Demon Sword Master of the Holy Sword Academy - Volume 5 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

THE GODDESS’S VOICE

The Central Garden was the core of the Seventh Assault Garden, the heart of this massive artificial island city. It was also where Excalibur Academy was situated. Many leisure facilities had been established throughout the area to meet the needs of the students who spent their days in arduous training. Large integrated commercial centers had been erected. Stadiums and various sports halls also dotted the district. Game centers, boutiques, clothing stores, eateries…

There were similar establishments on Excalibur Academy’s campus, too, but many students preferred to spend their time in the Central Garden instead. In contrast to the recent storm, the azure sky was cloudless today.

Among the students who crowded the streets, the very cause of the recent squall was walking about, poised and confident. Her beautiful crimson hair trailed after her as she strode along, prompting stares from the passersby.

“Hmm. So this is what the humans’ citadel cities look like nowadays? Things certainly have changed.”

Veira peered left and right at the high-rise buildings with a chocolate-mint ice cream in one hand. She wore a pair of short denim pants and a white camisole. Leonis had bought this outfit for her from one of the nearby clothing stores.

It hadn’t been long since Leonis entered Excalibur Academy, so he didn’t have many credits to his name. That had made the purchase a rather painful one. Still, he couldn’t have Veira gallivanting about town in her half-naked getup.

Leonis sidled up to her and whispered into her ear, “Aren’t you going to hide your horns?”

“What? No. A dragon’s horns are her pride. If anything, I kind of want to make them longer…” The Dragon Lord punctuated this by cheerfully taking a lick of her ice cream.

Leonis reminded himself that demi-humans lived on the island, so Veira didn’t necessarily stand out… And at worst, he could claim the horns were some kind of fashion statement.

Veira cast her gaze down the street and cocked her head inquisitively. “What’s that doing there?” she asked.

The buildings ahead of them were bordered off with warning tape, and behind the blockade, a large vehicle was towing away a mountain of rubble.

“The storm you caused yesterday destroyed a few of the buildings,” Leonis replied dryly.

“Really? They’re more fragile than they look.”

“I don’t think many buildings exist that could withstand the Dragon Lord’s whirlwinds.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

Leonis glared at Veira, who didn’t seem the slightest bit apologetic. Thankfully, the Seventh Assault Garden had been swiftly alerted to the situation and had promptly entered first combat form. It moved most of the buildings underground and out of harm’s way, so many structures were unharmed. The Sixth Assault Garden, which was currently docked with the Seventh, took the brunt of the damage.

“It’s quite the spectacle, though,” Veira commented. “A diminutive race that can neither breathe fire nor soar through the sky making this kind of city? It’s praiseworthy.”

“I was surprised at how far humanity’s magical technology has advanced. It’s a world of difference compared to a thousand years ago,” Leonis replied.

“Yet while they have advanced in some ways, sorcery is all but extinct… Correct?”

Leonis nodded. “That’s right. Although perhaps it’s only natural. With technology having developed to such an extent, learning ancient sorcery has become unnecessary. It takes a long time and a great deal of talent to handle it, after all.”

Mastering even elementary spells like Itinerant Dialogue demanded substantial aptitude. Compared to that, using small, earring-shaped communication terminals was far more straightforward.

As far as Leonis had researched, the rapid advances in magical technology began roughly 180 years ago, when the government that preceded the Integrated Empire underwent an industrial revolution. Construction on the Assault Gardens had, in fact, commenced before the Void invasion took place sixty-four years ago.

It’s almost like they predicted the Voids’ invasion.

What had sparked that sudden leap forward…? Leonis still couldn’t muster a definitive answer.

“And this city can even move over the ocean, right?” Veira asked.

“Yes, although the mana furnace it used to move was destroyed when I fought Arakael, so it’s currently under repair.”

“Then why are you ordering me around? You’ve been wrecking this place, too,” Veira remarked with a frown. “Can it fly?”

“No, it can’t.”

