Thrown by the aftershock of the massive explosion that erupted behind him, Damon went sprawling. Since he had been running with all his might, he was fortunate enough to keep his life. Pain as though his whole body had been crushed pierced through him, but Damon clenched his teeth and forced himself up. Then, as he turned his head without thinking, Damon’s eyes flew wide as if they would split.
“M-Master?”
The place where his master had been standing had turned into a living hell. Crimson flames were coiling over the earth, and nothing but burned ash whirled messily through the air. Before he knew it, Damon had turned and was running back. His entire body was burned and oozing fluid, but he could not feel anything like pain. Damon simply could not believe his master was dead. Arriving at the place he had left behind, Damon looked wildly around for his master. Fear of the dragon no longer even entered his mind.
Unfortunately, despite Doyle’s arrangements, the Red Dragon Verkis had clearly grasped Damon’s presence. True to a dragon sensitive to the flow of mana, Verkis had seen right through the shield Doyle had cast in his final moments.
“Before whom do you think you are trying such tricks?”
Mercilessly, Verkis’s second attack was flying straight toward Damon.
“S-Surely you’re not dead, are you? Master. P-Please say something.”
Damon paced around the place where Doyle had stood, crying out again and again. He simply could not believe his master was dead. But Doyle was already no longer a man who existed in this world. All he had left behind in the world was the ash scattering in every direction.
When something caught at his foot, Damon bent down and picked it up. It was the magic staff Doyle had used. Its shaft burned away, even its crystal orb shattered, the magic staff had been buried in ash. Damon pressed it to his face and rubbed it against his skin as if deranged.
“P-Please, Master.”
Damon could not possibly believe his master’s death. How kind a master he had been. Even in the Central Plains where Damon had lived, there had been no one who cherished and cared for him as Doyle had. To lose such a master right before his eyes… Overcome by emotion, Damon did not notice at all that a fireball of death was plunging down toward him.
“D-Danger!”
With an urgent cry of shock, someone shoved Damon hard. Damon collapsed helplessly, his face striking the ground. But even after falling, Damon did not so much as twitch. The shock of losing his master had driven him completely out of his senses. For an instant, conflict appeared on the face of the one who had pushed Damon down. But before long, he made up his mind.
“In any case, I have no chance of surviving here. So, Damon. I hope you will take revenge. Not only for me, but for our comrades as well.”
Having spoken, MacMillan covered Damon with his own body. Trusting only in the thick armor he had received after becoming a guard. Even in his dazed state, MacMillan’s last words lodged clearly in Damon’s mind. But only for a moment; the dragon’s Fire Ball soon swallowed their bodies completely.
Kwa-kwa-kwang.
With an earth-shaking explosion, that place soon turned into a sea of fire. As if it were a prelude announcing the destruction of mankind. And as though that were the signal, Karnatic’s defensive line began to collapse beyond control.
“Where is this place?”
Damon was drifting through the darkness as if floating. He could not tell where he was at all. A faint pain came from all over his body, but it was not unbearable. What tormented Damon even more than that was his master’s death.
“Master.”
Suddenly overcome by surging emotion, Damon began to cry at the top of his lungs. To Damon, his master Doyle had been that much of a spiritual pillar. He felt as though he had been cast alone into the boundless sea. Having once again become an orphan with no one under heaven, his sorrow was all the greater. Then a faint voice came into his mind.
—Do not grieve too much, Damon.
“M-Master?”
Damon’s eyes widened. As if trying to find his master’s figure, he frantically looked all around. But his surroundings were nothing but pitch-black darkness. He could not tell what was where at all. His body felt heavy, as though something were pressing down on it with all its weight.
“Master, where are you?”
Damon continued calling for his master. After some time, that same voice came again.
—I am truly sorry that we must part like this, Damon.
“M-Master.”
At last, remembering his master’s final moments, Damon shed endless tears. If selling his soul to the Demon King could bring his master back to life, he felt he could sell it a million times, ten million times over. As if it understood Damon’s feelings, the voice trembled faintly.
—I am no longer in this world. This voice you hear now is a message I impressed upon the earth at the final moment. It is also the story of my past, which I had wanted to tell you for a long time. It pains me greatly to part from you without having been able to confess it to you directly…
“Kh-heuk. Master.”
—I will now tell you about my past.
Damon listened intently, as though determined not to miss a single word.
—I was originally a distinguished noble of Ikarot. You probably never dreamed of this.
Unable to tell whether it was a dream or reality, Doyle’s voice continued to burrow into Damon’s mind. The quietly unfolding story was also a strange and unfortunate past in no way inferior to Damon’s own.
It was over fifty years ago from now. Doyle had then been a member of the Proxia family, a powerful house of considerable influence in Ikarot. Duke Proxia, an outstanding Sword Master who held Ikarot’s military authority in one hand, was his elder brother. The authority of the Proxia family was so formidable that no noble dared act rashly toward them. Because their father had rendered distinguished service and died in the racial war against the orcs, his elder brother had inherited that glory in full. His brother, who was the very image of their father, took charge of the family at a very young age, but fulfilled the role of head of the house without the slightest trouble.
Under that elder brother, Doyle spent a peaceful childhood. So much so that he had no reason to envy anyone. The Proxia family had long been renowned as a house of martial men. It had produced many outstanding swordsmen through the generations, and among their ancestors were several who had reached the difficult-to-attain realm of Sword Master.
Yet, exceptionally, Doyle alone seemed not to have inherited the blood of his ancestors, for he had a conspicuous lack of talent in swordsmanship. Taking after his mother, he was of a disposition that preferred books to swordsmanship. Because of this, he gave up on swordsmanship early and resolved to walk the path of scholarship. His elder brother, Duke Proxia, who was an outstanding swordsman at the time, felt considerable regret over Doyle’s decision. But he never tried to block his will. He had decided to fully respect his younger brother’s wishes. Thus Doyle came to walk the path of a scholar, and he cultivated his learning while associating with many men of letters.
