Chapter Season 2 724

Translator: Alpha0210

Lucid was an ascetic man.

Born into a fallen noble house of Ecalium─and the fourth son at that─Lucid had three older brothers and two older sisters above him, and four younger siblings below.

Ten children in all.

That included half-siblings, but even so, it was more than enough to qualify as a large family.

Having many siblings came with advantages, but the disadvantages were obvious as well. Even an ordinary mealtime could turn into something resembling a battlefield. It was common for siblings to grab each other by the collar and fight over a single side dish.

Lucid's family was different.

The siblings were unusually close. If they somehow came across even a single tiny bean, their first concern would be how to divide it into ten pieces.

That did not mean the household was peaceful.

Their father had lost his pride but could not forget the glory of the past, and violence was a constant habit of his.

Their mother reacted more strongly to a new wrinkle appearing on her own face than to the wounds being carved into her children's bodies.

To survive between the two of them, the weak had no choice but to band together.

But even setting that aside, Lucid genuinely loved his siblings. It would not have been an exaggeration to call them his reason for living.

His purpose in life naturally followed from that. Lucid wanted to restore his house. Not for the father who hardly felt like blood, of course, but so he could provide for his brothers and sisters.

As for why the fourth son, rather than the eldest, came to harbor such thoughts, it was because of something his sister had said.

"Lucid, you're the strongest among us, so you have to protect us."

Mary, the eldest daughter, often spoke to him in a stern voice.

"So I want you to focus only on your swordsmanship. Leave supporting you to us."

"Can I really do it?"

"Of course. Lucid, you're the most special child I've ever seen."

"I'm special?"

"More special than anyone."

Now, Lucid knew that Mary had only said those things to give him confidence, but that truth had been too difficult for a child not even ten years old to understand.

…As a result, Mary's praise inflated Lucid's confidence far beyond what was healthy, leaving him with a mountain of embarrassing memories he would later wish he could erase─but that was not particularly important at this point.

Just as Mary had declared, his siblings devoted themselves wholeheartedly to supporting Lucid.

The girls, who still carried noble blood in their veins, willingly took on menial work. They mended clothes, cut the sprouts from potatoes, and glared fiercely at the loaves whenever they bought bread, determined to pick one even slightly larger than the rest.

The boys woke before sunrise and spent the entire day helping with farm work or sweeping in front of shops, returning only after night had fallen completely dark.

Most of the money they earned was taken by the people who called themselves their parents. Nearly all of it was spent on gambling, alcohol, or ornaments that would become worthless the moment they went out of fashion.

They endured it.

Even when their father beat them and shouted at them to hand over their money, the silver coins they had hidden away were spent on buying Lucid a wooden sword for training. They even managed to hire a reasonably skilled swordsmanship instructor, and after several years, they were able to buy him a real sword.

Whenever Lucid looked at his sisters' scarred hands and his brothers' sun-scorched skin, he thought,

I may never be able to repay them for the years of their youth,

but in the future,

I will make sure they live more peacefully and comfortably than anyone else in this country.

***

In Ecalium, fifteen was considered adulthood.

On the day he became an adult, Lucid carried out what he had resolved to do years earlier without a moment's hesitation.

They were still nobles, after all, so after completing his coming-of-age ceremony in the capital, he returned to the family estate and immediately challenged his father to a duel.

The position of head of the family was at stake.

His father sneered and tried to dismiss the duel itself, but he could not. Lucid had brought his swordsmanship instructor as a witness.

The result was victory.

With his first strike, Lucid broke his opponent's sword. With the second, he cut off his head.

It was the first time he had killed someone.

One might have called it an act of monstrous unfiliality, but at least in this country, it was not.

"I testify that this was a fair duel."

With that brief declaration from the swordsmanship instructor, Lucid's victory was confirmed.

Lucid became head of the family, but that did not mean everything was over.

There were still people who coveted the hollow title, the decaying manor, and the small patch of land that remained. A family head who was not merely young but practically a child was more than enough for them to look down upon.

Mary made a suggestion.

"Why don't you go on Knight's Errantry?"

A child of a noble house.

Someone whose talent had been proven.

And finally, someone between the ages of fifteen and twenty.

