Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Reunion with the White Holy Knight 

AFTER PARTING WAYS with Myne, I headed north alone to the sentinel city of Babylon. Sunset was already falling over the lands of Galia, and I wanted to be safely within Babylon’s walls before dark. Fortune was on my side this time; I reached the Galian border without encountering any monster stampedes. 

To call Galia “the country of death” would not have been an understatement. From where I stood on the Galian side of the border, the desolate wasteland behind me was pungent with the stench of blood. On the other side of the border was the Kingdom of Seifort, where the land lay unravaged. In Seifort, pockets of flowers grew from the earth and danced in the wind. 

I took a step across the border, and the kingdom’s familiar, sweet air filled my lungs. In Seifort, I felt at ease. The difference in the air between the two countries struck me as strange and unnatural. I’d thought so the first time I crossed into Galia with Myne. Now, returning, I thought it again—this border marked a boundary between two distinct worlds. 

Perhaps the state of the Galian region was the result of ancient Galian technologies, like the chimera Myne and I had fought. Was this atmosphere another artifact of the past? Yet it had been four thousand years since the decimation of the Galian civilization. However, if the knights and researchers of Seifort couldn’t work out why the Galians were near totally extinct, there was no way I’d be able to. 

I pushed my stray thoughts aside. Reaching Babylon was more important, and I was hungry. I hurried toward the city. After walking for a while, I saw its towering walls rise in the distance. It was said that the walls surrounding Babylon played an important role in defending the city from the never-ending threat of Galian monsters. Perhaps that was why the walls rose so high into the sky, as if steel towers encircled the city. 

*** 

When I reached Babylon, I placed my hand on the surface of one of the so-called sentinel walls that protected it. The massive walls were forged from some metal alloy I wasn’t familiar with. I only knew it wasn’t steel. Merely touching the wall told me the rest; this metal was strong enough to stop the charge of any monster dead in its tracks. The walls of Babylon would not easily move, but what were they made of? 

“Hey, Greed,” I said. “These walls seem extremely sturdy. Could your blade cut through them?” 

“Huh?” Even using Telepathy, my black sword, Greed, sounded deeply offended by the doubt in my voice. “How dare you question me, Fate?! Mere adamantite will never stand in the way of the mighty Greed! Unsheathe me, and I’ll prove it!” 

“Thanks, I’m good.” 

Greed wasn’t satisfied with boasting, though. He went on and on about rare adamantite—an alloy that had defended ancient Galia from monsters for thousands of years. That alone set it apart from other metals. The exact method of manufacturing adamantite was now lost to time, however. Babylon’s walls were made of abandoned scrap collected from across the Galian region. 

“Wow. Every now and again, you actually have something useful to say, huh?” I said. 

“Pah!” Greed scoffed. “This old sentinel city and I go back a long, long way.” 

“That sounds like an interesting story. But it’s not one you’re going to tell me, is it?” 

“No. It’s not really all that riveting, regardless.” 

To me, it sounded like Greed knew the story behind the construction of Babylon, way back when it had been built. Still, Greed was a weapon. He couldn’t move himself. That meant he must have had a wielder at the time, and he had witnessed the events leading to the birth of the city alongside them. Actually, if Greed had a past with Babylon, that meant his wielder had had some reason to stay here. 

The thought filled me with curiosity. I’d wondered about Greed’s previous wielders during our travels together. Such a greedy weapon would be useless, even dangerous, to anyone who didn’t bear a Skill of Mortal Sin like my Gluttony. I knew this all too well. Greed constantly sucked away my stats, all of them, down to my paltry last three digits. No one with regular skills could ever handle a weapon possessed of such avarice. Even a holy knight would quickly find their six-figure stats running completely dry. 

Did that mean Greed’s past wielder had also been a bearer of Gluttony? 

“Hey, Greed,” I said. “There was another, wasn’t there? Someone who wielded you in the past.” 

“Whence the sudden curiosity?” 

“Come on. You can at least tell me that much, right?” 

After a short silence, Greed spoke again. This question, he didn’t avoid. “Yes. There was another.” 

“What happened to them?” 

“They died,” the black sword said finally. “They put me down and died. Just like them too, doing something stupid like that.” 

That made sense. If that person were still alive, I never would have found the black sword in a barrel of scrap. 

I listened as Greed went on. “I never thought I’d encounter such a match again. It strains belief, to think I’d see it a second time.” 

