Chapter 26 – Preparation (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The damp smell of medicine pricking my nose made my eyes open on their own.

What I saw when I opened them was an unfamiliar ceiling. Turning my head slightly, I saw the IV needle deeply stuck in my right forearm, while an old-fashioned cotton curtain fluttered in the breeze coming through the window.

‘A hospital?’

Rubbing at the stinging area around my chest, I barely managed to sit up. Then I slowly turned my gaze and looked around the room.

Unlike the hospital room I’d first been admitted to after entering the academy, this one had a very luxurious and refined interior. It looked similar to the room Nox had been in before.

‘The VIP room of Hoakin Academy’s affiliated hospital.’

The gleaming white furniture shone like marble and practically reeked of money. If I remembered right, the VIP ward was reserved for nobles. Scratching my chin, I propped my head in both hands and sank back into the bed again.

I did not want to think through every worldly detail like that.

However I had ended up admitted to a VIP room, for now I decided I should just be satisfied with being alive.

‘They aren’t going to bill me for the hospital fees later, were they?’

I shook my head to throw off the worry. No matter how stingy and merciless the academy’s prices were, it probably wasn’t that inhumane.

…Though if they really did charge me, would I have to flee in the middle of the night?

As I stared blankly at the ceiling, I suddenly stretched one arm out and opened my hand. The hospital room lights shone between my fingers.

For no real reason, I spread my hand wide and then clenched it again. When I opened the fist that had tensed up without my noticing, nail marks were stamped into my palm like a seal.

‘I’m alive.’

Being alive could feel this welcome. Since entering the academy, there had been moments where I nearly died without meaning to.

But now I could dismiss all of those as mere incidents. Compared to the magic that demonoid mermaid had wielded, even the blade work of Nox, the genius of Auditore, felt like the petulant antics of a child.

‘A demonoid…’

Skin being sliced apart with a shhk-shhk sound, flesh that felt dense to cut through. Even the sensation of bones being severed had been very different from a human’s.

More than anything, there was the magic sphere the mermaid had fired just before it died. It had flown toward me, spilling out cold magical power.

It had been an attack I absolutely could not have dodged. And yet, for some reason, I had thrown my body forward without hesitation even then.

Because I had seen a red line engraved across that round blue sphere. I felt hot blood surge through my body and my muscles swell.

Was that what instinct was? I thrust out the sashimi knife on reflex, and the blade passed across that line. What had been round split in two and burst like a water balloon, and the spell transformed into a sudden shower in an instant.

It had definitely been water. And yet the sensation of cutting it remained vividly in my hand.

What exactly had that feeling been? It was like ripples rising in a perfectly still mirror-like surface where not a single drop of water had fallen.

I had no other way to explain it. Ever since manifesting the Blessing of the Sword God, everything had been filled with sensations that were hard to describe.

I raked hard at the back of my head as if clawing through the mess in my mind. Then I raised only my upper body slightly and opened the status window while lying half-reclined.

Fwaaat.

== ==

[Blessing of the Sword God]

If it was cut, it would be cut.

◎Rank of the Flesh: 7 ▷ The specifications of the sword were relaxed.

◎Rank of the Mind: (3▶4) ▷ Intimidation took root in words and actions.

◎Rank of the Weapon: 1 ▷ The unlock condition had not been met.

☆Synchronization Rate: 6.8▶7.2% ▷ 【NEW! The unlock condition had been met.】

★【???】

[※ This blessing only activates when the sword is under 36 centimeters in length and under 9 centimeters in width.]

== ==

The Rank of the Mind had risen by one stage. I remembered the mechanical voice I’d heard while manifesting the blessing: “Rank of the Mind increases through the exertion of spirit.”

This was only a guess, but maybe the reason I hadn’t lost my nerve and backed down in fear even when facing a demonoid for the first time was thanks to that stat called the Rank of the Mind. Thanks to it, my body hadn’t frozen up, and I had been free to move.

I’d thought it was a mostly useless stat, and yet to think it would turn out to be the most useful one in a crisis.

