7
Chapter 7:
Siellin had grown accustomed to defeat recently.
It was because of her swordsmanship instructor, mister.
'Not enough.'
She hated how he would nod as if it were only natural when he saw her skill.
She wanted to see him startled, to see him gasp in admiration.
'Time to prove it.'
That was why this minotaur was the perfect opponent.
It was time to put into practice everything she had learned up until now.
She looked up.
The minotaur's eyes flashed.
The minotaur swung its arm in quick succession.
Watching its trajectory intently, Siellin raised her sword.
'Counter slow opponents.'
She recalled mister's teaching.
Creatures like that cow—slow but heavy.
She had been taught that it was better to dodge an attack and counter than to recklessly drain her strength.
─Whoosh!
The minotaur's hand came crashing down from above.
In that instant, Siellin drove forward and thrust her sword out.
Her target: the eye.
Crunch!
The tip of her sword tore through the eyeball.
Siellin withdrew her sword and flung her body sideways.
Boom!
The minotaur's fist drove into the ground a moment too late.
But Siellin had already cleared the spot.
The minotaur writhed in pain.
"GRAAAAH---!!!"
Roaring, the minotaur charged at her.
At a glance, it seemed to have entered a frenzied state.
'An opening.'
Mister had said—whatever monster enters a frenzied state.
Its combat power skyrockets, but it won't last long before dying.
"Huu."
Observing the charging minotaur, Siellin slowly advanced.
And the moment the minotaur's attacks came pouring in—
She exploded forward and drove her sword in.
Slash!
Blood sprayed out.
The minotaur collapsed and dissolved on the spot.
She had won.
The moment that thought came to her, Siellin shifted her gaze to Adrian.
"Mister."
Adrian was with a noble young lady, and that young lady's escort.
Both women.
She had been excited to receive praise, but—why was it?
Irritation surged up from the pit of her stomach.
"Siellin, well done. Not rushing in first..."
Mister said something or other in praise, but.
She couldn't hear it.
"Thank you for saving us!"
"For saving my lady... th-thank you so much."
The young lady and the escort bowed to express their gratitude.
She was equally indifferent to that.
The irritation only flared further, yet even so, Siellin—
"...If you were that weak, you should've just run."
—did not ignore the words of thanks.
She had been taught not to ignore sincere gratitude.
"There was no reason to fight so recklessly."
"I'm sorry. My carelessness... cough!"
"N-no! It was my greed that..."
Siellin clicked her tongue and waved her hand dismissively.
"Sort it out yourselves."
And just as she left those two behind and was about to walk toward mister—
'...Huh?'
A chill ran down her spine.
She turned her eyes toward the source of that eerie feeling.
A monster of a completely different caliber from the minotaur was approaching.
"Siellin, get behind me."
Adrian pulled Siellin, who was standing frozen.
'What's a Balrog doing here.'
Was the north trying to kill all the scions?
A Balrog was on a completely different level from something like a minotaur.
An enemy that twelve-year-old Siellin could not handle.
Of course, to her, it was nothing.
There was no need to break the device sealing her power.
"Hey, you two over there."
She could see the young lady and escort trembling.
"I have no intention of protecting you, so run if you're going to."
"Y-yes, yes!"
The young lady and escort fled without looking back.
"M-mister... it's an emergency, so for now, take that device off and..."
"That won't be necessary."
Taking the device off for no good reason would only be a hassle.
He walked steadily forward.
"Watch closely."
Because this is what your future looks like, too.
─Swish
He raised his sword.
"Cut. Hold onto that."
The Sword Saint's voice came to mind.
The teaching was nothing more than that.
He had not taught any detailed method.
Yet Adrian's sword so closely resembled the Sword Saint's.
"Cut."
The Balrog howled and clad its entire body in hellfire.
Fwoosh!
The flames swelled and blazed fiercely.
Even before that overwhelming display, Adrian did not so much as flinch.
"Cut..."
Siellin echoed after him.
"That's right. Engrave it in your chest."
Adrian turned his gaze back to the Balrog.
"No special technique is needed. Even if the device weighs your body down, it doesn't matter. You don't need to use some tremendous power."
Adrian continued.
"Because the essence of the sword is simply to cut something."
The sword swung.
No flashy brilliance to please the eyes.
No blinding speed that cannot be followed.
No crushing weight to pressure the enemy.
None of that.
Simply.
"Cut."
That alone.
Swish─
Adrian turned around and sheathed his sword.
He didn't even check.
"Simple, isn't it?"
At those words, the Balrog's body crumbled along with the hellfire.
