Part 2 Chapter 55

Part 2 – Episode 55

As if she had never imagined I would ask about the Sword Demon himself, Ricky stared blankly for a moment before hurriedly waving her hands.

“No! They do have some similarities, but they’re also very different. Um, since you’ve already met Flame King, you probably know that he’s extremely friendly with ordinary citizens. And that his trademark pink hair symbolizes his spirit of self-sacrifice.”

Michele grumbled under his breath.

“Tch. Calling it self-sacrifice is giving too much credit to an attention-seeking addict that’s evolved to a higher life-form.”

“…A-anyway, while the Sword Demon may not be as close to the public, he’s an incredibly professional person. Even when we make rather unreasonable requests, he always succeeds without major complications.”

Michele grumbled again.

“That bastard just got too successful at a young age, so now he’s fearless and insufferable. Tch.”

Ricky glanced nervously at Michele before puffing out her cheeks, her face turning red.

“Y-you’re one to talk, Senior! You’re forced to attend the Legion’s Personality Correction Classes every single year!”

“What? So you’ve finally grown bold enough to talk back now—”

“Now that you know about the Sword Demon, Sir Fager, you should learn about the Sword Demon Party too!”

A fourth line of text appeared on the inner wall of the airship.

<Party No. 4: Sword Demon Party Members>

Sword Demon

Swiftblade Jean

Golden Magician

Jewelry Fire Royal Flower>

Support Guild: <GraySpear>

Guild Support: Grey Spear

Sword Demon Party, huh.

There were a few names I recognized.

And a few that somehow felt exhausting just from looking at them.

I casually turned to Michele and asked,

“What’s that fellow, Swiftblade Jean like?”

“…Swiftblade Jean?”

“Yeah. Your opinions seem pretty cynical overall, so I was wondering what you think of Jean.”

His surprise lasted only a moment.

Then Michele’s eyes sharpened.

“When I first met her, I expected her ego to be high enough to pierce through the heavens, considering she’s the well-known disciple of the Swordmaster. But contrary to my expectations, she was pretty easy-going.”

This guy has a good eye for people.

“I don’t think there’s much to criticize about either her abilities or her character, aside from a bit of social awkwardness.”

Naturally.

“She’s certainly not like the Flame King, whose self-esteem drills deeper underground every day and who constantly struggles to earn validation.”

Of course not.

“Nor is she like Black Mask, who treats human beings like flies.”

You can’t compare Jean to people like that.

“I think he’s the reason that garbage heap of a Sword Demon Party is still holding together at all.”

Right, right—

…

One particular phrase stuck in my chest.

“Wait. The Sword Demon Party is garbage?”

Ricky, who had looked thoroughly exhausted moments ago, widened her eyes and frantically waved her hands.

“Huh? N-no! Of course not! The Sword Demon Party is indisputably one of the greatest parties in the world—”

“It’s garbage.”

“I-I would never…”

“Trash.”

“……”

This was bad.

Ricky’s adamant insistence was gradually losing steam. Almost as if, on some level, even she couldn’t bring herself to argue with this assessment of them as “garbage” in good conscience…

“Since Sir Andert Fager is currently in a vulnerable mental and physical state, I’ll give you a warning in advance.”

Michele snatched the spoon-shaped device from Ricky and began manipulating the magical tool.

A series of faces flashed across the wall before he stopped on a photograph of a mage.

“This is Jewelry Fire Royal Flower.”

The next image was also a mage.

“This one’s the Golden Magician. I recommend staying as far away from these two as humanly possible.”

The third image was Jean.

“As for this one, stick to her whenever possible.”

I had already intended to do exactly that.

Then came the fourth photograph.

“And this is the Sword Demon. Compared to the previous two, he’s relatively reasonable. Still, he’s impossible to read, so don’t rely on him too much.”

“……”

“……I think I changed the screen too quickly. Let me show you Jewelry Fire Royal Flower again.”

