A Sudden Visit
Whenever I took up a sword, I always felt good.
It was like sensing that I was truly alive. With a blade in my hand, I could see the path I needed to walk.
When ordinary people gave up on something—when their hearts broke—it was because they couldn't see what lay ahead. But that never happened to me. I could always see the way.
Even in the simple act of stepping forward and swinging my sword once, I could see which part of me was wrong, what I still lacked. It was pure instinct. That alone was reason enough that I had to keep holding a sword.
And so I looked forward to meeting the Sword Saint all the more. Even the single demonstration Father had shown me had been a shock. It had expanded my world another layer. There were surely many people like that in this world.
It had nothing to do with Father's lofty realm simply being high. It wasn't about the stage of Blooming. It was the path of the sword that person had polished and refined that broadened my world further still.
So for the next two months, I had to train as if I might die tomorrow.
I settled into my stance and swung. Today's goal: ten thousand. And if there was even a hair's breadth of form broken during those ten thousand swings, I would start over from the beginning. I would not stop until it was done.
I never thought of it as grueling. Every swing felt like touching the world itself, and that alone lifted my spirit. I wanted to swing more. I didn't want to stop. On and on. If I could swing a sword for the rest of my life, that would be fine by me.
A full, rich happiness coursed through my entire body. It didn't stop.
Before I knew it, the sun was setting. It had been morning—when had time gotten so late?
Clap, clap, clap—
Then, out of nowhere, someone's applause rang out.
"Incredible. I was completely entranced watching you."
"…Adelaide?"
"You said you loved the sword that much, and it looks like you really do. I get like that with magic sometimes—lose myself and end up practicing all day without realizing it."
When had she even arrived? Had she come in the morning and been watching me this whole time?
"When did you get here?"
"This morning."
"…Good grief. You've been watching me since morning?"
"Mm-hm."
"You could've just called out."
"I didn't want to interrupt. Besides, it was fun to watch."
"Fun?"
"Yeah. You know how they sometimes call knights out at imperial ceremonies to do those sword dances? Watching you just swing was better than any of those."
"Ah… So what brings you here?"
"I was bored."
The reason was almost absurdly simple. Bored. Did she really have that little to do?
"That little work on your plate?"
"Plenty, but I usually finish it all pretty fast. I may not be much with my body, but I'm good with my head."
Adelaide grinned, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.
"It's this late—shouldn't you be heading back?"
"I already told my maids I'll be staying here for a while, so it's fine."
"Wait—staying here?"
"Why? You don't want me to?"
"No, it's not that I don't want you to…"
"When I'm at the palace, all kinds of weird invitations come flying in. It's a pain. I figured I'd hide out here for a bit. That way no one can come around spouting nonsense."
"I'm fine with it, but my maids are going to have a rough time."
"I'm not that high-maintenance, you know."
"Sure you aren't."
"Don't worry. They'll be falling over themselves to please me on their own—I don't have any reason to go out of my way to torment your maids."
"How long are you planning to stay?"
"What, planning to throw me out if I overstay? That would hurt my feelings a little."
Watching her pretend to be wounded, she felt less like a cat and more like a fox. When I narrowed my eyes slightly, Adelaide snickered and shrugged.
"I'm kidding. I'm heading back tomorrow. The thing I've been preparing is about to start."
"The thing you've been preparing?"
"Mm-hm."
"What is it?"
"There's going to be a diplomatic problem soon. With the Arden Kingdom."
"A diplomatic problem…"
Something flickered through my mind at those words. The Arden Kingdom. And a diplomatic problem. There was only one episode that fit.
War.
You could ask what a war was doing in a romance fantasy—but surprisingly, plenty of them featured wars. Plenty even started with one.
The Arden Kingdom sat in the eastern part of the Empire. And it was also a nation bound to the imperial family by an engagement. More precisely, the First Princess of Arden was currently betrothed to the Empire's First Prince, Kaizen.
