Eight years ago

Ravis — Academy Federation

“...On April 12, the weather in the Federation was awful. Aleph kept complaining that he wanted to go back. He was so loud that those La Vaticano mercenaries heard him...”

Amid a hail of bullets, Edward leaned against cover and calmly wrote in his diary. Bullets kept whistling past him, but he didn’t seem to care much.

“Hey! Edward, quit writing that damn diary! They’re about to shoot through our cover!”

Aleph was shouting. From the sound of it, he was having a hard time.

“Quiet, quiet. Let me finish.” Edward waved a hand and kept hunched behind cover, writing in his diary:

“...The ambush failed. Aleph won’t stop cursing, as if it wasn’t his fault... This jungle is the absolute worst. When I get back, I’m going to give Little White Flower a proper kiss... Then a hug... Then lift her up high...”

“Edward!! Their courier’s driving off!” Aleph roared. The double-headed spear in his hands spun rapidly, forming a Factor barrier that blocked the bullets. “If you keep writing, you’ll never see that damn Little White Flower of yours again! Get your ass over here and help!”

“All right, all right... I know.”

Edward shut his diary and put it away. He flicked his right hand, and the X-shaped Factor Bracelet spun at high speed. A Factor Shield slowly unfolded over his body.

“I’ll handle the men over here. You stop the courier.”

“Hey... but I...”

Edward didn’t wait for Aleph to finish. He charged out from behind cover and, with a flash of red light, teleported behind one of the gunmen—

“Crack.”

Edward cleanly snapped the man’s neck, then vanished from everyone’s sight in another flash of red light.

“Wait! Cease fire!” The gunman hiding behind a tree saw a flash of light, and then his partner was on the ground. “He Lan!? Why’s He Lan down? Did anyone see what happened?”

“No... It was just a flash. I couldn’t make it out...”

“Damn it...”

The gunman carefully scanned the jungle ahead. The burly man wielding the double-headed spear had vanished without a trace. The gunfire had scared away every bird perched in the branches, and a deathly silence settled over the jungle.

In the utter silence, the gunman’s nerves were stretched to the breaking point. He didn’t notice the shadow behind him:

“Hey, buddy, got a light?”

Someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind, making the gunman bristle with irritation.

“Quit smoking for now. They...” The gunman trailed off, realizing something was wrong. “Wait...”

Before he could turn around, Edward snatched the gunman’s pistol and blew his head off with a single shot. The other enemies heard the gunshot and immediately turned, opening fire on Edward:

“Rat-tat-tat-tat—”

The bullets all struck Edward’s body, only to be stopped by the red-glowing Factor Shield. Edward smiled. A flash of crimson, and he was moving at blinding speed.

“Rat-tat-tat-tat—”

Edward darted nimbly through the trees, circling the gunmen’s firing line and shooting at them from every direction. Moving so fast, he seemed to send bullets at them from several directions at once. The gunmen frantically searched the jungle for their target, then fell one after another beneath the web of fire Edward had created all by himself—

“Damn it, how many of them are there?!”

The man who seemed to be their leader roared. Bullets were flying at them from every direction, and he didn’t know where to aim his rifle. His companions were dropping one after another right in front of him. The leader grew more and more frantic. They’d had the upper hand just moments ago—so how had things suddenly...

“Rat-tat-tat-tat... rat—rat—rat—”

The battle didn’t last long. After the final few gunshots, every gunman was down. Almost without exception, they’d been killed by precise shots to the head.

The jungle returned to its usual quiet. Only the leader remained, standing in stunned silence as he looked around.

“Damn it...”

The leader nervously aimed at the trees. Every rustle made him snap his rifle toward it, but the jungle remained still. Only a wandering breeze stirred the leaves overhead.

“Come out, coward!” the leader shouted, sweat slicking his palms around the rifle. “I know you don’t dare kill me. You need me...”

The leader’s voice echoed through the depths of the forest, then faded away with the breeze, dissolving into nothing. Without the bodies strewn across the ground, no one would have believed a bloody gunfight had taken place here. The leader moved slowly through the jungle, watching all around him. His taut nerves were on the verge of snapping, but he had to stay intensely focused.

The leader knew who his enemy was. He’d heard the stories of the phantom accompanied by flashes of crimson. This forbidden tale had kept countless mercenaries from setting foot in Academy Federation territory. Like a ghost, it haunted the forests and plains around Ravis, on the Federation’s border, spreading fear wherever it went.

【Blade of Babel】’s Third Seat, 【Crimson Phantom】, Edward von Valantia.

