The Last Black Sword (Volume I): Prologue: A Stranger in a Strange World

The world of Orbis Magna is a vast planet located somewhere in a certain galaxy of a certain universe. This place is mostly inhabited by humans, and its societies enjoy a significant level of technological advancement.

Blessing City is part of a great nation known as the Blessed Country. This country operates under a system that classifies people into social ranks of prestige: C, B, A, and S—C being the lowest and S the highest. These ranks affect individuals' progress in academics, sports, and military service. Blessing City is divided into nine districts, each serving as both residential and industrial zones.

The city has recently become much more famous for offering opportunities and development to the youth of the Blessed Country. Full scholarships are granted to attract young people and populate the city, making it primarily youthful. The most talented are encouraged to enlist in military service and lend their abilities to local protection systems when needed.

For many ambitious young people, the excitement of living in such a prestigious city is enormous—a dream of growth and a better future under the system of Blessing City.

That is, for most young people—except, apparently, for one boy now sitting on a wooden bench in a commercial square in District 3. It’s nearly noon, and he sips from a canned drink.

The boy looks tired, even fatigued, despite enjoying the sunny weather. There are few trees in this plaza—hardly enough for shade—but the breeze still flows through the area, despite the number of people and service robots passing by.

Nearby, a cleaning robot rolls by, vacuuming up trash. The boy casually tosses his empty can toward it, hitting it on target. The robot detects the object and promptly absorbs it without issue.

The boy exhales with a sigh.

"Why me…?" he mutters, then continues talking to himself. "The other day, I went up to the rooftop of the apartment building and ran into something strange. I've seen plenty of weird stuff in this city, but I've never seen someone asleep on top of the plants I take care of every day... and the way he looked—it was bizarre…"

Memory:

The same boy climbs the stairs leading to the rooftop, where he keeps potted plants. When he arrives, he finds a young man asleep on top of them. It looks as if he had fallen from a great height. Anyone might think he dropped from the sky—but how could anyone know for sure?

The stranger is wearing strange black clothing: dark robes, black chains around his arms, a kind of collar with black chains around his neck, and a mysterious mask covering the left side of his face. The boy has no idea what’s going on, but he tries to wake him up, shaking him without success.

"Damn it, I need to move him. Some of these plants aren’t even mine. If someone sees this, they'll charge me for the damage—and I have no money..." he says, struggling to lift the boy and drag him into his apartment.

The mysterious youth lay unconscious on the floor for quite a while until he slowly started waking up. His vision was blurry at first, but then it focused. He realized he was somewhere he had never seen before.

"Where the hell am I?! Aaargh!, Light?!" he shouted, startled. He jumped like a cat onto the bed when he noticed the sunlight streaming in through one of the apartment windows. "What kind of Kingdom is this?!" the masked boy asked, having anxiety in his voice.

"Kingdom?! What kind of question is that? Who the hell are you?!" the other boy fired back.

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments and quickly realized that, no matter how many questions they asked, they weren’t going to understand each other.

"I don’t know how I got here..." the masked boy muttered, scratching his head, trying to remember what had happened.

"It's been fifteen days since that guy appeared out of nowhere, and I’m out of money. I’ve had to help him with everything—registering him in the city, giving him a name, buying him a phone and a SIM card, lending him clothes... feeding him, of course. He’s going to work!" the boy declared, standing up from the bench, determined to confront the stranger who had so abruptly entered his life.

As the boy, named Tsutaiku, walks toward his apartment building.

Meanwhile, the mysterious stranger—who had suddenly arrived—sits elsewhere, staring up at the sky, deep in thought.

"Tenebrae... are you testing me? Do you want me to destroy this world?" he asks aloud, gazing at the clear blue sky as aircraft come and go above the bustling city.

Who is this “Tenebrae” he speaks to?

What does he mean by “destroy”?

Is this young man truly capable of something like that?