics hack people to pieces, women and children alike. But the mercenaries sent by the Black Archipelago and the Iron Kingdom’s Steel Legion are different. They did not come here for a glorious victory. They are jackals who rushed in to snatch whatever scraps they could.”

“...”

“So they will not kill you. They will try to claim you as spoils. Do you know? Western nobles harbor strange fantasies about the Humans of the eastern continent. That merely keeping an easterner brings good fortune, that eastern children possess exceptional talent in the martial arts...”

The defeated soldier stroked Seolyun’s shoulder as he spoke.

Seolyun asked him, “Then what about you?”

He could not immediately answer the little girl’s question. They both knew the answer. There was no chance he would survive. Even those who harbored fantasies about the East would not take a grown man prisoner. They would be even less inclined to spare a soldier who had fought in the 「War of Conquest」. Besides, he was a leper. No one wanted to claim a filthy, diseased man as spoils...

“I will be all right.”

But Seolyun was different.

An orphan taken in war was a prize they would welcome. Children were easier to tame and brainwash than adults. Seolyun was also undeniably beautiful. Many nobles would covet her.

“I should have died long ago.”

Yet the defeated soldier had no intention of letting Seolyun spend the rest of her life as a slave, a flower kept for display. Living as a noble’s dog might be worse than dying miserably on this battlefield. And so he resolved to burn away what remained of his life for the girl. He would answer for his failure to protect his country by taking responsibility for one girl’s life. His parents, wife, and siblings, who had gone before him, would understand such an end, he thought. For a man who had fled a crushing defeat and become a leper, it would be a rather fine end.

“I have no future.”

“...”

“But you are different.”

The defeated soldier picked up his broken spear.

“Our ancestors said that children hold boundless possibilities. Innocent children are like the night sky; they can become anything. I believe our ancestors’ words. Unlike me, worn down as I am, you have a future. If I can die for that future, it will be an honor.”

“...”

“You can become anything, child.”

Holding the broken spear, he hauled his heavy body upright.

“... Those are the Steel Legion of the Iron Kingdom of Chervil, renowned throughout the West. And Chervil is famous for valuing ability alone, regardless of birth or status. What would men like that think if they saw a little girl who had killed all their trained soldiers with a single sword? Would they fly into a rage and try to punish her? No.”

“...”

“They would see her as a very precious prize. A highly valuable talent discovered in a fallen country, not someone to keep as a decorative flower. That is what the people of the Iron Kingdom are like. Every last one of them has something wrong with their head.”

He gave a phlegmy cough.

“Child, the life ahead of you may be terribly harsh. But you must overcome it. I will burn away the life I have left to open a way for you. I will make you a rose with thorns.”

“...”

“There will be no path strewn with flowers. But you must live.”

Coughing, the defeated soldier limped away.

“If you survive, you can see tomorrow.”

“...”

“See tomorrow. Hone your sword. Become an immortal and reach paradise. Then reclaim the things you cherish that we wretched adults failed to protect...”

Murmuring those words, he walked toward the Steel Legion. The soldiers, who had been chatting among themselves, noticed him limping toward them. He removed the helmet concealing his face, revealing the hideously ruined face of a leper. The Steel Legion soldiers scowled and shouted.

“Fuck off, you filthy leper.”

“Just our luck, some fucking diseased bastard won’t leave us alone...”

But he approached in silence. Then, with a beastlike scream, he drove his broken spear into the Steel Legion soldiers. He fought poorly, but desperately. He was not strong, but he was dangerous. As his body was battered beyond recognition, he killed four soldiers. Terrified by the sight of him, like some malevolent demon, the others fled, blowing a horn to call for reinforcements.

On his knees, the defeated soldier watched their backs disappear. Only then did Seolyun emerge from hiding and run to him. His body was drenched in blood. He could barely gasp for breath.

“They will return.”

He made one last, terrible request.

“To avenge their comrades who were ambushed. To give me a shameful death.”

“...”

“Before that, you must kill me.”

His eyes were dull and unfocused.

“Pick up any blade and end my life. Then tell the soldiers when they return: a leper with perverted desires for children tried to attack me, so I killed him with one stroke. I do not know how I killed him. If they ask for details after you say that, make up a vague story. It does not matter how absurd it is. Invent a story that is intriguing without being specific, so they can imagine you are a prodigy...”

“... Ah, aah.”

“If they order you to swing a sword, tell them the inspiration is not coming now, that something flashed through you then. Let them imagine whatever they please, let them believe you have talent...”

“I-I c-can’t, I can’t do that, I can’t—”

“You must.”

In that final moment, the defeated soldier smiled.

“You have to survive and see tomorrow, don’t you?”

