The Sword Sanctum.
There exists a land simply called that.
A harsh earth covered in snow year-round.
The place where the First Sword God established his style and, in his later years, taught the sword to his disciples.
It is the destination every swordsman aims for, and the place from which they all set out.
A place every swordsman should visit at least once.
That is the Sword Sanctum.
At the Sword Sanctum, promising young swordsmen are gathered.
Those who showed talent with the blade by their teens.
Young geniuses.
Currently, three genius swordsmen of exceptional talent resided at the Sword Sanctum.
First, the Sword God's eldest daughter.
Ninna Farion.
Though currently eighteen years old, she was said to possess unmatched talent by the age of sixteen, earning her the title of Sword Saint.
It was said she would be called Sword King by the age of twenty, and would undoubtedly become Sword Emperor before turning twenty-five.
The most promising candidate of them all.
Ninna's cousin.
Jino Blitz.
The Blitz family was a branch house of the Farion family, who served as the heads of the Sword God Style. Jino was the second son.
Currently fourteen years old.
He received the title of Sword Saint at age twelve, making him the youngest Sword Saint.
Though not quite Ninna's equal yet, he was a genius swordsman whose future was said to be unpredictable.
Currently seventeen years old.
She terrified all who looked upon her, and mercilessly beat down anyone who tried to challenge her—a mad dog.
Two years ago, she had arrived as a disciple of Sword King Ghislaine, and she had allowed absolutely no compromise in her actions.
Every day she threw herself into death-defying training, pushing her body to its absolute limit.
Her debut at the Sword Sanctum had been spectacular.
Even now, years later, it remained a story still told.
--- Approximately two years ago --- The Sword Sanctum, in the Audience Hall.
Eris appeared before the Sword God, brought there by Ghislaine.
Surrounding them were the Sword God Style's senior disciples, each holding the rank of Sword Saint or higher.
Among them were Ninna and Jino.
Even before the Sword God, Eris did not kneel, nor did she bow her head.
"I have no business with a small fry like you!"
Unbelievably, she had the audacity to say this to the Sword God Gal Farion, the strongest swordsman of the age.
The surrounding Sword Saints were in an uproar.
"What!? You dare speak to the Master that way!"
"Kneel! Do you not know the manners of the Sword God Style!"
"What did Ghislaine teach you!?"
"Sit down."
A single word from the Sword God silenced the Sword Saints.
This young, arrogant dog would be cut down by the Sword God's hand.
That was what everyone thought.
No one had ever spoken such insolent words to the Sword God Gal Farion and left alive.
Those were words that would make even the supremely arrogant Ghislaine's ears and tail stand straight up.
However, the Sword God simply grinned.
Still grinning, he asked: "Those are some pretty eyes you've got there. Just who exactly are you trying to cut down?"
Who did she want to cut down?
When asked that, Eris answered clearly.
"The Dragon God. The Dragon God
Everyone knew the name Dragon God.
But they did not know the name Orsted.
In that room, only two people knew that name: Eris, and one other.
"Ha ha ha ha! I see, I see! Compared to Orsted, I suppose I am a small fry!
So that's how it is—you want to cut down that guy!
So there's someone besides me who wants to cut him down!?"
The Sword God slapped his knees and laughed heartily.
Everyone present swallowed their saliva at the unsettling sight.
The Sword God was laughing.
After receiving such arrogant words, being called a small fry and provoked—he was still laughing.
It was unbelievable.
But the Sword God alone knew.
To cut down the Dragon God Orsted.
That meant aiming to be the strongest.
"But still," he said.
His laughter stopped abruptly.
Silence returned to the Audience Hall.
"Anyone can say it with their mouth. But can you actually do it?"
"I'll do it."
Eris declared it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
There was no bravado, no hesitation whatsoever.
Her eyes held not a single trace of doubt.
The Sword God raised the corner of his mouth.
"Good. Show me your sword. Jino, spar with her."
"Eh!? Y-yes!"
