Chapter 46: The Holy Sword that heard the slip of the tongue.

[Master, I’m really sorry. I spoke to another woman.]

‘It’s okay, I said.’

In the middle of the night after all her daily tasks were finished,

Signa, who had been prepared to a great extent, took out the holy sword after a long time.

[Even if it was an emergency situation, even if the master is a generous person, even if she is the master’s younger sister, I cannot forgive myself. I really didn’t mean to do that, but the master’s life was in danger, and she was the only person who could help, so I had no choice. It’s also true that I can help, and I have to tell someone that fact… I really, really wasn’t having an affair, I was just trying to save everyone, master.]

‘Please calm down a little…?’

[You know, I know that you know, but I feel defiled, so I can’t stand it. I still love you one-heartedly, master. I can’t live without you. Please don’t abandon me. Please, master. Without your touch, I’m…]

The golden light of the holy sword spread subtly throughout the dark room.

In stark contrast to that sacred scenery, Signa’s head felt like it was going to break from the bombardment of sentences that were ruthlessly digging into her mind.

She wanted to close the scabbard right away to solve this headache, but Signa knew that she shouldn’t.

If she did such a thing recklessly, it was certain that she would have to spend about ten times more time appeasing it the next time she took out the holy sword again.

‘I think I’m already repeating this for about the fifth time. I understand everything, I said.’

[But I was defiled by talking to another woman! Master, are you really okay with that? Don’t you have any thoughts that I have to be the master’s, that I have to be the only one?]

‘Um… Yeah… That…?’

She didn’t feel it at all.

[Don’t you feel even a little bit, even just this much jealousy? Aren’t you angry at the thought that I succumbed to your younger sister for a moment and forcibly mixed my mind with hers?]

What kind of expression was forcibly mixing minds?

What does it feel like?

Signa, who was not a sword, couldn’t know.

‘Ot…’

Just as Signa was about to answer that she didn’t, a warning sent a chilling feeling from one corner of her brain.

Is it right to answer no here?

If I carelessly answer no, won’t she get hurt even more?

Won’t she sulk even more, saying that she was only that much of a being to her master, and how could it be that she wasn’t jealous even a little bit?

If I say ‘I don’t care about that kind of thing’ to a holy sword that is agitated to this extent.

If I say it…

Then does that mean that you don’t care what happens to me, master?

Wouldn’t that kind of reaction come back?

‘So, honestly, I was nervous.’

Signa focused and conveyed her thoughts to the sword.

‘I had a hard time hearing that too. That’s why I couldn’t come to you for the past few days.’

It was a blatant lie.

‘I was so afraid that maybe your heart had left me forever, that even if I held you again, you wouldn’t give me your voice again. That you had now chosen Yukomis as your new master. I was so afraid to confirm that…’

Signa roughly made up words that she thought the holy sword would want to hear.

Of course, the reason why she hadn’t held the holy sword again for a while was definitely not because of that reason.

It was simply because Yukomis had been holding the holy sword all the time until the past few days after she returned to the mansion from Isht.

She simply said that she had ‘forgotten to return it’.

‘Anyway, you’re the owner of this sword now. It’s right for you to have it. I lost my small sword in the chaos anyway.’

It was the story of the magic iron small sword that she had bought from that weapon shop in Cotes.

To be exact, she didn’t lose it, but gave it to Silissa.

According to Silissa,

‘Um… The holy sword has now returned to the hands of its rightful owner, so I was wondering if I could receive just one item that the lord’s touch has reached instead.’

When she asked her back if it was really necessary,

‘While I’m away from the lord… I want to feel like I’m connected to the lord…’

She said.

That was also a bit of a strange word, but it was also Silissa’s shy and humble attitude, which was unlike her…

She had really only had clothes and that sword at the time, so.

After getting a strange yet definite promise that she wouldn’t use it, she gave it to her.

Even though it was a humble item,

[Master!!! I love you one-heartedly! There’s absolutely no way that kind of thing will happen!]

When you think about the hostility that the holy sword, which is in this state, would show towards that ugly small sword,

Giving it to Silissa might have been a pretty good thing.

The holy sword had a great jealousy for other swords, not other people.

She was jealous of a sword because she was a sword. Was that obvious?

On top of that, she had just been forgetting about it for a few days.

If I just say that I had been counting it as not there,

The reaction was something that was scary even to imagine.

‘Ugh, yeah. It was a needless worry. I’m glad that I was able to confirm that you think of me this way too. You came back to me after all, right?’

[Ah, master… How kind you are…]

‘You were so desperate that you would allow me to temporarily have my body… Um…’

Signa thought that this expression was a bit strange.

‘A relationship?’

This was even stranger.