There was only a hair’s breadth between courage and recklessness, but if I too had shaken like castanets the way my teammates had back then, we’d had all gone to the underworld together.

Human affairs really were impossible to understand. I scratched my cheek awkwardly and lowered my gaze.

‘Finally.’

The words glittering and shining on my retina. At some point the Synchronization Rate had crossed seven percent, the value required for unlocking, and the condition had been fulfilled.

Personally, it was the number I had been most curious about in the Blessing of the Sword God after the question marks below it. The thought that I might finally get a clue made me excited. I stretched out my index finger and tapped the line.

Fwaaat.

== ==

☆Synchronization Rate: 7.2% ▷ One line of 【???】 could be read.

[The next unlock condition will be met upon reaching 15% Synchronization Rate.]

== ==

‘One line can be seen.’

The meaning of the message itself was easy enough to understand. The red line drawn across the mermaid’s magic. There was nothing else it could mean.

…But the important thing was.

‘No, what the hell is 【???】 anyway?’

I had thought maybe I would at least get some clue about the mystery that had been itching at me all this time, but instead I understood it even less. It was as if the information were being deliberately hidden.

Like an eel slipping here and there through the gaps between my fingers, it kept doing nothing but tossing out bait.

It was probably the same concept as the question marks below the Synchronization Rate. But because it was irritatingly nothing more than three question marks, there was no easy way to infer the information, and it drove me crazy.

“Haa….”

A sigh slipped out between my lips. I rubbed my chest in a wide circle to calm myself. It hadn’t even been long since I woke up. There was no point in stirring up my emotions for no reason.

Still, if I tried to look at it positively, I had at least gained one thing. The number enclosed in parentheses, the ‘1.’ It seemed easy enough to guess that as the Synchronization Rate rose, that number would rise too.

This place, the world of Miracle’s Blessing M, was fundamentally a game, so in ordinary terms it was not hard to infer that would be the case.

It would be a lot easier if it would just plainly define what kind of line it was, but instead it felt like someone was tossing me featureless puzzle pieces and telling me to put them together.

No matter how I looked at it, it was probably that shameless bastard who had thrown me into this world.

After giving a short snort, I coldly closed the status window. When I laced my fingers together and stretched my arms out, a refreshing series of bone pops rang out.

Knock, knock.

The sound of someone knocking. The door slid open to the side.

“Geom-ma! You’re awake!”

“……!”

At the same time, Media rushed over with light footsteps and threw her arms around me.

“Our Geom-ma, if anything had happened to you, I was really about to march over and fire every last one of those instructors who said they’d done the preliminary inspection! I’m so relieved you came to your senses, Geom-ma.”

Media spoke as if it had been twenty years since she’d last seen me, her voice trembling with emotion.

“Khk, Headmaster, I, I can’t breathe.”

“Oh dear, sorry. I was just so happy.”

Media rubbed at the corner of her eye with the back of her hand as she apologized. I cleared my throat awkwardly and turned my eyes toward the door.

I could sense one more person’s presence from beyond the room. Even blocked by the metal door, the overflowing pressure could not be hidden.

When I silently stared that way, Media shrugged and raised her voice toward the door.

“Hey, old man! Why are you, a grown adult, acting shy!? Is this a blind date? Get in here already!”

“Media, don’t I tell you every single time not to call me that.”

Sword Emperor Siegfried entered with a displeased mutter.

Standing beside Media, he folded his arms with crisp precision and looked at me.

It was a strangely familiar sight.

The people who had come to visit me the first time I was hospitalized after the entrance ceremony had also been the headmaster and the Sword Emperor.

For a mere academy cadet like me, it was quite burdensome that two of the Seven Heroes showed up every time I got hospitalized.

“What brings the Headmaster and the Sword Emperor here?”

When I asked uneasily, Media smiled brightly and patted my head.

“I heard everything from your teammates. Our Geom-ma, you were incredible.”

Media said it gently. Then she stood up and stepped a few paces away from the bed.

