78. The Golden Wolf
78. The Golden Wolf
"This place...?"
It was somewhere she had never seen before.
She'd been left alone in a room without a single window.
Riber had been laid out atop a perfectly rectangular altar.
The stench of blood hung thick in the air, and incomprehensible objects lay scattered everywhere.
"Nngh... I'm tied up.."
She wasn't simply lying there.
Riber's wrists were bound, chained to the altar.
Riber thought she had seen something like this before.
The structure looked almost... identical to the demon summoning ritual she'd witnessed underground during the dungeon training exercise.
"That's right... Russell-ssi..!!"
Riber recalled her last memory before losing consciousness.
Lucia Russell had seen Riber being dragged away by the Sword Saint and had tried to stop him.
And then... she had taken the Sword Saint's Aura Blade head-on.
"U... uuuu...."
When she came to, tears had begun to fall, one by one.
Was Lucia alive?
Riber didn't know how much destructive power the Sword Saint's Aura Blade, which had soared high into the sky, truly possessed.
She had never seen an Aura Blade with that much output.
The Sword Saint's attack, a simple downward swing from above, had incinerated a straight line through everything... and Riber had fainted from the aftermath of the strike.
Lucia had tried to block such an attack with nothing but a single sword.
No matter how much Lucia was a Russell, famed as the most unyielding family in the Empire... could she possibly have survived a blow from a Master?
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry......."
It wasn't just Lucia.
She thought of everyone at the Academy who had been harmed by the Clover Kingdom's terrorism.
Emy, who had stepped up to stop the demons, Atlas, whose tournament opponent had suddenly turned into a demon, and everyone who had been attacked by demons—they all came to mind.
"You've woken up at a good time."
Just then, the Sword Saint opened a door from somewhere and walked in.
His appearance hadn't changed from the first time she saw him until now.
Same build, same face, same disposition. The only difference at most was that a few strands of white had mixed into his hair....
The Sword Saint, walking in as if nothing had happened, was utterly loathsome.
"Don't glare at me like that. It pisses me off too."
"You said... you wouldn't touch the others..!!"
Riber tried to leap off the altar and rush at the Sword Saint, but the chains binding her kept her from getting close.
She tried to summon her aura to sever them, but the Sword Saint only drew closer and swung his left hand.
-Peok!
"Kyaak!!"
The Sword Saint had struck Riber across the head.
Her body bounced backward, slamming into the solid altar, and blood trickled from her forehead.
Though he acted as if it was nothing, the Sword Saint was in an extremely foul mood.
"And your tone... I didn't plan on doing this, you know. If you want to hate someone, hate the Empire's Greatest Sword instead of me. It's her fault for saying she was suddenly coming, which moved up the schedule..."
From the very beginning, the Sword Saint had entered the Empire in order to drop the bomb known as the demons.
Riber couldn't understand the Sword Saint's actions.
The Clover Kingdom was a weak nation.
The Sword Saint had been utterly defeated by the Empire's Greatest Sword and barely kept his life due to the Church's mediation.
This was a fact anyone would know if they had studied even a little of the continent's history.
There was no way he would walk away unscathed after committing such an atrocity.
The Empire would devour the Clover Kingdom using this incident as a pretext.
The Empire's Greatest Sword would lead the vanguard, and with the Clover Kingdom's national power, it was impossible to stop the Empire's advance.
Could it be that in the meantime, the Sword Saint had gained some new enlightenment and grown confident he could defeat the Empire's Greatest Sword?
The Sword Saint claimed the Empire's Greatest Sword was nothing special, yet even now, fear and a sense of inferiority seeped out every time she was mentioned.
"There's no time. I must take the treasure nestled inside you. The essence of the werewolf passed down in the Simore family... no, I mean the essence of the Wolf God."
"The essence of the Wolf God... that's just a legend..!!"
Riber knew exactly what the Sword Saint was talking about.
It was a story that had recently come from Atlas's mouth as well.
Among the families that had striven to obtain the power of the werewolf, Simore was one of them.
According to the story passed down in the family, long ago, Simore had originally formed a bond with a golden-furred wolf, and after inheriting its essence, the white wolf of Simore had become a golden wolf.
