A Greeting Heading North (1)
Eclipse, as expected, managed to block the sword strike. But she clearly didn't understand the situation, because she turned to me with wide eyes.
“Y-Yohan, sir! What in the world is thiiiis?!”
“I received it from Cryan’s uncle a while ago. He said it was a blade given to the Imperial Guard. It’s an incredibly valuable item….”
Clang—!
“You bastard. After turning me into a laughingstock, do you really have time to chatter…?!”
“Damn it, I didn’t even do anything. Why are you taking it out on me, Asparug?”
“…S-Shut up!”
As I struggled to block Gorgo’s attack and spoke, Eclipse let out a panicked “Awaaah!” and clutched the sword tightly to her chest as she answered.
“T-To give someone like me such a precious sword…! But I understand! I-I’ll do my best and fight with it!”
And all I could do was think,
‘There’s no level restriction, so she should be able to wield it without issue. Still, I’m not sure if the current Eclipse can actually swing it properly.’
She hadn’t experienced the exact same things as in the original history. She was riding the wave of an original storyline I had created. It was true she had gone through quite a lot in her own way, but as the one who had changed her fate, I couldn’t help feeling uncertain.
However, Eclipse quickly drew the blade from its sheath. The moment her hand closed around the hilt…
“…It’s mesmerizing. How can a sword be this beautiful—.”
Whoosh, whoosh—.
“Is it possible for a sword to feel this familiar in your hand? As expected of the Imperial Family, even their blades are on another level….”
She merged her body and the sword into one with such skill that it made all my worries seem pointless.
“With this…”
Then—perhaps it was just my imagination—
Fwoosh—.
It felt as if a radiance like the sun itself flared in Eclipse’s eyes.
“Second Form, Solar Eclipse.”
No. This was no illusion.
She gathered power into both hands. Without anyone telling her to, she unconsciously unleashed the Sun-Obscuring Swordplay.
Flash—!
“…Ugh. What the hell are you two doing?!”
“The effect is killer.”
In that instant, an overwhelming flash of light stole our vision, so bright it felt like our eyes would freeze over. And within that pure white blindness, what we could see was a small silhouette—black against the light, like the moon swallowing the sun during an eclipse and casting its shadow before the blaze.
But that silhouette wasn’t large enough to truly be called “small.” It seemed she still couldn’t fully manifest a complete solar eclipse. Even so, that tiny shadow was enough for the Six Sword, Asparug, to see something in it.
“…Solar…is?”
And the being who was difficult to call either “her” or “him”—Asparug—clutched their head as if in pain. It was as if they had completely forgotten they were supposed to continue the fight.
Then the light exploded.
BOOOOOOM—!
The very moment Eclipse, whom everyone had assumed only used fire magic, channeled the solar power of the Sun Clan through Solaris and unleashed Celestial Magic for the first time.
“…Nice.”
Because I had seen exactly what I wanted to see, I stepped in front of the momentarily stunned Asparug… and blocked Eclipse’s sword with my left pauldron, which had not yet been destroyed.
Crack—.
Fortunately, it didn’t break the skin, but the bone shattered, sending pain radiating through my entire upper body. My face twisted in agony. And I wasn’t the only one grimacing—both Eclipse and Asparug wore the same expression.
“U-Uwaaaah?! W-What did I just… Wait, I only used the fire magic I normally use?! Then why did Yohan get hit?! Did I aim wrong?! I’m sorry! Eclipse is a stupid idiot!!”
“…Yohan. You bastard, why—?”
Sandwiched between the girl and the demon who were both staring at me in shock, I endured the searing pain and muttered,
“Right now you may be Asparug, but before that, you are the Great Mother of the North—Her Highness Gorgo. If I let so much as a scratch appear on your body, how could I ever face my lady again?”
“…If you thought that would earn my favor, you’re mistaken, you pathetic fool. No matter what you do, to my eyes you’re nothing more than prey writhing before death. Just die already.”
“…Who said anything about dying, you idiot.”
“Looks like you don’t have eyes in the back of your head. Even a Six Sword is nothing in front of this Rorschach.”
“Whoa?!”
At that moment, the clone I had created with Rorschach appeared without warning and casually twisted the nail embedded in the back of Asparug’s head.
Creeeak—.
“Ah…”
Instantly, the sclera of Gorgo’s eyes—which had been pitch black—returned to pure white. The frilly magical girl outfit that had looked so ridiculous was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that something reacted to the power of the Six Swords, but since Casacos was the one who created that mechanism, even I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked.
“…Wow, it really feels like I was dreaming.”
Gorgo, now returned to herself, gave me a rather warm smile as if she had trusted in my abilities all along… but the moment she saw my shattered armor and the mangled, broken state of my arm, she was genuinely flustered.
“…U-Uwaaah— Wait, what the heck did I do?! That was me, wasn’t it?! Lord of Steel, are you alright?”
“I get hurt this badly on a regular basis, so it’s no problem.”
And Eclipse, who somehow ended up looking like she had bothered me all day long, was in much the same state.
“Y-Yohan, siiiir! I-I’m so sorryyyy!!! What am I going to do? It feels like I’ve done nothing but cause trouble for you all day…!”
In truth… I was the one who had stepped forward and caused most of it, so she didn’t need to feel that guilty. Still, she really was kind. Kind enough that I felt like teasing her.
“You’re always like this anyway, so it’s fine.”
“Huh?”
