v1c4 - 2

To put it bluntly—Toru was captured almost immediately.

As he moved to escape with the coffin, the giant and Knight Gillette swiftly crossed their swords from both sides, halting him. Even Toru couldn’t help but freeze at the sensation of blades grazing his neck.

Moreover—

“…Your swords are like <mechanical swords>, aren’t they?”

The giant said, effortlessly holding his massive sword in one hand.

“I’m a <mechanical sword> user too.”

<Mechanical sword> users were subtly troublesome.

A <mechanical sword>, infused with the user’s will and senses, became an extension of their body. That state—holding the sword—was their most stable form. In that moment, the sword and swordsman transformed into a single entity. Many saw the sword as part of the swordsman, but it could be viewed the other way around.

The swordsman became part of the sword, the weapon itself. Mechanical sword users didn’t “swing” their swords consciously as all their actions were techniques.

“Surrender. No matter your skill as a mechanical sword user, you can’t escape all three of us.”

……

Toru glared at the giant for a moment—

“…Hmph.”

He shrugged and lowered his stance.

But he didn’t release the coffin’s handle.

“Let me ask again,” Knight Gillette said, keeping his sword aimed at Toru.

His sword didn’t seem to be a mechanical sword—which, in a way, made it more terrifying.

This knight had matched a mechanical sword user’s movements with an ordinary sword. It’s said some martial knights grip a sword before they learn to walk… and watching this young man, that didn’t seem far from the truth.

“What’s your relationship with her?”

……

“Do you know who she is?”

“And you do?” Toru tilted his head slightly, meeting Gillette’s gaze. The blade bit faintly into his neck instantly—blood seeped from Toru’s skin. “Who Chaika is.”

“Of course,” Knight Gillette nodded. “We act under just cause, at the request of various governments. We know who we’re pursuing—and what she’s after. We act with full understanding.”

“Unlike you,” Vivi interjected. “We are justice.”

“…An assassin, calling herself justice, huh.”

Vivi’s gaze sharpened at Toru’s words, but she said nothing more.

“Fine. I get it. I’ve got no chance in this situation. I’ll hand over the item you’re after. That good enough?”

Toru slowly bent down, laying Chaika’s coffin on the ground.

“Release your hands.”

“Sure about that?” Toru said to the giant’s command. “This coffin’s rigged with explosives. Force it open, and it’ll blow. I’d rather not get blasted due to your carelessness.”

……

Knight Gillette and the giant exchanged glances.

They seemed to ponder for a moment—

“Very well,” the giant nodded.

“Disarm the trap. Then hand over the item...the ‘remains.’”

……

Just as Toru thought these people knew Chaika’s target was a “remains.”

That meant they truly knew who Chaika was, why she was collecting such remains, and whose they were. Of course, they could just be hired or used by someone else, unaware of the full truth—but if so, that was even better.

It meant they lacked the ability to make nuanced judgments.

While feeling Gillette and the others’ gazes on his back, Toru pretended to disarm the coffin’s “trap.” Needless to say, the explosives were a bluff. But the idea of “better destroy it than let the enemy have it” wasn’t uncommon—and having used smoke bombs earlier, they’d be wary of explosives, Toru reasoned.

And then…

“You mean this?”

Toru opened Chaika’s coffin.

Reaching inside, he untied the fastening cords—and pulled out the item in question.

The wrist, sealed in a transparent cylinder.

Toru held it up clearly for the three to see.

“Yes. That’s it,” Knight Gillette nodded, satisfied.

Confirming this, Toru smiled with equal satisfaction—

“Good. This.”

He muttered—and threw it toward the darkness of the night, the wrist sealed in its transparent cylinder.

“—!!”

Instinctively, Knight Gillette, the giant, and Vivi’s gazes followed it.

They didn’t lower their swords, but a sword held by someone distracted was as good as dead. Toru, somewhat forcefully, used the backs of his hands—his gloves rigged with iron plates for blocking blades in emergencies—to knock aside the swords at his neck, crouched low, grabbed Chaika’s coffin, and bolted like a startled rabbit.

“Tch—”

“Never mind, after it!”

Knight Gillette shouted, sprinting after the thrown wrist. Vivi followed, dashing instinctively—

And then.

“…You’re not chasing it?”

Toru, glaring at the giant pursuing him instead of the wrist, asked while running in the opposite direction.

