“Wake up. Please, wake up.”
I had unleashed every ounce of Brilliance’s power.
I had desperately cried out to my swords for help, fighting gallantly against the enemies trying to choke the life out of me in the storm-tossed sea. I had even reached the throat of that lofty dragon. But my sword was not yet sharp enough, and my body was not yet tempered enough.
“Young Master, stay with me.”
One scale.
A single scale was all I had managed to claim.
“You mustn’t fall asleep, Young Master.”
I hadn’t been able to inflict a fatal wound on that dragon. After barely managing to reach it with a swing of my sword, I was helplessly seized. I felt it clearly when the dragon’s claws gripped my shoulder and held me tight. There was too vast a gap between us. If the beast had applied even a fraction more strength, my body would have shattered in an instant. My journey would have ended right there. Escape? It was impossible. I felt like a small child caught in the hands of a giant. It felt as if I had returned to the time before I first picked up a sword.
“Please… please wake up.”
The memory of the Swordmaster’s visit to my estate flashed back.
It felt as if I had returned to that childhood moment when Carlos took everything from me, and I could only tremble, unable to even seek proper revenge. Helplessness was a poison, and trauma was a scar that never truly faded. I felt an unbearable rage. A truly immense, suffocating rage.
“Young Master!”
Tom’s voice struck my ears.
Hearing the old man’s cracked, frantic voice, I finally regained my senses.
“Tom…”
Where was I?
Clinging to my fading consciousness, I looked around and saw soil. Not seawater, but earth. I saw the fine sand characteristic of a beach and crabs crawling through the dunes. As I stared blankly at my surroundings, Tom suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace. He smelled of blood. It was clear the old caretaker’s physical condition was far from good. Nevertheless, Tom was only worried about me.
“Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness.”
Tom wept, showing tears uncharacteristic of an old man.
Watching him sob, I felt the strength drain out of me. Lying on the sandy beach, I looked up at the sky. But the shape of the sky was… strange.
“…Tom.”
“Yes.”
“Where… is this?”
In the sky, where clouds should have drifted and the sun should have shone, a sea flowed instead. I wondered if it was a hallucination, but I soon realized that our reflection was being cast in the sky above. Like a mirror.
“I am not certain, but…”
“But?”
“Somehow, I think I might know.”
Tom looked up at the sky as well. Then he spoke.
“It seems we have entered ‘Ernest.’”
*
As soon as I regained my strength, I surveyed the small island Tom presumed to be ‘Ernest.’ It was a deserted island, so small that one could walk the entire perimeter in twenty minutes. There were only small creatures here: crabs scuttling along the shore, winged insects buzzing about, and young fish occasionally leaping from the water. Aside from these small creatures, we were the only living things. After recovering sufficiently, I cut down trees on the beach to build a small boat.
After gaining the memories of the Old Adventurer contained within 「Ascension」, my ability to craft necessities from natural materials had improved drastically. Weaving dry wood together to make a simple sailboat was child’s play. Thus, I managed to whip up a craft before nightfall and attempted to head out to sea, but I failed.
“What in the…”
The boat, which had been moving along the current, suddenly veered off course at a certain point and returned to the island. Thinking my sailing skills might be lacking, I tried swimming out without the boat next. However, I was forced back at the exact same point. Only then did I realize the truth.
Just as one would return to the same spot after running a full circle on this tiny island, the sea surrounding it was its own closed world. It was like a hamster running on a wheel, ultimately repeating the same steps in place. After experiencing this phenomenon, I understood why the sky looked the way it did. Even if I tried to soar straight up into the sky, the result would be the same.
“Damn it.”
We hadn’t just entered Ernest. We were trapped in Ernest.
‘…It’s not a Mystery, either.’
I tried to kindle the Flame of Doubt. I even tried to shatter this mirror-like world by swinging the Demon Ore. But nothing succeeded. This small world remained a small world; just as one cannot cut through water with a blade, I could not cut through the world itself.
“Young Master, do not overexert yourself.”
“But…”
“…How about resting for a while?”
After numerous failures, Tom suggested a rest.
I was about to say I couldn’t, but I shut my mouth when I saw Tom’s exceptionally exhausted face. The old caretaker was noticeably pale. Beads of cold sweat had formed on his forehead, and after gasping for breath, Tom slumped down onto the sand.
“Tom, what’s wrong?”
I rushed to Tom as he struggled to breathe. I removed his wet clothes, only to find the old caretaker’s body was in ruins. His aged frame was covered in various wounds, and those wounds were worsening without any sign of recovery. The smell of death wafted from the blackened, necrotic flesh. It wasn’t just the recent wounds that were dangerous. Tom’s body was covered in scars—not from the recent battle, but ones that seemed to have been earned long ago. They were the traces of the life the old man had lived. The scars left by steel and blood were all there.
“What is… all this…”
“…It is nothing to worry about.”
“Your condition… was it always this severe?”
“Severe? All old swordsmen are like this. Those who did not die gallantly while they were young and brave… they all end up like this. Barely moving, their worn and broken bodies stitched together.”
Tom gasped for air. Soon, Liam’s voice reached me.
「He is not saying that just to keep you from worrying.」
“…”
「That is the end of an old swordsman, young descendant.」
The end of an old swordsman. That was what Liam said.
「The Heart of Steel possessed by a Caravan grows stronger the more it is hammered. Even if you fight and fight, even if you are bent and broken, it mends itself and takes on a more solid form.」
“…”
「But that is not the case for everyone.」
The protagonists of countless chivalric novels engage in life-or-death duels time and again. For characters in a novel, a duel is the fertilizer for growth, a process to reach a higher Realm. Thus, some people fall under the illusion that only valuable growth remains after duels, wars, and victories. But that is wrong.
