Part 1 — The Boy from Lag

1

That day, it seemed the killing would never end. The boy’s breath quickened as he felt the heavy presence of the god of death grip his heart. His vision was obscured, making it difficult for him to keep his footing; he avoided stepping on a corpse but then found himself treading into muddy ground that upset his balance.

Here and there the ground was sodden as if rain had fallen that day on the harsh, dry land known as the borderlands. But of course, there had been no rain. The ground was wet with blood and bodily fluids from the foul-smelling bodies of the dead.

“Shit...”

The boy held his breath and then suddenly threw himself to the ground based on some instinct.

A moment later there was a whoosh as a giant boulder flew through the air where his head had just been.

The physical strength of the demi-human macaques that would ravenously rampage through human territories was fearsome. The boulders they were occasionally throwing from the edges of the forest carried enough force to shatter a hardwood shield into a thousand pieces. Needless to say, a direct hit would have split the boy’s head open like a melon.

Even as he fell, the boy kept sight of the backs of his squadmates and desperately scrambled to keep pace with them as they seemed likely to leave him behind. Members of the human race, to which the boy and these other frail foot soldiers from the village of Lag belonged, had to band together or they’d be killed before they could put up a fight. With their spears held in-line and ready, they charged as one toward their powerful foe.

Humans were incredibly weak compared to the stronger types of demi-humans. Without knowing how to fight as a group rather than as individuals, the humans would have had no chance of defending their land against the stronger demi-human they were facing.

“Let’s show ‘em the glory of Lag!”

The squad roared in response.

The boy stood near the center of this squad of five humans, where it was his responsibility to aim for the legs of the enemy. To his left and right, other spears were held slightly upward, aimed at the heart and lungs. Their spears formed a barrier of high and low spearpoints that couldn’t be avoided by jumping or crouching. Their assigned target was a warrior-class macaque, a high-ranking creature that was much larger than the others and had faint dotted markings in its fur.

The macaque sensed their killing intent and swung at them with the stone axe held in its hand. The swing came at the tips of their spearheads from one side, causing the two upward-facing spears to be pushed aside along with the soldiers who held them. The remaining three soldiers dodged past their falling squadmates and rushed forward.

The boy put all of his momentum behind the spear as he drove it into the tough fur that covered the shin of the macaque.

Kill it..!

The fur was as tough as metal wire, forming a natural defense against the spearhead and threatening to direct it off course. The boy forcibly corrected the course of the spear and drove it into the macaque’s inner thigh. Then the boy prepared himself for death as he pushed against the macaque with all his might. He could feel the gouging of flesh.

Just as his spirits were buoyed by the success of his attack, he was knocked down by his stumbling squadmates and the precious spear slipped from his grasp.

The moment the boy realized he’d lost his weapon, his body reacted spontaneously as a result of his intense training: in one smooth movement he drew the cutting knife that hung at his waist.

“Fucking die!”

The macaque was leaning forward with its posture broken as the boy chanced his life on a single upward strike aimed at its throat.

The other soldiers each followed after him, their eyes wild. In an instant, the macaque’s body was covered with deep wounds. Its howling was loud enough to rupture an eardrum at close range, and its apelike arms flailed wildly.

Not deep enough...!

It still wasn’t enough to deliver a fatal wound.

The enemy’s long flailing arm hit the boy and launched him into the air like a frog kicked by a spiteful child. As the ground and sky were spinning in his vision, the boy felt as though he was someone else, simply watching.

Time in the borderlands was measured by dividing the day into twelve periods known as toki. The approach of sunset meant that half a toki had passed since the start of the battle.

A few moments spent flying through the sky above the borderlands felt like an eternity, but it abruptly ended when the boy’s body struck the ground and rolled. Even then, he still felt like he was someone else.

The smell of blood at the back of his nose mixed with the scent of grass and soil. Realizing that this broken body was in fact his own, he finally accepted that his death was approaching. For those unable to move on the battlefield, there was nothing left but to wait to be dealt with by the victors.

“Damn, I’m hungry...” The boy muttered to himself as he grew concerned about the pain caused by his empty stomach.

Satisfying meals weren’t given to useless foot soldiers who couldn’t even handle their weapons properly, let alone kill an enemy. When it came to food, the situation was equally grim for every village in the borderlands.

Just let me eat one onigiri...

The boy didn’t even know the meaning of the word that came to mind as he drank the blood flowing from his nose. Even his spilled blood was precious if it could mask the feeling of hunger.

Just one onigiri before I die... Somehow, the boy was sure that whatever an onigiri was, it was both satisfying and delicious.

2

The country belonging to the human race was on the verge of a crisis that threatened its very existence.

For someone like the boy who lived in a village in the borderlands, the very concept of a country was vague. Needless to say, he had absolutely no concept of national crisis.

All he understood was that the land they’d inherited from their forefathers, the land that produced the food needed to ensure human survival, was gradually being taken from them by the demi-human races that surrounded them. The borderlands was quite literally an area of land that lay at the edge of the country, so it was only natural for this area to form the front line in their bloody conflict. This was the simple way that those affected understood their situation.

Next time... it’d be nice if I’m born in a world where I can eat enough to feel full.

The village elders had taught him that this place was just one of the worlds that souls in the cycle of Samsara could spill out into. If the boy died here, his soul would return to the cycle of Samsara and he might begin a different life in a different world.

“I want an onigiri.” His stomach growled as he tried saying the words out loud.

A fuzzy image of something black and triangular came to his mind, but he couldn’t imagine what type of food it might be. He’d heard that memories of past lives could sometimes come back to people, so he realized that he must have gained some of those unexplained memories himself.

As a vague memory of the taste came to him, he began to salivate.

Then someone struck his head.

“How long are you gonna be asleep?”

For a moment, the boy blinked, unable to understand the words.

The figure who spoke saw the boy react, then looked about to walk away as if he wasn’t particularly worried about him.

“I’m not asleep.”

“If you wanna live, get up. If you’d rather be ape food, you can go back to sleep.”

“I want to live.”

“Well, get the fuck up then, dipshit.”

The boy recognized the toothy grin looking down at him. It was Manso, a fellow foot soldier five years his senior. In his younger days, Manso had always been a quiet child who rarely complained, but lately he was becoming foulmouthed and arrogant. Manso had an imposing presence, so his squad treated him as their leader.

“It looks like we won this one.”

The boy somehow got to his feet even though only one of his arms was capable of supporting his weight.

At first, the thought of them winning didn’t make sense to him. His body swayed, causing waves of dizziness that made it hard to think about the situation on the battlefield around him.

He saw his concerned squadmates looking over at him, and at their feet a small mountain had been formed by the remains of the macaque warrior that they must have somehow brought down.

And then the scene beyond them... The killing continued across the battlefield. But now, they seemed to have more human soldiers than they’d started with.

It could only mean that the neighboring villages had learned of Lag’s crisis, and had all sent reinforcements rushing to their aid. The air was filled with cries such as, “House Tempel has come to your aid!” and “House Bofoy is with you!” as flagbearers attempted to win gratitude by waving flags displaying the crests of their respective houses.

With the tide of the battle turning against them, the macaque forces decided to retreat, making shrill cries as they withdrew from the battlefield. They hoped to escape into the forest where more of their kind were hiding.

Then a loud noise that sounded like two hard objects being slammed together got the boy’s attention. He looked over and saw an unusually large macaque with distinctive fur engaged in combat with a single human soldier.

It was clear from its size and the stripes of its fur that this warrior was renowned even among other macaques. The soldier taking on this toweringly large macaque was a tall young boy with his long black hair held back by a decorative round hair accessory.

This was Olha, one of the generals who led Lag’s soldiers. He was the eldest son of the baron, and to Lag, he was an invaluable guardian bearer. The blessings of a land god gave him inhuman strength and made him one of their most powerful weapons.

“Get a look at this... there’s a bastard ape taking on Olha.”

“Well, yeah, even demi-humans have guardian bearers.”

The striped macaque swung its stone axe at Olha, who caught the powerful blow on his iron sword. The sound of their weapons colliding reverberated in the boy’s guts, and an unnatural dip began to form in the ground beneath Olha’s feet.

It was a meeting of two exceptional powers. A battle between two guardian bearers was a battle like no other, and such battles were like sacred rituals in which outsiders were forbidden to intervene.

Olha leaped to one side, letting his blade slide across the axe, and then he swiftly began his offensive, pinning his opponent down with a series of strikes that were too fast to be seen.

The villagers knew a strike from Olha carried enough force to shatter a large boulder. Even when girls of the village would sing his praises, no one would disagree with them. His features were pleasing and his physique exceptional, and to top it off, he was the likely heir to his father’s house. In all, he was without match.

“Olha’s kumadori markings are starting to show on his face. They’re about to see what our guardian bearer can do.”

“Olha’s really something else...”

Though his long sword was forged from unrefined iron and weighed as much as a child, he wielded it effortlessly with the force of his entire body. Each strike carried Olha’s incredible power with it, but each was countered by a sideways swipe from the crude stone axe of the macaque warrior. A barrage of sparks was sent flying each time one incredible force met the other.

With a heavy metallic clang that could be felt in one’s skull, an invisible shockwave created a gust that violently shook the grass around them. Again and again they exchanged blows until finally the stone axe shattered and the iron longsword broke halfway along its length.

While Olha was still stunned by the loss of his precious sword, the crafty macaque warrior seized the opportunity and sent a shower of small rocks flying with a kick before swiftly turning to flee. The macaque must have reckoned that it had already bought its brethren enough time to escape. Olha appeared to be about to give chase, but then the handle of the stone axe came flying at him like a parting gift and he missed his chance.

The macaque warrior darted away with incredible speed. Its long arms served as additional legs as it used all four limbs to move along the ground with great leaps. A human running on two legs couldn’t hope to keep up.

“Ah... It got away.”

If the enemy’s guardian bearer had been brought down, the result of the battle wouldn’t have just been victory, it would have been a major triumph. Olha’s frustration was visible as he watched his opponent’s retreat.

A nearby foot soldier came to retrieve the broken blade, but Olha stayed him with some instruction, and then he raised his hand high to the Lag soldiers to indicate that the battle was won. As the soldiers saw his fist rise into the air, it was as if the gesture itself had unleashed their loud cheers that followed.

“The bastard apes fled! Lag has won!”

“Let them hear our cheers of victory!”

Roars of celebration erupted across the battlefield.

The reinforcements from neighboring villages shared their excitement. They knew that the village of Lag would repay soldiers who came to their aid with some wheat. Though they’d been rescued, the gratitude of the Lag soldiers was dampened by the thought of the food they’d have to give up.

Now that the time seemed right, Manso and squad exchanged nods and gathered around the corpse of the macaque they’d brought down.

As their leader, it was Manso who drove his knife into the beast’s heart and then signaled to the others that it was dead without a doubt. The group cut open the body of the macaque in multiple places and plunged their hands into its flesh in search of something within. Then one of the men cried out with glee as his hand found something about the size of a fist.

“I’ve got its godstone!”

In this world, a rounded lump of matter could be found within the bodies of most living creatures. The stronger the creature, the greater the size of that lump. Naturally, a similar lump could also be found within the body of every human being. This object was actually a part of the skeleton, formally known as the jewel bone.

Manso took it in his hand and then showed it to the rest of the squad. With their unspoken agreement, he then broke it open against a rock on the ground. With the top half removed, the thick, amber-colored, marrow-like substance inside was visible. Manso used the tip of his knife to scoop it out and share it between his squadmates.

“Praise be to Mother Earth!”

“Praise be.”

“And we give thanks to the brave spirit of the land god who resides here in the land of our forefathers.”

“We give thanks.”

With their brief prayer finished, the boys began to devour the amber marrow.

The spiritual energy accumulated by a living creature would condense within the marrow of its godstone. The theory behind it was unclear, but consuming this substance made creatures in this world stronger. When this happened, it was just like leveling up. The boy felt heat inside himself in a place that must have been his own godstone. “Level up” and other strange words that were coming to his mind felt like more residual memories from a past life.

Somehow, I’ve lived through another day.

The boy was thankful to be one of the lucky ones as he savored the taste that filled his mouth and let it spread across his tongue. Opportunities to eat marrow from a godstone were rare, but for many, the rich flavor made it their favorite food. It didn’t just make people stronger, it also tasted great. For soldiers who’d been on the brink of death, a small helping of this substance was enough to make them forget their complaints. For these reasons, godstones were considered one of the most important treasures of this world.

Naturally, the godstone of every single fallen macaque was recovered. More than half of those would be given to the baron’s house.

Flocks of honks soon appeared and began to peck at the abandoned corpses of the macaques, as if they’d been sent to clean the battlefield.

“Let’s go back to the village...”

With that, soldiers from Lag collected the bodies of their fallen friends, and at a slow pace, they left the battlefield behind. A total of eighteen bodies were recovered. They had been a force of 138, but now they were reduced to 120.

For a village like Lag with a population of not even 1,000, the loss of so many capable workers was a heavy blow.

“Looks like our little one can’t walk. Let’s get him on the cart.”

“I’m not that small,” mumbled the boy as he let them load him onto the cart. He didn’t enjoy being treated like a child by his squadmates, but he was the youngest, and, as much as he hated to admit it, he was glad that they cared about him. For a boy who had lost his parents and had no relatives, they were something like a family to him.

After being placed aboard the cart alongside long-cold corpses, he could feel dead flesh moving as they traveled, and it wasn’t exactly pleasant. It may seem odd that he didn’t feel a great sense of disgust, but since becoming old enough to fight as a soldier just a few months ago, the boy had been repeatedly thrown into bloody battles, and he already felt worn down and numb to it all. The boy kept his gaze fixed on the sky so that he didn’t have to look at his “fellow passengers.”

The boy’s name was Kai.

Kai turned 13 this year.

