Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Miracle
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A familiar ceiling.
The colorless ceiling of the infirmary I'd been in and out of for three straight years.
I'd apparently lost consciousness right after using Break.
"Have you come to?"
Forcing my bleary eyes open, I heard an unfamiliar voice from beside me.
A girl sat next to the bed.
Purple hair. Green eyes. She looked a little young, like Cecilia, but her face was familiar.
The Empire's Saintess, Mina Rose. The top healer at [Apocalypse Academy] and one of the major heroines.
In the game, she only joined the scenario in the mid-to-late part of Chapter 2 because of her overwhelming healing output.
Cecilia and now Mina too. At this rate, I'd meet all the heroines before even enrolling in the academy.
"Soldier Halibal Belder, at your service, Saintess."
"...You knew who I was?"
"Yes. The Captain's mentioned you often. He said you're a beautiful woman with hair like Viola's."
Reciting her character description verbatim, Mina shyly averted her gaze.
Fortunately, she didn't seem displeased.
That aside, the fact that I'm alive means I must've taken down Shukarit, right?
The boss monsters in Apocalypse Academy all drop rare items or shards without fail.
So if I killed that thing, something had to have dropped.
But right now, I was in patient garb. I didn't know who changed me, but all my gear was gone.
No way someone took it in the meantime, right?
I asked right away.
"By any chance, are the others who were with me safe?"
How many were there again?
More than twenty, I thought.
The thought of tracking down and interrogating each one of them one by one made my vision go dark.
Mina looked at me, her expression turning sympathetic.
......As expected. Even right after waking, Sir Halibal worries about the others first.
"...It's not like that."
"No, I'm glad. You're exactly the image of the Sword of Mourning I imagined.
And with that, she beamed.
"Everyone who took part in the ritual is safe. Thanks to you, Sir Halibal."
Phew. At least that was a relief.
If anyone had died, I might've had to loot their corpses. Even for me, that would've been a bad look.
"Then, could you tell me what happened after I collapsed?"
"Gladly."
⁎⁎⁎
Miracle.
To Mina, the scene she'd witnessed could only be described as a miracle.
How long had it been since the dungeon fell to demonic energy? Finally, the energy subsided, and the firmly sealed entrance opened.
Adelin and Mina rushed straight inside.
"Ahh...!! It's Lady Adelin!"
"The Saintess is here too! We're saved!"
"There's a knight over there! He fought the beasts to protect us and got badly hurt...!!"
Amid the chaos, the first person they encountered was a soldier named Halibal, his entire body covered in soot.
Behind him lay a massive demon beast, its torso cleaved in half. It was clearly killed in a single blow.
At its center, Halibal held his sword aloft toward the sky.
Grayish flashes scattered from the blade's tip, rippling outward like an afterimage.
"Halibal, you... used Break...!"
Even as Adelin cried out, he gave no response.
He couldn't. He'd squeezed out every ounce of strength to surpass his physical limits.
And it was undoubtedly a choice to protect people he had no connection to.
"How long until...!"
Watching Adelin grit her teeth, Mina placed a hand over her heart.
Raised as a saintess in Erandar since childhood, Mina had been taught the doctrine of lifelong devotion to others.
But could humans really live like that?
How many people in the world would face death for strangers?
And now, she was seeing the answer right before her eyes.
That was the Sword of Mourning, Halibal Belder.
A man who could burn even his own body with nothing but the desire to protect others.
In that moment, for the first time, Mina wanted to revere not a god, but a human.
Because this boy before her seemed greater than all the doctrines she'd ever learned.
It was then.
The surrounding demon beasts began dissolving into dust, one by one.
And like a lie, the demonic energy blanketing the dungeon's entrance slowly faded away.
"This is...!!"
"Is the dungeon disappearing...?"
Dungeons usually retained some demonic energy even after being cleared.
That was why the beasts inside would respawn over time.
But this was different.
