The Protagonist's Entrance
Raon caught the door of the Great Training Ground in his hand. The enormous gate, already swinging shut, seized in his grip and froze in place, unable to budge another inch.
"Y-you're…"
"Raon Zieghart!"
The swordsmen stationed at the gate went wide-eyed at the sight of his face and hastily pulled their banners aside.
"Raon!"
"Young Master!"
"Young Master Raon!"
The first voices came from the outer left. Sylvia, Helen, and the maids were waving wildly, their eyes red and swollen. Raon turned toward them and offered a small, easy smile.
"You little bastard, why are you so la—khhk!"
"Raon!"
"Hey! You!"
Runaan and Marta shoved aside Burren, who had broken into a broad grin before he even realized it, and came running.
"Raon!"
"Where the hell have you been all this time, and what have you been doing? Why are you only getting here now?!"
For once, Runaan and Marta wore the exact same scowl as they seized his sleeve and his collar.
"Raon. You're way too late!"
"Tch. What a shame. So you weren't dead after all."
Runaan clung to his sleeve, her violet eyes shining. Marta let go of his collar and turned her head, looking faintly embarrassed.
"The ice cream girl and the beef girl haven't changed a bit. This King is relieved."
Wrath nodded in satisfaction as he looked at Runaan and Marta.
"That eyeball brat and the pointy-eared one are still alive, though. A regrettable affair."
He clicked his tongue at Burren and Rimer instead. Truly, there was no predicting a single word that came out of this creature.
"Raon!"
"You're finally here!"
"We've been waiting!"
"You're so late!"
The trainees abandoned their places and ran for the training ground gate. In an instant, the space in front of Raon was packed with people.
"Showing up at the very end—what, do you think you're the protagonist?"
Rimer approached with a snort of laughter. His expression said he was annoyed, but the smile held genuine welcome. Same as ever.
"If you're here, get up there already. Everyone's waiting."
"There's still someone who hasn't arrived."
Raon shook his head and did not take his hand off the door.
"A friend who isn't here?"
"Who else is there?"
"Isn't everyone already here?"
A moment later, Dorian crossed the threshold of the Great Training Ground, wheezing with a dull, exhausted breath, Yua on his back.
"D-don't just take off running on your own like that!"
Dorian groaned as he set Yua down.
"If I hadn't gone first, the door would have closed."
Only then did Raon take his hand off the gate. The massive iron doors, held fast until now by a single person's strength, slammed shut with a magnificent boom, as if their pride had been wounded.
"Nngh…"
"He stopped that with raw strength…?"
The swordsmen who had been acting as gatekeepers swallowed dryly at the sight.
"Once the graduation ceremony starts, there's no taking it back."
Raon gave a faint laugh and dusted off his hands. If they had arrived even a little later, the ceremony would have begun, and there would have been no way to join it. Leaving Dorian and Yua behind to grab the door first had been the right call.
"Ah—D-Dorian!"
"So Dorian was here."
"R-right. Dorian was here, yeah."
Rimer and the trainees offered awkward smiles at the sight of Dorian. Every last one of them had been so caught up in Raon's spectacular entrance that they had forgotten Dorian existed entirely.
"'So Dorian was here'? That's a little hurtful, you know…"
Dorian hung his head, his eyes mournful.
"Don't worry about it. Go on up first."
Raon clapped Dorian on the shoulder, then met Yua's eyes.
"Yua. You see those people over there?"
"The unnies in the pretty clothes?"
"That's right. Go wait over there."
"Okay!"
Yua nodded and ran toward where Sylvia and Helen were standing.
"Hmm…"
Rimer pulled his gaze from the running child and looked at Raon again.
"Did you get what you came for?"
"I did."
"Good. The protagonist's here, so let's begin. Everyone, back to your places."
Hearing Raon's confident answer, Rimer grinned.
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
The trainees' faces brightened. They nodded and hurried back to their original positions.