Unlike his elder brother, Doyle married early, at the age of twenty-five. With his lovely wife, he had a son so precious that he would not have hurt even if placed in his eye, and he lived a life so happy that no one could have been envied.
However, the misfortune of the Proxia family occurred on the day Doyle’s son turned fifteen. The incident began when Duke Proxia, who had said he would devote his whole life solely to sword training, suddenly fell in love one day. Having spent forty full years clinging to swordsmanship and having had no time to associate with women, Duke Proxia encountered a woman by chance. The woman’s beauty was enough to melt the iron-hard heart of Duke Proxia without resistance. In the end, having fallen for her at first sight, Duke Proxia resolved to propose to her. Perhaps she did not find Duke Proxia so displeasing, for the woman also accepted his proposal. Thus the two held a grand wedding ceremony beyond all splendor.
But no one realized that the woman was someone who had infiltrated with certain intentions. Her true identity was a spy secretly inserted by the Hellfrain family—the Hellfrain family, who had long been political enemies of the Proxia family.
Sherna Hellfrain.
She was already over sixty, a master of the 5th Circle, and a Sorceress with profound attainments in bewitching arts. She had also originally been a member of the Hellfrain family. It was just that, from childhood, she had followed her master and learned magic, so she was almost unknown to the outside world.
After completing long years of magical training and becoming independent, Sherna returned to her family, only to be persuaded by the earnest coaxing of her elder brother, Duke Hellfrain. She resolved to destroy the Proxia family for the glory of her house.
After changing her appearance with magic, she used her specialty, bewitching arts, to seize Duke Proxia’s heart at once. Thus, as she had intended, she entered the Proxia family. Blinded by love, Duke Proxia held not the slightest suspicion toward her. He never dreamed that her beautiful appearance had been created by magic.
Having infiltrated the Proxia family according to plan, Sherna carried out the scheme she had prepared step by step. With her voluptuous body and arts of seduction, she began to secretly win over the knights of the Proxia family one by one. In the end, three or four trusted confidants fell to her temptation, and they came to move as Sherna’s thorough hands and feet. Thus Sherna’s conspiracy was slowly sprouting in the darkness.
On the exact day marking one year since Sherna had entered, disaster struck. A group of troops suddenly attacked the Proxia estate. Their identities were none other than the Emperor’s guards, led by the Imperial Knights. Of course, among them were also a considerable number of Duke Hellfrain’s private soldiers.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Though puzzled, Duke Proxia received them with courtesy.
“It is an imperial command. A report has come in that Your Grace has been communicating with a band of unbelievers, so we have come to search the estate. Therefore, we ask that you cooperate obediently.”
Duke Proxia merely laughed it off. That he, Ikarot’s foremost meritorious subject, should be suspected of colluding with unbelievers…
At the time, the religious trials were in full swing. It was also a period when countless attempts were being made to overthrow political enemies under the pretext of identifying unbelievers. But Duke Proxia, who had nothing at all to be ashamed of, threw the castle gates wide open and welcomed the guards in. And he permitted them to search the estate. Confidently.
However, pieces of evidence were discovered throughout the estate. Evidence that Duke Proxia had colluded with unbelievers. Of course, they were so crude that even a child could immediately tell they had been fabricated. So crude that they were nowhere near enough to shake the authority of the Proxia family… Schemes to eliminate political enemies were that rampant in the kingdoms of Truvenia.
But the discovery of a certain letter in the duke’s office decisively reversed the situation. It placed an enormous burden upon the Proxia family, one beyond comparison. The contents of the letter were written in the form of a direct message from Duke Proxia to Great Emperor Crosen.
—There is no longer any future in Truvenia. Therefore, I shall follow you, Great Emperor Crosen. You already have tens of thousands of soldiers. Mobilize them and take control of Ikarot. Then I shall join you with the troops under my command. I already hold all military authority in Ikarot in my hands. Every gate of Ikarot will open for you. If you and I act with one will, no one will be able to stop us.
At the end of the letter, Duke Proxia’s seal was stamped clearly. The seal of the ring the duke always wore on the middle finger of his left hand.
The guards withdrew for the time being after confiscating the letter. Of course, that was after the estate had been sealed off so thoroughly that not even a single flying bird could escape. The means of contacting the Proxia family’s private soldiers were also cut off.
The Proxia family was immediately thrown into an uproar. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the duke hurriedly sought Sherna. The only people who could touch the seal were himself and Sherna. But she had already vanished without a trace. No one had seen her. Judging from the situation, the forged letter was clearly her doing.
“How could this be…”
Only then did the duke realize that he had fallen into a trap, and he struck the ground in anguish. But the Emperor’s guards were tightening the encirclement by the moment, and there was no way anywhere for him to prove his innocence. At the moment of absolute crisis, the duke made up his mind and summoned Doyle.
“You called for me?”
“Leave the estate through the secret passage. I will wait here and seek an audience with His Majesty the Emperor. One way or another, I will reveal my innocence to His Majesty. So you are to go outside, just in case, and respond to whatever situation unfolds.”
At his elder brother’s command, Doyle had no choice but to take his young son by the hand and head for the secret passage. Leaving behind in the estate his wife, whose body was heavy because she was pregnant with their second child. After walking for a long time through the narrow, damp passage, Doyle finally emerged outside. But what he saw was the Proxia estate blazing in flames. The guards had set fire to the mansion without giving his brother a chance to prove his innocence.
“Kh-heuk. Brother. Marion.”
Doyle called out desperately for his brother and his wife. But all that returned was an empty echo.