121. Gift
121. Gift
Stella and Eurasia's faces went pale.
Whether they did or not, I pulled out what I was going to give Stella.
"Here, Stella. You're keeping this."
"...What is this... bone?"
"Auroraxis's bone."
Stella didn't understand what I'd just said. Eurasia, on the other hand, did.
"Oh... Auroraxis... th-that's the Aurora Dragon from the Hero stories, isn't it?"
"Aurora Dragon... yeah. Well... I guess so."
The Aurora Dragon. Auroraxis's epithet from novels and fairy tales.
And yet, why the hell am I Ronan the Martial Artist?
What a shitty book.
"Au, the, th-that... Aurora, Dragon...?"
"Yeah. It's pretty damn tough, so if you just crack someone's skull with this, you could kill them. Well... anyway, this is what goes on top of it."
The Mana Stone that held the most powerful force in my subspace pouch.
The moment it was brought out, the slightly dim private room brightened in an instant.
As if that weren't enough, the lights flickered and the hand holding it began to tingle.
I don't know if it's welcoming me, or if this fragment of a heart was just always like this.
"Auroraxis's heart. Of course, it's not complete. It's nothing but a fragment... but still, for you right now... hmm, no, you could probably use just this for nearly half your life."
"Huh, h-h... ha...? Euk..."
"Of course, I'll be commissioning this one separately too. I can't leave it to the Imperial Capital. The Duchy... honestly, the Duchy's a bit iffy too, but still, that person I can trust to leave it with."
I poked Stella's chest with the bone as she struggled to breathe, and kept talking.
"There's more. Elixirs. Elixirs that increase your total Mana, its purity, open your meridians, and draw out impurities. There are five in total, and I'll tell you the order to take them, so don't just scarf them down and die."
I placed the Elixirs in Stella's arms.
"Next, Eurasia. What to give Eurasia... I really thought about it a lot. I worried that if I gave you the wrong thing, you'd swing it around and dull the sharpness of the main body. But... well, I decided to trust Eurasia."
Eurasia's face wore an expression mixed with half fear, half excitement.
What's there to be afraid of? Just enjoy it.
I snickered and rummaged through my pouch.
And from within, I gripped the hilt of the sword I treasured second most.
Second most treasured, but first in performance.
"Hmm..."
A familiar and longed-for texture.
The image of the sword drawn in my mind.
It was plain. No, it was beyond plain—it was shabby. Nothing on the pommel, no crossguard above the grip.
Just an endlessly plain sword, extending in a single straight line.
A sword devoted to cutting the opponent, shaped as if it wouldn't even permit defense—a mad, arrogant sword.
A sword that had cut the Demon King once.
"Severing Sword (截劍)."
The moment I drew the sword from its scabbard, I felt a sensation as if the air around us had been cut.
It actually had been. I don't know about the others, but for a moment I couldn't breathe and felt sound itself cut off.
I wasn't surprised. It was familiar to me.
Stella, seeing the sword, began glancing at Eurasia without realizing it. Why? Because compared to what she and Pina had received, it looked endlessly shabby.
But Eurasia showed no such reaction.
She already knew, it seemed.
If she was from the Eustetia Knight Order, there was no way she wouldn't know.
"...My lady, this is."
"That's right. This is the sword that my—ahem—Arisa Eustetia used to cut off the heads of two Legion Commanders."
Of course, the public never learned that we had encountered the Demon King and cut him down.
Out of an army of five thousand, we were the only survivors.
They couldn't exactly put that in a fairy tale, I suppose.
That's not to say she didn't cut off Legion Commanders' heads. She did, with the Severing Sword. It was the sharpest sword, so she used it the most.
Its origin... well, first of all, a dragon's lair.
Not Auroraxis's lair. Another dragon's lair. A dragon named Gleria, who had lost her kin to the Demon King and was dying.
When we saved her hatchling, stayed by the hatchling's side, witnessed Gleria's final moments, and burned her corpse—this was what we received as a keepsake.
After that, even when we visited other dragons, we could never learn the sword's true origin.
The Demon King recognized it.
"However, you can't swing this in actual combat yet. It's too early for the current Eurasia to handle it. So, hmm... don't draw it until I say you've reached a certain level. But the reason I'm giving it to you now is so you'll look at it and feel motivated to improve. Got it? Take it for now. I have more to give."
After that, I pulled out five more swords.
They didn't have names of their own like the Severing Sword.
But among the swords I owned, they were sharp enough to count on one hand.
And on all of them, the name Arisa Eustetia was written.
"Ah, my lady. This... this is too much, isn't it?"
