“Euuk.”
The man who regained consciousness slowly opened his eyes. He grabbed his head, which felt dizzy and looked around.
Dry branches were all around him and their leaves covered the night sky.
The sound of burning fire was heard next to him.
“Awake?”
At that moment, the voice of a young man was heard.
The man, Kenji, struggled to get up. It was like he woke up after being hit non-stop.
He found a burning bonfire with a weary face and two men next to it.
One was handsome. One had emerald hair and the other had a mask which had an opening at the mouth.
The man with emerald hair asked,
“Is your body alright?”
“You people…?”
“Adventurers.”
“You people saved me?”
“As you can see.”
The masked man said nothing, the emerald haired one did all the talking.
It didn’t matter, Kenji bowed his head.
“Thank you. Thanks to you I survived.”
“How did you fall into the steep valley? You were on the verge of turning into a water ghost.”
“… it just happened.”
Unable to tell how it all happened, Kenji changed the topic.
“But why are you two in such a remote place?”
“I said it just now. We are adventurers. And for adventurers, the rough terrain is like home.”
Jamie spoke with a grin. Jin looked at Jamie and then at the bonfire.
Then he asked, looking at the sword connected to his arm.
“What is that thing? The thing connected to your right arm.”
“Right. I was a little curious too. What the hell is that sword?”
“T-this…”
Kenji looked at the sword on his right hand and smiled awkwardly.
“Instead of a prosthetic I had this. I had my arm cut off while I was working as a mercenary, so I put on a sword instead. It makes me look a bit rough, so I get a lot of money.”
“See. Didn’t I say that?”
“Strange one. Seems to be connected by a mechanical device. Thinking of putting such a thing on your arm… isn’t a normal thing.”
“I-I paid a high price. But this is?”
Seeing Kenji change the topic with a shocked face, Jamie replied normally,
“Mount Befos.”
“It looks like we’re half way up, how far till the top?”
“Why? You want to hike up with that body?”
Jamie had healed him, but his body wasn’t in the best condition to move.
The man should know it too. But at night, with that thing on his arm, he wants to hike?
Especially when Mount Befos was known to have rough terrain. Even a healthy man wouldn’t attempt it, and an injured one could stumble and die.
Especially in this place with many monsters. The closer to the top you got the more dangerous the monsters.
“Hahaha… no. I just asked.”
“Well. If you are a fast walking one, it will take three to four hours to reach the top.”
“Right.”
Jin, who crossed the place several times, answered.
Truly, this was a rough mountain to hike.
Could it be that he didn’t create an identity because he wanted to climb the mountain?
Jamie who was thinking that, said,
“Well, get good rest. From tomorrow, you can decide if you will climb or not.”
“Thank you. How do I repay this favor…?”
“You don’t seem to have anything on you, how can you pay us? Later, when we get to know each other, buy us a meal.”
“I will. And your names?”
Jamie and Jin looked at each other.
It was like telling their real identity to the person who was secretly on this mountain.
Jamie didn’t care, this wasn’t the northern continent, but he was the eldest son of the Welton family, he had a perfect status no one could deny.
The problem was Jin.
A Sword Master belonging to Frontier, a secret society.
And despite ‘Jin’ being a common name, he couldn’t say it.
“You can call us, J and N. And you?”
“Ken… “
“Right, Mr. Ken is fine?”
“Sure… ugh!”
Kenji suddenly grabbed his right arm with a pained expression.
“What is it?’
“N-Nothing. I need to pee.”
As Jamie tried to get closer, Kenji fled into the bushes. It didn’t look like a huge deal.
Jamie was suspicious of the man trying to hide his situation. As he moved away, Jin spoke,
“He is a man who hides a lot.”
“He didn’t even know his stomach was pierced.”
As Jamie said, when he found the man, there was a hole in his stomach. And no matter how deep it was before, it was now invisible.
Any ordinary man would notice that wound right away.
Kenji didn’t.
