Chapter 1 – The Princess’s Forced Ascension
They had bought a wagon off a caravan, and now the highway was rolling past under it: a plain two-horse cart with a canvas hood. Princess Cordelia had the reins, and Sieg sat up front beside her. Getting in the back was out of the question. Lilis was in the back.
“Ohhh, this is fun~! I basically never ride in these! Running along on the ground, what a joke~! Whoa! Hey! Drive it more carefully!”
“I’m terribly sorry!”
The princess was steering as gently as she knew how, which had limits. Sieg made the obvious objection.
“…Then fly. I never gave you permission to ride in the first place.”
Lilis pulled a face at him, an enormous one.
“Wow, so stingy~! Typical Human, no room in the heart! What’s one ride~? Flying is tiring, you know! And I’m scouting for you, so honestly you should be grateful~.”
There was nothing out here worth scouting for. Sieg shut his eyes and took a slow breath to keep his temper down. There was no profit in being angry at a High Elf. The long-lived races did not take instruction from short-lived ones.
The princess had been listening to the exchange with visible anxiety, and now changed the subject.
“Anyway, Sieg-san. Where exactly are we headed?”
“Past the next territory there’s forest country. The story is that a demon sword lies somewhere deep in it. That’s what we’re going to collect.”
Her eyes went wide.
“Eh! A demon sword!? Those are cursed weapons, aren’t they? Is it safe to use one?”
She was right, as far as it went. A demon sword exacted a price from whoever drew it, which was exactly what earned the name. The steeper the price, the better the blade performed, and so most of the stories about them ended badly.
Sieg shook his head briefly.
“It’s fine. The one out there is supposed to ask very little.”
“Oh… that’s a relief…”
The princess let out a breath. Sieg kept his face still and looked away.
It was a lie. He had no idea what that sword would ask of the man who carried it. What the rumors said was that it had some deep connection to the first Hero.
He glanced down at the blade on his hip. His Sacred Silver sword had been falling behind his rank for a while now, unable to take the volume of mana or the inhuman strength going through it. He needed a serious weapon soon. Whatever the sword in that forest demanded, it was worth the risk of going to get it.
“Hm~. A demon sword, huh~.”
Lilis’s voice, from the back. He could feel her watching him.
She might know something about that sword. She might also have caught the lie. She said nothing further.
The princess worked the reins and went on.
“The next territory over is the abandoned one, isn’t it? I’ve heard people still can’t live there.”
The whole of this region had seen heavy fighting against the demons once. A good deal of it had been wrecked past rebuilding and simply written off. On top of that, large battles tended to generate miasma, which is mana-element fouled by negative feeling. Die with enough hatred or terror still in you and the mana-element in your body goes out into the world as miasma. It poisons the ground, unhinges people, and draws monsters and demons in. Once that starts, recovery gets very hard.
Which is the sort of place a demon sword would be hidden, come to that.
Sieg thought about it a moment longer, then gave the princess directions that turned the wagon toward the mountains.
“Eh? Are you sure this way is right?”
He nodded.
“There’s something to do before we go after the sword. Your Forced Ascension.”
“Forced Ascension…? What is that?”
Forced Ascension—power-leveling, to call it what it is—meant putting a beginner alongside somebody of high rank, farming experience efficiently, and lifting them far faster than the ordinary route would. Cordelia was already strong by any normal measure, but nowhere near strong enough for demons.
He was not going to let her die. She had to get stronger, safely and quickly, and that was all there was to it.
He explained. Her eyes lit up.
“I see! With Sieg-san along, I can fight monsters I’d never be able to handle alone! I want to get much stronger!”
“Good. I know a place. We’re heading up into that range.”
“Understood!”
Princess Cordelia set the wagon going with enormous enthusiasm. In the back, Lilis stretched like a bored cat and yawned hugely.
They reached the area a while later. A wagon could not be taken up into the mountains, so they left it at the foot, watered and fed the horses and let them rest, then went in on foot.
“You don’t have to come, you know. Go play with the horses.”
Lilis looked around at their surroundings and shook her head.