3

Lag was located in the eastern part of the borderlands. The population was a little less than 1,000. In a place as sparsely populated as the borderlands, this village was one of the larger settlements. Expanses of meager farmland starved of moisture surrounded the village, and the surroundings also held several forms of grazing livestock for producing food and clothing. They also produced a dry form of cheese known as queijo, which some might have considered a local delicacy, but this was otherwise a poor village with no unique qualities.

The village was surrounded by towering cobblestone walls that seemed too grand for a poor village. Overall the village had the air of a fortress. The walls were of course there to defend against outside enemies such as demi-humans. They had once been mere embankments, but through much labor and expense they had become towering structures that stood as a testament to the efforts of the forefathers.

The village was the domain of a great house, known as House Moloch.

The head of that house was Moloch Vezin — a ferocious warrior also known throughout the borderlands as the Iron Taurus.

He stood so tall that he had to stoop whenever he passed through a doorway, his muscular body was built like a barrel, and a stumpy neck held his head firmly in place. His stern gaze could fix an opponent in place just as well as that of any mad bull, and it had been known to make crying children instantly go quiet.

This baron hated to sit idle and was often seen on the soldiers’ training ground. Today was not the first day that he’d scoured the training ground in search of a victim while the soldiers in training tried desperately to avoid his gaze.

“I’ll give you some real training.”

The Iron Taurus appeared to have chosen his partner for that day.

It was a rule in the village that boys would become soldiers once they reached the age of 13. They’d then be expected to help protect the village until illness or injury left them unable to fight or until it was accepted that old age had robbed them of their strength. The men knew well enough how serious the situation of this village was, so when afternoon arrived and their farming work was more or less complete, they would gather in the village square without needing to be told. There they would spend their time endlessly repeating drills that taught them how to kill their enemies.

Training was led by Basco, a mature man with a large scar on his forehead. He’d earned respect after living through countless battles. He’d earned his exceptional physical strength by killing many enemies and consuming the marrow of just as many godstones. Basco’s strength was always enough to leave his sparring partners with numb hands, he always finished first in any race despite his age, and he could jump with such power that a single wall jump could place him on the roof of a house. Needless to say, he was one of Lag’s greatest warriors, and young soldiers aiming for the top ranks considered him their ultimate rival.

Basco took on the task of training those foot soldiers without ever seeming dissatisfied... except at times like this. As the most noticeable soldier, he had found himself the target of the baron’s “invitation.”

The baron was the strongest guardian bearer in the village, and Basco was one of a select few capable of making the pretense of fighting against him, even in the context of training. Worthy opponent or not, Basco was always likely to be the one on the receiving end of the baron’s invitations to train.

The baron appeared to be in a good mood as he brandished a long wooden training staff. Basco briefly tried to look pleased too in an attempt to hide his reluctance, then his face carried no expression at all as he stepped forward. His short black hair, flecked with gray, disappeared beneath a wooden helmet, and he deftly put on a well-worn breastplate made from yellowish-brown leather. Then he assumed an oblique stance with his staff projecting forward.

“Let us enjoy a good, fair bout, my lord.”

“Indeed. I’ll show you all myself how a fight should go. You’d all do well to watch closely. I’m going to show you what a fight against a powerful warrior looks like! If you’d avoid dying a meaningless death, you’d best never approach such a warrior unless you absolutely must... But the time may come when no one is up to the task, and you’re all forced to hold back such a warrior yourselves.”

With a brief nod, the baron began the farcical training.

After bowing and then lightly tapping their staffs together, Basco and the baron both began side-stepping as if their steps were tracing the same circle. This was a characteristic feature of martial arts in the borderlands, known as circle footwork. To be more precise, this footwork was part of the Zula-ryu combat system, a form of martial arts named after Zula, a famous mercenary leader who fought countless battles in the borderlands long ago.

There was soon cheering and heckling from the men lucky enough not to have been picked as the baron’s training partner. They’d become willing spectators the moment they knew they wouldn’t be the ones in harm’s way. In an instant the training ground was alive with a festival-like atmosphere, with happy cheers flying back and forth.

“Kai.”

Hearing his name, the boy looked round.

The uproar in the training ground was so great that he barely heard the voice. He saw Manso making his way towards him through the spectating soldiers and realized that it was Manso who’d called his name.

Manso gradually made his way over, apologizing to other soldiers when he blocked their view, and once he reached Kai he sat down beside him and casually thrust something into Kai’s hands.

Confused, Kai took hold of it before he knew what it was. It was a morango: a small fruit that grew in purplish red bunches between rocks in the grasslands.

His stomach rumbled the moment he laid eyes on it.

“Are you sure?”

“Eat up. It’s just something I saw by chance and picked. I know you’re struggling because they reduced your rations. They’re brutal when they see someone can’t work.”

“Thanks. The hunger’s really getting to me.”

He threw the entire morango into his mouth, and the sour taste made him grimace. While the taste left a lot to be desired, this was a precious source of sustenance in the borderlands. Realizing that Manso had decided to share rather than simply eating it himself, Kai thanked him again. “Seriously, thanks.”

Ever since losing his parents at a young age in a battle against demi-humans, Kai had been in the care of the village. Kai was still small and overly skinny, and it was clear to see that he wasn’t growing as fast as most children around him. For this reason his squad leader Manso regularly fussed over him.

“So you’re just watching again today?”

“They tell me I should at least weed the training ground if I can’t work. But I already finished that. There’s nothing I can do.”

“We’ve got less mouths to feed now, so just rest up and ignore anyone who’s nasty.”

“I would, but I can’t. They all start talking about me and I can’t stand it.”

“Just don’t overdo it. We lose you and our squad’s short one spear bearer. Word is, trouble’s brewing for a nearby village again. We’ll be in the shit if you’re not better soon.”

“You heard some rumors?”

“Just what I overheard, but there’s orgs making trouble for a village not far west.”

It was a common story in the borderlands: before a demi-human raid there were always warning signs — happenings that were like bad omens. Some species liked to kidnap human women and children, and if they noticed humans with their guard down, they often couldn’t resist running ahead to satisfy their foul appetites. Orgs were the classic example, and humans felt a special kind of loathing toward them.

“That means they’ll attack soon...”

“Right. So get healed up.”

Their gazes drifted back to the center of the town square where the baron and Basco were standing. They were both experienced fighters, so neither struck at the other carelessly, though every so often the ends of their weapons would come together just so they could gauge how far apart they stood. The sound of wood against wood reverberated across the training ground.

Then the two fighters began an intense exchange of blows, and it was mostly Basco who was on the offensive. But of course, everyone knew that as powerful as Basco was, the baron was overwhelmingly stronger.

It was likely that even a few strikes intended to keep his opponent on the defensive could result in Basco’s weapon being broken, no matter how lightly he tried to strike, so Basco quickly gave up on using simple blows and focused more on his footwork as he leaped from place to place. His many years of training and powerful lower body gave Basco’s attacks versatility, and he could deliver each strike so fast that it was literally quicker than the eye.

But the baron’s fearsome eyes seemed to track Basco perfectly; he reacted to each blow with minimal movement, knocking Basco’s staff aside each time.

“Haah!” With a vigorous cry, Basco put his whole body into the next strike.

His staff had consistently targeted the baron’s upper body, but now it struck downward as if trying to exploit some short-lived opening. Up to now, his attacks had been a feint, and the baron was caught off-guard.

His target was the baron’s leg... his left leg at the center of the circle footwork key to his defense.

He did it?! For a moment, the soldiers watching were cheering with hope for Basco, but it was short-lived.

The reality was soon clear to everyone watching.

The strike had indeed landed clean on the baron’s leg, and the sound had been enough to make the spectators wince... but the baron hadn’t budged an inch. When Basco chanced a glance up at his face, the baron was simply grinning back at him.

“You can’t stop a powerful warrior with just a sweeping attack... Remember, the only attack a weakling fighting with a spear can rely on is a well-aimed thrust.”

A sweep with Basco’s full strength behind it wasn’t even enough to put a scratch on a “powerful warrior” with greatly enhanced physical strength. The Iron Taurus had legs that looked as though they were carved from tree trunks, and there wasn’t so much as a bruise on them.

The main reason for using a spear when fighting on foot was that the weapon’s length made it possible to stay out of reach of the enemy until they’d been knocked down. A thrust was the only way to kill an enemy, but striking and sweeping at the enemy to break their posture before the thrust was one way of making it easier to land a fatal blow, so strikes and sweeps were still incredibly useful ways of using a spear.

But guardian bearers — those exceptional humans blessed by a god bound to their land — were on a level far beyond the reach of ordinary individuals. Much like his son Olha who’d fought during the recent battle, the baron was a guardian bearer in possession of one of the spirits passed down by House Moloch through multiple generations. This spirit was the greatest spirit in House Moloch’s possession; it belonged to a god bound to the village of Lag, and it granted the bearer with exceptional strength.

The people of the village referred to this god as “The Great Lagdara of our village.”

“You’re not fighting a foot soldier. Don’t sweep; thrust! Try it and you might just pierce your opponents’ hardened defenses!”

“Hah...” Basco had decided to ignore this wisdom. He swiftly moved back, and with two skilled hands he began to spin the long staff with great energy. Though the baron had instructed him to thrust, Basco had no intention of doing as he was told.

As the most skilled spear bearer in the village, Basco hardly needed a lecture on the nature of the spear. Basco seemed determined to attempt another sweep, now with additional power from the force of rotation. With the staff spinning in his hands, Basco’s grip gradually shifted toward the butt of the staff. As his grip shifted, the circle traced by the staff grew larger. As the tip of the staff moved further and further from the center, it accelerated dramatically with the growing of the circle.

The baron saw what was happening. “Come at me,” he said, gesturing for Basco to approach.

The strongest warrior in the village seemed pleased that there was someone willing to challenge him.

When Basco judged that the rotational force had reached its peak, he chose that instant to slide his grip to the very edge of the staff, increasing the size of the circle to the maximum extent. Without hesitation, he finally directed that rotational force into the baron’s left leg.

The baron took the hit without even trying to defend himself.

The tip of the training staff shattered into small pieces with a cracking sound so great that the spectators felt an instinctive urge to close their eyes. Every man watching then fixed his gaze on the left leg of the baron. They all must have had a similar thought: he might be a guardian bearer, but surely, with a hit like that...

But there was his leg, unchanged and unharmed, while Basco stood with his broken staff withdrawn and his head bowed.

As for the baron, he was gazing down at Basco like nothing had happened. However, his face now looked as Olha’s had on the battlefield: it was covered by the red markings known as kumadori. It may have been that the supernatural protector that guarded the baron had sensed that its host was in crisis, automatically unleashing its power.

“I’m impressed.”

On hearing praise from the baron, Basco stepped back with his head still bowed. However...

“Someone get the man a new staff.”

With that order given, Basco’s opportunity to stand down was lost. Instead, he was given a replacement staff and forced to continue in his farcical training session with the baron. By the time Basco was set free, a quarter of a toki had passed and he was badly beaten. Guardian bearers had inexhaustible stores of energy.

Manso cursed as he watched Basco being carried off on a stretcher. “We needed Basco for the expedition!” His words produced some awkward laughs from the men around him. They all knew it was unlikely that Basco would be fit for the looming battle with the wounds he’d just received. Lag’s combat potential had just been severely downgraded.

The baron drank deeply from a pot of water, satisfied and seemingly oblivious to the anguish he’d caused for the commoners around him. He was in high spirits as he left the training ground. The baron was a compassionate ruler who commanded great respect from his people, but in the heat of battle, he was often quick to forget his surroundings.

As Kai watched the baron leave, he noticed his son Olha appear and follow behind him. Kai started to think about the unfairness of the world he lived in.

If you’re not a guardian bearer, it’s like you’re playing life on hard mode. He was confused by the words that came into his own head. Hard mode? What’s that?

Lately, Kai often looked like he was deep in thought, and people around him had taken it as a sign that he’d become more mature after being badly wounded in battle, but that was a misunderstanding.

As Olha fell in step with the baron and the two disappeared, several young girls, who must have been watching, came out from their hiding places and began talking loudly in shrill voices. These girls were often seen near Olha.

Continued fighting had left the village with many more females than males. And yet, many of the men in the village were shunned by the women. The reason was simple. It was only natural for the women of the village to flock to the stronger men, and for the other men, this problem was worsened by an unreasonable rule set that left them with a vanishingly small chance of ever becoming strong.

Monogamy had never been an important concept in this world, and harems were generally encouraged.

The loud laughter from the girls then stopped as a pale-skinned girl appeared and dispersed the group with a wave of her hand. This was another of the baron’s children. Her eyes were red like rubies, and there was no pigment to her white hair and skin. Most people knew her as Lady White. Her real name was Jose, and she was a young girl with dreamlike beauty. To the men of the village she was a prize beyond reach, and all felt some level of admiration toward her.

You’d call someone like that an albino, right? This new word left Kai deep in thought once again.

4

As a rule, all soldiers in Lag lived together in a barracks situated next to the village castle. It had always been claimed that this was for the sake of fostering solidarity between the men, but it would have been truer to say that the soldiers were kept close at hand so that they could be swiftly mobilized in times of crisis.

For the soldiers themselves, this arrangement meant they were guaranteed a meal in the morning and in the evening, so it wasn’t without benefits.

“Praise be to Mother Earth!”

“Praise be.”

“And we give thanks to the brave spirit of the land god who resides here in the land of our forefathers.”

“We give thanks.”

After prayers had been said, and the baron had been given enough time to take the first bite, everyone began their meal. The baron’s table was in a special, slightly elevated position, with several other long tables arranged around it, packed with people eating dinner.

