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Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈

Chapter 1: The One Who Understands Three Worlds (1)

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Eugene, a South Korean soldier, died on a mission and was granted a second life.

He was reborn as the son of a Witch in a world entirely unlike Earth, a land where knights, mages, and spirits lived side by side.

The Witch had wandered the world in pursuit of its mysteries, but she settled down for Eugene's sake. She chose Kingdom's End, a rural village tucked into the continent's southwestern corner.

People feared her because she was a Witch, yet her knowledge of herbs benefited the village. Thanks to the balance between those two things, mother and son were able to live in peace.

Eugene was big for his age and blessed with prodigious strength, so the village boys couldn't push him around.

"That guy eats meat every day. That's why he's so strong."

"But he isn't from a hunter family."

"They say the Witch charms animals with magic and eats them!"

"Shh! He'll hear you."

Even the alley ringleaders were afraid of Eugene as he carried a log larger than himself on each shoulder.

Their life was not rich, but it was peaceful. Compared to the comforts offered by the civilization of his former life, much of this world was harsh and lacking. Still, Eugene was happy.

His happy childhood did not last long. Though adulthood was still far off, his mother died of illness.

The one who took in the boy with nowhere else to turn was Gopri, a priest from the village monastery.

That monastery served the Church of the Absolute. The Church of the Absolute had once wielded great influence, but it had since declined, pushed aside by competing religious orders.

Its arrogance in claiming that its god alone was supreme in a world where many faiths coexisted, and its intolerance in denouncing other mysteries as idols, had brought it to this state.

Naturally, there was fierce opposition to taking in the son of a Witch.

"His bloodline is filthy! How can we allow such an unholy thing into this sacred monastery?"

"We are enduring difficult times. At times like these, we must stand united in true faith. We must keep impurity at a distance."

Amid everyone's opposition, only Gopri defended Eugene.

"The child has committed no sin. Please, show him mercy."

Gopri had once been a famous knight before entering the monastery in his old age.

For a knight, he possessed respectable faith, and his worldly reputation was tremendous. Whenever the village needed martial strength, he stepped forward and preserved the monastery's dignity.

"He won't trouble the brothers in their religious lives. I will take responsibility for him in every respect."

The monastery's sword had spoken so firmly that they could not refuse. Eugene was permitted to stay until the day he reached adulthood.

Several winters passed, and at last, the promised time was nearing its end.

* * *

The grown Eugene considered Gopri his benefactor.

"Thank you for everything you've given me."

Gopri had taught him knightly arts, and through a priest he was close to, he had also arranged for Eugene to learn letters and culture. Above all, Eugene was deeply grateful for the affection Gopri had shown him as a godfather.

Eugene had been an orphan in his former life. His Witch mother had allowed him to experience a mother's love for the first time, while Gopri had given him a father's love.

"Do you resent being sent away like this?"

"Not at all. I have no interest in becoming a priest."

Eugene hated the ascetic life, bound by commandments and discipline. Even more so if it meant serving a religious order that had completely fallen apart.

"Good. You've thought it through. I wouldn't want you becoming the lackey of those narrow-minded fools either."

Gopri pointed beyond the monastery.

"Go out into the world. Wealth, glory, love. There are countless things waiting for you to seize. All you need to do is reach out and harvest them."

"That doesn't sound like suitable encouragement from a priest."

Eugene looked doubtful.

"It is advice from a former knight, not a priest."

"Perhaps you overestimate me."

"You have that much potential. Do you doubt my instincts?"

"Of course not. Aren't you the man with the sharpest instincts in the world?"

Eugene looked into Gopri's clouded eyes.

Gopri, the Blind Knight.

Born blind, he possessed extraordinarily developed hearing and touch. Even if others like him existed among the blind, Gopri stood in a class of his own.

He could evade arrows and spears flying toward him without seeing them. By catching even the sound of an opponent's muscles moving, he could predict where an attack would come from.

That wondrous ability had earned him the title Knight of Prophecy.

"The sighted blind men of this monastery don't know your true worth."

There was one fact no one in the monastery knew. Gopri had not taken Eugene in out of simple compassion.