Called by his uncle, Jino Blitz stood up.
A girl not much younger than himself.
An obnoxious girl who had made his uncle laugh with her words.
Eager to put her in her place, "She's our youngest prodigy. Younger than you, still pretty green, but she's got some skill."
Jino and Eris each received a wooden sword tossed to them by one of the other Sword Saints.
"Then, to the center—"
"Nwraaaaaaah!"
The moment she received the wooden sword, Eris charged at Jino.
Jino couldn't even mount a proper defense.
His wrist was struck hard on the very first blow, sending the wooden sword clattering to the ground, and before he could even cry out in defeat—no, before he could even understand what had happened—he was cut down by the wooden sword.
Perfect killing intent.
Jino, believing he had been struck with a real blade, lost consciousness.
"What!?"
The members of the Audience Hall were dumbfounded.
How could something so absurd happen?
Surely the match should have at least started with them facing each other from the center.
For starters, Jino hadn't even been looking in Eris's direction.
What a dirty trick.
The Sword Saints thought so.
Naturally, Ninna—who had watched her junior be defeated in such a dishonorable fashion—thought the same.
The only four who didn't were two Sword Emperors, one Sword King, and the Sword God.
"S-she's pretty green, isn't she?"
"Truly."
Eris, having already shaken out her short-cropped hair, was keeping watch on everyone's movements.
Ready for anyone to attack her, anytime, anywhere.
Her stance wasted not a single motion as she surveyed her surroundings.
The Sword God did not rebuke Eris.
He merely called Jino weak for having been knocked out cold.
When both sides hold a sword, the one who lets their guard down is at fault.
The Sword God's words carried the unspoken meaning: anyone who doesn't consider the possibility of a sudden attack is a fool.
"Good. Next is Ninna. You're up.
This time, face each other from the center first.
Surprise attacks are fine too, but show me your swordsmanship when you start on even footing."
At those words, a Sword Saint tossed a wooden sword toward Ninna.
The moment she caught it, Ninna looked twice at the Sword Saint who had thrown it.
The wooden sword was slightly heavy.
A wooden sword packed with metal inside.
"............"
The Sword Saint who had thrown the wooden sword gave a small nod.
Seeing this, Ninna shivered once, then nodded back.
She would kill this rude person.
Ninna was a Sword Saint too. It wasn't as though she had never killed anyone before.
It was a bit underhanded, but...
They had been the ones to commit the insult first.
Thinking of Jino's humiliation, they deserved to pay with their lives.
The two took their positions in the center and assumed their stances.
"Begin!"
At the Sword Saint's signal, Ninna raised her wooden sword high.
Following the forms she had repeated tens of thousands of times in the Sword God Style, she would crush this insolent red-haired woman.
A strike imbued with that resolve.
Sword met sword.
In that instant, with a dry crack, Eris's wooden sword shattered.
Ninna was certain of her victory.
All that remained was to bring a merciless blow down upon Eris's stunned skull.
Or so she thought.
In the next instant, Ninna was punched in the face.
Then her jaw was struck through.
She stomped her foot, only to have it kicked away, and she was pinned to the ground.
When she came to her senses, both her arms were pinned by feet.
Looking up, a demon wreathed in genuine killing intent raised a fist above her.
"S-stop! Stop, stop!"
When the command to halt was given, Ninna had already taken several punches.
Nose bleeding, teeth broken, she had lost consciousness.
From between her legs, a steaming liquid spread across the floor.
Eris slowly stood up, then picked up the metal-core wooden sword Ninna had been carrying.
And with a snort, she kicked Ninna's unconscious body over to where Jino lay.
"Are there only weaklings here?"
"You... you little—!"
The Sword Saints seethed.
Voices calling her a coward could also be heard.
But those who held the rank of Sword King or above regarded those Sword Saints with cold contempt.
They understood who was in the right.
"My bad, my bad. I misjudged the situation. I'll be your opponent."
When the Sword God stood, the two Sword Emperors showed slight surprise.
