by Funa
“Three conditions, to be precise. First, you must trust in me, and you must not interrupt me partway. Second, you must not ask me anything in regard to this secret technique. Third, you must not speak of this to anyone… Can I ask you to abide by these rules?”
The guards nodded fervently. Such terms were only to be expected if one hoped for someone to use their family secrets in service of another. Of course, one could not possibly betray someone who would rescue the daughter of an influential household.
“We swear it before the gods, on our honor!”
Hearing this pledge, Mavis gave an emphatic nod.
“Now then, I shall begin.”
Mavis gripped the hilt of her sword with her right hand and exposed about ten centimeters of the blade. She gently pressed her left arm to the exposed blade, and moved it very slightly. Though it is said that Western-style swords are unable to cut, that is primarily true of longswords of the type wielded by knights on horseback, which are used chiefly against fully armored enemies. Moreover, it is not so much that such weapons cannot cut, but rather that they are not designed with such features in mind, having no need for a cutting edge. In any event, a normal sword like Mavis’s could still cut fairly well.
And so, the blood ran down Mavis’s arm, moistening her palm (she had not cut her fingers or palm because of the effect it might have on her sword grip).
Next, she took a single tiny metal capsule from her pocket—her old friends, the Micros. Of course, the Micros were nothing more than a liquid suspension dense with nanomachines, meaning that they had no effect on their own. They were not a potion. Just trying to have the girl drink them would not have any effect on her wound.
Instead, Mavis took the liquid into her own mouth. Then, she wrinkled her brow and thought for a little while, before suddenly embracing the girl.
“Wh…?”
The three men were dumbfounded. Instinctively, one of them moved to separate the two young women, but the leader gripped his shoulders and stopped him.
“We swore that we would believe this woman and leave it to her. Do not interfere!”
Mavis pressed her blood-soaked left hand gently to the wound on the girl’s side, slowly brought her face closer to the girl’s…and gently kissed her.
“Whaaaaaaat?!” the three guards shouted.
“W-wait! Wait just a minute!!!”
This time it was the man from before who pressed the leader back, as he moved to grip Mavis’s shoulders and pull her away.
“Didn’t you say we’re supposed to believe in her?!”
“N-no, but, I mean… But seriously!!!”
At first, the girl opened her eyes wide in shock, but then her cheeks went a deep red, and slowly, she closed her eyes again.
“Aaah! Gaaaaaaah!!!”
The guard leader’s shrieks resounded across the area until…
“Pfhah!”
After ten-odd seconds, which felt like an eternity to the guards, Mavis finally pulled away from the girl’s face.
The girl sat with her eyes closed and her cheeks aglow.
The guards wore obscure expressions, their faces marked by strange feelings that they could not place.
In the midst of this tense atmosphere, Mavis, her hand still pressed to the girl’s wound, shouted in almost an explanatory tone, “By the secret medicine imbued with my spirit flowing into her mouth, and by the power of the spirit carried in my blood now flowing into her wound, let the damage be healed!”
Naturally, there was no real need for such an incantation. The so-called spiritual power required for the healing had already been expended. The incantation was frankly nothing more than an explanation for the benefit of the others present, a way of dispelling the tension that Mavis sensed in the air.
The guards immediately began to assail her with questions. Having predicted this, Mavis prepared herself to explain.
***
“I, I-I-I, I see…?”
“I, I-I-I, I see, hm…”
“I, I-I-I, I see…”
The three finally seemed to accept Mavis’s explanation, which she had now delivered twice in its entirety. As she explained it, she had planned to use the power of her “spirit” to strengthen the girl’s body and aid in her physical recovery, sending that spiritual power into her via the “secret medicine” and her blood…or so she imagined.
In reality, Mavis had used honest-to-goodness healing magic. Having no idea of this, she believed that she was using not magic but a new art, which she had come up with all on her own, inspired by Mile’s old family secret of “spiritual power.” In fact, she was rather pleased with herself.
I’ve surpassed the limits of Mile’s secret art. I wonder if I ought to call this something new, like, The Mavis-Style Art of Spiritual Cultivation…
She was starting to let herself get a little bit carried away…
“A-anyway, we are in your debt! When we first saw you, we believed you to be only a swordfighter. But to think you would also be skilled in healing magic… I suppose you did say that you carried no medicine. You have no need for such things in the first place, do you?”
There was nothing to be done about the blood that the girl had lost, which meant that she still wasn’t in full health. However, she had begun to recover and could even move now under her own strength—albeit slowly. For this, the guard leader thanked Mavis graciously, the other two bowing their heads as they followed suit.
“Please, don’t mention it. It’s only natural that someone aspiring to be a knight would stop to help a person in need. It is truly my honor to have been at your service. Now then…”
As Mavis spoke her words of parting and began to take her leave, the guard leader shared a quick, meaningful look with the other three. They all shared a nod of agreement, and the leader called out to halt her.
