Chapter 78

Chapter 78. Enriching the Nation, Strengthening the Army (5)

[Muratan's Failure 001—Fusion Sword of the Imperial Emperor and ■■■ ■■.]

Muratan's armaments came numbered.

His Failure series, classified from 1 to 1,000.

The closer to 1, the more powerful the performance. In truth, even the 1,000th piece was world-class enough to be called a divine weapon—that was how exceptional Muratan's work was.

The reason they were still called failures was because I'd pushed him mercilessly.

'Iris, Jun, Muratan.'

My middle-school syndrome's warped sensibilities had given birth to the 3rd Sword Muratan, the 4th Sword Jun, and the 5th Sword Iris.

They had lived lives of hardship beyond anything the 1st Sword Reinhardt or 2nd Sword Yuria could imagine.

The emotions of a pubescent boy who'd lost his parents had been deeply turbulent.

And back then, I'd thought Raise a Sword was just a game.

"Poor girl. Become the absolute strongest and kill everything. I'll make all your wishes come true!"

Into Iris, I'd poured my sympathy alongside a blackened heart screaming "kill them all and get revenge!!!"

"An assassination sword with perfect stealth. Like the mysterious mastermind of an unknown world? That might actually be cool......"

For Jun, the assassination sword, I'd wished for him to become an emotionless shadow-ruler whose identity no one knew.

"Oh. A blacksmith who reshapes the world. The sword is my hammer and the world is my forge! That's pretty good."

For Muratan, I'd channeled that era's signature warped sensibility of "oh, this would be kinda sick."

'If I told anyone, I'd be cringing under my blankets, but......'

Now that I was actually using their powers in reality, things were different.

I felt deep gratitude toward the me of that era.

'Thank god, seriously.'

Iris, who could devour anything with her demons and wielded absolute military force.

Muratan, the world-reshaping blacksmith.

And Jun, the assassination sword—still locked but with presumably overwhelming potential.

Could there be any beings in reality with greater versatility?

[Muratan's Failure 122—A Sword Forged by Binding the Entire Imperial Transcendent Knight Order.]

[Price: 2,000,000,000 Coins.]

Indeed, the Shop before my eyes was proving that young Si-woo's choices had been correct.

What I intended to purchase was one of Muratan's countless Failures.

A three-digit numbered sword at that.

Yet it boasted an insane price tag of two billion.

[Ahem...... hrm. Sword Master, why bother looking at failures?]

Muratan cleared his throat, seemingly embarrassed.

The guy who always played the rugged-man act was nothing like his appearance suggested.

For starters, he was weak to compliments.

He also had a soft spot for small animals and fragile humans.

'I've seen it all.'

Across the endlessly repeating worlds, how many times had I watched Muratan kill the World Tree only to release a small sandpiper that had been nesting in its branches?

That had cost us several playthroughs.

On top of that, whenever he showed off a masterwork, he'd get all flustered and blush—a peculiar fellow.

[I-I could just make you something new. Get me ten thousand pieces of iron and—.]

If I'd actually been looking at him, his face would have been beet-red, head turned away as he spoke.

"I need imperial-grade swords."

[Imperial-grade swords were made when I was still rough around the edges. Wouldn't Outer God-grade serve you better?]

The "xx-grade" designation referred to the origin material of a sword.

Like saying "POSCO-grade steel rebar."

Single-digit swords used world-class entities as raw material—Outer God-grade, Demon God-grade, demon-grade, imperial-grade, emperor-class, and so on.

Two- and three-digit swords used nation-level Transcendents as material.

[Sword Master, is your insistence on imperial-grade failures because of that brat demon? I can't fathom why you'd go out of your way for that vicious little thing, but......]

Muratan paused to collect himself, then spoke.

[Hmm. Failure 122 was a sword forged by binding the entire Knight Order including its instructors. It would suit the brat demon's emperor games, I suppose.]

A slightly bashful tone.

He clearly didn't want anyone to notice he was looking out for Iris.

As a Sword Master well-versed in handling him, I nodded and pretended not to notice as I asked.

"Will a Knight Order from a world where Iris never existed recognize us as their emperor?"

[Sword Master, you are the master of all swords—of course they would. The brat demon has the bloodline too, so they would recognize her.]

There was an Imperial Palace and an Imperial Citadel.

There was an empress of legitimate bloodline and a throne.

The final piece needed was retainers who recognized and truly served her—Iris Ruzbella.