“Nah. Horses are boring.”
“…Suit yourself.”
Sieg and the princess walked; Lilis floated along behind them. About half an hour in, the ground opened out ahead and they had arrived.
It was a small lake.
The princess broke into a delighted grin. “Oh, it’s beautiful! A lake, all the way out here!”
“It’s a landslide lake. Almost nobody knows about it. There was a river through here originally, and by all accounts a slip dammed it.”
Lilis shoved forward past him and gave a cry of surprise.
“Ohh~! So it was this place! I had my eye on it too! …Jikuu, wasn’t it? You’re not bad~!”
Sieg’s face closed, which was unusual for him.
“Sieg. Don’t be careless with people’s names.”
“Yeah, yeah~. Human names are so short they’re honestly funny~. Practically two syllables and you’re done!”
She cackled. He glared. It made no impression on her at all.
That name was the one thing he had from his parents, or something like it. When he was taken in he had apparently said it over and over, and hearing that, the priestess at the church had given it back to him properly. It mattered.
…No reason a High Elf would understand what a name is worth.
He let out a breath, put it away, and turned to explain to the princess.
“There’s a pocket of mana-element underground here, and it bleeds up into the water. Magical beasts and monsters come to drink it. Which means—”
The princess nodded, following easily.
“Which means the monsters around here have taken it in and grown stronger. Which makes this perfect for a Forced Ascension. I see, that’s very clear!”
Quick as ever. Sieg gave a wry half-smile and glanced over at Lilis, who was staring out at the water and muttering to herself.
“…Good spot, but the mana-element’s a bit thin~… I’d drain it dry the moment I used it for teleports~… uu-myu, still a nice place though…”
Lilis knew this lake because it had been one of the candidate sites for her observation hut.
Hearing her, Sieg found himself back in the previous journey, and his face tightened before he could stop it. He knew exactly what this place was. He knew it far better than he wanted to.
The previous journey.
Sieg and Princess Cordelia had been going from territory to territory looking for people to travel with. They were welcomed everywhere and found nobody suitable. Most of those who put themselves forward were after the reputation, and none of them could fight.
What Sieg wanted, if he could get it, was an Elf. Somewhere ahead on the road there was a forest only an Elf could bring them through. But Elves as a rule dislike conflict, and none of them were going to sign on to something as lethal as killing the Demon King.
“…Oh. Something seems to be going on.”
“You’re right. What is it? I’ll go ask.”
The town they had just walked into was distinctly agitated. The man at the general store told him a High Elf had arrived, and the place had rather lost its head about it.
Sieg turned to the princess, pleased.
“Perfect! Let’s go ask her to join us!”
She gave him a half-exasperated look.
“Sieg, listen to me. You may not know this, but the High Elves hold a sacred office watching over the world. They don’t involve themselves in quarrels between Humans and demons. And to ask anything of a High Elf, it would be so far above our station…”
“Huh. Is that right… Well, all she can do is say no. Let’s try.”
He talked her out of her objections by main force and made for the inn where the High Elf was staying. People hoping for an audience had backed up out of the door and into the street, but Sieg said he was the Hero of this generation and was shown in ahead of them.
His first impression of her was: very small, and unbelievably full of herself.
Princess Cordelia sank to her knees, shaking. Sieg asked her straight out.
“Good afternoon. I’m this generation’s Hero. My name’s Sieg. We’re on a journey to bring down the Demon King. If you’re willing, High Elf, would you join us?”
“Wh—Sieg!?”
The princess made a sound like a small scream, got a hand over his mouth, and shoved his head down.
“W-We are terribly sorry! He has not yet learned any manners, and this is unforgivably—”
Liliandiris Sharion Porcelia-Isfaal Nephilia, Observer of the World, most exalted of the High Elves, opened her eyes very wide and stared at him.
After a moment: “Pfffhaaa!”
She sprayed her tea across the room. Then, while the two of them stood frozen, she doubled over, hammering the arm of the couch, and howled.
