POV: Ghislaine Dedoldia
You could say I wasn't really an ambitious person.
I had no grand purpose in life, no great goal to achieve.
For a good part of my childhood, my existence revolved around three things: eating, sleeping, and intimidating others—especially my brother, since I was much stronger.
A small beast whose only desire was to fight and run wild, completely given to her instincts without any real worries.
My special green eye, the one I was born with that allowed me to see mana, constantly bothered me.
That, of course, made everyone in my tribe avoid me. It didn't matter that I was the chief's daughter—disgusted and fearful glances always surrounded me.
I was never very smart, but I could easily understand those looks filled with rejection and resentment. In the end, no one wanted me around.
---
One day, a wandering swordsman arrived in the tribe in the middle of his journey. He observed me with sharp eyes and said I had talent. He said he wanted to take me away. At first, I resisted. But no one in the tribe tried to stop him. On the contrary, they encouraged him.
My own tribe—the only people I knew in the world, the place where I was born and belonged—wanted me gone.
Today, I no longer care about it, but back then… a strange feeling took hold of me. Something I didn't understand, but it was a bad feeling. However, my curiosity about the swordsman grew just as much.
He covered my Magic Power Eye with an eyepatch and told me that if I learned to control it, I could remove it.
He didn't bother teaching me how to properly speak the human language. He simply told me to observe conversations and learn on my own.
But with the sword… with it, he dedicated himself entirely to teaching me.
We traveled to places I couldn't even name—immense mountains, turbulent seas, cities of stone and wood. Every sight fascinated me, but I restrained my excitement because the swordsman always told me to stay in control.
My "master"—as he ordered me to call him—was strong. So strong that, despite crossing continents and facing countless enemies, he never found an equal match.
Even so, he was never satisfied. He always said he was still far from the true pinnacle, that he was not the strongest yet.
I admired him. With each passing day, my respect for him grew.
He became the most important person to me, the one I owed absolute respect to. The more I trained, the more satisfied my master seemed, and the more he told me I was talented.
My master highly valued the code of conduct between master and disciple.
He demanded unwavering discipline. I had to kneel whenever I wished to speak to him and never address him without calling him "master."
I obeyed without question. Unlike the others, who simply rejected me when I reacted with violence, he made me understand my place by reacting with even greater violence.
If I tried to fight him, he would simply retaliate with even more brutality. That taught me something valuable: just as you can intimidate others, others can intimidate you.
In every place we visited, my master always looked for special swords, ones that seemed to be made from the body of a powerful dragon. He found many of these swords and enjoyed collecting them.
We traveled through Milis and the Central Continent. We crossed cities and fortresses, defeated swordsmen, warriors, monsters, and anyone who dared to stand in our way. Then, one day, my master, Gall Farion, made a decision: we would return to the Sword Sanctuary.
My heart raced. I was excited, but I didn't show it. My master always said I was too instinctive, that I needed to control my impulses if I wanted to become even stronger.
So, we continued our journey. And finally, we arrived at the Sword Sanctuary.
That was where my true training began. My master, Gall Farion, wasted no time after our arrival.
The moment we stepped onto the sacred ground of the Sanctuary, he challenged the current Sword God to a duel. I had seen him fight many times before. I had witnessed his overwhelming strength countless times. But nothing could have prepared me for that moment.
The challenge was accepted without hesitation. The Sword God was an imposing man, a veteran at the peak of his strength, confident in his position.
The duel lasted only an instant.
My master moved. Or at least that's what I concluded after it was all over. Because, at the moment, I didn't even see what had happened.
I only realized it when the sound of flesh being torn apart echoed through the training grounds, and the Sword God's head rolled across the floor, his eyes wide open, unable to comprehend how he had been defeated.
None of the disciples could follow the movement. Not even the veterans. Not even the Sword God himself.
It was the first time I saw my master move with everything he had. A single strike. A clean cut. A new Sword God was crowned. The sixth-ranked among the Seven Great World Powers.
---
The following years were turbulent. Many who had served the former Sword God sought revenge. My master defeated them one by one, with the same coldness as always, while accepting new students.
