The sword's cry resembled a human scream.

SCREEEEEECH!

With that tearing sound, a gale swept through the deepest reaches of the underground waterways. What brought wind to a place where none could reach was a sword swung by a human.

Yuel Razian swung her sword.

A Sword Master swung her sword.

In that instant, Najin saw it. Kephalon's workshop, stretching far into the distance, was cut away. The process was unlike splitting, slicing, or breaking. It was something different, something alien.

It was being cut out of the world.

Like cutting paper with scissors, she swung her sword and cut away the scenery. It was closer to dismantling than slicing or splitting. Even seeing it with his own eyes, Najin could not understand how it had happened.

Yuel Razian swung her sword once, and the workshop vanished without a trace. The process had evaporated, leaving only cause and effect.

"I'd heard the rumors, but seeing it firsthand really is astonishing."

Merlin's voice rang in Najin's ears.

"Do you remember what I told you about Mystery?"

He remembered. Something unbound by rules, existing beyond common sense.

"Right. Masterpieces are weapons imbued with Mystery, but why do you think they're called Masterpieces? Because they made the impossible possible."

Merlin sighed as she spoke.

"Mystery normally resides in living things. Certain creatures are born with it. Particular races, like dragons, demons, fairies, things like that. But every so often..."

After a brief pause, Merlin continued.

"Mystery resides in humans too. There are people born with it, though the chances are vanishingly small. Of course, not all of them become aware of the Mystery they possess."

"Only a tiny handful realize what their Mystery is. Multiply one vanishingly small chance by another, and, well, that speaks for itself."

Merlin murmured those words with a bitter smile.

"Amazingly enough, two of them are right here."

Two, Merlin had said.

"One is me, whispering to you. The other is that crazy bitch standing over there."

Najin looked at Yuel. She held a greatsword of the type known as a zweihander. When she released it, the blade dissolved into thin air with a crackle.

She turned her head to look at Najin. Her face remained expressionless, but he had witnessed the madness hidden behind it. Meeting that clinging, blood-red gaze, he swallowed involuntarily.

"Dismantling. That's the Mystery Yuel Razian possesses."

So Merlin told him. There was no need to ask what the word meant in this case. An example lay right before his eyes.

Scenery dismantled and cut out of the world.

The empty space where the workshop had stood explained the word's usage. Najin marveled inwardly.

'Mystery is pretty unsettling.'

"Most of it is incomprehensible, yes."

What Mystery did Merlin possess, then? Najin asked her. Merlin fell silent at the question. After a brief silence, she spoke.

"Full Stop."

She offered no further explanation, as though she did not wish to discuss the subject anymore.

2.

Kephalon's workshop had vanished without a trace. It was a facility that would normally have required dozens of inquisitors to clear out, but Yuel Razian had finished the job with a single swing of her sword. Yet she herself seemed far from satisfied.

"Phew..."

Yuel let out a long breath. Still exhaling, she rummaged inside her uniform and pulled out a liquor bottle. Having drained it completely earlier, she could not coax out even a drop, no matter how she shook it upside down.

"Ah..."

Yuel groaned, then abruptly turned to Najin.

"Ivan."

"Yes?"

"Would you happen to have any liquor?"

The question came entirely out of nowhere. Najin shook his head, and Yuel sighed even longer. Unable to bear watching her sigh over and over, he took out his water bottle.

"I have water. Would you like that instead?"

"I suppose it will have to do."

Yuel accepted the bottle and drank. Even after emptying it, her thirst apparently remained. She smacked her lips and looked at Najin as if asking whether he had anything else. He shook his head.

He did have potions, but he had no desire to give Yuel an expensive potion. She wasn't even injured.

"Are you thirsty?"

"It's a habit. When I want to kill but cannot, I find myself growing thirsty. Drinking liquor helps somewhat, but unfortunately, there is none here. A sad state of affairs."

As she spoke, Yuel glanced at Najin. He did not particularly welcome that look. Wasn't she saying she was thirsty because she wanted to kill him but couldn't? It was quite chilling.

He decided to change the subject for now. As they made their way back up through the underground waterways, Najin talked with Yuel.

"You seem to enjoy liquor."

"Yes, I do. I enjoy the heat that makes my throat feel as though it's burning. A little poison makes it all the better."

Yuel smiled faintly.

"My favorite is the starblood wine brewed by the Order of Starblood. I've heard that people call it holy water or holy wine... But did you know that the finest, undiluted starblood wine is a poisonous liquor?"

"You mean it's strong?"

"Both meanings apply. It's strong liquor containing substances that act as poison on the human body."

She smacked her lips and stroked her bottle.

"Drinking it brings pain like fire in your throat. Your eyes become bloodshot, and all your senses sharpen to a razor's edge. Starblood wine is the only liquor that can make me feel intoxication and pain, even after reaching transcendence."