“You mean my Gluttony?” 

“Indeed. Anyway, enough wallowing in the past, already. Let’s head inside.” 

The black sword dropped back into his customary silence. I got the sense that Greed was still reluctant to delve deep into his history with me. 

I looked around, searching for the main gates of Babylon. As gates were the weak point of a walled city’s defenses, they most likely faced north, away from the Galian border. The last thing any city wanted was a large-scale monster stampede like the ones called death parades flooding in through the front door. I followed the towering walls around and, just as I expected, found the main gates facing north. 

The gates of Babylon towered, as massive as the rest of the walls. They were clearly designed for huge armies to pass through quickly and easily. When I arrived, the gates hung open for the evening, and the entrance roiled with activity. Caravans trundled along carrying armed adventurers, merchants and their goods, and women in eye-catching clothing. All the transports belonged to the military, their ownership made evident by the kingdom’s seal stamped on crates and vehicles alike. 

The military caravans carried supplies as well as passengers. No small number of people went looking to make it big in Galia. I saw a mixture of desperation, excitement, and hope in the eyes of the individuals bustling to and fro. Now that I aimed to make a life here, I was just another one in an opportunistic crowd. I’d be vying for every copper. 

I was about to head directly through the gates when I heard a distant, rumbling din—the sound of a vast number of horses approaching, easily more than a few hundred. When I turned to look at the road stretching north, I realized why. 

A grand army of the Kingdom of Seifort approached the gates of Babylon. They carried the crest of the white rose, the Hart family’s crest. The myriad merchants and adventurers cleared a path for the arriving troops, led by the new governor of Babylon. 

Behind the cover of my skull mask, I narrowed my eyes, searching. Where is she? Where is she?! 

The troops filed through the gates, soldier after soldier, but other than the crest, I detected no sign of Lady Roxy Hart. I tried to stay calm, pushing down my need to see her again. Yet desperation built in me. I gripped the hilt of the black sword hanging from my side. 

Greed chided me through my Telepathy. “No need to be so hasty. Calm down.” 

“Shut up.” Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t calm down. Lady Roxy was so close! 

“Ah, I feel her presence. She’s here. Look farther down the procession.” 

“Farther down…ah!” 

The shock of recognition squeezed my voice into a sudden, childish squeal. It was just as Greed said, farther down the line rode an elegant girl on a white horse. She wore light armor trimmed in white, and her long blonde hair floated on the breeze as she waved gently to the people gathered to welcome their new governor. 

Lady Roxy looked even more valiant than I remembered. Even the air around her was different. She held herself with a renewed sense of confidence. She was more self-assured than when we’d been together in Seifort. 

I wondered whether, like with me, something had happened to her on the way to Babylon—something that had brought out more of the holy knight within her. However, as these thoughts ran through my head, Lady Roxy seemed once again distant, far beyond my reach. 

This mere glimpse of her took me completely aback. 

“You’re not going to wave back to her?” Greed said with an audible grin. 

“Don’t be stupid,” I muttered. 

Lady Roxy rode by us. For the briefest instant, her eyes glanced in my direction. Just as quickly, her gaze returned to the road ahead. She rode on with her army. I worried that she might have spotted me, but really, she couldn’t have. The skull mask covering my face magically disguised my identity from everyone I met. So long as I wore it, nobody, not even Lady Roxy, could recognize me as Fate Graphite—as it needed to be. 

If she had spotted me, who knew what could have happened? 

As I watched, Lady Roxy passed through the main gate without looking back. This distance between us would remain. We could not be together, as we once had been in the capital of Seifort. We walked our paths apart. 

The lengthy line of troops continued into Babylon long after Lady Roxy faded from view. I could tell at a glance that her army was composed of capable soldiers and adventurers. They held themselves with the pride of experience. It looked like the well-respected name of the Hart family had attracted warriors strong in skill and fighting spirit. 

Night fell before the last of the army concluded their entry through the gates of Babylon. I looked up at the dimming sky and found it filled with stars. I didn’t regret the wait. It gladdened me to see Lady Roxy had weathered her journey well. 

Well, now that I’d arrived in Babylon, my first task was to find a place to stay. I wasn’t sure where to start. All I knew as I entered the city was that I wanted somewhere with good food and affordable rooms. 

That night, the sentinel city of Babylon became my home.