Ia, whom I’d expected to do nothing, did indeed do absolutely nothing for me.
Come to think of it, her behavior was clearly distinct from most of the other women I’d met since coming to this world.
Unlike the others, who panted after me like dogs whenever I so much as did anything, she treated me like a real older brother.
In other words.
From my perspective, there was no way I wouldn’t feel favorably toward her.
Ia always maintained a mature and intelligent attitude unbecoming of her age, and I did like that about her.
But the fact that she treated me so carefully like this was perhaps also a major reason I, unusually, was fond of someone.
And.
‘A younger sister, huh.’
…When I thought of such an existence,
it wasn’t as if nothing came to mind.
So I couldn’t help but pay more attention to her than to others.
In any case, because Ia wasn’t particularly skilled at riding, she shared a horse with me and guided the way.
The place she brought me to was,
a forest on the outskirts of a village in the suburbs.
“Here, you can break some off from this tree. Brother.”
“You know such a curious place, too. Impressive.”
Old conifers filled every direction.
And befitting that, the place exuded a bleak atmosphere, as though not a single person would ever come here.
It felt like a wild beast would inevitably leap out,
and if one searched around casually, one might even find a corpse.
So when I indirectly praised Ia for having had the thought to explore a place like this,
she merely turned her gaze away for a moment and smiled bashfully.
“This place is really well hidden, so unless they’re elders from around here, most people wouldn’t know about it. Until now, I haven’t told anyone, not my family or anyone from the palace.”
Well, but I’d only thought of this as having come out for a stroll to humor Ia.
So while I found it curious, I had no doubt that nothing particularly important would happen,
and merely kept watch over our surroundings in case of some unforeseen danger.
“But I’m sure you’ll like it once you see it.”
As though Ia truly valued this place highly,
she puffed out her chest and clasped her hands behind her back with confidence.
“It must be quite a precious place to you.”
“Of course, Brother!”
“But you’re going to tell me about such a precious place, too? Why?”
“I don’t like doing pointless things either. But I just thought there was something here that the current Brother Valter might be interested in.”
“…Me?”
“Yes, you, Brother.”
She walked ahead of me,
making her way through the forest that was like a natural maze.
She looked just like an excited child.
Though I didn’t show it, I found myself feeling rather amused as I watched her.
“…Because there’s something I noticed recently.”
“What is it?”
However.
At the words Ia spoke next, my expression stiffened for a moment.
“Brother Valter, you’ve been investigating the Sword Demon from three hundred years ago lately, haven’t you?”
“…Huh. You’re saying that as though you’ve already decided it, so I can’t exactly deny it. Why did you think that?”
I had already warned Valeria to keep silent about my truth no matter what.
So I believed that she, who was mad about me, surely wouldn’t have gone against that.
And sure enough,
it was a deduction made by the clever Ia.
“Mm, it’s simple. I heard that you’ve been looking over maps of the world recently, Brother Valter, and focusing on one place in the Demon Realm.”
“Seems the rumor spread far and wide.”
“Other people don’t seem to know what that place is, but I know about it. You know my hobby.”
“You mean being in the library?”
“Yes. A while ago, when I was deciphering some old books from the family collection, I remembered glimpsing that place.”
“…Oh-ho.”
“That place is where the Sword Demon from three hundred years ago passed away. Since you’ve also been coming to the library often lately, Brother, you must have seen it too, right? You became interested in the Sword Demon, so you’re investigating him.”
If I told her what had actually happened, things would get rather complicated.
In any case, my descent, the long-cherished wish of House Tarke, was a truth known only to the family head, like Mother.
My sisters, who weren’t ready yet, knew nothing of it.
So what Ia said was probably the truth.
Since she had conveniently thought of it that way,
I decided to leave it at that for now.
But.
The reason she had suddenly brought up that topic in a place where no one would come….
What on earth could it be?
“That’s why Ia wanted to show you this place. …Because I wanted to be of help to you, Brother.”
So when Ia’s next words fell,
I had no choice but to listen.
“As far as I know, this is a shrine where an item used by the Sword Demon is enshrined.”
“…What?”
What she was saying was,
there was something I had used here?
The moment I thought that,
before any feeling of interest,
confusion came crashing in.
No.
‘Damn it, why would they make something like that…? And it even survived without being destroyed.’
Who the hell was I that they’d build and leave behind a shrine like that for three hundred years?
Thinking back in a hurry, there was nothing among the items I’d owned that seemed worthy of being enshrined here.
The only valuable thing was the red sword with an evil spirit inside it.
As for the rest, they would have been handmade trinkets, weapons, or ragged scraps with nothing special about them.
In any case, it seemed the humans over the past three hundred years had really had nothing better to do.
“I can’t tell you how fortunate it is. As you can see, this place is so rarely visited, and because it belongs to Tarke territory, it seems to have survived the turmoil of the Great Revolution.”
Ia smiled happily
and brought up the Great Revolution.
That was information Ia had told me several months ago.
Since the contents were endlessly long, I’d asked her to summarize it roughly.
‘Basically, it was probably an incident where Seradion struggled desperately to tarnish my honor after killing me.’
Well, when I thought about it, it was only natural.
To begin with, the very reason Seradion killed me was jealousy…
After I died, that must have been the only thing he could do.
Putting his madness and ugliness on full display,
he pinned all sorts of filthy false charges on me.
Then he made my achievements his own, that lunatic.
