Hey there everybody. It’s the guy that is so late to the party, everyone else has already forgotten that the party even happened. …Wait, seriously, what party? Did I not get an invite? Check my email? Oh, there it…no, that’s not it.

Well, anyway, sorry about not having an update for a month. Things have been really busy at work. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it up to you guys this time. I only have four chapters ready, meaning only a chapter for each week I was out. Or at least I think I was out for only four weeks. Either way, only four chapters today. Let’s get started with the first one. Enjoy.

The Preceding Hero and His Disciple Kuon

「Zeraahh!!」

*Gou!* (Boom!)

Together with a loud yell, the released sword attack bisected a hard-sh.e.l.l covered Rock Scorpion as if it were tofu, and several other monsters were literally blown away by the shockwave.

「Hmph! ……With that, I"ve finally disposed of them all.」

When he finished making a clean sweep of the group of monsters, the young man thrust the long sword that was about his own height into the ground and let out a sigh.

「Ou, ou, s.h.i.tty brat! Yer skill with a sword gets a pa.s.sin" mark, but yer treatment of me ain"t any good! It"s gotta be more, like I"m a treasure.」

「Shut up. Hey, hey, Fiona. Can"t you cast Silent Magic only on the sword?」

「That"s impossible.」

「That"s what I thought~」

The black haired boy made a deep sigh and sheathed the sword bestowed with intelligence into its scabbard.

Having received the Intelligence Sword from Ahato, we decided to dive into the labyrinth that same day.
According to Fiona, thanks to that loli Vampire called Paimon or whatever, the Transfer Magic Formation became unusable and we now had to go down each and every floor.

「Haa……We aren"t advancing very far. We"re still around the sixth floor, weren"t we?」

「Correct. With just a bit more, we"ll be at the staircase to the seventh floor.」

While looking at the map that was written in the book, Fiona replied with a cold answer.

The current situation is that it"s already been half a day since we dove into the labyrinth, and although we"ve continued on with a forced march, each and every floor of the labyrinth was vast. Even though we continued on through the shortest paths, we still were continuing through the shallower floors.
Even with an understanding of the geography and it being floors where the monsters are weak, it was like this.
If we"re talking about getting to around floor 30, it would probably take even more time.

「Man~, we have quite a lot of raw monster materials. With this, by the time we get to the lowest floor, it feels like we"ll be able to make a fortune.」

「Anego, what should we do with the Magic Stones with low purity?」

「You nitwit! Whenever you call out to me, call me using Captain! Gather anything that can be changed into money, no matter how small the profit will be!」

In the middle of when I was thinking about what would happen from here on out, the Three Stooges were devoted to collecting the raw materials of the monsters that we defeated.
No, well, it"s not like we"re going to use the raw materials but, going by their joyful appearances as they gathered those materials, they seemed more like hard working volunteers picking up trash after a summer festival rather than pirates.
Our spirits would go up for anything other than that.

「Oi, s.h.i.tty brat! Just how long are ya goin" ta be holdin" on to me! Either sheathe me into the scabbard or, ……Nufufu, let me have a talk with Bernadette-chan!」

「This d.a.m.ned perverted sword……」

This was an Intelligence Sword that we borrowed from Ahato, but despite it being a sword, it had a broken condition of being l.u.s.tful for women, and for a while now, it"s been really annoying, telling me to let Bernadette hold it, or to let Bernadette use it.

「Who"re you callin" a perverted sword! I told ya that my name is『Ravenbrand』!」

「Shut up! It"s enough to just call you a perverted sword! More like, it"s too cool for you to have a name despite not having any considerable ability!」

「What was that!? Bluntly goin" on about things that a person is bothered about!」

「You"re not a person, you"re a sword!」

With this kind of tone, our quarrelling hasn"t stopped for a while.

If it was going to be like this, I should have gone with the Ice Sword.

「Aniki, there are monsters again. Coming from right in front……Number of them is, seven.」

Kuon, who was walking at the head of the party, pulled out a kunai from who knows where, stuck her finger in the ring at the end of the handle and started spinning it around.

「Alright, perverted sword, it"s time for work.」

「Hmph. Workin" me hard over some small fry.」

「It"s because the feeling I get when using you isn"t bad. Though I do need earplugs.」

Lowering my waist, I took a stance where the perverted sword I was holding with both hands was horizontal to the ground.

「Now then……, I"ll take the two on the left. Kuon, you take the five on the right.」

「Eh, wait, Yashiro-aniki, haven"t you been taking it easy for a while now!?」

As I was about to run off after seeing the group of monsters that appeared from the darkness, Kuon shouted out seeming confused.

「Ah? What? Even if it"s for an instant, are you talking back to me, your teacher? I won"t care anymore if you say stuff like that, you know?」

「Don"t threaten me using our teacher-student relationship! Jeez, Aniki, why do you tend to find things like this bothersome!」

As if matching Kuon who started running while complaining, I started running to the two monsters.

The monsters were a Rock Scorpion and a Puchi Salamander.
Both of them were monsters whose over-all length were more than that of a human, the Rock Scorpion was an insect that had its whole body covered in a rock sh.e.l.l, and the Puchi Salamander was a small sized variety of dragon covered in red scales.

