The Secret Every Blind Swordsman Keeps
What lay inside the black bag was a long rod, its head shaped like a hammer and its far end blunt and rounded.
"What is this...?"
"You asked for one, did you not. A sword."
"A sword? You mean this?"
No matter how she felt along it...
"Could something be wrong with me? However I touch it, it feels like a staff."
"No. It looks like a staff to my eyes as well."
"To mine, too."
"Then it is a staff."
"That is also correct. This is a staff."
"But you said it was a sword."
"That is also correct. That is a sword."
Was he playing word games? Or was this staff actually some Rose Staff that could slice through anything it so much as brushed?
"Uncle, you can't start losing your mind already. You have to hold out at least until I come of age."
"So this is what they mean, that there's no point in raising a child... In any case, turn the head of that staff to the right."
"Like this?"
As instructed, she twisted the hammer-like head of the staff to the right.
"Huh?"
It really was a sword...?
A blade had not sprung out of the staff. The staff itself had simply become a sword.
"A staff that doubles as a sword, made to transform through dark magic. The black-and-white coloring ought to suit it rather well, from a design standpoint."
Even a rough pass of her hands told her it was an extraordinary piece...
"Um... I believe I asked for something in the range of five million bel..."
Dark magic could grant a permanent magical effect, but only in exchange for a price to match, so it could hardly be a cheap thing.
"No matter how I look at this, it isn't five million bel, is it?"
"No. It is five million bel."
"This is five million bel? Buy me one too!"
"That is no longer possible. The materials are insufficient. And you do not even train with the sword, do you."
"Materials, you say?"
"Yes. I made it using materials the family already owned. The blacksmith used our family forge as well, and the overtime I paid came to five million bel. Hence, a five-million-bel sword."
What miraculous logic. From today on, anything made as a household handicraft was free.
"Then... how much did the materials cost...?"
"You need not know."
"If I just let this go, I definitely won't be able to sleep."
"I want to know too! The blade's all shiny and smooth!"
The feel of the edge alone was anything but ordinary. If the rest of it was of the same caliber...
"If you truly insist... The staff is a branch from a thousand-year-old tree in the Great Forest. The cap and the tip are black iron, found only on the southern continent. The blade is snow-blossom iron, which grows in the deepest reaches of the ice caves on the northern continent."
She was doomed. Every last one of them was a rare material — the sort of thing that never reached the open market and only turned up at auction.
"Why does only she get something like that! Me too! Me too! Me too!!!"
"You have your own sword, do you not. You simply do not use it."
"Tch... A transforming sword is so cool, though..."
And it could shift between staff and blade besides.
"So how much was it...?"
"As I thought, given your nature, you would be better off not knowing."
"Given my nature, not knowing would torment me more."
"Hmm... Even so, it is only the one sword, so it did not come to all that much. Eight..."
Eighty million bel?
"Eight... hundred million bel, I should think."
"...Pardon?"
Ha... She had only just managed to force a debt of eight hundred million bel to disappear, and a brand-new debt of eight hundred million had taken its place. And on top of that...
"Then... what about the cost of imbuing the dark magic...?"
"You need not count that. I received it free of charge as well."
"Free?"
"Now that dark magic has become widespread, wicked dark mages are springing up like weeds once more."
"I suppose they would."
There were always those who took up dark magic only to be devoured by its power.
"And such people have their mana circuits torn out as punishment."
That had always been the way of it.
"The dark magic imbued in this was paid for with those extracted mana circuits."
"You mean a dark mage's mana circuits were used again, as dark magic?"
"In the past we had no choice but to discard them. Now that dark magic has become somewhat widespread, the method is usable."
What a creative form of recycling...
"If other magical tools exist that can be used permanently without any further upkeep, most of them were made in much the same way."
"That's right! I've got lots of those too!"
Was she slow, or was the world fast? Truly, a world she could never catch.
"In particular, we receive a great many circuits from the faction of dark mages headed by the Witch."
"The Witch?"
"You do not know of her? She is quite a famous figure."
"Even I know her. You're an idiot, aren't you?"
"Who's an idiot. I'm only slow with the news."
Yes. Her news was merely about eleven years out of date.
"A dark mage who appeared all at once a few years ago, though no one knows her true identity. Only that she is exceedingly strong, and that she is mad."
"You don't often hear a dark mage called mad. She must be truly vicious."
"Indeed... In any case, that is not what matters, so I will move on."
Right. Look at her, losing the thread.
"Anyway, this sword is eight hundred million, isn't it...?"
"No. It is five million bel."
"I'll remember it as eight hundred million..."
He really did seem to be doing it on purpose... Revenge was on hold until she paid back the eight hundred million.
"But why are you giving something like this to me? For a noble house of viscount rank, this is heirloom-level."
