No particular formalities were required to pass through Solrod Castle, the gateway marking the border between Libert and Pendia. Relations between the two kingdoms were not especially hostile to begin with, so the castle’s strategic value lay less in defending against an invasion by the Kingdom of Pendia than in keeping the monsters crossing over under control.

But rather than pass straight through, Roden went inside the castle town and took a room at an inn, where they set down their luggage.

Shan had never seen such a large inn before and looked around like the country bumpkin he was.

“It’s huge...”

The inn had a fair number of guests, most of whom looked like armed mercenaries. They seemed to be coming over from Pendia after hearing about the war in Libert.

After an early dinner in the tavern and dining room on the ground floor, Shan and Roden headed out to the shops to finish their errands before sunset. As a trading hub between the two kingdoms, the castle town had places where they could buy and sell goods.

“What are you buying?”

“We’ve only been passing through little villages, so I haven’t had the chance, but we ought to buy you some armor while we’re here. At the very least, it’d be good to get you properly dressed.”

Shan was currently wearing clothes the people of the Alto circus had given him. His old clothes had been torn by Feonil’s lance and soaked with so much blood that they were no longer fit to wear.

Naturally, the circus had no children his size—and the dwarf Voldot’s clothes were far too small—so the garments were much too large and loose on him. He needed to take this opportunity to get some new clothes. A few extra changes would also be useful in case they got splashed with blood or torn.

In any case, even after crossing into Pendia, they still had several days of travel before reaching a large city, so they needed to get themselves equipped beforehand. In truth, if not for the clash with Feonil, they should have taken care of all this back in the city of Vito.

After visiting several shops, Shan acquired clothes that fit reasonably well, gloves and shoes made of fine leather, and a hat to keep off the sun. They also bought arrows and a spear of a suitable length.

Finally, they returned to the inn and called in a barber. For the first time in his life, Shan entrusted his hair to someone else.

His unruly mop, which he had let grow haphazardly to around his shoulder blades, was cut short to just below the back of his head. Washed with soap, oiled, and combed back, it looked quite respectable.

At least, where he had once looked like a street urchin trailing after a dignified knight, he now looked something like a young squire.

As Shan admired himself in a somewhat cloudy mirror, Roden smiled and nodded behind him.

“Now that’s a much better look.”

Shan was hardly a peerless beauty, but considering how little care he had received, his features were fairly regular and his teeth straight. His large eyes, slightly downturned at the corners, gave him the look of a gentle puppy. That was a little unfortunate for a warrior, but with such extraordinary abilities beneath the surface, surely that much was fine.

“It feels really strange having someone else cut my hair.”

“What did you do before?”

“I just hacked it off with whatever knife I used for everyday stuff.”

Well, it was hard to explain that disastrous hair any other way. Every so often, these glimpses of Shan’s bleak past left Roden with a tightness in his chest. He let out a long breath.

“From now on, have a barber do it like this. It’s easier.”

“Come to think of it, what do you do, Roden? You can’t use knives.”

“I have my own ways of keeping myself groomed, so don’t you worry.”

Shan’s curiosity drove him to keep asking, until Roden explained that he trimmed his own hair and beard with blunt-tipped scissors and demonstrated for him. It was impressive to watch him deftly snip and trim even the places he could not see.

Perhaps it was because they had arrived early and restored their energy with a good rest at comfortable lodgings. The next morning, as they passed all the way through the gateway feeling refreshed, Roden looked as though a weight had lifted from his shoulders.

“Whew, Pendia at last! How I’ve missed the smell of home.”

Shan did not ask how the smell could possibly have changed when all they had done was cross a single gate. His time with Roden had finally taught him a tiny measure of tact.

But that afternoon, as the sun began to sink and they drew near the settlement where they would stay, Shan too came to understand just how different this land was from Libert.

“Roden.”

“What is it?”

“There’s something up ahead.”

The creatures seemed to think they were approaching stealthily, but they could not hide the rustling brush, their footsteps, or the pungent, fishy reek of water.

When Shan drew his sword and pointed, they realized they had been discovered and burst out with shrill, cackling cries.

“... Water ghouls!”

Roden cried out in surprise and grabbed the war flail resting at his horse’s flank.

With moss-covered green hair, pale skin, and sharp teeth and claws, they looked like hideously twisted monkeys. They seemed to have crawled out of a nearby swamp.

Shan immediately leaped from his horse, cleanly severed the neck of the first water ghoul to charge him, and thrust his sword through the second one’s chest.

Their wrinkled, tough skin could turn aside most blades, but Shan’s sword met no resistance, slicing through its targets as smoothly as cheese. Unlike ordinary creatures, water ghouls had eerily alien, pale blue blood.

