Chapter 53
Chapter 53
[SYSTEM: You have obtained the Holy Sword Excalibur.]
[Status Window]
Name- Excalibur
Grade- Mythical
Alignment- Holy
Titles
-Absolute Good
-The Invincible Holy Sword
Creator- Merlin
*Currently, Excalibur is in an unawakened state. When linked with its owner, it will recover its original form.
“…….”
I silently stared at the sword clenched in my hand.
A single old sword, rusted here and there as if it had weathered the storms of countless years.
No matter how I looked at it, there was nothing about it that resembled the famed holy sword called Excalibur.
But I knew this was not Excalibur’s true form.
If I poured my mana into it as it was, cracks would form along the surface, and together with an auspicious light, it would regain the appearance of the greatest and strongest sword on the continent.
However, the problem was why it was in my hand.
“…Wasn’t it supposed to be mine?”
Alice looked back and forth between the sword in my hand and my face, her expression strangely deflated.
With a just-in-case mindset, I took her hand and brought it toward Excalibur’s hilt.
Pajijik-
“Ah?!”
At that moment, violet sparks flashed and shoved Alice’s hand away.
Faced with the unmistakable reaction of rejection, I was left dumbfounded.
“What on earth…….”
As a sword called a holy sword, Excalibur required special qualifications to be owned.
First, one had to possess dragon blood.
Second, one had to be chosen by the goddess.
Alice met the second condition, but I matched neither of those two settings.
Not only did the Ribera lineage have no dragon blood mixed into it, but I had never even seen the goddess’s face.
In the past, I had searched every inch of my body in case I had received the goddess’s choice without knowing when I possessed Leios’s body, but the Goddess’s Mark was clearly nowhere to be found.
‘…If that’s the case, then there must be something on my mother’s side.’
As far as my memory went, Leios’s mother had only been briefly described in a few lines as a maiden from some rural village.
I hadn’t seen anything special even in the settings the author had given.
“Elysia.”
This time, I called out to Elysia, who had been standing dazedly off to the side.
Her main family, Pendragon, was a house connected to dragons.
That meant Elysia as well, who inherited that lineage, should have been suitable to become Excalibur’s owner.
But.
Pajijik.
“Kyaak?!”
Wearing a blank expression at the Excalibur that had suddenly been drawn out, she slowly approached at my call and reached out her hand.
But just like with Alice, violet sparks erupted, showing a reaction that would not permit contact.
“This is something.”
Neither dragon blood, nor one chosen by the goddess.
Then why had Excalibur been drawn into my hand?
“H-here, please use this cloth.”
Avalon, famous as Excalibur’s scabbard, was currently lost.
Since it never appeared until the end of the work, it was probably stuck away somewhere on the continent where no one knew.
That was why Elain hurriedly brought a cloth and handed it to me.
I covered Excalibur’s unsightly blade with it and then looked around.
It was fortunate that there were few people nearby, as this was Camelot Palace.
Everyone present consisted only of my Academy friends and the soldiers standing guard over the palace.
Still, what needed to be done had to be done.
“Elain, prepare a mana oath document.”
If the fact that I had obtained Excalibur became known outside, it would turn troublesome.
The time to reveal my existence would come soon.
There was no need to draw attention now, so I had everyone present write an oath document promising secrecy.
Alice could not hide her envy to the very end.
The greatsword she had originally used had long since been split in half from the fight she had with me just before entering the Academy.
I had only said I would get her a suitable sword, then forgotten about it for months.
‘I thought giving her Excalibur would solve it.’
Ironically, now that it had come into my hands, I would have to get something appropriate for Alice instead.
It might have looked ridiculous, like giving and then taking it back, but honestly, it didn’t feel that bad.
I was just slightly worried about the future.
‘If Alice doesn’t obtain Excalibur, does that mean this awakening is as good as gone?’
The protagonist’s methods of awakening were not limited to just one or two.
Still, the one through Excalibur had felt a bit more special, so it was only regrettable.
After writing a mana oath document pledging to keep secret the fact that I had drawn Excalibur, we returned to the mansion.
It was supposedly to rest comfortably for tomorrow’s schedule, but it was also under the pretext of sorting out the series of disturbances.
For reference, I put something else suitable into the hole from which Excalibur had been drawn.
Then, using some excuse or another, I sealed off that area, and now no one except the direct line of the family could approach it.
Swish.
Like everyone else, after returning to my room, I took out Excalibur.
As the cloth covering the blade came undone, the same unsightly blade revealed itself.
“…….”
Looking at it, I felt a slightly complicated mix of emotions.
Originally, my possession had been the demonic sword Tyrfing.
I hadn’t even been able to awaken her from her wounded slumber, yet I had obtained a new sword.
“I don’t know either.”
I scratched my head roughly and, with a whatever-happens-happens mindset, injected mana into Excalibur.
Dudududu.
Then the sword trembled shallowly and began to let out a small whine.
Pasusss-
At the same time, fine cracks began to spread across the surface of the sword.
The ordinary iron sword appearance peeled away, and an auspicious light covered it.
Before long, Excalibur regained its original form.
“…Beautiful.”
From the blade to the hilt, brilliant gold gleamed, inlaid with blue decorations.
