The Demon King’s Sword Strike

“All right, time for garnishing! Konoha, you’ve gotten pretty used to handling a kitchen knife by now, so next I’m gonna teach you how to fillet a fish! Follow me!”

“Understood, Master! Please teach me!”

Today marked fifty-six days since they had been transported to another world. Nearly two months had already passed. According to Hiiragi, everyone had been steadily raising their levels while clearing Mount Godard. Hadn’t they already surpassed level 25 by now? During that time, Konoha had continued honing her cooking skills.

Ever since that shopping trip, Konoha had stopped speaking to any of her classmates except Hiiragi. She no longer attended classroom lessons or watched the others train, instead devoting herself entirely to improving her cooking.

And just as before, everyone’s gazes toward her had only grown colder. Sometimes they deliberately bumped into her, splashed water on her, or openly insulted her to her face. Konoha had finally come to fully understand that she was hated.

Even Konoha had begun accumulating stress from all that. And so, she had recently started doing something new because of it.

“Hah! Taaah!!”

Sword practice. Before being transported to another world, she had practiced every morning, but various things had caused her to neglect it here. It only took three days for her to regain her old feel for it. As expected, swinging a sword was still the most enjoyable thing in the world to Konoha.

(Phew. Exercising and working up a sweat really does help me forget the unpleasant stuff. Hii-chan is probably in class right now. As for everyone else… I’d better not think about them.)

“Hah, yah, taaah!”

A three-step thrust. Konoha’s movements were overwhelmingly fast for a first-year high school girl, and her talent was genuine. Her achievement of placing second at the national championships in middle school had not been for show. Of course, no one used a three-step thrust in an actual kendo match, but for Konoha it was the sort of technique she had always admired.

While Konoha was practicing, a set of footsteps approached. Sensing someone’s presence, Konoha spun around with inhuman speed and pointed her bamboo sword at them.

“Who’s there!? Ahhh! I’m sorry!”

The person before her was a handsome red-haired man. It was Legato, commander of the Royal Guard Knights. The fact that he had managed to narrowly evade her bamboo sword showed that he was every bit as skilled as expected.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m the one at fault for suddenly standing behind you. More importantly, that was impressive. Let me see, your name was…”

“Konoha. Kushibiki Konoha. I’m sorry, was I being too loud?”

“No, I was simply taking a morning walk. Honestly, I can’t understand why you’re a cook. With swordsmanship like that, you’d be more than capable of fighting in real combat. In fact, your movements are far better than those of your classmates right now.”

“That’s… not true. Everyone’s working really hard.”

“You’re modest. I mean that sincerely. If your class had been combat-oriented, you might even have overwhelmed Funagata Koya. It’s truly a shame.”

“Uh… I see…”

“Her Highness has also been wanting to meet you. She complained that her duties rarely give her a chance to summon you, and since you’re always so busy in the kitchen, she never gets to see you either.”

“The princess wants to see me? Ugh, did I do something wrong…?”

“No. Her Highness is rather fond of lovely young ladies. Even though she is already approaching marriageable age… It is quite troublesome.”

“Ah… ahaha.”

“I’ve also heard that quite a few people in this palace have taken a liking to you, Lady Konoha. Some of our younger men have complained that they can never get close to you because you hardly ever leave your room or the kitchen. You seem to be someone people naturally grow fond of.”

Those words dug slightly into Konoha’s heart, but she put on the practiced smile she was so good at.

“But it looks like the people I actually want to like me hate me instead. That’s why I enjoy being able to swing a sword without thinking about anything.”

“…There isn’t much I can do about the relationships between you and your companions. If you had a combat class, I might have been able to help, but this is another matter entirely.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll figure something out myself.”

So the princess really was into girls after all. Yeah, Konoha was starting to wonder if this country was going to be all right.

“Hmm.”

Legato stared at Konoha. Wondering what was wrong, she gave him a suspicious look and visibly raised her guard.

“I simply cannot help thinking how fitting you would have been as a Hero. You excel in martial arts, possess outstanding physical ability, and I’ve heard your judgment is excellent as well. You’re polite, kindhearted, and deeply care for your companions. I wonder what the gods were thinking…”

“But isn’t being a Hero usually more of a guy thing?”

“Not necessarily. In fact, I’ve heard that the Hero who defeated the First Demon King was a girl of only around fifteen years old.”

“Wow. At fifteen…”

“Indeed. In that case, would you perhaps be willing to spar with me?”

“Fweh!?”

Legato picked up a practice sword. It was slightly shorter than the bamboo swords used in kendo, but unfortunately that was all they had available.

(Uhh… Wouldn’t fighting him risk exposing me as the Demon King?)

“Um… There’s no way someone like me could beat you, Commander—Eek!”

Legato swung his sword. Konoha avoided it with a strange squeal, immediately regained her posture, and raised her wooden sword.

“Don’t worry about it. Come at me with everything you have.”

“Uh, no, um… That would be kind of a problem…”

“If you won’t come at me, then I’ll come to you!”

“Wah!”

Konoha blocked Legato’s horizontal slash with her sword.

If she had to describe it in one word, it was heavy.

There was tremendous force behind the blow, and the impact traveled through the wooden sword and sent a sharp vibration through her arms. It carried far more experience than any strike she had ever received before.

(I want to keep exchanging blows with him… I want to beat this man!)

“Taaah!!”

Konoha shifted the center of gravity of her sword downward and redirected the attack she had blocked, then immediately slipped beneath Legato’s line of sight. Legato, whose blade had been deflected, instantly read her movement and struck precisely at the part of Konoha’s sword that most easily transmitted vibrations, trying to knock it from her hands.

“Guhh!”

