episode_0023

In the game Heroic Age, it is necessary to complete specific quests and obtain grimoires or secret texts to learn advanced magic or arts of a certain rarity or higher.

Cocytus, the strongest water-attribute area-of-effect magic, which can be learned through the legendary-grade grimoire .

When I possessed ‘Rain Grey’, he had already mastered this magic, having obtained it from somewhere.

Immediately after possessing him, I realized I could use most of the magic I remembered from the Heroic Age series, and I found out while trying them out as a test.

In addition, among the six attributes of offensive magic that the Warlock class could use, the attributes for which he had learned legendary magic were Air and Curse.

For reference, the representative magic symbolizing the Air attribute is Lightning and Air-elemental magic. Utility magic other than offensive spells, such as , is also included in the Air attribute.

Furthermore, the legendary-grade magic Rain Grey had learned did not stop there; there were two more types, including defensive and utility magic that the Warlock class could not use.

Wards and Barriers.

Therefore, one of the hypotheses that can be inferred from the above facts is this.

─Rain Grey’s growth has not yet ended. Furthermore, that growth is not bound by the restrictions of the Warlock class.

That is why it is something I must obtain right now.

“Ah, ah.”

I lifted my head towards it.

I saw a man, teeth chattering, falling onto his backside as if collapsing on the spot. It was Colonel Hydra Waltz, dressed in a Guard military uniform.

Ignoring him, I walked towards him.

Just then, the jet-black knightess, silently guarding the Colonel’s side, kicked off the ground. In an instant, the distance closed.

The sword, which should have been sleeping in its sheath until moments before, was drawn in the blink of an eye and unleashed a cleaving strike. Following the slashing blade, a black afterimage traced the sword’s trajectory. No, it should have.

“Sto-Stop!”

Colonel Hydra, hastily restraining the knightess’s actions. I let out a hollow laugh unconsciously at the sight.

Following the Colonel’s words, the knightess’s sword stopped right before my nose. The tip of the blade was so close it seemed about to graze me.

At first, I wondered. But at this distance, I could be certain. Even though her face was hidden by the black helmet.

Of the knightess’s identity beyond the heavy armor engraved with the Iron Cross symbol.

I’m not talking about her being a resurrected with high-level necromancy.

“…”

However, paying attention to that was for later.

“Gr-Great Mage, I dared not recognize you…! To think that a hermit of such profound attainment would be staying here!”

Before I knew it, Colonel Hydra was kneeling and bowing his head before me to a humiliating degree.

“Oh, Hermit! I was merely performing my military duties! I had no intention of harming the hermit! It was all a misunderstanding!”

He was burying his head in the ground, begging for mercy as if he would even lick my shoes. No, he actually licked them.

Seeing that, I asked back.

“Why did you stop her sword?”

“Huh? Th-That’s…”

“Why didn’t you just stop her from the beginning?”

At the unexpected question, just as Colonel Hydra Waltz was about to hastily continue speaking.

“Do you truly believe such transparent cunning will help your standing?”

It was undeniably hitting the nail on the head. He had deliberately stopped her sword to show off his authority, and perhaps even to gauge the possibility of truly defeating me in the process.

After being called out so directly, what would his next move be?

Generally, there are two options: a hopeless last resort, or negotiations and deals that would never work.

“Oh, oh! As expected of the hermit!”

“…”

“Indeed, sharp insight that pierces through the principles and truths of the world! It is a truly piercing admonition, like striking this ignoramus’s frozen ignorance with an axe!”

It was neither.

“Ah, I have awakened! Only after meeting the hermit have I awakened! I, who have lived my entire life like a blind man, seeing nothing in the darkness of ignorance, have finally opened my eyes of ignorance before the hermit’s teachings and can see the world! Thank you! Thank you for bringing light to these eyes!”

His babbling was extraordinary, so much so that I wondered if it was truly the same mouth that had been frozen in terror just moments before.

“Hand over the .”

“Yes! I will give it to you right away!”

With his reply, Colonel Hydra Waltz suddenly took off his uniform and stripped off his upper clothing. Then, I saw something rooted in the Colonel’s abdomen like a living creature.

A grimoire that had fused with his body like a part of it, as if a separate body part grafted through surgical reattachment.