Anyone in Ecalium who met all those conditions could make use of the Knight's Errantry program. The state actively encouraged the policy and even provided a fairly generous stipend.

Knight's Errantry usually involved traveling throughout Ecalium or across the continent, which naturally meant leaving the family estate behind. That alone would make it difficult for the people around them to pick a fight.

Those men who styled themselves nobles would hardly challenge a house without even a proper knight to a duel, either.

Even so, Lucid was worried.

"Will you be all right without me?"

"Ah. Look how much our little boy has grown."

Mary stroked the head of Lucid, who had grown considerably taller.

Lucid now had the largest and most solid build among all his siblings.

"Don't worry about us. Just go. I'd rather you visit as many countries outside Ecalium as possible. Did you know? They say the empire at the center of the continent is a land of mages, with towers taller than mountains standing everywhere."

"Brother, find out how deep the ocean is for me. The books say it could swallow even the tallest mountain range on the continent, but how am I supposed to believe that?"

"I heard there are lizards that walk around in the desert. See one and tell me what they're like!"

Lucid took every one of his siblings' requests to heart, then nodded.

"I will."

Once again, he accepted his eldest sister's suggestion.

And he quietly vowed that once this journey was over, he would never spend another moment apart from his family.

His grip tightened.

Just before setting out on his journey, Lucid looked down at the sword in his hand.

A sword,

to Lucid, a sword was a means of seizing what he desired.

Being ascetic did not mean being devoid of desire, and at that moment Lucid possessed one very clear desire: he wanted to make his siblings happy.

Pride, honor, conviction.

Grand words that seemed more pretentious than meaningful, and all of them far removed from the Lucid of that time.

"Then what is it that you truly want to do?"

…A young man he happened to meet in the imperial capital asked him that question.

Lucid lightly rubbed the back of his hand as he answered.

"I already told you. My family's happiness."

"Yes. But a person must be able to stand on his own. At the moments that truly matter, one cannot depend on the strength of others. Your siblings all sound like wonderful people, but that cannot remain your reason for supporting them forever. More importantly, I doubt they themselves would want that."

"……."

"Your swordsmanship is extraordinary. I don't know much about Ecalium, but even if you return home, I doubt there will be many who can rival you. Your family can now live without suffering any longer. Shouldn't you decide on a goal of your own as well?"

"Do you have a goal?"

At Lucid's question, the young man's expression turned ambiguous.

"I'm still looking for one."

"……."

The moment Lucid saw that expression, he was suddenly struck by the powerful feeling that he needed to return home.

Knight's Errantry could last for up to five years, and this was only his third year, but he no longer felt any desire to delay.

Lucid sprang to his feet and was about to leave when he suddenly looked back.

"That was a good exchange. Come to think of it, I never asked your name."

"Lukas."

"I'm Lucid."

Then, after a brief hesitation, he added,

"We don't seem very far apart in age, so there's no need for formal address."

Lukas smiled.

"Then the next time we meet, I'll call you Lucid."

He was a memorable young man.

Would they ever meet again? Probably not. Lucid had no intention of ever leaving Ecalium again.

But Lucid and Lukas met again exactly six months later.

Because when Lucid returned directly to his homeland, he was confronted with an unbelievable truth.

His entire family, everyone except Lucid himself, had disappeared six months earlier.

***

Lucid knows that he is not some extraordinary person.

Master of the Sword, Sword Duke, genius.

He is not as exceptional as the reputation he enjoys among the masses would suggest. But neither has he ever thought of himself as a sorry excuse for a man. To think that way would be an insult to the family who believed in him and supported him.

And from Lucid's perspective, most other people were sorry excuses for human beings as well.

In particular, he had never looked at someone around his own age and felt respect or reverence, nor had he ever encountered anyone he wanted to befriend.

"These people should know what happened to your family."

When Lucid reunited with Lukas, he abruptly poured out his circumstances without so much as a preamble. Such an overbearing approach might have left anyone else bewildered or offended, but Lukas listened with restraint, advised Lucid as though it were his own problem, and offered his help.

As a result, in roughly a month they found a lead on the family's whereabouts. Lucid himself had spent half a year searching without finding a single clue.

