Chapter 75 - 75. Open Lessons and Sword Saints

The tears of the dead were in mind.

She really wouldn't have had a chance to feel any energy if she had only touched her briefly.

But...

She said, '... She must have let go of her legs from sitting all the time. Can she stay like this for a little longer...?'

...I couldn't shake off Eisel who was uttering such words.

I could feel the faint trembling of her body in my arms.

Eisel was a regressor.

No one in the world can understand her.

She couldn't understand

But I was different.

At least I could understand her.

At least for me, she had to be someone she could depend on.

So, even though it was such a short time that Eisel couldn't accurately recognize the 'tears of the dead', she stayed still as she asked.

I squeezed in as much time as possible.

Eventually, by the time she was digging deeper into my arms, I had to stop.

'...I must have noticed.'

Eisel would have sensed her energy, albeit vaguely.

Naturally, there was a look of bewilderment in her eyes as she fell from my arms.

I thought it was fortunate that there was no hostility.

'...I'll just go.'

Eisel left her seat with those words.

She was left alone in such a quiet garden.

She felt it while smelling the scent of flowers blooming all over the place. Perhaps, as Sierra said, I also needed time to be alone.

I stood alone in the garden, holding my eyes at the mysteriously colored flowers mixed with many colors.

It was a flower called 'Obsion'.

Unless it was a special item, I didn't know anything about flowers, so the story of Obsion that Aisel told me was quite interesting because it was information that I couldn't know in the game... At least I didn't know.

'It's a happy ending...'

It may be that they expressed what they hoped for again and again at the end, even in the language of flowers.

On the one hand, I could understand Julian who was trying to save Obsion.

Even as a person who wants to be sure to save Eisel, if I can somehow put her in her safe place, I have a strong desire to do so.

Eisel was strong.

It should be possible for her to fight alongside her, but she fears that she will lose her life in the process.

Eisel, who suffered in the game... She was so close to impossible to save that she wondered if her return was some kind of curse.

I stared blankly at Obsion, which exuded such a subtle scent, for a long time.

Will I be able to make Eisel happy?

It wasn't just Aizel.

A happy ending for 'everyone'.

It was of the utmost importance to me.

***

The weekend passed quickly and the weekdays came again.

I had a good rest over the weekend.

She worked hard all the time and suddenly took a break, but her body kept itching, but mentally I think it was necessary.

After Edward's class, the cadets were chatting with their respective friends.

There was talk of an upcoming 'open class'.

Lucia shouted to us as we exited the classroom in a state of excitement.

"I said my younger brother is coming this time too...!"

"If it's a younger sister... Rikua?"

Yuri asked Lucia.

"Yes! I must have missed you!"

Amon, watching over Lucia who smiled brightly, shook her head.

"It's not like that... It's an event he has to attend as the heir to the Windris family, so he had no choice but to come."

"I-I wanted to see you...But there's no way..."

Lucia breaks down in tears at Amon's succinct refutation.

Liqua Windless.

She was Lucia's younger sister and heir to the Windless family.

She was the complete opposite of Lucia, a cool-headed child.

If she's good, I might be able to meet her this time.

As such, during the 'open class' period, as many people as Innocence Academy, which can be said to be closed, were open to outsiders, it was planned to gather at the academy.

It wasn't because even people who had nothing to do with the academy were allowed to enter.

Starting with the families of the cadets, graduates of the academy, celebrities from all over the continent, knights who came to look for talented people, towers of magic, guilds, and so on, the categories of people involved were very wide.

Especially this year, the scale will be bigger than usual as all four elemental families gathered in the first year.

During the open class, various people come to the academy, and many things happen, but nothing dangerous happens.

There was no foolish villain trying to cause trouble at the place where the continent's powerful people gathered.

'There's one petty thief... But I think I can handle that somehow...'

There were other things I had to be careful about.

I looked at Sierra as she floated in the air, thinking about what to do.

Her enemy and enemy in this open class.

And that is my final goal...

...The swordsman will come to the academy.

***

Chris was lying in the shade, away from the scorching sun, humming her song leisurely.

"It's peaceful... Calm."

He was helping out in a small village and being provided with lodging and lodging.

His main occupation was farming.

Lying in the shade after work and enjoying the silence was the small happiness he could feel in this village.

A bird flies by his side.

"Hmm...?"

A letter was tied to the bird's leg, and the black palm pattern engraved on the bird's stomach was a familiar pattern to him as well.

It was the pattern of the 'Black Hand', the best information guild on the continent.

Sword Saint Chris enjoyed wandering.

But the Black Hand knew where he was going.

So, when people looking for Chris contacted him, they would go to the black hand.

However, when someone was looking for a 'sword saint', it often brought troublesome things.

