Treasure your freedom

Chapter 25: Treasure your freedom

Because their inventories had yet to be full, mainly because Bryce and Gengo leveled up significantly, the three-man party hadn't left the forest yet. Bryce took the role of setting up totems, tents, and bonfires and became fond of it as everyone happily thanked him for taking care of them.

It particularly struck him when Gengo and Sharla went together to sleep after the undead troll and the demon lord's events. After staying with him for hours in the cold cave, they had no hard feelings and genuinely expressed their warm friendship later.

Bryce believed this was the mood he wanted to create in his future dwelling.

But no one could own a safe house without sufficient power, so he took out his plain-looking silver sword and lodged it before him. He gazed at it seriously but with a hint of lovely attention, for he knew that a soul dwelled within the Sword of Dracula.

That's if he were to believe in Excalibur's words, but she wouldn't have a reason to lie.

He gently took hold of the hilt, then started speaking to it.

'You might be angry because I've talked with Excalibur first, or you might think that if I separate her from the silver sword, you will consequently free yourself from her. I don't know which one it is, maybe you have other reasons, but if you don't reply to me and assist on my adventure, I will put a leash on you and keep you by my side.'

The silver sword hadn't reacted to these words, perhaps not taking him seriously.

True, Bryce wasn't a heartless fellow, he had a lovely spot for Gengo and was open to making new relationships. He grew up pretty close with Sharla already, and as he thought of creating a family back on Earth, if he pushed their relationship forward, he'd end up with a girlfriend already.

But being a new resident of another world with many goals ahead of himself, Bryce focused on power growth first.

If Sword of Dracula took him as a kind-hearted guy who wouldn't put a leash on her power and force her to stay by his side for life, then she was wrong. Her powers were strongly connected to Bryce's mother, for he had seen her using a similar rose and Execution effect in the vision, so there was a chance that the demon lord's regalia was actually the sword itself.

It was something his mother had passed to him; Devin confirmed he had that regalia, so Bryce would never give up on it.

Enslaving others wasn't Bryce's style, so he'd do his best to improve the relationship, but if there was no way, he'd silence the vampire sword and use it without her help.

'It's just a matter of time before I'll be forced to inflict a killing blow. Murder and slavery are vastly different topics, but their roots are the same, so I'll take it as my demon lord's test. I'll enslave you if you keep being a bad girl.'

Bryce didn't hide his thoughts from the Sword of Dracula. He thought he felt a little tremor in his hand as though she was exasperated or irritated, shrugged it off, and sheathed the weapon.

Then, he opened his skill list.

There's always been something that intrigued him, of course. As a human with a hero's bloodline, Bryce could appoint a heroic companion. He did it for Gengo, for he knew his friend would always be by his side.

But there wasn't an option like that from the demon lord's side. He wondered about it but couldn't think of anything as he lacked knowledge about another world. It'd be helpful if he had a skill, for he would use it on Sword of Dracula if she turned mutinous.

Dropping ideas about his demon lord's side, Bryce glanced at his heroic's skills. He had two new skills after becoming Excalibur's master.

One of them was already known [Excalibur's Holy Curse(Imperfect)], which gave Bryce control over it. He no longer had to worry about his mana reserves while fighting others, and with that skill in his skill list, Bryce would develop it further, turn it into perfection, and find the origins of Excalibur.

The second skill was known as Excalibur's Holy Sheath.

After charging it on his blade, Excalibur's holy mana would glaze over his blade, allowing Bryce to test his creativity. With holy mana swirling around the blade, Bryce already thought of extending his attack range and casting long-distance projectiles of holy slashes.

It was such a moldable skill.

'It's all great and nice, but why won't she talk with me?' Bryce asked, then rolled his eyes as he recalled Excalibur's cold voice, blaming her silence on her pride.

Those kinds of girls were annoying, he'd met some prideful individuals in the past, but once their pride no longer obscured their hearts, those ladies could become pretty lovely. In the worst case, deadly, but Bryce had never met such an oddball.

Nonetheless, because of that pride, Bryce couldn't use Excalibur's energy to awaken more of his bloodline.

Bryce didn't want to think about Nothingness, so he pondered about other heroes.

'I wonder how it is for other heroes,' Bryce thought.

His initial image of a hero was a human surrounded by either handsome guys or beautiful girls whose abilities were the best of the best to support their chosen one. Bryce's eyebrow twitched as he looked at his sword as he had two girls 'on his hip' now.

Regardless of that, Bryce was curious about their first-day experiences. It was unlikely for all of them to have bloodlines before their summoning, so did they go through some ritual to have their weapons and skills chosen?

He wondered what their first quests were, imagining kings and emperors, even the pope, to guide a new era of heroes properly, starting with some training with soldiers and other warriors.

"I'm too nice, am I?"

"What are you doing alone, whispering to yourself?"

"Oh, you woke up already?"

Bryce turned around, and saw Sharla without most of her battle equipment as she came out from her tent, then before she took his side, he added, "Thinking about heroes. My Excalibur fell from the sky, I think it might be love at first sight."

Bryce's heart became cold for a moment, but he found it amusing and not lethal.

Sharla then heard Bryce's imagination of the heroes' first day.

"It depends on their summoner. I heard some kingdoms have a custom of throwing their heroes to lesser dungeons. If they die, they leverage the older generation. If a hero survives, they give him a chance, and if he overcomes the dungeon, they turn him into a full-fledged hero." Sharla shared some interesting bits.

Bryce looked at her with squinted eyes, knitted eyebrows, and thin lips, whispering, "Adults don't really teach how valuable freedom is, do they?"

"Yes," Sharla replied decisively.

Bryce nodded and said, "We ought to start treasuring moments like these."

At last, Gengo came out. He sat down between Bryce and Sharla and looked ahead like them, not really knowing what they were looking at, but it lately became quite normal to just stare ahead.

Perhaps, these two thought about food, Gengo thought.

He drooled then.

Finally, one of those lovely moments lodged deeply within the hearts of three adventurers, then it was time to pack their stuff, hunt some trolls on their way to the village, then deal with villagers again.