The Blade That Spoke
Was this guy sick or something?
It was a crisis with nowhere left to run, a dead end so complete that not even a thread of hope remained.
The strange voice bored into Kael’s ears. He jolted fully awake, with no time to decide whether it was a hallucination or something else entirely. His already ruined arm moved on its own, dragging itself toward the sword.
“Hahaha. What, you think pulling out some toy like that is going to change anything?”
The man snorted as he watched Kael, laughing at him like he was watching a joke.
This obnoxious bastard.
Kael wanted to shut that loose mouth of his for good. Every word spilling out of it grated on his nerves. He wanted to wipe that smug grin off the man’s face right then and there.
“What, can’t even pull it out now that you’ve decided to? You gonna piss yourself or something?”
The man mocked him again and slowly started walking closer.
There wasn’t a trace of tension in his attitude.
“I was kind enough to play along because what you were doing was cute, but you really don’t know your place.”
The man clicked his tongue in obvious disappointment.
“Still, I did have some fun. Enough to kill a little boredom, at least. You should be honored I even bothered with you.”
The instant the man reached out toward Kael, Kael’s body moved reflexively.
It wasn’t movement of his own making.
It was as if someone had forcibly taken control of his body.
Kiiing!
The blade came free with a shriek that raised goose bumps all over him.
At the same time, a blinding white flare burst out, fierce enough to make his eyes ache.
Whiiish!
Kael’s body slipped completely beyond his control and moved on its own.
The tip of the blade drew a clean, elegant line through the air. At the end of that line was the giant’s neck.
“...Huh?”
The man blinked, his face blank with confusion.
A thin red line appeared across his throat.
Then droplets of blood began to bead along it.
Fwoosh!
Before long, the blood burst outward like a fountain.
The stunned man tried to stop the geyser of blood by clamping his hands over the wound, but it was already too late.
Thud.
The color drained from the man’s face in an instant, and his head rolled right off his body and hit the ground. A moment later, the massive body itself slowly gave way and collapsed.
BOOM!
His heavy frame slammed into the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The strange voice drilled into Kael’s ears once again.
That was when Kael realized it.
The owner of the voice was this sword.
The blade that had looked like an ordinary sword until moments ago had changed completely. White flames, as if someone had lit the steel itself on fire, were blazing along the blade.
“No, what the hell is this...?”
“...What?”
The command came out with such overbearing arrogance that Kael almost thought, What is this obnoxious bastard even saying? Still, he did as he was told and shoved the blade back into its scabbard.
The moment he did—
“...Are you a guard?”
A calm, gentle voice reached him.
Startled, Kael turned around.
There, standing before him, was someone in a white uniform.
Silver hair. Blue eyes.
Beautiful enough to make anyone let out an involuntary gasp.
Her hair, which fell past her shoulders, had been gathered neatly into a single tie. The dazzling silver strands gleamed in the sunlight with a cold metallic sheen.
Her impeccably pressed uniform, polished boots, and the secondary sword at her military belt all testified to the fact that she was a warrior trained to perfection.
She was Adelia Kreutzel, the leader of the Imperial 5 Swords—the White Night Knight.
That woman...?
Kael narrowed his eyes.
The White Night Knight.
Adelia Kreutzel.
One of the Imperial 5 Swords, known as the guardians of the Empire, and one of only eight Sword Masters on the entire continent.
Kael didn’t know the details, but those titles alone made it obvious she was a truly absurdly important person.
After ending up in this world, he had only seen her once before.
It had been from a distance during some ceremony, but her presence had been so striking that he had remembered her immediately.
Adelia, who had been staring at Kael with a stern expression, shifted her gaze to the side.
And in the next instant, her eyes widened slightly.
“That is... surely...?”
Her expression said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Adelia’s pupils trembled.
“...Did you perhaps kill that man just now?”
Her voice was shaking.
Before Kael could even answer, the aftereffects of the battle crashed over him.
The world began to tilt. His vision blurred, and then a powerful wave of dizziness washed over him.
Feeling his consciousness slip away, Kael blacked out on the spot.
The White Night Knight, Adelia Kreutzel, had no words for the scene before her.
It was utter devastation. A charred, ruined battlefield. And the beheaded corpse of a giant.
A mere guard killed... Harkan?
There was no mistake.
The huge corpse lying there with its head severed was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Harkan of Wrath, the Butcher.
Even she, one of the Imperial 5 Swords, could not have guaranteed victory against a living monster like him. Yet now he was nothing more than a cold corpse.
“Hah...”
At the impossible sight, Adelia let out a deep breath.
And that cut... it’s so clean.
The Butcher who had terrified the continent was infamous for a very strange style of combat.
True to the name of the sin he embodied, he fought without weapons, tearing people apart alive with nothing but his bare hands.
A cruel, monstrous man.
That unreal fighting style had been possible only because Harkan’s body had long since surpassed the boundaries of ordinary humanity.
Superhuman reflexes. Skin as tough as steel.
Without aura, even a sword would leave no more than a scratch on him.
Adelia studied Harkan’s corpse closely.
Once a person reached the level of a master, they could usually gauge the flow of a battle simply by looking at the traces left behind.
He split bone and muscle in one go.
