Transforming Armor
“So what’s your name again?”
“Sigrun. No family name — just Sigrun. I’m from Bilua Village in the Kingdom of Mirva, and I’m traveling to become the knight I’ve set my sights on.”
Roughly ten minutes after I’d stripped the woman of her armor, she sat before me in nothing but a thin cloth shirt and trousers, and I finally heard her introduce herself.
Her name was Sigrun. She was twenty years old.
Having only just come of age this year, she had left her village and set out on a journey to become a knight — only to collapse here, she told me.
And so I asked her the question that had been burning in me ever since I’d first found her.
“What on earth possessed you to walk into a volcanic region in full plate with no protection at all?”
“I thought that if I could keep moving in full armor even in this heat, I would grow stronger… But nature, it seems, cannot be overcome so easily.”
“…You didn’t hit your head as a kid or something, did you?”
What kind of brutish answer was that?
I let out a hollow laugh at Sigrun’s utterly absurd reply. Keep her mouth shut and she looked every bit the cool, beautiful female knight — but the moment she opened it, she transformed into the village idiot older sister.
Of course, after a few more exchanges I realized she wasn’t simply stupid. Listening to her talk, she seemed perfectly sensible most of the time; it was just that anything involving growing stronger made her brain short-circuit. And seeing how unnaturally obsessed she was with becoming stronger, another question suddenly rose to my lips.
“If you love getting stronger that much, what rank are you at now? Middle Sword User or so?”
“No. That stage is long behind me. At present I remain at the Beginner Sword Expert level.”
“…Beginner Sword Expert? You’re serious?”
Hadn’t she just said she was only twenty this year? My eyes went round at a rank far higher than I’d expected.
Unlike mages, who were ranked by the quality of their Mana Circuits and Element Understanding, warriors divided their ranks by the depth of their insight into the mana within their bodies.
Sword User — the stage where one could reinforce the body with mana.
Sword Expert — the stage where one could coat the blade in Sword Qi.
And finally Sword Master — the peak, capable of forging one’s own mana into Sword Aura.
Those three great ranks were each further divided into Beginner, Middle, and Upper. Reaching the Sword Expert stage — the point where one could generate Sword Qi — usually took warriors into their early thirties.
And yet a girl of only twenty claimed she was already a Beginner Sword Expert, not even a mere Upper Sword User?
Didn’t our kingdom’s Sword Master reach Sword Expert at seventeen?
If my memory was right, the Sword Master who had slain the Black Dragon alongside Lilith had reached the Expert stage at seventeen. Only three years separated Sigrun from the man reputed to possess the greatest talent in history. The part of her that simplified whenever strength was mentioned was a little concerning, but her talent as a warrior seemed extraordinary beyond imagination.
“Reaching Sword Expert at your age… that’s impressive.”
“My thanks for the praise. Yet in my eyes you appear the more remarkable one. I’ve given my introduction — might I now hear your name and age?”
“Ah, right. I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I?”
It struck me that I had only listened to Sigrun’s introduction and never given my own. Realizing it, I let out a short sound of surprise and spoke again.
“Sorry for the late introduction. My name is Elia. I’m fifteen this year, and as you can see, I’m a mage.”
I deliberately left out my family name. Unless circumstances absolutely required it, I wanted to spend my travels as simply the mage Elia, not Lady Elia of House Marenad. I had no desire to hear formal speech from people I’d only just met, so I offered only my name and age.
Sigrun looked mildly startled when she heard how old I was.
“Fifteen? The mana I sense from you seems finer than most adult mages. Remarkable for one so young.”
“You’re too kind.”
I dipped my head lightly at the compliment. Yet Sigrun continued to study me with those same startled eyes, her gaze sweeping over me as though searching for something. Then, perhaps realizing how rude she was being, she averted her eyes and tilted the waterskin I had filled for her.
Gulp— gulp—
She had only briefly replenished her fluids earlier and then talked for so long that her throat must have been dry; she emptied the waterskin in an instant. Water vanished down her bobbing throat in the blink of an eye. When she finally drained it dry, she faced me with those deep black eyes and spoke.
