The Conversation Of Swords

The conversation of swords began. It started with Sword-Handler Fire Cloud charging in while holding an invisible sword.
He was fast. Fast enough that every use of the word ‘fast’ until now sounded hollow.

Kaaang!
Violet met the first sword strike. One of the three swords on her sword belt skipped the motion of drawing and deflected Fire Cloud’s invisible sword ‘as if it had been in her hand from the beginning.’
And when the sound rang out as the two people’s swords clashed─.
In order, the three swords hanging at Violet’s waist changed places and switched out.

Schrödinger’s Swordsmanship. A school of swordsmanship that could overlap all possible possibilities and choose one of those possibilities to fix in place. Did being Violet’s master mean he was the master of that very school?

‘!’

In the midst of that, Sword-Handler Fire Cloud’s invisible sword was already being swung toward Solomon.
Because the blade couldn’t be seen, he couldn’t even guess how he should parry it. All Solomon could do was entrust his body to instinct and move. Because of that, he couldn’t even properly keep his center of gravity, and his two legs trembled.

“You blocked it? I like you, buddy. You have the best skills among the disciples I accepted today!”
“……What?”
“On the way here earlier, I accepted about five Lowlands contractors as disciples too, but they all died.”
“You crazy bastard…….”

Apparently, the disciples he spoke of seemed to have a rather one-sided meaning.

“My dream, you see, is to found a sect with my disciples! So I’m trying to raise about five hundred disciples…… but it’s not easy at all. None of them can keep up with my lessons.”
“Normally, that is called indiscriminate slaughter, Master.”
“I’m trying to teach them out of the goodness of my heart, so why is that slaughter?!”
“In other words, it’s also called a massacre.”

Under the pouring sunlight, Violet answered calmly as the black lenses of her sunglasses shone. The eyes beneath the sunglasses were also swallowed by the same darkness.
The overwhelming advantage in speed that Fire Cloud showed was not much different even against Violet, but there was no sign that Violet was being overwhelmed or pushed back.
Kaaang!
Their swords clashed again. The invisible sword rang with a clear metallic sound, and even though only one sound rang out, the movements between them accumulated endless motion, as if they had exchanged dozens of blows.
In the middle of that, Fire Cloud even made a small opening to send one sword strike flying toward Solomon.

‘<Hide>, <Bloodflow Acceleration>!’

It was not particularly to hide himself by turning invisible. He knew that kind of trick would never work on the opponent before him. It was simply to become faster. The enchantment embedded in the 「Shy」 stealth coat, the acceleration effect when an invisibility spell was activated. On top of that, the Blood Mage’s acceleration spell.

“Hooh.”

The sensation of forcibly pulling and stretching the clock hands of the world. That was how it should’ve been.

‘Damn it!’

Yet within the world that should have slowed, not a single one of Fire Cloud’s movements looked slow. Again, the invisible sword rushed in. The invisible sword and the Ghost Whale Bone Blade. Even though both blades were quite far from ordinary, the sound of the two blades clashing was clearer and more beautiful than ever.

“Hooh. Buddy, you’re better than you look. I like that speed.”
“Thanks for that.”

Within that strike, Fire Cloud blinked his dead-fish eyes as if surprised. As if he quite liked Solomon’s movements, which had received double acceleration.

“It seems we can slowly begin the next lesson now!”

Then he murmured quietly, an unmistakable strange light shining in those wandering dead-fish eyes. The next lesson. It was an ominous phrase just from the sound of it.

“Well, you might not be able to block it. What could possibly happen? You’ll just die, that’s all!”

Without hiding his killing intent at all, carrying enough murderous pressure to chill Solomon’s spine.

‘Danger.’

As soon as he saw that, Solomon’s instinct screamed. That was dangerous. Could he avoid it? Should he use a spell and get out of the way?

“I treated you with some respect since you call yourself my master, and yet…….”

It was right then.

“This damn dead-fish head really knows no end.”

A sharp-tongued insult rang out, truly like her. With enough force to devour a person, as if the respect she had shown in front of her master had been a lie.

“Oho. You really have no words you won’t say to your master!”
“Ever heard of the student surpassing the master?”

At that sight, Fire Cloud turned his head while trying to adjust his grip on his sword. Toward his disciple, Violet. Before he knew it, Violet had placed all three swords back into her sword belt. In that state, she placed her right hand on a sword hilt, and with the other hand…….

“It would be hard to be less blue than dead-fish eyes.”

Under the pouring sun, she was trying to remove the black sunglasses that swallowed light.

“!”

Officially, she was a First-Grade Bladesman belonging to Sword Watch, and unofficially, she was a Special-Grade Bladesman, of which only seven were said to exist. The standard of that identity seemed to be whether or not she was wearing those sunglasses day and night.

“Oh, at last, Schrödinger’s Cat opens its eyes! Good! Very good!”

At that sight, Fire Cloud raised his voice with satisfaction, as if he had been waiting for this. In the sunlight of broad daylight, the black glass overlaid darkness onto Violet’s two eyes. Just as the eyes beyond them were finally about to appear.

Ttororeu…….
A small stone that had rolled in from who knew where rolled on its own along their feet, then dropped into the drain hole at Solomon’s feet. It was an act that didn’t even need attention in the current situation. It was right then.

The loudest voice in the world rang out.

“Oh my god, oh my god! Look who it is!!”

The damp and dark drain hole at the edge of the road. Through the narrow gaps of the iron grating, two eyes were staring this way from the pitch-black darkness. Like the clown from the movie <It>.