“Saboteurs can’t be trusted,” the giant said, chasing close behind. “You might just be pretending to throw it.”

“I’m not that dexterous.”

“Either way,” the giant said.

“I’m not as kind as Gillette-dono.”

The next instant, the giant’s mechanical sword*l swung with a force that tore through the air.

Toru ducked to dodge, but unable to evade fully, a few strands of his hair were sliced off, fluttering into the air.

“Eliminate enemies while you can. I don’t care about their circumstances.”

“Preety rational judgment, huh.”

Watching the mechanical sword arc back overhead, Toru—swung the coffin he was holding forcefully.

“Nuo!?”

The giant clearly hadn’t expected the coffin to be used as a weapon. The coffin’s strike missed as he dodged—but the awkward evasion slightly disrupted his stance.

“—Yah!”

With a sharp exhale, Toru threw the coffin as is against this giant, carrying extra baggage meant no chance of victory.

“Eliminate enemies while you can”—exactly right. Having separated Knight Gillette and that assassin Vivi, the priority now was to take down this giant alone.

The coffin likely hit a building’s wall, a hard clatter echoing from behind, but Toru ignored it, drawing both his mechanical swords with both hands to face the giant.

“Hmph.”

The giant flashed a broad grin and said,

“For a kid, you’re not half bad.”

“Is that so?”

Toru said, licking his lips.

The next moment, both moved almost simultaneously.

“—Hmph!”

The giant’s sword struck.

Toru dodged with deft footwork.

No matter how skilled a mechanical sword user or how strong, the weight of objects couldn’t be ignored. Mechanical swords were heavy to begin with, and with this length and thickness, swinging it properly should be difficult.

Naturally—its trajectory was limited.

An attack with a predictable path wasn’t hard to dodge, even without <Iron-Blood Transformation>.

The blade passed harmlessly over Toru’s head.

And then—

“—Ngh!?”

The giant’s sword bit deeply into a nearby building’s wall with a loud crash.

(—Got him!)

Seeing this, Toru was certain that sword wouldn’t come free easily. Its sheer destructive power was its downfall. A weaker strike would’ve just bounced off the wall.

Toru stepped forward, thrusting one of his short <mechanical swords> toward the giant’s chest.

The right sword’s tip surged with lethal intent.

But—

“—!?”

The thrust missed, slicing through empty air instead of the giant’s side. With an unbelievable movement, the giant’s massive frame had dodged.

And—upward, his body was in the air, in a terrifyingly unnatural stance.

Impossible.

Toru had judged the dodge unavoidable based on the giant’s position and posture. No matter how flexible, human anatomy and physics had limits. A standing person couldn’t suddenly spin head-first. The giant’s legs, after swinging the sword, shouldn’t have been in a position to leap.

Yet—

“—Haha!”

With a boisterous laugh, the giant’s boot heel swung down like a hammer toward Toru.

From above Toru’s head—the giant.

Unable to dodge due to his off-balance stance, Toru instinctively blocked the heel with his left sword, but the impact was too much. The sword flew from his hand, embedding into a nearby building’s wall.

“…!”

Toru, refusing to cling to standing, rolled across the ground once.

Taking distance, he faced the giant once again.

“…So that’s how it is.”

“That’s how it is.”

The giant grinned broadly.

His mechanical sword was still lodged in the wall.

Lodged? No. He’d lodged it there.

His massive <mechanical sword> was sturdy enough to match its size. Sturdy enough that even the giant’s weight wouldn’t break it—meaning the giant had used the sword, lodged in the wall as a pivot, to vault his body into the air.

Not a knight’s swordsmanship.

Not a swordsman’s swordsmanship.

It bore no resemblance to orthodox sword techniques.

This utterly pragmatic fighting style—using the surroundings as they were—was unique to mercenaries, and if anything, closest to that of saboteurs like Toru. A technique orthodox knights would scorn as cowardly and disdain as heretical.

But—

“You’re not gonna call that cowardly, are you? A saboteur?”

The giant laughed, pulling his sword from the wall.

“Nope,” Toru said.

Cowardice was fine. Vileness was standard.

A saboteur’s pride was to bring victory to their master by any means necessary. There was no place for “justice” in battle.

“Then—”

Boom! With a fierce sound, as if shattering the pavement, the giant kicked off the ground, charging.

