Chapter 20

“I believe there are many cadets here who already know about the horrors of the uruks.”

Kaisen had lost his eyesight, but his hearing was intact, so he participated in theoretical training. It was fortunate that wearing glasses allowed him to see, even if the world was blurry.

“The uruks are a demon race that lived in the central region of the southern Adrion continent. As volcanic ash covers the sky and the world becomes hotter, the radius of their activity is expanding to the north.”

A Fake Warrior’s education was not limited to swordsmanship and fighting skills in the Hanging Garden.

The abyss…

There was also a class where students sat in a classroom and learned in-depth about the creatures that no one wanted to get close to, that was, the demons.

“In addition, the other demon races entered the continent one by one. Ghouls, nagas, trolls, necrons, and daemons.”

“…!”

“What you guys need to learn of today are not these six great demons, but enemies that are even more dangerous than that.”

In the print Rachel Dune Jeraye handed out, there were five nightmarish creatures that could have only sprung up from the imaginations of a madman.

Their appearances were truly unfamiliar.

The first thing the cadets saw was a body similar to a human’s, but the creepy head and tail were similar to those of a lizard.

“‘Holshevez’, in the ancient tongue, ‘Reptilian’, in modern language. Lizard people. They are an ancient race that has lived since the Era of the Abyss and are servants of ‘Howling Destruction’. They live in the polar desert.”

“…!”

“They appear in midsummer, turning the world into a wasteland. Even the cruelty of the uruks is cute compared to these bastards.”

At Rachel’s nod, a mage from the Imperial Magic Consortium stepped forward and used illusion magic.

An illusion of a reptilian appeared. The figure of the creature walking on the platform gradually blurred, and after a while, only a hazy, translucent figure followed the trajectory of his movement.

“The Holshevez warriors use ‘Camouflage’, a technique that allows them to seemingly disappear. It is a technique you must pay special attention to on the battlefield.”

Kaisen’s eyes narrowed. If the uruks’ fighting style relied on overwhelming force, then the lizard guys used cunning methods.

“Next are called the Ruttlewe. It would be easier to consider them as fish people. They are the servants of the ‘Ruler of the Ancient Seas’ and are the biggest trouble to the navy. There’s no comparing them to the nagas.”

A primal feeling of nausea surged as they looked at the nightmare that was a Ruttlewe.

It was a person. Yes, at first glance, it looked like a person. The fish-person’s eyes blinked, its ears were fluttering with large gills, and its hands and feet were webbed.

“The scary thing about these guys is that they move freely in the water. When midsummer comes and the sea warms up, it can be said that they are responsible for blocking the navy’s supply lines.”

“…!”

“They like places with high humidity, so they appear when the rainy season comes. This is the difference between them and the Holshevez.”

Rachel’s classes were always focused on the tactical idiosyncrasies and fighting styles of three races. She hardly ever explained the other two.

“The one next to it is a ‘Tan-Tullak’. In modern language, it is a spider person, a Necrachne. The last thing drawn is an Andalos, the hounds that serve the Lord of Time.”

“Are you saying these guys aren’t dangerous?” a cadet asked.

“No, they’re dangerous. However, since the Lord of Spiders and the Lord of Time were subdued by Dragon Sage Rain Ludwig and Apostle of the Void, Arjen, respectively, they do not appear, even during the ‘Black Summer’.”

As for the maggot people known as Kinwe, the answer was that they only appeared in the Edea Peninsula, the land of fairies, because the Lord of Insects was sealed there.

“In addition to the information I mentioned, there are many eccentric species that exhibit unusual behavior. There are also quite frequent cases where demon races that humanity has never known before appear.”

“…?”

“Now, this is the key… What you need to learn in this class is not information about the demon races.”

“Then what is it?”

“It is broad-mindedness. Knowledge is like a mathematical formula. The more you know, the more useful it can be in various situations.” Rachel’s classes sometimes turned academic.

Her goal was to instill the mindset of a Fake Warrior in the cadets. “A Fake Warrior must be perfect. A Fake Warrior never dies. They just disappear. Even if they are fake, a Warrior must be such a being. Don’t forget that your existence is a fraud.”

“…!”

“This is why I repeatedly explain demons when you could be using that time to practice martial skills. A Warrior should not die from something as pathetic as a lack of information.”

After the theory class, Kaisen went back to his dorm. Since there were no swordsmanship classes, he couldn’t go to the Hanging Gardens, and his dorm was the only place left.

When he was left alone, the hole that opened in his heart the day his family died grew bigger, it had grown even more the day the White Bone Corps was annihilated.

There was never a day he didn’t have a headache, but he was used to living with it, so it was fine. That hole in his heart, though… That day, with corpses everywhere, the screams, the stillness, the silence…

Every time he thought about the Battle of Aristapo, he had difficulty breathing, as if his lungs were going to burst.

