Buena Village, Asura Kingdom.
At the home of the Greyrats, the village's resident knight.
A deathly atmosphere hung over the house.
Standing before everyone was the Sword King, Ghislaine.
The cat-eared swordswoman, usually so imposing, now stood with her head lowered, her face filled with guilt and self-reproach.
She did not dare look Paul's family in the eye.
The scene shifted.
The story had to go back a short while, to the day they encountered the Dragon God in the Red Dragon Mountains.
Heavy snow had fallen, covering her in layer after layer.
After an unknown amount of time, Ghislaine finally regained consciousness.
By then.
It was almost dark.
But the moment Ghislaine woke up, she began frantically searching the area for Luo Ge.
Yet aside from a broken sword and an arm where they had been, all she found were frozen bloodstains covering the ground.
Beyond that, she found nothing.
But it was not hard to imagine how brutal a battle Luo Ge had fought after she passed out.
Luo Ge was nowhere to be found.
But judging by the traces left at the scene, he had most likely met a terrible end.
Filled with self-reproach, Ghislaine could only take the sole remnants Luo Ge had left behind-a broken sword and half an arm-and return to Buena Village alone.
She told Paul's family of Luo Ge's death.
"Luo... Luo Ge is dead?!"
At first, the family could not believe it, but after seeing the remaining half of an arm, which looked unmistakably as though someone had hacked it off.
After confirming that it was Luo Ge's arm.
His mother, Zenith, nearly fainted on the spot.
Paul, the head of the family, instantly looked utterly stricken. Even Rudeus in the corner was badly shaken, covering his mouth in disbelief.
He simply could not believe it... his younger brother, with whom he had grown up practically sharing the same pair of pants, was just gone?
The news of his death had come far too suddenly.
"Ghislaine, aren't you a Sword King? How could..." Paul asked, his voice trembling.
"On the road... we encountered an enemy we couldn't defeat."
Ghislaine spoke guiltily.
"Who?"
"Who the hell killed Luo Ge? I'll slaughter him!" Paul suddenly grew agitated, rushing up to Ghislaine with his teeth clenched.
"The person who killed Luo Ge."
"Was the Dragon God, Orsted..."
Those words from Ghislaine left Paul frozen on the spot.
The Dragon God?
Was this some kind of joke?!
Wasn't he a legendary powerhouse among the Seven Great Powers, and ranked second at that?
His son had actually fought one of the Seven Great Powers?
"What kind of joke is this? Even jokes have limits, don't they? Tell me... this is a prank you and Luo Ge are playing..."
As he spoke, Paul found himself unable to continue, his voice choked with sobs.
"This is what happened. Luo Ge and I were in the Red Dragon Mountains..."
Ghislaine told everyone the whole story. Though they were bewildered by what they heard, they still could not work out why the conflict had erupted.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Because Luo Ge was dead, dead in the Red Dragon Mountains, dead at the Dragon God's hands.
With mixed feelings, Rudeus offered some comfort. "Father, Mother, please don't be sad."
"The dead cannot return to life. Please accept my condolences."
Paul's gloomy expression instantly gave way to fury.
"What are you saying?"
"Urgh! He was your brother, your own flesh and blood! One of your dearest family members is dead, and you can still say something like that so calmly!"
Paul slammed the table hard, startling everyone. He was so agitated that he looked ready to hit someone at any moment.
Rudeus and Luo Ge.
Although Paul loved both his sons.
Everyone had their own selfish inclinations, and a father was bound to have a favorite. No matter how impartial he tried to be, he could not treat them exactly alike.
Compared with Rudeus, deep down in Paul's heart.
He had invested more feeling and effort in Luo Ge, always regarding him as the one who would carry on his legacy.
He had even placed great hopes in him...
This favoritism was not without reason. After all, Luo Ge practiced swordsmanship every day, and over time, Paul had ended up spending most of his time with him.
For this family.