“Gyahahahahaha! Ahh, my sides! This generation’s Hero is hilarious! You’re the first person who has ever asked me that! Gyahahaha!”
When she had finally laughed herself out, she looked up with a distinctly unpleasant smile.
“Well now~. Do something for me and I might just join you. What do you say~?”
The something turned out to be tidying up the area around a candidate site for her observation hut.
The two of them looked at each other and blinked. They got the location from her and worked out that it meant felling the trees around it, securing water, and leveling ground for the hut, all of which sounded entirely manageable, so they took the job.
“Kukuku. Off you go, then~.”
Liliandiris did not mention that the site swarmed with powerful monsters. The two of them were comprehensively mauled, killed the things by the skin of their teeth, and got out with their lives and nothing else.
They came back in pieces and went straight to her to complain.
“You never said there were monsters like that! You set us up!”
She was drinking her tea with great elegance, and her expression suggested they were slightly stupid.
“Hah? If you can’t handle that lot, how exactly were you planning to kill the Demon King~? Besides, that fight put you up a few ranks. I gave you a training session. If anything you should be thanking me.”
“…You…!” “…That’s…”
Their knees went, and they sat down where they were.
Liliandiris watched them do it, sprayed her tea a second time, laughed until she had to stop, and said:
“Kuku, you two are funny~! Fine. For something to do, I’ll travel with you a while!”
And that was how the most exalted High Elf, Liliandiris, came to join them.
Sieg shook his head to clear it and looked over at Lilis, who was still muttering.
It puzzled him even now. Last time, why had she stayed with them all the way to the end? She had no reason to. He had assumed all along that she would drift off somewhere in the middle.
He shut his eyes and shook his head again.
No point thinking about it. She’s a High Elf who does as she pleases.
“Right. We’re picking a campsite. Tell me what makes a good one on a lakeshore.”
The princess answered him with enormous energy.
“Yes! Flat dry grass a little back from the water is best. Thick trees or rock behind us break the wind and cover an attack from the rear. Good sightlines to the front, and a few minutes’ walk to water. …Ah! And wind direction, because a strong wind makes handling fire difficult!”
Sieg was quietly impressed and did not let it show.
“Passable. I’ll leave the choice to you. Get to it.”
“Yes!”
Princess Cordelia set about making camp, cheerful about it for reasons of her own. Sieg watched her for a while, then walked the area and swept it for threats. There were indeed a great many strong monsters here. Lilis wandered about examining things, checking the mana-element in the ground, most likely.
“Sieg-san, everything’s ready!”
He came back at her call.
“That was fast. Once the baggage is down we’ll eat something light. Then we go hunting.”
“Yes!”
She answered him, then called across to Lilis. “Lady Liliandiris, do come back now! Lunch will be ready in a moment!”
From somewhere beyond the trees came a thoroughly unenthusiastic “Fine~.”
Sieg looked out at the lake and folded his arms.
Now then. How far can I Ascend Cordy here?
And I need to drill her on fighting something that thinks like a demon…
They ate, and Princess Cordelia’s Forced Ascension began in earnest.
⁂
“Good. That last exchange was decent enough. Fighting something above your weight is a physical problem and an information problem at the same time. Learn a monster’s characteristics until you know them cold. Knowing what’s coming gives you room to breathe, and room to breathe makes the attack easier to answer. But don’t swallow what you’re told whole. Monsters throw enhanced variants and mutant strains. Take one lightly and you’re dead in a heartbeat.”
“…Yes… understood…!”
The princess was breathing hard. She wiped the sweat off and took a mouthful from her flask.
They were inside a cave some way back from the lake. Sieg had spent several days teaching her the ground and the local monsters and running her up a fair distance. The method was to beat something powerful to the edge of death and let her finish it.
In a party the experience is shared out, but the one who lands the kill takes most of it. That mechanism was not widely known; you could not find it without years of fighting, one of the world’s hidden workings.
Once she was five ranks up, he moved her to live work. Forcing an Ascension only raises the numbers; it does not make a fighter. Without real combat behind them, a person ends up strong and nothing else, swinging their weight around, which loses to a demon every time. At the very least he wanted her able to break away from a demon of roughly her own strength.