He wanted to forget about it and be able to stop thinking about it for even a moment. It would be nice if he could swing his sword freely.

‘She’ came when he was panting in pain, unable to even breathe.

“What is so painful?” Even her voice had a mysterious scent, so he knew right away who was standing by the window, next to the fluttering curtains.

“I’m Tarcio. Have you already forgotten me?”

“The instructor told me to forget about you. She said I shouldn’t tell anyone about you.”

“Huh? Oh, that’s the way it is. I’m the Imperial Courst’s secret weapon, so forget I came today.”

A part of his heart throbbed at those words. The secret weapon of the Imperial Court… Was the egg delivered properly? “Why did you come here?” he asked.

“I kept thinking about something I couldn’t say last time. It’s about the name ‘Kaisen’. Is this really how you write it in the dragon tongue?”

“I don’t know how to read dragon tongue. I can’t even see.”

“Does it mean ‘connection’?”

“That’s right… How did you know?”

Kaisen was stunned.

Tarcio continued speaking in a surprised and excited voice. “My name too! I heard my mother gave it to me, and it means ‘connection’ in the tongue of creation. Your name has the same meaning, but it’s in dragon tongue.”

“My mother gave me mine as well.”

“Amazing! The meaning of our names is the same, and our mothers gave them to us. Isn’t it fate that brought you and me together like this?”

Tarcio smiled brightly and laughed without covering her mouth. She closed her eyes.

He didn’t know why, but that laughter was enough to wash the darkness in his heart away.

After that, Tarcio visited occasionally when the instructor was not around. At some point, she appeared while carrying a small book.

“『The Travel Journal of a Dragon and a Mage』. The era when Rain Ludwig traveled the world. People called that era the Silver Age. It means peace after the Golden Age.”

“What’s fun about writing down other people’s travels?”

“I’ve never been outside. I don’t know what the world looks like, so maybe that’s why it’s interesting.”

“Not once in your life?”

“Not once. I’m going on a trip too.”

“A trip? Where?”

The world was already covered with skeletons. It was a world where children buried their dead parents in the ground, and parents buried their dead children in their hearts and cried.

The rivers were dry, and the land was crumbling, so where on earth could one travel?

“Where else?” She spoke with a smile, like a little girl boasting about something she kept preciously hidden. “To the world I will restore.”

“What?”

“Kaisen, why do you think Fake Warriors are called Fake Warriors?”

“…?”

“It’s not because of their abilities, but because they ultimately couldn’t end this nightmare. They became the protagonists of their own tragedy.”

* * *

Reaper Scans

Translator – Rainypup

Proofreader – ilafy

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* * *

He thought she was dazzling in that moment.

Was it because the sun, hidden behind the clouds, revealed its face and the sunlight poured in through the window, or did her smile emit its own light?

Although he couldn’t see clearly due to the loss of vision, it was clear that the light was so dazzling that he had to cover his eyes with his hands.

“I have no intention of becoming like that. I will become a true Warrior. The hero of dreams and hopes.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

A Warrior… Kaisen could not understand Tarcio’s dream. Wasn’t it a dream as empty as the morning sea fog?

She wanted to be a real hero. A real hero was a dream, and a real hero had not appeared even once since the Mythical Age.

‘Is this girl serious?’ Was it possible to say something like that so naturally? There didn’t seem like there was that much difference in their ages.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Are you afraid I’ll leave by myself? Do you want to come with me?”

At that moment, in the quietly blowing summer breeze, something painfully passed through his mind.

“Leave the sword behind and go.”

Was that his teacher’s will? Or was it the last command left by his teacher? Maybe that was what she was talking about.

What would it be like to agree with Tarcio? She was telling him to follow a girl he’d met less than 10 times?

“Huh? Huh?” Tarcio must have been unable to read Kaisen’s state of mind, so she came closer to his face, tilted her head, and smiled.

The scent of flowers filled his nose, and he suppressed the sadness that rose deep in his heart. He grabbed Tarcio’s shoulder and pushed her away, answering her in a low voice. “If such an opportunity ever comes…”

Although it was said sarcastically, Tarcio smiled brightly while raising her little finger. “Really? Then that’s a promise.”

Like a person who had received the most beautiful treasure in the world as a gift, she wrapped her little finger around his. Just as she had come, she disappeared as quietly as the wind permeating the room.

After Tarcio left, Kaisen just stared at the empty space for a long time with his blurred vision.

‘Travel? Restoring an era like this? Becoming a real hero?’ There was no way such dreams could come true. The cold reason in his brain certainly thought so.

Maybe… She had a smile that made him think that such a day might really come.

