Reincarnated as a Sword Vol. 2 Page 3

  Fran grabbed my hilt. Gyuran was sneering at her, not once reaching for his sword. He wasn’t expecting a child to put up any resistance.

  “Hmph.”

  Fran drew me. Gyuran fell.

  “Aaaaargh!”

  She was now standing next to Gyuran, whose legs rolled helplessly against her feet. She’d gone for his legs to prevent him from running.

  Let’s give the Pocket Dimension a try. First, the armor.

  “Eeegh!”

  Fran stabbed me into Gyuran’s shoulder as he crawled, desperate to get away.

  “Eeeaaagh!”

  Despite his Pain Reduction skill, it didn’t nullify all pain. Noting that, I used the Pocket Dimension…

  No, I can’t store it. It looks like we can’t store anything that’s equipped.

  Too bad. That would’ve been really helpful in a fight.

  What if we detached it from his body?

  “Aaagh!”

  Fran swung me and lopped Gyuran’s arms clean off his elbows. He had an enchanted bangle on one of his arms.

  Try storing it now, Teacher.

  O-okay.

  She was merciless. She was quietly angry today, more so than usual. Fran paid no attention to the writhing man as she touched my tip against the bangle.

  That worked.

  It looked like we could store anything that wasn’t attached to its User.

  Now the sword.

  Sure.

  We took the sword into storage, too.

  “How could this—! Goddammit!”

  I was amazed he could still talk in his state. Was it because of his Pain Reduction skill?

  “Why?! My skill… There’s no way you could be this strong…! P-please, just spare my life…!”

  What was that about his skill? Oh, he must be talking about Strength Sense. It was a skill which allowed him to detect if someone was weaker than him. He must’ve sensed that Fran was at a lower level than him. Add that to the fact that she was a Black Cat, and a girl, and you had the world’s most unfortunate misunderstanding.

  We got everything except his armor.

  Yeah, stripping him would be a pain.

  So it’ll work as long as we kill the User.

  I suppose… Look, I’ll do it.

  Gyuran was unlike all the goblins and monsters we had fought up to now. I could hate him all I wanted, but he was still a person. I thought Fran would’ve hesitated but…

  No, it’s okay. I’ll do it myself.

  Fran swung me without a second thought.

  “Aah… Heee…”

  With his throat cut open, the man drew his last breath. His life poured out of him as blood flowed down his neck. He stared at Fran, the color draining from his face. It was a blank stare full of nothing. His trembling lips seemed to send shivers down to the rest of his body. He reached his stump arms to the sky in exhaustion before he finally rolled over and expired.

  Well, that was unsatisfying.

  You all right, Fran?

  It was bound to happen at some point. I’m glad I did it with my own hands.

  She was exceedingly calm for taking her first human life. Their races had been sworn enemies and he was a scumbag to boot, so that might have helped.

  She wasn’t putting up a front, either. I could sense no remorse in her. Calm Mind must be kicking in, too. It was a skill which allowed its User to reduce any reservations they had about killing. It was a good thing I took it.

  We could debate later whether this was the right thing to do but I chose to let it slide for now. The important thing was that killing this man wasn’t weighing down on Fran’s conscience. I never liked wimpy protagonists anyway. They’d go and kill a guy and get depressed for ten volumes; that was terrible writing.

  Anyone who said that you should never let children kill anyone under any circumstance had a naive outlook on reality. A moment’s hesitation could get you killed in this world. Teaching Fran such childish kindness would put her life in danger.

  Alright, let’s try storing it now.

  “Hm.”

  Let’s start with the armor.

  I took everything: armor, boots, shield, dagger, and choker. The Pocket Dimension could take things from a corpse with no problem.

  “Heee, hee!”

  The Little League Lieutenant August let out something that could either be a shriek or a giggle.

  “I-Impossible! H-he was a war hero in the Rouze War! Th-the superman…! Killed a thousand men…! How…?”

  August, he pulled a fast one over you. All you needed was to take one good look at the guy to figure that out.

  He tricked him?