However, the identity of <It> was not an easy-to-understand monster clown. A uniquely nauseating stench that asserted its presence the moment it appeared. In that very stench, a man thrust something out through the sewer grating. Piercings embedded like barnacles from head to toe gleamed.

The Cesspit Mage Tower Master, Lord Bowery. It was truly an entrance befitting that name.

In an explosive atmosphere that could blow up at any moment. Lord Bowery held something out through the iron bars and said,

“Whoa, whoa, bro, take it easy! Eat this and chill!”

It was a rat-meat skewer. At a glance, it still retained the shape of a rat that had been caught crawling through the gutter and grilled.

“…….”

A short silence. In the silence, Fire Cloud smiled brightly, rolling his wandering dead-fish eyes, as if the killing intent he had shown until just now had been a lie.

“My goodness, it’s my favorite rat-meat skewer!”
“I heard bro got released from that goddamn place!”

At Lord Bowery’s words, Fire Cloud laughed affably and grabbed his rat-meat skewer to bite into it. The conversation the two shared went beyond easy familiarity and made them look quite close.

“So the two top-grade psycho classmates from Hill House Ward have gathered.”
“……Classmates?”

Violet, who had stopped in the middle of trying to take off her black sunglasses, muttered as if dumbfounded.

“When we were locked up in that shitty closed ward, we used the same cell!”

Lord Bowery said this like a fond memory. So-called cellmates…… no, wardmates, perhaps.

“Oh, bro, by the way, I’m a little worried. You didn’t take the psychiatric meds those bastards gave you while you were locked up, did you?”
“Of course not! As you warned me, I didn’t let them near my mouth!”
“Shit, that’s what I’m saying! The meds those bastards give you have microchips implanted in them that control your brainwaves! It’s a conspiracy by those government bastards to control us!”
“I knew you were smart!”

Looking at them, this was a scene that made it clear why the two of them had been locked up in the psychiatric ward together.

“So, bro, please let it end here.”
“End it here?”
“That bro over there is, regrettably, my godson.”

“…….”

A short silence. In the terribly awkward silence, a hearty laugh rang out.

“Now, now, my man! How could I refuse a brother’s request! The resolve we shared that day in the ward, you know!”
“Yo, yo, yo, my bro! Damn shit! That’s it! Fuck, that’s exactly it!”
“No matter how far Guild City’s loyalty has fallen, refusing the request of a man among men would not be proper, brother!”

As he said that, Fire Cloud’s dead-fish eyes turned toward Solomon.

“Hey, little brother! To think your master was my sworn brother. You should have said so from the start! I could even give you something like <Secret Manual for Conquering Athlete’s Foot> for free!”
“……No, I don’t need it.”

Just as Solomon was dumbfounded and about to add something, the wind blew. The blowing wind stopped.
In the place where the wind stopped, Sword-Handler Fire Cloud’s figure no longer remained. Because he had disappeared like the wind, literally.

“Haa.”

Violet put her sunglasses back in place with an expression like she was about to get cancer. Was she at least relieved that she had not needed to take them off?

“What a truly tear-jerking friendship between nutcases.”
“…….”

In any case, since he claimed to be Lord Bowery’s disciple in name, Solomon could only remain silently silent, separate from whether he agreed.

“Anyway, the situation is roughly resolved now, so consider yourself lucky.”
“I owe you.”
“The debt isn’t mine. It belongs to that baldy.”

Violet said that and turned her back without hesitation. Just as she was about to walk away without looking back, Solomon realized something without thinking. Angra Maria. The puzzle pieces needed for the hatching of a new evil god.

“That day, I witnessed 「the Star of Bethlehem」 at Baron Gould’s Golden Soirée.”
“…….”
“And no one else, but under your request.”
“That was so.”
“There’s no need to say what happened afterward, is there?”

Solomon continued.

“Did you know from the beginning?”
“Who knows.”

Violet stood there without turning back and kept silent.

“……There will be a chance to talk about that matter again before long.”

After the silence, Violet said this. Solomon didn’t stop her as she walked away after those words. Because right now, there was <It> looking up at him intensely from beneath that drain.

“Yo, bro. I heard you were looking for me?”
“…….”

It was a truly bewildering composition. It suddenly felt like he should be holding a red balloon or something.

“Yeah.”
“Shit!! Then what are you dawdling for? Hurry up and come in here!”

When the Cesspit Mage Tower Master urged him like that, Solomon was dumbfounded. A small gap beneath the drain that looked to be only about 20cm wide at a glance. It was not a place even Solomon could enter.

“Ah, now that I think about it, that might be a little difficult with your size! Wait, I’ll open a passage right now!”

Lord Bowery snapped his fingers as if he had belatedly realized it. Then the sound of rolling dice rang out.

‘The sound of dice?’

Before he had time to realize that fact, Solomon was falling. Beneath the ground he stood on, into the shadow cast under his feet. Without even having time to realize it, respond, or break his fall.

‘!’

Thud.

The impact of the fall was not as large as he had expected. Even though he had sunk deep into the shadow beneath his feet, when he actually fell and looked around, it was an extremely familiar place. One that could be summed up in three words.

The cesspit.

Literally. A place where all kinds of things born, used, and discarded above the city gathered. The city’s unseen stomach and large intestine. A passage filled with dark red rust and grease, moss and mold, overflowing with damp and dark moisture.

“Welcome to my shitty Mage Tower, my bro!”

The Cesspit Mage Tower Master himself was there.

“And my disciple, whom I adore so much I want to smooch you all over!”