Old man Hendrick. He used to be a famous adventurer but he retired and now lives a quiet life with his grandchildren. He is often seen at the local inn and tells stories of his days as an adventurer.
'And I slew that sea dragon along with George!' He was currently telling of his experiences with the subjugation of Sea Dragon Madrid who was a legendary dragon and was extremely powerful. I sat down at a table near him.
'Everyone everyone quiet down! As you all know there are 3 legendary swords in our world am I right? Can someone name them?' A skinny man with glasses stood up.
'Yes, I can! There's Excalibur, Durandal and Clarent.'
'You are correct, but in my travels, I discovered something that would blow your minds.' Everyone stared at him intensely.
'There are actually 5 legendary swords. I discovered the two swords on my journey. They were the legendary sword Balmung and the Habakiri.' It was quiet, too quiet.
Then suddenly.
'This old man's finally gone senile!' Everyone started laughing hysterically as if they were affected by laughing gas.
'Well, I just told you what I know you don't need to believe it.'
'How do you know they're legendary swords though Hendrick?'
'You could just feel the energy coming from them. Habakiri's autumn brown and thin blade and Balmung's grand black blade and its oak handle.'
They started laughing even louder but after a while, it died down and they either passed out drunk or went home.
I sat there eating my meal as I was. Clarent was in its dull sheathe. But it slightly slipped out and revealed its shine.
'Wha, it can't be.' Hendrick was suddenly in front of me. 'M-my boy. That sword may I see it.' He was staring intently at me. I nodded my head and handed him my sword. 'Let's move somewhere else.'
We moved to the back of the inn.
'My, where did you get this.'
'I found it in a cave.' He was shuddering.
'The legendary sword Clarent. The only one I've never encountered in my travels. Clarent, my brother's dream was to hold this in his hands just once. But he never could.' He started crying. It was strange to see an old man crying but it was comforting nonetheless. 'Gerard… I've fulfilled your lifelong dream in your stead. You may rest easy now.'
Wow, this is awkward as hell. I didn't understand anything he was saying but I smiled just in case.
'Please keep this a secret Hendrick. I would appreciate it a lot.'
'Of course of course.' He handed the sword back to me and I placed it on my side again. He waved me goodbye.
Guess it's time to return. Lillia's gonna give me a headache for staying out too long. I scratched my head and suddenly.
Whoosh a knife flew right past my head and cut my cheek. Move! Cleansing light! I moved a few metres away and assessed the situation.
The knife came from above so they must be on the rooftops. More knives came flying down and blood was still gushing out of my cheek. Even Cleansing Light had its limits. Then without any warning, a mysterious figure jumped down in front of me.
'Hey hey stop moving around so much will you and make my job a little easier!' A cloaked man stood in front of me and yelled that strange sentence. Job? Has someone hired this guy to assassinate me?
I kept my hand on my sword's handle. 'Hey, now that's useless. Whatever sword you have cannot even match up to mine. You may not know what this sword is but I do! The Storm Sword Habakiri!' The man pulled out a blade. Its autumn brown blade shone in the moonlight and its blade was as thin as paper. It matched up to Hendrick's account of Habakiri.
Shit, I'm really up against a legendary sword user. Tranquil Sea! The opponent didn't even flinch. What? Tranquil Sea didn't even do anything! Eclipse mode! I pulled out Clarent.
'Fancy sword you got there. Maybe I'll take it off your dead corpse!' He shot straight toward me and I blocked just in time. He was too fast for me to react to. I strafed left and right and around him but his blade was too fast. This guy's really out to kill me!
'Tch! Walpurgis Flame!' He couldn't dodge this I shot the spell right in his face. But then he cut through it like it was nothing with the sword.
'Haha, I would've been dead! But unfortunately for you. This is Habakiri, The Mana-Cutting Sword!' The sword cut through mana and spells and was a bad matchup against magicians. But there was something strange.
The colour of the blade was slightly charred. Does it have some kind of limit? I wouldn't know because he kept up his flurry of attacks. Contrary to how it looks the thin blade of Habakiri contained a lot of power. I jumped back and created some distance.
I jumped up into the air towards him and intended to strike him with Clarent at full force.
He took the strike head one and we were both pushed away. 'You're pretty good for a kid but I think it's time to end this.' He shot towards me once more and unleashed his onslaught. I had cuts all over my body. Move! Move! I teleported multiple times but his blade was so fast that it caught up to me every time. 'Interesting ability you have there.'
I pulled out the parry knife out of its sheathe. Just once! I need to catch it just once! I caught it. Miraculously in his flurry of attacks, I caught it. I then twisted my knife. Victory is mine! But somehow he pulled it out of my grasp. The blade was too thin to get caught.
'Walpurgis Flame! Walpurgis Flame!' Even if he could slice through my magic it wouldn't matter if he couldn't slice it. Thus in a mad attempt to try to get him, I unleashed about four Walpurgis Flames. But it didn't matter he sliced through all of them. I was completely drained of mana and I couldn't use Vindicta Von Deus because it would damage the surrounding area. I had no idea what to do. But wait Habakiri's autumn brown blade was almost fully charred. What was going on?
'I feel really bad kid so I'll just end it here.' He sheathed his sword and readied his stance. It looked like a stance commonly seen in the practice of iaido.
'Mana-Cutting Flower!' I didn't even know what it did but I already knew that it would cut through all the mana in my body. It would be dangerous because it would cut through my cores and circles. Shit! This is really bad!
Then. Slink. Habakiri's blade was broken into two and only the handle was left.
'Wait. Wha?' The man was so surprised. I guess Habakiri couldn't take the stress of slicing through my flames. But wasn't it a legendary sword? I didn't waste the chance and stabbed him in his chest, he coughed up blood and fell to the ground.
'Heh, they're gonna come for you, you know? You may have gotten lucky this time kid, but that luck won't help when you're fighting them.' He then took his last breath. It was definitely a tough battle. The sword being able to slice through my mana was a real threat.
I took Habakiri and its broken blade into my hands. Wait! The metal wasn't nearly on the same level of quality as Clarent. Hendrick was right you can feel the status of the sword by merely holding it in your hands. The metal of Habakiri was like that of an ordinary sword.
It was a fake?! Who would ever make a fake of a legendary sword? And why was this never in the original game? While I had many questions I also had an idea of where the assassin was from. He was most likely from the organisation known as Effervescent. It was an organisation that despised the current state of the kingdom and wanted to overthrow it.
A few nobles were actually a part of the group and supported it, they must've wanted to assassinate me to send a message to my father, who declined their offer. I need to take them down soon, they are the major antagonist during your third year of school. They were incredibly tough to deal with. In the same year, the Demon king would reveal himself and cause havoc. The third year was definitely the toughest year out of your three years at the school.
That's why I needed to prepare, I needed to find out who the spy was that was in our class and discover all their plans. That was the only way I could win.'Tch.' I clicked my tongue, what a pain. They seem to be preparing fake copies of Habakiri. But for what reason? And how? If they are creating copies of Habakiri they could also be doing the same for any of the other legendary swords. If they were creating a copy of Excalibur or Durandal it would spell disaster. I needed to stop them.
T/N: Based on the sword from Japanese mythology, Ame no Habakiri: The Storm Sword.