The room reeked of cigarette smoke and alcohol.
It was lavish to the point of feeling out of place in a back alley like a sewer.
'That guy's obviously Jenkinson.'
The scarred middle-aged man was Jenkinson. The bastard who'd called me a male prostitute and worse.
The fat man beside him looked like Baron Kelton, who sucked the back alleys dry.
"Y-Young Master! Please spare me! I don't know anything! That bastard pressured me into making illegal drugs! Please, just spare me!"
Kelton collapsed flat on the floor, his face gone white.
He'd backed down as soon as he learned who I was, but Jenkinson was the opposite.
-B-Boss! This gentleman is the heir of Grand Duke of Kardenos!
-I know.
Even knowing that, he didn't react. Maybe he had nothing left to live for. Or maybe he'd simply given up.
The upper class turned a blind eye to the drug trade and price gouging in this area.
They'd obviously taken bribes.
But someone of my standing could break that custom and hold them accountable. No, I could go beyond that and execute them on the spot.
The sword of the Empire, House of Kardenos.
Dealing with parasites who dared to drain the Empire was both the duty and the right of House Kardenos.
The truth was, I hadn't come over the drugs. I'd come because of Kyle's IOU...
I didn't bother saying so. I could squeeze money out of that drug dealer.
"Did you come alone?"
Jenkinson crossed his arms and looked me up and down with haughty disdain.
He knew I was from Kardenos and was still acting like this.
He had to be exceptionally bold to pull that off.
"You've got a death wish."
"So you did come alone. Gather all the men! We're taking care of this brat right here!"
The lunatic was actually trying to kill the Legitimate Child of the Grand Duke's House.
How did he think he'd get away with this?
"B-Boss! This gentleman is the heir of Grand Duke of Kardenos!"
"Oh, for fuck's sake. I told you, I know. Are you a parrot?"
"B-But you know that, and you're still doing this?"
"What, you think a Grand Duke's son is immune to getting stabbed?"
Jenkinson's thick lips twisted into a grotesque grin. It wasn't fear that showed in his smile, but something close to delight.
I threw up my hands.
There were always lunatics who couldn't be cowed by rank.
"He's come all the way here. There's no way he'll let us walk away alive!"
They'd been caught trying to run a drug business in the slums.
He must've thought he was cornered now that he'd been caught by me, a Kardenos.
They said a cornered rat would bite a cat.
"That's a reasonable suspicion, but I had no such plans. Unless you were selling drugs in Kardenos's own backyard."
"Listen up, all of you! Killing that brat is our best option! Beat him down, now!"
"B-But..."
"We'll slit his throat without a trace and burn the workshop to get rid of the evidence! Then we'll take all the money we've saved and flee to another country! Move!"
Madness glinted in his murky eyes.
This was turning into a hassle, and I sighed.
"Guess you never learned a thing. Your thinking's painfully simplistic."
His belief that he could escape and survive revealed the limits of his mind.
Did he think the Grand Duke's House had the tracking ability of neighborhood kids playing hide-and-seek?
"Kill him! If you don't, I'll kill you myself!"
"B-Boss... This is really okay, right...?"
"Want to let that bastard kill you without a fight? At least put up a struggle before you die! You might even survive!"
The dozen or so men who'd been hesitating suddenly changed their tune.
Like attracts like. Only idiots surrounded an idiot.
They drew their weapons: iron pipes and crude daggers closing in from every direction.
But even with their weapons out, they just hesitated, exchanging glances that said, "You go first."
Frustrated, I made the first move.
Tap!
I held my dagger in a reverse grip and lightly pushed off the marble floor.
I didn't even need to summon Solar. My body alone was enough.
Whoosh!
The iron pipe of the man charging at the front cut through empty air.
I leaned my upper body half a step back to dodge its path, then swung the pommel into his jaw.
"Ugh!"
His jawbone cracked. His eyes rolled back.
I stepped on his shoulder as he toppled and leaped, driving a flying knee straight into the foreheads of the two men behind him.
Crunch!
They didn't even have time to scream.
"Aaaah!"
One man panicked and swung his dagger wildly.
I landed and immediately turned, bringing my elbow down on the wrist trying to strike my side.
"Aaaagh!"