The reason war broke out was simple. The First Princess of Arden had become Kaizen's fiancée while concealing that she already had a lover of her own. In other words, she had deceived him—so Kaizen flew into a rage, and with a legitimate cause in hand, Drakar launched a full-scale war of invasion.
The war would last roughly two years, and around the time the surrounding nations grew restless, Eleanor would come down to the Empire from the far northern frontier. In short, the war was inevitable. Ragnar's real rise in strength also came after that war. When Eleanor first met him, he was already a war hero.
Which meant I might end up going to war myself. If I became the Sword Saint's disciple, there was no way she wouldn't take the field.
"That First Princess did something truly outrageous, you see."
Adelaide's next words turned my speculation into certainty.
"This diplomatic dispute—it's a war?"
"That's right."
"…That's more serious than I thought."
"Honestly, part of why I came today wasn't just boredom. I also needed to talk with His Grace the Duke about the war."
"I see."
"I might not get to see your face for a while, so I wanted to stop by. Especially since you're heading north."
"But if war breaks out, won't Lady Isolde have to go to the front too? Then I'd end up coming back."
Adelaide shook her head.
"Lady Isolde has to hold the North. The barbarians of Grundar could come pouring down at any time. If anything, the moment the Empire goes to war with Arden, they'll seize the chance to invade."
"…Ah."
"And more than that, Arden's national power isn't that strong. Imperial Intelligence has already roughly analyzed their full military strength. We've planted quite a few spies as well, so once a full-scale war starts, confusion is guaranteed on their side."
"You prepared for this war in advance?"
"That's right. From Kaizen's engagement onward, this was a war prepared in advance."
"…What?"
"Why would Kaizen, of all people, bother getting engaged to Arden's First Princess? This was the plan from the start. And while everyone's attention is fixed on the war, he also intends to take a few noble heads—starting with the Lumières."
This was the first I'd heard of any of it. So the war—all of this—had been designed from the beginning.
This felt less like landing in a romance fantasy and more like dropping into a world ruled by war and politics. Wasn't romance supposed to be the main focus? Then again, thinking about it, the original work tended to gloss over or barely describe anything that wasn't part of the main narrative—and war-related material was usually dark enough that it would never get proper coverage.
But I never imagined the war would unfold like this. I'd thought Arden was entirely at fault. Instead, the Empire had orchestrated everything.
So that was why, when Eleanor defected from Grundar to Drakar, everything had been so chaotic. Why Ragnar and Adelaide had been so different from how they were now.
Being inside this world myself, I was only just realizing how much the original had left undescribed. Of all the romance fantasies I could have fallen into, it had to be one this cutthroat. I would have preferred something light and everyday.
No—wait. If that had been the case, I never would have awakened to my talent with the sword, and I never would have known how vast the world of the blade truly was. It was precisely because war was frequent that martial arts had developed so far—that humans had come to transcend the human. Just looking at the settings around Blooming and the sword was enough to show how deep and vast this world's martial arts were.
"…I'm worried."
"Heh. Nothing's going to happen to me."
That wasn't what I was worried about. I knew how that catlike girl twisted after going through war, and I wanted her to be careful. The Adelaide of the original crossed from cunning into outright malice. If that happened, I thought I'd feel a little sad.
It was a short acquaintance, but I could tell she wasn't that bad a person. I wasn't exactly a saint myself, but I at least knew that people who treated human lives like flies rarely met good ends. I could only hope she never reached that kind of conclusion.
…Well, she did get rather ruthless where the Lumières were concerned, but that was only because the Lumières had crossed the line pretty hard. They were plotting rebellion—of course a member of the imperial family would react sensitively.
"That wasn't what I meant."
"Then what?"
"I meant I hope you don't change after going through a war. I know well enough that war isn't something to take lightly."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
"All right. Since my one and only friend is worried, I'll try not to change."
Adelaide said it with a smile.