Riselia had told Leonis that the Ninth Assault Garden, which was currently under construction in the capital, was set to be smaller in scale and would have some limited aviation capabilities.

“That means my Azure Hold is superior,” Veira proclaimed.

“The Divine Dragon destroyed that, though,” Leonis dismissed. “If you ask me, Azra-Ael’s Otherworldly Castle was far more menacing, with how it could phase in and out wherever it wished.”

Veira pouted. “That’s not a fair comparison. Speaking of, your base was around here, wasn’t it?”

Sullenly, Leonis shook his head. “Necrozoa was destroyed. The underground ruins might still remain, but—”

The Undead King was suddenly cut off when an open-top vehicle pulled over next to him and Veira.

“…?”

“Hey there, pretty lady. Wanna come with us on a drive?”

Sitting inside were three young men clad in Excalibur Academy uniforms—upperclassmen. Their gazes rudely raked over Veira’s shapely limbs.

“What are they doing, Leo?” Veira inquired.

“Hitting on you,” Leonis replied briskly.

Had they been hitting on Riselia, Leonis would have used his Aura of Death to strike such terror into their hearts that the afterlife would appear a sweet escape. However, this was Veira, so he didn’t care.

“C’mon, driving with us has gotta be more fun than having to babysit this kid,” one of the boys said.

“Hey, you don’t know, maybe he’s her baby brother,” another student remarked. “It’s cool, he can come with us, too.”

“Hmm,” Veira hummed with cold disinterest. “That’s some nerve you’ve got there. Mere humans, aroused with lust for me?” Her golden eyes shone menacingly.

“H-hey, Veira,” Leonis whispered, panicked over the dangerous vibe she was giving off.

The Dragon Lord had been forced to discard her body, corrupted by Voids as it was, and had lost most of her power. Yet even in this state, she possessed more than enough strength to level the area. And indeed, just this slight sliver of wrath was enough to…

Bang!

…Make the vehicle’s hood loudly explode.

“Eeeeeek!”

The young men drove off in a flustered panic, terrified by the abrupt blast.

“…I told you not to cause any havoc,” Leonis chided grumpily.

Veira shrugged, her hands on her waist. “Oh, come now. Out of respect for you, I didn’t reduce them to ashes.”

“…Tch, let’s just get out of here before the city guards show up,” Leonis decided, tugging on Veira’s arm and pulling her into a jog.

“What, are we playing tag now?” Veira snickered devilishly.

“…Aww, I’m losing sight of Leo!”

“Don’t worry. I’m tracking him by his terminal.”

Two small shadows were hiding behind the nearby buildings as they watched that small explosion; a noble and her maid, Riselia and Regina.

It all started thirty minutes ago. Leonis wouldn’t leave his room, and the two of them grew suspicious. Thus, employing her authority as Leonis’s legal guardian, Riselia used her master key to enter his room…only to find it empty, with the window open.

“Oh no, Regina! Leo got kidnapped!”

“Calm down, Lady Selia, we can check where he is using the terminal’s guardian function.”

Thanks to Regina, they were able to follow after Leonis in a vehicle. However, based on the situation, it certainly didn’t look like an abduction.

“It kind of feels like…they’re on a date,” Riselia muttered sullenly.

“If I had to say, they appear more like siblings,” Regina commented.

“But I’m the big sister here!” protested Riselia.

“Why are you acting like it’s a competition? Besides, who even is that girl?”

“I don’t know. Leo just said she’s an old friend…”

“Hmm… He’s a ten-year-old. Has he even lived long enough to have ‘old’ friends?” Regina wondered with suspicion. “Well, anyway, it doesn’t look like she’s kidnapped him, so that’s good.”

“N-no, it isn’t!” Riselia complained. “I’m Leo’s guardian; I have to make sure this acquaintance of his isn’t a bad influence!”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say, Lady Selia…,” Regina muttered, looking down at her terminal. “Oh, they’re going into a mall.”

“Let’s go after them!” Without waiting for reply, Riselia hurried off.

