Chapter 56: Extra – It Wasn’t From the Beginning

It wasn’t from the beginning.

When Caron first came to the land of Elchen.

He was only fourteen years old.

Still a young age, not yet having shed the vestiges of boyhood.

When the boy swung his sword. The surroundings simply fell silent.

What was truly remarkable about the boy.

Was that boys of that age usually struggled even to lift a sword hilt.

But the boy wasn’t conceited about that fact.

He knew very well why he had come.

War was no joke at all.

Before that, the boy had never even killed a chicken.

A place where life and death were decided.

A place where blood splattered and screams spread.

In that place, the boy swung his sword not to die.

Shhhk-

He was cut by a sword.

“Agh-!”

A terrible pain swept through the boy’s body.

His legs buckled on their own.

He wanted to collapse right then.

At least.

The boy swung his sword because he was afraid of death.

After it was all over.

The boy was huddled in a corner of a remote barracks.

A man approached the boy.

“Are you crying?”

And he spoke those words.

The man was a nameless mercenary.

A dark burn scar on his face, a black mask covering the scar.

An empty sleeve where one arm should have been.

Status, name, appearance.

Everything about the man was unknown.

Perhaps that was why.

The man wasn’t very afraid.

Even if the boy, Caron, was a neglected prince, no one would speak to him so informally.

“…”

When Caron’s sharp gaze turned to him.

“You’re not crying.”

The man chuckled.

What exactly led him to do so?

It was something the boy couldn’t possibly know.

The man asked Caron.

“Was that your first kill?”

Caron simply remained silent.

But a calloused hand grasped his hand.

“Soft.”

“What is it?”

Flick-

Caron shook off the hand.

“A very soft hand. It’s a wonder you survived.”

“What business is it of yours?”

“A moment’s amusement, kid.”

The man’s face was covered by a mask.

But his gaze felt intense.

“Don’t tremble. It’s natural. Here, you either kill or be killed.”

He didn’t need comfort.

Caron turned his head. But the hand hugging his knees trembled slightly.

“One thing. Shall I tell you something interesting?”

The man, seeing that, continued to speak.

“With such a soft and trembling hand. If you remain that way, you’ll die. Certainly.”

The battlefield was not a soft place.

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“It would be nice if your sword were as rough as your mouth.”

That was the first encounter with the man.

“What are you doing. Swing harder.”

Swish-

At some point.

The man appointed himself as his teacher.

And he taught Caron swordsmanship.

Their spars were conducted with real swords.

Always, without fail, every day.

But not even for a moment could Caron reach beyond the man’s sword.

“Kid. This is the difference between you and me.”

At first, he started sparring out of spite because of those words.

When he came to his senses, it had become like this.

The man was like his teacher.

“Clumsy and crude. Think about what you’re lacking.”

Meanwhile, calluses formed on Caron’s hands.

But the man still said he was lacking.

“Your sword has no will. It’s not enough to simply not be afraid.”

An unyielding will.

The will to not drop the sword even if the arm holding it is cut.

“You can’t survive without it.”

“More nonsense, old man. It’s completely different from what you said before.”

Caron called him ‘old man.’

He wasn’t actually that old, but he was probably around his uncle’s age.

“Originally, education is done in stages. Don’t you know that saying?”

The man chuckled.

“Homework, kid. You’re going on leave soon, right..?”

The minor achievement he had presented last time.

In fact, strangely enough, when he was with the man, he never lost a fight.

Perhaps thanks to that.

Caron was able to receive a short leave.

“Well. Are you going to the Imperial Palace or something?”

“No.”

Caron shook his head.

“Somewhere else.”

“What. Not even home… Then do you have a girlfriend or something?”

“…”

The silent Caron’s expression.

His cheeks turned slightly red.

“It’s not.”

“It is, isn’t it.”

The man kept chuckling.

“Well, a fourteen-year-old knows all there is to know. How far have you gone? Is she a noble? Or a commoner?”

Caron hated such frivolous talk.

“She’s a friend. And not someone to talk about so lightly.”

The man was surprised by those words.

“You’re serious. A prickly kid like you.”

