The Sword That Pierces Enlightenment
Lahan had been watching Estella's magic applications with growing fascination.
In the past, he recalled the solitary tree standing alone in the remote rear courtyard of Carlson's house, separated by a fair distance.
That tree. Lahan had positioned himself at a measured distance from it, standing perfectly still. Then he slowly lowered his stance, channeling blue Sword Aura around the tip of his blade.
Next, he closed his eyes.
The world vanished into darkness.
'What separates me from the people of this world? What more can I achieve here with only 21st-century knowledge?'
The thought stretched on, but the conclusion was swift.
'What I can do is…'
A gust of autumn wind swept through.
In the darkness, a sound he could never hear from this world grew louder and louder, filling his ears.
It was the sharp crack of a modern rifle firing.
CRACK—!
Lahan's closed eyelids snapped open in an instant.
He extended his blade toward the leaves fluttering down around him.
The blue Sword Aura synchronized perfectly with his shoulder motion, transforming like a modern bullet and streaking forward with terrifying speed to pierce through the canopy of leaves ahead.
It was an exact replica of the sound and form of a rifle shot.
Lahan captured the image in his mind.
The image of firing a rifle on rapid burst.
“…!”
Just moments ago, Estella had been full of admiration. Now she stood frozen, mouth agape, eyes wide with shock.
Of course she was shocked. The technique Lahan had demonstrated was nothing short of a miracle, far surpassing ordinary magic. Between the trees and thickets of the forest, Sword Aura lanced forward, slicing through foliage and spearing every living creature's head precisely through the center with a hole the size of a pinprick. Her detection magic had revealed every one of them.
The rapid piercing strikes of the sword and the rifle shots had ceased.
The chirping of birds had vanished entirely.
Complete silence filled the area.
All life ahead had fallen utterly silent.
'Monsters…'
Lahan's throat bobbed.
Estella stared at his back and swallowed the saliva that had suddenly gathered in her mouth.
What on earth was this? Was this not magic transcending magic itself, but a miracle?
Lahan's technique was a kind of power that no swordsmanship could ever replicate.
Miracle that surpasses magic!
Lahan did not stop there. Using the tips of all five fingers, he wove threads of his own Aura, each one distinct, and began hauling in the corpses of the Rabbit Horns that lay pierced through the head in front of him, bringing them all in a single moment to the open clearing nearby.
Standing behind him, Estella watched the entire process with an expression as if she were gazing at a monster.
'…Is this a newly graduated training knight?'
Unbelievable. He had clearly been hiding his true identity.
She knew about the world. She knew the standards inside and out.
The man before her was nothing like a training knight.
At that moment, Lahan turned and pointed toward a certain direction.
At the end of his pointing finger stood twenty Rabbit Horn corpses placed right beside Estella—the ones she had slain.
“Roughly twenty? The quest listed a total of one hundred breeding-season Rabbit Horns to exterminate, so including what I caught, it should come to about a hundred.”
Behind Lahan, the pile of Rabbit Horn bodies had already formed a small mountain.
By rough estimation, around eighty had accumulated.
*
When Lahan and Estella returned to the Adventurer Guild, they handed over the one hundred Rabbit Horn horns they had sliced from the corpses using Estella's Subdimensional Pocket to the reception counter.
The receptionist’s eyes widened in surprise.
She was the female receptionist who had first registered him as an adventurer.
“You’ve already completed the extermination count?”
Lahan answered.
“Yeah.”
The receptionist looked momentarily flustered.
“There’s no way… You only registered as an adventurer not even half a day ago…”
She knew that Rabbit Horns were no easy E-rank prey. An E-rank adventurer who had just become F-rank would not normally tackle it solo.
Normally, such quests were handled by parties consisting of members from the same or lower ranks.
“Ah, I had a partner.”
Lahan pointed behind him with his thumb at the mage, Estella.
The beauty receptionist neatly clasped her palms together, her expression and posture reminiscent of a triumphant Eureka moment.
“Ah! You’ve already found a mage partner! Eh? That lady looks like…”
The female receptionist, Rona, turned her bright yellow eyes, fixed with keen attention on the black-haired female mage standing behind Lahan—Estella.
She then tapped her folded right fist against her open left palm and exclaimed as if just remembering.
“Estella, right?! I only recently started seeing her come into the guild every so often, so that’s why it clicked!”
Given her job, it made sense that she would forget names after dealing with so many people.
Lahan tilted his head and asked, turning toward Estella behind him.
“You’re not from the guild you originally came to, are you?”
Estella still looked dazed, as if she had yet to fully process the skills she had witnessed.
That explained why her words came out a little hesitantly.
“Yeah… I usually get quests done before morning even arrives at other places.”
“Hahaha. We do get quite a few adventurers visiting here, but compared to other cities, this place is still a bit far.”
The Adventurer Guild was not the only one in the city.
This was clearly a major city called an adventurer city.
The beautiful receptionist Rona spoke again.
“Then please wait just a moment. Let me check the count.”
At Lahan’s nod, the receptionist began diligently counting the one hundred Rabbit Horn horns.
