Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Childhood (1)
When I opened my eyes, the world was in black and white.
It wasn’t that I had never been able to see colors from the beginning.
When my father, who had left on a business trip, died, the color red disappeared.
When my mother vanished with a single letter, the color yellow disappeared.
And after about five years of being abandoned in this underground city, all color disappeared.
“Ugh… cough…!”
Blood splattered across the dirty window of the tavern.
“Ck….”
“I have no personal feelings about this.”
The boy’s dark gray eyes showed no emotion at all.
Blood burst out from the man sliding down the wall.
“Phileon, this is your final warning.”
The boy, Ain, with gray eyes and gray hair, kept his sword aimed.
“Pay your debt, or hand over the establishment.”
“You bastard… Red Coffin’s hunting dog!”
Thud, thud!
Phileon clenched his teeth and charged at Ain.
“How dare you threaten me!”
“….”
The boy’s eyes did not waver even once.
Creeeak.
A rotating ceiling fan cast alternating light and shadow across Ain’s face.
Bright light reflected off his gray eyes.
“Got you—”
The moment Phileon stretched out a large hand to crush his head.
Darkness fell.
“Ghk!”
In an instant, the boy vanished from sight and drove his sword into the man’s chest.
A gush of blood poured over Ain.
To him, the bright red blood was nothing more than a thick black liquid.
“…Haa.”
Ain pulled out his sword and grabbed the dead man by the hair.
He dragged the corpse through the city until he reached a pit so deep it seemed bottomless.
At the end of the execution, Ain threw the body into the abyss.
The man’s family and subordinates watching nearby trembled, forcing down their fear as they stared at the boy.
“The tavern will be taken over by Red Coffin. Nothing changes.”
The underground city of Ertzheim.
It was ruled by a gang known as Red Coffin.
“You… hunting dog. Watch your back at night.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ain sheathed his steel sword and left the tavern.
It had already been three years since he rose from a lowly miner digging mana stones to becoming a hunting dog of the gang.
Thud.
“Hey, you bastard, open your eyes when you wa—”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, you’re Red Coffin’s dog? My bad.”
Ain had become famous enough that no one in the city didn’t recognize him.
Episode I. Black Star
Knock, knock—
Ain knocked on the gang boss’s door.
“Heinkel, it’s me.”
There was no reply.
He was supposed to receive today’s payment.
“Heinkel?”
Ain slowly opened the door and stepped inside.
This was the tallest building in the underground city of Ertzheim.
At its center stood a man who watched everything through windows open on all sides.
Broad shoulders, tall frame, a scar over his right eye, and heavily built muscles.
Heinkel, the boss of Red Coffin.
“I was waiting for you, Ain.”
Heinkel slowly turned away from the window.
“Sit.”
The moment he wiped blood from his eye corner, he felt another presence.
A guest seat placed to the side.
When Ain turned his gaze there, he doubted his own eyes.
“A girl?”
It wasn’t just that she was a girl.
Color.
Her hair and eyes still had color.
“….”
Ain stared at her, almost entranced.
Light purple hair and light pink eyes.
Heinkel followed his gaze and smiled faintly.
“I picked her up.”
“Picked… her up?”
She was trembling all over.
“She said she escaped after being held by heretics. Bad luck. Of all places, she ended up here in the underground city.”
Her body looked intact, but her clothes were torn, clearly showing she had suffered something terrible.
“She was drifting through the sewage when one of ours found her.”
Heinkel pointed aside.
A corpse lay there.
“Looks like she took one of ours down with her.”
“….”
Ain didn’t remember his name, but he was definitely one of theirs.
His neck was torn, likely by teeth.
He must have fought hard.
“So what will you do?”
“Before that. Did you finish today’s work?”
“Yes. Phileon is dead.”
“He was a former knight like me. You’ve grown stronger, Ain.”
Ain shook his head without hesitation.
“Still nowhere near as strong as you, Heinkel.”
That was survival here.
“Khahaha! Of course. You could never beat me.”
Heinkel would execute anyone who showed even a hint of betrayal.
Many had died that way, including loyal hunting dogs.
“Here’s your payment.”
Clink!
Heinkel tossed a pouch with five gold coins.
“Thank you.”
“And that too.”
He tilted his head toward the girl.
“…Huh? Ah, understood.”
Heinkel hated being asked twice.
Ain misunderstood for a moment, then understood immediately.
“I’ll take my leave, Heinkel.”
“Before that. I need payment for the merchandise.”
“….”
Ain placed the coin pouch back down.
“Go on.”
Heinkel waved with a smile.
Ain walked quickly toward the girl.
“Come with me.”
He held out his hand.
Snap!
The girl glared at him and slapped his hand away.
Heinkel clicked his tongue and approached.
“Our young lady still doesn’t understand her situation—”
At that moment.
Sshing!
“Come with me.”
Ain drew his sword and pressed it to her neck.
“Is that hard to understand?”
“…Worst.”
The girl spoke weakly in defiance.
Heinkel was surely smiling in satisfaction.
“Come with me if you don’t want to die.”
Ain grabbed her wrist and left the office.
As they walked through the hallway, gang members greeted him constantly.
Ain didn’t like showing this in front of her.
“What’s your name?”
“….”
He led her into a corner.
“Sorry about earlier. If you had stayed there, something worse would’ve happened.”
After hearing his explanation, the girl’s hostility softened a little.
“You’re with them?”
“Yes.”
“If you plan to hurt me, I won’t let you.”
