Mushoku Tensei

Volume 23 Chapter 13: Mad Sword King vs Former Sword God

Part 1

Before they noticed, Eris’s group had gotten far away from the valley.

The moment Ogre God moved, Gull Farion began to run away from the battlefield.

“This place should be good.”

“……”

The place Gull stopped at was a clearing in the forest.

Only about a minute had passed.

But Gull moved fast, he had already covered quite a distance from the valley.

Eris felt a little anxious being separated from Rudeus,

But she immediately focused on the enemy in front of her.

“It’s because the Ogre God doesn’t discriminate while rampaging. I don’t really want to be interrupted.”

Gull said that and once again looked at Eris.

“……”

But he did not draw his sword.

As if he was saying - For you, bare hands would be enough.

To Eris, it looked like a stance full of openings.

Eris confronted Gull and held her beloved 『Elegant Phoenix Dragon Sword』 above her head.

But before her, even if formerly, was a Sword God.

Eris spent some time deciding whether or not she should take that opening.

“……You look lively.”

It was surprising.

Surprisingly, Gull let out a word.

No, Gull was also human. It shouldn’t be surprising for him to say something.

But still, despite this sort of situation, for this man to start something not using swords but using words was not surprising to Eris.

“……”

In response to Eris quizzically tilting her head, Gull laughed.

“Do you remember Jino? Jino Blitz.”

“……I remember. I didn’t like him very much.”

At that answer, Gull gave a surprised laugh.

“Yeah. He was strong compared to his age, but he was a pretty boorish guy.”

Gull said that while looking at the sky.

The trees swayed as the wind blew and the sound of rustling leaves could be heard.

There wasn’t any sign of birds or other small animals.

Only the distant sound of falling trees and explosions could be heard.

Most likely, the Ogre God or maybe the North God’s fighting.

Gull’s words flowed along those sounds.

“Right now he is the Sword God.”

“…………Huh?”

“The great I have given him the title of Sword God.”

Eris didn’t understand the meaning of those words.

The Sword God Gull Farion was not a Sword God.

Even after it was said, Eris didn’t understand.

“That bastard, what’s with him? He suddenly said that he wanted to marry Nina! And then when I said he had to become stronger than the great me if he wanted to marry her……The bastard really did!”

Even though Gull said that with disdain, he actually seemed rather pleased.

Raising the corners of his mouth in a slight grin, he started remembering that time.

“It was in an instant! A sword that fast and heavy, even in my youth it would once or twice……No, he was probably better than me.”

Gull seemed to have remembered something as he swung his hand through the air.

He swung his hand around like a sword, with a speed that could bring out a shockwave.

He suddenly brought a stop to his swinging hand.

“Why was it that the great I, for the second time couldn’t swing my sword? I still don’t get it.”

And his arm returned to his side.

“It’s difficult for the great me to understand, as I was the strongest from the moment I was born. But I guess ordinary people have their moments after all.

Moments when they can surpass talent through hard work……”

Gull said that while looking up at the sky once more.

He could be heard muttering - No, it seems I’m no longer the strongest. - under his breath.

“In any case, he already has everything he ever wanted in his hands. The woman of his dreams, the title of Sword God……in the Holy Land of the Sword, everyone has recognized his strength. The era of the Sword God Jino isn’t far off.”

Gull looked at Eris

He finally looked directly at her.

“Compared to him, what have you accomplished?”

“……What?”

“After you finally got your man, you now wag your tail towards Orsted, who was supposed to be your enemy!”

Hah!

Gull Farion laughed, but there was no smile.

His eyes, radiating rage, glared at Eris.

“I had entrusted it to you. The dream of overthrowing Dragon God Orsted with absolute animosity.”

“When I remember it now, it seems ridiculous. Why did I entrust that to someone like you?”

“You’ve completely lost your fangs. Hah, some Mad Sword King you are! What part of you is Mad? It’s nice that you’ve got the man you wanted and all, but what are you, the third? Are you satisfied with that?”

Words were thrown out in rapid succession.

However, they didn’t resonate in Eris’s ears.

She could think of nothing but to not give a damn.