If that came together, Iris's world would be partially recreated on Earth.

[Oh! So you truly mean to summon us into that bothersome world. Between managing demons, I'm not sure I'll have the time, but......]

"If it's too much trouble, I'll put yours off until later, Muratan."

[With the Sword Master's Dominion in play, it is difficult for me to defy your will. I shall assist you, reluctantly.]

One bit of pushback and Muratan gave the most delightful reaction.

Without that era's middle-school syndrome, the odds of me obtaining swords like these would have approached zero.

At any rate, we aligned our thinking.

[An Imperial Citadel, an empress, and retainers. The easiest condition of the lot.]

Experiments in the Tower had shown that Reinhardt's finger could appear in reality.

That proven possibility was why I'd chosen Space—Leap as the Baby Sword's enhancement trait.

"Leap" meant transcending space.

[A Territory guaranteed by the system is also treated as the Sword Master's domain. It should certainly be possible.]

On top of that, I'd partially recreated the swords' world.

'At the very least, within the Imperial Citadel......'

Iris should be able to appear in physical form, even in a limited capacity.

I was certain of it.

***

FLASH!

[Purchased: 'Muratan's Failure 122—A Sword Forged by Binding the Entire Imperial Transcendent Knight Order.']

[Coins: 8,240,000,000]

Between various earnings totaling 240 million Coins and the 10 billion investment return from Im Ji-a.

Two billion vanished in an instant.

Despite the enormous expenditure, a smile was spread wide across my face.

MARCH, MARCH, MARCH, MARCH—.

Disciplined footsteps in perfect unison.

A total of one hundred and two members of the Imperial Transcendent Knight Order formed up in rigid formation.

They offered me—their emperor—a sword salute.

Per imperial protocol, they pressed their sword hilts to their chests.

'So the full kit—armor, swords, equipment—all gets summoned together.'

Gear fusing imperial technology with Muratan's blacksmithing.

One hundred and two elite knights outfitted in such equipment.

They looked at me and cried out.

LOYALTY——!!!

The Knight Order's thunderous shout.

So powerful it felt as though the entire palace was shaking.

And their eyes burned with an unmistakable fervor, as if they were awaiting something from me.

'They want me to prove myself.'

The emperor of the Ruzbella Empire was duty-bound to answer his knights' loyalty by demonstrating worthy authority.

I gave a light nod and released the Authority imbued in my uniform.

A power I'd never once used before—existing solely to prove oneself as the strongest among humankind.

[Emperor's Authority.]

The emperor of the Ruzbella Empire had occupied a position something like second-strongest of humanity.

Excluding my sword—the strongest—and Outer Gods and demons, it meant the most powerful human being.

'The strongest among humanity.'

What would the authority displayed by such a being look like?

Not some vague sense of presence.

It manifested as concrete willpower, realized like an Authority, carrying physical force.

And my uniform housed that authority, and I was a Sword Master who could project it as naturally as breathing.

BOOOM——.

At my will, the entire space grew crushingly heavy.

An overwhelming weight that would instantly flatten an ordinary person.

The Emperor's Authority poured from my uniform, so dense it visibly warped space, and its power seized total dominion over the area.

STOMP!

The knights simultaneously struck the ground with their boots and lowered their swords from chest to hip.

Standing at rigid attention, they waited for nothing but my command—silent, immovable, enduring.

That was what it meant to be a knight of the Ruzbella Empire.

'Humanity's mightiest Knight Order.'

Beings who could stand upright within the crushing gravity of the strongest human emperor.

That was what made them imperial knights, and among those, only those deemed worthy to stand beside the emperor on the battlefield were called the Imperial Transcendent Knight Order.

"We present ourselves before His Majesty, Emperor Shin Si-woo."

The Knight Commander approached and knelt before me.

Look at that devoted bearing.

By any measure, they could pass for ordinary people.

'Are they actually human?'

For something purchased as a "sword" from the Shop, their appearance was jarringly lifelike.

Naturally, I had to ask.

"Your name?"

"Forgive us, Your Majesty, but we are merely your swords. Instruments to be wielded at your pleasure."

Would a Knight Commander truly not know his own name?

I hadn't known what happened to people who'd been turned into swords by Muratan, but this answered that question.

[Heh heh heh, Sword Master—didn't you say it yourself? Strip away everything but the barest form, erase every trace of individuality, and only then does a proper sword emerge.]

One hundred and two people forged into a single sword.

They were human yet not human.