"There's no need for the Master to step in."
"In situations like this, Ghislaine's—yes, she was his disciple, wasn't she? Allow me to—"
The Sword God ignored these words and grabbed his sword.
A real blade.
Eris saw this and kicked the floor hard.
She leaped backward, retreating to where she had placed her own sword.
Then, grasping the partner who had journeyed with her for so long, she drew it from its scabbard in an instant.
"Don't panic, I'll give you a handicap, of course...
Wait, you've got a nice sword there. That's Julian's, isn't it?"
"I don't know. I received it from the Migurd Tribe."
"Oh, right. This one's a Julian creation too, y'know."
Saying this, the Sword God slowly drew his blade.
A sword whose blade gleamed gold.
One of the Sword God's Seven Swords.
One of the forty-eight demon swords forged by the legendary craftsman of the Demon World, Julian Harris, from the bones of the Dragon King Kajaktu.
Demon Sword "Throat."
The Sword God held the demon sword in a relaxed, dangling grip.
The Sword Saints held their breath.
For the Sword God to wield a real sword was exceedingly rare outside of sparring sessions with the Sword Emperors.
And the Sword God casually muttered: "Alright, let's go."
In that instant, Eris was sent flying.
She smashed through the Audience Hall's entrance door, was hurled outside, and buried in the accumulated snow.
The Sword God stood frozen in the finishing pose of his swing.
No one had been able to follow his motion.
"Magnificent!"
"Magnificent!"
"What a magnificent display!"
The surrounding Sword Saints praised the stroke in overlapping voices.
It wasn't the power of the demon sword.
It was the fighting spirit released from the Sword God that had blown Eris away.
That rude girl was dead.
That was what everyone thought.
But Eris was not dead.
"Ugh... guuh...!"
She groaned weakly, writhing in the snow.
Still alive after receiving the Sword God's strike?
No—the Sword God had held back.
But there was no need for the Sword God to get serious against some stray dog.
All that remained was to expel her and cast her out into the snow.
But the Sword God said the exact opposite of what the Sword Saints expected.
"Ghislaine, treat Eris's wounds. From today, she is a Sword Saint. Starting tomorrow, I will teach her the sword."
The Sword Saints' smiling faces froze.
To teach her the sword—that meant she would become the Sword God's direct disciple.
Since Ghislaine, no one had earned that honor—the highest of the high among disciples.
"That's absurd! The title of Sword Saint is only given to those who have mastered 'Light of the Flash'!
Not for some mountain ape of a brat like—!"
The man who started to speak was cut off when the Sword God pointed his sword at him.
"There are already two brats who've mastered 'Light of the Flash,' so that should be plenty, don't you think?"
"B-but..."
"The title of 'Sword God' isn't something you earn just by learning a technique, y'know. If I don't get any special treatment despite being the special one, why should I give the Sword Saint title any?"
"...My deepest apologies."
The Sword Saint said nothing more.
He had realized that his own emotions were jealousy.
The Sword Saints all understood that jealousy dulled the blade.
And they had misunderstood.
The Sword God's philosophy of swordsmanship, driven by one's desires— according to it, it was precisely ugly emotions like jealousy that sharpened one's blade.
Of course, the Sword God had no intention of teaching such important things from start to finish.
He believed that people who only realized things when told were beyond saving.
And so, with her stunning debut, Eris earned the title of Sword Saint.
--- Ninna hated Eris.
After all, she had been knocked unconscious in front of everyone, and had even wet herself in the process.
Humiliation.
Yes, she had been humiliated.
Some upstart mountain ape.
When her sword wasn't good enough, she resorted to punching like a spoiled child.
She was unworthy of the Sword Saint title, unworthy of the Sword God Style itself.
Ninna declared this loudly.
For nearly two years, she never spoke a civil word to Eris.
Along with Jino, she buddied up with their fellow disciples and thoroughly excluded her from the group.
Of course, Eris was usually busy being drilled relentlessly by the Sword God or Ghislaine.
