The Tale of Gerald Vader, the Heretic Knight’s Rampage Through Another World
A month had passed since I received the ‘Sword-Made Blessing’.
Currently, every morning after waking, I complete my routine strength training, then immediately retreat to the innermost altar chamber of the ‘Sword-Made Dungeon’ to devote myself entirely to mastering the ‘Blessing’.
This is something I learned after clearing the dungeon: this place isn’t actually sealed off (though there is a locked door to prevent accidental entry), so any adult member of the Vader family could enter at any time.
Of course, the interior is a dangerous zone overrun by monsters, so it seems I’m about the only pervert who’d willingly venture inside.
Additionally, Alissa, who had been training me until now, was now busy shuttling between the mansion and the royal capital preparing for her entrance into the Knight Academy, coinciding with my completion of the Coming-of-Age Ceremony. She barely had any time left to spare for me.
“――‘First Sword’”
As the words left my lips, a sword about ten centimeters long materialized in my palm.
It was a faintly glowing, translucent blade.
The sword vanished precisely one second later.
I repeated this ten times.
After that, I gradually doubled and tripled the size of the generated swords, ultimately scaling them up to match the size of Alissa’s ‘Storm Lightning Greatsword’.
Furthermore, I repeated the training while extending the sword’s duration to 3 seconds, 5 seconds, and 10 seconds.
Each of these variations was practiced ten times, totaling three sets.
Incidentally, each sword size is named ‘Sword Two’, ‘Sword Three’… and so on, with the activation procedure standardized into a routine.
The sword names… were inspired by techniques from anime and manga.
Of course, in my room’s drawer (a locked one, naturally), I have a black history notebook… er, ‘procedure manual’ meticulously created and stored, detailing the techniques and specs. So even if I forget a technique name, I’m covered.
I’m not messing around.
Simply muttering the technique name yields vastly higher precision and sword generation than doing it silently.
Of course, I initially generated swords based on my own intuition.
If you’re reincarnated in another world with magical skills, trying spell-free casting first is just the natural order of things.
But reality wasn’t so kind.
When I tried generating swords based solely on my internal sensations without vocalizing the technique name, no matter how careful I was, the length and shape varied wildly, rendering them useless.
However, combat is fundamentally a battle of reading your opponent’s distance.
If I couldn’t generate and fight with a sword of a familiar shape and length, defeat was the only possible outcome.
Turns out, shouting out ‘special move names’ or ‘spell names’ in manga and anime actually serves a purpose.
Incidentally, regarding the ‘Godslayer Sword’… Unfortunately, I still haven’t managed to generate the actual physical blade.
Or rather, according to Twina, generating it as a tangible sword apparently requires multiple materials like magic stones.
In short, high-rarity swords need specific materials in addition to magic power.
That said, I don’t feel any particular need for the actual ‘Godslayer Sword’ right now.
If the light version of the ‘Godslayer Sword’ can kill demons and evil gods, then I only need to manifest it for those few seconds.
In fact, keeping it as a last resort and not revealing it until the end could even work to my advantage.
Of course, that aside, I do want to create it if possible… but honestly, that can wait until after I overcome this 15-year-old death flag.
“Phew…”
And so, today’s training quota is complete.
A month ago, creating just ten of the smallest swords nearly drained me of magic. Now, I can complete ten sets of the entire training routine without feeling drained.
Seems the growth rate of one’s magic pool gets a massive boost depending on whether you have ‘Divine Protection’ or not.
Starting the Coming-of-Age Ceremony early was definitely the right call.
“Still, you never get bored doing this day after day, do you?”
Twina, perched on the altar, looked down at me and said this with a slightly exasperated expression.
‘Gurururu…’
“See? Even Sara’s amazed.”
Saying that, Twina stroked the face of Sara-kun—a giant salamander monster (Twina calls it a ‘Sword-made Familiar’) who was peeking out from deep within the altar, showing only her face.
It seemed she’d fully recovered from the damage sustained in the recent battle. Now, she spent her days watching my training or occasionally serving as a sparring partner for combat practice.
Incidentally, I couldn’t understand a single word she was saying.
After all, all she ever uttered was things like “Grrr…” or “Ooooooh!!”
Still, whether you like it or not, both Twina and Sara-kun watched over my training without interfering, which made them kind gods.
…Well, Twina does constantly blow breath in my ear or press some unspecified part of her body against my back in a way that feels like sexual harassment… but let’s set that aside.
Still, this is all I can say.
“After all, I’m just an ordinary person.”
“Ordinary, huh… Well, I don’t mean to criticize your self-perception or anything.”
Somehow, she just looked even more exasperated.
