Chapter 6
Eki left the training grounds and entered the inner garden. Even though it had been almost 15 years since she'd last seen it, the layout came back to her familiarly. That made her tearfully happy.
'If it weren't for this damn thing, I could have enjoyed this emotion in peace.'
Eki glared at the black mark on her palm. She went into a secluded spot that was hard for others to find, a small forest dense with tall arborvitae trees. Still feeling uneasy, she leaped up into the lush trees.
Pushing off the ground once, twisting her body in mid-air to step on a tree trunk once, and then stepping on a branch once more. After just three leaps, she was able to land on a branch near the towering top. She sat astride a thick branch, staring intently at her palm, and opened her mouth.
"...Bal. Answer me."
[Yooou must pronounce my naame correctly. I am Bardelgiooosa!]
A slurred voice, like that of a drunken bum, echoed in her soul. She had hoped for no response. Eki grimaced fiercely at the familiar sensation of the Demon Sword. She wasn't happy at all.
"What kind of idiotic way of speaking is that?"
[It's haaard to speak. Hey, time has moved on. So, I'm gonna sleep.]
"No, don't sleep. So, you're saying time was turned back, but why are you still stuck to my hand!"
[It's obvvious...]
"Hey, explain and then sleep! Hey! Hey! You damned Demon Sword!"
With that slurred voice as the last thing she heard, the words of the Demon Sword Bardelgiosa ceased.
Eki clutched her palm and shouted, then irritably stretched out her hand. Following her will, a sword sprang out from the black mark.
The Giosa Series generally used the owner's soul as its scabbard. That's why it was possible to draw the Giosa from an empty hand at any time like this. Usually, it was an advantage, but for Eki, it was a detestable curse that she couldn't even drop.
"Wake up, Bal."
She held the black hilt and tapped the smooth blade. She tapped the mark and shook it haphazardly, eventually gathering Mana in her hand with the intention of hitting it.
"Huh...?"
The Mana she had been trying to form into a blade failed to coalesce and scattered away. And a sharp pain flowed through her entire body. It felt like a cramp. Eki, who curled up and groaned briefly, quickly realized the cause.
"My body... was it this weak?"
It was a natural result of moving as she used to with a body that hadn't been trained at all. She didn't even have a Mana Core, which any Master-level knight would form, yet she had forcibly used Mana.
In the first place, it was something that would have been impossible, but her mind, which had reached the level of Master or higher, had naturally committed the act.
After examining her body, she sighed. A body that had never lifted anything heavier than a teacup. Her soft soles were already hot, and her muscles were screaming, just from moving this much. Her body, which had forcibly accepted Mana, was heating up.
She was truly a well-bred Count's daughter.
"I need to make a Core first."
No matter the situation, having power was definitely better than not having it. She decided to do it now while she was at it and took a stance. She closed her eyes, focused, and moved her Mana.
It didn't take long. Soon, the Mana inside her body gathered in one place, sucking in the surrounding Mana. It naturally settled near her solar plexus, and a Mana Core was formed.
It was fragile because it had just been created and didn't have much accumulated Mana, but it was definitely a Core. A Mana reservoir inside the body that knights who had reached Master level created, something that most people couldn't create even with a lifetime of effort, was created in less than 10 minutes.
It was a simple matter for her. Eki even had other thoughts while creating it.
'The youngest Master in history was Yuriene, the commander. Was it when she was twenty-three? Twenty-three was already so noisy, but my age, since it's March 17th, 1629... I'm twenty. I should hide the fact that I'm a Master for now.'
Then she suddenly remembered something.
"Divine Era 1629, March 17th..."
The date Lansel had told her. It was a date she remembered. Eki groaned and buried her face in her hands.
She had obtained the Demon Sword on March 17th, 15 years ago, in the early morning. So, based on the current time she had turned back to, it was this morning. It was the most terrible dawn in her life.
Before her regression, in the early morning of March 17th, 1629, Eki woke up from her bed long after midnight. She was thinking of drinking some warm milk because she couldn't sleep well.
It was funny to think about it now, but back then, Ekinesia was a young lady who didn't even know how to warm a cup of milk herself. Eki pulled the cord next to her bed to wake her personal maid, Nora, and ordered her to warm some milk.
Nora, who had gone to warm the milk, did not return. Unable to wait any longer, Eki put on a shawl over her pajamas, left her room, and went down to the kitchen herself.
She had opened the kitchen door, irritably calling out the maid's name. What greeted her was Nora, holding a Demon Sword.
She didn't remember well how she was able to avoid Nora's attack. A dark kitchen without lamps, an outline vaguely revealed by the moonlight seeping in from outside the window, a shaking vision, a scream, a transparently shining blade, those were the only things she remembered.
She remembered the result clearly. Nora had fallen while trying to stab her, and Eki had grabbed the sword that Nora had dropped in order to live. The black, cold, and smooth handle of the sword came to her vividly.
