The Law Exists to Be Broken
"...So why exactly do we need to go there?"
Yul, the White Guardian of the Hercason Tribe, let out a long sigh as she looked at the man clenching his fist with excitement.
The man's name was Mul.
He was a guardian of the same tribe, a user who had stood watch over their people alongside her for a very long time.
"Come on, aren't you excited? No one's ever managed to draw it!"
...Though these days he was practically indistinguishable from an NPC.
Yul balled her fist and drove it straight into the side of the dim-witted Mul's ribs with a sharp crack.
"Hrk! Guard!"
"Don't block."
"Haha! Yul, if you keep up your training, you'll break through that guard one day. Besides, my claws are better than your fists—"
"Shut it."
Yul shook out her stinging hand and turned her head away with a huff.
He's become even more of a monster since the lecture.
As guardians of the tribe, Mul and Yul didn't bother with things like ranked matches.
But if Mul ever set his mind to climbing the rankings, there was no doubt he'd break into the top 30 in no time.
I hate to admit it... but back then in the lecture hall, he was on par with those rankers.
Mul had grown genuinely powerful after awakening his mana.
"What are you doing here?"
At that moment, a beautiful voice rang out beside their ears.
A voice they would never hear by chance—yet one that felt oddly familiar all the same.
"Lily... nim?"
"Oh! Teacher! Good to see you!"
It was Lily.
Their professor, a celebrity whose popularity reached the very heavens, a presence that made even the Empire step aside—a genius beyond genius.
Countless titles flitted through Yul's mind, but the one that suited her best was simply 'beauty.'
Blue hair and ocean-deep blue eyes.
Her looks were the kind that would captivate man and woman alike—beautiful enough that any passerby would be forced to turn around for at least one more glance.
"Have you been well?"
"Ah, yes! We have."
Yul took the hand Lily offered.
...Wow.
Yul was struck with awe.
Soft hands. Clean. That wasn't the feeling at all.
Strong.
An overwhelming power radiated from their joined hands.
A lofty realm she could never hope to reach as she was now.
Is this the level you'd need to stand against the Empire?
"We were on our way to try drawing the 'Sacred Sword.' They said we can keep it if we draw it out, you see."
"The Sacred Sword?"
"That's right! The Sacred Sword!"
Mul nodded with a voice full of confidence.
"Do you know about the World Tree?"
"To some extent."
"Then this will go quickly. The World Tree is a tree of mysterious power and life. That power watches over the countless lives living beneath it, granting them blessings so they may grow."
Simply by living beneath the World Tree, its peoples achieved growth far surpassing the races of other lands.
The 'Races of the World Tree'—that title didn't exist for nothing.
"And that power doesn't merely grant blessings. On a certain cycle, the World Tree brings forth a 'Child of the World Tree,' and what is born alongside that child is, precisely, the Sacred Sword. Yes."
"...The Sacred Sword."
Lily nodded gravely.
"Mul and I were planning to go try drawing it. And as it happens, we've run into you, Teacher, so why don't you come with—urk!"
Struck in the ribs once more, Mul let out a strangled yelp.
Yul, having smacked his side with her clawed hand, shot him a sidelong glare and bowed her head.
"I'm sorry. He's a bit dim, so please pay him no mind."
"I am not dim, Yul!"
"Quiet. You're embarrassing me."
"Why is that, though?"
Lily tilted her head.
Her face was beautiful enough to make anyone's heart skip—but Yul paid it no mind and answered.
"The Sacred Sword can only be drawn by the 'Child of the World Tree.' No matter how much power or ability you have, it's impossible."
"Hmm..."
"The Sacred Sword currently on display is nothing more than a stage set for drawing in visitors and making money. It's not fake, exactly—but it's utterly meaningless."
A sword that anyone could claim simply by drawing it.
It was an extraordinary blade born of the World Tree, yet the Races of the World Tree paid it no heed at all.
Even if some wicked soul came and drew it out, it wouldn't matter.
Because unless one was the Child of the World Tree, the Sacred Sword could never be drawn.
"So rather, perhaps we should try the other—"
"That sounds fun, actually."
"Huh?"
Leaving the guiding to Mul, Lily smiled brightly.
"Let's go find out. Whether I can draw it or not."
"Come one, come all~ It's not every day you get a sword-drawing event~ Just 3 Gold~"
Following Mul's lead, cheap sales patter reached our ears along with the murmur of the crowd drifting in from every direction.
