The Aura of the Demonic Sword
“Everyone stay where you are… don’t move.”
At Illyana’s urgent cry, the party members froze in place and turned to stare at her in confusion.
She could feel the aura of a Demonic Sword circling the area, drawing steadily closer, and she could not keep silent.
But contrary to her fears, the ones who appeared radiating that ominous power were not who she expected.
“If you don’t want to die, hand over everything you’ve got!”
The men brandishing swords that bled the same black mana as a Demonic Sword were nothing more than ordinary bandits who didn’t look particularly strong. How they had come by such weapons was a mystery, but to Illyana—who sensed the black mana more keenly than anyone—it was thoroughly unsettling.
“Lady Illyana, please step back. We’ll handle this.”
Five bandits now stood before Illyana and the adventurer party. Without a shred of fear, Asen drew his sword and strode forward.
What worried Illyana, however, was not the bandits in plain sight, but the far greater number still hidden in the surrounding forest—every one of them armed with blades steeped in black mana.
“Don’t worry, Lady Illyana. A handful of bandits like these, we can handle eas—”
Asen, driven by both gratitude for Illyana’s kindness and a private desire to look impressive in front of her, had even stepped out alone. Then the bandits lurking in the woods revealed themselves, and his confident stride faltered.
“You think you can take us all on by yourself? Keh-heh-heh.”
There were roughly forty or fifty of them. Even if bandits rarely received formal sword training, numbers like that left the adventurer party with no realistic chance of victory. On top of that, every one of them carried a sword that radiated black mana almost identical to a Demonic Sword. How much stronger those blades made them was anyone’s guess, but factoring that in made the fight reckless for Asen and his companions.
“Asen?”
“Yes?”
“Mind if I borrow that sword for a moment?”
Illyana took the blade from Asen’s hand and walked toward the bandits, giving the weapon a once-over as she went.
“Hmm… this should do just fine.”
“Lady Illyana! It’s too dangerous! Leave this to me and—”
Asen tried to stop her from approaching the bandits so recklessly, sword in hand, but a smile of pure amusement was already spreading across her face as she walked.
“Don’t worry, Asen. I may not look it, but I’ve had holy knight training, you know?”
“What…?”
Back when she had been a candidate for Saintess, Illyana had been born with extraordinary holy power. Even before her candidacy she could already wield every form of sacred magic—and forbidden magic as well. With nothing left to learn as a candidate, she had taken up the only training still available to her: the education of a holy knight.
It was “holy knight education” in name only—little more than ordinary military drills. Day after day she had tempered her body through physical conditioning and swordsmanship.
The bandits, knowing none of this, saw only a frail-looking priestess—and a woman at that—approaching with a sword. They burst into mocking laughter and jeers.
“Hahahaha! Look at this fearless little lady! Hey! If you don’t want to die, drop that sword and run while you still can!”
“Hmm? Me? Ohhh, you meant me~ I thought you were talking about those bearded ladies over there.”
Illyana finished speaking and pointed a finger straight at the bandits. At first they didn’t grasp her meaning; then they looked at one another, and their faces flushed purple with rage.
“What?! That bitch really wants to die, doesn’t she?!”
The bandits took the bait. Watching from behind, Asen and his party members fretted over whether they should intervene.
“You little—!”
The bandit at the front lunged at Illyana.
Shunk!
“Gyaaah!”
Illyana casually slipped past the black-mana blade and drove her sword into the man’s abdomen. The strike was precise—avoiding any vital point—so while there would be bleeding and pain, it was not immediately life-threatening.
“Oh dear… that must hurt terribly. Shall I heal you right away so it doesn’t hurt so much?”
“P-please… s-save me…”
“Just a moment. Heal.”
Heal
She had just wounded the bandit after dodging his attack—and now she was healing him. Sacred light bloomed across his body; by the time it faded, the stab wound in his abdomen was gone.
“Well? Feeling better?”
“Th-thank you…”
“Oh, don’t mention it…”
The bandit, dazed, offered his thanks to the woman who had both wounded and cured him. The others who had been about to attack in his place froze, staring at the two of them.
Shunk!
Then something happened that left even the onlookers stunned.
Illyana rose with her sword once more—and drove it straight back into the abdomen of the very man she had just healed.
“Gyaaaaah!!”
“Oh my? That must hurt so much. Let me heal you again right away.”
“S-stop!! I—I was wrong!! J-just spare me…!!”
“Heal.”
Heal
And so Illyana’s treatment began again.
“There. All better.”
“Th-thank you. S-so I’ll just be going—”
“Hmm? And where do you think you’re off to?”
Shunk!!
The cycle of stabbing and healing repeated without end. The victim himself was one thing—but the bandits watching wore faces twisted with terror, too afraid to attack or even approach her.
“I—I was wrong!! So please, just forgive me!!”
“Oh? Then would you answer a few questions for me? Depending on your answers, we might skip the pain-and-healing routine and start dancing between life and death instead.”
“I’ll do it!! I’ll do whatever you say!! Just—please… spare me!”
What the bandit feared most was no longer the sword that kept piercing his gut, but the bright, cheerful smile on Illyana’s face. To anyone else it might have looked like the gentle smile of a beautiful, delicate woman. To him, it was the grin of a demon.
“Then I’ll only ask once, so listen carefully.”
“Y-yeah!! I-I got it!”
“Where did you get those swords?”
The bandit answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“S-some old man… gave them to us…”
“Some old man? He gave them to you? Or did you take them?”
“W-we just wanted a little toll money, but the old man handed every last one of these swords over to us…”
Illyana picked up the sword the bandit had dropped and examined it closely. It was far too crude, its materials too cheap-looking, to be one of the Demonic Swords used by the Demon King or the Four Heavenly Kings.
She was neither a mage nor a dwarf capable of analyzing the metal itself—but she knew exactly what the black mana radiating from the blade truly was.
Anyone who used sacred magic and studied it would recognize the curse at once.
“Heh… how amusing. Playing games like this with a sword…”
The more she analyzed the black mana, the more fascinating details came to light.
Greed…
Every sentient being possessed it, but among humans it was one of the most common sins. This sword stimulated that greed, driving people to commit every kind of evil, and those evils would continue until the endless hunger was sated. In the wrong hands, it was a terrible weapon that could bring catastrophe upon the human world.
For now it had merely fallen into the hands of a bandit gang and ended here. But if it ever reached a king, an entire nation would be dragged into the whirlpool of war.
“Our dear Hero really is living in a more interesting world than I expected…”
Having finished her analysis of the black mana, Illyana murmured to herself and rose to her feet. The bandits, terrified by her cruelty, began to flee one by one.
“Feel free to run—but leave the swords behind, all of you. If I catch you taking one with you, you really might die, you know?”
The fleeing bandits flinched at her voice, hesitated for a heartbeat, then flung their swords away and bolted as fast as their legs would carry them.
Meanwhile, the adventurer party that had watched the entire scene from behind found themselves, without meaning to, keeping a careful distance from Illyana as well.
“Um, adventurers?”
“Y-yes? Ah—yes!!”
“Would you mind giving me a hand?”
Illyana, still wearing that bright, undimmed smile as she wandered about collecting the discarded swords, asked the party for help. They stopped their hesitant retreat, answered loudly, and quickly scattered to gather the blades.