Part 12 — Out of Control

“He’s still ridiculous.”

The only way to describe the outcome was that it conclusively demonstrated the sheer gap in ability between Ran and Sansui. As Happine notes, the result was so one-sided that those who came to gape at the berserker ended up pitying her.

The two sword masters who accompany House Sepaeda’s spoiled princess as her bodyguards... One of them is rather famous in certain circles due to how much he stands out, but it’s also true that, just as often, there were times when his name wasn’t mentioned in public because the incidents he was involved with were simply too important to be talked about.

Recently, four men have been talked about as being the aces of the Four Great Houses. Among them, one of them has gained infamy as being invincible, so long as he had a sword in his hand.

With his name attached, and the recent borderline-ridiculous incident with the heads lined up on boards, combined with rumors of a berserker being in custody, brought a flood of well-heeled spectators from the capital. They leave with all their bloodlust drained from them.

‘Well, why don’t we go look at just how dangerous the captured berserker actually is?’ ‘You know, it’s probably worth a look at the Young Sword Apostle’s boring face.’ ‘If the show’s boring, I can jump in and defeat both of them.’ The spectators completely abandoned those thoughts as they left.

It was clear to everyone who watched that she was a real berserker, and that the berserker had been thoroughly beaten down by the all too real sword apostle. Sansui’s strength was so ludicrous that the spectators left exhausted, as though all of them had experienced exactly what Ran did when Sansui had his sword to her throat. To put it briefly, they all felt a certain relief, a sense that they’d barely made it out with their lives.

“He really is a monster.”

Ran and the four others are currently staying at the Batterabbe Estate. In the room they’ve been given, the Batterabbe party and the Tempera party are having a chat. Seems the shared experience of challenging, then being demolished by Sansui has brought them together.

As for Tahlan, he’s off sparring with the other spectators. It seems that he also felt something in the battle and needs to get it out of his system.

“So, what are you planning to do now?”

Sansui is in favor of killing Ran, and he knows that only he and Saiga can do it. Or rather, it’s because she’s so powerful that he thinks she ought to be killed. On that point, no one can really refute him. The truth is that it’d be natural for him to do so, and that there’d be nothing wrong with it.

“I don’t know... Just what was that...?” Ran lets out, after a troubled pause.

She understands how she lost the first fight. He circled into her flank using Flash Step, then knocked her out with a Ki Wave. He demonstrated the same set of moves repeatedly during the most recent fight, as though to hammer home the point.

The problem is that, even knowing the mechanics, she can’t come up with a single way to deal with it. It’s something she’s never experienced before.

“I didn’t feel like I was fighting a human being... Just what was I fighting?”

Her hair is still silver. In spite of this, it’s fear, rather than excitement, that drives her. She felt that she’d just fought a monster wearing the skin of a human being. Ordinarily, that’s a description that best fits berserkers, but she just couldn’t think of Sansui as human.

“The man who decimated your village two thousand years ago... Sansui is his apprentice.”

Happine’s words had a certain resignation to them. Sansui took down a berserker as though he were facing children. No wonder they couldn’t beat him.

“Impossible! I don’t know how else to put it, but... Is that girl who turns into a sword telling the truth?”

The Temperans can’t hide their confusion. They used to be so sure that there couldn’t be people like Sansui out in the world. The Batterabbe party can’t help but feel a certain nostalgia at their reaction.

“I am the Legendary Sword Eckesachs. I am not a girl who turns into a sword, but a sword created by God and masquerading as a human being. I am several thousand years old. My current wielder is Saiga there, but my previous wielder was Sansui’s master, Suiboku.”

Eckesachs couldn’t hide her exasperation, even as she described the situation. No doubt that Suiboku trained his apprentice after having all of the realizations he came to after going their separate ways, but there’s a limit to even that.

“Suiboku and Sansui are Immortals who have the power of Ki, and by training in deep woods or mountains, they gain an unaging body. So far as I know myself, Suiboku has lived for twenty-five hundred years, while his apprentice is at least five hundred years old. Of course, ordinary Immortals aren’t so fixated on swordplay, apparently.”

The ‘apparently’ is because she herself has never met an ‘ordinary’ Immortal. She may have existed for several millennia, but she’s a Sacred Treasure meant for combat, and there’s no reason for her to interact with Immortals who don’t fight.

“To put it bluntly, Suiboku was the ultimate swordsman. He defeated your ancestors, and it’s no exaggeration to say that he traveled the entire world in search of opponents. He fought against the wielders of the Sacred Treasures and cut down all of them. And, of course, he fought the Marked and never lost.”

To her, those were the glory days. Eckesachs recounts them with a contented expression.