Colonel Hydra immediately grasped the grimoire on his abdomen─ and tore it off.

Rip!

As if tearing off his own flesh, even as the attached nerve bundles ripped one after another and his skin peeled away, he didn’t care.

“Here it is!”

The Colonel’s body was dripping blood, and the grimoire was there. I silently accepted it.

As soon as I took it and held it in my hand, I understood.

That the man at my feet couldn’t even fully draw out 30% of this grimoire’s power.

Thinking in terms of the game, it was actually an easy concept to understand.

To fully draw out 100% of a skill’s effect, class, level, stats, and so on all needed to meet certain criteria or higher. It’s not something you can just use right away just because you have it.

The highest-tier class attainable in the necromancer lineage is 《Gravelord》.

The highest-tier necromancy performed by a Gravelord absolutely does not stop at this level.

In contrast, Colonel Hydra Waltz’s class, at best, is merely 《Gravedigger》. For a man of that level, this grimoire is nothing but pearls before swine.

And a man who can’t even become a Gravelord is the leader of the Duchy’s foremost necromancer organization?

It was so absurd I couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh.

‘The Carrion Crow isn’t what it used to be.’

Indeed, since it’s been dragged out like a punching bag and repeatedly broken and ground down for the 20th time in each series now, it would be a miracle for the organization to still be functioning properly.

I held the blood-dripping and looked down at the Colonel at my feet.

The trembling subordinates behind him, and the Undead Battalion that took no action without its master’s command.

Finally─ I looked at the black heavy-armored knightess standing silently by the Colonel’s side.

“Do you like her! It seems you do!”

Sure enough, stopping his licking of my shoes, the Colonel quickly shouted.

“Ah, you’ll like her very much! As you can see, she’s no ordinary undead! What’s more, she’s truly special! She was, of all things, the corpse of a prey left behind by none other than the 《Black Serpent》 of the world!”

“…”

“Perhaps even the hermit has heard her name! ‘Alina, the Sword Princess’! She is very special! Th-That’s why we resurrected her as the world’s only !”

I didn’t answer. At that, the Colonel desperately continued to speak, like a salesperson promoting a product.

“To be devoured by the infamous 《Black Serpent》 and not die! To return from death! I believe you can already tell how special and valuable she is just from that!”

After speaking, he jumped up and removed her helmet. Beyond the helmet, a very familiar face became visible.

A face I never wanted to meet again. Yet it was a face I had already encountered three times now.

“That’s why I’d like to call her the !”

Undeniable emotions were harbored on her face.

Hatred, blazing fiercer than ever before, and despair, utterly unable to move a finger by her own will.

It felt as if her voice, screaming, trapped within the prison of her flesh, could be heard even here. Her silent screams and cries.

“As a token of gratitude for the hermit bringing light to my eyes! I will offer her to you as well! Now she is the hermit’s! Sh-She’s useful for many things, not just combat! Please, use her for─.”

After speaking, he tried to pull out something that appeared to control her.

“No need for that.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Release her.”

“As expected, the hermit’s mercy and benevolence are like an unending well! I will do so! I will, of course─.”

At the same time as he spoke, the curse restraining her was released.

“─Ah.”

As soon as it was released, the blade in its sheath emitted light.

A flash.

When I realized, Colonel Hydra’s head had been severed and was rolling on the ground. His subordinate necromancers also literally followed their superior.

Next, where her lost blade tip was pointing.

“Step back.”

I said, seeing that sight, to the immortal Sword Princess whom I had now encountered three times.

“I have no business with you.”

“…”

It was the same as before. Then or now, I had no business with them or her. I didn’t want to encounter them. Nothing would change now.

*

Snip.

No sooner had he clipped a branch from the bonsai with scissors than the man’s hand stopped abruptly on the spot.

“My neck…”

Looking at the severed branch that had fallen, the man calmly continued speaking.

“It’s been cut.”

After muttering that, he stopped pruning the bonsai he tended in his spare time and slowly stood up.

The man, who ran a flower shop alone in the deserted countryside, a shop no one visited, remained there, unconcerned, even as the unvisited flowers died and withered.

Silently, amidst the decaying remains of withered and dried flowers.