I Received The Holy Sword By Dawn Delivery - Chapter 49

At the same time, in a private meeting room of a social club, elegantly dressed people wearing bird-shaped masks were seated around a round table.

“The Bishop has arrived.”

With the guide’s voice, the meeting room door opened, and as a lady in a red mermaid dress entered, everyone there stood up and removed their masks, revealing their faces.

They were Red Eagles infiltrating various sectors of society.

Some were high-ranking nobles, others were leaders of large merchant guilds, and there were also those who ran famous mercenary groups.

Success came easily to black magicians.

Using tricks to win in competition was their specialty.

The Red Eagles were divided into ranks of Bishop, Elder, and Deacon under a single High Priest.

The lady who just entered was the only Bishop assisting the High Priest and a true power player.

“I heard you failed to crack the seal again this time. Is that true?”

The lady asked while brushing her red hair that flowed down past her shoulders.
The woman with striking dark skin was the same figure who had been frequenting Fritz’s laboratory.

A white-haired man bowed deeply at the waist and apologized.

“We cast a curse offering two sacrifices, but the seal remained intact, Bishop.”

“If that fool Fritz had synthesized the golden elixir, we could have cracked the seal! We wasted too much time on that idiot.”

Deceiving us with nonsense about completing it if he only had the Philosopher’s Stone.

The lady glanced at the empty seat.
It was Fritz’s place, who had died while posing as an alchemist.

“But it wasn’t completely ineffective. Information just arrived that Matian Wiegratz collapsed, suggesting the seal may have taken a significant hit.”

“Is that so?”

“The scripture is also written in code, so it’s hard to know.”

“Hmm.”

The lady tapped her palm with the fan she was holding as she walked towards a space draped with thick velvet curtains.

Whoosh, as she opened the curtains, an altar soaked in blood was revealed behind them.

Under a wall decorated with a large horned goat skull was a square marble slab, with silver cups filled with red liquid placed at each corner.

The two corpses placed in the center of a magic circle drawn in blood were the sacrifices used to activate black magic.

“Sacrifices are precious. You do know how much effort it takes to create just one of those, don’t you?”

Everyone kept their mouths shut at the Bishop’s question.

Black magic required life force corresponding to the power of the spell.
Simple magic could be done with a few drops of blood, but high-level magic required the sacrifice of many lives.

Since the power of the magic varied according to the negative energy possessed by the sacrifice when they were killed, black magicians drove their sacrifices to experience extreme fear, terror, anger, and sorrow.

There was no guilt.
They believed that the chosen ones became sacrifices, and their souls would find eternal rest in the embrace of the Black Sage.

That’s why Red Eagles with fervent faith sometimes offered themselves as sacrifices, and the corpses now placed on the altar were also of the Deacon rank.

“May you find joy in the embrace of chaos.”

The lady closed the eyes of the dismembered corpses before continuing to address the crowd.

“Everyone, stay alert. According to the High Priest’s will, there must be no more failures if we are to extract the Black Sage from the Demon’s Egg.”

The Red Eagles referred to the Demon King as the Black Sage and worshipped his infinite knowledge and vitality.

Their goal was to manifest the Black Sage in this world, and furthermore, to create an evolved humanity with demon blood mixed in to grasp the entire continent in their hands.

“Where should we strike next to break the balance of the seal?”

“Shall we target the earth’s ether ‘Seed of Life’ with the magic amplifier secured from the Island of Wisdom? We can infiltrate the gnome territory immediately.”

“No. Secure the ‘Flame of Forging’ first.”

“But that’s in Muspelheim, the southern underground world where the dwarf territory is. We can’t break through their security with our current technology yet.”

“Fortunately, I hear the dwarf elder is launching an airship this time.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. They’ll use the Flame of Forging to power the airship engine. We’ll target that this time. If you can’t obtain it, destroy it. Even that will help disrupt the balance of the seal.”

That evening.

Rukna was wearing gloves and transplanting a root of alechi she had received from Matian. The tin can for canned food had been reborn as an excellent flowerpot.

After opening the window and placing the completed alechi pot on the outer railing, she dusted off her hands.

‘Just this one root makes me feel at ease.’

Enjoying the cool night breeze while admiring the alechi, Rukna then stuck her head out and glanced upwards. I wonder if Matian is doing alright. She never imagined he would be living right on the floor above.

Like Rukna’s, a windowsill with an alechi pot was visible. There was no sign of movement inside the tightly closed window.