Watching Lukas conduct that pursuit from right beside him, Lucid began to feel something close to respect.

The direction of his thoughts was completely different from Lucid's……. Original and profound, yet never lacking in sharpness.

It was difficult to believe such a man was younger than he was.

He could trust this man.

Finding his family was something Lucid should have done himself, yet he felt he could entrust the task to Lukas completely.

In the end, another month later, Lucid found his family.

More precisely, he found their corpses.

"……."

According to Lukas, they appeared to have been caught up in some horrific experiment. Even the most terrible memories tended to fade somewhat as the years passed, but Lucid still did not want to dwell too deeply on what had happened then.

In any case, after learning how his family had met their end, he also learned about the Demigods.

…They were enemies so powerful that merely contemplating them made his mind go numb.

Even if ninety percent of what they had uncovered through tracking and investigation was exaggeration, it still seemed impossible for humans to fight them with human strength alone.

Facing an enemy so overwhelmingly powerful that even vengeance itself failed to arise in his heart, Lukas said,

"We need to learn more about them."

Lukas was a guide.

He realized what Lucid needed to do before Lucid himself did and became a signpost showing him the way. Every moment Lucid spent with him filled his chest with endless certainty. The certainty that he was walking the right path.

He believed that certainty would remain until their journey was over.

That was what he had thought.

***

Dawn.

The two men sprawled side by side in the inn's first-floor dining room said nothing. Residue, having heard the entire story, had left for somewhere, and Iris had staggered out of the inn as well.

The two men were battered from head to toe.

Kasajin was the first to speak.

"…I don't know what that bastard's deal was. If we'd been in decent shape, we wouldn't have ended up like this."

"I'm not so sure. Even if both of us had been at our best, I doubt victory would've been guaranteed."

"Hmph."

Kasajin snorted, but did not argue.

He forced himself upright and cracked his neck.

"More importantly, Lucid, what happened at the temple? What did they say?"

"Most of the people there, including the Oesst, seemed to know nothing about the Demigods. And I was unable to find the suspicious man who led us underground that day."

"Hm."

"…At least, that appeared to be what they were claiming. Whether it was actually true, I could not tell. As you know, I am not particularly perceptive when it comes to distinguishing truth from lies."

Of course not. Kasajin was much the same in that regard, so he had nothing more to say.

Gathering information, spying on hostile territory, probing another person's intentions, those sorts of tasks would normally have been Iris's role.

"…Right now, I don't even know what we're supposed to do."

"……."

At Lucid's low murmur, Kasajin also fell silent.

Their personalities and fighting styles stood at opposite extremes, but they shared something in common. When it came to dealing with situations, both were surprisingly passive.

Especially in a crisis as enormous as this. It was difficult to know what the right course of action was.

Had they always been like this? Or had traveling with their companions changed them?

"There is one thing we know for certain."

"What?"

"This is dangerous. Another Demigod will be coming soon."

At those words, Kasajin remembered Noxtantine's final screams.

─Humans, humans……! How much do you bastards know about us……! Ahaha…….

─There are far more of our kind. They will avenge me…….

─Remember this well. 'Lord' will find you without fail and grant you the most agonizing deaths imaginable……. You will never sleep peacefully again. Ahaha. Ahahaha……!

There were far more of their kind.

Lukas had once mentioned something about that almost in passing.

If the number of Demigods exceeded ten, he had said, humanity's hope would become despairingly slim.

And what was this Lord?

Judging by the way Noxtantine had spoken, he seemed to be some higher-ranking figure among the Demigods, but Kasajin had never heard of such a being.

If he was vastly stronger than an ordinary Demigod…….

Then could there truly be any hope in this fight?

"We're done for."

Kasajin flinched at the words that had escaped his own mouth.

They had been circling through his mind constantly, but this was the first time he had ever spoken them aloud.

"…Damn it."

Belatedly overcome with self-reproach, he cursed.

Then, without thinking, he looked toward the stairs.

Even in a hopeless situation, if only there were some way through.

Right. Lukas.

If he would just come walking down those stairs as though nothing had happened…….

"……."

"……."

But no matter how much time passed, there was no sign of anyone on the stairs.

*****

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