She even shared a room with Ghislaine when sleeping.
There was no point of contact, no need, and she didn't try to speak to Ninna and the others.
If you could call it conversation, at most they'd exchange a few barbs during the monthly internal disciple sparring sessions.
During those sessions, Eris and Ninna's abilities were evenly matched.
Ninna even believed she was winning more often than not.
Under clear rules where dropping or breaking your sword meant defeat, she wasn't falling behind easily.
That was what Ninna thought.
That was where she was "soft," but it would take a little longer for her—with her lack of practical experience—to realize it.
A rivalry.
That was what it looked like to everyone around them, but it should be clearly stated that Eris couldn't have cared less about Ninna.
Then one day.
Ninna was chatting with some girls her age.
Typical young women's talk—who among the disciples was handsome, how she'd had her first experience with her boyfriend the other day, that sort of thing.
Having devoted her entire life to the sword since birth, Ninna was uncomfortable with such topics.
And she had believed such things would forever be unrelated to her.
When asked about a man close to her, the first person who came to mind was her cousin Jino, four years her junior, but she couldn't imagine being in that kind of relationship with someone she'd grown up alongside.
Therefore, she would live for the sword alone.
Otherwise, Eris would leave her behind.
She didn't want to lose to that woman.
That was what she thought.
Then Eris happened to walk past.
Steam was rising from her entire body.
Even while they were chatting, she had been training.
Thinking about it, Ninna felt a twinge of anxiety.
So, she said it.
"Hmph, training even at a time like this!
I bet you'll never have a man in your entire life!
You can just stay a virgin and live your life for the sword!"
Despite being inexperienced herself.
She said something like that.
But because it was something she herself was insecure about, and because being told it hurt, she figured it would hurt Eris too.
"Ha...!"
But Eris snorted derisively.
That smug expression on her face made Ninna falter.
"Wh-what?"
"Sorry, but I'm not a virgin."
A hint of pride, a slight blush.
It was clearly not a bluff.
Everyone present could tell.
"W-what!? No way! Who? Who with!?"
Ninna couldn't hide her inner turmoil at all.
Clumsily flustered, she pressed Eris for the story.
"Someone I grew up with since I was little."
Normally the quiet type, Eris couldn't stop talking once the topic turned to that man.
How they had grown up together since childhood, how they had traveled together from the Demon Continent to her homeland, how she had met the Dragon God and how that man had struck a blow against him, and how she had experienced her first time with that man, how she wanted to become stronger for that man.
It was the love story of a maiden whose feelings had been realized.
Ninna was completely devastated.
She felt she had lost.
It was a total defeat.
They were even in swordsmanship.
But she had lost in life experience.
And to add insult to injury, Eris even had a man.
The most Ninna could do was deny the existence of that man.
"I-it's a lie! Father told me!
The Dragon God is wrapped in 'Dragon God Fighting Spirit,' so no half-baked technique can even scratch him!
You're making it up! That person doesn't really exist, does he!?
Tell me it's a lie. There's still time to take it back!"
"It's not a lie.
...But Rudeus and the me of today don't match. I need to become stronger."
Eris said this at the end, clenching her fist tightly.
Her determined eyes burning with flame, she ignored Ninna and the others and returned to the training hall she had been in earlier—the "Spirit Refining Room."
Ninna watched her go in stunned silence.
The person she had thought the least likely to have a boyfriend already had one and was ahead of her.
Her head was spinning from that realization.
--- She was still single, yet that mountain ape Eris had a boyfriend.
How could such a thing be allowed?
It had to be a lie.
This Rudeus fellow must be a made-up person.
That was what Ninna thought.
On her day off, she went to an information broker and had them gather information on Rudeus.
Well, it wouldn't be easy to find.
After all, he was a made-up person.
That was what she believed.
But contrary to her wishes, the information was gathered almost immediately.
Rudeus Greyrat.
