Chapter 9

Chapter  9

The sword that had been flung far away and stabbed into the ground.

And the tip of Ishara’s blade pointed right before her eyes.

There was only one thing that could mean.

Defeat.

Having lost to Ishara in the end even after using magic power, Persica looked up at her with eyes full of disbelief.

“How?”

Her voice trembled.

“How can you do that...?”

How could she do something like that?

It might have sounded like a rather pathetic excuse, but this time, I did not find the thought unpleasant.

Because I wanted to ask the exact same thing.

“It worked when I tried it?”

Ishara gave an answer that was genius in the most absurd way possible.

She had simply tried it, and it worked.

That was how she explained the use of Sword Aura, something that should have been impossible at her current level.

‘Was this actually possible?’

The level of imbuing a weapon with Aura was by no means low.

No matter how extraordinary her potential was, it was absolutely not the sort of outrageous feat that should appear in the Selection Grounds, and that was even more true now, when her level was only one star.

If even I could not believe it, how much more stunned must Persica and the examinees watching this have been?

“Is that... really magic power?”

“I have never heard of a simple manifestation producing light that clear....”

Murmurs mixed with shock and doubt spread in every direction.

They had all seen the same thing, yet none of them could believe it. That was how far beyond common sense the use of Sword Aura was.

“And yet, you all still cannot believe what you saw. That was Sword Aura.”

At that moment, one man spoke.

A giant of a man, nearly two meters tall, with muscles that looked ready to burst.

And despite that, the barbarian in a suit opened his mouth with grave solemnity.

“The flames of magic power burned vividly and clearly. That color was undoubtedly the color of Sword Aura.”

“B-but Sir Dominic, Sword Aura is supposed to require at least a three-star level... an expert level, no?”

So that man’s name was Dominic.

With his arms crossed, he turned to look at the man who was speaking of common sense.

“And yet that girl accomplished it.”

His voice was resolute.

Common sense was common sense, and this was this.

“So it really was Sword Aura.”

“She does not even look twenty yet....”

“Once this test is over, the whole city is going to be turned upside down.”

After Dominic’s confirmation, one by one, people began nodding.

Even those whose faces still said they could not believe it were accepting it, which made it obvious that the man’s status was quite high.

How much time passed like that?

At last, Persica, who had been left dazed by a result that had gone far beyond all expectations, opened her mouth.

“...I lost.”

She acknowledged her defeat.

She was biting her lip and glaring up with a face full of bitter frustration, but even so, she did not try to take back her admission of defeat.

“Kill me.”

“......”

Here, it did not matter whether the test result was decided by a simple victory match or a fight to the death.

Since this was still unmistakably part of the trial, the unspoken rule here was that even if someone killed royalty, no one would make an issue of it.

‘In truth, killing her would be better.’

She might hold a grudge over having lost, and after graduating from the tutorial, she might try something.

Beyond that, killing her here would eliminate one troublesome rival.

Ishara surely understood that as well.

“No.”

And yet Ishara did not do it.

Watching her withdraw her sword, Persica cried out as if lashing back.

“Do not give me that worthless pity!”

“It is not like that.”

Ishara shook her head.

Smiling as brightly as ever, she said, “I do not hate you. It was only a sparring match, right?”

“That...!”

“Life is precious. I hope you will treasure it.”

Anyone could have said words like that, but there was sincerity in Ishara’s voice.

It was the kind of honesty that only someone who was dying could carry.

“Here, take this.”

Ishara placed a Potion into the hands of the collapsed Persica.

It was the Potion she had saved instead of using earlier.

“I hope we can be friends next time.”

Anyone looking at them could see that Ishara herself was in far worse shape, and Persica had said cruel things to her only moments before.

And yet Ishara just smiled, as if none of that mattered.

[You are far too kind for your own good.]

I flew over to Persica, who was staring blankly at the Potion bottle in her hand.

[You think you understand now why I chose Ishara, don’t you?]

“......”

[Still, well... thanks? Because of you, it feels like Ishara grew even more.]

Ishara had probably grasped Sword Aura by watching the way Persica handled magic power.

Seeing something once was worth more than hearing about it a hundred times. For Ishara, Persica had been the perfect teaching material.

[And one more thing. Pay more attention to your own fairy instead of me. She can hear everything from right beside you, so talking about throwing her away and making me yours was too cruel, wasn’t it? To her, you are everything.]

I pointed at Persica’s fairy, who had approached without me noticing.

