The machine’s eyes, blazing red, stared straight at me.
The light that seemed to look upon death vanished, and in the next instant—
Thoom!!
Four mechanical hands forced their way through the gap in the iron door that had been split crosswise.
The closed mechanical hands began to slowly spread apart.
Creeeak! Creak!
The mechanical hands widened the crack, barely a handspan wide, until a person could fit through it.
In other words, until it could fit through.
Whiiir!! Bang! Bang!
With a saw blade in one hand that could grind me to pieces, and pincers in another that could crush my head with ease,
it began to come through the door.
Thud.
One foot of steel framework stepped over.
I couldn’t just stand here and watch.
Clack.
The familiar feel of leather settled into my grip.
I stared straight at my target, the machine.
I poured in far more mana than usual.
Tightening my grip, I unleashed a sword art I had repeated hundreds of times.
Haijen Style, First Form.
Flash Dual Severance 閃光兩斷.
Bang!!
The attack shot toward the security machine’s core without so much as a hair’s breadth of deviation.
However—
Creak.
My sword had been caught in the security machine’s hand and held fast.
The problem was that the difference between the machine and me was far too severe.
Without even time to despair, I immediately drew my next weapon.
Mana obeyed my will.
“Wind, sever!”
Mana surged.
A cluster of mana vivid enough to see with the naked eye bloomed from my left hand.
The radiant mass of mana, spread wide as though in full bloom, soon—
shot toward the machine’s core.
But there was a fundamental problem.
Crack! Crash!
“Kugh…!”
A simple kick from the machine.
Even though it was a foot swung as if to chase away an insect,
I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t perceive it.
The gap was immeasurable.
Splash.
Blue liquid from the cylinder poured over my head.
I must have clipped the cylinder as I was sent flying.
Thump.
Even through the pain that made it feel as if my abdomen had been pierced through, I could still see that sight clearly.
The security machine had crossed the door.
The machine looked down at its own body for a moment.
But the only wound I had inflicted was a scratch from wind magic.
Had it confirmed that there was nothing wrong with itself?
The security machine slowly walked toward me.
Thump. Thump.
The closer it came, the louder the metallic sound of its feet striking the floor rang out.
Was this what the tolling of death sounded like?
Whiiir!!
The saw blade, like the blade of an execution platform, spun fiercely.
Watching it, I could only lament inwardly.
That I hadn’t survived.
My consciousness grew faint.
Would I die of shock first because of the pain in my abdomen?
But this much seemed certain.
Once I closed my eyes, I would never see the light of the deep sea again.
My vision, my consciousness, as if someone had flipped a switch—
went dark.
***
Who was the Empire’s Sword Master?
Naturally, many names came up as answers to such a question.
Who was the Empire’s true swordsman?
Fewer names came up for this question than the one before it, but there were still several answers.
Then, who was the Empire’s greatest sword?
There was only one answer to this question.
Sword Saint, Haijen.
There were countless people who had reached the rank of Sword Saint, but none of them could match him.
So much so that people said one would have to bring back a swordsman from a vanished era to defeat him.
The greatest sword under heaven, the finest swordsman of his generation, the Empire’s ultimate weapon.
All of these epithets were words referring to him.
On top of that, his appearance was outstanding, and there were people throughout the Empire who admired him.
Orange hair like gazing at the sun, a blue Milky Way held in his eyes, sharp features.
With someone like that, it was only natural that stories about him spread across the entire Empire.
However, apart from such fame, he was an unusual person.
Not only did he reveal his identity in the Gallery, he did not restrain his behavior either.
He had even once been summoned to the imperial palace after getting into a verbal fight in the Gallery.
That alone should explain how much of a weirdo he was.
Right now, that man was staring intently into empty space inside his mansion.
No, to be precise, it would only look to other people as if he were staring into empty space.
Because he was focused on the Gallery.
“Please, wake up.”
Aurora, the recent storm of the Gallery.
The person who had stirred up the Gallery with a very unusual weapon called the Deep Sea.
But perhaps the Deep Sea was not so forgiving.
Aurora was on the verge of death.
The food factory’s security robot advanced toward his neck.
For some reason, its speed was not very fast.
It was certainly moving slowly, but Aurora had no strength left to dodge it.
Because Aurora was the second disciple he had taken in, Haijen’s heart thrashed as if it had been set over a flame.
Um, Lord Haijen? The refreshments are ready… Ah, uh… I’ll come back later….
The attendant who had tried to enter Haijen’s room turned back, frightened by that overwhelming sight.
Even in that situation, his eyes were fixed on only one thing.
The saw blade moving as though death itself were approaching.
That saw blade was now close enough to touch skin.
Drip. Drip.
Splattering the blue liquid that covered his neck, aiming precisely for the carotid artery,
it approached.
…No, it had approached.
