A Path Carved by Darkness
Darkness.
Back in his past life, when he had been a shut-in, Harad had left no trace of himself behind. He had kept to a small annex then, and he had lived that way for nearly five years.
Whenever he thought back on all the time he had wasted, his stomach would twist. If it wasn't even my own house, I should at least have set fires to my heart's content. The more one used magic, after all, the more familiar one became with one's Origin.
And so, naturally, he had known nothing. A maid did call on him every day, but none of them ever opened their mouths to Harad. The Inner Castle's discipline—no, its loyalty—was formidable, and Harad had never been counted among the Inner Castle's own.
Still, as his deeds over the past half year proved, Harad had not been wholly ignorant. That was thanks to the Elaine of bygone days.
The Grand Duke's daughter had been as talkative as she was fond of mischief. She never told him everything, but she couldn't hold back when her tongue itched. Only in front of Harad, of course.
"You told Gulen my personality was shit, didn't you?"
"He didn't believe me."
"Figures. Who would believe you? Believe me instead."
The people of Serzilla had never known Elaine was that kind of person in the first place. Before others, Elaine was the perfect Grand Duke's daughter, the iron-blooded Grand Duke. The Elaine of his past life had shown her true nature only before Harad.
But even before Harad, she hadn't spent every moment fooling around.
"Is something the matter? You're awfully quiet today."
For all her talkativeness, Elaine knew well enough when a tongue ought to be stilled.
"It's a memorial day. I should keep myself in check."
Death was one of those times. Elaine refrained from speaking of death in front of Harad.
"Whose memorial day is it?"
"Someone you wouldn't know."
"I see."
"…"
One speaks of the dead, she'd said, only when memories and pain can be shared together.
"Ahyite, the 3rd Knight Commander—what sort of man is he?"
"Out of nowhere? Ah. You're going to break another knight order, aren't you. Sir Ahyite is, hmm… a very fine knight. He loves hurling himself onto the front lines."
Elaine, in her Grand Duke's-daughter days, had liked the simple-minded. Because she herself was one.
"I heard he'd only just become commander."
"There was a shake-up in the 3rd Knight Order. Well, it's nothing you need concern yourself with."
From the time Elaine turned twenty-one, the 3rd Knight Commander had been Ahyite. But the commander standing before his eyes now was not Ahyite.
Kalinos, was it. He'll be dead within the year.
Harad and Elaine had been born the same year. It was now the winter of their twentieth, with less than a month left until the new year.
Kalinos, Commander of the 3rd Knight Order, was a man whose face, once seen, was not easily forgotten. A face of warped skin hung atop a hulking frame—burn scars, layered over with scar tissue.
Those are blade marks. No—winds of the Boundary?
There was no chance a knight like that had failed to stick in his memory.
So he really does die.
Harad confirmed Kalinos's death once more.
"I've heard a great deal about you from the Grand Duke's daughter. I look forward to serving with you, Sir Kalinos."
Just as with Harad, this was Kalinos's first meeting with Ellen.
"The honor is mine, Lady Ellen."
Kalinos showed no surprise. He had clearly known in advance that Ellen would be coming up to the garrison—which meant Grand Duke Aratus knew Ellen would be accompanying this mission.
And yet he didn't stop her.
As expected, the Grand Duke wanted Elaine to keep company with Harad. But why?
"I'm not sure I should even be allowed into the Boundary."
Ellen acted well. Detestably well. Of course, this was her first time joining a search as Ellen. The person called Ellen had been born for deviance.
"No one in Serzilla is unaware of your skill, Lady Ellen."
Despite her deviant identity, Ellen did not hide her swordsmanship. Presumably so that no one would harbor the slightest doubt about the carefully crafted identity of a cadet branch.
There is no weak Serzilla. Only Serzilla that is less strong.
The cadet-branch identity must be essential to her deviance.
Deviance required freedom, and the cadet branch provided exactly that.
"Am I really that famous?"
"You aren't famous, but those who should know, do."
Freedom required secrets, too. Ellen revealed exactly as much as was necessary—only enough that her freedom would go unhindered. Thanks to that, only those in the know knew of Ellen. The Harad of his past life had not been among them.
Why didn't I know?
According to Cassion, Ellen was popular even among the knights. Yet the Harad of his past life hadn't known of her existence, let alone her skill.
Moreover, a cadet branch.
A cadet branch of Serzilla was a precious thing. It wasn't something Grand Duke Aratus had done; it was the legacy of the generation before him. Succession is a cruel business.
He might not have known Elaine was a woman, but he should at least have heard of Ellen the cadet branch.
Harad had learned of Ellen's existence only after regressing.
A person who must vanish someday? Even so, traces should remain.
The Director of Intelligence must have had a hand in it… Ah. The only person I was close to was Elaine.
