2
Six in the morning.
Light slowly filtered through the gaps between the buildings of the Imperial capital as the sun rose.
Iska kept calling the name of his friend. “Gauch? Hey, Gauch, it’s your turn to prep breakfast today. If you don’t hurry, you’ll get in trouble with our teacher again.”
He walked down the old hallway.
Once he’d gotten to the room of his friend, who was boarding in the training facility with him, he knocked on the door.
“C’mon, Gauch, you can’t sleep forever. If you don’t hurry and wake up, Jhin and I will get in trouble, too. Hey…I’m opening the door.”
He’d finally grown impatient.
“C’mon, Gauch… Gauch? ……”
The room was empty. All he found was a shabby desk and bed, and a wide-open window. He saw no sign of his friend, who had been living here until just yesterday.
Iska was struck speechless.
“He snuck out,” a voice came from behind Iska, who was standing there in a daze.
A silver-haired boy leaned against the wall and murmured with a sigh, “Probably from that window he left open. He didn’t leave any of his stuff behind, so I’m 99 percent sure. I thought I heard a lotta noise coming from his room yesterday.”
“Jhin, why didn’t you stop him?!”
“What was I supposed to do if I did?”
“Guh.”
He had no idea how to respond to Jhin’s retort. Though he sounded cold, he was actually the opposite. Jhin hadn’t stopped Gauch because he cared for him.
Iska understood that. He really did. That was why all he could do was awkwardly smile.
“Looks like we’ve got more room again for the two of us.”
“We’ve basically got the whole place to ourselves. We’re the only ones left.”
“And our teacher?” Iska said.
“He’s the one who gives the lashings,” Jhin replied. “I was talking about us just now, the ones on the receiving end.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
That was what the Bird’s Nest was. This was a facility made so that Crossweil, the Black Steel Gladiator, could find his successor following his departure from the Saint Disciples.
He would wander wherever he pleased all over the Empire, scouting possible candidates from among the young boys he found. He had initially assembled several hundred candidates, like how a bird would gather hundreds of branches to make a nest.
The former strongest person in the Empire had gathered young talent from all over.
“What’ll we do about breakfast? Me? Or you this time?”
Iska thought for a while, then shrugged. “Let’s do it together, I guess.”
They were the only two who had made it through Crossweil’s brutal training, Jhin and Iska.
“I’ll toast up the bread so, Jhin, you—”
“Morning!” a cheerful girl’s voice called to them from the entrance. Then they heard the sounds of footsteps pattering through the hall.
“Good morning to my big bros!”
A girl, who was most likely twelve or thirteen, made her way to them. Her eyes were innocent, and her long red ponytail complemented her bubbly personality.
“Morning, Nene. What’re you doing here today?”
“Hee-hee. I brought you something special.” She’d hauled in a suitcase that was much too large for a young girl. “You said earlier that the TV was broken, right, Iska?”
“Oh, yeah, it is. Our teacher tried to fix it, but instead he—”
“I’ll build a TV for you.”
“Build one?!”
“That’s right. I got the parts for cheap at a junkyard.” Nene opened the suitcase. A monitor that was just big enough to fill their arms was sitting inside it.
“You’re making this, Nene?”
“It’s an international TV. It’ll pick up any signal, no matter how weak it is. You’ll even be able to watch Sovereignty programs.”
“How’d you manage that?!” Iska cried out.
Then they heard the creak of the floor.
“Jhin.”
“Hm? Master?”
Jhin turned around when he heard his whispered name.
A man dressed in black stood there. He was the Black Steel Gladiator, Crossweil Nes Lebeaxgate. The black-haired man was slender and muscular. He was wearing a long coat even though he was indoors.
“I need to discuss something with you. Come to my room,” Crossweil whispered in a voice so low that Iska and Nene couldn’t hear.
Jhin reluctantly followed his teacher.
Once Jhin and his teacher had settled into another room, Crossweil stood with his back to the morning sun.
“It’s just you and Iska left now. You’re the only two who made it without giving up.”
His voice seemed unusually firm.
The man continued, “I found you at an Imperial forge, and Iska in the corner of a park playing with a branch. You just never know. I didn’t think Iska, the one with the lowest prospects, would stick it out this long.”
“I think she has pretty good chances, too,” Jhin said.
“‘She’?”
“I mean Nene.”
They heard excited talking coming from the hallway. Few people visited the Bird’s Nest, but Nene was the exception.
“She’s athletic enough to keep up with me and Iska when we go on our runs. And her engineering skills are inspiring, even though I’m not sure where they came from. Why not take Nene as an apprentice to replace Gauch?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have fond memories of women. My older sister once tried to kill me when she was really angry.”
“…You have a sister?”
Crossweil had never brought up his family before. He only mentioned something about himself once a year or so.
“It’s all in the past. Anyway, I’ll give you a serious answer for once. Nene is exceptional. Even I can’t find a flaw about her.”
“Then you won’t take her on because she’s a girl?”
“She’s too smart.”
Uncharacteristically, the most socially awkward person in the Empire gave Jhin a forced smile.
“My successor has to be someone who’s stupid. Someone who’s smart will instinctively know whether something is possible or impossible, right? So Nene isn’t cut out for this.”
“Then I’m not, either?”
“That’s right.”
His master’s words were merciless. After training up until now at this facility, right at the last minute, Jhin had been branded a candidate with zero prospects.
“Then why am I still here? If I’m not cut out for it, then you should’ve shooed me away already.”
“Because I need you.”
“?”
“I’m entrusting the astral swords to Iska, but I need you to stick behind him.”
“Behind him?” Jhin just tilted his head quizzically. What did that even mean? Normally, wouldn’t the stock phrase be to “stick beside” him?
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean keep an eye on that idiot so he doesn’t do anything reckless.” Crossweil let out a sigh. “That idiot…Iska doesn’t know when to quit—and I mean that in both a good and a bad way. If someone doesn’t keep an eye on him, he’ll pick a fight with the Imperial forces and end up in prison.”
“C’mon, you’re exaggerating.”
“It’s your job to stop him. So you’ll be a sniper. Stick to the very back of the unit and keep an eye on Iska.”
Jhin didn’t reply.
“Right,” Crossweil said. “Nene could even be part of that unit.”
The man in black turned around. He stared into the blinding light that had once lit his back.
“Let Iska kick up a fuss, and you and Nene support him from behind. That’s not too bad, balance-wise. And…”
“And?”
“You’ll need a boss—an adult—to keep you coordinated. The three of you will still be too immature, even a few years from now.”
The strongest Imperial swordsman suddenly let out a sigh. “Do you understand?”
“You’re entrusting the astral swords to Iska. But Iska would go rogue if he were left alone, so you want me to babysit him. And you figure Nene might as well join us. But the three of us alone won’t cut it, so we need some sorta leader.”
“That’s perfect.”
That was the closest thing to praise that would come from his incredibly taciturn master.
“You’ve got the brains that Iska doesn’t. Make sure to take care of that head of yours.”
“Sure…”
They left it at that, and Jhin headed outside of his master’s room.
“An Imperial unit, huh…?”
Him. Iska. Nene.
They’d need one more person who’d be able to act as their commander.
“Wait… He didn’t call me in there because he wants me to find a boss?” Jhin murmured to himself as he walked down the hall.
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