He waited until she had her breath back.
“In today’s fighting, how many times would you have died without me?”
“…Yes… thirteen…”
Sieg nodded, hiding a wry smile. By his count it had been ten.
Never overestimating herself is one of Cordy’s better traits. Don’t worry. I’ll make you the finest swordsman on the continent.
“That’s enough for today. Back to camp.”
Princess Cordelia let out a sigh big enough to echo off the cave walls, and said, in a rather unsteady voice:
“…Um… I’m sorry… I can’t move…”
Sieg looked at her flatly. She looked away and put a hand out to him, tentatively. He sighed, took it, and pulled her up. Whereupon she sagged against him with entirely theatrical helplessness.
On the first day she really had been too exhausted to walk and he had carried her back. She had evidently developed a taste for it, because she had been unable to move every day since.
He made a low sound in his throat, gave in, and started to turn so she could get on his back. He was working her far too hard; she could have an easy trip home if she wanted one.
The princess turned her face away and specified.
“…Um~… if it’s all right… I’d prefer to be carried in front…”
“…Fine.”
So Sieg gathered Princess Cordelia up in both arms. A princess carry, as it is called, which in this instance was simply a description.
“…Ehehe…”
She smiled happily, put her arms around his neck, and settled her head against his chest.
“We’re going.” “Yes.”
Carrying her, Sieg went quickly out of the cave and back toward camp, where Lilis, who had been napping, sat up and yawned into speech.
“What’s this~, you two flirting again~?”
The princess went red and objected instantly.
“We are not! He is carrying me because I can’t walk! Isn’t that right, Sieg-san?”
Uh, sure, Sieg said, or something like it, and put her down.
Princess Cordelia rounded on Lilis immediately. “Right. Lady Liliandiris. We are going to wash. Get ready.”
Lilis scratched at her head and made a face.
“Ehh~, don’t want to~, what a pain~… I washed yesterday.”
The princess’s brows went up like a drawn bow.
“Absolutely not! A girl keeps herself clean, always! Up, now! No washing, no dinner!”
That got Lilis’s attention. The princess’s cooking had been improving daily and had lately become genuinely good, and Lilis, whatever she said, was looking forward to it.
“…Ugh, fine, I’ll go, all right~!”
“Wait—wait, Lady Liliandiris! Do not undress here! I have told you about this! Have some sense of shame!”
Lilis started peeling her clothes off on the spot, and the princess, scarlet, ran at her complaining. The two of them went off toward the lake, squabbling loudly the whole way.
Sieg watched them go and had to smile.
At some point Cordelia and Liliandiris had become close. Or rather, the princess had unilaterally taken her in hand. Lilis’s magic was first-rate and everything else about her was hopeless; she had no stamina and could not look after herself in the smallest way. The princess had started out too overawed to say anything and had ended up unable to watch any longer.
…It went the same way last time.
The scene was familiar enough that Sieg’s mouth loosened at the corner without his permission.
“Ahh~, that was good. Hey, Sieg~, tea~.”
Lilis said it lying flat on her back, and the princess smacked her on the head.
Lilis turned and stared at her with frank astonishment.
“…Eh? You… you hit a High Elf on the head? I am of the Isfaal of the Forest of Nephilia—”
“Hold your tongue!”
Lilis made a small noise and froze. The princess went on with thunder in her face.
“You do not help with the cooking. You do not thank anyone for the food. You lie down the instant you’ve eaten, with no manners whatsoever, and now you would have Sieg-san make your tea? For myself I don’t mind, but you will show Sieg-san some respect. Not even you, Lady Liliandiris, may speak slightingly of him!”
Being told off in earnest, Lilis got up with extreme reluctance.
“Y-Yeah, all right~, sorry! Sieg~… um~… I’d like some tea, please…”
Sieg looked at her, very small for once, and let the corner of his mouth rise a fraction.
He brewed the herbal tea quickly and handed them each a cup. Lilis could not manage anything hot, so hers was cooled a little; the princess liked hers scalding and blown on, so he made hers the way he made his own.