“Please wait! It appears you are heading in the same direction as we are. Could we possibly implore you to accompany us until we cross the border?”
Such a request was only natural. With Mavis traveling at their side, they could rest assured that someone would be there to handle things if what they believed to be the “healing magic” was somehow incomplete, and the girl’s condition once again worsened.
Mavis considered their request. She still had four more capsules of Micros, and it was true that they were traveling in the same direction. At worst, she might arrive in town a day later than planned, and that much should not worry her companions terribly.
With that in mind, Mavis gave her assent—but really, there was no other choice she could have made. After all, she was Mavis von Austien, proud noble daughter and knight hopeful.
“Oh, bless you! We must repay you!”
The guard leader bowed his head again and again in excessive gratitude. Suddenly thinking of something, Mavis cut in. “In that case, so that we can all proceed without worry, could we frame this as a formal job request? An official escort until we reach the next town? As for payment, how does one half-gold sound to you?”
A price that low was as good as free. For even a normal escort request, one might expect to pay upwards of two gold a day at typical market price, and these were clearly special circumstances. They had been attacked once and seemed to think it might happen again, which meant that chances were high they were probably being tailed by someone competent, rather than some simple bandits. Furthermore, the guards were hoping that Mavis would provide additional healing using her special medicine, should the need arise. And it would be difficult to make it to town by the next day with an injured girl in tow.
Mavis should have been requesting at least one full gold. If Pauline were present, that would probably be inflated to three gold. If such a request were to be posted at a Hunters’ Guild branch, it would, without a doubt, be considered a “red mark” job. It might not even be posted through the Hunters’ Guild but the Mercenaries’ Guild…or perhaps the local or national military.
“We really can’t thank you enough! I must apolo
gize for asking so much. Thank you for accepting our request.”
The guards could tell that Mavis had taken their circumstances into consideration and was offering her services at less than the going rate. They could offer her more money, but to speak of numbers and compensation now, knowing that Mavis had accepted their request regardless of compensation, would be an affront to this young knight hopeful. They could simply give her a generous bonus, when all was said and done.
For now, bowing their heads and thanking her for her kindness was plenty.
The party progressed at a leisurely speed to match the girl’s pace. Numerous carts and carriages traveling in the same direction passed them by, but they were refused rides from all of them. Even when they asked if the girl alone might ride, the drivers were loath to drop their speed to match pace with those on foot. People seemed to suspect that they might be bandits in disguise, waiting for a chance to attack. It was unnatural to see a sickly girl of apparently high status walking on foot, and no merchant wished to get caught up in any kind of funny business. They all had their own lives, along with the livelihoods of their families and employees, to take into account.
If Mavis, the guards, and the girl were to proceed along the highway at their current rate, anyone pursing them would soon overtake the small group. Despite this, they could hardly travel by forest or field, or through the mountains. The girl’s pace was severely limited, so though most of them would have been fine on rougher terrain, she was in danger of slipping and spraining her ankle, which would slow their progress even more. Plus, no matter how much cover the forest might provide, the trade-off would be a slower pace, which might allow the main corps of their pursuers to easily circumvent them. The result would be a scenario in which they could be surrounded by enemies approaching from both the back and the front.
As they proceeded, the guards provided Mavis with a minimum of necessary information, rightly assuming that it would be unreasonable to get someone involved in a fight without letting them in on its origins. Plus, they likely wished to assure Mavis that they were in the right.
“I see. So, if the young mistress, first in line for the inheritance, perishes, then the second child becomes the heir. Well, such stories are not uncommon ones these days, though they are of course a great nuisance for the parties involved.”
Mavis meant the group no malice, but those were her truthful thoughts on the matter. The guards looked a bit dispirited, but the girl could only offer a bitter smile. She had probably thought the same thing herself.
However, that was all the explanation that Mavis received. She was not told the name of their household nor that of the one who was second in line for the inheritance. Such information was not necessary for her to protect them, and it was easy to tell by Mavis’s speech and manner, along with the fact that she had mentioned a family secret, that she was no commoner. They may have asked her aid, but there was no value in sharing too much with a noble from another country, especially at a time like this.
Still, Mavis was no idiot, and she was the daughter of a noble family. She could guess a fair bit from their conversations, though the young lady and her guards had probably not realized this…
It was still light out when the group was overtaken by their pursuers. They seemed to have surrounded them by hiding behind the large trees growing along the road.
“Six of them, huh? An advance search party. If we run, they’ll go and tell the rest of our current position and condition. But if we wipe out every single one of them… Well, I don’t think they have any intention of letting us run, anyway.”
Just as the leader insinuated, the true priority of this group would not be taking back information, but rather capturing, or perhaps even killing them all. It would be one thing if they were up against bandits, but Mavis got the impression that they were facing knights or skilled soldiers who would never pass up the chance to show off their skill. The travelers’ one extra member was a rookie female hunter, so as far as the enemy was concerned, she did not factor into the number at all—the fight was as good as two-against-one.
