The Black Demon Sword
Three years had passed.
My brother Cedric, who was two years older than me, passed the mid-level mage exam and was admitted to the Imperial Central Academy at the same time. The appropriate age for entering the academy was eighteen. Father had given me five years when I was thirteen because that was how long it would take to become the youngest ever to enter the Imperial Central Academy. Anyway, it was the day Cedric was heading to the academy. First-years were required to live in the dorms, so he had to load his luggage onto the carriage and prepare to leave the Fredericia Mansion.
My family and I came out to see him off, each offering a word or two.
"Cedric. Don't tarnish the Fredericia name. Though I expect you won't."
"Don't worry, Father. I'll make the greatness of the Fredericia family known."
Mother chimed in as well.
"If any other noble looks down on you or the Fredericia family, send a letter. I'll come and kill them."
I added my piece too.
"Please come back stronger from the academy, Brother. You're so weak right now."
"Tone down that attitude of yours while you're at it, Celestia. Don't you have any common sense?"
"Isn't that just like a true Fredericia?"
"Well..."
Cedric said that as he looked over the family members who'd come to see him off. Yeah. There were no normal people in the Fredericia family. Father was an extreme sociopath who would sell off his wife as a hostage for the family's benefit if needed. Mother had anger management issues—she'd turned more than a few social gatherings into utter chaos. My brother Cedric was the epitome of the strong-against-weak, weak-against-strong type: he acted like a proper noble around those stronger than him but became a thorough villain to the weak. And me... well, I seemed normal enough. Yeah... I was the only sane one in the Fredericia family.
"At least I'm normal. Unlike the rest of you."
"You're the one lacking common sense."
"Where else are you going to find someone as sensible as me? Hurry up and get to the academy already."
With that, I sent Cedric off to the Imperial Central Academy.
Right after Cedric left, I dove into my usual solo training session. As always, I hid in a carriage and headed out beyond the city walls. Then I ventured deeper into the forest.
I gazed at the wooden sword I'd brought along. It was a sturdy friend that had endured my heavy strikes for nearly three years.
"Teacher Edn really knows his way around wooden swords..."
If it had been some random practice sword I'd picked up anywhere, it would've snapped after not even a single clash, no doubt about it.
With wooden sword in hand, I strode forward purposefully—and sensed presences. Countless monsters, watching me tensely. I remembered them. The bear hiding in the bushes to my left was my "light sparring partner"—it had broken about four times before fleeing. The brown wolf to my right was my "warm-up." A grateful buddy that fed me experience points. And beyond them, Light Heavy, Medium Heavy, Heavy, Captain Heavy, Rock Heavy, and more... all my experience-point pals had gathered.
'As long as I don't kill them, it's infinite experience copying.'
That was my training method. Beat them up just short of death, come back later, beat them again. Repeat infinitely, and you had a perfect experience factory—no mob respawns needed. Thanks to that, I'd grown ridiculously strong over the past three years. I was confident I could take down a dragon with this wooden sword now.
I pushed through the monsters watching me, striding onward. This time, determined not to lose, they'd formed an unprecedented alliance transcending species, encircling and tailing me cautiously.
'Cute little friends.'
I raised my wooden sword, spinning it 360 degrees to point at each one in turn. Only then did the enraged monsters start emerging one by one. I curled my lips into a grin and said,
"I'll take you on with my eyes closed."
Today, since they all rushed me together, farming experience was a breeze. But they weren't my goal today.
'Dopamine's running low...'
This forest offered only one-sided beatdowns now—no real challenge. I decided to head deeper.
As far as I knew, there was a massive mountain north of the capital. White Mountain. That's where the dragon the protagonist tamed lived. And the original novel, Star-Eyed Sword, started two years from now—the same time we'd enter the Imperial Central Academy.
'Better kill it early.'
The future would diverge from the original anyway, but preemptively eliminating the protagonist's reliable dragon backup seemed like a smart, stress-free move. After all, fate had me standing against the protagonist.
'I can do it, right?'
The original protagonist did, so... yeah, me too.
And so, venturing deep into the forest, I reached the foothills of White Mountain.