"You'll be able to do it. I'm sure of it."
Adrian said with a faint smile.
Siellin, eyes wide open, stared blankly at that smile.
She couldn't say a word.
Because the sword just now had reached the realm every swordsman had ever dreamed of.
'Can I replicate it?'
She was certain she'd be able to someday, but.
Right now, it seemed impossible.
"Do you finally feel like calling me Master?"
"...Mister."
"Even this isn't enough."
"Mister is mister."
That she could not allow.
"Well, the title aside. Check your score."
He had taken down the Balrog himself, so it wouldn't be counted.
But Siellin had taken down the minotaur on her own.
"You're probably in overwhelming first place."
Even if several scions who had participated in the hunting tournament joined forces, they couldn't take down a single minotaur.
Of course, it wasn't that the scions were weak—Siellin was just that strong.
"So you can take it easy now..."
"Mister, let's hurry."
Siellin took his hand and pulled.
"I want to practice that sword art too."
"Yes, yes."
Adrian gave a quiet laugh.
The sight of Siellin, unusually excited like a child, was rather pleasant to see.
***
That story, however, did not last long.
"I said there's no rush."
"Still... it's just so different from mister's sword..."
Where had all that energy from before gone?
Siellin's shoulders drooped.
She had tried to replicate the sword art I had shown against the weak monsters.
And deflated all on her own when it turned out to be nothing alike.
"You're still far off. For that level."
The Sword Saint, said to have been the greatest genius of all time.
Even that Sword Saint had gone through countless hardships to display that simple swing.
I had struggled far more than them.
'Well, it'll still be faster than before the regression.'
Because Siellin's rate of growth was beyond belief.
"Let's get going. Stop clinging to it."
"...Okay."
Siellin came to my side with a tone still full of reluctance.
It was nearly time for the hunting tournament to wrap up.
'Good thing I joined.'
Not every monster had been a threat, but.
The fact that I had properly shown Siellin my sword art.
And sharpened my combat instincts by cutting through various monsters—those were remarkable gains.
"What should I pick for the first-place reward?"
"That's for you to decide."
"Hmm."
Siellin fell into quiet thought, murmuring to herself.
Yet her feet didn't stop.
"The Grand Duke was going on about a treasury or something before. Should I ask for that?"
"Not a bad idea."
"Yeah. I'll go with that."
Siellin walked with a noticeably lighter step, swaying as she went.
She seemed excited at the thought of visiting the treasury.
'She'll be getting herself proper equipment.'
Equipment matters too, when it comes to cutting cleanly.
In that sense, Siellin's sword wasn't well-suited for clean cuts.
I had thought about getting her a new one someday, but now there's no need.
"There's the exit."
We emerged from the dungeon.
Immediately, the gazes of several dozen people zeroed in on us.
'The scores are posted.'
The scoreboard displayed the points and rankings.
[Siellin Rekanof—42590P]
[Gael Alphons—1120P]
.
.
.
'Goodness, the gap in scores...'
I hadn't expected it to be this overwhelming.
No wonder everyone was staring.
"Mister, look at the score! The difference from second place is insane...!"
Siellin jumped up and down with glee.
"Worthy of that person's disciple."
"Perhaps we're witnessing the birth of new history..."
"...So the rumors of a genius were real."
Most of the participants around them stared at Siellin with open admiration.
There were those who felt uneasy, though not many.
'That young lady must have spread the word.'
The young lady from earlier was chattering away, telling people about Siellin.
"She's the one who saved me!"
Perhaps thanks to that gossip, the gazes of others carried no hostility.
"Mister..."
Siellin, having noticed those looks, called out to me.
A faint smile rested at the corner of her lips.
'Indeed.'
It didn't seem like she was going to be rumored as a monster threatening the continent.
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▶This is the original story.
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She had killed the minotaur.
Perhaps because it was a hunting tournament, the monster's corpse dissolved immediately.
"Tch."
Moving around too much had left her exhausted.
The Sword Saint quietly wiped off the blood that had splattered.
The escort who would have helped with this had long since fled.
More precisely, she herself had abandoned them.
Because they were useless.
"...What's this?"
At that moment, two corpses came into view.
What appeared to be some noble young lady and an escort.
'The minotaur must have killed them.'
The Sword Saint switched off her attention.
"...Ah."
But then.
A killing intent that made her body go cold crept in.
"...What a pain."
She was already exhausted, and now another enemy.
The Sword Saint gripped her sword tightly.
The Balrog appeared, scorching everything around it.
By far the strongest opponent she had ever fought.
