#027 Covenant
#027 Covenant
A Mana Stone Party!
Thanks to Rosemas's supporting fire, Lucius was able to take down the orc captain Gess and his underlings with ridiculous ease.
The battle?
Once he believed my safety was secured, Lucius moved so easily that the fight was effortless.
He swung the Holy Sword!
An orc died!
He swung the Holy Sword!
The orc captain died!
The end.
In the process, Lucius had dodged enemy attacks with flashy footwork and tried to fight with actual swordsmanship rather than simply swinging the Holy Sword's power around.
Rosemas had sniped an orc that was aiming for Lucius's neck with a silver arrow and brought it down, even though the Holy Sword's power would have protected Lucius anyway.
Captain Gess had dueled Lucius one-on-one, then grabbed and hurled orc corpses as he fled disgracefully, only to die in the end to Lucius's Holy Sword storm. All of that was trivial.
What really mattered were the Mana Stones left behind by the orcs we had killed.
'Now this is a real party.'
After the orcs melted away in the Holy Sword's storm.
I personally reached into the orcs' hearts and collected the Mana Stones.
It was exhausting work, collecting them one by one, but with each one I recovered, I savored the feeling that this body's lifespan was being extended by a week, and I focused on Mana Stone farming.
'Good thing I made holes in advance.'
The orcs' chests had holes blown wide open.
Their massive bodies weren't going anywhere, so I only had to reach into the hole inside each fallen body and pull the Mana Stone out from the burned flesh within.
Some of them I had killed by stabbing with my flame thorn spear, but most had died once to the Holy Sword, after which I had driven the thorn spear into the dead bodies as a finishing blow and burned away their hearts.
If this were pork, then Lucius had butchered the pigs and I had grilled them up nicely for eating.
Of course, I was the one who'd be eating them.
Because I had no intention of taking the Mana Stones collected from these orcs' hearts back to town to "sell" them.
'Absorb as soon as I collect them.'
Whoosh.
The moment I gripped a Mana Stone, I pressed down hard with my hand and absorbed the mana.
Still, an orc was an orc, and each individual orc Mana Stone contained more mana than five goblins.
Calling mana absorption a feeling of fullness was a bit awkward, but compared to goblins, orcs definitely left my body feeling more replete.
"Heh heh heh."
Laughter escaped me on its own.
Originally, I had left everything to Lucius and just played around in the back, but if the orcs' mana was this abundant, there was no reason to refuse the labor of absorbing mana myself.
If eating them one by one like this already felt thrilling and pleasant, how would it feel to absorb everything Lucius was collecting right now all at once?
And what about the mana of the fallen captain orc, Gess?
Just as there was a difference between goblins and orcs, the difference between a regular orc and an orc captain would surely be clear.
Through this battle, I would obtain an enormous amount of mana.
I had used some mana during the fight, but I had already recovered all of my losses by absorbing five orcs.
'It's a shame I can't use the orcs as achievements.'
This battle was truly perfect.
We had taken down the orcs easily, and Lucius had learned the difference between when he needed to protect me and when he didn't.
Moreover, we had wiped out the orcs without anyone getting hurt, and we had even rescued an elf who had nearly been roasted and eaten by them.
There was just one problem.
-You wiped out the orcs? How?
-With the Holy Sword!
-The Holy Sword...? Oh, you're a Holy Sword Hero!
-Ah! My Master told me not to say that. Teehee.
Or something like that.
-How were you rescued?
-...The Holy Sword Hero saved me.
-The Holy Sword Hero?
-Yes. The hero who wields the Wind Holy Sword saved me...!
Or something like that.
The problem was that we had defeated the orcs with the "Holy Sword."
As long as we were moving with the intention of hiding that he was a Holy Sword Hero, we needed to minimize the variables that came from it.
What? Wouldn't it have been better not to use the Holy Sword at all, then?
"Lucius, let me help you too."
"It's fine, Rosemas. There's no need for you to get orc blood on your hands."
"But after receiving so much help..."
I was reminded yet again that a pretty face was all the plausibility you needed.
'Because I've done it too.'
Ahh.
As expected, a handsome man starts off with a baseline of goodwill from women.
I, too, had more than once slipped into adventurer parties in a handsome body, seduced the female members, and ruined the party.
"I'll at least fan you with my hands!"
"Ah, it's fine..."
"I'm doing it because I want to!"
Look at that brazen elf beside Lucius, waving her hands—and her chest along with them—trying to show herself off somehow.
A silver-haired elf bigger than this current body of mine.
Having dashingly rescued such an elf and earned her goodwill, how could we not have used the Holy Sword?
In exchange for giving up one achievement as an adventurer, I had obtained a lovestruck elf smitten with Lucius, the Holy Sword Hero!
'Please explain things well for us later.'
For the sake of achievements.
I pulled out all the remaining Mana Stones, then turned toward the two who were still bickering over whether she should help or not.
"Then would you help my Master instead of me?"
"......."
"R-Rosemas?"
"Your Master is..."
"No need."
I hastily cut off Lucius's words and approached him.
"Here, want to pour them all in?"
