In the summer of my seventeenth year, the face reflected in the mirror was no longer that of a pretty boy.
The silver hair that fell to my shoulders shone more brilliantly beneath the moonlight than under the sun of day, and the body honed by Teacher Chiron's instruction and dozens upon dozens of bouts with Heracles looked graceful on the surface, yet within it lay something wholly opposite.
"So you're leaving after all, Astellon."
The man leaning against the entrance, flexing his thick forearm, opened his mouth. It was Heracles.
By now he stood a head taller than I did, and in my eyes he already possessed the bearing of someone worthy of being called the strongest hero on earth.
"A messenger came from Eirene. Father is gravely ill, so I can't delay any longer."
I answered calmly as I packed my belongings.
More than sorrow, I felt the cold certainty that the time had come. It was time to return to the stage where everything I had learned here—martial skill, philosophy, and even the matter of "rule" I had pondered with Teacher Chiron—would be put to the test.
"That Jason fellow's already making a racket. You're royal blood too, so once you become king, you'll be awfully busy, won't you? That guy's been running around shouting that he'd become king."
"Who knows. If I become king, I intend to live more lazily than anyone else. My goal is to build a country where everything runs in peace even if I don't lift a finger."
At my joking reply, Heracles laughed heartily and gave my shoulder a light slap.
Even that casual gesture carried the weight of the earth itself.
"That sounds like you. But don't forget this. If that paradise you make ever grows boring, call me anytime and we'll have a sparring match."
Farewells were brief.
Atalanta waved from far away atop a tree toward where I stood, and Teacher Chiron quietly placed a thick bundle of parchment into my hands. It was the draft of the governance records I had written over the past eight years.
"Astellon, let your light shine upon the world. But be careful not to let that light burn away even the shadows of your people."
"Yes. Thank you for everything, Teacher."
"And this."
The moment I finished bidding Teacher Chiron farewell, he pressed a sword into my arms.
"Th-this is...?"
Startled, I looked up at Teacher Chiron with eyes gone round.
"Take it. It is the sword I once promised to give you."
"It seems far too fine a graduation gift for me..."
"No. If anything, it is precisely the sort of thing that suits you."
"...Is it truly all right for me to accept this?"
"Yes. It is."
"...Then I won't refuse it."
"Astellon. From here on, hardships will continue to come. But do not give up because of that."
"Yes, Teacher. Then... thank you for everything these past several years."
Leaving Teacher Chiron's final counsel behind, I stepped out of the forest.
I did not look back.
If I had looked back, I felt I would never have been able to leave this place.
So I departed without hesitation.
Thinking of the homeland I was returning to after so many years.
The road back to the kingdom was strewn with the scars of famine and war, all of it wrought by the caprice of the gods. I was walking across a barren field after passing through ruined villages.
Then, all at once, I felt a dense murderous intent from every direction.
I stopped and placed my hand on the sword at my waist. Before long, with a swirl of dust, a massive shadow burst forth.
It was no ordinary lion. It was a being of a different order from common beasts.
Its entire body was covered in steel-hard fur, and unlike other lions, its great frame bared vicious fangs.
"If you'd kindly move aside, I'd prefer it..."
The instant I muttered, the lion charged with ferocity.
With a thunderous roar, it rushed at me, claws bared.
I drew the sword Teacher Chiron had given me and, just before the lion's sharp teeth and claws could sink in, I drove one step forward and thrust the blade in.
The sensation of tough hide resisting.
But only for an instant.
The next moment, the sword plunged deep as though there had been nothing there at all.
Clang!
A dull sound like metal striking metal.
The moment my sword touched the lion's hide, that seemingly impenetrable skin was pierced, and the blade drove straight through its head.
The lion, its skull pierced, collapsed helplessly under the weight of its enormous body.
I withdrew the sword and shook off the blood.
With a metallic sound, droplets of blood that had run along the blade scattered across the ground.
Teacher Chiron's sword gave off its cool gleam as though it had felt no resistance whatsoever.
Even the hide of the monster said to be harder than steel, and the ferocious vitality lurking within it, were no different from paper before my blade.
I looked at the fallen lion's eyes for a moment. The savage killing intent that had just moments ago sought to tear me apart was gone without a trace, and only an eerie stillness remained.
I sheathed the sword and pressed onward once more.
Far beyond the horizon, the walls of Eirene had begun to appear in a faint blur.
There, my father, wasting away day by day in illness, the people waiting for me, and the immense burden called "peace" that I must bear would all be waiting.
"But all of it is the weight I must shoulder, and the burden I must lead."
Having succeeded in dealing with the lion, I moved my feet again.
My destination was my homeland. Eirene.