Harkan probably hadn’t even had time to respond.
If a man who was closer to a beast than a human couldn’t even react, then...
Just how fast had that strike been?
And it wasn’t merely fast. A blow that was only fast couldn’t have sliced through Harkan’s dense flesh and bone.
It had been a strike so efficient and so clean that it sent chills down her spine.
Even as a Sword Master, Adelia couldn’t begin to fathom its depth.
“...Who would’ve thought there was a monster like this hiding in the Imperial Guard.”
Adelia gave a dry laugh.
The world was vast, and strange talents were everywhere.
Besides, not every strong person lived openly, flaunting their power for all to see.
There were monsters who lived quietly, hiding their true strength from the world.
“...He risked his life for the Empire.”
She didn’t know what circumstances had driven this man to conceal his power.
But someone of that caliber could have escaped without ever fighting Harkan at all.
And yet he had wagered his life against that monster.
As an Imperial citizen, Adelia felt nothing but genuine gratitude.
Of course, every assumption she had just made was far removed from the truth, but that hardly mattered now.
His condition is bad.
The man’s breathing was ragged.
Now that she was close, his injuries were far worse than she had first thought. There wasn’t a healthy spot left on him.
He looked like a candle guttering in the wind.
His life was fading fast.
Adelia reached into her pocket and took out a potion.
It wasn’t an ordinary potion.
It was an elixir, a top-grade potion so valuable that one bottle could buy a mansion.
Without a shred of hesitation, Adelia opened it and carefully fed it into Kael’s mouth.
The elixir’s effect was immediate.
Kael’s breathing steadied, and color returned to his face.
If this guard had not stepped in, the city would have suffered far greater damage.
There would have been countless casualties.
“...The Empire owes you a great debt.”
Adelia looked down at Kael and smiled.
Kael opened his eyes.
When he did, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
Just like when he had first possessed a guard’s body.
Kael jerked in surprise and tried to sit up reflexively, but a vicious stab of pain slammed into him.
“Ghk...!”
He had always thought he was pretty good at enduring pain, given that he had once fought as a martial artist, but this was beyond anything sheer willpower could handle.
His entire body screamed. No exaggeration, it hurt so badly that tears nearly welled up in his eyes.
“Feeling a little more awake?”
The voice came from right beside him.
Kael turned his head.
There stood the big shot known as the White Night Knight, Adelia Kreutzel.
“...Huh?”
Kael blinked.
What the hell was going on?
Why the hell was this woman suddenly here?
Where was he, and what in the world was he supposed to—
Ah.
Only then did he remember.
He had just been about to die after fighting some giant lunatic.
And right before that, a strange voice had spoken from nowhere and told him to draw the sword.
His body had moved on its own, and the giant’s head had been cleanly severed and sent to the floor.
And the person who had appeared at the scene afterward was—
...I’m screwed.
As the scattered pieces clicked together, a curse rose to his lips on its own.
His blood ran cold, and the world seemed to go dark at the edges.
This was how his life ended.
Maybe he should just ask them to give him a clean execution? That seemed better than torture, at least.
His thoughts churned wildly, one after another, and no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t see a way out.
But contrary to Kael’s expectations, the situation began to move in a bizarre direction.
“On behalf of the Empire, I’d like to thank you. The Empire truly owes you a tremendous debt.”
“...?”
“As you may already know, the man you brought down that day was Harkan, the Butcher—one of the Seven Deadly Sins.”
Seven Deadly Sins? The Butcher?
What the hell is she talking about?
Kael wore a dazed expression.
He couldn’t make sense of a single word of it.
From the sound of it, the giant he had fought had apparently not just been strong, but some notorious big shot feared across the continent.
No wonder he was disgustingly strong.
Kael had fought one of the strongest monsters on the continent with his life on the line.
No—he wasn’t even sure “fought” was the right word.
I just got beaten up.
It was like a skin-and-bones middle schooler stepping into the ring with a heavyweight UFC contender.
Seven Deadly Sins or whatever the hell else, even the name alone sounded insanely powerful. And in practice, he really had been insanely strong.
...Anyway, that’s not the point.
The real issue was why the White Night Knight was suddenly thanking him.
Did she not notice that Balmung was there?
No matter how I look at it, that makes no sense.
Kael turned his head slightly. There, standing blatantly beside the bed, was Balmung.
No, really—how could anyone miss that?
Then Adelia spoke again.
“First, I must apologize.”
“Apologize?”
“Yes. It would only be right to reward a hero who gave his body for the Empire, but we could not do so. The situation in the Empire is far from calm. If word got out that you single-handedly defeated Harkan, countless people would try to exploit that fact. Especially if it were to reach the Crown Prince’s ears...”
Just imagining it was dreadful.
Adelia trailed off with a grim expression.
It pained her deeply to have to say this to a hero who had risked his life to save the Empire.
But there was no other choice.
The current Crown Prince was that dangerous a man.
“For now, our top priority is recovering the real Balmung. I swear on my honor that once Balmung is found, you will be properly rewarded.”
Adelia’s eyes, fixed on Kael, shone with deep resolve.
But Kael, the one actually involved, could only stare back in bewilderment.
Is this lady sick or something?
Balmung’s right in front of you.