Simore had consistently produced warriors of decent caliber, but not once had they ever stood at the pinnacle.
Even if someone was called a prodigy who grew at a terrifying pace in childhood, without exception, their growth would sharply decline once they became an adult.
"Calling it just a legend... what a regrettable thing to say...."
But the Sword Saint merely snickered at the word 'legend.'
"Then why is it that your eyes glow gold whenever the full moon draws near..?"
The Sword Saint grabbed Riber's face and pried her eyes open.
Tonight, her amber eyes shone brightly with a golden light even in the darkness.
"A trait of werewolves... the eyes of those who carry it all glow yellow under the full moon...."
"Considering how many werewolves I've killed, do you think I can't tell the difference? You probably don't know. Just how great a treasure is hidden inside you.
Your family simply failed to use that great treasure properly...! So I shall make good use of it in your stead.
If I obtain the essence of a god, even the Empire's Greatest Sword will be no match for me!"
Someone walked in from behind the Sword Saint.
"Now, greet him. He is the one who came from the Church to carry out this great ritual."
"Church..?"
A man wearing a large robe that obscured his entire body bowed his head and offered Riber a stiff greeting.
As she looked at him, Riber became certain of one thing.
That man was absolutely not someone from the Church.
He wasn't wearing a skull mask, but he wore clothes similar to an evangelist of the Demon Church.
"Th-that person is from the Church?? There's no way..!!"
"That's none of your concern. Now then, let's proceed with the ritual."
"Understood, Sword Saint-nim."
The Sword Saint used Riber's bound hands as handles, hoisted her up with a flash, and laid her back down on the altar.
She tried to struggle, but the Sword Saint's arm didn't even budge.
"What are you trying to do...!!"
"Your life will be perfectly unharmed, so don't worry. Stay still."
Riber was terrified beyond measure.
The Sword Saint's thick arm pinning her down, the situation of being trapped in a place no one knew about and offered up like a sacrifice for some bizarre ritual—it was all terrifying.
But she couldn't offer any resistance at all.
"Then I shall begin the ritual."
When the robed man clapped his hands, the massive magic circle surrounding the altar began to glow.
The various materials scattered around the magic circle lit up, and the light split into two streams, one striking the Sword Saint and the other striking Riber's body.
"Haaack?!!!"
A weird sensation, as if some large foreign object had entered her body, sent a chill down her spine.
Something like a long tentacle was rummaging around inside her.
She couldn't see it, but she felt it distinctly.
The thing that had been wildly stirring up her insides reached her lower abdomen, and at that moment, Riber's body began to glow gold.
"Oooh!! That's it, the blessing of a god..!!! Come to me..! Hurry, make me the strongest Master..!!"
The golden light radiating from Riber's entire body slowly narrowed its range, then flashed brilliantly and exploded.
"Ugh.. What?!"
The Sword Saint, who had been closest to Riber, was pushed back hard.
The golden explosion expelled all the light emanating from the altar and threw the magic circle into disarray.
Riber, who had been sweating coldly from the intangible force rummaging inside her, was finally able to breathe properly.
The golden explosion had completely erased the power that had invaded her body.
"What in the... what's going on?"
"Even a forgotten god is still a god, I suppose. To resist so fiercely..."
"Don't talk nonsense and tell me what's going on."
With the ritual in ruins, the Sword Saint grew enraged and grabbed the man by the collar.
"The conditions for extracting the god's essence are, first, that the vessel is a fully physically matured 'adult' and a pure 'maiden,' and it must be a night when the full moon rises, when the essence is most active... Do you not recall?"
"That's why I brought the only daughter of Simore, who inherited the essence, here as an adult and a maiden on the night of the full moon...!!
What's the problem then!! Are you saying this wench isn't even an adult yet!!!"
"The god's essence, which should have separated from the body upon reaching adulthood, has settled back into place. That makes extraction impossible now. It means something is wrong."
Even faced with the Sword Saint's murderous rage, the man remained unflustered.
"A god's essence is the warm blessing of the divine itself. In childhood, to foster growth... and thereafter, to fulfill the role of conceiving life. It has assimilated with the vessel, making extraction impossible."