The moment she held it, she felt a snake-like sensation crawling all over her body. Following that sensation, she stabbed the sword into Nora, who was lunging at her. That was Eki's first murder.
She didn't want to recall what happened after that very much.
In the morning after that terrible dawn, there was no one alive in the mansion except for Ekinesia.
However, unlike then, on the morning of March 17th now, the gardener was tending the garden as usual, and Lansel was receiving training from the family's knight.
"It's different... How has it changed?"
Eki touched her forehead. A morning that was completely different from before her regression. But the Demon Sword was still in her hand. What had happened at dawn?
'Nora. I have to check on Nora.'
The person she had killed for the first time. She became anxious. Eki jumped down from the tree. The pain all over her body quickly disappeared as Mana began to flow from the newly formed Core.
She headed straight for the kitchen. The kitchen, located on the outskirts of the mansion's first floor, had a door leading to the backyard because it received fresh ingredients every day. It was morning, so a delivery person and a maid were talking at the door, perhaps because a delivery had arrived. The maid who discovered Eki widened her eyes.
"Young Lady? At this early hour... Oh my, you're in your pajamas."
"Where's Nora? Where is Nora?"
"Nora?"
The time it took for the maid to tilt her head and then open her mouth felt very long to Eki.
"Nora is over there. Nora! The Young Lady is calling you!"
A maid who had been talking to the cook ran over. A surprised expression spread across her freckled face.
"Young Lady! You're already awake?"
"...Nora."
"Goodness, your attire... And you're barefoot! Come here! You, turn your eyes away!"
Nora pulled Eki away and glared at the delivery person. The delivery person pressed down on his hat with a reddened face. Eki was led inside by Nora. Nora dragged her to the bathroom, rattling off a series of nagging words.
"If you woke up early, you should have called me. Why were you wandering around like that? It's not proper! What if your pretty feet get hurt! But are you not feeling well? To wake up so early. You said you couldn't sleep at dawn, didn't you? If there's a place that hurts, tell me, I'll call Doctor Smith..."
It was the first time in so long that she had heard her personal maid's nagging. The image of her collapsing while bleeding, pierced by a transparent blade, was vivid in her memory, but now Nora was breathing, chattering, and alive.
Eki listened to those nagging words as if she were possessed, until she snapped out of it at one part.
"Nora, wait a minute. Did I call you at dawn?"
"Don't you remember? You said you couldn't sleep, so you asked me to bring you warm milk."
The same situation as before. She felt like her heart was stopping. Eki swallowed hard and asked again.
"So, then?"
"Yes?"
"So, what happened?"
"I brought it to you...? Didn't you sleep after drinking it? Surely, you didn't not sleep? Lack of sleep is the enemy of the skin!"
Nora, frowning, examined Eki's face. Only after confirming that the skin of the young lady she served was as smooth and fair as she had carefully cultivated it did she sigh in relief. Eki, who had been dazed, muttered.
"You brought me milk? And I drank it and slept?"
"Yes. Don't you remember?"
"...Then, Nora, did you see anything strange at that time?"
"Something strange? Such as... Ah."
Nora, who had been asking back in a puzzled manner, nodded as if she had remembered something.
"There was a long bundle I hadn't seen before in the kitchen, so I wondered what it was and unwrapped it. Nothing was written on it. But it was an empty bundle."
"An empty bundle? Why is something like that in the kitchen?"
"I don't know. I thought maybe they hadn't cleaned up the bag after receiving the ingredients or bread delivery, but when I asked in the kitchen just now, they said they had never seen or ordered anything like that. So I'm going to take it to the butler."
That empty bundle, the Demon Sword was originally in there. Eki realized it instinctively. Perhaps Nora hadn't found anything because the Demon Sword was already with her this time. That might be why it was a different morning than before.
'I clearly asked to be sent to a past where I hadn't killed anyone. Then it should be this morning, before I killed Nora, right? Why is it already morning, and why is this detestable Demon Sword with me instead of in the original bundle?'
"...Do you have that bundle now?"
"Yes. It's this."
Nora rustled and took out a folded bundle of paper. Eki quickly reached out her hand.
"Give it to me."
"Yes?"
"I'll take care of it."
"Y-yes..."
Nora tilted her head but obediently handed it over. Eki examined the paper as she moved.
It was extremely ordinary paper and string used to wrap items in shopping districts. A length that seemed to have wrapped a very long item. She unfolded it and estimated the length. It was definitely what the Demon Sword had been contained in.
Who on earth had brought the Demon Sword to the Roaz Count's kitchen? Why? With what aim?
It couldn't have been aimed at her. Ekinesia herself didn't know that she was a genius with the sword. It was impossible for someone to know of her talent, which hadn't even done swordsmanship for exercise, and bring her a Demon Sword.
Then why on earth? She had to find this out.
'No matter what kind of bastards they are... I won't forgive them.'
