ch01-ch20 · 014-ch13

Chapter 13

A dream—one where he was cutting people down while laughing, his body covered in wounds. That was the awareness he had.

It wasn't a lucid dream, but he still knew it was a dream.

He couldn't control the "himself" inside the dream because that "himself" wasn't him. He vaguely understood that too. Even though he understood the one cutting people wasn't him, the sensation of cutting into flesh was far too real. The question of whether the one laughing as he cut was really "not him" blurred at the edges.

The feeling of ending a life, transmitted through the hand gripping the hilt. The impact of clumsily blocking an enemy's blade with his own. The sensation in his arms and legs as the thrust sword refused to slide out smoothly due to muscle contraction, forcing him to kick the corpse to yank it free.

How he moved, how he put strength into it, how he breathed—how he cut.

All of it came through.

As if he'd cut them himself.

It was a dream. He knew it was a dream, but the dream refused to end.

Because morning hadn't come yet. Ten people cut down. Thirty people. Was it around four in the morning by now? Sixty, eighty, ninety... almost time to wake up.

Toru parted the remnants of the dream like surfacing from deep water, and opened his eyes.

"Ah, you did wake up."

Right in front of his nose—literally within kissing distance—was the face of a foreign woman.

Striking features, yet without any sense of a wall between them. An approachable face. Platinum-blonde hair, nearly white, tickled Toru's face as it followed gravity.

The spirit possessing the holy sword—Tia.

Before Toru had gone to sleep last night, she'd demanifested. But somewhere along the line she must have remanifested, apparently watching him sleep in bed from point-blank range.

"...What do you mean, 'did wake up'..."

His voice was hoarse from just waking up as he voiced the question. Toru pushed Tia's face away with his hand and sat up.

He recalled a distant memory—how the dog he'd had as a child used to sense when he was waking up and station itself near his face like this. It had died by the time he was in elementary school. His parents never got another dog after that.

"I felt like you were about to wake up from your dream, so I manifested and was observing you. Hey, look at me, Toru. When I remanifest, it seems I have some freedom in what I wear."

Tia didn't get angry at having her face pushed away. On the contrary, she spread both arms cheerfully and spun around on the spot.

Sure enough, she wasn't wearing the light armor from yesterday anymore.

She still had her hair tied back simply at the nape of her neck, but... well, she'd changed into something like what a village girl from a medieval fantasy would wear.

A loose hemp shirt with three-quarter sleeves and wide cuffs. Over it, a vest laced up the front like a shoe. A slightly long skirt. Her skin was exposed from below the shin, and she wasn't wearing socks. Instead, she wore shoes woven from plants—sort of like zori sandals, or maybe sandals.

She looks like she's about to yodel, was Toru's impression.

Not that it stopped him from wishing she'd take her shoes off, since this was a regular run-down Japanese apartment.

"So? What do you think, Toru? I can wear clothes other than armor too!"

With his head still fuzzy from sleep, Toru nodded vaguely at the high-energy Tia. She really did look surprisingly cute in her village-girl-or-whatever outfit, but the sensation of killing was still lingering in his hands. He couldn't get his mood up at all.

"Hey... I think, maybe, you're being pulled."

"...By what?"

"You were having that dream, right. 'Kagetsu,' was it. That thing's a cursed artifact that's like a mass of battle experience. Doesn't seem like the type meant to curse people to death, but y'know, touch red-hot iron and your flesh is gonna burn."

"Ahh... my head's not working, I have no idea what you're saying."

"I'm saying you shouldn't use it. I mean, I get wanting to check if you can use it. But come on—you've got me, right? Me and the holy sword Lightbringer."

Tia put her hands on her hips with a smug look. This time, Toru thought she was genuinely cute. His sleep-fogged brain seemed to be starting up.

"Did Mika go home last night?"

"Yeah. The walls in this building are thin, so I could clearly hear the next-door door open and close. Mika said, 'Mom's home, so I'm going back.'"

"Huh."

"Do you always look after her?"

"When Mika's mom's working and Mika feels like it. It's not like she's in the way, so I told her she can come and go as she pleases."