Caron denied it with silence.

It wasn’t like that at all.

It was just a light interest.

The man stroked Caron’s head.

At first, the boy would swat his arm away, but he didn’t do that anymore.

The man said in passing.

“So. What I was going to say earlier. Think about the will you’ll put into your sword.”

His voice was quite serious.

“It’s homework. Cayron. There are rumors of a siege soon. Probably after you return.”

A siege.

‘It’ll be a tough fight.’

Caron nodded silently.

And so, the short leave.

Of course, he met the girl alone.

It was always enjoyable.

So much so that he didn’t want to come back here.

But sometimes, reality is cruel.

“Lower your head-!”

Such a desperate scream.

Whoosh-

Blood splattered from beside him.

Dark arrows filled the sky.

Hot oil and piles of stones poured down.

The sky turned black. Flames like infernos covered the ground.

“They’re coming out!”

With those words.

Waaa-

The ground shook violently.

The sound of swords clashing.

“Kill-!”

Screams like those of demons.

Screams of unbearable pain.

“Argh-!”

This place was hell.

Blood splattered.

Something flew in the air.

Severed limbs.

Caron no longer hesitated.

Stab-

But still, a disgusting sensation.

That slimy, horrible sensation engulfed his whole body.

Actually, it was more like he was trying to ignore it.

Caron didn’t think of his opponents as human.

Bugs, or beasts.

He thought of them as things to be killed.

The situation gradually became unfavorable.

Eventually, the imperial army decided to retreat.

Boo-woo- Boo-woo-

It was a retreat right before the inner castle.

“Scatter!”

“Run!”

In an instant, the defeated soldiers scattered and began to flee in panic.

Caron and the man hid in a secluded place.

An alley on the outskirts of the city, not yet beyond the outer wall.

They were sure to be discovered.

The situation was very desperate.

Caron was very tired.

The man with him was also considerably injured.

“
. This is bad.”

But Caron was relieved by the man’s attitude as he said that.

A desperate situation. But.

He didn’t care at all.

The man said.

“It’s okay. We’ll get out of here alive.”

Those words gave him a strange sense of நம்பிக்கை.

Caron nodded.

The first principle of the battlefield.

The moment you give up, you really die.

Caron remembered that.

‘So if I don’t give up, I can survive. I can do my part.’

The fact that it was arrogance.

Caron realized it a little while later.

“Search thoroughly!”

A search party from the castle.

They searched every alley one by one.

“Cayron.”

The man whispered.

“They’re coming.”

Almost twenty enemies in total.

Two of them were on horseback.

“See that gate over there?”

The gate was not far away.

“Take the horses and run. Then we can get out of here. I’ll take fifteen. You take five. We’ll deal with them like this and get out of here.”

Caron corrected him.

“I’ll take ten. You take ten, old man.”

Caron was confident enough.

Chuckle-

The man laughed.

“Your confidence is admirable.”

And.

It went according to plan.

The enemies were getting closer.

The two instantly dashed out of the alley.

Stab-

Immediately, one died instantly.

He was stabbed in the neck by the sword the man threw.

The man immediately retrieved his sword and swung it at the others.

Caron also aimed for his assigned targets.

It had to be done in an instant.

“Please… Spare me!”

But the moment he heard that plea, Caron definitely hesitated.

A plea that was not heard on the battlefield.

‘The opponent is also human.’

Because he inadvertently realized that fact.

That one moment of hesitation came with a price.

Several swords rushed at the gap the boy showed.

Clang-

Caron parried one.

And deflected another one obliquely.

But a single blade that he missed sliced deeply into the boy’s waist.

“Ugh…!”

That terrible pain.

It hurt less when his shin was broken.

Caron’s posture faltered.

Footsteps were already approaching.

Someone had sent a signal.

In a moment of life and death.

Unbelievably, his body was lifted.

After realizing that fact.

Caron was already on horseback.

“Go-!”

Such a shout.

The man had just beheaded two and thrown him onto the horse.

He himself turned his back.

“Ah-!”

Caron shouted in pain, but the startled horse ran forward, looking only ahead.

Towards the gate.

