Chapter 786

“Huh…should I say I pulled this out…?”

Damien, who ran to my side, tapped the huge crystal mass that had been pulled out along with the Holy Sword and muttered as if it were absurd. It was as if he had never imagined things would turn out like this.

“Pull it out, my ass.”

I let out a deep sigh, calming my startled heart, then lightly brushed off the crystal shards stuck to my clothes and stood up.

“Where does this look like I pulled out a sword? The pedestal just got smashed.”

Instead of pulling out the sword, I pulled out the map. Even I couldn’t believe the ridiculous result of what I had done.

“I told you, didn’t I? I said I probably couldn’t pull this out.”

After brushing off the crystal shards from my clothes, I pointed at the massive structure lying on the ground and chuckled.

“See, it’s proven.”

The huge crystal, as big as a dozen trees combined, had been pulled out entirely, making Juwaiyoz look more like a giant’s club than a sword.

“Hmm…well, since I pulled something out…maybe we can just use it like a hammer?”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

Swinging a rock bigger than an Insect-Dragon’s head with a sword stuck in it—common sense says that’s not possible.

Well, swinging it might be possible…but I had no reason to do that.

Carrying around an unbalanced boulder as a weapon would be far less effective than wielding a proper longsword with that strength.

Besides…

“Look at those chains. It’s obvious that not only can’t I use it properly, but I can’t even carry it out.”

Even though the Holy Sword embedded in the rock had been pulled out root and all, the Chains of Light, which had emerged from the divine script and were tied to various crystals above, hadn’t broken a single strand. They still tightly wrapped around the pure white blade.

If I tried to take the Holy Sword out over the lake like this, I’d probably have to carry all these crystal masses dangling from it.

This abnormal method of pulling out the Holy Sword and using it probably wouldn’t be tolerated.

“So, you try pulling it out.”

“You think I can do it?”

“If it’s you, it should be possible.”

Of course, you can pull it out. Who else could pull out a sword buried like this in such a place?

“You said you felt some strange pull, right? Following that feeling led us here, to this situation where the Holy Sword is just lying there. So, that pull…wasn’t it the sword calling for its master or something?”

“Is that so…?”

Damien tilted his head and muttered.

“Why are you acting like this? We went through all this trouble to get this one thing, and now you don’t want to take it?”

“No, it’s not that…how should I put it…”

Damien hesitated for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and answered.

“It’s just…I feel something ominous.”

“Ominous?”

What’s ominous about it? The pure white blade, the golden hilt, the sphere of light at the base of the blade—to me, it looks like divinity itself.

“It’s like…if I pull out that sword, a path of suffering beyond comparison will unfold…”

…Ah, that kind of ominous feeling.

Then his intuition was spot on.

The weight of remaining a mere hero and standing tall as the master of the Holy Sword were on entirely different levels. The responsibilities given, the expectations of people.

The role of a hero is to face enemies that even masters can’t defeat, but pulling out the Holy Sword means taking on the duty of saving a world on the brink of destruction.

I never told Damien this, so he wouldn’t know…but he must have sensed it intuitively.

The moment he pulls out this sword, an unimaginable level of suffering will begin.

“……”

…Suddenly, my conscience is pricking me.

I brought him here with the mindset that it’s only natural for the original protagonist to bear the protagonist’s responsibilities…

But thinking about it, what I’m about to do is force a responsibility onto a kid who’s not even twenty, a responsibility even I would want to avoid if I could.

Even though it’s Damien’s role…in the original, he was at least over twenty. Right now, he’s just a kid who should still be at the academy.

But…it’s unavoidable. As far as I know, Damien is the only one who can pull out the Holy Sword, and the world isn’t in a situation where it can wait for him to come of age.

…Right. It’s unavoidable.

“Sigh…”

Then at least…I should give him some advice.

I let out a shallow sigh, grabbed Damien’s shoulder, turned him to face me, and finally delivered the belated advice.

“…You’re right, Damien. If you become the master of that sword, you’ll live a life far from peace, a thorny path. Being recognized as the master of the Holy Sword once owned by Emperor Carolus the Great means you’ll be thrust into a situation where you’ll have to achieve feats equal to his.”

In a way, it was an obvious statement. If it weren’t for dangers that only the master of the Holy Sword could overcome, there’s no way the Holy Sword, so thoroughly sealed, would be pulled out.

“…Maybe even more than that.”

“Are you saying that’s why you’re making me pull it out instead of you, Hasal?”

Damien retorted with a hint of reproach. Did his tone sound reproachful because I was now feeling a twinge of guilt?

“No, I swear it’s not like that. If I could pull it out myself…I wouldn’t have pushed it onto you. But look. In the end, it was impossible for me, wasn’t it?”

If I could have pulled out the Holy Sword, would I have willingly taken on the duty of the hero in Damien’s place? Maybe…or maybe not.

It’s something I can’t say for sure without being in that situation myself.

The only thing certain now is one thing. I, as I expected, was not qualified to pull out the Holy Sword.

“Can I pull it out?”

“You won’t know until you try…but I think you can. Like I said earlier.”

Perhaps my answer wasn’t satisfactory. Damien slightly lowered his head, pondered for a moment, then looked up at me and muttered.

“…Did you bring me here for this from the beginning?”

“Huh?”

Startled by the sudden direct hit, I reflexively stammered in response.

