Chapter 85
The Flower That Bears a Sword - Chapter 85
Translation: godsn
Of course. You're a strong person. Strong enough to create miracles by enduring to the end, even when no one would blame you for giving up. That dazzling beauty is precisely what makes her so precarious.
That's why I wanted to support her. I wanted to become someone she could lean on. I tried to work toward that wish. I thought we were making progress, little by little. But now, before my very eyes, because of me, she's seeing the past and feeling that pain again. Even though I still haven't told her the truth.
"Echinacea, that child must be Elgiosa's owner. The people will be restrained by me, so may I entrust the girl to you?"
"Yes, my lord."
She answered without hesitation. Yurien didn't turn to look at her as she came to his side, simply leaping down from the platform. He couldn't bring himself to look back.
Suppressing the crowd and interrogating them wasn't particularly difficult. He uncovered every detail—which village they came from, what had transpired. The story was so foolishly selfish it made him frown. Who could have imagined the Saintess would be murdered for such reasons?
[Elgiosa's owners often suffer hardships by their very nature. They get torn apart by unjust beings like these. It would be best to punish them according to the law.]
Langiosa spoke coldly. Yurien gave a small nod in lieu of a reply. He planned to follow the lengthy but lawful procedure: first detain them after explaining the circumstances to the lord governing the village, then notify the Empire with an attached statement from the Great Temple regarding the Saintess, discuss the punishment, announce it, and carry it out.
While questioning the ringleader about which lord's village they belonged to, he abruptly cut off the conversation as an ominous premonition stabbed at his back. A Master's acute senses detected vibrations in space. Yurien sprinted back toward the shelter and peered through the broken window.
"Echinacea? What's going—"
[A Node? No, it hasn't been long since we last saw one... What in the world...]
He didn't need to ask her, nor hear the holy sword's shocked muttering. The moment he saw Echinacea standing awkwardly near the Node and the vanished Saintess, he understood the situation. A Node had formed, and the Saintess had been swallowed. Yurien vaulted through the window frame.
'And you were about to go in there again, weren't you?'
Just like when you tried to save Baraha, you'd go in to rescue the Saintess. Into a Node where who knows what awaits.
Even for someone like Zenith, don't you value your life too lightly? Just because you survived before doesn't mean you won't get hurt or that there's no pain. Last time, you were bedridden for ages after emerging from the Node.
Their eyes met. Yurien noticed Echinacea's flustered expression. She probably had no explanation for attempting to enter the Node right before his eyes. She wants to hide everything from him, after all. Because she can't trust him.
[Master, surely you're not—]
Yurien smiled bitterly. Then he stepped into the Node. A bizarre sensation like passing through soap bubbles swept over his entire body, and suddenly he stood within an unreal space.
[...Have you resolved to die?]
"If I enter, she'll avoid the Node. She wouldn't want to reveal her true nature before me. I'll rescue the Saintess myself."
[Of course, you're among the most exceptional Masters I've ever witnessed. But Nodes are different. Their laws aren't the same. What if this had been an airless space? Even the Magic Sword's owner Zenith couldn't guarantee survival in such places, yet you—!]
The holy sword's composed speech broke into raised tones. Yurien calmly replied while surveying their surroundings.
"Nodes swallow everything present in their location before separating. That includes air, so there's no way it could be airless."
["Is this really the time to nitpick about such trivial things?"]
"It's meaningless to question why I entered when I'm already inside."
[Promise me you won't do this again.]
"......"
He remained silent, lifting Langiosa and tapping it against an iron pillar-like tree.
[Be careful not to touch this tree. The heat radiating from it is like molten steel. And you're not going to promise, are you?]
"I'll try my best."
[......Fine. At least try.]
Hopeless. Langiosa quickly gave up. If he assumed Yurien had charged into the Node out of a sense of duty to save the Saintess, it was understandable. But it was painfully obvious that his worry over the Magic Sword's Owner entering the Node weighed far heavier than mere duty. The Holy Sword let out a deep sigh.
Whether the Holy Sword sighed or not, Yurien moved forward smoothly. He assessed the interior structure, discovered people trapped within the Mud Giant, used the scattered oil and fire near the shelter to create a barricade, and then brought the survivors to safety. The only real issue was his growing agitation at the lack of any trace of the Saintess.
[The terrain is strange, but it doesn't seem as dangerous as I thought. Compared to the Node the Magic Sword's Owner entered before, at least. We just need to find the Elgiosa Owner quickly.]
Seeing no immediate danger, Langiosa also relaxed. Yurien agreed with the Holy Sword's assessment and moved to carry an unconscious man toward the shelter. Soon, the shelter came into view.
He stopped in his tracks.
Echinacea Roaz was standing there.
Why?
Why on earth had she entered the Node? He had assumed there was no way she would step into the same Node he had entered. Why would she risk exposing what she was hiding? Why? In a rush, he strode toward her, all but dropping the man he was carrying before standing directly in front of her.
