#023 Workout
#023 Workout
At that moment.
In the Elven Forest, every elder gathered in one place and began an emergency meeting.
A secret chamber perched atop a branch of the World Tree.
The elders gathered inside the meeting hall, behind a barrier ordinary elves could not even enter, and every one of them showed signs of unease.
All the elders of every forest on the continent had assembled at the World Tree.
It was a full assembly that had not occurred even once in nearly three hundred years, and the elders had answered the summons with worry and concern.
Once everyone had gathered, and only one seat remained—
"I apologize for keeping you waiting."
The eldest of the elders, Iyeluna—the silver-haired elf who had survived Demon King Belphegor—entered and took the seat of honor.
"It seems everyone is here. Then I shall speak at once, but first I would like to confirm one point of your historical knowledge."
Perhaps it was because she had already passed seven hundred years of age.
At Iyeluna's words, the other elders found the old elf's manner somewhat uncomfortable.
They had little interest in history, so surely the reason she insisted on saying this was to talk about some musty old history—
"The history I wish to speak of is the darkest period for the elves, five hundred years ago."
"!!"
The elf elders could not hide their shock.
"Th-that is... isn't that a dark chapter in our history?"
"Indeed. A forgotten history. A history so terrible that even those who survived the horrors of that time had to bury their dreadful memories in their hearts and return to the earth. That is... the terrible incident in which a portion of the elves were subjugated by the Great Demon King Belphegor."
The Great Demon King Belphegor.
The moment that name—which must never be spoken—was uttered, the atmosphere sank heavily.
She had spoken the Great Demon King's name so matter-of-factly, but Iyeluna's voice was trembling little by little.
"I ask you all. How was the Great Demon King defeated?"
"...From what we have learned, he suddenly vanished after the great battle on the plains."
"Whether the Great Demon King grew weary of war, or whether a Holy Sword Hero unknown to us struck him down..."
"Correct. A Holy Sword Hero defeated the Great Demon King. I... was at the Demon King's castle at the time, so I witnessed that scene with my own eyes."
"!!"
Everyone was astonished.
"Th-then could it truly be that the Grand Elder was part of the 'true Hero's' party...?"
"......I will remain silent on that matter."
If Iyeluna's words were true, then she was effectively a living witness who had seen with her own eyes how the Great Demon King had fallen.
"Th-then perhaps you also know about that 'Legendary Hero'...?!"
"I do not know who the Legendary Hero is, either. Nor can I speak of the circumstances of that time in detail. What I do know... is the disturbance that occurred recently in the Virgo Kingdom."
When Iyeluna snapped her fingers, spirits behind her scattered mana as if dancing and formed a mirror.
"The 'Holy Sword Village' was attacked by Death Knights. According to reports from the scouts dispatched around the village, the spirits had been avoiding that village for several days before the Death Knights attacked."
"Pardon?"
"Why would the spirits...?"
"Either they sensed an omen, or they felt some immense terror of death."
Spirits do not ordinarily abandon their places.
Unless a dragon appears, unless a being of absolute terror manifests, spirits do not flee their places.
"...What the spirits saw was merely the battle between the Death Knights and the Church of the Azure Moon Goddess, but this is the judgment reached after observing their conversations and the traces of battle within the village. Those people will kill the humans, take their souls, and then try to interrogate what happened inside the village."
"Then..."
"We must investigate what happened while the spirits were away. Namely... this Holy Sword."
Iyeluna produced an old sheet of paper.
"This is a travelogue of the human world left two hundred years ago by someone who has since returned to nature. In it, while writing about the Holy Sword Village, the author sketched the Holy Sword."
"...This is a Holy Sword?"
"No matter how you look at it, it's just an old, rusted sword..."
"Supreme Elder. I know about this. Is this not one of those vile human schemes where they use wicked magic to keep a sword from being pulled from the ground as a shady business trick?"
"......."
Iyeluna covered her face with her hand for a moment.
If she spoke, the situation would probably snowball out of control, but considering the circumstances, she had no choice but to speak.
"...It is a real Holy Sword."
"......Pardon?"
"It is the Wind Holy Sword that killed the Great Demon King Belphegor."
"!!"
The elders shot up from their seats.
"The Wind Holy Sword?!!!"
In their eyes, shock and terror—and gradually, joy and excitement—began to seethe.
"The Holy Sword of the forgotten Hero?!"
"Of all the Holy Swords, the one said to be most attuned to the elves...!"
"To think that legend was actually true...!!"
"The mightiest Holy Sword, which has had no wielder for a thousand years—could it truly... have awakened again?!"
"......Enough."
Iyeluna raised her hand and calmed the elders.
"...Calm yourselves."
Elders though they were, they were all young ones not even five hundred years old, and they began to show intense interest in the Holy Sword said to have killed the Great Demon King.
"If only we elves had the Wind Holy Sword...!"
"We are not seeking power. We are not trying to start a war."
"Elder...?"
"...If the Wind Holy Sword has reappeared, can we not also consider the opposite possibility?"
Thud.
"The Holy Sword has awakened. For five hundred years, through every crisis on the continent, the other six Holy Swords each found their wielders, but this sword remained silently asleep—and now it has awakened. What does that tell you?"
The atmosphere sank in an instant.