She wasn’t concerned.

She didn’t remember being entrusted with anything.

Therefore Eris answered like this.

“……You’ve become effeminate haven’t you?”

Sword God’s pupils contracted.

His condensed killing intent headed straight for his arm.

“You are excommunicated.”

“I don’t care.”

“You may no longer call yourself a Sword King.”

“Try it if you can.”

Eris was already prepared for war.

Rather, Eris wondered just why they had been playing with words until now.

“Do you think you can win?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’ll send a weakling like you to the other world with a single blow.”

“Hah……That’s the second time in my life that the great I have been called a weakling.”

Thus, Gull Farion took his stance.

He spread his legs, lowered his waist, put his hand on the sword hilt, and took his stance as if to hide the sword.

The stance of Iaido.

Sword King Ghyslaine Dedorudia’s speciality, a killing technique.

“………”

Eris clenched her teeth upon seeing that.

The Sword God Style possessed the commonplace practice of thrusting the heaviest sword as fast as you can.

However, there were three stances.

One was the middle-step.

The basic form of Sword God Style, which is capable of dealing with any kind of combat flow.

Another was the upper-step.

An offensive stance which is fit for someone who can impede the opponent’s flow of combat before he/she gets to attack.

The last was Iaido.

A defensive stance which is fit for someone who can calculate the best timing of attack by sniffing out the opponent’s flow of combat.

In short,

Iaido for someone who can read their opponent,

Upper-step for someone who can impede the opponent,

And those who specialise in neither take the middle-step.

Eris held a natural sense of rhythm and was someone who could assertively impede an opponent’s flow of combat, so she specialized in upper-step.

As a Beast race possessing both extraordinary hearing and smell along with great intuition and hindsight, Ghyslaine specialized in Iaido.

“………”

The stance Gull Farion took was Iaido.

This former Sword God could fight with any stance.

But in this situation, he chose Iaido.

And although she understood that, Eris was not afraid.

Silently letting out small breaths in between, they slowly closed their distance.

In that moment, Gull felt uncomfortable.

Eris was strangely quiet.

The Eris that in the Holy Land of the Sword was known as the『Mad Dog』, that would bare her fangs and simply attack right from the front, was not rushing to attack.

Something had changed.

It was her expression.

Eris had a smile.

Eris was grinning with an evil smile plastered over her face, but she stood there with a clear atmosphere like a monk in training.

If you had seen the expression, you would have understood that it was a trick.

Gull was not going to be deceived.

He only waited with his stance as if time had stopped, with the large tree to his back.

“………”

“………”

It was a strange sight.

Especially to those that knew them, one could simply look and know something was off.

Both Eris’s and Gull’s school of swordsmanship specialized in attacking first.

Without doing so, there is no way to climb the ladder of the Sword God style.

But neither of them moved.

Only the leaves dancing in the wind like snow showed that the time was still moving.

Looking at this scene, you’d think it was the same as that time.

For example, the person they were talking about just moments ago, Jino Blitz.

He had seen it.

A battle of the Sword God style without movement.

That’s right, a few years ago.

The day when Eris became a Sword King.

The fight of Eris Greyrat and Nina Farion.

They didn’t move.

The two of them did not move.

Or maybe, for these two high level practitioners of the Sword God style, this stillness had become an eternity, and thus, they did not move.

Nay, they moved however.

Eris tensely closed the gap until only a finger of distance was left between the two.

At that last moment, only a short distance remained between their swords.

The gap in front of Eris.

But this distance was far.

It was too far for a finishing blow.

To land the greatest single strike, it was still too far.

“………”

In the battle between Eris and Nina, whoever moved first would lose.

If Nina released a perfect 『Longsword of Light』 , Eris would be able to exceed that speed.

But it was Gull Farion.

Even if he was a former Sword God, he could easily exceed Eris in speed.

He could’ve easily stepped out of Eris’s range and adjusted his sword so that it just barely struck her first.

But he didn’t.

Gull Farion held his stance.

He neither closed the gap nor changed his angle.

He simply stood motionless, watching Eris’s movements.

