Kays Translations

Chapter 47: After the Battle

The dormant volcano awakened by Asval’s power fell silent once more. The overflowing lava cooled, and the flames that had transformed the Baldor Mountains gradually died away.

Across the altered mountainside, Ren and Fiona made their way down.

“Mm…”

Fiona opened her eyes.

Her memories ended shortly after Asval’s defeat. She remembered joining her strength with Ren’s, but nothing that followed.

She soon realized why.

Ren was carrying her on his back.

“R-Ren-sama!”

“Good morning,” he said. “I’m sorry. You passed out, and I didn’t know what else might be waiting for us, so I thought we should descend as quickly as possible.”

Fiona immediately insisted that she could walk, but her ankle had swollen badly.

Ren refused to put her down until they reached gentler ground. Fiona protested that he was injured and exhausted too, but he would not yield.

In the end, she remained on his back.

As her embarrassment subsided, Fiona became aware of an unfamiliar lightness inside her.

“Just as I thought… there’s much less of it.”

“Fiona-sama?”

“The black power that has always been inside me. Only a little of one part remains.”

She took a slow breath.

“It comes from the skill I was born with: Black Shrine Maiden.”

The confession was abrupt, but it answered the question Ren had been struggling to ask.

“I’m sorry I kept it secret,” Fiona said. “It isn’t a power I can speak about freely.”

Her father had ordered her never to reveal it. Yet if that power had caused Asval’s resurrection and placed Ren in danger, she could not remain silent.

“Are you certain you should tell me?” Ren asked.

Fiona nodded.

“Have you ever heard of the Black Shrine Maiden?”

“No. I’m sorry, but I haven’t.”

“Then I’ll explain.”

The Black Shrine Maiden was, in a sense, the counterpart of a saint for monsters.

In the distant past, some who served the Demon King had possessed the same skill. Because of that history, Ulysses Ignat had concealed the truth to protect his daughter.

“Father was worried about what would happen to me if anyone learned,” Fiona said. “His own position would not be shaken by my skill. That isn’t the kind of man he is.”

“I can believe that,” Ren replied.

Ulysses was too powerful to fear damage to his own standing. Fiona, however, might have been hated or persecuted in a nation that revered the Seven Heroes.

“You said the skill has become weaker?”

“No,” Fiona said quickly. “My power itself hasn’t weakened. Only the part that affects monsters seems to have gone quiet, or perhaps left me. I don’t understand it myself.”

Ren considered what had happened beneath the mountain.

“Could it be related to the power that acted on Asval? Something resembling necromancy?”

“Black Shrine Maiden cannot normally bring dead monsters back as undead.”

The skill granted several abilities. Its bearer possessed mana that could empower monsters, greatly enhanced magical aptitude, and an enormous natural reserve of mana.

It was the monster-empowering portion that Fiona could no longer feel clearly.

Asval, however, had never been an ordinary monster. Ren suspected that the dragon’s exceptional existence had caused Fiona’s power to act in an abnormal way, producing an incomplete and accidental resurrection.

That explanation also seemed connected to the strange corridor and the jet-black sword Ren had encountered before manifesting Flame Sword: Asval.

The phenomenon resembled the magic sword born under Licia’s influence, but there was an important difference.

“This may sound strange,” Ren said, “but you don’t have a magic stone inside your body, do you?”

“No, of course not. Why do you ask?”

“Because something happened that I don’t fully understand myself.”

Fiona frowned at the back of his head, then gave a small smile.

Licia possessed a magic stone within her, and its power had directly caused a special magic sword to manifest. Fiona’s case felt different.

Rather than creating something new, Black Shrine Maiden seemed to have drawn out a power that had already existed somewhere inside Ren.

If part of Fiona’s power had passed to him in the process, that would explain why she could no longer sense it in the same way.

Still, too much remained uncertain.

“Will the Demon King cult target me because of this skill?” Fiona asked.

“I don’t think so.”

Ren could answer that much with confidence.

“Why?”

