Chapter 156: Urethra

“I’ll give you the rest… after the matchmaking is over.”

Caught off guard by this unexpected turn of events, I could only stare blankly at Elaine, unable to nod or respond.

Elaine tilted her head, looking at me as if something was wrong, and asked:

“…What’s the matter? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“No, I’m just a bit surprised. I didn’t expect Elaine to suddenly kiss me…”

“Yeah… Actually, I want to do other things too, but… Rain told me that people who do such things before marriage are vulgar.”

As Jessica, who had just been labeled vulgar, furrowed her brow, Elaine stood up, shouldering a backpack several times her size.

“…Well, I’ll be going now. I’ll write to you often through Rain, so make sure to reply frequently.”

“…Yeah.”

After seeing Elaine off until she disappeared beyond the main gate, I turned around and cautiously gauged Jessica’s reaction.

However, try as I might, I couldn’t read her emotions. While not as expressionless as Elaine usually was, Jessica’s face betrayed no particular emotional fluctuation, leaving me at a loss for what to do.

“Jessica, you mentioned wanting to go on a date earlier, right? Want to go now?”

I tried to lighten the mood, but Jessica just shook her head.

“I’m too tired for that today. Besides, I’d prefer a properly planned date, not something so spontaneous.”

“…What a pain.”

“What did you just say?”

“Nothing, I didn’t say anything.”

Since Jessica didn’t seem particularly angry, I turned to head back to the mansion. Suddenly, Jessica grabbed my hand, stopping me in my tracks.

“What’s wrong?”

As I turned around, Jessica, who was practically pressed against me, stood on her tiptoes and kissed me.

It wasn’t a deep kiss like the night before, but a light peck similar to what Elaine had done.

Judging by how flushed her face was before the kiss, this seemed to be the most Jessica could manage.

“Jessica?”

After a moment, Jessica broke away. Apparently not wanting to show her embarrassed face, she turned her back to me and started walking towards the mansion.

Just before leaving the garden, still with her back turned, she spoke in a low voice:

“…From now on, if you do anything with other women, you have to do the same with me.”

“Huh?”

The fact that she referred to “other women” instead of specifically mentioning Elaine made me wonder if this meant I could freely increase the number of women in my life.

As I entertained this potentially promising thought, Jessica, as if reading my mind, turned her head and shouted at me:

“That doesn’t mean you can just add women as you please!! Got it?!”

“…Got it.”

They say married couples can read each other’s minds, but Jessica’s ability to grasp my thoughts so accurately was almost scary.

After Jessica returned to the mansion to rest, I unpacked in my room and then headed to the workshop to greet Hori.

However, when I arrived at the workshop, Hori was deeply engrossed in her research, looking irritable. The atmosphere was not conducive to conversation.

Deciding to greet her later, I made my way to Otar’s forge instead.

Besides saying hello, I wanted to show him Jinta, the newly transformed sword, as a sort of parent introducing their child.

“Let’s go.”

Silence glared at me, probably annoyed at being put to work so soon after our return, but obediently offered me its back.

[Master, are we heading to that forge now?]

“Yeah, it’s like a paternal home for you guys. Do you have any particular feelings about it?”

[…No, I’m sorry to say, but I don’t have any particularly good memories of that place.]

[Honestly, I was uncomfortable with humans other than our master touching us divine swords.]

What is this, some kind of teenage daughter phase…?

No, I shouldn’t compare Wolffang and Jinta to humans – they’re swords, after all.

Come to think of it, it’s strange to call Otar their parent when he simply forged them from metal, not created them from nothing.

“Well, let’s go anyway. I’m curious about how a normal sword became… what should we call it? A spirit sword? Anyway, I want to know how it became capable of human transformation.”

[If that is your wish, Master, I’ll go anywhere.]

[Me too!!]

With both swords agreeing, we visited the forge to pay our respects. As always, the sound of metal being hammered could be heard even before entering.

“I’m coming in.”

After announcing myself in lieu of knocking, I entered. As usual, Otar continued hammering without turning around, while Hadi waved at me cheerfully.

“You’re back earlier than expected. What’s that sword at your waist?”

“It’s Shadowstrike… no, it’s Jinta. She was reborn and given a new name.”

As I said this and drew Jinta to show Hadi, Otar, who had been hammering away as if possessed, suddenly turned around as if he’d been struck.

“That sword you’re holding… what on earth is it?”

“That’s what I came here to find out.”

I briefly recounted the recent events to Otar, who had regained his composure. He and Hadi stared at me blankly, their expressions showing disbelief.

“Where the hell did you go to cause such trouble?”