The princess took her cup with a happy “Thank you very much,” then turned a hard eye on Lilis, who wilted under it and produced a small “…thanks…”
All three drank, and all three let out the same involuntary sigh.
Princess Cordelia smiled. “Your tea really is wonderful, Sieg-san. Today’s smells different from usual, doesn’t it?”
“There’s an herb that’s rare elsewhere growing here. It takes up the mana-element from the ground, so it’s better for fatigue too. Worth picking some.”
The princess looked into her cup, impressed, and turned to Lilis.
“Lady Liliandiris, will you gather herbs with me tomorrow? You must have an interest in them.”
Elves are a people of the forest, and know plants and medicine deeply.
“Sure, whatever~.”
The princess, evidently deciding she had gone too far earlier, softened her voice.
“I’ll comb your hair before bed, so don’t fall asleep on me.”
“Yeah~, all right, all right.”
She pulled a face about it and let herself be looked after anyway.
Tea after the evening meal, and the three of them talking about nothing much, had become the shape of the day. Lilis looked over at Sieg’s sword where it stood propped nearby.
“Your sword’s Sacred Silver. Where’d you get it?”
The princess’s head came up. “Eh! Sacred Silver!? Really? I thought it was ordinary steel.”
Sieg made a noise in his throat. A Sacred Silver blade drew far too much attention, so his was worked to pass for plain steel. Seeing through that was very much a High Elf’s doing.
He decided to slide out from under it.
“…How could you tell?”
“You can just look at it. Well? Where from?”
He answered without answering.
“A labyrinth. It was in the treasury.”
“Hm~…”
Lilis sounded bored by the reply, and then asked:
“Where are you from? Going by how you carry yourself, I’d say noble.”
That was sharp enough that his brows drew together.
The way Sieg carried himself had been built during the previous journey, when he had been drilled in etiquette until he could stand in front of a territorial lord or the royal family without embarrassing anyone. However carefully he played the commoner, it leaked out at the edges of everything he said and did.
He assembled a dubious expression.
“Does a High Elf take an interest in where a person comes from?”
“Ahh, just answer the question! Stop bristling at everything! You small-minded Human!”
Lilis raised her voice as she always did, and the princess’s eyes narrowed.
“Oh? Lady Liliandiris. What was that, just now?”
“…Ugh…”
Lilis’s gaze shot away, and the princess laughed a little.
“Hehe. I’m teasing. I didn’t know either, whether Sieg-san was a commoner or a noble. Though one can tell he’s been well educated. Sieg-san is a commoner, born in Brisgard Territory. The West Village, wasn’t it?”
He had told the princess a certain amount about his background. He would rather not have gone into detail, but this much was harmless.
“That’s right. I was raised in the church orphanage.”
Lilis drained her cup and yawned into her answer.
“Hoo~. Right, I see~.”
“…What exactly are you fishing for?”
She did not press it after that. She had probably lost interest. Still, High Elves are sharp.
She hasn’t worked out I’m the Hero. But she knows something doesn’t add up.
Worth being careful.
Sieg resolved to keep a closer eye on what Lilis did.
The next morning, when he woke—
Nn…!
—Lilis was in his arms.
Sieg’s breath stopped and his face registered every bit of it. She was clinging to him, sound asleep and breathing softly. He had actually been on guard against exactly this, because it had happened during the previous journey too.
And she still got this close without my noticing.
Some kind of Blessing, or something the race simply has.
At the time he had thought nothing of it. Now he could see how abnormal it was. If she had been an assassin, he would have been dead a long time ago.
…Unbelievable. I let my guard down.
He was still not moving when Princess Cordelia’s voice arrived.
“Good morning, Sieg-san. Um… Lady Liliandiris doesn’t seem to be anywh—AAAAAAAAA!?”
The word broke off in the middle and became something else entirely as she recoiled. The noise woke Lilis.
“…Aah~? What… it’s too early for this~…”
“Wh—wh-what! What are you doing!? Lady Liliandiris!”