But that was nowhere near enough to make Konoha drop her sword. She stepped forward with her left foot at a speed far beyond normal human capability, twisted around behind him, and unleashed a slash!

(This won’t land either. Then I’ll create some distance…)

“You’re fast… but!”

“—!?”

Legato stepped in just as aggressively. His movements were bold yet refined, proving that he was a veteran of countless battles.

(He’s incredibly good at controlling distance… If I keep blocking his strikes like this, my arms won’t hold out. In that case!)

Konoha swung her sword upward from below, used the momentum to spin her body, and followed with a horizontal strike… which was blocked as well. Even so, she did not let up her relentless assault.

Legato countered a sword strike aimed at his blind spot by swiftly changing the position of his hands on the hilt, temporarily shifting into a defensive stance. To create distance, Konoha evaded another strike with a cartwheel-like movement, then used the resulting centrifugal force to launch a counterattack.

(I’ve made some distance. My breathing is still steady. Good, next I’ll attack first.)

She repeatedly slashed horizontally from both sides, but Legato smoothly redirected every attack. Apparently, strength was not his only advantage. His technique for deflecting blows was first-rate as well.

“Haaaah!!”

“Hmph!!”

Their powerful blades collided. Even with Konoha redirecting some of the force, the clash was still evenly matched. Had Legato struck her directly with all his strength, Konoha would have been sent flying. Keeping her feet firmly planted, she relied on years of instinct to carefully regulate how much strength she used.

(The Commander’s swordsmanship is basically Western-style. Judging from his footwork and how he controls distance, there’s no doubt about that. Which means he’s still holding back his thrust. So trading blows head-on is the most dangerous option.)

“Haaaah!!”

“Yaaah!”

When her horizontal slash was blocked, Konoha immediately changed the angle and brought the same sword down diagonally. It did not get through. She swiftly switched to defense and subtly redirected Legato’s continuous attacks, conserving her stamina.

(Not yet? Is he still waiting? Any moment now…)

Legato swung his sword downward, and in the next instant, his footwork changed.

This was… the movement for a thrust!

A sharp thrust shot toward Konoha’s sword. Normally, she probably would not even have been able to follow it with her eyes, but for some reason, the current Konoha could clearly perceive it. It was because of the Demon King’s skills, though she herself did not yet understand that.

“What!?”

Watching Legato’s astonishment after she read his full-powered thrust, Konoha calmly knocked it aside and brought her sword down from above!

Although the thrust had thrown him slightly off balance, Legato still reacted, converting the thrust directly into a horizontal slash. However, Konoha’s descending sword blocked it. And stopping the thrust had never been Konoha’s true objective.

“Hmm… Magnificent.”

Konoha saw the instant his movements slowed after being sealed off, grabbed Legato’s arm with her left hand, and once again raised the sword in her right with superhuman speed, pointing it directly at him.

Checkmate.

“Phew. Ah… I-I’m sorry. Fighting like that probably isn’t normally allowed, or maybe it goes against your code of conduct or something… I just couldn’t stop myself.”

“I don’t mind. Still, that was astonishing. I never expected you to evade my thrust. To be honest, I got carried away in the moment and prepared myself for the possibility that I might seriously injure you. And yet, somehow, I was the one who lost.”

“…In a real fight, I definitely would’ve lost. You knew this was only practice and controlled your sword accordingly, Commander. That’s the only reason I won. I’m sorry for forcing you to hold back for my sake.”

“A victory is a victory. Your movements deserve praise. The fact that your swordsmanship was unlike anything I’ve seen before was also one of the reasons for my defeat. I simply could not read your movements at all.”

“Ahaha. Thank you. That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

“I enjoyed it as well. Hmm, the sun has risen quite high. I hope we can cross swords again someday.”

“Yes, someday!”

With that, Legato walked back toward the palace.

As for that promise, it would eventually be fulfilled in a rather “unusual form,” but that was a story for another time.

(C-Could this expose me as the Demon King? My body suddenly felt so light, and I could see his sword moving in slow motion. Was that a skill? Do skills really activate on their own like that? This feels kind of dangerous…)

“Legato. What did you think of that individual?”

A bureaucratic-looking man asked Legato inside an office. Legato answered without concealing anything.

“…Honestly, it was enough to make me question whether her class truly is Cook. Her current stats and skills do not correspond to those movements. She may naturally possess exceptional physical ability, but even then, I do not believe it surpasses mine. Yet she managed to defeat me in swordsmanship. What are we to make of that?”

“To put it plainly, could some kind of manipulation have been performed on her?”

“I cannot say the possibility is nonexistent. However, skills are not something one can master immediately after receiving them. If there is an explanation, perhaps she has been influenced by some outside faction, or else…”

“Well, there’s no point speculating endlessly. We also have another matter to discuss.”

The bureaucratic-looking man placed a hand on the desk and stared seriously at Legato.

“There have been reports of 【Familiars】 being sighted. It is possible that demons have already infiltrated the royal capital. The Church has mobilized its 【Inquisitors】 as well, but if they steal all the credit, the kingdom will lose face entirely. Mobilize the Royal Guard Knights immediately and deal with the matter.”

“Understood. I will begin preparations at once, Your Excellency Sherlock.”

Legato left the room. The man addressed as Sherlock was none other than 【Magus Sherlock】, one of the 【Seven Generals】 charged with protecting the royal capital. He was not directly responsible for mobilizing the Royal Guard, but he possessed enough authority to move the military police and garrison troops, and whenever the supreme commander who held authority over the Royal Guard was absent, Sherlock was the one who deployed them.

“So there may be a dangerous element mixed in among our honored Heroes. Well, well… This is becoming troublesome.”

As Magus spoke, a meaningful grin spread across his face.