Chapter 1

Prologue

A massive battlefield encompassed the world.

The prize at stake was the absolute power to control the entire world.

Various figures gathered around the battlefield.

The one who set the stage.

The one who leaped into the fray.

The one who watched from the sidelines.

The one who sought to profit from the fallout.

And I...

"Damn, I've lost it."

I am the one who seeks to overturn the board.

Chapter 1. Transformation (1)

Boring.

The sentiment of the man called a "monster in human guise" as he looked at the world was just that.

For 25 years, he had held a sword for the first time.

His path, walked by the absolute, was stained with blood throughout.

Fights, battles, wars.

His life was a continuous struggle, and victory was the only proof of his existence.

At the age of fifteen, he took a life in his first victory.

When he had slain a hundred and claimed victory, he first made a name for himself in the world.

At his thousandth victory, his name was adorned with fame.

When he broke ten thousand swords, people praised him.

When he single-handedly cut down a nation, the world feared him.

And...

There were no more swords to break.

No more adversaries to face.

The world, prostrate at his feet, revered him as the master of the sword.

There were crises, but no defeats.

An undefeated, supreme being on earth.

A being hailed as the pinnacle of the sword a human could achieve.

Sword Master, Luke Ryder.

And to the absolute, who had achieved everything, came a profound loneliness.

Life, which had been solely about struggle, was now a torment in the silence.

At the mere age of forty,

He was still thirsty for struggle and wanted to advance further.

He wanted to become even stronger.

But...

'There are no more swords to break.'

There was no one in the world who could stand against him.

He lamented this fact.

At that moment, a thought crossed the absolute's mind.

"A sword to stand against me..."

There was no adversary in this generation.

He had broken them all.

Then...

'Shouldn't I hone one myself?'

A sharp sword to engage with me spiritedly.

An adversary from the next generation to target my heart.

Shouldn't I cultivate one with my own hands?

"Good... good!"

It was a joy and excitement just to think about it.

His eyes, which looked at the world, gleamed with madness.

And soon, a single piece of news spread across the world.

"Gifted ones, come to me!"

This was the absolute's promise and...

"I will be the fertile soil for you to bloom your talents, and through this..."

It was also the proclamation of a blood festival.

"Plunge your sword into my heart! The one who severs my neck will inherit everything I have!"

The world was in an uproar at the absolute's declaration.

The entirety of the Sword Master.

Some called it the final insight the Sword Master had achieved.

Others called it the absolute power to move the world.

Or the successor to the Sword Master who could obtain everything.

Whatever it was, inheriting the "entirety of the Sword Master" meant becoming the ruler of the continent.

Those who believed in their abilities were greedily excited, and the gifted ones joined the festival the Sword Master had set up.

42 years after the Sword Master's proclamation,

The festival called "Seizing the Sword Throne" was still ongoing.

To obtain the absolute's throne, stained with blood every day.

More and more blood was being shed on the throne.

* * *

Splat.

Red blood splattered in all directions.

"Phewk!"

The man, spitting out blood, lay on the ground, his eyes scanning the surroundings with a dead look.

'Is this... hell?'

The scene before his eyes made him think so.

Burning buildings.

Blood and corpses everywhere he looked.

'The hell of a blood-soaked sea.'

There were no other words to describe the current situation.

'How... did it come to this?'

The order given to his team this time was not particularly difficult.

Just to erase a small mountain village that had fallen out of favor with the lord from the world.

It was such a trivial task that he thought it was like a casual midnight stroll.

In fact, burning down buildings and cutting down people who ran out in shock while sleeping was so mundane that it was almost boring.

It took less than ten minutes to devastate the small village of no more than twenty households.

All the houses were burning, and most of the residents had been cut down by blades.

Only the last house.

The smallest and most dilapidated house at the edge of the village, which seemed unbelievable that anyone could live there, was the unexpected variable.

Whoosh.

The last house caught fire, and the first old woman who ran out was struck down by a blade.

He thought the mission was over.

But right from that last house...

'Mon... ster.'

...a monster appeared.

A monster shrouded in deep darkness.

Grr.

The monster, which appeared out of nowhere, began to rampage in the flames.

"Stop it!"

"What is that?!"

"Run, run!"

The fighting spirit to fight.

The skills honed over a lifetime.

None of it was of any use against the monster.

In the blink of an eye, all twenty of his comrades were torn to shreds.

"Haha..."

A sigh-like laugh escaped the man's lips as he recalled the terrifying moment.

'Was my resolve wrong...?'

His arm holding the sword was torn off, and he had lost sensation in his lower body, possibly due to spinal damage.

He was already losing consciousness from the loss of blood.

'I never thought I would die like this...'

He thought he could die at any time, but he never imagined a small mountain village would be his grave.

As he lamented this,

Thud, thud.

A small, living foot entered his blurred vision.

His heart pounded, and his blurred vision cleared.

Then, a single figure filled his eyes.

Jet-black hair, golden eyes.

And a small teardrop under the left eye.

A boy, who looked to be about seven years old, stood with a broken kitchen knife.

Despite his mountain village origins, his pale skin and delicate features stood out, but the man's face was tinged with a faint fear when he saw the boy.

"You..."

A small, seemingly weak boy.

But the man knew.

The monster that had torn apart twenty of his comrades.

And the monster that had torn off his arm.

"Kuh!"

He spat out blood as his heart raced.

The boy, who had been looking at him indifferently, opened his mouth.

"Why did you do it?"

"..."

"Why... why did you do it?!"

The boy's thin, pre-pubescent voice echoed, and a black shape wavered behind him.

And.

Splat.

The man's remaining arm flew off.

The blood that spurted out.

