ch21-ch40 · 031-ch30

Chapter 30

Hayasaka Toru—Toru—was being transported by the holy sword-wielding swordswoman Tia, using the Holy Sword Lightbringer as an improvised backpack carrier, and he was half in a state of panic.

First of all, the power behind each step she took as she kicked off the ground was insane.

She was probably using some magical effect to keep the impact from fully transmitting to the ground, asphalt, guardrails, tops of utility poles, or building roofs. Otherwise, she'd destroy her own footholds and wouldn't be able to generate the kinetic energy needed for high-speed movement.

The kinetic energy produced this way moved two people, and the initial speed probably exceeded the speed of sound. Because he could see something like a magical barrier deployed in front of Tia's face, and the air hitting that barrier was being torn apart to either side.

THUD, as she kicked, and BOOM.

It made no sense, but that's how they moved, regardless.

Of course, they couldn't stay supersonic forever. Since they gained thrust by kicking off footholds, their speed was constantly decreasing while airborne. It seemed logical to reduce airtime to solve this, and Tia did that when she could.

When she couldn't—that meant there were obstacles and it was faster to jump over them.

This was especially pronounced when they first left Sugai Dungeon and tore through the mountain forest. Leaping higher than the trees, scattering branches, finding suitable trees to use as footholds, then the next step. Once out of the forest, they hit the prefectural road, and just when it seemed they were kicking off asphalt, they were back in the mountains. This time, kicking off a power transmission tower on the mountainside for acceleration.

Like that, they just kept heading straight, making a beeline for Noumi Dungeon.

Once they reached the urban area, to avoid killing people with the shockwave of their movement, they used building roofs and rooftops as footholds more often, and their speed dropped slightly. Probably because going supersonic would shatter building windows with the shockwave, but it was absurd.

People didn't move like this.

Moving at this speed without breaking anything also seemed wrong. Well, they'd scattered tree branches and probably cracked some asphalt.

Plus—the fact that he could understand all of this was itself an abnormal situation for Toru.

Why could he understand this?

The scenery flowing past the edges of his vision was like a train window video playing at ten times speed. Everything was too fast.

And yet, he somehow understood.

Stepping on the top of a utility pole, kicking off a building wall, the scenery flowing by at a speed where 'dizzying' wasn't a sufficient word.

Really... it was way faster than traveling by car. If that was the case, they should have also moved like this to get to Sugai Dungeon, but Tia probably hadn't thought Toru needed to head to suppress the 'Dungeon Rampage.' Regardless of Tia's own thoughts, she'd probably respected Toru's feelings and judgment.

Maybe it was because he'd blown up at the elf woman in that expensive-looking hotel this morning—Toru thought, clinging to Tia, and couldn't help a bitter smile.

He didn't think that was a 'good' thing. As he'd told Tia, his outburst had been a 'bad' thing. He was pissed, so he'd jumped on some stupid insult and thrown back a stupid insult. That was just Hayasaka Toru, so it couldn't be helped.

The reason he'd given Tia for heading to Sugai Dungeon was also his genuine feelings. It wasn't a lie. And getting on board with Tia—literally riding her to get there—was also because he didn't mind it.

If he could stop it, he'd stop it.

No complicated reasons needed for that.

Who cares about profit or loss. What if he was being used? That didn't matter. Was Tia dragging him around? If he really hated it, he wouldn't do it, and if he got angry, he'd just get angry. If his old life became impossible—that wasn't a life worth protecting that much.

Hayasaka Toru's grandparents and parents died in a 'Dungeon Rampage.'

It was like a natural disaster. He didn't deeply resent something or someone for it. He didn't have the energy to curse the world. He didn't know enough to hate politics. It was just as he'd told Tia. Most people did what they could. The choice not to do something, and the choice that one should do something—each person chose by their own judgment.

The people writing shitty comments on streams, the ones who only complain about content, the ones who spew worthless opinions on social media, the ones who act high and mighty and call others philistines, and the middle-school-graduate cleaner who argues right back at them...

Everyone had the choice not to do those things, yet they chose to do them anyway. By their own will.

In the end, when Toru's family died, it came down to everyone either choosing, by their own will, the option they thought they should choose, or knowing they shouldn't but having no choice but to do it anyway.

And he was the same.