Among them, two stood out: Tymothy Britz and Clynt Lourel. Both were talented and disciplined, growing rapidly under Gall Farion's guidance. Tymothy was from the same generation as Gall Farion and had already been training for a long time, but he still accepted Gall Farion as his master.
The Sword Sanctuary was buzzing with energy at that time.
My master's strength wasn't just an empty title—he elevated everyone around him.
The training became more and more intense. The Sanctuary's reputation grew. Even the Water God came to challenge him. And, like all the others, she lost.
My master was strong. We, who trained under his supervision, also became strong. But I didn't care about any of that.
He often told me that I wasn't very intelligent. That my mind was simple, but my determination was real. And I believed him.
While the world around me changed, while alliances were formed, marriages took place, and bloodlines continued, I simply followed my master's teachings and grew stronger.
My master got married. Tymothy got married. Clint got married. Almost everyone had children.
I trained.
Over time, a discomfort began to settle in my mind. A doubt that had never troubled me before. What was my purpose?
To become stronger? But for what? To defeat and kill my master, as he did with his own?
No. Certainly not. Everyone seemed to have a purpose or found one along the way. A family, children, revenge, love, hatred... something that drove them forward. What did I have?
My master always said that I should train until I could control my body instead of being controlled by it.
But I had already achieved that.
I had become strong. No one saw me as a savage anymore. In the Sanctuary, I was respected. Serious. Controlled. But somewhere along the way, I lost sight of my goal.
Then, that day arrived.
My master gathered me and his other fastest student in the Sanctuary for a duel. The two best. The two who always won against any opponent. And the winner between us would earn the title of Sword King.
I won.
It was a quick fight. My strikes were faster. My strength, superior. I defeated my opponent. And, for that achievement, my master gifted me Hiramune, one of the seven swords in his collection, which he had traveled the world to obtain.
But on that same day, he also told me something he had never said before:
"Ghislaine, you've lost your fangs. You've lost sight of your goal. You won't improve until you find it again. Go out and seek it."
I did not question him. I never questioned my master.
He recommended that I become an adventurer. And that's exactly what I did.
---
As soon as I arrived in a city, I registered at the Adventurers' Guild and joined the first party I found.
That was how my journey outside the Sword Sanctuary began.
There was no grand plan, I simply followed my master's advice.
The beginning was turbulent. I climbed the ranks as I completed quests, but no party stayed with me for long.
I was just a swordswoman, someone who could fight but had no other useful skills for an adventurer's party.
I wasn't a strategist, I didn't know how to negotiate, cook, or even count money properly. I knew nothing about the world, and I could barely communicate. I fought and followed orders, and so, when it was time to split the rewards, I received mere scraps because I didn't know how to count.
This routine repeated until I found a different party. Paul, Elinalise, and Tallhand were forming a new team and needed fighters. This time, I fit in.
They used to say we were a band of misfits. Elinalise was promiscuous, Tallhand had peculiar tastes in men, and Paul was a shameless womanizer.
Our party would have descended into chaos if not for Geese, who joined shortly after.
Geese knew everything. He had contacts, could negotiate, and find profitable jobs. With him, our team took shape, evolving from a group of disorganized mercenaries into a respected adventuring party.
Our formation became even stronger when we found a healer, Zenith Latreia.
With Fang of the Black Wolf, I learned much about the world. My swordsmanship, cultivated over years in the Sanctuary, was put to the test against real monsters and enemies.
I began to think that maybe this was my purpose—to live as an adventurer, facing challenges alongside my comrades.
It was a strange feeling… A sense of belonging I had never experienced, not even in the Sword Sanctuary.
Over time, I realized that all of us had something in common.
None of us truly belonged anywhere. Each of us had been cast out or had abandoned our homes.
Geese, Elinalise, Tallhand, Zenith, and Paul… All without roots, but together, we formed a strange kind of family. And, as unexpected as it was, I was part of it.
But even that didn't last.
Paul got Zenith pregnant and promised to marry her, swearing he would never be with another woman again.
So, Paul and Zenith left the party to start a family.
