Draw It
Kael looked up at the sky and thought.
Not a cloud in sight. It was a disgustingly beautiful day.
The weather was fine, but Kael’s mood was anything but. It felt like a downpour might start at any second.
He had a reason for feeling that way.
He was trying to stay as positive as possible, but...
Uh, no matter how I look at this...
This seems pretty damn doomed.
Kael calmly reviewed his situation.
The Empire’s national treasure, Balmung. The reason a state of emergency had been declared across the entire nation. And the source of all that trouble was currently hanging from Kael’s belt.
If they find out, I’m probably dead.
Probably? No, scratch that. Execution was guaranteed.
They would ask him what kind of shameless lunatic stole the Empire’s national treasure and still expected to live. Then it would be straight to the guillotine, and Kael would bid farewell to his neck that very day.
He had no idea what was so special about this utterly ordinary-looking sword, but it was clearly valuable enough for the Empire to declare a state of emergency without hesitation.
The Empire had judged the incident to be as dangerous as wartime conditions, and even the five knights known as the Empire’s guardians, the Imperial 5 Swords, had gathered in the capital.
Apparently that’s why all sorts of weird bastards are running around too.
As expected in a fantasy world, there were all kinds of crazy people. The worst of them were some villain group called the Seven Deadly Sins or whatever. Rumor had it that, sensing the Empire’s uneasy state, they had started moving openly.
But to Kael, a mere guard, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Imperial 5 Swords might as well have belonged to a different universe.
It was like talking about billionaires to an ordinary office worker. Interesting, sure, but not exactly relatable.
And yet Kael had become the lead actor in this “different universe” story.
Not by choice, either.
Hmph.
Kael glanced down at the sword hanging from his waist.
If he were being honest, he wanted to throw it away right this instant.
Actually, he already had, several times over.
So why was it still hanging from his belt?
What a psychotic stalker bastard.
Kael recalled what had happened a few days ago.
He had just started getting used to life as a guard when, after a quick wash and bath, he found a sword standing right in the middle of his bedroom.
“What the hell is that?”
A sword? What was this supposed to be?
At first, he’d even wondered if it was some kind of surprise gift.
Yeah, no chance.
Kael knew full well how pathetic the guards’ wages were. Everyone was already scraping by just to feed themselves; who on earth would give a sword as a present? Anyone who did would have to be a saint or mentally ill.
It doesn’t look that expensive, though.
The thing was rough and plain. Its appearance was completely ordinary.
Still, it looks better than the issue swords.
The swords issued as guard equipment were so shoddy it wasn’t an exaggeration to say they could barely slice a radish.
Guess I’ll take the handmade one over the supply junk.
Kael casually picked it up and strapped it to his waist. It felt fine. Not bad at all.
And then, the very next day, the Empire declared a state of emergency.
The minister himself announced that Balmung, the Empire’s national treasure, had vanished, and that every available resource would be devoted to finding the missing sword.
When Kael heard that news, he felt deeply uneasy.
No way... is this it?
Of course, he thought the odds were low.
No, seriously, a treasure important enough to be the Empire’s national treasure couldn’t possibly look this plain, could it?
But his rationalization didn’t last long.
Then a forgotten memory surfaced.
The messages that had appeared right before he got possessed and dragged into this damn other world.
He couldn’t remember the full sentences, but words like starting bonus and Balmung were definitely there.
The instant that memory came back, sweat began soaking through his back.
He broke out in a cold sweat and couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.
Those insane bastards...
If they were going to hand out a bonus, why not make sure it didn’t create another problem? What exactly was he supposed to do with this kind of nonsense dumped in his lap?
It was ridiculous. He didn’t even feel like denying reality anymore.
Sensing danger, Kael tried everything he could think of.
First he tried the simplest method, the one he could put into action right away: casually ditching it in some deserted back alley.
But what happened next was even more absurd.
It wasn’t some horror movie, but when he came back to his lodging, the Balmung he had thrown away was standing there in the room, waiting for him.
...Was this what they meant by non-transferable?
After that, Kael tried every possible way to escape from this leech of a sword, but every single attempt failed.
In the end, he gave up.
If I get caught, then I get caught. With that mindset, he started walking the streets with Balmung still at his side.
And somehow it still hasn’t been discovered.
He finally understood why people said the light under the lamp was the darkest.
It had been half a month since Kael had started strutting around with Balmung in plain sight, and it still hadn’t been exposed.
No matter how he thought about it, the whole situation was so absurd it made him laugh bitterly.
Kael trudged down the street.
“Good day, sir! Have you eaten yet?!”
A rough-looking man came running up to Kael and bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
The man’s name was Jan.
He was the boss of a notorious gang in the city.
“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me that?”
Kael was already in a foul mood, and when he scowled, Jan nearly jumped out of his skin.
“S-sorry! Sir—! I mean—!”
“...Forget it. Why would I even expect anything.”
Maintaining public order was one of a guard’s duties. As a guard, Kael couldn’t simply ignore thugs causing trouble in the city.
To put it simply, that meant he’d once taken Jan out and beaten him to a pulp.
Jan had been a fairly famous fist-fighter in the city, but Kael had been a professional fighter who’d gone all the way to UFC.
Once Kael decided someone needed to be taught a lesson, Jan was nothing more than a live punching bag.
That day’s result was the man standing before him now.
They weren’t kidding when they said a beating was medicine.
Jan, who had been causing trouble almost every day, had turned as meek as a lamb from that day on.
“I’ve got my own guys looking into the missing national treasure and everything, because I wanted to make your life a little easier, sir. But damn, that crazy bastard really went all out to steal it. There isn’t a single rumor floating around. Whoever he is, once we catch him, I swear I’ll—”
Smack!
