episode_0022

My mind felt light. It was as if the place enveloped in fog had vanished. The suffocating feeling in my heart suddenly cleared.

[Master, are you alright?]

Beside me, a gray puppy was asking after my well-being. Because I had been throwing up black matter and collapsed.

“Haaah…”

I sighed and stood up from where I was. Looking beside me, all the liquid in the plain bottle, which had been full of yellow liquid, was gone.

‘Well… the pain was brief…’

All my internal organs had twisted. I could feel every single brain cell spreading within my head in detail. However, there was only one thing I thought of. Just to regain my senses.

‘If I lose consciousness, I’ll be devoured by the Nectar and die…!’

I endured with this thought, and as a result, I seemed to have broken through a limit.

‘Heart Sword.’

With a new sensation, I summoned a sword and swung it around. The sword’s appearance seemed completely unchanged, and I simply pointed it at the debris nearby without exerting any force.

Silence.

The debris, which should have shattered, just remained still.

‘No way… Did I fail and only lose my mental strength…?’

Though clarity filled my brain and I had been certain, seeing such a phenomenon made me a little uneasy, so I opened the Status Window.

Longinus Rapier Strength: 10 Magic Power: 100 Agility: 10 $%%: 1

‘Just as I expected… The mental strength aspect has surpassed its limits… Is this how it changed because it can’t dare to display their names…’

[The System is astonished.] [It asks what happened while it was being punished.]

“Punishment…?”

[The System corrects itself.] [It says it just came back from sleeping.]

The System’s words were annoying, but I simply explained it to it.

[The System collapses.] [The System dares to, its own, Fr… No, this isn’t it…]

‘?’

[The System tells you to forget the previous message.] [It asks what you dared to do to the Status Window.]

“Well, I made this choice to kill enemies and to survive. What’s wrong with that?”

[The System says the world’s clock has turned back.] [It claims it wasn’t its original role.]

“If the clock turned back, you just have to surrender to the flow of time, what’s the big deal?”

[It claims it received too much attention too early.] [Until now…..]

‘Until now…?’

[The System realizes its slips of the tongue and shuts its mouth.]

“Hmm… I just wanted to look at the Status Window, but it seems I’ve learned quite a lot…” At the same time, I gathered my fingers and applied a little force to synthesize those clues.

Crash!

Then, the debris where the sword had been shattered cleanly. The cross-sections looked as if a master swordsman had cut them very cleanly with a sword, so I couldn’t help but be surprised.

The Heart Sword, which had just been embedded in the debris, had now moved almost as if it teleported in front of me.

Curiosity about the new Heart Sword. That made me bold.

I moved the sword to pierce through the body of the dog in front of me, and nothing happened.

“Hey, um… what should I call you… Right… Brownie…” [It’s a bit rustic for a werewolf species… but… alright.]

“Do you feel anything?” [What?]

I pulled the Heart Sword out of Brownie’s body. After that, I retrieved the Heart Sword again.

‘Heart Sword.’

This time, instead of giving it no power, I summoned it using a certain amount of power.

Boom! An immense noise. A different durability and strength than the Heart Sword that disappeared and reappeared, and different from the previous Heart Sword, unfolded before my eyes.

‘Can I use a sword like a time bomb…? I don’t know what use this will have, but…’

Ting ting ting… As I moved forward with my light body, guided by the new Heart Sword, I saw the Heart Sword being blocked by something.

‘A door…? Right, this door treats even the Heart Sword as magic… Wait a moment…’ The door to what used to be Brownie’s comfortable resting place, now slumped over my shoulder, was still there and could still block magic.

‘Heart Sword.’

I summoned the second sword, that blurry sword, and sent it there.

Smoothness. A smoothness as if merely passing through empty space. That feeling was transmitted to my hand.

‘Is it not recognized as magic until it manifests a form…? It might be quite useful…’ I retrieved both swords. Because when I expanded my magic power a little, I sensed Savior and the Grim Reaper in the distance.