A short while later,
Rona announced, “Yes, exactly one hundred Rabbit Horn horns! Then I’ll pay out the extermination reward. Please wait a little longer.”
After saying so, she asked for a moment’s leave and headed to the back room.
She soon returned carrying what looked like a reward pouch and handed it to Lahan.
“Thank you for your hard work! Please accept the next quest as well!”
Lahan nodded.
Just as he turned to leave, he suddenly remembered something and stopped, asking Rona directly.
“What’s your name?”
“Huh? My name?”
Rona seemed to pause, as if wondering whether such questions were common.
To exaggerate a bit, there were quite a few male adventurers who had deliberately come here just to see her.
Because the receptionist Rona was so kind and approachable to even the rough adventurers that she was called the city’s flower or the number-one bride candidate, the beauty receptionist.
After a moment of hesitation, she decided to tell him.
Usually she avoided giving out her name, but Lahan did not seem to be asking in that casual context.
“Rona. Rona Scaler.”
Lahan answered after hearing the name.
“I’ll be counting on you for a while. Rona.”
“I’m the one who should be saying…”
After saying that, Lahan fully turned and left the guild with Estella in tow.
Rona was left staring at the door Lahan had closed.
“He’s a bit strange….”
Or rather, truly extraordinary.
Rona then resumed her duties.
To leave quickly, she had to quickly move the heavy one hundred Rabbit Horn horns to the back storage first.
*
When Lahan stepped outside with Estella, the sky had already turned deep orange, the sun setting and night drawing near.
It felt as if night would arrive at any moment.
“Lahan. Did you find lodging?”
At that moment, Estella’s usual lively atmosphere seemed to have returned, and she asked lightly behind him.
Lahan turned his head toward Estella and shook it slowly.
“No. My money ran out on the way here. I still haven’t found a place to stay.”
“Why are you talking like that? You sounded so stern with the receptionist earlier.”
“…”
Lahan simply remained silent.
It was true. He felt oddly awkward every time he shifted tones, and speaking in this way sometimes felt slightly unnatural to his personality.
“Heh… So where are you staying?”
Lahan returned to his normal tone and answered.
Then Estella looked at him with a strange expression, as if seeing an odd person, and replied.
“Actually, I got kicked out of the place I was staying. Money ran out too. Hehe.”
She scratched her cheek in a way that seemed to hide some mischievous intent.
Lahan stared at her intently for a long while.
Estella, feeling the weight of that gaze, slowly averted her eyes sideways, pretending not to notice.
Lahan then said bluntly, “You’re not planning to crash at my place, are you?”
“Ehehe.”
“Don’t try to laugh it off.”
“Ehehehe.”
“Even if you laugh like that, it’s not okay.”
“That’s too much! That quest was originally mine, right?”
“I clearly received the quest from you, though?”
“Still! I helped catch the Rabbit Horns!”
“…”
It was true.
Since they had already decided to team up for the adventure, sharing lodging was the better choice anyway.
After considering those points for a moment, Lahan made his decision and told Estella.
“Fine. Since you caught them, I’ll pay for the inn fee instead.”
To do that, he first needed to know the current prices in this city. To survive in this world, one must always know the market accurately.
“Yay! He gave up!”
Estella was delighted by Lahan’s generosity and immediately acted on it.
She pressed her chest forward with genuine emotion—literally a real chest.
“Want to feel it?”
“What…?”
Lahan froze in shock at the sight of her slightly lifting her chest with both hands from below, making it bounce.
The bouncing, prominent chest possessed not only its impressive size but also an elasticity that defied belief.
It was the perfect embodiment of the ideal female form every man dreams of.
“Hey! How is a girl acting so provocatively on the street!”
“Kyaa! Ahaha! Nobody’s watching anyway!”
Lahan quickly scanned the surroundings as Estella fled.
Fortunately, the area was deserted.
Even if anyone had been nearby, they were quite far away.
Probably because adventurers in this area finished work early and headed home as the sun set.
Estella stopped at a certain distance and suddenly turned back to speak.
“From the beginning, when I saw you, and even with the beauty receptionist, I checked your face first and then always sneaked a glance at your chest. You probably didn’t realize it, right? Men looking at women’s chests like that are usually noticed in no time!”
“…”
Lahan started to protest but then abruptly stopped and quietly closed his mouth.
Meanwhile, he began replaying the memory of his own past behavior.
'It was definitely…'
Upon reflection, Estella’s words were exactly right.
When he first saw Estella.
When he saw the beauty receptionist Rona.
His gaze would unconsciously drift from their faces to their chests every single time.
Realizing this, a sudden wave of embarrassment and shame washed over him.
He covered his face with both hands, overwhelmed by an inexplicable sense of guilt.
…Embarrassing.
It felt as if his primal instincts had been completely exposed to the world—especially to the one person who should never see it.
At that moment, Estella gave a knowing smile, resting her chin on her fingers and nodding repeatedly.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. I understand. It’s a man’s instinct, right? My mom even told me that when I was little! So you don’t have to feel bad at all!”
“……”
Lahan felt an even stronger urge to hide in a mouse hole at her words.