Chapter 14

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The Third Hero

On this day, a black sea was once more pushing in from over the horizon. The ident.i.ty of the black sea was a swarm of living beings. They were the enemies of humanity, the embodiment of evil that devoted themselves to the destruction of anything and everything. In other words, they were demons.

The wasteland covered in dirt and a small amount of greenery was dyed by the black power clad around the demons. Like a piece of cloth as it slowly soaked in dye, they seeped ever forwards. In the northern part of the Alliance, standing atop a hill with an unbroken view at the south end of the Norfolk wastelands, the Alliance’s hero, Kuchiba Hatsumi, was gazing at this situation.

Once in a while, a refreshing dry breeze would blow gently in from the north characteristic of the landscape. What was carried along with the wind though was a sensation that felt like it pierced and numbed one’s skin. The reason for this was certainly the thirst for blood mixed in with the demons’ impatience. It felt like the atmosphere was carrying desperation in the air from the sea of demons.

Those demons were in an unfavourable position after the previous battle and were now cornered. After being abandoned by their other forces, they were now in an unrecoverable predicament. That’s why, to regain their honour, they were trying to bring about a definitive result by rushing in while gripped by the madness of inevitable death.

Sharply sensing that the opportunity for battle was steadily approaching, Hatsumi looked behind her over her shoulder. Right behind here, as if hiding themselves within the forest, were the companions she made when she was summoned over as well as the soldiers of the Alliance. To her right was the martial artist from the Alliance country of Larsheem, Gaius Forvan. To her left was the female mage from the self governed states, Selphy Fittney. And right behind her, kneeling down like he was calmly meditating, was the swordsman who served as the prince of the Alliance’s sovereign state of Miazen, Weitzer Ryerzen.

These three names were known far and wide across the three countries and they were all warriors of valour who possessed skills which did not bring shame to those names. Their capabilities were already well proven. Up until now they had engaged in battle with the demons four times. Every time they had entrusted their backs to each other, and every time they cooperated perfectly.

After nodding to the three of them as if signalling them, Gaius returned a hearty smile as he struck his chest, Selphy quietly nodded back, and Weitzer put on a devoted face as he always did like he fully understood. After confirming their determination one last time, Hatsumi leaped off the top of the hill.

She spoke no words to signal the beginning. She spoke no words as a leader would to spur forth their men. However, there was no inadequacy in her actions. Cutting forwards straight towards the demons was nothing but swordsmen. Even without speaking, they followed her. As fellow followers of the sword, their wills were all as one. Thus, she ran down the hill without even looking behind her. She was plunging downwards head first. That slope that would normally make one feel uneasy was now a trifle before her body which received the divine protection from the hero summoning. Running at a tremendous speed, she traced the slope of the hill. The companions and soldiers behind her saw her as the vanguard and followed in her fervour. That was why there was not a single person present who felt uneasy, anxious or apprehensive.

While maintaining her speed, she came down at the demon army spread out over the wastelands right into the centre of their formation. Having received an a.s.sault from an unexpected direction, their reaction was late and became chaotic.

Kuchiba Hatsumi drew her sword. The weapon in her right hand was something she received from a dwarf blacksmith. Using materials that only appeared in stories, it was a rare beauty created using techniques also only found in stories, an uchigatana. It was a long mithril sword with a one hundred twenty centimetre long blade.

With the blade which gave off a silver l.u.s.tre and the talent Hatsumi had for using a sword, the demons before her were just like thin sheets of paper. As she brandished it, whether it be flesh or iron, she split them in two easily without feeling any resistance. No grease or blood even remained on her blade.

She just had to swing it. By moving her body, her sword and arm were as one. Once she gave herself over to it there was no way she would ever lose. Facing the crowd of demons right in front of her who were rallying together in confusion, she swung her sword. The demon standing before her was cleaved clean in two. And then following the flow of the strike, she rotated her body and sent the head of the demon next to it flying.

Weitzer and Gaius swooped down on the demons on both her sides. The martial artist’s fist and the swordsman’s sword annihilated several of the demons. Soon after cutting down all the nearby demons, a battle cry was raised by many people. Though belated, the unit parted to the left and right. The swordsmen cut into the stretched out flank of the demons. The demons were completely divided. Seeing this happen, magic support came pouring down from the rear.

The mage unit commanded by Selphy were dealing the finishing blow to the divided demons just as planned. Before long, the demons who had their formation completely destroyed were bitterly crushed just as they had planned by the skillful swordsmen. If the first strike went well, all that was left was to continue at their own pace.

Perhaps because the demons’ formation had been destroyed or perhaps because of their individual strengths, they no longer cooperated as they fought. There was also the fact that they were a force gathered together with monsters, they struck back immediately each using only their own strength. Such grandstanding while fighting would prove to be a fatal mistake.