「All beasts living in nature avoid a fight unless they are starving. Flesh and bone are finite resources, and every time they fight with their lives on the line, their destined death is brought forward.」
“…”
「No one who has failed to reach Transcendence can defy that law of nature.」
The Sword, red blood. And after victory, wounds always remain. The wounds of those who do not possess a Heart of Steel do not heal easily. It goes without saying for wounds etched into the body of a man who has already grown old. Tom was dying. Was it the wounds from the recent battle that were killing him? One could say so, but fundamentally, that wasn’t it.
Every human begins dying the moment they are born.
From the moment of their first birth upon this earth, they die slowly and gradually. The end of an old swordsman is rarely bright. As if demanding payment for the blood they have spilled on their blades, time makes their twilight years all the more agonizing. The etched wounds do not heal, and the scars of the past bite at the elderly with excruciating pain.
“Young Master Arhan.”
The old man looked at the boy.
“I believe it will be difficult for this old man to swing a sword any longer.”
“…”
“My body is too worn out, and too many parts are broken now. Before long, this old man’s body will collapse and return to the earth. It is a natural phenomenon. The old must return to the earth for the sake of the young and new.”
The boy looked at the old man.
“But I still have time left.”
“…”
“I do not know how much longer I will live. But I do not wish to spend that time swinging a sword. You see, Young Master… perhaps I was never destined to hold a sword from the beginning.”
“…”
“Young Master, Young Master Arhan, you showed me a dream. That dream is so sweet and brilliant that it makes this old man want to live longer. It makes this old man’s worn-out heart beat again.”
Tom spoke with difficulty.
“Young Master Arhan, to your eyes, this place must look like a maze. It must look like a world you can never escape. But it does not look that way to my eyes.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The armor granted to Sword Experts. The power of the Authority of Invulnerability contained within that armor is not just a powerful defensive ability. All Sword Experts possess the power to see through the essence without being swayed by the shell.”
Phew. Tom exhaled.
“I am but a half-baked Expert, but even so, I can see the truth of this place. However, with an incomplete armor and this broken body, I can no longer swing my sword. But it would be different for you, Young Master. If it is you… you will be able to do it.”
The old caretaker slowly raised his head.
“What did you feel while fighting the sacred beasts and the dragon, Young Master?”
“…I felt rage.”
“I thought as much. Helplessness, limitations, and an unbearable rage at the arrogance of those born superior who trample over others as if it were nothing. Because I was the same.”
Tom managed a smile.
“The reason I picked up a sword was because of a dragon. The reason Tom the gladiator, not Tom the caretaker of the Hall of Fame, was able to forge armor at a young age was also because of a dragon. I lived consumed by rage, chasing them without rest my entire life.”
“…”
“Revenge and rage are more intense than any other emotions. But rage has a way of burning even one’s own soul. At some point, my soul was burned away, leaving nothing but ashes. Until I found what I truly loved, I was nothing more than an empty shell.”
Tom’s eyes sparkled.
“Once, you told me the story of the Caravans. It must be rage and a desire for revenge that have made you as strong as you are now. But, Young Master… let an old man who has drifted across the sea of life for a long time say just one thing.”
“…”
“You can never reach Transcendence through a desire for revenge alone. Forget Transcendence; you will never be able to forge a complete armor. Never.”
A small island reached at the end of their drifting. On that small island, the old man opened his mouth.
“Please take my sword, Young Master.”
The old man drew a rapier from his waist.
Tom’s rapier was well-maintained, as expected of a caretaker, yet the traces of time were clearly visible here and there. That sword resembled the life Tom had lived. It looked fine on the surface, but upon closer inspection, the marks of hardship were evident.
“I feel it instinctively. If you devour my sword, Young Master, I will likely never be able to swing a sword again. The soul I have built up until now, every path I have walked, will head toward you. A part of my soul will be inherited by you.”
“…”
“But I can gladly give you my soul.”
Tom spoke with total sincerity.
I will never be able to swing a sword again. A part of my soul will go to you. It sounded like a harbinger of death, but Tom’s eyes did not say so. The moment I devoured his blade, Tom would lose everything he had built as a swordsman. It meant death as a martial artist. But the moment I looked into Tom’s eyes, I realized. Tom’s essence was not that of a swordsman. What he loved was not strength. It was not the victories he had accumulated.
“I told you before, didn’t I?”
Tom was the caretaker of the Hall of Fame. He loved the blades of the distant past. He loved the heroes of history and their lives.
“That you would never know how grateful I am.”
Even if he lost the sword skills he had built over a lifetime, Tom would not die. Even if he fell from a Sword Expert who had forged armor to an ordinary old man who could not swing a sword, the old man’s soul would never disappear. Never.
“That I feel like doing anything for you, Young Master.”
Tom’s eyes were sparkling. Not like an old man, but like a boy.
I could understand why his eyes burned so brightly. It must be because he had seen 「Brilliance」. Having seen the souls of the swords—whom he had only seen glimpses of—manifesting across eras, the old caretaker had gained a new will to live. He had found the driving force to live on while watching a dream unfold in reality. For that dream, the old man could give up anything. Truly, anything.
“So, please take my sword.”
“…”
“This… is an honor for this old man as well.”
I looked at Tom’s face as he smiled kindly. Soon, from Tom’s mouth… words that felt strangely familiar flowed out.
“For some reason, I feel like you will leave your name in the history of this continent, Young Master.”
Words I could never forget. The final words left by my kind neighbor who had passed away before me.