“As such, he truly was the greatest warrior in the world. He fought countless people across these lands, and proved that there wasn’t a single one able to challenge him. Sansui is the man that this Suiboku then trained for five hundred years and sent out to the mortal world as worthy of being considered the greatest. Sansui himself isn’t much different from you lot, a boy with no knowledge of the wider world, but Suiboku knows what the world holds. Whether Sansui could beat Suiboku is an open question, but for the only one stronger than Sansui...is likely Suiboku himself.”

A true warrior, the ultimate warrior. The greatest, not just of this kingdom, but perhaps closer to the greatest in this entire world. Maybe it wasn’t possible to win against that sort of ridiculous opponent.

“Just so we’re clear, Saiga’s pretty ridiculous, too! You better not underestimate him!”

Happine defends Saiga’s honor. However, she doesn’t say that Saiga could defeat Sansui.

“So, just to double check. What is it you want to do? If you just want to fight strong opponents, then you’ve already gotten your wish, yes? What do you want to do afterwards?”

Sansui is strong. So strong that he can easily defeat the girl in front of Happine, and make her admit defeat, without killing her. Further, he doesn’t age. As such, age won’t dull his abilities, even as time goes on. In fact, Ran will grow old before he ever does. So long as Ran is near Sansui, she can’t go on a rampage and come out alive.

“I...”

“Just so we’re clear, Sansui’s built up quite a bit of trust over the years. If Sansui says that we should kill a berserker — that is, you — I’d need to have a really solid foundation to work from in order to oppose it.”

At the very least, if she doesn’t plan to learn self-control, then there’s no other choice but to kill her. That’s because Ran is simply too dangerous in her excited state. Unless she intends to control herself, she won’t stop.

“Even I’m not...that charitable. If you plan to stay the way you are, I won’t defend you. No matter what anyone else says.”

She just wouldn’t be worth it. She probably means it. Happine doesn’t want to keep her alive that badly.

“In truth, you yourself probably think you can’t complain if someone wants to kill you, right?”

Ran flinches, trembling at those words. In her excited state, the swings in her emotions seem more pronounced. She had no intention of being killed. In fact, she intended to be the one doing all the killing. But that means that she can’t complain if she’s killed.

“...Yes.”

“Honestly, leaving you to your own devices is dangerous, and we can’t send you back to your village. Therefore, there are two choices — you either learn self-control, or you die.”

There’s no way that Ran could escape her fate. Once Sansui decides she needs to be taken care of, her death is a certainty.

“...I’ll be honest. I’d prefer that you cooperate.” After some hesitation, Saiga addresses Ran directly. His eyes glint with steely determination.

“I’m not embarrassed to admit it. I need your help to become stronger.”

With that, Saiga tenses. His face turns red with effort as he strains every muscle in his body. Those in the room can’t understand what he’s doing. Everyone that is, except for Ran.

“Wha...?”

While the Temperans were ignorant of magic, and therefore didn’t know about the Rare Arts, there’s one thing that they know for certain. That is, to learn a martial art, you had to have the gift specific to that art, and that every person was born with a single gift. Since Saiga had created those walls, there’s no way he could do the same thing she does...

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

As he lets out a shout, his hair begins to turn silver from the roots upward.

“How’s that!”

Saiga, with his emotions heightened at having become a berserker, begins talking at an incredible clip as the others in the room stare in surprise.

“I can’t explain it very well! But I can use lots of magics, lots of martial arts! Which is why I’m treated as House Batterabbe’s ace! But I’m still really, really weak! I couldn’t do anything against Sansui, even though I have the ultimate legendary sword! And I’ve honestly been struggling with this! Right now I can’t even beat people who fly! Just because they’re flying!”

He can’t very well go on a rampage, but the words come flooding out of him as though he’s drunk.

“It was a really big shock to me! I mean, all they were doing was flying! I’m sure it’s impressive, but it’s not that rare! But despite the fact that I’m fighting them with the legendary sword! I couldn’t beat the enemies that were flying! And then Sansui’s girlfriend just goes and takes them out like it’s nothing! It was really, really embarrassing!”

“Uh—Right...”

“So I thought maybe I should learn to fly first! Because screw it if I’m just going to sit on the ground and watch when flying enemies showed up again! Which is why I was going to practice flying! But then you show up and the Regent decides to hoist some random homework on me! But then Sunae goes ahead and beats you! And Eckesachs won’t pick me to fight you, either!”

“O-Okay...”

Saiga continues honestly spilling his guts. The others, all being women, aren’t sure how to stop him.

“It’s REALLY frustrating! You understand that, right?! I’m really quite awesome, I’m supposed to be awesome! But unlike Sansui no one depends on me for anything! That just sucks! I have all these powers to do stuff, but I can’t even take down bad guys that are flying! By a bunch of redshirts whose only ability is to fly!”

“S-Sure...”

“Which is why I want your help! I need you! I want your powers as a berserker, as a Marked, I want that power for myself!”

“Y-Yeah...”

