There was an enormous mansion in the nobles' quarter—one with white walls and a red roof, along with guards positioned at every entrance. In one of its rooms, a shirtless man sat on a chair as a doctor bandaged his shoulders with strips of cloth.
The wound was painful.
As the doctor completed binding the cloth in place with ties, he stepped back to adjust his spectacles. "Mr. Towrist, your dressing is complete."
The knight, Mark Towrist, raised his arm very slightly. "Doctor, what do you make of this wound?"
The doctor frowned, taking another look at it. "Honestly, it seems to have been far more potent than your armor."
"The cut is clean and deep. It means that the sword was powerful enough to slice through the metal not to mention the magical defense of your armor. Alright, I'm not the best man to ask, but I think that this is not a clean blow."
Mark Towrist sighed slowly. "Would you believe me if I said… someone from the Hero's old village did this to me?"
The doctor blinked. "Huh? Really? The Hero Keal's birthplace? Then they might be some high-level adventurers."
"I thought the same…" Mark mumbled. His eyes grew cold. "Well, anyway… They're going to regret doing this to me."
There was a subtle glow oozing from his body as his killing intent increased, which made the doctor slightly sweat despite not knowing why.
Because this man was no ordinary knight.
His name is Mark Towrist, and he is the head knight of the Third Division, one of the three strongest divisions of knights in the whole kingdom.
Grade: A+.
"We
Very far away, in the Village of Light.
Raël sat on the branch of the tree near the entrance to the village, his leg dangling as he watched the crowd.
The villagers were hurrying about. Men and women were lugging stones, firewood, and tools. Children were carrying small pails. It was building a wall— rough and jagged but so desperate and so determined.
They had attacked a high-ranking knight.
They declared war without uttering a word.
Rael observed them all quietly, his eyes absorbing every detail.
"And now, it seems we've formally declared war on the Third Division of knights in the kingdom," he mused.
Leaned against the trunk, reminiscing about some of the books he'd recently read. Until now, he'd not particularly cared about how this kingdom functioned. However, having witnessed how those knights carried themselves, he'd decided he wanted to learn how it all worked.
This was the Keal Continent.
It is named for the so-called "Hero of Light".
At the heart of it all stood the Kingdom of Parce—in other words, the biggest and most powerful kingdom on the continent.
The Village of Light was an kingdom.
The ruler was Alexzander Parce, the first and current king of Parce. A man that conquered the entire kingdom by himself. A man famous throughout the continent as the Lion of Keal.
Official Rank: S+ Rank.
The only one.
There were rumors going around, too, that in terms of raw power… he was almost on par with Demon King Candist, the current Demon King over the demon side.
Rael observed villagers trying to lift some large stones and putting them against a weak wall.
He knew what this meant.
"Now we are in the territory of a kingdom ruled by a lion," he said. "And we just clawed his knights."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
"They won't send just one division next time." The wind blew softly. The villagers just went right ahead, erecting walls to protect themselves. Rael's eyes opened once more, his face expressionless. "The game," he thought, "has finally started." The chapter ends.