Kael’s hand came down on the back of Jan’s head. Jan flinched hard, his eyes watering.
“...Sir?”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Yes, sir.”
As expected of someone from the back alleys, he was quick on the uptake.
“Anyway, don’t cause trouble and keep your people under control.”
“Yes, sir! I’m keeping a very tight rein on them, so don’t worry! You just focus on catching that deranged thief—”
Smack!
“...Sir?”
“What.”
“...Nothing.”
Jan was a human being, so of course he felt wronged, but he didn’t dare show it.
Fear carved deep into the bones wasn’t something you shrugged off easily.
Ever since that day, Kael had become more terrifying to Jan than a ghost.
“Sir, there is something I’d like to ask, though... and it’s a little awkward to bring up. Could we maybe adjust this month’s protection payment? It’s not that I’m saying I’m upset about paying you at all, it’s just that business has been awful because of this whole mess...”
“Haha... protection payment? When did I ever take any protection payment?”
“...Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Ah... r-right! I must have mistaken you for someone else! Then I’ll be going now!”
After bowing again, Jan hurriedly vanished.
Everything he did somehow managed to feel obnoxious. At this point, it almost seemed like he was deliberately poking at Kael just to get a reaction.
Tsk.
Kael clicked his tongue in irritation. His nerves were on edge, and he hated that he couldn’t seem to calm down.
Stay cool.
At times like this, he absolutely couldn’t afford to lose his composure.
There was even an old saying about how if you kept your head, you could survive even after being dragged into a tiger’s den.
Whooooooosh!
Then came a sudden shower.
Heavy rain lashed down on Kael.
He stood there blankly with a dazed expression before slowly lifting his head to stare up at the sky.
“...Damn it.”
It was a deeply lonely mutter.
Just as Kael, drenched and miserable, forced his unwilling feet to move again, a thunderous roar exploded through the air.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
For a second, his mind went completely sharp.
What the hell was that?
His body moved on reflex. Kael broke into a run toward the direction of the sound.
When he arrived, he found a giant of a man standing amid the collapsed buildings.
An insanely muscular body. And large and small scars crisscrossing every inch of him.
At a glance, he looked like someone anything but ordinary, a dangerous man radiating menace.
...What is that guy?
Kael quickly scanned the surroundings to get a better sense of the situation.
Then his gaze locked onto something.
It felt as if his heart had gone cold in an instant.
Amid the rubble of a collapsed building lay a man bleeding on the ground.
It was Max.
Max, who had been exchanging light, meaningless jokes with Kael just moments ago, was now bleeding out.
No, maybe he was already dead.
Kael’s mind went cold, as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head.
Max was one of the few decent seniors in the guard. He was the kind of man Kael might even have introduced to a younger sister, if he’d had one.
“What, another bug crawled in?”
The giant noticed Kael and bared his white teeth in a grin.
Fierce killing intent rolled off him, along with a stench like old grease and rot.
“...Did you do this?”
“Who knows? Why don’t you guess?”
The instant the brute sneered, his body vanished from sight.
“Hello, bug.”
The bastard’s voice came from right behind him.
Kael’s skin erupted in goosebumps, every hair on his body standing on end.
Instead of running, Kael chose to fight.
He twisted his body, planted his foot into the ground, and turned his hips and waist with all his strength.
A full-force high kick, nearly perfect.
The kick drew a clean, graceful arc through the air.
“Look at this one.”
But the giant dodged Kael’s kick with almost insulting ease, simply leaning his upper body back.
“What, you’ve got some moves after all?”
“Go choke on shit.”
Kael snapped back sharply and used the momentum of the kick to rotate his body again.
Whoom!
A backspin blow.
It had been his trump card, a strike he’d pinned real hopes on.
But—
Grab!
This time too, Kael’s attack was shut down with ridiculous ease.
A hand the size of a pot lid clamped around Kael’s arm.
“Oh. What was that just now? You’re more interesting than I thought.”
Crack!
The man laughed and tightened his grip, and Kael felt the arm in his grasp start to cave in. No, it actually did cave in.
...Goddamn it.
The difference in their builds was absurd.
No matter that Kael was a former fighter, he had only ever fought human opponents.
Just because you learned a few fighting techniques didn’t mean you could beat a lion with your bare hands.
“This is fun. Keep going.”
The man grinned and casually threw out a punch.
Bang!
It was a joking little motion, but Kael had no way to resist it and was flung backward.
“...Cough!”
Kael crashed into the ruins of a collapsed building and spat out blood.
For a moment, his consciousness went out.
What kind of punch was that...
It honestly felt less like being hit by a fist than being run over by a truck.
“That’s it?”
The man dug at his ear as he walked toward Kael.
He looked exactly like someone toying with a piece of junk.
...Damn it.
Kael knew it instinctively.
He couldn’t win. No, this wasn’t even a fight to begin with.
It wasn’t a question of resolve.
He was already a wreck after one punch.
It was the same as an ant thrashing around and still never being able to beat an elephant.
Crack.
His teeth ground together. Kael clenched his jaw and forced his broken body upright.
“Why? You want to go again?”
The man laughed as if he found it amusing.
Kael’s head burned hot. It felt like his blood was running backward through his veins.
His brain felt like it might boil over from rage.
This is fucking bullshit.
The man’s grin. That smug, leisurely smile. It hit Kael’s nerves like a knife.
But whether he was pissed off or not, the truth was that just standing on his feet now was a miracle.
His spirit hadn’t broken yet.
But an unbroken spirit didn’t change the situation.
No matter how hard Kael fought, no amount of effort could conjure up a chance that hadn’t existed in the first place.
That was when it happened.
"Draw it."