Youngest Sword Seeker (2)
Sword Seeker—seekers of the blade.
I declare it here without hesitation: the beasts who bear that name must be controlled with absolute rigor. Their power is far too dangerous for any single soul to wield. Alone they stand against dozens of knights. Dozens! Dozens!
There lives no one who has forgotten the unforgivable atrocity in which a lone Sword Seeker slipped into Arhebts and butchered its lord, his vassals, and every knight who served them.
Ah, Arhebts!
Remember Arhebts, loyal servant of the Empire!
Those who face scores of knights single-handed and cut down well-drilled soldiers by the squad are Sword Seekers. Can they still be called individuals? They are already armies that walk on two legs!
Just as the private armies a noble may keep are strictly limited and supervised by the Empire, so too must Sword Seekers fall under imperial management. At the very least, their existence must be known.
Therefore I, the undersigned, propose the enactment of the Arhebts Special Law. Its provisions are as follows.
To ensure the tragedy of Arhebts never repeats, those of Sword Seeker-class strength shall be compelled to disclose both their martial power and their identity. Any who set foot inland—away from the battlefield of stars, the front lines of the Demon Realm—must absolutely make their information known.
Should they refuse…
You will learn why the Empire is called the Empire. This is a warning, and it is also mercy. You who still know honor and pride—walk of your own free will into the heart of the Empire…
“———And that,” Dieta said as she closed the Empire’s history book, “is the Arhebts Special Law.”
“It was enacted by the Empire’s fourth emperor, ‘Kalitz Pendragon.’ Under this statute, every strongman of Sword Seeker rank is required to make their information public.”
“What sort of information?”
“When they became a Sword Seeker, what weapon they wield, what form their aura takes. Right after the law was first proposed they demanded every scrap of data, including weaknesses, but I’ve heard that after several centuries they no longer go quite that far.”
She tapped the table with her fingertips.
“Real name and age, the weapon they use, and the date they reached the realm—that’s the bulk of it. The original purpose of the law was simply to drag hidden powerhouses out into the open.”
In those chaotic days the Empire had been plagued by strongmen who lurked in every corner and by the endless troubles they caused. The statute had been written to solve those problems, Dieta explained.
“From a nation’s point of view, few things are more dangerous than raw, unmanaged force.”
Najin listened in silence, then nodded.
“So most Sword Seekers voluntarily disclose their information and their rank.”
“Exactly. Being branded a ‘dangerous individual’ by the Empire is about as terrifying as it gets. Even a Sword Master who can fly and tear the heavens can’t afford to turn their back on the Empire.”
Yuel Razian was living proof of that.
Najin gave a bitter smile, remembering the conversation he had once shared with her. Even when he had first laid eyes on the imperial capital he had felt it: the place was like one vast, immovable wall.
“And your case is special.”
While he was still turning that thought over, Dieta pressed on. She rapped her knuckles against a sheaf of papers that catalogued every deed Najin had performed over the last half-year.
“You appeared out of nowhere in the City of Opportunity, Cambria, and racked up accomplishments and rumors at an almost absurd pace. Subjugation of the Demon Knight, the duel with the knight-commander of House Arvenia, the slaying of the black mage Faube…”
And the youngest Red-rank adventurer in living memory.
Every single one of those incidents had been designed to draw every eye.
“Word is already circulating that you’ll reach Sword Seeker any day now. Hiding it any longer is going to be impossible. It’s only a matter of time before the Empire’s central apparatus takes an interest in you.”
She was right.
Until now his identity had been anchored in Cambria and sheltered by the Cambria Foundation, so the Empire had stayed its hand. The moment he became a Sword Seeker, the rules would change.
“They may already be moving. We cleaned up the attack a few days ago without witnesses, but if the Empire decides to dig in earnest they might still find evidence—and then your true realm will be exposed.”
The Sword Seeker-class assailants who had come after him had either vanished long ago or were officially listed as missing on some distant battlefield. That was why cleaning them up had left so few traces…
Still, I can’t be certain.
There was always a chance—and more than anything, there was no telling how the Church would react.
“There’s no knowing what methods the Church will use to pressure you. And the only real countermeasure is…”
“For us to move first.”
“Exactly.”
Dieta snapped her fingers.
“All eyes are already on you, and above all you’re young. I don’t know your exact age, but you’re not past thirty, are you?”
Even under his false identity he was twenty-eight.
The youngest Sword Seeker in history had been thirty. The instant Najin announced he had reached that realm, the attention that would crash down upon him would be beyond calculation.
“Even the Sword Saint—who was called a once-in-an-age genius—only became a Sword Seeker at thirty. And that itself smashed a record that had stood for centuries. It was an impossible feat.”
And now someone had come to break that record.
It was the kind of news that could turn the Empire upside down.
“The Sword Church, every noble house, the commanders on the front lines, the very heart of the Empire—they’ll all be watching you. Once that happens, the Church won’t be able to touch you so easily.”
If they mishandled him, every scrap of the attention fixed on Najin would swing straight onto them. No matter how vast the Church’s influence, it could never escape the Empire’s gaze.
“That’s the situation so far…”
Dieta let the sentence trail off.
Having finished her explanation, she narrowed her eyes and fixed Najin with a suspicious stare. Doubt filled her gaze.
“At this point you can tell me, right? Najin—how old are you actually?”
“……”
“Don’t tell me you’re really younger than me? You’re at least twenty, right?”
Najin looked away.
Dieta’s pupils trembled.
“You’re kidding.”
2.
The Arhebts Special Law.
Najin followed its procedures to the letter. He notified the Central Guild that he had reached the realm of Sword Seeker, then sent a formal letter through the Cambria Foundation to the Empire’s central authority.