“In any case, I thank you once more for saving me and showing me kindness. If you will permit it, I would like to be of use to you for at least as long as we traverse this volcanic terrain. What say you?”
Was she trying to repay the debt of her life? At her request for permission to help me, I tilted my head and asked,
“Help me how, exactly?”
“Anything physical you might need, or if battle arises, I shall take the vanguard. A mage, after all, requires a frontline, does she not?”
“Hmm… that’s true enough.”
Sigrun’s words weren’t wrong. A duel between mages was one thing, but if the enemy included both a mage and a warrior, things grew troublesome. A warrior who closed the distance was a genuine nuisance to a mage who needed concentration to cast. Having a vanguard of my own wouldn’t be bad.
Though I’m not sure there’s anything to fight out here…
Still, I was only searching for a cave entrance to retrieve an Elemental Stone. Whether combat would even occur was doubtful. Honestly, I wasn’t convinced I needed a frontliner at all.
Yet I glanced at Sigrun — that cool expression that somehow still looked faintly foolish — and made up my mind.
If I just send her off like this, she’ll probably collapse again… Might as well travel together until I get the Elemental Stone.
This was the same Sigrun who had put on full plate armor in a volcanic zone purely because she thought it would make her stronger, and then fainted. Without me she wouldn’t even be able to find more water. Afraid she might drop again the moment I left her, I decided to keep her with me at least until I obtained the Fire Elemental Stone.
“All right. Then we’ll stay together until I finish my business here at Bramante Volcano.”
“Mm. My thanks for granting me the chance to repay your kindness. Shall we go at once?”
The moment permission left my lips, Sigrun rose from the charred stump of a tree. I stood to follow her, then pointed at the armor she had neatly set beside her.
“What about the armor, though? Are you just leaving it here?”
“Ah, no need to worry about that. My armor is special. Watch.”
At my question she told me to look carefully and stretched out her hand. From that extended hand her mana flowed into the armor. Unlike mages, who formed a mana reservoir in the heart, warriors possessed a unique quality of mana; that distinctive energy spread through the plates.
What happened next forced a gasp of surprise from me before I could stop it.
Clank———!
With a heavy metallic ring the armor began to unfold. Body, pauldrons, arms, greaves — every piece spread open and then fused together into one. What formed was a shield roughly half the size of my body.
Sigrun slipped the shield onto her left arm and showed it to me.
“My armor can transform into a shield as well. If I carry it like this, at least I won’t collapse the way I did before.”
“Whoa… No, that armor doesn’t look ordinary at all. Wait — I’ve never seen anything like that even in decent magic-armor shops.”
I had seen enchanted armor that auto-equipped, hardened itself, or self-repaired, but armor that turned into a shield was a first. Judging by craftsmanship alone I had already thought it high-grade; to have a function like that on top of it?
My eyes lit up as I stared at the clearly extraordinary piece. Transforming armor had always been a dream of mine, past life or present.
“Where in the world did you get that armor? Is Bilua Village some blacksmith town that specializes in armor?”
“Ahaha, not at all. Our village is just an ordinary countryside hamlet. I received this armor years ago from a knight who came to save our village when I was still a child. I never learned his name, but he was an extraordinarily powerful knight. The reason I dream of knighthood and travel now is because I admired him — and because he taught me swordsmanship for a short while.”
As she spoke, Sigrun stroked the shield on her arm as though lost in memory. If she meant her childhood, it had to be at least ten years past. A knight who would casually hand armor like this to a child?
The story was so absurd on the surface that I absently stroked my smooth chin.
I’m dying to know who it was…
Of course I was curious about the knight who had given her the armor. But from Sigrun’s own words she didn’t know his name either, and my knowledge of knights was hardly extensive. There was little point clinging to a mystery I couldn’t solve right now; better to finish what I had come here to do.
“Well, anyway — it’s amazing. Glad the armor problem’s solved. Shall we go?”
“Yes. Let us be off.”
I took the lead and Sigrun followed close behind. Thus we began our temporary companionship, treading the pitch-black ground as we climbed the dark mountain — searching for the cave entrance that would take us to the heart of Bramante Volcano.