That’s why, all that was left to do from here was to cut out the affected region and remove the pus. The power of unity and the existence of a hero stood firm like a rock. A short time later, a demon whose status was an order of magnitude higher than the other demons came before Hatsumi. It was the demon general. Holding a sword clad in mana in its hand, it was a skinny demon swordsman wearing an overcoat. If she remembered correctly, his name was Mauhario. Calling himself the ‘Violent Flickering Wind’, it seemed that he had beheaded many of the Alliance’s soldiers with his sword skills.

“Hero of the Alliance!”

What poured down as they met was a roar. It was a tremendous voice that one would not expect from his slender frame. Shaking the wastelands, it kicked up and blew away the sand in the area. Just from his voice, the movements of the Alliance soldiers became dull. It must have affected their spirits. As the demon’s spirit shot through their hearts, their movements surely faltered. The only ones who were unfazed by the roar were several of the commanders, Hatsumi and her companions. In the brief moment after letting out a roar, Mauhario closed the distance to her in a flash. And then he let out a slash accompanied by a devilish storm.

“ORAAAAAAAA!”

“Seaah!”

Matching this, Hatsumi swung her large sword. As her blade cut through the air, it made a sharp sound and repelled the incoming demon’s sword. As she did, Mauhario reopened the distance between them that he had closed in an instant. And then in the blink of an eye, he wrapped around to her left and brought his sword to task.

Putting out her mithril sword to defend, the harsh sound of metal clashing against metal rang through the air. Keeping that up, the demon who was taller than Hatsumi pushed down on his blade and brought the fight into a deadlock. Her body only had the muscle strength of a weak woman’s body, but she was able to push back due to the power of the divine protection from the hero summoning.

“Hero of the Alliance! Today will be the day I defeat you and offer your d.a.m.n head to Nakshatra-sama!”

“Tch… Too bad I don’t have any intention of dying here.”

Finding his angry roar from close proximity to be rather annoying, Hatsumi slipped past both Mauhario and his sword and she pushed it to the side. And then as she went to slash at him, contrary to her expectations, having sensed the incoming danger, Mauhario broke away in the opposite direction.

Mauhario corrected his stance at a place that the tip of her blade would definitely not be able to reach. His movements were terrifyingly fast to the point where they could not be grasped… This demon swordsman was the type whose primary strength was speed. He always stood at a distance where her blade could not reach. In an instant he could leap in, close the distance and strike. With this distance between them where only he could attack, thinking about it normally, Hatsumi would be at a disadvantage.

Even so, she would not complain about it. Lightly opening her stance, she pointed her left ankle to her right heel and lowered her body. Her sword was hidden behind her neck as she held it over her right shoulder. Along with the breeze in the air, she could feel the cold metal against her skin.

She estimated there was about eight metres between her and the demon general who held his sword at the ready. The length of her blade was a little over one metre long. For that demon who specialized in speed and charging power, this was likely the ideal distance. Looking at her figure that was ready to attack at any moment, a scornful and joyous expression floated on Mauhario’s face.

There was no mistaking that he judged that Hatsumi was gambling to launch herself towards him to bet on whether she would kill or be killed. That expression on his faced showed his confidence in his own victory at this sort of match… From her estimates, if she held out her blade, there was still over six metres to her opponent. It was a distance that her blade could never reach. However, this was a trivial problem for her. On the other hand, for the demon general who did not know this, it was a fatal problem.

“DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!”

The demon general let out a ferocious and violent scream filled with fighting spirit. The sound wave which was like a ma.s.s of killing intent closed in like a forewarning, however Hatsumi’s heart was like perfectly still water. All information she received from the outside world had been degraded to trifling matters.

Right at this moment, the howl filled with killing intent, the demon’s joy, the screams of the soldiers and her companions’ panicked voices all did not cause a single ripple in her heart. And then, the hand that she would play out was…

―The Phantom Blade from the Sky, the Long Sword of the Morning Sun

And then, at the same time that she abruptly opened her eyes wide, she exhaled her fighting spirit and brandished the sword on her shoulder as if she intended to clear away every single demon on the other side.

In the distance behind the demon general, one could hear the sound of the wind rumbling. Betraying the expectations of each and every being present, along with that swinging blade, the demon general’s lower half gruesomely tumbled over with tremendous speed. Rubbish, wind, his upper half and blood were blown away in a jumble in the opposite direction.

