Memoirs of the Returnee
chapter-128

What you Desire (1)

The second wave. The number of golems was fewer than the wolves. There were only three, but they were not stone golems. They were crystal golems.

─They look delicious.

As Grawl, who was attached to the surface of the sword, said, the crystal golems were extremely valuable as material. If they were golems from Libra, they would naturally be of the highest grade.

“Can you create a one-on-one situation with telekinesis?”

I asked Elise. Elise responded as if it wasn’t difficult.

“Go and grab one. I’ll neutralize the other golems’ attacks.”

“Okay. I trust you.”

“…….”

───Wave 2 begins.

The rest period had just ended. This time, I was the one who charged in first. I thrust my sword at the largest of the golems.

Ching-! I couldn’t even scratch it, but Fizz-! Grawl chewed on the surface of the crystal.

─Delicious.

Boom! The golem swung its arm. I rolled to dodge. The other two golems pounded their fists down at me, who was stuck to the ground.

Thud-!

It was blocked by Elise’s 「Telekinetic Shield」.

I didn’t need to worry about the two smaller ones.

I only unfolded my swordsmanship against the largest one. I poured out the Five-Flower Form and Eclipse.

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

The sound of a hammer pounding echoed from the golem, and every time the sword touched it, Grawl swallowed a part of it.

─Delicious.

Thud-! Bang-! The other two’s attacks were still defended by Elise. If she made a mistake, my head would be smashed, but this was the teaming process.

A mage trusts a knight, and a knight trusts a mage.

However, if this drags on, my stamina will be depleted.

Before I got tired, I activated the 「SZX-9500」. I observed its mana core. I focused on stabbing that exact spot. The sword’s tip kept sliding like it was striking ice, but at some point.

Crack──!

It slightly penetrated.

“Pull it!”

I pushed in hard and asked Elise. Elise pulled the sword stuck in the golem with telekinesis.

Crack──!

Thanks to her, the sword properly penetrated the mana core, and Grawl, who had burrowed in, devoured it greedily.

─Delicious!!!!!

Crack-!

The golem, whose mana core was torn, soon disintegrated into ordinary crystals. Its cross-section was hideous, like rats had gnawed on it.

Clang-! Clang-!

The remaining two were still pounding on me.

But there wasn’t a single wound. Thanks to Elise’s magical 「Telekinetic Shield」.

─I’ve eaten it all.

Swish! I pulled out the sword and turned my body. I immediately cut off another golem’s arm.

Slice-

The blade that had been bluntly hitting until now, cut the golem like butter. Grawl’s sharpness was on another level.

“Good performance.”

It was worth feeding.

I stuck my sword into the mana core of the second golem. Crack- Grawl devoured it all. The last, third golem was also consumed in the same way.

─I’m full. I need time to digest it now.

Seemingly soaked in satisfaction, it left those words and returned to being a R-elix.

──Wave 2 ends.

“Haa…….”

I leaned on my sword, panting heavily. My stamina would recover quickly, but there were still seven waves left.

“Are you okay?”

Elise asked. I nodded my head.

“Is this the second wave? The level of university students is high. Are they all geniuses?”

“……Get a grip. The real geniuses who have made it to the orbit don’t even participate in the program.”

Elise, who said so, was also perfectly fine. Perhaps because she, too, is a ‘real’ one. The difference in class is striking.

I got up, patting my waist. Elise asked again.

“Not giving up?”

“……Never. There are many eyes watching.”

At least to Libra, I must appear to be a useful entity.

“Then listen carefully. I’ll help as much as I can.”

Elise raised her finger.

“In teaming, attack and defense must be in harmony. So far, you’ve been the only one attacking, but from now on, you can lean on me.”

I looked at Elise. It was too awkward to see her offering help.

Why is she acting like this these days?

“When it’s tough…… are you listening?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Keep talking.”

There’s no need to reject help when it’s offered.

Elise probably knows more about teaming than I do.

“When fighting, you don’t have to go all out every moment. It means you can rest by just defending moderately and leaving it to me……”

The waves continued one after another. During this process, Elise watched Shion Ascal. She took in every aspect of him with her clear eyes.

Free from prejudice and bias, just as he is.

Elise supported him.

He defended herself.

Her telekinesis aided his sword, and his sword acted as her barrier.

They made a good team. It was a perfect fit.

She had never been this compatible with anyone else.

The problem was, as always, Shion’s stamina.

Elise remembered something Gerkhen once said.

He lacks stamina and can’t maintain his full power for long. If he could fight a long battle, he could easily perform the duties of a ‘queen’, but because he can’t, he’s a ‘pawn’.

That statement was absolutely correct.

By the time the third, fourth waves passed, and the fifth wave was about to end.

“Huuuuuh…… Kuuuuuh……”

He was like a human candle. A candle sweating instead of melting wax. Watching him as if he could go out at any moment was nerve-wracking.