Today’s dinner was a very watery soup with small pieces of potato, some hard bread, and prit that had simply been boiled. Naturally, before taking their seats, soldiers had to line up before the serving girls to be given their food. It was an unspoken rule that the less useful soldiers belonged at the back of the line, and that they’d be given only what was left after the fitter men had been served. As usual, Kai had been given some squashed rye bread with obvious spots of mold, and some soup with not a single piece of potato in it. Prit was currently in season, but none was given to Kai.

“Stare all you like, I’m not sharing mine with you.”

“No, I was just curious...”

Kai stared at the prit given to the soldier next to him and thought, That looks just like green asparagus. He was interested, but not particularly fond of vegetables, so it wasn’t a lie to say he was just curious.

Suddenly his thoughts were full of confusing information and terminology. Making sense of it all had been an unending task for Kai each day and night. Originally, Kai had been sorely lacking any understanding of the world, and most of these new terms that came to him just left him puzzled.

It looks like the kind of thing that’s “nutritious”... but what are “vitamins”?

Kai was gathering these thoughts that seemed like memories from a past life, and was trying to use them to gain some new understanding of the world he lived in. This past self with all of their knowledge felt like a completely different person, and for a clueless young boy like Kai, the flood of information he was experiencing was enough to rapidly develop his sense of the world around him.

All this low-quality food is going to damage my health... This realization made him regret missing the chance to get some much-needed nourishment while prit was in season.

His sense of hygiene was also beginning to differ from those around him, making it hard to ignore the mold on his rye bread. But when he tried to scrape away the mold with his fingernail, Manso punched him, saying, “Don’t waste your food!”

If I don’t figure something out, I’m probably not going to get enough of this nutrition stuff. I could die... In any case, I’d love to be able to eat as much as they do...

Kai looked jealously at the baron’s table.

It was mostly the same food, but the servings of soup were bigger and full of potato, the boiled prit was piled so high it looked like it might spill from the table, there was roast rare winter bird (is that a mallard?) that had been preserved after a hunt, and a serving girl was pouring delicious-looking white liquid over soft, freshly baked bread. It was probably milk.

There was an obvious “pecking order” to this society.

Even at the baron’s table, a sort of hierarchy of status was visible in the arrangement of the seats. The baron sat in the center of the table, with the others arranged on either side of him forming two wings, clear for the soldiers to see.

The baron’s wives sat beside him, and beyond them there were the children. The boys sat in the right wing starting with Olha, and the girls sat in the left wing starting with Lady White, or rather, Jose.

The amount of food set before them gradually declined from the center to the end of the table, implying a decline in status. That said, their smallest helpings were still generous compared to anything given to an ordinary soldier.

The amount in front of the baron looked like enough food for two, and it was always more than he could finish, but virtually no one minded that he enjoyed this luxury.

In the borderlands, strength to defend one’s own kind was highly prized. The baron was the strongest warrior in the village, and the village was much safer if the baron could eat as much as he needed so that he’d never be distracted by his empty stomach. If the baron said it was right of him to extend this treatment towards his own family, towards useless children just because they were his flesh and blood, the villagers accepted that without argument, even if they secretly felt as though it was a wasteful extravagance. That was the extent to which the baron was revered by everyone, and the extent of the power he had over his villagers.

Kai couldn’t help but growl as he watched the baron’s family shoveling prit into their mouths one piece after another.

Then when he tried his soup, he found that it didn’t taste right somehow...

“You’re going to eat everything. You got that?”

“...”

At some point, the moldy bits of bread that he’d broken off had been put into his soup.

Do I really have to eat this?

Kai gulped as he noticed those around him were looking at him with disapproval.

**

Daily life in this world wasn’t exactly what you’d call sophisticated. It was more like the life of rustic old folk who get up when the sun rises.

As soon as there was daylight, it was time to get up. Then after working until sunset, it was time for dinner and then bed. As the saying goes, early to bed, early to rise.

Each squad was allocated a cramped room in the barracks, where Kai lay on his side, unable to sleep a wink.

The room was already filled with the sound of snoring. The stuffiness and the smell of other men were both immeasurable.

The short rainy season had ended and it was now early summer, but fortunately, summers in the eastern borderlands were mild. In winter on the other hand, this was a punishing place to live... but now was no time to think about the harsher seasons.

Kai wasn’t getting sleepy, so he decided to get up. He left the barracks and headed for an herb garden behind the castle where he could keep out of sight. The water from the well behind the castle was considered the best in the village, and so Kai decided to quench his thirst.

Kai brought up the bucket filled with water, and drank from it until he was satisfied. Then he looked up at the twinkling stars and felt as though the night was still young.

I guess I should just try it...

Kai left the herb garden and hid himself in the shadow of a tool storage hut so that he’d be completely out of sight. It might seem strange to worry whether anyone is watching in the dead of night, but the threat of a night raid from demi-humans meant that lookouts remained seated on platforms around the castle through the night.

Kai crouched in the darkness and let out a sigh.

He knew exactly what was stopping him from sleeping. After gaining so much knowledge recently, there was obviously a lot he wanted to test, and his curiosity had him constantly worked up.

This world feels so much like those “fantasy” worlds... I have to at least try it...

Godstones are like magic stones, and we’re eating them to level up, and then there are superhumans protected by land gods.

If this strange “rule set” is all based on some kind of magic... or some kind of spiritual energy... there should be a way to take that energy and use it in a pure form... This flimsy reasoning that he seemed to have come up with from out of nowhere had put him on edge.

The real problem with Kai was that he still wasn’t old enough to be an adult. He was at that age where children easily get carried away with groundless delusions about how they might be “special” in some way.

If I could use what you’d call magic...

If he could do that, it would surely boost him beyond the level of a petty soldier.

Kai began to take deep, slow breaths while focusing his attention on his body. He looked for some kind of alien sensation, something like a “shimmering” inside himself. He felt that strange powers from within would usually be carried in the blood or would come from some kind of unknown magical organ.

The obvious candidate for that kind of source of mysterious power was the round bone inside his body — the mysterious godstone that held the experience points belonging to Kai.

He could guess from his physical sensations where it was inside his body. He knew that his own godstone was somewhere near his heart because that area got hot every time he “leveled up.”

If the feeling of leveling up was his power of existence as a living creature increasing... then what people like Olha and the baron had, had to be something like a passive skill that further increased their physical abilities, caused by having a helpful god, a being on a higher plane of existence, within their bodies.

It was highly likely that a magical or spiritual power existed in this world. It didn’t feel at all weird to call that “magic.”

Burn!

The first thing he tried was “fire magic.” The reason was simple: fire magic is cool.

As the mental image became clearer, he began to feel heat from the godstone deep in his chest. At first, he absentmindedly thought of it as a nice warm feeling, but then realized his heart was beginning to beat violently as the warmth grew.

What the...? This is crazy.

It felt as though the godstone was collecting up every bit of his life force to grant him a “wish.” Is my godstone forcefully collecting up the energy it needs to create magic?!

Finding it difficult to breathe, Kai curled himself up and began gasping for air.

Then after a few moments, the tip of his right index finger that had been the subject of his mental image began to feel extremely hot. It became so hot that Kai held his right index finger away from himself as if afraid of it.

Then a moment later, he heard a sound...poh.

As if suddenly brought into reality from some unknown other world, a faint flickering light from somewhere far beyond appeared at the tip of Kai’s finger in the form of the natural phenomenon known as fire.

It was a small light source, like a flame made by a tiny candle.

Kai crouched down and stared at the flame, but instead of feeling happy, he started to fear for his life. His body was getting cold as if all of his heat was being absorbed into this “flame.”

“Oh, crap.”

Unless he put a stop to his “fire magic,” it was going to be the death of him.

He shook his arm wildly, but the flame didn’t go out. He tried stubbing out the flame on the ground, but it didn’t go out.

He expected that it would be possible to extinguish the flame if he could define the act of putting it out in terms of magic, but this was an emergency and he had no time to stop and think.

Then Kai remembered something.

The water! There was well water for putting out the flame.

Use water on fire. It was a thought too simple to even be called an idea, but it was the only thing he could think of. He climbed to his feet and rushed over to the well.

He had to pull up the bucket with the flame still on his finger, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. Then he plunged his finger into the water he’d collected.

A hissing sound started the moment his finger entered the water.

It hasn’t gone out?!

To his horror, the magic flame continued to burn under the water.

The inside of the bucket glowed the color of the flame, and the light it cast on Kai caused him to be seen.

“Who’s there?!”

It was a high-pitched, clear voice.

Kai held the bucket close to himself in an attempt to hide it as he looked over his shoulder in the direction of the voice.

Behind him stood Jose wiping sweat from her brow with her hand... Lady White thrust her training staff into the ground and left it standing in the dirt.

She must have come to the well to quench her thirst. Water from a well was always cooler and more refreshing than water stored in a pot.

“That bucket... it’s glowing?”

Kai’s “magic” was suddenly on the verge of being exposed.

5

The flame at the tip of his finger didn’t go out.

Lady White was moving closer.

It didn’t help when the water in the bucket started to boil up and bubble. The water around the flame was rapidly heating up, and the heat rising from it felt like enough to cause burns.

“What’s inside that bucket?”

Lady White suddenly came running over as if she’d guessed that Kai was up to something.

Kai wasn’t ready to show this strange thing about himself to others just yet, and he was desperately trying to think of a way to stop it from happening.

Go out, go out, please go out.

“I recognize your face. That bucket...”

The “fire magic” at the tip of his finger wasn’t stopping. Though he was wishing for the fire to “go out,” he felt as though that wasn’t quite the right way of stopping the flame. If the flame could continue to burn underwater, then any ideas involving “oxygen” didn’t apply.

Then what would work? “Disenchantment” magic? Or could the action of some other magic “overwrite” this one? But in that case, what other type of magic would cancel out this one?

Kai had been completely uneducated until just a few days ago, and these questions were too complicated for him to answer quickly. Situations in which fires go out came into his mind one after another, and then he found a mental image that felt like it was the one.

Closing... a floodgate.

Kai tried to picture the flow of life force being drained from his body being cut off, like closing a waterway. Even the village had waterways that drew water from streams to direct it toward farmland, and the flow of water could be controlled by gates that opened and closed.

Kai was hunched over the bucket in an attempt to hide it, but Lady White grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him backwards. At that very moment, the fire magic stopped providing fuel to the flame.

Despite her small frame and thin arms, Lady White had fearsome strength. This was no doubt the result of her being under the protection of another of her house’s gods. Whatever the cause, her incredible strength and her ladylike appearance were completely mismatched. Alongside the baron and his eldest son Olha, Lady White was one of House Moloch’s three guardian bearers.

Kai fell backwards and turned a somersault. The bucket he’d held in his hands flew into the air, spilling water all around him.

Just as Kai’s right hand was finally revealed from the bucket... the flame of the fire magic that had been burning at the tip of his index finger had been reduced to a dim blue flickering that soon vanished with a puff of air. Kai didn’t think she’d seen it, but it was too close to call.

Then Kai landed hard on his back, causing the pain in his healing bones to come back with a sudden intensity. The shock made him scream.

“Gyaaaaah!!”

Lady White froze in place, startled by Kai’s loud outburst.

Kai quickly put a hand over his mouth, but it was too late. He’d already made enough noise to set off shouting here and there in the castle as people inside wondered what was happening. In panic, Kai tried to flee the scene.

“Wait,” Lady White called after him.

But Kai didn’t even look back; he focused on making his escape as he held his aching wounds. But then a thin arm grabbed him from behind with unreasonable strength.

“Did I not just tell you to wait?!”

Lady White gripped his collar tight, and despite being about the same size as Kai, she was able to lift him up like a miao picking up its kittens by the scruff of the neck. After helplessly flailing around in midair at first, he soon realized that the relationship of power between males and females that he was used to had just been turned on its head, and he resigned himself to his fate.

What followed was chaos as every sleeping soldier was awakened and told that demi-humans were attempting a night raid on the castle, and even the baron himself was called from his chambers. By the time it became clear that it was all a misunderstanding, there was no way for Kai to avoid being lectured and punished by a good number of furious adults.

Discipline in the borderlands was generally administered in the form of an immediate physical punishment.

**

“...”

“I’m really sorry.”

Excessive punishment wasn’t seen as a problem in this village, and discipline was carried out through real violence. The only mercy shown to Kai was that they didn’t touch the areas where his bones had been broken, and now half a day later, he had been left tied to a pillar in a punishment room with his face badly swollen and streaming with tears.

Once they were angry, the older men of the village were no joke, and they had no qualms over slapping a wounded boy full force. They took the idea of beating some sense into someone quite literally.

Kai couldn’t manage much more than an incoherent mumble as Lady White took his hand and studied his face. “Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked, sounding genuinely apologetic.

It was clear from looking at him that he wasn’t all right.

Lady White must have felt that she was at least partially responsible. For the daughter of a baron to apologize to a low-ranking foot soldier suggested she was actually a very caring person.

“Now about that flame I saw...”

Her only flaw was that she tended to be incredibly persistent.

“I see. So you have the makings of a channeler.”

Kai had accepted the fact that his secret was out, and had given her a full confession, only leaving out the part about having memories of a past life.

He’d felt that his own explanation sounded like he’d made it up on the spot when he talked about having nothing to do because of his injuries, accidentally making fire while messing around, and then deciding to practice it so he could surprise everyone later. Kai had looked nervous as if he expected Lady White to call him a liar, but she simply accepted his explanation without seeming to notice.

Kai felt she’d accepted it all a little too easily, but he reasoned that this “Lady” had never learned to distrust people and decided to just think himself lucky.

The main thing on his mind now was the word “channeler” that he’d heard Lady White use.

It seemed to be about the same thing as what Kai imagined a mage to be. According to Lady White, there were a few guardian bearers in the center of the country who wielded this mysterious power.