Having dispatched the two attackers in an instant, Shan glanced aside. With a deafening crash, a water ghoul’s crushed body went flying. Roden had swept his war flail upward into the creature attacking him.

“How dare you!”

Come to think of it, this was the first time Shan had seen Roden fight in earnest.

Unlike Shan, he had stayed mounted. Taking the reins in his free hand, he urged his horse forward, chased down even the fleeing creature, and brought his war flail down. Its skull crushed, it dropped to the ground without so much as a scream.

With four of their number dispatched in moments, the couple of creatures watching from nearby promptly fled into the undergrowth. The two companions remained on guard for a while, only relaxing when a minute or so passed without further movement.

“Whew. This wasn’t how I wanted to be reminded I was home.”

“I’d heard about it, but there really are a lot of monsters. How do other people even live here?”

Shan wondered whether ordinary people who had never learned to fight properly could stand against creatures like those. They had handled the water ghouls’ charge well enough, but the creatures had moved as fast as any dangerous wild beast.

Roden’s answer was very simple.

“That’s why people who can’t fight don’t go wandering outside carelessly. Well, Libert’s much the same, isn’t it? You just have bandits and wild beasts instead of monsters.”

As he spoke, Roden taught Shan how to extract the water ghouls’ teeth. Curiously, all their teeth were connected at the roots. By cutting open the chin and the groove above the upper lip, slitting the flesh wide to the side, and then pulling, the teeth came out easily.

“But aren’t you scared of teeth and claws, Roden? They’re sharp, just like blades.”

“I’m fine as long as they aren’t made of metal. I don’t know why myself... Anyway, try not to leave water ghoul teeth behind. They’re fairly valuable alchemical ingredients. Besides, just carrying them serves as proof.”

“Proof?”

“Proof that we aren’t just idiots carrying impressive-looking weapons around.”

Pendia had originally been the eastern frontier of the old Arman Empire, serving as a shield that protected the empire from the monsters pouring out of the Demonlands.

That legacy endured to the present day: the people here revered individual martial prowess and placed great value on hunting monsters. It was not simply a matter of honor. It had a direct bearing on improving the conditions in which they lived.

Shan experienced this firsthand not long afterward, when they entered a small, palisaded village of roughly one or two hundred people. The villagers who came to greet them looked astonished at the teeth hanging beside their saddles as though on proud display.

“Oh, could those be...?”

“Water ghoul teeth. We ran into them outside the village. Troublesome creatures.”

“Why, just the other day, they dragged off a young man who’d gone out to cut wood... I hardly know how to thank you.”

The chief thanked them repeatedly and offered Shan and Roden lodging in his own home in return. Their horses, too, whinnied in apparent delight at getting feed mixed with beans instead of grass to graze on in a field.

Unlike the chief, who treated them with the utmost hospitality, the villagers whispered among themselves as they looked at Shan’s faintly glowing eyes. He did not like that at all.

Wasn’t this hardly any different from Libert?

When he brought it up, Roden answered with an awkward expression.

“There’s not much we can do. Like I said before, the Old Faith is strong in western Pendia. Still, they won’t openly try to trample all over you like they did in Libert. For one thing, it’s illegal.”

Just as he said, though the villagers gave Shan somewhat disapproving looks, they did not openly spout belittling remarks to his face. Of course, that might simply have been because of the sword at his waist and the water ghoul teeth he had brought.

* * *

After a night at the chief’s house, the two continued east, ever eastward.

Just as they had heard, Pendia more than deserved to be called a land of monsters. In Shan’s homeland of Libert, a trip over a mountain would bring one among foxes and boars, deer and wolves. Here, monsters were as easy to find as animals.

There were the water ghouls they had encountered at the start, emaciated lesser vampires baring their fangs, and ghouls animated and controlled by tiny insects that ate their way into the brains of corpses...

Fortunately, being monsters did not mean they always attacked the instant they spotted a human. Unless they were particularly vicious or hungry, some simply passed the pair by without interest. At such times, neither companion bothered wasting his strength.

The ubiquitous goblins in particular were so intimidated by Roden’s size alone that they did not dare attack. Had Shan been traveling by himself, he probably would have had to shed blood fighting them twice an hour.

On the third day after leaving Solrod Castle, they entered a fairly large city that looked to have a population of at least several thousand.

Like other settlements in Pendia, it was surrounded by a defensive wall. Perhaps good building stone was scarce nearby: only the bottom portion was stone, with wood above.

“This is the city of Ovilos. We’re more than halfway to the capital now.”

“Already?”

“Pendia’s capital is relatively far west within the kingdom.”

