Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Open Class and the Sword Saint

I had kept the Tear of the Dead in mind.

If she had only touched me for a very brief moment, there would have been no time for her to feel any energy.

But...

“...I think my legs lost strength because I sat for so long. May I stay like this just a little longer...?”

...I could not bring myself to push away Eisel when she said that.

I could feel a faint trembling from her body as she was held in my arms.

Eisel was a regressor.

No one in the world could understand her.

No one could comprehend her.

But I was different.

At the very least, I could understand her.

At the very least, I had to become someone she could rely on.

And so, although it was only for a short time, short enough that Eisel could not accurately recognize the “Tear of the Dead,” I remained still as she asked.

I squeezed out as much time as possible.

At last, around the time she burrowed deeper into my embrace, I had to stop.

“...She must have noticed.”

If it was Eisel, she would have sensed the energy vaguely, at least.

Naturally, bewilderment filled her eyes when she parted from my embrace.

I thought it was fortunate that, at least, I did not see hostility.

“...I’ll be going now.”

Eisel left after those words.

Like that, I was left alone in the quiet flower garden.

As I smelled the fragrance of flowers blooming all around, I felt that perhaps Sierra was right, and I too had needed time alone.

I stood vacantly in the flower garden and looked at the flower with its mysterious color, where several colors were mixed together.

It was a flower called “Obshion.”

Since I did not know much about flowers unless they were special items, the story of Obshion that Eisel told me was information I had not been able to learn from the game... or at least, information I had not known, so it was rather interesting.

“A happy ending...”

Perhaps what they had wished and wished for had only been placed into the flower meaning at the very end.

On the other hand, I could understand Julian, who had tried to save Obshion.

As someone who wanted to save Eisel with certainty, I too strongly wanted to place her somewhere safe if I could.

Eisel was strong.

It was certainly possible to fight alongside her, but I feared that perhaps she might lose her life in the process.

The Eisel I had experienced in the game... had been so close to impossible to save that her regression felt like a kind of curse.

I blankly stared for a long time at the Obshion giving off that faint fragrance.

Could I truly make Eisel happy?

It was not only Eisel.

A happy ending where “everyone” was happy.

That was more important to me than anything.

***

The weekend passed quickly, and weekdays returned.

I rested well over the weekend.

Because I had been moving diligently all this time, suddenly taking a rest made my body itch, but mentally, I think it had been absolutely necessary.

After Edward’s class ended, the students were chatting with their own friends.

The topic was the upcoming “open class.”

Lucia, in high spirits, shouted to us as we left the classroom.

“My younger sister is coming this time too...!”

“Your younger sister... Riqua?”

Yuri asked Lucia back.

“Yes! She must have missed me!”

Amon, watching Lucia smile brightly, shook his head.

“That is not it... As the heir of the Windless family, it is likely a place she must attend, so she has no choice but to come.”

“I-I missed her... There’s no way...”

At Amon’s concise rebuttal, Lucia looked ready to cry.

Riqua Windless.

Lucia’s younger sister and the heir of the Windless family.

Unlike Lucia, she was a sharp and competent child with a cool-headed personality.

If things went well, I might meet her this time.

Like this, during the “open class” period, Innocence Academy, which could be called closed off, would open to outsiders, so many crowds were scheduled to gather at the academy.

It was not that even people with no relation to the academy were permitted to enter.

Rather, the scope of those related was extremely broad, starting with the families of students, graduates of the academy, famous figures from all over the continent, and knight orders, magic towers, guilds, and so on who came to look over talent.

Especially this year, since all four elemental families were gathered in the first year, the scale would be even larger than usual.

During open class, many different people came to the academy, so many things happened, but nothing dangerous occurred.

There were no foolish villains who would cause trouble in a place where the strong of the continent gathered.

“One petty thief does come in... but I think that can be handled somehow...”

There was something else I had to be careful of.

I looked at Sierra floating through the air and wondered what I should do.

During this open class, her enemy and foe.

And the one who could be called my final goal...

...the Sword Saint would come to the academy.

***

Chris was lying leisurely in a shaded place, avoiding the blazing sun, and humming.

“How peaceful... calm.”

He was receiving meals and a place to sleep in a small village in exchange for helping with work.

The work was mainly farming.

After finishing work, lying in the shade and enjoying the quiet was a small happiness he could feel in this village.

A bird flew down beside him.

“Hmm...?”

A letter was tied to the bird’s leg, and the black palm pattern engraved on its belly was familiar even to him.

It was the mark of the continent’s foremost information guild, the “Black Hand.”

Sword Saint Chris enjoyed wandering.

However, the Black Hand knew where he was no matter where he went.

Thus, those looking for Chris would seek out the Black Hand when they wanted to contact him.

However, when someone looked for the “Sword Saint,” they often brought troublesome matters.

