Chapter 255: Seria Wakes Up.

Shu Li woke to dazzling sunlight.

When he opened his eyes, he was still a little dazed. He raised a hand to shield them from the sun, and only after adjusting to the brightness did his mind finally clear.

He had forgotten to draw the curtains last night, and now the sun was practically scorching his backside.

Wait. Scorching my backside?

Shu Li abruptly rolled over and sat up. One glance at the hourglass clock on his desk, and his heart sank.

It was already past nine in the morning. He had overslept and missed the time he usually spent purifying the Mother Tree and its fruit.

He ran a frustrated hand through his thoroughly disheveled hair.

After returning to his room last night, he had redone his disguise and sewn his school uniform. By the time he finished, it was three or four in the morning. He had collapsed into bed and slept straight through until now.

Opening his mouth wide, he let out a tremendous yawn before flopping back onto the soft bedding like a thoroughly defeated couch potato.

Oh, well. With his purification magic at its current level, missing a single day wouldn't matter. The Mother Tree hadn't tapped on his window to wake him, probably because it knew how late he'd gone to bed.

Shu Li hugged his blanket and nuzzled into it, intending to sleep a little longer.

Then he suddenly remembered the magic sword lying on his living room sofa.

The Sword of Carlos, which Seriu had transformed into.

He immediately released the blanket and scrambled out of bed.

He had to check whether Seriu had turned back into a human!

He rushed into the bathroom, washed up as quickly as possible, and changed into his newly sewn school uniform, now flawless after his alterations. He tied his hair into a ponytail, transformed his little flower crown into a golden forehead ornament, and emerged from his bedroom looking fresh and presentable.

In the living room, Seriu sat on the sofa, staring into space.

An hour had passed since he woke, but his thoughts remained fixed on what had happened seven hours earlier.

He remembered it vividly. When the Little Fairy began singing in that heavenly voice, something bizarre had happened to his body.

He had turned into a sword.

Although he couldn't speak in that form, his hearing and perception had remained intact.

As a result, he had "seen" Sperien's true Fairy appearance after his disguise fell away and heard his conversation with Ace.

So the true people of Cecilia had vanished into the depths of history long ago. The throne had passed to a prince who wasn't related to the royal family by blood.

Seriu himself was descended from that prince and possessed none of the original royal bloodline of the Kingdom of Cecilia.

He had also learned what had happened when he prayed before the statue of his ancestor, Sede, at the age of ten. That prayer had granted him an inheritance and made him eligible to awaken the Sword of Carlos.

Through that inheritance, he had discovered many secrets concerning the magic swords.

The Sword of Carlos was the foremost of the Five Swords.

After the gods bestowed the magic sword upon the ancestor of the people of Cecilia, that ancestor fused his soul with the blade to strengthen its power.

From then on, the sword was the man, and the man was the sword.

By passing the sword down through his bloodline, he could protect it to the greatest extent possible and prevent it from falling into the hands of the followers of darkness.

Unfortunately, for all his careful planning, the ancestor had never anticipated the extinction of his people.

After the War of the Gods ended, the Sword of Carlos disappeared without a trace.

Fortunately, the ancestor had sealed an inheritance within his statue, hoping that a suitable candidate would one day appear and become the sword's new master.

Regrettably, Seriu's princely forefather had lacked the foresight to appreciate this arrangement. Uncomfortable with having a statue of a "dead man" in the royal palace, he had ordered it moved to a secret chamber in an underground passage.

And so Sede's statue had lain forgotten beneath the ground for more than ten thousand years, its existence unknown to anyone.

Until ten-year-old Seriu accidentally stumbled into the chamber and offered a devout prayer before it.

At last, the inheritance of the Sword of Carlos had found someone to carry it forward.

However, the power contained in that inheritance was far too immense for a child to withstand. Seriu had fainted on the spot. After he regained consciousness, Danton, harboring his own ulterior motives, sealed away those memories, preventing Seriu from awakening his bloodline for years.

