There was silence in the opulent room with the bodies strewn about.
I was asked a question, and I wondered how to answer it in a way that would make me look good.
"Why don't you answer?"
My patience was wearing thin.
Eventually, I spit out something.
"I don't know its name either. It's just an ordinary sword I inherited from my father."
"The sword. I bought it."
Ha. This is the worst.
Needless to say, I had no intention of selling Galakshur.
Nor could I tell Hossan to get lost.
"Asshole Jones.
If it wasn't for this asshole, I would have just grabbed the brochure and left.
I purposely wrapped the scabbard in a cloth to hide it, but it was because I had drawn my sword in a fight.
"Why didn't you answer me earlier?"
Living?
No. It was more of a pressure than a life.
A strange aura emanated from it, mixed with mana, and a cold sweat soaked my back.
"I wonder if I can escape.
No matter how strong he was, Hossan wasn't invincible.
If she could buy a few moments of time to escape, she could remove her mask and change into a different outfit.
"The question is, can I buy that time?
Hossan opened his mouth before he drew his sword with the same flair as before.
"I'm really sorry, but it's my father's relic, so I can't sell it casually, so please forgive me."
"Is a relic more valuable than a life?"
Now he's threatening me outright.
This is the man who killed Mr. Jones for being loud, so what's to be afraid of?
I swallowed my anger and decided to hand over the Galakshur.
No matter how valuable the item was, it wasn't worth my life.
'It's a Named sword, and there are plenty of them. I'll just have to find another one.
Of course, the majority of Named Swords are now in dungeons and grimoires where it's life or death.
In fact, the game has a save load, so if I failed a dungeon, I could just try again.
But now that I was walking a tightrope with only one life, the Galakshur I'd stumbled upon was a waste.
"I'll sell it."
The words of surrender finally came out of my mouth, and Hosan nodded in agreement.
"Since you say it's a keepsake, I'll be generous and give you 10 million wills."
"What?"
The question came out of my mouth in disbelief.
I quickly covered my mouth, but this wasn't a joke, and a named class sword, Galakshur, for only 10 million?
Ten million was cheaper than paying Grisman for a single customization.
"Is that a complaint?"
"No."
Yeah. Ten million is better than taking it by force.
But now, more than ever, my insides were filled with rage.
It was almost as much anger at the Emperor as it was at the injustice done to me.
"I must be strong and take back Galakshur first.
I forced myself to calm down and rose from my seat.
I was about to hand Galakshur to Hossan.
"Up, up, up!"
There was a commotion from below and a rush of men carrying weapons.
Apparently, the women who had fled earlier had brought news downstairs.
"Mr. Jones!"
"You son of a bitch! Did you kill him!"
The men upstairs pointed their weapons at me.
Hossan was the first to speak up.
"I killed him. You're making a fuss over nothing."
Aha.
He's such a self-serving villain.
Jones's men upstairs were dumbfounded, looking back and forth between me and Hosan, and then they came to life.
"Kill them both!"
The men who came up were diverse.
There were mages, swordsmen, spearmen, and the odd weapon.
"The bastards are so eager to die."
Hossan swung his sword.
Brown mana coiled around the sword, and a bundle of sword energy swirled like a sword wind.
Fubberbuck!
Foohawk.
"Boom."
"Kuck."
Three or four people died in a single day, but Jones's men were undeterred.
They were shadowy figures, to begin with, and unless their opponent was an Auror Master, they didn't bend easily.
Boom, boom, boom.
Whip-quack!
All sorts of magic flew at me, arrows and memorization.
They seemed to see Hosan as the most dangerous, and their attention was focused on him rather than on me.
'Better this....'
The spells Hossan had deflected crashed to the floor.
I could feel the entire building shake with the destructive force.
Soon, small cracks began to appear on the floor where we stood.
Quack.
A small sound.
But it soon turned into a huge roar.
Koo-boom!
Quadruple quadruple!
The floor began to crumble.
It got worse as he felt himself falling.
"No, no, no. On the contrary, this is an opportunity.
Thud!
As I tried to regain my footing, I heard a shout.
"Don't rest, attack!"
The floor caved in, and in my daze, I sensed countless flesh.
I quickly backed away and dodged the attacks, but there were too many different types of attacks.
Boom! Pow!
Whiz-bang!
Swords and spears stampeded on my spot, as well as all manner of magic, arrows, and throwing weapons.
I dodged and dodged and dodged, but I still ended up with wounds everywhere.
With my combat talents at full strength, I somehow managed to dodge the rest of the attacks using only my senses and made my way through the tumult.
Then, in the midst of the dust and nothingness of the building's rubble, I sensed an enormous surge of mana.
"Danger!
I instinctively jerked back.
Boom!
The sound of air popping echoed through the room, and I felt a sword of mana slice through the air above me.
Stumbling backward, I lifted my head to take in the scene in front of me.
"Crazy. For real.'
There stood Hossan the Sword Demon, a brownish mana-encrusted sword in one hand, staring at the lucky survivors.
Well, that was good.
Now was the time to flee.
Luckily, Hossan's attention was on his attackers, and his enemies were focused on him, not me.
I killed as many of them as I could and made my way out of the rubble of the collapsed building.
'We need to get out of the brothel first. We'll deal with what happens after that.
As I stepped out onto the street, I could feel everyone in the red-light district looking at the auction house building where the commotion had occurred.
I moved through the crowd to get as far away from Hosan as possible.