‘Um… ‘Interact’ with another person? I understand that you were that desperate. I understand everything.’

[Master!]

The excited voice of the holy sword echoed through her head at an enormous volume.

[I love you, master! A master who understands and forgives me! It’s you only after all!]

‘Ugh, yeah.’

Signa’s head hurt as she wondered what kind of conversation this was.

She thought that she didn’t have to be so flustered like a medieval person who had lost her chastity just because she had talked to another person.

If you only listen to the words, you’d think they had done something like a temporary swap.

She didn’t think that she had cheated with something like that.

In the first place, what does it mean for a sword to cheat? What does this feel like?

Now that she was a woman, it was funny that she was saying this, but she had heard that a woman’s heart was a complicated thing.

…A woman’s heart? Since the holy sword’s voice is feminine, can I accept this as a woman?

But she couldn’t even ask that.

The holy sword was a much more sensitive being than that ‘ordinary woman’s heart’.

In fact, the entire conversation with the holy sword was nothing more than a minefield.

Even now, if she asked about something, some part that Signa herself couldn’t even guess would become a fuse and explode…

Signa was dumbfounded by the fact that she had to match the whims of a sword and be in a love triangle.

She wasn’t this nervous even when talking to anyone else,

The fact that the object she had to think about the most when talking was an item.

Signa thought that reliability was more important than performance for weapons.

No… She shouldn’t even use the word item.

If she did, she would scream, ‘Master, are you looking at me as just an item?’

Again, whoever first thought of putting a personality into a sword,

That was definitely not a good idea.

If she went to the battlefield with the holy sword, which was in a state of agitation due to some discord, she didn’t know what would happen at the crucial moment.

If she heard the voice of the holy sword, which was tearfully saying, ‘I’m sorry. I can’t muster up the strength…’ the moment she shouted, ‘Great magic protection, please!’,

There was no experience as chilling as that.

So she always had to match the whims of the holy sword.

Today’s conversation was also part of that.

Always the best relationship, the best mood.

Signa thought that this was a reversal of the master-servant relationship.

It seemed like someone had said that. The one who held the initiative was actually the M, was it?

She didn’t know if that was the right word for this time.

‘Well, in the end… So that’s why you gave Yukomis your voice.’

[Yes. So I really didn’t do anything wrong.]

The holy sword emphasized again.

‘Then there’s something I’m curious about, you denied to Yukomis that I wasn’t Thermis. Why did you do that?’

In a way, it was because of the holy sword that the timing to confess her identity had gone wrong.

But Signa wanted to know the reason before she got angry.

[I was just giving your younger sister the answer she wanted to hear.]

‘The answer she wanted to hear?’

[At that time, your younger sister… wanted you to be Thermis, and at the same time, she desperately wanted you to not be Thermis.]

‘Why?’

[Your younger sister’s self-blame was very severe… She was harshly criticizing herself, saying that the magic had driven you to your death.]

[Her heart that I looked into was really black. She was frantically anxious that that magic had put you on a time limit. And that the fact that you were on a time limit had become the reason why you decided to die alone. So if I said that you were really ‘Thermis’, that would have been too much of a shock to her at that time.]

‘She was thinking that…’

[Yes. She was frantically anxious that you, who had shouldered the same burden twice… would end up making the same choice as before.]

It was a complicated word.

But she had never told anyone that she was on a time limit.

Who figured that out after I died, and in what way? On top of that…

‘The Demon King is dead, so there’s no reason to make that choice now.’

[So… I gave her the answer she wanted to hear. She wanted to believe that way, so I made her believe it.]

‘It’s the same way that you showed Silissa an ‘inappropriate fantasy’ before.’

Signa turned the words a bit.

But it was much more serious to Yukomis than to Silissa.

Signa could now understand why Yukomis was so sure that she was a different person.

Signa recalled that Yukomis had asked her just a little while ago, ‘Please don’t act like my sister’ and made a request.

Was that what she meant? So that was why she had looked so sad while saying those words?

‘But that magic is still inside me, right?’

[Just like I chose ‘Signa’ as my next master because she’s too similar to ‘Thermis’, maybe that magic, too, is bound to the first target it was cast on and goes to find similar people… I told your younger sister that.]

The holy sword hastily added.

[Of, of course, that kind of thing will absolutely never happen to me. I will never choose another master for the paltry reason that they’re similar. You know that, right?]

‘Of course.’

[Ah, that’s a relief… You must never think like that, master.]

‘But you thought of all those excuses in that urgent situation?’

Signa admired.

[Rather than excuses… Maybe that ‘forced healing’ magic really works that way. I was thinking that.]

‘It goes to find similar people, huh…’

[Or it follows the soul.]

