Chapter 11: Blackmagic Blade

After having a sincere conversation with Riven, she and I became closer than before. She seemed to have relieved some of the burden in her heart, and I was able to gain a conversational partner who wasn’t that much older than me.

Riven plowed the old woman’s field with me on weekends and by herself on weekdays. Even though it was clearly hard work, she never made a single difficult sound. It seemed that her stamina was at a similar level to mine.

Of course, it hasn’t even been a year since I started exercising, but even if I don’t have the muscle strength, I was confident that I wouldn’t be inferior to anyone when it came to stamina. Riven’s stamina is similar to mine, so you can imagine how strong her body is.

Looking at her body, I thought that I should have at least that much strength to be able to compete with other people. Until now, I had been aiming for abstract strength, but after she appeared, I was able to set a specific degree as a goal.

Later, I thought it would be good to ask her for a sparring match when I had some muscle strength and skills. No matter how strong you are, if you don’t have any real-world experience, it’s only half the strength.

Set is now entering his 5th month of life. When I saw Set crawling towards me on his own, I was so upset that there was no camera in this world.

Now he has started picking up other things besides my fingers. When I look at the things in the house, he crawls to anything he likes and touches it with his small hands. Thanks to that, I also started organizing things that could be dangerous if they got into Set’s hands.

Then, I accidentally discovered an object wrapped in cloth in the corner of the house. What is this? Was there such a thing in this house?

It was only after taking off the cloth that was wrapping the object that I could recall the existence of the object. The sword that Riven had when she first came to this place!

The reason why this was in our house was that before taking her to the old woman’s house, I thought it wasn’t right for a young girl to keep carrying a sword, especially a sword that was broken into several pieces, so I brought it to our house.

To think that I only remembered that now… I’m worried that I’ve developed forgetfulness at too early of an age.

I couldn’t keep this sword in my care, and since my relationship with her wasn’t bad, I thought it would be okay to return it now, so I wrapped the sword in cloth again and headed to the place where she would be.

As I expected, she was in the field where we first met. Knowing that she always rests here at this time, I approached her without hesitation, calling out her name.

She was startled by my voice suddenly coming from behind, but soon recognized my face and returned to her usual expression.

She was holding an Ionian citrus fruit in her hand, so it seemed that she had decided to cultivate this fruit this time.

This fruit is unique in that it has no seeds, but it grows when planted in the ground. At first, I thought, how can a fruit tree grow without seeds? But when a sprout sprouted from a fruit that another person planted, I was forced to choose the option of believing it.

Putting aside my miscellaneous thoughts, I handed her the sword I had brought and said.

“I came to return this sword to you. I’m sorry for keeping it for so long.”

She took the sword I handed her and said to me.

“But are you sure it’s okay? You’re quite worried about me, aren’t you?”

It was her saying that if I kept the sword, wouldn’t it be safer even if Riven turned her back on us? I shook my head and answered her question.

“This sword is yours. The fact that I keep it doesn’t change that. Rather, I think it’s good for you to carry this sword with you at all times.”

Riven listened to my words, pondered for a moment, and then decided to accept the sword. For me, the biggest wish was that she could protect herself and the old woman with that sword, no matter what happened.

Riven grabbed the hilt of the broken sword and swung it once. Her sword was so sharp that it made a sound that cut through the wind. It seemed that her swordsmanship skills hadn’t rusted.

But looking at the sword in her hand again in detail, I felt a strange flow around the sword. It seemed to be mana, but it was so murky that it couldn’t be compared to the natural mana I use.

Questioning that point, I told her that I felt a strange mana flowing through the sword and asked her if she knew anything about this.

She listened to my words, pondered for a moment, and then told me what she guessed.

“At the point where my memory was cut off, it seems that this sword protected me from the explosion. At the time, I hated this sword because I was the only one who survived, so I broke it. I wonder if there was something in Noxus, where this sword came from?”

Noxus… That makes sense. They would have adopted anything if it could be used as force. It’s not strange that there’s someone who can engrave this magic, which looks like black magic, on a sword.

I threw a small joke to relieve Riven’s mood, which had darkened slightly when the sword story came out.

“Next time, get sword insurance. That way, even if the sword breaks, you’ll be able to get some compensation.”

Um… But does insurance exist in this world too? Looking at Riven, it seemed like it existed, judging by the fact that she was smiling slightly. That’s a relief…

But this sword won’t suddenly explode later, will it? I thought it was a million dollars that I returned the sword to Riven.