The elders glanced at one another and swallowed hard.
"...Are you saying that the Holy Sword's awakening means not merely that someone became its wielder, but that a situation arose in which someone had no choice but to become its wielder?"
"That is my expectation. ...I will not speak in circles."
Iyeluna continued with a hardened face.
"I believe the Great Demon King Belphegor may have been resurrected."
"......."
"Therefore, we must quickly find the Hero who wields the Wind Holy Sword. We must protect the Hero's safety. Otherwise..."
Iyeluna swept her gaze once over the elf elders.
"Perhaps others who have noticed the Holy Sword's revival will find the Hero first and corrupt or coax them to their side. So I ask this of every forest. We..."
Iyeluna rose from her seat and slammed both hands on the table.
"We must find the master of the Wind. Inform every elf spread across the world. If a wielder of this Holy Sword appears..."
Iyeluna continued, fire blazing in her eyes.
"By any means necessary, we must make them an ally of the elves."
* * *
-Hand over the sword!
-I-I'll give it to you!
-You don't need money, right?!
-That's not how it works.
After buying the sword from Fergus.
I returned to the inn and, as I had told Lucius beforehand, proposed physical conditioning.
"Hah, hah, hah."
Lucius collapsed to the floor.
Sweat was streaming down his entire body.
"This is hard for you?"
"...A little. It's my first time doing physical conditioning."
"Well, sure, it is hard."
Dark Health—squats.
It was simply the repeated act of squatting down and standing back up, but in the process, it trained the muscles of the entire body.
Although this body didn't know how to squat, I knew the method precisely.
"Follow along carefully. This is a physical conditioning method known by only three people in all the worlds."
"O-only three people...?"
"That's right. Why would I share something this precious with anyone else?"
Only three members of the Deep Dark Council knew it.
Belphegor of Sloth.
Satan of Wrath.
Lucifer of Pride.
It was the ultimate physical-conditioning method mastered only by these three Demon Kings, renowned even in the Middle Realm.
It was an exercise method developed by the chairman, Satan, and I'd paid him a very steep information fee to teach me the proper form in person.
"This thing, I'm telling you, has the value of a Holy Sword."
I sold a Holy Sword.
To be precise, I sold the method for conquering one of the Holy Swords, its weaknesses, and the know-how of how I had conquered it.
Who in the world would sell the technique for conquering a Holy Sword for a mere squat?
The 'Dark Health' developed by Satan has that much value and emotional weight!
"Don't go around carelessly teaching this to anyone else, either. Got it?"
"But you're teaching it to me."
"I'm teaching you because it's you."
"......."
Lucius looked at me with a moved expression.
That was only natural.
"Let's start simple for now, and gradually increase the reps from next time. Got it?"
"Understood. But, um, Master."
Lucius looked at me with a complicated expression.
"Um, does the form really have to be exactly like this?"
"Why? What's wrong with this perfect form?"
"W-well, it's..."
Lucius lowered his head, his face bright red.
"...It chafes."
"What? Chafes? Where... Pffahaha!!"
I genuinely burst out laughing.
"There's a limit to how much blood can rush there! Ahaha!!"
"Master..."
Lucius covered his face and his lower half with his hands.
Apparently, with the standard squat form, his unmentionable area was chafing against his thighs.
'I'll have to tell Satan about this later.'
I wondered how Satan would respond.
If I told him that, due to his physical condition, the thing between his legs was so large that the skin chafed every time he moved up and down.
"Ah."
There was a way.
"Want to try this?"
I spread my legs wide.
"It's a wide squat."
"M-Master!!"
"What? Why? Oh, honestly."
I lifted my skirt.
"I'm wearing shorts underneath, you little punk."
"S-still...!"
"Then I'll just take the skirt off."
Since I was wearing underwear beneath the shorts anyway, there was nothing to be embarrassed about.
"Here, follow along. If it still chafes like this, I'll teach you something else."
"......."
Lucius silently followed my form.
"No, that's not it. Watch carefully from behind."
"......."
It seemed that training Lucius's entire body was going to take quite a long time.
* * *
The day after we decided to seriously train Lucius's stamina at night.
"...I didn't expect this."
I never imagined that even an undead could get muscle soreness.
I leaned on my staff and barely dragged along my legs, which refused to move properly.
"Ugh... this is all because of you."
"Is it my fault?"
"It's because you tormented me all night, isn't it?"
He couldn't even get a single form right, so I had to demonstrate the wide squat in front of Lucius over and over.
Because of that, my body was naturally wrecked.
Unlike Lucius's body, which was normally well-trained, this body was just a frail undead with uselessly large breasts.
"Ugh, next time I'm really not going to let this slide. I'll just stay still, so you figure it out on your own. Got it?"
"...Excuse me, Mage? Could you pick one?"
"Ah, Morgen. I'm sorry."
Hora Morgen, the receptionist at the Adventurers' Guild, bit her lower lip and pointed at the request forms laid out in front of me.
"Let's see... Oh, this looks good."
I took two request forms from the list that seemed easiest for raising an adventurer rank, and also extremely simple.
"Search for a missing elf. Orc subjugation. How about it?"
My instincts told me.
Two birds with one stone.
"Doesn't it look obvious that the orcs kidnapped the elf?"