A sword existed to kill, and these humans had been honed into exactly that.

"Command us as you will, Your Majesty. We shall simply follow and execute."

The knights before me were weapons, faithful only to their master's orders.

They acted human and obeyed, yet possessed no personal preferences or sense of self whatsoever.

'Even better.'

If every one of them had possessed individuality, will, and desire?

The complications would have been endless.

Power struggles with Earth's humans, factional splits between me and Iris.

The Ruzbella Empire's Imperial Palace had originally been a den of such political intrigues and power plays.

That was precisely why I'd advised Muratan to create swords like these.

"Everyone, march to the Imperial Palace."

Perfectly loyal knights who served no one but their emperor.

With this, the conditions were met.

Time to give Iris—who was managing demons inside the Gate—a surprise gift.

***

Merely breathing here felt overwhelming.

That was the central Imperial Palace.

The palace that had made young Iris suffer—the doomed emperor's residence.

"We have never been able to sit there, and yet it was torn down. We do so wish to see it."

Iris murmured this while managing demons inside the Gate.

The words came from a grotesque demon's mouth, yet the voice was that of a young girl—and indeed, it was Iris herself inhabiting the demon.

Normally, an empress would never inhabit something so lowly as a demon.

'The Sword Master's will.'

To Iris, the Sword Master's word was absolute law.

She had never once suffered from obeying, and it was the command of the benefactor who had granted her vengeance upon the world she'd hated her entire life.

'It is only right that We follow.'

Moreover, even after the world had ended, he'd allowed her to continue existing alongside him.

Hadn't he given her permission to exist in the first place?

"Father......"

She'd wanted to call him that.

But deep in Iris's heart, the word felt wrong.

Given what "father" had meant in her life, the reaction was only natural.

"Confine the princess born under the Death Star for all eternity."

"Did you truly believe you could leave the empire and survive on your own?"

"Because of the lowborn mother who bore you, a baleful star now hangs over the empire. I shall personally take your head to set the empire right."

When the Fragment of Impurity embedded in the colossal sword had been destroyed.

Certain memories had flowed into the swords, Iris included.

The swords who received those memories had each fallen silent, saying nothing, yet privately they'd turned those memories over in their minds.

Those were memories from the vanished worlds—the eras when the swords had failed.

"We were killed by Our father countless times."

Iris had truly died so very, very many times.

The fragmentary memories alone couldn't tally how many, yet even the slivers that had reached her were enough to conclude—.

"We were truly an orphan in every sense."

—that the emperor who'd been her father deserved to be denied.

Originally, the only playthrough she'd remembered was the final, successful one.

She'd vaguely known that failures existed, but she'd never expected to receive memories this detailed.

Now that she had them, the world couldn't look the same.

"The Sword Master is this maiden's......"

What should she call this emotion?

Gratitude alone couldn't possibly capture its overwhelming weight.

The supreme benefactor who, across endlessly collapsing worlds, had striven ceaselessly to fulfill her wish.

And beyond that—.

'This maiden is......'

Iris tried to organize the flood of emotions.

Just as she was about to grasp a thread.

—Iris, come back.

The Sword Master's voice reached her.

Warm, yet stern when sternness was called for.

Before she'd become a sword, the mechanical system voice that had reached her through [■■■]—her sword—was now overlaid with Si-woo's voice.

The true identity of the message that had repeated endlessly, striving to save her and fulfill her dream—it had been that voice.

Iris steadied her trembling heart and spoke brightly.

"This maiden shall heed the Sword Master's will."

She returned to the Sword Realm at once.

There, she gazed through the Sword Master's field of vision.

"......"

A space awash in gold.

A place where the authority of successive emperors had accumulated into a tangible phenomenon.

It was the Imperial Palace she'd spent her life wishing for—and resenting—and hating.

The space where the emperor dwelled.

'The throne......'

Si-woo's gaze shifted.

There stood an empty throne, flanked by rows of immaculately poised knights.

Taking it all in, Si-woo spoke.

"Empress of the Ruzbella Empire, Iris Ruzbella."

Iris's eyes slowly widened.

Because she understood precisely what the Sword Master was about to do.

"The Sword Master is going to......"

Her heart pounded fit to burst.

An empty throne. Knights awaiting her.

And before them, the Sword Master's voice calling her name.

Put it all together, and the answer was simple.

"—You're going to bring this maiden outside?"

As if to answer that question.

Sword Master Shin Si-woo spoke.

"This is where you were always meant to be."