Chapter 19
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The First Trial
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“Now.”
The training period for a FakeWarrior is typically three years.
Chief Training Instructor Olliere began the FakeWarrior education with the following question.
“What is the fundamental difference between a FakeWarrior and other swordsmen?”
Clang!
Kaisen, barely managing to parry Olliere’s blade, tilted his head.
“The difference between a FakeWarrior and a regular swordsman… is that they possess strength greater than any other.”
“That’s also true, but I’m asking a different question. Why do you think they possess such strength?”
There was no time to focus on the question.
A merciless storm of sword strikes bore down on him, and Kaisen retreated again and again.
“Kaisen, you were Camilla’s disciple, weren’t you? Do you remember what her goal was?”
“Her goal… you ask?”
A goal. His memory was a blank slate.
Nothing in particular came to mind. The Camilla he remembered was always fighting. For humanity.
“Exactly! A FakeWarrior has a mission. The mission to protect humanity. Because of that mission, a FakeWarrior is honorable. And that is why they earn the right to be ‘made’ strong.”
Olliere’s tone seemed stern, yet it was gentle. It was different from Camilla’s dismissive way of speaking, who had tried not to get attached.
“At the end of their third year of training, other trainees swallow something called a Dragon Spirit Stone to imbue their bodies with the power of the Dragon Tongue.”
A Dragon Spirit Stone…
Right, he remembered. He had heard of it.
Camilla could instantly regenerate a lost limb or a damaged organ.
It was thanks to the Dragon Blood Serum she always carried like a standard-issue medicine; injecting it into an artery would grant her the regenerative abilities of a dragon for a moment.
He remembered Wolf explaining that one needed to have a Dragon Spirit Stone embedded in their body to use that power.
“It’s a stone inscribed with the Dragon Tongue for ‘convert life force into physical ability.’ The very essence of a FakeWarrior’s power. Nine out of ten die in the process.”
“So only one survives.”
“It’s because the power runs rampant as it settles into the body. Only the cadets who can endure it survive.”
“I see.”
“And even if they survive that, there’s a high probability they won’t be chosen by the Supreme Holy Sword and become a FakeWarrior. Don’t be surprised. It’s a lot even if one graduate comes out of each class.”
That was as far as it went.
Olliere’s blade struck the guard of Kaisen’s sword, knocking it from his hand to fly through the air.
“Even after completing the graduation ceremony against all odds, they might receive standard officer training and be sent to the battlefield, or they might remain at the Papal Office to become a training instructor. Like me.”
Whether one becomes a FakeWarrior or not, from the moment training begins, they are cut off from the secular world, becoming a tool to fight for the survival of humanity.
“The noble brats who come here seeking honor and glory usually leave the Hall of Valiant Swords after hearing this. What about you?”
Olliere had wondered if he would be just as bewildered as the others, but Kaisen’s face was simply serene.
Death and war had always flickered at the edge of the boy’s life, so there was nothing to fear.
He wore the exact same expression as Camilla, who had stood beside Olliere all those years ago.
‘Right, so that boy is truly your disciple…’
Even if no one told me, I could tell just by looking at his eyes. Hmph, in that case, perhaps I’ll keep my promise too.
Origin,
Kaisen Alter Aradamanthel (2)
“Did you say you wish to have Kaisen skip grades?”
Chief Instructor Olliere Dune Jeray headed to the Dragon Spirit Hall on the 99th floor, the highest level of the Papal Office.
The Dragon Spirit Hall was home to the five True Dragons, the five pillars of the Papal Office.
On the 100th-floor rooftop, known as the Celestial Palace, the Light Dragon Haraderiman was convalescing from his illness.
In short, Olliere had been granted an exceptional entry into a space that even the Elector Princes of the Empire dared not enter, for the purpose of an extraordinary report.
“No, Your Eminence. It is beyond simply skipping grades. I intend for him to undergo the physical enhancement process that the third-year cadets will soon receive.”
Cardinal Yoshuhar cautiously stroked his long, white beard.
“The physical enhancement process, you say.”
His massive body, complete with a dragon’s head and tail, was humanoid in form and shimmered, covered in golden scales.
“Do you mean to administer the Dragon Spirit Stone to that child immediately, Olliere Dune Jeray?”
“That is correct, Your Eminence. There is nothing more to teach him about the sword.”
“Just as Johan Wolf Frost vouched for him, then.”
“He is more than that. No, I cannot even begin to fathom the limits of his talent. Further training is meaningless, as even I can no longer teach him. He is a talent that must be sent to the battlefield at once.”
In the last hundred years, no candidate had ever received such high praise from a chief instructor, with the sole exception of Raminea.
“And what of his academic studies?”
“To be honest, I cannot say they are perfect, but I will take responsibility for his education.”
Cardinal Yoshuhar turned his gaze to his comrades. Cardinal Hagon spoke in a worried tone.
“There have been precedents of administering the Dragon Spirit Stone to a male, though long ago, and all of them died. Yoshuhar, will this be alright?”
