*Note: This a “prologue not prologue”. It"s not considered a prologue as it is not listed as such in the light novel but it goes before the actual chapter.
It"s a treasured sword.
It"s an infinite dry land, and is a desert that runs boundlessly.
It"s the key to ask the requirements to reach G.o.d"s stage.
"Sir" Edward Lampard, Director-General of the White Knight Organization.
He had an unexpected side as a composer.
No, this was rather a《mask》that was superiorly well-known than his t.i.tle as a representative of the White Knight Organization that couldn"t be officially announced.
The White Knight Organization had established a year ago――it was the toughest time for Edward.
Whenever the Metaphysicals made their appearance in his motherland, he had no choice but to fly wherever they were.
The newly built Headquarters in England was full of deficiencies; problems and troubles occurred one after another.
The Saviors under his command still needed to be trained by the green Edward himself.
Moreover, the Russian Division and the French Division were constraining some things and quarrels on the brink of becoming disputes below the surface happened every day.
Even as a soldier, as a coach who trained his subordinates or as the Head of one organization, he was extremely busy.
On top of that, because he was really well known as a composer, requests of jobs that were waiting their turn came.
At that time, the British Headquarters hadn"t yet won the trust of the government, the budget it was able to get was too low. Even if Edward threw his own funds in, the financial situation of the organization wouldn"t get better, he only had to continue working on his compositions if he wanted even a pound extra.
Conflicts, politics and creations, he had to do all of that in one sitting, his mind was frequently about to explode.
When he went to watch football while taking a break, the team he had been cheering for was now facing a series of defeats.
I can"t help but drink alcohol! If he drank a heavy drink like a Scotch whisky, then his stress would increase because of his poor health.
It was the worst vicious cycle of his life.
That night too, his favorite football club lost against the rival team, so he gulped down beer as if he was being showered with it at a cheap bar, he shouted criticizing the club and got involved in a fight with customers due to differences of their opinions, but limited at such time, the last reason worked, he self-controlled with「I"m a Savior, it"ll be bad if I fight」and in the end he was furiously beaten up without resistance.
Edward returned home while getting staggered due to being dead drunk and to the impact of the hits.
Edward had his residence in Chelsea, a luxury residential area of London.
The townscape looked old, it was filled with a darkened appearance somehow due to the modern buildings.
The nights of London were gloomy. The foreigners were surprised that every store closed so early.
Naturally, both cars and people were almost nonexistent, but Edward didn"t bother this or that person, he continued walking staggeringly here and unsteadily there.
A little more and he would be at home――
– Excuse me… are you Sir Edward?
He heard the voice of an audacious man.
When he looked at him, the man wore a first-cla.s.s coat and stood under the streetlight, he was giving an insincere smile.
A man of inconsistent impression. His attire was an appropriate thing for this city, but the person himself had a little lowly demeanor, or more precisely, the low-lying parts of the city were more suitable for him.
As if he had borrowed the coat to produce such aura, like he was forcibly trying to blend in with the city.
However, Edward didn"t care much because he was very drunk.
– Aren"t you mistaking me for another guy?
He tried to throw a lie as he turned his face away.
It was a bother to be treated as a celebrity, and he didn"t want his face to be seen now by the man in front of him as it was full of bruises.
– No, I"m not wrong. I"m your fan! Your autograph, please――
The man felt around in his coat in a fl.u.s.tered state and took out a white handkerchief and a pen.
The bottom part of handkerchiefs and T-shirts were often used as subst.i.tutes for square fancy cardboards used for autographs.
(I guess it can"t be helped)
Edward gave up. Since he was told so by a fan, he couldn"t afford to handle it roughly.
He straightened his back as he tried to look good and showed intention of sign it.
– Come on, give it to him.
When the man said with a commanding tone, a very young girl appeared from the shadows.
Till just now, Edward hadn"t noticed the little girl. Maybe it was because he was drunk, but the presence of the girl was awfully weak.
Moreover, she made her head hang down, her expression couldn"t be seen with the unreliable light of the streetlight.
She had become like a shadow during all this time she was approaching Edward.
It wasn"t clear who this girl was.
She wasn"t rising sound of footsteps, she was like a specter.
Edward fixedly stared at such somewhat ominous little girl, but he didn"t care about it.
His intoxicated and drunken eyes couldn"t read the subtle situation.
He candidly received a handkerchief and a pen from the girl who came to his side right away.
– To whom should I sign this?
– "To my dear Elena".
The girl replied immediately as if she had completely supposed those words beforehand.
When he listened to that voice, Edward shuddered.
His drunkenness ended up being blown away in an instant.
He kept an eye on the girl whose whole face was like painted with darkness because it was still unclear due to the poor light and quickly let the pen ran on the handkerchief on his palm.
– Is this fine?
Then, by pretending so she could confirm it well, Edward completely spread the handkerchief with both hands.
Immediately after――
The handkerchief was torn up from the center.
The point of a blade appeared from the other side of the cloth, it tried to pierce Edward.
Like I thought, huh. Edward clicked his tongue.
