I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Legion of Fanatics

WE RETURNED TO COUNT BAYREEDS’ safehouse in the noble district after the attack on our hotel. This was the place where we’d first met the count. We had a lot to tell him, and we were supposed to meet Frederick and the others to discuss our next steps as well.

Fran, you have to wake up.

“Hnnh…”

We have to talk to the count about our next step, remember?

“Urrrgh.”

Count Bayreeds had personally come to the safehouse last night to assess the situation, but Fran was asleep. Fortunately, the count was a magnanimous man and he laughed it off. Still, we couldn’t keep him waiting today.

Come on, wake up.

“Hrm…”

All right, I’m going to wipe your face now.

“Hmmmh.”

Stay still so I can fix your hair.

Fran yawned. This went on for about fifteen minutes.

“Morning, Teacher.”

Good morning, Fran.

Now awake, Fran rubbed her belly with a sad look in her eyes. “I’m hungry.”

All right. Here, just stuff it with these for now.

I gave her some onigiri and sandwiches to start. She had gone to bed on an empty stomach after fighting for her life. She was bound to wind up starving in the morning. The safehouse would have prepared breakfast, but I didn’t want to burden them with the task of filling Fran’s stomach.

You have some too, Jet.

“Woof!”

“Munch, munch.”

This went on for another fifteen minutes.

“Woof, woof!”

“Yum, yum.”

Now Fran and Jet were in the Bayreeds cafeteria to have a second round of breakfast.

“What are you talking about?!”

“…”

“You cannot take me off of this assignment!”

“…”

I heard a loud, angry voice coming from the second floor.

That’s Velmeria.

“Hm.”

I couldn’t hear who she was talking to, but she was definitely mad at them.

“If you’ll excuse me!”

Velmeria slammed the door open and stormed out of the room. I heard her running down the stairs and into the cafeteria. Her eyes were red and puffy.

Fran continued chewing. “Velmeria?”

“Fran,” Velmeria stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” She cleared her throat. “Excuse me.” She turned around and walked swiftly out of the room.

She was crying.

Yeah.

What happened up there? Velmeria looked like she was about to collapse on the floor with her swollen eyes and gritted teeth. She looked so weak that Fran even stopped eating and considered going after her, but someone else entered the cafeteria before she could leave.

“Black Lightning Princess,” Frederick said. “Lord Sydle will see you now.”

“What about Velmeria?”

He paused. “Don’t worry about her.”

“But I can’t help it.”

“It is not my place to say,” Frederick said. Considering how tight-lipped he was, he wasn’t going to tell us what happened to Velmeria.

Fran, go see the count for now. You won’t get Frederick to tell you anything by arguing with him.

“…All right.”

Frederick sighed and led Fran to the meeting room. Count Bayreeds was seated on a couch, a tired expression on his face. He was slumped over, and I was surprised at how utterly defenseless he looked. His exchange with Velmeria must have inflicted severe psychological damage.

But the count knew he couldn’t keep his guest waiting, and gave Fran an awkward smile.

“Good morning, Black Lightning Princess. I would like to start discussing our strategy going forward, if that’s all right with you.”

“Hm.”

“First, I would like to thank you for all the information you’ve gathered for us. We’ve acquired a warrant to investigate Count Olmes’ villa. Even the marquis is helpless against a royal warrant.”

The Olmes villa might belong to Marquis Aschtner, but he couldn’t refuse a search warrant. He might have gotten away with it in the past, but repeated failures had reduced the amount of influence he wielded. Fewer people wanted to associate with him now, and he wouldn’t be able to pull strings from behind the scenes for long. The marquis also put off his summons to the castle, citing illness. The other factions were beginning to think that he was nothing but a coward.

“We can’t get a warrant to search the marquis’ mansion, but that could be arranged if we find something substantial in the villa.”

“Hm. And what am I supposed to do?”

“We are conducting a raid on the Olmes villa tonight. I would love to have you there. What do you say?”

Fran looked as surprised as I was. “Tonight? That’s fast.”

“They might be on to us if we’re not quick enough. Do you have other arrangements?”

“No, tonight’s fine.”

“Very well. You will be under Colbert’s orders, since both of you are contractors. Will that be all right?”

“Hm,” Fran nodded.

“Thank you.”

 The count looked relieved after seeing Fran agree to work with him so readily. Was he worried that she would charge into the villa by herself?

“You’re strong. Very strong. But Colbert knows how to do business here, you see,” Bayreeds said. I knew then that he had personally watched the fight between the two. He was worried that Fran might not appreciate taking orders from someone weaker than her.

There was a knock on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Colbert.”

Speak of the devil. Colbert entered the room, looking like he was bothered by something.

“Sorry, I happened to see Velmeria when I was getting here,” he said sheepishly. “Did something happen?”

Damn, Colbert knew how to ask a difficult question!

The count paused. “You could say that. She disagreed when I took her off the investigation.”

“You’re pulling her off the case?” Colbert asked. “Why? I think she’s pretty strong. If nothing else, she’s way better than I am as a scout.”

“You overestimate her. She might be competent, but she’s inexperienced. She is nowhere near as strong as you two.”

The count had a good point there. Velmeria wasn’t a strong fighter. But Colbert had the better point, because she was an excellent scout. She was very much suited to infiltrating the mansion. How could the count not understand that? Was there another reason why he pulled her out?

“Velmeria was crying,” Fran said.

Count Bayreeds groaned.

“Are you sure we can’t take her? She’ll come in handy.”

“I know,” he sighed. “But she still lacks experience, and this is not an investigation which will be kind to her.”

The count made a weak argument, and it was clear he was lying. By the looks of it, even Colbert knew that. His sharp eyes scanned the count’s face.

“Count Bayreeds,” he started. “I know you love your daughter, but she is an adult now. You cannot protect her forever.”

Bayreeds grunted and pursed his lips. Colbert had hit the mark. The count was being overprotective of his daughter. He might be a great warrior, but he was still a worried father.

“Besides,” Colbert continued. “I would think she’s learned a lot after sticking with Frederick for so long.”

“I-In any case, Velmeria will not be joining the investigation tonight!” The count raised his voice and shook his head. “And that’s final!”

Frederick sighed in disappointment.

“Nothing we can do about it?” Fran asked.

“No!”

The discussion came to an end, and we were sent away.

Colbert sighed. “Frederick, are you sure you don’t need to see how Velmeria’s doing?”

“No,” Frederick said. “She’s in her room, and she probably wants to be left alone right now. She wouldn’t talk to me even if I went to her.”

“Spoken like a true master. You know your student well.”

So Frederick was Velmeria’s teacher as well as her bodyguard. No wonder they were so familiar with each other.

His position also made me realize that Count Bayreeds was a worrywart. But why raise Velmeria to be a warrior and a spy if he was so overprotective of her? He could’ve given her a typical noble upbringing. There must be plenty of noble women who didn’t know how to fight and lived with servants waiting on them hand and foot. Maybe it was different for her because she was the daughter of his mistress.

Fran asked the question for me, and Frederick and Colbert shifted uneasily.

“It’s complicated,” Frederick said.

“And it isn’t something we can discuss here,” Colbert continued. “If you want, we can go downstairs, have some tea, and gossip about it.”

It sounded like a good idea, so we headed to the cafeteria to discuss the relationship between Count Bayreeds and Velmeria.

Question one: Why was Velmeria raised as a fighter? The answer turned out to be a simple matter of tradition.