It wasn't until Seriu encountered Sperien at the academy that the seal began to loosen.

Previously, he hadn't understood why he always felt an urge to sing whenever he was around Sperien.

Now he knew.

Sperien possessed a mysterious power that drew every magic sword toward him. They instinctively wanted to please him, grow close to him, and fight alongside him.

He was a very special Little Fairy.

At the very least, Seriu felt nothing of the sort around other Little Fairies.

Yesterday's battle against the monsters had finally restored his lost memories.

When he saw the Sword of Viona in Sperien's hand, he experienced an overwhelming sense of familiarity.

So he asked to examine the magic sword.

The instant he touched the Sword of Viona, his soul resonated with it.

At that moment, an absurd suspicion sprang into his mind.

What if I'm the same kind of being as this magic sword?

How ridiculous was that?

How could a human possibly be the same kind of being as a cold, lifeless weapon?

To test his theory, he had a sudden inspiration and asked Sperien to sing "The Maiden and the Swordsman."

The poem told the story of the love and mutual devotion between his ancestor Sede and an Elven maiden. Since it had once caused his and the Little Fairy's paths to intersect across time and space, perhaps it could work another miracle.

As it turned out, the Elven poem truly contained magic.

His bloodline had fully awakened, allowing him to inherit his ancestor's legacy at last.

From this day forward, he was a magic sword.

The Sword of Carlos.

Seriu clenched both hands tightly, feeling boundless power surging through his body.

His sword heart had grown several hundredfold in strength, and his rank had leaped directly from Intermediate Great Swordsman to Sword Saint.

If his physical body had been capable of withstanding it, he would already have become a Sword Sovereign.

Such was the power of a magic sword.

No wonder countless people dreamed of becoming the master of one. With a magic sword, they could ascend to the pinnacle of power in a single leap and become virtually invincible.

When Shu Li entered the living room and spotted Seriu sitting on the sofa in a daze, he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Thank goodness!

Seriu had turned back into a human!

He hurried over and waved a hand in front of Seriu's face.

"Hey, Seriu! You're awake?"

Hearing the boy's bright, clear voice, Seriu emerged from his thoughts and looked up at the Little Fairy, who had once again disguised himself as a human.

"Good morning."

"Morning!"

Shu Li reached out to touch his hair, then gave his shoulder a curious squeeze. His delicate face was practically overflowing with fascination.

Seriu stiffened slightly.

"What is it?" he asked helplessly.

Shu Li withdrew his hand and grinned.

"Do you remember turning into a magic sword?"

Seriu nodded. "I do."

Shu Li's eyes lit up.

"Really? Tell me about it! What did it feel like to be a sword? How did you turn back? Ace said you inherited the Sword of Carlos and awakened your bloodline. Is that true?"

The Little Fairy fired off question after question, but instead of finding it annoying, Seriu felt positively delighted.

He was no longer entirely sure whether he was human or a magic sword.

And right now, he desperately wanted to burst into song in front of the Little Fairy.

Seriu raised his right fist to his mouth and forcibly suppressed the urge.

Then, in a carefully composed voice, he answered, "Ace was right. I did inherit the Sword of Carlos. The magic in your singing helped me break the final shackle and fully awaken my bloodline. As for what it feels like to be a sword... Well, I suppose the biggest difference is that you can't speak or move whenever you please, the way a human can. On the other hand, my hearing and perception became dozens of times sharper."

Shu Li took a startled step backward.

"Then... then you saw?"

He meant whether Seriu had seen the magic in the poem strip away his disguise, revealing his true Fairy form.

Seriu nodded without attempting to deny it.

Fairies were even more pure and flawless than the legends claimed, their beauty almost beyond description. No wonder certain depraved nobles went to such lengths to keep them captive, all to satisfy their perverse desires.

Shu Li gave an awkward little laugh and pressed his palms together pleadingly.

