Among those who wield mana, the ones who have reached the highest realm attainable by humans are divided into two types.
One type primarily releases mana outside the body to bring about immense physical phenomena.
The other primarily manipulates mana within the body to draw out tremendous physical ability.
The former were commonly called archmages, while the latter were called different things depending on the region, but most commonly, they were called Masters.
And the ghost swordsman before my eyes more than qualified as belonging to the latter.
―――Claaang!! Clang!!
I easily blocked and deflected the consecutive sword strikes with my staff.
As expected of something made from immutable gold, it did not receive so much as a scratch even without any mana infused into it.
After blocking the flurry, I used the slight gap that had opened between us to load mana into my foot and stomp hard on the ground.
At once, two sharp blades of rock rose from the earth and rushed in from both sides of the ghost swordsman.
However, the ghost swordsman evaded the two blades with only the bare minimum of movement, then kicked off the ground without a single wasted motion and charged at me.
Another sword strike came swinging down.
Immediately after I deflected it once, an attack came flying in from the opposite direction in a span of time so brief it was practically simultaneous.
I shifted the angle of my staff slightly and nudged the sword’s trajectory aside.
My opponent displayed swordsmanship so clean that I wanted to praise him as excellent, but it was not sharp enough to reach me.
And more than anything… there was a strange lack of killing intent.
To the eye, it looked as though he intended to cut his opponent down in a single stroke, but when I examined his intent, it seemed like nothing more than a plan to injure me moderately and drive me away.
So I pretended to offer up my body, ignored the attack, and swung my staff.
Then the sword that had been thrust precisely toward my heart hesitated for the briefest instant, and he hurriedly deflected the staff I had swung.
Even though it was obvious his attack would be faster.
Perhaps because he had changed his stance in haste, a tiny opening appeared in him as he blocked my attack.
I did not miss that gap. I poured mana into my staff and swung it with all my strength, sending the ghost flying far away.
―――Kwaaaang!!
Highly dense mana collided with mana, producing a tremendous explosion.
I was pushed back a few steps as well, but the ghost swordsman failed to withstand the repulsive force and went flying straight through the trees behind him.
However, the ghost swordsman partially materialized his sword, drove it into the ground, and managed to hold on.
―――[Kugh… You are quite skilled. But I cannot let you pass beyond this point.]
I had intended to erase him with a single blow, but it seemed his mental strength was stronger than I had expected.
Still, perhaps because that blow had dealt considerable damage, the boundary of his body was wavering far more unstably than before.
“Teacher…!!”
“Master, are you all right!?”
The children, who had been startled by the sudden battle, quickly came to their senses and approached.
I stretched my arm out to the side, showing them my palm and gesturing for them not to come closer.
“You might get hurt, so stay back.”
As Cassian and Iliana stepped back a few paces at my gesture, the ghost swordsman also steadied his stance and began approaching little by little.
―――[Turn back. Beyond this point…]
As if he had forgotten what he was going to say, he paused for a moment, then spoke again.
―――[I can let no one enter.]
It was good momentum. Since he was a ghost anyway, he might have been thinking that if he landed even one attack, he would have the advantage.
But I no longer had any intention of playing along.
I did not know what circumstances had turned such a skilled warrior into a ghost, but that was none of my concern.
It was simply that I could not leave behind an evil spirit powerful enough to attack people without warning.
I lightly clenched my fist, tilted my body slightly, and drew my fist back.
Then the mana that had been flowing freely through the atmosphere changed its course, all of it heading solely toward my fist.
―――[This is…!!]
Because mana from every direction was gathering into a single point, the mana in the surroundings soon began to be temporarily depleted.
In other words, even the mana maintaining the ghost before my eyes had begun flowing into my fist.
As the ghost swordsman’s body grew even more unstable, he raised his sword as if he could not allow this to continue and charged at me.
Though it was already too late.
“Bang.”
I thrust my fist forward.
My straight punch flew out at a speed he could not react to, but because my arms were short, it stopped without reaching the ghost swordsman. Even so, that alone was enough.
The vast amount of mana compressed in my fist was released straight forward.
Mana of overwhelming density created a pure storm of mana without so much as a roar, and the ghost swordsman was swept up in it and began to disappear.
―――[I… like this…!!]
The ghost swordsman let out a meaningless death cry, but his body disintegrated in an instant, as if mocking his will.
And his soul…
“…He escaped.”
Amazingly, he had succeeded in fleeing from this place.
How had that happened?
My attack had certainly scattered his body into the air without leaving a single fragment behind.
Normally, at that point, it would have been natural for him to pass on.
And yet he, that soul, had survived despite losing all the mana that had bound him to the present world.
In a manner of speaking, even if only for a very brief moment, one could say he had accomplished a feat akin to that of a transcendent.
There was truly no other way to describe it than astonishing mental strength.
Still, well…
“I-is it over…?”
“Yes. For now.”
It would take an incredibly long time for him to rebuild a body that powerful from zero.
