No Taking It Back Later, Got It?
“No taking it back later, got it?”
Drip.
Red blood spilled from Varen’s mouth.
His eyes went wide enough to split.
What was that just now...?
His heart felt ready to burst. A violent tremor ran through Varen’s pupils.
Just moments ago, Varen had been certain of victory.
Right before the wooden sword shattered Kael’s ribs, he had been about to pull his strength back. If he’d been careless, he might have inflicted a serious injury.
But at that instant, gooseflesh had swept over his entire body.
He had looked into Kael’s eyes.
Eyes without a shred of emotion.
And that gaze had been aimed at his own throat.
Along with that look, the blade moved. The tip of the sword drew a perfect half circle.
Varen pursued direct, honest swordsmanship.
What had unfolded from Kael’s hand had reached the far end of the ideal Varen himself dreamed of.
I’m going to die.
That thought consumed him.
The shadow of death fell over him.
At the very edge of death, lightning flashed through his mind.
His senses sharpened. It felt as if time had slowed.
Varen moved. Without hesitation, he dropped the wooden sword.
At the same time, he drew every ounce of magical power he had, and explosive mana wrapped around his body.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
The instant before Kael’s sword reached Varen’s throat.
KWA-AAAAAANG!
A deafening roar exploded, so loud it felt like his eardrums would tear.
Varen had succeeded in blocking Kael’s sword.
If he had been even one second, no, even one-tenth of a second slower, his own head would be rolling across the floor by now.
Goosebumps rose all over him, and the fine hairs on his skin stood straight up.
“...Heh, heh, heh.”
Laughter leaked from between his lips.
He had just stood on the border between life and death.
The intense stimulus felt as if it were burning his brain alive.
The doubts that had begun to sprout in one corner of his heart vanished completely.
If it was that sword, if it was a sword that had reached the realm of perfection, then everything changed.
It was easy enough to understand how it had severed that monster’s neck.
His body was burning hot.
It felt as though he had walked out of a furnace. His blood boiled.
Having passed through a crisis of death, he had entered an awakened state.
Varen lifted his head.
He still wasn’t enough.
He had taken considerable internal damage blocking that last strike, but that was a trivial issue.
He was thirsty. He wanted to satisfy that thirst right now.
Varen’s red eyes flickered strangely.
“Do you have no shame, attacking someone who’s injured?”
Luke shouted, but it never reached Varen at all.
The moment the corners of his mouth curled ferociously upward.
Kael, who had been swaying, collapsed to the ground with a thud, as if a taut string had suddenly snapped.
At the sight of Kael falling, reason returned.
Only then did Luke’s words finally pierce his mind.
- Do you have no shame, attacking someone who’s injured?
That’s right. Kael had been injured.
At first, he had thought Luke meant the injuries caused by his own attack.
But it seemed Kael had already been hurt before this fight even began.
...So that’s it.
Nothing else made sense.
He was a man capable of wielding a sword at that level.
If he had been in perfect condition, uninjured, even Varen couldn’t have confidently claimed victory.
“...Are you satisfied now?”
Luke staggered over.
In his eyes as he looked at Varen was a deep contempt.
To Luke, Varen was a man who knew no shame.
He had tried to attack Kael even after learning that Kael was injured.
Whatever his intent had been, he had once again threatened an injured man.
“I thought only those who understand the honor carried by the Imperial 5 Swords could rise to that title. It seems I was mistaken.”
“...”
Though he was being insulted to his face, Varen had nothing to say.
As his excitement cooled, his reason returned.
He had no excuse, not even with ten mouths.
Kael was an imperial official, and at the same time a hero who had sacrificed himself for the Empire.
...That injury was probably from fighting Harkan.
No more doubt remained.
He couldn’t tell the extent of the injury, but from the way Kael had collapsed, it looked serious.
If he had fought a fierce battle with Harkan, it was entirely understandable that he would be hurt that badly.
No, it would have been stranger if he hadn’t been injured at all.
...Damn it.
Varen swallowed the curse.
He had made a huge mistake.
Kael probably already had his hands full just trying to recover.
Just looking at how he had stabilized Nox, that city infamous as a den of crime, in such a short time, it was obvious he had poured enormous effort into public duty as well. He must have been desperately busy.
And he had made that man suffer again.
All because of his own greed and petty suspicion.
Shame washed over him. There was no excuse for it. This was plainly Varen’s fault.