The leader’s hands trembled around his rifle. The fate awaiting him seemed painfully clear, but this time, he couldn’t afford to disappoint the buyer. He had to make it out of the Academy alive.

“Come out! Face me! Fight me fair and square!” the leader bellowed, trying to drown out his panic with the loudest voice he could manage. “You don’t dare kill me... You don’t dare...”

“Quit whining... What are you, still on your mother’s milk...?”

A low voice, ghostly and deep, sounded from behind him. The leader spun around, but the rifle was cleanly knocked from his hands and clattered to the ground. Edward was standing behind him. His silver eyes fixed on the leader coldly.

“You bastard! You—!”

The leader reached for the pistol at his waist, but Edward gave him no chance. He punched the leader in the jaw, then kicked him down beside a tree before he could recover.

The leader struggled to get up, but Edward drew a spinning Butterfly Knife from his waist and drove it down hard—

“Aaaaaah!!!”

The Butterfly Knife pierced the leader’s palm and pinned it to the tree. He screamed and fought desperately to get free, only making the pain worse.

“Quit yelling, or I’ll give you plenty to cry about,” Edward said, bending down. His silver-white eyes studied the leader before him. “Tell me, who hired you?”

The leader glared at Edward, his face twisted with rage:

“...Go to hell... Federation dog, you—Aaaah!!!”

Before the leader could finish, Edward wrenched the Butterfly Knife in his hand, making the wound in the leader’s palm even worse.

“Aaaaaah!! Ah!!...” the leader screamed, blood pouring from the hand pinned to the tree.

“Hey, buddy, doesn’t that hurt?” Edward clicked his tongue, an impatient look crossing his stubbled face. “How about you just talk...?”

“You Federation son of a—Aaaaaah!!”

Edward kept twisting the Butterfly Knife’s handle. The leader screamed in agony, trembling all over.

“...No, please! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!!” The leader began to sob, the unbearable pain finally breaking him. “It... it was... Avada Aziz...”

Edward stopped moving his hand and stared hard into the leader’s eyes. Something in his silver-white gaze scorched the leader’s mind like the blazing sun. The leader’s pupils slowly unfocused, and in an instant, the truth hidden within them became clear to Edward..

Eyes could speak. Everything about the leader was laid bare before Edward—true, and ugly.

Once he’d confirmed the leader wasn’t lying, Edward sighed and spoke slowly:

“All right, buddy. Then lend me a light.”

Edward pulled the Butterfly Knife from the leader’s hand and slipped it back into his waistband. He searched the leader’s pocket, found a lighter, lit a cigarette, and stood up.

“Thanks.”

With that, Edward turned and walked away, leaving the leader alone beneath the tree.

The leader clutched his injured hand and slumped beside the tree, trembling. As he watched Edward’s back recede into the distance, his mouth twitched in a pathetic grimace. Then, with his uninjured hand, he drew the pistol from his waist and shakily aimed at Edward’s back:

“Bang!”

A precisely aimed bullet cut through the jungle and struck the leader between the eyebrows, killing him instantly. Edward heard the shot but didn’t even look back. He simply strolled in the opposite direction, enjoying his cigarette.

“Nice shot, Ivar.”

“Having fun, Edward...?”

A voice came through the radio in Edward’s ear. He smiled.

“Just doing my job,” Edward said, strolling leisurely through the jungle and occasionally exhaling a plume of smoke. “Another day of coasting by, huh? You lazy, comfortable bastard.”

“Hey, don’t put it like that...”

On a small cliff not far away, Ivar slowly stood up and raised the sniper rifle, whose muzzle was still faintly smoking.

“I was watching your back the whole time...”

Ivar looked down over the jungle. Everything had grown quiet, as if nothing had happened. That was why the infamous 【Crimson Phantom】, Edward von Valantia, inspired such fear. He was like a soul-reaping wraith wandering the Ademir Continent. Anyone could become his prey, and no one he set his sights on would live to see another sunrise.

“Aleph, how are things on your end?” Edward asked lazily. “Don’t tell me that kid took you down?”

“Go to hell... I just finished him off, but the little bastard’s dead as a doornail...” Aleph’s voice came over the radio. “I chased that son of a bitch for ages, then put a little too much force into my spear throw and blew up his car.”

“It’s fine. We had to destroy the evidence anyway.”

Edward said it without a care. He stubbed out the cigarette in his hand and put it in his pocket. He didn’t want to start a forest fire.

“I already know who was behind them.”

“Oh? Who?”

“Avada Aziz.” An old man’s face appeared in Edward’s silver-white eyes. He knew the old bastard, of course. “Looks like the royal family of Wilkin wants a foothold in the Academy, too.”

...