When I saw the sword scars that had destroyed the city, I thought the power that had killed every living thing in this world must have been a sword.
But after hearing the explanation from Sir Kyle, the Sword of Humanity, who was stored in subspace, and listening to the swordsmen before me, something felt strange.
We kill the enemy that dared threaten humanity.
Wasn’t that something only someone who fought for humanity would say?
“Who was the enemy that threatened humanity?”
When I asked to resolve my curiosity, the swordsmen looked at one another, then turned their gazes to me.
“Seeing as you ask that, you are not a human of this world.”
“That’s right. I came from another world.”
“No wonder it was strange that someone with such immense vitality as you had survived until now.”
“Huh?”
If my vitality was immense, wasn’t it only natural that I’d be alive?
As if he understood my question, the swordsman answered.
“This world had all life exterminated by the Demon Sword. The stronger one’s vitality, the more vitality the Demon Sword absorbs from them, until they eventually reach death.”
“Gasp.”
“To counter the Demon Sword, the Kingdom of Kaldir carried out the ‘swordification’ of all humanity. If people were dying because their vitality was being absorbed, then all they had to do was have no vitality left to take.”
“Aha. That’s amazing.”
- So you just have to abandon your body before you die?
- (I... get it! mage emote)
How could they be so genius?
I couldn’t keep up with the level of their thinking, so I gave them a round of applause.
“But why is it called ‘swordification’?”
“Because it is the process of being reborn as a sword that yields to no situation and kills the enemies that threaten humanity.”
The swordsman who had been explaining suddenly staggered.
“? Are you all right?”
Another swordsman swung his sword at the staggering swordsman.
Kagagak—!
“???”
- What the heck, why all of a sudden?
- (I have cut him... swordsman emote)
- Why are you cutting him lololol
- Talking with words looked hard, so he recharged his energy
- (Then he’ll die... mage emote)
The swordsman whose body had been scratched sprang back up.
“Conversing with words instead of swords consumes too much energy. I recharged for a moment.”
- ?
- Why is this actually true?
- After mage lore, now it’s time for swordsman lore to be revealed...
“How far did I explain?”
“You explained why swordification is called swordification.”
“Then I shall continue. Those who underwent swordification did indeed have their survival time extended, but even they ultimately had to die if they could not achieve ‘full-body swordification.’”
The swordsman continued explaining while scraping his own wrist with his sword.
“As long as even the slightest bit of living flesh remains, one cannot oppose the Demon Sword. Full-body swordification means completely abandoning the existing fleshly body, including the brain.”
I understood the circumstances, but it sounded quite horrifying.
If they had completely abandoned their original bodies and even replaced their brains with cyberbrains, then they were closer not to “humans,” but to “machines that possessed human memories.”
“I believe I know what you are thinking. We can no longer be considered human. But that is not important.”
In a ruined world, all the swordsmen held was their swords.
“We are the swords of humanity. If we can kill every enemy that threatened humanity and end this story with ‘humanity’s victory,’ then that is enough.”
Was it truly right for me to view these swordsmen, who had made themselves into swords and fought for humanity, as my enemies?
I wanted to ask a few more things.
“I saw the sword scars that destroyed the city. They looked like your sword scars. Why did you do that?”
“To prepare in case we were defeated.”
“???”
“We could not allow the things humanity had built to be used by our enemies, could we?”
So that was why they destroyed it.
In many ways, it was a decision with no way back.
“Do you perhaps have no plans for after victory?”
“If an enemy of humanity appears, we kill it again.”
“Is there no way to rebuild human civilization?”
“There is not.”
It was an answer far too different from that of the mages of Isrein.
Had they lacked time? Or had they lacked the technology?
The swordsman resolved my new question.
“It was more important for our swords to grow sharper than to prepare such things. Only by pouring all of humanity’s remaining strength into the sword could we avoid defeat.”
“Affirmative: Humanity must never be defeated, no matter what.”
I hadn’t expected their ways of responding to the crisis of humanity’s extinction to differ this much.
