A Delusion of Invincibility

"What's the point of holding a sword, Fatenai Wisdom?" The swordsmanship instructor, dressed in plain clothes, raised the longsword in his hand. His eyes, lined with wrinkles at the corners, were still 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 your family." He sighed, and the hand holding the sword slowly fell.

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

"A girl who sneaks out of her family's castle in the middle of the night to learn swordsmanship from me isn't someone who cares about her family's honor." Claude said it so casually, though it was a taboo among nobles.

"All right, Teacher Claude. I think a sword is..." She smiled, in an unusually cheerful mood.

"I see... Then forgive my frankness, Fatenai, but you'll find that dream very difficult to achieve." Claude tried to shatter her fantasy.

After the Holy War ended several centuries ago, the nobles of the Kingdom of Luther redistributed the kingdom's territory. Vast tracts of land were divided by forests and rivers, while the royal territory of Dryden lay in the east, bounded by the Southern Royal Forest of the Eisole Forest.

The Month of Wisdom came after the Month of the Empress. This wasn't the Month of Elements, when all things grew; there was nothing special about it. Adventurers weren't in a hurry to seek thrills, and the plants grew steadily. It was the most peaceful time.

But it wasn't peaceful for a novice who had just learned how dangerous the forest could be.

A small stream, a tributary of a great river, ran nearby. Its clear water was now mixed with blood.

A figure lay slumped over a boulder beside the stream. The person was terribly thin—or rather, just a child. Platinum-blond hair dipped into the water, and a sword lay beside her.

"Mm..." As if stung by the stream's cold, she slowly came to. Confusion flickered in her pale brown eyes until the pain in her shoulder fully woke her.

She slowly pushed herself up with her uninjured hand. Water droplets slid from the girl's long lashes. She felt utterly drained, and even after waking, her head was still spinning.

Where was she? She looked up and saw the stream. She was still sitting beside it, on some sharp stones that made her terribly uncomfortable.

Why had she been lying there? Her vision went dark, and she couldn't remember.

"Miss Fatenai, are you all right? Your wound must hurt. How about heading back?" A voice floated over.

Fatenai froze. She looked up and saw a boy in plain clothes. Only then did her memories begin to seep back into her mind.

"I'm fine," she said, struggling to her feet. But the pain in her shoulder made her lips tremble, and her voice came out faint. She quickly sat back down. The gravel made her thin body shiver, and her hair clung to her neck, cold and damp.

Fatenai took a deep breath before turning to look at her injury. She slowly pulled back her bloodstained cloak. The wound was on her shoulder, a mangled mess that seemed to have become a bloody hole. Even she couldn't tell how deep it was.

What was she supposed to do now?

Bandage it? But the wound seemed deeper than she'd thought. Apply medicine? What kind of herbs did she need?

She had no idea. It was utterly discouraging.

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

"That's enough." Fatenai took a deep breath, trying to keep her anger from overwhelming her reason. Even now, she felt she was only a hair's breadth from breaking down. "Hermes, standing by and making snide remarks isn't what a summoner should do."

Hermes only smiled, even though Fatenai looked ready to eat him alive.

This was Fatenai's third day in the forest.

Fooling nobles was easy. Escaping right under their noses was a little harder, but not especially difficult. 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 the "former" her had never encountered a forest like this.

Even...

Fatenai looked at the sword by her feet. For the first time, its hilt felt too heavy to lift.

"Miss Fatenai, I seem to recall that the master can use healing abilities. That wound is very serious," Hermes said. He sat on the boulder, smiling brightly like a child chatting with a playmate.

"You're very concerned now. Why weren't you so concerned before?" Fatenai asked, making little effort to hide the anger in her voice.

But she didn't get to hear Hermes's answer. A beast's low growl came from one side of the forest. A wild boar with coarse black bristles and unusually long tusks glared at her with glowing red eyes, as if it were going mad. It had a few wounds, but they seemed insignificant beside the ferocity of its presence.

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

She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious. She only knew that the boar, which had started stalking her after she entered the forest, had been acting like a maniac and chasing her since yesterday.

The sword in her hand seemed useless against it. But perhaps it wasn't because her technique 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 could a noble girl who had never set foot in a forest face a fierce beast?

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

Hermes didn't criticize Fatenai, but his words made the mockery clear. Even though the boy hadn't done anything since the boar appeared.

"All right, all right. As you wish." Fatenai looked at Hermes's careless smile, then at the boar, which was growling and preparing to charge. She took a deep breath and stood. The iron sword seemed too heavy for her now, but as a mark on the incomplete pattern on the back of her hand faded, her wound miraculously disappeared.

"Will you try again?" Hermes asked, surprised.

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

If she couldn't take even 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 was knocked aside in her hand. She was too weak. Fatenai looked at the swordsmanship instructor standing elegantly before her. He used the same swordsmanship the nobles practiced as always, yet both his strength and skill were beyond what she remembered.

Her swordsmanship instructor, Claude, had taught her how to hold and swing a sword from the age of five. They began practicing swordsmanship when she was seven. When she was twelve, her father dismissed him after arranging her marriage to Theretine. Yet on the third night after she learned of it, he became her swordsmanship instructor once more.

"I'm surprised you came to see me again, Fatenai," Claude said, lowering his sword.

Fatenai had suddenly appeared at his home at night and asked him to teach her swordsmanship again.

"I'm very sorry for my rudeness," Fatenai said. Her arm was sore. "Please, continue."

She had no chance of matching his strength, yet she'd asked her instructor to use the style of combat most demanding of strength. Claude hadn't objected, but the outcome had made it clear more than once that she was being reckless.

For the next few days, she kept having these bouts, until she returned to her room late at night and was utterly exhausted the following day. Eventually, she fell asleep during one of Cachey's lessons.

Swish!

Fatenai dodged the boar's tusks. The beast's charge should have made her panic, but Fatenai felt almost numb. Gripping her sword tightly, she cut a shallow line across its body.

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

Thump!

The boar reacted quickly. As it turned, it rammed her sword, knocking it from her hand. The blade flew away and landed on the ground nearby with a clear ringing sound. Fatenai's fists couldn't do anything to hurt the boar. She was helpless.

Hermes watched from a distance, an expression in his eyes far too deep for a child.

Clang!

The sword was knocked from Fatenai's hand once again. She fell to the ground and looked at her teacher, who stood before her with his sword, his expression gentle.

Sometimes she thought Cachey had the temperament of a swordsmanship instructor, while Claude's unexpectedly gentle nature seemed more suited to a teacher of etiquette. Unfortunately, his sword didn't care who his opponent was.

This was something she'd never seen before.

"Fatenai, I don't know why you suddenly came to me to learn swordsmanship you don't need," Claude said. "I imagine you think you'll have to face a powerful enemy, but strength isn't always overcome by 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 stood, seeming to disagree with him. She wanted to pick up her sword and continue fighting.

Claude said, "What's the point of holding a sword, Fatenai Wisdom?"

"To... become invincible," she said.

Hermes stared in surprise at the scene before him. The boar charged, its tusks grazing Fatenai's pale skin and drawing a line of blood across her arm. A dagger was buried deep in the boar's body.

"Hermes, wild boars in the Eisole Forest never attack people unless someone has driven them mad with a Magic Potion... What are you trying to do?" Fatenai suddenly felt that the pain wasn't so hard to bear. "I may not know how to defeat them, but you've forgotten that I've been researching them every day. I was doing that even before you appeared."

"Who's there?" Hermes started to speak, but stopped. A deep voice echoed through the forest.