I Received The Holy Sword By Dawn Delivery - Chapter 33

“Huh? That guy with a head full of calculations said that? Bringing you here must have meant he intended to use you thoroughly.”

Chad tilted his head quizzically, and Rukna quickly made up an excuse.

“I guess it’s because I’m not good at doing what he tells me to. I made some mistakes earlier too, haha.”

Rukna pointed to her disheveled shirt.

Chad noticed the medal pinned in place of the fallen button and seemed to believe her words.

“Oh no, so you’ve been marked by that perfectionist too. Poor Ruka.”

Hahaha. While saying it was unfortunate, Chad burst into laughter and put his arm around Rukna’s shoulder, holding his stomach.

Rukna flinched at Chad’s touch.

It was strange that her whole body tensed up against this scrawny guy she felt she could beat in a duel.

“Why are you so tense?”

Chad wiped away tears as he twisted his head to stare intently at Rukna’s face.

“Do you think I’m a bad guy who might do something to you?”

“……”

“You’re more innocent than I thought.”

As Chad tickled under Rukna’s chin, her body floated up into the air and hung upside down.

Some plant vines that had sprouted from the ground were gripping Rukna’s ankles.

It was Chad’s magic.

“W-What are you doing?”

“I have a favor to ask of Ruka. Could you keep it a secret that I just met a woman?”

“Is this how you ask for a favor?”

“You’re one to talk about attitude when you have secrets too.”

At those words, Rukna gulped.

Hanging upside down caused the holy sword pendant hidden inside her shirt to dangle out near her chin.

Chad placed his index finger on Rukna’s forehead and slowly moved it.

His fingertip passed over her high nose, across her lips, and up her neck.

And his finger stopped at the medal Matian had pinned in place of the torn shirt button.

Hanging upside down, Rukna couldn’t breathe.

She was anxious that his finger, having passed the pendant, might recognize the holy sword at any moment and move back down.

“Haha, look how tense you are. This is fun.”

Chad pressed the medal a little harder.

Though skinny, he was still a man and quite strong. The collarbone where the medal touched ached.

“Are you going to keep denying it to the end, Ruka?”

Chad lowered his head as he raised one corner of his mouth. And he revealed the secret about Rukna that he knew.

“You’re a woman, aren’t you.”

“……”

For a moment, Rukna’s eyes went wide, but then she burst into laughter.

Chad might think she had gone mad from the blood rushing to her head from hanging upside down, but she was actually relieved that it was her gender that was discovered, not the holy sword.

‘The gender issue could end with expulsion, but if the holy sword is discovered, I’ll be finished at Matian’s hands. And that Red Eagle or whatever won’t leave me alone either.’

It was regrettable with graduation only months away, but more important than that was safety and life.

Chad frowned as Rukna unexpectedly played it cool.

Was Rukna Golden the type of person who could feign ignorance in this situation? Chad’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s no use pretending not to know. I saw you clearly on the day you returned to school.”

“Saw what?”

“You drinking gender juice in front of the school gate.”

Chad explained that he had been to the Island of Wisdom before and thus knew various elixirs well.

The only one he hadn’t seen directly was the golden elixir, he said.

“Ah, so you saw me then.”

Rukna nodded, recalling when she first arrived at the military academy.

And she cut the vines binding her ankles with her issued dagger.

At the same time, she spun her body around and landed on the ground quite skillfully.

Taken aback by Rukna’s composure, Chad was lost in thought before beginning to laugh as if he had realized something.

“Aha, so Ruka was actually waiting for an excuse to get kicked out of school?”

Thinking that way explained everything – how Rukna had acted conspicuously by knocking down Hans and Zvai who were bullying her and creating a strange club.

“Even if you lost your memory, it’s strange for someone who ran away from the gate in terror to return on their own. I’ve always wondered……”

The brown eyes that had always been tired regained a clear light.

An intense euphoria spread from head to toe, like solving a difficult magic formula.

A thrilling pleasure felt for the first time in a long while. Rukna had given him that.

He was already excited by the appearance of an interesting and stimulating existence, and on top of that, she was even a woman.

His body trembled as if feeling the joy of reaching a climax.

“Yes, you returned unwillingly due to pressure from the Golden count family. In your dependent position, you had no excuse to refuse the count family’s proposal. You were waiting for a reason to be expelled in order to escape this terrible school.”

I know that awful feeling too.

The wretchedness of being thrown in against my will and the choking sense of responsibility.

Chad muttered the latter words as he approached within arm’s reach of Rukna.

‘This guy, something’s off. His eyes look like they’ll devour me.’

