"...You're right... ...you're right... That's what I should do." Shifa nodded his head rigorously, still in a trance.

I walked towards that man with heavy steps.

Clutching the sword in my hand, it reminded of a time when I tried out swordplay at the kendo club when they were recruiting members.

...It no longer felt as foreign as it did a long time ago.

Instead, I felt a strange affinity with the sword in my hands. As if I was meant to hold it my entire life.

As if my life's purpose was to wield swords.

A two-handed sword.

Huh?

I had a sudden vision of a sword with a black guard. It was pulsating red deep inside a very dark place.

Waiting for the right person to hold it. It was looking at me, as if amused by my incompatibility with itself. Something forged by blood.

...

Shaking off these thoughts, I closed my eyes and used a skill.

"Clear Eyes of a Saint."

Great Swords, Longswords, Broadswords, Straight swords, Double-edged swords...

I had committed the techniques of every single sword in existence through the Village Elder's collection and history as a very powerful and well-known Sword Mage.

Yes, he wasn't a Swordsman, but a Sword Mage.

He had done the same throughout his life, and achieved enlightenment at the peak of swordplay.

Swords meant to cast. It wasn't as simple as it sounded.

Sword Skills were essentially skills that had been committed to one's memory through long-term training. That was what the Village Elder had sought to do for me.

He made me experience the highs and excruciating lows of wielding each assortment of sword, and when I had time in between, he would squeeze in books on swords again. Unconsciously for one year, I had been reading combat-oriented books alongside Lucas.

...

He had taken notice of my tremendous pool of mana and gave me a way out.

A way to use a sword without learning the sword.

I didn't have any talents. I couldn't use a sword as well as an experienced swordsman who had honed their craft their entire life.

But the training had been ingrained in me. I couldn't use them with a master's touch, but I could replicate them to an extent. While others hacked their way from the bottom to a successful path as a warrior and earned their skills through their craft, I was inversely at the top in terms of potential.

Not knowing how to use that potential, I just lost my way. Meeting the Village Elder this way, was perhaps, the greatest blessing in disguise amidst my suffering.

It was the most crude way to become experienced with the sword. But it worked anyway.

He gave me, a way to fight. That had culminated the birth of chantless Sword Skills.

I could still cast them aloud, but masking the skill like this.

I could live that lie. I could live on as the shell of a Sword Saint.

Shifa looked at me, and smiled sinisterly. "He tells me to let you kill me, so you grow up into a higher quality livestock. Accursed child of the Eschtalier family, I'm glad to be of service~" He moved his hands and did a cutting motion on his neck erratically, as if wanting me to do the same to him. "..." "Kill me~ I've fulfilled my duty~ I'm free now, so kill me~ Kill me~ Kill me~ Kill me~ ... ... ... As expected~, you can't kill me? Are you chickening out? Haha~? I don't have to die? Mister in my head, this girl doesn't seem capable of killing~ I'm free now? I'm free? I'm free! Haha! If you can't kill me, I guess I'll do it to you instead~ Stay still right there, I'll turn you into a beautiful piece of a-" Amidst the noisy and unintelligible chatter, I ended it with a slice of the sword. Still having my eyes closed, I cleanly chopped the man's head off. THUD! Shifa's headless body collapsed onto the floor of the shelter lifelessly with a loud thud. He died with a very big and sinister grin on his face, as if it was worth the sacrifice for his life. His death, was an extremely unpleasant one. Even as he left, he had to do something like this to shake me up. I could definitely feel it still. Something welling up from within my body. Was it vomit from the gore in this place? Was the sight of blood stepping on my insides like a boiling pot of frogs? Or was it just the worm planted inside of me acting up. I didn't know, but it was an extremely uncomfortable feeling that I had to stay still to recover from.

Experience gained: 5,712

You have leveled up.

+10 Skill Points

Title acquired: Murderer

... How rude. He asked for it.

I retorted to the inorganic voice in my head. A few minutes passed, as I began to feel a little more calm. My hands were still shaking, but it wasn't from committing a murder.

Huh... I don't feel anything even after killing a person. As expected, I have gone mental in various ways...

Ah that's right, I held the title Desensitized Human right?

I had thought it just meant my senses of pain, but looks like it came with a whole package. Like a can of worms.

I can kill emotionlessly now... I wonder if that's a good thing...

