Sealing Dainsleif
Shub walked toward the sword Alex had leveled at the pillar of light without the slightest hesitation.
She knew it instinctively. The instant that blade touched the pillar, something terrible would happen.
The demonic sword was rejoicing. It hummed with pleasure. It vibrated even harder, as though it lusted for the holy power.
The sword that had carved through countless demons. Dainsleif.
After drinking the blood of so many, was it now setting its sights on the blood of a god?
"Shub!"
Shub flinched at Cain's voice. Her hand froze just before it could touch the demonic sword.
She was hesitating.
Her eyes trembled violently as she wrestled with herself. Then, as if she'd reached a decision, she flung threads of restraint at Alex and bound him tight.
"This is a contract violation, Alex. Put the sword away right now and step back."
Shub's crimson eyes bored into him.
Alex struggled against his immobilized body a few times before his gaze finally met hers. Rage flared in his eyes for a split second, the kind that looked ready to burn the world down. Then the fury vanished, replaced by something unreadable that made them sparkle.
"Ha... Yeah. I got a little too worked up. My bad. In exchange, can you calm that saintess down for me?"
"..."
As Alex said, Eve's reaction was so far from what I'd expected that even I was thrown off balance.
I'd been planning to accept some of his attacks to gauge his strength, but I never imagined she'd get this furious.
When Alex lowered his sword and jerked his chin toward Eve, her eyes sharpened like blades.
No matter how slow she sometimes seemed, a saintess was still a saintess. Standing idle in front of a sword radiating such murderous intent would destroy her dignity.
"Let's put that sword down first."
"Uh... You do realize what it means when you tell a swordsman to put down his blade, right?"
To a swordsman, lowering your weapon meant lowering your pride.
Honestly, I figured it was fine to set it down as a gesture of good faith, but this idiotic medieval fantasy world treated pride and face like currency that could get you killed over a single sentence.
Alex was calling that out.
Still, the bastard was going to put it down anyway. He was just trying to claim the moral high ground, and I had zero intention of yielding.
The moment I showed any willingness to back down, Eve would pulverize him, bones and all.
No matter how much of a psycho massacre-route walker he was, I still needed to keep him around as a puppet leader.
I turned to Eve.
"Eve."
"I won't yield this time, Cain. This is an insult to Lord Arpa."
"...Then let's handle it this way. I'll make him put the sword away."
Alex slid the blade into its sheath, unfastened it from his waist, and lifted it with one arm. He looked at Shub and gave a small jerk of his chin.
"You're the smartest one here. You hold onto this sword. We'll write a new contract."
Alex demanded the contract from her and stated the terms.
"For the one-week training period, Shub le Ruelle will take custody of Alex's sword. Alex may not retrieve it by any means and can only reclaim it after the spar ends."
"What are you thinking?"
"That one-hit saintess and her temper... I can't beat her right now."
"Hmm."
It was reasonable.
I looked at Shub and nodded, delegating the choice to her.
"M-me? D-deciding... um..."
"I'll only entrust it to you."
I didn't know why Alex was so fixated on Shub, but refusing him here could lead to who-knows-what.
That was my problem, though. Shub had her own thoughts.
"Shub. Do whatever you want. Everyone's here to help me anyway. If you all want to stop, you can stop."
"..."
Shub's tormented expression was genuinely entertaining to watch.
She was probably weighing her thirst for knowledge against her own safety.
She muttered something under her breath, then nodded with resolve. Without hesitation she grabbed the scabbard.
The sword flared with dark-crimson energy for a moment, humming warily at the stranger, but it quickly settled.
"Huuu... G-good. The sword doesn't seem to have any complaints."
"You can understand what it's saying?"
"Eh? Words?"
"Ah, never mind. Ahem. So, saintess, you're calming down now, right?"
"Hmph!"
Eve turned away as if there was nothing left to see and left.
Her mood was completely ruined, but she still wanted to watch me train. She picked a spot far enough away to see us clearly and sat down heavily.
Arms crossed, cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk, it looked like I'd need to buy her delicious food for the next few days to soothe her.
"Ha... Fuck. What the hell is this mess."
