Chapter 1
The Black Monster, Lucia
A solemn corridor in the Imperial Palace.
Footsteps too heavy for a woman echoed relentlessly through the endless hallway.
Black, long hair and a black uniform.
Her name was Lucia, and she wore ornate epaulettes on her shoulders that hinted at her history.
As the captain of the Black Knights among the Imperial Family's royal guard, Lucia had accomplished countless feats before she even turned twenty.
However, her methods were so ingenious and cruel that all sorts of rumors of unknown origin always followed her, earning her the moniker of the "black monster."
After five years, she suddenly appeared in the Imperial Palace, causing the servants who recognized her to quickly lower their heads, lest they make eye contact.
Reaching the end of the corridor, Lucia arrived at a magnificent door that anyone could tell was where the owner of the Imperial Palace resided.
The Imperial guards protecting it had been forewarned, but seeing her still made their hearts pound so loudly it felt like it would burst through their armor.
This was only natural, as Lucia had completed her training to become a Sword Master, a dream for all knights, despite her infamous reputation.
Before their eyes stood the fourth Sword Master on the continent.
They could only stare at Lucia with awe.
The guard, unable to even wipe the sweat from his brow, turned and shouted loudly,
"Your Majesty! The captain of the Black Knights has arrived!"
As if waiting for this moment, the door opened, and the Emperor hastily descended from his throne, spreading his arms wide in welcome.
It was an unbefitting gesture for an Emperor, especially since the Empire was still relatively new.
"Oh, who do we have here!"
"I greet the sun of the Empire, Your Majesty. I am Lucia, captain of the Black Knights."
Lucia, despite the Emperor's warm welcome, simply nodded her head in a curt greeting.
"Hmph, impudent. To omit her family name when greeting His Majesty..."
"Didn't you know? She severed ties with her Count family as soon as she came of age."
"That explains it. Still, to show such an unchanging attitude after showing her face after so long... Tsk."
The nobles waiting for the Emperor's approval frowned and whispered at Lucia's attitude.
But the Emperor, as always, didn't care in the slightest.
Instead, he waved his hand at the nobles,
"Alright, alright, do it later. Everyone, please leave."
As if expecting this, the nobles with dissatisfied faces left one by one.
And in the vast Great Hall, only the Emperor and Lucia remained.
"You. It's been five years. You must be 25 now. Haha. You've become quite presentable with age."
The Emperor, a middle-aged man, spoke while touching his mustache, his wrinkled mouth turned upwards.
He pretended to be nonchalant, but he couldn't hide the desire in his eyes as he looked at her.
Like a dog waiting for a treat, his eyes shone, and he breathed out hot air filled with desire as he looked at Lucia.
Anyone who saw this situation would think that the middle-aged man was about to do something he shouldn't to the beautiful woman, but Lucia knew the Emperor's true intentions and didn't even blink.
"You've aged more than I have in the last five years, Your Majesty."
It was her usual, consistently blunt response.
"Ahem... Is it because you've been living alone? That mouth of yours hasn't grown at all. Haha..."
The Emperor replied nonchalantly, but his face was quite sullen as he moved the hand that had been stroking his mustache to the area around his nasolabial folds.
"But that's not what's important. Come, come, tell me quickly. You must have sent a letter because you had results from your training."
"Of course, of course. It's already admirable that you've reached a realm that's impossible to reach at that age. But it's unacceptable that there isn't a Sword Master in this Empire."
The Emperor was once again filled with emotion and endlessly muttered to himself.
And the current Empire was, as the Emperor said.
Ironically, there was not a single Sword Master in the Empire, except for the Commander-in-Chief, who was the best swordsman on the continent.
There were only three Sword Masters on the continent, one in each of the two allied nations that could rival the Empire, and once the Commander-in-Chief, who was the Empire's pride, retired, they would be no different from other kingdoms in terms of military power.
The Emperor's choice in this predicament was to obtain the title of the youngest Sword Master on the continent.
As soon as the Empire was established, the Emperor removed Lucia, who showed signs of becoming a Sword Master, from her duties and ordered her to train for five years, and as a result,
"You have never disappointed me."
Lucia, watching the Emperor who was so excited that he was breathing heavily at her, quietly opened her mouth.
"Your Majesty."
"Yes, yes. Ahem. I'm ready. Show it to me."
What he meant was to show the red Sword Aura, the proof of a Sword Master.
The Emperor composed his fidgety gestures and prepared to be filled with anticipation and enjoy the fruits of five years of labor.
"I need to take maternity leave."
"Yes. Of course. The youngest glory, so maternity leave is..."
The Emperor continued in a gentle tone, but his expression suddenly looked as if he had been hit in the back of the head.
His dazed eyes seemed to be engraved with the words "Don't even joke about it."
But Lucia in front of him was waiting for the Emperor to finish speaking with an indifferent expression.
