Gacha Game
"Urgh…"
"Sister! Drive her that way!"
"Ah, got it!"
Two women, covered head to toe in dirt and wounds, charged forward. Their opponent was a tiny girl whose power far outstripped her size — Lea.
Lea simply stood there holding a wooden sword, staring blankly ahead. Given their ranks as Hero and Knight Commander, the two of them should have been more than capable of handling her.
But.
"Faster."
"Gah!"
"Urgh!"
In the blink of an eye, Lea's sword struck both of them — one in the gut, the other in the shoulder. Neither managed so much as a single counter before tumbling across the ground.
Adela gasped for breath, using her wooden sword like a cane to push herself upright.
…It won't break.
She had poured mana into the wooden blade until it was harder than ordinary steel — but that was all it amounted to. Adela was a powerhouse bearing six stars. She had the strength to carve through steel, even small hills, as easily as tofu; steel alone was well within her ability to cut. And with Airi-style swordsmanship on top of that, wooden sword or steel should have made no difference at all.
But… why.
"Wow, it really won't break. Sister! Put some more power into it!"
"…I'm trying."
"Can't you fire off that golden sword aura I saw you use before? Like, whoosh whoosh? That should do it."
"That kind of empty display will not work against her. And this Knight Commander is not your sister."
"Aww, come on."
Haring also gasped for air and sprang back to her feet. Lea was harsh, but she never struck someone who'd already gone down a second time. She simply stood there blankly, waiting until they got up again, then resumed the fight. Of course, if you stayed down and refused to rise, a wooden sword would come flying at your head — but that was the general idea.
Haring sidled up to Adela and whispered.
"At this rate we'll be getting beaten all day. Got any ideas?"
"…She will not remain long regardless."
Adela said this as she corrected her stance. Lea had already been overseeing their training for four hours straight, but she was a dragon whose true nature was extreme laziness. She would clearly leave before long.
But.
Whoosh!
"If we don't finish this today, the same situation will just repeat next time."
"That's… yeah."
"So we end it in one blow. This Knight Commander will draw her attention — use that."
"Huh? Shouldn't you be the one using that, Sister? I barely even know what that is…"
"That is precisely why you must use it. To make the Fire Dragon drop her guard."
Haring looked troubled, but she soon nodded and stepped back slightly.
Once their conversation ended, Lea approached with light steps.
"You two getting along better?"
"……"
"Yeah, stay close. Looks like you'll be seeing each other a lot from now on."
"I'm going in."
"Hmm?"
Flash!
Adela struck first. All six of her cores activated at once, and explosive energy erupted from her body.
BOOM—!
"Ugh!"
Even Haring, preparing a technique from behind, was shoved back by the force of the blast. Adela's sword flashed toward Lea's neck in an instant — but it was useless.
Clang-clang-clang…!
"Too simple."
Her blade was stopped cold by Lea's wooden sword. Even as she poured continuous pressure into the locked weapons, Lea's wooden sword remained completely intact.
Crack…!
Rather, it was Adela's own wooden sword — pushed to its absolute limit with energy — that began to shatter and splinter. Disappointment colored Lea's eyes.
"Is that all?"
"……"
"At this rate, next time we'll just do the same traini—"
"It is already complete."
"?"
Lea's gaze turned behind her. From Haring — who had been hiding as quiet as a dead mouse — a familiar energy erupted.
A swordsmanship of sharp yet simultaneously soft harmony. A sword dance born from a genius of the blade who, at the pinnacle, could cut through anything.
It was truly pathetic — just a crude imitation of the movements — but enough to achieve the immediate goal.
Ultimate Technique. First Form.
"Airi Slash!"
"!"
"Don't change the technique name to something weird!"
A mystical sword strike reminiscent of Airi itself cut clean through Lea's wooden sword.
Why are you dancing while swinging a sword?
Huh? I'm not dancing.
Aren't you dancing?
About eighty years ago, I sat on a rock and tilted my head, watching a yellow-haired girl bounce and twirl through the air — Airi.
Her talent was extraordinary. In the more than two hundred years I'd lived since reincarnating, I had never seen a genius of this caliber. Of course, Bahamart was an exception — but that guy was outstanding across every field. When it came to swordsmanship alone, Airi was in no way inferior.
At the age of fifteen, she abandoned the swordsmanship of the Crimson Sea Hero — considered the greatest of the era — and created a style entirely her own.
