Ch.11The Sword King (1)

Just as the monster’s claws were about to pierce my heart.

“Wolf’s Breath Form 1 – Flash Step.”

Miss Hoshino landed swiftly behind me with wolf-like movements.

She had already sliced through the stone monster that had been right in front of me with a single stroke.

“Phew…!”

I watched as the headless body crumbled slowly like a statue that had reached the end of its life.

Fortunately, even the claws that had touched my body only pierced my Zhangbao doll, with just some stuffing poking out.

It had been an unexpected monster ambush, but it seemed we’d gotten through it without major injuries.

“Thank you, Miss. Thanks to you, nothing serious happened.”

“Huff… huff…!”

The monster had vanished.

The situation was over.

Thinking this, I tried to express my gratitude to Miss Hoshino who had saved my life.

But she was breathing unusually hard.

“Miss Hoshino?”

Is she tired?

Well, she’s still young.

Showing such impressive movements twice in one day with an elementary school-aged body—it would be stranger if she weren’t affected.

…But isn’t this a bit excessive?

“Miss, are you alright?”

She was continuously sweating cold beads down to the back of her neck, her breathing too rough to just be from exhaustion.

Wondering what was happening, I started walking toward her.

But at that moment.

Thud!

“Ugh?!”

Miss Hoshino pushed me away.

When I looked up at her face, it was covered with sweat and an expression soaked in terror.

“J-Janghun… R-Run away!”

***

Just before the stone monster pounced on Janghun.

‘Drawing my sword now would be too late!’

Hoshino, who could only use Form 1 of the Wolf’s Breath swordsmanship.

From her perspective, the current situation was beyond what she could handle at her level.

By the time she turned around, the headless stone monster was about to fall on Janghun’s head.

If she took a stance to draw her sword, by then her only friend—

The first “boy” she’d ever met would already be dead.

‘What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?’

They say people see their life flash before their eyes when they’re about to die.

In that moment when time seemed to slow to a crawl, Hoshino experienced it not for her own death, but for the death of someone precious to her.

And in that stretched time, she thought continuously.

A way to save Janghun who was right in front of her.

A way to definitively finish off that stone monster.

Not a method of steadily improving her limits, but something that could suddenly increase them.

There was only one.

A contract.

‘…!’

In that moment, the unsettling voice she always heard when she felt weak.

A mysterious sound she usually ignored because it made her uncomfortable.

But…

This time was different.

I’ll heighten your potential abilities.

In exchange.

Give me your body.

The price for saving Janghun.

That price was none other than her own body.

No way.

That’s absurd.

How could she rashly lend her body to this unknown entity whose identity she couldn’t even verify?

But.

Crunch.

“?!”

The vision shown by that voice.

Kang Janghun, literally crushed by the stone monster, his bones and organs scattered everywhere, turned into a horrific pancake.

Seeing this happen to the boy who had been laughing and enjoying the festival with her just moments ago.

“I’ll give it.”

…!

“I’ll give it to you, so save Janghun.”

Hoshino, having lost her reason, ended up taking the devil’s hand.

***

“Miss Hoshino?”

“Stay… away from me!”

After defeating the stone monster as per the contract and successfully saving Kang Janghun.

Hoshino’s mind was gradually being colored by the voice that had tormented her since childhood.

A monster whose physical form had been sealed and whose infamy had long been forgotten, but whose soul had escaped just before being sealed and was waiting for the right moment to revive.

She was slowly being taken over by the “Sword Monster.”

“Ugh, ugh… AAAAARGH!”

“Miss!”

The Sword Monster, who had been dreaming of complete manifestation for hundreds of years, searching for a vessel to be reborn in the body of the Okami family.

As it finally took over most of Hoshino’s body and roared toward the sky, monster alert sirens immediately began to sound in the area.

Despite the festival atmosphere.

By now, D City must have detected this tremendous power and issued emergency measures.

The monster’s energy flowing from Hoshino’s body was at least Grade 1 or higher.

The Sword Monster, who from the moment of possession could already devastate an entire metropolitan city:

“Thank your master.”

“…What?”

“I keep my promises. That’s why I’m sparing you.”

Leaving Kang Janghun sitting on the ground, it leaped high into the sky toward the Okami family estate.

