Factory
Red light from the machine's eyes bore down on me.
The gaze of death vanished in the next moment.
Thwong!!
Four machine hands squeezed through the split iron door.
The closed machine hands began to slowly open.
Kkiik! Kkik!
Each hand expanded to the size that could fit a person.
That is, the size that could fit itself.
Wiing!! Tang! Tang!
One hand carried a saw blade to tear me apart, the other a pair of tweezers to lightly crush my head.
They started to cross over the door.
Tuk.
A foot made of steel appeared.
I could not simply stand and watch this.
Chuk.
Familiar leather texture wrapped around my palm.
I locked eyes with the target.
I poured mana into my palm more than usual.
I performed the swordsmanship I'd repeated hundreds of times, leaving a dent in my palm.
Haizen School, First Form.
Flash Two-Cut.
Taang!!
The attack advanced straight into the heart of the security machine without the slightest tremor.
However.
Kkik.
My sword was caught and fixed in the machine's hand.
The problem was that the gap between me and the machine was too severe.
Without a moment of despair, I immediately drew the next weapon.
Mana follows my will.
"Wind, cut!"
Mana surged.
Clear enough to see with the naked eye, mana bloomed from my left hand.
It soon spread like a blooming flower.
Toward the machine's core.
But.
Kwak! Pwacak!
"Kueup..."
Just a simple kick of the machine.
It was swung like a pest.
It was not visible.
It was not perceptible.
The gap was abysmal.
Chwaak.
Blue liquid from the cylinder poured over my head.
As it flew, it touched the cylinder.
Tung.
Despite the pain as if my abdomen had been pierced, I could see the form clearly.
The security machine crossed over the door.
That machine briefly looked at its own body.
But my wounds were only wind magic scratches.
It confirmed there was no abnormality.
The security machine slowly walked toward me.
Tung. Tung.
The closer it got, the louder the metallic sound of its feet.
Is this the sound of the bell of death?
Wiing!!
The saw blade like the blade of a death sentence spun furiously.
Looking at that form, I only sighed inwardly.
That I would not survive.
My consciousness blurred.
Would I die first from shock due to the pain in my abdomen?
But this much was clear.
If I closed my eyes, I would never see the light of the deep sea again.
My vision, like pressing a switch, went black.
***
Who is the sword master of the empire?
The answer to such a question was obvious, but many people appeared.
Who is the true inspector of the empire?
Although fewer people appeared than for the previous question, the answers were still multiple.
Then, who is the greatest sword of the empire?
There was only one answer to this question.
Seong, Haizen.
There were countless right-hand men to Seong, but none could follow him.
People said that to defeat him, one must bring a sword from the vanished era.
The greatest sword under heaven, the inspector with the best record in the era, the empire's greatest weapon.
All these titles were words that meant him.
Even his appearance was outstanding, and there were many people in the empire who admired him.
Orange hair like looking at the sun, blue galaxies in his eyes, sharp features.
Such a person, it was natural that stories spread across the empire.
But aside from this fame, he was a bizarre person.
He revealed his true identity in the gallery, and he did not refrain from his actions.
There was even a time when he was summoned to the imperial palace after a verbal fight in the gallery.
How bizarre he was would be hard to explain.
Such a man was now staring blankly into the void from his own mansion.
Or rather, precisely, it looked like he was staring into the void to someone else's eyes.
He was focused on the gallery.
"Please, wake up."
Aurora, the storm in the gallery recently.
The person who stirred the gallery with an extremely unusual weapon called the deep sea.
But had the deep sea not been so easy?
Aurora was on the verge of death.
A food factory security robot was heading toward his neck.
Why, it was not that fast.
The slow movement was correct, but Aurora had no leeway to avoid it.
Second, as he had taken Aurora as a disciple.
Haizen's heart raced as if on fire.
Haizen-nim? Tea is prepared... uh, uh... I'll get back to you later...
The servant who was about to enter Haizen's room, terrified by the enormous sight, turned back.
Even in such a situation, his eyes were fixed on one thing.
The saw blade moving as if approaching death.
That saw blade had now reached the point of touching skin.
Tuduk. Tuduk.
It splashed the blue liquid covering his neck and accurately targeted the carotid artery.
It was approaching.
...No, it had already approached.
☐Truth Scholar: Please! Please get up! Uh...?