Echinacea's eyes swept over him as if checking if he was unharmed, but Yurien didn't notice. His attention was entirely seized by her left hand. He seized it. It looked burned. Blood had seeped through the cloth wrapped around it. Even a glance told him it must be excruciating, yet her expression was perfectly calm. Only a faint flicker of unease crossed her face as she pulled her hand free.
"It's nothing, Lord."
Back at the fountain, when he had first held her hand, what had he wished for? That time would rewind, that those small, softened hands would never be wounded again. That had been barely a month and a half ago.
And yet, here she was, already injured. Hiding a hand burned and blistered as if it were nothing. Stepping into a Node as if it were nothing. And all to save someone else. In less than two months, this was already the second time.
"......You—why do you always—!"
Why don't you spare yourself? Why do you walk straight into danger? No matter how strong you are, you're not invincible. You say you want to be happy—why can't you just turn away and live? Would it really be a sin if you looked away, just once? Why don't you think about the people who worry for you?
His voice rose unbidden, surging with emotion. He saw Echinacea flinch in surprise and took a deep breath. But it did little to calm him.
"Why did you enter the Node?"
"Huh?"
"I asked why you entered the Node. You had more than enough time to avoid it."
"I'm sorry. I tried to avoid it, but somehow..."
A lie. She would never tell him the truth to his face. Asking was pointless. Yurien closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again. Echinacea watched his reaction carefully before speaking cautiously.
"Lord, I found the Elgiosa Owner. I left them in a safe place for now. I think I have an idea for how to escape the Node......"
Hearing that she had found the saintess he'd been searching for all this time brought him no joy. Learning of a new perspective on escaping the node didn't spark any wonder either.
"Um... Lord?"
"......Understood. So this 'starting point' you speak of must be inside there. It's a hypothesis worth testing."
He turned and strode toward the shelter, roughly shattering the door with a harsh motion. His movements were uncharacteristically rough. Watching him, she quietly asked:
"Lord. Are you angry with me?"
Her words snapped him out of his thoughts like a splash of cold water. Angry with her? No. He was furious at the circumstances that forced her to act, and at himself for being unable to support her. He wished he were someone greater—someone she could rely on. The bitter truth that he wasn't someone she could turn to for help gnawed at him.
But to let his frustration show so plainly that she noticed—how pathetic was that? And worse, to have taken it out on her. Disgusted with himself, he felt nothing but self-loathing.
"I'm not angry at you.......Forgive me."
Unable to meet her eyes, he muttered the apology and stepped inside the shelter. Even as his emotions raged, he hadn't missed a single word of her explanation, so he knew immediately. The faint scar-like rift in the air—that must be the starting point.
"That?"
"Yes, most likely."
The moment he thrust Langiosa into it, an ominous premonition slithered down his spine like an icy finger. His instincts were right. A massive Black Giant, along with every Mud Giant lurking within the node, surged toward them.
By pure efficiency, it would have been better to let Echinacea handle the Black Giant while he dealt with the Mud Giants. But she wanted to conceal her true strength, so that wasn't an option. Instead, Yurien entrusted the Mud Giants to her and took on the Black Giant himself.
Though enormous, the Black Giant had no special abilities beyond regeneration, making it an easy opponent—save for the tedious task of carving through its entire body to locate its core. Following the standard method for regenerative monsters, Yurien methodically sliced through it. With some breathing room, the Holy Sword cautiously spoke up.
[Master, about the node...]
"You have a theory?"
[It seems that whenever someone attempts to create a major change—one that diverges from the erased past—a backlash forms these nodes.]
"......That does make sense. And coincidentally, both phenomena are tied to divine swords."
[Kairos Giosa turned back time, while Rakia-giosa creates nodes. There must be some connection.]
"If that's the case, the most altered events would be those tied to her—the 'Demon of the Magic Sword.' Yet I've heard no reports of nodes forming near Roaz Territory."
[What if the Magic Sword's wielder quietly dealt with them before word could spread? Maybe that's why she's so familiar with nodes.]
"......What?"
[Ah—look out!]
The possibility that she had entered nodes multiple times without his knowledge distracted him. The Black Giant's hand swung down inches from his face. He had registered the attack—it wasn't life-threatening—but his evasion was slightly delayed. A deep gash split his forearm, blood spraying. And in that instant—
"Yurien!"
Echinacea's desperate voice called his name. As if shackled by the sound, Yurien froze in place.
She soared through the air. Purple flames erupted along her white blade. A brilliant arc pierced through the Black Giant's skull, searing into his vision. Before the collapsing debris could hit the ground, she landed between the flames, her terrified eyes and tear-streaked face frantically searching for him.
"Yu—..."
She tried to call his name again but choked on the word. Her eyelids fluttered slowly, then the color drained from her face. She stood frozen, like a statue.
Yurien, too, went utterly still.