“Those techniques are dangerous. Make a mistake while using them and you could burn your own life force away and die. Father has even forbidden me from using them. Even in the capital, it’s only used by a few special families, and they keep their arts secret. You might have some potential, but I think it would be best if you never used that skill ever again. An ordinary little boy like you could very easily use up all the spiritual energy in his body in no time at all.”

Kai knew that much from experience already, so he didn’t try to argue.

Someone who used up all of their spiritual energy would drastically weaken their grip on life, and in practice this often meant they’d die of a heart attack. Kai’s hand unconsciously went to his chest.

“Let’s keep this whole thing between us. You won’t go telling everyone you know, will you? A lot of boys your age dream about having some kind of “special power,” and I just know someone would die trying it.”

“...Mhm.”

“They say that the amount of spiritual energy that most people start with will take no longer to burn up than a single candle. If someone like you keeps a flame going for too long, your heart will stop and you’ll die.”

“...Mhm.”

“I’ve even heard of guardian bearers using it wrongly and bringing death on themselves. I implore you not to carelessly share this knowledge with anyone else.”

As Lady White left the punishment room, leaving a pleasant scent behind her, Kai’s reckless mind was set on other ideas the moment he saw she was gone.

He felt he was already getting the hang of it. And now he had an actual estimate of how little spiritual energy he had to use. Now that he knew his limits, he intended to find a way for someone like himself to make use of this new ability.

I’ll claw my way up and get myself a good meal.

When a child is left to go hungry, their longing for food shouldn’t be underestimated.

The best thing I can do in this situation is...

He started wondering whether it was possible to cut the rope around his body, and that was the start of his experiments with the “techniques.”

Kai swallowed and winced as he tasted blood and felt pain caused by a wound in his mouth.

This changed his mind. First, he decided, he should try using magic to do something about the pain in his mouth. In a world as cruel as this one, having some sort of “healing magic” would be a big help.

He began to think about how he was actually going to test out that kind of magic.

I have one candle’s worth of spiritual energy...

If he was going to try a lot of things out, he was going to need some sort of safety measure in place so that it didn’t kill him.

He needed to decide how long he could use magic for without there being any risk, then sticking to that time limit would be a fundamental rule while trying different approaches.

Firstly, his previous experience had taught him that he could use magic for about ten seconds before reaching his limit. A second was a short period of time that lasted for just a moment. He knew about that now.

Secondly, he had to carefully manage the “floodgate” that controlled his spiritual energy. He had to make sure that he could reliably open and close the floodgate, just like controlling the flow of a waterway.

And thirdly, he had to think carefully about the theory behind the mental image that would result in a “healing” effect.

Kai looked about the spare storeroom of the castle that was currently serving as his punishment room. During the harvest, this storeroom would be full, but in the run up to the harvest it was completely empty, so it was used for this kind of punishment.

There was water dripping somewhere outside a window above him that led out to the open air. Someone above must have thrown away dirty water outside.

1, 2, 3, 4...

The drips fell about two seconds apart, so he decided he’d forcefully stop his magic after hearing five drips. Even if ten seconds became twenty, he didn’t think that would kill him, but there was no need to take risks when still learning.

After five drips, I stop no matter what.

He drew a deep breath of air into his lungs and then started his dangerous experimentation with magic. It was fortunate that he was bound to a pillar, because it meant that he wouldn’t fall down if the strength left his limbs.

Kai waited for a first drop of water, then focused his attention on his godstone.

First, the small amount of spiritual energy inside him had to be drawn from his whole body. This extraction process started automatically as soon as he called on his godstone.

His arms and legs suddenly lost their color and became alarmingly cold as he directed the heat from his godstone over to the part of his mouth he wanted to heal.

By this time, two drops of water had fallen.

Wounds, heal yourselves...

He wished.

And he wished.

And he wished.

But it didn’t work.

He tried another mental image.

Flesh, regain your shape...

He wished.

And he wished.

But it didn’t work.

Another two drops of water fell.

His next attempt would be the last. He narrowed down his focus.

Cells, activate...

He wished.

He wished with everything he had.

And then a soothing heat filled the inside of his mouth.

He wasn’t able to take his time and enjoy the sensation. The fifth drop of water fell outside the window, and it was time to forcefully cut off the experiment. The mental image he used was the closing of the gate, which had already been effective in stopping his magic before. The lines of heat flow coming from his godstone were cut off as if they’d been squeezed shut.

“Haah, haah...” His breathing was so heavy that his shoulders shook.

Ten seconds had been enough to leave him feeling exhausted, as if all of his strength had just been used up. As the heat gradually returned to his limbs, Kai came to his senses.

The wound in my mouth... Has it gotten better?

He probed it with his tongue and then winced at the dull pain this caused. But it wasn’t the sharp needlelike pain that it had been before.

Had it healed or had it not? He wouldn’t be able to judge for sure until he was released from this room.

Exhausted, Kai fell into a deep sleep as if he’d fainted.

6

The borderlands were vast.

Far north from the central plain that was the cornerstone of the unified kingdom, a nation of humans that had endured for 1,000 years, there lay a wasteland that was not quite grassland but not quite desert, stretching 1,000 yulds north-south and 2,000 yulds east-west.

The power of humans had grown as their numbers increased, and the masses of humans extended their reach to even this barren land. But that happy era was long past. The humans clung desperately to their inherited land as their power faded, and they were soon preyed upon incessantly by nonhuman species that came at them in droves.

If the fighting died down in the east, some new trouble would break out in the west. If the trouble in the west ended, next it would be the north. There was no reason to think that the conflict would ever end.

By working together, the people of Lag had repaired the damage to their farmland caused by the macaque invasion, but sure enough the cycle repeated itself, and some new trouble broke out to the west of the village.

The news was carried through the sky by tamed honks, the fastest messengers in the borderlands. The crest affixed to the bird’s leg to indicate its owner was that of Count Balta. He was the lord of a large territory to whom many barons in the borderlands swore their loyalty.

It wasn’t merely a call for reinforcements; it was a formal order to congregate, with the weight of a higher lord behind it.

Many of Lag’s soldiers still had unhealed wounds, but Baron Vezin didn’t hesitate to assemble a company of soldiers to send to Count Balta’s aid. The village was left defended by a minimum number of soldiers as the company hastily set out, taking with them fifty foot soldiers and a single guardian bearer who was the core of their strength.

The company was of course led by their guardian bearer, the baron’s eldest son Olha. Among those fifty foot soldiers, there was a Kai.

“Make haste! I can’t afford to be late to the council!”

The soldiers wordlessly quickened their pace while Olha was yelling at them.

Soldiers who regularly fought in the constant battles of the borderlands had been fortunate enough to “level up” with the power of godstones from enemies they’d killed, and most had powerful legs.

Olha looked satisfied by the way the soldiers reacted, but they had their own reasons for being eager.

Several days earlier, reinforcements from neighboring villages had come to their rescue, and custom had demanded that they express their gratitude with gifts. In the borderlands where food was scarce, the most sought-after gift was grain that could be stored for a long time. Lag had therefore given the other villages more than a little of their wheat.

It was only natural to expect similar treatment when the situation was reversed.

Brave warriors who would rush to help an ally in need could expect to receive a substantial amount of food in return. The “expenses” they’d had to pay several days ago had left their village with barely enough food for everyone, so it felt worthwhile for them to risk their lives in combat for the chance to obtain a few sacks of wheat.

The village under threat was Banya, a settlement whose land was half covered by crops and half by livestock, and the request for aid had been made in the name of Count Balta, who was the leader of the allied lords of the borderlands. Count Balta’s domain was a walled town and seven surrounding villages in an area of the borderlands known as Baltavia.

When the request was made in his name, it suggested that the threat posed by the invading demi-humans was particularly great. It was likely that all of the lower lords in the northern stretch of the borderlands were being gathered together.

There was also the possibility that Count Balta would consider the speed at which others came to his aid as a measure of their loyalty.

The attending lords would all drink together as part of a council ceremony to build solidarity, and for lords attending for the first time, this was an opportunity to improve their standing with their peers.

“Kai, don’t overdo it if it’s hurting. You’re not healed yet.”

“I know. Don’t worry about me.”

Kai smiled wryly at the soldier showing him concern and shook his head to tell him to stop worrying.

Kai’s broken bones weren’t fully healed, of course; he was going into battle with ragged cloth bandages covering his entire chest.

Why would they choose a wounded soldier to send into battle? He was trying not to think about it, but it wouldn’t surprise him to learn that he was being thrown into battle so that there’d be one less useless mouth to feed.

The quick pace was enough to cause Kai a lot of pain, but his injuries were no longer as serious as the people around him thought. It’d been ten days since he was punished for the disturbance he’d caused, and Kai had continued his experiments with “healing magic” the whole time. As a result, he’d successfully managed to repair several of his broken ribs.

Kai had decided that most of the pain he still felt was all in his head, and was caused by worrying that he might not be fully healed.

After half a day’s forced march, the Lag soldiers had traveled roughly fifty yulds west. Their destination was a broad stretch of land near Banya that lay between a forest and the village.

“Uhh... Don’t tell me this was all crop fields...”

The cleared land had once been fields cultivated over the course of many years by the people of Banya.

This precious land had been torn up by uncaring feet, with corpses left to rot here and there, as if there’d already been intense fighting.

The various fluids that leaked from the corpses were of course rich with fat and salt that were like a poison to the soil. Once the fighting ended, that poison would need to be removed in some hellish restoration effort. Just the thought was enough to make the soldiers grimace.

When the company of 50 approaching soldiers was sighted, a soldier from Banya, where there was a rendezvous point established for the council of allies, came running to them. The soldier immediately identified Olha as their leader and guided him to the rendezvous point.

Naturally, the foot soldiers silently followed behind.

They soon reached the top of a gently sloping hill where they found the main camp surrounded by a wooden fence. Only Olha was summoned to the gathering of tents in the center, while the 50 foot soldiers were left outside the fence.

Groups of soldiers from other villages could also be seen waiting idly in the same area.

“There must be about 500 people here in total...”

“Something big’s happening, I know it.”

“Did you see all the corpses? Looks like the enemy really is orgs.”

With no one high-ranking around, rumors soon began to spread among the foot soldiers.

“I’ll go ask what’s up,” one soldier said, before running over to a group from another village.

Their lives could depend on any information they could gather, so no one tried to stop him. While everything was being explained to Olha in the main tent, the foot soldiers had their own ways of learning more about the situation.

They learned that the invading demi-humans were orgs.

This species had a massive body that was over two yules tall and weighed several times as much as a human. They could come charging with enough force to reduce even a hardened veteran to tears, and dealing with them was never fun.

The size of the invading force was somewhere between 150 and 200. Even as one of the larger settlements in the borderlands, Lag had only 120 soldiers, so for a medium-sized village like Banya, it was more than they could handle. When the fighting started, the invaders had been met with little resistance and took the lives of roughly 10 soldiers and roughly 20 farmhands.

After the first strike they’d managed to take refuge behind the strong defenses of the village where they were able to hold out against the invaders. Count Balta’s reinforcements had arrived just in time.

However, for the victims it was horrific.

Orgs detested humans. Anyone familiar with them could guess what had happened. Orgs liked to kidnap young girls and would delight in tormenting them. Although they couldn’t produce children with them, they seemed to enjoy the sound of a human female screaming in distress. Lag’s soldiers learned that several girls from the village had been abducted. Needless to say, the survivors from Banya were passionate in their hatred for the orgs.

“We’re fighting damned pigs? They should be more like farm pigs, then we could at least eat the bastards.”

Although they resembled pigs, orgs were similar in shape to a human from the neck down, only with more muscle. They walked on two legs, so the arrangement of their muscles was similar to that of a human. The pigs humans raised for their meat were smaller and had hooved legs.

“Has anyone actually tried eating one?”

“I’ve heard they’re not that bad.”

“So they taste all right?”

As you’d expect, soldiers from Lag were always hungry.

There was a rumbling sound from someone’s stomach, and then a wrinkled old man named Setta, who was their second-in-command, told the men to start preparing to cook food.

It wasn’t long since the rainy season, so it wasn’t too cold to sleep without a tent, but a stove for cooking was still necessary.

The alliance forces eventually grew to 700 soldiers. Count Balta had brought 200 soldiers, and the lesser lords of more than 20 houses in the northern region of the borderlands had brought together another 500 soldiers. It took them two days to gather and organize themselves.

The orgs must have been scared by the sudden increase in the strength of the human forces, for they didn’t even attempt a night raid, nor was there any visible activity from them the next day.

Deep down, members of the alliance waiting in the camp felt relieved, but the soldiers from Banya couldn’t bear to sit and wait.

Several women from their village were still held captive, and they were eager to strike as soon as they were ready for battle.

“We know how you all feel.”

“They’re not attacking. Maybe they ran off when they saw how many of us there are?”

There were few members of the alliance who thought it would be sensible to charge into battle if the enemy didn’t attack first. This was not their land after all, and none of the lords wanted to lose the valuable workers under their command.

It wasn’t clear what sort of debate went on at the center of the camp, but when Olha returned to his own company, he sighed a great sigh and then ordered them to prepare to depart for battle. Somehow, Banya’s baron had been able to persuade Count Balta, who was in the command of the forces overall.

“The orgs are watching our movements from the forest. They haven’t run from us yet.”

Olha began to don his armor as soon as he finished speaking, making it clear that he meant what he said and that there was no time for wishful thinking.

Banya had sent out their own scout who claimed to be keeping watch over the org’s camp. The people of the village were growing more concerned because they couldn’t hear the voices of the abducted girls.

For Count Balta, members of the alliance were like his children, and he refused to abandon a lord in need. Orgs were a constant source of trouble, so there was some meaning in pushing them back. He made the decision that they would rely on their superior numbers in a frontal assault.

When fighting against demi-humans with superior physical strength, an environment full of obstacles such as a forest would put humans at a serious disadvantage. The foot soldiers were visibly unhappy because they’d been prepared for a defensive battle on open ground to defend Banya’s land. In a forest, the spear formations that were their forte would be mostly useless.