But it didn't matter.
She would not lose.
Never.
The Sword Saint watched the Balrog with expressionless eyes.
That fire was the problem.
Taking stock of the situation, evolving looked difficult.
The Sword Saint simply charged straight at the Balrog.
Fwooom!
As the distance closed, the flames surged.
The ground shook immediately after.
The Sword Saint bit her lip.
It was because holding her footing was difficult.
'A sword?'
In that gap, the Balrog had formed a sword made of hellfire.
A mere beast?
Drawing a sword in front of her?
The Sword Saint twisted her mouth into a grin.
How well could a mere beast wield a sword.
The Sword Saint extended her leg and closed the distance.
In an instant, flames flared up right before her face.
By instinct alone she threw her head back.
She had nearly had her face scorched by the fire.
"...A mere beast."
How dare it.
She ground her teeth and fixed her gaze on the Balrog's horns.
She felt she wouldn't be satisfied until she had ripped off every last one of those infuriating horns.
The Sword Saint half-abandoned reason and threw herself forward.
She surrendered her body to instinct and fought in a state of pure absorption.
When its sword dug in, she evaded.
Flames that got in her way, she deflected with her sword.
All the while ceaselessly probing for openings to drive her sword through.
Was it only her sword she used?
With her bare hands she somehow grabbed and tore at the horns.
Without pausing her footwork for even a moment, whenever a chance arose she hooked her leg.
And so she exchanged countless blows with the Balrog.
The result—
'...Why?'
She had lost miserably.
While the Balrog was unscathed, the Sword Saint had crumpled disgracefully.
When she opened her eyes again.
The Balrog was gone.
"Again... fight me again...!"
The Sword Saint screamed into the air, biting off each word.
"I... I can still fight...!"
It was a meaningless echo.
"I didn't lose. My condition... my condition was just off..."
The Sword Saint dug her fingers into the ground.
Dirt seeped between her fingernails, but.
She had no room to care about that.
"It's only fair if we fight again."
The two of them needed to fight again in peak condition. That was the only way it could be fair.
She had to think that way.
She simply could not accept defeat.
The very first defeat she had ever faced in her life was unbearably bitter.
Rustle─
She was desperately refusing to accept the defeat when.
Someone came bursting out from the rustling bushes.
"A-a corpse...?"
The man who emerged from the bushes looked at the Sword Saint with unsteady eyes.
Such a young child had killed someone?
"What happened here...?"
"Get lost."
Such a bother.
"W-wait, did you kill someone?"
The man instinctively stepped back.
Because the eyes of that young child looked like those of a monster.
"So what."
What business was it of hers.
It wasn't like she had killed them.
"Get lost. You're annoying me."
The Sword Saint staggered to her feet.
And ignoring the man standing there dumbfounded, she kicked off from the spot.
Because she had to go find the Balrog, even now.
And so the Sword Saint began scouring the dungeon like a rat hunt.
"Where are you...!"
The Balrog was nowhere to be found.
As if it had never been a monster in this dungeon to begin with.
"I... didn't lose."
Muttering those words, the Sword Saint began slaughtering the monsters.
If she didn't do at least this, her fury would not settle.
And then, all at once—
Flash!
Her body lit up.
It was the forced teleportation out, signaling the end of the hunting tournament.
"...Ah."
When she opened her eyes, she was outside.
Then immediately, gazes sharp enough to be frightening bored into her chest.
"That child committed murder?"
"Look at the score. It wouldn't be strange."
"So the rumors of a monster were real."
The murmuring grew louder.
"Those eyes are a monster's."
"At that age, to kill someone without batting an eye..."
"...The birth of a monster."
Freeze─
The moment the Sword Saint heard the word monster, she stopped cold.
─A new monster has...
─We must cut the sprout before...
The murmuring grew distant.
The several dozen people gathered here.
Every one of them thought of her as a monster.
Their gazes were filled with fear and revulsion.
'Familiar...'
Eyes she had always seen.
'There's never been anyone on my side.'
It had always been that way.
From the day she was born until now.
Not a single person had ever been on her side.
Not even the Sword Saint herself.
─Siellin. You are a monster.
The Household Head had said.
─My sister is... a monster.
Nardi had laughed.
─A m-monster...
A maid had recoiled in horror.
─The Young Lady is a monster.
─To think such a monster was born into our household...
The people of Rekanof Household had murmured.
And finally.
─Those eyes are a monster's.
─The birth of a monster.
The people gathered here said.
The Sword Saint, having heard everything, nodded to herself alone.
'...That's right.'
Because I am a monster.