Come to think of it, Persica had openly talked about discarding her and choosing another weapon, and yet the fairy was still examining Persica’s wounds with a face full of worry.

[Hik!]

Then our eyes met, and she flinched and shrank back in shock.

I tilted my head in greeting to the trembling fairy, and her big round eyes widened in surprise.

When Ishara waved at her too, she smiled with sparkling eyes as if she were deeply moved, which was rather adorable.

“Then I am leaving.”

[See you again.]

In the end, we left Persica behind as she lowered her head, and headed toward an empty corner of the sparring grounds.

Staggering with difficulty, Ishara leaned against a nearby tree trunk as if collapsing.

“Cough, cough....”

Blood was mixed into her dry cough once more.

Her breathing was ragged, and cold sweat beaded across her skin. She looked terrible.

She had already pushed her unwell body too hard, and on top of that, forcing out Sword Aura seemed to have placed an enormous burden on her.

[Drink the Potion first. You still have one left, right?]

“O-okay.”

Even if the bottle would not cure the illness itself, it still needed to treat her internal injuries.

This time, Ishara did not refuse and drank the Potion.

[Just hold on a little longer. You will be able to recover soon.]

Once the trial ended, Ishara’s illness would disappear as well.

She only had to endure until then.

“Yeah... I trust you.”

The way she smiled without even thinking to wipe the blood from her mouth was painfully pitiful.

For now, there was nothing more I could do for her, so I closed my eyes quietly.

And while I did, two stones suddenly dropped before us in a flash of light.

“Mmm...?”

[The reward for the fourth trial? I thought they were not going to give it to us.]

I had almost forgotten about it, since so much time had passed after killing Sasquatch and nothing had appeared.

Apparently, there had been so many unusual circumstances that the reward processing had been delayed.

“They are Enhancement Stones? And there are two of them?”

[You can enhance yourself a total of five times in the Selection Grounds. These are the second and third ones.]

Of course, that assumed you placed first every time, but that hardly mattered.

As long as I was here, first place would belong to us no matter what.

[The next stage will not open until all the sparring matches are over, so let us use the time we have left to enhance you.]

“Okay!”

Naturally, what we were going to do was enhance her using Swap.

That did mean we would not be enhancing the sword itself for the moment, but that was not a problem. We could do that gradually later.

Just like before, I used Swap to strengthen Ishara herself, and then poured the fairy’s power into her as well.

With her stats inflated and the fairy’s strength transferred to her on top of that, Ishara’s condition improved visibly before long.

“Huh? It does not hurt at all anymore.”

[Your physical abilities went up tremendously, and more importantly, you received the fairy’s power too.]

A fairy’s power strengthened its master’s body, and when all of it was transferred over, the body’s condition was reset once, causing illnesses and injuries alike to vanish cleanly.

It was effectively the only way to cure Mana Stone Disease, and the reason Ishara would be able to overcome her illness.

[...Then I am going to sleep a little. Tell me later when the test is over.]

I released my materialized form and returned to the sword.

Honestly, drowsiness was crashing over me so hard that it was difficult to endure.

When a fairy transferred all of its power, its fate was to fall asleep, so the signs were beginning to appear.

“Sleep well, Isran.”

Feeling her hand stroke the hilt, I closed my eyes.

As I drifted off, I counted over the tests that still remained.

‘Only two more.’

There were seven trials in total within the Selection Grounds.

The fifth had now ended, so only two remained before graduation.

Ishara would make a full recovery, and we would leave the snowfields behind and head for the “city.”

The end was close.

***

After the test ended, Persica was resting in one corner of the sparring grounds.

The fifth trial judged whether someone passed based on their skill, so losing did not automatically mean failure.

If they showed sufficient ability, they passed regardless of victory or defeat, and in that sense, both Persica and Ishara had passed.

[Are your injuries all right?]

“It is nothing serious.”

Cecil flew over to her side and examined her wounds.

She still looked deeply worried.

Even though she had clearly heard Persica openly talk about discarding her, Cecil did not show even a trace of anger and simply tended to her.

“Do you not hate me?”

[My lady...?]

“I was going to choose another fairy instead of you.”

If Ishara’s fairy really had changed masters back then, Cecil would have been left behind with no way out.

Was it because she had said such things that she still could not quite act shamelessly to the end?

As Persica averted her eyes, Cecil smiled softly.

[A fairy’s role is to help its master pass the trial, my lady. If you could achieve that task better with another fairy, I would not mind.]

“...How can you say that? Would that really be enough for you?”