We tried to continue without them, but it was impossible. Paul was our leader, Zenith was our healer. Without those two pillars, Fang of the Black Wolf slowly fell apart. One by one, each member went their own way.
---
From that point on, the years were difficult. I was deceived, robbed, and at one point, even sold as a slave.
To survive, I ate whatever I needed to, but I never stole from anyone.
That would have been an insult to my master's teachings. Even so, I realized that the sword could not solve all my problems. It took more than strength to survive in this world.
When I was on the brink of death, Lord Sauros saved me.
He saw me being sold as a slave and decided to buy me. By his side stood a little girl with fiery red hair, fierce and full of energy.
Sauros granted me freedom after learning I was a Sword King, but I did not leave. Instead, I accepted his offer to serve as the bodyguard of the young lady of the Boreas Greyrat family, Eris.
It was the first time someone had extended a hand to me without asking for anything in return. They saved me and gave me a second chance.
It was a debt I could never repay, so I served the Boreas family with all my dedication.
Teaching Eris, protecting the mansion, and finding stability, I started to believe that perhaps this was my purpose—to serve House Boreas Greyrat.
But then, the Teleportation Incident happened.
---
I believe there were three major moments when my life changed completely: when I left the Great Forest with my master, when I left the Sword Sanctuary and became an adventurer, and when I became House Boreas' bodyguard. The Teleportation Incident was the fourth, and it was when I met him—Rygar Adoldia.
At first, I saw him as just an extremely talented young man, so talented that I could hardly begin to describe him.
He wielded magic better than anyone I had ever known, some spells he had even invented himself. His swordsmanship was so exceptional it was hard to believe.
At eight years old, he was already a Sword Saint—something even my master had only achieved at fifteen.
And he was so intelligent and mature... Even before we left the Blue Dragon's Cavern, I already knew I had met someone extraordinary, someone to whom I owed a nearly impossible debt to repay.
He was my second savior. But not only that, he had also saved Eris, the one I was supposed to protect.
I could see from the beginning that he had an interest in me.
He didn't need Eris, nor did he care about her noble status like others did. With his strength, and how weak I was at the time, he could have done whatever he wanted—but he didn't.
Instead, he kept her close and even saw in her the same thing I did beneath her aggressive nature—talent.
Time proved to me that he wasn't just a young boy. He might have looked like a teenager, but he didn't speak like one, didn't act like one, and certainly didn't think like one.
He showed an interest in me like no one ever had before. Until then, everyone only saw my skill as a warrior.
My master, the Fang of the Black Wolf, even House Boreas.
But not him.
He admired my strength, but he was interested in things no one else had ever cared about.
He asked many questions, seeking to learn everything about me with absolute attention.
He pointed out things about me that I hadn't even realized myself.
He admired my loyalty, my discipline, my determination and willpower, my righteousness, my ferocity, my focus, my beauty, and many other things I might not even know how to pronounce or explain.
I began to admire him.
And, of course, I should mention—he had already built a massive organization by the age of ten. Oh, and he had tamed an A-rank monster as his pet.
I started to wonder if he might be some kind of deity, seriously.
Even though he said he had made many mistakes, I didn't believe it.
He claimed he was like me in childhood—wild and unrestrained—but I didn't believe it.
But when we arrived in Tinaver, I could see with my own eyes that his words were no exaggeration. He was truly like a beast and had really invaded a noble house of Milis on his own.
That day, I was finally able to repay a small part of my debt.
I was able to help him, and I was happy for it.
That day, even though they were at a disadvantage, surrounded and weakened, he did not retreat.
He was missing an arm, yet his momentum was as strong, if not stronger, than the ten powerful enemies gathered before him.
I think it was at that moment, unconsciously, that I no longer saw him as a youth but as an equal, as a man.
He was still better than me at almost everything, but he was not perfect and did make mistakes.
---
From that day on, Eris and I came to rely completely on Rygar.
The boy had so many things to do… When I think back to what I was doing at eleven years old, I realize I was doing nothing.
But he continued teaching Eris and me, and we both became mages under his guidance.
I could use fire, water, and healing—something I never thought possible for me.
