The Heroines Are After My Fortune

29 – Save the Egosword!

“Pthooey——!!”

I sputtered, spitting out water, finally regaining some lucidity.

Still hazy, I looked up to find Caesar right in front of me, gasping for air.

“Ugh…!”

A tremendous pain flared in my chest. It felt different from the pain before, more like I’d been struck by something.

‘A handprint…?’

Looking down, I saw a red handprint emblazoned on my chest.

“…Your heart stopped. I had to send mana through you to bring you back.”

“Thank you. I nearly died, for real.”

Looks like I went into cardiac arrest and he did CPR laced with mana. He probably used up quite a bit of elixer too. I glanced up and sure enough, he’d gone through two vials already.

“Luke, how much time has passed?”

“40 minutes…!”

Now, 20 minutes left. One hour to endure.

The pain in my chest had been so fierce, it blotted out all else, but now, little by little, feeling was returning to other places. That meant the hellish time was starting again.

“Kgh, grrr…!”

A pain so immense, it made me crave oblivion. But if I lost consciousness again, I might truly die this time.

‘Shit, do I look like I’ll croak like this…!’

I’d clawed my way through this world, made it this far. I couldn’t let it all turn to dust. Rene’s efforts, Caesar’s vengeance, Elena’s happy ending – they all deserved their due. And to see that happen, I had to grit my teeth and endure.

“Just hold on a little longer, Aiden Roen…!”

“Five minutes left, Aiden-nim!!”

Only five minutes remained now.

More blood had flowed out of me than remained inside.

My lifeline, the elixir, was on its fourth vial.

“kkrrrrrraaagh-!!!”

My roar shook the cellar.

I hadn’t yelled so loud since I was born, I didn’t know how long I’d screamed like that.

“Huu, huff, finally…, it’s over…!!”

I’d won the gamble with my life,

and been born anew.

“…You held strong.”

Caesar spoke just those few words, coming out of the tub to dry himself. Dressed in folded clothes, he tossed some at me, then offered a wooden sword.

“Take hold of it.”

I nodded, taking the wooden sword, and closed my eyes.

“Try to feel like you’re drawing energy from your heart and coating the sword with it. It shouldn’t be too difficult since you can draw on my mana.”

“…Understood.”

I began to focus all my attention on my heart.

All swordsmen find it difficult to feel mana at first.

That’s because you have to search for the tiny little bits flowing through your body, like finding a needle in the desert, but my case was different.

‘So this is mana.’

There was nothing difficult about it.

I just had to feel the flow of Caesar’s vast energy, coming from outside my body. My mana circuit, still undeveloped, was nothing more than a small puddle, while his mana was as vast as a huge, boundless ocean.

“hhh-aaa!”

*Wooom!*

Crude but significant sword energy coated the wooden sword.

My eyes were flooded with joy.

‘Crazy, I did it…!’

The mark of a Sword Expert, I’d drawn out sword energy.

There was still a long way to go, but for now, I was just happy.

“…As expected, drawing on my mana isn’t very efficient.”

According to Caesar, there were inevitable losses because the mana was flowing through a spiritual contract, rather than moving within the same body. The further apart we were, the more the efficiency of the mana transfer dropped.

‘Which means if Caesar isn’t around, I’ll go back to being a mana cripple.’

But even so, there were far more benefits to having this mana circuit connected. Even though my mana circuit is still weak, like a constant stream eroding the landscape to create new channels, eventually the more I used it, the more my own mana circuit would develop at a tremendous speed.

“Aiden-nim, you’ve truly worked so hard! Maybe you should rest for today…?”

“No, strike while the iron’s hot. Let’s move straight to the next phase.”

“Huk, are you sure you’ll be alright…?!”

Luke, surprised and fidgeting.

But Caesar stroked his chin and then nodded.

“…If it’s something we have to do anyway, doing it now isn’t a bad idea, I reckon.”

“Even Caesar-nim…!?”

At that point, Luke finally gave up and brought the chest holding the sword to me. And then he offered me an iron gauntlet.

“This is the item you asked for…! We finished testing it on the other ego-sword you got for us back then! The effect is quite powerful…!”

“Thank you for your hard work. If everything goes smoothly today, I will reduce your length of service by three years.”

“Ooh, thank you—!”

I took the gauntlet, which would exert an incredible effect when I controlled an ego-sword, and put it on my left hand. I immediately opened the chest. The ego-sword ‘Chart’, with its pitch-black blade, revealed itself.

Without hesitation, I raised my right hand and gripped the sword.

*Krrrr-rumble——!!*

The sword’s energy surged, like lightning striking.

Soon, a low, sinister voice began to echo inside my head.