If Elaine had resolved to keep silent about Ellen, then Harad had had no way of ever hearing of her. In his past life he had won the retainers' recognition, but nothing closer than that. Unlike Elaine, Harad had never been fond of the North. The only knight he could have called a friend was Gulen, and even with Gulen, personal talk had been rare. Their conversations had been of Serzilla, of knights, of magic—nothing else.
Not that I have any room to talk.
He was in no position to blame the Elaine of his past life. Harad, too, had had no one but Elaine.
"I've heard a great deal about you, Magician Harad."
Kalinos extended a hand the size of a bear's paw. It was as scarred as his face. To knights, scars were medals—and Kalinos was a commander bearing countless of them.
The garrison's atmosphere was peculiar. Tension hung in the air—not hostility, not wariness.
"He looks more human than I expected."
"I heard he was a giant wreathed in flame."
"I heard his burns came alive and crawled all over him, so he's wrapped in bandages head to toe."
"I heard he was a woman."
"…?"
Every last member of the 3rd Knight Order had come outside to watch Harad. Their gazes carried a proper respect—the kind magicians seldom received, the kind only Serzilla could give.
"It seems they've already accepted you?"
Just as Ellen had said. It was the sort of atmosphere he might have expected from the 1st Knight Order keeping its distance. The 3rd Knight Order, though, had already acknowledged Harad.
Thanks to Psina.
So this was the renown of the 5th Tier. The North scorned magicians, but it could not scorn the 5th Tier. It was why the older generation—those who had witnessed or endured the power of a manifested Origin—still remained in active service.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't the renown of a 5th Tier. The 5th Tier had been Psina. Harad had earned the renown of the magician who slew one.
In knightly terms, he stood just below a Sword Master. Occasionally his equal—able to kill one. How many such knights existed in the world? In the 3rd Knight Order alone, there was but one: Kalinos.
Being the 3rd Order made it all the more so.
Kalinos, Commander of the 3rd Knight Order, was no Sword Master. Which meant the 3rd Knight Order had no choice but to acknowledge Harad. In deeds, Harad outstripped him; unlike Harad, Kalinos had never killed a 5th-Tier magician.
"We could turn back now, honestly."
Ellen whispered. Harad knew, of course, that she didn't mean it. Elaine's hunting days were staffed primarily by the 1st Knight Order; she had never walked the 3rd's search routes.
"Then you head on back. I'll just be stopping by the Boundary."
"I'd rather not."
Ellen snorted. A tedious route, perhaps, but a zone she had never set foot in—her curiosity was bound to be piqued.
"I came because of you."
"Worried about me, are you?"
"Yes."
Ellen answered without a beat's hesitation, and Harad felt an unexpected swell of satisfaction. It was an answer he couldn't have gotten a few months ago.
Then Ellen looked him up and down.
"How could I not worry? Look how flimsy you are."
"…I am perfectly healthy."
"Healthy and sturdy are two different things."
"I'm perfectly stu—… never mind. Let's go."
He'd only wasted his breath. To Ellen, bearer of Heavenly Might, everything was bound to look shabby.
Kalinos was a direct man. His exchanges with them were brief, and his steps stopped before the Great Wall's gate. It meant no lengthy words—straight into the field. They would learn everything soon enough inside.
"We intend to enter at once. Will that be all right, Lady Ellen?"
"That's fine."
Act first, report after. Ellen seemed to approve; no doubt she believed knights should be exactly that. In the Boundary, experience outranked status, and above all came efficiency.
"I hear magicians love conversation. If you wanted to talk, my apologies."
"It's fine. We're hardly that close."
Magicians weren't all chatterboxes, and knights made for poor conversation partners anyway.
"Magician Harad, the expectations riding on you are considerable."
Eyes gleamed through the seams of his scars. Rumors of Harad had swept the entire garrison. Some had warped in the telling, but the fire that sealed the Boundary seemed to have come through accurately.
"Greater than what they expect of Lady Ellen?"
"Lady Ellen said she would not intervene unless you were in danger."
It was the truth. The order Grand Duke Aratus had handed down was one Harad had to fulfill alone; only then would the weight pressing on him ease.
"If you still want a comparison, then honestly—it's greater than Lady Ellen's. Lady Ellen belongs to the Intelligence Bureau, after all."
The current Director of Intelligence was Elaine's aunt. Ellen was known to the world as that Director's daughter, and Kalinos seemed to assume she would succeed her.
"Weren't you to be the next Director of Intelligence?"
"I'm not."
"Then what will you be?"
"I don't know. But I won't do it."
Ellen spoke like someone without dreams—presumably because hers was an identity destined to vanish. In his past life, the turning point must have been Elaine's ascension to Grand Duke. The Grand Duke's daughter Elaine used to vanish whenever boredom struck, but Grand Duke Elaine kept a silent watch over her throne. A Grand Duke was a position one could not abandon at whim.
The gate rumbled slowly open. Toward a gap barely wide enough for one person, Kalinos took the lead as though it were only natural.
"The other knights aren't coming?"