A head-on assault.

It carried the momentum of his run, his natural strength, and the sword’s weight. A strike delivered while charging was hard to gauge in terms of distance. Moreover—by charging, he focused his intent forward, infusing the blow with a fierce spirit, making it a truly lethal slash. Even if its trajectory was simple, the low, horizontal sweep left no room to dodge right, left, or down. And jumping carelessly would expose a defenseless state to the enemy.

As simple as it seemed, it was a terrifying attack.

But—

“Now you're not gonna call that cowardly, are you!!”

With a shout, Toru spun and leaped.

The giant’s slash passed just beneath him.

If he couldn’t dodge right, left, or down, the only option was up. Simple logic.

“—Yah!”

Exhaling sharply, Toru swung his short sword down at the giant’s head straight.

Toru’s slashes could cleave rock, and with his body’s full rotation, the strike’s speed and power were doubled.

However—

“Fool!” the giant shouted.

True, Toru had dodged the horizontal slash. But that was all. Motionless in mid-air, he was vulnerable as the giant flipped his sword, delivering an upward scoop. No matter what, the giant’s shorter, straighter trajectory would reach first.

It definitely should have reached—

“—!?”

The giant’s stance faltered.

Only then did he likely realize.

Black-painted steel cords—entangled around his legs.

The short sword Toru had lost earlier. The steel cord attached to its hilt had caught the charging giant’s legs. Toru’s deliberate spinning leap wasn’t to accelerate his slash but to reel in the cord stretched across the ground, tripping the giant.

“Got'cha!”

Toru’s short sword slammed down toward the giant’s head but, unbelievably, the giant raised his left arm to block it in the momentum.

—Clang!

The metallic clash rang out.

Toru’s strike didn’t sever the giant’s arm, stopping halfway through its thick muscle. Likely, he wore chainmail beneath his clothes. On the battlefield, that was standard practice, not something to call cowardly.

“Tch…!”

Toru didn’t press further, instead kicking the giant’s chest and pulling back.

At the same time, he yanked the cord, retrieving the other sword embedded in the wall.

However—

“…Ngh… mgh…”

The giant groaned, his left arm hanging limply.

The bleeding and likely the deep muscle cut that meant he couldn’t muster strength in it. From his upper arm down, it was soaked red, crimson droplets dripping from his fingertips.

“—Now then,” Toru said, crossing his dual short swords like scissors. “Eliminate enemies while you can. Right?”

Surely, swinging that massive <mechanical sword> one-handed was impossible for the giant.

With heavy bleeding, if Toru denied him time to staunch it, victory was his.

……

The giant grimaced but still hoisted his massive sword onto his shoulder, lowering his stance—

“Still going, huh?”

“Aye. Mercenaries have their pride. Unlike saboteurs who don’t.”

……

Toru sighed, lowering his dual short swords.

The next instant—

“—!?”

A dull thud shook the giant’s head.

As he sank to the ground with an earth-shaking rumble, behind him—

“Are you alright, Nii-sama?”

“Rescue. Toru.”

There stood Akari, wielding her hammer, and Chaika beside her.

The “remains” wrist was recovered without issue.

Alberic and Vivi had anticipated difficulty due to the night, but surprisingly, it was found quickly. Streetlights, styled like candelabras and placed at regular intervals along the road, cast a faint glow—and the transparent container glimmered in their light.

“This is—that,” Vivi said, gazing at the wrist with curiosity.

“Likely. Even I can’t authenticate its legitimacy, though. We’ll need to rely on Zita or Mateus for that,” Alberic said, wrapping the wrist in a cloth from his pocket—then tying it to his waist, opposite his sword.

“—By the way, where’s Nikolai?”

“He stayed behind to deal with that saboteur, it seems,” Vivi said.

“Deal with…” Alberic grimaced.

“Gillette-sama, he’s a saboteur, young or not. He’s the type to throw a fake to deceive us.”

“…That may be true,” Alberic sighed.

Fundamentally, he preferred not to involve unrelated people. Saboteur or not, that boy seemed to have been hired without the knowledge of the full situation.

“Let’s head back for now. If we’re lucky, we might be able to stop Nikolai.”

“Gillette-sama,” Vivi sighed this time.

This born assassin was exasperated by Alberic’s soft-heartedness.