He'd run away from the town being trampled by monsters. His parents were there, his grandparents were there, lots of other people were there, but he hadn't felt even a millimeter of inclination to go help them. He didn't have deep regrets about that. If he'd gone to help, he'd have died for nothing. Definitely died for nothing. Just like almost every other ordinary person there.

On TV and online, there were plenty of people saying irresponsible things. People smugly claiming they could have done better. People wielding the axe of 'rightness,' declaring that an explorer clan's on-site judgment when they stood against a flood of monsters was wrong. Even though that clan was wiped out. Even though they saved a few families, killed some monsters, and died with nothing more to show for it—they were called fools.

It was full of people who said whatever they wanted without responsibility. When they opined about things, they never looked in a mirror. Nobody cared how ugly and twisted their faces were as they analyzed the judgments, mistakes, and deaths of people who had no way out.

And yet, those people had the choice not to speak that way too.

But they kept opening their stinking mouths, believing their opinions were 'right.'

How could he possibly hold a grudge against every single one of them?

He'd go crazy if he cared. Getting angry was a waste. Hating was pointless. 'Rightness' wouldn't listen anyway. So he didn't need it. He didn't need rightness. He didn't give a damn about their rightness. At some point, he became apathetic, able to sneer at anyone's words as long as they weren't direct. He even started thinking that people who came at him directly were a bit more decent. Because there was a chance they'd get punched. A chance they'd get yelled at. A chance they'd be cursed at.

Don't let your heart be moved by that kind of thing.

Because those people couldn't wield 'rightness' in that hell either. No matter how noble their opinions, they were just ugly laughing from a safe zone.

He didn't know about that. It wasn't his concern. He didn't care.

But—even so, he'd developed something like an attachment to dungeons.

When he became truly alone and was figuring out what to do with himself, he'd come across a recruitment ad for a cleaner at Sugai Dungeon. That was it for the trigger. If he hadn't seen it, he might have gone to a vocational school and become a real worksite-bro. A construction worker, an electrician, a painter, or even working at the dwarf's sheet metal shop.

Anything was fine. Anything was fine.

As long as he could feed himself.

As long as he could live without causing too much trouble for others.

But this is how it turned out.

He'd been suspected of fraud for continuing as a cleaner, but he never felt like quitting. In the end, he wanted to be involved with labyrinths. He didn't care if nobody recognized him. So what if he was a rock-bottom cleaner? As long as he wasn't causing trouble for anyone, it should be fine.

"Ah—damn it! I can't get up to speed in the city!"

Tia shouted in frustration.

The scenery to either side was flowing past at high speed, but what was directly ahead actually seemed to be delayed.

She leaped up from a building roof—and apparently jumped quite high, reaching an altitude where she could look down at the city. Because of that, he could see a corner of the urban area plunged into darkness.

Probably the power was out because the monster that emerged from the 'Dungeon Rampage' had cut the power lines while rampaging.

At the center of that darkness, a five-headed monster.

It was faintly glowing from the effects of the magical power the monster emitted, its enormous form silhouetted against the darkness.

A thing of destruction, spawned by an incomprehensible 'Labyrinth.'

A thing that scattered death, created hell, and brought screams and despair.

A kind of symbol of this world, fused with another world.

This world had been joined to that thing.

If there was one thing, no matter how apathetic he became—that was unforgivable.

"Toru! Pull out that cursed blade! Tie the cord at its pommel—that creepy ornament—to Lightbringer's hilt!"

The demand left no room for questions, so Toru complied without a word.

Being carried at high speed, it was terrifying to let go of Tia, but he still pressed his right hand to his left palm and, with a slithering motion, pulled out the Cursed Blade 'Kagetsu.' From an outsider's perspective, it must have been an incredibly eerie sight.

A deeply abhorrent, crimson-black blade.

The tsuba was black, the hilt black. The red ornament cord at the pommel was wrapped around Toru's wrist, which held the sword. When he pulled the cord, it stretched, so without untying the part around his wrist, he tied the extended length to Lightbringer's hilt. He didn't know any knot that wouldn't come undone, so it was a sloppy job. Even so, he somehow understood it wouldn't come undone unless he willed it to. That's just what kind of thing this was.

While he was doing this, they'd started falling, and by the time the cursed blade and holy sword were connected by the cord, they'd already moved to the next leap.

