All humans live in the world wearing colored glasses that do not match the prescription.
Swordmasters are those who take them off.
'Decapitation (脫鏡)'.
They are beyond the ironman and have attained the status of superhuman, able to see things that ordinary people cannot.
'Heart Sword'.
Capable of cutting through them.
snip-
The sword, which had reached the realm of the Supreme, sliced through the air once.
The seventh tooth cut space in half in a massive trajectory.
"...!"
Vikir felt his entire body's mana increase like an explosion.
This wasn't a mana surge. There was a tremendous sense of power and exaltation that washed over him.
The realization that he'd been living on the edge for so long.
A sense of liberation that made his former self feel like a worm.
Only then did Vikir understand the old Hugo.
The self he'd only discovered after losing what he held dear, and the heights he'd reached in that moment.
The Swordmaster's overwhelming power, vision, and mindset, a realm that had long since transcended humanity.
It's no wonder all others are considered insects or expendable.
... But Vikir was not like Hugo; he could understand him, but not empathize with him.
Hugo lost the object of his affection the moment he crossed the last wall, and Vikir regained it.
Quack, quack, quack, quack!
The sword went through first, followed by the sound about a second later.
A terrifying shockwave erupted, clearing away the surrounding black mist in an instant.
But.
…Boom!
Surprisingly, Camus, standing in the center of the storm, was unharmed.
She just fell to the ground like a marionette with a broken thread.
At the same time.
[Huh!? Shut up!?]
The scattered black mist gathered again, forming a sphere.
Seere. The one who was bound by a contract with Camus.
But just a moment ago, Vikir's attack severed her bond with the demon.
The moment the knot of their souls was severed, Seere broke free from Camus's body.
[No, no, no! You can broke the contract with the demon? How could you do that....]
Seere squeezed the last of her life force together and fell out of Camus's body.
But.
Seven hound's teeth loomed over it.
[No! I, I have a great mission to open the gate...!]
Seere argued why she should live, but it only made Vikir's reasons for killing her all the more clear.
…Flash!
The space within the barrier split into seven pieces.
A boom like an explosion. A strike faster than a thunderbolt.
The seven black thunderbolts that accompanied the storm completely dissolved Seere's remaining thoughts in the air.
Pagic-
Seere was gone, not a scrap of meat, not a soul.
Vikir stood and thought.
'If only time had made Seere a little stronger, it would have been harder to deal with.'
Demons grow stronger the longer they remain.
The Eighth Corpse Seere, in particular, with its vast army of dead soldiers, was a foe that only grew more terrifying with time, and it was a tremendous blessing to have found and slain it so early.
Meanwhile.
Vikir recovered the mask and the Black Bow Anubis.
The body that has reached the level of master is noticeably different from before.
His stature had increased dramatically, and his body had become more muscular.
"...."
The flower of joy and happiness that he had dried up in order to become an Ironblooded Graduator had blossomed once again after becoming a Swordmaster.
Then.
Boom!
A bolt of black lightning streaked through the air.
"...!?"
Vikir turned his head to see Camus's body fading away.
A magic circle glowed on the floor, centered on her unconscious body.
…Pow!
Teleportation. A technique for moving a short distance.
It was Geronto who was moving Camus's body.
The moment the teleportation spell was activated, Vikir was troubled.
Should he reach for his sword and slit Geronto's throat in front of him?
"...."
[....]
For a brief moment, Vikir and Geronto's gazes locked.
"...."
But in the end, Vikir doesn't raise his hand.
In fact, it was decided to let Camus go, whom he had reunited with after a long time.
Geronto stood still and looked up at Vikir. As if to say thank you.
Vikir released some of the barrier, and Geronto disappeared, taking Camus with her.
Pfft.
And with that, Vikir was alone in the empty barrier.
...No, he was not alone.
[hack-hack-hack-]
The hatchling landed on Vikir's shoulder and nuzzled his cheek.
Its eyes seemed to ask him why he would let an enemy go.
Vikir answered briefly.
"This is my younger sister who cares deeply for my older sister. There must be something going on."
Geronto hadn't attacked Vikir when Camus was unconscious before, only acted to protect her.
Vikir figured that this time she must have her own reasons for wanting to take her away.
"A black mage's healing methods are different from those of a normal person. Potions and healing spells are at odds with the black mana that flows through a black mage's body, so there must be a different treatment....'
Since the streets of the Academy appeared immediately after walking through the barrier, I had no choice but to hope that Geronto would treat Camus properly.
* * *
Meanwhile.
"...The barrier is gone!"
Professor Banshee, who was reading the flow of mana around him with his eyes closed, shouted.
All of the professors and members of the Imperial Guard who had rushed over after receiving the call could not help but panic.
"Then the Night Hound!"
"And the unregistered black mages!"
"Where did they just disappear to!"
