Spring of the year 417 in the Kakyong calendar.
The wind blew in from the sea, carrying a heavy, salty smell, and crashed against the cliff face, breaking into a cloud of white foam.
Luo Ge stood on the edge of the cliff, the cold wind blowing a few strands of hair from his forehead back, revealing his face, which had lost its childishness.
More than half a year has passed, and his facial features are more distinct than last year. His jawline is clear and sharp, and the roundness of his brows and eyes has faded, replaced by a heroic spirit that is somewhere between a boy and a young man.
The sunlight in the sea breeze cast a pale golden hue on his profile, and from a distance, he certainly already possessed the air of a " Sword King."
Of course, that is, if you ignore the dark, unidentified object in his hand.
Luo Ge looked down at the thing he had just made... let's call it a "cake" for now.
His expression twitched subtly.
The raw materials in this world are so scarce that it's appalling; there's no butter, no icing, and not even a decent mold to be found.
He pieced together a round object from memory; its surface was pitted and uneven, and its color was a dark green, making it look like a pile of dung.
"Fine... I made it myself, so I'll have to finish it even if it hurts. Wasting food is shameful."
He took the first bite.
Then there was a full two and a half minutes of silence.
"... Let Gino and the others do it for us next time."
He sat on the edge of a cliff by the sea.
Facing the wind, she devoured the "cake" bite by bite, her face calm as still water, but inwardly she had already thought through all the sad things in her life.
After finishing his meal, he patted the crumbs off his hands and turned his gaze to the vast, endless sea in the distance.
The tide rises and falls, falls and rises again.
Day after day, year after year.
"Time flies," he murmured to himself. "Ten years have passed in this strange world."
Ten years ago today, he was just a baby who had just transmigrated, nestled in Zenith's arms, listening to Paul clumsily learning how to change diapers.
Those memories had become somewhat blurred, but on this day, those images become clear again.
Paul's hearty laughter as he lifted him high in the air, Zenith's gentle touch as she patted his back while humming a lullaby, and the flickering firelight in the fireplace of the cottage in Buena Village.
If I were still at home, I'm sure I would have received the same smiling birthday wishes from Paul and Zenith for my tenth birthday this year, just like I did for my fifth.
And there's his most respected teacher, Ms. Roxy.
Unfortunately, he is now alone in the Sword Sanctum.
There were no ceremonies, no celebrations, just an appallingly bad cake and a completely empty cliff.
However, Luo Ge quickly shook his head, pulling those wandering thoughts back.
He was never one to dwell on the past.
Over the past decade, he spent the first and most peaceful five years of his life in Buena Village, then endured two and a half years of darkness in the depths of the Dragon God Hole Labyrinth in the Red Dragon Mountains, in the laboratory of the Demon Dragon King Laplace, and then went to the Sword Sanctum, where he stayed for more than two years.
She's ten years old.
He stood up and brushed the bits of grass off his trousers.
It's time to go back and take a look.
Paul, Zenith —although Rudeus, that sleazy otaku, gave him a bit of a headache, those people were truly his family in this world.
He loved them; at least Paul and Zenith gave him a complete family when he was very young, and he would never forget that kindness.
Moreover, with his current strength, he should have the confidence to go back and face those potential dangers.
The Sword God Style, Water God Style, and North God Style —all three major styles—have reached the pinnacle of the King Rank.
While its total magical power may not be comparable to that of the former Demon God Laplace, it is still an existence that far surpasses others in the entire human world.
If I go all out, even if I encounter an existence of the Dragon God's level again...
Luo Ge thought for a moment, then honestly gave himself the answer: He couldn't win. But at least—he should be able to escape, right?
They can't possibly be instantly killed.
He took a deep breath and felt that the answer was barely acceptable.
The longing to return home grew stronger in his heart. He planned to say a formal goodbye to Gal in a few days and then set off back to Buena Village.
It's been so long since I've seen them; I wonder how my family is doing now.
As Luo Ge thought about this, a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips.