“House Bayreeds is a house of warriors. All their children are trained fighters regardless of gender, and all must serve in the army. Even the child of a mistress,” Frederick explained.

“Isn’t it because she’s the child of a mistress?” Colbert pointed out. “If she got special treatment, the count’s wife might think he loves his mistress more than her.”

“Correct. In the end, Velmeria would end up being hurt the most. Lord Sydle trained her after hardening his resolve.”

“I’m not a big fan of the count’s wife, myself. I met her a couple times, but that’s enough for me to tell that she is unpleasant. She’s one of those nobles who thinks adventurers are just the same as thieves. The way she glared at me, you’d think she’d just seen a cockroach. She’s good-looking, at least; I’ll give her that much. But she’s your run-of-the-mill noblewoman.”

Count Bayreeds knew he had to keep things civil between his wife and Velmeria, since her mother was on another continent.

“That’s why Velmeria isn’t seen as a threat. Having mistresses is a fact of life for noblemen, so the wife won’t have a problem with her as long as the count makes her play by the rules.”

It was the count’s way of letting Velmeria win her honor. As long as the count didn’t give her preferential treatment over his wife’s children, they wouldn’t have a problem.

Which led to our next question.

“Why isn’t Velmeria a knight?” Fran wondered.

House Bayreeds was a house of knights, and yet Velmeria was trained as a spy. I would think even the count’s bastard child could be a candidate for the knighthood.

Apparently, Velmeria’s illegitimacy didn’t spring from her status as a bastard, but from her race.

“Her race? It’s because she’s a drake halfling?”

“That’s right,” Frederick said. “Granzell does not grant special offices to drakes in general, nor to halflings. That includes all public offices, as well as the glory of the knighthood.”

“How come?”

“They say drakes are a detestable race.”

“They hate you?”

“You could say that.” Frederick chuckled at Fran’s innocent questions. Still, he continued to tell her how the drakes were treated across the world, probably because she came from a despised race herself.

“Trismegistus, the instigator of the Tragedy of Goldicia, was a drake. That’s the biggest reason.”

“But that doesn’t make all drakes bad people.”

“Not exactly. Trismegistus might have been singled out as a victim of divine punishment, but the drakes fully supported their king. He had promised the people that he would conquer the world and put it under the heel of the drakes.” Frederick shook his head. “A foolish vision.”

The fault didn’t lie solely with Trismegistus. The drakes shared in his crimes by egging on his ambitions and research.

“The ambition and folly of the drakes nearly led to the destruction of the whole world. Still haunted by their dreams of conquest, it didn’t take long for the other nations to destroy the drakes under the guise of divine punishment.”

Divine punishment as an excuse to get rid of undesirables. I understood the pattern.

“They claimed to be agents of divine justice, but in reality, they were afraid of the ambitious and tribal race of the drakes.”

“Drakes are very strong, after all,” Colbert said. “And humanoids are suspicious of races that are stronger than ours. The insectoids and high elves are still feared to this day.”

I could see why drakes were strong; they had dragon blood in them, after all. But what was this about insectoids and high elves? Were they as strong as drakes? Fran tilted her head; she didn’t seem like she knew, either.

“You’ve never heard of the saying? The terrible drake, the lunatic insectoid, the powerful high elf… They’re always grouped together.”

The drakes possessed enough military strength to rule an entire continent, as well as being individually strong. They were considered terrible because they brought misery to themselves and everyone around them.

The insectoids had roles designated for them at birth. For example, the warrior class was born incredibly strong; the weakest among them was as powerful as a C-Rank adventurer. They were also fiercely loyal to the state, and seemed to possess different values compared to humanoids. Their values made them seem insane to the average person, and so the insectoids claimed the crown of lunatics.

“I’ve met insectoid halflings before,” Fran said. “They seem like normal people.”

Erianthe was an insectoid halfling, but there was nothing odd about her values. Maybe it was because her human blood overpowered her insect traits.

“The halflings are all right, but the purebloods…” Colbert shivered. “And wait till you hear about the elites.”

Insectoids lived in a society with four classes. There was the noble class, who acted as leaders; the warrior class, who fought; the guiding class, who served as administration; and the rest were common civilians. The child of an insectoid noble wasn’t guaranteed to be a noble. Their class was completely randomized at birth. There were cases where common parents gave birth to noble children.

Be they nobles, warriors, guides, or commoners, all insectoids possessed great loyalty to the crown and identified heavily with their species. Their loyalty was on a different level compared to the other species, and it was difficult for the rest of us to fully grasp it.

“Most of the commoners are pretty normal, though.”

“Both in looks and power.”

Interesting. I wondered if the elites looked like my old rider heroes. I hoped we would get a chance to visit the land of the insectoids one day… Provided setting foot in it wasn’t enough to get us killed, that is.

Finally, there were the high elves. Regular elves possessed long lifespans and laid-back attitudes. Their mellow demeanor only heightened as they aged, and it was said that a three-hundred-year-old elf would do nothing but sleep his days away. But sometimes you got elves who possessed great curiosity and a powerful will to go with it. The older they got, the stronger they got. Give that elf a couple hundred years, and they would eventually evolve into a high elf. There were only a few of them in the world, but all of them were known to be S-Rank in strength. Elves already possessed a natural talent for magic. Their magical abilities honed over the course of a few centuries would be unrivaled.

“But we digress,” Colbert said. “Anyway, you can’t be a knight in Granzell if you’ve got drake blood in you.”

“And being of Bayreeds blood, Velmeria must be trained for combat. In the end, she was trained as a spy,” Frederick continued.

“If nothing else, she could train the first wife’s children when they’re older.”

That would make Velmeria useful to Bayreeds’ wife while still occupying the position of a spy, a position which was seen to be lower than a knight.

“Still, she’s also the Count’s only daughter,” Colbert said. “He can’t say it to his wife, but of course he loves Velmeria.”

“And that’s why he took her off the mission?”

“Yes,” Frederick said. “That is likely the case.”

“Velmeria wasn’t too pleased about it, though. Usually it’s the child who’s inconsiderate about her parents’ feelings, but I’d say it’s the opposite here.”

“I can see why he did that, though,” Frederick sighed.

Thirty minutes had passed since Frederick told us about Count Bayreeds’ complex family situations. We were having tea as we waited for Velmeria to calm down. 

We suddenly sensed something, and Fran was the first one to bring it up. “Friend of yours, Colbert?”

“Don’t think I’m acquainted with people who sneak around while making their murderous intent known.” Colbert said. “What about you, Frederick? Maybe it’s one of the count’s men?”

“No,” Frederick shook his head. “I’ll go check on Velmeria. I hope you’re ready to fight. And capture some of them if you can.”

Mysterious auras, each as murderous as the last, were surrounding the mansion. It was an ambush, and if I had to guess who we were up against…

Fran, I think it’s the sword.

Are you sure?

I can feel that repulsive mana coming from whoever’s ambushing us.

There was no mistaking that revulsion, even at this distance. It was the same kind of energy the demon sword emitted.

All right.

But…

But?

There was a problem. There were multiple sources of the repulsive mana. We might be up against more than one demon sword.

…Then we’ll destroy them all, Fran said. I felt my body loosen, in a good way.

You’re right. We’ll fight that thing full force if we see it.

Got it.

Sorry, Erianthe. There might be property destruction, public or otherwise. The demon sword was too dangerous to leave at large.

Frederick sensed Fran’s burning desire to fight. “Listen,” he started. “Even if this is self-defense, it is not grounds to mount a full-blown raid. You have to understand.”