As if only Eris existed in this world, only her movements.

Eventually, Eris had entered the killing range.

She had confidence that her strongest slash would end it in an instant.

“……”

A small doubt, a truly tiny worry, spawned within Eris.

Gull Farion had no openings.

Right now, she had the confidence that if she released a 『Longsword of Light』, even if he was a former Sword God, she had the confidence to kill him.

But her opponent was Gull Farion.

She remembered that day in the Holy Land of the Sword, that moment of humiliation.

That moment when she couldn’t see it at all and was completely blown away by Gull Farion.

“………Ngh!”

The next instant, Gull Farion moved.

Dropping his waist only by a few millimetres, he gripped the handle and gathered his strength.

Eris moved as if she was tempted by it.

She ended up moving.

Towards the certain kill hit from her perfect stillness.

『Longsword of Light』

The world’s strongest sword technique was fired.

But, at that moment, something caught Eris’s eyes

She saw Gull Farion holding the sword’s hilt with a backhanded grip.

It was not 『Light Reversal』.

It was without a doubt, a 『Longsword of Light』

A 『Longsword of Light』 unlike Eris had ever seen before.

“Water God Style Secret Technique,『Flow』.”

All that remained in Eris’s hands was a tingling feeling.

The 『Longsword of Light』that was fired by Eris collided with Gull’s swift sword as if being counterattacked, distributing the impact.

The tree behind Gull was cut down diagonally.

As the swords were on the verge of colliding, Gull pressured a little bit, which made Eris’s posture to slant ever so slightly.

As her posture shook, Eris was thrown off balance.

Just that was enough.

Gull’s pupils reflected Eris’s defenseless neck.

The retaliating sword took flight.

Was it the reparation for using the unfamiliar secret techniques from another school? That the speed of the sword was in no way fast.

The speed of the sword did not reach that of the light’s.

At best, it was the speed of sound.

『Longsword of absolute silence』

But at this distance, this separation.

To kill someone in one hit, the 『Longsword of Light』 was not necessary.

A simple attack to cut the head off was enough.

Like a guillotine, the sword fell.

A sharp sound rang out.

A kling and a klang could be heard together, the sound of metal colliding.

The sword had stopped. Biting into Eris’s neck, it had stopped before reaching an artery.

Gull’s eyes were spread wide open.

Unaware, there was a single man behind Eris.

A warrior possessing green hair, and a chalk-like spear.

The man who was standing behind Eris’s back as if hiding himself, he had stopped Gull’s sword like her guardian spirit.

If that technique had been a 『Longsword of Light』.

The very instant after Gull had that thought.

“GAAAAaaaaaaaa!”

While twisting her body, the sword which was drawn from Eris’s right side of her waist, mowed down Gull Farion’s torso.

“……Guh!”

In an instant, Gull Farion had jumped backwards.

He landed behind with a thump.

“………”

But while his feet landed, his upper body didn’t go with him.

Gull Farion’s upper body flew in mid-air.

It spun around three times and fell to the ground.

Part 2

Gull Farion looked at his upper-half of the body slowly falling down.

And then admitted his defeat.

“Ah, damnit………”

While facing upwards, he muttered.

He hadn’t seen.

He hadn’t seen the Supard warrior standing behind Eris.

Nay, he did see.

He did see him, but it never entered his mind.

He thought that nothing would change even if an enemy of that level was here.

In reality, Ruijerd couldn’t see the『Longsword of Light』.

Even if he was a veteran of the battlefield, he just couldn’t perceive that excessively fast sword flash.

But Gull’s second attack was different.

It wasn’t the 『Longsword of Light』 or anything.

It was just a normal slash attack which was loaded with the minimum amount of power and speed necessary to cut a person’s neck.

For an average soldier, Eris’s neck would’ve been bisected before one even had the time to think about stopping it.

But the one who restrained it was Ruijerd.

A veteran of the battlefield who had lived for hundreds of years.

He should be able to see it.

He should be able to stop it.

Gull had underestimated Ruijerd Supardia.

And Eris too, who had entrusted her back to Ruijerd, believing in him.

If Eris was to hesitate.

