Chapter 5

Five years ago, from the present.

Raidor Zain, the second prince of the Zain Kingdom, was exiled from the capital and sent to the frontier development city in the southern part of the kingdom.

Although Raidor was nominally given the position of "lord," the gazes of the people in the development city were far from favorable. Half of the gazes directed at the thirteen-year-old prince were filled with sympathy for the young prince who had to live in the harsh frontier. The other half were clearly contemptuous, tinged with hostility.

Originally, the town, which was then an unnamed development city, was not built with the aid of the Zain Kingdom. It was a town constructed voluntarily by the Adventurers' Guild, which made a living fighting monsters, through the efforts of its members.

For the development city, which had already been built through hard work, to suddenly have a lord sent from the kingdom was like having a polished gem snatched away. It was something that could not be accepted. If the lord had not been a thirteen-year-old boy, they might have even planned to eliminate him through violent means such as assassination.

The adventurers who built the development city did not hide their malice towards Raidor, and the young prince ended up living a life like sitting on a bed of needles.

Shunned by his older brother, Prince Granade, abandoned by the subjects and fiancée he trusted, and exiled to the frontier where he was constantly subjected to gazes of sympathy and malice, Raidor experienced a fall from grace that felt like being dragged into hell. He tasted the humiliation of crawling on the ground and drinking muddy water, cried until his tears dried up, and scratched the ground until his nails came off.

However—Raidor did not end there. Despite experiencing the lowest point in his life, he chose to rise from the depths of hell, even as he suffered.

"Guild Master, teach me how to fight monsters!"

With a heart full of sorrow and despair, Raidor rose resolutely and visited Bartolomeo Zaphis, the Guild Master, to volunteer as his disciple.

"Hmm... I thought you were just a nominal lord, but you've got some guts. That's interesting."

Zaphis, surprised by the young lord's actions, readily agreed and began to train Raidor as an adventurer.

Originally, Zaphis had some reservations about how to handle the young prince who had become the lord. He sympathized with the prince's situation of being exiled to the frontier by his older brother, but he did not want the royal palace to interfere too much in the development city. On the other hand, he could not ignore the other adventurers' ill feelings towards the thirteen-year-old prince. In that sense, Raidor's decision to become a disciple was a welcome development.

Zaphis deliberately took Raidor to the guild's training ground and trained him in the open, where other adventurers could see, to break him down and build him up from the core. Raidor, who had already learned the basics of swordsmanship as part of his royal upbringing, showed exceptional talent, as befitting someone chosen to wield a holy sword. Although the holy sword had been taken by Granade, the blessing of the holy sword still resided within Raidor, and he gradually learned to use its power. As Raidor endured the harsh training and grew stronger, the gazes of the surrounding adventurers began to change.

By the time he turned eighteen, Raidor had developed a unique magical sword technique called "Cursed Sword Combat" and had become the best swordsman in the development city. During emergencies such as monster attacks, he always stood at the forefront, and the people of the town began to look at him with respect and trust.

Development City "Raid"

The name given to the town later was a testament to the respect and affection for the young lord who fought to protect the development city with his life.