‘The Heart Sword… has become even faster and stronger… Unlike before, when it was tied to the name ‘mental strength’… And a new form has even appeared… I hope it will be a great help in the fight against them…’

[Skill] Heart Sword Lv.5 [Unique] -The Heart Sword was also their weapon… The only difference between them and humans is whether they can see with their hearts or not… -The number of swords that can be created and transformed changes with level. You can also store and use #$@. -Current number of swords that can be created: 5 -Number of swords that can be transformed: 5 -Stored #$@: 1 -You can create Formless Swords. Formless Swords are not treated as any form of attack. The existence of this sword can only be perceived by the user. It is created by consuming the current number of swords that can be created.

The level and the number of swords that could be created hadn’t changed, but perhaps because the tier of my mental strength had risen, the description of this skill and the Formless Sword were clearly stated.

“Rapier!!!” Savior came running as soon as she saw me in the distance. As if she had found someone on a deserted island. She must have had a hard time while I was gone. However, I greeted her, thinking it was cheap compared to the condemnation she gave me when we first met.

“Ah, Savior, you found your way well.” “Let me go! Let me go! How dare you think you can hold this Grim Reaper-nim!” The Grim Reaper, hanging from Savior’s shoulder, struggled to escape from her embrace.

I looked alternately at the Grim Reaper and Savior, and Savior, with a bright expression, shrugged and said, “I couldn’t help it… She’s just been like this since she woke up… Please understand if she’s noisy…” “That’s right… it can’t be helped…” I slowly stood up from that spot and picked up the staff beside me.

“Rapier… can you walk…?” Seeing me limp slightly, Savior looked at me with a worried expression. She also seemed vaguely aware that I had fought the Vampire Queen. That overwhelming being. That overwhelming being suddenly disappeared along with me, and then only I reappeared. If so, there was only one answer that came from within her.

“Th… thank you… Rapier…” “Ah, yes. Me too…” -Savior [Current Status: Affection 10/100]

I frowned slightly.

“Thank youuuuu… for managing the Grim Reaper.”

***

‘Why… isn’t he coming…?’ Worry. All sorts of worries echoed in Aris’s mind. Aris had vaguely seen Rapier quietly leave in the middle of the night while half-asleep, and when she fully woke up, he was gone. Leaving the academy at night was forbidden, so at first, she thought he had just gone for a walk and would return. So she waited for him. But he didn’t come for a while.

Tossing and turning. And then more tossing and turning. Eventually, she had no choice but to get up from the bed for a moment.

‘Rapier… where did you go again…’ Aris couldn’t stay still, so she quietly opened the door. There was nothing there but silence. Darkness, and candles scattered within it. Only those greeted Aris. The person Aris wished to see. That person was not visible in the hallway.

‘…..When will he come…?’

Footsteps. As she was about to return to her room, footsteps echoed in the hallway. Tap tap tap Along with the sound of a staff.

“Ra…!” Rapier’s figure. His figure, whom she had been waiting for, was illuminated by the torch. Aris called his name. No, More precisely, she *tried* to call it.

“Today was quite a good experience.” Until the torch illuminated Savior. She, with hair the color of a torch, had a face beautiful enough for Aris to behold.

“Don’t mention it. I’ll call on you again next time.” A gentle smile. It was the same kind of smile that had comforted Aris, a smile she had seen in the forest and at the festival. The only difference was that its target wasn’t Aris.

Tap tap tap Savior went to the opposite side, back to her dormitory, and Aris, noticing this, quickly returned to her bed and lay down. The tapping sounds grew closer, and the door to the dormitory where the two lived opened.

Rapier went to his bed to change clothes but seemed to notice something and looked towards Aris’s bed. After tilting his head for a moment, he seemed to be clearing something from the air. With a very annoyed expression. Rapier, with tired eyes, lay in bed after changing his clothes. Just before falling asleep, he seemed to be clearing something from the air again before finally drifting off. Eventually, Aris was the only one awake in the room. And she was feeling something, an emotion she had never felt before.