But—in truth, neither considered the possibility of Nikolai losing. Nikolai, the massive mechanical sword master. His skill was extraordinary. Precise attacks with his mechanical sword and the unique physical techniques of mercenary swordsmanship. Even Alberic wasn’t sure he could win in a direct fight.

And then…

“…What?”

When they returned to the spot where they’d cornered the saboteur boy.

“Nikolai!?” Alberic muttered in shock, while Vivi tensed slightly.

Their comrade, whom they acknowledged as a powerhouse and never imagined defeated, lay sprawled on the ground—his massive frame topped by the saboteur boy, sitting cross-legged.

“You...defeated Nikolai?” Alberic asked.

“Who knows,” the saboteur boy said with a sullen expression. “Just to be clear, this guy’s still alive.”

……

Alberic furrowed his brow.

Saboteurs spared no means to win. Naturally—they’d have no qualms about killing. If he’d defeated Nikolai, finishing him off would be standard.

So, then—

“…This, then,” Alberic said, unwrapping the bundle at his waist to reveal the wrist.

“Yeah. Sorry—making you go fetch it,” the saboteur boy said likely meant as sarcasm, but his face remained sour. “If you value that more than his life, no need to return it. I’ll kill him instantly. It was a hassle, but—well, once it’s like this, it’s easier than twisting a baby’s neck.”

……

Alberic heard Vivi growl low.

But he—

“You don’t know, do you?” Alberic said, choosing his words carefully.

“Know what?”

“About her. The girl who hired you. I don’t know what she’s calling herself now.”

……

The saboteur boy narrowed his eyes, staring at Alberic and Vivi.

“I don’t know how much she paid you, but stop this foolishness. Helping her brings nothing good. You’ll make enemies of the entire world.”

“So you say,” the saboteur replied. “That's vague, abstract words don’t give me anything to judge by.”

……

……

Alberic and Vivi exchanged glances.

As expected, this saboteur knew nothing.

It was classified information—but still.

“—The Gaz Empire,” Alberic said. “This wrist belongs to the Gaz Empire’s Emperor, the <Demon King> or <Taboo Emperor>—the king and greatest mage, Arthur Gaz.”

……

The saboteur’s scowl deepened, his brows furrowing further.

He likely thought it a dubious tale.

Arthur Gaz was a colossal figure.

Almost in the realm of legend or myth. Some even said he wasn’t human, but regardless, his presence was so vast it felt unreal to ordinary people.

However…

“And the silver-haired girl who hired you,” Alberic continued, watching his reaction. “Chaika Gaz—the daughter of the Gaz Empire’s Emperor.”

Arthur Gaz.

As many titles describe him.

“The Taboo Emperor,” “Demon King,” “Undying King,” “Monster,” “Great Sage,” “Super Emperor,” “War Maniac”…

Each is correct, yet each is also mistaken. For his existence was neither small enough nor simple enough to be captured in a single word. He was a singular figure in the history of the Felbist Continent, so long-lived and so powerful that some even speculated, “Perhaps ‘Arthur Gaz’ refers not to an individual but to the very institution of the Gaz Empire’s monarchy.”

A dictator ruling the great northern nation, a great sage who pioneered countless magical technologies, and a strategist who, throughout the long warring era, deftly manipulated the great powers.

In particular… regarding magical technology, it was undoubtedly Arthur Gaz who laid its foundations. Given the current widespread use of magic across various fields, some scholars and sages even claim, “Without him, human civilization would be a century behind,” or “Emperor Gaz was the guide of humanity.”

Yet, on the other hand—there are no records of Arthur Gaz before he founded the Gaz Empire, making him a complete enigma. Some even suggest, “The very existence of Emperor Arthur Gaz might be an elaborate hoax.”

In any case…

Emperor Arthur Gaz wielded such immense influence on the Felbist Continent, affecting global affairs for nearly three hundred years, as far as records show.

However… the “Demon King,” who wielded countless magical secrets and reigned as Gaz Empire’s Emperor for three centuries, was not as immortal as rumors suggested.

In the Battle of the Gaz Imperial Capital, Arthur Gaz was struck down and with his death, the wars of the Felbist Continent came to an end.

In other words—Arthur Gaz was a figure who symbolized the warring era of the Felbist Continent itself.

Naturally, his influence lingers still.

And……