Chapter 62
The Flower That Bears a Sword - Chapter 62
Translation: godsn
"Yurien!"
The moment she saw red blooming across his white uniform, her rationality completely vanished.
It was a sight she never wanted to witness again—never again. The white man stained crimson. Her heart felt like it had stopped. Her mind went blank. Before any thought or judgment could form, her body moved first. She lunged forward without hesitation.
[Hey, wait, calm down—!]
The demon sword said something, but she didn't hear it.
Her slender frame soared over the flames like a bird. The singed edges of her dress flared out like wings. Her leap carried her onto the swinging arm of the Black Giant. She stepped onto its forearm and propelled herself higher—high enough to look down at the giant's head. Her violet eyes burned with icy fury.
'How dare mere monsters...'
Mana seethed along Amethyst's blade as if her wrath had transferred to it. Purple flames erupted, extending from the sword to carve a line through the air.
As Valdergiosa's Owner, she instinctively knew where its core was. The mana, stretched long like a spear, pierced straight through the Black Giant's crown. The giant collapsed with a soundless roar. Eki didn't wait to watch it crumble. Before her heels could even touch the ground, avoiding the flames, her eyes were already searching for Yurien.
Her anxiety had spiked to unbearable levels, freezing her fingers and toes. How badly was he hurt? Please, not a serious injury—ah, right, Shai was here. If she asked for healing, yes, that would work. She couldn't bear to see him die a second time. So please.
"Yur—"
[Hey, Owner, I definitely told you to calm down, right?]
Her trembling eyes locked onto wide, sky-blue ones. Yurien stood perfectly fine, staring at her with a dazed expression. Speechless, Eki slowly assessed his condition.
There was blood. A long gash ran down his forearm, staining his white uniform. But it was an extremely minor wound—nothing more than a shallow tear in the skin. The length made it bleed heavily, but the depth was negligible. It barely even qualified as an injury.
Finally, reason returned. Now that she thought about it, Yurien had been handling the Black Giant effortlessly just moments ago. The only reason it took time was because the Black Giant was a regenerative monster with a hard-to-find core. Realizing this, Eki froze in place.
'What... have I just done?'
Behind her, the remains of the Black Giant collapsed with a thunderous crash. The resulting gust sent her hair and dress fluttering. The flames swayed, flattened by the wind before rising again. Among the wreckage lay the villager who had been the instigator, but neither Yurien nor Eki had the composure to check.
[Uh, well, hm, Owner, you didn't draw me, so maybe it'll be fine? Or we could just kill him to eliminate the evidence. Dead men tell no tales!]
The demon sword offered words that could either be comfort or provocation. Eki felt her mind go blank again, though for entirely different reasons this time.
The silence stretched. Meanwhile, the few remaining Mud Giants let out grotesque cries and charged. Eki stood motionless, oblivious to their approach.
Yurien moved. He swiftly dispatched the remaining giants with Langiosa before turning back to her. Her face had lost all color, leaving her as pale as a porcelain doll. Only the crackling of flames filled the air around them.
Eki couldn't think. Even if the demon sword hadn't been exposed, this was on an entirely different level from the incident with Baraha. She had just shown her hand to the last person she ever wanted to find out. How could she possibly resolve this? Was resolution even possible? The answer felt impossibly distant.
Yurien's face had regained its composure as he dealt with the remaining giants. Hesitating slightly, he carefully observed her before cautiously calling her name.
"Echinacea."
At the sound of her name, Eki flinched as if struck by lightning. Without realizing it, she staggered backward.
When faced with danger, she had always been the type to charge forward rather than retreat. That had been her way—until now. But in this moment, she wanted nothing more than to vanish from this place. Because Yurien was someone she could not possibly confront.
"Echinacea? Are you all right?"
Yurien called her again. Eki's face had gone beyond pale—it was now tinged with blue. She turned on her heel, ready to flee.
"Wait—!"
Yurien hastily grabbed her arm as she spun away. Reflexively, she twisted free, stumbling backward. Her wide, violet eyes trembled like a small boat caught in a storm.
Seeing this, he took a decisive step toward her. Eki swayed unsteadily as she retreated. During their sparring sessions, he had always stopped when she backed away. But this time, he didn't. Instead, he closed the distance swiftly, gripping both her shoulders. Even as she struggled to break free, he refused to let go.
Yurien had never once laid a rough hand on her before. Even when he had embraced her immediately after escaping the Node, he had released her without resistance the moment she pushed him away.
But now was different. His hands on her shoulders were firm. She could have repelled him with mana—but her thoughts didn't stretch that far. After the chaos she had just unleashed, the idea of using mana right in front of him was unthinkable.
