I Became the Main Character’s Demon Sword

6

“Is it done?”

Even Iol, who had swung the sword, didn’t know exactly what had just happened.

The man’s hands were lean without any excess fat, unsuited for holding a sword. Though dressed in commoner’s clothes, he exuded an elegant aura like that of a noble. Despite this, he had the audacity to claim he didn’t need a sword, which was irritating.

When the test actually began, all Iol saw was the man reaching his hand towards the sword.

There was clearly no problem. But the moment the man’s hand moved, Iol felt an overwhelming force slowly consuming his body from the toes up, as if he was freezing in place.

In the silence, Iol barely managed to turn his head to check the floor where the noise came from. His sword, which had been intact just moments ago, lay there broken in half. Seeing this sight, his legs trembled uncontrollably like aspen leaves, and he collapsed.

The shock he felt spread to the others as well.

This was also true for the man who had been wearing his hat low, with an inexplicable smile on his lips the entire time.

“Aura…?”

Another man, who had been unable to hide his restlessness, muttered from the side. Due to the silence, everyone heard it clearly.

“Arpel, did you win? You won, right?”

“Yes.”

Only Rohan, who couldn’t understand what this situation meant, ran towards Arpel with a bright face. Arpel, who was about to readjust his rolled-up sleeve, stopped what he was doing and picked up the running Rohan.

Arpel glanced at the still silent people and asked the man sitting at the edge:

“Can we proceed with the next match right away?”

Though his face was completely hidden by his hat and only his lips were visible, it was clear he was the highest-ranking person here. The man hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.

“I’ll just give you an A-rank. I’d like to give you an S-rank, but… it’s the rules. You can raise it to S-rank after completing a few requests.”

Although the sudden increase in rank was puzzling, it wasn’t a bad thing. Arpel stared at the man for a moment, quickly understood, and nodded.

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

His steps weren’t particularly hurried as he left, holding the child in his arms, but no one tried to stop him.

***

Iol, who had been defeated by Arpel in one round, stared blankly for a while before hastily leaving the room. He couldn’t even pick up his sword that had been completely cut in half.

“It was cleanly cut…”

“Indeed. It was quite a good companion.”

Iol was not at the very top of B-rank mercenaries, but he boasted skills in the middle ranks. He thought at best it would be an equal fight, but it seems he was sorely mistaken.

The man who had been wearing his hat low took it off, brushing back his disheveled green hair as he burst into cheerful laughter. He had only followed out of slight interest, but it felt like he had received an unexpected gift.

The man, or rather ‘Lexia’, had taken notice of Arpel when he applied for the duel because of his boldness in challenging the highest rank first, despite his seemingly frail body.

Although not small enough to be mistaken for a woman, the body lines visible outside his clothes were still quite slender. Moreover, the white hands he had glimpsed in passing didn’t even have the calluses from holding a sword.

Rather, they were so fair and delicate that one would believe he was a young master who had never experienced hardship.

Yet to possess such skill.

“Should we investigate?”

“Hmm… just roughly? We do need to verify.”

Swordsmen who attain enlightenment can strengthen their swords and bodies with ‘Aura’. Using Aura wasn’t particularly special. Even most knights from noble families could use Aura.

The important point was that a B-rank mercenary of considerable skill had his Aura-reinforced sword cut in half with a single strike by a mere hand.

There was no other explanation than that the man had strengthened his body with Aura before deflecting the sword. To pierce through a B-rank mercenary’s Aura like cutting tofu and cleanly break the sword in half, he must be several levels above.

Yet his appearance didn’t suggest such skill. Lexia decided not to judge Arpel’s abilities carelessly.

The decision on whether to recruit him or not could be made after observing his actions slowly. A pleased smile spread across Lexia’s face.

***

It’s fortunate things went as planned. Arpel thought this as he left the room after the duel.

The reason he could cleanly cut an Aura-reinforced sword in half with one strike was simple. He possessed a fragment of divine power bestowed by a god, making him a being of a completely different caliber.

Even if it was just a tiny fragment, he possessed the power of a god. Unless facing an opponent of a caliber comparable to a god, it didn’t matter much to Arpel whether they used Aura or not.