"Could you at least say protagonists, plural…"
Dorian trudged toward the very last spot, his shoulders drooping.
"Ah, sorry. And Raon, you should stand at the very fr—"
"Hold."
Just as Rimer, looking not sorry at all, was about to tell Raon where to stand, Karoon Zieghart rose from the central platform where the direct-line members were seated. Unleashing a formidable presence, he approached Glenn's side.
"Family Head. The other trainees proved their qualifications for graduation a month ago, but Raon has only just arrived at the house. He has not proven his qualifications, so I believe he should not be allowed to graduate together with them."
"That isn't wrong, either."
Glenn nodded with emotionless eyes, and Karoon stepped forward to the front of the platform.
"You two did not obtain graduation qualifications from the instructors. You have no right to stand at this ceremony, so step down."
His cold voice rang through the training ground.
"W-we have them! The letter from the Lord of Habun Castle is right h—"
"That is not what I mean."
Karoon raised a hand just as Dorian reached into his belly pouch for Milland's letter.
"You were supposed to report to your instructors what you did for a year and how you spent it, and have your pass or fail judged on that basis. You have only just arrived, which means you lack that qualification. Surely you don't intend to make everyone here wait while you prove yourselves?"
"Ah…"
Dorian hung his head, his hand still buried in the belly pouch. Raon looked at Karoon with calm eyes. It was obstruction, yes—but the man wasn't wrong.
"No need to wait long."
Rimer cut in, his smile still in place.
"Rimer…"
"A swordsman speaks with his blade. What else is needed?"
He drew the sword at his waist. In a single instant, a mighty wave of energy surged forth. Green aura, dense as a gathering storm, coiled thickly around the silver edge.
Rimer leveled a blade packed with extreme killing intent at Raon.
"Words won't be necessary, I take it?"
"Of course not."
The moment Raon nodded, Rimer vanished from where he stood. Riding the wind, he closed the distance and brought his sword down. Blades of wind gathered from every direction, ripping space itself apart.
It was a sword Raon had seen before—the very technique Rimer had shown him in the moment of his defeat, just before he left this place. Now, wrapped in aura far denser than before, it came for his weaknesses without mercy.
A test. This was the trial Rimer was giving him. An attack that demanded he show how far he had grown in a single year.
I can't disappoint him.
Just before Rimer's blade reached his chest, Raon's hand moved. A crimson edge erupted from the scabbard like a thunderbolt, slipped through a gap in the wind, and reversed course to aim at Rimer's waist.
When two blades laden with will collided, green light and scarlet light detonated together, and a blast of scorching wind exploded from the center of the training ground.
Using the pale yellow sparks that leapt between the twisting edges as a mirror, Raon and Rimer both wore faint smiles.
An instant before the condensed energy could erupt, they reached out as if they had agreed upon it in advance and flung that mighty storm of aura into the sky.
The auras that detonated above the training ground bloomed in brilliant light, like fireworks celebrating graduation.
"You couldn't even properly see it last time, and now you've come back completely changed."
Rimer spun his still-trembling sword and grinned. Satisfaction overflowed from his eyes.
"Changed? Hardly. All he's gotten better at is striking a pose."
Wrath wrinkled his nose, apparently displeased that Raon was drawing so much attention.
"Hahh…"
"H-he blocked that sword strike? A trainee?"
"Did Rimer go easy on him?"
"Are those eyes just for decoration? He may have held back, but that was not a strike a trainee should have been able to receive."
"Insane. That kind of martial power at seventeen…"
The swordsmen who had watched the clash unfold before their eyes stuck out their tongues, their faces stunned.
"As head instructor of the 5th Training Ground, I acknowledge your growth. You pass the survival trial. Raon Zieghart."
"Thank you."
Raon bowed his head in turn to Glenn, then to Rimer.
"You saw it yourself. Do you have anything to add, Master of the Heavy Martial Hall?"