☐Treatment Is Violence: ...What?
It disappeared.
The security machine.
Without any sound, without any sign, without even a small fragment.
Most people accepted this as annihilation.
But Haizen could see the form.
The machine being swallowed by tentacles covered in black scales.
If it were a scholar, he would be curious about the essence of the egg.
A magician or swordsman would instinctively know the danger of the egg.
But Haizen did not care about any of that.
What mattered was that his beloved disciple had survived.
He immediately kicked open the door and stepped out.
Kung!!
Kyaak!! ...Haizen-nim?
The servant waiting beside the door was startled by the violent appearance.
Yet he could not control his joy.
"Today, I will sprinkle five times the monthly salary on all servants!"
Haizen was a monster who acted on his emotions.
Because of this, Haizen received a notice from the imperial palace not to spend money like a poor person.
***
"...This place is hell."
The impression I felt when I opened my eyes.
It was so dark inside the warehouse that it seemed there was no real hell lower than this.
After briefly looking around, I realized the security machine had disappeared.
Curious about what had happened, I asked from the broadcast, but...
☐Truth Scholar: It's not fake, right?! It's the real Aurora, right?
☐Treatment Is Violence: Yihahahou!
☐Treatment Is Violence: We really survived, that's fortunate. But aside from that, the Sword Sage guy is a bit weird?
☐Education Master: Umm... I don't know how, but the machine disappeared instantly.
Everyone doesn't know what happened.
No, there's probably one person who knows.
Anyway, I survived.
Whether it was misfortune or luck, I decided to think of it as luck.
While lying there catching my breath, I noticed one strange point.
The pain in my abdomen, as if it had been pierced, had disappeared.
After a moment of hesitation, I decided to use the tool.
My waist-mounted scanner.
"Ah! It's broken..."
However... was it because I received too strong an impact?
Part of the scanner's screen was broken.
The good thing was that there was no problem seeing the information.
Thinking I would have to make it again, I scanned the blue liquid covering my body.
Passing through the wet honey-like substance was blue light.
Soon, the information appeared.
-Collaborative hatching enzyme of ████ Ltd. and ████.
-Target: Hatching enzyme made to hatch Haeasha's egg.
It imitates the essential mana of the essential element.
"...Eh? What is this?"
As I read the information, I could only say that.
Even if it was burned, seeing no letters at all was the first time.
There was an uncomfortable feeling like the story had been cut off.
But what could I do, I could not read it.
However, did this recover my body?
My arm, which had been tattered by the mana I used earlier, was restored.
Whether it was medicine or not, I was not sure.
Since it did not cause me damage, I decided to take it a little.
I slowly stood up from my seat.
Even though the clinging hatching enzyme felt unpleasant, there was no other abnormality besides that.
Tuk. Tuk.
The hatching enzyme sticking to my body made an unpleasant sound that lingered in my ears.
At the moment I tried to leave the room, ...
Tuk.
"...What is this?"
A round object caught on the tip of my foot.
Looking down at the object, it was the black light egg I had seen before.
The egg wrapped in hatching enzyme.
Perhaps the name of this creature is 'Haeasha'.
"Is it a ruler...?"
The creature of this egg carried the meaning of ruler.
Curiosity brushed against the grand name.
Since the one who had been still inside the hatching enzyme, I thought scanning would be fine.
☐Truth Scholar: ...Isn't it too far away?
☐Treatment Is Violence: Does it recognize me over there?
I peeked my head from behind the broken cylinder and held the scanner toward it.
...Honestly, I didn't want to die.
Anyway, the scanner faithfully spewed blue light and scanned the egg.
Soon, the information unfolded before me.
-Haeisha's egg.
-The ruler from the era when ████ overflowed.
It is said that his ability is similar to the main power of ████.
The information was rather meager.
More like a phrase close to legend than accurate information.
Still, it didn't seem immediately dangerous.
"Now, let's go back."
I checked the prism state in my pocket and took a step out of the food factory.
...But there was a problem.
☐Truth Scholar: Eh... The egg is following?
☐Treatment Is Violence: No, it moves like teleporting.
☐Education Master: How does the egg teleport....
Behind me as I walked out of the food factory, the egg followed.
That strange sight, I jumped, but...
"Huk... huk."
The egg still chased behind me.
...I acquired the black egg.
Forcibly.