Ch.214Side Story: The Sword Saint of a Strange Earth – 1

“—Is that the Sword Saint, Mira?”

“—I think so.”

“—Why is she here? And as a boss inside a gate, no less. I thought my eyes were deceiving me.”

The three of us whispered quietly.

Since I had completely erased my presence with invisibility magic, if the nervous secretary over there were to look, it would appear as if Priscilla and Elysiere were having a serious conversation between themselves.

“—Well, we’ll have to find out why from now on.”

Truly, there was nothing else I could say except that we needed to find out from now on. No amount of discussion among ourselves would lead to any conclusion.

“—If we’ve decided, let’s hurry. The sooner we return, the more time we’ll have to enjoy the festival. What’s the point of staying here longer?”

At my words, Priscilla and Elysiere rose with enthusiasm. Seeing this, the secretary instinctively cowered, but when the two told him to contact the Yeomhwa Guild, his expression brightened considerably.

Those two also considered this serious enough to activate the emergency contact network. Of course he’d be happy, having been hanging off a cliff and barely surviving.

“Yes, yes! I’ll immediately inform the Yeomhwa Guild that Guild Master Ha-yoon and Guild Master Kang Ye-na will be coming down! When should I tell them?”

“Right now.”

“Understood! I’ll prepare right away!”

The secretary disappeared with lightning speed. After confirming we were alone, I dispelled my magic.

“Did the Sword Saint also travel through time? Or did she create a dimensional gate like us?”

“That’s the most likely possibility, but… she has no incantation staff and wouldn’t know Earth’s coordinates, so how?”

The reason the other seven besides me could travel to Earth was because the goddess and demon lord had discovered the dimensional gate coordinates, and we could return to the world of the novel from Earth thanks to the incantation staff.

The Sword Saint didn’t have either of these advantages.

“We cannot completely rule out any possibility. The timing of the Sword Saint’s disappearance was abnormal to begin with. For someone who calmly cut steel with leaves, perhaps she simply sliced through time or space itself and vanished, only to reappear.”

“You have a point there.”

Although things had completely twisted since Erestica began hosting the summer festival, before that, events had been flowing exactly the same as in the now-vanished timeline.

Except for one thing: the Sword Saint’s disappearance. So as Elysiere said, nothing would be surprising at this point.

“Let’s go see. Judging by how she only subdued rather than killed that idiot who crossed the line, she doesn’t seem like someone completely unreasonable. Let’s go confirm if she’s really the Sword Saint first.”

Whether she was the real Sword Saint or something wearing her guise, if she was real whether she remembered us, if she didn’t remember what had happened, if there was a way to restore her memories, if she was fake how she came to be, where the real one went, and so on.

The questions we needed to ask were overflowing.

Priscilla and Elysiere immediately went to find the secretary, while I concealed myself with invisibility magic and stood beside them. I planned to keep my summoned form sealed for the time being.

No matter how powerful a summon might be, carrying it around everywhere could arouse unnecessary suspicion. People would wonder if it was appropriate to use such an expensive summon so carelessly when seven people had to share the cost.

“Hey! Let go! I’ll burn everything down?!”

As soon as we arrived near the coordinates where the secretary said the gate had opened, a half-slurred shout rang out.

The faces of the hunters who had come to greet Priscilla and Elysiere showed clear confusion. This was definitely not a pre-arranged shout. Wondering what was happening, I headed toward the source of the voice.

A brown-haired woman in fiery red armor was struggling, surrounded by other hunters.

The nearby road was half-scorched, and the street trees were all burned. There was also a hunter lying on the ground receiving treatment after being attacked by something. The cause was undoubtedly the brown-haired woman.

“She’s the second daughter of the Yeomhwa Guild Master.”

Priscilla whispered softly.

“I heard her youngest sibling and father were slaughtered. Looks like she’s here for revenge.”

—In such a drunken state?

“I know…”

While we were dumbfounded, the woman’s struggles intensified.

“Damn it, let me go! I said I’m going in!”

“Please calm down! We’ve been told that Hunter Ha-yoon and Hunter Kang Ye-na from the Eternal Guild will arrive soon!”

“My family is dead! Why should those bastards handle it? My family died, so why?!”

“If you wish to know the reason, I shall tell you.”

Elysiere, who had been listening quietly, stepped forward.

The tense atmosphere instantly quieted. The Yeomhwa Guild hunters who had been frantically trying to guide us stepped aside awkwardly.

“G-Guild Master Kang Ye-na…”

The brown-haired woman called out to Elysiere with a trembling voice. The hunters holding her arms and legs quickly backed away. Elysiere stood before her, looking down.

Elysiere is exceptionally tall, only a finger joint or two shorter than me, impressive even by male standards. Being looked down upon with that height must create quite an intimidating presence.

“Will you not answer? I said I would tell you why we, not you, have come to handle this gate, if you wished to know the reason.”

“No… I mean…”

“It is because your Yeomhwa Guild allowed the idiotic practice of using an S-rank gate boss as a sparring partner, your Yeomhwa Guild needlessly provoked the boss, and your Yeomhwa Guild created this mess by doing things that should not have been done. Do you understand?”

“…”

“Why did you turn a boss that wasn’t even hostile to humanity into this state? If it comes outside, do you have confidence in stopping it without casualties? No, can you even win? If you think you can win, go in and prove it. No, I shall throw you in myself.”

Elysiere grabbed her by the hair. A scream erupted. Her body was dragged toward the gate.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It was a slip of the tongue! I’m truly sorry! Just once! Please forgive me just this once!”