If he had thought of the possibility, even for an instant, that Ruijerd would stop his sword.

Then Gull’s jump would have made it in time.

“Why didn’t you use Sword God Style?”

Eris questioned the fallen Gull with blood dripping from her neck.

Despite that instant presentation of offense and defense, her forehead was drenched with sweat.

“I thought I would lose if I did.”

From the perspective of a swordsman.

If Eris were to use the same move by holding the sword above her head, and firing the fastest『Longsword of Light』, then Gull would have had the advantage.

But he didn’t do it.

He couldn’t.

The memory of his fight with Jino Blitz floated in Gull’s mind.

It was the memory of that fight.

The sword he believed in and never doubted.

The technique he believed in and never doubted.

Which were very easily destroyed and he was defeated, that memory.

His left hand with bone fractures, and his unsightly figure at the back of the dojo, that moment.

The surrounding gazes.

Jino, who was looking down on him.

That weakened his resolve of using the 『Longsword of Light』 as the first strike.

Gull Farion is a prodigy of swords.

He had taken the name of Sword God, but if he were to fight in a Water God Style dojo, then he could only rise up to the Water Emperor rank.

Therefore, a technique from Water God Style was used.

He had absolute confidence that he would win. He was also deadly serious. ????????????????????α????. ????o????

If he had taken the Sword God name, then he wouldn’t have been able to use it.

He had to behave accordingly as a Sword God.

He had a strong sense of judgment that he must use one of the Sword God style techniques as the Sword God.

But this time was different.

There was nothing to stop him from using one of the Water God Style techniques to distribute the 『Longsword of Light』 in the most reliable way.

Therefore, he provoked Eris through words and took the initiative.

Something he would never do during his time as the Sword God.

Now that he recalled it, he would never have obeyed Gisu’s order of cutting Rudeus’s arms either.

His gears had probably been out of order from the beginning.

When he was defeated by Jino Blitz, they were thrown out of order.

Gull Farion didn’t have as much self-confidence as before.

He didn’t have as much strength as before.

The strongest swordsman had already ceased to exist.

“Just like you said, I had become an effeminate small fry.”

Gull didn’t give an excuse.

The person who believed in their technique won, and the one who didn’t, lost.

That was just how it was.

And the words he said before the start of the battle were such effeminate words as well.

If he was vomiting out such words, then it should’ve been better to just stab him at once.

That was definitely small fry talk, and Eris might’ve looked at him as no more than a drunkard in a bar.

I must fight Orsted, I won't let it end at this rate, I want to be successful one last time - stimulated by those thoughts, he was tempted by Gisu's offer, and thought that he would be able to challenge Orsted.

Now that he thought that, he couldn't even laugh at himself in mockery.

"……I wonder what you're doing."

While looking down on him, Eris understood.

That he was pitiable.

And then, an inexpressible sorrow welled up inside her.

That this was the end of the person who had once shaken her, who she had somewhat feared.

Therefore she asked.

"……Do you have any last words?"

Gull looked up to Eris with only his eyes.

A woman with red hair.

When he saw her for the first time, he thought that she had some talent.

He thought that she was unrefined, but she could become even stronger than Ghyslaine.

He never once thought that she would be the one to kill him.

He always thought that she would stay below him.

He thought that he could win anytime he fought her.

"The one who wields the sword only for oneself is pure, the pure sword would become sharper than anyone else’s.

People change. The sword wielded for the sake of others is strong, but it will be influenced by others.

Once you hesitate, that hesitation will haunt you thereafter. Your sword will become dull.

That is how I think so.

Marrying a woman, having a child. Raising disciples. What was it that I did as a Sword God?……as I kept thinking about such absurd things, I had gotten so dull.”

Within his fading consciousness, Gull could feel words leaking out from him.

It wasn’t that there was a need to convey it.

They weren’t his last words.

He had never thought about what he would say before he died.

He had never thought that he would die in such a place.

His thoughts simply leaked out from his lips.

“Eris.

You’re the best one after all.

You didn’t become weak.

You look like you’re being possessed by freedom. You continue to remain free.”