Paul suffered the greatest blow, followed by Zenith, and only then Rudeus and Lilia.
The moment Paul heard of Luo Ge's death, his heart had nearly shattered.
To him, his younger son was so outstanding. How could his life possibly be cut short?
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
But the moment Ghislaine brought back half an arm and that broken half of a sword and told him the truth, the last shred of hope in Paul's heart finally vanished.
Did he regret it?
Of course he did...
If he were given another chance, he would have beaten Luo Ge that day, even if he had to put his own life on the line.
Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret in this world.
His son... his second son, Luo Ge, had left this world forever.
He would never return.
Stripped of the dazzling brilliance of a swordsmanship prodigy, Luo Ge was only five years old.
At that age, he should have been growing up under his parents' loving care, enjoying a carefree childhood and the happiness of being with his family.
Yet he... what had he done, letting him travel all alone?
Still, after shouting at Rudeus, Paul soon realized his mistake. He should not have taken his anger out on someone else.
Paul's face filled with guilt.
"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said that just now!"
"It's all right. I know Luo Ge's death has made you and everyone else very sad, Father."
Although Rudeus could not bring himself to sob his heart out, he did feel some of the sorrow of seeing one of his own fall.
After all, he had lost his younger brother forever.
"Father, Mother."
"What if... I mean, what if Luo Ge is only missing? Didn't Ghislaine say she didn't find his body after she woke up? What if."
"He's still alive?"
Rudeus's words reminded Paul and Zenith of that possibility, making them both freeze.
But before they could give it any further thought.
Ghislaine spoke from beside them with absolute certainty. "First of all, that's impossible..."
"His opponent was the Dragon God, one of the Seven Great Powers. The chances of surviving against him are practically zero."
"That's true."
The hope Paul and Zenith had barely managed to kindle was instantly doused by Ghislaine's brutally realistic words.
Paul stared blankly.
Zenith held her head and wept.
Rudeus was filled with mixed feelings.
Lilia lowered her head without a word.
Calling him missing was really just a way to comfort themselves. Everyone here knew that missing most likely meant dead.
Paul and Zenith had been S-rank adventurers in Black Wolf's Fang when they were young. Missing... of course they understood that self-deceiving consolation better than anyone.
Anyone who went missing had essentially died in some unknown corner.
Should they avenge Luo Ge?
But their opponent was the Dragon God. Their family had no hope of winning.
"Damn it... I'm such a useless father."
"If I'd been stronger, could I have stopped Luo Ge from leaving home?"
Paul broke down and punched the ground, venting emotions that had nowhere to go. He could only drown his sorrows in drink and numb himself with alcohol.
Ghislaine left afterward as well.
No one there truly blamed her. After all, the enemy had been the Dragon God, ranked second among the Seven Great Powers.
Almost no one could truly stand against such a legendary figure.
Meanwhile.
Luo Ge was still in the Demon Dragon King's laboratory.
Every day, he studied its techniques, forgetting to eat or sleep.
He no longer even knew how much time had passed outside, much less that his family had already heard of his death from Ghislaine.
Incidentally.
He had searched this place several times but never found the Battle God Armor the Demon Dragon King had created, only some design drawings related to it.
By rights, this place should originally have held the Battle God Armor the Demon Dragon King had specifically developed, his trump card for dealing with Hitogami.
The Demon Dragon King had successfully created it and stored it here.
But unfortunately...
He had not found the Battle God Armor here.
Still... come to think of it, if he put on the third-ranked Fighting God Armor.
Could he really defeat the second-ranked Dragon God?
Luo Ge had his doubts, too.
And so he soon put aside the idea of continuing to search for the Battle God Armor and relying on something external.
He began spending more time studying the precious techniques Demon Dragon King Laplace had left here.
As Luo Ge continued to grow.
In the outside world, day followed day, and year followed year.
Time flew, and the years slipped by...
Alone in the little room, where there was no concept of time, Luo Ge's life had begun to fall completely out of step with the outside world.
