—"You would always be the one I remembered."
Clang! The Emperor's dark axe blade stopped before Redenia.
"Arrogant, heartless, unscrupulous, yet strictly faithful to your own bottom line."
Sparks flew and shockwaves surged. Emperor Anpolo could not help narrowing his eyes as a long-forgotten trace of... pain came from the web of his hand. That unfamiliar pain restored all his reason in an instant.
He examined the object blocking his axe—the gray, ancient-looking longsword had nothing remarkable about its design.
Yet it stood there, as enduring and impossible to breach as the snow upon the Kamchatka Peninsula.
—"You were neither perfect nor mature. Sometimes you threw tantrums and got emotional, sometimes you became childish and pitiful."
Buzz! Perhaps under Anpolo's gaze, the blade suddenly gave a clear hum. Then, like a line of toppled dominoes, brilliant azure light flared from its tip. The dim blade revealed its edge, while pale golden runes bloomed one after another across its body.
Anpolo recognized them as ancient Haynes script. At that very moment, terrifying memories carved into the depths of ancient bloodlines and endless years were awakened.
—"But wasn't that what most mortals were like?"
Its meaning was:
'The world is cold and cruel, therefore I stand here.'
Anpolo slowly raised his head.
Li Aoz, clad in knightly armor, stood with his hands behind his back. Holding the Star Sword in his left hand, he stood between the Emperor and Redenia.
"You..."
Anpolo had never seen this young knight before. Even through the helmet, he could not sense the slightest warrior's presence from him.
No matter how he looked at him, the other man seemed like nothing more than a farmer tilling fields, or a pure Earthling blacksmith.
Ordinary. Unremarkable. The kind who vanished into a crowd and could never be found again.