“Seriously? We can’t just go home?” someone grumbled, as several others tutted with frustration.

The people of Banya would be offended to hear it, but the soldiers didn’t want to attempt to save a handful of lives while putting ten times as many at risk. What’s more, the people they were trying to rescue weren’t even from their own village. For Lag’s soldiers, the target of their anger was going from being the orgs to the people of Banya themselves.

The human forces quietly began to move out from the rendezvous point. Flags bearing emblems of each lord were held high across a broad stretch of land. Despite the disadvantageous conditions, they still had far superior numbers, and no one thought they could lose.

Their rows of silver spears glistened with the reflected light of the early summer sun. Lag’s soldiers were among those who kept their spears as their main weapons, but each soldier nervously checked that their knife was in its rightful position. Everyone knew roughly what to expect from the battle in a forest full of obstacles.

The fight against the orgs turned out to be just as gruesome as they’d feared.

7

In this world, the fact that demi-humans differed from humans in terms of appearance didn’t mean they were any less intelligent. They were just as capable of devising strategies, and they weren’t lacking original ideas.

The allied lords had walked right into an enemy trap.

Not a single soul had suspected that the information from the Banya “scout” was entirely fake. The trick had left the Banya soldiers seething with rage.

“How’d we end up in this mess?”

“How the hell would I know?!”

They were guided into the forest, but there was no org camp of any kind to be seen.

They sent out new scouts, but their scouts were eliminated every time; not a single one came back.

They were deep in the forest with no information and it felt as though something wasn’t right, but the confidence brought on by their superior numbers still kept them from stopping to rethink.

That was how they carelessly made their way to a low-lying area of land shrouded in mist, and were surprised when they found themselves in a marshland that was still storing rain from the recent rainy season. They hadn’t had time to get over the shock when a large force finally charged at them.

The enemy was cunning.

The barrage of arrows that came flying at the humans made them retreat without thinking, pushing them back into the territory of a third party that would normally have been a spectator to the battle.

This marshland belonged to the lizard-like lagarto, and visitors weren’t welcome.

With the humans caught off-guard by the threat posed by another species at their backs, the eager warrior-class orgs saw an opportunity to strike, and the human formations fell into disarray.

“Lord Olha!”

“Forget him! He’s not even looking at us!”

Olha had thought that because he had power beyond any normal human, he would somehow be able to right the chaos by relying on his superior strength. This was nothing more than conceit caused by lack of experience. He was barely aware of the situation around him as he abandoned the soldiers under his command to charge at the enemy. For a lord’s forces, their guardian bearer formed the core of their strength, and Lag’s forces were no exception: Olha had been their core.

Like predators taking helpless chicks from the nest while the mother is gone, the enemy came charging in. An org with overwhelming body mass and tough skin glared at them down its snout. On its face were the red markings of the kumadori.

It was the worst possible development... they faced an org guardian bearer.

Lag’s soldiers were thrown into disarray with no way to defend themselves, and were forced to scatter. Many of the org foot soldiers were organized and ready to attack the defenseless backs of fleeing humans. The humans were seeing their usual fighting style suddenly turned on its head.

Kai was one of those who fled.

At first, he stayed with his squad as they fled together, but when they couldn’t shake off their pursuer, they split into two so that at least one lucky group could escape. Predictably, the pursuer chose to go after the group that included Kai, who was slowing them down.

To compensate for Kai’s wounds, their strongest fighter Manso had stayed with him, but they couldn’t outrun their pursuer. Manso waited until the very last moment before saying, “Sorry, Kai,” and leaving him. Manso was fast, so the org soldier gave up on him, choosing to go after Kai instead.

Damnit!

Kai wasn’t ready to die this way.

Not just as he was starting to understand the principles behind magic.

Not just as new doors were opening to him and he had the chance to make something of himself.

He tripped several times, leaving himself covered in mud as he frantically ran for his life.

He had no idea which way he was running.

The mist that filled the air made him feel as though the lagarto marshland was close. The lagarto were aggressive toward humans who strayed into their territory, and they wouldn’t hesitate to tear Kai apart.

The sound of footsteps behind him was growing closer, and then he could hear the sound of its heavy breathing too. The distance between the predator and its prey was little more than a hair’s breadth.

Kai had never stood a chance of outrunning a fitter, stronger org.

Fear overwhelmed him and his breathing was wild.

Suddenly, a feeling of heat shot across his side. The mysterious burning sensation began to spread. Kai looked down in confusion and saw his clothing turning red.

He realized that he’d been stabbed by the org soldier pursuing him.

It was all too much, and Kai wanted to cry.

Kai had felt as though he wouldn’t be able to run much further, so he’d been running into the dangerous misty region of the forest without thinking. It was now difficult to see, and he was blindly going deeper, cutting his way through thick undergrowth where there weren’t even animal trails. Kai cut through thorny leaves and branches as he made his way deeper into the mist, desperately charging ahead. The ground beneath him suddenly became a steep decline, but Kai continued to throw himself forward, unintentionally throwing himself into the air.

He had no time to fall gracefully. His body struck the ground many times as he rolled downhill. Then he turned a somersault and found himself upside down at the very edge of a cliff, where he was fortunate enough to be stopped by a tree root that collided with his back.

He wheezed as the impact knocked the breath out of him.

His eyes filled with tears, but there was no time for self-pity.

Please, tell me I lost him...

Kai held the bleeding wound on his side tightly, and with a glimmer of hope, he strained to see the top of the steep slope through the mist. But there he saw his death was still approaching, in the form of an org carefully making its way down toward him.

Whatever happened, the org soldier was determined to kill Kai. Perhaps orgs were expected to kill a certain number of soldiers, like a sort of sales quota they had to meet.

Sales... quota?

The term that came into his head puzzled him as he tried to climb to his feet. Intense pain shot through his side, and he fell back down with a gasp.

“Gaah!”

Now that he’d had a moment to think, he’d become aware of just how painful his injury was, and he couldn’t help but curl into a ball. He could feel thick, hot blood on the hand that held the wound, and he knew that the bleeding wasn’t going to stop. He’d been too frantic to realize it until just now, but the wound was more than serious enough to be life-threatening.

The org had made its way down to Kai now, and with a snort of excitement from its long nose, it swung at Kai with a long-handled stone axe.

Now that Kai was badly wounded and unable to move, the org was here to deliver the final blow.

Kai instinctively threw himself aside and just barely dodged what would have been a fatal hit. As a last resort, he drew the knife that hung at his waist. He’d forgotten about the wound at his side again, and now he was waving the knife to keep the org at bay as he slowly backed away... but he was in a narrow space with a cliff to his back, so he was soon left with nowhere to go. He was forced to stop another strike from the stone axe using his knife.

The blow was too powerful, and it pinned him down.

The difference in strength was clear to see. The org brought its snout close as if toying with Kai, and the stink of its breath made him go wide-eyed.

Shit... shit...

He couldn’t understand anything the org said, but he knew that it was finding humor in the powerlessness of humans.

The handle of the stone axe pressed against his neck, and it became painful to breathe.

If only I’d learned more magic... If only I could roast this disgusting pig whole...

The harder he struggled, the worse the bleeding from his side became. His body was starting to feel cold, and even his thoughts were becoming clouded.

Then Kai felt it was time for desperate measures.

He didn’t know whether his magic would be effective or not, but if he could just surprise the org...

He dropped the knife that hadn’t been of much use to him and reached out to grab its snout. The org laughed at the sight of his shaking hand.

If I can just take out one of its eyes!

“Fire magic!”

He was already on the verge of death.

He didn’t worry about the consequences.

His godstone drew the life force from every inch of his body, directing it toward his outstretched hand.

It had only been a few days, but he’d given thought to the way “magic” worked in this world, and after finding which methods worked in practice he’d come to a certain level of understanding.

This “magic” isn’t a chemical reaction.

He’d concluded that this strange phenomena was actually energy released in exchange for an equivalent amount of his spiritual energy. And that spiritual energy could be directed using mental images. The reasoning was that simple.

The reason that guardian bearers didn’t concern themselves with magic, despite probably having great stores of spiritual energy, was partly because of the risk of depleting their resources. But a more important reason may have been that their physical strength increased dramatically the moment they inherited a divine spirit, and it was usually more convenient to use that strength to produce whatever result they wanted.

The reasoning behind the toughened flesh and incredible power that was given to a guardian bearer, however, was still unclear.

“Burn, pig!”

The flame that suddenly burst from his hand was close to its eye. The org cried out in surprise and arched its upper body back while still over Kai. It was covering its face with its hand, so the belly of the org naturally became exposed.

I’ll send this fucking pig back to Samsara!

He pressed his left hand down on the snout of the org soldier as his right hand picked up the knife again and drove it straight into the region of the org’s heart.

Kai stopped his magic subconsciously when his usual countdown was over. The flame went out but the org continued its muffled cries.

Kai felt sure he’d dealt a decisive blow.

But then he was pushed back by the weight of the collapsing org’s head, and he staggered backwards.

Kai realized his mistake too late, and couldn’t stop himself from falling backwards together with the dead body of the org.

He’d been careless.

Well, if I have to die, a quick death after a fall is probably a good way to go, Kai decided. The strength was gone from Kai’s face, but a slight smirk still remained.

As he fell over the cliff he felt as though he was floating, and a moment later his consciousness slipped away.

In the center of the forest where the battle was taking place, a young human boy was silently falling into a valley through dense mist.

No one was there to see it happen.

8

The cliff was sheer, and the drop looked to be several dozen yules straight down.

A fall from such a height would have been fatal if there hadn’t been a surprisingly large lake beneath the dense mist, which, by some miracle, broke the boy’s fall. The god of death had allowed Kai to remain in the realm of the living.

It wasn’t long before Kai began to regain consciousness. He felt himself floating in the cold water, and then he was truly awake.

Water...?

The water that filled the lake was exceptionally clear.

At first, he thought it must have been a pool of rainwater formed during the rainy season, but the volume of water was too great, and it had the characteristic coolness of spring water. Water that collected during the rainy season always had warmth to it.

For a while he marveled at his strange surroundings and let himself float in the water as he gazed at the sky above, which glowed with the faintest white light.

Through the glowing white mist that covered the landscape, he caught sight of a hazy outline of steep cliffs. These sheer cliffs formed a circle around him, and “caldera” was the word that came to mind as he considered the terrain.

As he floated absentmindedly in the water, he slowly began to realize that he was on the verge of death. The warmth was completely gone from his limbs now, and even the pain of the wound on his side felt distant, as if it belonged to someone else.

Shit... I need to get to shore or I’ll bleed out.

With that thought at the back of his mind, which had already become cloudy, he began clumsily swimming.

He barely kept afloat as he struggled to think clearly and determine the direction of land. Then his searching hand grabbed hold of something. Without knowing what it was, he pushed it away, propelling himself toward the direction of the cliff. It would take him some time to realize that the object was in fact the body of the org soldier he’d killed a short time earlier.

The lake didn’t fill the entire base of the valley. Kai was able to make his way to what appeared to be the shore, where he dragged his body out of the water. The roots of a gnarled tree extended toward the shore, and Kai was able to drag himself over and rest his back against them.

His head felt just as blurred and foggy as the scenery around him as he tried to think of some way he might survive.

I have to close this wound right now or I’m dead... But I can’t climb these cliffs with these injuries.

In his current state, he’d never be able to leave the valley. He didn’t even know which part of the forest he was in, and with demi-humans living wherever there were no humans nearby, there was little chance of anyone coming to his rescue.

The question was how to heal the wound in his side. There was only one option, and it didn’t take Kai long to think of it.

If I can use my healing magic...

He closed his eyes and remembered how he’d healed his broken bones. He focused his attention on his godstone, and it began to draw in his spiritual energy almost automatically.

But Kai quickly gave up.

I’m down to the last dregs...

With Kai on the verge of death, the spiritual energy that was his life force was reduced to almost nothing. Without recovering his strength, the magic that had been his last hope wouldn’t work. But if he simply lay still and waited for his body to recover, he’d die from blood loss.

For those born in the borderlands, it was essential to know which plants could be used to stop bleeding. Kai was looking for those plants now, but instead he caught sight of the body of the org floating near the shore.

Heh, I got the bastard, was his first thought... but then he realized that this presented a new opportunity.

Kai reached for his knife, but it was gone. With a tut, he looked instead to the long-handled stone axe that was still in the org soldier’s hand. He’d have to borrow what he didn’t have.

He dragged himself over and was able to reach the body of the org. With its axe in his hands, he used all of his strength to swing it down at the creature’s chest. The skin of living creatures was tough, and tearing it apart by hand was surprisingly difficult unless there was already a cut.

Kai didn’t hesitate to plunge his hands into the opening in the skin made by the axe. He rummaged through its cold, slippery innards and before long he found an object shaped like an ocarina, hidden behind its lungs. He’d found the org’s godstone.

He quickly washed it in the water and then broke it open against a rock embedded in the soil nearby. He had to strike it against the rock several times before a piece broke off. His fingers scooped marrow from the opening, and he hungrily licked it from his fingers. The rich taste of the marrow made his work feel even more urgent.

Here it comes...

What came next was a sensation of heat inside his godstone... and then an increase in strength that he could actually feel. It felt as though his level of existence as a living being had increased.

He continued to greedily lick at the remains of the marrow as he tried to activate his healing magic once again.

Cells of mine, close the blood vessel.

Now he had significantly more spiritual energy to gather up and direct toward the wound in his side, causing the cells in that area to become active.

It had taken Kai several days of trial and error to realize that while magic had essentially unlimited potential, it wouldn’t work without a specific mental image and an appropriate amount of spiritual energy ready to be consumed.

