Chapter 30: The Swordsmanship Prodigy Saintess

The Birth of a Hero (3)

1.

At the Academy, all students are considered equal.

Regardless of status, everyone is classified simply as a “student.”

But in truth, equality doesn’t truly exist.

Nobles are still treated like nobles.

Commoners are still treated like commoners.

Even though they're all equal, there’s an unspoken social hierarchy.

Maybe that’s why—

“If the Saintess is helping, we’d be grateful.”

I was able to enter the assistant professor’s room without any trouble.

Despite it being completely off-limits to others, they opened the barrier for me simply because I’m the Saintess.

For the record, the two who came with me weren’t allowed in.

“Hmm…”

I looked around the room.

It was an ordinary dorm room.

There was a bed and a desk, and piles upon piles of class and research materials.

“A Comparative Study of Spearmanship in the Five Kingdoms...”

I’m new to the Academy, so I don’t know much, but it seems the Swordsmanship Department doesn’t just focus on practical training.

They also research and compile sword techniques from around the world in theory.

“By the way, have you found anything unusual?”

I asked the assistant professor from the Magic Department who was conducting the investigation.

“We haven’t discovered anything yet.”

“Did you check for demon mana?”

“That was the first thing I did. But no traces were detected.”

“Hmm…”

Still, there was something off.

How should I describe this feeling?

From the moment I entered the room, I felt a discomfort that pricked at my skin.

It was like standing at the threshold of the Demon Realm.

The air brushing past my nose felt just like the heavy, dark aura of demonic energy.

But just as the professor had said, no such energy was detected here.

Then suddenly, something caught my eye.

“What’s this…?”

A dagger lay beneath the bed.

It looked completely ordinary.

But something felt strange.

The moment I touched it, a prickling sensation coursed through my whole body.

I drew the blade from its sheath to inspect it.

There were no engravings.

It looked like a plain dagger, nothing more.

“Did you check this too?”

I held the dagger out to the assistant professor.

“Isn’t it just an ordinary dagger?”

“I’m sensing something strange from it.”

It was just a hunch.

But my instincts, honed from years on the battlefield, were rarely wrong.

“Would you mind checking if it was used in a ritual of some sort?”

“Sure.”

Looking at the dagger that could be found lying around everywhere in the swordsmanship training ground, the assistant professor tilted his head skeptically, but began examining it anyway.

He drew a magic circle on the floor and placed the dagger on top of it.

“Reveal.”

At his command, the magic circle flashed with white light.

The dagger absorbed the light.

And after a while—

Like blood seeping out, black wave-like markings appeared along the blade.

“Th-this is…! Traces of using sorcery!”

The assistant professor’s eyes widened.

“I’m not sure what kind of magic it was, but… this is definitely a high-level ritual. Look at all these lines…”

He gathered the dagger.

“I need to report this immediately. Thanks to you, Saintess, we’ve found a major clue.”

“…”

“Saintess?”

Ah—!

It just came back to me.

I’d seen a dagger like this before.

Before… no, back when I was injured on the battlefield before I became the Sword Saint and was receiving treatment at the temple—

‘Kyaaaa!!’

The screams that had echoed through the temple.

Just remembering that moment made it feel as if they were ringing in my ears again.

A demon had appeared at the temple.

His identity was that of a military officer who had been about to be discharged.

And stabbed into his back was a dagger—one that looked strikingly similar to this one.

And that dagger’s true owner is…

The corps commander of the Demon King's army known by the moniker the Puppeteer.

A lich, Mortis.

Of course, that bastard wouldn’t have moved in person.

He always had his subordinates carry out his orders.

It wasn’t certain yet.

But if this really was Mortis’ dagger, then one of his minions was somewhere inside the Academy.

And if they were inside the Academy, that meant they weren’t a demon.

At least not in form.

“Investigate everyone who was personally close to this assistant professor.”

“Pardon?”

“I think someone among them might be colluding with the Demon King's forces.”

“Wh-what? Are you serious?”

“I’m not certain. I’m just saying it’s a possibility.”

“Understood! I’ll start the investigation immediately!”

The assistant professor nodded firmly.

Maybe because it was the Saintess who said it—

There was a kind of blind trust behind every word he accepted.

*

2.

Assistant Professor Mark packed up the dagger and returned to the Magic Department.

Knock knock.

He tapped gently on the door.

A voice soon responded from inside.

“Come in.”

Mark opened the door and stepped in.