Without mana, her body was nothing more than that of a frail young lady who had barely begun training. Escaping a knight's grasp was impossible. Had she been in her right mind, she might have found a way—but now, she was paralyzed with fear, trembling uncontrollably.
Yurien looked down at her. She averted her gaze. He steadied his breath, then spoke with finality.
"I knew."
Eki stopped resisting. The words reached her ears slowly, comprehension dawning belatedly. She stared up at him, dazed. His piercing sky-blue eyes, sharp enough to see through a person, held her completely. As if he knew exactly what she feared, he repeated,
"I already knew, so don't worry."
"...Knew... what?"
"That you can use mana."
Her question had been wrung out of her, but he answered quietly.
He knew? How? How did he know? Then why had he pretended otherwise? Since when had he known? Question marks spun wildly in her mind. Utterly bewildered, she stammered,
"Y-you knew...? How...? Since when...?"
How had he known? Had there been any opportunity for him to find out? Had she done something careless? Or—had he, after all, deduced from her past-life memories that she was the Demon of the Magic Sword? The moment that thought surfaced, her blood turned to ice, as if shards were tearing through her insides.
'If he knows I'm the Demon... then I'm...'
If she were branded as the wielder of the Magic Sword, she would be hunted by the Magic Tower and the Azure Sky Knights, barred from every nation's borders, and her family would suffer. Any semblance of a peaceful life would shatter completely.
But even before that—she imagined Yurien looking at her with eyes full of hatred. She couldn't bear the thought. Not ever. Even if it was only natural.
Eki bowed her head and covered her face with both hands. With her shoulders still in his grasp, she couldn't escape—so she hid instead. Her body temperature plummeted, yet her eyes burned hot. Scalding tears welled up, threatening to spill. Her breathing grew ragged, making it hard to stand. A terror rose within her, as if she were about to plunge into an abyss, never to see sunlight again.
Yurien's hands steadied her staggering body. Still gripping her shoulders, he bowed his head toward her. Straining to see her face through the gaps between her concealing fingers, he finally noticed how violently her shoulders trembled within his grasp.
Yurien's expression looked on the verge of crumbling. The girl hiding her face in her hands couldn't see it. His lips twitched as if wanting to say something, then pressed together in resolve. Bending at the waist, he lowered himself to meet her eye level.
"Echinacea, look at me."
His whisper was tender. Eki still had her face buried beneath her hands. Her breaths came in ragged gasps. He continued in a hushed voice:
"If you wish to hide it, I'll help you conceal it. If you desire, I'll strive to forget as well. So please... look at me."
Though his tone remained stiff, it carried the weight of a plea. The meaning wouldn't register. Hiding that she was a Master? Trying to forget? Why would he—
She peeked through her fingers. Beyond the blur of pooled tears, his face hovered close. His eyes wavered upon seeing her unshed tears. Composing his own crumbling expression, he spoke methodically:
"I wanted to spar with you precisely because I knew you were a Master. Those answers I promised after our duel... I'll give them now."
Keeping hold of the girl who seemed ready to flee, Yurien fabricated a lie she might accept.
"You recall I mentioned remembering you from the Birthday Banquet? That's when I first recognized your talent. That's why I took personal interest, why I accepted you as my squire the moment you entered the academy."
"You... recognized my talent? How?"
At the banquet, she'd been just another noble daughter who'd never held a sword. When Eki questioned him with obvious confusion, he hesitated briefly.
"...Not that I knew you were a Master then. Only that you'd surpass all others once you held a blade. That insight came from being the Holy Sword's wielder."
"Langiosa has that ability?"
Having failed to meet the Owner's conditions, Eki could never wield Langiosa. Thus even she—who had collected all ten Giosas—knew nothing beyond the sword's publicly known capabilities.
For a fleeting moment, Yurien's smile turned bitter. He sidestepped the question.
"I began suspecting you might be a Master when we met at the fountain. The Freshman Ranking Tournament confirmed it."
"The fountain...?"
"Your hands weren't a swordsman's. I observed you during the entrance exam. Such skill with so little bodily training? Impossible unless you were already attuned to mana. That planted my suspicion. Watching you during the tournament erased all doubt."
"You were... at the tournament?"
"Not officially."
Unofficially—meaning he'd secretly watched. Eki's mouth opened in shock before closing again. His words slowly pieced together in her mind.
So he'd spotted my genius at the banquet, remembered me, then immediately took me as his squire when I enrolled? Just... coveted my talent? Then noticed my untrained body didn't match my skill, realized I was a Master, and kept wanting to spar because of that?
[That man's got nothing but swords in his head, doesn't he?]
The Magic Sword muttered. She couldn't disagree. As absurdity replaced despair, the burning around her eyes cooled. Only one accumulated tear escaped, rolling down with a plop.