He had vague fears that in reality this very young girl was an a.s.sa.s.sin.
In the dead of the night, the torn handkerchief danced innocently.
And then, the blood of Edward stained the paved ground….
– Hi… hieeee. Hieeeeeeeee!
The man in a coat fell into panic and screamed.
Maybe he was unrelated to this little a.s.sa.s.sin.
Maybe he was a punk, and a bad one, that was employed to be at her side to pretend being parent and child. A sudden violent crime happened, and he ran away while losing his head.
In the meanwhile, blood spilled from the side of the stabbed Edward.
– I give up… I didn"t plan to be careless, but…
While pressing the opened wound, Edward let escape a voice that got hoa.r.s.e.
The tall man had retreated 10 meters to the back from where he was standing just now.
As soon as he felt he was stabbed, he immediately retreated with all his might.
He used teleportation or the way of Shukuchi――Ancestral Arts" Light Technique Hagun.
If Edward didn"t master this secret technique, he would have been stabbed.
– ….
The girl remained silent. After all, he couldn"t see her face in the darkness.
But, signs of irritation could be seen in the gap from her gestures.
It would be regrettable if she launched a surprise attack from a deadly distance and failed to kill him nevertheless.
– What"s your name?
Edward asked radiantly as he pressed down his side.
The little girl maintained her silence like it was natural.
However, the signs of irritation were getting stronger, like he was angering her.
Edward was on the verge of a crisis, he whispered and made a sweet voice with boldness.
– If you"re not going to answer, then should I call you by your nickname, "man-eater"?
The alias of a famous a.s.sa.s.sin and whom the Russian Division was proud of.
The little girl immediately made her body stiffen in alert.
– Your English was very well trained. That"s a great deal for a kid. But, it"s a little tinted with Russian. I"m not showing off that I"m a composer, but I could understand so with my hearing.
Edward revealed a triumphant air.
– You were named by "Lightning Empress" to kill me, right?
– I was told by Vasilisa Yurievna to ascertain the real strength of the "White Knight".
– Heee, you"re getting nervous. So, why don"t you try it? I"m very proud of my abilities though.
– I"m stronger.
– Ahhaha! See if you can catch an S-Rank like me with that arrogant att.i.tude!
As soon as he smiled reflexively, his wound hurt and knitted his brows in pain.
– It wasn"t a minor thing for you to make me bleed, you know. And for that I"ll give you an A.
Edward observed the girl once again as he wrinkled up the area between the eyebrows.
She kept a stance with no gaps, it made her closely resemble a blade that finished its forging.
Her weapon was a sword. It was getting wet with the blood of Edward and that made it rise up a sinister feeling.
On the other hand, the brilliance of the prana she was cladded in wasn"t good enough.
It was an eerie purple like the red of the blood mixed with dark indigo. He felt its ominousness, but he didn"t feel it powerful.
When it was taken into consideration that the true strength of a Light Savior was ultimately decided by the size of the prana, the one of the girl was a nice C-Rank, but…
– I immediately saw through your ident.i.ty, that"s why I wasn"t negligent. Before I was stabbed I was guarding myself with Sun properly, you know?
The reason he spread the handkerchief and purposely made a blind spot was to make her stab it.
Although he induced an attack on the place that was strongly protected by Sun in advance and managed to stop the blow,
– You easily went through me. That"s a bit incredible, isn"t it?
He praised her with a whistle.
Edward had the strongest prana in the world and had cheat-level defense techniques.
The girl broke it splendidly, but for a Light Savior of that level it wasn"t seen like that.
What kind of secret or trick was this?
(If I think about in general, then it must be that, huh…)
Edward strained his eyes again.
The girl had――a sword.
She made the sword blade drip a spurt of blood, now it was even more terrifying.
And beautiful before charming.
– The more I look at that sword, the better it gets. I feel something called status from it.
It could be either the type of a famous cursed sword or holy sword. That impressiveness was probably the former.
He saw that it had some kind of hidden evil power to break even his Sun.
The only person in the world, she was the only that could manifest 《The Origin》.
– In comparison, mine is just a shabby article, but――
When Edward separated his hand from the wound, and stood up straight.
Blood began to overflow again, but as the proverb said: you can"t solve a problem without making some sacrifice. She wasn"t an opponent he could fight while looking after his wound.
This woman, a cursed sword user, was a true a.s.sa.s.sin who could a.s.sa.s.sinate the Head of the British Division.
His long experienced battle perception was telling him so.
The White Knight, the invincible legend, was already wounded by that person.
It was too early to collapse due to excessive bleeding, but he had to open a way to defeat her before that critical moment.
It had been a long time since such thrill. He was thrilled.
– ――And please, don"t feel disappointed, okay?
Edward pushed out to the front the hand that was stained with his own blood.
And then, he manifested a sword, as if he was pulling it out from an invisible scabbard.
The sword blade was long, its length was wide, it was a ma.s.sive long sword that smashed up many demons.
The blade reflected the moonlight like a big mirror.
White Knight versus Man-Eater.
A once in a lifetime mortal combat that was neither revealed nor remained in history had begun.