"You have to keep it a secret for me, okay?"

"Of course," Seriu agreed without hesitation.

Even if the Little Fairy hadn't asked, he would never have told anyone.

The first defining trait of a magic sword was loyalty.

Relieved by his promise, Shu Li relaxed. Then he remembered the contract he and Ilio had signed yesterday and realized that his request had probably been unnecessary.

Creak—

The door to the neighboring bedroom opened, revealing Ace's tall, slender figure.

His waist-length golden hair had been combed meticulously and gathered with a silver ornament, falling in a smooth cascade down his back. Even the ordinary magical robe of the school uniform looked like aristocratic attire when he wore it.

Shu Li's gaze drifted toward him of its own accord.

And once it landed, he couldn't seem to look away.

"Good morning." Ace smiled at Shu Li and Seriu. "Did you sleep well?"

Remembering how he'd spent half the night sewing, Shu Li wrinkled his nose.

"Not bad... Though it's hardly morning anymore."

It would be noon in a little over an hour, and they hadn't even eaten breakfast!

Fortunately, today was Sunday. They could sleep in without worrying about rushing off to class.

Seriu rose to his feet and watched the golden-haired boy approach, his feelings decidedly complicated.

Ever since his bloodline awakened, memories belonging to his ancestor had flooded into his mind like a surging tide.

Among them were vivid scenes of fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Elven King.

The magic sword had sensed a familiar presence. That was why he had sung that song.

If someone had told Seriu yesterday that Ace was the Elven King, he would never have believed them.

Yet now, standing before the Elven King disguised as a human, Seriu found himself at a complete loss.

The only reason he had regained his human body so quickly was that the Elven King had lent him a hand. Otherwise, he would probably still be a magic sword.

Meeting those deep green eyes, Seriu suppressed his astonishment and managed to speak calmly.

"I'm sorry to have caused you both so much trouble."

Ace replied, "We only helped a little. It's hardly worth mentioning."

"Besides, if you hadn't possessed the inheritance in the first place, it wouldn't have mattered how many times I played the poem," Shu Li added.

He clapped his hands happily.

"This is great! We have two magic swords now!"

Originally, he had been prepared to spend ten whole years searching for the magic swords.

Who would have thought that less {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} than two months after entering the Human World, he would already have found two of them? And he even had leads on the whereabouts of the remaining three!

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before he gathered all Five Swords.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Seriu bid them farewell.

He needed to return to his room and freshen up, then visit Halis and tell him the wonderful news that he had found the Sword of Carlos.

Shu Li accompanied him to the door.

"Are you free this afternoon? We can go turn in our assignment and collect the reward together."

Five thousand gold coins!

It was their first completed adventuring assignment. Naturally, everyone should be there to collect the reward. That would make the occasion truly memorable!

Seriu, however, was a busy man. He frequently spent his weekends competing in the arena, so there was no guarantee he would have time to join his teammates.

"What time?" Seriu asked.

"How about one this afternoon?" Shu Li suggested.

"All right. I'll meet you directly at the Adventurers' Guild."

With that, Seriu left the freshmen's dormitory under the curious stares of the other Mage Apprentices.

Shu Li waited until he had gone some distance before immediately setting off to knock on his other teammates' doors.

Seriously, how were these guys sleeping even later than he had?

Half an hour later, the ravenous members of the Light Squad headed to the dining hall for lunch.

They had missed breakfast, so they were absolutely going to stuff themselves at lunch.

Once they finished eating, they planned to visit the Entlin Association to check for news before heading to the Adventurers' Guild to collect their reward.

In the academy dining hall, Hector let out a yawn as he listened to the Little Fairy enthusiastically discussing the reward money.

Finally, unable to contain his confusion, he asked, "You guys... You're all so rich already. Why do you go to so much trouble taking on assignments?"

Every single one of them carried a high-ranking magic staff.

No matter how he looked at them, they certainly didn't resemble a bunch of penniless adventurers!