Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Episode 61. Two Hearts
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A purple flash lit up the skies above Legion. And at the same moment, something unbelievable happened.
"It's over, Monestier."
Kwachik!
Berddin, who had appeared from somewhere, thrust a purple sword into the dragon's heart.
"Kuaaaaargh!"
The dragon roared.
It thrashed about in any way it could to shake Berddin off. But the more violently it flapped its wings, the deeper the blade sank.
Kwaduk.
The tough scales surrounding its skin split apart, and blood flowed out from between them.
Valentine watched this scene.
'Berddin?'
The two adults' eyes widened in shock.
'He cut down the dragon?!'
Not only that, but his success in slaying the dragon gave hope of survival to the adventurers and residents of Legion who had been watching the battle.
"Wooaaah!"
"N-No way!"
Bwoooong—
The dragon began to plummet.
Berddin, without releasing the sword embedded in its heart, spoke to Monestier.
"Listen carefully from now on. I'll tell you how you and your parents can survive."
Monestier's eyes, now in dragon form, slowly closed. He wanted to respond to Berddin, but he seemed to have exhausted all his strength, his mouth refusing to open.
"You have already become an apostle by receiving the will of the gods. This cannot be undone. However, if you give up the wind and quietly head to the tower as you are..."
"……."
"I'll somehow ensure your parents survive and send them to you. I swear it on the gods."
"……."
"Open your eyes, Monestier."
"……."
"And remember what your true dream was."
"……."
"Do you really want those flames to fall on Legion? Do you want everyone—your family and the innocent citizens—to die?!"
Monestier closed his eyes.
Then, in the darkness that followed, he recalled his past.
'My dream.'
Did he have such a thing?
Kwa-ang!
A vast plain where green blades of grass danced to the direction of the wind.
A brown-haired boy lay under a large tree, gazing up at the blue sky.
"They say this land is as wide as the sky. So why am I stuck here like this?"
The boy, with a face full of dissatisfaction, gestured toward a dragonfly flying by.
"You guys have it good. You can go anywhere you want if you just decide to, right? Huh?"
Of course, he couldn't expect an answer from an insect.
One dragonfly flew over and landed on the boy's head.
He swatted it away with his hand, stretched, and got up from his spot.
"Uuuuum! Hooa, guess it's time to head back to the village."
The boy hurried back to his village. But no one was there to greet him.
All the adults had gone to work in the mountains and fields, and he was the only child in the village.
"Mother, am I really a Strange?"
His mother, who had been picking flowers and filling a basket, replied.
"Monestier, is that something you should even ask? Of course you are! A boy who even received a Guardian Spirit through his trials, talking nonsense."
The young Monestier lowered his head.
"But why am I here?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I heard from Uncle that the other Strange kids all learn swordsmanship..."
His mother didn't continue. She just frowned and kept picking flowers.
"Mother, Mother, Mother! I want to learn swordsmanship too!"
That day, Monestier didn't know. Though his family bore the Strange name, they were so poor they couldn't send him to the academy.
And that was not all.
Among the many collateral branches of the Strange Family, Monestier's lived in the most remote village on the outskirts.
His blood relatives in the main family were so distant they might not even be aware of their existence.
"You want to learn swordsmanship that badly?"
"Yes, Mother. I'm sure I can become the greatest knight. My Guardian Spirit said so too."
The old man floating above young Monestier's head, holding a rosary, nodded briefly.
His mother let out a deep sigh. She lightly stroked the young boy's head, straightened her back, and replied.
"Hasn't your Guardian Spirit taught you?"
"Of course I learned from him! But he said there's a limit to what his current self can teach."
"Why?"
"He said there are many parts that can't be understood just through words."
"...I see. Then I'll find you a swordsmanship teacher."
Monestier jumped for joy.
"Really?!"
"Yes. Your father is planning to go west soon. There's a relative nearby, so I'll ask if they can take you."
"The west..."
"You'll probably be able to learn swordsmanship there."
He was happy.
Was the day finally coming when he could escape his boring daily life and live up to the Strange name?
Less than a week later, his father brought good news.
"Monestier, a carriage will come from the west tomorrow. Go with it, and you'll train with your relatives there."
It was a blessing from the gods.
Finally, Monestier was off to learn the swordsmanship he had dreamed of.
Thanks to bearing the name 'Strange'!
"Hey! Monestier, you're going west to learn the sword? Finally, our village will have a knight!"
"Hohohoho, don't forget Auntie when you make it big later?"
"Here, take this—everyone in the village chipped in a little. The weapon dealer said it's not great but usable."
The village chief wiped his nose and handed over a short sword. The leather scabbard looked worn, but the blade was sharp when drawn.
Monestier bowed deeply.
"...I'll come back as the greatest swordsman!"
And so, Monestier departed west amid the village people's blessings.
But life in a foreign place was far from smooth. The carriage arrived at a mansion far larger than his village home.
From food to clothing, everything was vastly different from what he had known.
There were a few other boys learning swordsmanship with him, but they all scorned his birth and family.