Magic always seemed like something so intellectual. I also learned to read and write, and my respect for Rygar only grew day after day.
After the Iron Legion searched for Lord Sauros, Philip, and Hilda and failed to find them in Milis, we finally departed for the Central Continent.
Rygar was heading to the Sword Sanctuary, while Eris and I were returning to Fittoa. Geese found us before we left, and due to his usefulness, I recommended bringing him along.
Besides him, a young man named Eidar was also traveling with us. His destination was Ars, where he would join the Water God Style dojo.
The journey proceeded smoothly. Rygar never stopped training, and I was almost certain he could already defeat me easily using his magic.
Eris was also progressing quickly.
Our group was already an unusual gathering of people, but it became even more so when Lilia and little Aisha unexpectedly joined us.
Lilia, Paul's second wife, was returning to Fittoa and decided to travel with us after also being caught in the teleportation disaster.
Rygar was struggling with his touki since the mansion attack, but I never took it too seriously—he would surely recover quickly. And indeed, upon reaching West Port, he finally started to recover.
Geese left us there and set out for the Begaritt Continent to search for Paul and Zenith.
It was around this time that I began to notice something different about Rygar.
He was looking at me much more than before—and with more lust. And soon, I remembered the mating season.
To be honest, I expected him to take the initiative.
Every time I noticed his gaze on me, I responded actively, openly seducing him. I was not only willing—I wanted it.
My body and mind craved him. I had never slept with someone stronger than me before. Maybe it was that strength, or maybe the fact that he also belonged to the Beast Race. Perhaps it was simply because I admired him deeply.
I knew he wanted me.
His eyes betrayed his suppressed desire.
But for some reason, he kept avoiding me.
Frustrated, I decided to ask Lilia, and she clarified all my doubts.
Rygar didn't want me for just one night. He didn't just want to sleep with me.
Lilia reminded me of the Beastfolk tradition: a true warrior challenges his intended in combat before taking her as his wife.
She believed that was the reason for his hesitation. But then, why wait? If he was already stronger than me, why not challenge me immediately?
Lilia pondered for a moment before sharing her theory.
He wanted to defeat me using only the sword. No magic. Just his strength and skill against mine. Because in swordsmanship, I was better.
Hearing that, an involuntary smile appeared on my face.
But soon, my thoughts returned to my debt to the Boreas family. I was their bodyguard. How could I continue serving them if Rygar took me as his wife?
Even so, I went to him and told him I would wait for his challenge.
But that uncertainty remained in my mind.
I liked Rygar, but my loyalty to Sauros and the Boreas family still bound me.
And knowing Rygar as I did, if I refused him for that reason, he might very well go and threaten Sauros directly. The thought made me laugh.
In the end, I couldn't find a clear answer. So I did what I knew best—training.
If I defeated him, he couldn't ask for anything. And I wouldn't need to find a solution to my dilemma.
It was a stupid solution. But I was never smart. And solving my problems with strength had always been the simplest path.
At least until we arrived in the Dragon King Kingdom and later in its capital.
In East Port, I discovered that Lord Philip was dead.
In the capital, a knight told me that Lord Sauros—the one who had saved my life and given me a chance to become who I was—had been beheaded. Killed to take the blame for the teleportation incident.
I was furious. I would have my revenge. I would go to Asura and kill everyone in my path until I found those responsible.
But that revelation also brought another change. My debt was to Sauros. And, in part, to Eris. Philip had also helped me while I served House Boreas, and I would have served him if he were alive. But Hilda? She had never spoken much to me. She had always kept her distance.
Lilia had also told me that Eris liked Rygar, but I could see that Rygar didn't see her that way—he seemed to prefer taller women.
As I reflected, Rygar appeared before me.
He was as perceptive as ever, likely guessing all my thoughts.
And when he directly asked me to be his wife, I found myself unable to suppress a smile. I was happy. And after hesitating, I fell easily for his words.
Now, all that remained was for him to defeat me. And I certainly wouldn't make it easy for him.
I looked up at the sky, reflecting on everything that had brought me here, everything I had lived through.
"Could this be my purpose?"
---
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