Of course, now that Seradion, who had led all that, had been sold off to the Demon King’s Castle and triggered humanity’s destruction….
Humanity, having faced reality, had brought about a self-purification and suitably reevaluated the facts.
Even so, because of the influence of the Great Revolution back then,
many people still shuddered at the name Valter.
And Valter, which had been a fairly common name by old standards, was now apparently never used as a man’s name anywhere in the nation.
The only exception to this influence
was Tarke territory.
Why? Because its founding itself had benefited from me.
Because of that, it seemed that the first head, Max, who had lived in the same era as me, also hated Seradion and had done a good job of preserving things on his own.
Naming someone Valter was permitted,
and comparatively, quite a few traditions about me seemed to have been passed down.
‘I should offer flowers to that fellow Max later. I’m truly fortunate to have reincarnated in the Tarke territory he created. If there were people speaking ill of me in front of me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to endure it.’
At any rate, when we pushed through the trees and entered the shrine,
a vicious atmosphere so thick one could smell it just by looking at it wafted heavily through the air.
And at the center of that atmosphere,
a moss-covered stone structure stood alone.
With a stone statue of a bleeding fox placed in the middle.
“…This is the shrine where an item possessed by Valter the Sword Demon was placed.”
“Ah, aah. Come to think of it, I didn’t tell you this!”
Seeing that,
I had no way of paying attention even as Ia chattered beside me.
“Um, Ia doesn’t know exactly where his item is either? When I came here last time, I got scared and ran away immediately. Could it be that you don’t like it?”
“……….”
“B-Brother…?”
But when I looked at the shrine and stood still with a sour expression,
Ia seemed to think she had failed to meet my expectations,
and trembled restlessly.
However, the reason I had gone silent was not because Ia had disappointed me.
It was the Ghost Tongue engraved into the fox statue.
The form of letters the evil spirit had once subtly taught me, saying it was the language used by its race.
Since something so familiar was before my eyes,
I had merely been concentrating on reading its contents.
“‘When Valter returns, I shall open my eyes,’ huh.”
“Awoo, ah, awoo…. I’m sorry, Brother. I just liked you, Brother, and wanted to help you….”
And at that moment.
Ziiing—!!
“Eek?!”
“…Yes, I came. So I suppose that’s how it is.”
The eyes of the statue I had been meeting suddenly glowed red.
‘Killing intent. I don’t know who it is, but they intend to kill us.’
The senses of the Sword Demon within my body trembled.
“Ia.”
“Brother…?!”
Grab—.
“Leave your body to me.”
So I grabbed Ia’s head somewhat roughly and forced it down.
Immediately afterward, from the fox statue, a red beam fired in a spiraling vertical line toward where Ia’s head had been.
Its power was so outstanding
that a nearby tree was torn apart by the beam and split in two.
Rumble—!!
Immediately after, the dust and noise of the collapsing tree resounded everywhere.
If we hadn’t instinctively taken cover behind a nearby wall of stone upon seeing the beam, either Ia or I would surely have been smashed by those trees.
But while her body was intact, Ia seemed to think she had brought danger upon us, and her mental strength shattered; her whole body was trembling.
I simply stroked that younger sister’s head quietly and told her.
“Ia, close your eyes from now on. Cover your ears. Stay here until your brother tells you it’s over.”
At that, Ia nodded repeatedly.
“Yes, I’ll do that. Brother…! But you…”
“I’m not someone you need to worry about.”
After saying that,
I drew my sword, slipped out from behind the stone wall, and headed toward where the fox statue had been.
There, with its beastly fangs stretched long,
was a grotesque creature writhing strangely.
Grrrk, grrrrrk—.
Judging from the spiritual pressure I could feel,
that was clearly the soul of something.
Since it had just awakened from a long life in the shrine,
was it perhaps wandering in search of prey?
It kept looking around, searching for something.
And the moment its gaze met mine,
perhaps because it did possess some degree of intelligence,
the creature spoke in a grotesquely distorted voice.
“Found you, fake one…!”
As though trying to frighten me,
it approached with a slimy grin.
“The price for falsely claiming to be ‘That Person’ is truly great. So, how should I kill you for That Person to be satisfied? Ahh, I hear the oracle! That Person says to tear open your belly with my claws while you are still alive!”
However.
I had no memory of giving that thing any such oracle.
More importantly, I also had no ability to interfere with its mind.
Haa—.
I let out an exasperated sigh.
And instead, I walked toward it.
“How rude.”
“…Hah? You should be fleeing, yet here you are. Have you lost your mind?”
“The one who has lost his mind is you. I was wondering what object had been placed here, but seeing you this close, I know exactly what you are. The Blood Magatama.”
At that,
the creature’s killing intent warped slightly,
and it stepped backward as if flustered.
“How do you know my essence…?!”
“Think of the answer yourself.”
“Ahh, Lord Valter……?! Were you truly Lord Valter?!”
“Your head is still too high for you to be speaking to me.”
Kwaaaang—!!
“This lowly body has committed a mortal sin!! O Sword Demon. True master of the Apostles of Blood….”
“Stop spouting nonsense I don’t understand, and let’s do this first.”
At some point, the imposing appearance it had shown just moments ago was nowhere to be found.
The Blood Magatama was now in a position of looking up at me.
“A beating is the medicine for a dog that bites. Let’s start with that.”
When I said so,
it merely began trembling all over, just like Ia, whom it had frightened.