A clot of blood gushes forth from Gull’s mouth.

Without wiping off that blood, Gull presented the sword he was holding in his hands to Eris.

“……Take it.”

“I’ll be accepting this.”

An incoherent action.

But Eris quickly received it.

As expected for someone who was at death’s door, Gull’s hands were dreadfully cold.

But the hilt of the sword was hot.

“Haa……”

Looking at that, Gull breathed out.

His lungs no longer had the energy to even breath in.

“It’s nice for a person who is free to be strong………”

His hand fell.

Sword God Gull Farion died.

Eris silently went down on her knees.

And extracted the sword’s scabbard from Gull’s back.

She then put the sword back into the scabbard, and placed it on her back.

“Phew-………”

While giving out a huge sigh, she brought out a scroll from her bosom.

An elementary healing magic scroll.

She was given one scroll to use in time of need, and so she held that one sheet.

While applying it to her neck, which was bleeding profusely, she sent mana into it.

The wound disappeared in an instant.

“……Eris.”

“Let’s go and support Rudeus.”

“Yeah.”

While saying only a few words, the two of them turned back……

After walking for several steps, Eris stopped.

She turned.

To remove the sight of Gull Farion’s empty, pale corpse, Eris tightly grasped her fist.

She chanted a spell.

In order to remember only this one technique taught to her by Rudeus, she practiced this magic many times over with Ghyslaine.

“-----『Fire Ball』”

The fireball fired by Eris’s hand burned Gull Farion’s body.

Eris didn’t watch until the end of Gull Farion’s corpse, now wrapped in flames.

She turned around and with a quick pace, left that place behind.

The surrounding trees were caught by the fire and smoke started coming out as if signaling something.

Not being hindered by anyone, until that fire was put out by Nature, it continued……

Author’s Q&A

Q. Come to think of it, what happened to the pamphlet that you applied for?

A. I wonder what happened……

I can only say to wait for it, there is no way for it but to become small as time passes.

Q. If Orsted’s mana supply will recover after some 30 years, then shouldn’t it be fine for him to join the fight? The Laplace is fight is going to be 80 years from now, right?

A. If the president’s mana supply could recover in 30 years, then he would join the fight on his own accord.

Q. Just how much old is Sándor=Alex Ryback-san?

A. Maybe somewhere around 300 years old.

Q. Why does it look cool when Eris says it but when I say it, it looks as if I’m just ridiculing the memory……

A. It’s probably because Eris doesn’t have that much memory left.

Q. Are the members on the stone monuments added according to their standard equipment? Or are they judged by their plain strength? I would like to know that.

A. The members on the stone monument aren’t very related to their strength.

Jino defeated Gull and was changed to Sword God, that’s just how it is.

Q. There won’t be any more changes in the rank of the World Powers during this fight, right?

A. No.

Q. Did she properly burn Gull’s lower half of body?

A. The entire surroundings went up in flames, taking that with it.

Q. Gull Farion died too quickly, don’t you think he became a little bit too weak?

A. Even during that fight, he would be stronger than Eris in a one-on-one situation.

Q. I was quite surprised that Jino became the Sword God!

A. He had more talent than anyone else, he kept training every day since a young age, and was able to lay his groundwork.

Q. Even though he was cut in two, Former Sword God-sama still had the time to talk, but if someone were to get cut in half in this world, then just how long would that person live I wonder…

A. Depends on how he was cut!

Q. Eris used……magic……?……ehhh?

A. You get surprised each time she uses it.

Q. Eris and Ghyslaine. Couldn’t they invoke a chantless healing magic by themselves with Rudeus’s guidance?

A. They can’t.

Q. According to power levels, Eris>Ruijerd right?

Regarding simple maggots.

A. Let’s see.

If it became a fight like that, Eris would be stronger.

Q. Even though Gull fired a 『Longsword of Light』 it ended up being 『Flow』 of the Water God Style Secret Technique?

Did he combine them together?

A. Yes, he did combine them.

Q. Even though you should’ve written approximately the same number of characters, this story felt a bit less than usual.

A. It was around 7000 characters, so it was less than usual.