The last of the seven days the old man had spoken of arrived.
There was good news and bad news.
The good news was that I had been a little afraid he might make me spend the entire week in the Demon Realm, then tell me to find my own way back once the promised time was over.
Fortunately, the old man’s destination was inside Rotten.
Then what was the bad news?
The exact destination we were heading to was none other than Mount Tuthnis, an area designated as forbidden even within Rotten.
To the people of Rotten, Mount Tuthnis was a sacred and majestic mountain shrouded in mystery.
Someone might hear that and ask why they were attaching such grandiose modifiers to what was, in the end, just a mountain.
But once they heard the explanation, they would immediately understand why the people of Rotten spoke so highly of Mount Tuthnis.
Mount Tuthnis was so tall and massive that its peak seemed to touch the clouds.
Because of that, since ancient times, every village had at least one local legend claiming that a dragon lived on Mount Tuthnis.
The mountain’s size was one thing, but in truth, what mattered lay elsewhere.
It was the fact that Mount Tuthnis was surrounded by flames of unknown origin from its midpoint upward.
Countless scholars and mages, and even priests of the Runia Church, who believed in the chief god Runia, had established bases around the mountain and proposed various hypotheses in an attempt to uncover the truth behind this strange phenomenon.
In the end, however, they could not discover at all why the mountain burned from its middle slopes upward.
Still, after long research, they were able to learn one thing about the mountain.
“The mountain’s flames are different from ordinary fire, and they reject all things related to demonic energy.”
When, despite their long research, they gained no results beyond that, the people who had flocked there for study began leaving one by one.
Only the Church, which had named the mountain’s flames the Sacred Flame, visited Mount Tuthnis several times a year at regular intervals to collect the fire.
The various groups that had gathered there left,
and once the access restrictions they had requested from Rotten for the sake of research were lifted, tourists began flocking to Mount Tuthnis.
The gathering of mages and scholars alone had been enough to make it a major topic, but once the Runia Church even gave the mountain’s flames the name Sacred Flame, perhaps this outcome was only natural.
At first, Rotten welcomed their visits.
Putting up a fence and letting people admire the flames from within it was not particularly problematic,
and since Rotten shared a border with the Demon Realm, the enormous military expenses needed every year could be easily secured through the economic effect brought by the influx of tourists.
They could even use the remaining surplus to improve the treatment of soldiers and further strengthen their military power.
However, the situation that had seemed as though it would remain so optimistic took a serious turn when one tourist climbed over the fence to see the Sacred Flame up close and burned to death.
If it had only been one person, they could have dismissed it as the eccentricity of a madman.
But when several tourists burned to death in that manner, Rotten had no choice but to completely block access to the mountain in order to prevent problems from arising.
For that reason, entering Mount Tuthnis was clearly illegal, but…
“Guh!”
—Thud.
The guards were struck by the old man, whose presence converged on zero, and briefly lost consciousness.
The old man laid them beneath a wooden post, then crossed over the barbed wire Rotten had installed.
The mountain-climbing time had begun.
By now, entering places I should not enter had become so familiar that I no longer hesitated at all.
“Hah. Hah.”
I had climbed various mountains during my life as a mercenary, but this was the first time I had ever climbed one this tall.
Even just compared to the mountain’s midpoint, where the flames called the Sacred Flame blazed, the altitude seemed about the same as the summit of most mountains.
While I placed my hands on my knees, bent over, and caught my breath, the old man was gazing at the burning flames.
I could sense it instinctively.
Once today passed, I would never see that old man again.
He looked at me and said,
“When I first brought you out, I told you I would teach you the sword.”
Behind the old man, the Sacred Flame roared fiercely.
But it was not doing so to threaten him.
The Sacred Flame seemed as though it was raging in the old man’s place.
At what?
I did not know.
In truth, perhaps it was not that important why the Sacred Flame had blazed so fiercely.
After all, the Sacred Flame had never once descended below the midpoint of Mount Tuthnis until now.
Whether it raged, felt some emotion, or whether it was simply coincidence,
the Sacred Flame was merely an onlooker, standing by from that spot.
The old man paid no attention to the Sacred Flame and continued speaking.
“Do you know why I chose you?”
“Uh…”
I could not easily answer the old man’s question.
If someone of the old man’s caliber said he would teach the sword, there were countless people in this world who would say they wanted to learn.
I had heard that I was somewhat talented, but if Masters who had already reached a high realm learned the old man’s sword, they would surely be able to head toward an even higher realm.
There was no reason for the old man to choose me in particular and pass down his sword.
When my hesitation dragged on, the old man answered in my stead.
“Because it is fate.”
“Ah…”
Come to think of it, that was exactly what the old man had said to me when we first met.
“Fate has already been decided.”
Just what kind of fate was he talking about?
Once one reached that level, could they see another person’s fate?
“On the path you will walk from now on, my sword will surely be of great help.”
The old man turned his head again and gazed at the burning Sacred Flame.
“Do not waste your life. Do not stop; move forward. If you meant to save someone, save them until the very end. Hold a conviction that will not waver under any circumstances.”
—Whoosh.
A dark red aura enveloped the old man’s body.
“From now on, it is not I, but you.”
You must save them.