With the bisected massive demon beast at the center, the demonic energy was being uprooted entirely.
In other words, the entrance to the demon beast dungeon was no longer the domain of the Evil God—it had become humanity's territory.
What was most astonishing was that Halibal had achieved all this alone, without the "key" that was Mina.
It was an unprecedented feat in the history of the Cyrus Empire.
No—in all human history, the first victory against the Evil God's power.
Gazing at the boy holding his sword high, his body covered in burns, Mina suddenly realized something.
The word "devotion" she'd always parroted had never truly come from her heart.
The title of Saintess was just a hollow shell bestowed by the Empire; she was merely a child tamed by duty.
Yet this boy had done it without any orders or coercion.
More saintly than any cleric.
Far nobler than she, a saintess, could ever be.
With trembling hands, Mina looked at Halibal's sword.
The flash from its tip had nearly faded, but its afterglow settled deep in her heart.
She knew this was a dangerous emotion.
One a saintess must not harbor.
But at the same time, she couldn't ignore it.
She wanted to know his name, his voice—him.
Halibal Belder.
Repeating the name in her mind made her heart race.
'This man is probably a type of human I've never encountered in my life.'
Perhaps one she'd never meet again.
And the current her, having her heart stolen by such a person for the first time, might be yet another miracle he'd wrought.
With that thought, Mina cautiously extended her hand, infusing holy power into the fallen Halibal.
"Eh...?"
In the midst of the demon beast's corpse, something sparkling caught her eye.
⁎⁎⁎
"Halibal Break!"
On the way out of the dungeon, Adelin stopped at the child's shout from behind.
Halibal and Break. The familiar words together felt off, so she asked the child.
"What does that mean?"
"Before taking down that demon beast, that knight brother said it!"
"Not just Break?"
"Yeah! For real! He said it, and then flash! Light burst from his hand, boom boom boom! And the beast went down in one hit!"
Adelin's eyes wavered.
'Come to think of it, Corner Slash and Return Light. None of the arts that kid uses match what I know.'
At first, she'd thought he was just adapting existing arts from sparring with her.
That naming them was just personal taste.
But if even Break was a new form, this went beyond mere talent.
In fact, the wound on the demon beast's corpse she'd seen was nothing like a standard Break.
Break was for shattering defenses—it didn't have the power to bisect a massive demon beast like that.
There was only one conclusion.
'He created Break in his own unique form...!'
In other words, Halibal had the talent to invent swordsmanship.
Adelin unconsciously swallowed.
'No way... is this child's talent that of a Grandmaster?'
A swift sword that sealed any evasion.
Double slashes so fast they looked like one—phantom sword.
And amplification arts that grew stronger when chained.
If he'd created all that himself, he was qualified to be called a master in the future.
"Then it's 'Halibal Style Form 1: Corner Slash'?"
The absentminded mutter made the child beside her eyes sparkle as she shouted.
"Halibal Style?! That's so cool! Is that the knight brother's swordsmanship? Halibal Style?!"
"Uh...?"
"Mom! Hear that? Halibal Style, Halibal Style! Can we learn it at the dojo?!"
As the excited child ran off, her innocent voice reached the others.
"Halibal Style of the Sword of Mourning... Cool name right off the bat."
"Then we survived thanks to that Halibal Style!"
"Let's spread word of this swordsmanship across the Empire when we get out!"
Amid the spreading fervor, Adelin panicked briefly.
"Halibal Style" was just something she'd named offhand following noble sword-naming conventions.
It wasn't even a name Halibal made himself—wouldn't it be trouble if it spread?
But thinking it over, it wasn't all bad.
Halibal was a commoner.
Because of the deep burn scars from his past, many shunned him before even getting to know him.
Yet those who approached without prejudice all fell for him.
If his name spread far and wide, and everyone learned what he'd done, wouldn't how people saw him change?
Above all, letting a talent like this rot in the dark was something she, as a fellow swordswoman, couldn't stomach.
