Chapter 7

Chapter 7

-THWACK!

I struck Cesare on the crown of his head with my fist. He let out a groan of pain.

“The way you speak to your master is most impolite. And I do not know my own lineage either.”

“So you do not know what your old man and old woman looked like either, Master…… Argh!”

“Call them Mother and Father.”

Only after I struck him once more did he fall silent. Cesare looked at me with damp eyes.

“Yes, I understand. Then what exactly is weak about you? I can hardly feel any blood energy from you right now, Master.”

Blood energy was, in essence, strength. When one trained the body, mana, and the like, the energy flowing through one’s blood was bound to change.

When that energy became dense enough, it traveled through the blood vessels and seeped all the way into the bones, leaving traces behind.

It was a realm in which the flow of blood changed, and that change was engraved into the bones.

The realm carved into the bones was called an Engraving. Like something etched into one’s very marrow, such a realm should never disappear.

“How far had yours been engraved before you died?”

“Seventh Engraving.”

Yet now, I had returned to the First Engraving. Cesare was looking at me with strangely pitying eyes. As though he were looking at an elderly mother weakened by age…….

Cesare was probably around the Third Engraving, so I must have looked weak to him. I waved a hand.

“That sort of thing is not a weakness of mine. Training will solve it.”

“Then what part of you is weak, exactly?”

“That I cannot kill more than three people in a day.”

It was a covenant I had made long ago. Cesare asked with a frown.

“That is far too fatal. Why can’t you kill more than three?”

“Because I made a bargain with a god.”

At the mention of a god, Cesare looked discouraged, yet resigned. He scratched the back of his head.

“So that was why. That was why the other masters always finished them off for you.”

The ones who knew my weakness were my comrades in Balanus. Thanks to their help, I could still wield a sword.

I had kept it a secret from my disciples. I cherished them, but they were not people to whom I could entrust my back.

Now, I felt as though I could. As I looked at the grown Cesare, he began questioning me in detail.

“What did you receive in exchange for the bargain? Which god did you make a deal with?”

“I cannot say.”

“Good grief, are you trying to be mysterious? What happens if you do not keep the covenant?”

“I will never be able to hold a sword again.”

I did not want to lie to my disciple, but I could not bring myself to tell him that I would die.

His expression had darkened even at the thought that I might never hold a sword again.

Cesare fell silent for a moment, as if thinking about something, then stared at me with a grave expression.

“Master. I have another question.”

“Ask.”

“Then can you not even kill mosquitoes, Master?”

What was that supposed to mean?

It was an unexpected question, but Cesare seemed to be seriously trying to understand my condition, so I answered him.

“It depends on the situation. To be precise, ‘intentional killing’ is forbidden.”

Unless, perhaps, I unconsciously stepped on an insect and killed it. At my answer, Cesare grinned.

“I understand. Then if a cockroach shows up, call me! I will catch them all for you!”

I appreciated the offer, but a master who could not even catch a cockroach? I thought I might as well sleep among the cockroaches.

After that brief rest, we mounted our horses again. Before long, a small village began to come into view.

Cesare rubbed the back of his neck.

“Haa……. It would have been better if we had left Xenia in Aspenhel instead. The orphanage there is still around.”

“Why could you not leave her at the Aspenhel Orphanage?”

“There was no room. The city had been invaded, so it was overflowing with orphans.”

Even now, the scene of Aspenhel collapsing fifteen years ago, the city where we had lived, was still vivid in my mind.

The flames burning throughout the city, the air heated to a scorching pitch, the smell of blood drifting through it all, the screams that tore at my ears, and the streets filled with corpses…….

It remained a mystery. Who on earth were the ones who had committed such a horrific act?

“Master, that is where the orphanage used to be.”

Had we arrived already? When I looked where he was pointing, I saw a large sign hanging there.

“A pawnshop and loan office?”

It had a respectable sign, but it was a place where loan sharks played their money games. I asked Cesare.

“How did the orphanage end up like this?”

“They say the orphanage director lost all the money gambling. Even after handing over the building, he still could not repay everything, so he fled in the middle of the night.”

What a pathetic reason. Had he abandoned the children as well? Cesare sighed.

“Anyway, the orphans and the staff all disappeared, so I do not know whom we should ask…….”

“Let us go to the loan office. The owner should know something.”

“The owner? I asked before, but he said he did not know anything about the director.”

Even after hearing that, I headed toward the loan office. I spoke to Cesare as he followed beside me.

“A loan shark would never give up on a debtor who fled in the night. At the very least, he would have tracked him down to catch him.”

When money was involved, those people would go to the ends of the earth. Having already taken the orphanage building, there was no way they would have simply let him go. Cesare looked at me in admiration.

“Wow, shit. Were you a loan shark, Master? You know a lot about this.”

“I did haul in a few such fellows in my younger days. Let us go inside.”

