The Sword That Began It All
It had all begun with a sword.
The knight I had seen in childhood—sweeping a razor-sharp blade with fearless grace, cutting enemies down where they stood.
It was a memory so far removed by time, and yet still so vivid, so dazzling that it had never really faded.
A knight who overwhelmed his foes with nothing but a single sword, without flashy magic or any special power at all.
He had looked magnificent.
I was only a child, but something hot had surged up inside my chest, and before I knew it, I had made a vow.
I was going to become a knight.
I think that was where it started.
That was the moment I found my first reason to live.
I had quite literally gone mad for the sword.
Even when everyone around me objected, I trained day and night without rest, and whenever northern monster extermination campaigns were called for—missions most noble-born youths would have avoided at all costs—I volunteered and joined again and again.
I was lucky, too.
I had been born into an environment where I never had to worry about making a living and could devote myself entirely to the sword, and on top of that, I had talent for it.
As the eldest son of a prosperous noble house, my future had already been secured if I had simply chosen to coast along, but back then, none of that mattered to me in the slightest.
Before I knew it, people were calling me the Sword Demon, the Crimson Sun, and other such names.
And then, at some point, I realized something.
No matter how long I trained, no matter how many enemies I cut down without rest, the sword no longer answered me.
In the past, the harder I worked, the more I could feel my own growth; now, that feeling was gone.
The reason to live was growing faint.
And then Silvia entered my life and breathed new vitality into me.
A new second reason to live.
I had known her since childhood, but while I was consumed by the sword, I had never truly understood.
I had never realized how important Silvia was to me.
In her own way, Silvia comforted me, encouraged me, cheered for me, and loved me.
And in return, I did my best for her in the only way I knew how.
And the result of that...
I killed Silvia with my own hands.
“Hah!”
“E-Evan-sama!!”
I jerked awake with a stabbing pain that felt as though someone had carved straight into my heart.
It felt like I’d been dragged out of a long, hideous nightmare.
The last thought that had surfaced in my unconscious mind was still clenching around me, painful and merciless.
I killed Silvia with my own hands.
Thump— thump—
The grotesque sensation of my right hand sinking into flesh, the sticky, chilling feel of blood soaking through my fingers.
I wished it had been nothing more than a nightmare, but it wasn’t.
I had definitely stabbed Silvia with my own hand.
“Aaahhh!”
“Evan-sama!!!”
This cursed right arm, my whole body—everything about it felt like it should be cut away at once.
I started wrenching at my own right hand with enough force to tear it from my body.
I didn’t even register Kabin, who was flustered and trying to stop me from the side.
I had to get rid of this cursed hand—no, this cursed body.
That was the very least I could do to atone for Silvia’s death.
If I couldn’t tear the hand off, then I’d stab my own heart if I had to.
“Evan, Evan-sama!! Please calm down! Evan-sama! Aaah, Sister! Sophia Sister!!”
“Aaaahhhhhh!!!”
I stabbed at my own chest with the same right hand that still held the vivid sensation of piercing Silvia, but I felt nothing at all—not even the slightest sense of my skin being broken.
Back then, it had been as easy as breathing.
Why couldn’t I do it now?
Thud— thud—
I drove my hand toward the place near my heart hard enough to drown out Kabin’s shouting, but my own hand would not pierce my skin.
It was maddening.
I had been able to stab Silvia so easily, and yet I couldn’t do the same to myself.
“Please, please, you have to calm down!”
Thud—
“Gahhh!”
Only after Kabin’s scream was followed by the sound of something collapsing did I finally stop.
Kabin, who had been trying to restrain me, had been shoved away and sent flying into the distance.
He crashed into the bookshelf in the room, and as the shelf toppled, it came down on top of him.
The deafening roar filled the room in an instant.
Maybe that was what brought me back.
Just a little. Only a little, but enough.
I was lying in a room I’d never seen before.
I had no memory of anything after the moment I stabbed Silvia in her room.
I remembered laughing with a hideous grin after I stabbed her, but after that, nothing.
“What...! Kab, Kabin!?”
Whether it was because of the commotion I’d caused or the crash of the bookshelf, someone burst through the door.
It was a woman I didn’t recognize, just like the room.
Seeing that she called Kabin’s name so naturally, she must have known him.
...What does that matter?
A flash of irritation rose at the sight of my own mind calmly assessing the situation.
After committing the absurd crime of stabbing Silvia, I was still coolly analyzing my surroundings.
“U-Ugh, it hurts... N-no! That’s not it! Sister! Please stop the Lord—no, Evan-sama!”
“Lord...?”
Only then did I meet the eyes of the woman who had come in through the door.
She had long brown hair she wore loose and a black dress.
She looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t quite place where from. When she met my eyes, she immediately lowered her head.
“Y-You are awake! My Lord.”
“Aaah, Sister, this isn’t the time for polite greetings! Evan-sama is...! Ngh, this is too heavy. Please move this too!”
“...”