Both of them were very firm but since they didn"t possess a means for magic-like defense, they were monsters where it was possible for me to push my way through them with my body that transcended that of an ordinary person"s.

When I peeked over at Kuon"s direction, it was a moment where she had just bisected a fire sub-spirit called a Will-o-wisp.

◇
My body is light.

It hasn"t even been a week since I took the training meant to make me have perfect control over my own body from Yashiro-aniki.
Despite that, my body has become able to move several times faster when compared to before.

Without using any useless muscles, without using any useless movements, I have become able to perform the fastest body handling possible.

If it were now, I feel like I would be able to win against even that magician called Zephyr.

「Dash!」

Although the current floor is relatively vast, this place is a labyrinth.
The walls and ceiling that occupied every direction became footholds for me.

I kicked off the wall and clung to the ceiling, then dropped down to the back of my prey and simultaneously thrust my kunai.

This is the second one.

The reason why I didn"t use the short sword that was my original weapon was because the monsters of this labyrinth were nothing but guys that were altogether solid.

I threw a talisman that I pulled out from my pocket and stuck it on to the monster that came at me faster than I could pull out the kunai I had thrust into the monster before.

「Homura」

When I erected my index and middle fingers and chanted as if I were breathing out, a blue fire flooded out from the talisman and wrapped up the monster in an instant.

That"s three. Two more left.

I threw my extracted kunai at the monster that looked like a wolf, and at the same time, I poured Maryoku into my legs and pa.s.sed the kunai using 『Shukuchi』.

I kicked up the monster that saw the thrown kunai and tried to evade it, and then the kunai pierced its neck.

And this is the fourth! At this pace, won"t I be able to defeat them faster than Aniki?

At the moment I was about to turn towards the remaining one, I peeked over and looked at Aniki.

d.a.m.n it, he"s already finished!

Together with a tongue click, I thrust my kunai into the last monster.

「Man~, you really are easy to use. You don"t show any signs of breaking.」

When I sheathed the perverted sword, aka Ravenbrand, into its scabbard, Kuon seemed to have finished defeating the last monster, and she now approached my direction making stomping sounds.

「Aniki, that"s not fair! As expected, there"s no way I can win if it"s two versus five!」

Kuon stood on her knees in front of me and blamed me.
Just what are you compete with me in? Is it that? The speed that we defeat the monsters? Give me a break. I"m altogether bad with time attack stuff.

「Actually, I"d would rather leave all of the monsters to you though.」

「No~ way! I want to fight together with you, Aniki!」

What kind of selfishness is that.

「……Kuon, that"s what you"re called, right?」

As I was shrinking back from Kuon, Fiona forced herself between us.

「Nn? That"s right……」

「Your battle style is about slashing attacks and sorcery, right? You"re probably using that weapon because of the solid opponents, but with a fighting style that you"re not familiar with, you won"t win against Yuu"s speed you know? After all, he has a screwed up body that can use 『Shukuchi』 with only his physical abilities. If you want to win against him, if you don"t think about your own advantage, your fighting style, through, you won"t win.」

……This sure is rare for Fiona. To think that she would give advice to another person, moreover a person that she had a short a.s.sociation with.
It was after several months that she treated me like a pervert.
No, I guess even after that, she normally treated me like a pervert.

「But, with that hardness, it"ll be easier for my blade to break……」

「I"m amazed. ……Yuu, you haven"t taught your own techniques to your own disciple?」

「Wh, what. ……I did teach them, technically.」

Like the sword drawing techinique, Zetsuei (Severing Shadow)

「Seeing as it"s you, you probably didn"t teach her any decent techniques. The only techniques that you have that would be a big plus are pretty much just 『Magic Clad Sword』 and 『Zantetsu』. Teach her properly.」

「Th, that"s mean! Even though there are a lot of other ones like Hien (Swallow in Flight) and Sakurazanka (Falling as Cherry Blossoms Do)!」

「Those are all attacks that rely on physical ability. I won"t acknowledge those things as techniques.」

「d.a.m.n it, you jerk that doesn"t understand the romance of them. That"s why your chest doesn"t get bi──」

「The next time you talk about chests, I"ll kill you.」

「I, I"m sorry.」

I became frightened from receiving the kind of bloodl.u.s.t that wouldn"t be turned towards an ally.

「Still, Zantetsu, huh……I feel like it"s still too early. Kuon"s body still isn"t ready yet after all……Wait, it would do her good to have a lot of options……Alright. Be happy Kuon. I"ll teach you a technique.」

「Eh? ……Is, is that alright, Aniki!」

Hearing that I would teach her a move, delight could be seen in Kuon"s eyes.
I nodded and beckoned Kuon over.

「What I"m going to teach you now isn"t a technique that I thought out. It"s a so-called collaboration that a certain man and I worked out and……Well, whatever. Try having a taste of it by receiving it with your body.」

I swung my sword down in a vertical line at Kuon, who had come closer without taking any sort of stance, with enough force to split that body of hers in half.

「……Heh?」

That blade that shone with a momentary flash tore up Kuon"s body.