I bow.
The Goddess of Knives is wearing the bracelet I gave her.
I wonder if she always wears it. If so, that makes me happy.
"Good evening. Goddess."
"Good evening, Wof. You know why you're here, I take it?"
"This is about the Goddess of Swords' daughter, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's right."
"I've been wondering about something, if you don't mind... Do you always keep an eye on us?"
"Not always."
Not always... So she doesn't deny that she watches sometimes.
"...So, um..."
For a moment, I didn't know what to ask.
About the Goddess of Swords' daughter — I'm at a loss for what to ask first.
The Goddess of Knives speaks.
"The Goddess of Swords' daughter has an objective."
"An objective?"
"Most likely — that sword, Vinu, couldn't become human. That's why I believe she targeted Mineha as a human vessel."
"A vessel...?"
"Yes. She would place her own soul inside and seize control of Mineha. And I expect similar incidents will keep happening... Mineha will certainly be targeted going forward."
"...Why is she being targeted?"
"Preference."
"Huh?"
"A woman would want to become beautiful. A woman of that caliber is exceedingly rare in this world. That's why she's being targeted as a vessel."
"She's a ten-year-old girl, though."
"Huh...? W-when you put it that way, you're right. Ten? That was her?"
The goddess of the blade kept floating question marks above her head.
I understood the feeling.
"I get why she'd be targeted as a vessel, but why was she being hurt?"
"I don't know. However, it's possible that inflicting pain was meant to weaken her spirit and make the takeover easier. A certain amount of pain and injury was likely considered acceptable."
I see. Weakening the heart.
If you're after a human body, a few wounds didn't matter.
"Does she want a human form that badly?"
"Well, it's not necessarily that simple... She may have a specific purpose that requires obtaining a human body."
A purpose behind the purpose. But either way, my course of action was clear.
The sword goddess's daughter was my enemy.
"Is Mineha the only one who'll be targeted?"
"No. If it's a matter of preference, anyone could serve as a vessel. As for the sword's wielder — he was certainly no good person. But his soul had been corrupted by the sword goddess's daughter. That corruption is what turned his personality into the garbage you saw."
"So that was because of the sword...?"
He'd been manipulated. I'd done a terrible thing.
"She had no choice in the matter either. The wielder was a scoundrel. The corruption worsened, and the elements that made him vicious were substantial. So you can't simply blame the daughter."
Hoss had said the guy was scum to begin with.
I'd felt guilty for nothing. What a waste.
"When I destroyed the sword, he died. What exactly was that...?"
He'd crumbled into a skeleton at tremendous speed and then dissipated into mist.
As far as deaths go, that was bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. The Knife Goddess grimaced slightly.
"A contract, most likely. That man was able to wield a Relic of Authority. I believe you can think of it as a contract — the price for being allowed to carry it."
"A price paid in power?"
The Knife Goddess nodded.
"Originally, Relics required life as the price of power. By replacing that with 'time,' the balance of the world was restored."
"Time... cooldown..."
"Yes. The reason pseudo-Apotheoses and others can use them without losing life is because of the cooldown."
So time was the price.
No — by imposing the restriction of time, they'd made it possible to wield power.
"Did Relics originally consume life?"
"Yes. In the past, they consumed the energy of the soul."
"The contents of the soul's vessel?"
"Yes, exactly."
So basically the MP-equivalent thing. The kind where you die when it hits zero.
"But some Relics don't have a cooldown, right?"
As for me, it's Danger Discernment and Wheel of Fortune.
Vibration and Banish too, I guess. That's a lot.
The knife goddess speaks.
"Some Relics need a time restriction, and some don't. That's all."
"I see."
They feel simple and low-impact — or rather, the powerful ones are the ones with restrictions.
But it's strange that Banish doesn't have one. That one's strong.
"But why would they have only now begun to act? For the longest time, there was nothing."
"You did say something like that before."
"I'm surprised it suddenly started reacting."
"…………"
If there was anything to pin it on, it'd be that ruined city and the ruins.
I was almost certainly right about that. Nothing good ever came out of that place.
Well, no — one good thing had come of it. I thought of the pocket watch in my pouch.
Just the one.
"Oh well. What's done is done. Wof, when the time comes, use the knife I gave you."
"I wouldn't hesitate to use it."
I said that, but that knife, huh.