[I am Chart, the sword that served a great king. Child, do you desire power?]

Considering the clichés of other works, common sense dictates that one should refuse when a suspicious sword speaks such words. But I had no intention of doing so.

“I desire power.”

[Then contract with me. I shall grant you great power.]

“I’ll take the contract.”

[Heh heh heh, good…!]

A contract, without even hearing the terms.

Egosword, exulting, immediately began to reward me.

“Kuh—!!”

Memories surged into me through the sword.

This wasn’t some simple kind of ‘memory.’

There’s a saying, ‘the body remembers.’

Physical memory – that is, the insights and experience points Egosword earned while moving its body back when it was human – were being hammered directly into my body.

[Hold on…! Of the great sword techniques reaching the 9th star, I’m only transferring the 6th star to you…!]

“Huuuh——!!”

A pop echoed in my head, and the pain subsided. Definitely less painful than connecting the mana circuit earlier, which made it bearable.

The price of enduring the pain was, once again, sweet.

‘Holy shit, this is insane….’

Me, the dullest of the dullards, had the 6th star principles of the Sartre swordsmanship used by the ‘Tyrant’ directly transplanted into my body. The basic processes of how to swing the sword, how to handle mana, were completely skipped. With just this, any hoodlums who thought they knew a thing about swords would be wiped out, for sure.

But, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

[Heh heh, you fool. Your body will be a fine fit.]

A subtle energy began to rise from the sword.

The terms of the contract I’d agreed to without even hearing them – in exchange for receiving ‘strength,’ I was giving the right to control ‘my body’ to the Egosword. According to that contract, it was now crawling in to take over.

But, Egosword was soon in for a surprise.

[D-damn it, what the hell is this…!!]

###

After the play, while I was face-to-face with the Saintess Dimona, before the clergy barged in, I’d slyly asked her about ‘blessings.’

“Is it a blessing… that can defend against ‘mental contamination’?”

“Yes, is it possible for you?”

“I can do it, but… it’s my first time. Someone requesting that kind of blessing.”

In these peaceful times, mental attacks, something devils would usually use, weren’t a common occurrence. That’s why she was reacting like that.

“It’s not too difficult, so I will do it now. Please close your eyes.”

As Dimona brought her hands together like she was praying-,

Wooosh—!

The sacred tree bloomed.

A light that shone so brightly, you could see it even with your eyes closed.

It was a strange feeling, like something holy was enveloping my head and passing through.

“For about 100 days from now, it will protect you, Aiden, from mental contamination.”

“Thank you so much, Saintess.”

As I said that, smiling, she seemed suddenly a bit worried and urged me.

“Blessings aren’t absolute. Please don’t have too much faith in it.”

“No, I will believe.”

“……………What?”

There was a reason for that, a reason Dimona herself didn’t know.

Her blessing, when it came to defending against psychic attacks, was cheat-level, plain and simple.

####

High Priests, they each had their own specialties, honed by their individual natures.

Dimona’s ‘good persona,’ the one with the split personality, was particularly strong in the mental field, especially at blocking psychic attacks of the kind that tried to steal a master’s place.

The result is this.

[Why, just *why* can’t I seize control…!?]

The b*stard was in chaos, unable to grab the reins of my body.

He couldn’t break through the wall of blessing the Saint had put up.

“Give it up. I came back with a potent blessing, remember?”

[Tch, using such underhanded tricks…]

“Let’s just cooperate nicely. You can’t take my body anyway.”

[Hmph, you think that blessing’s going to last forever?]

“So, you won’t cooperate? You’ll regret it, you know.”

[I’ll be there to strike the moment you show any sign of weakness… KaaaH——!!]

As I brought the gauntlet on my left hand to bear on the sword’s blade, the b*stard cried out as if in pain.

[What have you done to me…!]

Ego Swords, they’re basically the souls of ‘weapons,’ born for the purpose of clashing with other swords, so their egos almost never take a hit unless the sword is destroyed.

But, that genius magitech engineer Luke had somehow managed to recreate a portion of the ‘sword destruction mechanism,’ creating a way to inflict pain on an Ego Sword’s ego alone, without actually damaging the sword itself.

“What is it? It’s electroshock therapy.”

[KaaaH————!!]

When words fail, electric torture is the answer, after all.

The effects of the ego-sword-specific torment gauntlet were, shall we say, considerable.

[I was wrong. Please, stop…!]

“So, about that contract we talked about earlier, shall we try again?”

[Yes, yes…! Let’s do it again! What do you need me to do?]

Sart, practically glowing with renewed hope, I laid out several conditions. At that, the b*stard began to thrash.

[What, you think I’d agree to a ridiculous contract like th- KYYAAH—!!]

