Ch.127127. Leap and Preparation (4)

When had I truly felt death? Was it when I was isolated in a cave and faced an intelligent monster for the first time? When I first underwent the crown’s trial? When I broke through my limits and confronted the giant? Or perhaps when I faced the endlessly repeating scenery in the fog? No, back then I didn’t even have time to contemplate my own death.

“Relax. It’s not like you’re really going to die.”

Right now, I’m closer to death than ever before. I was kneeling in a formal position, and right in front of me, Holy Sword was calmly drawing her blade, pointing it at the crown of my head. Though she wasn’t moving at all or emitting any killing intent, I felt as if that sharpness would split my skull and slice my spinal cord in half.

“…Why this method?”

“As you know, you tend to grow significantly only after experiencing things firsthand. Like when you opened the second stage. Learning through physical confrontation has always been your most efficient method.”

Holy Sword said this so casually. It hardly seemed like appropriate pre-execution talk.

“This might not be something I should say to you, but swordsmanship is learned by being cut. How someone cut you, how deeply your skin was sliced, what the sensation of the blade cutting through your body felt like. You develop your own sword by recalling those experiences.”

Bitter words. The blade of Holy Sword’s sword didn’t move an inch as she spoke them. A cold sweat trickled down my spine. Looking at her, I could feel she had perfect control over her body. No matter what thoughts she had or words she spoke, they didn’t manifest in her physical form. Her body simply moved and fixed itself according to her mind’s commands.

“I didn’t want you to experience this… but if you must go through it, I thought it would be better if I did it. At least here, your body won’t be physically wounded.”

Holy Sword shook her head. Her snow-white hair swayed from side to side. Then she slowly raised her sword upward. Even that movement followed the path of the sword. I raised my head following the tip of her sword and met her red eyes. They were looking at me warmly.

“Don’t avert your eyes, Ilroy. Watch and feel everything that happens to you until the end.”

Before I could respond, Holy Sword swung her sword down. The strike that had seemed so slow when cutting the star passed through me in an instant.

So this is what being cut feels like. From top to bottom. Side to side. My existence torn apart and collapsing. I mustn’t get lost in that sensation. I barely held onto the fading edges of my consciousness and forced air into my lungs. I needed to clearly imprint what was happening.

What will that sword carried, what it was looking at, how far it could reach.

Crack.

With the feeling of something breaking, everything went dark. Without any sensation of falling, I was already swimming at the bottom of consciousness.

“Cough, cough!”

I was sprawled ungracefully on the ground. Bile leaked from my mouth, my left hand pressed against the floor, and my right hand stretched out as if begging for help. Was I not cut? Wasn’t I? My entire body was trembling. My body wasn’t properly taking in oxygen. I forcibly flipped onto my back and shoved air into my windpipe.

“How was it?”

Holy Sword was sitting in front of me. I couldn’t even give her an answer with that expression. Had I died and come back to life, or was this the afterlife? I couldn’t even feel the sensation of the sword cutting me. Holy Sword waited until I collected myself.

“That is the death of the world. What did you feel?”

I wiped my chin with the back of my hand and sat down facing Holy Sword.

“…The thought that I’ve been taking this too lightly.”

Why can a star be cut? I looked at the sword Holy Sword had stuck in the ground. Had the blade ever looked this large before? I sighed.

“Cutting a star shouldn’t be difficult.”

Holy Sword’s hand rested on the crown of my head. I flinched but accepted her touch. She ruffled my hair as if I were a dog, then neatly arranged my disheveled locks. It was strangely calming. Then she held both my cheeks.

“Now, stand up, Ilroy. Take your sword and go the path you must follow.”

I gripped the sword. The sensation of being cut was deeply engraved in my bones. I would never forget it. The sword. The sword engraved in my body. My hand holding the sword trembled. Heavy. And cold. The vibration transmitted to the hilt from the tip dragging on the ground. All those sensations were unfamiliar.

“The sword feels strange.”

“Because you’ve seen a new possibility. Also because you’ve seen the path you must take.”

Holy Sword corrected my awkward posture. My body was overflowing with strength. The trembling in my arms was purely a matter of my mind. Soon the trembling stopped. I seemed to have glimpsed the path. I needed to walk that way.

“I don’t expect you to succeed again in one try. There’s no guarantee of success even after a million attempts.”

That’s what cutting the world is like.

Holy Sword said this with a gentle smile.

“Think about it. Even if you hit a wall, keep pushing against it. If you can’t overcome the wall, don’t despair—destroy it. Though time is short, I believe you can do it.”

A scarecrow appeared. This time, the standing figure looked different to me. The compulsion to cut it disappeared from my mind. Swinging comes first. Cutting it can come after I gain confidence.

“…So that’s how you’re starting.”

“Yes. Because my target isn’t the scarecrow.”

The smile on Holy Sword’s face deepened. She raised her hand to pat my head approvingly, but when her arm couldn’t quite reach, she patted my shoulder instead.

“From now on, I’ll leave this entirely to you. Even my waiting here might be a distraction. When you think it’s time to cut that scarecrow, I’ll come back for you.”

Holy Sword’s voice grew distant. Her presence behind me gradually faded, disappearing like a ship’s horn crossing the horizon. And then, I was completely alone. A pure white mental space filled with silence. Nothing could be heard except my heartbeat and breathing. Only I and that scarecrow existed.