That one was a pain to use too, just in a completely different way from the knife of the other sea.
Was that even a knife to begin with?
"Yes, that is fine. That will be all for this time. Good fortune to you, Wof."
"Thank you very much."
"Oh, and ease up on the girl-chasing too."
"Okay. Huh?"
The goddess of knives held up the breastlet in front of me as I stood there dumbfounded.
Then the scenery shifted, and I woke up in my room at the inn.
"Ease up on…"
Something about that didn't sit right with me.
The next day. Day three.
Originally, this would have been our departure day, but after thinking it over, the two of us decided to postpone.
The beginning of next week would be the new departure date.
For now, though, everyone had already vacated the inn and was staying at Skia Coffin Ele.
The inn's accommodations weren't bad. But the comfort level was on a completely different scale.
Since that day, Mineha and Annakreuzen hadn't gone out into town.
They'd been staying at Skia Coffin Ele the whole time.
Bid and Shaldina brought their inn luggage over.
That said, it wasn't all that much stuff, and they had pouches too.
The Skia Coffin Ele with the boat attached had safely made it into the water.
In water mode, the Skia Coffin Ele had a small boat mounted at its front end.
However, that boat had absolutely no space for a person to ride in.
The gear was obnoxiously conspicuous in its size.
Attached to the gear was something resembling a red-black, semi-transparent gel.
It was the Skia Horse Ele that had been towing me.
Since it was a shadow, it could freely alter its shape.
The Skia Horse Ele turned the gear.
Power was then transmitted to the screw mounted at the rear, spinning it.
That was how the Skia Coffin Ele moved across water.
Put simply, it was a pedaling boat. Quite the brute-force approach.
Second floor of the Skia Coffin Ele.
The witch's workspace.
The witch had called me over, and I had her verify whether the Blue-Green Crystal was genuine.
After explaining the circumstances, I handed her the Blue-Green Crystal. She took one look at it and spoke.
"Mm-hmm. Mm. This is without a doubt a real Blue-Green Crystal."
"I see…"
"No, no, for that fish to have been carrying something like this. Now that's surprising."
The witch picked up the Blue-Green Crystal.
She rotated her wrist this way and that, examining it.
"Well? How is it?"
"Mm-hmm. This amount should be more than sufficient as material. Come to think of it, I never did ask Lupinus what kind of shield to make."
"That would be something like—"
I explained the concept, roughly what it would look like, and its functions.
The witch listened in silence, nodding frequently, and when I finished, her emerald eyes glimmered with an unsettling gleam.
"My, my, how very, very interesting indeed. The concept of a tank, and the ingenuity of its functions — these really are memories from your past life, aren't they?"
She set down a blue-green crystal.
"Yes. They're from my past life's memories."
In other words, it all came from my past life.
When I answered, the witch's expression turned thoughtful.
"…But, but, if you have multiple sets of memories, you're still Wof, aren't you?"
"I suppose so?"
I couldn't quite grasp what the witch was getting at, and blinked in confusion.
My reaction drew a gentle smile from the witch.
"In other words, rather than memories, they seem more like knowledge to you."
"Well, that's more or less how it feels, yeah."
Though sometimes fragments that feel like memories do surface.
"Mm-hmm. You really are fascinating, Wof."
"Am I?"
Hearing her say that, I did have to admit there was quite a lot going on with me.
"Now then, let's get to the main topic. Shall I hand over the gauntlets?"
"I've been waiting for this!"
From here on, there was the sword goddess's daughter, and possibly other things I might have to fight.
I really want to believe that a 'Death Abstract'-class one doesn't exist.
But you never know what life will throw at you.
When that time comes, what I can rely on is my 'Gauntlets of the Quiet Saint'.
On the witch's first work desk sits a black box. Could the gauntlets be inside?
"Go on, go on, open it up, young Wof."
"Okay!"
Heart pounding with excitement, I open the box.
Nestled perfectly inside are two gauntlets—I couldn't help but murmur.
"They're blue."
They were indeed blue. And the shape was different from before.
The old ones had an antiquated shape and a plain color.
But these new gauntlets were blue.
Though it wasn't as though the whole thing was blue.
Large, oval-shaped, pupil-like blue gems were set into what made up most of the gauntlets.
Wait, no—these weren't gems… they had a peculiar luster.
"Are those gemstones?"