So Adelin resolved herself.
"Yes. Halibal Style. The swordsmanship personally created by the Sword of Mourning, Halibal Belder. Feel free to tell everyone."
After exiting the dungeon, she'd head straight to the Imperial Swordsmanship Institute and officially register "Halibal Style."
"Halibal Belder defeated the demon beast dungeon boss with Halibal Break!!"
"Ooooh!!"
"Halibal Break!!"
"Halibal Breeeeak!!"
Amid the cheers, Adelin quietly gazed at Halibal on her back.
'You don't need to thank me too much. Just surviving that day has already given me plenty.'
A week after that day.
Halibal's name and "Halibal Style" spread across the Empire.
Along with the finishing move "Halibal Break."
⁎⁎⁎
......So that's what happened.
After hearing the full story from Mina, one thought circled in my head.
'Fucking hell?'
The Evil God's Dungeon is designed with higher difficulty than others.
Normally, defeating mid-bosses purifies demonic energy up to that point, naturally creating save points and base camps.
So the respawns stopping at the entrance was just the game system working as intended.
I hadn't done anything special.
But according to Mina, the moment word spread that the dungeon was purified, the Empire sent an exploration team to set up a base camp right there.
And they planted a flag with my name on it.
"The Empire's Miracle. Halibal Belder."
Miracle my ass.
Even if it wasn't me, killing Shukarit would've led to the same result.
And Halibal Style? What the hell is that, you otaku?
I only came up with it because I couldn't use normal arts, squeezing my brain for all it was worth.
It's embarrassing to even call it swordsmanship. Just two hard slashes in one turn.
But apparently, it looked super innovative to everyone.
There are arts stronger than Corner Slash or Return Light everywhere. If I could've learned them, I would've ages ago.
Calling it ~Style implies it's a school you can teach others.
Who the hell am I gonna teach this to?
You're the only turn-based player in the world besides me.
And Halibal Break?
Thinking back, I vaguely remember saying something like that.
I was half out of my mind from the electric rat's attack; it just slipped out.
Who the fuck names their finisher after themselves? So embarrassing.
Anyway, I'd been laid up in the hospital for a week, and in that time, Adelin and Mina teamed up to officially register "Halibal Style" at the Imperial Swordsmanship Institute.
With the Empire's Greatest Sword and the Saintess showing up saying "register this," they couldn't refuse.
What a clusterfuck in just one week.
"I'm sorry. For pushing things forward without consulting you, Sir Halibal."
......No, it's fine.
It wasn't fine at all, but I couldn't ask them to cancel it now.
As I inwardly sighed heavily, Mina hesitantly spoke up.
"Um... please take this."
What she pulled from her bosom were two small boxes.
"This is...?"
"My thanks for what happened."
"I haven't done anything worthy of thanks from you, Saintess."
"No. You showed the Empire hope and shared the burden on my shoulders."
My knight persona slipped out naturally, rejecting it before I knew it—but honestly, I didn't want to.
You take what you can get. Luckily, she offered again, so I snatched it up.
"One is actually not thanks—it's something you should've had originally."
'Something I should've had?'
Opening the box revealed.
[Black Cloud]
"A shard from the demon beast you defeated. I picked it up."
"Ah..."
'No way... this dropped?'
Shards are basically divided by color, but special ones like this sometimes have unique names.
Among them, [Black Cloud] was a rare shard boosting flow by 8—a so-called endgame shard.
Special shards could only be equipped one per core slot, but that was a necessary restriction given their broken effects.
I was so clueless on how to handle it that my hands shook. With this alone, I'd literally become the demon of first turns.
As tears welled up uncontrollably from the overwhelming gratitude, Mina opened the other box.
"What I prepared as thanks is..."
Inside was a vial filled with holy power.
"...a burn scar treatment. If you take it steadily for about three years..."
Her words trailed off as our eyes met—hers and my teary ones.