The princess pointed at her, shaking. Lilis answered as though it were a chore.
“What? I got into Sieg’s bed for a bit~. Where’s the harm.”
The princess’s face was scarlet.
“There is considerable harm! For a lady to creep into a gentleman’s bed is outrageously indecent! Have some sense of shame! Even I haven’t—that’s not the point! J-Just get away from him!”
Lilis’s expression turned delighted, and she wrapped herself around him more thoroughly.
“Eh~, Sieg doesn’t mind~, does he? In fact he held me so tight last night I thought I’d break. Kukuku.”
The princess’s eyes went very wide, and then she looked at Sieg on the edge of tears.
“…Sieg-san… you didn’t…”
Sieg sighed once, took Lilis by the scruff of the neck, and dropped her out of the blanket.
“Don’t lie. She’ll believe you. That’s one I’ll overlook. There won’t be a second.”
“Oh, scary~. You loved it really~!”
Watching this, the princess drew herself up and shouted, shaking.
“…You—you impossible woman!”
“What~, jealous~? Then get into Sieg’s bed yourself~!”
“—————!! Lady Liliandiris!”
Lilis stuck her tongue out, bolted, and the princess went after her scarlet to the ears. Sieg watched them go and sighed from somewhere very deep.
From that morning on, Lilis attached herself to Sieg and would not be detached for a moment. She put her own survey on hold and even came along to the Forced Ascension sessions.
It was the same incomprehensible behavior she had shown last time. Then and now, what Lilis did made no sense whatever.
After a few days it became simply what happened. That was the same as last time too. People get used to things.
“Hey, Sieg~. What are we having her hunt next~?”
Lilis draped herself over his back to ask it.
Sieg made his usual complaint. “You’re stifling. Get off.”
“What was that! You’d treat an exalted High Elf so shabbily!?”
“Yes, yes, Lady Liliandiris. Let’s get off Sieg-san, shall we.”
The princess said it in a perfectly level voice, with a vein standing out at her temple, and hauled Lilis away bodily. Peeling her off him had become part of the princess’s day.
Whether the two of them got on or not was impossible to say. Sieg watched them squabble in the identical way they squabbled every time, and let out a long breath.
Meanwhile the Forced Ascension went steadily forward.
The experience was beginning to plateau. Without considerably stronger monsters there would be no efficient Ascension left. By now the procedure was settled: Sieg drew the monster in, the princess fought it alone, and Lilis handled anything unforeseen.
Lilis had started out unable to pull her punches, flattening the surrounding landscape along with the target, but she had learned to throttle the power down and could now support properly. These days she was working through the non-lethal support spells she had never much bothered with, and finding them entertaining.
The princess’s Ascension had run ahead of schedule because Lilis was helping, and Sieg was honestly grateful for it, and it sat badly with him all the same. He had no intention of making Lilis a companion. He had no intention of pulling anyone at all into this journey.
He was thinking about that when Lilis, watching the fight beside him, spoke up.
“Uu-myu… she’s got a lot stronger, but she’s really weak against anything she hasn’t seen before~. She could win if she just fought normally, but she goes all stiff and it’s painful to watch~.”
Sieg nodded without changing expression.
A High Elf indeed. She had found the flaw.
Princess Cordelia had an unusual constitution: the mana pathways inside her carried part of the load her reflexes should have. Her body moved before she thought. Left to move as it wanted, she was formidable beyond comparison. The same constitution was also the flaw. Upset her, or give her something to deliberate over, and she slowed at once.
Lilis swung her legs and went on.
“Dangerous~. She doesn’t fix that, she dies.”
“…I know.”
Cordy takes things seriously. So she thinks about them. Then the thinking unsettles her and she slows, and the slowness frightens her, and she seizes up worse.
The princess was struggling against a monster she had not met before, an enhanced mountain troll. It was difficult, but Lilis was right: at her level she could take it.
“Nngh!”
‘WROOARGH!’
The princess lost her footing and the troll heaved its club up. With her in trouble, Lilis yawned and flicked one finger, and the troll’s feet went out from under it and it fell.
