The Path I Must Take (3)

Dawn broke. I looked up at the sky and wiped Ebenholz's longsword. The flat, the edge, the hilt—all of it was worn, yet it was strangely sharp. The material, too, was of a depth I could not comprehend.

It was a fine sword, not only capable of raising a swordsman's abilities by two or three levels, but also one whose blade was especially effective against ‘Anomalies’.

The sword Akard had wielded against this one had also been a fine sword.
Whether Akard survived in McKen or not, I didn't know. But that was no longer my concern. Now, he would have to prove his talent through survival.

“…”

I gazed at the encroaching sunlight. The dark mountain range was now bathed in a bright glow.

“Sir Maximilian, may I ask for a situation report?”

Jeckard returned with his private soldiers. I spoke to him.

“The bodies of the pursuit party, including Hans, have been discovered. It's unclear if they ever located Akard, but it seems they were all taken down by the Anomalies of McKen.”
“Was Akard’s body, by any chance, confirmed?”

He seemed to have no interest in the death of his own brother, Hans.

“No. But-”

“It must be confirmed.”

Jeckard frowned, even cutting me off.
I looked at him. My gaze turned cold.

“…Mr. Jeckard.”

I took a step closer, saying his name.

“Akard Cailus is merely a boy. A young child from the West who has not even been knighted.”

I placed a hand on his disheveled collar. Jeckard flinched.

“It’s impossible for such a child to survive in this McKen, and even if by some one-in-a-million chance he does…”

I straightened his dust-stained attire from his hasty rush, a faint smile on my lips.

“It wouldn’t do for a man with a promising future like yours to be frightened by a mere child, would it?”

You are a nobleman of the Empire. A villain who slit his own brother’s throat and took everything. So stop being a nuisance and handle one little boy yourself.
You goddamn fool.

“Yes… you are right.”

Jeckard gave a servile smile. He didn’t grumble further. Instead, he offered me a box containing some treasure, calling it a gift.

“Give it to the soldiers who worked so hard, not me.”

Rejecting it, I left McKen.


A small river reached after crossing the McKen mountain range. The boy gazed at the border of the Western Kingdom, faintly visible across the river and beyond the mist.
Hwoooosh-
A cold wind rustled the tatters of his robe. The gentle sunlight illuminated his tears.

“…”

Akard had survived.
It was certainly something to rejoice over.
His own life to live in this world—it was the most precious achievement he had ever earned.

“…Father.”

He had finally kept his promise. The one promise he had made with his entire family.
The person to whom he could boast of this achievement was gone, the person who would warmly stroke his head and praise him was gone…

“I survived.”

The boy fell to his knees. He clutched at the damp mountain earth, crying out in a choked voice. The last image of his family, his own burning nature, his powerlessness—it all rushed in at once, tearing at his heart.

‘Hone it.’

Then, a voice still echoed clearly in his ear.
The Knight of Ebenholz. He was the one who had executed his family. But at the same time, he was the benefactor who had saved him from death.
The man who killed my family saved me.
Akard felt a strange confusion.
At the same time, he recalled the knight’s back as he departed.

‘So that one day, you can reclaim what you have lost.’

A knight is one who carries out the will of the Empire, and this purge had been a scheme originating from Jeckard. And yet, the knight had not killed him, a blood relative of the Cailus family.
Instead, he had given him a priceless lesson.
What was the reason? Was it a simple whim, or was it, too, part of some deception?
Akard still did not know.

“What was lost…”

But one thing was certain: he had a path he must take.
On that contradictory knight’s back, lay the path.
There were things he had to go back and reclaim.
The tears streaking down his cheeks were no longer just from sorrow.


After the Decapitation Operation, the military command tallied the merits. The word ‘tally’ was rather laughable, but for a soldier or a knight, it was a crucial process. Some would risk their lives for it, while others would hold grudges and seek revenge.
Today, however, at least for this operation, there would be no objections.

“Congratulations, Sir Maximilian.”

In the grand conference hall of the Imperial Army Command, upon a stage covered in a red carpet, I was awarded a medal.
However, since the true nature of this operation was not ‘suppressing treason’ but a ‘purge,’ there would be no grand publicity or press releases.

“If you receive one more 3rd Class medal, you’ll have a 2nd Class Golden Lion Medal. That’s very fast for your age.”
“Thank you.”

The Empire's medal system was as intuitive as it was strict.
Receiving three 3rd Class Golden Lion Medals elevated one to 2nd Class. Accumulating enough merit to receive that 2nd Class medal about nine times would earn you the 1st Class.
Its name, too, was glorious: the [Imperial Hero's Golden Lion Medal].

“Congratulations, Sir Maximilian.”

As I descended from the stage, officers approached to shake my hand. I saw no reason to refuse their goodwill.

Click.

As the ceremonial photos were being taken again, I surveyed the figures filling the space.

Click.

Suddenly, I recalled what Edmon had said about the Emperor's closest aide, ‘Argentes.’

Click.

A madman who, born with the most perfect legitimacy in the Empire's history, deludes himself into thinking he is a god. He is surely monitoring this entire system. The eyes watching me must exist somewhere, even at this very moment.

