I Became the Hero Who Travels with the Mesugaki Saint.
Elfride had not taught me much in the first lesson. She had explained from the very beginning that swordsmanship started with the basics.
I had learned how to stand and how to grip the hilt. And from her instruction I realized something else: I was holding my sword wrong.
“...Eh? Like this?”
“That way puts too much strain on your fingers and the joints get damaged easily. Right now you can endure it because you have received a blessing and divine power, but we should consider the future as well.”
“Ah....”
So that was it.
“Also, your stance should be wider than shoulder-width. This will prevent your balance from being thrown off.”
“Yes.”
Elfride was incredibly enthusiastic in her teaching. It was something I was deeply grateful for. Even though I had given her nothing, she corrected my posture down to the smallest details.
It felt unfamiliar, yet strangely more comfortable. It was good that I was learning properly, after all.
“You’re picking it up quite well. But you’re still more familiar with the sword, so I find it relatively easy to teach.”
“Hehe, thank you.”
Yes, training while being praised felt good. I wouldn’t have the energy if someone just berated me, right?
“Now swing the sword from high to low. You’ll put much more power into it.”
Whoosh!
“Oh.”
It was real. I had put in the usual amount of strength, but the sword moved faster. Was this the importance of proper stance?
“By the way, Abel, your Holy Sword is shaped quite uniquely. Was it always like that?”
“Ah, this? Originally it wasn’t like this. When I opened the sword it changed like this. The hilt and the pommel are the same way.”
When I explained, Elfride looked amazed.
“Changes to the hilt or pommel have happened with my Holy Sword as well, but the blade itself changing is something I’ve never seen. Levius’s Holy Sword didn’t have this kind of change either.”
“Really?”
Even the activation conditions... it seemed the Holy Sword of Order was full of peculiarities in many ways. What would happen if all its power was fully unlocked?
Elfride gave me a few more posture corrections, then clapped her hands.
“That will be enough for today.”
“Yes.”
I sheathed the sword on my back and said,
“Lady Elena must have returned, right?”
“She should be returning soon. If it’s her, she probably wouldn’t have dragged out the conversation with Father too long.”
“...Sister is quite obedient, I guess.”
“...That comment sounded more like you’re saying I’m not obedient.”
“Ah, not at all. I just thought she was gentle.”
...Actually, Elfride had collided with Father properly earlier, and it seemed she often did so anyway.
Elfride’s personality wasn’t the problem. She had a bit of an idealistic streak, but that wasn’t an issue, and she was rather balanced.
Still, Elfride colliding with Father meant there was something wrong with Duke Bathory. From the story I had just heard I could already glimpse his humanity.
“I’ll go meet Lady Elena first. You should know that it might not work.”
“I know that as well. I’ll never blame you for the result. Please be at ease.”
Then it was time for me to teach her something.
“How do you use the Holy Sword’s abilities?”
“...Your Holy Sword hasn’t awakened its ego yet, so I don’t think you can use its abilities through communication with the sword.”
“Yes.”
“Then....”
Elfride told me another method, and I couldn’t help but be startled.
“Don’t worry too much. It’s truly a good method.”
“...Yes.”
...Is it really good?
#
“Elena.”
“...Sister?”
After finishing her talk with Duke Bathory, Elena returned to her room. A guest had arrived: her older sister Elfride Bathory and the other hero, Abel, whom she had invited.
Elena, who had been lying on the bed resting, looked at Abel with a slight start, as if she hadn’t expected a visitor. Then she sat up and said,
“Hero Abel, what brings you here?”
“Ah, just stay there. You don’t have to get up. I wanted to test something for a moment.”
“Eh?”
Elfride explained to the tilting-headed Elena.
“Hero Abel’s Holy Sword of Order can also cure your illness, so I asked him to test it.”
“...Eh? My illness?”
Elena’s eyes widened. Of course they would. Her illness was one that the continent’s top doctors had all examined, and every doctor had given up.
The doctors who had diagnosed Elena had all said the same thing: this was the first time they had seen a disease with no known cause and no premonitory symptoms.
But now a sword could cure it? Elena had no choice but to be surprised.
Looking at Elena, who unconsciously showed expectation, Elfride smiled sadly.
“It’s only a possibility. If you get too hopeful it might burden Abel, so please lower your expectations.”
“...Yes, I know.”
Still, Elena couldn’t let go of her hope. How could she, when this disease that tormented her body every day and stole future possibilities from her might be curable with a sword?
Abel drew the sword from his back. Elena gulped nervously. Abel smiled gently at her and said,
“It’s fine. Relax.”
