“Brother.”

At the soft call, Ludville lifted his head.

“I heard you looked into the Sword of Protection. When I went to find related books, Jimi brought them over immediately.”

“Sounds like you stopped by the library.”

“Yes.”

Ludville gave a small nod.

“Right now it’s at House Jevillan.”

“That’s right.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Your thoughts after reading all those books.”

Ludville looked at Camilla in silence. Then he opened his mouth slowly.

“If you read even the ancient texts closely, you can learn one thing.”

“...”

“The place where the Sword of Protection is.”

Right. If you roughly combined the materials, including the ancient texts, you could readily infer the likely location of the Sword of Protection.

It was from a very long time ago. When the Fable Empire had just been born, there was an organization that shook the continent.

A religious group that followed a god named Eva—“the Eva Faith.”

Countless people followed them.

There was just one reason: if you followed them, you could obtain eternal life.

It really was a power to live forever. By some unknown force, those who followed the god Eva neither aged nor died.

With the promise of immortality, the number of Eva’s followers multiplied exponentially. But—

Does it make any sense for people not to die?

Even a little thought tells you it’s unsettling and wrong.

As expected, there was a flaw in that power. The “eternal life” they gained was purchased by offering up other people’s lives as sacrifice.

The powerless, the poor, and the ignorant became their victims.

Right after this fact came to light, war broke out between the followers of the god Eva and the forces that considered them evil and sought to judge them.

Empowered with tremendous might, Eva’s devotees did not retreat easily. They clung to life by using the blood of countless people.

But in chaotic times, heroes always appear.

A man named Mars emerged—he ended the long war and drove out all the evildoers.

The sword that man used was the very Sword of Protection.

The devotees of the god Eva, who would not die even with their hearts torn out, were powerless before the Sword of Protection.

The moment the high priest of Eva’s faith met the Sword of Protection at his neck, the long, long war ended.

And once the war ended, Mars quietly vanished.

The Sword of Protection disappeared then as well.

However, if you traced Mars’s path, the sword’s whereabouts naturally followed.

“But no one found it.”

Many moved to find the sword, but through all those years no one succeeded.

Only Zeno Jevillan—he alone succeeded in finding it.

“When people talk about the Sword of Protection, do you know what they mention most?”

A sword that chooses its master.

“Even though so many people went to the same place, why was Zeno—the man—alone able to find it?”

Camilla gave no answer.

Ludville also didn’t seem to have asked to hear one; her silence didn’t bother him.

Watching him with a curious look, Camilla finally let out a groan.

“So you knew as well.”

Why the very man who brought back the Sword of Protection, Zeno Jevillan, did not receive the sword’s recognition.

“If someone took a deep interest in the Sword of Protection, it isn’t hard to infer. Even so, why did everyone keep quiet?”

“...Because it’s House Jevillan.”

Ludville nodded without a word.

“It’s another house’s history.”

In other words, not something for outsiders to intrude upon lightly. Camilla agreed with him.

Only—

Camilla let out a short sigh.

—only the problem is that a figure {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} from that history is standing in front of me now.

****

[You’re not training?]

“I’m not.”

The practice yard during sword class.

But Camilla, as always, was sprawled under the shade of a tree.

Zeno looked at her as if she were pathetic.

Until now, whether she shirked or not had nothing to do with him, but that wasn’t the case anymore, was it?

[The only one who can see me is spending sword class idling around.]

“I have no talent for swordplay.”

Swinging a sword in this heat when I doubt I’d improve even if I trained? Not a chance.

[Your physical condition isn’t bad.]

That was Zeno’s assessment after giving Camilla a once-over.

“Pass.”

Whether her condition was good or not, she had no interest in swords to begin with.

The original Camilla had been ready to kill herself training in swordplay to remain a member of House Sorpel, but I wasn’t her.

If you discover you have no talent, isn’t it wise to quit quickly?

Besides, from what I’d seen last time, the Duke of Sorpel didn’t particularly intend to force me to learn swordplay.

On the contrary, he seemed to hope I wouldn’t waste strength on swordplay I had no talent for, and that I’d quit as soon as possible.

I should drop it soon.

Watching swordplay and people who still didn’t care in the slightest what I did, Camilla resolved to transfer departments as quickly as possible.

It isn’t someone else’s world anymore.

Now that I know this is where I have to keep living, I concluded there’s no need to keep smearing myself with the mess someone else made.

[Your baseline muscle mass isn’t bad, and your frame is good.]

“You can tell that just by looking?”

[At my level, I can tell everything.]