──We’ll give you an extended break from the sixth wave. Rest for 20 minutes, then proceed.

“Water…… do you have any?”

Elise offered water with her telekinesis. He barely managed to open the cap and gulped it down.

“Isn’t it about time to stop?”

At my words, Shion shook his head.

The reason he’s working so hard is, of course, for Libra. For him, this might be as important as the entrance exam.

But that’s fair enough.

“Let’s check out the enemy.”

This time, it’s a sacrificial swordsman. A humanoid monster that looks like a scarecrow. There’s only one, but it’s a fitting enemy for the saying, ‘over the mountain, there’s another mountain’.

The sacrificial swordsman is a Death Knight-type monster. The lineage of humanoid swordsman monsters goes from sacrificial swordsman to Dullahan to Death Knight.

“Gulp.”

Shion swallowed the water and looked at the camera on the ceiling of the magic space. A new camera had been installed without him noticing.

This meant that at least one person who could be called an ‘executive’ in Libra started watching.

“I’ll break him in one strike.”

“……What nonsense are you spouting?”

Was it because his dopamine had surged? Or had he lost his mind? He was spouting strange words as he got up.

“Just anchor him with telekinesis for 1~2 seconds.”

──The wave begins.

“Let’s go.”

Shion approached the sacrificial swordsman with his sword sheathed.

“Sigh……”

Elise shook her head in disbelief, but soon she pulled up her Magic Body.

As a team, they had to be together in every decision. Even if it was the wrong choice.

Thud.

Shion took a step forward. That was the range of the sacrificial swordsman.

Swoosh-!

The figure drew its massive sword. Elise loaded her telekinesis at maximum output, took a deep breath, and activated it.

Krrrrrr──!

A suffocating telekinesis that made the space itself ripple. With it, she grabbed the torso of the sacrificial swordsman.

“Go!”

Shion took advantage of the gap and drew his sword.

「Ascal Style Severing Sword : Unsheathing」

────!

The surging sword swept through the space in a crescent shape, and immediately after.

「Ascal Style Severing Sword : Traverse」

Swoooosh───!

A single straight line pierced the heart of the sacrificial swordsman.

The combination of Unsheathing and Traverse.

Just two strokes.

That was the end.

The sacrificial swordsman’s body defense was first pierced by Unsheathing, and then its mana core was penetrated by Traverse.

That’s how it was killed.

“……?”

But Elise couldn’t understand. She had watched with her eyes from the closest point, which made it even more bizarre.

Shion Ascal had definitely sheathed his sword. It was Unsheathing.

However, the sword he had sheathed was simultaneously ‘shot’.

Without pulling or retrieving the sword. Scientifically, without the process of converting potential energy to kinetic energy.

As if a part of the laws of physics had been ‘ignored’.

Shion Ascal’s sword purely cut and stabbed. There was no gap in between. It was a cut and a stab at the same time. It seemed as if one sword in the same space had split into two paths for that moment.

“You…….”

Elise staggered towards him. Before she could ask anything, he fell first.

“!”

Elise caught him as he fell. She fell onto the grassy field with Shion’s body.

“…….”

She looked at him closely as he lay on the edge of her arm.

He was asleep.

“What kind of person are you……”

On the peaceful grassy field, she murmured a question full of curiosity, and then a fact came to her belatedly.

The camera.

“……!”

Elise suddenly looked up at the ceiling.

There was still a camera with its light on. In fact, when their eyes met, it sneakily turned off its light.

“No……!”

Elise hastily excused herself.

* * *

In Section 0 of the Aerial Garden, the smallest mansion where only the bloodline could stay.

The youngest master, ‘Zia’, was watching someone through the camera.

It was Shion Ascal.

She had just seen his sword. She had seen the swordsmanship that shattered the sacrificial swordsman in one blow.

It was special.

Definitely, it was special.

So much so that she couldn’t even analyze the principle.

“……”

Click- Click- Zia scratched the mouse. She pondered while rewinding the video left and right.

She had a desire to collect.

The target was not money. Not goods. Not even figures.

It was people.

She collected talent. It was her own hobby that no one in Libra knew about.

“This person……”

His name was Shion Ascal. According to Johanna, a man who wanted to become her knight.

Just as Zia was quietly watching him.

Slam-

The door opened. Zia pretended to shiver.

It was Jade in a suit. He frowned as he looked at her.

“……Why are you so surprised?”

“Ah- Ah-”

Zia hurriedly turned off the monitor. Jade strode over and turned the monitor back on.

There was Shion Ascal.

Jade confirmed him in the video and looked back at Zia.

“Umm……”

Zia bit her lip.

“……”

Jade stared at her silently, then smirked.

“He’s not bad. He seems to have the qualities to be a pretty good knight. It’s a pity that he admires me too much.”

Jade stepped back a few steps and sat on the sofa. He crossed his legs and asked.

“Do you want him?”

“My knight garden… is one short… but I can’t pay the salary……”

A deep smile appeared at the corner of Jade’s mouth.

