Overlord Baroque had once gone mad.

After clutching Prince Barsen’s corpse and breaking down in sobs because of the plea that he turn away from the prince’s death, his mind had collapsed.

He had come to believe that he truly had not shed a tear before the prince’s death.

He had also come to believe that he was a mad and powerful king who had abandoned all his people and walked away.

But one day—

...Learn blacksmithing from me, Nameless King.

A blacksmith came to see him.

With tears streaming down his face, Baroque remembered everything from that day.

He had believed he had stood over Barsen’s body with a cold gaze, but that day he had actually held Barsen’s corpse and wept uncontrollably.

And he had thought, I am a mad king who abandoned all my people and my army and left the kingdom myself.

But he came to learn that even those convictions had all been lies.

Blacksmith Hyun.

It was thanks to that man.

And after Hyun left—

the Overlord sank into painful memories.

He had given Barsen memories more meaningful and beautiful than anyone else in the world.

But the agonizing memories tore through Baroque’s mind, Baroque who had vanished leaving behind only the royal seal.

I have to march out.

You’ve lost your mind!

Are you afraid of the tyrant?

I’m not afraid of the tyrant. I’m afraid of the deaths of the people! Please, get a grip! The prince is dying in his bedchamber!

That day—

the mad king had only kept the promise he had made to Barsen.

But he could not bring himself to say it aloud.

The people who had despised him.

Purung, who had hated him.

The Ironclad Corps, who had loathed him.

The memories of them tormented the Overlord.

The Overlord thought back, wondering when it was he had ever not been in pain.

It was when he had been making something together with Barsen.

He remembered how happy Barsen had been.

And suddenly, he had thought this:

If I ever meet you all again...

He smiled faintly.

I would like to make, with my own hands, the most beautiful sword in the world for all of you.

He knew that after hundreds of years, everyone would surely be dead.

And yet he still held on to that dream.

Then, because he no longer wanted to suffer, he went to that place.

That place was Atlas.

There, under the name of the youngest blacksmith, Rock, he learned forge work.

“Did you make chopsticks?”

“It’s a dagger.”

“???”

Takashi—

the master of the blacksmiths—

was left speechless.

Baroque had no talent.

But he worked hard.

And the more he worked—

“...That is clearly a spear.”

“It’s a fork.”

“......”

He truly had no talent.

But every time he gripped a hammer and forged, it felt as though all the painful memories and aching emotions faded away.

That was why he became Rock, the youngest blacksmith of the forge.

And he was glad that no one noticed.

Because people saw him now not as the Overlord, but as Rock.

I am a blacksmith.

He had truly been living as a blacksmith.

But then—

“Rock? He’s the Overlord.”

“What?”

Nell had said, “There is one among us whose status and origins are unclear.”

And Hyunsoo had replied,

“That sword Rock always wears at his waist. It’s one I know well. But wouldn’t it be better to pretend not to know?”

“I understand.”

Nell had decided to pretend not to know.

But Nell had told only Takashi the truth.

What no one had realized was that Takashi had one of the loosest mouths in the world.

A great many of Atlas’s residents, not just the blacksmiths, learned the truth.

And from that day on—

“It’s a silver knife.”

“No, how is this a silver knife? A silver knife is supposed to be small enough to carry in your robes, but this is over fifty centimeters—”

Rock repeated himself.

“It. Is. A. Silver. Knife.”

Flinch—

“I-it’s excellent.”

“Oh, o-oh. Ooooh... a genius...”

“Wow, a genius for the ages...”

As expected, effort shines in the end.

The Overlord came to think that effort truly never betrays a person.

For the record, the Overlord never knew—

that people were lying because they were scared of him....

Anyway, having concealed his identity(?) quite well, the Overlord continued living like that until he reached a turning point.

Purung?

Even through the haze of his broken mind, the Overlord had at least known who should be entrusted with the royal seal.

It was Purung.

More honest and stronger than anyone else.

The Overlord had known that if it was Purung, Purung would guard the royal seal better than anyone.

But the root of the Overlord’s pain had been the belief that those people were no longer in this world.

And yet—

Purung was alive.

As an examiner.

Did Purung sell Purung’s soul to Ares?

Humans do not sell their souls only to evil gods and demons.

For the sake of eternal life, humans can sell their souls even to gods.

After Purung left—

from that day on, the Overlord suffered even more.

Because the Overlord knew that the reason Purung had become an examiner was because of him.

