chapter01 · 009-ep8

Episode 8: Calling a Katana from the Void

I stood there staring into the dark for about five minutes, and somewhere in there, the King ran out.

I wanted in. Wanted in desperately.

An unregistered territory nobody has ever found, recommended level ???. Anyone who could turn back from that with it sitting right in front of them has truly, genuinely graduated from chuunibyou. ...Wait. Then me, who can't turn back — does that mean I never graduated?

But all I had on hand was that battered rental iron sword.

As the King I'm strong, but it cuts out in ten minutes. If it ran out deep in unregistered territory, base me gets dumped in the middle of the dark. And the kills only pay half XP, too.

No, hold on.

The night of the appraisal, digging through the back of my closet — the favorites in the weapons volume had summoning declarations written for them.

Back then, seeing that display, I'd just assumed weapons weren't callable yet, either.

Vault of Tomes (Unlock Condition: Not Reached)

Limit Break (Unlock Condition: Not Reached)

Summoning (Unlock Condition: Not Reached)

But is that 【Summoning】 really about weapons?

The 【Summoning】 of †The Book of the King† was, if I remembered right, the skill that calls the Twelve Seats and their armies. The page even mentioned "dragon swarms that blot out the sky." Blot out the sky — how many dragons was I planning on?

In that case, that one's an "array your armies" skill — a separate matter from calling a single weapon.

I opened my own status.

Skill: The Words I Wrote Are No Idle Words

I opened the description.

【The Words I Wrote Are No Idle Words】

"The words you carved in your days of youth are no idle words. They are truths this world has yet to catch up to."

Effect: brings down lore you have written down, manifesting it as that being

• Only one can be brought down at a time

• Cancels if you stop acting like a chuunibyou

One at a time. And until now, that one had always been the King.

Then there should be no problem bringing down something else. A single weapon, say.

Back against the rock wall, I went through the weapons volume in my head.

That volume holds hundreds: katana, swords, spears, guns, plus "romance weapons" that defy classification.

This-era me added a page every single time he saw a cool weapon in an anime or a game. All I copied was the look and the attribute; the lore I padded out myself, every single time. No wonder it ran to hundreds.

First entry, obviously, the King's partner sword — sealed in the tattoo on his right arm, one swing cleaves a star, and so on. There was no calling that one. Obviously.

But midway down the katana pages, there's one I remember oddly well.

A katana with a black blade that reflects no light whatsoever. Attribute: none.

The lore runs absurdly long. The first blade the King ever held; it remembers every wielder by the number of things they've cut; forged with the power of the End, it never chips. A page and a half of that, dense, in tiny letters.

And the name field reads:

【Nameless】 *name TBD

Never did decide. Sat there unnamed for three whole years.

And yet the declaration was written out, properly.

"—No inscription, no meaning — cut, Nameless."

That's the whole thing. The other katanas get grandiose three- and four-line declarations; the fire katana and the lightning katana both have embarrassingly long poems. Only this one has a single line. Probably because I never picked a name, so the namelessness itself became the declaration.

Well — short does make it easier to carry off. Silver lining.

Alright. Going with this one.

I checked for any presence, ahead and behind, and drew a breath.

"—No inscription, no meaning — cut, Nameless."

Heat gathered in my right palm, and space went soft and bent. Black particles spun into a vortex and became a single katana. No sheath — it settled into my hand bare-bladed.

The blade was black, reflecting not even the faint glow of the rock walls. So black that for a second I couldn't tell where the edge ended.

Whoa, it's out. It's actually out!

It was light in the hand. Nothing like the rental iron sword — same length, under half the weight.

Is this not insane?

I tried turning my left eye on it, but nothing surfaced.

Oh, right. The Magic Eyes belong to the King, so they're offline. Right now I'm a plain chuunibyou with one weapon brought down, nothing more.

Specs would have to be verified the old-fashioned way.

I picked up a stone from the floor and touched it lightly to the edge. It slid in. No force behind it at all, and a fine line was carved into the stone.

For a katana with a page and a half of lore, a modest little result. Though the rental iron sword wouldn't do that.

And honestly, modest suits me fine. Fire or lightning and I'd be made in one shot — for me, sneaking around like this, a katana that doesn't glow is exactly what I want.

I checked my status, too.

Name: Ichinose Saku

Lv: 10

Job: Chuunibyou

STR: 14

Not the King. Which means kills in this state pay XP at...

I turned my back on the gap of darkness and retraced Floor 1, black katana at my side. I wanted to swing it already.

Found a goblin fast. Just one, back to the wall, unaware of me.

The presence skill had worn off earlier. Footsteps muffled, three steps.

The goblin's ear twitched, its head turning. Too slow. I'm already in range.

Swing. Yes — it's in.

Five days ago, the blade stopped here and I went flying. This time it sank in about halfway — and stopped.

"Ngh, you...!"

What — it won't come out. The katana's locked like the bone's bitten down on it.

The goblin shrieked and wrenched its body around with the blade still in it. Me, still gripping the hilt, got dragged sideways with it.

Then the club came. I hunched, and its tip grazed my shoulder, one hot line firing through.

But I didn't go flying. My feet stayed under me. STR's gone from 8 to 14, and the katana's light.

I dropped my hips and pulled. The blade slid free, and the goblin staggered.

One beat, then another swing into its open torso.

This time it didn't stop. Only the sensation of the edge passing out the far side stayed in my hand, and the goblin crumbled into sand. One fang dropped at my feet.

Shoulder stinging, breath short — and still, over in seconds.

A display appeared.

Lv: 10 → Lv: 11

No asterisk line. Full XP.

"HELL yes!"

Alone in a rock passage, I pumped a fist.

This. This is it. Call only the weapon and the XP comes in full — and kills still take seconds.

Obviously no King that way. Only one thing comes down at a time, so the King's form can't hold this katana.

Fine by me. Right now, what I want is levels, period.

That day, I called only the weapon and put down twenty-four goblins.

Not the King, so the world doesn't slow — but Nameless is light, and it bites when swung. As long as I'm not surrounded, I manage.

Once, in a narrow passage, I got pinched between two. Trading blows with the front one, footsteps closing in from behind. No room at all to turn.

I knocked the front one's club away with the katana and slid a step toward the wall.

The one charging from behind shot straight through the spot I'd just vacated, plowed into the front one on its own momentum, and the pair tangled up and went down.

Before they could rise: the returning blade into the back of the one on top, then across the neck of the one pinned under it.

Two fangs clattered across the floor.

That was a little cool, actually.

Seconds per kill, so travel ate more time than fighting. Every kill paid full XP, and by the time I headed out, I was Lv 13.

Going through the exit gate, I looked back once. Whatever lies in those depths, nobody knows yet.

Twelve days until the entrance ceremony. I'd get to where I could enter that place by then. Three levels in one day — twelve days is plenty.