Unaware that someone’s mind was filled with completely inaccurate speculations, Arpel went downstairs and immediately received the mercenary badge that proved his status as a mercenary.

It was a dark brown badge with his name clearly engraved, and it seemed the color indicated the rank.

The woman handed over the mercenary badge with trembling hands, apparently not expecting Arpel to be approved for A-rank instead of B-rank. She also informed him in a shaky voice that S-rank was black, information he wasn’t particularly curious about.

“Are there any requests available in the direction of the temple?”

As soon as he received the mercenary badge, Arpel asked the woman if there were any suitable requests. At his words, the woman took out what looked like a stack of request papers and began flipping through them.

“You mean the nearby temple, right?”

“No, the central one.”

“The central one…? That’s quite far.”

“I have business there.”

The place Arpel needed to take Rohan was the Central Temple. It was the largest temple where the High Priest resided.

The Central Temple was the only place that received revelations about those who were blessed. Other temples only knew that a blessed being had appeared, not who they were or even whether they were male or female.

The only place that could verify this was the Central Temple, where the High Priest could hear the divine words.

So if one were to enter just any temple and say, “This child is blessed,” they would likely be treated as a fraud. There was no way to verify it.

When an oracle came down, it was common to take the child immediately, but sometimes they allowed a few years’ time. This was to avoid depriving blessed children of time with their parents.

Originally a measure to protect the child, in the original story, this action became a great poison for the temple.

Unable to imagine a situation where information would leak, the temple delayed sending priests, and during that time, the village where Rohan lived burned down. To make matters worse, this news was only delivered to the temple much later due to a spy within the temple.

Upon belatedly hearing news of Rohan, the priests hurriedly organized search parties to find him.

Given the explanation that the priests heard the news much later, it seemed possible that they might arrive before the search parties were dispatched if they went now.

“Then how about this? The content isn’t difficult, and the reward isn’t bad either.”

Arpel quickly checked the contents written on the paper the woman handed him.

The client was a merchant who supplied meat from a base near the mountains close to the lord’s castle. It was written that to maintain good quality, they raised, slaughtered, and processed the meat themselves.

Skipping over the unnecessarily lengthy sentences detailing the client’s business, Arpel confirmed the purpose of the request.

“I’ll take this one.”

Summarizing the key points, it seemed that for several weeks, the breeding grounds had been attacked by unidentified wild animals at night, resulting in mass slaughter of the animals.

The content was simple – catch and dispose of the wild animals. However, the mercenaries who had taken the request all gave up, claiming to have seen a ‘monster’, causing the rank requirement and cost to skyrocket with each passing day.

Perhaps worried that Arpel might refuse, the woman who introduced the request visibly sighed in relief. It seems this had been quite a troublesome matter.

“Once the request is completed, the client will directly inform the guild of the fact, so you don’t need to worry about anything after that.”

“I see. Well then.”

Holding the paper he was given in one hand, Arpel adjusted his hold on Rohan and left the guild. There was no reason to delay, so he planned to depart as quickly as possible.

“I can walk now.”

As soon as they got outside the guild, Rohan, with his bright eyes, spoke bravely. Arpel blinked for a moment before carefully setting Rohan down on the ground.

The warmth leaving his hands felt a bit regrettable. But soon enough, tiny hands burrowed in as if to fill that warmth, quickly dispelling that thought.

“Are we going somewhere else?”

“Yes. Towards the lord’s castle.”

The child nodded. Arpel stuffed the request paper into his pocket and used his now-empty hand to pat the round head.

When they reach the temple, these days will probably end. Perhaps because he felt that the time spent with the child was peaceful, he occasionally wanted to hold onto the passing time.

His initial determination to take Rohan to the temple as soon as possible had subtly shifted at some point. Once they reached the temple, he would be separated from the child, unable to see the gestures of not wanting to part. It was clear he would no longer feel the warmth of the small hand holding his.

Every time he thought about this, it felt like he couldn’t breathe. Something deep inside him constantly whispered not to lose this ‘daily life’ he had experienced for the first time.

As days passed, his feelings about Rohan became more and more complex.

But for now, it was still okay to just push these complicated thoughts to a corner of his mind.