The name White Mountain came from the endless eternal snows blanketing it. No normal person could climb that peak in a single day. Yeah. No normal person.
"I'll take you on with my eyes closed."
I pointed my wooden sword at the mountain and declared it. Then I started climbing at full power. Leaping dozens of meters with each bound. Three years of sucking up experience like a sponge had pushed me far beyond ordinary human limits. I hadn't just played around in the northern capital forest either. Hunting strong monsters meant far-flung expeditions, returning in a day—that was routine now. I'd bagged a lintbloom in the southern canyons, a giant worm in the western plains.
I needed my dopamine fix.
'This'll be good stimulation...'
That's why I was hyped for a dragon. How massive would it really be? How strong? How threatening? I was off to meet the dragon I'd only known from legends and Star-Eyed Sword's prose. Excitement outweighed any worry.
White Mountain was bigger than I'd imagined.
'I've run this far, and that's all?'
I must've thought that dozens, hundreds of times. Finally reaching the summit, I wandered in search of the artificial terrain described in the original—like a dragon's lair. And there it was: a small cave entrance big enough for one person.
"This the place...?"
Brushing away snow, I poked around the entrance. The original hadn't mentioned it being this tiny... Anyway, I drew my wooden sword and cautiously stepped inside. That's when I heard humming. From the peak of White Mountain. Where the air was so thin normal people would pass out. A girl's voice, utterly out of place up there.
'No need to hide, then.'
If my guess was right, that voice belonged to the last ancient dragon, Caldercion.
"Hello? Got a guest here. No welcome party?"
I announced myself openly and strolled in slowly. A girl emerged to face me. White eyes, white hair. Exactly as described in the novel. Dragon tail stretching behind, horns on her head, skin pale as noted.
"Who're you?"
"Here to kill you. Last ancient dragon, Caldercion."
I pointed my wooden sword right at her, declaring it outright, and she smirked. Then nodded.
"I'll be ready, so come out and wait?"
"Sure, I'll give you that much."
Despite it being our first meeting, we wrapped up like old friends. I quietly stepped outside. And waited. Waited a good long while. The evening sun was setting. Hurry up already... Tired of waiting, I peeked back inside. A single letter lay there. No sign of the last ancient dragon, Caldercion.
Sorry, but I'm running away.
— Caldercion
"..."
The dragon had fled.
I got it. How the last ancient dragon Caldercion had remained the last. I understood perfectly.
'Pathetic...'
She'd abandoned her own lair and bolted. No idea how, but... secret passage? And I grasped one more thing. In the original Star-Eyed Sword, when the protagonist subdued Caldercion, what she'd said afterward finally made sense.
—"I didn't expect you to get that strong so suddenly!"
Caldercion lost by a hair to the protagonist, who powered up in real-time during their fight. In simple terms, she dominated early on. Yeah. If the protagonist had been stronger than her from the start, she'd have run.
A hollow laugh escaped me amid the letdown. I started rummaging through Caldercion's lair for anything useful. Dragon lairs were always like this: stuffed with gold, silver, treasures, rare items from around the world. Caldercion's survival instincts were off the charts, making her ditch the lair—but most dragons guarded theirs to the death. Anyway, figuring hers had something worthwhile, I poked around.
"Oh, gold and jewels."
Sure enough, a warehouse-like room held gems, jewelry, shiny trinkets. Ancient books, elixirs, paintings by legendary artists—valuables galore.
And among them, one treasure stood out most.
"What's this?"
Handle with care.
It was labeled Magic Sword 'Black Demon Sword'. Handle with care. Looked stolen from some museum or relic vault—management tag and all. But no owner now. Meaning, mine for the taking. Spoils from a runaway loser were fair game.
"Ooh... nice grip."
I picked up the sword tagged Black Demon Sword. The tag was annoying, so I ripped it off and drew the blade. No scabbard—just a straight, single-edged sword reminiscent of a Japanese katana. Yeah, no denying it: a katana.
"Badass."
A cool swordsman deserved a cool sword. It was decided. This would be my beloved blade from now on. Right there, I chucked Teacher Edn's gifted wooden sword aside carelessly.