  I’m as bewildered as you are, but he must’ve. He’s not so smart for a rotten aristocrat.

  Wait, was this my fault? Could he not tell the difference between the truth and a lie because I took Essence of Falsehood away from him?

  He must’ve had that skill all his life so it was easy to assume that he’d use it in every conversation he’d ever been part of. He’d have no way of judging truths from lies if he suddenly lost that skill.

  Definitely your fault.

  You think so too, huh?

  Yeah. Very good.

  Why, thank you.

  She showed no mercy to her enemies as usual. Well, the guy had it coming. He had the misfortune of crossing us and tried to take advantage of us. None of this was my fault.

  “Wh-where did you hide Gyuran’s equipment! I-I bought those for him! They were all very expensive!”

  Gyuran played him like a fool. He fed him lies and treated the poor bastard like a living wallet.

  What should we do with him?

  …Leave him.

  Hmm, I don’t know about that.

  We decided to store away Gyuran’s corpse for the time being; he’d turn into an undead if we left him out here. We’d have to dispose of the body later but it couldn’t be helped. We also took the 20,000G he was carrying on him. It would do for consolation money. Besides, it’d be a shame to let it go to waste.

  But what to do with August…?

  Arrest him? Kill him? Ignore him? Brainwash him? He was still a noble, after all.

  A new presence approached us as I pondered this question.

  Teacher…!

  I can feel it. It’s pretty strong. Be careful!

  “Yeah!”

  Fran ignored August and readied herself. The strong magical presence approached us at high speed. It was an odd magical signature, though. I had never felt anything like it before. It wasn’t a monster or a person. Was it targeting Fran? No, there was the possibility that someone sent it after the idiot noble. Whatever the case might be, we couldn’t afford to let our guard down.

  “Wh-why did you draw your sword again? Do you want to fight?!”

  August was screaming at us again. He could distract us in the middle of the fight so we needed to silence him for the moment.

  Fran.

  “Alright.”

  “Wh-wh-what…”

  August fell with a thud after Fran knocked him out with the side of her hand. A few minutes later, an odd, half-transparent thing appeared before us. The thing was a ball of water floating in mid-air which constantly shifted and squirmed. It didn’t seem hostile, but what on earth was it?

  “You didn’t kill him, did you, Fran?”

  A voice called out to her.

  “…?”

  Was it coming from this thing in front of us? It didn’t have a face or a mouth that I could see but the voice must’ve come from this formless thing. It sounded familiar, too.

  “Guildmaster?”

  “Yes. Aah, I suppose this is your first time seeing this. This is one my Spirit familiars. Worry not.”

  Klimt’s familiar looked nothing like I imagined. I was expecting something humanoid—maybe a Sylph or an Undine. Fran tilted her head, equally confused.

  “It looks weird.”

  “What do you mean, weird?! It lacks human form because it’s not one of the Gr
eater Spirits but I’ll have you know it’s just as cute!”

  “You should’ve gone for a cooler-looking one.”

  “I’m not going to summon a Greater Spirit outside of combat.”

  So the Guildmaster had the ability to summon humanoid Greater Spirits. Still, I was getting a strong mana reading from this intermediate spirit, and I wondered how strong the Greater Spirits were. That he could summon such powerful spirits was a testament to how strong the GM was. No wonder he made Guildmaster.

  “What do you want?”

  “Right. I heard that Baron Allsand left town.”

  Word travelled fast considering it happened just today.

  “Delt, the gatekeeper, told me. He said that the baron left town to look for you and wondered if you were alright.”

  Delt, I’m sorry for calling you a kiddy fiddler. You are a genuinely good person.

  “He’s here.”

  “I knew it! We had a request to capture the baron while keeping it under wraps. You didn’t kill him, did you? Did you? It would be problematic if you did!”

  “I didn’t.”

  “R-really? Thank goodness! We would like to bring him in. You’ll be compensated, of course.”

  “Sure.”

  Honestly, I didn’t want to deal with him anyway. The Guild was doing us a great favor.

  “Really? Wonderful! We’re coming over right now, so could we bother you to secure him for us?”