We were going to be on the defensive, first and foremost. He had to remind Fran of this as one of the count’s men.

The mansion was on full alert. Bayreeds’ guardsmen, within and without, all sensed the incoming ambush. But none of them could anticipate the enemy’s opening move.

BOOOOM!

“They’re using explosive magic!”

The mansion was pelted with a volley of spells. We were still safe indoors, but hot tongues of fire blazed outside the window. One of them must have known how to use Inferno Burst. Others followed with Wind and Earth spells to tunnel into the mansion. Colbert was shocked.

“I can’t believe they would blatantly attack the noble district!”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re in the capital! This is pretty much the king’s backyard!”

Nobles lived here, and the palace was nearby. This was nothing like the attack on the inn in the market district.

“I don’t care if you’re a marquis; attacking a place full of nobles is a one-way ticket to the hangman’s noose!”

Colbert was expecting assassins and infiltrators, silently picking the count’s men off one by one. He was not expecting an attack that the whole city could see.

I sensed hesitation from the auras in the mansion. The enemy was not a united front. Were they having second thoughts after they realized Marquis Aschtner had burned all his bridges?

“Fran, let’s split up,” Colbert said. “I’ll take the entrance; you take the back door. Sound good?”

“Hm.”

“Let’s get going.”

We wanted to immediately head for the demon sword, but we couldn’t pinpoint its location. We were sensing multiple mana signatures which felt like smaller versions of the sword.

Let’s get a visual for now.

“Hm!”

Jet, search the mansion for suspicious individuals.

“Woof!”

By the time Fran reached the back door, the enemy was already inside. Two men who looked like adventurers stood before us. Even in the midst of this chaotic situation, their appearances shocked us.

These guys…

“Have swords…in their backs.”

Just like Seldio and his party!

An eerie estoc was lodged into their spines. A face that looked like a man screaming in agony was carved into its guard.

The swords and the condition of their hosts were horrifyingly similar to Seldio. These swords could be Identified, and although only their names were revealed, they were names which could not be ignored.

Mad Faith Sword Replica?

“Mad Faith Sword? That sounds familiar.”

Mad Faith Sword Fanatix… That’s one of the Godswords in the scroll Lumina showed us back in Ulmutt!

“So that’s a Godsword?”

Just a replica. Not the real thing. Probably won’t be anywhere near as strong, but don’t let your guard down!

We were up against replicas, but they were still replicas of a Godsword. I didn’t like the look of this at all. The hosts of the replicas started moving.

Here they come!

The men acted just like Hummels and Gordon, which meant their minds were being controlled. Their Fanatic status ailment finally made sense; it was coming from the replica Fanatix. They were also under Unleashed Potential, meaning they had incredible stats and skills—enough to give Bayreeds’ guardsmen trouble.

“Awaken! Flashing Thunderclap!”

But they were still no match for Fran at full strength. With Hummels and Gordon, we were thoroughly focused on observation and capture. We didn’t want to cause any damage to our surroundings, either. This time, for better or worse, Fran could let loose. She wasn’t taking any chances now that she knew we were up against Godswords.

Fran leapt at the man on the right with the speed of lightning and cut him down with Pressurized Quickdraw. Neither of our opponents had time to react. She made a diagonal slash across the man’s body.

Tsk.

“What’s wrong, Teacher?”

Nothing. It’s just Cannibalize.

The man crumpled to the floor in two halves, and so did the replica Fanatix in his back. Cannibalize activated, sending a rush of revulsion through my system. Fortunately, the replica didn’t have enough mana for it to be painful, and the rush went as quickly as it came. The boost to my parameters wasn’t much, either. I only got one measly point of durability and mana this time, nowhere near as much as from the sword that controlled Hummels and Gordon.

One more to go.

“Hm! Haaa!”

The other man started swinging his sword after it dawned on him that his friend was dead, but Fran was ready for him by then. She dodged the downward swing and took out both his legs from underneath him with another Pressurized Quickdraw.

Go to sleep!

I used Telekinesis to finish him off.

What?

The replica Fanatix suddenly glowed as if to drain mana from its host. And then my Telekinesis was gone.

No… This thing can seal magic, too!

I cast a Land spell to hold him down, but the sword dispelled it.

It’s like what happened in Ulmutt!

The replica Fanatix was using its user’s—or rather, host’s—mana to nullify skills and spells. I could still use Transmogrify and Sword Mastery, but any skill that had a physical manifestation was jammed.

Meanwhile, the man’s feet were regenerating quickly, and it only took a few seconds for him to sprout a new pair. We were in trouble. He was pretty much immortal with Abnormal Regeneration and Pain Disruption, and the sword could lock down our attacks as long as its host had the mana for it.

We were in a worse spot than Ulmutt, but the sword and its host weren’t a threat to us the way we were now. Even without spells and skills, Fran was still a formidable swordswoman with me in her hand, and I was enough for her to fight with.

“Haaa!”

The battle was over in a flash. Fran went for the man’s arms and legs, knowing full well that regeneration and pain resistance didn’t make her opponent invincible. It would take a good ten seconds for him to fully regenerate his limbs, and that was all the time in the world for us.

Now!

“Hm!”

Our target was the replica Fanatix. Fran grabbed the hilt and tried to pull it out of the man’s back.

“Hrrrrgh!”

Come on!

Normally, I’d help her with Telekinesis, but the sword was still suppressing it. We tried to store it in our Pocket Dimension, but that didn’t work either, since the replica was still equipped to its host.

“Haaaaa!”

You did it!

Three grueling seconds later, Fran pulled the replica Fanatix out of the man. I used Pocket Dimension on it again and it quietly went into storage. This would be our significant lead, but it didn’t come for free. The man died as soon as the sword was removed. We wouldn’t be able to take our intruders in for questioning.

I guess that simplifies things.

“Cut them all down.”

Yeah!

It looked like our attackers were all going to die one way or another. If the sword removal didn’t kill them, being in Unleashed Potential for too long would. At least now we didn’t have to worry about capturing them alive.

Let’s start with beating up the intruders in the mansion.

“Hm!”

Fran followed her senses and ran through the mansion. She kicked down a door at the end of a hallway and found some men who had just entered through a window. She rushed in without stopping and took them down. It was easy to identify our enemies. All we had to do was look for the sword sticking out of their spines.

“Haaah!”

Urgh.

The battle was over before it began. Fran cut down the men, along with all the replicas of Fanatix. I felt mana enter into me, Cannibalize doing its job. I’d cooked up a lot of theories about Cannibalize, but now I knew why it was activating. We were dealing with imitations of the Godsword, Fanatix. I myself was a pseudo-Godsword, maybe even a discarded Godsword, but I was Godsword enough for Cannibalize to trigger. Perhaps it was because we were both made by a Godsmith. That might be enough of a trigger for Cannibalize… But I doubted I had the strength to destroy such superweapons.

You okay, Teacher?

I’m fine.

Maybe you should turn Cannibalize off.

No… It might not seem like much, but I’ll take any chance to get stronger without relying on EP that I can get.

Fran paused. All right. On to our next target.

Right.

Just don’t push yourself too hard.

I know.

BOOM! KABLAM!

The explosions were now coming from inside the mansion, and human screams soon followed. Our intruders were probably incapable of making noises outside of casting spells, so those screams had definitely come from Bayreeds’ men.

“Tsch!”

These guys are strong!