“Will you do it, or won’t you?”

[Never, I w- KRRRaaaK—!!]

The underground storage, until just a moment ago filled with my screams, was now echoing with the mournful cries of the ego-sword. Of course, the trick was, only I could hear it.

Anyway, being quite a powerful ego, he held out for a long while, but, in the end, after about an hour, he finally broke.

[…Khurgh, you demon.]

The ego-sword, Sart, was whimpering.

The conditions of the contract were as follows:

1. Never fully seize control of the host’s body.

2. When summoned by the host, possess the body and follow orders without question.

3. If the host dies, the ego will also be destroyed.

Every safety measure was in place.

With this, whenever needed, the ego-sword would fight in my place, and if it doesn’t want to be erased, it would do its damnedest to keep me from dying.

A medieval slave-sword, born anew.

This contract made it so the initiative couldn’t be snatched away, and to block mental taint, I only needed to renew the blessing every 100 days.

‘I’ve really gotten stronger. Unfathomably so compared to before…!’

I’d even pulled in the mana of a current-generation Swordmaster,

and mastered the swordsmanship and mana control of Swordmasters from centuries past.

When needed, the Ego-Sword would possess my body and even stand in for me.

Honestly, with this much power, I could probably clear out the Sword Experts, right? That kind of puffed-up confidence started to creep in. I couldn’t resist the urge.

“Caesar, would you indulge me in a simple spar?”

“…Why not, sure.”

Caesar accepted without much thought.

Luke, standing beside us, seemed concerned about my condition, but thanks to chugging four elixirs, I was actually closer to my peak.

I planned to completely surprise him in this spar with Caesar.

“Hey, Ego-Sword.”

[…Don’t call me that. I am Chart.]

“Yeah, yeah, Chart. You feel that? That guy’s a Swordmaster.”

[Hmph, and what’s that supposed to mean? I was a Swordmaster when I was alive.]

The guy was still sulking over the unfair contract he’d been stuck with,

so I decided to poke at his competitive spirit.

“You know, they don’t even treat Swordmasters of a few centuries ago like they’re anything special these days. Rumor has it that, in this era where mana cultivation has advanced so far, they’d probably get their asses handed to them by Sword Experts.”

[What, who’s spreading that kind of nonsense…!]

Who indeed, but me.

Having successfully poked him with the ‘old-gen dud missile’ jab, I unleashed the final blow.

“Could you prove it by taking over my body for a moment? That what you said is a lie?”

[Needless to say, I’ll debunk that nonsense in no time…!]

At Charte’s boast, I released control of my body for a bit.

‘Oh, this is a strange feeling.’

It was as if I became a drone hovering above my head, able to watch the surroundings in the third person. Charte, possessed my body, briefly scanned himself, then made a curious expression.

“…You’ve done some peculiar things to this body, haven’t you?”

[Well, does that remark still stand?]

“Hmph, obvious thing to say.”

And so began the swordmaster old-guard versus new-guard battle.

Caesar showed a considerable interest in Charte who had taken up residence in my body.

“…Centuries-old swordsmanship, I see. I am curious, blade, to what extent should I accommodate you?”

“Give it your all.”

“Hmm…? Is that your true wish?”

“It’s the truth, although this body isn’t much, the mana I’m siphoning from you is quite usable.”

“…Understood, I shall unleash my full power.”

“Swordmaster of this era, I shall show you too. ‘That technique’…!”

Drawing his sword, Charte faced Caesar and began drawing up his sword aura.

[Ooh……!?]

Even from my observer’s standpoint, I could clearly feel the ominous nature of his mana manipulation. With this, he might actually be able to show something against Caesar. Full of such expectations, I watched him but –

“…Sartre Swordsmanship, Seventh Form, ‘The Tyrant’s Poem.'”

“hhhaaa—!”

Clang—!!

[ …Huh?]

Why, after just one clash of swords, is my body soaring through the air?

My body, propelled at terrifying speed, smashed straight into the wall.

“Kuheok—!!”

And with that, my consciousness, which had been observing the situation in the third person, was forcibly returned to my body.

That’s right.

This b*stard, after all that boasting, got laid out after a single exchange of blows.

“Aww, shit….”

The pain of being embedded in the wall was all mine. My consciousness, fading once more, but even then, I couldn’t hold back from cursing at the sword.

“Shart, you, shitsucking…, you said you were strong…”

[Ahem, it’s been so long since I’ve been in a human body…, Regardless, your body is just too weak.]

A beautiful scene of passing the blame,

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

‘This, this feels like something I just went through recently…’

Watching Caesar scratch his head after the instant kill,

I lost consciousness once more.

Still a long way to go…