Sobbing, Seolyun looked at him as he solemnly closed his eyes. In that moment, his face and body, eaten away by leprosy, were not repulsive. His lips and closed eyelids trembled. He, too, was a human being. A human being who felt fear even as he tried to accept death with dignity.

Seolyun spoke one last time.

“I will, I will become an immortal. Then I will go to paradise. I will see the people I love.”

“You will.”

“Y-you will be there, too. You will be in my paradise. So d-don’t be too afraid, and wait for me. Just wait a little while.”

At Seolyun’s words, the defeated soldier smiled with his eyes closed.

“Thank you.”

For the first time, he offered gratitude rather than an apology.

Seolyun’s sword clumsily pierced his throat. Her stroke was unskilled. The blade caught on bone and failed to end his life cleanly, and he made agonized sounds for a long time before he died. Even as she sobbed, Seolyun did what she had to do. Killing a person was a terrible thing. Through that long process of dying, the defeated soldier never uttered a word of resentment. Nor did he apologize. He simply thanked her, over and over...

Soon afterward, the Steel Legion’s reinforcements arrived.

There were incomparably more soldiers than before. But the Steel Legion was not alone. Another banner flew among them: that of the 「Great Land」’s conquering army, which had trampled this country. The banner of the Khan, symbolizing the sun that never sets.

“The leper is nowhere to be seen, and here is a girl instead.”

A presence beyond anything in the Steel Legion.

At the center of the conquering army sat an enormous man on a pitch-black horse. He carried the force of a war god descended to earth.

“Did you kill this criminal, girl of the peninsula?”

The Khan’s descendant was there.

From horseback, he glanced at the defeated soldier’s corpse. Seolyun did as the soldier had instructed.

“I-I killed this man with a single stroke...”

Seolyun tried as hard as she could to invent a story. But the Khan’s descendant had understood the situation the moment he saw the corpse. Someone who had reached the pinnacle of martial prowess could infer what had happened from the traces alone. He knew the defeated soldier had chosen death without resisting. He even discerned the intention behind it. It was conduct unworthy of a warrior. But he did not voice what he had seen.

“... Not long ago, some deranged warrior from the Iron Kingdom came to me. He said that if I fought him and lost, I was not to kill anyone aged eighteen or younger in this war, was it? Deeply disagreeable, but as the loser of the duel, I must keep my promise.”

The Khan’s descendant looked at the Steel Legion soldiers. They seemed intrigued by Seolyun’s story. Of course, did those differently colored-eyed westerners not harbor strange fantasies about eastern people? He smiled. One of the Steel Legion soldiers spoke.

“Descendant of the Khan, forgive our presumption, but that girl, as our spoils...”

“Do as you wish.”

The Khan’s descendant thought it might be entertaining to let the girl be sold off to the western lands. The Iron Kingdom was insignificant compared with the 「Great Land」. Yet it was also a nation governed by an exceedingly harsh logic of strength. Would that girl survive there? He could not know. That was what made it entertaining. All things would unfold according to the will of the Father Who Never Sleeps.

“Come here.”

Thanking the Khan’s descendant, the Steel Legion claimed the tiny girl as spoils. Bound with loose rope, Seolyun set off toward an unfamiliar foreign land. Now she would have to think long and hard about how to preserve her life by pretending to be a prodigy. But that worry was meaningless.

Because...

“This girl is special.”

There had never been any need for her to pretend to be a prodigy in the first place.

“To find such a glittering gem in the gutter.”

One talent had been given to the girl who had lost everything. In that unfamiliar land, it allowed her black hair and black eyes to become marks of distinction rather than flaws.

“You are a heaven-born prodigy, Seolyun.”

* * *

Maia, Valkyrie of the Lakota Mountains, struggled to comprehend what was happening.

“Pff, hehehe.”

She had fought countless warriors. She had dueled and defeated many brave barbarian warriors of the north, and driven back packs of monsters that ruled the mountains. After hard-fought battles, she had also repelled those who occasionally invaded their lands with swaggering confidence. She had experienced so very many battles.

“I cannot believe it. I cannot.”

But looking back over all those battles, she had never experienced anything like this. Not merely never experienced it—she had never even imagined it. With her consciousness growing dim, Maia struggled to grip her greatsword. She was dizzy from the blood she had lost through her severed left wrist.

“Just as I thought! The world is vast!”

Their first clash. The moment their swords first met, Maia had felt that the swordswoman’s level was similar to her own. Their strength and speed were evenly matched. No, Maia had even held the advantage. But as time passed, she was overwhelmed. How it happened was beyond the understanding of an ordinary talent.

“Haaaah!”

Maia swung her greatsword.