Without even taking a single step forward, Mauhario tasted defeat. And then, all that was left was silence. Immediately following that was the cheers of joy raised by the soldiers. There was quite the number of them who were watching the demon’s defeat. However, the demons in their surroundings did not move. The reality that a demon higher ranking than themselves was defeated was thrust right before them, but first and foremost they were completely bewildered as to why he was defeated in that kind of situation.

Having yet to actually die, while still lying on the ground, Mauhario pointed a surprised gaze at Hatsumi while spewing blood from his mouth.

“Im…possible. The range of your sword was surely…”

Yes, the tip of her sword never reached the demon general’s body. However, just as Hatsumi had thought to herself earlier, it was a trivial problem. Looking down coldly at the body of the demon general who would never get up again, she flicked her sword as if removing blood from it, and spoke.

“―Despite being a swordsman what are you saying? A swordsman who can only cut things within their sword’s range is at most second rate right?”

Her cold declaration would send shivers down the back of any she confronted. However without even being able to feel this sensation, the demon general perished.

… Eventually, the rustling of demons and humans came to and end. It was the humans―the Alliance’s victory. The cheers of joy from swordsmen and mages alike could be heard all over. It was evidence that the fighting came to an end. A short time later, the wall of soldiers opened up, and a single young man walked out from them.

He was dressed like a knight. It was the prince of the Alliance’s sovereign state of Miazen, one of the Seven Swords, Weitzer Ryerzen. He then knelt at Hatsumi’s feet.

“It was a magnificent fighting style. Hero-dono.”

“I thought I had told you to stop calling me a hero like that many times already. Weitzer.”

Kuchiba Hatsumi let out a disconcerted breath after hearing the overly serious and stubborn young man’s flattery. However he did not pay her any mind and took her hand as he attempted to give her a kiss on the back of her hand. Perhaps it was some sort of ceremony. Hatsumi did not feel particularly bad about that action itself, but for some reason, today, she also pulled away her hand like she was running away. As Weitzer looked up at her, his clever expression became slightly disappointed.

“Hero-dono…”

“Like I was saying, Weitzer…”

And then, from the opposite direction, Hatsumi’s companion, Selphy Fittney called out to them.

“It can’t be helped right? Hatsumi is in fact a hero after all.”

“Even Selphy…”

“Even if you say that like its troublesome, you cannot distort reality.”

“Muuu…”

As Selphy drew that conclusion in a taciturn tone, Hatsumi let out a groan. Selphy was wearing a pale green robe with a hood pulled over her eyes and truly looked like a mage. It seemed that under that hood, her stifled laughter had started to leak out. Hatsumi then noticed that at some point, a large shadow was standing behind Weitzer.

“So you were rejected again today, Prince.”

An awfully lively and loud voice came pouring down on Weitzer. The one standing behind him was a man who seemed to give off the image of a complete muscle man, Gaius Forvan. He slapped Weitzer’s shoulder with his hand that had an old scar carved into it. Hatsumi thought that even though they were companions, he should hold back a bit when interacting with a prince, but setting that aside, it seemed that he misinterpreted Weitzer’s flattery. Weitzer looked back at Gaius with a sharp gaze and bitterly narrowed his eyes.

“… It’s not like I was particularly rejected.”

“Hooou? From what I’ve seen, I think that’s always been the case though?”

“Kuu…”

As Gaius spoke like he was playing dumb, Weitzer’s eyes showed just a little bit of irritation.

“I-It’s not like I hate Weitzer you know? It’s just that I’m not used to having that kind of thing done to me. Or rather than feeling like I’m not used to it…”

“But you know? It certainly looked like the behaviour of someone who disliked it.”

“Gaius, will you be quiet?―Hero-dono. It is because I genuinely respect you…”

“Both of you, don’t go troubling Hatsumi like that.”

Selphy offered her candid opinion in a taciturn tone. However the two of them seemed to still have things they wanted to say. They both had a dissatisfied expression as they replied with a ‘Yes…’ and a ‘Yeeeeah.’

“Well… At any rate, good work everyone.”

Hatsumi raised her voice in appreciation to them. With those considerate words, she raised her hand telling them not to reply, and the three of them each pleasantly nodded.

“But, it’s surprising that there weren’t as many as we thought there would be.”

Hatsumi knit her brows as she was not quite satisfied. Selphy then replied to her.

“That’s because only one of the three armies of demons showed up this time.”

“Like I thought, the demon army we defeated just now was nothing but a sacrificial stone.”

Right now, there were three demon armies a.s.saulting the Alliance. They had just defeated one, but there was still two other demon armies left and their scale was exceptionally larger than the one they just fought.

“But isn’t it fine? We got a good result out of today’s fight after all.”

“The enemy Hero-dono defeated just now was a demon general. Asking for more military gains than that would simply be aiming too high.”