"Kkhh…"
Karoon Zieghart had witnessed the power of Raon's sword strike with his own eyes, and so he could find nothing to say. He ground his teeth and returned to his seat.
"What the hell. He came back even stronger."
"Argh! I worried for nothing."
"But how did he block the instructor's sword?"
"He's actually insane…"
The trainees, who had felt the clash on their own skin, stood with their mouths hanging open wide enough to swallow a bug without noticing.
"I knew it…"
"Raon!"
"That damn bastard…"
Burren clenched his fist as if he had expected nothing less. Runaan gave a pleased little sniff for the first time in a long while, and Marta curled the corner of her mouth as if she were enjoying herself.
"Family Head. May we begin?"
"…Questions regarding Raon can wait until later. Begin."
Glenn nodded without the slightest change in expression, as if the matter held no interest for him at all.
"Head trainee. Raon, step forward."
"Yes!"
Raon walked to the front of the trainees with a confident stride and looked up at Glenn.
"5th Training Ground, total complement forty-three, present forty-three. None absent! The graduation ceremony of the 5th Training Ground trainees will now begin!"
Rimer announced the start of the ceremony, placing particular weight on the words none absent. Every trainee straightened their backs and let confidence shine in their eyes.
All except one.
"Is this right? I didn't even take the test. Is this actually okay?"
Dorian glanced at the trainees in front of him and beside him, rubbing his fingers together. Not taking the test was nice, but his presence had vanished entirely, and it stung.
"Am I being ignored a little too much here?"
After the graduation ceremony ended, Raon was summoned to the Audience Chamber of the Lord's Palace before he could even meet with Sylvia.
Glenn Zieghart sat upon the throne just as he had at the training ground, looking down upon the world with vacant eyes.
He's incredible. I still can't feel how strong he is.
The more Raon grew, the more he could see how high the mountain called Glenn truly was. Even after facing a transcendent being like Sloth, he still could not sense this man's limits. It felt as though someone like this might even be able to defeat Sloth.
"Even so, he remains beneath This King. As This King has said before, were This King to bring forth the power of his true body, he could be defeated in tens of thousands of exchanges."
Wasn't it thousands of exchanges last time?
"Th-that's… because you stole This King's power, you brat!"
You said that much was nothing.
"……"
Wrath?
Wrath offered no reply. He slipped into the bracelet as if he had gone to sleep and said nothing more.
Honestly.
Raon swallowed a laugh and stepped before Glenn.
"I greet the Family Head!"
Raon bowed, holding tight to the hand of Yua, who was trembling beside him.
"I-I greet the Family Head!"
Dorian offered his greeting a beat late, but Glenn paid it no mind and waved a hand, indicating they should rise.
"Report everything that happened after you left this place."
"It will be rather long. Is that all right?"
"It doesn't matter. I need to hear what you did for a year in order to determine whether you graduate."
"Understood. Then I will begin with Camelun, which we visited first. When we arrived there…"
Raon stepped forward and explained everything that had happened up to now. He omitted the thievery and the encounter with Sloth, of course, and appropriately modified several other incidents.
"…Finally, after sparring with Castellan Milland, we returned to the house."
"How did the spar with the castellan go?"
"I lost."
"I know you lost. It's a hundred years too early for you to defeat him. Did the castellan use Ganggi?"
"Yes. He used it at the end."
"Hoh!"
"Hahh…"
Rimer smacked his lips as if thoroughly satisfied, and Roen let out a gasp of admiration.
"……"
Glenn simply stared at Raon with the same unreadable eyes as always. He had said he would render a judgment, yet his expression suggested little interest.
"The one Eden targeted—is it that child?"
"Eep."
Glenn's gaze turned toward Yua for the first time. Under that pressure, a violent tremor ran through her hand.
"Yes. Judging by the fact that they came after her twice, saying they would put the Siren's Mask on her, they seem quite obsessed."
"The Siren…"
Glenn reined in the presence and majesty that had begun to rise of their own accord.