Living here, even he did not know how much time had passed.
There was a great deal of knowledge here.
If he relied on himself alone, who knew how many years it would take to finish reading it all? So he only picked out subjects that interested him and could offer him meaningful improvement.
Before he knew it...
He had grown considerably taller and bigger, shedding his childish appearance and beginning to look handsome.
Of course, more importantly...
He had naturally grown stronger as well.
Both his swordsmanship and magic had improved by leaps and bounds. He felt he could take on ten of his former selves combined.
That improvement... even gave Luo Ge the illusion that he could defeat the Dragon God.
Of course, it was certainly an illusion.
After all, that guy was no different from a monster.
"There's not much food left. Next... there really isn't much point in staying here anymore." Another six months later, Luo Ge suddenly rose from the floor.
As for how to leave this place...
Over these past few years, Luo Ge.
Had long since found it.
There was only one way.
And that was to leave through the teleportation magic here.
However, there were three teleportation circles in total. The leftmost one was a one-way magic circle, the very one he had accidentally triggered when he fell into the Red Dragon Mountains and was teleported here.
Simply put, this sort of one-way teleportation circle only allowed entry, not exit.
The rightmost one was a two-way magic circle, allowing both entry and exit.
As for the magic circle in the middle, for some unknown reason... it had been severely damaged.
Luo Ge had also tried repairing it according to the books, but unfortunately, he had failed.
There appeared to be three choices.
But in truth, from beginning to end, there had only ever been one choice before him.
To choose the two-way teleportation circle on the far right.
The two-way magic circle!
It allowed passage both in and out, but no one knew where he would be teleported after entering.
Perhaps the sea...
Perhaps a volcano...
Perhaps a vast, uninhabited desert.
In short, it could be any corner of the world.
Normally, a teleportation magic circle would send people somewhere safe, but there was also the possibility that the laboratory's owner had set two of the three magic circles as traps to mislead enemies.
Even if they weren't traps.
They were so ancient that a malfunction couldn't be ruled out either... if he were randomly teleported into the sea.
If that happened.
He simply didn't dare think any further.
At that moment, Luo Ge faced a dilemma.
Either keep lying low or take a gamble.
If he continued lying low here in seclusion, he could still hold out for a while, but the food would run out someday.
When that happened, there would be no way out.
He could only starve to death.
But once he activated that two-way teleportation magic circle and left, what Luo Ge faced next... would be a completely unknown outcome.
Still, rather than slowly dying here.
He might as well...
With that, he decided to take a gamble.
The last time he jumped off a cliff, he had gambled and won his life. This time, he would go all in... stake everything.
Oh, right.
Before leaving.
Luo Ge hadn't forgotten to pack up all the most important things in the laboratory and take them with him, helping himself to both the food and the goods.
After all, if he left and couldn't return, and these precious technologies were lost... that would truly be a shame.
At first...
Although he had wanted to empty out the entire laboratory, he considered the fact that he was only one person.
Hauling too much stuff would not only be inconvenient, but would also hamper him in combat if he encountered enemies.
So he abandoned that greedy idea.
He mainly picked out a few things that offered good value.
Of the things he took, what Luo Ge valued most was...
Those design drawings for the Fighting God Armor, several large stacks of them. Well... even a top student like him couldn't understand a thing.
But if he gave them to professionals to study in the future, perhaps he could someday get himself some Battle God Armor to take on the Dragon God.
Before long.
Once Luo Ge checked that he had everything in order, he channeled mana into the two-way teleportation magic circle.
Whoosh!
The previously dim magic circle instantly lit up with blue light.
"It... it worked!"
Overjoyed, Luo Ge took a deep breath and strode into the center of the magic circle.
Pale blue light rose up, swallowing his figure completely-
Yet when he opened his eyes again, the sight before him immediately left Luo Ge dumbfounded.
Huh?!!
What was going on?
He was actually still standing in the same spot? What the hell?