“...Yes.”
Abel placed the sword’s edge against his forearm. And then...
Slash.
“Ouch, Hero-sama!?”
“Ouch....”
“What was that all of a sudden... Sister, call the doctor quickly...!”
“You don’t need to worry. It’s just a tiny cut, after all.”
Abel, having cut his own forearm with the Holy Sword, let the blood drip onto the blade. Instantly the blood flowing along the sword’s edge disappeared as if evaporating. Both Elena and Abel were surprised by the sight.
“...Did it work?”
“It needs a little more.”
Abel nodded and continued letting the blood drip slowly. The white blade continued to drink the blood flowing along it, swallowing it completely.
‘...Does the Holy Sword eat blood?’
He didn’t know why the Holy Sword absorbed the user’s blood, but one thing was certain.
The ability was activating properly. He didn’t know if this was the ability Cardinal Antonio had spoken of, but that was something that could only be confirmed by testing it now.
“That’s enough, Abel.”
As Elfride had said, the Holy Sword changed. The white blade began to glow faintly on its own. Abel looked at Elena and said,
“Lady Elena.”
“Yes, Hero-sama.”
“You might feel a bit of pain.”
“...Eh?”
Whoosh!
The Holy Sword of Order pierced Elena’s chest. Yet something felt like it was entering, and not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound.
Elena exclaimed in astonishment,
“...W-what is this?”
“Elena, stay calm. Abel must not lose concentration.”
“Ah, yes....”
Abel kept the sword planted in Elena’s chest, eyes closed, and focused. Elfride explained to him,
The Holy Sword’s power can be controlled by the hero. If you focus properly only once and pull out that power, you’ll be able to use it freely from then on.
Abel was searching for the power embedded in the Holy Sword.
‘...No feeling.’
Following Elfride’s words, he successfully drove the Holy Sword that had absorbed Elena’s blood into her heart.
Just as Elfride had said, the sword was stuck in her heart, yet nothing happened. Elena was alive and well, and the chest where the sword was embedded showed no wound or bleeding.
But to complete the process, Abel had to draw out the hidden power of the Holy Sword. Only then would everything be finished perfectly. Abel concentrated again and again.
Suddenly, beyond his closed eyes, something sparkling appeared in the pitch-black vision. It was small yet shining brightly. Abel immediately understood what it was.
‘The power of the Holy Sword...?’
#
Abel, who had remained still for a long time, slowly opened his eyes. Right after, the Holy Sword of Order began to shine even more brightly. He removed his hand, and the light spread across Elena’s entire body.
“W-what is this!? Something strange is happening to my body all of a sudden...!”
“Just stay still.”
“Eh?”
“Then you’ll be completely healed.”
Abel smiled faintly, reassuring her. Elena blinked a few times, then looked at the sword in her chest and said,
“...I’m not going to die, right?”
“You won’t. Does it still hurt?”
“Ah, no....”
“Right? It’s fine. I’m healing Lady Elena’s illness.”
Elfride’s eyes widened at Abel’s words. She had felt hope too, but had thought there was no choice but to try even if it failed.
She had judged that trying was worth it anyway, and that it would harm Elena in no way.
Yet Abel, the owner of the Holy Sword, had said with conviction that he sensed something and that her illness would be cured. Elfride asked him,
“...Can it truly be cured?”
“Not certain, but probably. If what I saw wasn’t a hallucination.”
“...You saw it?”
Elfride recalled her own past experience before awakening the Holy Sword of Trust. She had had a similar experience.
“Did you see that light thread as well?”
“Eh? You saw it too, Elfride?”
Seeing that thread meant the power of the Holy Sword had truly been awakened. Elfride had experienced the same phenomenon before awakening Luna, and not long after, the ego of the Holy Sword, Luna, awakened.
Elfride looked at Elena. White light was flowing from the Holy Sword of Order, swirling around her body and restoring color to her previously pale skin.
“Elena. You....”
“S-Sister... I really....”
The skin that had always been pale because of her constant illness was now gaining color. That was proof that the illness was being cured.
Elfride went to Elena. She gently touched her sister’s cheeks, now returning to color, and said with a trembling voice,
“It really... really is that you’re getting better.”
“I-I’m not dreaming, right?”
Elena’s hand, now also showing color, gripped Elfride’s lightly. It was not the hand that had once been so pale the blue veins were visible.
By now Elfride’s cheeks were streaming tears hotter than ever. She looked at the hand she held.
Grasping that hand tightly, Elfride whispered softly to her most precious blood relative,
“...Yes, it’s not a dream.”