—Fwoooooosh!!!!
His final words were hidden by the fiercely blazing flames and did not reach me.
To begin with, I was not in a state where I could properly hear the old man’s words.
It felt as if I had gone back to the past.
Back to when I had been rescued by the mercenary corps, to when I had stared blankly at the burning village.
It felt as if I had returned to that moment when I was an orphan who did not even know who my parents were.
My mind went blank.
As though fog were settling in, the time I had spent with the old man gradually faded from my mind.
The old man standing before me…? A person…?
“No, what is that…?”
There was nothing before my eyes.
I clearly could not see anything.
But I could distinctly feel it.
That someone was there.
I could feel that something was guiding me.
“It’s warm…”
Something embraced me.
A softness I had never felt before seemed to fill me completely.
The warmth I had longed for until now, the kindness I had wanted so desperately.
The things I had yearned for while envying children who walked through the village with their parents.
Feelings of that kind cradled me.
My eyes slowly closed.
It was becoming difficult to maintain consciousness any longer.
I felt as if my body was slowly floating,
and I simply wanted to let go.
But,
I still could not do that.
I struggled to open my mouth and spoke to someone I could not even see.
“Thank you for everything.”
I did not know why.
But I felt as though I absolutely had to say those words.
With those words, I lost consciousness.
***
Meanwhile,
“Would this not be enough?”
The old man stood before the Sacred Flame, speaking to someone.
The Sacred Flame was calm.
The Sacred Flame still stood by and watched.
And it would continue to do so.
In the end, the old man began pushing back the Sacred Flame with his own aura.
The more he circulated his aura, the more the old man’s body gradually disappeared, starting from the tips of his feet.
Even so, the old man continued breaking through the Sacred Flame and moving forward.
His steps grew heavier and heavier.
His speed kept decreasing, until eventually he could hardly move forward at all, as though he had come to a stop.
The old man’s form could no longer be seen.
“Haa…”
The old man’s final breath scattered into the air,
and with that, the old man vanished completely.
—Whoosh. Whoosh.
The Sacred Flame continued to burn.
Even though the old man had disappeared, even though the boy had collapsed, still.
A long time passed like that.
Dawn was coming to an end, and far in the distance, the sun slowly began to reveal itself.
It was then.
—Sss…
Starting from the spot where the old man had disappeared, the flames slowly weakened, and a single path leading to the summit was formed.
This was the greatest possible respect the Sacred Flame could show them.
***
“Ugh. Where is this…”
I opened my eyes and looked around.
“I should definitely be resting at the inn around now.”
Unlike my usual routine, I was lying in the middle of a mountain.
“Burning flames… Could this be?”
Mount Tuthnis.
It seemed the place where I had been lying was Mount Tuthnis.
“This is a forbidden area, though??? Why did I come in here!?”
At that moment,
“Ugh.”
I clutched my head and grimaced.
My head suddenly began to hurt terribly.
It was certain that something had happened and brought me here, but I could not remember at all what that something was.
“Was I bewitched by a monster…?”
I began thinking of various possibilities and kept watch over my surroundings.
But soon, I realized my actions were utterly meaningless.
The reason the burning flames of Tuthnis were called the Sacred Flame was because of their characteristic of blocking the approach of everything related to demonic energy.
Leaving the questions that surfaced in my mind behind, I tried to descend the mountain.
I had mercenary work to do today as well.
“What am I supposed to tell the guards?”
Somehow… I had a feeling that something incredibly troublesome was about to happen.
Still, what could I do? I would have to explain the circumstances properly…
Just as I was about to take a step.
—Whoosh!
Behind me, the Sacred Flame suddenly blazed fiercely.
Startled, I turned back toward the Sacred Flame and saw that a single path had appeared between the flames.
“Was something like this always here…?”
While working as a mercenary, I had never heard of there being such a path on Mount Tuthnis.
I felt a powerful pull from that path.
A feeling that I had to go up.
Without a word, I began climbing Mount Tuthnis along the path.
***
Climbing the mountain was difficult.
Mount Tuthnis was the tallest mountain in this world, after all.
But perhaps because something had happened, when I circulated the aura that had appeared inside my body without my knowing, it was not so difficult that I could not climb it.
“Haa… It’s the summit.”
There was nowhere higher to climb.
The path ended here.
The peak of the mountain was hollowed out.
In the sunken area was a lake formed from gathered water, and white clusters of light shimmered on the surface.
At the center of the lake was an altar. And there was also a bridge leading to it.
Led by my own footsteps, I crossed the bridge and headed toward the altar.
“This is…”
In the very center of the altar, a single sword was embedded.
It was a sword from which some sort of mysterious power could be felt.
I felt a fated pull from it,
—Shing.
and lifted the sword.
“…Nothing happened?”
I had felt as though, if I drew the sword, the mountain would tremble or some change would occur in the Sacred Flame, but nothing happened at all.
I examined the sword I had drawn.
The blade was a deep dark red, and the engraved patterns seemed to evoke flames.
“Just looking at it, it’s a good sword.”
Something strange and incomprehensible had happened, but,
“Well… I got a famous sword out of it, so nice!”
For now, in a good mood, I turned around and descended the mountain.
My future self would handle whatever came next.