“...Haah, for now let’s check on his condition first.”
The blood that had been burning hot now turned cold. A metallic taste lingered in his mouth.
Varen had just incurred a heavy debt to Kael today.
* * *
“...Ah, damn it, I’m seriously gonna die.”
Kael lay motionless on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
He really had nothing left but curses. It felt like his whole body had been broken apart.
Even twitching a finger was difficult. If he moved even a little, pain surged through him as if every bone in his body were being crushed.
Every time that happened, tears genuinely welled up in his eyes.
“...Old man, I’m seriously about to die here, you know?”
I told you already. It could only be used once or twice.
“No, but you could’ve at least done it like you did with Luke. That time it didn’t even hurt this much.”
Hah. Do you think a grown man should say such weak things? Even if you die, you should die with the resolve to at least cut off one arm. Tsk tsk. If it had been me, I would have endured that kind of pain with a smile...
“Oh, really? Then how about you go settle yourself down in the latrine for a while? If we’re suffering together, I’ll feel a little less cheated.”
...Hm. Suddenly, I’m feeling sleepy. I’d better catch some rest for a moment.
...This old man?
He’d sensed it a few times before, but Balmung pulled that trick whenever things started looking bad for him.
He’d claim he was sleepy and then disappear without a trace.
That shameless lump of scrap metal...
Now that his body hurt too, it just made the sword even more irritating. He was seriously considering tossing it into the latrine.
Knock, knock.
A knock came at the door.
“Who is it?”
“...It’s me.”
A rough voice, but familiar.
The voice of Varen, the main culprit behind this whole disaster.
Kael scowled.
What was he doing, coming all the way here?
He didn’t exactly want to be in the same place as him, but he couldn’t exactly drive away a high-ranking official who had come to his door.
“...Come in.”
Varen opened the door and stepped inside.
Seeing Kael struggle upright with a face that looked ready to die, he flinched and darted his eyes around.
“What did you come for?”
“...I came to give you this.”
Varen pulled a glass bottle from inside his coat. Inside was a liquid with a luminous, almost jewel-like sheen.
What the hell was that now?
“What is it?”
“Ahem... It’s a potion. Not quite an elixir, but it’s probably just below that tier.”
Potion?
Kael narrowed his eyes and studied the bottle.
If it was just below elixir rank, that meant it was a high-grade potion.
An elixir belonged to the sort of world where its price could buy you an entire mansion, and even a high-grade potion, if not on that level, was still priced far beyond what ordinary people could dream of touching.
And he was just handing that to me now?
“So this is the classic hit me and then hand me medicine routine? After turning some innocent guy into this shape, you’re just going to wash your hands of it with a single potion?”
Was this guy a full-on sociopath? Kael swallowed the words that had risen to his throat.
“...Haah. This time... the fault was mine. I have no excuse, not even with ten mouths.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Varen bowed his head to Kael.
No matter how rough and impulsive he might be, he wasn’t a man who lacked a sense of propriety.
This was clearly his mistake.
“...I’m not trying to act like one potion is enough to make this go away. I’m not that shameless a man.”
“Then?”
Kael stared at him with a sullen expression.
“...Just once. If you ever need my help, tell me. I’ll help without asking for anything in return.”
“...Huh? Just once?”
...Huh? Just once?
Varen’s eye twitched.
“You... do you even know what my body is worth before you say that?”
“How would I know? But my life’s not exactly cheap, either. Ah, my arm suddenly hurts again!”
“...Enough. Haah, fine, I understand.”
Varen let out a soul-deep sigh and scratched the back of his head.
Then he held up two fingers.
“Let’s make it two times. Two times.”
“Since you’re already raising it, why not make it three...”
Varen glared at him, his expression hardening.
Ah, damn, missed it.
Kael clicked his tongue in disappointment.
Well, fine. Two times wasn’t bad.
It was a pass to the Imperial 5 Swords, for crying out loud. And usable anytime, too.
Its value was the kind you couldn’t even properly convert into money.
“Deal. Let’s go with two.”
“...Fine. Then there’s no bad blood between us now, right? No taking it back later, got it?”
“Come on, what do you take me for... Honestly, I feel like I’m about to die right now, but I’ll somehow choke this potion down and hang on. Cough! Cough!”
“...”
Varen’s pupils shook violently.
A strong feeling began to grow that he had latched onto someone he should never have provoked in the first place.