All the while, I checked the brochure in my hand.
Luckily, the booklet was still intact.
[Tomb of Krivmacher, the Red Dragon]]
"Tomb of the Dragon?
When I picked it up, it was marked as an item I hadn't checked due to Jones' call, but now I realized it was a dragon tomb, not a dragon rare.
Unusually, unlike dragons in other media, the dragons in this game didn't die at Rare, but rather in places of their own choosing.
And most of those places were off-limits to humans.
"And before they died, they destroyed their rares, which is why they're so rare.
Both graves and rares were hard to find.
But if I had to choose, I would have to favor rares.
Occasionally, dragons who died in unfortunate accidents or events would die without getting rid of their rares, and the rares that were found contained priceless treasures.
"Wait, that's not the point.
A dragon's grave?
That means there are dragon corpses there.
What's a corpse?
'A necromancer.
Crazy. Crazy.
I had to survive and investigate this place.
The thought of a real dragon made my mouth water.
With that, I made my way out of the brothel and back to the room I'd rented before going to the brothel, where I removed my mask, changed my clothes, and packed my things.
I stowed my galaxy in my expansion bag, just in case, and strapped the three million-will sword I bought at the forge to my waist.
'Somehow, we got through the crisis.
I wasn't ready to let my guard down just yet.
For now, I had to get on the train and leave Muriel.
I kept my eyes peeled for signs of trouble and eventually managed to board the train back to the capital.
I should have been relieved by this point, but my intuition was still sending out uneasy signals.
'What's going on? Surely this should be fine....'
And my ominous hunch was correct.
Boom!
Less than five minutes into the train ride, I heard a noise like something had fallen from the ceiling of the train car in front of me.
And I had already experienced what that noise could be.
No way....
You're not following me, are you?
Kwagagak.
A sword shot out of the ceiling of the train car in front of me, creating a hole.
As soon as I saw it, I jumped out of my seat and ran to the back of the car.
"I really didn't expect this.
You wouldn't recognize him because he's unmasked, his appearance has changed, and the sword he's carrying has changed.
Then I remembered that in the game, they were always coming at you, no matter where you were.
At the time, I didn't think anything of it and thought it was just a random event, but now I realize that there's a separate ability related to tracking.
Shhhhhhhhh!
The hair on my head stood on end and I turned to the side while running.
Then, a sharp energy from behind flew past my side and smashed into the end carriage of the train.
Qua---ang!
"You crazy bastard."
A sword demon is calm?
I take that back.
He wasn't called a villain for anything.
Realizing there was nowhere to run, I threw myself from the last car of the train, which had been torn apart by Hossan's attack.
Thanks to my mana-energized body, I managed to land safely, but that was all that mattered.
"I wasn't going to kill you if you just gave me your sword, but alas."
Hossan, who had been following me for some time, revealed his flesh.
I wondered how he had recognized me and followed me.
But it was a pointless question now.
"I'll just have to do something.
I doubted the merciless Hossan would let me live, especially since I had already escaped once.
I slowly drew my sword.
The undead, of course, must survive, even if it means using sloth.
* * *
The sun had set and night had fallen.
Diane was perusing her favorite magazine for the first time in a long time.
"Monthly Shining Knights.
This month's issue had just come out, and she'd been looking forward to it since morning.
It had become a habit for her to indulge in her hobby after all her work.
This month's magazine was, as she had expected, densely packed with articles about Louis Atman, a new student at Rodlen this year.
"Not bad.
She had attended the commencement ceremony herself, curious about the rumored junior.
As rumored, Louis was the quintessential knight in shining armor.
Even his appearance was to her liking, and she'd been thinking about him for some time.
'No, but I have him.
Inspection of the mask.
Though she didn't know his name or face, the memory of that day was one she would never forget.
There was a contradiction in her heart, hoping that one day they would meet again, but also wanting them to remain as mysterious as they were.
"Hmm...."
She stopped fantasizing and continued reading the magazine.
It was the same as always: anecdotes and trivia about famous knights, and poems by bards.
I turned the page, feeling a little sad that the magazine was coming to an end, and saw something unexpected.
"A mighty genius to succeed the gods of Monas in Rodlen?
The article seemed crude, but the name that followed drew him in.
'Personally recommended by Adrias Cromwell, who made a name for himself with the Everlasting Potion.'
Recommended by Adrias?
The text said that a boy with a prodigious talent had been admitted to Monas Academy.
It said that his talent was comparable to that of Louis Atman, but it was hard for me to admit that Adrias had recommended him, let alone that it was true.
"No. Now I have to admit it.
I had been trying to ignore him, but my perception changed after my last final exam.
Perhaps he'd been too young to let go of thoughts he should have.
Adrias, he was good enough now.
Sure, he still paled in comparison to himself, but he wasn't a man to be ignored.
When I saw the picture of Benjamin Anicius, the man Adrias had recommended, I had to scratch my head a little.
He was a skinny boy who looked like he could barely wield a sword.
'Still....'
At least he's handsome, unlike anyone else.
Then I remembered that Adrias was my opponent in the tournament on Monday.
I'd been so relaxed that I'd forgotten who he was.
"I'll ask him when I see him."
Benjamin Anicius. Honestly, I couldn't help but be curious about the comparison to Luis.
Besides, if he was recommended by Adrias, he must be familiar with him.
It wouldn't be a bad idea to take advantage of this opportunity to meet him.