"Right~"
"This is all your fault, you bastard."
I shot a glare at the cheeky Alex, then asked Gnome to make a plausible stone sword and tossed it to him.
He frowned, clearly asking what the hell this was. I grinned and jerked my chin at him.
"Well, you weren't actually planning to kill me, right? You weren't really going to cut me with the real demonic sword, were you?"
"...Of course~ There are way too many eyes on us in this academy."
"And if there weren't?"
"If there weren't? Haha."
Alex laughed it off, then charged again the moment the pillar of light vanished.
I calmly blocked the sword with Gnome's exoskeleton and kicked him away.
He looked at the stone blade with clear disappointment, smacking his lips as if it didn't suit his taste. Still, he charged once more, drawing a magic circle with his free hand and chanting.
"Fireball!"
"Oh. Magic. Now that's an excellent way to communicate!"
Silph, Kasa, Gnome
- Yeah.
At my signal, Gnome lifted fist-sized chunks of stone into the air. Kasa set each one ablaze, and Silph added acceleration before launching them.
Honestly, when I first thought of this I went 'Ah, fuck, this is badass!' but I couldn't come up with a good name.
Mini Meteor? Meteor Shower?
Too grandiose. I wanted something more... more intuitive... more definitive.
Flaming Stone Launch! FireStoneBurst!
- Wow. Fuck.
- Cain! That's so lame!
- ...
Why? FireStoneBurst is good. Fuck.
It's way better than 'Cain Wants To Shoot Guns Prototype Type 1' or whatever.
These bastards, I put real thought into that name!
I like it Cain! It looks somewhat dumb and people would let their guard down so it seems easy to fall for! You aimed for that right? I knew it! As expected of Cain!
No.
She was definitely making fun of me.
I tried to ignore my burning red face and moved closer to see if the attack had landed. The earlier fireball that collided with Undine had been so hot that the steam was still thick.
The moment I stepped forward, a sword shot out in front of my eyes and stopped dead an inch from my face.
"Haa... Fuck. That actually stings. As expected. No chant, no magic circle. What the hell are you? A spirit? What the fuck is that anyway?"
"..."
Alex's voice was slightly agitated.
Even the guy who'd been trying to keep a poker face must have found it ridiculous once he took the hit directly.
Spirit arts are god! And invincible!
But the fact that the sword had stopped right in front of my face suggested he'd endured the pain and waited until I approached.
I had to consider human willpower too.
"Alex. You win."
"Don't talk shit. If you'd gotten even a little more serious, I would've lost."
"Why are you so angry~? Wouldn't you have won if it was the real demonic sword anyway?"
"Do you think that part was the mistake?"
Alex's voice grew calm as he handed the sword over. I glanced at Gnome, and she naturally turned it into dirt.
Alex looked around in exaggerated surprise, but of course he saw nothing.
"Sigh. Whatever. I learned plenty. Time for me to go."
"Dormitory?"
"No. Student council. I... messed up a bit this time. Gotta take my punishment."
"Huh? What punishment?"
In my memory the mission had been professor-approved, so the student council had let it slide without comment.
Seeing my confused face, Alex smirked.
"This is the place, Alex. You remember the operation, right?"
"Yeah. Basically, wipe out the violent circle that's making the academy fucking shit. Something like that, yeah?"
Panzy frowned briefly at Alex's crude language.
Her friend Cain had a foul mouth too, but it felt different somehow. Ominous, maybe.
Without answering, she nodded and moved carefully to annihilate the violent circle 'Fists of the Madmen'.
At that moment Alex grabbed her arm.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Hey. We just can't kill them, right?"
"...That's true, but?"
Panzy felt a chill and looked at him. The blue eyes shining in the darkness were unlike any she'd seen before.
An endless abyss.
One where no emotion could be read.
One who loved nothing.
Alex only grinned with his mouth and dashed ahead of her.
That day, just as the professor had secretly requested, the violent circle 'Fists of the Madmen' vanished.
"Panzy Vlad. That bitch got stupidly injured. Well, it just turned out that way."
"What?"
I doubted my ears.