The Seventh Holy Sword Prison

I became a prison warden.

No— in this case, it might be more accurate to say I became a museum curator. After all, this pristine white facility had nothing resembling iron bars for locking people away.

“How the hell is this supposed to be a prison?”

Beyond the semi-transparent barriers, countless swords stood isolated in confinement. Every last one of them glittered with a holy radiance. There were no ordinary prisoners here. The only things locked up in this place were extraordinary divine weapons, one after another.

“…No matter how you look at it, this is a museum.”

Seol Yuhyeon, twenty-five-year-old F-grade hunter. I had just become the master of a holy sword museum that didn’t have a single visitor.

This was the age of hunters.

Television constantly rattled off the names of famous hunters, and the streets were plastered with advertisements featuring their faces. And me? In this era of hunters, I was one of those so-called Empty Awakeners.

No special traits to speak of, not a single proper skill under my belt—barely even qualified to be called a hunter at all. That was me, Seol Yuhyeon.

“Why risk your neck going into a gate? Better to sit in an office with the air conditioning blasting and just do your job.”

Of course, being an awakener didn’t mean you had to dive into gates. Especially for empty awakeners like me, most of us just held regular jobs like any ordinary person. I wasn’t much different. As an elite from the computer engineering department, I had zero reason to set foot in a dungeon.

“So, Mr. Seol Yuhyeon. Why should we hire you?”

“…Excuse me?”

“We have AI. Why should we hire someone with no experience like you?”

“…Yeah, good question.”

A few hours earlier, that had been my reality. I’d walked into the job interview with a pounding heart, only to get hammered with unanswerable questions from the interviewer and then unceremoniously kicked out.

“Seriously, if this was how it was going to go, why even call people in?”

Honestly, I felt a little wronged. You had to build experience first before you could show anything, right? It was more than enough to put a scratch on the pride I’d always carried as an elite.

“Hah, whatever… Just you watch. You think I have nowhere else to go?”

Of course, Seol Yuhyeon wasn’t the kind of man who folded after one failure. There had to be somewhere in this world that would take me. With that thought, I flooded companies with applications and showed up for interview after interview.

Two months later, to my utter astonishment, not a single company on earth was willing to hire me.

“….”

Scratch, scratch. Sitting at my desk in a tracksuit, I checked the latest rejection notices.

“What the hell. Why is there really nothing?”

I never imagined the world could have this few companies. Looks like I was in real trouble. With my elite pride thoroughly shattered, I had no choice but to get up from my seat.

“Haah, damn it….”

At this point, empty awakener or not, I couldn’t afford to be picky. I was going to have to go into a gate and work as a porter if I had to. A man’s pride only held up when he had money to back it. I decided then and there to head to the dungeon manpower office.

“Ah, I haven’t claimed my daily quest reward yet.”

Scratch that. I’d head to the dungeon manpower office in about ten minutes.

Beyond the gates lay dungeons—hellish realms crawling with creatures that didn’t exist on Earth. Hunters cleared out the monsters that poured from those places and harvested high-purity energy crystals in the process. And me? I was the guy who carried the bags in those dungeons.

“Hey, rookie! Why aren’t you keeping up?”

“Sorry, Mr. Kim!”

More precisely, I had become the porter for an E-rank party. E-rank was the label slapped on the weakest monsters, but even those were plenty strong against empty awakeners like me. That left me with exactly one job: packing the supplies the party hunters needed and stuffing heavy loot into bags to haul around. That was the role given to non-combat personnel like porters.

“You know you can’t fall too far behind, right? Get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lost in a dungeon and you’re dead that same day.”

Of course, being non-combat didn’t mean you were safe. Dungeons were places where death always lurked. Monsters didn’t go easy on porters. Everyone in the party had to stay sharp at all times.

“Yes, Mr. Kim. Of course.”

I flashed a bright, eager smile at Mr. Kim across from me and nodded. The veteran porter seemed pleased with my answer, wearing a satisfied look. He’d been doing this for over ten years, he’d said. True to his reputation as a well-connected face at the dungeon manpower office, Mr. Kim was busy introducing me to the party we’d joined.

“This party’s near the top even among E-ranks. Stick close and you won’t get hurt.”

“Oh, really?”

“Wouldn’t be surprising if they jumped to D-rank any day now.”

The one silver lining was that this party was genuinely competent for E-rank. By pure skill they were already close to D-rank, apparently. With a group like this, we weren’t likely to run into any unfortunate accidents in the dungeon. At the very least, we’d make it back safely today.

“Hearing you say that really puts me at ease, Mr. Kim.”

“Anyway, don’t worry about it, rookie. Just make sure you handle the loot so the hunters don’t have any trouble.”

“Ah, of course. Naturally.”

I nodded along, carefully taking in the veteran porter’s advice. Right on cue, it seemed an E-rank monster had appeared up ahead. The hunters he’d so confidently introduced were gearing up for combat.

“Seven skeletons spotted! Combat ready!”

“Hold formation and wait in position!”