"The Mana Stones?"
"Of course."
I took off the robe I was wearing and made it into a wrapping cloth.
Lucius obediently poured the Mana Stones he had collected—naturally, he had collected more than I had—into my robe wrapping cloth, and I picked out a few that were in poor condition and absorbed them one by one.
"Good work, Lucius. You too, Rosemas."
"......I didn't do anything."
"Just looking at the orc corpses must have been hard enough."
"I'm not that weak of a woman."
Her snapping back at me was a little irritating, but considering her combat ability, she certainly wasn't so weak as to be useless.
She must have been caught in some kind of trap.
It was a bit odd that she had been captured alone without companions, but I decided not to pay it much mind.
"Lucius. Could you recover the Mana Stone from the orc captain? I think I need to talk with Rosemas for a moment."
"Ah, that."
"I'll be right back."
Before Rosemas could even reach out a hand, Lucius walked off toward the fallen orc captain in the distance.
"Rosemas."
"......What is it?"
"I am Crimson Mage Bel, a being who awakened from a 500-year slumber to seal the Demon King."
At my introduction, Rosemas flinched and looked me up and down.
"It may be hard to believe, but it's true. After the battle with the Demon King, I sealed myself at the request of the previous generation's Hero. The arrangement was that if a sign of the Demon King's return ever appeared, I would awaken from my long sleep and act once more."
"......Really?"
Her voice was gradually growing uneasy.
I didn't know how old this elf was, but an elf who had survived from the time when I was running wild until now surely wouldn't be weak enough to get captured by orcs.
"Th-that, if it's 500 years ago...!"
"The Great Demon King Bel—"
"S-stop!"
In other words, this elf was younger than 500 years old.
She was a modern elf who feared the name Belphegor.
"...Since it's awkward to keep calling someone whose name must not be spoken, let's say 'that Demon King.'"
There were seven Demon Kings, but if I said "that Demon King" here, she would obviously understand it as Belphegor.
Rosemas didn't seem stupid enough to need that explained.
"I am traveling to seal that Demon King. But truly, I had 'no choice' but to use Lucius's Holy Sword. Yes, Rosemas, to save you."
Forcing responsibility onto her.
"I need you to make me a promise, Rosemas. Promise me you won't tell anyone what happened today."
"A-a promise...?"
"Yes. A promise. That promise..."
Rather than with me.
"Please make that promise to Lucius over there."
"With Lucius...?"
Oh-ho.
Already calling him by name.
I could practically see her racking her brain right now over what to name their quarter-elf children.
"Yes. Please make the promise with Lucius. The Holy Sword's owner is Lucius, after all."
But a Demon King uses everything that can be used.
"Because it was Lucius who released the Holy Sword to save you."
It was wordplay.
Lucius had only stepped in after I ordered the Holy Sword's release, but saying he "released the Holy Sword to save Rosemas" was not a lie.
"R-really...?"
"Of course. Who was it that saved you? Even with the power to sweep away the orcs in a single blow, Lucius saved you first. Even though doing so could have given the enemies time to react after seeing the Holy Sword's power."
"Ah..."
There was a difference in the order of events, but since it wasn't a lie, my words would feel all the more true to Rosemas.
"I am merely a guide helping the Holy Sword Hero seal the Demon King. It seems only right that you make any promise concerning the Holy Sword to the Hero."
"I see..."
"However."
Before making that promise.
"Personally, I think it would be best if you and Lucius... matched lips—"
"What?! M-match lips with Lucius?! I-I'm not ready for that yet..."
"Hey."
That wasn't what I meant by "match lips."
"What I was trying to say..."
"Master?"
From behind.
A somewhat chilly voice reached me.
"I've brought the Mana Stone."
"Good work, Lucius. But did something go wrong? You don't look well."
"It's nothing."
"Hmm... The way the orc captain died must've been pretty nauseating. Sorry I sent you alone."
"It's not that, so don't worry. What concerns me is..."
Lucius stepped in front of me and met Rosemas's gaze.
"Rosemas. I need to hide the fact that I'm a Holy Sword Hero for the time being."
"Y-yes...!"
"So I have to ask: could you keep quiet about what my Master and I are doing?"
"Yes!!"
Rosemas even raised her hand and nodded.
"I'll absolutely keep it a secret!"
"Thank you, Rosemas. Master, then..."
"Hey, you can't make a promise with just words."
A verbal promise has no force.
"Rosemas. I'm sorry, but I need you to make a more certain promise."
"M-more certain...?"
"That's right. If I had to say..."
I had a very good method.
"A vow-sealing kiss. Lucius, seal the covenant by kissing Rosemas..."
"No."
Hey.
Rosemas's face had just gone blank.
Why would he suddenly wreck the mood like this?
Just as I was barely holding back curses and about to confront Lucius.
"My first kiss... I want it to be with someone I love. At my wedding, with someone I truly love."
"......."
Apparently Lucius was a hardcore romantic purist.
"Ah..."
At Lucius's words, Rosemas's heart seemed to give another heavy thump.
'They're having fun.'
To me, those little kids were nothing but ridiculous.