For example, the mental image of a flamethrower wouldn’t work with just a matchstick’s worth of fuel at hand.

He reasoned that his magic wouldn’t work with a simple mental image of healed wounds because the image was too vague to be followed by the cells that made up his flesh. The site of the wound itself was made up of tens of millions of cells that would all have to work in coordination. Instead, Kai had to keep his expectations as reasonable as possible for his healing magic to work effectively.

In the case of a broken bone, it wasn’t enough to hold some vague image of his body being healed. He had to focus his thoughts on the idea of many bone cells adhering to each other. Though it wasn’t much use to form a weak bond at a single point, Kai found he could do this repeatedly at countless different points, and a strong bond would be created by the combined effect of many weak bonds.

In this case, Kai had decided that the amount of blood he was losing was the urgent problem, and so his attempts at healing had been focused on closing the blood vessel.

It feels like there’s less bleeding... I’ll just have to hope that it worked.

Kai began to drag himself along the ground again so that he wouldn’t fall asleep on the damp shore of the lake. Some distance from the water’s edge, he curled up in the roots of a great tree that looked like it would shelter him from rain.

Even in the thick mist, he could tell that this was an impressive old tree with branches that spread out like a roof over his head.

Damn... can’t stay awake...

Kai didn’t get the chance to check whether his bleeding had completely stopped.

He was fortunate that it was summer, but the warm weather wasn’t enough to raise his body temperature while his clothes were still soaked. The mist around him made matters worse, blocking out the sun’s rays and sapping his body heat.

Kai let his consciousness slip away once more, leaving his body in the care of the rugged roots of the great tree. The hand holding the wound fell limp at his side, and fresh blood colored his clothes before dripping to the ground.

The boy’s lifeblood was slowly draining from his body.

Then, as if there’d been a gentle wind, there was swaying in the lonely bare branches of the great tree, whose countless roots appeared to embrace a huge rock.

The valley slept in silence, for it contained no living creatures, except for the boy.

**

Meanwhile, many of the human soldiers who’d scattered and fled from the forest had somehow gotten behind the defensive walls of Banya, and so the human forces narrowly avoided being wiped out.

They were able to repel an org attack from behind the walls as they took care of the wounded, and exhausted soldiers were able to take turns in getting some much-needed food and rest. They also found enough time to reorganize when the battle reached a lull.

A roll call confirmed that many lives had been lost, and even lords who’d grown used to the gruesome sights in the borderlands were left pale. With less soldiers to defend the region, their continued survival in the borderlands was immediately in doubt.

“How could we let this happen?”

Losses on such a scale were rare in recent years.

The reduction in their numbers was so great that it seemed likely that the nation’s border in the borderlands would need to be moved back.

“They played us for fools...”

Their great losses had occurred because they’d taken the fight to the forest where they were at a disadvantage, and also because they’d failed to locate the org camp that had reportedly been sighted.

The people of Banya had originally been viewed as victims, but they were the ones who’d been so impatient to rescue their women, and they were the ones who’d been so sure that the enemy camp had been seen in a particular location.

It was only natural that the villagers would fall under suspicion, and before long there were confessions of guilt, though many remained defiant: “We had no other choice!” The revelation caused an uproar in the human camp.

An urgent council of lords was convened, and the blame was placed squarely on Pinheroy Baruch, the baron who ruled Banya. The baron protested about his innocence: he had nothing to do with any of it; a handful of villagers had acted entirely without his knowledge. These excuses did nothing to quell the anger of lords who’d lost so many soldiers. In fact, it was more fuel to the fire.

“No one gives a damn what the circumstances were!”

“What did they promise you? That they’d release your women? And you believed it? To think, you were prepared to sacrifice countless people from our villages in exchange!”

“You’re nothing but a wretched traitor!”

“We were all taken in by your deception! But now those deceived will have their retribution!”

Realizing he was going to be executed before he could argue, Pinheroy unleashed the power of his guardian in an attempt to resist. But the lords that surrounded him were all guardian bearers themselves, and they had no trouble holding him down.

As the leader of the allied forces, it was Count Balta who delivered the guilty verdict, and those who were able left the building in haste.

When they returned, they had brought Baron Pinheroy’s eldest daughter with them. They threw the girl to the ground and forced her to prostrate herself by her father’s side before they announced to her that, “Lord Pinheroy is to be retired.”

His red-haired daughter was pale with disbelief as she looked at her father. Then she groveled before the other lords and begged them to spare his life.

His daughter’s pleading fell on deaf ears.

Under the laws of the country, it was not enough for someone recognized as a feudal lord to simply be given a title; it was a long-held tradition that they would be formally recognized as a lord the moment they received the blessings of a land god bound to their domain.

In this world, retirement meant that a transfer in the “right to a guardian’s protection” would need to take place, so it wasn’t possible to succeed a house on the basis of one’s name alone.

“We are not without compassion. We will allow House Baruch to continue in recognition of your father’s loyal friendship to us over many years. However, he is guilty of a heavy crime, and now his judgment must be delivered by your hand so that you might inherit his guardian.”

“I beg you! Have mercy! Please!”

“Judgment must be delivered by the hand of his successor.”

Count Balta’s guardian was the most powerful in the borderlands, but even he had allowed his kumadori to show clearly. The markings on his face were far more intricate than those of any of the other lords, and his ashen blue eyes glowed as if his immense power was burning behind them.

The moment someone became a host to a guardian, they were more than human; they were a guardian bearer with the authority to pass judgment on common people.

One of the lesser lords offered her a dagger.

“You must succeed him by your own hand.”

Under ordinary circumstances, the transfer of a guardian, and the title that came with it, happened when a lord’s life reached a natural end. Their guardian would be allowed to return to its gravesite, where enshrinement could be performed once more.

However, when the retirement of a still-living lord was to take place in this world, it was equivalent to a death sentence. As long as the bearer still lived, the guardian could not be transferred to a new host.

“It would seem you’re incapable.”

“Please have mercy... mercy...”

“Someone must offer her assistance.”

“Please, stop...”

Without a moment’s hesitation, one of the lesser lords swung his sword.

That lord, like the others, was host to a guardian, which entitled him to deliver judgment. The head of Baron Pinheroy of Banya fell to the floor.

In that same moment, his daughter began to scream.

“Now! Do it quickly! Before the divine spirit returns!”

“No... no...”

“I’ll show you how!”

Another impatient lord grabbed the girl’s arm, placed a dagger in her hand, and then forced her to thrust it into her father’s body. Then, as the girl was vomiting, he pulled her arm sharply and forced her hand inside her father’s body.

To complete the transfer of Baron Pinheroy’s guardian, his godstone would need to be removed while his guardian was still inside, and the marrow consumed by his successor. But the girl had fainted the moment that her hand had been thrust into her father’s still-warm body.

Count Balta regarded the limp body of the girl with disinterest as he gave his orders.

“The succession ritual has been unsuccessful. The divine spirit will soon depart. Someone must hurry to seal off the gravesite of House Baruch. We must defend the divine spirit from anyone who might be impudent enough to seize it.”

With the trial of Baron Pinheroy of Banya concluded, the council of lords had a number of decisions to make before they could disband.

The org forces stubbornly continued to surround the village. Their invasion was to be resisted, and the allied force was to leave the region as soon as the human territory was declared safe. A lord from a neighboring village would oversee the succession process in Banya, and Count Balta would serve as the heir’s custodian until she was of age.

Olha of Lag was merely his father’s delegate and he was the youngest member of the council, so the council ended without him having any particular say in anything. His gaze was stern as he looked at the girl who had been left to lie where she fainted.

“You had no reason to hesitate,” Olha muttered, as if he was struggling to understand what had happened. Then, along with a number of other lords, he begged Count Balta’s permission to leave and left the grounds of House Baluch where the council had taken place. Outside, Lord Pinheroy’s retainers had gathered and were watching the lords leave with cold stares. But Olha’s expression remained the same. Even as other lords stopped to express their remorse through silent prayer, Olha simply continued walking.

“House Moloch’s heir has a hard heart.”

When Olha heard whispers from those watching him pass by, he showed no reaction.

During the night of the next day, the orgs threw something over the stone walls of the village before withdrawing.

The following morning, it became clear to the villagers that the orgs had fulfilled their part of the deal by returning the severed heads of the women. The people of the village expressed their hatred for the orgs and their callousness through cries of despair.

No more than a half toki later, the bloody battle between humans and orgs had begun again.

9

Am I... dead...?

A feeling of frustration had constantly been with him in recent days, but now what he felt was a sense of comfort, like the warmth of the sun.

A macaque had thrown him and left him severely injured. An org had pierced his side.

All his life he had carried the burden of weakness, but now he had been freed. This idea felt disconnected from his current reality, so Kai felt as though this feeling was merely a dream.

He was truly awakening now, and the fog was clearing from his dull mind.

He opened his eyes and was met by a soft light that shone down on him.

It’s morning...?

He heard the chirping of small birds and echoes of insect noises.

The sun’s rays found their way through gaps in the bare branches of the great tree that Kai had trusted himself to, and the light embraced him with its warmth.

At some point, the mist that shrouded the valley had cleared.

He still felt that he must be dreaming. In spite of his condition, when he sat up his body felt light and his muscles responsive, and there was no discomfort in his ribs that had once caused him pain each time he turned his neck.

Every inch of his body felt as though it was brimming with power, as if it waited impatiently for him to move.

His hand instinctively went to the wound at his side. He realized the pain was gone from even that area.

“It... doesn’t hurt?”

He was used to having scrapes stop hurting after a night of rest, so he thought the wound had just gone numb. As if breaking free from a brief feeling of indecision, he began to remove his clothes.

The great volume of blood absorbed by the fabric had hardened, and he had to peel his clothes away from his skin. He braced himself for the pain of a scab being removed, but he felt no pain. He examined the region where the wound should have been, but what he found was a patch of pink new flesh covering the wound. It was as if he’d had months to heal.

Although the pain was gone, the scar was proof he’d been wounded, so Kai accepted that this was reality and not just a dream.

Kai jumped to his feet.

The mist is gone...

He’d thought that this area was part of the marshland inhabited by the lagarto, but with the mist gone, he saw that it was something very different.

The warm rays of sunlight shone down into the valley unimpeded, and what he saw was like a forest of trees with branches that looked as if they were always bare.

The shadows that the trees cast on the ground and the contrast against the clear blue water of the lake looked simply beautiful to Kai.

Kai’s unbelievable recovery had naturally lifted his spirits.

He moved a short distance, climbing over one of the gigantic meandering roots, to a spot where he could take in the full sight of the great tree that had held him. For some reason he felt a sense of gratitude toward the tree for taking care of him.

There was a giant rock that looked as though it had been broken apart by the great tree as it had grown. It looked as though a young tree had once taken root in a crack in the rock, and had broken it apart as it grew into the great tree before him. Kai was in awe at the sight. He turned his attention to the rock that the tree was forcing apart, realizing that it too was an impressive size. As he examined its shape through the roots that surrounded it, he noticed it was unusually square.

Then the realization took Kai’s breath away.

“This is... a grave...”

This square rock towering above Kai was broken now, but he could tell that it had originally been a perfect square with sides about two yules long. The surface that faced toward the lake had clearly been engraved with some inscription. Kai had seen another “grave” just like this one.

He thought of the gravesite of the land god worshiped by House Moloch of Lag. The gravesite of The Great Lagdara, the land god of the village, was hidden underground below the castle, and Kai had seen it for himself during monthly cleaning sessions.

Is this one just like that one...?

To express his gratitude, Kai decided to remove the countless withered vines that had creeped over the inscription. The inscription must have been left this way for years... or for hundreds of years. The roots were stuck tight, and even after pulling away vines, withered old roots were left stuck in the grooves of the inscription.

Kai felt well enough to try burning away the remains of the vines with a gentle flame. He had no way to remove the vines in the high places beyond his reach, so he decided it was worth trying to burn them away.

The fire magic he was capable of producing wasn’t good for much else, after all. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

“Fire...”

His use of fire magic was limited to ten seconds.

He tried to burn away the vines near his hand, thinking that he would focus on small areas at a time, similarly to when he’d been recovering from his broken bones. He supposed that if he could burn the rough twisted roots into smaller pieces, the remains could be cleanly wiped away from the inscription.

Burn the decay from the inscription...

For now, his mental image included just the roots at eye level.

But what happened next shocked Kai. Just like before, the flame burning at his fingertip seemed to have crossed over into reality from a mysterious other realm, but this time it was instant. And the flame was exactly as Kai had pictured it, as if the very mental image itself had come into existence.

But what followed far exceeded his mental image.

The instant the flame emitted from his fingertip spread to the dry vines in the inscription, the flame suddenly covered the whole thing as if the inscription itself was glowing red. Within a few breaths, the vines had been completely burned away with ease.

“Haa... wha?”

Kai had imagined burning away a specific portion of the dry vines on the inscription, but the intensity of the blaze had turned the vines in that spot to ash in an instant, and the excess energy looking for someplace to go had surpassed his expectations by automatically moving on to accomplish his original wish: “Burn the decay from the inscription.”

Unfortunately, the excessive power of his fire magic had left the inscription covered in soot.

Kai gazed up at the result in amazement, and then he looked to the finger that the flame had come from. He couldn’t understand what had happened.

He tried using his fire magic once more.

Fire...

In the blink of an eye, there was a flame at his fingertip.

It wasn’t like a flame produced by fire magic; it was simply the exact flame he’d imagined. To prove it beyond doubt, he tried producing the flame as a fireball floating above his palm, and it appeared just so.

In his surprise, he let the fireball continue to burn for a full minute. Only then did he start to feel that his spiritual energy was just beginning to run down, and he hastily closed the floodgate to cut off the supply and stop his magic.

In fact, he still felt that he had spiritual energy to spare.