The fear on the man's face, who now realized it was truly the end, disappeared.

He smiled at the boy.

"Kuh, kuh. Why... why did I do it?"

The boy was asking.

Why did you burn the village?

Why did you kill innocent villagers?

The man had only one answer to give.

"Because you... were weak. You were... trampled because you were weak."

"..."

"And... I'm dying... because I was weak."

A feeble voice, on the verge of death.

But a voice filled with firm conviction left an indelible mark on the boy's heart.

"...Because you were weak?"

"The weak are trampled and eliminated, while the strong... dominate and evolve."

"..."

"That's... the era of the Sword Master."

The world was pacified by the Sword Master, but it became even more chaotic because of him.

A ruthless world dominated by the principle of the strong devouring the weak, more thorough than ever before.

People called it the era of the Sword Master.

"You have... the qualifications to enjoy the era of the Sword Master."

A monster that had wiped out twenty knights with just a kitchen knife could easily become a protagonist in this ruthless era.

'Enjoy it to the fullest. Kuh, kuh.'

With that thought, the life left the man's eyes.

"..."

The boy stared at the dead man for a moment, then turned around.

Thud, thud.

After a few steps, the boy stopped.

Near his feet.

There was an old woman who had died, bleeding.

The boy stared at her body blankly.

Then, a strained voice came from his mouth.

"Just... just to die like this..."

A strange mix of emotions.

Sadness or joy.

Pain or relief.

A voice filled with various emotions that were far too mature for a child.

Grr.

And in response, a black shape wavered behind the boy and disappeared.

Four days later.

A middle-aged man carrying a large wooden box entered the mountain village.

"What... is this?!"

A peddler who had been traveling through mountain villages for the past few years, selling necessities and buying leather.

He was shocked by the gruesome scene before him.

'Completely burned down!'

Where a village had stood just three weeks ago, only blackened ruins remained.

'What happened?'

The peddler cautiously entered the village and looked around.

Then he stopped, having noticed something.

Blackened ruins and dark red stains.

The peddler immediately recognized what they were.

'Bloodstains?'

A chill ran down his spine.

'I need to get out of here!'

The presence of bloodstains meant something had happened here.

Perhaps the village's tragedy was not yet over.

Just as he turned to run,

"Sir."

"Ah!"

The voice from behind made the peddler turn around in shock.

His pale face, which had been frightened, regained color when he saw who had called him.

"You... you're... Yul, right?"

The boy with black hair and golden eyes.

He remembered the boy who always hovered around him with curious eyes whenever he visited the village.

The peddler approached Yul cautiously.

"What happened here?! Why is the village like this?"

As he asked, he examined Yul's appearance.

Yul's clothes were covered in black ash and dark red stains, and his hands were caked with blood and dirt.

And.

'What's with the kid's eyes?'

The moment he met Yul's hollow gaze, the peddler shuddered.

Without realizing it, he took a step back, and Yul, who had been standing silently, spoke again.

"...Sir."

"Yes? What is it?"

"Do you know... what this is?"

Yul held out a small token to the peddler.

A token taken from the person who had attacked the village.

The peddler's brows furrowed as he examined it.

"Huh? That's...?"

A token with a wavy, snake-like sword emblem.

The peddler, who had been selling goods in the area, immediately recognized it.

"The emblem of the Fauli family?"

"Fauli... family?"

"Why, isn't there a family that was recently appointed as the lord of this region? A bunch of thieves who raised the toll by 50% without any ability! What do they think they can do in a place like this? They're just trying to starve us peddlers to death!"

"..."

"From what I heard, the lord tried to form a knight order by bringing in a few swordsmen, and now they're trying to make up for the expenses by stripping the region bare."

The peddler, who had many grievances, rambled on.

Then he realized his behavior and cleared his throat.

"Hem! Anyway, that emblem looks like it belongs to the Fauli family... Where did you get it?"

"...Thank you."

In response to the peddler's question, Yul took back the token and bowed slightly.

Then he walked away without a word.

"Boy!"

The peddler tried to stop Yul, but his body wouldn't listen.

He was frozen with an indescribable chill.

Meanwhile, Yul's eyes were red.

'Because you were weak?'

Is this the era of the Sword Master?

If this really happened for such a ridiculous reason...

'You should be trampled too.'

Yul's shadow twitched as if responding to his resolve.

After Yul had disappeared into the distance, the peddler finally exhaled the breath he had been holding.

"Phew! What... what was that?!"

Panting, he tilted his head.

'Now that I think about it, the thing on that kid's waist... wasn't it a knife?'

He couldn't remember clearly, but it seemed like a broken kitchen knife, caked with mud, was hanging from Yul's waist.

'A kitchen knife?'

As he pondered this, he noticed something behind where Yul had been standing and froze.

Where his gaze landed.

There were dozens of freshly made mounds of earth.

"Ah..."

The man realized.

Yul's bloodstained hands.

The mud-caked broken kitchen knife.

What it all meant.

'Did he... make these graves alone?'

The man's gaze remained fixed on the dozens of mounds for a while.

And two weeks later.

A piece of news swept through the area near the mountain village where Yul lived.

"The Fauli family was devoured by a monster!"

The family, which had been somewhat prominent in the remote village, was wiped out overnight.

The Fauli family's mansion was burned down, and there were no survivors among those who had been in the mansion at the time.

Some of the people who had been awakened by the screams from the mansion that night said in unison.

A black monster as big as a house had devoured the Fauli mansion.

For a while, people talked about the monster that had wiped out the Fauli family whenever they gathered.

But no one knew about the existence of a broken kitchen knife, left in a corner of the burned-down Fauli mansion.

And from then on...

Eight years passed.