[Friction Low], a support spell that drops the friction of the ground.
The princess recovered instantly and put everything into a diagonal cut.
“Haaaaaa!”
‘GUOOOOOOHH!’
The blade went through the massive torso and cut it in half, and she had the kill, barely.
She looked over at them, shoulders heaving.
“…Haa… haa… Lady Liliandiris, thank you…!”
Lilis glanced at Sieg first, then answered.
“Sure~… but that thing wasn’t a walkover, granted, and you could still have taken it. You know that?”
“…I do… I know…”
The princess’s brows came together and her face crumpled, and she looked to Sieg for rescue. He walked over, handed her the flask and a towel.
“That’s enough for today. You know what your weakness is.”
“…Yes…”
Sieg considered it for a while. Advice given carelessly might simply give her more to worry at. But she was plainly waiting for him to say something.
So he said it.
“…Telling you to empty your mind won’t help. Try thinking of it this way. You don’t swing the sword. The sword invites you. Your sword already knows everything about what should be done. Don’t try to cut the enemy. Be with the sword, follow where it leads, and by the time you notice, the enemy is cut.”
Princess Cordelia’s face turned troubled.
Sieg caught Lilis’s eye. She understood him immediately and lured another mountain troll out from behind the rocks, then perched on a boulder, entertained.
“Kuku, practical demonstration~? What an overprotective teacher~.”
Sieg smiled slightly at that and turned to face the troll.
Then he closed his eyes.
Seeing him standing there with no guard at all and his eyes shut, the princess cried out.
“S-Sieg-san!”
‘WROOOORGH!’
The troll brought its lumpy stone club down. Sieg swayed, and the blow went past him, and, astonishingly, the troll’s wrist had been cut through.
‘GRUOH!?’
It dropped the club, its face twisting in shock and pain.
Sieg walked toward it at the pace of a man out for air. Its face twisted with rage and it drove a fist like a boulder at him, and Sieg tilted his head as if curious, and the fist went by, and he drifted a step in another direction.
Both of the troll’s arms fell off.
‘GRHUAAARHHH!?’
It panicked, terrified, and flailed, and nothing it did came near him. Instead it was opened up, cut after cut, until it went down on its knees. Sieg moved his hand lightly and its head came away.
In the space of a few breaths the mountain troll had become a heap of bloody meat.
Lilis, for some reason, looked proud of him. “Hmph. Not bad.”
Princess Cordelia had watched the whole thing in open astonishment.
He was not fighting bare-handed, obviously. He was using a sword. But when he had drawn it, or how he had swung it, she could not tell at all.
There was no killing intent anywhere, only ordinary movement, and at the end of it the monster was in pieces.
She had no idea how it was done. What she did understand, again, was how appallingly strong he was.
His sword was an extension of his body. It looked so natural that he might only have been moving, only swinging an arm, and the blade killed with absolute certainty.
Then her chest hurt and she coughed, and realized she had been holding her breath the entire time, too absorbed to remember.
She swallowed, and said in a scraped voice:
“…This is… being with the sword…”
Sieg sheathed the blade as though nothing had happened.
“Honestly, it’s still beyond you. But I judged it was time you saw it. There’s a great deal further along the road than this, of course. Aim for here first.”
The princess bit her lip, looking hopeless. She had concluded it was impossible for her.
Sieg pretended not to notice and went on.
“It won’t come overnight. But you’ll have it in the end. Remember this. You are far stronger than you think you are.”
Princess Cordelia looked at her own sword for a long moment and said nothing, which was unlike her. Ordinarily, praise from Sieg had her jumping in the air.
Watching her not do that, Sieg’s mouth loosened. She had finally started wearing the face of a swordsman aiming seriously at the heights.
Lilis seemed to see it too. She glanced at the princess and laughed, softly.
Princess Cordelia’s Forced Ascension came to an end, and they set out for the next territory, Belagrand, famous for the old battlefield where the first Hero was said to have fought. The plan was to resupply in the territorial capital, leave the highway, and head for the forest that held the demon sword.