[Well, I would be a little sad.... But I would not have resented you, my lady.]

“Why?”

[Because I am on your side, my lady.]

Perhaps embarrassed by her own words, Cecil gave a sheepish smile.

At that pure sight, Persica could do nothing but press her lips together.

She had finally understood what Isran meant when they said that, to a fairy, its master was everything.

“That girl I fought earlier.”

[Lady Ishara?]

“Why was it that no weapon lit up for her?”

It was true that Ishara’s fairy was exceptional, but that did not mean Ishara herself lacked talent.

What Persica still could not understand was why not a single weapon had chosen her.

[Umm... I think they all wanted to shine. They simply could not.]

“They could not? Why?”

[Because Lord Isran stopped them.]

“Isran...?”

[That is Lady Ishara’s fairy. I heard her say the name earlier.]

So that thing’s name was Isran.

Persica nodded with a rather strange expression.

[At the time, when Lady Ishara entered, I felt an enormous Thought-Force. It was a will calling to its master... something no fairy could dare resist.]

“You are saying it stopped all of you from calling to her?”

[I-it was not exactly stopping us. It was just... the Thought-Force was so immense that none of us dared to speak.]

“......”

[I do not think Lord Isran is even aware of it... but in the end, I think that may be why none of the others were able to shine.]

The sword standing alone in the center of the altar.

A being that naturally knew things other fairies did not, and possessed a Thought-Force so great that it could suppress the voices of every other fairy.

‘What exactly are they?’

Isran and Ishara. Their meeting had been strange from the very beginning.

As if it had been decided from the start that it would happen that way.

“Do you think that girl might be a Possessor?”

At the sudden voice, Persica and Cecil both turned their heads.

The people who had finished the trial were whispering together in one corner of the sparring grounds.

“Sword Aura in the Selection Grounds? No matter how I think about it, that is strange.”

“And some lowborn nobody whose name we have never even heard suddenly beat Lady Ortanis....”

“Should we not report this?”

They were beginning to suspect that Ishara might be a Possessor.

A being brought over from another world by the will of the Golden Rule, who lived on by taking over another person’s body.

Ishara’s talent had been far too outrageous, and in that sense, she resembled the Possessors, who were always known for power beyond all standards.

“Ha... a Possessor?”

Persica gave a scoffing laugh.

Ishara, a Possessor? It was the kind of nonsense that would make even a passing dog laugh.

“Do not be ridiculous.”

At her sharp rebuke, the whispering group jolted in surprise.

“You know what kind of traits Possessors have, do you not?”

They usually did not regard the natives as people at all, and every last one of them showed signs of being unable to adapt within the Selection Grounds.

More than that, Possessors were famous for receiving a special “Unique Ability” from the Golden Rule when they crossed worlds.

‘And she showed no sign of using anything like that.’

The abilities of Possessors emitted an extremely distinctive kind of mana, so if one of them used it, there was no way to miss it.

A veteran might be able to hide it, but an examinee who had only just entered the Selection Grounds could never do that.

At that point, they would still be stumbling around, unable to adapt to this world at all.

Most of all, the way Ishara treated other people was clearly the way one treated people.

She had not used strange terms like NPC or anything of the sort, nor had she seemed awkward around them.

‘If anything, Isran feels closer to being a Possessor.’

Even as she thought it, Persica shook her head.

She had never heard of a Possessor becoming a fairy.

And considering the fate of fairies, there was no way such a being would be able to stay so calm or be so devoted to its master.

Persica pushed those strange possibilities out of her mind.

“Lady Persica is right. That girl is not a Possessor.”

Dominic, who had returned at some point, nodded in agreement.

“S-Sir Dominic, how can you say that with such certainty?”

“Because I have met a Possessor before.”

“......”

The moment he said he had met one personally, rather than merely speaking from rumors or assumptions, everyone fell silent.

“A Possessor would never behave like that.”

“But still....”

“Do you still have enough energy left to keep saying nonsense? Then spar with me. I will kindly wear you out.”

“N-no, sir!”

So that musclehead could be useful sometimes.

As Persica shook her head, Cecil handed her a Potion.

It was the Potion Ishara had given her.

Since it was an item that existed inside the trial, it was one of the few things a fairy could touch.

“...Thank you.”

Looking at the Potion bottle with complicated feelings, Persica eventually let out a low sigh and applied it.

“And I am sorry.”

[It is all right, my lady.]

The test was over.

Now it was time to head to the next one.