Chapter 1: 1725th

They pick up orphans from the battlefield and raise them as assassins. Cheap, and easy to brainwash.

It’s a story that could happen anywhere.

You don’t have to look far; if you just change the word ‘assassin’ to ‘child soldier’ and ‘raise’ to ‘use’, isn’t it something that’s happening right now somewhere on Earth?

“Slow! You’re too slow! Swing faster!”

But I, the nameless Trainee 1725.

I died after being hit by a car, left Earth, and was being raised as an assassin on a strange star.

I wake up, go for a run, eat a tasteless meal, get injected with some unknown drug, train with a real sword, eat another tasteless meal, and get injected with an unusually suspicious drug again.

Even if I try to refuse, I can’t resist after being tormented by something called magic. Besides, I’m not even 10 years old yet.

Ah.
Am I 10 now?
Or not?
Am I older?
How many years has it been since I was dragged to this facility?

“At this rate, how can you ever become ‘the blade that shatters all magic’!”

Taking and being injected with drugs every day is bound to make a person strange.

Uhehe.

To be specific about how strange, mentally, various mental illnesses including mild amnesia are flooding in.

Physically, a kid who’s still around 10 years old can toss an apple high into the sky with his own hand, draw a sword, and cut it twice before it hits the ground.

That’s so strange.
Am I even human?
A 10-year-old kid?
I’m just a brat on drugs.
And the magic that can subdue that with a single gesture is freaking amazing.

“You’ll get hurt if you get distracted.”

Screech.

The girl on the other side, who had initiated a blade lock, advised me.
Trainee 141.
Black hair and black eyes.
She was still younger than me.
To be honest, I don’t know if they are a boy or a girl.
Their hair was cut short, and this was the first time we’d met.

I pushed back with force.
Trainee 141 on the other side also seemed to dislike the tedious stalemate and willingly let herself be pushed back, and in the single moment an opening was created between us, our swords clashed and separated countless times.
Compared to my previous life, my movements were astonishing, but now I’m so used to it I don’t even feel it anymore.
Rather than saying I’ve gotten used to it, I should probably say that I can’t properly remember my previous life or the time before I came here because of the drugs.
I can’t even remember my own name.
No, not a ridiculous name like 1725.
I’m sure I had two names.

“Ah.”

Clang.
A loud sound of sparks flying.
My sword broke from a powerful swing from Trainee 141.

‘It’s awkward for me to say it myself, but all the kids in this neighborhood are superhumans.’
‘How many times has this been?’
‘Can’t they provide a sturdier sword?’
‘Even if the sword breaks, I have to keep going.’
‘They scold you if you rest.’

“H-hey. Are you okay?!”
“Huh?”

Trainee 141 across from me was shouting something. She let go of the sword she was holding with both hands and pointed at my right shoulder with her other hand.

Following her finger, I looked down to see a chunk of my shoulder flesh had been carved out, revealing the bone.

‘Ah.’
‘No wonder my arm wouldn’t go up properly.’

I belatedly tried to block it with my left hand, but there was no way a child’s hand could stop the gushing blood.

“What is it! Are you hurt!”
“I-I’m sorry! I couldn’t control my strength!”
“I’m sorry! I couldn’t block it properly!!”

We both bowed our heads at the same time. The instructor stared at us for a long, long time before speaking.

“If the sword is broken, it can’t be helped.”
“141, take 1725 to the infirmary.”
“Y-yes, sir! Let’s go!”
“Ahem.”

The instructor walked over, picked up the piece of my flesh, shook it off a few times, and put it in his pocket. He was the instructor who, on our first meeting, had said, ‘I like the meat of children.’

At first, I thought the instructor was just trying to scare us, but it was real.

The first time I saw him eat the flesh, well, when he picked up the severed finger of a trainee—was it 1222 or 1444?—and chewed on it, I thought I would die from disgust.

Of course, now I don’t feel anything. I’m used to it.

‘Just… won’t his pocket get wet?’
‘That’s the kind of feeling.’