I've begun to become more crude in my speech as well. It seemed as if my past self is becoming more and more distant to my current self.

...There's no going back. The deed has been done, I have to carry on.

I also left the details of levelling up to when I meet someone experienced to explain it to me.

There was no point in thinking about this on my own. I might do something bad with the skill points that sounded really important, and I wanted someone knowledgeable to teach me how to handle it.

When I had finished, I carried the Village Elder and the dismembered body of Lucas out of the shelter.

Still having my eyes closed, I made a proper burial for the two throughout the silent night.

The silent night that never seemed to end.

I had nothing to call my own anymore in this village. I spent the next morning pilfering essential resources and items in the village. Since there was no one, it isn't considered stealing right...? As if playing the middleman to a slapstick joke, the system announced again inside of my head.

Title acquired: Thief

...

When I had finished stuffing a week's worth of things into a large backpack, I headed to the next town. The town of Hiomi. That was because this village didn't have any important information, nor an Adventurer's Guild. I wanted to become an adventurer because information flows in and out of a place filled with vagrants. I was told that adventurers in general never stayed around a place too much. This meant, that the best way to locate the parasite Har'Lus, was through a guild. Ascertaining my future plans in my head, I turned back to the village I once lived for the last time. "Goodbye." Then I headed off. The time I spent as an adventurer was an arduous journey as well, but... I'll leave that for another time. About how I got caught up in a series of incidents, and how I got my various skills and the Sword of Bloodwell. Fast forward to two days before I met Master... "Did you hear about it? The recent missing cases?" "Yeah, all men right?" "Is that what I think it is?" "Most likely, yeah. There were missing reports around the Shmizula Forest as well..." "Yikes, really... that place is cursed huh..." "Yeah, when was it, that this trend started..." "When Bulwark vanished without a trace? That time?" "Ahhh, yeah that! Then after that, ...hey I'm just only going to tell you personally okay? You can't leak this out." "W-what's with you all of a sudden... ...Alright, my lips are sealed..." "Yeah, so you've heard about the heroes right? Those shut-ins and the two pompous assholes who took their boastful stride around town." "? Yeah, I've seen them around town a few times. Honestly, they don't seem to be very useful as heroes... And because of that, since they never got around doing anything useful in the end, the King returned them back to their world?" "That was the cover story for us to hear, the truth was different it seems." "Huh, really? No way!" "So apparently, a week after the Bulwark Massacre incident, King Edwin had dispatched a large group of knights and the summoned heroes to investigate. Y'know right? That the king favors one of that guy... what was his name again... I can't remember it off the top of my head..." "Len de Eschtalier?" "Ah, yeah right. That guy. So yeah, he wanted to find out what had happened to him, so he brought quite abit of manpower for it. Although I think there still was an ulterior motive to sending this much there but they never disclosed the real reason to the public." "What does it have to do with men disappearing in that case?" "Listen to everything, geez..." "...S-sorry..." "...So the heroes tagged along as sort of a field exercise, y'know? To get a better sense of combat and stuff. They'd been cooped up in the castle for a long time to train after all. There was a limit to their combat experience with monsters. That was the second reason why the king had ordered them there." "Mhmm..." "And then... they were never heard of again as they step foot into the forest. Not the various famous people in charge of a few Knight Orders, nor the summoned heroes..." "Huh?! That's it?! You cut the juiciest bit!" "Ssshhh!!! Quiet down!" "A-ah..." "Yes, this was it... But doesn't all of this sound extremely familiar to you? Do note that, the investigating party comprised of fully men." "You don't mean-" "That's right. That's why, keep away from that forest until the higher ups send a stronger taskforce to learn about what is in there." "I-I get it..." SLAM! ""?!"" The two men heard someone lifting themselves from the seat violently, as they turned to look at who was the inconsiderate person. "W-w..." "That is... Vlad Red..." Standing up from my seat after leaving the money on the table, I walked briskly out of the store. That is, most definitely... signs of a parasite. It's been awhile since I've seen one, but- Har'Lus. If it's you, I will spare no mercy. I have grown stronger over these two years. If it's you, I will slay you without hesitation. I will kill every single one of them until there's nothing left. I headed directly to the City of Night, Siesta, the closest place to the Shmizula Forest. Shmizula Forest huh... That brings back some memories... ...Not good ones, at least... As I muttered to myself while walking, the Sword of Bloodwell at my waist began to glow slightly red.