“Ah, Lady Selia, wait for me…!”

The Seventh Assault Garden’s second block was known as the Old Town. Unlike the Central Garden’s high-rise buildings, it was a cramped, narrow area full of modest wooden residences. Most of its inhabitants were dressed in slightly strange clothes that resembled long skirts. This was the traditional garb of the Sakura Orchid, a proud island nation that existed off the continent’s coast for three hundred years.

Some of the Seventh Assault Garden’s blocks were used as relocation facilities for refugees who had lost their homes to the Void invasion. The Old Town was one such place.

Walking this exotic part of the Seventh were one adolescent girl and a large dog.

“I’m sorry, Fluffymaru, but the rules say I need to keep you on a leash during walks,” the blue-haired young woman said apologetically, holding up the leash in question.

“Woof!” the black canine barked at her in response.

Sakuya Sieglinde was a girl who hailed from the Sakura Orchid. She was the eighteenth platoon’s ace striker and held the record for slaying large Void specimens. Recently, she’d started taking a stray dog she’d discovered loitering near the Hræsvelgr dorm on walks through this area, her second home.

“I can’t let you into the dorms, but maybe I can keep you here at the estate.”

Sakuya stopped silently in front of the imposing gate that barred entry to an imposing structure. She pushed on it and it gave way with surprising ease. The steel thing looked old, but it had a mana-driven biometric authentication system.

Sakuya stepped onto the premises, where a Sakura Orchid–style garden, teeming with greenery, greeted her. These weren’t environmentally tuned trees that used water filtered from the ocean, but transplanted natural ones that previously grew in the Sakura Orchid’s fields and mountains. They had a different air to them compared to artificial shrubbery.

“Wait for a moment. I’ll talk things over with Lord Raiou,” Sakuya explained, tying the leash around one of the trees.

The dog obediently sprawled itself on the ground.

“Good boy…” Sakuya pat the animal gently on the head.

Just as she was about to enter the dwelling proper…

“Prepare yourself, Princess Sakuya…!”

“Prepaaaare yoursellllllf!”

…The ground around suddenly rose up, and two small black-clad figures sprung out with katanas in hand.

“Holy Sword, Activate—Raikirimaru!”

Sakuya promptly summoned her Holy Sword, manifesting the katana that represented her inner power. A blade wrapped in tendrils of electricity took shape in her hands.

“Thunderclap!”

Sakuya stomped on the ground lightly, and then vanished like a puff of smoke. Her two assailants’ blades caught only empty air. Lightning sparked against their blades, leaving a charred, ionized scent. Sakuya had hopped behind the pair of assailants in the blink of an eye.

“The first stage of acceleration. Just slightly slower than sound, I’d say.”

Raikirimaru cleaved through the air with a flash, flicking the two attackers’ katanas out of their hands. The duo looked on in amazement.

“…!”

“No waaaay!”

“Eika, Kuroyuki, that’s enough!” A thundering voice echoed through the courtyard, and the two in black froze. An old, white-haired man had appeared in front of the estate. “You’ve improved, Princess Sakuya…”

“It’s been some time, Lord Raiou,” Sakuya replied, her Holy Sword disappearing as she bowed her head respectfully toward him.

“Truly, you look more and more like Princess Setsura with every passing day.”

Sitting at a porch before the garden’s large lake, the white-haired man, Raiou, smiled affectionately as he gazed at Sakuya sipping tea.

“Really? I might have let my hair grow a little…,” Sakuya answered as she silently placed the teacup on the floor. “But Setsura was very pretty.”

“You are, too, Princess Sakuya!”

“That’s right, yes!”

The two girls who had attacked Sakuya earlier now enthusiastically offered their praise. Eika and Kuroyuki were daughters to the Murakumo, a clan of armed retainers that served the Sakura Orchid’s royal house. Raiou had taken them in after they had lost their parents to the Voids.

Raiou himself was a retainer to the old royal house, and had been Sakuya’s swordsmanship instructor since she was young. Sakuya had since awakened to her Holy Sword and become stronger than him, but she still frequented his estate from time to time to request his tutelage.