“Just kidding. A broken arm can be fixed easily enough.”
“Y-Yohaaaan…!”
The way she stomped her feet in frustration was so adorable that no one knew it better than I did. Back when I first approached her and we had tea together, the bad impression I’d left during the entrance exam made her freeze up noticeably whenever I was nearby. The fact that she could now get angry at my mischievous teasing meant she had grown that comfortable with me.
To be honest, it didn’t feel bad at all.
Becoming close to the protagonist of this world—the very person whose face was on the game package that had dragged me here—felt surprisingly good in its own way. It was like having a slightly airheaded little sister. I finally understood what my lady meant when she sometimes said, “I want to carry that child around in my pocket…”
Ziiiing—.
To show that I was fine, I did what I always did and healed my broken arm with Azero before proudly puffing out my chest.
“This thing really comes in handy. Without it, I probably would’ve been a quadruple amputee these past few months.”
The moment I gently patted the shoulder of the timidly shrinking Eclipse, she let out a sigh of relief, as if she had finally relaxed.
I looked at her and asked,
“By the way, Eclipse, how was that sword you just used? It’s called Solaris.”
“…Ah, I was just about to tell you about it.”
Eclipse hugged the sheathed blade to her chest as if it were something precious and shared her honest impressions without holding back.
“It felt like I was swinging something absolutely incredible.”
“Incredible…?”
“All my life I’ve only used the swordsmanship passed down in my family and the magic I learned at home. But the moment I held that sword, it felt like someone was pouring new knowledge directly into my head. Like it was teaching me an entirely different kind of power…?”
“…I see.”
“From the instant I gripped it, every one of my abilities felt like it had expanded… I could only feel awe at how such a masterpiece could exist.”
As expected, there was no problem with Eclipse wielding the sword. Moreover, it didn’t seem like she had been consumed by the power of Solaris. Well, I wasn’t entirely sure. She had unconsciously radiated solar power, so interpreting that was a bit ambiguous. But at the very least, the fact that she could stand here and converse normally after using it meant the chances of anything having gone wrong were extremely low.
In the original history, Nonedon—the one who dropped this sword—was a boss who only appeared in the late game. For Eclipse to be swinging a reward item from that late-game stage meant she had achieved a literal unimaginable power-up. Just like how I had pulled Drakaris from the head of the Lord of the Snowy Mountains—a foe I could only defeat in the late game—and cheated my way through battles while spraying frost sword energy everywhere, the same would likely be true for her.
“A-Anyway, Yohan, sir… Thank you so much for showing me something this precious! I used it well…!”
With that, Eclipse tried to hand the sword back to me.
‘What? I was just going to give it to her…’
But when I thought about it, I had handed it over without saying it was a gift, only using curt military-style language like “resupply” because the situation was urgent. So her reaction made sense.
That’s why I said,
“You don’t have to return it.”
Her eyes widened into perfect circles, as if she couldn’t understand what I was saying.
“…H-Huh?”
“Every object has someone it fits perfectly. This one seems to suit you far better than me, so you should keep it. I already have plenty of swords inside my body, so I don’t need it.”
“R-Really?! B-But you said it was an imperial sword! I’m not worthy of something like that…”
Even as she said that, the way she instinctively pulled the blade back to her chest whenever she extended it toward me was completely honest.
“No, take it. I said it was supplies earlier, but the truth is, I brought it as a gift for you.”
“Why…?”
Eclipse’s face flushed bright red like a child who had just received the wonderful toy she had always wanted.
“I haven’t forgotten the kindness and help you showed my lady.”
“Kindness and help? When was that…?”
“Stop pretending you don’t know. I’m talking about the time when my one and only most precious lady thought I was dead and fell into despair.”
“…T-That was…”
The memory naturally came to both of us—the time when she, along with Cryan and Jurchen, had delivered the harmonized peony and my letter. I had rewarded Cryan, Jurchen, and Hilken in my own ways for their efforts, but I still hadn’t done anything for her. Apart from expressing gratitude, from the perspective of managing those who had rendered meritorious service, leaving it like that wasn’t right. Abandoning someone who had entered my circle was unacceptable.
“In the North, there’s a saying: never forget a favor, nor an enemy.”
“Thank you, thank you so much… Yohan, siiiir…!”
“It’s nothing.”
Gorgo, who had been quietly listening from behind, smiled and spoke up.
“How wonderful. Proverbs really don’t change even after three hundred years? That saying existed in my time too.”
“Most things are like that. There’s something called inertia, after all.”
Anyway, having gained quite a satisfying result and spectacle, we decided to clean up the area for now. Of course, Eclipse had already diligently tidied the surroundings earlier, but after Gorgo transformed into Asparug and rampaged again, the place was an absolute mess.
“Alright. Let’s clean up this disaster zone and take a little break…”
But as if it had been waiting for that very moment—
Whoosh—.
Flap, flap—.
From far beyond, a suspicious sound like the flapping of wings reached us.
“…?!”
Wing sounds. Wings… sound?
‘Wyvern?’
I didn’t want to pay it any attention, but the moment I heard that sound, memories of my grueling time in the North came flooding back. Because that noise was exactly the same as the cursed wingbeats those creatures made.
So, following the habit I had developed while hunting wyverns in the North, I pulled out the specially crafted telescope that allowed me to confirm distant targets and looked into the distance.
“…Wait a second, that’s…?”
And I drew in a sharp breath.