Originally from
At age three, he became a disciple of the Water
By age five, he had become a Water Saint-class magician.
At age seven, he became the private tutor of Eris Boreas Greyrat, daughter of the Fittoa Region's Fort City Roa's mayor.
He subsequently went missing during the Fittoa Region teleportation incident.
However, he had recently made a name for himself as adventurer "Mudslime Rudeus" in the northern part of the Central Continent.
He had been invited to attend the Magic University as a special student and was currently residing in Sharia, the Magic City of the Kingdom of
He was respected by certain adventurers, and there were even rumors that he had single-handedly defeated a stray dragon.
He was a real person.
Not Eris's imaginary prince.
Ninna was deflated, but also thought: he's not that impressive.
His record up to age seven was certainly remarkable, but he was ultimately just an adventurer.
He hadn't even reached Water King-class, and having such a lame nickname like "Mudslime"...
His talent must have only lasted in his early years. That had to be it.
And with that, a terrible idea crossed her mind.
What if she beat this Rudeus fellow and brought him back here as a slave—what kind of face would Eris make then?
When you've got an idea, strike while the iron is hot.
Ninna packed for a journey that very day, and true to the impatience she inherited from her father, she jumped on a horse.
And so she set off for the Kingdom of Ranoa.
During winter the journey wouldn't be too bad—Ranoa was practically next door.
Using a fine horse raised in the Sword Sanctum, she could make the round trip in less than two months.
She was impulsive, after all.
She completed the month-long journey without incident and arrived at the Magic University.
And was shocked.
Ninna, to be honest, had looked down on magicians.
She thought they were people who didn't train properly, just mumbling some incantations and thinking they were strong.
But the people walking the streets were tough, muscular men.
For some reason, there were many beast race members, and most dressed in a warrior-like fashion.
Some wore robes and some wore cute uniforms, but there were a disproportionate number of people with powerful physiques.
Ninna was ashamed of her own ignorance.
Living to age eighteen, she had been viewing magicians through the lens of prejudice.
Ninna approached a young man nearby.
A beast race member, well-muscled, the very picture of a warrior.
She asked him where Rudeus was.
He said he was also going to see Rudeus.
Perfect, Ninna thought, and decided to follow him.
They arrived at a boy in a uniform.
He was apparently Rudeus.
Just as Ninna had imagined.
His body was reasonably trained, but she sensed no commanding presence.
His face wasn't bad, but he didn't seem confident, and as a man, he had no charisma.
He was perfect for Eris.
Alright, she thought, I'll beat this guy into the—But in the next moment, the beast race young man shouted.
"You must be A-rank adventurer 'Mudslime' Rudeus, who single-handedly took down a stray dragon!
I challenge you to a duel for the right to marry the woman I love!"
She was startled.
This man had just challenged Rudeus to a duel.
"Well, I have piano practice, so..."
Rudeus, in thoroughly unmanly fashion, immediately declined.
But the young man circled around him with this and that excuse, and attacked without waiting for an answer.
Ninna thought Rudeus would be torn apart in the next instant.
While not as strong as her, the beast race young man looked quite formidable.
And Rudeus was a magician.
It was common knowledge among swordsmen that magicians became weak once the distance was closed.
At that range, there was nothing a magician could do.
But the result was the opposite.
Rudeus defeated the young man in the blink of an eye.
About three seconds, perhaps.
Truly instantaneous.
Then, without sparing even a glance at the stunned Ninna, he promptly went on his way.
--- After some time recovering, Ninna asked around for Rudeus's whereabouts again.
She learned he was in the library.
Finding the library's location and heading there, she saw a long line of beast race members in front of the building.
Thinking it had nothing to do with her, she tried to enter the library when— "Are you also here to challenge Rudeus to a duel?"
A beast race young man asked her.
"Y-yes. That's right."
She answered without thinking.
"Then get in the back of the line!
Don't you dare cut in!"
She was scolded.
According to what she had heard, this line consisted entirely of people wanting to challenge Rudeus to a duel.