It was flying straight toward the sword of the founding head that had sealed the rest of its power during the extinction ceremony.

Somewhere along the way, when it reached the mountainside where the estate was located:

“Stop… Huh? Princess Hoshino?”

“Princess, what is this…”

It encountered a few heroes active in D City.

Slash.

“Urgh?!”

“Gah!”

They all let their guard down the moment they saw it was the Okami family’s only princess, Hoshino, and as a result, they were easily dispatched and passed through.

“Hahaha! The body’s owner is still strangely resisting so I couldn’t kill them, but that will end soon once I obtain the sword imbued with my power!”

The Sword Monster, having almost completely taken over Hoshino’s body, finally set foot in the Okami household—the home of the bloodline that had brought it shame, where the founding head’s sword was enshrined on an altar.

Shing.

And immediately.

“Wolf’s Breath Form 1…”

“!!”

“Flash Step.”

For a moment, it felt as if its head was falling off.

Clang!

“Ugh?!”

The Okami estate, having somewhat grasped the situation.

Inside, all the servants had already evacuated, and only one person remained.

Makoto, Hoshino’s mother and the current head of the family.

“Monster who has entered my daughter’s body, who exactly are you?”

“Oh?”

That look in her eyes, deliberately not killing it outright to gain the upper hand.

That attitude of showing mercy while fighting with a sword against itself, the “Sword Monster”—it already brought back unpleasant memories from the past.

In the past, the fox spirit who had challenged it had acted just as arrogantly as the person before its eyes now.

Those ungrateful descendants who looked down on it, the pinnacle of power, mere humans who eventually managed to defeat it.

But that long, bitter relationship would end today.

“Who am I, you ask?”

“…?”

“You people should know better than anyone.”

“What?”

Hoshino’s body produced an eerie voice that didn’t match her appearance.

Then she stretched out one hand forward.

Immediately, the founding head’s sword that had been kept on the altar flew toward her.

“Could it be…?”

The moment Hoshino drew that ancient sword.

Her body was instantly surrounded by dark energy, disappearing behind armor larger than her own body.

What appeared before Head Makoto was a giant with countless sword hilts at its waist.

A bizarre form with only a mouth for a face, covered by a hood, like something out of a book.

“I have returned.”

The Sword Monster from the Okami family legends had finally revived.

“Hoshino!”

“Do not worry. This child is still alive.”

“What… what have you done to my daughter?”

“‘Possession.’ Well, now that I’ve fully regained my body, I could discard her anytime, but…”

This, this creature.

How dare it touch my daughter without valuing its own life?

Moreover, the fact that it had possessed Hoshino’s body somehow meant it must have also met Janghun, who had been with her before.

Grind.

I was careless.

I don’t know why at this timing, but I never expected the Sword Monster to still exist.

If I had better understood the scale of the seal, I could have prevented this beforehand—Head Makoto regretted her past negligence.

Even so, she pointed her sword at the King of Swords before her.

“Oh? Do you intend to duel with me?”

“I caught a glimpse of my daughter being absorbed into that belly of yours. That means if I just pierce that stomach, I can save Hoshino again.”

“That’s correct… but after hundreds of years, your wolf’s blood must be infinitely diluted compared to the founder’s. Even so, you dare challenge me?”

“Of course.”

Even if it were a pit of fire where painful death was certain.

If my child fell into it, a mother’s instinct is to jump right in and try to save at least the child somehow.

“Give me back my daughter, monster.”

Thus began a confrontation in a realm that even Hoshino, who became an S-class hero in the original work, never reached.

“Wolf’s Breath Secret Technique.”

“…!”

“Form 8.”

Head Makoto, enveloped in the wolf’s white energy from her drawing stance, literally became a “flash of light” illuminating the night sky like a star.

“Stern Father, Loving Mother.”

This was more than expected.

The exact same technique used by the Okami family’s founding head who had defeated it in the past.

The armor on its stomach was deeply gouged, and this time the Sword Monster should have been completely annihilated.

Grin.

“Wolf’s Breath Secret Technique.”

“…What?”

“Form 8.”

Thanks to possessing Hoshino’s body, it had seen the Okami family’s secret texts in her memories.

If it hadn’t learned this “beautiful swordsmanship” itself, that is.

“Stern Father, Loving Mother.”

“?!”

Slash—