Minimal movement, minimal arcs.
Without blinking, I took them down one by one.
It took only 10 seconds to leave a dozen men sprawled on the floor.
I looked down at them, then glanced over at Jenkinson.
"Just going to watch?"
"......."
"If you cooperate now, I'll let you live. What'll it be?"
His face twisted hideously.
Would a beast like him really listen to me? Now that he'd come this far, he'd keep acting tough.
"Y-Young Master! I'm truly innocent!"
The Merchant Guild Master of Kelton crawled across the floor toward my feet.
"I swear, I know nothing about it! That bastard Jenkinson did it all on his own! He only forced me into it with threats...!"
"Hey, employer. You're noisy, so shut up. I'll take care of this."
Thud, thud.
Jenkinson watched me as he strolled to the side.
Shing—
He drew the longsword that had been standing in the display case.
At a glance, it was a perfectly balanced bastard sword.
It didn't suit the head of a slum gang at all.
"That's a pretty decent sword. Must've cost more than you did."
"Young Kardenos, you've been knighted, haven't you?"
"Not yet."
"That's a shame."
He pointed the sword at me without a hint of hesitation.
"Would've been much better if you were a Knight. I've always wanted the title of Knight Slayer."
"It'll be harder to kill me than the captain of the Knights."
"You're a cocky little brat."
As we talked, I studied his grip.
For someone who'd learned by himself, it wasn't bad.
Judging by how he'd said he wanted the title of Knight Slayer, he wasn't a Knight.
He looked like a grizzled mercenary who'd been active in the past.
Ta!
Jenkinson suddenly sprang forward like a beast. His overhead slash cut through the air.
Clang!!
I angled my dagger and deflected the blow. The force stung my hand.
"Oh."
His swordsmanship wasn't just brute force.
The step that drove his weight into the strike, the balance in his lower body as he recovered after impact. I'd suspected as much from his grip, but he'd learned somewhere.
"You didn't learn your Swordsmanship through trial and error in the slums."
His boldness wasn't just reckless bravado.
He was skilled enough to think he could kill the Legitimate Child of Kardenos.
"That's a Knight's sword. No, more precisely, it's a sword that imitates a Knight's. You can't be a Knight, so did you find the Swordsmanship manual of some fallen house?"
Crack!
Jenkinson ground his teeth. Instead of answering, he came at me again.
Slash!
I dodged his repeated horizontal slashes by simply turning my body.
I didn't counter. I kept my eyes on his next attack.
I watched his swordsmanship closely as I stepped back. There was a stubborn obsession in his movements.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, heat burst from deep in Jenkinson's chest.
The cool air in the study turned hot in an instant.
A wavering heat shimmer rose from the blade in his hand.
I couldn't help but admire it.
"You've got a Ring too?"
That was unmistakably Solar. A Solar Ring.
Solar Rings were rare in an era dominated by Luna.
I never expected to see one here.
But he had only one Ring, and even that wasn't bright. Its light flickered faintly, like an ember about to die in the wind.
Even that faint ember was more hope than some street thug could ever possess.
"I made it a long time ago. A brat like you wouldn't understand. If you want to live by the sword, this is the bare minimum."
Judging by his age, he was somewhere between his late thirties and early forties. His generation had lived through the twilight of the Solar Ring's golden age.
I had a rough idea.
He'd woven a single Ring while working as a mercenary in his youth, then taught himself swordsmanship from a formal manual.
'No wonder he looked familiar.'
An ember on the verge of going out. Swordsmanship that imitated a Knight's.
Even the head of a slum gang couldn't compare to a Knight.
Normally, he wouldn't even have been able to awaken Solar or Luna.
And yet, even in this harsh environment, he'd somehow managed to keep that spark alive.
I remembered him.
"You're an interesting man."
Whoosh!
A sword strike bore down on me. The blade, imbued with the last of the ember, filled my vision.
"But you're all fight and no finesse."
Clang!!
My dagger, swung upward in a reverse grip, struck the exact center of Jenkinson's blade, the point where its balance of force was weakest.
"Ugh...!"
His rough hands split open, and the sword spun through the air. I took advantage of the opening and planted a front kick in his solar plexus.
"Ugh!"