Toru let out a yawn, then glanced at his phone. It was the same time as always. Normally he'd get ready in twenty minutes and head to Sugai Dungeon for his cleaner job, but today he didn't have to.

Maybe starting today, he wouldn't be doing it at all.

Either way, Toru grabbed a plastic bottle of coffee from the fridge, poured it into a mug and a glass, added ice, and handed the mug to Tia.

"What's this? Looks like mud."

Tia tilted her head, staring at the cup.

There wasn't a hint of a joke in her voice. She genuinely didn't seem to know what coffee was.

Not that it mattered—the drink was basically mud with milk and sugar dumped into it.

"Ahh... it's a drink. Sweet and bitter. I make it a habit to get some sugar in the morning."

Toru took a sip from his glass to show her. Tia, looking half-suspicious, lapped at the coffee in the mug with her tongue like a dog or cat. Then, just like a happy dog or cat, the corners of her mouth lifted, and she started gulping it down.

The movement of her throat with every swallow felt strangely alluring. Toru found himself looking away. But Tia didn't seem to notice at all.

"This! This mud is really good! The sweetest drink I've had was the tea they served at the royal palace! ...Not that I could actually enjoy the taste back then, since I was too worried about the etiquette."

"...Ah, right."

This girl really is—Toru thought as he drank his muddy drink.

It seemed Tia was having a similar realization. She gazed regretfully at the empty mug, then opened her mouth hesitantly.

"Hey... I think, maybe... I'm not a person from this world."

"Figured as much."

"Figured as much!? Toru, did you just say 'figured as much'? I held back all my questions about the incomprehensible iron vehicles, the square buildings, the lines connecting the stone pillars sticking up all over town—I swallowed all of it! I entertained Mika too! And after she left, I thought you'd be tired, so I demanifested so I wouldn't disturb your sleep, waited until morning, and when I finally brought it up expecting you to be surprised—you just say 'figured as much'!?"

She was more surprised than he'd expected. Or rather, he'd been branded an insensitive jerk.

Toru felt slightly wounded, but then he realized—Tia didn't know about the World Fusion.

"Ahh... calm down. There's a reason. I'll explain."

"Calm down? Oh, sure, I'll be calm. As if there's any living being calmer than me. Look, Toru. Behold how calm I am! Amazing, right?"

"...'Living being'? You said you're a spirit. You're dead, aren't you."

Plus you were plenty loud in my car, Toru thought, but didn't say it. It would've been a pointless consideration anyway.

"Hah! Ha ha ha! You got me there! How could I, the pinnacle of composure, have my tiny slip of the tongue pointed out like that!"

The conversation didn't seem like it was going to go anywhere, so Toru thought for a moment, then refilled Tia's mug with coffee.

Tia went quiet. She seemed to have calmed down. The way she gulped down the coffee in one go with a glug-glug sound was remarkably composed.

Peace had returned to the world.

At least, for this one moment.

◇◇◇

"Wheew—so the 'World Fusion' was over twenty-five years ago, huh... From my perspective, it's like I came to a different world, and from you guys' perspective, it's like a different world came to you."

Once Toru gave her a rough explanation, Tia showed more understanding than he'd expected.

Having seen a culture and civilization unlike anything she'd known, and talking to Toru who lived in it, she probably had no choice but to believe.

"Well, I was born after the World Fusion—part of the 'Other World Generation'—so the other world was always there for me. In school, they'd teach us about what might've been if the World Fusion never happened, but... the reality we've got is this one."

"Yeah. The reality in front of us—we just have to accept it."

"Yeah."

Good thing she's an understanding ghost, Toru thought, but he didn't say it. He didn't want to add to his insensitive-point tally. Though it might already be too late.

"But Toru. Speaking of the reality in front of us... you've got yourself a holy sword and a cursed blade now. What are you going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"I used to be the owner of the holy sword, you know? Lightbringer connects to its owner's soul. Nobody else can use it. ...Well, I can use it, but I'm basically part of the sword now, so don't worry too much about that."

Anyway, other people can't use it, Tia said.

Toru didn't fully grasp the point she was making, but he sensed seriousness in her expression, so he just nodded for now. Nodding without really understanding wasn't exactly honest, but still.