And the Overlord also knew this:

Purung became an examiner to look for a new king.

Then—

“Firebird.”

Along with Hyunsoo’s voice, the Overlord saw the Myriad Mile Bird circling nearby.

And he answered the call.

And then...

he saw Purung being trampled by dozens of people while reaching for the royal seal.

Covered in blood from head to toe, Purung was still trying to use the power Purung had possessed ever since the days of being the captain of the Ironclad Corps.

The Overlord doesn’t have a power like this, right? I keep my rarest and most precious thing in here. Heh-heh.

The Overlord saw Purung dying with Purung’s hand stretched toward that small secret vault.

And then Purung—

“Why did you abandon us!!”

—even at the moment of death, cried out like that.

CRUNCH—

Because of the sins of the past, because of regret, because of what had been left behind, the Overlord roared.

“Who dares... try to kill Purung...!”

SKAGAGAGAGAK-!

SKAAAAAAASH-!

At the fingertips of the man once called the strongest in humanity, followers in the Level 500 range scattered into handfuls of ash.

Drip. Drip.

The Most Beautiful Sword in the World.

And on that uneven, shabby sword, the engraved words:

[To my beloved son Barsen...]

At the very least, Purung understood this much.

No matter how furious Purung was, no matter how deeply Purung resented him, no matter how hateful he was—

the man Purung had known had not yet died.

He was still alive.

But Purung’s resentment was enormous.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!!!”

Purung shouted it while staring at the Overlord, who had cut down dozens of followers and now stood with that broad back shielding Purung.

That broad back made Purung remember how the Overlord had once carried an orphan like Purung on those shoulders across the battlefield.

Purung remembered how he had once ruffled the hair of a child with no parents.

Purung remembered the man who, when Purung fought Purung’s first victorious battle, had watched from afar with feigned indifference because he had been afraid Purung might be gravely hurt.

But behind those memories, the man’s sins flashed past like a lantern reel.

BOOOOOOM-!

More than nine hundred surviving followers leaped at the Overlord all at once.

“What can a pitiful little sword like that possibly do!”

Examiner Ren sneered at him mercilessly.

Running with those nine hundred followers, Ren looked at that crude, useless-looking, pathetic sword and found it absurd.

Even after witnessing it cut down dozens of followers just moments ago, Ren forced Ren’s own mind to deny what it had seen.

But was the reason the Most Beautiful Sword in the World became the first Mythic only because of its meaning, its sentiment, and its beauty?

No.

[To Father.]

[The son’s wish to protect you dwells within this sword.]

[The sword’s Attack Power increases by 50 times for 30 seconds.]

Because it was crude, the Most Beautiful Sword in the World could not cut down enemies—

at least, in the hands of others.

Even if its Attack Power increased fiftyfold, the original Attack Power of the Most Beautiful Sword in the World was only 25.

But for thirty seconds, multiplied by fifty, it rose to more than 1,000.

“Furnace.”

KWA-RRRR-!

Looking at the nine hundred-plus followers, the Overlord spoke.

The flames of a furnace erupted from the earth like blazing lava, surging upward and burning every last one of them.

At the same time—

BOOOOOOM-!

The moment Ren, who had been sneering at him, turned pale and hurried to cut off Hyunsoo’s head where he lay on the ground—

KWAANG-!

The Overlord’s sword reached Ren first.

Ren.

“I... am a god!”

A man once called the Martial God.

Though Ren had not lived in the same era, Ren had still heard of the Overlord.

Ren had believed all of it to be false history and false stories.

But each time Ren’s sword clashed against his, Ren felt it.

KKAGAGAGAGANG—

Ren was being pushed back so badly that Ren felt almost like a mere novice.

And Ren was even stronger now than in the days of the Martial God, because Ren bore the protection of Ares.

And yet—

BOOOOOOM-!

Ren was blasted back and coughed up blood.

“Khuk!”

Ren, vomiting blood, panicked. From within the remnants of the Furnace, not a single one of Ren’s subordinates had survived. They had all turned into handfuls of ash and scattered away.

It was annihilation.

And even Ren—

Drip, drip, drip—

was bleeding so badly that the situation had become unbearable.

Do I release all my power?

Ren had still been holding part of Ren’s strength in reserve.

In the midst of debating whether or not to release it, Ren realized just how foolish that would be.

Ares would punish me.

It was too dangerous.