"You beggar! No, why'd you even come here if you can't afford to replace a broken sword?"
Monestier gripped tightly the loosened hilt of his sword, worn from harsh training.
"Leave him be. What can you do when his whole family's farmers? They can't even afford to sharpen a blade."
He sheathed the chipped blade back into its scabbard.
"Thinks just because he has the Strange name, he's the same as us Stranges? Puhahaha!"
It was humiliating.
Monestier closed his eyes and trembled.
He endured all sorts of insults from his peers at the mansion. But he gritted his teeth through their scornful words and actions.
'Damn bastards.'
Though rage burned in his heart, he wore a smile on his face.
If he fought them now and got kicked out, he'd disappoint his parents and the villagers who sent him.
He had to survive here somehow.
The mind of the nine-year-old boy was filled with resentment toward those bearing the same 'Strange' name as him.
But as years passed, his efforts did not betray him. While his blood kin who couldn't endure the grueling training all left one by one,
he held his ground no matter what.
And so, at sixteen,
"From today, I appoint you as an official knight of the Strange Family."
This day marked the emergence of the first knight from Monestier's birth village and the greatest swordsmanship talent from the collaterals.
'Did it take too long?'
No, at sixteen, becoming an official knight was an achievement only he had managed here.
'Right.'
Either way, he had succeeded in his dream.
Now he would return to his parents in glory. With that thought, Monestier led his own knight order back to his hometown,
the shabby sword given to him by the villagers still at his waist.
But the reality awaiting him was utterly cruel.
"What happened here?"
The village was gone.
More precisely, it looked invaded—houses burned, people dead.
It was a gruesome sight.
Crows had already pecked at the corpses' flesh before his arrival, and survivors seemed mauled by beasts, missing body parts.
Monestier dropped to his knees and shed tears.
'Who the hell did this?'
Hearing from a neighboring villager, he felt hollow despair. The reason for the village's destruction was absurd.
"Killed them out of boredom?"
A knight, visiting on imperial commission, had slaughtered the entire village.
His name: 'Hysteria de Strange'.
A knight the same age as Monestier.
"Insane!"
Hysteria was the second son of the direct Strange line and one of the continent's strongest swordsmen.
Moreover, their birth statuses were worlds apart. He was an untouchable existence.
Even the eldest, Gunter, couldn't stop the madman, or so the rumors went.
"Hic... Hiccup..."
He was outraged, but powerless. The despair from that reality weighed heavily.
'Strange.'
My cursed name.
Kwaduk.
Blood dripped from his tightly clenched fist.
"Damn it... Damn it... Damn it!"
From that day, Monestier left his knight order and wandered the continent.
To grow stronger, he hit battlefields or hunted monsters without fail, day after day.
Slash, slash, slash again.
One day, he would surpass anyone bearing the Strange name.
Monestier lived for that single resolve.
Time passed, his fame spread across the continent, and the imperial army, recognizing his swordsmanship, sought to name him the next 'Swordmaster'.
Even Roys, head of the Strange Family, acknowledged him enough to recommend him as a general.
'The time has come at last.'
If he claimed the Swordmaster title and became a general, he could finally take revenge on the Stranges who scorned him and stole his loved ones.
Monestier had planned long. How to bring down the Stranges.
"Bourbon is targeting the Stranges, you say."
Soon after, good news arrived. A fellow mercenary on the battlefield mentioned the Bourbon-Strange conflict.
'This is my chance.'
The mercenary had warned him out of caution since he was a Strange, but Monestier took it as a divine revelation to fulfill his long-cherished wish.
"Introduce me to Marquis Pierre."
Thus, he completed the puzzle for the Strange extermination plan. Everything proceeded smoothly. In time, the Stranges would vanish.
And in that same year, another divine blessing.
"My parents are alive?!"
He learned of their whereabouts from a wandering merchant met by chance in Legion.
"Yes, I happened to pass through that village then. I loaded a few carriages with those fleeing."
A blessing from the gods.
Monestier followed the merchant in ecstatic joy. And in a remote mercenary band, he reunited with parents he thought dead.
"Mother... Father..."
A dramatic reunion.
Thank goodness.
Truly thank goodness.
Now he wanted for nothing.
Had the story ended there, it would have been perfect. He could have taken his parents and lived quietly somewhere.
But the Strange purge plan was already underway, foiled by Berddin.
Leading straight to the execution platform.
Along with parents he'd only just reunited with.
'...O gods.'
The heart of Legion.
Monestier, returned to human form, crashed before the statue of a past continental hero.
Kwa-ang!
'...My true dream?'
Monestier, squeezing out his remaining strength as his vision faded, answered.
"My true dream is."
Past events flashed rapidly through his mind, stopping at one scene.
"My dream is..."
His younger self, lying on a vast plain, watching dragonflies soar freely in the sky.
"My dream is this."
Shwaaaa—
A strong wind blew from the west. Monestier looked to the sky, closed his eyes, and smiled faintly.
'I've achieved it all.'
"If you want to hear my answer, come to the tower."
Wait for me, Berddin.
"With my parents."