"And needless to say, Lightbringer is a powerful weapon. Yesterday I couldn't help but jump in when those people were in trouble, but... it was a stream, right? I think a lot of people probably saw us."

"Ah—"

He'd forgotten. Completely forgotten.

Stepping on the teleport trap in Sugai Dungeon, being transported to what he now figured was Kamioka Dungeon's hidden floor, acquiring Lightbringer and the cursed blade Kagetsu... he hadn't forgotten that part. Couldn't forget it. And of course, he hadn't forgotten that he'd ended up helping Anthem's members.

He'd forgotten that he was probably visible on Anthem's stream.

"Back when I used the holy sword to help people, the royal family found out about it in no time. After that, I got tangled up in all kinds of obligations. 'The responsibility that comes with power,' and all that. In my world, only a handful of mages could communicate using magic, but in this world, anyone can communicate really easily, right?"

Half-listening to Tia, Toru booted up his terminal. It felt like it took ten times longer than usual to start, but that was obviously his imagination.

He opened a browser and went straight to the biggest social media platform.

"...No way."

Of course "Anthem" was in the trending topics. Related keywords included "Labyrinth Mutation," "Dragon-slaying Swordswoman," and "Cursed Blade Kagetsu."

And—naturally, he supposed—clips of Tia and Toru from Anthem's stream had already been cut into short videos being played all over the world.

"Ohh... that's me. So that's what I look like from the outside."

When Toru played a trending video under the tag "Dragon-slaying Swordswoman," Tia commented, sounding somewhat amused.

〈——Cursed Blade "Kagetsu," huh——〉

Unluckily—or perhaps inevitably—Toru bisecting the Black Knight with Kagetsu had also been clipped into a short video.

And on top of that, while Toru had been obliviously fast asleep, this socially-awkward-looking guy had been dubbed "Worksite-bro" on social media. The nickname seemed to have already caught on.

"I mean... I was wearing work clothes, but...!"

He wasn't an explorer and didn't have money, so he'd never worn explorer gear. He just used work clothes from the hardware store for the job.

As long as he was just patrolling the upper floors of Sugai Dungeon, that was enough.

"But 'Worksite-bro' though...! Then what's Tia? 'Holy Sword Sis'? No, she's 'Dragon-slaying Swordswoman.' Dragon-slaying Swordswoman and Worksite-bro!"

He let out a groan.

Which, of course, solved nothing and did nothing for his mood.

Having never experienced his actions spreading across the internet with random strangers saying whatever they wanted about him—"going viral"—Toru found it a completely foreign sensation.

Somehow, he couldn't feel like the "Worksite-bro" online was really him. They were talking about him like he was someone else.

"...No, wait. Wait wait wait. Anthem should be the bigger topic than me. Going viral is just a moment. Eventually nobody'll be talking about it..."

"Not so sure about that. Those girls are pretty famous adventurers—explorers, I guess. Seems like they're pretty high up there. And the monsters they couldn't even touch got completely crushed, you know?"

"You were the one who beat that dragon. That was ridiculous to watch. You swung your sword and magical shock blasted out like a meteor shower, pushing that giant dragon back and back. That was incredible. You stood out way more than me."

"If I stand out, it's the same as you standing out. I'm manifesting using your soul, you know? You're Lightbringer's current owner, Toru."

Toru had tried to deflect the viral attention onto Tia as a matter of principle, but she countered with an irrefutable point.

And besides—Tia continued.

"The video of you swinging Kagetsu... this streaming culture of yours is interesting. Well, anyway—the video of you swinging Kagetsu is pretty scary. Even though I can't feel any magic or curse from the recording, I can tell just by looking that it's something dangerous."

"...It's just some guy with bad form doing practice swings."

"That's the flash of a master. If a video like this is circulating, there's absolutely no way you'll avoid attention. It's impossible not to be noticed."

There was a strong conviction in her voice, probably born from her experience of being constantly watched as a holy sword user when she was alive.

She knew how the public reacted to cases like this.

And so, they were back to Tia's question.

What now?

"...How the hell should I know."

Toru said flatly.

"Thought so," Tia replied, smiling sympathetically.

He felt sort of... saved. But that was probably just his imagination.