Wasn’t that smile like spring? A smile that reminded him of his mother?

Wasn’t that the smile his teacher, Kamila, smiled at the end?

Wasn’t it a smile that made him cry because he missed it so much in his heart?

‘A smile that I learned the value of only after losing everything…’ Why did he think those three people looked alike?

All three people were different, from their personalities to their voices and faces. Perhaps that was the moment he realized the tragedy that waited, deeply entrenched from the start of their relationship.

* * *

After that, Tarcio visited again. The books she brought and read out loud changed often, but Kaisen’s favorite book was the book called 『Raminea of the Crimson Lotus』.

It was good. Listening to his mother’s story, it felt like he was walking with her in a dream…

As he tried to sleep while hugging the book that Tarcio had left behind, he remembered the time when he fell asleep in his mother’s arms…

When he was alone, he would cry endlessly. Those tears were a daydream, like longing, so when he woke up, he would be overcome with deep sadness, as if he had been released from a spell.

“Raminea took an illegitimate daughter from the Belchester family as her disciple, and her name was Kamila.” His favorite part was where his mother took Kamila, who was despised by her family, as her student.

He asked Tarcio to read that part again, and Tarcio willingly did so. It was a truly happy time, and it was a time when he could find peace of mind, like when his mother read him a storybook as a child.

However, the days when Tarcio visited were really ‘occasional’. Every time she appeared after long absences, the bandages wrapped around her body increased.

She didn’t seem to want to talk about the reason for the bandages, so he didn’t bother to ask.

The dragon spirit stone injection process and theory classes continued, but they were always nothing but failures. Even his hearing was disappearing, but he didn’t find the injection of the dragon spirit stone to be mentally difficult.

The one who was mentally harassing him was someone else.

“Hmph… I knew it would be like this. There’s no way a man like that could be a Fake Warrior.” Arin, it was Arin Perry—the daughter of the Perry family and a well-known cadet of the Muryeong Sword Sect.

She had been sneering down at him non-stop ever since he couldn’t pull the sword out of the rock. Her inferiority complex, which came from having been rejected by Kamila in the past, seemed to be expressed towards Kaisen.

Her true intention was to quickly eliminate Kaisen, who was the biggest obstacle to obtaining Aradamantel, the holy sword of the hero, Raminea.

“If you failed to strengthen your body and became crippled, you should stop now. What on earth are you still doing here?”

Kaisen had always ignored Arin, but that day was different. She ended up crossing a line that she should not have crossed. Of course, that was the girl’s shallow plan.

“You know what? Lately, there has been some suspicion as to whether you are really Kamila’s student.”

“What are you trying to say?” he asked.

“No, isn’t it strange? It’s impossible for a Fake Warrior to accept a man as a disciple, but she ignored all the other female swordsmen and accepted and raised you, a man.”

It felt like the blood in his entire body was hardening. He tried to ignore it like usual, but he had no idea what she was trying to say.

“So, I’m saying… there are rumors that Kamila may have broken the rules.”

The blood in his veins seemed to freeze. It was a feeling he had felt before. When he first met Kamila, he must have felt something like it when she asked him what happened to his mother.

“Honestly, how lonely must she have been? Well, yes, she only lived on the battlefield… I’m sure there were good-looking and attractive men.”

As if she liked Kaisen’s reaction, Arin continued to sneer. “Was it Yohan Wolf Frost? He was also the illegitimate son of Archduke Duren, so wouldn’t the tent on the battlefield be the perfect stage for two people to fall in love?”

Kamila was a flower that bloomed and fell on the battlefield. There were no stains on her petals. Her only stain was taking in Kaisen, her teacher’s son.

Wolf was also Kaisen’s benefactor. Knowing her mission, Wolf loved Kamila but did not reveal his feelings to anyone. Also, Kamila did not accept Wolf’s feelings. The love between the two could be said to be deep and painful.

“As a woman myself, I can understand. Isn’t it okay to embrace a man as long as she doesn’t give him love? I guess that’s what she thought.”

Just how… A person who lived in peace in the city of divine dragons… How could such a person insult those lives?

Such a person did not exist. There was no one.

The moment cold anger swirled in Kaisen’s mind, there was only one echoing thought resounding in his head.

“Then she accidentally gave birth to someone like you without even having time to erase it.”

In an instant, Raminea’s sword, which had been firmly fixed with a hemp cord by his waist, was pulled out, emitting a bluish iron glow.

When the hemp string broke without any force, the speed of the sword was close to divine.

“I am Kaisen, Kamila Alter Aradamantel’s disciple.”

It was only after the tip of the sword was pointed right in front of her forehead that Arin Perry realized what was happening.

“Arin Perry, I will kill you. If you don’t want to die defenseless, pull out your sword!”