The day before, he’d been able to use his magic for a maximum of ten seconds, but now that time had increased six-fold, and the amount of energy he’d needed to create a constant fireball was obviously a lot greater, so it had probably burned up spiritual energy at almost ten times the rate.

At first, Kai tried to understand this in terms of his own self-development.

He had, after all, consumed an entire org’s godstone all by himself before passing out. He’d expected to level up considerably as a result.

But somewhere inside himself he knew that things didn’t add up, and alarm bells were ringing.

Based on his experience, the development caused by sharing the godstone of a macaque between five people would explain about ten percent of his recent development at the very most. In fact, that was probably an overestimate, and it was unlikely to account for more than a few percent.

Even though he’d received all the benefits for himself, it wasn’t enough to explain much more than ten percent of his recent development. If orgs made stronger soldiers than macaques, he could revise his estimate up somewhat, but even that wasn’t enough to explain the discrepancy.

Could I have... gained a guardian?

The ancient ruined gravesite...

Based on its appearance, it was highly likely that the structure was the gravesite of a land god that had watched over Kai that night while he was on the brink of death. The feeling of being watched over by some formless being left him in awe.

This old gravesite had been abandoned for a long time, and it was possible that he’d somehow picked up a guardian from it. Given the dangerous terrain and the remoteness of the area, it seemed possible.

Kai went to check his appearance by looking at the reflection of his face in the shining blue lake that filled half of the valley.

He looked unchanged; it was the same vacant-looking face he was used to seeing, but he felt there was something else he needed to check to put his mind at rest.

Fire...

Fire magic appeared again at his fingertip.

Then he focused his concentration such that the flickering of the flame gradually increased. The flame grew to be as intense as a torch, and then he realized that his face had changed.

It had appeared on the surface of his face like a pattern of ripples.

There’s a kumadori... on my face.

It was one of the most striking characteristics of a guardian bearer — one who was under the divine protection of a land god. In the same way that human faces could vary infinitely, each land god also produced its own unique pattern.

The lines formed a pattern similar to the rings of wood grain that appeared when shaving down a log, emphasizing his nose and eyes. The lines covered his entire face with a dark red color, like the color of bleeding beneath the skin.

A distinctive feature of Kai’s pattern was a large area on his forehead that was round like an eye, and swirled like the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. It reminded him of the monstrous cyclops that ravaged the southern regions.

“Hah... Hahaha.”

The kumadori was proof that he was a guardian bearer, and that he was a member of the human country’s ruling class. The words “position of authority” came to his mind as he felt his legs give way, leaving him sitting down on the ground in a cold sweat.

Shivers ran through his whole body, and he hugged his knees while waiting for the feeling to pass.

It appeared that the unthinkable had happened.

10

The battle between humans and orgs that had started that day became nothing short of a bloodbath.

Humans and orgs were two humanoid species with an intense hatred for each other that led them to kill indiscriminately. It was no longer possible to tell which of these species the pieces of flesh and blood scattered across the land belonged to.

The living would tread on the fallen corpses, only to be killed the next moment, adding new flesh to the pile. Those left alive would trample the freshly dead, spreading blood and entrails and creating pools of foul-smelling bodily fluids that would flow between corpses until they found their way into streams. Rivers of blood flowed between the piles of the dead.

The orgs drove back the human soldiers, braying with excitement as they crossed through the mush beneath their feet. The humans, with their superior numbers, maintained their formations and came to the aid of those under attack from the orgs. The hunters suddenly became the hunted, and the orgs were pursued by human war cries.

Org soldiers weighed several times as much as a human, and on the soft earth of the wheat fields they were easy prey. The cunning human soldiers had driven the orgs into this trap, where they killed them in great numbers.

Hoping that the human formations might break down, the org soldiers chose to fight where the footing was at its poorest and the ground was littered with corpses. Any human soldier that tripped was quickly set upon by an org. As the humans struggled to stay coordinated, the battle began to go in the orgs’ favor.

The number of humans that had fallen on the battlefield was already beyond counting. It was hard to say who was winning and who was losing. Each soldier simply focused on killing the enemies before them. They killed and were killed.

After a half toki of continuous fighting that felt like an eternity, a guardian bearer on the org side was eventually brought down in a fight against multiple human guardian bearers, reducing the strength of the already-outnumbered org forces and changing the course of the battle.

“The foul swines are on the run!” someone cried.

The cry became a cheer that spread quickly among the humans, signaling that the battle was coming to an end and giving new morale to the humans.

Somewhere, a human lord let loose a roar, and it turned into a roar of victory. No one gave the order; every human simply took it upon themselves to raise their voice. Perhaps it was triggered by some deep-rooted instinct common to all living creatures.

As their roars shook the earth, shocked org soldiers began to flee the battlefield in ones and twos. The humans instinctively gave chase.

Now that the org forces had finally begun to leave the battlefield, Count Balta’s forces who were held in reserve behind the stone walls of Banya came flooding out as if this was the moment they’d been waiting for.

At this point, the outcome of the battle was decided.

The org forces returned to the forest, leaving the region at peace once again. Most of the soldiers had fallen to their knees and were breathing heavily when Count Balta’s announcement of their victory rang out.

“We’ve won! We are the victors!”

There were cheers of joy from the surviving soldiers.

A party of scouts from Count Balta’s army was dispatched. There was some fear that the retreat by the orgs could have been a feint, but demi-humans would often use their superior physical strength to retreat to some place far off whenever defeat seemed highly likely. The forest was their garden, and it was hard to hunt them down once they’d returned to it.

Now that the soldiers knew they were victorious, the blood-soaked weapons in their hands felt as heavy as lead, and they threw their weapons down.

The moment cries of victory were heard, many soldiers had begun searching for survivors. They roamed the battlefield while holding up flags bearing emblems of their lord’s houses as symbols of their villages.

Hundreds of names of the missing were called out, and one of those names was “Kai.” Simple sounding names were incredibly common in the borderlands, so it could have been that they were searching for someone else with the same name.

The soldiers from Lag had of course searched for members of their own who’d been missing during roll call and hadn’t returned since. Many men were found heavily wounded, and the bodies of many times more were recovered.

After some time, another count was performed to determine the losses that Lag had suffered in the battle.

Of the 50 soldiers sent out, there had been 21 missing. Now 12 of those had been found dead, and 9 were still unaccounted for. Everyone accepted that those who’d been unable to make their own way back were unlikely to be alive.

Of those who’d survived the battle, a third were so badly wounded that they couldn’t walk. There were just 19 soldiers who were uninjured. That was less than half their original number. It was proof of the ferocity of the battle they’d just fought.

Olha had remained on the battlefield until the very end, and had joined the search for missing soldiers before quickly returning to the main camp in the village when summoned by Count Balta.

All of the lords appeared to have been summoned, and the topic of discussion was how to deal with the aftermath of the battle.

Banya’s farmland was already in a state of ruin. They had no way to offer gifts to the lords who were present, so that also became a topic for discussion.

There was much crying and sobbing from the survivors of the ruined village. The elders of the village were repeatedly crying, “Our village is done for.” The women struggled to hold back their sobs when they saw how their fields had been mercilessly trodden down.

So much flesh and blood had been scattered, and so many footprints left by heavy feet that the effort required to restore the wheat fields to their original state was clearly beyond them.

To make matters worse, far too many of the men who’d been reliable laborers for Banya had died in the battle. The previous betrayal had caused the lords to lose many of the men in their command, and so they’d been unapologetic about their use of Banya’s men as human shields on the front line.

It looked impossible for the village to recover. The other soldiers all faced similar problems in their own villages, so they knew just how bad Banya’s situation was.

Other than the soldiers from a neighboring village who were to bear witness to the “guardian inheritance” by the girl who was the successor, everyone wanted to leave this hopelessly contaminated land as soon as possible.

It was predicted that the poorly maintained roads of the borderlands would soon become jammed by lords returning home with carts filled with their dead.

“Don’t get flustered just because a serving girl made eyes at you.”

“I know you’re not used to attention from women, but don’t let them fool you. It’s pretty obvious they just want male workers.”

“No kidding.”

In a corner of the village, a gathering of Lag soldiers were hungrily eating the watery wheat gruel that the survivors from the village had given them, but the strange looks they were getting made it hard for some of them to relax.

“What’s taking Lord Olha so long?”

“Maybe he’s after something? He’s with that count of the borderlands, isn’t he?”

“Now that you mention it... our leader did spend a lot of time around the count’s position when we were in the forest...”

“...”

The reason Lag’s soldiers had suffered such heavy losses was because their leader, Olha, had so carelessly abandoned them to move to another position, and now his standing among the other soldiers had plummeted. The atmosphere was tense, and some of the soldiers were showing contempt for Olha behind his back.

“He’s never cared about us, has he?”

“He should think about his own people before he goes sucking up to that count.”

“He’s still young, and he still lacks experience. I won’t let you speak so critically of him. You hear me?” A few calm words from Setta, the second-in-command, put a stop to escalating criticism like sand thrown onto a fire.

The reason that their baron, Lord Vezin, had sent his eldest son to participate in the council was so that Olha could strengthen his position as heir, and everyone knew that House Moloch and its heir were under close scrutiny.

It was common for young people to make mistakes while they still lacked experience. That was understood. But it was hard to accept the fact that so many lives needed to be lost for Olha to gain the experience he lacked.

The heavy atmosphere was suddenly broken when someone called out, “Hey...” The voice caused several people to look up.

As the soldiers looked around, they first looked to the man who had spoken, then they followed his gaze, and soon there were many eyes focused on the same spot.

“Ah!” Manso raised his voice in surprise.

The other members of his squad followed suit, raising their voices too.

“The kid was alive...”

“He made it back.”

One soldier pointed a finger at him, and there was laughter in response.

After everything bad that had happened, this was a little piece of good news, and they all wanted to be part of the celebration.

“You took your time!”

“What a tough bastard! The god of death must be scared of him!”

When he saw the smiles on the faces of his fellow soldiers, the small young boy waved at them as he approached. In the turmoil of the battle he’d gotten lost in the forest, and with his whereabouts unknown, he was thought to be surely dead. But now, the young boy had returned unharmed.

The laughter from the Lag soldiers soon got the attention of soldiers from other villages.

When they learned that someone had made it back alive and unharmed after being lost in the turmoil of the battle, many applauded and congratulated him.

“Kai.”

“It’s Kai!”

“Kai! Good to have you back!”

A stone axe that the boy must have taken from an org was resting on his shoulder. He showed them that he could easily raise it into the air with one hand, and then he spun it in the air. His smile was bright and carefree.

“I’m back!”

After being missing for a full day, Kai had safely returned to his people.

11

The boy thought he’d heard a bird. The bird call echoed around him as if it was reaching his ears from somewhere far above.

Huh?

Kai stopped working on the field to look up at the endless blue sky in search of the source of the bird call. There were few clouds at this time of year, and the bright sky was colored a rich blue.

He’d very clearly heard a bird call, so he strained his eyes to look for the bird that he felt sure was nearby.

But he found nothing.

“Kai.”

A nearby worker with their spade deep in manure called Kai’s name angrily, causing him to come to his senses. But again, he heard the bird call, as if it was mocking him.

“Don’t just stand there doing nothing, Kai!”

The bird was nowhere to be seen.

He couldn’t understand it, so Kai tried hard to think of an explanation. Then he remembered something with unexpected clarity.

That’s right... It’s the same bird call I heard in the valley.

Here in the plains of the borderlands, there were very few bird species. What he’d heard was the cry of a bird that lived in the forest.

Just then, a shiver ran down his spine.

I want to see the valley... The thought suddenly hit him, and the desire was hard to resist. Every hair on his body stood on end with excitement.

“Kai! Get it together!”

“Wha—Kai?!”

No matter how strong his desire was, every villager had to work to support their meager way of life, and Kai couldn’t abandon his duties. Kai took up his plow with renewed energy and began turning over the hardened, unsown soil of the wheat field.

It was tough work best performed by an ox pulling a plow, but Lag didn’t have enough cattle to work all of their farmlands. Most of their fields were painstakingly plowed by human hands.

Little Kai was getting that work done rapidly. Those around him were struggling to keep up because Kai’s strength was clearly on another level.

“Kai, wait! Calm down!”

“When did you get so strong?!”

Other men working in the next field laughed loudly at the scene playing out nearby, and some passing women guiding a herd of cattle watched with great interest. No one minded too much if Kai went all out because it meant that some of the more punishing work would progress quickly. In fact, some people were cheering him on.

Kai thought that if he could finish up the work in front of him he might be given some free time, but in reality, there was no way that he’d be given a break by himself just because work was progressing more quickly.

In the end, Kai’s continued efforts meant that much more farm work was completed that day than anyone had expected. All Kai received in return were some words of gratitude from the other villagers, but that was enough to leave Kai feeling proud of himself.

Everyone had been surprised by Kai’s sudden development after returning from the battle of Banya. Kai’s newfound strength was visible to all in a variety of ways, and to everyone it seemed obvious that he was a “hatchling fed on godstones” (which was like saying he was a bird that learned to fly young). Indeed, he told everyone that for one day and one night while he was missing, he’d collected godstones from the bodies of fallen enemies in the forest and eaten them one after another in an attempt to stay alive.

Anyone left to wander lost among the enemy would do the same thing in the same situation. Keeping a precious godstone all to oneself was generally considered shameful, but everyone understood the circumstances, so rather than criticize Kai, the village accepted his rapid development and recognized his great potential.

Just like the women who’d watched Kai’s farm work, other women in the village had also started to pay close attention to Kai. When a boy with potential stood out from his peers, even just a little, he’d have the honor of being listed as “marriage material” by the women of the village.

Unlike his fellow soldiers who worried a lot about how they looked in the eyes of the women, Kai was still 13, and his thoughts were more focused on food than sex. Unfortunately, Kai hadn’t even noticed this particular change in how they were looking at him.