At the voice of the hunter who looked like the leader, every hunter locked into combat stance. And right in front of them, skeletons came shambling slowly into view. Skeletons were the kind of monsters even low-rank hunters took down with room to spare. This looked like the perfect chance to properly size up an E-rank hunter party’s skills.

Mr. Kim, the veteran porter, seemed just as eager to watch them shine. He pointed at the hunters with a grin and started talking them up.

“Watch closely, rookie. That’s the skill of hunters who are basically D-rank already.”

“Yes, Mr. Kim! I’ll watch carefully!”

And so the battle between the E-rank hunter party and the monsters began.

When the fierce battle ended, the E-rank hunter party had been completely wiped out. And I was racing through the middle of the dungeon, covered in blood.

Huff, huff—

Harsh breaths tore from my throat as I clutched my heart, which felt ready to burst, and ran with everything I had.

“Haa, ha…!”

Heat pulsed from the blood streaming down my forearm. Still, I bit down on my lip and kept running. The hunter party that had brought me into this dungeon as their porter was gone. There was no one left to protect me here. If I wanted to survive, I had to run like hell.

“Why the hell did a banshee have to pop out right there…!”

I replayed the E-rank party’s fight from moments ago. Just as Mr. Kim had promised, the party had shown solid skill right from the start, methodically taking down the approaching skeletons one by one. The problem was the new monster that crashed the party mid-fight.

A D-rank monster: the banshee. The moment that spirit-type monster appeared, the E-rank party’s formation collapsed.

“….”

They might have been close to D-rank, but they weren’t a real D-rank party. As a result, our entire group was wiped out. Now I was sprinting for my life, trying to put distance between myself and the banshee that was surely hot on my heels even now.

“Where… huff… am I even supposed to go…?”

Huff, huff. Dragging in ragged breaths, I scanned my surroundings. I couldn’t keep running from the banshee forever. The second it caught me, my body would be torn to shreds.

“Somewhere… a place to hide….”

I had to find somewhere I could escape to. If I could just hide from the banshee, I might still have a shot at tomorrow. I poured every ounce of strength into running—

Crack!

—and stepped wrong on a branch blocking the path, slipping hard.

“Ah…!”

Thud—. My body lost its balance and tumbled across the ground in a rolling heap. Fierce pain shot through me as I rolled. Gritting my teeth, I tried desperately to push myself back up.

Kyaaaaaaaaaah——!

But the streak of bad luck that had been dogging me for months clearly had no intention of letting go. How had it gotten this close without me noticing? While I was trying to regain my balance, the banshee’s wail exploded right next to me.

“Banshee…!”

That horrific voice rattling my eardrums. Listening to a sound so bone-chilling it could haunt my nightmares, I felt despair crash over me.

This is really the end…!

The D-rank monster, the banshee, had completely caught up. Against a spirit-type monster, there was no way out of here. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the future that was about to hit me.

Kyaak! Kyaaaaah——!

“….”

Kyaaaaaaaaaah——!

Before long, I opened my eyes again to the banshee’s noisy screaming. Blink. Blink. No matter how many times I closed and opened them, I was still alive. And the banshee that had been chasing me was still shrieking just a few steps away.

Kyaaaaah——!

“What the hell. Why are you just screaming instead of killing me?”

Feeling absurd, I stared at the banshee howling right in front of me. It was rooted to the spot, glaring at me. Then I looked behind me. This time I found a smooth metal door that looked completely out of place in a dungeon.

“….”

Step by step, I backed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠several paces farther from the banshee’s position. It didn’t follow. It just glared and wailed from where it stood.

Kyaak! Kyaaaaaaaaaah——!

“Don’t tell me….”

At this point, even an F-grade hunter like me could figure out the situation. Something beyond that door behind me was holding the banshee back. There was no other reason for it to be this terrified.

“There’s something on the other side of this, isn’t there?”

Kyaaaaaaaaaah——!

I grinned at the banshee. They say even if the sky falls, there’s always a hole to crawl through—looked like the heavens hadn’t abandoned Seol Yuhyeon after all. The only place that could keep me alive against the banshee in front of me. I reached for it.

“Then of course I’m going in!”

Rrrrumble—.

The massive metal doors swung open to either side, and brilliant light poured out. A radiance so dazzling it felt sacred flooded my vision in an instant.

As the thick metal doors opened, the scenery beyond them began to reveal itself—and it far surpassed anything I had imagined.

“Ah….”

A pure white space steeped in a futuristic atmosphere. Semi-transparent glass barriers filling the interior. And beyond that glass, holy and beautiful blades of every kind, each holding a multicolored radiance.

—Holy Swords.

Weapons that could only be described by that name were carefully stored throughout the pristine white space.

“This place… is a museum…?”

Faced with that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠majestic sight, I soon reached a conclusion about this space. It was a museum. A sacred museum packed full of holy swords in every color of the spectrum. And I was the only guest who had found this vast museum.

“Wait, what did you just say…?”

Scratch that. It seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I had just become the sole caretaker of this vast museum.