"Oh, yes, yes—strictly speaking, that's not quite right. These are Demon Treasure Crystals."
"Demon Treasure… Crystals."
"Now then, let me give you a brief rundown of the functions. The previous 'Gauntlets of the Quiet Saint' functions are all still there, and what's been newly added is enhanced defensive power. They're roughly ten times harder than before. That said, they can still be broken, and they do have a self-repair function. But that's not all. The greatest feature of these gauntlets—that blue Demon Treasure Crystal—has a reflection ability. With this, you can bounce back virtually any attack it takes head-on. I don't think there's any attack it can't reflect."
"It can… do that much?"
"Though honestly, it's just speculation, but I doubt you'd be able to reflect the maximum attack of a pseudo-deified Relic."
"Well, yeah."
Even if it's pseudo, it's still a god's attack.
"And another thing—reflection isn't available at all times. If you keep reflecting in succession, it'll suffer a functional decline and enter a cooldown period. When the Demon Treasure Crystal is flickering, that means it's in functional decline. When it turns red, that's a cooldown. You won't be able to reflect during cooldown, so be careful."
I see. Convenient, but it has that kind of downside too.
Still, a reflection function. That's amazing.
"Understood. Witch… does this gauntlet have a name?"
For some reason, the name hadn't floated into my mind like before.
"Oh my, it's called the 'Gauntlets of the Blue Saint.' Blue, holy gauntlets."
"Blue, holy… Blue Saint…"
Just as it looks.
Hm? Blue and holy = Blue Saint?
'We, the Blue Saint, are here!'
Oh, that—that dream! So that's what it meant!
That's why the Quiet one disappeared. I see. No wonder it made sense at the time.
"…?"
I tilted my head, satisfied. Wait, wait—why did they show up in my dream?
How could they appear in my dream? Why were they talking?
And where did the Quiet one go, exactly?
Does that mean… this gauntlet has that kind of power?
The power to enter someone's dreams? On top of that, it has a will of its own? No way, no way.
"Oh my, oh my, is something bothering you?"
The witch noticed something off about my expression and gestures.
"It's not that I'm bothered, but I was thinking… it really stands out."
Setting aside the whole "will of its own" thing — yeah. This gauntlet definitely stands out.
It'd draw attention like a moth to a flame. It already stands out enough as it is.
"Hmm, hmm. Indeed, a blue magic crystal is quite eye-catching."
Then the gauntlet's blue magic crystal turned black.
"Um, it turned black?"
It wasn't blinking, and it wasn't red either. It went black.
Like someone flipped the power switch off. What's that supposed to mean?
"Oh, oh, like this it doesn't stand out anymore, does it?"
"Y-yeah, but… does it do that automatically?"
Just now, it clearly reacted to our conversation and changed color on its own.
No, no, it must be one of its functions.
"No, no, there's no such function. I'm surprised the magic crystal changed color like that."
"Whaaaat…"
There's no such function?
You know, it's been like this from the start, but this is completely insane.
It's like herbs… ah.
And even now, belated as it was, the realization hit me.
This—this gauntlet. It was the equipment version of the witch's herbal tea.
In that instant—I shuddered.
"Come on, come on, go ahead and try it on."
"……Y-yes."
I'd realized it. I'd realized something I shouldn't have.
It wasn't just herbal tea.
I'd been convinced it was only herbal tea.
Why didn't I notice sooner?
The moment it had self-repair and a homing instinct, I should have caught on.
But even if I had, it was already too late.
Everything was already far too late.
Resigned, I equipped the Azure Saint's Gauntlet.
It clung to both arms like a second skin, fitting perfectly with absolutely no sense of displacement.
I could barely feel any weight— and in that instant, I understood.
The Relic [Deep Still] had changed.
Relic [Azure Saint]: Your eyes become glowing blue-purple pupils. When focused, Slow Motion can be used once for up to 60 seconds. Your mind grows quiet and you become calm. You can toggle the target pointer and light point on and off at will. You occasionally hear the voices of others' hearts. Duration: 6 minutes. Cooldown: 4 minutes.
Right. It finally showed up. I always knew it would someday. A Saint.
And what's more, it's an [Azure Saint] I've never even heard of. Blue-purple eyes— that's practically Edda territory.
Wait, but isn't [Saint] a quasi-divine Relic?
Well, it's about time, I guess.
Even so, where did I come from, and where am I headed?