THUD, she jumped, and BOOM.

Leaping almost straight upward, Tia released both hands that had been firmly securing Toru, gripped the holy sword's hilt—and spun around.

"Slice it apart, Toru!"

With that, Tia put magical power into the momentum of her spin and hurled the holy sword—still connected to the cursed blade's ornament cord, still connected to Toru—with all her might.

No hesitation, no prior consultation, no warning, no unspoken coordination. There might have been the briefest of preludes.

But still.

Like a fantasy-themed baseball pitcher, she threw him.

From the receiving end, there was nothing to do but go flying like some kind of magic ball.

"You've gotta be kidding me...!"

The sensation of breaking the sound barrier.

Yet there was no air resistance.

Looking, Lightbringer was glowing pale blue, using magical power to protect its owner, Toru.

Which meant—flying through the air at Mach speed—in less than two seconds, the five-headed monster was practically right in front of him.

At that moment, Toru thought of nothing.

He grabbed the holy sword's hilt, which had been dragging him through the air, with his left hand, and somehow—he wasn't sure how—pulled the holy sword toward him, stepping onto it like a surfboard. For some reason, Kagetsu's ornament cord stretched further, not interfering with his supersonic aerial surfing.

Why did he do that?

Because in a posture where he was being dragged by the holy sword, he couldn't swing his blade.

Lightbringer's glow intensified.

Its speed dropped. But there was no impact. Because the holy sword was surging with magical power to cancel the forward kinetic energy. It was probably similar to how a plane using reverse thrust to brake doesn't fall apart.

Shedding unbelievable light, it stopped in midair—just for an instant.

The five-headed monster was already right in front of him.

Without thinking, he swung 'Kagetsu.'

In the darkness of night, the crimson-black blade traced a calamitous moon.

—zoblur.

Something that wasn't a physical effect severed all five of the monster's heads at once.

The Cursed Blade 'Kagetsu' was less a weapon and more a cursed artifact, and the act of swinging the blade was equivalent to a mage's incantation or a curse-weaver's ritual formula.

A cursed tool that drew forth a future where the target had been severed.

A curse that acted directly on the soul—the divine domain where it connected to the material world. Therefore, as long as it existed in this world, nothing could escape 'Kagetsu's' severing.

If it exists, it can be cut.

That was all.

"...No, even I don't really get it... but I'm gonna fall, right?"

He'd been launched at insane speed, cutting down a monster in midair. That was fine. But Toru wasn't Tia, so falling from a height would definitely injure him.

If he hit the ground, he'd die normally.

But Toru wasn't panicking.

Because—

"Ta-daa! I can't manifest if I'm too far from Toru, but I can remanifest near him! I told you I'd protect you, right?"

Laughing "ahahaha!" incongruously, the holy sword wielder appeared right next to Toru as he fell, lightly grabbed Lightbringer—which he'd been using as a surfboard—and Toru himself, and somehow, though he couldn't follow how, landed softly without any impact at all.

Then, with a "heave-ho," Tia set Toru down on the ground, and with an unclouded, radiant smile, she said:

"Well done. You stopped the damage that monster would have caused. People who would have died, didn't die. Things that would have been destroyed, weren't. Things that would have been taken, weren't. It's because of you. You protected them. You did well, Toru. I'm proud of you."

If she hadn't been the one who'd thrown him at the five-headed monster in the first place, he might have been moved enough to tear up.

That was how deeply Tia's words penetrated into another person's heart.

She must have encouraged so many people like this in her lifetime.

Not from a distance, not afterwards, but always—right here, right before their eyes.

But Toru watched as 'Kagetsu' in his right hand dissolved into a red-black mist, slowly stood up after about five seconds, glared at the holy sword-wielding female hero, and said:

"I'm never trusting your 'protect' again. Thanks to you, I went through some crazy shit. I think you're a damn idiot."

"—Eh!? Wait? Wasn't that a touching moment just now...?"

"The hell it was."

"Ehh... that's weird... usually, people get emotional at times like this. Toru, are you broken or something? I'm starting to wonder about you."

Tilting her head in genuine bewilderment, Tia made Toru hold back for a moment before eventually giving in and letting out a wry laugh.

And that was that.

For now, anyway.