It left a slightly unpleasant aftertaste, but it should be fine to consider this matter settled.
◇
After crossing two more ridges, we discovered a village beyond them, built with a river flowing through its middle.
Though it lay between mountain valleys, the river had formed a plain there, and it was large enough that roughly five or six hundred people seemed to live in it.
Mountains and hills blocked it on all sides, but the river cutting through the village created quite a splendid view.
Its appearance was a little different, so I was confused at first, but it was a place I had passed through before.
Not when I had gone from the southern part of the continent to the north about a hundred years ago, but a little earlier than that.
“I don’t remember there being a village like this back then…”
“When was that?”
“Who knows.”
At Cassian’s question, I thought carefully for a moment about how many years ago it had been, and recalled that it was probably around six hundred—no, seven hundred years ago.
Thinking back on it again, I was certain that, although there had been a small basin here at the time, there had been no village like this.
It was a fresh reminder that even this stagnant world did occasionally change in some ways.
When we arrived at the village entrance, the first thing we heard was a guard asking how on earth we had come from that direction.
I glossed over it by saying we had not seen anything like a ghost, but all we got in return was a warning that a terrifying ghost appeared over there, so we should never go that way again.
Though it was as good as gone already.
There was an inn in the village, even if it was the only one.
Because it had had few guests for quite a long time, the ceiling of a room in the corner had caved in, and it was hard to say the facilities were particularly good.
But it was several times better than sleeping on the street, so I simply paid.
Apparently, it was able to stay open because travelers occasionally came by like this.
“Ugh, Master, look at this…”
“…!!!”
“Cockroaches…!!”
When Cassian lifted up the underside of a bed that had been roughly made from wood, enough cockroaches to number at least several dozen came pouring out.
Iliana shrieked and hurriedly hid behind me, but I was a little afraid of cockroaches too.
How should I put it? It was a fear etched into my genes, one that could not be overcome.
If they were cockroaches wandering around in the mountains, I would not have cared, but once they were crawling around in the space where I was to stay, an instinctive disgust welled up inside me.
It had been a long time since I felt goosebumps rise on my arms of their own accord.
I took back what I said about it being hard to call this place good. This place was simply the worst.
Even after I fired lasers and annihilated every last one, then used insecticidal magic to exterminate the insects throughout the entire building, the lingering sense of filth was definitely not just my imagination…
…For that reason, although I had originally planned to stay only one day before leaving again.
We ended up staying a few more days unexpectedly.
Because from the next day onward, an untimely downpour began to fall. It was strange, considering the rainy season should not have arrived yet.
So that day, we simply stayed inside the inn the whole time.
I played with Rutina, who was bored, and helped Iliana with her reading and writing, which she had yet to fully master.
Or I gave Cassian, who looked unable to endure the tedium, a few electric shocks.
During that time, one more guest came to the inn.
It was a red-haired female swordswoman with a greatsword hanging on her back.
“We came to exterminate the ghost on that ridge.”
Those words came out while we were exchanging conversation over dinner after somehow ending up speaking to each other.
She said it confidently, then continued.
“We don’t have detailed information, so I can’t be certain, but judging by the various rumors, that ghost is apparently a swordsman. Who do you think would be superior, me or him?”
As she said that, she took out something like an emblem.
It was a plaque issued by the headquarters of the “Guild” in the center of the continent, proving that she was a first-class warrior.
At that level, she certainly was quite skilled, but she would be lucky if her head was not cut off in the blink of an eye.
That was if the ghost had still been there, of course. Now she would not even be able to meet him.
After all, how could she see something with only its soul left behind?
Having no way of knowing that fact, she waved and entered her private room, telling us to look forward to news of her victory tomorrow.
◇
The downpour continued the next day as well.
But the swordswoman said that such a thing posed no obstacle to her and left, pushing through the rain.
There was almost no possibility that the ghost swordsman had recovered his strength in the span of a single day, but I decided to cheer her on, at least in spirit.
We spent this day passing the time inside the inn as well.
Normally, inns tended to be noisy by default, so it was nice that there were no people and it was quiet.
It also reminded me a little of when we had lived at home last winter.
◇
When the next day came, the rain that had been pouring down as if the sky had split open finally stopped.
When I looked up at the sky in the middle of the night, the clouds were receding, so I woke up just before dawn and leisurely finished preparing.
We finished breakfast like that and were just about to leave the village.
Then the inn door was flung open roughly, and someone came inside.
Her appearance was such a mess that, for a very brief moment, I could not tell who it was, but it was the swordswoman who had left the inn the previous day so full of bluster.
There were quite a number of cuts on her body, and the greatsword that had been hanging from her back was nowhere to be seen.
She staggered inside, then fell to her knees and spoke in a trembling voice.
“I… I was a fool… You, you must not go… over there…!!”
“Pardon?”
“That ghost… Yes, the ghost! I mean that ghost!!”
After shouting that, she lost strength and collapsed where she was.
It seemed we had…
A little more reason to stay in this village.