Chapter 07
Gulp.
I swallowed hard before I realized it.
Cutting down a tree that thick with a single strike?
That wasn’t normal skill.
Who the hell is this guy?
How can someone with swordsmanship like that be wandering in a backwater village like this?
As if reading my thoughts, the man finally spoke.
“I hate trouble. Don’t bother me. Get lost.”
With that short line, he turned his attention away from me again.
Hates trouble, huh.
That must be the same reason he handed Blank that bread the other day—better to give away leftovers than deal with a fuss.
Right now I was just another “troublesome matter,” like Blank.
Not exactly flattering, but what could I say?
I am still the weak, useless young master everyone thinks I am.
Still, I was lucky he left me alone.
If he were a bandit, I’d already be dead and stripped of everything.
…Maybe he’s actually a decent guy?
“Whoa!”
For a moment I almost thought well of him—until I saw the fire in front of him.
“My meat!”
He was calmly roasting the horned boar I’d just hunted.
I’d barely managed to bring it down, and he was eating it without lifting a finger!
“Argh!”
I tried to yell, but pain flared like fire the moment I moved.
“Ugh…”
He smirked. “First you eat dirt, now you just groan on the ground.”
“Y-you bastard… that’s mine…!”
I could only rasp through the pain. He didn’t even raise an eyebrow.
“What are you babbling about? I had my eye on this prey first. You cut in.”
The words I wanted to spit out died against the throbbing ache.
“…Here.”
He tossed me a palm-sized box. His rough cloak flapped, and for an instant I glimpsed silver full-plate armor—and a sword.
That sword…?
I caught the box. Inside was a pot of white ointment with a sharp, minty scent.
“What’s this?”
“Spread it on your wounds. It’ll dull the pain.”
It didn’t sound like a lie. Why would he bother lying to me?
I smeared it on the gash in my arm.
The burn eased almost immediately.
Soon I’d slathered it all over, then tossed the empty box back at him.
“That settles the meat’s price.”
“Hmph.”
He kept tending the fire, still completely unconcerned with me.
To him I was nothing more than a passing bird, not worth a second thought—as long as I didn’t cause trouble.
Probably even the ointment was just to shut me up.
I studied him carefully.
No way was he some run-of-the-mill wandering knight.
And that sword…
The brief look told me enough: this wasn’t any common blade.
This guy…
My mouth almost watered for a different reason.
A wandering knight.
What I needed most right now was simple:
Win the duel-trial a month from now—against a Rank-5 monster of a swordsman.
Either I raised my own rank fast, or I hired someone of that caliber to fight for me.
A wandering knight was my best bet.
No respectable knight would back a crumbling house like ours, and no mediocre squire could stand against Rank-5.
That left only the skilled yet masterless: wandering knights.
High potential—high risk.
Some of them were fugitives, even violent criminals.
But when I glimpsed the hilt of his sword, I noticed the carving.
It meant only one thing:
This man wasn’t some petty thug—he was a monster of true skill.
I couldn’t let him slip away.
I had to recruit him.
“Hey.”
“…What?”
My serious tone made his eyes sharpen.
A wandering knight.
The kind who draws his sword without hesitation if threatened.
There’s no easy way to befriend someone like that.
Better to skip the small talk.
“You. You’re from the Eternal Knights, aren’t you?”
His sword flashed to my throat before I even finished.
The edge grazed my skin, clean and precise—years of relentless training in every motion.
I could see the trajectory, but dodging was another matter entirely.
“Hhh!”
The blade stopped with a shallow cut, blood sliding down its length.
“Hmph.”
He withdrew with a strange expression.
“You didn’t even flinch.”
Not that I could have.
That killing intent was real—he had meant to kill me and only just decided not to.
I wiped the blood from my neck and forced myself to stay calm.
“So. Why bring that up?”
At least I’d caught his attention.
Time for the next step.
“First of all,” I said, “I’m not just some rich brat.”
“Oh? Then what?”
“I’m the future master of this land. I’ve heard… things.”
“The master? Ha. Of that crumbling little county?”
His insolence would’ve cost another man his head.
But I doubted anyone here could even touch him.
After all, he really was a former Eternal Knight.
“Where’d you hear that rumor?”
The lethal edge in his voice wasn’t mere curiosity.
If I were an enemy, he’d hunt me to the ends of the earth.
I needed to steer the talk further.
“I’ve also heard stories… about the order’s relic.”
Silence.
At that one phrase, his aura turned ferocious, the killing intent tenfold.
My knees nearly buckled.
“Say that again,” he hissed.
“You heard me.”
Blue aura flared along his blade, crackling like lightning.
If he struck, I’d be nothing but dust.
“Give me one reason not to kill you in the next five seconds.”
Gulp.
I met his deadly gaze.
“Because I know where it is.”
“Too bold. I should just—”
“Go ahead. Kill me. But then you’ll never know where the relic is.”
…
The tension stretched until, finally, he lowered the sword.
Phew. Almost there.
“…How does a noble from the great, failing Count Impera know such things?”
“Personal reasons,” I said lightly.
“Ha! Some reasons.”
He sat on a nearby stump, pretending nonchalance, but I could feel the questions burning in him.
The Eternal Knights were the elite order of the long-destroyed Kazan Empire—so strong they nearly conquered the entire continent before the mad mage Oberon ended it all.
Only the strongest of the strong bore their emblem.
And I’d glimpsed it: the ouroboros, a serpent biting its own tail, carved into his sword hilt.
A forbidden symbol now.
That confirmed it.
He was one of them—minimum Rank-5, maybe higher.
Dangerous as hell, with a bounty to match.
Helping him meant risking execution by the allied kingdoms’ hunters.
But letting him go meant certain ruin for my family.
High risk, high return.
He leaned forward, clearly desperate.
No one alive should know where the relic lay.
No one but me—
the one who’d read every chapter of the novel this world came from, except the last.
“So,” I said at last, drawing out the words,
“as for where it is…”
I smirked.
“…I’m not telling.”