A suffocating silence fell in the vast hall.
And the Emperor stared blankly at Lucia and let out a deflated laugh.
"Ahaha?! You? You're saying? That's impossible. That's too much of a joke."
There was a reason for the Emperor's belated laughter.
No matter how he thought about it, there was a perfect error in Lucia's words.
The ultimate iron wall. The ultimate oblivious person.
Since Lucia's debut at the age of 16, all sorts of noble young masters had lined up to seduce the beautiful her.
But Lucia was a human who couldn't understand their language in the most disgusting way, as if the words "love" or "romance" had been deleted from her mind.
The Emperor shook his head, letting out a hollow laugh as if recalling a series of events.
Lucia, as if ignoring his appearance, didn't even flinch like an emotionless doll.
And soon, she held out five fingers in front of him.
"Ah, sorry. I'm sorry. That's right. 5 years. 5 years have passed. So, our Sword Master..."
Lucia shook her head as if to stop the Emperor from speaking.
"5 years old."
"5 years old?"
The Emperor raised his hand in the same way at her incomprehensible words.
"Yes. 5 years old. I have a child."
The Emperor's nasolabial eyebrows desperately soared.
Soon, he shook his head, saying that couldn't be true.
Lucia nodded, saying that it was true.
Isn't it?
It is.
It's not.
I'm telling you it is.
It's not...
In the midst of the fierce clash between the shield and spear of affirmation and denial, only the haggard Emperor was left, instantly turned into a thousand-year-old mummy.
*
Surely.
It was the last breath...
As she exhaled meaningfully through her open nostrils, a warm breath passed sharply over her lips.
'...'
Is it the next breath?
After hesitating and repeating the act of exhaling several times, she had no choice but to come to a conclusion.
'I thought those memories were a panorama of my life, but I didn't die after all.'
Lucia, a 92-year-old elder and the first and last Grand Sword Master on the continent.
She was once a swordsman with terrifying abilities in the Empire of Eldarion, known as the Black Monster, and a knight of the Imperial Family.
Although she now lived alone in the depths of the Empire's mountains for over 40 years, she was a master among masters, having easily defeated countless wars and first-class Monsters to the point where she rose to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Empire without a title.
In fact, she had been waiting for death for a long time.
Perhaps it was because the loneliness of her, who was special and never interested in anything other than the sword, had made her life more tiring than anyone else.
And last night, which she had been waiting for.
She finally sensed that her body, which had reached the realm of enlightenment, was being consumed by death along with memories like a panorama.
Lucia accepted the death without resistance, and thus, she fell into eternal sleep...
She couldn't.
Was it a mistake? Was it unfortunately a failure?
Even with a special experience that could have been her last, morning had come without fail.
Lucia finally gave up on everything, sighed deeply, and got up.
And without even glancing at it, she habitually reached out and grabbed the hilt of her sword.
Grabbing the sword as soon as she got out of bed was a habit that she had never missed since becoming a swordsman, a habit that awakened her body.
And the sword dance that began created graceful lines, splitting the air that had been still all dawn along the simple lines of the empty bedroom, and soon, like a final finale,
-Whoosh.
The sharp sword left her hand, stirring the high ceiling.
-Thud.
"?"
No way.
Lucia looked at the ceiling in surprise.
The sword was stuck in the ceiling as if to show off.
Normally, the sword thrown to the high ceiling should have spun leisurely like a windmill and hung on the sword rack.
'Did I put too much force into it?'
She had clearly been looking forward to death until just now, but she couldn't hide her bitterness as her body, which had been controlled without a single error for decades, was now old and starting to act on its own.
With a hollow face, she tilted her head and stared blankly at the ceiling, then examined the area around the stuck sword, noticing something strange.
'...That's strange. Was something like that painted here?'
A familiar yet unfamiliar mural on the ceiling.
The sword was stuck deep in the center of the mural, in something in the hand of the Goddess Asir, who controlled nature.
It was then.
Someone knocked on the door of the old Lucia's bedroom.
"Captain, it's Berl. If you're ready, would you please come down?"
'...Berl?'
She thought it was strange that someone had come to this place where guests never came, but since the name was familiar, she first searched her memory.
Then, she remembered that the name was the same as that of a colleague she had worked with when she was young.
The Berl she knew was Berl Altrout, the vice-captain of the Black Knights.
It was strange.
This mountain range was the only dangerous place in the Empire where Monsters lived, and it was difficult for anyone other than a Sword Master or a mage of that level to come here.
Therefore, it was absurd for Berl, who had not even reached that level, to come alone, except for the special route of the young maid who helped her.
Lucia frowned and rolled her eyes as if focusing on her doubts.
Perhaps thanks to the unexpected guest, she didn't even notice that her physical strength, as well as the fact that there were no wrinkles on her frowning face, had changed from before.