“There is no absolute guarantee, but Meidas and Kai didn’t know you possessed Black Shrine Maiden. If they had known, they would have planned to use it from the beginning. Asval’s resurrection surprised them as much as it surprised us.”

Their real objective had been to kill Fiona and drive Ulysses Ignat away from the empire.

The plan had only become necessary because Fiona, unlike in the original story Ren remembered, was still alive.

After such an elaborate operation had failed, repeating it would be difficult. The circumstances of the Imperial Military Academy’s Special Class examination had been uniquely useful.

Fiona’s value as Ulysses’s daughter remained, so vigilance was essential. But the cult had shown no sign that it understood the nature of her skill.

Ren looked down at his bracelet.

Flame Sword: Asval was gone. The display had returned to the ordinary Flame Magic Sword, and the unknown name associated with the jet-black weapon had vanished as well.

It was much like what had happened after Licia influenced his bracelet.

To manifest the power again, Ren would probably need Fiona’s power a second time.

The thought left him with a strange impression: as though Black Shrine Maiden had pledged itself to him and given him a portion of its strength.

A deep roar crossed the sky.

Ren looked up.

Several magic ships were approaching the Baldor Mountains.

The Clausel knights’ message had finally brought reinforcements from the imperial capital.

The time for Ren and Fiona to part was near.

“Fiona-sama, I have two favors to ask.”

“Anything within my power, Ren-sama.”

“First, please don’t tell Marquis Ignat my name when you explain who saved you.”

Fiona shifted slightly on his back.

“I was already uncomfortable calling you only ‘adventurer-san.'”

“I was uncomfortable with it too. I’m sorry.”

Ren did not believe Ulysses would truly be deceived. The request was only meant to buy time.

He needed to decide how much he should reveal, what he should do after encountering the Demon King cult, and whether he could continue living as he had before.

“Please tell him that an adventurer helped you,” Ren said.

Ulysses would probably understand at once that the ‘adventurer’ was Ren and that Ren was asking for time. Ren did not intend to hide forever. He would provide everything he safely could through Lessard Clausel.

He would also have to explain Asval without revealing Fiona’s skill or his knowledge from the game. The simplest account would be that Kai and Meidas had exposed the cult’s involvement during the confrontation.

“What is your second favor?” Fiona asked.

“The way you address me.”

“You mean ‘Ren-sama’?”

“Being called ‘sama’ by the daughter of a marquis is embarrassing. Please just use my name.”

Fiona refused at once. She could not address the person who had saved her life so casually.

Ren insisted with equal determination.

At last, Fiona compromised.

“Then… Ren-kun. Would that be acceptable?”

“Yes. That’s what I’d prefer.”

Fiona hesitated before adding, “In that case, could you also stop adding ‘sama’ to my name?”

“No. That is too much to ask.”

“But-“

“You are the daughter of a marquis. This point is not negotiable.”

Fiona made a dissatisfied sound, but Ren remained firm.

“I’ll give you a souvenir as an apology.”

He reached into his pocket and produced a small fragment of Star Agate he had picked up underground.

Fiona accepted the glittering stone.

“It’s beautiful…”

“The mountain gave you many terrible memories. I hoped you could take home at least one beautiful one.”

Fiona closed her fingers around the fragment.

“I won’t say everything here was terrible. I finally met the person I had wanted to thank, and he saved my life again.”

She held the Star Agate against her chest.

“Ren-kun, thank you for saving me – not once, but twice.”

After a pause, she asked quietly, “Will we meet again?”

“Of course. Marquis Ignat already invited me to his residence.”

“Then I’ll serve you tea myself. I’ll practice every day until even the servants approve.”

“I liked the tea you made at the fort.”

Ren meant it sincerely, but Fiona lowered her eyes in embarrassment.

“I still need to improve,” she murmured.

Voices echoed from farther down the slope.

“Ren-dono!”

“Over there! I heard voices!”

They belonged to the Clausel knights.

The road had become gentle enough for Fiona to stand. Ren lowered her carefully, then held out a hand when her injured ankle made her unsteady.

Above them, the approaching magic ships thundered across the sky.

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