“Why do you ask me?”
“The blood of the child you cherished… never mind. Is it possible, Olliere Dune Jeray? The likelihood of death seems high.”
To the unexpectedly agreeable question from the Cardinal, Olliere immediately showed his respects.
“That is an answer not for me, but for Kaisen to show you. However, I can dare to say with conviction, that boy can do it.”
Cardinal Inrahit took a long breath. Among the five cardinals, he alone was in the form of a Golden Dragon, gazing at the distant sky with a low groan.
“Summer is at its peak. The number of Valiant Warriors who have barely survived to wield a sword is a mere four. The state of the war that has befallen the children of light is dire indeed, Olliere.”
“You speak the truth, Your Eminence.”
“Among those learning the ways of the Warrior, two are disciples of a former Valiant Warrior. If we add that child, Kaisen, it will be three.”
Inrahit’s next words were not for Olliere, but for his fellow cardinals.
“If we can send them all into the heart of summer, the tide of war will surely turn. I, Inrahit, will accept the counsel of Olliere Dune Jeray.”
* * *
“Hmph. I trust you have a general understanding from your three years of lessons about the changes the Dragon Spirit Stone induces in the body.”
The master smith representing the Papal Office’s Holy Workshop was a tall, straight-backed old man.
His name was Stan.
His eyes, which had stared into a furnace his entire life, were rheumy, but he was the continent’s foremost expert in FakeWarrior weapon engineering.
“The Dragon Spirit Stone is a stone imbued with a total of 68 Dragon Tongues. It grants power that surpasses human limits in various aspects, such as physical ability, reflexes, and recovery speed. Would you care to demonstrate, Instructor?”
The instructor for the 997th class, Kelly Dune Jeray, was a woman with a neurotic air and glasses.
The 997th class, meaning the third-year lesson.
Kelly clapped her hands briefly to draw the cadets’ attention.
“What do you think would happen to my hand if I were to strike this steel plate without channeling mana into it?”
“It would break.”
“Normally, yes. But.”
When Kelly struck the steel plate with her fist, it dented deeply with a sickening metallic screech.
“A FakeWarrior with the power of the Dragon Spirit Stone does not fall into that ‘normal’ category.”
“…!”
“Of course, that’s if you don’t die in the process of accepting this power. A FakeWarrior is humanity’s strongest soldier, but they often die from the most trivial of mistakes in the process of becoming one.”
“A trivial mistake, you say?”
“You’ll find out in due time. Don’t forget, there was once an idiot who nearly broke his own spine because he didn’t realize his own amplified strength and tried to scratch his back.”
Laughter erupted here and there.
It was then that the door to the modification room, where the 997th class was in session, opened.
“You seem to have left out the part where that story was about you, Kelly.”
Huh…?
The one who entered was Chief Instructor Olliere Dune Jeray, and the cadets quickly paid their respects.
Kelly tilted her head and asked.
“Chief Instructor, what is it?”
“Ah, you didn’t get the message? He’s scheduled to have his first Dragon Spirit Stone infusion with the rest of you today.”
“A first-year?”
At Olliere’s nod, the black-haired boy, Kaisen, stepped into the lab.
A boy, he was a boy.
With a strong jawline and sturdy shoulders, the top cadets of the 997th class reacted with interest at the appearance of an unfamiliar male.
“Aha, so that’s him…”
“Camilla’s disciple. He has a similar air about him.”
“Doesn’t that mean he’s the disciple of the disciple of the Crimson Lotus, Lady Raminea?”
The news that Camilla’s male disciple had enrolled in the Hall of Valiant Swords was already famous.
Many FakeWarriors had died when the Inferno Line was breached, so the 997th class had two direct disciples of FakeWarriors enrolled.
“Stan, you were informed, I assume?”
“Of course, I have it prepared.”
Stan took out a honeycomb-shaped ceramic container packed with long glass vials. He pulled one out to show them; the sloshing liquid inside was dark and murky.
“This is a solution of the Dragon Spirit Stone, diluted to its limit. The mortality rate during the infusion process is high.”
“!”
“To lower that very mortality rate, we conduct a total of five preliminary infusions. We gradually increase the concentration each time. By the fifth infusion, the concentration will be about fifty percent of the original solution.”
The smooth path for Kaisen to become a FakeWarrior was severed right there, during that Dragon Spirit Stone infusion process.
Olliere brought out a glass vial. He placed it in Kaisen’s hand. The stopper was sealed tight.
Olliere met Kaisen’s gaze.
“Honestly, I don’t know what the result will be. No man has ever survived this process.”
“…”
“But I have a conviction that you might be different. The choice is yours, Kaisen.”
“I’ll drink it.”
The eyes of the 997th class cadets were fixed on Kaisen.
To make a decision so quickly…
Even though he could die.
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“I am not afraid.”
Death was like nature. It had always been in the boy’s life, never having left his side.
The boy uncorked the stopper.
The metallic scent of rusted iron wafted up.