We encountered more intruders along the way, and they were all as strong as the first one. Most of them had Advanced Sword Mastery on top of being in Unleashed Potential; all were able to suppress skills and magic. Fran couldn’t get the most out of her speed in the mansion’s tight corridors, so we couldn’t kill them all with a single blow. Blasting spells at them from a distance would have been the best way to deal with them, but it wasn’t an option because of the swords’ spell-jamming capabilities. A woman possessed by the sword cast a spell, as if to show that she was unhindered by the jamming effect.

“Wind Cutter.”

“Haaa!”

Fran slipped through the Wind spell and rushed her down. The intruder reacted despite Fran striking at her blind spot, but she wasn’t a capable enough swordswoman to respond in time. A few cuts later, she went down like the rest of them.

Looks like they can all regenerate.

“Hm. Annoying.”

What was a minor annoyance to Fran was a major threat to the guardsmen. Bayreeds’ men were elite fighters, but nothing in their training could prepare them for this.

“Gaaah!”

Fran!

“Hm!”

A guardsman flew out of a nearby door, bloodied and battered. Fran immediately tried to heal him, but the spell refused to be cast.

No good! We have to destroy the replica Fanatix first!

“Okay!”

The guardsman’s attacker lunged out of the room to finish the job, but Fran grabbed his sword and delivered a kick to his jaw, breaking it. He crumpled to the floor, and Fran drove her sword into his heart to kill him. Finally, she slashed the demon sword on his back to destroy it. 

I resisted the urge to throw up, and healed the guardsman.

All right. We can use magic as long as those replicas of Fanatix aren’t around.

The guardsman’s wounds closed up. Fran tapped his cheek to wake him. “You okay?”

He gasped for breath. “You’re…”

“I healed you just now. Does it hurt anywhere?”

“No… And thank you. But the others in the cafeteria…”

“I’ll take care of it.”

The guardsman couldn’t move after losing so much blood. Fran left him behind and went into the room he’d flown out of. This was the cafeteria for servants and guardsmen. Within the large room, several maids and guardsmen were lying on the floor. At first, I thought the room had deep red carpeting, but then I looked closer and realized it was gray. The red came from a fresh coat of blood.

“Hrm!”

Fran was ready to lunge at the intruder, but stopped when he pressed his blade against one of the maids on the floor. I thought the sword would’ve drained its host of intelligence, but he was smart enough to take the woman hostage. There was no gleam of consciousness behind his eyes, but whoever was controlling these people might be doing the thinking for them. Maybe it was the replica Fanatix in their backs. Maybe it was the Sword of Mad Faith Fanatix itself.

The intruder stood still, blade still pressed against the maid’s back. He was buying time, waiting for backup to arrive.

I’ll take this one, Fran.

Okay.

Fran nodded and pointed the cutting edge of her blade at the intruder. He braced himself for an attack, but it was too late.

Take this!

It was a large cafeteria, and we were a good distance away from each other. Thanks to that, we were right outside of the sword’s magic-suppressing range. I launched a Telekinetic Catapult at the demon sword and blew it and its host’s head to pieces. It couldn’t react to my attack in time, even under Unleashed Potential. Although it could suppress my skills and spells when I was in range, it could do nothing to stop my inertia.

I don’t know what they want, but we have to get to Count Bayreeds!

“Got it.”

We finished healing the maid, who was still breathing, and left her in the care of the guardsman outside before making our way to the second floor where the count was. The count was a formidable warrior, but these were formidable foes—formidable enough to put his life in danger.

We encountered more intruders along the way and used the walls and ceilings to maneuver three-dimensionally around them. Fran cut them all down and they never saw her coming. We eventually made it to Bayreeds’ office and found him on his knees with a body full of wounds. Blood flowed out of his sword arm, and he could barely grip his weapon. He was surrounded by intruders, and they looked like they were about to finish the job. The count was a hair’s breadth away from death.

Go! We have to save him!

“Hm! Haaa!”

Fran started with the man closest to Bayreeds. She made a diagonal cut from his right shoulder all the way down to his left hip. She proceeded in a counterclockwise fashion, and made a horizontal swipe at the man on the left to cut him down.

How did he avoid that? We were attacking from behind!

Would a clockwise approach have been better? I don’t know. It would’ve been faster, but the enemy would’ve been able to see us coming. Still, we managed to clip the back of the intruder, and that was enough to make him lose his footing. His body twisted as it fell to the ground.

There were five people there—four of them remained—and they were all exceptionally powerful. Advanced Sword Mastery 5 powerful. Decent stats, too.

“Black Lightning Princess, you made it!”

“Get behind me!”

Count Bayreeds clicked his tongue. “I can still fight if I can get these damn potions to work!” He glared at the soaked spot on the carpet and the empty bottles of potions lying next to it. He was trying to heal his wounds, but magic suppression had made potions little more effective than water.

They all have magic, Fran. We can’t fight for long if we have to protect the count while we’re at it!

“Hm! I’ll finish this quick!”

Fran jumped in front of the count and focused her mana.

“Sword God Form!”

I felt immense power rising inside me. At the same time, I felt my blade creak and crack. The countdown had started. This wasn’t a move we should use against an enemy whose numbers and abilities we didn’t know. But now was not the time for such considerations.

We could only be in Sword God Form for a short time, but the increase in power was more than great enough to make up for that. The replica Fanatix’s spell sealing ability was useless against Sword God Form. Fran had the absolute upper hand. She stepped forward, mana billowing all around her. Her absolute power came at a cost of absolute pain.

And yet, Fran remained calm.

I didn’t know if the intruders could feel pain, but they understood the danger that she posed. They saw her twitch, and that single twitch took down the remaining four assailants. The battle was over before it started, but the victory felt hollow. Our opponents had Advanced Sword Mastery, completely lacked the fear of death, and were willing to put their lives on the line for their allies, but they were disposed of with four quick slashes of the blade. Sword God Form imbued its user with the Divine element, but even that was unnecessary. Those individual slashes were on the level of Sword King Art. 

In our experience, Sword King Arts was the pinnacle of swordsmanship. They represented the perfect cut. An ordinary attack in Sword God Form was on par with such perfection. Or maybe I was looking at it backwards? Maybe Sword God Form was swordsmanship perfection, and Sword King Arts just allowed you to reproduce certain instances of it. The Sword God might not have possessed Fran’s body in the literal sense, but even so, this was certainly beyond Sword King-level Mastery. This was the realm of the divine. And that was precisely the reason why the toll it took on us was so great. We were dealing with powers far greater than ours.

We deactivated Sword God Form and let out a big sigh. Fran was so exhausted that she couldn’t help but let it show.

You all right, Teacher?

Somehow… I thought I was a goner with how much durability those slashes took. What about you?

Tired.

My lost durability hadn’t fully recovered, and Fran’s exhaustion couldn’t be scoffed at, either. All that after a few seconds of power. This was not an easy skill to use.

Fran sighed. “You okay, Count?”

She went over to heal him. Count Bayreeds was still on his knees, breathing heavily. The count was silent, staring at us with a dumb look on his face. Personally, I thought he was in shock.

“By the gods,” he started. “What was that?!”

“Hm?”

He regained his senses and approached Fran. Apparently, Count Bayreeds was awestruck after seeing Fran eliminate the intruders in no time flat. The reality of the situation only struck him just now.

“I’ve never had goosebumps from watching swordplay before!”

The look on count’s face said that he wasn’t going to press the issue. He was filled with genuine surprise and admiration.