The swordswoman, Seolyun, swung her own sword in response. The two blades followed exactly the same trajectory and collided in the middle. The exchanges that followed were no different. As though they were performing a rehearsed sparring match, the two blades executed movements without the slightest discrepancy. In that moment, Maia felt as though she were fighting her reflection. Everything she had built over her lifetime, the secret swordsmanship handed down among the Valkyries of the Lakota Mountains—all of it was being wielded by some unfamiliar girl from the eastern continent...

“You have stolen it all. All of it, in so little time.”

“...”

“And the longer we fight, the more perfect it becomes. Your swordsmanship is now far more refined and exquisite than mine. Unbelievable. Truly...”

Seolyun’s eyes flashed.

With that, her hands ceased to perform Valkyrie swordsmanship. Instead of the techniques wielded by the barbarian warriors of the northern Iron Kingdom, her sword mirrored nature, imbued with the subtle principles of the East. Maia could neither block nor evade it. She could only think how beautiful it was. Like the waterfall she had first seen as a child in the Lakota Mountains, holding her father’s hand.

“Ah...”

The greatsword fell from Maia’s right hand. Sinking to her knees, she knew she had lost. When death came soon, she would be eliminated and expelled from the spirit world. Before that, she wanted one question answered.

“That swordsmanship just now—whom did you steal it from?”

“... I did not steal it.”

“Then, from whom... did you learn it? I want to know... its name.”

Seolyun answered impassively.

“I did not learn it from anyone, either.”

“Then...”

Listening to Maia, Seolyun silently leveled her sword. Its point touched Maia’s throat. As she watched Maia exhale in despair, Seolyun recalled what she had heard when she was learning the sword.

[“Seolyun, there is nothing I can teach you.”]

At the academy, and from the many swordsmen who had come to teach her, she had heard the same words. Seolyun had learned dozens upon dozens of sword styles. Yet she used none of them.

[“Your talent is far too extraordinary.”]

The reason was simple.

[“In the eastern continent, I hear they call those with talent like yours this.”]

She had no need to use them.

[“A grandmaster of the age.”]

Because Seolyun already possessed the finest swordsmanship.

[“In time, everyone will know your name.”]

Swordsmanship that developed as Seolyun grew. Created by her, it was most perfect when wielded in her hands. Swordsmanship belonging to Seolyun alone, which no one else could wield.

“It has no name yet. I am not good at naming things.”

“Heh, hahaha...”

Seolyun’s swordsmanship was her own creation.

Realizing that, Maia had nothing more to say. Feeling cold steel sink into her throat, she quietly closed her eyes, lamenting how brutally overpowering the talent of a true heaven-born prodigy was...

“...”

Looking down at Maia, who had fallen so helplessly, Seolyun recalled an exchange from the past. Her teachers had asked:

[“Seolyun, how on earth did you come to possess such swordsmanship?”]

She had answered their question this way:

[“There was someone who told me I could become anything.”]

Seolyun still remembered the promise of that day. She remembered the words of the defeated soldier who had died in agony.

And so she could become anything. She could steal anyone’s swordsmanship. The resolve embedded deep in the girl’s heart and her heaven-given talent made it possible.

And Seolyun had created this swordsmanship.

To survive.

To see tomorrow.

To reach the heavens and become an immortal.

To keep her promise.

To reclaim what she had lost.

To prove that his faith had not been misplaced—the man who had believed in the potential of an insignificant girl drowning in blood.

“... There are still so many enemies.”

The girl turned her gaze.

The battle was not yet over.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, the blade in my hand was not the sword made of winter steel. It was something else: an ornate decoration without a sharp edge. Yet at that moment, an astonishingly chilling sharpness emanated from it.

“... What?”

The Dragon Sword was stained crimson.

With the blood of my enemies.

Frowning, I turned my head and saw countless corpses piled up. The grassland champions lay dead with their eyes wide open. The other soldiers were staring at me as though I were a ghost. Granted, the swordsmanship I had just wielded was far too abnormal.

“What is this?”

「The sword’s voice. Did I not tell you that a flame slumbered within it?」

“...”

「The soul within the sword recognized the blood of steel. And it spoke to you.」

In the middle of the battlefield, Liam looked at me and grinned.

「Telling you to devour it.」

The Dragon Sword was still trembling.

Violently.

「Grant its wish, young descendant.」

“... Is that really all right?”

「That blade is more than worthy of becoming the second sacrifice for your wings.」

“No, but this is not mine. I only borrowed it.”

「Why make things so complicated?」 Liam said.

「Do it first and think afterward. That is how a Caravan lives.」

What an irresponsible thing to say.

But...

“... Well, that is how I have done things so far.”

I was tempted.

Quite sorely, to be honest.

* * *

「The blood of steel is hungry.」

「Consume a new sword.」