In the afternoon training session for soldiers, there was once again a sudden difference in Kai.

It was already well known to the soldiers that Kai had been able to collect many godstones in battle, causing his strength to increase rapidly. Even though his past life memories would cause him to think about things deeply, Kai was still at that age when boys fantasize about having special powers, and impressing everyone around him with his newfound strength brought him great joy.

When everyone gathered for spear training, Kai wielded his spear with increased precision and a whistling of wind accompanied each of his movements.

This soon caught the attention of the higher-ranking soldiers, and he found himself receiving direct guidance from Basco and Setta, who were two of the most skilled fighters.

The leader of Kai’s squad was Manso, a soldier five years his senior who had carefully built his strength and was currently the strongest in the squad. Manso and Kai were now treated as their two top fighters.

“You’re catching up quick!”

“Next time... don’t think... you’ll be able... to leave me... behind... in a forest...”

“Hah? You know... I had no choice. Sorry.”

“I’m not... blaming... you!”

Even in the middle of an intense bout, he could carry out a conversation without getting out of breath. Manso was a good match for him, so they became regular sparring partners.

In reality, Manso was worried about Kai’s sudden rise in the squad, and wanted to train with him for the sake of maintaining the balance of power, but Kai hadn’t realized that. That said, although he got carried away at times, there was a more mature side of Kai that knew to hold back a little. There was Manso’s reputation in the squad to think about, so Kai naturally stayed one step behind him. If Kai was their squad’s number two, and if he could stay one step behind Manso in terms of practical skill, that felt like the right place for him.

That put him in an “upper mid-level” position among the foot soldiers, where he was closer to the highest rank than the lowest rank, and although his skill as a fighter wasn’t exceptional, this was a considerable jump in status for a youngster with less than a year of service behind him.

His increased value as a person caused a big change at mealtimes too.

“You look like you need a good meal.”

“...”

When he lined up to be served his dinner, he was surprised to find that the soup served into his wooden bowl was rich with ingredients.

He was also given a good amount of boiled prit (asparagus, essentially).

He gulped as he looked up at the girl serving him. She was a slightly chubby girl, three or four years older than him, smiling at him affectionately.

Though he wouldn’t have said she was beautiful, many of the soldiers were little better than dogs in heat, and she was more than cute enough to get their attention.

“Hey...”

“Keep moving, Kai.”

For some reason he was rudely shoved from behind and forced to move on, but the girl continued to watch him as he walked away, and finally gave him an awkward smile.

Then there was an elbow in his back, then a kick to his shin, and Kai didn’t know what to make of it.

“It’s like spring’s in the air, Kai.”

Manso beside him looked coldly at the amount of food in Kai’s bowl.

Kai had never noticed it before, but Manso seemed to have a slightly bigger helping than those around him.

Now Kai understood how Manso was able to share a morango with a hungry child: Manso’s dinner servings were large enough that he didn’t have to focus on just his own hunger. Manso was similarly well-treated by the women.

Then as the prayer began, he looked over at the baron who was reciting the usual lines. The baron’s family were always assured good-sized meals, and Kai decided that someday he’d eat meals like that himself. He felt as though that wasn’t beyond his reach anymore.

“And we give thanks to the brave spirit of the land god who resides here in the land of our forefathers.”

“We give thanks,” chanted everyone in unison.

Whatever prayers he might say to the god that had given him such incredible power, it would never be enough.

Kai had always felt that the standard prayer was tedious, but now he understood why the baron looked so serious each time he said the words. The baron was never hesitant to give thanks to the god who blessed him. At the same table, Olha and Lady White said their prayers with just as much feeling.

In contrast, the baron’s first wife Lady Carolina, his second wife Lady Falda, and the children at the ends of the table would never inherit a guardian. Their prayers sounded less sincere, and they looked at their food with disinterest. They didn’t feel gratitude, they just felt tired of eating the same food every day in this rundown village.

The fresh texture and slight grassy smell of the boiled prit filled Kai with a sense of satisfaction at the nourishment he was getting. The soup actually contained potato and cured meat, and it felt strange to have to chew. It was completely different from the soup he used to just drink.

He savored it at first, but then hunger got the better of him and he greedily finished the whole thing. Even though he had more than most others, it still wasn’t enough. Kai was a growing boy in need of more nutrition.

He looked up at the ceiling and sighed, and then he felt he was being watched.

To the side of the baron was the serving girl from earlier looking right at him. She smiled when their eyes met. He’d heard that the women who worked in the castle would eat in another room after the men had finished their meals. There was a group known as the women’s association that was led by the baron’s first wife, Lady Carolina. The women’s association set clear rules regarding appropriate behavior between the men and women of the village, and some said that the group controlled the foolish men of the village from behind the scenes. The serving girl was no doubt a member.

“She’s not so bad looking, that one.”

Kai froze up as Manso poked him in the side with an elbow.

That night, Kai waited for the other soldiers to fall asleep before slipping out of the barracks.

In the darkness, he scaled the towering stone walls of the village with ease and landed on the grass outside. For just a moment he gazed at the sky. It was full of stars, as if a box of jewels had been spilled over the borderlands. And then Kai began to run with great energy. He ran with the power of a guardian bearer, the power he’d had to hide during the day.

I want to see the valley...

The urge filled the boy’s heart, and he couldn’t resist the impulse any longer.

12

The valley was in the forest near the village of Banya.

In his impatience, he couldn’t hold himself back. Each step forward launched Kai several yules into the air, and he’d travel as much as 10 yules before landing.

When he ran at his fastest, Kai must have traveled about 1 yuld for every 100 steps, which meant that he could travel the 50 yulds to Banya in just 5,000 steps. He sailed over the gentle hills and low vegetation of the borderlands, and Banya was in sight before even half a toki had passed.

This must be more than 50 kilometers an hour.

It was an impressive display of his power as a guardian bearer, but Kai’s feelings were focused on what lay beyond Banya — he was thinking about the beautiful valley.

He’d traveled in roughly a straight line, making many large holes in the fields of the village with his feet. The soil was soft, and every step Kai took was like an explosion, sending dirt flying in all directions.

Whatever. They hadn’t repaired the fields anyway. I worry about the village though...

They had at least cleared away the bodies of the orgs, but the ridges of the fields were still a mess, and soldiers’ footprints were still visible in the soil.

Kai turned and watched Banya disappear into the distance behind him as he effortlessly flew through the air. The village was dark and lifeless, and it looked as if no more than a few dozen people could be left living there.

That village is done, I guess.

He continued to cut through Banya’s fields until he entered the forest, at which point he felt he knew the way to the valley from intuition alone.

The valley... must be this way.

Somehow, he could clearly sense its location.

The valley and its beautiful lake weren’t particularly deep in the forest, and yet they were unknown to humans. Most likely this was because of a large stretch of wet marshlands controlled by the lagarto which separated humans from the valley. Kai was careful to detour around the marshlands that were the lagarto’s territory, and he did his best to keep his footsteps silent as he traveled through the forest.

Without losing his way even for a moment, Kai arrived at the spot where he could see into the valley. He pushed his way through dense greenery, and a breathtaking view suddenly appeared before him.

“The valley...” Kai felt ready to burst with happiness the moment he saw it.

The valley. He hadn’t just dreamed it after all.

Less than a month had passed since he’d made it back from this place, but despite not having been away long, he was filled with relief to see that it was still safe.

Kai couldn’t wait any longer. He leapt over the edge of the cliff. Although he knew that the lake was below him, jumping off a cliff in the darkness of the forest was a reckless act. But Kai’s faith in the valley was strong, and he knew it was ready to catch him.

After a few moments flying through the air, he landed in the lake just as he knew he would.

He plunged into the cold water with a great splash and then surfaced to take deep breaths of the valley’s cool air. He splashed his arms and legs playfully and then let himself float on the surface of the water. Then Kai laughed from his stomach.

I just love this valley, he thought with no uncertainty.

He even considered simply living right there in the valley.

His view of the starry sky above was narrowed by the cliffs that surrounded him. The village elders had tried to teach him the names of the stars many times, but the only star he knew was the star over the northern pole. He gazed into it and pointed right at it. Istiara, the northern pole star, appeared to twinkle at that very moment, as if it realized Kai was looking at it.

“I’ll bet it was you making that bird call!” Kai shouted with a laugh. He felt a strange sense of friendship toward that bird call that he remembered hearing in the valley.

The trees whose branches had mostly been bare were now covered with green leaves, as if what he’d seen before had been an illusion. It should have been a surprising change, but to Kai it felt strangely natural.

For a short while, Kai carried on acting on whatever whim took him, but eventually he stopped laughing and got to his feet in shallow waters and examined the shore.

In the light of the stars he could only see the branches of the great tree as a vague silhouette, but the inscription that he’d cleaned during his last visit gave off a slight glow in the starlight.

Kai viewed the scene in a daze for a while before wading over to the shore and producing fire magic above his palm.

With the flame burning as brightly as a torch, his surroundings were made visible by the soft red light. The valley had been restored to life, but there were no signs of living creatures larger than birds or insects. Here and there were surprised cries from birds that must have been shocked by the sudden light.

“Sorry about that,” Kai told them, as if speaking to another human. “I’ll put it out in a moment.”

As promised, he soon put out his fire magic.

It wasn’t just Kai’s physical strength that had increased when he became a guardian bearer; his vision had also improved considerably. As long as he could be sure that nothing in the area meant him harm, the dim light of the valley was more than enough.

He splashed some water over the gravestone and began to scrub at the areas he hadn’t cleaned during his previous visit. He soon became absorbed in his attempts to repay the grave of the land god for the blessings he’d received.

He’d learned from women who washed clothes that the bark of a small tree known as cru could be removed and rolled to create a convenient tool for scrubbing away dirt. There was a similar tree nearby, so he borrowed some of its bark for the sake of scrubbing the grave.

“All right. That’s about done.”

He’d lost track of how much time he’d spent on the task, but Kai felt satisfied as he stretched his limbs and admired the gravestone that was now free from dirt.

Finally, he picked some small flowers that he didn’t know the name of and placed them in front of the gravestone as an offering.

“I’ll make an offering for you too.”

The org that had fallen to the bottom of the valley with Kai had been given a burial based on Lag’s traditions. A few rocks had been placed by a round mound of dirt to serve as a grave marker. Kai placed a single flower on top of the mound of dirt.

Though he hadn’t slept a wink since leaving Lag, Kai didn’t feel sleepy. Ever since gaining a guardian, his body seemed able to function with barely any need for sleep.

With nothing else to do, he found a recess in the roots of the great tree that matched the shape of his rear, and he rested there. But it’s a rule in life that time spent comfortably passes quickly. He saw that the sky had started to brighten and quickly jumped to his feet in surprise, wondering where the time had gone.

He wanted to stay and felt as though he had to tear himself from the place, but he couldn’t just give up on the village. He said a prayer once more to the grave of the land god and turned to leave.

The cliffs would have presented a challenge for most people, but Kai easily found the footholds as he climbed to the top. For someone with a guardian bearer’s power, the cliff felt like a bouldering wall fit for a child. He virtually glided up the rock surface and reached the top with ease.

Even in the short time taken to climb up, the light of the sun had started to give color to the leaves of the forest.

What even is bouldering anyhow? he wondered idly.

Kai clapped his hands loudly as if chasing those idle thoughts away, and then, in the dim light of daybreak, he began to run.

The past-life memories that had allowed Kai to be where he was today were now in harmony with his knowledge of the world from his current life. His rapid development as a guardian bearer had brought him a constant feeling of calmness that had let him think more clearly.

No matter how valuable a piece of knowledge might be, if it didn’t fit in with his current reality, it was no more than trivia. A lot of the ideas that came to Kai were like that, but he was in the habit of quickly dismissing such thoughts. That way, Kai found he could organize his thoughts without getting caught up on the small details.

As Kai traveled the route home, he decided that he’d build his own cabin in the valley. He felt convinced that the valley belonged to him. His heart fluttered with excitement at the thought of turning the valley into a comfortable world of his own.

The sun had just finished rising when Kai quietly curled up in his own bed in the village of Lag.

When he heard the other soldiers starting to get up, he also got up while pretending to sleepily rub his eyes.

They said good morning to each other and then washed their faces by the side of the well. They discussed the weather as they walked toward the steaming dinner hall. It was just another day in the village he called home.

When Kai asked himself whether he felt a sense of belonging among the people here, he couldn’t deny it that he did. But at the same time, he felt that half of his soul now belonged to the valley.

Kai’s stomach rumbled in response when the smell of breakfast being cooked drifted over from the dining hall.

Kai had no parents. They’d been caught up in an attack by demi-humans on another small village that had been controlled by House Moloch. When Kai was still an infant, House Moloch’s reign over that village had been crushed and consigned to history, and Kai’s parents had died in the process. Scenes resembling the downfall of Banya had once happened close to home. Kai had been left with no close blood relatives, so he’d been taken in by this village. Thoughts of his home were on his mind as he lined up to be served breakfast.

The reason he felt the need to return to Lag was because they provided the food that kept him alive each day. But he felt that there was more to it than just the food itself. He knew all too well how much effort was required to keep everyone fed in the barren borderlands.

“Remind me what work we’re doing today.”

“Probably putting the northern fields in order yet again. It’s so damn boring.”

“If you want food, you work to earn it,” Manso scolded his squad. “I want no complaining from any of you.”

Kai absentmindedly joined the chorus of “Yes, sir,” as he did every day.

Manso sighed as if he thought Kai was only half listening.

The squad naturally moved with everyone ordered according to their age, and Kai was at the rear.

Kai rubbed at his plate with the sleeve of his clothing while the men made small talk that he didn’t think was worth listening to. Then he realized that his clothes were still a little damp.

I should probably avoid jumping into the lake next time, he decided.