“Well,” the count continued, “whatever you did, it was extraordinary!”

Fortunately, Count Bayreeds didn’t know that we used Sword God Form. His injuries caused him to fade in and out of consciousness before we healed him.

“I can see why the Beast King took an interest in you.” He would’ve gone on, but he snapped out of it and said, “But there are more pressing matters at—”

“Hrm!”

Fran cut him off and readied me.

“Are there more?!”

Fights broke out all over the mansion. We could hear the sounds of breaking windows and explosive spells. One of the intruders stood silently in the doorway.

“Get behind me, Count.”

“I can fight,” Bayreeds protested. “I hope the others are all right!”

Ten minutes passed. After defeating the second wave of intruders, Fran and Bayreeds were now on the search for survivors. We were exhausted from using Sword God Form, but we could still handle a Fanatix host or two.

“In here!”

“Hm.”

They stopped at Velmeria’s room. There was more fighting inside, but we couldn’t sense Velmeria or the others, either.

“Are you all right?!”

Fran gasped. “Frederick!”

The room was in a state of disarray. The bed was torn apart and the bookshelf broken down. Deep gashes marred the ceiling and walls. Two of the intruders lay dead on the ground. Frederick was in a pool of his own blood. There was a sword lodged into his side, which prevented him from drowning in his own blood. 

He’s unconscious, but he’s still breathing! Greater Heal!

“Hang in there,” Fran coaxed as she healed him. Frederick was still healthy enough for the healing spell to work. She got closer to pull the sword out of him. Luckily, it was a regular sword and not a replica Fanatix.

Frederick screamed as the sword came out, but it was the only way we could fully heal him. I quietly apologized to him because Fran yanked the blade out pretty hard. With his wounds patched up, Frederick dragged himself to the window as if he were going to jump out of it. His lack of blood prevented him from doing anything reckless.

“No,” Fran said. “You have to rest.”

“Velmeria,” Frederick gasped. “They took Velmeria!”

“What?!” Bayreeds shouted. “What happened?!”

“Forgive me, my lord. I should have done better.”

One of the intruders had knocked Velmeria out cold before leaving through the window with her. I thought they were here to assassinate Bayreeds. Did they change their plans after they failed? Either way, ten minutes had passed since Velmeria was kidnapped. Catching up with them would be difficult.

If Jet were here… No, he might have noticed them taking her. We’ll have to wait for him.

“…Hm.”

We wouldn’t be able to catch up to them if we just picked a direction and ran. Not to mention the house was still under siege.

The count was silent for a while and said, “First, we’ll eliminate the enemies in the mansion.”

“My lord!” Fredrick protested.

“I will not let my men be killed for the sake of my daughter!” the count said through clenched teeth. “Dammit! If only I was as strong as before…!”

Thirty minutes had passed since we saved Frederick. Count Bayreeds’ forces suffered heavy casualties, but we somehow managed to beat back the intruders. There were fifteen of them in total. Meanwhile, the count lost over forty men and women, including the servants. Fifteen were injured. The guard post next to the mansion was caught in the opening explosion and suffered casualties as well. No one on the scene survived unscathed.

Colbert was among the injured, after a narrow brush with death. If we had come any later, it might have been too late for him.

“Maybe I should try my hand at learning conventional weaponry,” he groaned as he received treatment. His martial arts had been sealed by the replica Fanatix, and he was forced to take on three of the intruders at once. I thought he did a pretty good job, but Colbert looked disappointed with himself. His frustration only grew when he looked at the others who didn’t make it out of the fight. He gritted his teeth and said, “What lunatic could have done this…?”

“I have some ideas,” Frederick muttered.

Fran and I knew for sure that Aschtner was involved once we saw the swords lodged in their backs. But the word of an adventurer wasn’t enough to arrest a marquis. We could link the swords back to Seldio, but that kind of evidence would be circumstantial at best. I thought we had a good enough case, but the capital demanded evidence that was beyond reasonable doubt before they could start mobilizing the troops. Anything less and any old noble would be able to start a coup whenever they wanted.

Frederick and Colbert inspected the bodies of our intruders—all of them had been drugged to the gills like Hummels and Gordon. Drugs disrupted mental faculties, but they also made individuals more susceptible to magical suggestion, and were effective brainwashing tools. 

“This is…”

Colbert stopped at the fifteenth corpse and tilted his head. He looked closer at the dead man’s face. This was the first of the intruders that Fran defeated.

“Find anything?” Fran asked.

“Does he look familiar to you, Fran?”

“Hm. I killed him.”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” Colbert shook his head. “Of course… This guy’s an adventurer!”

Apparently, the man was a C-Rank. The sword was controlling elite adventurers. Colbert recognized some of the other intruders. Most of them were C-Rank, with a few B-Ranks sprinkled in between. He looked at the mysterious swords that were lodged in their backs.

“What kind of sword is this?” he mused. “Fran, you said that Seldio and his party had similar swords in their backs.”

“Hm. Same swords, actually. Even suppressed magic like these did.”

Frederick frowned. “It had the same kind of mana as the sword that attacked us last night.” He told Colbert about the attack at the hotel and how Gordon had been controlled by a similar sword.

“So you think we’re dealing with a sentient sword that controlled our attackers today?”

“It is likely… The sword we fought at the hotel was half broken, and it looked more like a longsword. It wasn’t lodged in Gordon’s back, though. Gordon handled it like any other sword, but it definitely moved on its own.”

“A sword that could move on its own? I didn’t see any swords flying about today.”

“They aren’t precisely the same, I suppose. The mana coming from these swords is much weaker.”

I sensed Jet returning to the mansion as Colbert and Frederick carried on their conversation. We should be able to track down Velmeria now.

“Jet’s back.”

“Excellent!” Frederick—not Count Bayreeds—immediately exclaimed. He sounded happy to hear that the direwolf had returned. But things weren’t so simple. Jet had returned, but he was bloodied and battered.

“Are you okay, Jet?” Fran asked.

Jet whined weakly. His regeneration was kicking in, but the wounds looked deep. He must have run into our assailants outside. Perhaps they had blocked his way when Velmeria was kidnapped.

Jet’s fighting style used a variety of skills and spells to throw off his opponents. With Dark Magic and his stealth skills sealed by the replica Fanatix, he fought at a heavy disadvantage. Without Shadow Lurk and Shadow Walk to aid his evasion, his combat capabilities were effectively neutered.

Worst of all, the attack had happened in the middle of the day. Jet was Fran’s familiar, and any trouble he caused would be a strike against her. We told him again and again not to go wild on the streets, not to revert to his original size…and Jet kept his promise. He fought the assailants in his shrunken form. It came down to a battle of attrition as he waited for Unleashed Potential to burn out the intruders for him. He could have won the battle easily if he reverted to his original size, and probably could have saved Velmeria while he was at it. But that would’ve caused Fran trouble, and that was the last thing Jet wanted for his master. In the end, he had managed to win and figure out where Velmeria was taken.

Good job, Jet!

“Woof!”

I know you’re tired, but we still need you for a little longer. Are you up to it?

“Can you track down Velmeria, boy?”

Jet barked and pointed at the replica Fanatix with his nose.

Are you saying she’s at the place the sword flew off to?

“Arf!”

“Marquis Aschtner’s mansion?”

Jet barked and nodded. Fran was now fired up and ready to go.

“We’ll get her back!”

But Jet whined and bit her sleeve to stop her. He didn’t want her to go.