“Are you okay? Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It hurts.”
“That’s why I told you not to get distracted!!”

‘There aren’t many kids here who care about others.’
‘At first, there are some nice kids, but as time passes after entering, they get filtered out again and again, and before you know it, they’re all just beasts.’
‘A 100-series number means she’s been here for a very long time.’
‘Four years? Six years? Something like that.’
‘Ah. Maybe she was originally crazy, so after taking the drugs, she became nice instead.’

‘That’s plausible.’

“Nurse! An injured person!”

The infirmary nurse was a kind adult.

Not only did she heal me quickly with healing magic, but she also kept me in the infirmary for a long time, saying she needed a database on injuries and treatments, making it the only space where I could escape the tight schedule and rest for a while.

I do get injected with a lot of drugs while I’m confined. And she really doesn’t try to talk to the children.

“Ah, I understand.”

The nurse, who had approached like a ghost, waved her hand and ordered 141 to leave.

141 let go of my left hand, which she had been holding tightly, and disappeared as if running away.

The nurse took out a wand from her sleeve and drew a magic circle in the air with clean hand movements.

‘They say you’re supposed to chant a prayer, but it seems she really doesn’t want to talk to the kids.’

My shoulder healed in an instant. And then, following the nurse’s guidance, I was sent to bed number 3.

An IV was inserted, and a bright blue drug was administered. I fell asleep, more from exhaustion than from the drug’s effect.

******

“Hi!”
“……Who are you?”
“I’m the one who hurt you!”

‘That’s something to be proud of.’

Trainee 141 came to visit while I was enjoying my hospital stay, having nothing better to do than count the stains on the ceiling after getting injured.

‘Kids usually don’t come for visits.’
‘Only really close friends visit sometimes.’
‘And then they get frustrated by their friend’s death, become even more broken, and die absurdly.’
‘Like from a heart attack.’
‘Usually, it’s a mysterious death.’

“Hello.”
“Yeah. You finally greeted me back.”
“What did you come here for?”
“A hospital visit.”
“So why did you come for a hospital visit?”
“To see if you were hurting or not?”

‘Why are you asking it like you’re the one who’s puzzled?’
‘Children sometimes act without any thought.’
‘This kid must be the same.’

“Ah. We had snacks as a special meal today. I came to give them to you.”
“Really? Thanks.”
“But they looked tasty on the way here, so I ate them. Your snacks were awesome.”

‘Even if she calls it a snack, it’s nothing special.’
‘It’s fried flour.’
‘The kind that becomes a twisted doughnut if you twist it once and sprinkle sugar on it is what they give us as a “snack”.’
‘I complain that they should at least sprinkle some sugar on it, but a special meal is a special meal.’
‘It’s sad if you don’t get it.’

“You should go back now.”
“Actually, I came today to apologize for that.”
“Wouldn’t there have been no need to apologize if you hadn’t mentioned it in the first place?”
“Sorry! But your snacks were really delicious!”

‘This one.’
‘It seems she’s not just simply crazy.’

Anyway, 141 visited often. Once every two days. No, twice every three days.

My hospital stay was about two weeks, so that counts as visiting often. I went out again, swung my sword, got injected with drugs, swung my sword again, and took more drugs.

Has it been about a year since then? Or maybe three to four months have passed. I don’t know. Anyway, it was on one of those days.

“……They say it won’t heal.”

There was a child hospitalized in bed number 3. I hadn’t seen her for a few days, and now her eyes were wrapped in bandages.

Some kids said that while sparring with 3109, she broke her sword again, and the broken blade flew up and cut both of her eyes.

“Why won’t it heal?”
“I guess I have bad compatibility with the drugs.”
“Wrong. It’s too good.”

The nurse came in, pulling back the curtain, and said that. It was the first time I heard the infirmary nurse speak.

“You’re just so outstanding in magic resistance that the healing magic I cast doesn’t work on you. It’s very unfortunate for now, but you were the closest to the masterpiece we were thinking of.”
“……The blade that shatters all magic.”