“An injury after he lost consciousness.”
“How does that happen?”
“Right arm? It was no ordinary weapon either.”
“Far from normal. It is attached to his arm, but now, it looks like a Demon Sword.”
Demon Sword.
There were several types of swords.
The general swords, the artifact type magic sword like Scud and Holy Sword, were strengthened with the blessings of the Gods.
Then there was the Demon Sword, which extorted life and was born from evil rituals.
There were various types of Demon Swords, but what they all had in common was that they got stronger with the more lives they took.
And depending on the type, the owner’s body was taken away.
In particular, the vicious case of stealing a body can lead to disaster and such weapons were destroyed.
“And the smell of blood gets stronger.”
They didn’t know it when it was wet, but now that the water dried, the smell of the blood was thick.
It couldn’t be just one or two people this man killed for the smell to be this strong.
“A serial killer?”
“He must be under the influence of the Demon Sword, so he doesn’t know who he is killing.”
“That is an extremely rare case.”
“Right.”
Anyway, it was certain that the man was using a Demon Sword and he couldn’t be left alone.
“Let’s ask once he gets back. Because he cannot run away. If he runs, well…”
Jamie’s eyes turned cold.
“Kuak!”
Kenji couldn’t breathe properly because of the pain. The sword was trying to take over the body one again.
It seemed to aim for the time when his mind and body were weak.
And with the amount of blood spilled last night, the sword was getting stronger.
He bit his lip to hold back a groan. Blood was dripping and it was done to stimulate his mind to get a grip.
“Puah!”
And the sword gave up trying to take control.
“Kuak, Kuak!”
Kenji lay on the floor and coughed as he looked at the sword with resentful eyes.
Blood Bringer.
The one who brings blood was what it was named after and that shows the temperament of the Demon Sword.
About a 100 years back, this was a weapon of a Sword Demon widely known to people.
He discovered this weapon by accident. Kenji was a one armed swordsman and mercenary.
He received quite a few quests and among them, there were many which were dangerous with high pay.
That day too, he was out on a dangerous mission.
‘I shouldn’t have taken that mission.’
He headed to a place rarely visited by people. A dangerous area with monsters all around.
The mission was to bring back herbs which grew there, and it was difficult to find considering most people died there.
Since he did a lot of such kinds of missions he wasn’t worried, and he was a confident monster hunter, and was perfectly prepared to run if he couldn’t handle it.
He wasn’t famous or something.
It was difficult to find the item that day and he found Blood Bringer.
‘No. It is wrong to say I found it. It called for me.’
As if possessed, he approached it and saw a skeleton holding it. An old, large sword fell where the right arm of the man should have been.
It was a bad-news great sword, and Kenji knew it.
He could feel the strong power from it and he didn’t have a right arm either.
As soon as he lifted the sword, numerous lines protruded from the lower part and took roots all over his body through the right arm.
It was a terrible pain.
When he woke up, the corpses of monsters were piled high, forming a mountain.
He was terrified of the terrible power, and fear rose.
This sword steals the body of the owner.
But he couldn’t find a way to remove it, it was deeply rooted inside. The sword craved blood.
When the thirst intensified, the sword would take control of his body.
In that way Kenji turned into a ‘serial killer’.
Something he didn’t want to do.
He tried to reduce the power of the sword or go to a secluded place but nothing worked.
When he woke up, he would have corpses beneath his feet and not long ago he killed the son of a Lord.
“Shit… shit! Damn it!”
It would have been nice to have the option to die, but he couldn’t.
-Head!
-Head look at this! I made this for Eri!
-Such a pretty bird! Well done!
-When you grow up, we will buy a house as big as the head!
-How do we buy a house?
-Why can’t we? We will buy it!
The voices of children could be heard.
Kenji was running a small orphanage. He was a man who took on those dangerous missions to save them.
But if he dies, who will look after them?
‘At least until they get independent… dying should be held off.’
It is fine to be a selfish human being.