“What’s wrong?”

He pointed at the Mad Faith Sword Replica again.

Did you sense more replicas of Fanatix inside the mansion?

“Woof!”

Jet nodded. There were enough replicas in Aschtner’s mansion to make him stop Fran from going in. Count Bayreeds had watched the exchange, and asked Jet, “You’re saying there’s an army of these strange swords in Marquis Aschtner’s mansion?”

“Woof!”

“By the gods…”

Colbert didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation and said, “Well, what are we waiting for? We know where she is, so let’s go and get her!”

He had a point, but Count Bayreeds shook his head. “We lack the firepower.”

“What are you saying?” Colbert shouted. “All of our assailants have been drugged—they can’t control them otherwise. Think of what they could be doing to—”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” the count shouted back.

“Look, you can repurpose the squad that was going to do the Olmes raid!”

“They are in the middle of taking their positions for the raid. I can’t call them off.”

“Fine, then let us go and get her!”

“No. I won’t allow it!”

Count Bayreeds sympathized with Colbert. It must be tearing him apart inside to go against his every paternal instinct.

“May I ask why?” Colbert said.

“Our encounter with the enemy gave me a glimpse of their power. They are not to be made light of.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our safehouse being discovered was only a matter of time. They must have extracted information from our agents somehow. But think about it. Did they really need all this power just to take me out? To kidnap Velmeria? This force is strong enough to turn the capital into a sea of flames—you must have realized that by now. What could they gain from the assassination of a count?”

I wondered if we couldn’t postpone the raid tonight, but the marquis’ squad was made of capable and loyal men who would do as their lord commanded, even if he were dead.

“If anything, their desire to avenge me would overwhelm them. The chain of command wouldn’t break down, either, since I have men with court titles serving under me.”

Even if they postponed the raid, suspicion against Marquis Aschtner would grow stronger. Eventually, the crown would personally arrange an investigation of his house.

“The best our military can do is buy time,” the count said. “But it’ll be close…”

“All right.” Colbert said. “But surely a close fight is still worth fighting.”

“That it is. But have you considered the other possibility?”

“What?”

“That the difference in power isn’t even close.”

Colbert and Frederick looked shocked. They immediately knew what the count was getting at.

“You mean they have forces to spare at the marquis’ mansion?”

“Yes. What else could’ve given the Black Lightning Princess’ familiar a fright? They are not to be trifled with.”

“Dammit!” Colbert cursed under his breath.

How many replicas of the Mad Faith Sword did they have? If Aschtner had figured out a way to mass produce Godswords, we could be looking at dozens, if not hundreds.

“Expert swordsmen who aren’t afraid of death and have the power to suppress magic… That is what we are up against.”

On our side, we had Fran, Colbert, Frederick, Count Bayreeds, and the survivors of the mansion attack. We could get a few dozen extra knights, at best. Meanwhile, a single replica Fanatix was enough to suppress our skills and magic while letting the enemy do whatever they wanted. “Uphill battle” didn’t even begin to describe our situation.

I wondered if the replica Fanatix was involved with the capture of Bayreeds’ men. They were sneaking around when their Stealth and Concealment skills suddenly stopped working. Thinking of it that way, we wouldn’t be able to sneak inside to grab Velmeria, either.

“What the hell are these swords?!” Colbert shouted.

“They’re replicas of the Mad Faith Sword,” Fran said under her breath. She drew the attention of everyone present.

“Do you know something about this?” Count Bayreeds asked. He was trying not to press her, but his voice was impatient.

“I just Identified it. The name was all that came up.”

“Replica…what?”

“Replica of the Mad Faith Sword.”

“They’re forgeries of this Mad Faith Sword?”

“Hm. The Mad Faith Sword was a Godsword that was destroyed in the past. The Mad Faith Sword Fanatix.”

Fran told them everything she’d learned about the sword from Aristea, her genius friend who was into this kind of stuff. We didn’t know the details, but we knew that the sword was deemed dangerous by the Godsmith, one of those weapons made only to be immediately discarded. Her audience listened raptly, mouths agape. It dawned on them that they had fought counterfeits of a long-gone Godsword.

“Replica Godswords… I can’t believe that Aschtner would…”

“Damn, sounds like we’re in for a rough time.”

“Is it possible that the marquis has the real Godsword on hand?”

The Godswords were mythical superweapons. The stories said that they were weapons which killed thousands of soldiers, leveled cities, and cleaved mountains. The myth had turned out to be fact, and a very dangerous fact at that. The horror on their faces was relatable.

Most of all, I appreciated the fact that they believed Fran to be telling the truth. Unfortunately, it was one of those truths which was utterly depressing.

“From what I heard, the Fanatix is supposed to have been destroyed.”

“So there’s a chance that he’s found a way to reproduce it…”

“Never mind that; there’s a chance that he has a whole mansion filled with those things!” Colbert shouted.

We all felt someone approaching the mansion just then. Whoever it was didn’t seem hostile, though. They didn’t even bother concealing their presence.

“E-excuse me! Is anyone there?”

“Th-this is awful…”

“Announce yourself!” Count Bayreeds bellowed. The men announced themselves as guardsmen—technically knights—who were making the rounds. They were very much late to the party, considering this was the noble district of the capital. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones who were ambushed. The nearby guard post had also been attacked, along with several other mansions and commoner houses. The casualty rates were climbing.

The commander of the guardsmen here had died in the attack, and they had to wait until a new commander was established before they could resume their business. The guardsmen then delivered the punchline.

“We saw what looked like Marquis Aschtner’s men attacking the noble district!”

“What?!”

One of the guardsmen blurted out, “They had these weird swords in their backs, and they were absurdly strong.”

“He’s already initiated!” Bayreeds shouted with frustration. Marquis Aschtner had begun the assault before the city knights could mobilize. Did he realize that he had run out of options after failing to assassinate Bayreeds?

The guardsmen gave us an account of the damage when we heard another explosion. Make that explosions, actually. The attack was still going on.

“Do you think it’s those fanatic soldiers again?” Bayreeds asked.

“In all likelihood, yes,” Colbert nodded.

Their faces stiffened as they pictured the deaths happening outside. Frederick, on the other hand, remained calm. He was thinking of something else.

“It sounds like Marquis Aschtner is overextending himself. If we mobilize the knights now, we might be able to rescue Velmeria,” Frederick said. He was still focused on Velmeria’s safety, but his proposal made sense. If the troops that were supposed to be posted in the Aschtner mansion were mobilized to wreak havoc in the city, the mansion would be much easier to penetrate.

The worried look on the count’s face remained as he shook his head. “We can’t do that.”

“Why?!”

“Because it is precisely in these situations that I must act as a knight commander. I cannot mobilize the knights solely to save my daughter!” the count shouted shakily. All he wanted to do as a parent was rescue his beloved daughter, but he was a knight commander before he was a father, and he bore all the responsibilities of the title.

“I cannot allow it…”

He balled up his hand into a fist and gripped it tightly until he squeezed blood out of his own palm. No one could blame him for looking like that. The knights weren’t his private army. They were swords and shields which protected the people, and right now, the people needed defending.

Still, Frederick wasn’t satisfied with the verdict. I saw myself in him. He was the kind of person who would abandon a whole city in order to save a person who mattered most to him. I had Fran, he had Velmeria. Frederick wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing, even if it might cost him later. But Bayreeds knew his man well.

“I can’t dispatch the knights. Among my people, you and Colbert are the only ones I have left.”