“I will drink it.”
The boy glanced once at Olliere, then tilted his head back and poured the solution into his mouth.
“Kaisen!”
To get straight to the point, Kaisen’s first attempt at the Dragon Spirit Stone infusion was a failure.
Amidst the searing agony, as if his blood vessels and pancreas were burning cold, a thick, hot substance burst endlessly from his eyes, ears, and mouth.
Clots of blood blocked his windpipe.
Unable to breathe, Kaisen collapsed to the floor, gasping desperately for air before passing out. He was moved to the infirmary.
“What happened, Stan! Are you sure you diluted it properly?”
“Of course. The other cadets had no problems.”
“Chief Instructor, isn’t it impossible to make a man into a FakeWarrior after all? To fail on the very first try.”
“No… he’s not dead yet, is he?”
He wasn’t dead. Right, he wasn’t dead. But all that remained was his life.
When he awoke in the infirmary bed two days later, the world was blurry, like a watercolor painting.
He had lost most of his sight.
“Kaisen, I, Kelly, also lost my sight during the preliminary infusion, but regained it during the final one. Don’t be too disheartened.”
“That was the fifth infusion, not the first.”
“Stan, be quiet and just fit him with some temporary glasses. Rest from swordsmanship training until the second infusion. Continue with your theoretical studies.”
At that moment, every situation, every circumstance, seemed to be whispering to him. You can’t become a hero.
* * *
The Light Dragon Haraderiman had not been able to leave the Celestial Palace for hundreds of years.
The highest floor of the Papal Office, the Celestial Palace.
So high, so very high that it reached the clouds beyond the sky, people had revered this place, calling it the Celestial Palace.
The Light Dragon had once resided there alone, but now, Dragon Priests attended to his illness.
“Yes, the whole world is groaning in pain… Yoshuhar.”
The Light Dragon was the leader of the Golden Dragon legion.
One of the Three Divine Dragons, the Light Dragon’s frame was five times larger than a True Dragon’s. His golden scales reflected the sunlight, shining brilliantly.
The True Dragon Yoshuhar bowed low.
“It is the failing of us gods.”
“Pay it no mind. Was this a world that could be set right with loyalty alone? Is Raminea Alter Aradamanthel well?”
“That child passed away five years ago…”
Tears welled in Yoshuhar’s old, wrinkled eyes. The Light Dragon Haraderiman let out a deep sigh of sorrow.
“Is that so.”
“It is so. Now, that child’s blood kin is striving to inherit Aradamanthel.”
“The news you bring me is painful.”
“I am deeply sorry.”
“Has the kingdom of dragons fallen?”
“It fell half a year ago.”
The Light Dragon coughed up blood, and the Dragon Priests rushed to wipe his mouth.
Yoshuhar felt a sense of dread at the Light Dragon’s dementia.
If even the Light Dragon passes… humanity will not be united, and the Abyss will take advantage of the gods’ absence to plague this land once more… Ah, the world is collapsing.
The Light Dragon could not move.
He always lay upon his throne, basking his body in the sun and moon.
The deep and vicious malady left by the King of the Abyss had been slowly destroying the Divine Dragon’s body for hundreds of years.
“How is the Ark of the Covenant that Camilla Alter Aradamanthel and Sharon Alter Tassalpo rescued? Have the descendants of the gods awakened safely?”
“Both have awakened, Your Holiness. The Moon wishes to walk the path of the sword here, but her body is grievously frail, which is a concern. The Sun stayed but a short while before departing, and no one knows of his whereabouts.”
“How are we to know the will of the gods? My illness is worsening. I must do what I can. There is no time.”
“Your Holiness, what would you have this servant do?”
“I shall share more of my soul’s fragments with you.”
The Three Divine Dragons had each divided their own souls equally to birth and command five True Dragons. And he would divide it further?
“Your Holiness, your body is unwell, how can you suggest such a thing…”
“I wish for you to deliver this along with your own soul to Raminea’s child when the time comes.”
“Your Holiness.”
“I will soon die, but I shall leave my power behind. Though it may be but a faint fragment, I pray that it will create a great ripple in the causality of the future.”
Yoshuhar could not help but shed tears once more at the Light Dragon’s divine insight.
You know everything that I intend to do.
With the same resolve learned from the Black Sun, Karenden, you think of this land until the very end, O father of the world.
“As Your Holiness wishes, I, Yoshuhar, will serve you with all my devotion.”
Yoshuhar bowed and withdrew.
Among the Three Divine Dragons, the one called the Fire Dragon, Bel’Dakidun, had died long ago after creating the barrier of flames, the [Flame Wall], on the Adrion continent.
The Water Dragon, Yeriserica, was becoming one with the World Tree and could no longer emerge into the world.
The gods who were said to have brought light to this land were nowhere to be found, and the three Divine Dragons who acted as their proxies were now all dead or dying.
It was the beginning of midsummer.
The thousand-year golden age was over, and the world was collapsing on all fronts, with no way to stop it.