  “No problem.”

  “If you’ll excuse me!”

  And with that, the messenger spirit disappeared.

  The Guildmaster arrived in person ten minutes later, all out of breath. This must’ve been an urgent commission.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting, Fran.”

  “Hm.”

  “Now, Baron Allsand… Oh, there he is. Hey, over here.”

  The adventurer the Guildmaster had brought with him slung the unconscious Baron Allsand over his shoulder and carried him away.

  “Where are you taking him?”

  “He’ll be under the care of Count Olmes, now.”

  Never heard of that name before.

  “Count Olmes is the Baron Allsand’s father.”

  “His own father is arresting him?”

  “Yes. This is strictly between us, but Baron Allsand is a problematic character. The Count never disciplined him because he wanted to use his Essence of Falsehood.”

  The benefits of the skill far outweighed the drawbacks of his rotten behavior. It was an understandable decision.

  “However, he suddenly lost that skill a few days ago. Nobody knows why. This doesn’t happen very often, you see. Perhaps the gods have had enough of his nonsense and saw it fit to punish him for it.”

  That’s right. It was divine punishment. Please go with that angle.

  “I was as surprised at his sudden transformation as everyone else. It was inevitable if you had to rely on your skill to judge when a person was lying. Without it, he couldn’t trust anyone.”

  That might have been an oversimplification, but the fact remained that it broke Baron Allsand. I thought I’d acquired a powerful skill but I was going to have to be careful with it. I didn’t want to end up like the baron. I was no exception to its ill effects.

  “He caused trouble during an audience with the royals a few days ago. They had come for their routine check-up when he leaped up and grabbed them, screaming at them to stop lying.”

  Geez, that’s rough. Fran and I might not be trained in etiquette but even we wouldn’t go that far. Wait a second. We did take Royal Etiquette away from him, too. Was that why…?

  “Having been arrested, he escaped and took a large amount of money out of the family coffers. He used most of it to buy expensive gear, and that’s how we were able to track him down.”

  He was most likely being led on by Gyuran at the time. Once he captured Fran he was planning to leave Alessa and never look back. Anything went for that idiot baron.

  “Count Olmes would rather keep this quiet. He sent a request to the guild in secret to apprehend the baron before he could cause any more trouble.”

  “In secret?”

  “Yes. This is my personal opinion, but I assume he is going to keep the fact that the baron lost his skill a secret so he can keep using him. I don’t know whether he’s going to use a double or cure him. That’s why he needed to capture the baron. He wants to prevent the truth of the situation from being revealed.”

  “Impossible.”

  “I agree. Well, whether it succeeds or fails has nothing to do with me. Doing favors for people in power never hurts. The commission and hush money are good, anyway.”

  I see. Commission money, huh…?

  “Uh-huh…”

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’ve marked this request as completed under your account, and I also gave you a nice bonus.”

  “Of course.”

  “You know what to do, right?”

  Fran puffed her chest and nodded while the Guildmaster tossed her a worried look.

  “Keep my mouth shut.”

  “Please do. Our client is a powerful aristocrat. Upsetting him would be problematic for us.”

  We’d rather not be involved in aristocratic family matters, either. We wouldn’t spread rumors even if you asked us to.

  “Ah, he also told me that we didn’t need to recover any of the baron’s personal effects.”

  He might as well have told us to take the baron’s gear and money. I felt like we were beginning to owe the Guildmaster a lot. He later told the Count’s side not to bring up Fran’s name. I didn’t think the great count would be interested in a commoner, but you never know.

  We got an extra 200,000G in completion fees, bonuses, and hush money. The windfall doubled our purse in a day.

  Those crazy aristocrats spared no expense in getting their problems fixed.

  Chapter 2:

  The Power of an A-Rank

  A few days had gone by since the commotion of August Allsand. We were at the Adventurer’s Guild looking up quests as usual. Garrus told us that he was a week away from completion. We were going to have to stay in Alessa until then.

  Are we going herb picking again?

  God, I’m getting bored of that.

  Hm? What’s all that noise about?