“Well, some insignificant guy acted all high and mighty when I showed a bit of humility, and it pissed me off.”

“That’s because you couldn’t pass the trial… No, never mind. You’ve never been one to listen to reason. And here I thought you’d mellowed out recently…”

“Anyway, why can Jinta suddenly transform into a human?”

“We’ll have to take a look to know for sure.”

I handed Jinta over to Otar and Hadi. They scrutinized the blade intently before reaching a conclusion.

“This isn’t a spirit.”

“Yeah, definitely not a spirit.”

They explained that for a sword to become a spirit, regardless of the quality of its materials, it needed an enormous amount of time.

“When I was moving Jinta, some spirit blood got on it. Could that have caused some change?”

“How many swords in the world do you think have cut spirits? If a little spirit blood was enough to create a new spirit, we’d have known about it long ago.”

Come to think of it, I’d never heard of a new spirit being born from a sword stained with spirit blood in the original story.

“Then what is it? And why are you so certain it’s not a spirit?”

“To put it bluntly, Jinta isn’t a sword spirit, but a cursed sword.”

Cursed Sword

In the original story, cursed swords were mentioned in the setting but never actually appeared. They were swords that gained personalities like demon swords due to their owner’s deep resentment.

In the East, they were considered as ominous as demon swords, rumored to bring disaster to their owners and those around them.

“From what I’ve heard, for an ordinary sword to become a cursed sword, it needs to be imbued with deep resentment…”

“That’s right. So if you didn’t harbor any resentment, there’s only one possibility left.”

[……]

If I hadn’t harbored any resentment, then Jinta must have resented something so deeply that she absorbed the souls of all the swords around her to transform into a cursed sword.

I couldn’t know what Jinta, as a sword, could have resented, but one thing was clear: that resentment was deep enough to transform an ordinary, powerless sword into a cursed one.

To be honest, I was dying to ask about the nature of that resentment, but I hesitated, fearing I might be opening a can of worms better left closed.

“Well, congratulations on obtaining a cursed sword. This is the first cursed sword to come from my forge, but I’m not sure if I should be happy about it or not…”

Generally, the birth of a cursed sword meant that its owner had died harboring deep resentment, so it wasn’t exactly cause for celebration.

However, no one had died here, and the idea that cursed swords bring misfortune to their owners was probably just a baseless rumor. So maybe it was okay to be happy about it?

“Let’s just be happy about it. After all, we haven’t lost anything in the end.”

“Right, let’s take it as a positive. But this is a bit of a shame.”

“What do you mean?”

Before answering, Otar pulled out a cloth-wrapped sword from a box behind him.

“I forged a reverse-edged sword for when you came back, but now it’s useless–!!”

Before I even realized what I was thinking, my hand moved faster than my thoughts.

I snatched the reverse-edged sword from Otar’s hand without a word. Otar and Hadi looked at me with incredulous expressions.

“Ahem… When I saw the reverse-edged sword, my hand moved on its own… I’ll treasure this and pass it down to my child later.”

“Ha! Do you really think you’d be able to give your sword to someone else, even if it’s your own child?”

To be honest, I wasn’t sure. Even if it was my child, the idea of passing on my sword to someone else…

How is this any different from what web novels call “heroine distribution”?

But surely my future self would love my child enough to make such a sacrifice.

Probably…

——

After finishing the inspection of Wolffang and Jinta, I returned to the mansion as the sun was starting to set.

Upon arriving, I saw Hori leaving the workshop, looking extremely tired and carrying a large stack of papers that seemed to be research materials.

“Hori!”

I waved, hoping to exchange the greetings we couldn’t earlier. Hori blinked at me with an expression like someone who hadn’t fully woken up.

“Ian, you’re back?”

“Yeah, are you heading back to the mansion now?”

“Yes… I’ve been pulling all-nighters for the past few days.”

As she said this, Hori yawned. Her face looked so exhausted that it seemed strange she hadn’t collapsed already.

“You should have paced yourself. It’s not like you had a deadline or anything.”

“I can’t do that when I’m being paid. Besides, I feel like I’m on the verge of a groundbreaking invention…”

Damn… What kind of drug is she trying to feed me this time?

I let it slide because it’s necessary for combat, but I still don’t understand why I have to pay money to suffer.

“What bizarre thing are you trying to create now… Anyway, did anything happen while I was gone?”

“Anything happen? Not really… Oh, well, there was one thing, but it didn’t happen at the Academy.”

“What was it?”

“Well… I only heard rumors, so I’m not sure, but they say the Prince’s mother passed away.”