For an Unbeatable Delusion

"What meaning does the sword in your hand hold, Fatenai Wisdom?" The swordsmanship teacher, now dressed in plain clothes, raised the longsword in his hand. Though wrinkles had crept into the corners of his eyes, his gaze remained sharp.

"To protect the family's honor?" she answered instinctively.

"Miss Fatenai, if you were willing to come to me, it certainly wasn't for the family." He sighed, and the hand holding his sword slowly lowered.

Fatenai asked curiously, "Teacher Claude, you once said that the sword was a symbol of loyalty, that it existed to uphold the honor of one's family."

"A girl who secretly sneaks out of the family castle in the middle of the night to learn swordsmanship from me wouldn't care about the family's honor." Claude said it lightly, but such behavior was taboo among nobles.

"All right, Teacher Claude. I think the sword is..." she said with a smile, her heart unusually full of joy.

"I see... then forgive my bluntness, Fatenai, but it'll be very difficult for you to achieve that dream." Yet Claude spoke as though trying to shatter her fantasy.

After the Holy War ended several centuries ago, the nobles of the Kingdom of Luther redistributed the kingdom's lands—vast territories divided by forests and rivers. The royal domain of Dryden lay in the east of the kingdom, bordered by the Southern Royal Forest of Eisole Forest.

The Month of the Empress was followed by the Month of Wisdom. The forest during this time was unlike the Month of Elements, when all things grew. There was nothing particularly special about it; adventurers weren't eager to seek thrills, plants grew steadily, and it was the most tranquil time of year.

But it wasn't so for a novice who had just experienced the forest's dangers.

A stream, one of the tributaries of a great river. Its clear water was now mixed with blood.

A figure lay sprawled over a large stone by the stream. It was a very frail person—or rather, merely a child. Platinum-blond hair soaked in the water, and a sword lay nearby.

"Mm..." As though stung awake by the icy stream water, she slowly opened her eyes. Confusion flickered through those plain light-brown eyes, until the stabbing pain in her shoulder fully woke her.

Slowly bracing herself with her uninjured hand, the girl pushed herself up. Water dripped from her long lashes. She felt weak all over, and even after waking, her head still swam.

Where was she? She looked up at the stream. She was still sitting beside it, and some sharp stones made the spot terribly uncomfortable.

Why had she been lying here? Her vision darkened, and she couldn't remember anything.

"Miss Fatenai, are you all right? That wound must hurt. Want to consider heading back?" A light, airy voice suddenly rang out.

Fatenai froze. She raised her head and saw a boy in plain clothes. Only then did her memories begin flooding back into her mind bit by bit.

"I'm fine." As she spoke, she struggled to stand, but the pain in her shoulder made even her lips tremble, and her voice was very soft. Soon, she sat back down—the gravel made her frail body shudder, while her hair clung to her neck, cold and damp.

Fatenai took a deep breath before turning her head to inspect her wound. Slowly pulling back her bloodstained cloak, she saw that the injury was on her shoulder. The blurred wound seemed to have become a bloody hole; even she wasn't sure how deep it went.

What should she do now?

Bandage it? But the wound seemed deeper than she had imagined. Apply medicine? What sort of herb did she need to find?

She had no idea, and that only made her feel disheartened.

"Do you know what you need to do now, Miss? Or do you think a cup of afternoon tea would be more appropriate?" Hermes's voice rang out again.

"Enough." Fatenai took a deep breath, doing her best not to let her anger overwhelm her reason, even though she felt only a step away from breaking down. "Hermes, standing there making snide remarks isn't what a summoner should do."

Hermes smiled without speaking, though Fatenai's glare looked ready to devour him.

This was Fatenai's third day in the forest.

Deceiving the nobles was easy. Escaping from under their noses was somewhat difficult, but not especially so. The hardest part was figuring out how to live far away from them.

This was a world completely unfamiliar to Fatenai of the Wisdom Family. Even her "former" self had never encountered a forest like this.

Even...

Fatenai looked at the sword by her feet, feeling for the first time that its hilt was too heavy to lift.

"Miss Fatenai, I recall that the master can use recovery abilities. That wound is quite serious," Hermes said. He sat atop a large rock with a sunny smile, like a child chatting with a playmate.

"You're so helpful. Why weren't you this helpful before?" Fatenai said, barely bothering to conceal the anger in her tone.

But she didn't get Hermes's answer, because a beast's low growl came from one side of the forest—its black, coarse fur bristled, its tusks were abnormally long, and its glowing red eyes seemed to signal that it had gone mad. It had wounds on its body, but they were insignificant compared with its current ferocity.

