The Nutcracker.
The first time Masain saw the sword was about a decade ago from today.
At that time, Delcross was showing signs of civil unrest. Prince Brayden, the second prince, rapidly grew in power after absorbing the influence of the first princess. As a result, he seized the imperial palace, forcing the faction of the first prince to retreat to the northern gate of the capital to regroup.
Then suddenly, the 16th Holy Emperor passed away.
“That despicable Brayden! It’s clear that he did harm to Imperial Father!”
First Prince Cameron ground his teeth with his eyes aflame.
Masain looked at his father Cameron with an uneasy face.
At the time, Masain, who was living in the imperial academy dormitory, was hastily brought here by the imperial guards who found him when the first prince’s faction retreated from the capital.
His older brother Jayden and mother, the princess consort, could not flee and ended up dying during a clash with the guards during the retreat.
“That cursed Brayden! He’s so blinded by the throne that he summoned the demon! I won’t rest until he’s torn to pieces!”
After losing his wife and eldest son abruptly, the first prince occasionally acted like a madman, venting his anger on his subordinates at random or spewing insults, believing groundless suspicions as facts.
“A demon has infiltrated the imperial court, this holy Delcross royal court! Can’t you see even with your eyes open! The milennia-old holy empire of Delcross is now at its end! Damn it! Damn it!”
Every chance he got, he fiercely glared at the direction of the imperial palace and ranted. Sometimes, he even brandished his sword into the air, eager to storm into the capital as soon as his forces were replenished.
Just when it seemed like an all-out war between these two factions was inevitable, a mediator appeared. This was a man named Richelieu, who had been sent from the royal family of Brittany and had temporarily visited the capital with the archbishop.
Even in his young mind, Masain found this strange.
The two brothers had drawn their swords against each other for the throne. They had already seen the blood of the princess consort and the royal grandson.
From now on, if one side wins, the other side will be annihilated. Where in this situation was there room for mediation?
However, for some reason, Cameron took Richelieu’s suggestion of mediation quite seriously. The strategists of the first prince’s faction held meeting after meeting, argued for and against, and eventually set up a small negotiation team.
The unfolding situation made Masain increasingly anxious. It seemed like a negotiation that had no chance of succeeding.
Especially with this man named Richelieu. Although half of his face hidden behind a mask, this man who occasionally gave a gloomy smile was not a comfortable presence.
As feared, the ominous premonition soon became reality. Cameron’s party, who left to negotiate, never returned.
Only one of the blood-soaked escort knights barely managed to return, mumbling like a madman.
“The, the prince’s words… all of them, they were true. There’s a… there’s a demon in the imperial palace! Gah!”
After he spat out these words, he suddenly spat blood from his mouth and died.
“It’s a curse……” The priest who was by the side of the escort to treat him, drenched in blood, cried out with a trembling voice. “I can feel the energy of a curse. Everyone must escape from here!”
Soon, screams began to echo here and there from the first prince’s camp. People started spewing blood and falling.
With only a few imperial guards, priests, and servants, Masain barely managed to escape from that hellish scene.
In just a few days, he had lost his parents and brother, but Masain didn’t have the chance to fully comprehend his loss. He felt that the ambiguous and extremely ominous danger that had swallowed them all at once was approaching him swiftly.
Something bizarre was happening in the capital, beyond their ability to handle, and the demonic curse was still chasing Masain’s party.
The remnants of the first prince’s faction took Masain, the only remaining imperial heir, and locked themselves in the northern gate fortress. Then, unbelievable news began to flow from the capital.
“There is a demon in the imperial palace. The second prince was a demon worshipper and has been punished by the first prince.”
“No, actually, the first prince was deceived and killed by the second prince.”
“The third prince, who had gone missing long ago, returned. He’s a notorious troublemaker, but he’s unprecedentedly powerful.”
“He swept away the demons in the imperial palace leading the paladins. He eventually became the new Holy Emperor.”
Every piece of news was shocking, and it was impossible to tell what was true and what was false.
And the demonic curse, which had chased them from the capital, eventually swallowed the entire fortress.
Despite the prayers of the paladins and priests, it was only a matter of time before the people of the first prince’s faction started vomiting blood from their bodies and dying. It was a terror too great to bear in a sober mind.
“Please take care of yourself. The only rightful heir to the throne is you, Your Highness Masain.”
After the loyal knight commander, who reiterated this fact till the end fell down and spewed blood from his eyes, Masain was inevitably left alone in the tightly locked fortress.
The boy, sensing a lonely end, quietly sat in a corner and awaited death. He was in a numb state where not even tears could come out, possibly due to the intense exertion over the past few days.
It was only through his constitution unique to the imperial bloodline, which was highly resistant to magic, that he was able to endure alone amidst the cursed bodies of the demon race and a multitude of corpses for two more days.
Then, on the third day.
From morning, there had been an uproar outside the fortress, followed by a sudden silence. Then someone effortlessly cut through the tightly locked iron door and entered.
“They said everyone was dead, but look at these tricksters. There’s a child still alive.”
Bang!
A tall man revealed himself from behind the dust-stirring fallen iron door.
As the boy, Masain, instinctively squinted his eyes at the sudden rush of light, the man, sword in hand, strode towards him.
“Do I see a little bit of your childhood face? Are you Jayden, or Masain?”
For some reason, the man seemed to know him, even though they had never met.
“… I am… Masain.”