The next moment she bowed her head deeply to me. At that, the Sword Emperor beside her uncrossed his arms as well. The sight made my eyes widen.

“On behalf of Hoakin Academy, I apologize. The disgraceful events that took place during this midterm are entirely the fault of our academy. Because of that, Geom-ma and your teammates, no, all of the first-year academy cadets on Scopuli Island could very nearly have lost their lives. As Media Poison, Headmaster of Hoakin Academy, I swear on my honor that I will uncover the reason for this demonoid’s appearance.”

The way Media, who was old enough that I was little more than a child to her, bowed to me looked more mature than anyone else’s. The Sword Emperor added with a resolute expression:

“You saved the cadets.”

The Seven Heroes, called humanity’s hope.

Just from looking at Media and Siegfried, I could understand why they were called hope. A noble dignity dwelled in the way they spoke and acted.

“I only did it because I could.”

Feeling awkward, I rubbed beneath my nose as I said it. Media then raised her head. The flush around her eyes had faded compared to a moment before.

Then suddenly a gloom passed over her face. Media sat gently beside me, hesitated, then began to speak.

“Geom-ma, what you did was truly incredible… but until the truth of this incident is uncovered, I think we’ll need to keep it secret for a while. It’s laughable for me as the headmaster to say this, but I think this incident is tied to problems inside the academy. I’m really sorry, Geom-ma. When anything, I should be doing even more for you.”

Certainly, a demonoid had appeared without warning on an island that was supposedly already inspected in advance. Based on what they knew so far, that was the right conclusion to draw.

Besides, I didn’t really have any craving for glory, and honestly, if this could pass quietly, that was more than enough for me, so there was no need for her to feel this guilty.

“Understood.”

“…Geom-ma, honestly. You’re still a child, so act spoiled once in a while.”

Media smiled softly.

“Oh, right!”

Then, as though something had occurred to her, she clapped her hands loudly and pulled something from the pocket of her robe. It was one of those snap coin purses old ladies in the neighborhood used to carry around in the old days.

‘I guess age really does show.’

When I looked at it with narrowed eyes, the corners of Media’s mouth twisted.

She spoke in a sharp tone full of hysteria.

“Geom-ma, you were just thinking to yourself that I look old, weren’t you!!”

…How did she know? I’d felt it before, but this woman really seemed like she could read minds. Media always brushed it off vaguely as woman’s intuition, but still.

In front of her, I’d had to be careful not just with my words, but with my thoughts too.

When I waved both hands and denied it, Media pushed her lips out and let out a nasal huff.

“Geom-ma, I don’t know what exactly you imagined, but this is a subspace pouch.”

“That is!?”

“What, you know what a subspace pouch is?”

“Yeah, more or less.”

A subspace pouch.

An item capable of storing anything regardless of size or mass. Even when I was playing the game, it had been an all-purpose item traded for top prices at auction.

…Though whatever its performance, its appearance was still as underwhelming as Speed Weapon’s recorder.

Media thrust her hand deep into the pouch. Then something long and metallic came out along with her hand. Riding the momentum, Media cheerfully pulled it all the way free.

What Media held was a single-edged sword.

The hilt was wrapped in worn, shabby cord darkened with age. The traces of the blade’s tempering flowed across it like rain clouds.

A B-rank weapon. The blade that held dew, Murasame.

“Originally I should give this to you officially, but given the situation, I’m giving it to you personally. Geom-ma, I hope you like it.”

Media handed the sword to me. Holding my breath, I received it. The feel of the rough hilt settling into my hand. I ran my fingertips along the blade.

Kiri-ring.

A clean sword note spread around my ears like an echo.

‘But…’

I was definitely excited by the new weapon, yet something about it still felt lacking.

My insides felt stuffy and itchy somehow.

“Well? Do you like it?”

A brilliant smile bloomed on Media’s face. Scratching my cheek, I said:

“Would it be possible to take this to the forge?”

“Uh, it is possible, but why?”

Media asked in puzzlement. I answered only with a faint smile and quietly murmured:

“Weapon enhancement.”