It didn’t matter if he got called an evil demon. Kenji will be anything as long as the children got to have a good life.
“I need to get out of here first.”
Now that Blood Bringer’s powers have weakened, he had to move now.
The Lord’s army must be searching for him. If he runs into them, it would be bloodshed again.
Although he strayed from the human path, he didn’t want to kill people.
‘Let’s go.’
He felt bad for the people who helped him, he couldn’t give them anything in return. But saying so would make them turn into victims of this sword.
And he didn’t want innocent victims.
“He cannot have gone that far! Search!”
Captain Hilder gave orders to his subordinates as he searched for the killer.
“That damn bastard!”
He was the direct knight of the Recon Family and was currently pursuing Kenji.
Kenji murdered the only son of Count Recon, who ruled the area. And not just that, but he was nothing more than a demon mercilessly killing innocent people.
Even today, a few pursuers had lost their lives or were severely injured.
“He needs to be killed…”
Hilder succeeded in stabbing the man in the stomach when the crew caught his movements.
He was able to do this because he was an expert, but that man didn’t die from it. If he would have died from that, he would have been dead a dozen times already.
“I will not miss him the next time.”
Hilder clenched the sword and searched in the night when something caught his eyes.
“… was such a large cave always here?”
A cave large enough to allow a few huge monsters to enter and come out.
Since this was a place not visited by many people, no one knew about this cave.
Who would cross over such a dangerous mountain when there was a road next to it?
This wouldn’t have been known to any other than immigrants trying to smuggle in.
“He might be hiding here.”
It was a good place to hide.
Even if he was not dead, he had a wound in the stomach so he will need rest.
Kenji had to be hiding here. With that thought, Hilder held the sword and walked towards it.
His subordinates too had spoken.
“Everyone come to where I am. The man has to be here.”
Hilder stood in front of the cave and then said yes.
The ceiling was high and dark. He felt overwhelmed just by looking at it.
He gently brought out the aura and tried to enter until he saw…
“… uh?”
Two lights in the dark cave.
The light moved at the same time on the same line and began to get closer and closer to where he was.
Thud! Thud!
The ground trembled. Hilder’s complexion turned pale.
Suddenly his legs went weak and he hit the floor.
He looked up, almost at the ceiling. The huge and majestic one.
What was certain is that it was impossible to grasp its essence with human cognition.
[How dare you! make a fuss in this land where I live. There, the smell of blood spreads so much that it is disgusting.]
In the darkness, something huge appeared in moonlight.
The eyes turned wide, and it is a huge being with fiery red scales. And it looked down at Hilder.
Hilder muttered in a desperate voice.
“This… this had to be a dragon’s lair.”
Despite living here for decades he didn’t know it. But that wasn’t something Hilder or the others would know.
Dragons could manipulate things and unfortunately, it didn’t work today.
[Disappear. You bug.]
Puck!
Hilder’s body exploded.
A word.
The strongest race on the earth and the unique ability of the Dragon, the master of magic.
It erased the existence of Hilder from this world.
The red dragon Kairos said,
[Unlucky bugs. To run rampant in my realm the moment I woke up.]
If it had been asleep, it wouldn’t have been interested in humans at all. Humans couldn’t have even figured out this place.
It was because it uses cognitive dissonance magic before going to sleep.
But today, it woke up after a long time. And there was no reason to have the magic running.
It was a disaster for them.
At that time, two energies captured Kairos’s senses.
[Um?]
The two auras are quite large for a bug.
In particular, one of them definitely had enough power that it couldn’t be called a bug.
Red dragons were ferocious and loved to fight. A tribe that always tries to fight whenever possible.
Kairos raised an eyebrow and mumbled.
[There are humans who aren’t bugs.]
His body shone once and then decreased in size.
Long red hair which seemed to be of the color of scales. The red-eyed handsome man wearing a white robe smiled.
“Quite an interesting start.”
And his body vanished.