"I remember the first time I met you."

At the time, Eugene had been digging his mother's grave.

Though she had provided good medicine, a Witch was still a Witch. Fearing the Church of the Absolute, which held great influence over the village, none of the adults had dared to help.

Digging a grave was difficult even for a strong man, and being buried without a funeral was tragic. Thinking that he should at least help, Gopri had gone to find Eugene.

Their first meeting took place in a quiet forest, and the knight, a veteran of countless battles, was overwhelmed.

Thwack!

Thwack!

Each time the boy swung his shovel, the earth split apart with tremendous force.

An ordinary knight might have been surprised by the speed of the shovel and the amount of dirt it moved, but the Blind Knight had noticed something else.

‘A monster.’

Whenever Eugene's arms and legs moved, Gopri heard a harmony of muscle. It was like the breath of a sleeping dragon.

It was a resonance unlike anything he had encountered in any Squire or knight.

‘His heart is calm too.’

The boy's heart maintained a steady beat.

Neither the hard labor of digging a grave nor the fear of being left alone in a cruel world after losing his mother could shake that small heart.

Instead, it was Gopri who lost his calm.

Thump.

The elderly retired knight placed a hand over the left side of his chest.

‘I want him. I want to forge this young lion cub with my own hands.’

The fighting spirit he had buried beneath religious life began to boil within him.

Gopri sat quietly, appreciating the sounds Eugene's muscles made. All he did was recite a prayer at the end and offer flowers.

"Will you come with me? I will give you food, a place to sleep, and a future as a knight."

Eugene nodded.

Eugene accepted the offer. That was the truth behind his adoption.

"When do you plan to leave?"

"As soon as I retrieve Mother's belongings."

When Eugene had been accepted into the monastery, the belongings from the cottage where he and his mother had lived were brought over as well.

Some of them had been classified as creations of a Witch and sealed in the monastery storehouse.

"The Church won't hand them over easily."

"That doesn't mean I can leave them behind."

"They aren't likely to be worth much."

"This isn't about money."

His mother's research journals and travel records were treasures more precious than money to Eugene.

They were the memories left behind by the only family he had in this unfamiliar world. He could never leave them behind.

"So that's why you accepted the monastery's demand before leaving."

"Yes."

The monastery had demanded that Eugene, now on the verge of adulthood, slay the enormous wild boar terrorizing the village.

Like a serviceman nearing discharge, Eugene had nothing to fear. He could have ignored the matter, packed his things, and left.

Yet when they promised to return his mother's belongings if he completed the task, the offer was impossible to resist.

"I will come with you."

"I can handle it alone."

"Isn't this practically your graduation ceremony as my disciple? At least let me observe."

"All right."

A little later, the two left the monastery after making their preparations.

"Never underestimate a wild boar."

"I know. Judging by the depth of its tracks, it's no joke."

Eugene estimated that it weighed well over two hundred kilograms.

Even an experienced warrior could not take a beast of that size lightly. To the village farmers, armed with little more than bamboo spears and farming tools, it was nothing less than a disaster.

"Look over there. They must be going to hunt that monster."

"It's not a monster. It's a wild boar."

"But they say it's as big as a monster. Samson saw one atop the cliff at night, and he said it was as big as a house."

"Since when has that guy's bragging been trustworthy?"

The farmers whispered as they watched the knight and Squire.

There were dangerous predators distinct from common animals such as stray dogs, wolves, wild boars, and bears. The people here called such creatures monsters.

An elderly herbalist approached Gopri and Eugene, respectfully taking off their hat.

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Thank you."

Eugene answered in place of the taciturn Gopri.

This time, a middle-aged man came forward and clasped his hands.

"That boar ruined the Gamba family's mushroom field. If we leave it alone, who knows what other damage it will cause? I know it's shameless of me, but please!"

"I'll do my best."

Eugene did not hesitate to address everyone informally, whether they were middle-aged or elderly. It had been the first thing corrected when he became Gopri's Squire.

The villagers likely found that more comfortable too. Eugene, a future knight, was not someone farmers from a remote village could treat carelessly.