“Ah. Sure.”

A ghost very aware of his own brilliance, then.

Camilla couldn’t take her eyes off Zeno as he turned his gaze back to the practice yard.

His eyes went blank again as he watched the students devoted to swordplay.

He was remembering the days when he attended here, no doubt.

“That sword.”

Camilla’s eyes went to his chest—to the Sword of Protection buried in his left chest.

“Wasn’t it hard to find?”

[Of course it was. It took almost a year, I think? I spotted a sword driven into the edge of a cliff wreathed in heavy fog.]

“So it really was you who found it.”

[Everyone knows that. Why make it sound new.]

Even as he smirked, Camilla did not smile.

“You know the Sword of Protection chooses its master on its own.”

[Does anyone not know that?]

“Do you also know why people failed to find the sword for all those years?”

[That’s because...]

Zeno, who had been answering smoothly, faltered.

His eyes and Camilla’s met in empty air.

“Because only one recognized as master can find the sword.”

[...]

“But the Zeno who came home carrying the sword wasn’t the sword’s master.”

Too great an error.

You found it and brought it back, but the one who brought it was not recognized as master by the sword? If you weren’t recognized in the first place, you couldn’t even have found it.

“The sword that reappeared in the world was no longer the Sword of Protection. Like a person who’d lost a soul, the Sword of Protection was nothing but a big lump of metal.”

As in the ancient records, it neither shone nor sang on its own.

“Because—”

There was no trace of a smile left on Zeno’s face.

“—the master chosen by the sword died.”

[...]

Camilla’s gaze went to the sword buried in Zeno’s chest.

“You had an older brother.”

Without taking her eyes off the sword, Camilla continued.

“One who died a very long time ago—”

[...]

“—your twin.”

****

“Zeno, is this the place?”

“It’s here. You said it yourself—the ancient records practically lay out the clues like an invitation to come.”

“And still no one found it. Doesn’t that mean there’s something dangerous?”

“So what if it’s dangerous? I’m going to find the Sword of Protection no matter what.”

Two men in their early twenties were wandering deep in the mountains.

A space so choked with fog you couldn’t see a hand before your face.

But the steps of the man walking ahead—Zeno—were more vigorous and excited than ever.

“Please, be careful.”

Watching his younger brother like that, the older brother, Mihai, kept sighing.

No one could stop him when he left the house saying he would find the Sword of Protection. Everyone knew too well his younger brother’s nature—that nothing existed in his eyes but swords.

If they’d tried to stop him, he would have run away to search for the sword anyway, so in the end Mihai followed after him. He was too uneasy to let him go alone.

It had already been a full week since they entered this foggy mountain and began wandering. The provisions they’d packed from a nearby village were almost gone.

At this rate, we’re in real trouble.

They couldn’t endure much longer.

Mihai, hoping Zeno would give up on finding the sword, kept sighing. If worst came to worst, he planned to drag him down by force.

“Mihai!”

“Yeah?”

“Look there!”

Then Zeno, walking ahead, called him in a voice thick with excitement.

Mihai frowned as he looked where Zeno pointed.

Nothing looked particularly special. A sheer cliff simply spread before them.

“The sword!”

“What?”

“The sword! We finally found the Sword of Protection!”

Even as he watched his younger brother hop like a child with joy, Mihai couldn’t go along. He saw nothing at all.

But—

“Look at this!”

Shrrng!

“...!”

He saw it. Zeno drawing a sword out of the ground! Only then could Mihai perceive the sword’s existence.

“It’s exactly like in the book!”

So it was. There wasn’t the slightest difference from the Sword of Protection drawn in the book.

Wooooong—

“Whoa!”

At the hum pouring from the sword, Mihai flinched and shuddered, but Zeno only smiled even brighter.

A soft light even streamed from the sword in his hands.

“Can I...?”

“Hm?”

“Can I hold it, too?”

“Of course!”

Zeno immediately passed the Sword of Protection to Mihai.

Woooo...

The instant Mihai took the sword, the blade that had just been shining and singing fell quiet.

“What? It’s not crying?”

“...”

“Haha, looks like the sword doesn’t like you, Mihai.”

Again.

Again—again, it chose only him.

‘As expected, it’s you, Zeno.’

‘How can anyone create swordsmanship like that?’

‘A genius! A genius!’

‘Compared to him, Mihai is...’

‘But Master Mihai is the firstborn.’

‘Looks like the next head will be...’

“...Why.”

Why, why, why...!

“Mihai?”

“Why is it you again?”

“What?”

“Why is it you again!”