“I’m not planning to.”
“Then what are you going to do with me?”
Ain looked her up and down without answering.
“First, I asked your name.”
“…I don’t have one.”
Ain closed his eyes briefly.
He remembered something from long ago.
A time when they were still together.
His mother’s favorite flower, and the girl’s hair color, were very similar.
There was a legend of a flower that bloomed where a goddess once died.
That goddess was—
“Amyu, Amyuklia.”
“Amyuklia.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t have a name, I’ll give you one. Amyuklia. Is that okay?”
“Amyu… klia…”
The girl repeated it, then glanced at Ain and turned her head away.
“It’s a pretty name, but that doesn’t mean I think you’re a good person!”
Ain nodded quietly.
On the gray rooftop of District 8, Street 11, gray rain poured down.
Even here, where artificial lights replaced stars, rain still fell.
“Didn’t I tell you to be careful at night?”
“….”
The liquid running down Ain’s face didn’t feel like rain.
It was blood.
A moment of carelessness.
He felt his senses dulling.
Not paralysis.
Cold numbness.
“Clever trick…”
He threw a dagger, but it was easily blocked.
“Last words?”
“Just kill me quickly.”
“Hey, at least beg for your life!”
Phileon’s group laughed.
A heavy iron mace dripped with something sticky.
“Beg.”
“Please, I—”
“…”
He was just barely alive.
There was no reason to live.
“Amyu…?”
“What?”
At that moment.
“Hyaaa!!”
A white cloth flashed through the air.
Thud!
The girl landed, gripping a man’s neck with her legs and pressing a small icicle against him.
“Everyone back off!”
The girl shouted, trembling but fierce.
“I said back off! I mean it!”
She drove the icicle into the man’s neck.
“Aghhh!!”
Panic broke out.
“Get back! Or I’ll kill him!”
That was Amyuklia.
What was she doing here?
“Hey! You! Get up!”
“…”
“Move!”
Her light purple hair and pink eyes stood out in the black-and-white world.
A single pair of colors in everything he had lost.
“She’s mine!”
One of them grabbed her ankle and flipped her upside down.
“Enough of her! We already have the hunting dog!”
“Even if Heinkel brought her, she’s dying today!”
A surge of gray mana spread through the air.
Just being enveloped by it strengthened the body several times over.
“Mana—”
Slash!
The girl fell.
A sword pierced her heart.
He cut down the next man’s throat immediately.
“Ugh—”
He finished the last one.
Only then did he catch her as she was still falling.
He supported her back and legs.
“You’re staring too much.”
“Thanks?”
“What for?”
“You saved me.”
He let go.
She fell to the ground.
“Hey! What was that!”
“Don’t look away until it’s over.”
“You’re weird…”
“Because it was dangerous.”
He threw ointment toward her.
“Put it on your ankle.”
“You think this makes up for saving me?”
While she applied it, her face slowly turned red.
“You saw, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“You did.”
“No.”
“You did!!”
“I didn’t.”
“You didn’t even know what it was!”
“…I don’t know.”
“You changed your answer! You brat!”
“Don’t call me a brat when you’re walking around in barely anything—”
“So you did see!”
She leaned closer.
A warm sunlight scent filled the air.
“You’re going to take responsibility, right?”
“I already did. I brought you here. How were you supposed to survive alone?”
“W-what… really?”
There was a reason to live.
Years passed.
The two became part of each other’s daily life.
“Hey Ain! The pancake is alive!”
“….”
A giant pancake writhed like a monster.
Ain cut through its tentacles and stabbed the center.
Mana spread through the air.
“Ain, is that mana?”
“Yes.”
He tasted the liquid.
It was sweet.
Apparently it really was a pancake.
“You can use mana?”
“Yes. But you’re not supposed to tell anyone.”
“Why?”
“Heinkel would kill me.”
“He doesn’t know?”
“Probably not.”
If he did, he would have killed him already.
Heinkel was the only one in the city who could use mana freely.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To buy sugar.”
Years passed.
They became part of each other’s world.
“Hey Ain!”
“I’m fine.”
“Lady Amy!”
The city recognized both of them.
“Where are you thinking again?”
“You don’t belong here!”
“I belong next to you!”
“Am I supposed to be sad if you leave?”
“…Maybe.”
She kissed him.
“I love you, Ain.”
“Forever.”
That night, Heinkel spoke outside the tavern.
“Nervous?”
“…Not really.”
His cigar shook.
“That’s just a condition.”
“You were a knight, right?”
“I bit my own master.”
Ain entered the tavern.
“Count it. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.”
Crash!
The door shut.
“Twenty people.”
Ain stepped inside alone.
Steel flashed.
Blood sprayed.
Bones broke.
Arms were severed.
Two corpses were dragged out in his hands.
“You’ve grown.”
“It’s been a few months since you taught me.”
“Not that.”
“You’re talented.”
“I might be.”
“You brat…”
They walked together through the city.
Execution always ended at the pit.
Ain threw the bodies in.
“Did I raise you wrong?”
“You’re how old now?”
“Almost fourteen.”
“What do you want to do?”
Ain looked up.
No sky.
Only pipes, smoke, and artificial light.
“I’m fine as I am.”
“I don’t want to go to the surface.”
“That’s right.”
Heinkel laughed.
“You’re a good hunting dog.”
But then—
“My daughter came to see you.”
“Amy?”
“She’s getting curious about the surface.”
“People should know their place.”
“…Yes, Heinkel.”
Ain nodded.