Slash-

The man’s sword never stopped.

He was instantly surrounded by six or seven enemies.

But even in his injured state, he danced with his sword.

But that was also short-lived.

There were too many enemies.

Stab-

Soon his one arm was cut.

Slash-

His thigh was deeply cut.

Even then, the man’s sword never stopped.

In a fleeting moment. Their eyes met.

In the increasing distance, the man said.

[Live.]

Just those three words.

Caron thought.

About the meaning of the words the man left behind then.

What was the man to him?

What was he to the man?

If you put your will into it, you can live, he said. Then why did the man die like that?

He actually did save him.

It was just that it wasn’t his life that he saved.

Sometimes. He also said things like this.

[Actually, the things I say don’t have much meaning. I’m just trying to look cool.]

He said it was an illusion.

[Even if I say this. We could die tomorrow. That’s the battlefield.]

Perhaps his approaching Caron was also just a simple amusement.

Maybe it was even pity. For a young boy who had to come to the battlefield.

But that didn’t really matter.

Caron eventually solved the homework he had left behind.

[Think about the will you will put into your sword.]

When he turned sixteen, he realized his own feelings.

So he soon found that answer.

‘To meet Rosa again.’

His kind and pretty childhood friend. Keeping his promise to the girl.

The will to not fall, to endure with unwavering determination.

It seemed like nothing.

But it wasn’t, not at first.

For the sake of someone who had gradually become more important than anything else.

That will finally became Caron’s sword.

Without a moment’s hesitation, without stopping for a single moment.

It definitely wasn’t from the beginning.

Caron, who is now called a demon.

There was a time when he trembled with লুকানো fear.

There were times when he made mistakes due to vain hesitation.

But now it was different.

Caron inherited his sword.

He already knew who he was.

The man was the Black Wolf of the battlefield.

A once-renowned knight, he was unjustly stripped of everything and exiled after being caught up in a power struggle within his family.

Maybe that’s why he helped Caron.

Maybe he saw himself in him.

Of course, only the dead man knows the truth.

Still, Caron remembered him from time to time.

After that, the Black Wolf became the emblem of Arnad.

It was a knightly order where those who knew how to put their will into their swords gathered.

It wasn’t from the beginning.

That the girl came to wait for the boy.

The beautiful villa at Eckshire.

The girl gazed out the window.

Every day was different.

The curves of the girl’s body gradually became smoother.

Her chubby cheeks became slender, and her arms and legs grew longer.

Her hair also grew longer, flowing down past her shoulders.

It wasn’t just the girl.

The rural village of Eckshire also changed as time passed.

Low stone walls crumbled, and new roads were built in their place.

Not long ago, an association of merchants was formed in the village where there wasn’t even any foot traffic.

It was proof that things were changing.

People and hearts, too.

They change with the passage of time.

It was the same with the girl’s heart.

She looked back on their first meeting.

It was a chance encounter.

One winter night when snow was falling heavily.

The girl met a blood-covered boy.

The girl extended a hand.

It was really just a small gesture of concern.

The boy, who had closed his heart tightly, gradually opened up as time passed.

Certainly, it wasn’t from the beginning.

That the boy gradually opened his heart.

Like this.

That the girl came to wait for the boy.

“He’s not coming this time, I guess..”

The boy usually came around this time.

Just because she was bored.

That’s all it is for now.

The boy was the girl’s only friend.

Of course, not just a simple friend.

Someone she wanted to take care of.

The boy was a young lamb in need of help.

The encounter that was like that at first.

The connection that was just a small interest.

It gradually grew in the girl’s heart.

The girl wanted to play with the boy.

‘Well, it is childish.’

But so what.

She could regain her long-forgotten childhood innocence and pass the boring time.

But the girl didn’t know.

It wasn’t just about passing time.

The girl would come to this place anyway.

She would come to the villa at Eckshire.

But lately, there were times when she came to the villa at Eckshire even when there was no such reason.

It was a truly enjoyable memory.

The time spent playing with the boy, going around, and having dinner together.

The girl would realize that fact only as time passed.

Certainly, it wasn’t from the beginning.