Chapter Prologue

Prologue: Challenge

It had been roughly ten years ago .

It was on an afternoon deep in the middle of winter enshrouded by clouds as if it was about to begin snowing at any moment .

That day, Joe Lamberck, who had been returning to the capital, Zawoll, after easily beating back the savage tribe that had invaded, felt a penetratingly cold bloodlust and turned to look at the other side of the highway .

There, he saw a single boy off the side of the road .

He was covered head to toe in black, and even his hair and eyes were black as well . His arms and legs were lean, and he looked like he hadn’t had a proper meal in months no matter how you looked at him . If you only looked at the state of his body, he looked like a simple penniless boy .

However——his eyes completely overturned the above impression .

His boyishly clear black eyes, which were not due to his innocence, were filled by a bottomless void . He had the eyes of someone who had unfortunately seen and experienced something that most of his peers would never see in their entire lives .

The boy’s almond-shaped black eyes changed vividly the moment they met Joe’s .

His gaze was as sharp as a whetted blade and was brimming with such force that even Joe, with his long military history, corrected his posture before them .

Right after the boy’s eyes met Joe’s, his nihilistic eyes were dyed the color of great delight, as if he had finally found a house after wandering the wastelands or his first cup of water in a desert .

He had clearly been waiting for Joe .

Joe knew this because, at the same time, he felt an enormous pressure like that of a large cataract bursting . The black-garbed boy lightly spread his knees, drew his right leg back a little, and placed a hand on the frozen hilt of the sword on his waist .

He was positioned to draw his sword at any moment .

With the exception of Joe, the rest of the army paid no heed to the boy . From an outsider’s perspective, the boy simply looked like he was spectating the march, and even it he wasn’t, no one thought that he would pick a fight with the grand general of Chandrys all on his own .

Only Joe, out of the entire army, accurately saw through the boy’s intentions . He had come to challenge Joe Lamberck .

——All by himself .

“Now come . Draw your sword and fight me! Prove to me how strong you are, and if you’re really as strong as people say!”

It hadn’t been just his imagination .

Even now, he felt the boy’s firm will through his keen fighting spirit and enormous pressure . Joe heightened his ‘Ki (Ekseed)’ born from the warrior instincts that he had engraved into his body and opposed the boy’s surge of power .

Without looking away from him, Joe urged his horse forward and drew close .

Just before getting too close, he stopped his beloved horse by lightly kicking it in the stomach .

They wordlessly glared at each other up close .

Invisible powers clashed and fought with each other . The boy’s fighting spirit did not decline in the slightest even after he learned how gigantic Joe’s was .

Joe even felt as if the invisible aura known as ‘fighting spirit’ was rising up from the boy’s slender figure .

Just as he had understood from the beginning, the boy was clearly picking a fight with him . Though he had no idea why .

However, Joe was honestly surprised .

What is this surge of strength that I’m feeling right now? This fighting spirit that’s suppressing my entire body? How long has it been since this boy first grasped a sword? Five years, or eight years? No matter how much I look at him, he doesn’t look any older than fifteen, so it must be ten years at most . No, even if it had been ten years……is it possible for a normal human to gain so much strength in such a short period of time?

——Natural talent .

That was what Joe felt from the boy before his eyes .

If they fought now, he would probably win . No matter how strong the boy was now, he wasn’t strong enough to rival him .

But, if he were to nurture this rare talent of his from now on……would I be able to beat this boy if we should fight again several years later in the future?

Right then, likely for the first time, Joe Lamberck predicted his own defeat . This was the first and last time he stood before an enemy and thought, ‘I might lose . ’

Even if it was something about the future .

Joe’s ponderings caused his ‘power’ to weaken . The contest between him and the boy collapsed .

Then, the boy, whose eyes had been blazing until then, abruptly lowered his eyes . His violent fighting spirit vanished without a trace . The boy’s shoulders slumped in disappointment as he turned his back toward Joe without any lingering attachments .

——He took that as a sign of my cowardice,

Joe immediately realized as something suddenly welled up in his heart . However, he suppressed it and called out after the boy’s back as he walked away .

“Wait! You haven’t told me your name yet . ”

The boy stopped for a moment .

“——Rain . But there’s no need for you to remember . I won’t appear before you again,”

he responded soberly before aimlessly wandering off to somewhere .

‘No, I don’t think so,’

Joe thought as he watched the boy……Rain grow farther away .

What had sprouted in his heart was not something as ambiguous as a prediction, but was solid conviction .

For some reason, that boy was trying to raise his abilities to the ultimate peak .

That was why——

Should you walk a life colored with battles from now on, I am sure that we will meet again……