The reason, of course, was that the Demonlands, the source of the monsters, lay to the east. If the capital stood in the east, any powerful monster that appeared might strike it directly.

After they paid the gatekeeper a silver coin as a bribe, Shan noticed an unusual pattern carved into the inside of the gate as they passed through. A glowing gemstone was set in its center.

“Roden, Roden.”

“What?”

“What’s that?”

“That... Oh, the magic circle and magic stone?”

Muttering that Shan probably had never seen them before, Roden promptly explained.

“I hear mages use them to enchant objects. I don’t know much about it either, but since it’s on the fortifications, it probably makes them stronger. Any castle of a decent size in Pendia has one on every gate.”

He said that most of these magic stones could only be obtained by hunting monsters near the Demonlands. Thus, while the Kingdom of Pendia generally enchanted its gates, other countries, which held mages in contempt and lacked a steady supply of magic stones, had priests consecrate theirs instead.

All the cities and castles they had passed through had such measures in place, unless they were very small and poor.

“Without something like that, some enormous monster might smash its way through the gate. Or a skilled knight could break it down with a lance charge.”

“Oh, I see.”

Now that Shan thought about it, that was true. That power had done more than tear his skin with the slightest graze—it had gouged into his flesh—and had sent more than ten soldiers flying as mangled chunks of meat. Surely it could smash through an ordinary wooden gate.

As Shan walked on with these thoughts, leading his horse by the reins after dismounting—riding was forbidden within the city—something else astonishing caught his eye.

‘An Altoan?’

A woman with horns curving around like a mountain goat’s was walking along the street quite unconcernedly. Astonishingly, the people around her showed neither contempt nor wariness.

They paid her presence no attention at all, reacting as they would to any ordinary passerby...

As they walked farther, Shan realized that Altoans of every description could be found throughout the city. Some were laborers, some hawkers, and some even blacksmiths.

Seeing his own people living among everyone else, no different from ordinary folk, was as shocking as his first sight of the Altoan troupe had been.

“There really are a lot of Altoans here.”

“Compared with other countries, certainly. And this is still the west. The east is where the Altoans really live in numbers. If you go there, probably one in every twenty people you pass will be Altoan.”

The fact that there were no Altoan knights despite such numbers meant that the barriers to entering the upper classes were far more formidable than they appeared.

As they talked, Shan realized that, for some reason, Roden was passing several perfectly decent-looking inns. A little later, he stopped before a mansion farther into the city.

“What’s this place?”

Shan, who had never even seen such a large, fine building, looked overwhelmed as he gazed at the high walls and the statues atop them.

“Someone I know lives here. It’ll be more comfortable than an inn, won’t it? We can also catch up on what’s been happening here while we’ve been traveling.”

Roden knocked firmly on the gate. Before long, someone who looked like a servant cautiously poked his head out. He flinched at Roden’s visibly fearsome appearance.

“Who are you?”

“Tell Mr. Poivre that Roden Wievers is here.”

“Wievers... P-please wait a moment!”

Startled by Roden’s surname, the servant vanished inside. About a minute later, a middle-aged man who looked as though he had dressed in a great hurry came rushing out so fast he almost tumbled over.

He addressed Roden by a title Shan had not expected.

“Young master! Where on earth have you been, and why have you only returned now?”

“Wandering is what young people do best, Uncle.”

Roden answered the apparent master of the house with easy humor and an innocent smile befitting his age. The man looked briefly at a loss before breaking into a smile himself.

“Do you have any idea how worried your father has been since you disappeared? Even now, I receive a letter every three days asking me to send word if I find you.”

“Please tell my other uncles I’m sorry, too.”

“Not at all. Considering everything your father has done for us, you owe us no apology. But...”

Only then, as his excitement subsided and he seemed to take in his surroundings, did the master of the house turn his attention to Shan behind Roden.

Noticing, Roden shrugged.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced you. Shan? This is Mr. Poivre Collogia. He has a firm grip on the jewelry trade here in Ovilos.”

“You flatter me. Thanks to your father’s kindness, I merely run a small jewelry business.”

Poivre responded modestly, his expression curious as he looked at Shan.

“And this is Shan, the friend who made me give up my dream of becoming a knight.”

“Made you give up your dream of becoming a knight?”

As a trusted subordinate of Kalion, the kingdom’s foremost jeweler, Poivre knew just how passionately his son Roden had aspired to knighthood. Had he not even run away from home, vowing to return as a fine knight?

Yet for someone who had caused him to abandon that dream, Roden’s gaze held no ill will toward Shan.