The brown-haired woman, alternately pounding on her captured hair and Elysiere’s strong fingers, cried out pitifully. Nevertheless, Elysiere only stopped after reaching right in front of the gate.

The hand gripping her hair swung roughly. With a thud, her body rolled across the ground. Frantically apologizing repeatedly, the brown-haired woman disappeared into the distance.

In the instantly frozen atmosphere, most of the Yeomhwa Guild hunters retreated with their guild master. Only a few A-rank hunters remained to control the area.

“Guard this place and let no one enter.”

“Yes! Understood!”

Receiving salutes from the disciplined A-rank hunters, Elysiere and Priscilla entered the gate. I slipped in after them.

“Is it okay to treat her that harshly? She’s a guild master, right?”

I asked as I dispelled my invisibility magic. I was surprised by how rough the handling was.

“You heard her refer to us as ‘those bastards,’ did you not? Mira, we have more enemies than you can imagine. Even among fellow humans. That woman, for instance, holds a grudge against us for not allowing her S-rank promotion.”

I had found something about this while searching the internet. Due to the Eternal Guild’s influence, the criteria for S-rank promotion for Korean hunters were much stricter than in other countries.

I heard some hunters even changed their nationality to become S-rank in other countries, but even then, they fell far short of the Eternal Guild’s standards.

“Until now, we let it be since she only badmouthed us where we couldn’t hear, but now that we’ve caught her in the act, shouldn’t we put her in her place?”

If that’s how it’s always been, I have nothing to say. The relationships from Earth are their business.

“Wait. You said she badmouthed you where you couldn’t hear? Then how do you know about it?”

“…”

Elysiere answered with a chilling smile. Since I could guess what kind of answer would come, I decided not to ask further.

“Mira, look at this. I think this is that pond. It’s really clean enough to drink directly.”

While we were talking, Priscilla was checking the pond’s condition with mana and marveling at it.

It was exactly as the secretary had briefed us. This was the first case of water clean enough for humans to drink being found inside a gate.

Some daring hunters apparently treated it like a vacation spot, so it didn’t seem completely impossible. Priscilla stood up and looked around.

“So the Sword Saint is supposed to be here…”

“Nothing’s certain yet. She could be a fake.”

Judging by how she reportedly diced up humans, her skills must be considerable, but that alone doesn’t guarantee authenticity.

The power balance on Earth is significantly lower compared to the world I came from.

“…Wait.”

As we were about to go further in, I hastily stopped the two. Then I took out Eternity and drew a line on the ground in front of us.

“Why suddenly draw a line?”

“This is the killing zone from here on.”

“…Killing zone?”

“I couldn’t think of a better term, but watch.”

Seeing is believing. I picked up a small stone and tossed it just beyond the line.

—Slash!

The stone was instantly split into dozens of pieces. Priscilla and Elysiere’s expressions hardened. Neither of them had even seen the slash with their eyes.

“Everything that crosses this line will end up like that. I don’t know how it’s possible.”

“…You noticed that quite impressively.”

“You both could notice it too if you focused. It’s just difficult to sense it initially, but once you’re aware something’s there, it’s easy to perceive.”

At my words, the two closed their eyes. Shortly after, they opened them with startled expressions.

“I’ll go first. You two wait here for a moment.”

I drew out the incantation staff in my left hand. If the person at the center of this killing zone really is the Sword Saint, frankly, Priscilla and Elysiere would have difficulty breaking through.

The Sword Saint was a character Laura created by deliberately pouring all kinds of buffs into her for Leona’s growth. She even admitted she had no idea how to kill her off, so she just wrote her as missing.

Radiating divine power while pushing physical enhancement and acceleration to their limits, I stepped beyond the line. Immediately, an invisible slash aimed at my neck.

I erased its trajectory completely with the incantation staff.

—Kagagagagak!

The ground around me was continuously being carved up. Even in a world slowed to its limit, slashes were coming at me every four or five steps, making it impossible for ordinary people to approach.

I continued forward, deflecting the slashes by pouring out divine power. As I became somewhat accustomed to their trajectories, I passed through a building and found someone in what appeared to be a backyard.

“…”

It was a woman kneeling in the garden with a sword laid horizontally across her thighs, eyes closed, quietly immersed in meditation.

Brown hair, loose clothing resembling a yukata, and a scar engraved over one eye. She was exactly like the Sword Saint in my memories.

“Sword Saint.”

With a start, her body trembled slightly. Perhaps only possible in a state of extreme concentration, the killing zone that had been covering the entire area dispersed like mist.

“…I hear a voice that should be impossible to hear.”

A voice identical to the Sword Saint from my memories flowed out.

“Is this also the fate of one who failed to die when they should have…”

“What are you talking about? Should I call you Rachel instead of Sword Saint to make you come to your senses?”

Start! The trembling intensified. Her closed eyelids slowly lifted, revealing sky-blue eyes.

The sky-blue pupils directed at me filled with astonishment. Her one remaining eye widened in disbelief.

“…Mira Crate?”

“Since you recognize me, you don’t seem to be a fake, but what are you doing here?”

“Fake, fake… I see. Could you wait a moment?”

The Sword Saint slowly rose. But her posture seemed awkward, as if trying to balance with just one arm—

“…What happened to your right arm?”

I wasn’t mistaken. Where her right arm should have been, there was only the fluttering sleeve of her yukata. The Sword Saint smiled bitterly.

“An arm is a small price to pay for leaving the past behind.”