“He’s still a high school student. It will take 2~3 years to become a knight.”

“Yes……”

“Don’t worry. If he becomes a knight, he will come to me no matter what anyone says. I’ll send him to you then. More importantly, how’s your body?”

Jade surprisingly takes care of Zia. Even Zia herself doesn’t know why.

“I’m okay……”

“You’re too weak.”

He took out a potion from his jacket pocket. It was Draconics, a tonic made from dragon scales.

“It’s something I had a hard time getting. Three times a day. Split over the course of a month.”

“……Yes.”

“Alright. Go back to what you were doing.”

Jade, who had straightened his lapel and cuffs, left her office.

Zia was engrossed in Shion Ascal’s video again. Rewinding the divine swordsmanship she had just seen.

“Did I… secure him……”

Jade’s boast and Johanna’s guarantee.

If this person comes to Libra, will she be able to have him?

But before she gets him, she will have to scrutinize whether he is worthy.

* * *

──One hour later.

I’m sitting in the restaurant. The final result was 6 waves. Because I fell asleep as soon as I used the Traversing Sword.

Anyway.

Rattling-.

“……Ah.”

I’m trying to eat some food, but my hand keeps shaking.

“What……?”

Suddenly, the fork moved on its own. Woong- It floated in the air, twirled the spaghetti around, and brought it to my mouth.

Tap- Tap- It tapped my lips.

It was obvious.

I looked across the table.

Elise.

She feigned ignorance and cut her steak.

“……Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

For me, it was a question. Elise, with her haughty demeanor, put a piece of steak in her mouth and replied.

“Belingham said it too. This itself is part of teaming. Once a team is formed, it stays together not only in battle but throughout their daily lives. Didn’t you know?”

“I’m not talking about that. Why are you acting this way towards me?”

“Why am I acting this way towards you? I wonder what that means.”

“If you don’t know, you’re stupid.”

“……”

Elise closed her eyes. She quietly grumbled, seemingly unable to bear being called stupid.

“……You.”

She sighed and pointed at me with her fork.

“I’m just acknowledging you.”

“……”

I quietly looked at her. It was unfamiliar. To me, accustomed to the Elise before regression, it was foreign.

“I see.”

Could she have changed after these several days?

Is she changing?

Ding-

Just then, Elise’s smartphone rang. She glanced at the screen and said.

“We’re going on a trip. It’s been a while.”

“I’m not interested.”

“……This is also part of teaming. Sharing schedules.”

Saying that, she pushed spaghetti into my mouth. I just accepted it.

I was hungry, so I chewed it, but suddenly.

There was a pain in my earlobe. The news I had once seen with my own eyes came back to me like a heatwave.

──Elise Petra was kidnapped while on a trip……

I stopped with spaghetti in my mouth.

Elise is about to be kidnapped. It could be said to be the first of many crimes she will suffer.

I looked at Elise.

She was calmly chewing her steak.

“……”

Of course, for me, there might be no need to get involved.

Elise’s business is Elise’s business.

……However.

“Teamed mages and knights usually operate together for an average of 5~6 years.”

Yael had said.

Back when Elise was still alive, when she was healthier and more dominant than anyone else, Yael had asked me to protect Elise.

“Sharing schedules is essential.”

The future Elise was different from this.

The Elise before regression was almost a villain.

She had even become a monster capable of restraining Libra.

That woman back then…

Yes.

She was not ‘Elise’.

“You may not know.”

Now, I seem to understand a bit.

Yael’s last request to ‘protect Elise’.

The young Elise, who is now putting a steak in her mouth, who is covering her mouth and who is mumbling in response as I stare at her intently.

“What?”

Was it a plea to protect this young Elise?

Or was it an impossible wish to revert her sister, who had already become a monster?

“Speak up if you’re hungry, okay? Is it your pride?”

Elise, as if she had convinced herself, moved the fork with telekinesis again and pushed it to my lips.

“……No- Uh.”

I ate for now. Elise watched me with a strange expression and pouted her lips.

“But why… why are you working so hard?”

She asked, cutting the steak with both hands and twirling my spaghetti with telekinesis.

“What are you trying to do, showing off so much to Libra?”

Working hard.

The reason I work hard.

There’s no need to answer, but since we’re teaming.

I explained that one and only reason to my teammate in one word.

“Revenge.”

Whirl-! The fork twirling the spaghetti suddenly spun. The strands splattered on my face.

“……What.”

I glared at Elise with spaghetti all over me. Her expression was frozen stiff.

Her hand cutting the steak was trembling, her bitten lips were bloodless, and above all, she was breathing roughly and bowing her head deeply.

“……Revenge.”

She mumbled like that, as if she was in pain somewhere.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry.”

Elise suddenly got up from her seat.

I blankly watched her back as she fled.

“……What’s with her.”

Why do you talk about teaming, and end up running off on your own?