“Incidentally, Princess Sakuya, what about that dog over there?” Raiou asked, gazing at Blackas, who was sprawled out on the veranda.

“Oh, that’s Fluffymaru the Black.”

“Woof, woof!”

“Heh-heh-heh. You like that name, don’t you?”

Blackas shook his head, prompting Sakuya to pat him gently.

“H-he doesn’t bite?”

“H-he doesn’t bark?”

Eika and Kuroyuki asked their questions with evident curiosity.

Sakuya nodded. “Don’t worry. He’s surprisingly docile. Here, eat this.” She gently held up a rice ball in front of Blackas’s nose. The dog sniffed it a few times before chomping down on the food with his large jaws.

“Hmm, he looks less like a dog and more like a dignified wolf to me,” Raiou remarked quietly, seemingly impressed with the animal, before returning his gaze to Sakuya. “So you come to me with some question regarding this beast?”

“I’ve been wondering if I could care for Fluffymaru the Black here in this estate. Keeping him in the academy’s dorms is a bit problematic,” Sakuya explained.

“I don’t mind, but…” Raiou’s eyes narrowed as he gazed fixedly into Blackas’s golden ones.

Growing a little uneasy, Sakuya asked, “Lord Raiou?”

After a short pause, Raiou looked up and shook his head.

“If I may be so forward, Princess Sakuya, I don’t think anyone can hope to own this proud creature.”

“…Huh?” Sakuya turned to look at Blackas, her expression betraying surprise.

“I’m certain this wolf is a born king. It has the countenance of a sovereign,” Raiou stated.

“…I see,” Sakuya muttered. “You weren’t just some wild dog, were you, Fluffymaru?”

“Woof.” Blackas nodded solemnly.

Since her infancy, Sakuya had always trusted Raiou’s opinion and outlook. So if he said she couldn’t hope to own this animal, it was unquestionably true.

“Very well. Then I’ll simply do whatever I can to protect you from the academy’s hunting patrol,” Sakuya declared, gently patting Blackas’s back.

Raiou then directed a sharp gaze at her. “Princess Sakuya. Certainly, you didn’t come here just for that?”

“…No,” Sakuya admitted. “I had a feeling you’d catch on.”

Raiou glanced at Eika and Kuroyuki, wordlessly asking them to leave. The two silently obliged.

After a breath, Sakuya began to explain. “It seems people with the same power as me are beginning to appear.”

“…The same power as you, Princess?”

“Yes. Demon Swords.”

Demon Swords were a power different from that granted by the planet, the Holy Swords. They housed a dark and diabolical strength. Sakuya came to possess one when she was six.

She would never forget how it happened. It was the same day the Voids destroyed the Sakura Orchid. Sakuya’s heart burned with anger over the loss of her parents and sister, and it was then that someone had appeared before her. An eerie shadow that called itself the goddess’s apostle.

The specter reached its hand out to Sakuya, and said, “If you desire power, embrace the emptiness.”

Oddly enough, Sakuya felt no fear. It wasn’t a question of yes or no, for there was no reason to deny the offer. And on that day, Sakuya had been granted the power of a Demon Sword and became a vengeful, demonic swordswoman.

Wielding the weapon had gradually corrupted her body with the power of the Voids. Yet even knowing this, Sakuya submitted herself and used the Demon Sword’s strength to cut the Voids down.

I need all the might I can gather, if I’m going to kill that man.

The man who took her parents, her sister, and her homeland from her was called Shardark Void Lord, a humanoid Void.

Seeing the cold, sharp light that filled Sakuya’s eyes, Raiou regarded her with a pained expression. “I understand. The Murakumo have been putting all their efforts into investigating the rumors.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” Sakuya bowed her head to the old man. As the two continued speaking over the matter, the black wolf sitting on the veranda listened in, its ears perked upright at attention.