Was it because the situation was so chaotic, or because she was a vampire?
Little by little, my mind was settling, and before I realized it, I had grown calm and composed.
Though I had no right to be.
The woman who had bowed to me raised her head cautiously when I didn’t respond in kind.
Then she met my eyes and stared at me without blinking.
Beautiful was a perfectly fitting word for her face. Her red eyes shimmered with a quiet, brilliant light.
I was the one who looked away first.
I had no time to sit around making eye contact with a stranger.
As my mind settled, a new idea occurred to me.
If I couldn’t do it with my hand, then I could simply stab my heart with my sword.
I looked around the room for my blade.
The white sword forged from Penrix’s fangs.
As expected, it was hanging neatly on its stand.
Just as I was about to get off the bed and fetch it, the woman—who still hadn’t moved the bookshelf pinning Kabin or tried to stop me—spoke.
“She is...”
“...?”
“She is not dead.”
“...What?”
The words stopped me cold.
The woman had struck straight at the core, as though she could read my thoughts.
And she did it while adding news I had never even imagined.
“The Third Princess of the Empire, Silvia Bernice. It was dangerous, but she did not lose her life.”
The woman spoke again, as if trying to carve the fact into me with certainty.
Silvia hadn’t died.
Even though I had definitely stabbed her myself.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. For reasons I don’t know, she had already passed beyond the brink of death, and fortunately a high-ranking priest happened to be staying within the imperial palace, so she was able to receive immediate treatment. She is resting now while she recovers.”
The woman’s clear, orderly explanation instantly dispelled my confusion and brought a vast wave of relief into my chest.
Silvia was alive.
Even if those words were a lie, they worked on me with frightening effectiveness.
“It isn’t a lie. I saw the princess myself this morning, and she was perfectly alive and well.”
“...”
What’s more, I couldn’t sense the slightest hint of falsehood in her voice.
It felt like when Kabin, Penrix, or Banua spoke to me with complete sincerity.
The aura of someone who truly served and obeyed me.
“S-Sister... please, get me out of here...”
“Who are you?”
“Allow me to introduce myself properly. Lord. I am Sophia Meyer, descendant of the Meyer family.”
The woman who called herself Sophia naturally lowered to one knee again and greeted me.
The same motion Kabin had once used on me in the Demon Realm.
She lifted the hem of her skirt elegantly and knelt, showing her respect.
A vampire?
The moment I heard Silvia hadn’t died, my heart settled even more deeply.
Of course, that didn’t erase my sins.
It was truly a blessing that Silvia had survived, but I had been the one who put her in danger.
The very person who was her fiancé, the very one she had given a reason to live to.
Wasn’t that reason enough for me to die?
Step—
Looking at Sophia, who was still kneeling before me, I moved toward the sword.
My body was far lighter than my mind, and I quickly reached out and took the blade.
Shing—
“Even if Silvia is alive...”
“...My Lord.”
“That doesn’t make what I did disappear.”
“E-Evan-sama! Lord! You can’t!!”
Kabin shouted, still trapped under the bookshelf.
A white sword shedding cold and cutting intent.
I looked at the dim reflection of my face in the blade, a face I still wasn’t used to seeing, and steadied myself.
Even if Silvia was alive, nothing changed.
I had committed an irredeemable wrong, and now I would never be able to see Silvia again.
If I met her again in this body, I would surely turn back into the me from that moment and lose all control.
Once I had been Silvia’s fiancé and her dependable sword; now I was a sword more dangerous to her than anyone else in the world.
A sword that would not protect Silvia, but could cut and stab her at any moment.
“My Lord.”
“...”
Sophia still hadn’t risen. She remained on her knees, head bowed as she spoke.
Even though I was gripping the hilt backward and aiming the blade at my own chest.
“The princess is in danger.”
“...Right. Because of me.”
“If you vanish like this, there will be no one left who can protect her.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sophia knew something.
Her voice remained calm, but the fierce emotion beneath it came through clearly.
“Rampages can be controlled through suppression rites or internalization, my Lord.”
“...”
“But there is no one except you who can stop the enemies who are targeting her.”
Enemies...?
The words you can stop the rampage and enemies.
They gave me a sliver of hope while stirring my curiosity at the same time.
“It’s only natural to go berserk after seeing the Third Princess’s blood, in a way, my Lord.”
“What do you mean?”
Sophia kept speaking in that same mysterious, measured tone.
“She is a human born with the First Blood.
“W-Whaaat? Re-really?!”
The one reacting wildly to Sophia’s words was Kabin, still pinned under the bookshelf and unable to move an inch.
He shouted as though he couldn’t believe it.
From his reaction, it seemed even Kabin hadn’t known.
“For now, please put down the sword. I’ll explain everything.”
At last, Sophia lifted her head and looked up at me.
From the moment she had entered the room until now, she had remained exactly the same.
Those red eyes held nothing but sincerity.
Hah.
I slowly lowered my hand.
For now, I needed to hear her out.