When Chris takes one look at the bird and says he doesn't know me and doesn't take the letter, the bird tilts its head, stares at him, and then peckishes him with its beak.

"Tsk..."

Chris, overcome by this, kicked his tongue once and took out the letter that was tied to the guy's leg.

Soon after, as if the bird had finished its task, it flew off somewhere with a popping sound.

"Hmm... I'm sure they aren't the ones who talk about rounds again..."

Chris carefully opened the letter, hoping it wouldn't be a nuisance.

The letter began with the word 'Grandpa'.

As soon as he saw the word, the corners of his mouth went up.

"It's Kaen..."

The one who sent the letter was none other than Kaen, his disciple. She was not related by blood, but she was a child raised thinking of her as her granddaughter.

"After entering the academy, there was no contact..."

Did something happen to send the letter?

Chris thought that Kaen's letter would be a little bit disappointing if it was not just a simple message of regards, but a contact because something happened.

He read her letter with a slightly serious face.

Something happened.

It seems that Kaen has suffered her first defeat, and that by the one holding the sword in reverse.

Kaen doesn't seem to have brought out the swordsmanship she learned from him, but even if that wasn't the case, she'd be overwhelmingly stronger than her average cadets.

Judging from the content of her letter, it seemed that she had given up on her heart.

It felt very strange that Kaen, the disciple of the Sword Saint and no one else, lost with the sword, but if there was something even more strange than that...

"...She lost, so why does she like it so much?"

Kaen admits she lost cleanly, and she was praising him eagerly.

As if she were explaining the person she was in love with, she wrote her letter at length, with useless information about her guy.

What on earth does the sentence 'I want to get stabbed by him someday' mean?

"Touhou... A blind swordsman..."

The blind man who handles the sword had met him once or twice. However, he did not have outstanding skills to the extent that he was memorable.

Anyway... Kaen seemed to be in good health, except for her talk about the blind swordsman.

As he was reading the last line of the letter, he understood the purpose of Kaen's letter.

'Grandpa, I think you know that there is an open class at the academy this time. I'm telling you just in case, but you don't have to rush to see me. First of all, I'm still hiding the fact that I'm my grandfather's disciple... My grandfather didn't like crowded places from before, didn't he?'

That's how it was written in the letter.

Kaen added that if he did come, he would be able to talk without people around.

"Should I say hello to this..."

After reading through the letter, Chris fell into a moment of trouble.

It is a question of whether or not to go.

Since Innocence Academy was open, it was obvious that many people who bothered him would come.

He probably wouldn't have wanted to go.

'But they told me not to come, so I want to go again.'

In the end, Chris decided to go to the academy to see Kaen's face after a long time.

I wonder what kind of guy the guy who beat his pupil is.

I wanted to visit secretly, but the academy was not the place to do that.

Still, there were plenty of justifications for him to visit the academy.

Chris was a swordsman.

If he says he's going, the academy will welcome him with open arms.

Shortly after, Chris finished his worries and put the precious letter from Kaen in his arms and stood up.

"I need to contact him after a long time."

Before going there, he contacted his old friend, Julius Klaus, first.

Kaen was enrolled through Julius, who was the principal of the academy.

She was also the only person in the academy who knew Kaen was her pupil.

"But how do I contact you..."

When he tried to contact him, Chris didn't know the name or location of this town.

It was because he wandered around the road, recklessly boarding a carriage that had no idea where it was going.

Thinking about where to find him so he can talk to Juliuth, Chris decided to chase the bird that had just flown away.

It was a bird owned by the 'black hand', so I thought I would be able to meet them if I followed the bird.

If you go through the Black Hand, you'll be able to get in touch with Juliut right away.

Eventually, Chris, who was looking in the direction the bird flew, hopped lightly, and his new model disappeared in the blink of an eye.

***

'What...? What's going on...?'

The black hand guild member who was managing the bird that delivered the letter was very embarrassed.

A man was walking towards this small tower where birds used to gather.

The guild members, of course, knew who that man was.

The continent's strongest swordsman.

It was a swordsman.

He had a letter that had reached him, and he had just sent it.

A guild member's bird was caught in the Sword Master's hand, and the bird was flapping its wings and trying hard to get back to the tower.

Could it be that the bird made a mistake with him?

Was the content of the letter delivered wrong?

If this wasn't the case, did the guild feel bad about probing his location?

The guild members gulped down their saliva, keeping their eyes on the Sword Master as it slowly approached the tower.

Eventually, the swordsman found him at the top of the tower and waved his hand.

He had never visited the main god in his entire life, but this time he had no choice but to put his hands together and offer his prayers.

'Heneris who gave me... Please... Take care of me...'