His massive body slammed gracelessly onto the floor.
I caught the sword in midair just before it could fall. This should've been the end of it.
Blood vessels webbed across Jenkinson's eyes.
Spitting blood, he charged at me again.
Crack!
I struck his collarbone with the back of the sword. Jenkinson's knees buckled, and he sank to the ground.
Even then, he refused to lower his gaze. He was consumed by rage.
"I won't lose to some brat who isn't even a Knight!"
I had his sword in my hand, but his fighting spirit hadn't waned at all.
"Quit acting tough. You're going to get yourself killed."
"Kill me! Go on, kill me, you brat! Don't swagger around when you're not even a Knight!"
Spit!
My vision was blocked for a moment. Bloody phlegm clung thickly to my face.
Of course, I could see his attack perfectly well even with both eyes covered.
"Ugh!"
I raised my knee and caught him right in the jaw. He fell face-first to the floor again.
"I told you I'd let you live if you backed down."
"Heh... Let me live? Fuck off. I'm dying today, one way or another."
"You don't look scared. You're really going to die."
"If I were scared of dying, I wouldn't have done this shit. Heh... What do I have to lose? I was going to die in this sewer anyway. Kill me, already!"
Crunch!
I stamped my boot down on his chest.
Putting my weight into it, I pinned him down. He couldn't resist anymore and could barely gasp for air.
I pointed the sword at his neck.
"Before I kill you, let me ask you one thing. How, and why, did you weave a Solar Ring?"
"I made it so I could stick my dick in a hole. Happy now?"
Even on the verge of death, the lunatic laughed like a madman.
I quietly looked into his eyes.
"You actually wanted to become a Knight, didn't you?"
"......!"
Jenkinson's body stiffened as he gasped for breath.
His obsession with the title of Knight Slayer.
He'd convinced himself that beating a Knight made him just as good as one.
His swordsmanship was nothing like that of a slum gang leader. It was the traditional swordsmanship of a Knight.
It was an inefficient style for a man with only the barest grasp of it. He knew that, but he'd clung to it anyway.
His obsession with keeping his Solar Ring alive, even as it ate away at his life.
He'd admired the Knights he'd seen as a child.
'Jenkinson, Knight of the Dying Ember.'
I finally remembered him from my first life.
It was when the Black Ones first swept through the South.
The nobles and official Knights had fled, tails between their legs. This man had stayed behind alone to protect his home.
He fought with orphans and prostitutes hidden behind him, swinging his sword to the end and burning up the ember that had already died out.
He was just a man from the back alleys, neither strong nor a Knight.
He earned the name Knight of the Dying Ember after his death. He'd met the most Knightly end imaginable.
For now, he was a piece of trash scraping by each day by selling drugs.
But in the grand scheme of things, he had the potential to become a hero.
The resolve to cast his life onto the firewood. The tenacity to keep going even as he burned himself away.
He'd already shown enough promise.
For the Ashen Forest Expedition.
And to prevent the apocalypse, I needed men like him.
"I like you. I was just looking for people like you."
I lowered the sword from Jenkinson's neck.
As it happened, I had a crumpled piece of paper tucked away. I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out the one I'd folded up.
A notice recruiting for the expedition, scribbled down as the words came to me.
Thump—
I tossed it onto his bloodied face.
The paper fluttered gently through the air and landed on Jenkinson's face.
He pulled it off and furrowed his brow.
"What the fuck is this? I can't read."
I'd forgotten where he came from for a moment.
I snatched the notice back and put it away.
Then I took hold of the sword again and lowered it toward Jenkinson.
Not the blade, but the flat of the sword. I lightly tapped his shoulder, not his face.
As if imitating a Knight's dubbing ceremony.
"I'll give you the chance to become a Knight of Kardenos."
".......What?"
"If you come back alive from the Ashen Forest Expedition with me, I'll guarantee your knighthood. What do you say? Tempting, isn't it?"
Knight of the Dying Ember. It was a fine name.
Jenkinson looked back and forth between my face and the sword on his shoulder.
His stunned lips trembled. A tiny voice slipped through them.
"I can become a Knight...?"
The bloodshot look in his eyes gradually softened.
In that scruffy middle-aged man, I saw the eyes of a child.