‘The soul?’

[Seeing that you came back this way even after you died, isn’t it right to think that something like that exists?]

It was a valid point.

When you think about it, it was a thought that she should have had from the first time she encountered this world after facing her first death.

Not just in a rhetorical sense. Does something like a soul really exist?

[In my opinion, your younger sister’s magic is really mysterious. I can’t even analyze the operating structure, so it’s impossible to release it. It might really be a magic that is bound to the soul…]

The holy sword’s voice sounded uneasy.

[On top of that, it’s now entangled ambiguously with Manya’s magic, so it’s become even more complicated.]

Because the holy sword’s ability was great magic protection and nullification, it knew the operating structure of magic in more detail than any scholar in this world.

It even knew quite a few of the principles of ancient magic that had been forgotten now.

Prvannol even quickly figured out how to track the flow of even magic it was seeing for the first time and how to nullify it.

If there were any exceptions, it was the magic of Yukomis, who was in a different class, and the Demon King, as she said.

Looking at these points, it was really a relic.

If she took enough time and released the knowledge that the holy sword possessed, wouldn’t that be a really amazing thing?

There was no time to do that in her previous life, but what about now?

Yukomis, who was next to her, was the best scholar, and the Solenas Dukedom also operated both universities and regular academies, so.

It might be a worthwhile thing to work on now.

As she was thinking this and that, Signa’s thoughts began to scatter.

‘That magic might just be following similar people, not really the soul.’

[You can’t deny it. As I said, even your younger sister herself doesn’t know about that.]

‘If that’s the case, then there’s a possibility that you, who were sure that I was me when you saw that magic, were just confused…’

Signa stopped talking there.

It was because she realized that she had brought up a forbidden topic that she should never have done.

The holy sword became quiet for the first time, and Signa started to sweat cold sweat.

‘…Forget it. This wasn’t the time to say that…’

Signa knew too well what kind of reaction the holy sword would show after the uneasy silence.

[Master, you’re an idiooooot!!!!]

‘So, sorry. I’m really sorry. I misspoke.’

[Master, you were still thinking that way!!!!!]

‘It’s not that! It wasn’t that meaning…’

[You were still having that suspicion! You’re still thinking that since it was made a long time ago, of course it’s gone through many masters, that that’s why I’m like that!!!]

Signa could never forget the moment when she had first taken out the holy sword and heard its voice in her past life,

And out of curiosity, she asked, ‘What kind of person was the previous master?’.

That’s because the holy sword, which had been praising him as ‘an infinitely beautiful person’ and ‘a person full of love’ until just before that moment, had started to wail at a volume that felt like her head was going to break.

‘No, no. I didn’t think that. I swear…?’

[That’s right! I said I didn’t have that. I only remember the master!]

She also shouldn’t make the rebuttal, ‘Maybe you just lost your memories’.

That was also an incorrect answer she had already experienced.

It was a word that she should absolutely, specially not say.

[I only chose the master! But you’re thinking that I’m a cheap sword that serves a new master because of a feeling or a delusion, that I’m like that!]

‘I misspoke!’

[Saying that you misspoke means that you had those thoughts!]

‘No. Please forgive me. It’s just a slip of the tongue. It’s just a mistake!’

Signa also couldn’t understand the sensibilities of the holy sword, which said that it was loyal to the master while saying that it was okay to use Silissa as a ‘toy’.

She was jealous of other ‘weapons’ but not of people.

Even if it was just elves, who were from a different race, there were conflicts because of cultural differences,

But this was… A sword and a person? A living thing and a non-living thing? An item?

Should she take it out of the non-living classification since it had intelligence?

[I’m not that kind of sword that gives it to anyone, a ‘whore’-like sword! I said that I talked to your younger sister out of force majeure! That’s different from serving a new master!!!!]

‘Please speak more softly. It feels like my head is going to split…?’

[So you’re harboring resentment because of that! You’re still suspecting me, aren’t you! You’re thinking that like a sword made in an ordinary ‘blacksmith’, my body is sold for a few gold coins and I give it to anyone like a rag! You’re thinking that I’m that cheap!!!]

The holy sword put special contempt in the word ordinary blacksmith.

‘I didn’t say it that far!’

[‘That far?’]

‘Ah…’

The holy sword repeated eerily.

Signa knew well enough what meanings were hidden in the foundation of that one word without listening to it.

[Idiot, idiot, idiotidiotidiot!! Master is an idiot! Master is a liar! Master is a fool! ‘I really hate you!!!!’ I’m not talking to master anymore!!!!!]

The holy sword, which had screamed like that, went into the scabbard on its own.

And it couldn’t be pulled out no matter how hard she tried.