"Good day, Sir Knights!"

A shepherd repairing the village fence greeted them cheerfully.

"I would be happier if you called me Priest. I chose faith over the sword."

"I’m still only a Squire who hasn’t been knighted. Knight is too grand a title."

At the humble words of master and disciple, the shepherd lightly slapped their own lips.

"Ah, this ignorant fool made a mistake. Haven't you two saved this village more times than I can count? You're like knights from a fairy tale."

It was not empty praise. This was a village at the edge of the continent, bordering deep mountains, and small and great threats visited it often.

It was called Kingdom's End because it stood at the far edge of the kingdoms that had existed through the ages. Despite its grand-sounding name, it had no special features, though its population was fairly large.

Whenever something requiring martial strength occurred, Gopri would take Eugene along, both to resolve it and to give him knightly training.

At times, they also distributed the meat of hunted animals among the villagers. Popularity was bound to follow.

To the country folk, Eugene, tall and strong, walking alongside the seasoned Gopri, looked like a picture from a storybook.

"I still feel terrible that we couldn't help at all when your mother passed away."

"It couldn't be helped. Everyone had their own circumstances."

The monastery, not a knight or lord, ruled this village. The priests therefore held ownership of the forest and the mill.

Eugene understood that powerless villagers had to remain wary of the Church and tread carefully.

The shepherd saw them off, and once they crossed the village boundary, they reached the foot of the mountain.

The west and north were unexplored lands. The western forest grew so dense that the sky vanished after only a hundred steps, while a towering mountain range rose to the north.

In this world, more places lay beyond the light of civilization than within it. The moment one strayed even a little from where people lived, unknown cries, footprints, and grim stares clung close.

"There's something I've been wondering."

"What is it?"

"Master, you could have entered a fine noble house and become a swordsmanship instructor."

"I was even offered a position by the royal family."

"..."

Eugene admired him once again.

"Then why did you choose hardship in a backwater monastery during your later years?"

His master lived a diligent religious life, yet unlike the other priests of the Church of the Absolute, he was not consumed by fanaticism.

To Eugene, Gopri seemed to pray while looking toward something other than the abbot's sermons or the scriptures.

"You know why I was able to become a knight despite being blind."

"Yes. In exchange for not seeing, your other senses became sharper. Your hearing especially."

"I spent my entire life training those senses."

Gopri tapped his eyelid with his index finger.

"With eyes like these, I could not grow strong by training as others did."

"That makes sense."

"In spring, I listened to melting snow and the new shoots pushing up from the earth. In summer, I distinguished the cries of thousands of insects. In autumn, I focused on falling leaves, and in winter, on the sound of the world freezing over."

"There cannot be another knight in the world who trains as you do."

The knights here only knew how to swing swords and run themselves ragged. They believed that driving their bodies until their stamina was exhausted was the only path to strength.

Gopri's training, though, came close to meditation. Perhaps that was why, despite living his whole life as a knight, he had adapted so easily to monastery life.

"As I focused on hearing again and again, one day I heard something different. Something I had never heard before in my life."

"A new realm of the sword, perhaps? Like a sword speaking to you?"

Eugene asked, recalling martial arts novels he had read on Earth.

"Was that a joke?"

"Well, yes."

Eugene awkwardly trailed off.

Gopri stopped walking and looked up at the sky.

"I heard the voice of God."

That was why he had entered the monastery in his later years.

"It felt as though all the sins I had accumulated were forgiven. But I never heard that voice again. I thought I might find a way in the monastery, but all that remained was disappointment. They are farther from God's voice than any common farmer."

Gopri pointed toward the tiny monastery in the distance. More precisely, he meant the priests living inside, people he had ceased to call brothers.

"Of all the monasteries, why did you choose this one?"

"The voice of God came from this direction. And since the people here were not just devout but almost fanatical, I thought they might know something more."

Gopri smiled faintly and patted Eugene's head.

"More than anything, did I not gain a precious connection because I came here?"

Eugene had already grown taller than his master, so even Gopri's wrinkled hand had to reach up.

Footnotes:

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