I watched the boy and the girls flee into the distance out of the corner of my eye, but kept my gaze fixed on the black shadow.
The lord had become a monster cloaked in black mana. No matter how many times I cut him, his wounds regenerated instantly. I’d just sliced him into ribbons, yet he was still writhing. He’d probably regenerate again in a few moments. I’d sliced him up the same way earlier, but I hadn’t expected him to survive, and I’d let him escape.
Will he die if I keep cutting him until his mana runs dry?
Normally, I’d fight an enemy like this just until I had the chance to get away.
But this time, fleeing wasn’t an option.
“Gaaaargh!”
“Sheesh, you sure are a tough one,” I said. “Doesn’t even look like you feel pain.”
Why am I fighting a monster in a place like this? Originally, my plan was to just slack off under this old fool’s command, but things started going awry when the dragon appeared. The beast did a number on the town, public order collapsed, and I ended up with all kinds of work to do.
No, that’s not it. It all started when I saw that kid in the slums. I should’ve ignored him, but for some reason, I couldn’t. As hollow as I was, there was still something inside me.
And those beastfolk girls...for a moment, they looked like my daughter, except they looked nothing like her and their ages are so different—so why?
I’ve lost everything. Even now, I have vivid memories of that moment.
Back then, our country had been attacked by two neighboring nations. The Holy Sword Knights, of which I served as commander, had been sent to the eastern front. The battle had been going back and forth, but despite our small numbers, we’d had the advantage.
Until that incident.
My territory, though quite a distance from the border, had been invaded, and my daughter had been taken hostage. But I didn’t return. As a knight commander, I couldn’t prioritize personal matters when I hadn’t even received orders to return to my territory.
I did it out of foolish pride, and I paid the gravest price for it.
My daughter was executed as a warning.
I heard later that the townspeople had attacked her during her defense command and handed her over to the enemy in exchange for their own lives. My daughter, however, had smiled until the end, had said it was fine.
After that, the forces of the lords who owned land out west—except for me—panicked, and the eastern front collapsed. In the end, our country lost much of its territory and was defeated. My land fell to the enemy, and the fools who betrayed my daughter died during the war.
Was her death meaningless? What was it that I’ve been believing in and protecting all this time?
That was when the crushing emptiness began to consume me. To make matters worse, the king pinned the blame for our defeat on me. I was stripped of my rank as commander and my title as Sword Saint.
Not that I’d really noticed—I’d been too busy dungeon diving, trying to bring my daughter back to life. Before I knew it, I’d become a disgrace: the useless former Sword Saint who caused the nation to lose the war.
In the end, I couldn’t revive my daughter. I’d lost my pride, my position, everything. For a while after that, I was like a walking corpse. Even dying felt like too much effort—or rather, I felt life and death no longer mattered.
At least when I sucked on the candy my daughter loved, I could feel her presence. It calmed me a little, but that was all. I had no motivation to do anything.
Ultimately, I didn’t care about the country or its people. What I truly cared about was family. After losing my wife to illness, my daughter was all I had left.
And when I lost her...my world lost all meaning. I’m not exaggerating when I say that everything looked colorless.
But children were different. Maybe because they reminded me of my daughter. Those beastfolk girls, and that strange boy—they didn’t just have color; they were shining.
Something I’d kept locked away in the depths of my heart began to stir—a feeling I couldn’t quite understand continued to throb.
It felt like my daughter was telling me from heaven to stop looking away from reality. I thought hard about the situation I was in—the lord who’d become a monster that devoured lives and the foolish knight who served him.
People had told me over and over that my daughter was grieving for me in heaven, and I’d always laughed it off. “What do you know about my daughter?” I’d say.
But now I understood. If she saw me like this, she’d be heartbroken.
A lord who screamed for children to be slaughtered, who howled about devouring them—how repulsive. Before I knew it, I’d cut him down and let the children escape.
“I chose who to cut down, you bastard.”
It was thanks to the lord losing his temper and giving me that idiotic command. If I had the choice to cut down whoever I wanted, of course I’d choose you. His transformation had worked in my favor too. With the change in the nature of his mana, the contract we’d made before had lost a great deal of power. The contract magic must not have recognized him as the lord, and that was how I was able to forcibly nullify it.
I’m now free from all the shackles. I hereby swear to my daughter: I will never stray from the righteous path again. If she saw me now, she’d be gutted. I kept looking away from that truth so I wouldn’t have to think about it. But not anymore. Even if my life burns out, I’ll live so I can face my daughter with pride!
Then, the lord unleashed a monstrous roar.
“You’re finally up? Come on, let’s get back to our battle to the death.”
“You traitorrrrrr!”
“I haven’t betrayed what matters most. Ninth Blade.”
The lord screeched in anger, charging at me with such speed it felt like even the slightest contact would pulverize me.
But right now, I won’t lose to anyone.
I swung my magic sword down, cleaving him in two.
“G-Ggg... Eternal...life... Aaaa...aaaaggghhh!”
Once again, he was revived, roaring with pure hatred. Actually, is his mana getting even stronger? Is he drawing power from the dungeon? The black mana that cloaked him emitted an even stronger presence, making him look like what could only be described as a demon.
“Tch...looks like this’ll be a long one.”
Just as I braced myself for a drawn-out battle, something about the lord changed.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Black wings sprouted from his back, and he shot into the sky in an instant.
“Give me...your liiiife!”
“Tch! Bastard!”
A pillar of overwhelming mana erupted, forcing me to focus entirely on defense.
The damn lord flew off in the direction of—
“Like hell I’ll let you do that!”
You’re not killing a single child as long as I stand!