└TruthScholar: Please! Pleabse wake up! Uh…?
└HealingIsViolence: …What?
It had disappeared. The security machine.
Without any noise, any sign, or even the smallest fragment.
Most people seemed to accept it as annihilation,
but Haijen alone had been able to see it.
The sight of a tentacle covered in black scales swallowing the machine.
If he had been a scholar, he would have wondered about the egg’s true identity; if he had been a magician or a swordsman, he would have instinctively grasped the danger of that egg.
But Haijen paid no mind to any of that.
What mattered was that his cherished disciple had survived.
He immediately kicked his door open and rushed out.
Boom!!
Kyaaak!! …Lord Haijen?
Despite startling the attendant waiting beside the door with that violent display,
he could not contain his joy.
“Today, I shall hand out five times their salary to every attendant!”
Haijen was an oddball who acted according to his emotions,
and because of this incident, Haijen received a notice from the imperial palace telling him to stop spending money like an idiot.
***
“…This is hell.”
That was my impression when I opened my eyes.
The inside of the dark storeroom was so gloomy that I wondered if even a real hell would be no worse.
After looking around for a moment, I realized that the security machine had disappeared.
Curious about what had happened, I asked in the broadcast, but—
└TruthScholar: You’re not fake, right?! You’re really Aurora, right?
└QuickdrawSwordSaint: Kkiyahou!
└HealingIsViolence: I’m really glad you survived. But putting that aside, isn’t that Sword Saint old man acting kind of weird?
└EducationMaster: Umm… The machine disappeared in an instant, so I’m not sure.
Mm. No one knew what had happened.
No, there did seem to be one person who knew.
In any case, I had survived.
I didn’t know whether it was misfortune or luck, but I decided to think of it as luck.
As I lay there and caught my breath, I noticed something strange.
The pain in my abdomen that had felt as if I had been pierced through was gone.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to use a tool.
The scanner hanging at my waist.
“Ah! It’s broken….”
But… perhaps because it had taken too strong an impact,
part of the scanner’s screen was cracked.
The fortunate part was that it wasn’t bad enough to interfere with reading the information.
Thinking that I would have to make another one, I scanned the blue liquid covering my body.
A blue light passed over the damp, starch-syrup-like substance,
and soon, information appeared.
—A hatching enzyme jointly developed by E███s Co., Ltd. and Jin███.
—An enzyme created to hatch the egg of Haeasha. It was made by imitating the mana of , an essential element.
“…Huh? What is this?”
I had no choice but to say that as I read the information.
Leaving aside the censored parts, this was the first time the letters themselves had been completely invisible.
A discomfort lingered, like a story continuing and then suddenly being cut off,
but what could I do about something I couldn’t read?
Still, was this what had restored my body?
My arm, which had been left in tatters from the aftereffects of the mana I had used earlier, had returned to normal.
I wasn’t sure whether it was a medicine or not,
but since it hadn’t harmed me, I decided to take at least a little with me.
I slowly got to my feet.
The sticky hatching enzyme stretching out in strands felt unpleasant, but aside from that, there was nothing else wrong.
Squelch. Squelch.
The uncomfortable sound of the hatching enzyme clinging to me echoed in my ears.
Just as I tried to leave the room like that—
Tap.
“…What’s this?”
A round object caught on the tip of my foot.
When I lowered my gaze to check the object, it was the black egg I had seen before.
The egg that had been wrapped in hatching enzyme.
Most likely, this creature’s name was “Haeasha.”
“Ruler… is it?”
The creature inside this egg had a name that meant ruler.
Curiosity flickered at that grandiose name.
Since it had remained still even inside the hatching enzyme, I figured a scan would be fine, so I decided to scan it.
└TruthScholar: …Aren’t you a bit too far away?
└HealingIsViolence: Can it recognize it from there?
I poked only my head out from behind the broken cylinder and held out the scanner.
…Honestly, I didn’t want to die either.
In any case, the scanner faithfully emitted blue light and scanned the egg,
and soon, information unfolded before me.
—Egg of Haeisha.
—A ruler from an era overflowing with ██. Its abilities are said to be comparable to the main forces of Jin███.
The information was more meager than I had expected.
Rather than definite information, it was a phrase closer to legend.
Still, it didn’t seem like it would be dangerous right away.
“Now, let’s head back.”
After checking the state of the Prism in my pocket, I moved my feet toward the outside of the food factory.
…But a problem occurred.
└TruthScholar: Uh… The egg is following you?
└HealingIsViolence: No, what the hell, it’s moving like it’s teleporting.
└EducationMaster: How does an egg teleport….
The egg was following behind me as I walked out of the food factory.
I even tried running from that bizarre sight, but—
“Haa… Haa…”
The egg was still following behind me.
…I had obtained the black egg as loot.
Semi-forcibly.