That person's swordsmanship doesn't suit me. This feels better for me.
Airi was a genius of the sword, after all. If she'd been born into a noble or knight family instead of a farmer's daughter, she probably would have taken a Legion Commander's head or two by now.
So what's that called?
This? I haven't really decided on a technique name… Hmm. Airi Slash?
Pretty straightforward.
Hehe. Right? Of course, future generations will give it a super cool name!
Future generations? You're already looking that far ahead?
Of course. This swordsmanship will be one of the best even in the future. Definitely.
I chuckled at Airi's confident declaration back then — but her words actually came true. Airi-style swordsmanship is still rated among the greatest sword arts even seventy years later.
"Airi Slash… what a nostalgic name."
"Cough…! The heavens are spinning…"
"But the later generations are ridiculously weak, Airi."
It was good that the style had been passed down — but both Adela and Haring each had a screw loose. One was fairly complete, yet she prepared techniques out in the open during combat. The other had managed to use it by somehow inducing a drop in guard, but it was literally just imitation; she still had a long way to go. And then she'd used that mere imitation and nearly died, which was pretty funny.
Still, for someone who'd only learned the basics, it was quite impressive.
I stroked Haring's head as she was hurriedly carried off by the priests.
"Well done, Haring."
"Uh, ehehe… I got recognized… free exp…"
"I'll pay more attention to you from now on."
"Eheh… Huh? I, I must've misheard—"
"I'd gotten pretty tired of the Heroes lately."
When I first saw the mass-produced Heroes, I'd felt a spark of determination. I was bored anyway, and I thought it might be fun to raise these Heroes properly into full-fledged ones. That was how I started taking disciples — but I quickly realized there were far more Heroes than I'd expected. On top of that, Heroes were immortal undying beings, and with so many arrogant, fearless ones among them, it became extremely annoying and exhausting. To the point where I didn't even want my existing disciples around anymore.
But looking at Nya-nya and Haring, I realized something.
"The disciples I chose should be about A-rank, right? Not S yet, I don't think."
"E-eeeeh?"
"Whether they'll climb to SR… I'm not sure. But they should at least be that good, right?"
If the old hag pulling thousands of mass-produced Heroes was like a Hero Gacha Game… then Nya-nya and Haring should be about A-rank. Even if I looked for other Heroes to take as disciples, finding ones of this grade would be hard.
Haring kept babbling even in her dazed state.
"I aaaaam… SSR… a broken character you can only get at pity…"
"Not that high."
SSR would require someone like Airi, the Crimson Sea Hero, or maybe the Eastern Continent Saintess. Bahamart was obviously off the scale.
Anyway, Nya-nya and Haring were high enough grade picks that I could properly look after them.
"I'll check on you once every three days from now on. You can look forward to it."
"Ah… is that a good thing…?"
"Of course."
"Eeeh…"
Anyway, after Haring was carried off, I approached Adela, who was likewise receiving treatment from a priest. Unlike Haring — who'd coughed up a handful of blood and collapsed after using the Ultimate Technique alone — Adela was surprisingly fine. She was a six-star owner to begin with, thoroughly physically trained, and had an excellent bloodline, so it was only natural.
I stared intently at Adela sitting on the sickbed.
"Why… are you looking at me like that? Surely you don't mean to continue training right away."
"Adela is about SR."
"…? What is that?"
"It's a thing."
Adela would be perfect as a Hero. Why hadn't she been chosen as one? Given the Goddess's obsession with strong Heroes, it wouldn't have been strange for Adela to have been selected long ago.
Come to think of it…
Somehow, most Heroes came from other worlds, and I hadn't seen any Heroes from this world recently. When I asked Adela about this, she answered as if it were obvious.
"In this generation, there isn't a single Hero from this world."
"Why?"
"I do not know either. When I inquired at the temple, they simply said, 'The Goddess must have her reasons.'"
"Hmm…"
"I share a similar thought. If it is the Goddess, she must have some grand design."
"Not really."
"…Pardon?"
The old hag doesn't really think things through. She's just a gacha-obsessed old lady — I don't think she has some grand plan. If anything, if she was pulling, she would have pulled more, but there's no way she wouldn't pull natives of this place.
I stood up from my seat, arms crossed in thought.
"I'll just ask."
"The Goddess?"
"No."
You can't meet the Goddess unless she comes to find you herself. So I'll go find someone I can meet.
"She's at Bahamart's villa, right?"