“But…”

“Hatsumi, leave it at that. If you say any more than we would lose our position after having such a hard time until Hatsumi came along.”

“Yes. Until you came along, a single demon army was enough to push back the Alliance army. The moment you stood on the battlefield, not only were we able to push them back, but we were even able to fight against the reinforcements that came after them. And today…”

“We crushed one of those three armies and killed one of their generals. It was all because of Hero-dono’s power.”

“Ah? All because of that? Then what about the ones I defeated?”

“The fact that we were able to crush the demon army, that we were able to defeat the demon general and that Gaius defeated the demons is all thanks to Hero-dono.”

Weitzer bluntly declared this before Gaius. Seeing that curt manner of speaking, Gaius’ eyes were filled with anger. Seeing that it was probably going to turn into another fight, Hatsumi let out a sigh and changed the subject.

“Weitzer. We only won because we had prepared sufficient forces for the battle. It isn’t just all thanks to me right? Besides, the hard part is yet to come.”

“… That’s right isn’t it.”

The only one who spoke up in agreement was Selphy. The demons they defeated this time were led by a demon general who was the type who was confident in his own strength. Thus, he used his army by leaving it simply all too individual strength. Because they only attacked monotonously, he was a relatively easy opponent to deal with.

After Hatsumi stood on the battlefield, they overturned their unfavourable situation and gained superiority over the demons. However, reinforcements arrived shortly after and brought the situation back to an equilibrium. The general leading the reinforcements was one who laid out proper plans and made fighting difficult. If it was not for those reinforcements, they would have been able to retake their territory much earlier. Seeing Hatsumi make a difficult expression as she thought about it, Weitzer spoke to her with an expression on his face like that kind of thing was completely worthless.

“As long as Hero-dono is here, something like a demon army is nothing to fear.”

“That’s how it is. There’s also me too.”

Gaius powerfully struck his chest as he brimmed with overconfidence as he always did. This time, not only Weitzer, but Selphy also pointed a sharp gaze towards him. In contrast to their high spirits, Hatsumi had a slightly gloomy expression on her face.

“… Hey, what does everyone think I am?”

And then as if she just remembered something…

“Ah, you can’t reply by saying a hero okay?”

The three of them then exchanged glances with each other, and then each gave her their own reply.

“If not a hero, then an extraordinarily beautiful swordswoman right?”

“As for race, a human woman would be about it.”

After Gaius and Selphy gave their answers, Weitzer put his fist to his heart with an extremely serious expression and looked at Hatsumi.

“Hero-dono, is our princess.”

“―Hee!?… Weitzer, that kind of thing is super embarra.s.sing though.”

“Hohooou! However, it doesn’t seem like you hated him saying that, little princeeeeess!”

“Even Gaius!? Geez…”

Having such embarra.s.sing things said right to her face, Hatsumi’s face had become as red as the setting sun. However, she then immediately hung her head like she was somehow dispirited.

―That was not what she had wanted to hear. Selphy got closer and knelt down, looking up at her eyes which shook with anxiety.

“Does not having memories make you anxious after all?”

“… Isn’t it obvious? I can only remember my name and sword skills you know? There’s no way I wouldn’t be anxious.”

The hero summoned by the Alliance, Kuchiba Hatsumi, only had memories from the moment she was in the room she was summoned to… In other words, all memories of her life before she was a hero were missing. To sum it up, she had amnesia. She didn’t know what she had been doing up until this point, who she was or what she wanted to do. The only things she knew was that her own name was Kuchiba Hatsumi and the sword techniques that she used. Because of that, even now, the anxiety drove her to feel like her feet were not touching the ground. Gaius then walked up to her, and slapped her shoulder in a friendly manner.

“We’re here for you. Right?”

“That’s, true, but…”

“Hero-dono. If you do not have memories, then it’s fine to just make them from hereon out, together with us.”

“Weitzer…”

Even after receiving those kind words and Weitzer’s gentle smile, she could not get rid of her anxiety. Then, as if to make public the embarra.s.sing secrets of another person, Gaius cupped both his hand around his mouth.

“Ooooh, Weitzer’s corny speech has starteeeeed!”

Weitzer stood behind him and quietly drew his sword from its sheathe. After glancing briefly at her companions who were acting happily in a moment of victory, Hatsumi looked up at the sky.

“…”

She had lost her memories. But once in a while, she would see a scene that she believed to take place before she came to this world in her dreams. It was always the same dream. There were many things that did not exist in this world, and the same person always appeared. Whenever she woke up, everything became vague and ambiguous, however this only fanned her anxiety more.

It was something she must never forget, something extremely important. She just had that feeling scorching deep within her heart like a buried fire.

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