Putting his puzzlement aside, the three decided to go inside and have a proper conversation. There were plenty of onlookers nearby, and leaving guests standing at the gate was discourteous in the first place.

Once through the gate, Shan gaped at the sight of the mansion, which the wall had concealed from view.

“Wow...”

The first thing that caught his eye was the exterior, fitted with dozens upon dozens of glass windows where most houses made do with wood. The walls were built of smoothly dressed stone and timber.

Now he understood why Roden had insisted on staying here instead of at an inn.

They entered a drawing room in an interior every bit as splendid as the exterior, and a cup of tea was set before each of them. Served as it was by a neatly dressed maid, they might as well have been nobles.

Looking around, Shan blew on the hot liquid and took a sip. His face puckered horribly.

“It’s bitter.”

“You should start drinking things like this and get used to the taste. Knights are expected to have a certain degree of refinement. You don’t have to go as far as the nobles, though.”

The way Roden looked after Shan, as though they were brothers with a sizable age gap, only deepened Poivre’s curiosity. With no intention of keeping him wondering, Roden lightly savored his tea and told him what had happened.

He spoke of his self-loathing over his dreadful condition, his anger, and how it had driven him to run away from home. Then came the story of the monstrous boy he had encountered in a rural village in the neighboring country after his reckless wanderings...

Poivre’s jaw dropped despite himself at the tale of a boy with no proper combat training slaughtering more than a dozen elite mercenaries single-handedly. By the time Roden reached the part about Shan exchanging blows with Feonil the Black Lance and surviving with only a wound, his eyes briefly lost focus altogether.

His expression bore a striking resemblance to Shan’s astonishment at the mansion just moments earlier.

“M-my goodness, Goddess above... Surely, even so, that’s...”

“Impossible to believe without seeing it for yourself, isn’t it? I felt the same. But spending time with him has taught me something. Talent that absurd really does exist in this world.”

Roden stated his opinion without hesitation. By the time Shan came of age, even Pendia’s strongest knight, Marquis Abel the Lord Protector, would be no match for him.

Here before them was a chance to sponsor the most powerful knight in history while he was still a boy.

Though in truth, Roden himself had never actually witnessed Shan accomplish any of the feats he had just described.

After hearing the whole story, Poivre looked only half convinced.

“Had I heard this from anyone else, I would have dismissed him as utterly mad. But coming from you, young master, I cannot simply brush it aside...”

“I intend to introduce him to my father once we return to the capital. Giving him proper support is more than I can manage on my own.”

A knight needed armor, weapons, and a fine warhorse. Ordinary equipment was one thing, but enchanted or consecrated items were utterly beyond Roden’s personal funds.

Besides, Shan currently needed an education even more than equipment. He needed to train as a knight under a proper teacher and master spirit, as well as learn the manners and culture of high society. Building connections with promising prospective knights and nobles would be an added benefit.

To become a knight as an Altoan, overwhelming skill went without saying, but many other things were necessary too.

Poivre, who had been listening quietly, gave a low, thoughtful hum before speaking.

“Of course, I believe what you say, young master, but I cannot say how your father will respond. As you know, he does not readily believe anything he has not seen with his own eyes.”

“I’ve heard it often enough since I was little. Take the initiative and judge everything for yourself. Don’t leave your thinking to others...”

Roden recited his father’s maxim with a faint grimace. He had thought of several ways to persuade his father, who was stubborn about such things, but had yet to settle on one.

Then Shan, who had been quietly sipping his tea and listening, spoke up.

“Are there any powerful monsters nearby?”

“Powerful monsters... you say?”

Perhaps because Shan was Roden’s guest, Poivre addressed him politely despite the boy likely being younger than his own son.

“Yes. Something that would make Roden’s father look at it and think, ‘Wow, what an impressive lad! I simply have to support someone like him!’”

“Shan, that’s...”

“You said it yourself, Roden. People in Pendia respect you if you kill a strong monster and show them proof. I want your father’s respect, not his charity.”

As he spoke, Shan looked straight at Roden, his large green eyes wide and clear.

Watching them in silence, Poivre let out a surprised chuckle.

‘He isn’t merely gifted at fighting... He has firm convictions of his own. An extraordinary child.’

Judging by Roden’s explanation and what he had seen of Shan until now, the boy had lived at the very bottom of society, without any proper education at all. Yet his attitude was remarkably mature and self-directed.

An ordinary person in his position would have depended on Roden, who was practically his guardian, to sort everything out somehow.

And as it happened, the city had a problem that fit Shan’s request perfectly.

After briefly gathering his thoughts, Poivre spoke.

“As a matter of fact, a monster has been causing trouble around the city lately. Have you ever heard of a troll?”