“Lady Mavis, please keep a tree at your back and defend our lady,” said the leader.
This request was probably to prioritize the safety of the girl they needed to protect. And to keep Mavis, who was merely a hired helper, out of harm’s way, where she could just surrender if the other three were wiped out.
However, the job that Mavis had accepted was to escort and protect them.
“I understand. And I do believe that is the appropriate call,” Mavis replied, seeming to be on the verge of agreement. “However, I must refuse.”
“Huh?”
The other four were perplexed.
“I may have been hired by you, but it is within every hunter’s right to refuse or offer alternative suggestions in response to any direction or order that they find clearly erroneous. Furthermore, I believe you all have wrongly assessed my abilities, and thus made a lapse in judgment. You three are the ones who should stand by the tree and defend the young maiden. As for me…”
Mavis drew her blade swiftly.
“I am going to annihilate the enemy!”
Chapter 75:
The Brilliance of Life
“Wh-what?!”
Before the guard leader could stop her, Mavis took a few steps forward. She brandished her sword, concentrating her spirit as the guards looked on. Thus far, Mavis’s behavior was not strange. It was perfectly normal for a swordfighter to use all of her mental focus in battle.
Well, it would have been perfectly normal if she did not also appear to be muttering something to herself…
“Swirl, o spirit of mine. Go beyond my body, beyond my limits! Swirl around me and relay all movements to me!”
And then, she slowly closed her eyes.
To close her eyes in the company of numerous enemies, she must have been absolutely out of her mind.
“Are you crazy?” screamed one of the enemies. They suddenly stopped, freezing in their formation and looking utterly spooked by Mavis’s strange confidence.
The day that Mavis had found herself at a stalemate in her matches with the other disciples, she had recalled all of the things that Mile had ever said to her, mulled them over, and thought her hardest to see whether she could devise a solution. The result of all this thinking was a revival of Mile’s “art of the power of spirit.”
One could not achieve drastic advances in sword speed or power overnight. It took hard work day in and day out, diligent study and concentrated effort over many years. Mavis’s Godspeed Blade, for example…if anyone could catch up to that overnight, she would probably want to die.
So then, how could one achieve victory in a battle against numerous first-rate swordsmen?
How could one possibly win—or at least, not lose?
How could one avoid losing?
It was best not to take hits from the enemies’ blades, right?
So then, how could you make it so that you avoided all of the enemy’s attacks, while making sure that all of yours landed—without a sudden, marked increase in speed and power?
What she finally hit upon was Mile’s so-called search magic. A shortcut, or trick, which allowed one to discover the position and condition of enemies from a distance. With magic like that, surprise attacks were nothing to fear.
What if she were to emulate such a thing at point-blank range? If she could attain information about anything and everything around her—the status of enemies, hidden foes, and the location of her allies…
Mile had said it herself.
“In my country, we have a concept of something called ‘boundaries.’ There are two kinds. The first is a defensive boundary that repels all enemies and enemy attacks. That’s the kind of barrier I taught Reina to erect.
“The other kind is a more conceptual boundary, where the enemy’s attacks become transparent. It’s a perfect comprehension of one’s own space, in which one perfectly grasps all the enemies’ movements. This i
s called having ‘mastery of the air.’”
If she were to cultivate Mile’s search magic at high density and close range… But how could Mavis, who could not use magic, use a skill like that?
If Mile could release a wave of magic and pick up the rebound…well then, Mavis, without any magic, could just use her “spirit” power!
Mavis then began a process of trial and error.
She transformed her own intention into spiritual energy, channeled it into her sword, and using her sword, she released that power into the environment.
However, just releasing her power did not give her a sense of anything. So what if she let it spin around her? Like drawing a circle?
Or—what if, instead, she were to create a band? What if she were to scan her environs over and over again with something shaped like a belt—something that rotated and flew about her, collecting information about everything within that range and returning it to her in a wave? Then, she could reconstruct a model of her surroundings inside her head, in all directions, spanning 360 degrees…
Simply having the band spin in a circle would be ineffective. She needed a more complex motion. However, it would take all of her powers of concentration to control a motion like that, which would require taking her focus away from her sword. Somehow, she had to cultivate some kind of unconscious control…
“If you take a long and thin strip of paper like this, and rotate it a half-turn, then fix both ends together—you see? The front and back are connected. It creates a mysterious ring with no inside or out. As for the name of this ring—”
Once again, Mile’s words floated through her head.
What a useful person Mile was…
This technique had been perfected thanks to her time with the master swordsman and senior pupils, and now it could make its grand debut. Mavis closed her eyes, and the movements of both friend and foe within the several-meter radius of her concentration appeared like silhouettes in the back of her mind.