All the way there the princess trained alone, in silence. She was clearly troubled, and Sieg did not help her. This was a wall standing across her road, and it was better that she worry at it as long as she needed to.
She finished her practice, looked at her sword, and said quietly, to nobody:
“Being with the sword… what am I actually supposed to do…?”
⁂
Belagrand territory, the lord’s manor—
It was a humid night, bad for sleeping. A young man lay on the bed, breathing slowly.
He was the lord’s son, and a candidate to govern this land in time.
He turned over again in the heat, and again, and slowly came awake. There was a film of sweat on his forehead when he put his hand to it. He wiped it away irritably and sighed.
“…Haa… I’m thirsty…”
Rubbing his eyes, he sat up and reached for the side table, where a jug and a cup stood. It was too much trouble, so he drank straight from the jug.
Refreshed, he looked out of the window at the town. The manor stood on high ground with the whole of the territorial capital laid out below it, the town he would one day govern spread out under his window.
Then he remembered the afternoon, and his face soured. He had clashed with his father again. The lord was called moderate by people being polite; to his son he was simply a weak old man, and the neighboring lords held him cheap for it. That was why there was always trouble along the borders.
He had been arguing for immediate armed intervention. His father would not have it, and talked in a leisurely way about arranging discussions.
His brows drew in, and he said out loud:
“People’s lives are being affected, and he wants to take his time…!”
He had not, of course, simply sat and watched. He had been running about hiring adventurers and mercenaries out of his own funds, trying to raise a territorial army. But money runs out, and he had no particular gift for leading men. A territorial army was a dream on top of a dream. The most he managed was to ride the borders with a few friendly noble sons and a priest he was on good terms with.
He wanted power. His own strength, enough to overwhelm anyone.
With power, Father would listen to me, and admit I’m fit to be the next lord.
The lord was fonder of his plain-spoken nephew than of his belligerent son. It was even possible his father meant to put the cousin in his place.
His face darkened with anger.
Ridiculous! What use is a limp country nobody as lord!? A little territory like this would be crushed at once!
He had grown more frantic by the day, and one day he had complained about it to the priest of the church, who had suggested that he might try praying, since the gods saw everything a man did.
It seemed absurd. But at this point, appealing to a god was very nearly all he had left, so he did as the priest advised and prayed for power.
The priest asked, gently:
“To pray to a god is to enter into a contract with one. A wish requires a price to match it. Do you have the resolve for that?”
“Of course.”
His motives were not entirely unselfish, but the wish for his people’s peace was real, and for that he would give up anything at all. He prayed in that frame of mind.
And then—
“…Eh…”
His eyes opened as wide as they would go, fixed on the ceiling of his bedroom. Something was descending through it: a woman in white robes, wings at her back, a ring of light burning behind her.
The room filled with light and a sweet smell like flowers.
He knew what she was at once. This beautiful maiden was the Spirit of Tidings out of the Hero legends.
The spirit smiled, and asked, in a voice that invited, that sang:
“DY_LAN BAR_NABAS OF BEL_AGRAND. WIL_L YOU_ AWA_KEN AS_ A HER_O?”
Astonishment crossed his face, and then, slowly, turned into joy.
Tears came without his willing them and ran down his cheeks.
…I’ve done it… I’ve finally done it! My prayer reached a god!
I was chosen after all!
Dylan scrubbed the tears away roughly and answered with his whole face set.
“Of course! I will be a Hero!”
The spirit nodded, pleased. “THE_N REC_EIVE THE PRO_OF OF THE CON_TRACT.”
The instant she said it, a shining crest appeared on the back of his left hand. Terrible pain went through it, and to a man drenched in excitement and delight it felt almost pleasant.
That, the spirit told him, was the [Hero’s Crest], the proof of one who has awakened as a Hero.
His whole body shook with holy joy. He looked at the shining mark and shouted.
“I’ve done it! I’ve done it! I’m a Hero now!”
The cry rang through the manor in the depth of the night.
And so, that night, the lord’s son Dylan Barnabas became a Hero.