“No, that’s fine.”

I gestured toward the Sword Demon’s photograph with my chin.

“This is the Sword Demon?”

“Yes.”

I see.

So that’s how it is.

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh as I looked at the sword demon’s face. Really. What a surprise.

So this guy… was supposedly the most reasonable one of the three members of this party (excluding Jean).

The absurdity of it almost made me laugh harder. And why would it not? The identity of the magic swordsman I’d met at the Garbage Hill was the Sword Demon.

Not bad at all.

To grow up in a backwater place like Garbage Hill and become a swordsman with that much promise.

That said, he was still a literal Sword Demon who had yet to escape the possibility of Complete Assimilation. In times of war, that made him little more than a walking time bomb.

“Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

Perhaps because of his nature as a sword demon, I did find myself a little curious about the man whose alias itself was Sword Demon.

Still, I shook my head.

“No. This is enough. Thanks.”

Just seeing his face had already given me a good idea of what kind of party this would be.

The last thing I asked Ricky was how much time remained before landing; she answered that it would be another five hours.

Apparently, this airship was a supply vessel assigned to the Corphinium base, so it was much larger than normal and considerably slower as well.

Maybe it was because Rue wasn’t beside me.

Being alone again felt strange.

If Rue had been sitting in the seat next to mine, what would he have said? He probably would’ve told me to close my eyes and get some sleep, even if only for a little while.

Even back when I was human, I’d always needed very little sleep and woke at the slightest sound.

Yet somehow, whenever I lay down beside Rue, I slept as though I’d been knocked unconscious.

My body seemed to instinctively recognize that his side was the safest.

Since he only ever saw me at my weakest like that, it was no wonder he’d fly into a panic over something as minor as sacrificing an arm.

If only I could show him a more dependable side of myself, maybe he’d trust me more.

…No.

That’s not quite a matter of trust, is it?

If I truly trusted Rue—

if he told me that the price of him turning back a hundred years of time was twenty years of slumber—

could I really support that choice?

‘Absolutely not. Twenty years isn’t the kind of time that passes in the blink of an eye!’

But a lost arm comes back soon enough. Sure, using the power of Blooming might make me hostile toward Rue again like before, but—

that much would sort itself out the moment I returned to the Land of Death.

“I don’t want you to lose so much as a single strand of hair. And naturally… that pale hand of yours too.”

Rue probably couldn’t stand seeing me get hurt.

Well, that wasn’t strange.

I didn’t like getting hurt either.

But weren’t there situations where getting hurt a little was the easiest way to resolve things?

Rue himself had overused the power of Blooming while dealing with Rein, and then he turned into a stone—

…Ah.

Right.

Rue had turned into a stone.

Remembering something I’d completely forgotten over the past few days, I let out a sigh.

I need to ask what exactly happened to Rue’s body.

My idiot body had gone to sleep, woken up, and then forgotten about it as if it were somebody else’s problem.

Meanwhile, the moment Rue returned from being a stone, he’d transformed into the appearance of a country girl and stopped me from becoming Spolia’s thousandth child-producing machine.

Rue always seemed to be cleaning up after me.

Yeah.

Maybe that was why he saw me as more fragile than I was.

After all, taking care of someone is, in one way or another, a form of protecting them.

When I asked myself whether I’d been living too recklessly, I couldn’t honestly deny it.

Then again, until now, I’d never really had any reason to live carefully.

‘But that’s a way of living meant for someone who’s alone. If I’ve decided to stay with Rue, then at the very least I need to find some kind of compromise between us…’

At that moment—

A tiny murmur from Ash slipped through the roar of machinery.

I leaned closer, bringing my ear to the little head poking out of the bag.

[Daisy… run.]

“What was that, Ash?”

The beast’s golden eyes flashed sharply.

[Daisy, run.]

KWAAANG—!

A blinding flash exploded before my eyes.