“Sir Maximilian.”

Just then, a uniformed soldier approached. A bald man in his sixties, a brigadier general with a single star. It was Deputy Chief of Staff Jens, Han Soryeong’s former superior.

“I received the gift well.”

I understood his meaning at once.
Even if he looked like a mere greedy man, a general possessed his own kind of competence. To have grown old in the military meant one had survived, and to have survived meant one was strong in a different sense.
A young officer like Han Soryeong—no, a man as upright as him—could never reach that stage.

“It seems Major Han has moved to a new place.”

I retraced my memories of the man named Jens. He was a rather famous political operator. He was passive in all of the military command’s endeavors and was a fox-like man who always left himself an escape route. Thanks to this, he survived even after the revolutionary army gained power and maintained his wealth.
Could he become my ally?
Could I trust this man?
However, he was one of the essential figures for Han Soryeong to climb the ranks of the Central Command. Furthermore, he was as skilled in navigating the world as he was in politics. And being skilled in navigating the world meant knowing when to retreat.

“Brigadier General Jens. I look forward to your continued guidance.”

Mutual trust was unnecessary. This was merely a transaction.
Jens would pretend not to know about my relationship with Han Soryeong and help, and once Han Soryeong was on the right track, he would gladly step aside. I wanted that as well.
The gifts I would pay him in the future would be nothing more than ‘tuition fees.’

“Yes. Of course. You can count on me. Hahahaha.”

A man who knew how to humble himself endlessly, the bald fox Jens.
I smiled faintly and shook his hand…


「Imperial Army Supreme Commander’s Office」

After the merit tally was over, I looked at the nameplate on the deepest door of the command headquarters. As a knight who participated in the Decapitation Operation, I now had to report directly to the Supreme Commander.

“…Hoo.”

My heart pounded.
This didn't mean my father was Izenheim.
Even now, at this stage, the man named Jefestian still made me tense.

“I’m entering.”

I opened the door.
Beyond it, through a gap in the open window where the sunlight streamed in, was Jefestian.
A towering man well over two meters tall. A body perfectly sculpted even beneath his thick military uniform. A meticulously groomed beard befitting a nobleman, and hair slicked back without a single strand out of place.
I approached him.
Come to think of it, this was the first time since my regression that I had faced him at such a close distance.

“…”

Jefestian looked my way. He said nothing. Even so, the dignity he exuded was overwhelming. This was why even the most renowned generals of the military command would shrink before him.

I gave him a bow. But my report was not first. Jefestian paid me no mind.
First, the military officers handed documents to Jefestian.
Jefestian read through the contents. Other than that, there was no sound. A heavy silence dominated the entire space. An absolute hierarchy and order pressed down on the room’s interior.
The already small-statured officers seemed to shrink even more as time passed. They crumpled and crumpled until no one but Jefestian could be seen.

The Supreme Commander scrawled his signature on the last page of the document.

“Loyalty!”

The officers fled the commander’s office as if escaping the moment they received his approval.
But I remained.
As a knight and a monitor who had participated in the Decapitation Operation, it was principle to deliver the final report verbally.

“We have secured the heads of four direct-line members, including the family head who planned the treason, Yusef von Cailus, and have annihilated all resisting branch family members and private soldiers. However, the body of one individual from the direct line, the youngest son, was not discovered at the scene.”

“You let him get away?”

“It is not yet certain.”

“I’m asking for your thoughts.”

“If he is ultimately not found, it means he chose to climb McKen, and if he chose to climb McKen, he will either live or die depending on his own abilities.”

Jefestian looked at me.

“Knight Maximilian.”

I met Jefestian’s gaze. I did not avoid the eyes of the monster who had never been like a father, and who still wasn't.
Suddenly, his face from before my regression overlapped with the present. The words he had said to me, who had accomplished nothing of merit, were:

‘But, why did you go there?’

“It was a mission I had to complete as a knight. Nothing more, nothing less.”

That future had changed. It wasn't contempt or scorn, but it wasn't praise either. It was simply a statement that I had done what I was supposed to do.
A dry, flavorless conversation, impossible to see as one between a father and son.
But even a moment like this was a first for me.

“Yes.”

I saluted with the decorum of a knight and exited.

Thud, thud.

I walked down the long corridor in front of the Supreme Commander's office.

Thud, thud.

Suddenly, I could no longer bear it and slumped down on an empty landing. I raised a hand and covered my face.

“…Ha.”

An emotion surged up from within my heart.
Zzzing, zzzing.
A tingling sensation shot from the tips of my toes to the crown of my head.
It was a strange feeling, one I had never felt in my entire life.
Perhaps it was joy.
Simply by having changed that one remark of his, I was feeling this strange ecstasy. An uncontrollable laugh burst out like I was choking.
How ironic.
The person who had made me genuinely laugh for the first time since returning to this dog-eat-dog world was Jefestian, the one I had feared so much.
It was you, the one I had hated so much.

And so, I am still bound to you.

Edit

Pub: 15 Oct 2025 20:45 UTC

Edit: 16 Oct 2025 05:34 UTC

Views: 8