Swords, Dogs, and Bones—It's All in How You Use Them - 1
It went without saying that simply hoarding a sword would never make anyone a Grand Sword Master.
If it did, every swordsman on the planet would live with a blade strapped to their side.
It was only one condition among many for reaching the higher realms.
I had merely taken my first step.
“Do you regret it?”
“No. The feeling’s complicated, but I don’t regret it. Besides…”
Frach looked up at me from where she lay on her back. In the lamplight her copper skin looked like bittersweet chocolate—enough to make a man want to lick it.
Had she caught my stare?
She grinned and tugged the blanket down just far enough to bare the firm upper curves of her breasts and the deep, inviting valley between them.
“Heh-heh~! Contractor, it seems you wish to do more with this body.”
“You’re awfully composed for someone who, only a few minutes ago, was gasping that she’d never felt pleasure like that before.”
“Th-that was because a human body is still unfamiliar to me, and it was my first time joining with a man!”
“Then what about the part where you pitifully declared defeat mid-act, claiming you could never beat a holy sword?”
“In matters of the flesh, losing to a holy sword is only natural!”
The “holy sword” she meant was a little different from the one I had in mind, but I decided to let it slide.
“Anyway, for a third-rate blade, you’re still a long way from seducing me.”
“Th-third-rate?! How dare you!”
She lunged at me in a huff; I stopped her with one hand pressed flat against her face. I had been about to drive the “third-rate” label home once more when—
Tap-tap! Tap-tap!
—a crow outside began hammering its beak against the window, forcing me to restrain myself.
“Calm down and stay put.”
The crow was a rotting corpse, flesh sloughing off in patches—a zombie crow. I knew at once who had sent it.
Hades, the same one who had recently gifted me the Troll’s Elixir.
I was grateful, of course, yet the sight of that woman wearing human skin and playing coy still left a bad taste in my mouth.
The original order had come from me: go make money. Who could have guessed she would fall so thoroughly into the role of a female idol just to earn it?
There were no words for the feeling of watching a former rival return as a woman.
“Another messenger. That skeleton sends you letters nearly every day.”
“She’s a demi-lich bound to me, so it isn’t wrong, but the frequency has definitely gone up lately.”
“If memory serves, she wanted you to attend something called a handshake event.”
“Exactly. This letter’s about the same thing.”
I skimmed the note tied to the crow’s leg. It was another invitation to participate—the same request she had already sent not long ago, yet here it was again without a hint of fatigue.
“What do you intend to do?”
“What else? Obviously I’m not going—”
I had been answering without even looking at Frach when the latter half of the letter stopped the words in my throat.
My own shadow rippled and seethed in sympathy.
“…Looks like I have no choice but to attend.”
“Hm? What did you see that changed your mind?”
Frach crawled out of bed, planted her chin on my shoulder, and pressed herself against my back. She began reading over my shoulder, utterly unconcerned that her bare breasts were flush against a man’s spine.
A fully grown young woman clinging naked to a man—true to her nature as a magic sword, she possessed not a shred of feminine shame.
“Oho…! So the item you desired has found its way into her hands.”
“Right. My prediction that it would flow toward the royal capital was completely off.”
The second half of the letter was, simply put, a list of tribute offerings meant for me—a collection of waiting gifts designed to lure me in.
Unfortunately for her, I was not the sort of man who could be bought with presents.
Yet among those offerings sat something I could not ignore.
A rare mineral that amplifies the power of beasts and monsters under the full moon.
The all-purpose stone Chaos and Hesha both require.
What should have been the grand prize of the Martial Arts Festival had somehow ended up with Hades.
“The dwarf who stole the Full Moon Stone… was it Skele-chan…?”
“Skele-chan.”
“Right! That one you call Skele-chan?”
“The odds are high.”
What a world. People were handing over every treasure they owned without realizing the recipient was an undead archmage of the lich variety.
Then again, I myself had just spent a heated night with a woman whose true form was a magic sword. Fifty paces or a hundred—it was the same distance. I kept my complaints to myself.
“Well, next destination’s decided.”
“You mean to attend the lich’s handshake event?”
“I have to. If I want to reach my goal…”
I was already sighing.
“Perfect!”
Kang Junhyuk’s single exclamation rang out as he faced the full-length mirror. Dressed to the nines, he regarded his own reflection with deep satisfaction.
Handsome to begin with, he looked good in anything—any outfit, any hairstyle. The old saying that fashion is completed by looks existed for a reason.
This outfit will do for Hades’s handshake event.
Every change of clothes, every careful adjustment of his hair, had been for one person alone: the greatest woman sweeping the kingdom—no, the entire continent.
Hades the Lurdivince. Commonly called simply Hades.
I’ll show every man who shows up that I’m superior.
Looks, strength, and affection—Kang Junhyuk was certain he yielded to no one in any of them.
I gave up heroine events and artifacts for this handshake event, but it’s fine.
If he could claim the Hades the world itself acknowledged, he would already be halfway to victory. He already possessed reliable methods for conquering every other heroine; he trusted the knowledge from before his possession completely.
The rest of the heroines can be taken one by one later.
He loosened the collar of the outfit he planned to wear and drew a breath. Even the simple act of flinging his necktie aside looked dashing; he savored the sight again—until a sudden unease flickered through his mind.
What if she already has another man…?
Hades was hailed as everyone’s idol, yet her private life was a complete mystery. Not a single person claimed to have met her on the street; the beautiful girl remained wrapped in absolute secrecy.
It was entirely possible she was already head-over-heels for someone else, dating him behind closed doors.
“Tch—!”
Kang Junhyuk clicked his tongue, making his displeasure plain. Nothing was confirmed, yet the mere imagination soured his mood.
Brows drawn tight, he manifested the new magic he had recently mastered—location-tracking magic developed to escape Sherin’s obsession. If he placed it on Hades at the handshake event, he could peek into her private life.
A crooked, unpleasant smile twisted his lips.
“Even if Hades already has someone she loves… it doesn’t matter.”
He would simply take her.
Sherin, now a walking bomb, had originally been Bern’s beloved childhood friend. Kang Junhyuk had already made her his once; why couldn’t he do it again?
He possessed the body of the protagonist—handsome face, limitless talent. No man in the world, he decided, could measure up. He laughed with absolute confidence.
Far away, a single pair of eyes watched him.
Sherin, unable to approach because of the tracking magic, could only observe from a distance.
Just as Kang Junhyuk had invented new magic to avoid her, Sherin had awakened a new ability so she could watch him anywhere.
Clairvoyance—normally the province of high-level archers—had, ironically, bloomed in her as well. That alone showed how fanatically her feelings for him had twisted.
How cute… my Junhyuk…
From the academy rooftop she gazed at every detail of the man she loved, fingers caressing the necklace she believed a god had given her.
A cold ice pick caught against her fingertip.
She stroked it with loving gentleness, a rapturous smile on her face, already imagining the moment she would drive that ice pick into her beloved’s broad chest.
Like Kang Junhyuk, Sherin let out a wicked little laugh.
“The day Junhyuk and I are joined isn’t far now, is it? Ahahahaha!”
And so the handshake event—destined to become pure chaos—drew rapidly closer.