"Did you bastards not say that once someone becomes an adult and finishes growing, once the assimilation is complete, you could extract the essence as much as you wanted...!"
"That is correct. Provided the conditions are met... Normally, immediately after becoming an adult whose physical growth has finished, the god's essence should not have settled properly... but if that's not the case, it seems she is no longer a maiden.
Once growth is complete, if it is determined that the preparations for creating a child are finished, the essence re-assimilates."
At those words, Riber's heart sank.
Immediately after reuniting with the Sword Saint after ten years, she had been so infuriated by him calling her his that she had slept with Atlas that very night.
Up until then, she had assumed he would quietly return to the Clover Kingdom two days later, so she thought there would be no problem.
"That's impossible. I clearly confirmed it with the unicorn horn yesterday..! She is a pure maiden!"
"And is she... still?"
"What..?"
The moment he heard that, the Sword Saint drew his dagger again.
The dagger the Sword Saint held... an artifact made from a unicorn horn had the property that if someone impure held it, it remained a simple blunt dagger, but if a pure person used it, the blade would glow to protect its owner and reveal its true worth.
When he had tested it yesterday, the dagger had definitely responded.
"Hold it!!"
And this time... nothing happened.
The dagger made of unicorn horn emitted no light in Riber's hands, becoming nothing more than a blunt dagger.
"Ha..!! You wanted to screw me over that badly, did you.."
And realizing that, the Sword Saint's face contorted with rage.
"In just one night..!! You filthy bitch!!"
"...I don't know what it is you're looking to take from me, but I'm truly glad it didn't fall into the hands of someone like you."
The Sword Saint moved his hand to his waist.
A cold metallic sound rang out.
The Sword Saint had drawn his sword.
"Now you've become completely useless."
He seemed intent on cutting her down right then and there.
She didn't know what the Sword Saint had wanted, but at the very least, he hadn't obtained it.
From now on, he would be a fugitive hunted by the Empire's Greatest Sword.
Or he would face her head-on and die.
She was deeply relieved by the knowledge that he could no longer commit atrocities against the people of the Academy.
The sword was raised high into the air.
He hadn't wrapped it in an Aura Blade or anything. He seemed intent on simply cutting her to death with cold steel.
It had been an insignificant life.
She had admired proactive heroes, but she had only ever been toyed with in someone else's grip.
She had yearned for a life where she protected the weak, but she herself had been the weak who needed protection.
It was a life where she had only been swung around by irrational violence, put up a small bit of resistance at the very end, and then died... a truly insignificant life.
'Well, I'll take responsibility, I guess.'
At the very, very end, what surfaced in her mind was the memory of the bonfire game they had played last night.
The words he had casually tossed out, as if they were nothing, had the power to instantly put at ease Riber, who had been trembling with anxiety about being in the same region as the Sword Saint.
No matter how strong Atlas was, there was probably nothing he could do against the Sword Saint, but that didn't matter.
Just having him beside her, sharing warmth, made her feel so protected, so completely at peace.
She would probably never see him again now... At the very least, she had wanted to see him just one more time.
She waited for the cold blade to slice through her body, but no matter how long she waited, she felt no sensation at all.
Could it be that a Master's swordsmanship could leave the opponent unaware they had even been cut? She had read about it in a novel.
If that were the case, then perhaps the moment she opened her eyes now, she would already be cut and dead, looking at the afterlife, or perhaps only her soul had left her body.
The instant she tried to quietly open her eyes again, a sharp metallic sound rang out.
-Chaeng!!!
When she opened her eyes, what Riber saw was not something like heaven.
She saw a small back.
It was an extremely small back, but it was so broad and sturdy.
He was blocking the Sword Saint's pale blade with the jet-black sword he held in one hand.
His face, glimpsed from behind with lips firmly shut, was cute as always, but incredibly reassuring.
Riber thought that what she was seeing must be an illusion or the magic lantern one sees before death.
She was convinced that, since she was already dead, she was watching the scene she most wanted to see as her last.
He was someone who couldn't possibly be in this place.
"Atla..s?"
Hearing the name she had uttered without realizing it, he placed a free hand atop Riber's head and spoke in a low voice.
"Let's go back."
They were terribly calm... and reassuring words.