From of Old, There Were Two Swords - 5
He was a madman.
First impression: a stalker. He kept trailing after me like a lost puppy, so I picked a fight to teach him a lesson.
His skill was well above average. He seemed to fight with an unfamiliar brawling style, yet he possessed excellent combat sense. Especially when he wrapped lightning magic around his fists, it sent a chill down my spine. If I hadn't quickly released my grip on the greatsword, I would have been in serious trouble.
Fighting spirit welled up even as fear crept in. What if he had been holding an outstanding weapon in his hands? The more I imagined it, the more frightening it became—but I was confident that I, with my twin swords, was still stronger than him as he stood now.
Anyway, as I continuously swung my blades and thought I had seized the upper hand, an interrupter appeared. A woman with jet-black hair, so different from my own mediocre grayish locks. Her features carried a mysterious atmosphere and a sharp fighting spirit hidden within calmness.
Amazingly, she parried my sword without even drawing her own from its scabbard. It meant she possessed a level of iai technique invisible to the eye. Once I grasped the situation, it became clear that the black-haired woman was the stalker's lover. She had barged in because she couldn't just stand by and watch him getting one-sidedly beaten.
I accepted the challenge regardless of who the opponent was. I fought the woman as well, but to my surprise every one of my moves was blocked and I even suffered counterattacks. An encounter with powerhouses who could overwhelm me. Why had such strong people come looking for me?
Suddenly curious, I decided to seriously listen to his story. Since he seemed to know about my curse, I thought he might propose to cure it. Sure enough, he presented a deal on the premise of curing the curse.
Until now I had visited hundreds of priests and doctors, yet there had been no way. Even high-ranking priests couldn't cure a curse of this level—how could he? Even if he was a believer chosen by a god, it was impossible. Yet he showed no sign of giving up, so I decided to show him the severity of the curse.
I released the eye-patch artifact and let the loathsome curse run wild freely. Pain that stabbed my brain arrived, but I endured it—so that the man would be horrified and abandon the treatment. Instead he burned with competitive spirit and added an outrageous condition. He claimed he would resolve my curse, which I hadn't solved for nearly ten years, in just one month.
Was it bluster? Or was he serious? Unable to gauge his intentions, I set his little finger as an additional condition. Only then could I see the man's troubled expression. As expected, he had resistance to acts that damaged the body. Judging by the confidence he had shown so far, I thought he would cut it off cleanly—but his true nature turned out to be half-hearted.
Holding disappointment, I snapped at him. As a result the man reluctantly showed the appearance of cutting off his little finger. Since he had shown resolve, I should give corresponding trust. That was what I thought.
The wound site was already restored to original, and the man continued cutting his own fingers. What he found difficult wasn't the body damage. It was that his resolve might feel weak due to the regenerating fingers. Having berated him without grasping that intention, the sulking man started doing crazy things. He even spat out vulgar words saying he would make anal beads for me with his fingers.
"A-anal beads?!"
How could he casually say such vulgar things? My face heated up and I couldn't hold my head up straight. He had clearly gone mad. As I fretted over what to scold him with, a voice I had heard once came again—the black-haired woman asking him to make one for her too.
It seemed I had met beings I should never have encountered.
The day after facing Hesha.
Having keenly felt Frach's empty spot the previous day, I visited Bolmond's forge. I was curious how far the work had progressed. Aside from the polymorph, I wanted to see the remodeled Frach's appearance. If he was making an already excellent sword even better, what would it become? Curiosity was hard to endure.
"What is it? Brat, how did you get here?"
"I asked the other dwarves for directions, and they even guided me personally."
"Tsk! Just because I helped big once, they're sucking up calling you hero."
"There's a dwarf right in front of me who returned alive from the disaster thanks to that hero."
"I could have returned safely even without your help! You punk!"
Bolmond yelled angrily. But since I knew what his future would have been if things had proceeded according to the original sequence, I just grinned. Even if he denied it, the fact that I saved him didn't change.
"Tsk! Ptooey!"
At my consistent reaction, Bolmond made a lukewarm expression and muttered curses under his breath, saying he didn't like it.
"So the reason you came here is to see your beloved sword, right?"
"Yes. My patience isn't that good to just wait for the results."
"Premature ejaculation guy."
"That's a bit of a cutting remark."
Even without that, recently Lin and Rene had said my pace had gotten faster. I knew the cause. It was because the iron sword had become a holy sword and the sensitivity had increased too. I needed to come up with a countermeasure soon.
"Don't touch anything without my permission."