Leaving her sister behind, Elfiné returned to the Seventh Assault Garden and called a particular individual. They chose to meet in a coffee shop in a large commercial building in the Central Garden. Few people were sitting at the tables at this time of day, so Elfiné didn’t need to worry about being overheard.

The memory device her sister gave her was full of details about experiments the Phillet Company was conducting in cooperation with the military.

Forcibly evolving the power of the Holy Swords to allow humankind to transcend into its second phase…

According to the data, the Phillet Company was administering medicine to subjects and had been running multiple tests, including mental manipulations. These procedures went on to shatter the subjects’ psyches beyond all repair. Ultimately, the experiments did not yield the desired results.

This is clearly insane.

The power of a Holy Sword was linked to the wielder’s soul and psyche. As a Holy Swordsman matured, so did their weapon. The opposite was also true, however. A traumatizing incident could make one lose some or all of their Holy Sword’s abilities.

I’m the perfect example of that, Elfiné thought with a self-deprecating smile. She reached for her glass of water.

“Did I keep you waiting?”

Elfiné turned around at the question. There she found a large young man with short red hair. It was Liat Guinness, the Holy Swordsman who had been dispatched by Excalibur Academy to the Sixth Assault Garden, and had only recently been relieved of that duty. He’d accompanied the expedition to the tundra, guarding those excavating the ice block.

Six months ago, he had been the captain of the seventh platoon. The very same squad Elfiné had also been a part of. She had last seen him during the Holy Light Festival.

“Sorry for calling you out of nowhere like that,” Elfiné apologized.

“It’s fine. I still see myself as your captain.”

“Thank you.”

Liat sat down in the seat opposite Elfiné’s. “So what is it you wanted to ask me about?”

“Yes…” Elfiné took a deep breath before going further. “Have you heard about the recent incidents of Holy Swords going out of control at the academy?”

Liat’s expression stiffened for a moment. “…Where did you hear about that?”

“Who do you take me for?” Elfiné questioned dryly.

“The seventh platoon’s…all-seeing witch. That’s what we used to call you,” Liat answered, shrugging as if he’d given up.

Someone had taken over the failed D Project’s experiments and continued them here in the Seventh Assault Garden within Excalibur Academy.

In order to confirm what her sister had told her, Elfiné had used the Astral Garden to access the administration bureau and analyze the data. Then she discovered that the Holy Swords of several students had gone out of control over the last few weeks for unknown reasons.

Elfiné assumed that, as part of the executive committee, Liat might be privy to something. Evidently, her hunch was correct.

“Yes, there have been more than a few occurrences recently where students have lost control of their Holy Swords. It was brought to our attention over at the executive committee.”

“And the administration bureau isn’t going to go public about it?”

“No. It would just cause needless concern among the civilians.”

“Right…” Elfiné could understand that decision. Holy Swordsmen had to be viewed as heroes who defended people from the Voids. Losing that trust could inspire major civil unrest.

“Has the bureau determined the cause behind this?” Elfiné asked.

“They say it’s currently under investigation. I don’t know the details myself. Until recently, I was stationed on the Sixth, after all. Some are speculating its mental shock from having witnessed Stampedes, or maybe the after-effects of a Void mental attack.”

Roughly two months ago, the Seventh Assault Garden had weathered a Void Stampede. For many students, it was their first real battle against the Voids. In light of that, the rise in unstable emotions wasn’t surprising.

“That reminds me…,” Liat began. “All the ones who lost control said something about hearing a voice.”

Elfiné knit her brow. “…A voice?”

“Yes, they claimed a goddess spoke to them in their heads.”

“A goddess’s…voice…”

“Auditory hallucinations could be a symptom. That’s about all I know, though. And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but this is all confidential information for the executive committee.”

“Yes, I’m aware. Thank you, Liat,” Elfiné replied, bowing her head to him gratefully.

So Excalibur Academy’s administration bureau is involved with the D Project, but… The “goddess” Liat mentioned weighed on Elfiné’s mind. I’ll have to dig a little more and see if the Phillet Company is still connected.