And right then—

[The duration of Heavenly Punishment has ended.]

The restriction preventing escape to the outside was lifted.

“Firebird.”

Hyunsoo, the Overlord, and Purung—

the three of them ignited in flame.

GRIND—

Ren had lived through all of it, and even so, Ren still could not believe what had just happened.

Hyunsoo had killed one hundred examiner candidates.

He had survived Ren and the followers.

And he had also caused every last follower on the ground below to be plundered.

On top of that, Ren’s own body was now in ruins.

A man who can even summon the Overlord...

And as already stated, Ren was ultimately still an examiner—and one who had once been the Martial God.

The blacksmith called Hyun had now been carved firmly into Ren’s mind.

[Chief Examiner Ren acknowledges you.]

[He grants the highest score he can possibly give.]

[You gain 5 in all stats.]

[The system contemplates you and grants the most fitting reward.]

[The amount of Adamantium obtained in the Heavenly Realm increases by 20%.]

Whether Ren wanted to give it or not, the reward was granted all the same.

Ren stared at the young king who had not been a king for long, the Hyun King, now turning fully into flame and vanishing.

“I will not forget you.”

[Ren remembers the Hyun King.]

[He swears that he will kill you without fail!]

And Hyunsoo felt it.

[Chief Examiner Ren Lv.612]

The mountain he had made an enemy of—

was enormous. Vast beyond measure.

But an arrogant smile settled at the corners of Hyunsoo’s mouth.

It did not matter.

Because Hyunsoo had already sworn that by the time Ren came looking for him, he would be standing somewhere Ren could never hope to reach.

And when they returned to Atlas—

Hyunsoo realized the story was still not over.

*****

Purung’s rage was immense.

It was hard to believe this was the same person who had been dying only moments ago, as Purung seized the Overlord by the collar.

“Where were you hiding after abandoning us? Do you think you even have the right to save me!? You—who were so cold before Prince Barsen’s death...! You madman, who went to the battlefield and left the dying prince behind!!”

And after the Overlord left, the kingdom had fallen into ruin at terrifying speed.

The people, without understanding why, had lost their king.

“Do you even know that because of you, I became an examiner and couldn’t even die!?”

Purung pulled the Most Beautiful Sword in the World from the Overlord’s waist with both hands.

“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!!”

Even as Purung drew the sword back high, the Overlord offered no excuse, no defense, no justification.

“I’m sorry...”

Only those words came out.

The life of the man Purung had cherished had not even allowed Purung to rest in peace.

In the end, it had even brought Purung to the brink of execution.

But Purung wanted answers.

“Why did you do it!?”

Standing off to one side and watching the two of them, Hyunsoo realized that the Most Beautiful Sword in the World in Purung’s hand was demanding an answer.

“You’ve misunderstood. That day, the Overlord was not going to the battlefield, but Barsen told him to go. You said he didn’t cry? That day, the Overlord held Barsen’s corpse and sobbed.”

Purung denied it.

Purung had not seen directly what happened beside the prince’s body, but Purung had clearly seen the man come outside with that cold expression.

And yet—

what Purung could not understand was this sword.

[To my beloved son Barsen...]

This sword that was crude.

Ugly.

Pathetic.

And yet bore Barsen’s name engraved on it.

“That sword—Barsen and the Overlord made it together.”

Purung could not understand how a dead prince and a king could have made that sword together.

“After leaving the kingdom, the Overlord went to the Tower of Honor...”

At the beginning of that story, Purung gripped the sword tightly.

This was a sword made by the prince Purung had loved and cherished.

And it was also made by the man Purung had once respected, once idolized.

Purung asked,

“...What did Prince Barsen look like?”

“That day, he closed his eyes happier than any prince in the world.”

Purung collapsed.

Purung looked up at the sky and wept without end.

Standing beside Purung, the Overlord spoke.

“The sin of turning away from all of you. The sin of disappearing and leaving all of you behind. The sin of failing to remain with you. The sin of losing you. I will accept them all willingly.”

Watching him, Hyunsoo turned away.

The Overlord was reaching out a hand to Purung, that retainer, across the span of hundreds of years.

And the moment Purung grabbed that hand and rose, Hyunsoo knew that the story of king and retainer was beginning again.

As Hyunsoo stepped away to give them space, notifications were already sounding.

[Hidden Quest: Find the King’s Royal Seal complete.]

[You will soon receive your reward.]