“Everything fits too perfectly. The descendant of the Twelve Knights is searching for the Holy Sword in the Sky Mountain Range, and there just happens to be someone who can search with him—me, right by his side. As a friend and subordinate knight.”

Damien continued, looking straight at me.

“When you started wandering, I miraculously began finding the Holy Sword on my own…and the Holy Sword I found is nothing but a cursed object that brings suffering, and the one who’s supposed to be its master isn’t you but me. Isn’t it too coincidental to be a coincidence? How could that happen?”

Indeed, it wasn’t something that could be called a coincidence. The person who could find and pull out the Holy Sword just happens to be by the side of the person searching for it.

And the fact that those two people became friends during their academy days, half by force. To anyone, it would feel completely contrived.

I didn’t expect him to confront me about this now, though.

“From approaching me and Milia during our academy days, to focusing solely on training me to get stronger, to bringing me to this snowy mountain. Was all of that to guide me to this moment, to become the master of that sword?”

“That’s…”

A direct hit that was almost a fact.

As I hesitated, struggling to find words, Damien nodded as if confirming his deduction.

“Impressive. You did all that for this moment. It’s like you knew what would happen in the future. Is it the Saintess’s intuition?”

It was a sharp deduction. So sharp that it was hard to believe it came from Damien.

“…I don’t know the future.”

The only reason I could act as if I knew the future wasn’t because of the Saintess’s intuition but because of my knowledge of the original story.

“You don’t know?”

“Yeah. I thought I knew at one point…but it was a misunderstanding.”

I forced a smile, barely lifting the corner of my mouth as I answered the difficult question.

“Think about it. If I knew the future, wouldn’t I have prevented the disasters that have already happened instead of trying to fix them with strength?”

I did try to prevent them. It just didn’t work out.

I didn’t anticipate the butterfly effect of my exile to the Imperial Capital, and thinking I had time, I acted leisurely, only for it to escalate into the Great Fire of the Imperial Capital.

The guilt from that made me overly hasty, and I tried to drive out Isabella years before she was supposed to be defeated, only for it to backfire spectacularly in the Imperial Succession Civil War.

After that, everything diverged from the original story, filled with unpredictable events.

The only thing I could rely on was my own strength.

The knowledge of the original story had long since become not an answer sheet for the future but a mere signpost, a minimal guide.

If Damien couldn’t pull out the Holy Sword here or hesitated and refused to pull it out, it would be like adding another layer of delusion to the mountain of delusions I’ve already built.

“…Then that’s fine.”

“Fine?”

Damien nodded once, then turned and started walking.

Toward the Holy Sword Juwaiyoz, still radiating a brilliant white light as it lay on its side.

“Yeah. If you, Hasal, knew the future and tried to use me and Milia, and that’s why you let so many disasters happen…then that would be unforgivable.”

“……”

It’s been a while since my conscience hurt this much.

It wasn’t exactly exploitation, but it was a fact that I approached Milia and Damien because I knew the original story.

“But if that wasn’t the case…you were just trying your best to prevent the disasters in front of you, right? Even risking your life multiple times.”

Reaching out toward the golden hilt, Damien turned to look at me and smiled.

“Then…I should try too. Even if you said it’ll be a thorny path, you won’t leave me to walk it alone, will you?”

A smile so natural that it was hard to believe it came from someone whose emotions I couldn’t understand.

“…Yeah. I won’t leave you alone.”

I smiled back.

That’s why I trained my strength to its limits and gathered trustworthy people to help them grow stronger.

“That’s enough. That’s…”

Damien’s fingers firmly grasped the golden hilt.

And then.

– Whoosh!

A blinding white divine light swept through the cavern like the sun.

“Ugh…!”

I reflexively raised my hand to shield my eyes.

Through my half-closed eyes, I stared at the shadow of the young man holding the sword.

Yeah, you could pull it out after all.

– Crack!

The Chains of Light wrapped around the crystal rocks all unraveled, shrinking as if being sucked into the divine script on the blade.

They coiled and shrank like snakes, wrapping around Damien’s entire body as he held Juwaiyoz.

Watching Damien standing still, wrapped in the Chains of Light, I let out a long breath and tensed my entire body.

[Is he okay? He’s not moving at all…]

Becoming the master of the Holy Sword isn’t just about pulling it out.

‘Well…let’s save that worry for later. This isn’t the time for that.’

[What do you mean it’s not the time…wait, this unpleasant feeling…]

Even Hersela, who had been worrying about Damien, seemed to slowly realize what I was talking about.

Well, how could she not?

– Groooowl!

The underground cavern, which had darkened in an instant, was now filled with the dense stench of Magi, bursting out like water from a broken dam.

Didn’t you ever think it was strange?

The whole world, even the lands of the Beastmen, are infested with monsters, yet in the Sky Mountain Range, not a single monster could be found.

The reason was here.

“Groooowl!”

“Gyaaaaah!”

“Kyaaaaah!”

Dozens, hundreds of Black Holes opened up everywhere—on the ground, cliffs, even in the sky.

Countless monsters poured out from them, screaming with hatred.

Thousands of monsters that had been suppressed by the power of the Holy Sword for hundreds of years, unable to descend upon the Sky Mountain Range.

All of them, as if they had been waiting for the moment the Holy Sword was pulled out, rushed out and charged toward us.