I entered the building with Cesare. As soon as we stepped inside, a gloomy atmosphere washed over us.

The interior was old, and because it had not been cleaned properly, even the air itself felt dreary. From deeper inside came a wailing voice, begging that the money would be repaid soon.

Most of all, the appearance of the employees on the first floor was unusual. Their swaggering attitudes and threatening appearances made it hard to tell whether they were employees or thugs.

When we entered, one of the employees approached us. He was as large as a mountain, with fierce, glaring eyes.

“A customer? You look like the youngest customer we have ever had.”

A sneering tone and a belittling gaze. He called me a customer, but the one clearly holding the upper hand was him.

“Shall we go inside and talk? Starting with how much money you need…….”

The employee’s words abruptly stopped. His face, which had been so confident only a moment before, had turned deathly pale. His mouth hung open, revealing that one of his front teeth was missing.

I wondered what was wrong with him, but the employee was looking at Cesare. He stepped backward and stammered.

“C-Cesare the Life Ender?!”

Did they know each other? Cesare frowned.

“They still use that nickname? Who are you?”

“F-four years ago, we fought each other in the dogfighting pit…….”

A dogfighting pit. That was what people usually called illegal fighting rings. Had Cesare done that sort of thing too?

Just then, another employee also began trembling as he looked at Cesare. That employee was missing two front teeth.

“That Cesare who smashed his opponents to pieces? The Cesare who broke his opponents’ arms and legs, pulled out all their teeth, and took them as trophies?!”

“I did not pull out anyone’s teeth, you bastard! They fell out when I hit them. What was I supposed to do about that?”

“Y-you picked up my teeth and took them with you…….”

“That was because they were gold teeth!”

No wonder the employees were missing their front teeth. So that had been the reason.

The gaze of the employee who had been looking down on us only moments ago changed completely. It seemed Cesare had thoroughly destroyed him.

“S-so, how may I help you?”

“Master. What are you going to do?”

I spoke to the employee, who was only watching us anxiously.

“I would like to meet the owner.”

“I am truly, sincerely sorry. The owner does not come out unless it is someone he knows…….”

Seeing him say that even while floundering made it seem true. After a moment of thought, I opened my mouth.

“Then I will only borrow money today.”

“Yes! I will show you this way. I will bring the person in charge shortly, so please wait a moment.”

The employee bowed and scraped as he guided us inside. It was a shabby consultation room furnished only for appearances. As I sat on the stiff sofa, I asked Cesare,

“You even went to dogfighting pits? They were rather harsh places.”

“Because those places were fucking…… no, extremely lucrative. The important gentlemen spent money like water.”

He grinned and boasted. No matter how many times I saw it, I truly could not match him with the boy he had been in childhood.

There was something I had wanted to ask for some time, so I asked now.

“Why did you not stay at the orphanage and become a mercenary instead?”

“There was only one vacancy at the orphanage. We had to leave tiny Xenia there. What else could we do?”

He toyed with his necklace, then tucked it inside his shirt.

“You could have done something other than mercenary work. With your personality, another job would have suited you better.”

“If I became a mercenary, I could wander from place to place. I was looking for my missing younger siblings. Not that I found even a trace of them.”

I remembered that Cesare had been my second-oldest disciple.

So Cesare had searched for his family all alone. For fifteen years. I felt both proud and sorry. I tapped him lightly on the head.

“What was that?”

“It means you have worked hard. You were such a timid child when you were young, but you have changed so much.”

“I had to change. A brat who just cries is such easy prey. You have to make yourself tough, even by force.”

Was that why he swore so exaggeratedly and fought more violently than necessary? Cesare smiled without a shadow on his face.

“Well, I have no regrets. So ease that expression of yours. You finally became young again; you will get wrinkles.”

Cesare playfully tapped between his own brows. He really had grown so much. He even knew how to comfort his master.

“Yes. Since I have regained my youth, I suppose I should take better care of myself.”

“Lucky you. By the way, why did you really come back to life, Master? I am curious.”

As we spoke, the employees entered. One was the man who had been terrified of Cesare, and the other was a neat-looking man in his late twenties.

“I heard you came to borrow money. How much do you need?”

They had not complied when I asked them to call the owner. In that case, I simply had to draw him out another way. I opened my mouth.

“I would like to borrow one billion batz.”

At those words, both the employees and Cesare dropped their jaws. One billion batz. It was enough to buy a mansion.

If I named such a large sum, the owner would have no choice but to come forward. The employee looked dumbfounded for a moment, then cleared his throat and said,

“One billion batz. I do not know who you are, but if you wish to borrow that much, you must either have a guarantor or provide collateral.”

So they were checking that at this stage. I could have lied about my identity, but there was a more certain method.

I placed a hand on Cesare’s shoulder and said.

“I will put forward Cesare the Life Ender as my guarantor.”

“What?”

Cesare blinked at me.

Forgive me, Cesare.

Stand as my guarantor just this once.