‘The instructor said something like that once.’

Of course, the nurse didn’t react to my words.

‘It seemed the nurse was distinguishing between masterpieces and defective products.’

“So your disposal will be postponed.”
“You might even live for a long, long time.”
“If you vaguely refuse to cooperate, you might live for about 10 years?”
“During those 10 years, many test subjects will die, right?”
“Oh my, how clever. Yes. If you cooperate, well… we can finish this experiment within a year and produce excellent blades. After that, we won’t do this kind of thing again, right?”

After that day, I think I went to the infirmary every single day.

By the time the number of needles stuck in 141’s arms exceeded four, and the number of IV bags became nine, I decided to stop wondering whether it was blood or a chemical solution flowing through 141’s veins.

“Ah. We had snacks as a special meal today. I came to give them to you.”
“Really? Thanks.”
“But they looked tasty on the way here, so I ate them. Your snacks were awesome.”
“But did you know?”
“What.”
“The meals for infirmary test subjects, three times a day, are tastier than the special meals for regular test subjects?”
“You deceiver!”

Has it been about a year since then? Or maybe three to four months have passed. I don’t know. Anyway, it was on one of those days.

A rumor spread that a masterpiece had emerged from among the 1000-series children. That day, during a sparring match, I shattered the opponent’s sword and then cut down the approaching instructor.

I cut down all the soldiers and children who stood in my way with hostility and headed for the infirmary. And I pulled 141 out of bed number 3 and ran away.

Surprisingly, the escape was easy. When I put my mind to it, Trainee 1725 of the 1000-series became the blade that shatters all magic.

I’m not sure about ‘all,’ but at least I could break through binding magic.

“You should have seen the shocked look on the instructor’s face as he died.”
“Why did you do this?”
“To save you.”
“But why did you try to save me!”
“I thought you wouldn’t be in pain if I did this?”
“Why would you do something like that without even being sure…….”

‘Shut up.’
‘I’m saving you on my way out.’
‘Since you and I are the only successful products, now that we’ve escaped, this research facility is screwed.’
‘That’s the idea.’

After that, we ran away silently and persistently. I sliced through an incredibly thick iron door in a single strike, and we descended the mountain.

When I saw a village at the foot of the mountain and went there, the villagers were searching everywhere with torches.

‘They must be looking for us.’
‘This is trouble.’

In the midst of that, a sound came from behind us. There was also the sound of a gunshot. When I opened my eyes, I was falling over.

“Run.”

‘Honestly, there was nothing else to say.’

141 was crying her eyes out.

‘Talk about sacrifice and all, but she’s still just a kid.’

I shouted at 141.

“If you get caught here too, my sacrifice in bringing you this far will become meaningless.”

‘It’s not something I, who had already made 141’s years, or perhaps months, of sacrifice meaningless, should say.’
‘But 141 was obsessed with that idea of sacrifice.’
‘So it should work.’

And it did.

141 glanced back a few times but fled into the darkness of the forest. She escaped well, even with her unseeing eyes.

******

“Are you 1725? The one who supposedly turned the facility upside down?”

I woke up from unconsciousness to see a girl. She was wearing very aristocratic clothes. She was probably a noble.

There was also someone who looked like a butler standing behind her, and the nurse and several facility administrators were standing at stiff attention.

“Won’t you answer me?”
“Yes. I am 1725.”
“Is that so?”

The girl looked back and said, “Hey. I’m taking this one. That’s fine, right?”

“W-wait a minute, my lady! That one is on the verge of completion! To take it like that—”

“Hey. Marilyn.”

The young lady approached the infirmary nurse and spoke. Despite the height difference making the young lady look up, the infirmary nurse was trembling.

“A masterpiece, you say?”
“Y-yes, that’s right!”
“Then complete it and bring it to me by tomorrow. From your perspective, all you have to do is complete it, right?”

The infirmary nurse nodded.