Harad had noticed the 3rd Knight Order wasn't moving.
"There was no order to bring you on the search."
Grand Duke Aratus had ordered the 3rd Knight Order to go. He had never demanded Harad's deployment. It was Kalinos who had requested it.
"This search is my own greed, born of the tales I've heard of your skill. So I alone must go."
It meant he would shoulder any unforeseen consequences alone.
"How admirable."
Ellen marveled. That was the valor of the 3rd Knight Order, the pride she took in them.
So that's how he dies.
Harad clicked his tongue inwardly. Valor. That must be what killed Kalinos.
Serzilla's search routes numbered seventy in all; ten had been allotted to the 3rd Knight Order. Kalinos never said which. He simply walked at the point and set the direction—no doubt wanting to see how Harad moved through the Boundary, and how he handled unknown beasts.
"Just as the rumors say."
Kalinos marveled at Harad's warmth, but his eyes held no satisfaction. The warmth had become, by now, merely a side benefit the magician called Harad happened to provide. Kalinos no longer dismissed him as a mere magician; he respected him as a strong one. Harad's standing had risen, and openly so.
Thanks to Psina.
Just how much of a fighting force was the magician called Harad? Kalinos clearly meant to find out on this search.
Such tests were welcome. Had a magician tried this, Harad would have flipped the board—but a trial set by a knight he accepted gladly. It meant the man was using his head, in his own way.
Which made it all the more galling.
It also meant he knew how to use his head and simply chose not to. Perhaps he believed he mustn't. For a knight, nothing mattered more than executing Serzilla's orders; stray thoughts only erode one's effectiveness.
It was a stretch of ground unusually soft underfoot. Trees stood thick on every side, and from their branches hung eyes in place of leaves. From among those trees, knights came charging—or rather, beasts that mimicked the shape of knights. Their substance was wood.
"What tier do they look like to you?"
"3rd Tier?"
"Correct."
The Boundary was a place of endless learning. Even for the regressed Harad—and Ellen had far more to learn still.
"It would be far easier with Kubel here."
A single small spark set to Kubel's smoke, and it would become a roaring blaze. With no medium, he had to make up the difference with mana. Even so, a small friction or a slight gesture had its uses: it stood in for the mana otherwise spent giving form to the spell's image.
Hoo. Harad breathed out. Not breath—flame. Imaged thus, it became magic. The flame, spewed like a dragon's breath, turned the wooden knights to ash.
It was over in an instant. The beasts posed little threat to knights either—yet no knight could have exterminated them this swiftly, this utterly. The difference between sword and magic.
Watching Harad's magic, Kalinos's eyes lit up. More than ten beasts felled in a single stroke, and still Harad looked to have plenty in reserve. No—he had returned to his original condition, absorbing the beasts' hearts even as he burned them.
"What about a flint?"
"That would help too."
"Then why not use one?"
"I'd be losing a hand. Better to eat the extra mana and keep something in reserve for emergencies."
There was no tension in him at all. Harad was chatting idly with Ellen, and Kalinos watched him, unblinking.
Crackle. That was when the embers caught. Kalinos turned his head. Embers left over from the burning of the wooden knights were drifting in every direction, floating toward the surrounding trees and searing the eyes clustered at the branch tips.
"It was the roots of those trees that formed the knights."
"…"
"Those eyes watched you on your searches, remembered, and imitated. They had recognized the knight's shape as one suited for combat."
Serzilla's knight orders had rotated year after year, walking this route for more than twenty years. And for more than twenty years, they had killed the wooden knights. And no one had ever learned why the beasts copied the shape of knights. In truth, no one had ever wondered.
"The eyes will grow back like fruit. Burn them away on a regular basis, and there will be no more fighting to be done in this zone."
Harad had seen it once and understood. And he had done away with the battles yet to come. The knights would breathe easier; with the strength spared here, they could fight with abandon in the next zone.
"Felling every tree would work too, but I wouldn't recommend it."
Harad went on.
"Tearing down a completed mutation is itself a mutation. We would be sowing a new one."
"They're trees now, but there's no telling what they'll become once felled and given time?"
"Exactly."
Kalinos didn't follow, but Ellen seemed to. That, too, was Harad's influence. Hadn't the 1st Knight Order changed in just that way? For anything touching on the Boundary or magic, they went to Harad now—not just for his strength, but for his deep experience, his level head, and beyond that, his judgment of the Boundary itself.
"…We may as well turn back."
They had barely passed the route's threshold, yet there was nothing left to see. Kalinos had no choice but to acknowledge him.
"Not yet."
That was when Harad objected. He wasn't looking at Kalinos. Following his gaze, they found a strange darkness. The zone was dark to begin with, but that place was blacker than all the rest—a space painted pitch-black. No, a road. The darkness stretched long, reaching inward, as though the darkness itself had passed through and carved out a path. Its end touched the search route.
"Is that path supposed to be there?"
"…No."
An anomaly had struck the search route.