Chapter 2: The Deal

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Translator: Soafp

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After completing the coming-of-age ceremony, I was granted the skill “Swordmaster.”

I wasn't particularly disappointed that it wasn't Sword Saint.

That was because I'd heard my father had once been a Swordmaster as well, and through continued training, he had awakened into a Sword Saint.

So I simply thought that if I worked hard, I too would someday become a Sword Saint.

Since my father died when I was still very young, I have almost no memories of him.

Even so, there is one thing I remember clearly.

…Though, perhaps because I have replayed this memory so many times through the repetitions, it's possible that things which were never truly there have become mixed in.

In any case, it was an exchange we had on the day my father set out on his journey.

“Leaving you and your mother behind while you're still so young worries me… but you see, your father wants to show you—and the people of this country—a blue sky.”

Saying that, my father stroked my head and departed.

I belong to a generation that has never known a blue sky.

From the moment I was born, the sky has been sealed by black clouds created by the Demon King.

Only shade-loving plants can grow, including crops, and food and supplies are perpetually scarce.

This is a poor country that somehow maintains its national structure by receiving support from neighboring nations less affected by the black clouds, standing on the front lines of humanity's struggle against the Demon King's army.

Naturally, the people suffer in poverty, and those who flee the country are countless.

That is the country where I was born.

In order to break that situation, my father awakened as a Sword Saint and set out on his journey.

And then, two years later, news of his death arrived—along with his beloved sword.

The one who delivered it was a man who had once possessed the Swordmaster skill, trained in the same school, and belonged to the same party as my father.

He told us of my father's final moments.

My father fought the Demon King near a certain village.

They were evenly matched… at first.

While my father kept the Demon King engaged in single combat to prevent the battle from spilling over, the other party members guided the villagers to safety.

Just as the evacuation was nearly complete, the Demon King unleashed a powerful spell—not at my father, but toward the village.

To save the villagers and his comrades, my father threw himself in the way and took the spell head-on.

When the other party members tried to rush in to help, he shouted, “Don't come! Do what you're supposed to do!” and stopped them.

By the time the evacuation was finished and they returned, the Demon King was already gone.

All that remained were my father's body and his cherished sword.

“I should have been the one to fight the Demon King! I should have taken that spell! I let the hope of this country… no, of all humanity, die right before my eyes! I'm sorry… I'm truly sorry…!”

The man said this through tears.

Placing her hand on his shoulder, my mother shook her head.

“Please don't say such things. I am proud of my husband's actions, and I have no intention of blaming you.”

Then my mother turned to me and said,

“Listen carefully, Erius. Though your father was defeated by the Demon King, he was a truly admirable man. You must follow in his footsteps, devote yourself to the sword, and become a man who can protect others.”

“Yes!”

When I nodded and answered, my mother smiled, gently stroked my head, and nodded in satisfaction.

That night, unable to sleep, I got out of bed to relieve myself.

That was when I happened to see my mother, alone, clutching my father's sword and quietly weeping.

Even with my childish understanding, I could tell that she had been forcing herself to appear stronger than she was, out of consideration for the man who delivered the sword—and for me.

Watching her like that, I made a vow.

—I would inherit my father's unfulfilled wish, kill the Demon King, and restore the blue sky to this country.

I begged the man who had delivered the sword to take me as his disciple, sought his guidance, and subjected myself to harsh training.

My master assured me, “Your talent surpasses your father's.”

According to him, the two of them had been childhood friends, and he had often been utterly beaten by my father.

“He used to say, ‘I've already finished my countermeasures,' and then casually evade my techniques. Even though he was younger than me, he was an infuriatingly cocky brat.”

My master spoke of his memories with my father, sometimes with enjoyment, sometimes with loneliness.

When I was thirteen, my master said,

“There's nothing left that I can teach you. From here on, think for yourself and train on your own. I'm going to go take care of the things I left unfinished.”

With those words, he set out on a journey.

A year later, word reached me that my master too had died in battle against the Demon King's army.

Hearing the news of his death only strengthened the vow I had made in my childhood.

Of course it did.

The Demon King had taken two father figures from me.

The night I received the same “Swordmaster” skill as my father—

Was it a dream, or was it reality?

In any case, when I came to my senses, I found myself in a strange space where my field of vision was clear, even though it should have been pitch black.