It was under the name of guarding the family's heir, but anyone could see it was a weapon far too grand for this small body... Why?
"Pay it no mind. I merely made use of things that were awkward to use and awkward not to use — troublesome to dispose of."
"Those awkward things are worth eight hundred million bel, you said..."
"You're fretting over a mere eight hundred million bel? I permit it! There, are you happy?"
This little bourgeois...
"Eight hundred million bel isn't somebody's dog's name. This is far too much for me."
"Enough! If I say it's fine, it's fine! More importantly, how do I turn this back into a staff?"
"Haa..."
"To change it into a staff, twist the grip back to the left."
She set her strength to the sword's grip and twisted left as instructed, and it became a staff once more.
"Whoa! Amazing!!"
"It is rather amazing."
"The staff itself is quite sturdy, so you may use it in place of a wooden sword."
It was not especially thick, but it certainly felt extremely hard.
"But why did you go out of your way to include a staff form?"
"You mean the reason I included the staff form?"
"Yes. I don't particularly need one."
She was blind, but that did not mean she needed a staff.
"You may be a bodyguard, but you are also a maid. Would it not look strange to go about carrying a sword?"
"Ah."
True enough. She would have to carry it constantly, and that would be both inconvenient and unsightly.
"I think it would look cool..."
"I think so as well, but others would not."
Worse still was this family's sense of taste.
"And it would be troublesome for you to go about explaining that you are blind, so a staff ought to help."
"Mm... that's true."
It might also be of use if her sense ever came undone.
"Is there anything else you wish to know?"
The conversation broke for a moment, and Elouis turned his face toward his wrist.
"I... don't."
"Me! Me! When does she start playing with me?"
"She may begin her duties tomorrow. And she is not here to play with you. She is a maid and a bodyguard both."
"Same thing."
Since when had a maid been in charge of playtime?
"There seem to be no further questions, so we should be moving. The ball will begin soon."
"Aww~ it's starting already?"
"Do not complain. By rights you were to dance first of all, but you skipped every dance lesson, and so we moved it forward."
Elouis caught Elaine and hauled her to her feet. A mother cat with a kitten in her jaws.
"Ruanes, you may do as you please. Rest, or help with the work as you did earlier — whichever is more comfortable. We will go on ahead."
"See you tomorrow~!"
The little dark-haired thing waved even as she was dragged along. Had an ordinary child done it, it would have been perfectly adorable...
Well. They were to see each other every day from now on, so what could she do. She was being paid seven million bel to work; she could stand to smother her feelings a little. There was the eight hundred million bel to consider, too...
"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow."
She waved back.
She was walking through the forest.
If anyone asked why she was in the woods instead of working, it was because she had not yet done today's training.
She was no hero, and this was not even her duty. Why should she skip the things she had set for herself just to be of help?
...Even so, the others were surely pressed. She would finish quickly and go.
...
"Haaah... haaahk...!"
The staff was an even finer thing than she had thought. Lighter than a wooden sword, and harder besides.
"Huuuaahk...!!"
A magic staff in a goblin's hands, of course.
Even so, perhaps because it was lighter than a wooden sword, she had managed a full ten more overhead cuts. Equipment really did matter.
Today's training was done. She would rest a little, then return to the ballroom.
She lay back on the grass, and her sense slid shut of its own accord. The muggy summer wind was not cool, yet all the sweat she had poured out made it feel like a crisp autumn breeze.
Lying there as if she had become one with the wind, her sweat cooled before she knew it, and she rose to head back.
"Is anyone theeere..."
A voice, reaching her on an echo. Who on earth, at an hour when everyone ought to be at their busiest?
"Isn't anyone theeere..."
This voice... faintly familiar?
"Isn't any— aaah!!"
Yes. This voice was...
"Y-you...! My brother's personal maid!!"
From the rush of grass, she was sprinting over in a terrible hurry.
Even so, just to be certain, she opened her sense.
"Please help meee...!!"
A bob-haired girl in a dress.
It was the girl from earlier, wasn't it? No — what reason would that girl have to come all the way out here?
"Are you Lady Celis?"
"Yes!! I'm Rubes Celis!!"
Celis stood before her, gasping for breath.
"Why in the world did you come all the way into a place like this?"
And where had she left that little brother she had been searching for with her parents, to end up here?
"Hahh... hahh... Th-that's..."
"Is walking forest paths a hobby of yours, perhaps? One you cannot skip even for a single day?"
"No!!"
"If not that, then why are you out in a forest like this during the ball...?"
"Well, you see... the ba... the bath..."
"The bath?"
"I came looking..."
"Looking?"
What was she trying to say?
While she failed to catch the thread, the girl covered her face with both hands and bowed her head low.
"I came looking for the bathroom..."