Reincarnated as a sword.., p.1
Reincarnated as a Sword Vol. 14, page 1
Table of Contents
Color Inserts
Title Page
Copyrights and Credits
Table of Contents Page
Prologue: Zelyse Past and Present
Chapter 1: Crossing the Border
Chapter 2: Lake Vivian
Intermission: Sierra × ???
Chapter 3: Ladyblue
Chapter 4: The Magic Academy
Chapter 5: Theraclede Under Threat
Epilogue: Zelyse Past and Present
Afterword
Extra Chapter: Fran in Animation?
Newsletter
Prologue:
Zelyse Past and Present
“THEY ESCAPED. It’s completely different from before.”
“Don’t worry. We know where they are…”
“Good.”
“…but it looks like history’s going to change ever so slightly.”
“Of course it will. I’ve been moving things left and right.”
“You were insistent, back in Bulbola. That’s why I’ve changed things up from last time.”
“Uh-huh. Fran defeated over a hundred crystal golems last time, I believe.”
“And this time, she only defeated a few.”
“That’s right. Technically, that’s enough for us to go down a different branch of history.”
“Things haven’t completely diverged, however.”
“No. Just like the last time, we began by escaping here, to this country.”
“I guess the part where we attacked the adventurers and caused a commotion is the same.”
“True, but there were a lot more casualties last time.”
“And only injuries this time?”
“Theraclede’s gone soft.”
“Is he different from the Theraclede you know?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure. Either way, what now? Are you going to grab him?”
“I don’t know. Before—no, I shouldn’t ask. Why take the fun out of it? Hmm. Theraclede is one of the few successful hellions out there. It’s about time I did some research on him.”
“Uh-huh. I made so many discoveries last time and had oh-so-much fun!”
“Now I really wanna get my hands on him. Ah, I have it—I should try running that new experiment on him!”
“Hellion crystal? That’s a difficult one to pull off. Seventy percent of the subjects still lose their minds.”
“All right, so there’s a little risk involved, but…”
“That sounds like fun!”
“Exactly!”
“But how are we going to infiltrate the Academy of Magic? That high elf is not to be underestimated.”
“Not to worry! I’ve already sent some people there! Completely expendable, of course. You don’t mind losing one or two messengers, do you? Not when Theraclede’s at stake.”
“You’re right! When you put it that way, you can even take a more grandiose approach. Isn’t that right, present-day me?”
“It’s going to be so much fun, past me!”
“Ahahahaha!”
Chapter 1:
Crossing the Border
“THIS IS NICE.”
“Woof!”
Fran didn’t blink once as she enjoyed the wind blowing in her face. Thanks to a combination of the manatech we’d bought at the auction and a wind spell, she was able to withstand the strong headwind, even as it rumbled around us. Without protection, it could’ve easily blown her off her feet.
As for Jet, he was just too fast when he was at his largest. He traversed a distance that would’ve normally taken a whole day in just under an hour, Air Hopping over mountains, rivers, and forests. There wasn’t a single monster that could stand in his way. Anything that tried became the perfect in-flight snack.
“Nom, nom.”
“Good?”
“Woof!”
They weren’t worth butchering for materials, so it was fine.
These days, Jet ate anything he came across. Still, some of these monsters were pretty weird…like that one moss that spewed smoke, or that slime the color of mud. Identify didn’t mark these creatures as edible…not that human edibility probably had much to do with the diet of a newly elite monster.
“Which one of those is good?”
“Arf?”
Fran, you can’t be thinking of eating that thing, can you? You’ll ruin your stomach!
But maybe objecting would show her that I lacked faith in her. Fran was a bona fide adventurer now, after all. She could decide what she wanted to eat for herself.
“I can handle a little poison with Abnormal Status Immunity.”
“W-woof?”
She’d be fine…right? Or should I stop her? No, she would think I was being annoying if I stopped her from doing every little thing. She was gonna hit her rebellious phase any day now. My mind would totally shatter if she said something like “Shut up, Teacher. You stink.”
“Teacher? You’re shaking.”
D-don’t worry about it.
“Hmm.” She was looking at me suspiciously. Not mad, just exasperated. Or was I just imagining things? I needed to change the subject before things got more awkward.
O-oh? Hey, I can see the next town! That’s Didian, our last stop in Granzell! Apparently, it has its own specialty!
“Specialty?”
Didian is famous for cheese made of domesticated monster milk. Apparently, it’s super tasty.
“Wow.”
“Ruff!”
That got her attention.
Based on how fast Jet was going, we could’ve reached Belioth by this point, but we were still in Granzell. We’d been stopping by every town to sample its delicacies. So far, we’d spent over a week learning new cooking techniques and staying overnight at towns we liked.
We weren’t in any rush, so I thought we could take our time and let Fran enjoy herself. If anything, getting to our destination in the blink of an eye would be boring—and it’d be a waste not to take our time to enjoy the journey. I wanted to let Fran experience something other than life-or-death battles for once.
