Prologue

I was a sword.

I don't know when or where, or how I came to be.

But at some point, I began to slowly acquire a sense of self.

I also gradually came to understand human language.

As more time passed, I was able to converse with the master who wielded me.

The world called me the Ego Sword.

They said I was the most powerful sword there would ever be.

Sometimes it was truly enjoyable.

The swordsmanship of those who wielded me had clear aims and principles.

Human notions of good and evil meant nothing to me.

As long as the purpose and principles were clear, it was enough.

Other times, I had to endure agonizing days.

Being wielded without clear purpose or principle made me suffer.

Such hands always reeked of an awful stench.

One day, I decided never again to have a 'master'.

Instead, I began to accept 'companions' by my own will.

I did not allow those without merit to wield me.

Over time, my value soared ever higher.

At times, when there was no worthy companion, I had to spend over a hundred years alone.

Without a companion, the world may as well have stopped.

I had a self, but could do nothing.

Because I was a sword.

Still.

It was better than entrusting my noble blade to some smelly bastard.

And then, when I eventually met a companion that pleased me, that satisfaction doubled.

A thousand years passed after I gained self-awareness.

I grew ever stronger.

When I met a suitable companion, I would make them The World's Greatest.

All, except for one.

The fourth companion did not become The World's Greatest.

It wasn't because she lagged behind compared to the others.

She simply had a friend who was always by her side, one so powerful it was almost unreal.

The fourth companion was the first to ever give me a name.

"From now on, your name is Eden."

― Eden?

She said it meant strong, or eternal.

... And then I met him.

My twelfth companion.

A human who was extraordinary from the very beginning.

No, was that even a human to begin with?

His swordsmanship had a clarity of purpose and principle that surpassed all others.

To celebrate becoming companions, I didn't even have to exert myself to put him in the place of the strongest.

He already was the strongest.

The world called him 'Rex'.

When I had finished 600 battles alongside Rex, he asked me.

"Eden. Do you have a wish?"

I answered.

― A wish? I've never thought about such a thing.

"Try thinking about it now."

― Well... a wish. Maybe to live a life where I don't have to cut through others' flesh and bone any longer?

"Shall I stash you away in some deep underground where no one will ever find you?"

I pondered for a moment.

― No. That sounds too lonely and boring. After all, I am a being who lives forever.

"How is it? That so-called eternal life."

― I don't want to end it this moment, but then again, I don't want to keep going forever either.

"I see."

Silence fell for a moment.

A wish...

― Rex.

"What? Have you thought of one?"

― Yeah.

"What is it? If I can grant it, I will."

― I want to... try being human.

"Human?"

― Yes.

Rex's gaze turned toward the corpses covering the hillside.

"You're called the world's strongest sword, and yet you just want to become a mere human? The kind whose flesh is sliced and bones are split to become just a lump of meat when struck by cold steel?"

― I was enjoying the sunset. Can you please turn your head back?

Rex turned again to face the sunset.

Only then could I see the sunset too.

― You see, I can only share the senses of the one who holds me. By myself, I can't even gaze at a sunset. I can't just walk on two legs as I please.

"So. Are you jealous of humans?"

― It's not jealousy, exactly... I'm just curious about such a life.

"Are you serious?"

― I am.

"Even knowing you might become one of those corpses scattered there?"

― Yes. Even so. Just once, I want to be able to see freely, walk freely, and feel freely.

Rex fell silent, lost in thought.

"Do you remember that guy we fought a while back? The one who gave us the most trouble."

― You mean Aurum Drago, the Luminous Dragon?

"Yes. I took something from him. And I think it's right to use it on you. I have no wish for a new life myself."

― What is it?

"A gem that grants a new life. So? Want me to give you a new life?"

― A new life...

"Yes. But when the time comes, don't seek me out again. In my memory, you must remain the ultimate being."

* * *

Episode 1.

I was a sword.

"My lady! It's a healthy baby boy!"

Ten months.

I, who was once a sword, was trapped in a woman's belly for ten months.

The name of the woman carrying me was Lady Flory Brooks, wife of Baron Brooks.

At first, I couldn't even move a finger at will, but the self I'd forged over a thousand years remained unchanged.

Little by little, I gained the ability to move.

I even kicked.

For some reason, whenever I kicked inside her belly, lady Flory Brooks seemed utterly delighted.

After a long wait of ten months.

Finally, I came into the world.

Finally.

I became human.

'What is this?'

I couldn't breathe.

It was the same sensation I felt when I met my third companion, Bennett, who accidentally dropped me into water.

I had forgotten.

Humans must constantly breathe air through their noses, without pause.

Smack!

The nurse who held me upside down by the ankle landed a hard slap on my bottom.

"Now, once he starts crying, he'll breathe, madam."

"Let me see his face... show me his face."

Smack!

The nurse slapped my bottom again.

"I'll bring him to you soon. Right now, just need him to start breathing!"

Smack!

The nurse's tone grew increasingly frantic.

"This... this isn't right...!"

Smack!

Meanwhile,
I calmly tried to steady my mind.

I could share the senses of those who held me, so I knew how to breathe.

But...

Knowing and doing were two different things.

A short while later—

Huuup.

—I managed to inhale air through my nose.

I could vividly feel the fresh air passing through my nose and filling my lungs.