"What is your name?"
"Ah…"
Finding it a little easier to speak, Yua opened her mouth slowly, still clutching Raon's hand.
"Y-Yua! I-I'm Yua!"
"Mm."
At the voice that had burst out louder than she intended, Glenn turned his head toward Roen.
"It's there, without a doubt."
Roen nodded, his pupils trembling.
"Spiritual energy is woven into the voice itself. I wonder if her Upper Dantian opened by some chance opportunity…"
"No. She was born with it already open. An exceedingly rare talent. I can see why Eden went after her."
Glenn erased his presence entirely, until he seemed no different from an ordinary person, and met Yua's eyes. In that fleeting instant, his red gaze shone as if it had examined everything about her.
"What do you intend to do with that child?"
"I plan to have her live with us at the Annex. And…"
Raon closed his eyes, then opened them and continued.
"She wants to become strong herself, so I intend to teach her the sword."
"Not the sword."
Glenn shook his head firmly.
"The path that child must walk is not the sword, but sound."
At his chin-jerk, Roen, who had been standing to the right, stepped forward.
"From now on, she will learn how to use sound from Roen."
"W-wait a moment! Lord Roen is…"
Roen was certainly a good man, but he was unmistakably the assassin who had stood at Glenn's back. Raon could not allow him to teach Yua the techniques of assassination.
"Roen has considerable expertise regarding sound. The thing you're thinking of will not happen, so don't worry."
Glenn shook his head as if he had read every thought in Raon's mind.
Sound…
Roen was a martial artist who could perfectly kill sound even at close range. If he knew how to erase it, he likely knew how to produce it as well.
"I look forward to working with you."
Roen smiled gently at Yua and Raon, as if to tell them not to worry.
"Ah, yes!"
Yua bobbed her head quickly, apparently more at ease with Roen's far softer impression than with Glenn's.
"Then a final question. Why were you so late?"
"It was nothing special."
Raon glanced at Dorian and Yua, who were fidgeting helplessly beside him, and went on.
"We stopped by a city to restock fruit and a few supplies."
Yua had wanted to buy ingredients so she could serve Sylvia something delicious, and Dorian had wanted to restock fruit and a few items in his pouch, so they had made a detour through the city.
"F-fruit?"
"Restocking supplies?"
The moment they heard the reason, Rimer and Roen went slack-faced, as if they could not believe what they were hearing.
"Late because you were buying fruit. Pathetic beyond measure. Like master, like disciple."
Glenn frowned at Rimer. The cold look in his eyes asked whether this was how he had taught the boy.
"Family Head! I cannot accept those words! I can endure insults to my disciple, but I cannot endure insults to myself!"
Rimer shook his head furiously, as if demanding a retraction.
"…What a madman."
"…Still a madman."
Glenn and Wrath spat the same words, as if they had reached a perfect understanding.
"Never mind those two. Did you also waste time buying fruit?"
"I emptied my thoughts."
"Emptied your thoughts?"
"Yes."
Raon slowly lowered his eyelids.
"After I finished the spar with Castellan Milland. No—after the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames rose a level, mental images began to surface in my mind. Swordsmanship, footwork, cultivation methods. Various futures in which I could grow stronger took shape."
"So what did you do?"
At those words, Glenn's eyes flashed for the first time. As if stirred, he slowly rose from the throne.
"I simply watched the passing images, like a stream."
"Why? The desire to seize those inspirations and grow stronger must have arisen."
"It did. But they were too vast for who I am now. If I had clumsily delved into them, I would have been buried there, unable to move forward."
"So you merely watched?"
"Yes. Believing that someday they would become my strength, I enjoyed my last days as a trainee with those two."
Raon nodded, his voice even.
That was the right answer.
After the spar, images of his future self standing at a high realm had risen in his mind without pause, so constantly that he could think of nothing else. They were powerful enough that it felt as though simply seizing them would let him reach Master, let him take revenge on Derus Robert—but that was not genuine growth.
