Ch.179Fortress of Blades. Amarantin (4)

“Good.”

“What’s good?”

“The sword is complete.”

“Oh. That’s good?”

“Right?”

After one more day, I finally received the news from Dawn’s Workshop that the Orichalcum greatsword was completed.

You might wonder why it takes so long to make a single sword, but the material is Orichalcum. You have to understand this much.

I rushed straight to the workshop to meet the craftsmen, who all had dark circles under their eyes as if they hadn’t slept properly for days.

“I never imagined I would be able to work with Orichalcum in my lifetime… Thank you truly, Knight of the Sun.”

“Is it that precious a material?”

“Of course. Not only can it not be produced without imperial descendants, but most of that small production goes to architecture or art. For craftsmen like us, it’s a dream material we’d sell our families to obtain. Now I can die without regrets.”

The masters of Dawn smiled as if they truly had no regrets.

Their smiles were so bright and innocent that I could hardly imagine they belonged to workers who had just been pulling all-nighters. For a moment, I felt as if their faces had been replaced with light bulbs.

“I shall proudly wear this sword you have newly forged. In the name of the Knight of the Sun, I bestow a new name upon this sword. Like the dawn breaking, this sword shall stand at the forefront of purifying evil and unjust things. Thus, I declare here that this sacred weapon shall be called ‘Purifier.'”

As I drew the sword and proclaimed this, at that moment, lightning struck from the sky and began to engrave clear blue letters on the sword I held, just as I had declared.

-これは 浄化の 刃。すべての 不正と 邪悪な ものを 切り裂く 開闢の 使徒である。-

-This is the Blade of Purification. The Apostle of Creation that tears apart all that is unjust and evil.-

And by this, the sword truly received blessing in the name of the sun. I raised the sword vertically toward the sun, paid brief respect, and then returned the sword to its scabbard.

“The Sun engraving a name on a weapon!”

“It’s a divinely blessed weapon! Divine power has been bestowed upon the weapon we made!”

“Praise Nariakira Saburo! He has sanctified our human offering with lightning!”

And the masters of Dawn, having witnessed their creation being acknowledged by a god and directly blessed, began to get so excited they seemed about to die from heart attacks.

Their lifetimes spent making swords had been rewarded by the Sun’s lightning, and I could understand their feelings.

To be acknowledged by a being of unreachable status, to hear “You make quite impressive swords!”—that would be enough to make anyone faint, craftsman or not.

“The Knight of the Sun pays respect to your dedication. Behold! This sword, melted by the Sun’s heat, tempered by human warmth, and newly forged by human skill!”

“Uwaaaaah!!!”

“Nariakira Saburo is a god!!!!”

“Sun! Sun! Sun! Sun!”

Amid the craftsmen’s continued cheers, I quietly slipped away.

Now they would never abandon their hammers again.

And they would forge again. And again. Weapons that could receive divine selection.

To recreate the legend they had made—of creating a weapon acknowledged by a god.

*

When I returned to where my companions were, surprisingly, they seemed to know what I had experienced up there.

“Did you receive divine inspiration at Dawn’s Workshop again?”

“I wouldn’t call it divine inspiration… The weapon received a blessing. Look at this.”

I drew the sword from its scabbard and showed my companions the inscription on the Orichalcum greatsword.

“Ah… Yes. I can feel very powerful magical forces…”

“Magical forces..? How powerful?”

“If I had even 1/1724231345326 of the power used to engrave these words, my soul would be completely annihilated.”

“…”

“I calculated that seriously.”

“Alright… Anyway. How did you know something happened at the workshop?”

“Raisha received a revelation from the Moon.”

“The Moon…? It’s still daytime though?”

“Raisha, being female, cannot receive messages from the Sun, and since you two are married, it must have been Maria Taylor, the Moon, the wife in the divine couple of Sun and Moon, who spoke to her.”

“It was shocking. Raisha suddenly collapsed!”

“Fortunately, she wasn’t injured.”

“Yes… When receiving divine inspiration, that’s inevitable…”

Unlike me, who received the Sun’s messages through a direct connection, Raisha had no connection with the Moon.

Not without going through me, her husband.

But compared to the Sun, the Moon’s divine status was lacking, so as a last resort, she approached Raisha…

“She probably tried to control it, but for an ordinary human like Raisha, even that was too much of a shock. Her soul instinctively chose sleep as a means to survive contact with a deity. Where is Raisha?”

“She’s resting in her room. She couldn’t properly get up.”

“She’ll be fine now that I’m here. I’ve received the Sun’s blessing.”

Saying that, I practically sprinted to the inn.

As my party members had said, Raisha was sitting blankly on the bed in my room, her eyes unfocused and drool trickling from her slightly open mouth—clearly not in a normal state.

“Raisha… Raisha…!”

When I placed my hand on my wife’s face, the Sun’s power began to flow through my hand into Raisha’s body, and gradually her eyes began to regain focus.

“…Master?”

“Yes… Raisha. It’s me.”

Raisha silently embraced me tightly.

She must have been scared.

To directly converse with a deity means to be completely exposed to their overwhelming power.

If I didn’t have exceptional mental strength, I would have died insane the first time I received the Sun’s message.

“She told me.”

“Who? The Moon Goddess?”

“Yes. She said if I don’t become stronger, I won’t be able to stay by your side eventually…”

“…That’s true.”

I couldn’t deny that fact.

Now I had a clear goal.

After completing the pilgrimage, I would become a noble ruler governing my fief, and naturally, I would have to drive away the countless people targeting my land.

In that process, my enemies would use all sorts of tricks to hinder me, and that harm would inevitably extend to those around me.

Isn’t it common?

When villains can’t defeat a knight, they take his wife or daughter hostage to threaten him.

Of course, she is now an Aura user, but since our opponents are also likely to be Aura users, whether she can use Aura or not has become almost meaningless.

Moreover, as we continue our pilgrimage, we will surely face servants of evil demons beyond the category of monsters, or the demons themselves. In such extreme situations where even I, the strongest among us, cannot guarantee victory or even survival, a weak woman would ultimately be eliminated.

And we were adventurers… so that “elimination” meant “death.”

“And she bestowed a blessing upon me. Look at this.”

“This is…”

I gazed at the moon symbol clearly engraved on her palm.

This mark, glowing softly in gray, had surely imprinted something on Raisha’s body and soul.

“What did she give you?”

“She said she would give me the power to resist corruption… that with her protection, I need not fear any enemies under the night sky.”

“And during the day…?”

“She said to trust my husband then…”

“…I see.”

In truth, I had somewhat anticipated the contact between Maria and Raisha.

The Sun had consistently given hints in my dreams, and following the formula of Sun-husband, Moon-wife, even a child could predict it was only a matter of time.

Only no one knew exactly when it would happen.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay with you at least until you die.”

Raisha said nothing and nestled in my arms.

It would take quite some time for her to recover.

Unlike my connection with the Sun forged at the boundary between life and death, the aftereffects of a one-sided divine possession are severe.

Considering that even I was bedridden for days after using just a fraction of the Sun’s power, my wife would need at least that much time.

I stroked my wife’s hair as I lay down with her on the bed.

At least I knew how to win someone’s heart with one action rather than a thousand words.

“You must become stronger, Raisha. In a world where humans desire and gods respond, only by continuing forward can you protect yourself from the world.”

“The world is too vast… How can I hide myself from the gods’ gaze?”

“Don’t hide. Fight back. With everything we have. Body. Mind. Soul. Burning our mortal lives to reach for the stars of this universe.”

Being weak doesn’t mean being useless.

But in this world, the weak cannot survive.

So we fell asleep together, and the day of the duel approached.