Prologue:
I guess I’ll never forget what happened that day.
---It was eleven years ago. Back when I, Alec Wolfgang, was still six years old. Ever since, I have never felt as much hope as I had back then.
On that glorious day, from the early morning on, the entire «Sword Empire of Sigurd» was more livelier than ever. You only had to arrive to the entrance of the city and the music and merry singing could be heard. And in the heart of the crowd, a group of adults were happily doing a dance of sorts, hopping around laughing, holding a mug of wine or beer in one hand.
Just looking at that made my heart race too.
This whole event was a festival to commemorate the «Imperial Exploration Squad» who would be dispatched to the «Sword Labyrinth» under the emperor’s direct order.
I had come together with my mom to the center of Sigurd to bid off my father, who would be going to the dungeon.
Since we were the close relatives of one of the members of the «Imperial Exploration Squad» we had been considered noble guests and had been given a seat in a high-class terrace, covered in a red carpet.
The surroundings were filled with women clad in elegant dresses which made me more nervous and unable to calm down.
For me, who was used to the ringing of hammers and the white smoke coming out of the chimneys of the artisan class part of the city, being surrounded by so much luxury felt like being in an entirely different world.
But I wasn’t truly mesmerized, nor discouraged. Instead, I felt a bit assured.
And as to why that was, it was because my mom sitting beside me was more beautiful than anyone.
It was my very first time seeing my mother using a dress. It wasn’t a fancy dress, in the contrary, compared to the women around us, they could be called plain. But the dignified aura she emitted, pure like the moon, stood out more than anything.
My heart was filled with pride knowing that I was her son.
The parade started then.
The stone street spanning below us was crowded to the brim with people.
Slowly flowing through that cheerful crowd were the golden carriages with the elite members of the «Imperial Exploration Squad», like galleys through a river, heading to the «Sacred Sword Gramm».
In one of the carriages was also my father---Gilbert Wolfgang.
The big man standing out even between the elite members of the squad was him.
He was a Master Blacksmith. He wore a selfmade lion cub silver helmet and was clad in a plate mail, and a similarly silver battle axe, also selfmade, was hanging on his broad back.
The giant my father was, sparkling in silver, seemed to me more stronger than anyone.
“Hey! Look over there! Look, it’s Vincent Isler!”
“He’s so dazzling! Are there other good men like him?”
“What’s up with you? Are you aiming to get him? Don’t talk nonsense! He became the chief of the «Imperial Knights» when he was only eighteen years old, he’s the elite of the elite you know? There’s now way you would be a good match for him.”
“Yeah, exactly, how could a mere street girl like you become his partner!”
“I don’t want to hear that from someone who keeps loitering around the bar all the time like you. Also, it’s fine to dream a bit, right?”
“Right?”
“It’s so noisy here… And in any case, behind the youngest knight chief comes the number one blacksmith of the entire empire, and isn’t that the daughter of the head magician family! All of these people are highly known nobles!”
“There’s also the known leader of the mercenary army, and the renown priest too. This place really is filled with incredible people!”
“Seeing all of this, even if it sounds a bit nasty I’m sure everyone is looking forward for them to arrive at the lowest floor!”
“Yeah! I’m really excited for them to defeat the Dungeon Master rumoured to lurk in the lowest floor, and then bring the treasure of the labyrinth back to us.”
Everyone in the city had high expectations for the «Imperial Exploration Squad», they were the elite army chosen by the emperor himself. They would surely go through the so-called impenetrable «Sword Labyrinth», and bring the sublime blessing from it’s interiors to the outside world.
I was so proud that my father was inside that elite army that I ignored the worried pleas of my mother to not do anything dangerous and waved my hand at him, leaning as forward as I could from the terrace.
“Fathe---r, look over here~! Fathe------r!”
Apparently he had heard me, since he turned around and looked up to the terrace. He lifted his strong arm and saluted looking at me and my mother.
I was so glad he had seen us I turned around and told my mom “Dad noticed us!” with the happiest voice I ever had.
However, her lips were trembling as she saw my father’s back going further away from us.
“M- Mom…What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy?”
“…I beg you, «Goddes of the Moon Freiya», protect Alec and his father.”
I clearly heard her say that. Her face that had shown joy until a while ago, was now unusually overcome by uneasiness.
“Mom…They’ll definitely be okay, right? Dad will definitely return, right?”
“Yes. He will be alright. Your dad is stronger than anyone…that’s why, we should pray.”
“Okay.”
I silently joined my hands and closed my eyes, then I prayed to the «Goddes of the Moon Freiya» who I’d always pictured as my mother. I prayed for his services inside the dungeon, and for his safety.
I felt a bit of unrest from the way my mother was talking, but I still beilieved in the words of my father.
The promise he had made to me and my mother this morning, a moment before he had to leave.
“I promise I’ll come back” He had said.
That’s why, he would surely come back.
There hadn’t been a single time he had broken a promise.
I knew that the «Sword Labyrinth» he was headed to was a place inhabited by monsters, but my father was stronger, sturdier than anyone. No monster would be a worthy enemy for him. I belived so.
That’s why I hadn’t even imagined it’d all come to this end.
I never imagined that this day would be the last day I would see my father---.
---One year later, the «Imperial Exploration Squad» came back.
Contrary to the expectations of everyone, it wasn’t a ‘Triumphal return’, but a crude ‘retreat’.
The firmly build elite exploration army composed of dozens of renown nobles had been reduced to only three people. The injuries they carried were such that it was a miracle they were even alive.
Between the three survivors there was one young man who had lost an arm only looking at him was painful.
I asked him if he had seen my father, he, Vincent Isler, told me while he gritted his teeth and with a broken voice.
“…Your father…Gil died…I couldn’t help him….I’m so sorry…”
Yes, like I said, I guess I’ll never forget what happened that day.