Frederick paused. “Say the word and I will rescue Velmeria. Whatever it takes.”

“Hold on,” the count said. “I can’t mobilize the knights, but there are other ways to bolster our forces.”

Now that he had prevented Frederick from rushing headlong into enemy territory, the count turned his attention to Colbert.

“Colbert, I want you to contact the Adventurers’ Guild. Tell Erianthe that I’m hiring fighters. Price is no object—quote me a number and I’ll pay it.”

“I see,” Colbert said. “So you’re turning to adventurers for help.”

“That I am. I’ll take anyone as long as they’re strong enough to fight. No hiring limit. I don’t mind paying double or triple the market price, either. Some of them will go with you to the mansion. The rest will assist the knights in defeating the fanatic soldiers in the city.”

Double or triple the market price, he’d said. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t have minded paying quadruple the price if that’s what they quoted. The count was so generous that even Colbert was impressed. Information might leak because of how talkative adventurers were, but Count Bayreeds was more worried about getting the best fighters possible at the moment.

“Wait, no hiring limit? What if several hundred people sign up for the job?”

“Then several hundred people will get hired today. It’s not like they’ll sit around and do nothing. The more firepower we have, the better,” Bayreeds said. “Besides, it’ll be a small price to pay to ensure the safety of my daughter.”

“All right,” Colbert said. “We’ll head to the guild.”

“Frederick, you go ahead of us and survey the situation at the Aschtner estate.”

“Sir!”

“The city patrol should be surrounding it by now if anything has happened. You can use my name to take command of them.”

“Very well.”

Finally, the count looked over at us. “And Fran…” he started. The noble was prepared to beg.

“I’ll help Frederick and the others. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you.” The count bowed his head. This was the only thing he could do at this point. The irony of his office as knight commander was that he was unable to organize a rescue operation for his own daughter. Fran and the others were his last hope.

“First, the Adventurers’ Guild,” Fran said.

“Let’s hop to it!”

Fran and Colbert made their way to the guild after Frederick rushed away to the estate. The streets resounded with screams of pain and anguish. Every inch of the noble district was beset by flames. Along the way, we came across the lunatic soldiers with swords in their backs. They didn’t give us much trouble, but there were so many of them. We felt the demon sword’s presence all around us, and we didn’t have time to defeat them all. Fran understood this fact, but leaving people to die caused her no small amount of distress. Her face stiffened and her mood worsened. She felt bad for not doing anything when she knew she could.

“It’ll take too long if we beat every enemy we see,” Colbert said.

Fran was silent, and then said, “I know.”

Colbert sensed the growing stress cloud hovering over Fran, and he started talking to her to help alleviate her mood.

“So,” he started. “What’d you do after the tournament?”

“I visited Chrome,” she said. “Beastman Nation.”

“Really? Did you hitch a ride on a boat as nautical security? I did that a couple times.”

Nautical security guards were not allowed to leave port, and they were to leave on the boat they were guarding as soon as it disembarked again.

“Don’t really know much about the place because of that.”

“I went to the Black Cat village when I was there.”

“Ooh, did you visit the capital, too?”

“Hm.”

“Wow! What was it like? Was the food good? What about the sights?”

“A lot happened when I was there.”

Fran proceeded to tell Colbert about the sights and tastes of the Beastman Nation; he had seemed interested, after all. There was a lot she left out, but fortunately Colbert kept to surface-level conversation. He liked cooking, and was very interested in the dishes of the Beastman Nation. Fran gave him a few beastman recipes and he was over the moon. Colbert was also moved by the sights that Fran saw while on Jet’s back.

“That’s amazing,” he said. “Great food, amazing sights. I’d love to take a trip to the Beastman Nation one day. It’s got travel and adventure written all over it!”

“Hm!”

Fran and Colbert had first met in Bulbola, and the two got along better than most people would think. They were on the same wavelength, were very close in terms of mental age, and were moved by the same things.

With the stories of her trip to the Beastman Nation concluded, it was Fran’s turn to ask Colbert questions. I had a really good one I wanted to ask him, but I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate. It was a very delicate matter, you see.

“So did you get expelled?” Fran asked, with the bluntness of a good friend.

Colbert groaned. He knew the question was coming, and he knew Fran wouldn’t mince words about it. Colbert had belonged to a school called Dimitris Combat School. To become a legitimate user of Dimitris Combat, students had to go through an initiation ritual where they would achieve the status of an A-Rank adventurer while wearing special manatech to suppress their powers. I didn’t know the details, but it sure sounded tough. Becoming an A-Rank was no easy feat, and you basically had to get there with one hand tied behind your back.

There were provisions for times of emergency where you had to either save another life or your own, but undoing the manatech seal purely for personal gain was grounds for expulsion. Colbert had broken the seal during a fighting tournament to beat Fran. If that didn’t count as personal gain, I don’t know what would.

“So?”

Colbert muttered something under his breath.

“Hm?”

“I got kicked out, okay?!”

He confirmed our suspicions. His cheerful mood immediately gave way to gloom as he slumped his shoulders. I thought I saw a tear in his eye, too.

“I was ready for it,” he started. “But I still can’t believe they expelled me…”

“So what happens when you’re expelled?”

“Well, I can’t use Dimitris Combat Arts anymore.”

Fran looked puzzled, “How does that work?”

Surely expulsion couldn’t nullify all your training. Even if you weren’t a legitimate user of Dimitris Combat, you should still have the skills associated with it. Couldn’t Colbert just increase the levels of his skills the old-fashioned way?

But then I cast Identify on him, and Dimitris Combat Arts was no longer in his skill list. Had it been sealed away somehow? Maybe Colbert’s master forced him to wear manatech which would seal the skill away.

“As the first combat school recognized by the gods, there is a special skill passed on only to the masters of the Dimitris School. It’s called Tradition Lost. Only a handful of people in the world can use it.”

“Tradition Lost? What does it do?”

“The skill only has one effect: It erases the combat skills of a student belonging to that particular school. Tradition Lost of the Dimitris School would erase all skills related to the Dimitris School.”

“And you got hit with that?”

“Of course. I got expelled, after all.”

I guess expulsion in this other world literally revoked your skills.

“So you’re weaker now?”

“Yeah. My stats are higher than they were before, since I don’t have the seal on me anymore, but the skills…”

The reason why Colbert couldn’t use the Dimitris Combat Arts when he fought the fanatics wasn’t because they suppressed his mana. He no longer had the skills to do it with.

“I don’t have any intention of joining the other schools, so I’ll just have to get stronger by honing Advanced Punch Mastery and Arts.”

“You can do it.”

“Thanks.”

Colbert smiled at Fran’s attempt to cheer him up. For a moment, I thought he would’ve resented her. He was still to blame for undoing the seal out of turn, during his duel with Fran. It was human of him to shift the blame, but he was divine for accepting it. He didn’t bear the slightest grudge against Fran; his smile came from the heart.

“Just you wait. I’ll get strong enough to beat you one day.”

“Hm. Can’t wait.”

Colbert chuckled. “Neither can I.”

We reached the guild by the end of the conversation. Adventurers were all over the place when we entered the building. They were trying to gather what information they could about the riots going on outside. Fran and Colbert pushed through the crowd to get to the counter. They got yelled at sometimes, but these protests went unheeded. Anyone who tried to grab or strike them was immediately silenced with a potent dose of killing intent. Some of them would’ve fallen to the floor if Colbert hadn’t straightened them up.