There were about thirty of them.
Ninna was both anxious and apprehensive about this fact, but obediently lined up and waited.
Then the beast race young man who had been ahead of her said, "What a shame."
She didn't know what he meant.
As she waited, the time passed into the afternoon.
And then, he appeared.
A demon with pitch-black skin, built like a mass of muscle.
He surveyed his surroundings with an incredibly arrogant air.
"Oh? What's this line? Some kind of event?"
"It's the line to challenge Rudeus Greyrat to a duel!"
"Oh my! This many of you? Fu ha ha ha!
Rudeus is quite the popular fellow!
I don't mind waiting, but is there any way I can go first!?"
His brazen declaration stirred up the crowd.
Get in line and wait your turn.
Ninna was indignant too.
She had traveled all this way and was waiting patiently as well.
So get in line instead of putting on airs.
And then, one idiot said it.
He said something that should never have been said.
"If you really want to go first, why don't you beat everyone in line ahead of you?"
"Fu ha ha ha ha! Now that's what I like to hear!
Very well—all of you, attack me at once!
In recognition of your courage in challenging me, I'll give you each a free hit!"
His arrogance was so over the top that everyone present was driven to fury.
"What did you say!?"
"You think you're tough, do you!?"
And wanting to teach this arrogant fool a lesson, they charged.
Ninna, without fully understanding what was happening, was swept into the fray as well.
And she lost.
Even after Ninna's strikes landed, the demon stood there unfazed.
Her blade couldn't penetrate his pitch-black skin.
She finally managed to wound him with a killing intent-infused Flash of the Flash, but the wound healed in an instant.
"I am the immortal Demon King Baldeggard!
Fu ha ha ha ha! If you can defeat me, I'll grant you the title of Hero!"
Ninna had probably fought better than most.
But her lack of attack power was impossible to overcome.
Unable to do anything, she was captured, beaten down, and her beloved sword was snapped in two.
She was terrified and confused.
Why was she fighting a Demon King here of all places?
What's more, why was a Demon King from the Demon Continent here in the first place?
Everyone present must have been thinking the same thing.
Not long after Ninna was defeated, the entire line had been wiped out.
Strangely, while there were injuries, no one had died.
They had been shown mercy.
When she realized this, tears fell onto Ninna's clenched fists.
But no matter how bitter she felt, she could do nothing now that her sword was broken.
"...What is this?"
Almost simultaneously with the total rout, Rudeus emerged from the library.
He and the demon exchanged words and moved to a different location.
Ninna, grimacing in pain, followed after them.
A wide schoolyard.
Rudeus and the Demon King stood facing each other there.
They seemed to be having a conversation, and the Demon King's booming laughter could be heard intermittently.
But she couldn't make out what they were saying.
The duel began after a remarkably fast boy delivered a staff.
The duel between Rudeus and the Demon King.
Ninna watched the entire thing.
Rudeus picked up the staff, undid its seal, exchanged a few words, then aimed the staff at the Demon King—and the next instant, the Demon King's upper body exploded.
The opponent they hadn't been able to lay a finger on had been defeated in a single blow.
At that fact, Ninna could only stare in stunned silence.
She didn't remember much of what happened after that.
--- Ninna returned to the Sword Sanctum.
Knowing that Eris was aiming for that level of power, she was dumbfounded.
But even as she was dumbfounded, the look in Ninna's eyes as she watched Eris train had grown somewhat softer.
From that time on, Ninna turned over a new leaf.
She began training harder than ever before, and as a countermeasure for having her sword broken, she started carrying two swords.
She no longer mocked Eris's punching methods, kept her at arm's length, and distanced herself from the fellow disciples she had been hanging around.
From there, Ninna would grow into Eris's true rival, in both name and substance...
But that is another story.
--- Incidentally.
The Sword God, who upon hearing of the Demon King's invasion had been energetically polishing his blade, listened to Ninna's account and, with a disappointed expression, quietly sheathed his sword.