Judging by the atmosphere, there was clearly no thought of anyone actually drawing the sword.
"HUUUAAAAAH!!!"
In the middle of the packed crowd, a burly man bellowed a battle cry as he wrestled with the sword planted in the ground.
Veins bulged along the man's forearms, his face flushing crimson from the effort—but the sword didn't budge so much as an inch.
"That's enough."
At last, stopped by someone's intervention, the man released the hilt and glared furiously at a woman before him.
Platinum-blonde hair and green eyes.
The slender woman idly fingered the bow at her hip, watching the man with utter indifference.
"Damn it all...! I could've kept going!"
"Your challenge has failed. Release the sword."
"What? Where does an elf get off...? You think a ranker inside the top 300 is a joke?"
The man—a ranker—spat venom while letting his killing intent bleed out, but she continued to regard him with the same placid gaze.
"Your rank is of no consequence. Put the sword down and step back."
Shiing...
"If you refuse to withdraw..."
As the High Elf's bow burst with green light, the man flinched and snatched his hand away from the sword.
Only a fellow ranker could truly appreciate the depth of her power.
Had he pushed things any further, her arrow would have ended up lodged between his eyes—but thankfully he seemed to come to his senses and retreated.
As the man fled elbowing his way through the crowd, the elf called for the next challenger with practiced ease.
"Next!"
"...She really is. Impressive."
No one could assume every elf was like that High Elf, but her power was genuinely formidable.
A strength that couldn't even be compared to the elves I'd seen in the past.
The power she'd just displayed alone was enough to tower far above Vlack.
You'd need at least that much to keep this crowd of challengers in line.
"You're really going to try?"
"Yes. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"
I handed 3 Gold to the cheap-talking hawker and answered Yul's question.
Yul nodded with a slightly doubtful expression, while Mul—who apparently had signed up at some point—was already grabbing at the sword.
"HUUUAAAH! Green Serpent!"
A green serpent and turtle wreathed Mul's entire body, and a violent surge of power flooded into his arm.
His strength multiplied in an instant.
But—
"HRRRRAAAAAH!!!"
"That's enough."
"...Tch. Fine."
At the High Elf's signal to stop, Mul scratched his head sheepishly and trudged back into the crowd.
"Couldn't do it!"
"Good for you!"
"How was it? Grabbing the sword?"
"Hmm... Solid! Real heavy, too. Felt like pulling a tree out of the ground, I'd say."
"Still, if anyone can do it, Teacher, it's you. I believe in you!"
Mul flashed a hearty thumbs-up and let out a booming laugh.
His way of speaking never stopped being fascinating.
How much time had passed after that?
"Next!"
- Number 1992! Number 1992!
My turn had finally come.
I walked slowly toward the sword.
There had been a fair bit of whispering before, but the moment I stepped forward, the murmuring swelled, and more and more people pushed round mirror-cameras toward me.
I'd become famous to the point where a user who didn't know me was nearly impossible to find.
The locals, too, had gradually picked up the information, chattering amongst themselves at the sight of me.
"Number 1992?"
"Yes. That's me."
Yet even as I came right up close, the High Elf's reaction remained unchanged.
"You have three minutes at most to draw the sword. However, if I judge that you cannot draw it within that time, I will end the attempt at my discretion. Do you agree?"
"I agree."
"...Very well."
The High Elf stepped aside.
Now the Sacred Sword stood fully before me.
I'd never seen anything like it even in the old days, but I had a rough idea what it was.
The will of the World Tree.
A holy sword carved from a fragment of the World Tree's pillar, with the Tree's will sealed inside it.
Its blade was made of wood, gnarled and blunt-looking enough that it seemed it could barely slice through a sheet of paper—but appearance wasn't what mattered.
A will carried out by the World Tree itself.
Thump.
The sensation filling my hand was heavy.
I was not a Child of the World Tree.
And so the World Tree refused to acknowledge my existence and rejected the weight I placed upon it.
That was the World Tree's law, rooted deep in the earth.
But.
Creak...
What's the point of that?
Laws exist to be broken.
Pure-white divinity coiled around my hand, and my blue hair billowed behind me as it bleached brilliant white.
And then.
Grrrk...!
"...!!!"
The holy sword began to tremble.
"S-stop! That's enough!"