So he had let them go.
The moment he released those images of a stronger future, like drifting clouds, like passing wind, his heart grew lighter, and his martial achievement rose.
"I see."
Glenn settled back into his chair. It was hard to tell whether the answer had pleased him or not.
"The stronger you become, the more you have to think about. Physical training, aura cultivation, fist techniques, swordsmanship, footwork, sparring—and even mental imagery."
He looked up into empty air with red eyes the same color as Raon's own.
"The more you see, the farther you aim, the more often you lose hold of what you must grasp. In that sense, your choice this time was correct."
"Pardon?"
"Look too far and you trip over a stone at your feet. Watch only what is close and you lose your direction. From a position in the middle, advance step by step with what you can do now."
"Ah. Yes."
Goosebumps rose along Raon's skin. He had never imagined the words you were correct would come from Glenn.
"Oh?"
"Mm!"
Rimer and Roen, equally surprised, stood with their mouths hanging open.
"That said, both that child and you have already been exposed to Eden. Even if you disguised yourselves properly, you should have been more careful."
"How did you know we were disguised?"
Raon tilted his head. They had been disguised, yes, but he had no idea how Glenn had known.
"…You're no fool, so I assumed you naturally would have disguised yourselves."
After a brief silence, Glenn spoke in a voice a shade higher than usual.
"I see."
Raon nodded, taking it at face value.
"I thought you had been late doing something foolish, but if you have found your path, it can be taken into account. I recognize your graduation. Raon Zieghart."
"Thank you."
"U-um!"
Glenn waved a hand as if telling them to leave already, and Raon was about to bow and withdraw when Dorian raised his hand.
"I… ugh!"
He had meant to say that he hadn't even taken a test, that no one had asked him anything—but the moment Glenn's gaze fell on him, his head went blank.
Rustle.
Out of habit, Dorian reached into his belly pouch and pulled out the cookies he had bought this time.
"W-would you like some cookies?"
"It seems even the Family Head can't help being a grandfather."
Rimer grinned as he chewed the cookies Dorian had left behind.
"Listening for over an hour to a story he already knew, just because he wanted to hear his grandson's exploits firsthand. I don't think I could manage that kind of doting love."
"Be quiet."
"And this time you even made a mistake. You misspoke and almost let Raon find out you'd been receiving reports from the Heavenly Sword Squad and the Biyeon Assembly—ugh! I-I'm sorry!"
Seeing Glenn's pupils flare scarlet, Rimer cut off his laughter and stepped back. He had been beaten half to death only yesterday, and he did not yet have the courage to push any further.
"Lord Raon's presence has diminished even further. Now even a high-level expert would have difficulty noticing that Lord Raon is practicing martial arts."
Roen let out a breath of wonder.
"He was skilled at concealing his presence from the start. Even I can no longer accurately gauge Raon's level. He's definitely surpassed Expert High-Class, but…"
Rimer agreed as he chewed another cookie.
"You heard him earlier. Inspirations are rising in his mind. That child is already standing before the wall."
"The w-wall…"
"Surely you don't mean Master?"
Roen's eyes flew wide, and Rimer dropped the bag of cookies.
"That child has already reached Expert Peak-Class. Moreover, he has boarded the fastest path to Master."
When a martial artist rose from Expert High-Class to Peak-Class, their own future unfolded in their mind like a panorama.
If they became buried in those unreachable, lofty mental images, they might never reach Master in their lifetime. If they ignored them entirely, the path to Master grew distant.
Letting them flow past like water was the best method—and Raon had achieved it without anyone's help, while simply enjoying his free time. As expected, he was no ordinary child.
Raon's true strength was not his rapidly growing martial power, but the firmness and composure of his mind.
"The children called the Continental Twelve Stars reached Master in their mid-twenties. But Raon is showing achievements a step above even mine at that age. It seems…"
A spark of expectation flared in Glenn's red eyes.