‘What am I worrying about now.’

It’s really funny. Rukna closed the window and put on her jacket. She was thinking of taking a stroll around campus.

She felt she needed to shake off the thoughts of Matian filling her head to return to her usual self.

‘Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about that guy’s heartbeat!’

The healthy 18-year-old woman tugged at her hair, trying to forget the image of a shirtless Matian.

The cool breeze tickled her face, bringing the evening scent, but her mind was still heavy with thoughts of Matian.

‘I guess the story of meeting a righteous figure trying to judge demons from a young age really means he overcame many attempts to be poisoned?’

Rukna stretched her lips long while feeling around with her toes. Not a single pebble was visible on the roadside to soothe her bored feet.

It was thanks to ‘Rukna is the Light Club of this World’ thoroughly cleaning Rukna’s favorite walking path.

Her wandering toes began to scribble her name on a patch of dirt.

Writing her name wherever she stayed was a habit from when she lived as Kim Ha Young.

Perhaps due to her weak presence that always felt out of place, she felt that inscribing her name like this might give her a reason to be here.

Of course, now was different from then.
Thanks to Professor Gale’s comfort, she felt like very small rootlets were starting to spread from herself and take root in this world.

‘Hi, Bisby.’

“Yes, master.”

‘Why… did I become your master?’

Rukna asked, looking down at her completed name written in the dirt.

“Because you were chosen as my master, Rukna.”

‘Don’t give such a vague answer. Why did you choose me when there’s a perfect human like Matian?’

Bolton’s words that Matian wouldn’t have gotten sick if he only had the holy sword kept lingering in her mind.

She felt conflicted. She felt guilty, as if she had snatched something that belonged to Matian, since she was far from adequate to be the master of the holy sword.

“The divine mercy and great holy sword, Bisby, must protect the world. To do that, being with you was most suitable, so I chose you.”

‘If that’s the case, shouldn’t you have chosen the real protagonist of this world?’

“Protagonist? Who exactly are you referring to?”

‘You know, people who seem important at first glance, like Matian or Giselle.’

Of course, she was also technically a descendant of a saint, but she didn’t think she was a protagonist since she had no family to protect her and no notable abilities.

But she wasn’t upset about that.
She was quite satisfied with this life as Rukna, which felt more like her real life than her previous one.

“The protagonist you mentioned refers to a being who becomes the center of something or plays a leading role.”

‘Yeah, that’s what I mean.’

“In that case, I, the great holy sword, am the protagonist.”

‘Ah… is that so?’

Hearing that, it sounded plausible, and Rukna burst out laughing as she imagined the holy sword being the protagonist.

‘That must be disappointing. If a capable Matian had been suitable as the master, the journey of you, the protagonist holy sword, would have been quite comfortable.’

“Phew, that’s right. If Matian Wiegratz had been my master, I wouldn’t have gone through this hardship.”

The holy sword sighed unusually and continued.

“But trials come to protagonists. So this great protagonist will prepare to overcome this trial.”

‘That trial isn’t referring to me, is it?’

Bisby? Hey, aren’t you going to answer? Rukna called out to the holy sword, but there was no response. This cheeky holy sword.

Rukna sighed deeply and looked down at her weak body.

‘I wonder what the criteria for being suitable are.’

Of course, she had become stronger thanks to the holy sword, but with this level of skill, she would lose even fighting against Matian’s toes.

‘Can someone like me fight against the Red Eagles or demons and protect the world?’

Rukna felt frustrated with her body that didn’t build muscle well no matter how much she trained.

Unlike Matian, who looked like he could mince demons with a diagonal slash, she could only handle mid-level magical beasts at best.

‘At this rate, it seems like I might end up with my precious neck getting chopped off.’

Maybe she would die clumsily wielding the holy sword. After that, Matian, the real master of the holy sword, might appear with a ta-da and defeat the Demon King.

And she might make a brief appearance in Matian’s flashback scenes, hailed as one of the heroes who gave their lives for the empire.

But living is better than dying, even if you roll in a field of dog poop.

‘Am I okay like this? I shouldn’t die recklessly since it’s a precious life. I’ve just started to adapt to the world and find it worth living.’

As she walked aimlessly like that, she found herself in front of the cattle shed on the north side of the school.

Haah. Rukna’s exhausted lower jaw drooped down as much as the size of her worry.

Just then, a shadow fell over her head, and someone stuck their finger into her open mouth.

“You’ll get flies in your mouth, Ruka.”