When Chris glanced at the bird once and ignored it, not taking the letter, the bird tilted its head, stared at him, and soon began pecking him repeatedly with its beak.

“Tch...”

Unable to endure it, Chris clicked his tongue once and removed the letter tied to the bird’s leg.

Soon, as if it had finished its job, the bird flew off somewhere with a flutter.

“Hmm... It had better not be those fellows going on about the Round again...”

Hoping only that it was not a troublesome matter, Chris carefully unfolded the letter.

The letter began with the word “Grandfather.”

The moment he set eyes on that word, the corner of his mouth slowly rose.

“It is Kaen...”

The one who had sent the letter was none other than his disciple, Kaen. Though they were not related by blood, she was a child he had raised while thinking of her as his granddaughter.

“She has not contacted me at all since entering the academy...”

Had something happened, prompting her to send a letter?

Chris thought he would feel a little disappointed if Kaen’s letter was not merely a greeting, but one sent because something had happened.

He read down the letter with a somewhat serious face.

Something had happened.

It seemed Kaen had experienced her first defeat, and to someone who held his sword in a reverse grip, no less.

Kaen did not seem to have taken out the swordsmanship he had taught her, but even aside from that, she should have been overwhelmingly strong compared to ordinary students.

Judging by the contents of the letter, it seemed she had lost despite giving it her all.

It felt rather strange that Kaen, the disciple of none other than the Sword Saint, had lost in swordsmanship. But if there was one thing even stranger than that...

“...Why is she so happy after losing?”

Kaen acknowledged that she had lost cleanly and was diligently praising the fellow.

As if she were explaining someone she adored, the letter rambled on at length with useless information about him.

What exactly did the sentence, “Someday, I too would like to receive needles from him,” mean?

“Eastern... blind swordsman...”

He had met one or two blind people who handled swords before. However, they had not possessed skill memorable enough to remain in his mind.

In any case... aside from talk about the blind swordsman, Kaen seemed to be living healthily and well.

Before he knew it, as he was reading the final lines of the letter, he could understand the purpose for which Kaen had sent it.

“Grandfather, I think you already know that there will be an open class at the academy this time. I am telling you just in case, but you do not need to force yourself to come all the way here to see me. For now, I am still hiding the fact that I am your disciple... and you have never liked crowded places since long ago, have you?”

That was what was written in the letter.

Kaen added at the very end that even if he did come, it seemed they would only be able to talk in a place without people.

“Should I call this a greeting...?”

Having finished reading the letter, Chris fell briefly into thought.

He was debating whether to go or not.

Since Innocence Academy was opening its doors, it was obvious that many people who would bother him would probably come.

If he had to say, he probably did not want to go.

“But since she tells me not to come, I feel like going.”

In the end, Chris decided to visit the academy and see Kaen’s face after a long time.

He was also curious what sort of fellow had defeated his disciple.

He wanted to go secretly, but the academy was not a place where that was possible.

Still, there were more than enough pretexts for him to visit the academy.

Chris was the Sword Saint.

If he said he was coming, the academy would welcome him with open arms.

Soon, Chris ended his deliberation briefly, tucked Kaen’s precious letter into his clothes, and rose.

“It has been a while. I should contact that fellow.”

Before visiting, he had to contact his old friend, Juliut Klaus, first.

He had enrolled Kaen through Juliut, who was the academy’s headmaster.

He was also the only person within the academy who knew Kaen was his disciple.

“But how should I contact him...”

Now that he was actually trying to contact him, Chris did not know the name or location of this village.

It was because he had wandered by boarding any carriage passing along the road without knowing its destination.

While thinking about where he could go to speak with Juliut, Chris decided to chase the bird that had just flown away.

Since it was a bird owned by the “Black Hand,” he thought that if he followed it, he would be able to find them.

If he went through the Black Hand, he would be able to reach Juliut quickly as well.

Soon, Chris looked in the direction the bird had flown, began running lightly, and his form vanished in the blink of an eye.

***

“What is this...? What is happening...?”

The Black Hand guild member managing the letter-delivery birds was terribly flustered.

A man was walking toward this small tower where the birds gathered.

Naturally, the guild member knew who that man was.

The strongest swordsman on the continent.

The Sword Saint.

A letter had arrived for him, and it had not been long since he sent it.

In the Sword Saint’s hand, the guild member’s bird was caught, and the bird kept flapping its wings, doing everything it could to return to the tower.

Had the bird perhaps made some mistake with him?

Had the contents of the delivered letter been wrong?

Or, if not that, had it displeased him that the guild kept tracking his location?

The guild member swallowed as he looked at the Sword Saint slowly approaching the tower.

Soon, the Sword Saint found him at the top of the tower and waved.

He had never once sought the Chief God in his life, but this time, he had no choice but to gather his hands politely and offer a prayer.

“Chief God Heneris... please... watch over me...”