Puu.

I tried to exhale through my nose, but my lips opened of their own accord and the air flowed out through my mouth.

No matter.

What's important right now is to breathe.

A servant standing by the nurse shouted.

"He moved his lips! He'll cry any moment now!"

Smack!

All the while, the nurse kept spanking my bottom.

"W-what should we do?"

Lady Flory Brooks asked.

"What's wrong, nurse?"

"He... he won't cry! He needs to cry to start breathing!"

......

Hey, nurse.

I'm already breathing.

Smack!

"What do we do! What now!"

At that moment.

A familiar voice rang out.

A soft, deep baritone.

"Nurse."

A man who had often spoken to me through Flory Brooks's belly.

It was Baron Austin Brooks.

Smack!

Whether she didn't hear Baron Austin Brooks or not, the nurse remained frantically focused on spanking me.

"Nurse."

"Yes? Yes...! Baron! What should I do!"

"Calm down. And stop spanking him. He seems to be breathing already?"

"Huh?"

Startled, the nurse brought her big face close to my nose.

"... He really is! Whew. He's breathing! The young master is breathing!"

Isn't it normal to breathe once born?

Why all the fuss?

Soon, the nurse began crying in relief.

"I thought I'd lost him..."

Then Lady Flory Brooks's calm voice came.

"It's all right, nurse. Now, will you hand me my baby?"

"Ah! Yes!"

The nurse laid me flat and passed me to Lady Flory Brooks.

Compared to being dangled upside down by my ankle, it was unbearably warm.
So warm.

This was the embrace of the woman who birthed me.

Do I have a mother for the first time in a thousand years?

I tried to open my eyes to see the face of the woman who birthed me, but my vision was so blurred I couldn't see anything.

"Darling! Our baby is looking right at me."

"He is. And those eyes... they're so bright."

Lady Flory Brooks laughed quietly.

"Ha, he's bright, is he? He was just born!"

"He looks destined to become a great engineer."

"You always jump to conclusions so quickly."

* * *

Evan.

Evan Brooks.

That was my name.

The youngest son of Baron Austin Brooks and Lady Flory Brooks.

Once I was fully used to ordinary breathing, I started to practice the way to breathe in harmony with nature.

It wasn't easy.

But that didn't matter.

It had only been a week since my birth.

* * *

During the ten months inside Lady Flory Brooks's belly,

I was able to hear so much.

Flory was a woman full of curiosity.

Probably even more so because she conceived me so late in life.

"So? When did your baby first say 'mama'?"

"And when did he first say 'papa'?"

"They say at three months a baby can turn over? Then when do they start crawling?"

"If it's half a year, do they pull themselves up with the wall and stand? So when do they start walking?"

She asked such things to anyone she met who'd had a baby.

Thanks to her, I got a decent idea of a normal human baby's development.

For now, my first goal, being reborn as a human, was to live as an ordinary child until adulthood.

For some reason, I felt that was the only way to truly live as a human.

After all, my head was still filled with memories of having lived as a sharp piece of steel for over a thousand years.

When I spent my youth here, learning about true human life,

I would roam the streets of the world in freedom.

I would walk the world on two legs.

See the world with two eyes.

Hear the world with two ears.

But to do that, I first needed to appear ordinary.

The first rule toward my first goal:
Act like an ordinary child.

And so, by the time I managed to turn over on my own,

I finally mastered the way to breathe in communion with nature.

* * *

Soon after I began to walk, one day when no one was around,

I casually jumped onto the dining table to eat some grapes.

"Oh my goodness!"

Of all moments, the nurse walked into the kitchen and caught me.

For whatever reason,

the entire household was thrown into chaos.

Luckily or unluckily,

since I was still at the 'mamama' and 'papapa' babbling stage, I didn't have to make any excuses.

In the end, the nurse, seeing me up on the table and too shocked to think otherwise, concluded on her own that I must have climbed up using the chair somehow.

* * *

I turned nine years old.

I was born in a moderate-sized castle nestled in the peaceful forests of southeastern Sathus Kingdom.

My father, baron Austin Brooks, spent more days in the capital than at the castle.

But whenever he returned, he did his best to spend time with me.

My mother, lady Flory Brooks, cherished and doted on me.

There was no lack of parental affection.

Everyone around me cherished and adored me.

Did all the humans who spent their lives with me over the last thousand years enjoy such a satisfying childhood?

Even the bloodthirsty lunatics among them.

Is this
what humans call happiness?

I think I understand, somehow. And yet I don't.

Either way.

When I open my eyes, I see the world, and when I close them, I see nothing.

I can walk anywhere I wish on my own two feet.

I can grasp whatever I want with my hands.

Not eating makes me hungry, and at night, I get unbearably sleepy—those things are a little inconvenient.

But, as a nine-year-old child now, I can do much more than I ever could as the world's mightiest sword.

"Evan!"

It was Milo.

Milo was the grandson of our castle's head butler, and the same age as me.

His parents did not put much emphasis on the prestige of nobility, so we could be friends.

"Milo."

Milo glanced around as he came close and whispered in my ear.

It was something he always did whenever he discovered something exciting.

"Evan... guess what. I found the path to the southern forest!"

"Really?"

"Yes! To that southern forest that's supposed to be so dangerous adults never let us go!"