856 C-8, Rain Month 2, Moon 27
Our game of cat and mouse was over. I’d grown tired of chasing this man around town and decided to finally corner him in a deserted alleyway. But I didn’t want him to run away, so I decided to take appropriate steps to make sure he couldn’t take any.
“Aaargh!” the man before me screeched into the night air. “P-Please, no!” he cried, gripping his bloody stumps where his feet used to be. “I’ll do anything. Just leave me with my life. Please!”
I cast my dispassionate gaze at the crimson pool underneath him. “Not enough...” I muttered, raising my blade, a large slab of sharpened metal almost the same length as my body, into the air. The fangs that lined its edges wriggled, anxious to gouge out this man’s flesh and pour his blood into the holes between each one of them. After all, blood was very important to fueling the blade.
“Noooo!”
My blade plunged into his torso, the fangs squirming with joy. As blood poured into the holes in between the fangs, the metal of the blade glowed a familiar dull crimson.
“Yet another kill of subpar blood,” I sighed.
Ever since that day, it’d been like this. I’d had to resort to preying on weak beings like this man to advance my sword to an even higher level. But soon, that’d come to an end.
I almost have enough blood now. I can become the Blade Saint. I can save... Who can I save again? A shadow of a face flashed through my head. They sounded like they were calling out to me, but I couldn’t hear them at all. All I could understand was a simple command: become the Blade Saint. It was a command I was destined to follow. If I could become the Blade Saint, I could... Ugh. My head’s starting to hurt. All this thinking isn’t getting me anywhere anyway. Once I kill that brat, I’m sure this will all go away. But speaking of headaches...
“What do you want?” I barked toward a shadow in the corner of the alleyway. “If you got something to say, speak up. Don’t slink around as if you’re successfully avoiding my detection.”
“Apologies if I offended you. I didn’t want to interrupt your feeding. I’m simply here to check up on you.”
“Gotta keep tabs on me? Where’s the trust?”
“Oh, don’t be like that. I must say that it’s very nice to see you in good health. The last time I saw you, you were sporting some very fresh wounds and were perhaps on the brink of death.”
“Your point?” I growled.
“I just hope you don’t forget who rescued you from that situation.”
I gripped the scar across my chest. Though it wasn’t one that I’d freshly received, I could still feel that boy’s knife surgically slicing through my flesh, spilling my precious blood.
“Is that what this is? Cashing in the favor, are you?” I scowled. “I never asked for help. I would’ve survived.”
“We can debate that fact until we’re blue in the face, but the reality of the situation is that my master helped bring you back from the brink of death after, frankly, a humiliating defeat. But, hey, I’m just the messenger,” he said, trying to defuse the situation after noticing the sharp glare I was shooting at him with my gleaming red eyes. “In any case, I’ve come before you bringing an offering—news that I think you’ll be very interested in.”
“Oh?” I asked, extracting my blade from the dead man’s body, now nothing but a dried husk. “You’ve come to give me something and not ask for something?”
“Indeed. As a show of goodwill, my master would like to offer you information that you’ve no doubt been in search of. All he asks is that after you’re successful in your endeavors, you consider joining him.”
“There’s scant any information in this world you could give me that would incentivize me to join your master.”
“From what I know, there’s only one piece of information you’re looking for, and that’s precisely what I come to you with today.”
I shot him a skeptical look. Granted, I’d mainly been focused on recovering my strength since that fateful battle, but I’d also been doing my own investigation despite being unable to turn up any information. If this servant truly does have some kind of lead, then...
“I can see I have your attention. Do we have a deal?”
“If you have pertinent information, then I’ll consider it.”
“Excellent! That’s all I need to hear. My master will be so pleased to hear you considering his proposition.”
“Sure, sure. What’s the information?” I demanded.
Though I couldn’t see his face, I could tell that he was smirking. But after I heard his information, my lips curled as well. I could feel the scar on my chest beginning to throb.
“I trust this information is to your satisfaction?” he asked.
“Yes, very.”
“Excellent! One last thing,” he said, throwing me something from the shadows.
In the next moment, I caught a mysterious smoky glass ball. “A magisphere? What spell did you stuff in here?” I asked, observing it.
“Spells. It’s a new type engineered by the finest people working under my master. Inside is a cocktail of very powerful spells that will... Well, they’ll allow you to accomplish your objective without any interference.”
“Keep it. I have no interest,” I scoffed.
“Consider it a token of my master’s goodwill as well as an...insurance policy. You might not need it, but it doesn’t hurt to have it, especially since it’ll give you the cover of darkness.”
“I couldn’t care less about your master’s goodwill, but...cover of darkness, huh?” I smirked. “All right. Tell your master that we’ll meet soon. And when we do, he’ll be meeting with the true Blade Saint.”