He turned to walk towards the dojo, but in that instant, he caught something out of the corner of his eye, and his steps faltered.
He abruptly turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the endless sea of trees below the cliff and down to the southern horizon.
Above the sky, tinged pale blue by the afternoon sun, in the territory of the Asura Kingdom, there was a tiny black dot.
Very small.
So small that if you don't look closely, you might almost think it's an optical illusion.
But Luo Ge couldn't be wrong. His ability to Transparent World gave him a level of perception far beyond that of ordinary people; his ability to capture details was almost instinctive.
The black spot had been there for a long time, when it was only the size of a sesame seed, but in just half a month, it had swelled to the size of a broad bean.
Even more bizarrely...
It continues to grow, and at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"It has expanded rapidly again..."
Luo Ge frowned and stared in that direction for a long while.
Everything around was calm and peaceful, without any unusual signs. The southern sky remained azure, and the clouds drifted by as usual.
But the little black ball just hung there quietly, like a gradually expanding ink dot poked into the sky.
Luo Ge's heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason, and an inexplicable premonition welled up inside him.
His keen intuition, a gifted by his understanding of the Transparent World, has never been wrong in his perception of danger.
The black ball gave him a strange feeling—not of direct danger, but of a deeper, more distant, premonition of some kind of "crack".
But he couldn't quite explain what it was.
Three more days passed.
Every morning and evening without fail, Luo Ge would stand on the cliff to observe the black ball.
On the evening of the fourth day, when he looked up as usual, he suddenly stood up from the ground.
The black ball disappeared.
The black sphere, which had been growing larger over the past six months and had recently expanded to the size of a fist, suddenly vanished.
The southern sky was spotless, leaving nothing behind, not even a trace, as if it had never existed.
"How could they suddenly disappear...?"
Luo Ge's suspicions grew stronger. This was too unusual.
It appeared out of thin air, expanded continuously, and then suddenly disappeared—none of this conforms to any known laws of nature.
If it hasn't disappeared...
A thought suddenly flashed through Luo Ge's mind.
Could it be... that it exploded?
He felt a chill run down his spine at the thought, staring at the sky for a long time, but still couldn't find anything unusual.
In the end, he could only suppress his doubts for the time being, thinking that he would set off back in a few days and observe the situation along the way.
However, before he could even set off, an unexpected event struck him first.
That evening.
Just as Luo Ge finished his last set of sword practice in the dojo and sheathed his Elegant Dragon Sword, a series of rapid flapping sounds suddenly came from outside the courtyard wall.
A tiny red creature, about the size of a palm, darted across the wall like an arrow, snapped its teeth at the hem of his clothes, and pulled him back with all its might.
" Little Red?"
Luo Ge looked down and saw it was the young red dragon he had adopted in the Red Dragon Mountains, which Luo Ge had named Little Red.
More than a year has passed, Little Red has grown much larger than before, from the size of a palm to about the size of a hunting dog.
Its scales gleamed with a dark red sheen, and its two wings flapped frantically in the air as it anxiously circled around his feet.
"What's wrong?"
Luo Ge crouched down.
Little Red nudged his palm with her head, making rapid "whimpering" sounds, then let go of his clothes and flew a short distance towards the forest.
She turned back to look at him, gesturing for him to follow.
Without hesitation, Luo Ge drew his sword and followed.
Little Red led him into the dense forest behind the sacred site, winding his way through a patch of low bushes, and finally stopping beside a waterfall deep in the forest.
The waterfall roared, and the spray created a faint rainbow in the setting sun.
On the shallow beach downstream from the waterfall, a middle-aged woman lay motionless among the rocks, soaked to the bone, her clothes covered in mud and fallen leaves, her face as pale as paper.
Little Red flew over, nudged the woman's arm with its head, then turned back to look at Luo Ge with pleading eyes, letting out a low whimper.
Luo Ge quickly walked over, squatted down, and checked his breathing—he was still breathing.