"It hasn't left?" Fatenai couldn't believe it.

She didn't know how long she had been unconscious. All she knew was that this boar, which had targeted her the moment she entered the forest, had pursued her relentlessly like a mad creature since yesterday.

And the sword in her hand had seemed useless against the boar. Though perhaps it wasn't that her skill was lacking...

"Miss Fatenai, you don't even have the courage to swing your sword properly," Hermes reminded her at just the right moment.

How was a noble young lady who had never set foot in a forest supposed to face a savage beast?

No one would doubt that Fatenai couldn't do it, because no one had noticed that the eldest daughter of the Wisdom Family was here. And Fatenai truly couldn't do it—the wound on her shoulder was proof enough.

Hermes hadn't criticized Fatenai, yet she could clearly sense his mockery, even though the boy had done nothing since the boar appeared.

"All right, all right, as you wish." Fatenai looked at Hermes's careless smile, then at the growling boar about to pounce. Taking a deep breath, she stood. The iron sword seemed too heavy for her now, but as one mark on the incomplete pattern on the back of her hand grew fainter and fainter, her wound miraculously began to vanish.

"You're going to try again?" Hermes looked somewhat surprised.

Fatenai said nothing, using deep breaths to ease her trembling.

If she couldn't even take this step, what right did she have to live alone in another world?

Clang—!

The two swords collided, and the girl staggered back. The iron sword in her hand was knocked aside by the impact; she was simply too weak. Fatenai looked at the swordsmanship teacher standing elegantly before her. As before, he used the swordsmanship practiced by nobles, but both his strength and technique surpassed what Fatenai remembered.

Her swordsmanship teacher, Claude, had taught her how to hold and swing a sword since she was five. He began sparring with her when she was seven, and when she became engaged to Theretine at twelve, her father dismissed him. Yet on the third night after she learned of it, he became her swordsmanship teacher once more.

"I'm surprised you came to find me again, Fatenai." Claude sheathed his sword as he spoke.

Fatenai had suddenly appeared at his residence in the night and once again asked him to teach her swordsmanship.

"I deeply apologize for my rudeness." Fatenai felt her arms aching. "Please continue."

She had no chance of winning in terms of strength, yet she had asked her swordsmanship teacher to use a form of sparring that demanded the greatest strength. Claude had no objection, but the outcome had proven more than once that she was being reckless.

For the next several days, she continued these bouts. She returned to her room in the middle of the night and was exhausted the next day, until one day she fell asleep during Cachey's lesson.

Whoosh—!

Fatenai dodged the boar's tusks. A beast's charge was enough to make anyone panic, but Fatenai now felt strangely numb. Clutching her sword tightly, she left a shallow cut across the boar's body.

The boar roared. Fatenai's arm went numb, and the feeling of weakness left her unable to stand steady.

Bang!

The boar reacted incredibly fast. As it turned, it knocked aside her sword, successfully sending it flying from her hand. It fell to the ground some distance away with a crisp clang. Fatenai's fists couldn't possibly hurt the boar, and she now had no ability to resist.

Hermes watched everything from afar, the emotions in his eyes too deep for a child.

Clang—!

Fatenai's sword was knocked away once more. She fell to the ground and looked at the teacher before her, sword in hand and expression gentle.

At times, she felt Cachey had the temperament of a swordsmanship teacher, while Claude's unexpectedly mild disposition was more like that of an etiquette teacher—unfortunately, his sword didn't distinguish who his opponent was.

This was something she had never seen before.

"Fatenai, I don't know why you suddenly came to learn swordsmanship you have no need to learn," Claude said. "I think perhaps you believe you're about to face a very powerful enemy, but strength doesn't necessarily defeat strength—I don't know how long I'll be able to teach you this time..."

"What are you trying to say, Teacher Claude?" Fatenai rose to her feet, seemingly disagreeing with him as she reached for her sword to continue fighting.

Claude said, "What meaning does the sword in your hand hold, Fatenai Wisdom?"

"For... the invincible," she said.

Hermes stared in surprise at the scene before him. The charging boar's tusks grazed Fatenai's pale skin, cutting a bloody line across her arm, while a dagger had sunk deeply into the boar's body.

"Hermes, boars in Eisole Forest never attack people unless someone uses Magic Potion to drive them berserk... What are you trying to do?" Fatenai suddenly felt that the pain wasn't so unbearable. "I may not have experience defeating them, but you forgot that I've studied information about them every day. I was doing that even before you appeared."

"Who's there?" Hermes hesitated, but a deep voice echoed through the forest.