Didian, the town known for its cheese, was situated close to the border. It had high walls and stricter security checks. What with the town being at the frontier, there wasn’t exactly a long line of people waiting to get in. Still, the gatekeepers were heavily armed and there were five extra guards at the post to the side of the gates.
We landed some distance away from the gates so as not to cause alarm and walked the rest of the way there.
We immediately caught the guards’ attention. They stared cautiously at the little girl with a giant wolf in tow, which was fair enough…but were things really that bad here?
“Welcome to Didian. You an adventurer?”
“Hm. Here’s my card.”
Despite being cautious, they weren’t rude. They didn’t waste our time underestimating Fran, either. In fact, they were exceptionally polite.
That changed as soon as they saw her card.
“Y-you’re a B-Rank adventurer?!”
“Hey, you’re the Black Lightning Princess! To what do we owe the honor?”
Fran’s name had spread across Granzell. Regular civilians might not have known her, but merchants and members of the guard sure did. Gatekeepers—those city guards who picked up rumors and information from the people passing them—seemed especially familiar with her. Fran passed inspection quickly and they welcomed her with open arms.
The first people we saw past the gates were more guards, all just as heavily armed as the gatekeepers. I’d known this was a frontier city, but they were really laying it on thick with the security.
But when we made our first stop at a food stall, we learned the reason behind the excess security.
“Hey there, little miss! Care for a bite of Didian’s famous cheese bread? Best in town!”
They were selling gigantic bread—the stuff was the size of Fran’s face! The crust looked tough on the outside, but it was soft and fluffy once you cut into it. It looked delicious.
“Hm. I’ll take five.”
“So generous! Coming right up!” The man stuffed the bread into a jute bag. Judging by his speed, he was used to getting these large orders. “I take it you’re an adventurer by the way you’re dressed.”
“Hm.”
“Wow! A life of hard work at such an early age. First time in town?”
“Just got here.”
“I see, I see! So what do you think?”
“There’s a lot of soldiers?”
“Aah, you’ve noticed?”
A few months ago, a notorious man with a bounty on his head had been spotted in the vicinity. The local and regional guards were mobilized to deal with him, but that single man had decimated them.
“Fella took down a hundred soldiers by himself! Crushed ’em! Things have been a little tense here since then.”
“I see.”
You had to be really strong to crush a hundred-man army by yourself. Probably gave the local viscount headaches. But that wasn’t the only thing that seemed strange about the town.
“The guards don’t look too worried…” noted Fran.
She was right. Despite their great numbers, the guards weren’t emitting a murderous aura. It wasn’t that they didn’t take their jobs seriously, but they sure didn’t seem enthusiastic about bringing the bounty in.
“Well, you see, there were no casualties.”
“No casualties? I thought you said they got
“Arf?”
“That’s the thing. They all got beat up but nobody died. The boys kind of lost their reason to fight after that. I’m pretty sure the viscount is only getting guards to make himself look good, too.”
The viscount was trying to make himself look like a benevolent ruler who cared about his people, but he didn’t really care about capturing the bounty. Given that the bounty could easily repel his forces, who could blame him?
“The city was close to panicking after we heard what kind of man we were dealing with. The unrest only got worse after adventurers came to try and take the bounty. Fortunately, we haven’t spotted the fellow in quite a while, and the additional soldiers did a lot to settle public unrest. Honestly, I hope he never gets found.”
“Uh-huh. Say, this bounty…what’s it like?”
“You gonna get him? Can’t say I recommend it.”
He took one look at Fran and could tell that she wasn’t just making small talk. Pretty good read on his part, considering Fran’s lack of obvious emotion. Then again, Fran always got fired up whenever she smelled a good fight in the air.
“Now, listen. The guy’s name is Theraclede. A nasty mercenary. Guy killed hundreds of people in his day. Not exactly someone a fresh adventurer would want to tussle with.”
“Theraclede…? He’s here?”
“Y-yeah.”
Hang on. That couldn’t be right. He fought a hundred people and all of them survived? If he had brutally murdered all one hundred, I’d be more inclined to believe it was him. But this was Theraclede we were talking about. He’d readily kill people just for being near him. Was it really him?
Report accuracy rated at nineteen percent.
Figures. Theraclede was a criminal, but he was still famous. It could be an impostor posing as him to intimidate the locals.
“What’s he look like?”
“I hear he’s a big man covered in wounds. Don’t tell me you’re actually thinking of going after him?”
“Maybe.”
“Your funeral.” The man thought Fran was just being vague to dodge the issue. He gave her a wry smile as he handed her a bag of bread.
But Fran was serious. She still detested Theraclede, but Kiara had told her not to seek vengeance on her behalf. Fran had complied by not going out of her way to find him, but now that he might be close at hand, it was a different story. The Theraclede we were dealing with was probably an impostor, but we couldn’t just let him roam free. Not with us around.
Maybe Jet can sniff him out.