“I’m not going to be picky about methods anymore! Even Sansui told me to acquire new powers if I thought I needed them! And if I let you go, I won’t be able to learn berserker powers from anyone anyway!”

Saiga uses the power of a berserker to corner Ran. He grabs Ran’s shoulders and shakes her. Although they’re both berserkers, in Ran’s depressed state, she’s no match for Saiga’s enthusiasm.

“L-Lord Saiga! Please turn off your berserker powers!”

“Which is why... Whoa!”

Saiga’s arms begin turning to stone. This is because Saiga, despite hearing Zuger’s words, refused to stop, and so the curse kicked in, instead.

“R-Right! I got it! I’m going to calm the Tainted Blood.”

Sansui had pointed it out as well, but in an excited state, it’s hard to exercise self-restraint, which means an external safety valve is necessary. Thus, House Seive’s Hex Arts, which can transform a person based on an agreement with the caster. With the physical restraints from that agreement kicking in, Saiga settles to the floor, arms still petrified.

“...Phew...”

Settled on the ground, he begins to focus. Saiga’s hair slowly returns to normal. It goes from its burning silver to black. Simultaneously, his arms turn from stone to flesh.

“Thank you, Zuger.”

“Not at all... It seemed you were a bit more excitable than before?”

“Probably because seeing Sansui demonstrate his strength brought a lot of things back to the surface... I mean, he’s pretty awesome to watch.”

His excitement fades and Saiga regains his calm. Everyone around him can’t shake their surprise at the change. At the same time, they were also surprised that he had managed to restrain himself.

“But I still want to learn from an expert. I feel bad about relying on Sansui for everything.”

“An expert... Me?”

“Yeah... Guess it’s obvious, but becoming a berserker really makes me stronger. But... It’s hard to exercise any self-control. Frankly, it’s enough to make it impossible to use Eckesachs...”

Saiga is good at learning the basics, but there are limits. As it is, when becoming a Marked, just starting the basics puts you in a heightened emotional state.

“Of course that’s the case. An agitated human can’t very well use a sword properly. It’s one thing if they were as skilled as Tahlan, but you’ve got decades of training before you reach that level.”

“Guh...”

“But to approach it from a different angle, if you can get used to the excited state, and be able to control yourself, you’ll likely become much stronger. It won’t do much against flying enemies, but in the worst case, you can always throw rocks at them.”

Saiga still can’t do much against flying opponents, but that’s a problem to tackle later. It’s possible he might very well find a Rare Art that lets him fly very easily.

“There are many who can fly, but there’s only one berserker here. And since you’re not an Immortal, it’s an open question of whether you’ll see another in your lifetime. In that sense, your priorities aren’t misplaced.”

“I first thought that maybe I can teach this to someone, but... I couldn’t. I only learned once I could actually become a berserker that it’s really hard to restrain myself... At the very least, I can’t teach anyone until I can learn to control it myself. It’s too dangerous. Which is why I want to be able to control it. Help me learn it.”

He puts his own desires right out there, with no intention of hiding them. He wants to learn as much as he can from Ran, first and foremost for himself. It’s a very easy thing to understand.

“You must know that I can’t teach you self-control... I don’t know how to do it, either!”

“That’s fine, let’s learn it together. You don’t want to die, right? You want to keep living. That’s the same for me.”

If Happine found herself empathizing with Ran’s four companions, Saiga found himself empathizing with Ran herself.

“You have no training to fall back on, no ideal to serve as your goal, no motivation, no principles, no creativity. All you’ve done is rely on your talent and cling to it like a crutch.”

“You’re dull, uninteresting, pointless, and boring.”

“No living thing is guaranteed to be alive tomorrow. There’s no reason you or I can’t die this very second. You in particular. Now... Up till today you’ve gorged on victory, drunk on power. Ran of the Tempera Village, if you were to die now, would you have no regrets?”

Those words, after all, apply to him, as well.

“Would I be content if I died today?”

Sansui and Suiboku would be fine if death claimed them today. They’ve dedicated their lives to what they loved, as much as they could hope to do, and they’d die without regrets.

But these two aren’t like that. At the very least, they haven’t had something to dedicate their overflowing strength toward mastering. They’ve never accomplished anything by making use of every last ounce of their ability. They didn’t want to die while Sansui could justly declare that they’d never done anything of value.

“No, I don’t... I! I! I can’t die yet! I want to live!”

The words after ‘I’ that couldn’t come out during the fight come flowing out without shame. She’d been constrained by the worthless pride she’d accumulated through her fights before she arrived in these lands. She was finally free again. Free to shout what she wanted.

“I can’t just let it end like this! I couldn’t offer any resistance as I was beaten! I’m going to show him I can be better!”

She had been strong from the moment she had been born. In truth, she had never lost or even struggled. She had never felt constrained or that she lacked power. Having now experienced those emotions firsthand, she shouted her renewed desire to become stronger.