We made it to the counter where Stellia was driving away adventurers. The guild had yet to figure out what was going on.

Fran greeted her. “Stellia.”

“If it isn’t Black Lightning and Steelclaw,” Stellia said. “Something must be up if the two of you are together.”

“We need to talk to the Guildmaster. Is she in? It’s an emergency,” Colbert said.

“Oh, she’s in. Whether she’ll actually talk to you is a different story,” Stellia said, casting her gaze at Fran. “She’s in her office. You know where it is, right?”

“We can just walk in there unannounced?” Colbert said.

“No; she’d turn you away if she knew you were coming. But you said it’s an emergency, right?”

“Hm.”

“Then you should go right in and see her. But she’s more than a little prickly at the moment, so try to go easy on her.”

“Prickly? Because of what’s going on outside?”

“Of course, you idiot! Now, look—if you piss her off, she’ll take it out on you and the rest of us at the guild! I know it’s hard for you, but for once in your life, you’ll have to play this smart, got it?”

“Got it,” Colbert stammered.

Erianthe was not in the mood to see anyone because of an excess of paperwork. I didn’t think the mountain of forms she had when we last visited her could’ve gotten any higher, but apparently it had. Stellia let us through to the Guildmaster’s office, and we saw Erianthe groaning, surrounded by paperwork. The light was gone from her eyes.

Seeing her like that reminded me of my days as an office drone. Once, I was working overtime and missed the last train home, working on documents which I thought were from this fiscal year. They weren’t. The documents I worked on were from the previous fiscal year, and in my despair back then I looked just like Erianthe did now: dead-eyed as a gutted fish.

“Huh?” Erianthe stirred. “Who’s there?”

“Guildmaster?” Colbert said. “You feeling okay?”

“Colbert? What do you want? I don’t have time for chit-chat, as you can see.”

I never thought such dull eyes could be so intimidating. I got flashbacks to the sky isle, to the lich’s hollow eye sockets.

“We, uh, need to talk to you about something,” Colbert shifted around. “And Fran here’s gonna tell you all about it! Isn’t that right, Fran?”

And the wimp passed the buck to Fran!

“Fran…?”

“Hm.”

Erianthe looked at Fran. Her expression changed in an instant. Her eyes went wide and she bolted up from her chair.

“Fran…! Fraaaaaaaan! I asked you specifically not to cause trouble!” Erianthe screamed, banging her hands on the table. Her eyes were bloodshot. I was terrified.

But Fran didn’t know what she was talking about. “Hm?”

“Look at all this! The city’s a mess!” Erianthe fell to her knees and sobbed. She was most definitely not in a stable place at the moment. Still, I sympathized with her. I’d been there once, too. If only tears could make the paperwork go away.

Fran only tilted her head. She still didn’t know what the Guildmaster was yelling about. “But I didn’t cause any trouble,” she protested.

Yeah, not technically.

We got involved in the trouble, but we weren’t the cause of it. Erianthe only knew that Fran was at the scene of the trouble.

“First of all, there’s the underpass! I know something happened there! So many people were injured!”

“Hm,” Fran nodded. “I was attacked at the underpass.”

“See! I knew you were involved! All right, what about the inn you were staying at? There was an explosion and it caught fire! What happened there?”

“I was attacked there, too. By the same people who attacked me at the underpass.”

“Hah!” Erianthe pointed her finger at Fran. “I knew it! You were involved there, as well!”

Fran was indeed involved, but she was the victim and not the perpetrator. It wasn’t like she wanted to be attacked.

“And what happened at the park in the noble district? A bunch of trees were uprooted and torn apart. Were you there, too?”

“Hm. I was attacked.”

“Every! Time! Why do you keep getting attacked?! Those three cases have quadrupled my workload!”

Well, that wasn’t fair. Fran couldn’t tell Erianthe why she had a knack for getting attacked, even if she wanted to. But the Guildmaster wasn’t in a state of mind where she could make rational connections. People caught in the paper quagmire of office work rarely could. At this point, she was just venting her anger at anyone who happened to be there.

“A ton of emergency quests have gone up. So have baseless accusations against adventurers and the guild. Why are we getting caught up in this mess when we have nothing to do with it? So what if there’s rioting on the streets? Report that to the knight brigade; it’s their job!”

Erianthe held her head in her hands, having somewhat recovered from her outburst. Despite all her complaints against us, I really did feel sorry for her.

“Erianthe…”

Erianthe plugged her ears and started singing, “I’m! Not! Listening!”

“But you need to listen to me.”

“Fine! If the Black Lightning Princess, the walking mischief magnet, has something to say, then say it!”

“I was attacked in the noble district.”

“Again!” Erianthe scoffed. “You keep getting attacked! Why?!”

Tears were streaming from her eyes now. The thought of future paperwork had broken her. I was just worried that her tears might stain her papers.

Colbert spoke up, sensing that the conversation was going nowhere. “Yeah, we got a lot of casualties because of that. The guy I’m working for is currently looking to hire adventurers to bolster his numbers.”

“Was it that bad?”

“Yeah. You see…”

Colbert gave Erianthe the details of what went down. She immediately stabilized and listened intently. The Guildmaster snapped out of her nervous breakdown as quickly as she’d entered it.

“So,” she said, “Aschtner attacked Count Bayreeds’ villa and kidnapped his daughter, and now he wants to get her back?”

“That’s the plan. We’re going to need backup if we want to raid the marquis’ mansion, though.”

Colbert appealed to Erianthe, and told her about the price the count was willing to pay.

“I know you have a grudge against Marquis Aschtner. He’s an absolute bastard who doesn’t think twice about using adventurers as mere tools. He stiffed me out of my payday once, too.”

“Of course I do! We’ve lost so many good adventurers because of him… But now that Seldio Lesseps has the reputation of being rotten to the core, it looks like Aschtner’s time is finally up.”

Erianthe flashed a dark grin. She might be fantasizing of all the things she would do to the marquis once he was in custody.

“Damn right,” Colbert said. “Here’s the count’s quest bulletin. How about it?”

“I don’t mind,” Erianthe mused. “But how many do you think will sign up for this? You can offer adventurers all the money in the world, but it’s not gonna be worth much if they end up dead. It’s going to be hard to get people on board when they know they’re going up against a dangerous enemy.”

“I know that. I’m an adventurer, too. That’s why the price is so high.” Colbert paused and motioned at Fran. “Fran, if you will?”

“Hm.”

Fran produced the bodies of the swordsmen from the attack at the count’s villa. These were the people we suspected to be adventurers. Erianthe knew them at first sight.

“The missing adventurers!”

“They were with the intruders.”

“Aschtner’s figured out a way to brainwash people. Count Bayreeds’ men were among the people who attacked us, too.”

“Tell me everything.” Erianthe cupped her chin. “About these swords, and what we’re up against.”

The Guildmaster was finally listening. Earlier, Colbert had arranged for us to present the bodies of the dead adventurers. He knew the guild wouldn’t stand by after seeing some of their own captured and enslaved. Some might take the quest to avenge their fallen friends.

Erianthe looked furious by the time Colbert finished debriefing her. “Very well then,” she said. “We’ll show Aschtner who he’s messing with!”

She burned with passion and got off the chair.

“I’ll meet you in the lobby—aaaaaaah!”

 Her zeal became her downfall as Mount Paperwork collapsed around her.

“Come on!” she complained. My first impression of her as a calm and collected Guildmaster was completely gone by this point.