The flawless edge looked sharp enough to cut through anything, and the glossy blade seemed more valuable than any jewel.
It was a form that naturally drew admiration.
Tyrfing too had been far from ordinary in appearance, but Excalibur was by no means inferior to her.
“Then.”
Like Tyrfing, Excalibur, also called a holy sword, was an ego sword that possessed its own will.
I waited for the appearance of the cute and adorably airheaded girl who was called River by the protagonist, but no matter how long I waited, nothing changed.
Paaaat-!
Instead, a sudden light burst forth from the sword and covered the entire room.
Startled by a development different from the original work, I was about to let go, but the piercing light forced me to close my eyes.
“……?”
When I closed my eyes briefly and then opened them, an unfamiliar breeze brushed past my cheek.
“…This is?”
At the same time, with my eyes sinking low, I had no choice but to look around.
Just moments ago, I had definitely been inside my room.
But before I knew it, the surrounding scenery had changed into a vast grassland.
It was similar to the situation when I first came face to face with Chris.
But back then, it felt like the space itself had been replaced, whereas this time, it felt a little different.
“The world of the mind.”
“Correct.”
To my muttered words, a clear female voice responded.
When I lifted my head and looked ahead, I could see a woman who had already taken her place there.
“You are, the being dwelling within this sword?”
“More precisely, I should say I am Excalibur itself.”
A blonde woman in a pure white dress greeted me with an elegant demeanor.
She looked to be slightly older than me.
But in the original work, she should have appeared as a small girl.
River growing like this would have been in the mid-to-late parts, as the protagonist continued to grow……
“Ah.”
At that, I was able to realize one thing.
I didn’t know why Excalibur had chosen me, but the reason she did not appear as a girl lay in my strength.
When the protagonist obtained her, he had been no more than a fledgling.
Naturally, Excalibur’s level could only be low.
She was a being who grew together with her owner.
But now, I had reached a level just shy of Sword Master.
So Excalibur must have shown herself to me in a form befitting that level.
“Why did you choose me? In the causal relationship, your owner should have been the girl who grasped you before me, not me.”
“Before getting into such old-fashioned talk, would you like something to drink? It’s been a long time since someone came here, so I’m feeling a bit excited.”
The gently smiling face she showed made it hard for even me to refuse.
After all, she must have slept for several hundred years at least in that narrow crevice of rock until her owner appeared.
Even in the original work, she had complained that the fate of being a holy sword was too exhausting.
Saying that it was far too difficult for a special sword like herself to meet an owner.
River didn’t even wait for my answer and lightly waved her hand.
Then, before I knew it, a snow-white table appeared between us, and atop it were fragrant black tea and various sweets laid out.
“It’s the world of the mind, so you can’t take it into reality, but eat to your heart’s content. At least in this world, you can savor it fully.”
Her attitude was clearly friendly.
So I quietly took a seat and savored the refreshments she had prepared.
“…It’s good.”
“Right?”
Seeming happy that I liked it, she sat across from me and smiled brightly.
Then she raised her slender white fingers and traced them across the snow-white tabletop.
“You asked why I chose you instead of that child. Of course, you’re right. If we followed the predetermined causality, I should have chosen that child, not you.”
“Then why?”
To my question asking why, River wore an expression as if asking whether there even needed to be a reason.
“Because it looks more fun.”
“…What?”
“And honestly, there’s also a matter of preference. As you can see, I possess femininity, so as an owner, I prefer a man over a woman. Even so, my aesthetic standards are quite strict, you know? Many men have tried to pull me out so far, but none satisfied me. Ah, there was a man named Arthur, the head of the Pendragon family of the era, whose face I found somewhat pleasing. But he looked a bit rough. I like refined-looking types. Like you.”
“…What kind of.”
At her words, I could only clutch my face and give a stereotyped response.
To think that the reason I was chosen by the holy sword Excalibur was merely because of my face.
Conversely, what kind of expression would Alice make if she found out the reason she had been rejected?
“So when you grasped me, I jumped right out. A win-win, isn’t it? People who can wield me are truly rare, you know?”
River smiled refreshingly, to the point that even the viewer would feel invigorated.
In response, my temples began to throb.
The River I knew wasn’t like this.
I didn’t know why she had changed like this, but I wished she would just give back the simple, kind, airheaded River already.
“But listen.”
“……?”
River narrowed her eyes while keeping her smiling face.
“I don’t care what kind of human woman you meet. I’m just your sword.”
Unlike her warm voice up until now, her tone lost all inflection, and I felt a chill run down my spine.
And instinctively, I realized.
Holy and demonic were opposing concepts.
That is, they could not coexist.
Sreung.
The tip of Excalibur, emitting a bluish light, was aimed right in front of my nose.
“But being displaced by something as trivial as a demonic sword is a disgrace to a holy sword. After several hundred years, the contractor who finally appears is the owner of a demonic sword?”
Her eyes, as she spoke as if it were laughable, shone with an ominous light.
Then, exuding a thick killing intent, she spoke to me.
“It’s me, or her. Decide right here.”
Saying that one of us would be buried here, River thrust the sword toward me.
‘Fuck…….’
Excalibur was, beyond imagination, a crazy bitch.