Episode 6: Sword Master (1)

Inside Wyndham castle, two noblemen scoff at the band's account of a monster on the battlefield and confront Guts, who is walking with a crutch, jeering that the creature must have given him his wounds. Guts grinds the crutch onto one man's foot and freezes the other with a hard stare when he moves to retaliate.

He finds Casca, Judeau, Pippin, Corkus, and Rickert gathered outside a keep where Griffith is mending from the injuries Zodd dealt him. Guts and Casca, still bitter from the argument that followed Zodd's escape, refuse to speak, though Judeau assures Guts that her temper stems from worry over Griffith rather than any grudge against him. When Guts tries to enter, the others explain that Griffith is receiving important nobles and clergy and must not be disturbed. He presses on anyway, calmly dropping two guards despite his wounds. On his third attempt, Casca herself blocks the way and strikes him across the face, demanding to know why he is so stubborn, and Guts storms off, too incensed to stay.

Working out his frustration, Guts drills on one of the castle terraces, where a crutch-bearing Griffith seeks him out. At Griffith's prompting they talk of the world's mysteries, chiefly whether gods and demons exist, and Guts answers plainly that what drove Zodd to flee was the sight of the Beherit. He then asks why Griffith came in person to save him, recalling a rescue three years earlier when he served as a rear guard. Griffith says no simple answer comes to mind, and turns the question back, asking why Guts should ever need one.

Guts intimidates two mocking noblemen and forces his way past guards toward the recovering Griffith, only to be struck by an enraged Casca. Training afterward, he and Griffith discuss the existence of gods and demons, Guts names the Beherit as the cause of Zodd's retreat, and Griffith deflects the question of why he rescued Guts.

The sixth chapter of the Golden Age Arc is twenty-nine pages long and ran in Young Animal issue one on December 25, 1992. The terrace conversation seeds the series' recurring themes of causality, ambition, and the bond between Guts and Griffith, and marks an early strain in the Guts and Casca relationship.