In a world dyed entirely in black as far as the eye could see, there were only two of us: myself, and another man.

He wore a black mask and a black tailcoat.

A man with the air of a jester.

Though the mask was designed with a smiling expression, it somehow also looked expressionless.

The man spoke to me in a familiar, friendly manner.

“Hey there, Erius.”

“…Why do you know my name?”

“I know you quite well. As for me… well, you can call me Kuro.”

Introducing himself in a playful tone, Kuro continued,

“You want the Demon King to die… don't you?”

“Everyone in this country does.”

“Yeah, that's true. And so… I have a proposal. That's why I invited you here.”

As I listened to the man, I tried to grasp the situation by observing my surroundings.

Some kind of… space-forming skill?

If so, it was completely unknown to me—an unheard-of ability.

The situation was suspicious. So was the man.

And yet, for some reason, at that moment I felt no doubt, and simply listened to him.

“You have a sleeping ‘power' within you. I can awaken it, and guide you to the result known as the Demon King's death.”

“A sleeping… power?”

“Yes. A wonderful power that can lead the Demon King to death much sooner, without you ever needing to become a Sword Saint.”

If that were true, I wanted it.

The thought came to me naturally.

“If something like that truly exists, then I want it.”

“That's what I thought. But this is a transaction. In exchange, you'll have to offer me ‘something' as payment—”

Crack.

In the middle of his words, a sharp cracking sound rang out between me and the man, as if something had shattered.

A fissure ran through part of the black space, a vertical white line splitting it open.

A fingertip protruded from the line, hooking into it and prying the gap wider.

From the elongated, diamond-shaped crack spilled white light.

And from it emerged a man who stood in stark contrast—wearing a white mask and a white tailcoat.

The moment he appeared, the man shouted,

“Don't listen to him, Erius!”

Startled, I looked back and forth between the two.

Seeing my confusion, the man in white continued, sounding slightly frantic.

“I can't interfere much here. Even as we speak, my power continues to drain away. So I'll be brief—do not listen to that man.”

What did that mean?

I asked the man in white.

“Are you saying… he's lying?”

In response to my question, the man in white shook his head.

“No. Unfortunately, everything he's saying is true. In this place… no one can tell a lie.”

No lies at all?

And yet, don't listen to him?

I didn't understand.

As confusion churned inside me, the man in white continued.

“That's why there isn't a single lie in his words. Right now, he's only allowed to speak the truth. But even so—he is trying to deceive you.”

Leaving those words behind, the man in white was pulled back into the diamond-shaped crack, disappearing as if swallowed by it.

The white opening closed, as though nothing had ever been there.

The man in black, who had silently observed our exchange without interrupting, spoke to me again.

“What an inconvenience… Well, I figured he'd show up.”

Shrugging his shoulders, he continued.

“So, what will you do? That man's—”

“Before that.”

There was something I needed to confirm.

I spoke over the black-clad man's words, intending to say:

I am a woman.

An obvious lie.

But what came out of my mouth was different.

“I am a man.”

I instinctively covered my mouth with my hand.

Seeing my reaction—

“I know.”

Kuro chuckled softly, clearly amused.

That told me at least one thing.

I can't lie.

If so, there was one more thing I needed to confirm.

Still confused, I lowered my hand and continued.

“Are you trying to deceive me?”

It was the best question I could manage with my limited wit.

If everything the man in white said was true, then Kuro's answer was already decided.

If he was trying to deceive me, and yet couldn't lie, then the only possible answer should be “yes.”

At my question, the man in black let out a short “Hmm,” paused to think, then spoke.

“From his perspective… yes, that would be the conclusion. But from my point of view, I'm not really trying to deceive you. I won't deny that there's something in it for me, though. And whether you accept the deal or not—that choice is ultimately yours. If you refuse, I'll be disappointed, but it can't be helped. I'll give up.”

Still smiling as before, his words made me realize that any attempt at bargaining was pointless.

When it came to inconvenient matters, he could simply choose not to answer directly.

But… seen another way, the fact that he couldn't lie also gave his words a certain degree of credibility.

If he could lie, there'd be no need to dance around his words like that.

He could just say,

“I'm not trying to deceive you,”

and be done with it.

If, unlike me, he actually could lie—and even my line of thinking was already within his calculations—then I'd be completely outmatched.

Not someone I could negotiate with.