But even Professor Banshee, the most advanced mage of them all, was unable to discover where this barrier had been established or where it had disappeared to.
He could only faintly sense that it was there, but missed it.
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Professor Banshee's face as he realized he had missed it.
"A sneaky move, indeed. A level of barrier beyond the grasp of mere humans."
When Professor Banshee, the Academy's newest candidate for Vice Principal, says something like that, it's enough.
While everyone was stunned, one of them let out a high-pitched laugh.
"Ho ho ho – indeed, this is the work of the demon. So artistic, Night Hound."
Professor Sady. She was giggling, one eye covered by an eye patch.
Gazes around her sharpen. Professor Banshee spoke up on their behalf.
"As an imperial professor and advisor to the Imperial Guard, please refrain from saying or doing anything that seems to praise criminals. Professor Sady."
"Don't say my name with that mouth, old man."
Professor Banshee and Professor Sady began to argue again.
Meanwhile.
The students look on in bewilderment.
As the night drew to a close and the festival cooled down, everyone sobered up from the alcohol and the atmosphere.
"What happened? Why were all the performances canceled? Why was the music turned off?"
"Didn't they say some villains attacked?"
"Oh, no. What's going on at the academy~"
"It's true. That's why all the professors have just gathered and the Imperial Guard has arrived."
"Holy shit! The villains that attacked are the Night Hounds!"
"Crazy! Really! What's the damage?"
"... says there's no damage."
Everyone is busy shouting.
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, and Sinclair were all chattering amongst themselves.
"Did you see that? Did you see that? That woman in the skull mask was really scary."
"I'm ashamed to say, but I was too scared to fight her. What the hell was that?"
"Wow- I thought I was going to pass out from all the heart pounding."
"The Night Hound was really scary too. Of all the things I've ever seen, that was the deadliest."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I almost peed myself just hearing the voices...."
Then.
"Seriously. I was so scared I couldn't breathe."
A voice creeped into their conversation.
It was Vikir.
His friends hadn't noticed his absence because they hadn't been in a panic, so they naturally resumed their conversation.
"Vikir! Where have you been, you man! I was worried about you!"
"I was in the kitchen at the bar earlier, I'm glad you're okay."
"Awww, Vikir, I was so worried! I brought the professors here and looked for you first, but you weren't there!"
"Come to think of it, where were you?"
"You went to fetch the professors too!"
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, and Sinclair each said something as they greeted Vikir.
Then.
"...Vikir?"
There was one being who questioned Vikir.
Saint Dolores turned to Vikir with a questioning look on her face.
"I didn't see you while I was searching these streets, where have you been all this time? With a character of your nature, you couldn't have hidden or run away, leaving your friends behind."
Pure curiosity in her eyes.
There was no way Vikir, who had sacrificed himself for his friends during the midterms, would have run away from this disaster alone.
Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, and Sinclair's gazes turn to Vikir once again as Dolores raises a reasonable question.
"...that."
Vikir hesitates a moment, about to offer an excuse.
"You commoner, you can't just drop out of the line of defense by yourself, you almost got yourself killed!"
"You did!"
"You did!"
There were three voices that proved Vikir's alibi.
Highbro, Midbro, and Lowbro. They stood in front of Vikir.
"He's a good bowman, but what are we if he gets ahead of us? Don't go out on the fence first."
"Don't show off."
"Don't show off."
A distraction?
The Baskervilles' triplets squirmed as if they were trying to grab Vikir by the hair, or maybe by the scruff of the neck.
Suddenly, Vikir glared at them from an angle no one else could see.
'Don't overdo it'
'....yes.'
The triplets gave Vikir a little less attention.
After that, well, it was the same as before.
Tudor jumped in to tell them not to bother Vikir, and the Baskerville triplets jumped in at just the right time.
The professors were busy analyzing the situation.
It seemed like they wanted to find good material to write a research paper on.
"Perhaps the Night Hound can only use its powers at night, which is why it fled at first light."
"Then it could be a vampire type of demon."
"But who suppressed this situation in the end?"
"From the witnesses' statements, it seems that Professor Banshee and Professor Sady had a lot to do with it."
"Before that... the student council president of the previous batch, Mr. Osiris Les Baskerville, who graduated from the Academy a long time ago, was here! I'm guessing he had something to do with it."
A rush to judgment. A tacked-on conclusion. Everything was the same as before.
"...."
Vikir stood near the intersection of the end of the great event and the beginning of daily life and raised his head.
The end of dusk. Dawn is breaking in the distance.
Night passes and morning comes.
Even the darkest darkness is pushed back by the weakest light.
Vikir had proven it today, and he stood here, alive.
Standing at the end of the battlefield where he had fought for his life before he was turned back, the thrill of seeing the dawn safely upon him pounded in his heart.
...but only one thing.
'Will she be okay.'
I was worried about the missing Camus.