Hmm… I guess to a god, my efforts must seem like child’s play.
Honestly, no matter how much I train, it’s never enough.
Sure, thanks to all my hard work so far, I think I’ve become somewhat capable in battle.
But the protagonist I faced at fifteen was ridiculously strong.
And the demonic tribe that dragged us into the ‘Demon Realm’ is even stronger.
To absolutely avoid a death ending, I need to train even harder than I am now.
“Alright, let’s do one more set of training.”
I’d gone through the entire training routine, but maybe because I’d been in the dungeon’s thick magical energy, I still had plenty of mana left.
One more round should be fine.
“You’re still going? That’s less hardworking and more borderline insane.”
“Fufu… Don’t be shy.”
“I’m not complimenting you.”
Exchanging such pleasant banter with Twina, I tried to generate a sword in my hand… and suddenly realized.
Right.
Come to think of it, I’d only ever generated one sword at a time. I don’t think I’d trained to generate multiple swords simultaneously with one hand.
In reality, generating swords one after another is sufficient. But imagine in actual combat, swinging a normal sword while also generating multiple short blades like kunai with the other hand to hurl them… That kind of throwing weapon technique has a certain romantic appeal, don’t you think?
Incidentally, generating one sword in each hand… I can already do that.
What I’m attempting now is generating multiple swords simultaneously with one hand.
Alright, once I think of it, I experiment immediately.
I took a deep breath and began concentrating power into my palm.
“Hmm… this is… quite difficult…”
What is this? Compared to generating one sword, controlling the magic power is ridiculously hard…!
The idea is to generate two swords in my palm, but… this feels strangely awkward.
How should I put it? No matter what I do, I can only picture the coordinates of the two swords overlapping.
Could it be that this ‘Swordcraft Blessing’ wasn’t intended for this kind of use?
But my gut feeling says ‘it’s not impossible’.
Hmm…
If the coordinates overlap, what about shifting them in time?
It deviates slightly from my original attempt, but I can’t do it now, so it can’t be helped.
…There’s a slight lag in the sword generation process, from infusing it with magic power to its appearance in my hand.
During that lag, I’ll try generating the next sword without a moment’s delay.
This attempt was correct.
“Oh, I feel like something’s starting to form…!”
The previously vague image gradually sharpened, taking shape.
The difficulty from moments ago felt like a lie.
Before the first sword was fully formed, I swiftly created the second one—
“Gerald, what are you doing now?”
“Gah!?”
Twina’s voice came from directly in front, shattering my complete concentration for an instant.
That was the moment.
—BANG!!
A popping sound came from the sword in my hand… and suddenly, the first sword I’d created shot toward the altar at incredible speed.
The sword vanished immediately, but a hole clearly larger than its diameter was visible.
“…………”
“…………”
‘…………!?’
The sheer shock silenced everyone present.
Several strands of Twina’s silver hair, which had been crouched before me, fluttered to the floor.
Simultaneously, her face drained of color.
A chill ran down my spine.
The sword I’d generated had passed right beside Twina’s face.
Incidentally, it didn’t seem to reach Sara-kun behind the altar, but she must have recalled the battle from the other day because she hid behind the altar with terrifyingly swift movement.
“T… Twina, are you okay!?”
‘I’m… I’m fine, no injuries. …But that just now… gave me a bit of a scare…’
Of course, since she isn’t flesh and blood, I doubt she’d die even if a sword pierced her…
Still, I definitely don’t want to see that happen.
What the hell was that just now!?
Did the first sword misfire during the multiple sword generation!?
I was stunned for a moment by this unexpected turn of events, but as my mind cleared, I started to worry about the power of that misfire.
“Hey, Twina. That just now… wasn’t part of the ‘Protection’s’ specifications, was it?”
‘I’m not sure… It’s the first time I’ve seen that kind of behavior.’
Apparently, even Twina hadn’t anticipated the phenomenon from earlier.
Feeling a bit nervous, I examined the hole opened in the altar.
That’s when I snapped back to reality.
“S-sorry, Twina… I damaged the altar.”
‘It’s fine. Dungeons have self-repair capabilities. It’ll be back to normal overnight.’
“Well, that’s a relief…”
Twina’s reassurance made me breathe a sigh of relief.
‘Still, that was some insane power, huh? Sword-making training is fine, but you should be extra careful.’
“…I’ll be more careful next time.”
The two of us exchanged glances and shared a wry smile.
…But deep down, I was thinking something else.
This explosive phenomenon… If we could control it properly, wouldn’t it make a powerful weapon? …I wondered.
—And the chance to test that hypothesis came sooner than I expected.
A nearby village had sent a plea for help in defeating a demon beast.