"They all look different, don't they? This one's a zweihander, this one's a scimitar, this one's a claymore, this one's a rapier, this one's a short sword. This short sword especially—the blade's unusual, right? This one's for breaking your opponent's weapon."
Eurasia, holding them all in an armful, went slack-jawed in an instant.
"...I know that much, but these are things I can't handle. At best I can manage a dagger or... a two-handed sword..."
"From now on, they'll be things you can handle."
"Uh..."
"What do you mean, 'uh.' I'll teach you. Don't worry. It'll be tougher than before, but there's nothing bad about learning."
I looked at Eurasia blinking her eyes, giggled, and then pulled out six Elixirs.
"Here, these are also effective in various ways. The first two are for after Eurasia reaches Tier 6, and the last four you can take now. Same as before, I'll tell you the order, so don't take them however you like. If you take them wrong, your body will burst and you'll die."
With that, I closed the pouch.
The empty pouch hung at my waist, but for some reason my heart felt full.
Hmm, with this much...
Eurasia's proud quick-sword speed might surpass mine, if only for a single moment.
Though as for the Wizards, Stella and Pina, I don't know how they'll change.
Well, Pina has Sparkle, so she'll manage somehow.
Stella... she calls herself a genius, so she'll figure it out.
"That's it. Let's go see that play we reserved earlier. We'll be late."
Clap—I clapped my hands and stood up.
The remaining three still wore dazed expressions.
*****
On the way out of the restaurant, the things I'd just handed over ended up back in my subspace pouch.
They said the items were far too terrifying to carry around themselves, so I had no choice. Once they got back to the dormitory, they'd hide them away in their personal safes.
Eurasia, however, said she would at least hang the short sword I'd given her at her waist. And so, a total of three swords now hung at her hip.
Aunt Diana's sword. The Eustetia Knight Order's sword. The short sword I'd given her.
Looking at them, Eurasia smiled so happily she was practically drooling.
And Eurasia, Pina, and Stella.
This trio expressed their gratitude endlessly.
They even pooled their money, all three of them, to buy dinner.
I nodded along with a proud feeling once or twice myself. But then it was three times, four times, five times.
They showed no sign of stopping, so I started getting annoyed.
So I told them to knock it off before I took everything back.
After that... well, we chatted in the same peaceful atmosphere as before. The difference from earlier was that their voices were brimming with tremendous anticipation.
They'd been trembling at the thought of becoming accomplices just a little while ago, and now look at them. Such simple little brats.
I don't dislike it. In fact... I like it more.
They've got that fresh, youthful flavor like proper teenagers.
"...What's with you?"
"What."
"Just now, you totally... had a mom smile."
"What's a mom smile?"
"...Like, kind, and... I don't know. Anyway, it was a mom smile. Why are you looking at us like that?"
"Now you're even bitching about my facial expressions."
"Ugh... talk nicer."
"Don't care."
"...You're really annoying."
And lately... Stella's reactions had subtly changed. The impact had dropped off sharply.
...Did she grow up after going through some hardship?
Or did she see me covered in blood from head to toe?
Whatever it was, it's not a change I particularly welcome.
Pina had... changed a little too. She startled more easily than before. Last time, she was even looking up information on Ronan Luzarak in the library when I caught her red-handed.
At that moment, Pina seemed to let out the loudest sound she could possibly make.
Anyone watching would've thought I was about to eat her alive.
"But, um... my lady."
"Hm?"
"What the heck. Why is your answer to me different from your answer to Eurasia?"
"Are you and Eurasia the same?"
I smirked and popped a candy into Stella's mouth. Then I looked back at Eurasia.
"You have something to say?"
Eurasia had been glancing back and forth between me and Stella with an odd expression, and belatedly opened her mouth.
"Ah, yes. If you give us all this... my lady, um... doesn't that leave you with nothing?"
"Aha..."
A very, very admirable question.
And upon hearing it, Pina and Stella flinched and held their breath.
No, Pina—she knows how many Elixirs were in there, so why is she surprised?
Well, anyway. Eurasia really is admirable, kind, and thoughtful.
I stood on my tiptoes and patted Eurasia's head.
"Heh. I'm fine. I have plenty of my own."
"Mm... really?"
"Yeah. So don't worry—"
That moment.
A tingling, chilling sensation wrapped around my entire body.
The feeling of invisible flames surrounding us on all sides.
I immediately hid Stella and Pina behind me.
"My lady, get behind me."
A beat later, Eurasia felt it too.
Eurasia hid my body behind her own and placed her hand on her sword hilt.
"...Who are you?"
Eurasia's voice came out like a growl.
The red-haired woman who heard it answered.
"Flame Emperor (炎皇)."