And then he learned just how quickly the Empire could move when it chose to.
Barely half a day after the letter was dispatched, a carriage arrived at Cambria’s gates. Considering that an ordinary coachman needed three full days to travel from Briton to Cambria, the speed was nothing short of astonishing.
Yet the surprises did not end there.
The carriage that rolled up to the city gates bore not only the crest of the Briton Empire but the imperial house’s own emblem as well.
The Arhebts Special Law was administered by the imperial family; naturally, the imperial family itself oversaw its enforcement. Adventurers clustered around the gates began to murmur. How many times in a lifetime did a person ever see a carriage stamped with the imperial crest?
Who? What business could the imperial house have here?
What in the world had happened?
The startled voices grew louder. The armor of the knight standing guard over the carriage was engraved with the same imperial emblem. Everyone knew that only a single force in the entire realm was permitted to wear that mark.
The Royal Guard.
The Empire’s blade, sworn to the throne.
A Royal Guard and an imperial carriage. Realizing this was no ordinary affair, the adventurers’ gazes slowly converged on one point: a figure cutting through the crowd and walking straight toward the carriage.
Red-rank adventurer Ivan.
He parted the throng, halted before the carriage, and dropped to one knee, bowing his head in respect before the knight who represented the imperial house. The Royal Guard nodded in satisfaction and opened the carriage door.
Under every staring eye, Najin climbed inside. Even after the carriage had departed and vanished from sight, the adventurers remained gathered at the city gates.
Someone among them muttered,
“Looks like another White-Horn adventurer’s about to be born.”
Royal Guard Soltis.
Soltis was not particularly pleased with the situation.
Having served the imperial house for long years, he knew full well that the Arhebts Law was never normally enforced with such noise or such haste.
And rightly so.
The realm of Sword Seeker was not something completed overnight, nor was it a height one could reach without warning signs. When someone reported that they had attained it, the imperial house simply nodded and thought, Well, about time, and moved accordingly.
This case was different.
There had been no warning signs. There was no precedent.
A Sword Seeker who had appeared out of thin air. Worse, the age registered with the Cambria Foundation for the individual in question was a mere twenty-eight. It was only natural that the department charged with the Arhebts Law had been thrown into complete uproar.
Of course, the information registered with the Cambria Foundation is almost certainly inaccurate.
In the City of Opportunity, identity registration was comparatively free, and false identities were commonplace. The Mage Tower would have to reconfirm every detail… yet if, against all odds, that age proved true—
It would be an event capable of overturning the Empire.
That was why the Empire had dispatched personnel with such speed and force. They had even taken the unprecedented step of mobilizing a Royal Guard. The matter was that extraordinary.
“……”
And the protagonist of that extraordinary event was sitting right in front of him.
Soltis studied the young man opposite him. Young man? Or still a boy? As was common among those who had reached the realm of Sword Seeker, age was difficult to judge by appearance alone.
But he had the dossiers.
The Demon Knight subjugation, the duel with the knight-commander of House Arvenia, the slaying of the black mage Faube… As he reviewed the major incidents, Soltis clicked his tongue inwardly in admiration.
Not bad at all.
Especially the section concerning the Demon Knight. The knights of Atanga had spoken in the young man’s defense? That was remarkable. He flipped again through the papers he had skimmed on the road and glanced at Najin. Come to think of it, the youth had knelt and offered proper courtesy earlier.
Regardless of how little he liked the present situation, his impression of the young man before him was not poor.
“Idle chatter is unwelcome,” Soltis said at last.
Because he found the youth agreeable, he judged that a word or two of advice would not go amiss.
“One piece of counsel: at the Mage Tower, speak only the truth. Even if you have disguised your identity, there you will have to reveal your true age and true name.”
Almost certainly neither the age nor the name was genuine.
Identity fraud was a serious crime, yet for those who began their journeys in Cambria the authorities sometimes looked the other way depending on circumstance. This youth would likely receive the same leniency.
Twenty-eight years old. Ivan.
It was clearly a false identity.
Even the great Sword Saint had only become a Sword Seeker at thirty. The notion that someone who would shatter that record could simply appear out of nowhere was absurd. Soltis was certain of it.
“If you present a false identity even before the imperial Mage Tower, the severity of the offense will be far greater. Remember that.”
“I will keep it in mind.”
“Even so, some reprimand will be unavoidable. When you submitted the paperwork you ought at least to have written your real age. The identity was going to be exposed anyway. Drawing this much attention will only harm you.”
“I failed to think that far ahead. I was simply too elated that I had reached the realm.”
Najin gave an awkward smile.
Well, here was a man who had climbed to Sword Seeker without any proper backing. He could not have had many people around him to offer advice. Soltis nodded firmly.
So the identity really is false.
He had been dispatched as a precaution against the one-in-a-million chance, but a one-in-a-million chance was exactly that: something that almost never happened.
A man who becomes a Sword Seeker out of nowhere is already astonishing enough—but to smash the youngest-ever record as well? Preposterous.
The department had simply been overreacting.
Thinking so, Soltis closed his eyes. Of course he was mistaken. There were reasons enough for the department’s judgment, but Soltis, who had received the mission in haste, had been given only the barest outline of information.
But if it were true…
Inside the rattling carriage he allowed himself a moment of idle speculation. What if the young man opposite him truly had become a Sword Seeker at twenty-eight?
The Empire would be turned on its head.
And they would be summoned.
To examine a talent without precedent.
Who?
The Empire’s Sword Masters.
The transcendents who stood at the pinnacle of the blade.
Of course no such thing would ever occur—yet when Soltis pictured the three Sword Masters gathered in one place, he let out a quiet laugh. There would never again be a spectacle quite like it.