If the mages had prepared for the future by devising a way to rebuild humanity, then the swordsmen felt like they had sold off the future in order to kill the enemy.
- Now that I think about it, mages look insanely amazing
- Preparing humanity restoration in the middle of destruction << how did they even do that...
- This is mage lore
- (You can do it mage emote)
- (This is not the end! mage emote)
“Therefore, I shall tell you once more. Please undergo swordification immediately. Your vitality is making the Demon Sword stronger even at this very moment.”
“Gasp. That won’t do.”
“Then return to the world you came from.”
“I can’t do that either.”
“Then it cannot be helped.”
“Oh. Is there some method?”
Kiiing—!!
The swordsmen infused their swords with energy.
“We have no choice but to forcefully carry out your swordification.”
“Notice: We will not kill you.”
“Huh.”
- These crazy swordsman bastards finally revealed their true colors
- Just ask Lady Yuyeon to help you, guys...
Tap, tap. I stored the charging swordsmen in subspace.
[Sword of Humanity - Levan (S) has been stored in subspace.]
[Sword of Humanity - Zeros (S) has been stored in subspace.]
- Hieeek
- Heeeek
- (Are they dead...? priest emote)
This was troublesome. What should I do?
They said the Demon Sword was absorbing my vitality, but I couldn’t feel it at all.
I didn’t know whether the maidly dignity was resisting it, or whether it was being absorbed and I simply couldn’t feel it because of the maidly dignity.
If it really was growing stronger by absorbing my vitality, then there was no telling how strong the Demon Sword would become later.
But I couldn’t undergo swordification either.
Abandoning my body and replacing it with a machine was... hmm.
I imagined it for a moment. The image of Han Yuyeon after completing full-body swordification.
I saw myself grown hard and stiff, having lost my flexibility, with even my dignity gone.
I tried doing a double peace. The double peace performed with rigid fingers had about 95% less peace power.
All over again, I felt that the robot who had taught me so much was amazing.
Its half-destroyed body and the maid uniform frayed here and there might have looked shabby at a glance, but the robot’s dignity and peace had always been perfect.
How did you live that way? I feel I still haven’t reached even 10% of your maid power, Robot.
As expected, I couldn’t undergo swordification.
A maid lacking dignity and peace power was like a fish-shaped pastry without red bean filling, or fried chicken whose batter had fallen off.
I want fried chicken. I took only a chicken leg out of my subspace pouch.
“Omnyomnyom.”
- A sudden mukbang...?
- It looks freaking crispy
- It makes me feel nice that you’re enjoying the chicken I fried
- You fried it???
- What an insane life achievement
“?”
What had I been thinking about?
Oh, right. Swordification. What I needed right now was logic.
Logic that would allow me to refuse swordification and still help the swordsmen.
But the problem was that the situation was a little different from when I helped the mages of Isrein.
The swordsmen were no longer human.
Because they couldn’t receive my maid buff at all, the only thing I could provide them was military support.
Of course, that alone would probably be enough. It would be enough, but if my existence was strengthening the Demon Sword, then the swordsmen would become relatively weaker because of me.
It wouldn’t be polite to just leave the swordsmen in subspace and resolve it alone.
Nor would it be polite to abandon the swordsmen who had gone as far as full-body swordification to kill humanity’s enemy.
What should I do? What would be best?
Thinking alone got me nowhere, so conversation was the only answer after all.
As I was thinking about what to say to the swordsmen, I suddenly remembered what the Watcher of the Sword Realm had once told me.
When I said I wanted to become a master of etiquette, he had written it on a fish and told me.
“In my world, we fulfilled courtesy to one another by cutting each other.”
I even remembered clearly that the last part had been cut off because the letters were so large.
Why did that suddenly come to mind?
Because what the swordsman had said had left an impression on me.
“Conversing with words instead of swords consumes too much energy. I recharged for a moment.”
When he was cut by his fellow swordsman, the swordsman had actually seemed to recover energy.