"Yes."
Bolmond crooked his finger and instructed me to follow. I trailed behind him into the forge. It had felt hot from outside, but upon entering, the heat became even more intense. It felt like I had come near a volcano rather than a snow mountain.
"Listen carefully, greenhorn. The furnace of my forge uses not ordinary fire, but the eternal flame that rises when a phoenix is born."
"The scale is extraordinary."
"Yeah, so if you touch something wrong, you could burn down not just the forge but the whole village. As I warned just now, don't touch anything."
"Even my sword?"
"Yes! Even without that, your sword is absorbing the phoenix's flame! How the hell did you handle this thing to make it so greedy…"
Bolmond sighed deeply and shook his head. To operate the furnace, flame was needed, but Frach was absorbing it. Even if he wanted to force her to spit out the flame, since she was like a child to him, it wasn't easy. Because I absorbed various powers wherever I went and grew stronger, Frach also seemed to have chosen to grow stronger. If not that…
Contractor, bring it on. This body shall bestow upon you a hot night you will never forget for the rest of your life…!
She might be absorbing the flame while saying something like that. The polymorphed Frach was starting to become gradually frightening.
Maybe she's trying to show me a burning sheath instead of a burning club.
Frach was a weapon born under a dwarf who also had sex with swords. If she had been injected with their insane customs, she might jump me. Since swordsman and sword were one body, I couldn't even separate them.
"What are you standing there blankly for? Hurry up and follow!"
"I'll catch up right away!"
"Tsk! Where did you leave your head."
Grumbling, Bolmond walked past his works. Just the number of armaments placed on the way to his personal workshop looked to be over thousands at a rough estimate. Among them were weapons I personally coveted, and none had any defects.
"There's no weapon to give to you, so don't eye them."
"Of course. My sword is very jealous—why would I covet other weapons?"
"The guy who says that always ends up taking one. Like right now."
My wrist heading toward a miniature dagger was grabbed. I had thought if it was small I could take at least one, but too bad.
"Even if lava enters my eyes, I won't hand over two children to others. Be satisfied with being chosen by my daughter."
"Tch, understood."
The weapons lined up along the path were all masterpieces and children that Bolmond had created throughout his life. Each one had a beautiful color, and if the maker was the king of dwarves, it was fully understandable. That was why I coveted them even more.
Well, even just Frach is a weapon beyond my station.
Moreover, Frach wasn't a completed sword. She grew stronger the more magic swords scattered around the world were obtained and combined. Her current performance was already frighteningly strong, yet she was a growth type. Moreover, even if she sometimes said useless things, she became a conversation partner so I wouldn't be lonely.
Huh…? At this rate, almost…
No. The other party was a sword. I wasn't a sword otaku—how could I take Frach as a spouse? Calm down and empty my mind while looking at other weapons.
"Hey, you damn thing! Now that you've got a human body, you're advertising it blatantly! Advertising!"
Before entering the workshop, while I was eyeing the other weapons, Bolmond—who had gone inside—was shouting at the top of his lungs and quarreling with someone. Listening a bit to the conversation, I roughly got a sense of who he was talking to.
What would the appearance of Frach, who had obtained the polymorph ability she so desired, be like? I peeked my head out from behind the sturdy Bolmond's back and locked eyes with the woman over his shoulder.
Black hair reaching her shoulders, tied back in a low ponytail. Uniquely, the black hair turned redder as it went down. Her face was slender and beautiful, with sharp eyes and long eyelids. Unlike the youthful faces of Lin and Rene, she had mature beauty.
Her outfit was a tank top that fully exposed her navel, and leggings clinging tightly to her legs. On the iliac line exposed below the navel, familiar red runic characters were engraved. Her breasts were relatively plump, showing cleavage and lines. If she bent her legs a little, the underside of her breasts might be visible. An appearance that would make one involuntarily say "onee-san" if one let their mind wander.
But her identity was unmistakably Frach. That was because she was currently making a ring with her index and thumb, sticking out her tongue and licking it.
"Hoo…!"
To seduce me as soon as she became human. I wanted to scold her harshly with bitter words, but it seemed unnecessary—because there was someone reacting more intensely to her actions than me.
"Y-you've truly gone mad!"
"Ah! Father, this is not that…!"
"Since your master has come, you can't see anything in front of you, huh! Why? Why don't you just pour molten iron down below?"
Frach, who had absorbed the phoenix's flame, had her personality become even hotter. At the same time, she was a magic sword reborn as a fire-attribute filial daughter.