  There’s a lot of people gathering, too.

  Fran opened the door and found the guild in an odd ruckus. There was a lot more adventurers today than usual.

  “Nell, what’s going on?”

  “Oh hey, Fran. The high-rank adventurers just came back from scouting the Direwolf Plains.”

  I see. So that’s why a lot of these people looked strong.

  “I don’t think you’ve met any of them before.”

  “No.”

  High ranks are A and S adventurers, right?

  “Are there any S-Ranks today?”

  “No, no S-Ranks. But we have one A-Rank and a couple B-Ranks.”

  An A-Rank was strong enough to consistently beat B-Rank monsters. Meaning they could beat that Daemon we got lucky with without any problems.

  “They left to investigate the Direwolf Plains about a month ago. A lot of the F- to C-Rank guys left with them, too, for experience. We were short on manpower during the goblin raid because of that.”

  If the A- and B-Ranks had been here, they would’ve been able to clear the dungeon a lot faster. But then we wouldn’t have been able to beat the Daemon and get all his goodies. We came at the perfect time.

  I thought Donadrond was the strongest here.

  “Hm.”

  “What is it?” Nell asked.

  “Don’s not the strongest,” Fran observed.

  “Donadrond is an instructor because he has a knack for teaching. If he had continued being an adventurer, he would be in B-Rank. But he said he wanted to show everyone the ropes and became an instructor. He’s been one for fifteen years now, and a lot of the B- and C-Rank adventurers in Alessa used to be his students. That’s w
hy everyone listens to what he says.”

  No matter how pig-headed some of these adventurers were, they were bound to listen to their instructor who had been taking care of them since they were newbies. No wonder Donadrond was at the frontline during the goblin raid.

  “The A-Rank, too?”

  “Oh, not her. Doesn’t take orders from anyone, that girl. Honestly, she’s a little too ‘unique’.”

  “Wow, Nell. Are you badmouthing me behind my back?”

  A woman suddenly cut into our conversation.

  “Argh! Amanda! Don’t use your Stealth skill to sneak up on me like that! This is why you’re hard to get along with!”

  The woman seemed to be the A-Rank in question. She had perfectly concealed her presence before getting the jump on us.

  “Heh. I don’t mind it. Saves me the trouble of being someone’s lapdog.”

  Her words were sharp, but they were both laughing. They must’ve been close if they could joke with each other like this.

  “Let me introduce you, Fran. This is Amanda. Don’t let her appearance fool you. Our A-Rank ace.”

  “Excuse you, I think I look the part.”

  Amanda was quite the looker. Her long black hair was neatly trimmed as it flowed over her back. Her gentle voice gave her a familiar Japanese air of comfort. But the conversation she had with Nell made it obvious that she was no pushover.

  “She’s not a bad person. Also she likes kids! Just look at her titles…”

  “Shut up, Nell! You’re embarrassing me!”

  “What? I think that title suits you to a T.”

  “Just, shush! Ahaha. I’m so sorry you had to see that. Pleased to meet you, young lady. My name is Amanda.”

  “Hi. Fran.”

  “You’re so strong at such a young age… You’ve got a future ahead of you!”

  “You can tell?”

  “Of course!”

  The A-Rank adventurer was able to judge Fran’s potential just by looking at her. And she didn’t have Identify. It must’ve come from experience.

  Name: Amanda

  Age: 58

  Race: Half Elf

  Class: Storm Warrior

  Level: 70

  HP: 646; Magic: 825; Strength: 327; Agility: 451

  Skills: Intimidate 7; Speed Cast 6; Stealth 8; Disassemble 8; Wind Magic 10; Stubborn 5; Flash Step 7; Abnormal Status Resistance 7; Omnidirectional Awareness 6; Elemental Sword 7; Throwing Weapons 8; Whip Mastery 10; Greater Whip Mastery 5; Whip Arts 10; Greater Whip Arts 6; Storm Magic 4; Magic Resistance 6; Mana Sense 6; Spirit Manipulation; Dragon Killer; Storm Magic Up; Mana Manipulation