Could it be that the swordsmen were able to recharge energy by “cutting or being cut”?
When I thought flexibly, it didn’t seem impossible.
Rustle, rustle. I took the swordsmen other than Sir Kyle out of my subspace pouch.
Somehow, they ended up popping out one by one while being held by the head.
- What the hell
- Jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous
- If it’s EX-rank subspace, can you just put hostile targets into subspace too...?
- (Hoeeng... mage emote)
- Lady Yuyeon, could you put me in subspace too?
- I want to go into Lady Yuyeon’s subspace pouch too...
After suppressing the swordsmen, who were blankly trying to grasp what was happening, with telekinesis, I spoke.
“Swordsmen. By any chance, do you recharge energy when you ‘cut something, or are cut by something’?”
- Huh...?
- There’s no way energy would recharge like that
The one who answered was Levan, who had kindly explained all sorts of things to me.
“How did you know?”
- lol sword lore, seriously
“I just had a feeling. Why do you recharge in this way?”
“So that we would never lose, at least in a duel between sword and sword.”
Humanity’s enemy was the Demon Sword.
So they had been set up entirely for anti-Demon Sword purposes.
Even if the Demon Sword had exterminated all life by absorbing vitality, its essence was still a sword.
“We who completed full-body swordification are not destroyed by ordinary slashes. The stronger the slash we receive, the more energy we can recharge.”
“Proposal: Therefore, join us. We will help you achieve full-body swordification.”
“What if, instead of undergoing swordification, I keep recharging your energy?”
“Pardon?”
“Question: Ordinary sword strikes cannot fill our energy.”
“You don’t need to worry about the power.”
I took the maid’s shortsword out of subspace and assumed a stance.
When the swordsmen saw my stance, they seemed excited and assumed the same stance.
“Were you a swordsman?”
“I’m a maid.”
Still, I should control my strength.
If I did it too strongly, the swordsmen might become swords/men.
Without strengthening my body with mana or aura, and using only pure strength and agility, I swung one sword strike at Levan.
Then, kiiiiiing—!!!
An incredible energy flowed out from the blue power source located in Levan’s chest.
“Oh. Oooh? What is this slash!!!”
“V.”
“Request: Do me too.”
“VV.”
“Joy: Joy!”
Now was the moment for negotiation.
“If I go through swordification, I won’t be able to recharge you like this. So I’ll help you without undergoing swordification.”
“That still will not do. This is for your sake as well. If the Demon Sword absorbs your vitality, you will eventually have no choice but to die.”
“What if I have a constitution where I won’t die no matter how much it absorbs?”
“There is no way such a constitution exists...”
“As proof, I’ve been perfectly fine all this time.”
“... Come to think of it?”
The swordsmen looked through my body as if scanning it.
So that they could scan me comfortably, I performed a maidly dignity double peace.
Perhaps because they had gained sufficient information through the scan, the swordsmen’s air changed.
“Very well. However, I would like to ask you something. Why is an existence such as yourself trying to help us?”
It was something I had heard from Lady Lavina, and also from Lord Eldrion.
To that, I gave the same answer.
“Because when everything is over, I want you all to be happy.”
I did not want to turn away from the swordsmen who had given everything to fight for humanity.
I hoped there would be peace for the swordsmen, who had nothing left but killing the enemy.
Even if it was difficult to feel happiness with cyberbrains where human emotion had grown faint, I wished for happiness to be with them.
***
Swordsman Commander Kyle was bewildered.
I was certain I had been in the middle of battle.
But when I came to my senses, I had popped out from between the cleavage of the girl I had been fighting, and all the swords that had disappeared were returned to me.
“I’ll see you again next time, swordsmen.”
“???”
Leaving those words behind, the girl vanished.
Unable to understand the situation, I looked behind me and saw Levan and Zeros.
“VV!!!”
“VV: VV!!!”
“?????”
Levan and Zeros were imitating that girl’s strange hand gesture.