Perhaps it was because of the peculiar aura surrounding the man, Masain involuntarily spoke to him in a respectful manner.
“I see. Masain.”
The man grimaced as he looked around the blood-filled fortress interior. Then, without warning, he extended his hand towards Masain’s forehead. Before Masain could flinch, a light emanated from the man’s hand and engulfed him.
“Huh?”
It felt warm. The minor injuries disappeared instantly, and vitality began to sprout throughout his body. His body, devoid of energy due to days of starvation, was suddenly overflowing with life.
Above all, the curse that had been clinging to him since the beginning was completely gone without a trace. It was a curse so powerful that even Masain, who was not a priest, could feel its malignant nature. But the fact that it vanished so easily was nothing short of a miracle.
He had survived.
Masain instinctively realized that he was completely freed from that horrific curse.
The moment he recognized this, his whole body began to tremble as if shaken by a wind. His body, which had not been greatly affected even as the people of the fortress died, started shaking as if it had just woken up.
The man tilted his head.
“Your body should be fine now, why are you shaking more than before? Is there still discomfort somewhere?”
Then, a waterfall of light poured over Masain once more. The bright light felt like a symbol promising absolute safety, which caused a sudden swell of emotions and made him choke up.
Seeing the boy quietly weeping while hugging his knees, the man who realized it was not a physical issue stepped back. He slowly leaned against the door and quietly waited for the boy to calm down.
Masain was not unaware of how pathetic he looked right now. However, his tears wouldn’t stop as the tension that had been stretched to its limit during those hellish days suddenly loosened.
How long he cried for, he didn’t know, but the man sitting opposite of him suddenly jumped up and looked outside the fortress with cool eyes.
Then he approached Masain and extended his hand.
“Can you stand? We need to leave here now.”
Masain nodded, grabbed the man’s hand and stood up. Despite sitting motionless for several days, moving wasn’t particularly hard, thanks to the man’s divine power.
As he wiped his tears and looked up, he finally got a good look at the man’s face.
He had assumed that the man would be much older, but he was a young man who still had the look of a boy. In fact, he didn’t seem much older than Masain himself.
His neat black hair and clear grey eyes felt both foreign and strangely familiar, leaving him with a peculiar feeling.
The man glanced outside once more and then turned to look at Masain.
“Just follow behind me. Don’t be too surprised if something suddenly appears.”
Masain nodded, and the man smirked before turning around and walking out of the fortress.
They moved in silence for a while along the outer wall of the fortress, which had been devastated. The commotion from outside had been going on for a while now, and it seemed to have reached its peak.
Masain followed diligently behind the man, twirling the scroll he had received from him.
As the man strode ahead, he mumbled to himself, as if speaking into the void.
“Were you planning on burying it all if I hadn’t found it?”
“That’s my business to take care of, isn’t it? Not something for you guys to worry about.”
“I no longer trust any of you. The conversation is over. Close the channel, Cornsheim.”
From his actions alone, he seemed mad, but his calm voice and clear eyes didn’t feel strange at all. Masain merely thought that he must be handling some important task that he didn’t know about.
It was a wonder that he came to trust a man he barely knew so deeply.
Suddenly, he drew a sword from his waist. It was a blunt gray sword without any particular decoration.
Soon, the sword was covered in a dazzling white light, and a pure white blade, half an inch longer than the sword, revealed itself. It was an extremely clean manifestation of external energy.
‘An aura blade?’
Masain involuntarily swallowed.
A Sword Master? Such a young man?
Without a word, the man swung his arm lightly forward.
Boom!
In an instant, one side of the distant fortress wall exploded.
As Masain flinched in surprise, the man swung his sword again with apparent indifference.
Rumble! Crash! The building that seemed like a warehouse on his left crumbled down.
“…?”
What on earth is happening?
While Masain was startled, the man suddenly turned around and swung his sword in a long diagonal motion.
Crash—
With a terrifyingly loud noise, the fortress building where Masain had been hiding just moments ago collapsed in an instant.
Masain’s jaw dropped without him realizing.
Just how far is it from here to there…!
But then, Masain saw something strange. Beyond the collapsing fortress, he saw dark objects scurrying away.
At a glance, he thought they were black wild dogs, but on closer inspection, they were dark starfish-shaped creatures. One of its five legs was raised like a head, the remaining four legs moved like a quadruped, and it was hopping around.
‘Demon fiend…!’
Only then did Masain realize what the man had been swinging his sword at all this time.
The man’s sword had been causing such brilliant explosions that he hadn’t noticed, but upon closer inspection, there were devilish creatures the size of wild dogs hiding here and there in the fortress, observing them.
“It seems the capital has turned into quite a comical sight during the few years I’ve been away.”
The man sighed and turned back in the direction of the palace, resuming his walk. Perhaps due to the might he had displayed, the demonic creatures didn’t dare approach too closely, instead following them from a considerable distance.
Every so often, when it seemed like those miscreants were closing the gap,
Whoosh! Bang!
The man’s sword would swing again, promptly followed by another dazzling explosion.
Masain would probably never forget the overwhelming sights the man showed that day.
The modest grey sword, and above it, the brilliantly shining clean aura blade. It seemed like he was swinging it casually, but each motion was efficient, so precise it was even beautiful. A destructive force beyond imagination, so immense it could only be described as terrifying.
Each of these things was etched vividly into the boy’s mind.
Poor Masain ?