“I’m not trying to cut you.”

Like a man using a volleyball as a companion on a deserted island, I spoke to the scarecrow. There was nothing on the path of my sword. The tip of my sword wasn’t aimed at anything. In a basic stance, I raised my sword while inhaling, then pushed it down while exhaling. The slow sword strike cut nothing.

“Good.”

And so, like someone holding a sword for the first time, or someone picking up a sword again after a very long time, I continued my movements slowly. What is a sword, and why do I swing it?

“I’ll figure it out again from now on.”

Sweat flowed. It ran down my spine. That’s because I placed meaning in each swing. After each strike, I paused. Raise the sword, lower it, then think again. When the thought was complete, I raised the sword again. It was that repetition. The time it took for each swing didn’t change. What needed to change wasn’t the number of swings, but the mindset of the one swinging the sword.

Whoosh.

The blade cut through the air. And so, I began to swing my sword.

==

“Would you like to see this document?”

One month after the attack incident and the hero’s sudden disappearance. A report was placed on the desk. Nella frowned deeply after seeing the title of the report.

“‘Northern Monster Trends’? Why is this kind of report coming up at the end of summer?”

“There’s a reason it came up in summer. You should read through it.”

At a point where joint research was no longer awkward, Nella looked at Daphne Ephiphone with narrowed eyes before turning her attention back to the report. They were sitting not in the magic tower’s laboratory, but in an empty room at the hero party’s headquarters. Nella still seemed unsettled by this place. Who would have thought she’d voluntarily return to a place she had walked out of?

“Don’t say unsettling things. They say incidents that don’t match the time and place are the most frightening.”

Nella replied as she opened the report. She skipped the introduction with its detailed explanations. The first thing Nella looked for was the chart summarizing monster trends. Her eyes quickly scanned the numbers and figures. The written conjectures weren’t important to Nella. The numbers spoke for themselves.

“…This doesn’t make sense.”

And those numbers made Nella read the main text.

“The frequency of monster appearances in summer compared to previous years is strange. Why are creatures that normally avoid human contact suddenly appearing so frequently?”

“I don’t know. Whether there’s something unusual in the north, or a powerful monster has appeared that’s taking over existing monsters’ habitats, or perhaps evil god worshippers are up to something.”

Daphne shook her head, her expression grim.

“A monster that takes over other monsters’ habitats? When a powerful individual appears, don’t the others usually submit to it? Shouldn’t they be less visible then?”

“They might have sent them toward human territories. Named monsters always covet human domains. The more powerful they are, the more they do.”

Nella closed the report and looked at Daphne. Daphne’s expression had gone beyond good or bad—she was pale as if gripped by terror. Nella looked at her with puzzled eyes.

“You seem to know a lot. Is it because you’ve fought many monsters?”

“Last summer was exactly like this. Suddenly increased frequency of appearances. Much more ferocious behavior. Even movements that felt strangely systematic.”

Wait, last summer?

Nella frowned. She seemed to understand what Daphne was implying. Daphne nodded at Nella.

“Yes. It feels similar to when the giant awoke in the north.”

“What about the possibility of evil god worshippers being up to something? We can’t completely rule that out, right?”

Daphne shook her head at that question.

“That possibility is small. If they could do something on a scale beyond attacking the magic tower and infiltrating deep into the kingdom to spread doomsday worship… they wouldn’t need to operate in secret in the first place.”

“…I know that. I just felt uneasy. It would have been much easier to deal with if evil god worshippers were plotting something.”

Nella pouted. She didn’t want to imagine it. It was more comfortable to assume that existing threats were stronger than expected rather than considering the existence of another threat similar to a calamity.

“Even so, we need to move assuming the worst-case scenario. Because we’re the hero party.”

“Um… I left the party. Could you stop including me in your party whenever you want?”

Daphne lightly brushed off Nella’s complaint. Nella was becoming increasingly accustomed to having her words casually dismissed. This wasn’t good, but the fact that it didn’t feel bad made her uneasy. Am I getting closer to these people?

“Well, anyway, we don’t need to worry about every report like this. The Northern Grand Duke is still around, so northern issues will be resolved on their own. We just need to focus on completing the magic.”

“That may be true, but…”

Daphne still seemed anxious. Nella didn’t know exactly what Daphne had seen in the north, but she could understand her anxiety to some extent. The hordes of monsters brought by a single calamity were enough to fill the sea, after all.

“Let’s just keep an eye on the trends. I’ll put the report away for now.”

At that moment, the door to the temporary research lab opened and Marianne Prim entered.

“The mages asked me to deliver this.”

After briefly stating her business, Marianne handed a stack of documents to Daphne. Daphne’s expression froze as she opened the file with a sigh. Looking at Daphne who had turned to stone, Nella urged her with an anxious voice.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

Nella snatched the documents from Daphne’s hand and froze with the same expression. Her twitching lips showed bewilderment rather than affirmation.

“What… what on earth is happening?”

‘Southern Monster Trends’

‘Western Monster Trends’

‘Eastern Border Region Monster Trends’

‘Royal Capital Monster Trends’

The flood of materials all detailed monster trends from every direction.