“Pardon the interruption, Professor. I’m here to make a report.”

A middle-aged man sat inside, his fountain pen gliding smoothly over documents.

He was immersed in paperwork.

His name was Etel, a professor of summoning magic.

He was also Mark’s advisor and the lead investigator for this case.

“A report?”

Etel stopped writing and raised his head.

There was a gentle warmth in his expression.

“Here…”

Mark placed the dagger he had found in the assistant professor’s room onto the desk.

“I found this in the assistant professor’s room, the demon who caused the incident. There are traces that suggest it was used in a ritual.”

Etel gave the dagger a glance, then tapped it lightly with a finger imbued with mana.

A faint black aura began to seep from the blade.

“You’re right. There are signs of sorcery.”

Etel brushed his hands off, dispelling the black mana.

“Where exactly did you say you found it?”

“In the room of the assistant professor involved in the incident. It was under the bed. The Saintess noticed something was off and immediately realized it had been used in a ritual.”

Mark recounted everything that had happened earlier.

“The Saintess?”

“Yes. She said she wanted to help find clues and came by in person.”

Etel tapped his pen thoughtfully against the paper and nodded.

“Alright. I’ll take this to Professor Meian for a more thorough analysis.”

“And there’s one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“It’s not about an object, but the Saintess also asked that we investigate anyone who was close to that assistant professor. She said it’s possible someone might be colluding with the Demon King’s forces.”

Etel’s expression twisted.

One of his eyebrows twitched sharply.

“So what she’s saying is… there might be a traitor in the Academy?”

“She did say it’s only a possibility.”

Mark relayed everything the Saintess had told him.

“I understand.”

Mark gave a polite bow and left the office.

Left alone in the room, Professor Etel lifted the dagger and gave it a small flick.

The gentle expression that had previously graced his face was now gone, replaced by a cold, emotionless mask.

“The Saintess…”

He recalled the image of that blonde-haired woman.

It hadn't even been a year since she officially became the Saintess.

Yet she had already shown extraordinary power, especially during the second exam, where she famously filled the entire Giant’s Cup.

Then came the incident with the demon during the third exam.

It was said that a young man from the Southern Kingdom had taken it down alone.

But there was no way the Saintess, who had been there, hadn’t played some part in it.

He hadn’t yet fully grasped the extent of her power.

But judging from the divine power she displayed in the second test, it was undeniably tremendous.

The fact that she gave all the credit to that young man probably stemmed from a dislike of being in the spotlight.

He had heard that she had declined the position of Saintess several times before.

Though the reasons were unclear, she had insisted she was unfit for the role and had shown a passive demeanor.

Even now at the academy, she spent most of her time holed up in her dorm room—

A sign of how uncomfortable she was with attention, and how timid her personality might be.

But even so…

“...There's no need to kill her.”

The dagger trembled, the dark aura clinging to it shifting.

The twisted magic circle etched into its form slowly reassembled itself, reforming into a usable state.

“What would happen if we turned the Saintess into a demon?”

A sticky, writhing darkness slithered over Etel’s hand, like earthworms made of cursed magic.

*

3.

“Hup!”

Ellia leapt gracefully out the window.

Today, she even managed a double spin midair before landing coolly.

“Uhhmm… fuuuuuhh…”

She stretched and took a deep breath of the chilly dawn air.

Wearing only a robe over her pajamas, Ellia headed toward the forest behind the dormitory.

Her daily routine always began with sword practice in the woods before morning prayers.

Most students thought she stayed in her room all day.

But in truth, she often snuck out the window to explore the academy or practice swordsmanship in secret.

There had been a few close calls, but since she’d never been properly caught, she remained confident in her stealthy escapes.

“Ugh… maybe I overdid it yesterday?”

Elia gave her shoulder a few taps.

She’d overexerted herself a bit too much on the bed last night.

No, not that kind of overexertion—

She’d suddenly felt the urge to move her body before bed and had ended up doing a light workout.

Now her shoulders felt stiff.

Still, it felt like she was slowly building muscle.

Ellia rolled up her sleeve and flexed her right arm.

A cute little bicep popped up.

She could now do two full pushups in a row.

“Fufufu~!”

She grabbed her wooden practice sword, which she’d hidden in the bushes, and stepped deeper into the woods.

Inside this forest, there was a small clearing perfect for sword training.

And just as she reached it—

“Huh…?”

Someone was already there.

A silver-haired girl was swinging a sword with elegant precision.

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