Even so, as I felt myself being swallowed by this strange situation, I heightened my guard.

Perhaps sensing this, Kuro shrugged again and said,

“I don't actually have much time, so let's move things along, okay? First of all, if there's one thing I have in common with that man… it's that each of us, from our own positions, wants a role from you.”

“A role?”

I answered, fully aware that I was ignoring the warning not to listen.

But if this could be a clue toward defeating the Demon King, I wanted as much information as possible.

“Right. That man wants you to defeat the Demon King. And I want you to awaken a new skill, and aim for the Demon King's death.”

“…Aren't those the same thing?”

“Well, from your perspective, they might look the same. But the paths to the result are different. That man—let's call him Shiro, for simplicity. Using Shiro's method, it'll take ten years until the Demon King's death. Using my method, effectively five.”

Five years, and ten years.

Whether it was true or not… that was twice the difference.

“With Shiro's method, this country collapses. After the Demon King is defeated, an exhausted nation gets carved up by neighboring countries and disappears. Just when it finally regains its blue sky, too. With the method I'm about to propose, that can be avoided.”

“If I accept your proposal, this country's collapse can be avoided?”

“That's right. In other words, you can save many lives that would otherwise be lost to the Demon King.”

The number of lives that could be saved would be different…

If I only compared that, there was no reason not to accept his proposal.

But—

“How do you know something like that?”

“We don't know everything either, you know? It's just that if results pile up according to our assumptions, then fate is likely to head in that direction. Unexpected outcomes aren't rare. Like you refusing right here, for example.”

In other words, he assumes I'll accept the deal.

More than that—it would be fair to say he's confident he can make me accept it.

So far, everything he's said sounds too good.

Which is exactly why it's suspicious.

Still—

The difference between five years and ten years would mean a vastly different level of damage for this country.

Why this man knows such distant outcomes, I don't know.

But if the premise that he can't lie holds true, then unless he's completely delusional, what he's saying must be the truth.

Even at this very moment, lives are being lost to the Demon King's army and the black clouds.

Comparing five years ago to now makes that painfully clear.

Every day, countless lives are lost.

Starvation, battle—there's no end to the reasons.

And yet, because lies are impossible here, Shiro's words—

“He is trying to deceive you”—

kept nagging at me.

At the very least, Shiro believes that this man is trying to deceive me.

And this man hasn't completely denied it either.

As I searched for some way to ask a question that would strike at the core of the matter—

“I'm sorry. It's only natural you'd want to ask more, and I fully intend to answer. But I really don't have time. So the choice is yours.”

And most likely, the lack of time was also the truth.

As proof—parts of the pitch-black space were beginning to disappear from the edges.

It was still black, but visibility was vanishing.

“And one more thing.”

“What?”

“This deal—even if you accept it once… you can cancel it at any time.”

“That's… remarkably convenient.”

“Right? As long as you give up on ‘the Demon King's death'… the deal never happened. You can erase it and start over. A restart. So you can feel at ease. The authority to decide is always yours. From my perspective… well, it'd be a shame, but still.”

“What do you mean by ‘restart'?”

“I told you there's no time… It means exactly what it sounds like. If I had to guess, this deal will be made—but in the end, there's a high chance you'll give up on the Demon King's death and choose to restart.”

“…What did you say?”

Feeling as though my vow had been belittled, I glared at Kuro.

He brushed off my glare lightly and apologized, maintaining the same mask-formed smile as ever.

“Hey, sorry, sorry. But you know, this place doesn't allow lies. Of course, I truly hope you'll see it through. Now then—this is where you decide.”

Most likely, the inability to lie only applies to spoken words.

Even as he apologized, there wasn't the slightest trace of remorse or guilt on Kuro's face.

Looking around, I could tell I had almost no time left to think.

I still didn't understand what “restart” meant, but—

Fine.

Even if this man is a demon, or something worse.

I'll take my father's place.

I'll carry on my master's legacy.

I'll show the people of this country a blue sky.

As soon as possible.

And the lives that would otherwise be lost over five years—

I'll bear that weight.

I'll do it.

I made up my mind.

“…Very well. But before that, what's the price of this deal?”

This time, I could clearly sense a change in Kuro's emotions.

Simply put, he looked pleased.

“Thank you, Erius. The price of the deal is—”

The deal was struck.

I obtained the skill “Guide.”