Rukna’s back hit a hard wall as she stepped backwards.

Rukna pushed Chad’s chest away without hesitation as he drew closer and closer.

“Ugh?”

Chad’s thin body staggered back three or four steps.

“You’re stronger than I thought, Ruka.”

Chad was dumbfounded before laughing again as if amused.

“You’re the first woman to push me away, so I’m quite shocked.”

“If this is your first time, your relationships must have been more limited than I thought.”

“Haha, putting on a sharp front won’t make the secret you’ve been caught with disappear, Ruka.”

The count family must have been desperate for a diploma to go so far as to send her to military school while hiding her gender.

And Ruka must have been so sick of school life that she aimed for expulsion, wanting to give up voluntarily despite knowing that.

Chad misunderstood that he had caught hold of a great weakness of Rukna’s.

“Let’s cover up each other’s secrets, Ruka. In exchange, I’ll help you have a comfortable school life. There won’t be anyone bullying you anymore either.”

Chad gave the eye-smile he used when seducing women.

He was confident that this woman would fall for him nine times out of ten.

“Alright.”

Rukna answered quickly without a moment’s hesitation and left the alley.

It wasn’t that she needed Chad’s help or fell for his smile, but that she wanted to escape the moment of facing him.

Chad deliberately caught up to Rukna walking ahead and patted her head like a pet dog.

“Why are you following me? Didn’t you say you weren’t going to look around town?”

Rukna grumbled while avoiding his unpleasant touch, but Chad found even that amusing.

“A gentleman should escort a lady.”

“Ha!”

Rukna quickened her pace even more.

Even though she walked almost at a run, Chad who usually slouched followed along well.

“From today, Ruka and I will become closer than you and Matian.”

“What?”

“People who share secrets naturally become more intimate.”

“……”

“So where shall we look around first? Over there?”

Chad pointed to the left with his finger.

“No, let’s start over there.”

Rukna pointed to the opposite side.

There, figures wearing black masks were surrounding the fallen Great Sage.

“Damn it, if this old man hadn’t used a mermaid’s voice, we could have finished the job quickly.”

The black-masked figures were prying out the Sage’s Stone embedded in the fallen Great Sage’s staff.

“Wait, someone’s walking over from that direction? It’s a cadet from the military academy.”

“What? Weren’t they all supposed to go to the central tower?”

The terrorists who had been crouching down were startled by Rukna’s appearance and eyed her warily.

‘Just as Matian predicted.’

It seemed that while the terrorists occupying the tower bought time, the remnants hiding outside targeted the Great Sage’s life and the Sage’s Stone.

‘Are the terrorists really the Red Eagle?’

Though the faces of the hooded figures couldn’t be seen, their affiliation could be guessed from the red eagle emblem on their hoods.

Judging by their dagger-wielding hand movements and fairly nimble body movements, they didn’t seem to be common dark mages.

“Chad, if you use magic, I’ll extract the Great Sage in the meantime… Chad?”

Where did this bastard go! Rukna looked around.

This damn guy had run away at some point and was waving at Rukna from far away.

“Fighting, Ruka!”

“Aren’t you coming here?”

“But I got jealous.”

Chad drooped his eyebrows and pointed at Rukna’s shirt and wrist.

Looking down where he was pointing, she saw the medal along with the holy bracelet Matian had gifted her.

Could he really be acting like this because she was wearing accessories received from Matian?

“Next time, wear something I give you. Then I’ll help.”

With those words, Chad disappeared from view.

‘That damn bastard!’

Rukna clenched her teeth and surveyed the enemies surrounding the Great Sage again.

In the meantime, one of them had already stolen the Sage’s Stone and fled.

And the remaining number was three. Not bad. To receive help from the holy sword, it was better that guy was gone anyway.

‘Hi Bisbi, can I defeat those guys alone?’

“Of course the opponent’s skills are superior, master.”

‘Is that obvious?’

“What did I say? I told you to train properly, didn’t I? You slacked off once in a while not listening to the holy sword, and this is how it ended up.”

‘You’re saying that over just a few times. I worked hard too!’

“I’ll specially help you this time, but when we return, train harder.”

The holy sword nagged like a mother before emitting light.

A long rod suddenly protruded above the glowing pendant, and when she pulled on it, a club popped out…

“Kill her!”

She hadn’t even pulled out half the club when a dark reddish magic circle spread out beneath her feet.

Even villains wait for magical girls to transform, but do these guys not even have that level of honor?

As Rukna squeezed her eyes shut in a pitiful state with the club only halfway out of her chest…

Nothing happened.