He’d be able to track Theraclede down if he was hiding nearby, although the trail would probably be cold if the last sighting was a few months ago. Besides, we didn’t even know if we were dealing with the real Theraclede.
“Hm! Jet!”
“Woof, woof!”
“Don’t go killing yourself, little miss! You and your pup have got a lot to live for!”
“We’ll be okay.”
Jet was a giant wolf, after all!
Let’s start with the town.
“Hm. Jet, if you would.”
“Woof!”
And so, Fran and Jet began their hunt for the bounty…
“Munch, munch. Not here.”
“Arf! Nom, nom.”
Were they actually looking for him? It seemed to me like they were looking for hidden food stalls more than anything else.
“Sniff, sniff.”
“Well?”
“Woof…”
We searched Didian for Theraclede, sampling their delicacies all the while. If he was in town, escaping Jet’s mighty snoot was close to impossible. He’d memorized Theraclede’s scent from all our battles with him.
But our search came up empty. There was no trace of Theraclede left to even determine whether he was the real deal. Even if he was in the area, he definitely wasn’t hiding in town.
It can’t be helped. All we have is hearsay, after all.
“Hm.” Fran had also given up on the search, but she didn’t look broken up about it. It was just something to do while she took in the sights and ate. She wasn’t expecting much.
So, what now? We got a lot of cheese, but should we stay the night here?
“I’m good,” she said. “Let’s get to the next town.”
You sure?
“Hm. I’m getting sick of cheese.”
That was it? No wonder she was buying up other kinds of food. She had gotten bored of the dairy product after eating nothing but cheese since breakfast, and no one girl should have all those cheeses.
Our next stop will be in Belioth. We’ll have to cross the border before that. We have to go through the official channels to avoid further headaches down the road.
“Got it.”
Borders were vague in this world. No clear lines were drawn, no walls built. It was very easy to ignore checkpoints altogether. This wasn’t a problem among friendly countries whose citizens were allowed to freely cross each other’s borders—but Belioth was different.
Belioth was famous for having the toughest immigration procedures in the world. Checkpoints were set up along the highways, along with a ton of lookout posts. Those who were discovered to have entered the country outside official channels would be slapped with a hefty fine. Commit a misdemeanor without going through immigration, and that charge got upgraded to a felony.
Such were the countermeasures employed against their neighbor, Raydoss, which regularly sent spies. Detainment was very much a possibility. But it wasn’t that bad as long as you went into Belioth through the proper channels. It wasn’t something we’d have to worry about.
“Let’s get going.”
Uh, now?
“Hm.”
She really was bored of cheese. Now that I think about it, she didn’t ask for any toppings on her curry today. But it wasn’t that Fran hated cheese. No, she either liked something, loved something, or was crazy for something.
Let’s get to the checkpoint. Jet should be able to get us there today.
“Woof!”
“Hm.”
Unlike Jet, who was enthusiastic, Fran looked indifferent. She’d either had too much cheese or was disappointed that we couldn’t find Theraclede.
L-let’s get going.
“B-bark!”
An hour passed.
After shopping and reporting to the Adventurers’ Guild that we would be leaving the country, we reached the checkpoint.
That’s Granzell’s side of the checkpoint.
“That garrison?”
“Arf?”
It’s a checkpoint, yeah. Kind of a fortress, almost. The structure really did look like a heavily guarded fortress. It was as if the checkpoint doubled as a check against Belioth. We need to climb a mountain after going through the checkpoint. Past that mountain is Belioth.
“Hmm.”
Granzell and Belioth were separated by a river, but here they were split by a mountain. The peak was apparently the location of the border.
Highways were built between the mountains and checkpoints were placed along those highways. They weren’t precisely on the border because that was where the garrisons were set up.
Even allied nations wouldn’t allow for one-sided fortifications. If there was a garrison on Granzell’s end of the border, there was another one on Belioth’s side, and they were likely built as close to each other as possible.
Of course, you couldn’t have the two fortresses outright rubbing up against each other. Treaties were signed which prohibited the nations from building their fortifications a certain distance from the border, or so we’d heard from the guards at Didian.
We’ll need to be processed at the Granzell immigration side first. Then, we’ll go over the mountain peak to go through the same thing at the Belioth side. A bit of a pain, but rules are rules.
“Okay.”
Anyway, let’s descend here. We don’t want any misunderstandings about our giant flying good boy. If they thought Jet was some dangerous monster, it’d take up even more time.
“Woof, woof!”
I was a bit nervous going into immigration, but the process was smooth sailing. It was especially relaxed compared to Didian, probably because of the bounty they had out there.
We didn’t have to wait either, since we were the only ones there. The process went especially quick because we had an adventurer card. Reason for departure? “Adventure.” Boom, done.
The guards had a lot of time on their hands since merchants and adventurers were the only ones who used this route. The last people processed here were in a merchant caravan and they had come through five days ago. They gave us a warm welcome.
