This chapter's epigraph is from a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled "The Ballad of the Three Kings." In this poem, Edgar explains that the three kings are spirits from the earth and the fifth heaven, and that they have been summoned to the Tower of Strength in order to face the trial. He says that the tower will guide him to the trial, but that he will have to pass the trial himself if he reaches the tower. He wonders how it is possible that he can defeat the three spirits when he is facing them. He also wonders if the power of the claymore is the same as before, and he wonders if there is any secret in it. He asks if it is a good idea to kill three people with one stone. He then wonders if it would be better to kill the three birds with only one stone than to kill them all with the same stone. The claymore, he says, is "substandard and extremely difficult" to control. He wants to kill him and take it for himself, but he knows that he is not