"Some people call starblood wine an insane drink. They're fools who don't appreciate good liquor."

A smile spread across Yuel's lips as she muttered. Simply imagining drinking it seemed to delight her.

'I thought she was an emotionless doll...'

Apparently not.

Najin walked on with that thought. Then, suddenly, he stopped. Yuel stopped as well.

"Is there something you wish to say?"

"May I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

Yuel nodded, and Najin spoke.

"I remember you saying you wanted to swing your sword at me and try killing me."

"Indeed. I am interested in you. I would like to cross swords with you, and I would also like to try killing you."

There was no hostility in Yuel's words. Only pure interest. It was chilling that she discussed death out of mere interest, but if he listened with the understanding that Yuel Razian was simply that sort of person, it was not entirely incomprehensible.

"Forgive me, but I understand that the order's executioner holds immense power."

"That is true. Only the Sun of the Empire and the high priests who lead the three orders stand above me."

"Then wouldn't you go unpunished even if you killed an adventurer like me?"

Aren't you in a position to swing your sword however you please? That was what Najin was asking.

He knew that was how this world worked. Even if Yuel summarily executed him right here, the incident would hardly become a major affair. Who would dare oppose an order's executioner?

Yet Yuel did not do so. Najin wanted to know why. Asking was dangerous, but for some reason, he had a gut feeling she would not kill him here.

"Yes. Even if I killed you now, I would face no particular sanctions. That is true."

Yuel answered his question.

"But that would mean making an exception to the rules I have set for myself. One exception becomes two, and two lead to three and four. So I cannot."

"... Rules, you say?"

"Rules for survival."

She exhaled at length before continuing.

"Live according to my desires. Kill as I please. Yes, that was how I lived about a hundred and fifty years ago."

She was speaking about herself.

"I killed as I pleased. It was an age of war. On a battlefield where people kill and are killed, there is no good or evil. No right or wrong, either. So that was how I lived. It was a truly delightful age."

She had killed indiscriminately and reveled in blood.

"But time passed, and the wars ended. In that case, shouldn't I change my methods as well?"

She spoke calmly.

"I am a murderous fiend. I enjoy killing people, and I love those who bleed. Yet I crave life just as much. I wish to enjoy this pleasure for a long time."

"I see."

"Yes, indeed. To enjoy this pleasure for a long time, shouldn't I conform to the world's standards of good and evil, right and wrong?"

That was why she had simply established rules of her own. So Yuel Razian said.

"Those who have sinned. Those who have done wrong. Heretics who have dabbled in dark magic. Wicked and unholy things."

"The world does not condemn me for cutting such things down. But if my sword slits an innocent person's throat and spills their blood..."

"They will come."

Yuel shrugged.

"The Order of Star Radiance's Lighthouse Keeper, the Order of the Starbody's Incarnation, Sword Saint Karon, and Gerd, the Empire's foremost warrior."

Superhumans who dwelled on the continent, rather than in the Battlefield of Stars or the lands of the Abyss. They were also the people who would come rushing to slay a murderous fiend running rampant on the continent.

"Ah, they are powerful. Even if I threw myself at them with all my strength, I could not survive against all of them. Of course, I also wish to fight them and shed blood, but I have put that desire off until the very, very end."

Yuel smiled as she spoke. It was a smile purer and more unblemished than anything else.

"Shouldn't one save the most delicious dessert for last?"

Najin could not understand everything she had said, but he agreed with that last remark, at least.

"I see."

"Yes, that's how it is."

He felt he understood a little more of what sort of person Yuel Razian was. He had no desire whatsoever to sympathize with her way of life, but understanding was another matter.

"So I think I shall exercise a little patience with you as well."

"... Pardon?"

The end of the underground waterways came into view. Her footsteps clicking as she climbed the stairs to the surface, Yuel looked back at Najin.

"You have the potential to become a Sword Master. To have reached such a level at your age... Surely you will stand where I do before long."

Her snow-white hair gleamed in the light streaming in. Standing with the light at her back, she smiled at Najin.

"When that time comes, I shall challenge you to a duel once more. I hope you will not refuse me then."

"I'll think about it."

"Ah, you could also commit a crime. Minor offenses can be pardoned under the special law for Sword Masters, so preferably a large-scale massacre..."

"I think that would be a bit difficult."

"Would it?"

Yuel shrugged.

"What a shame."

3.

When Yuel and Najin emerged from the underground waterways, the city's lord sighed in relief. The matter seemed to have been resolved more quietly than he had expected.

"I'll be heading to Cambria now."

Having finished everything he needed to do in the city, Najin returned to Cambria. The carriage carrying the inquisitors likewise returned to the Order of Starblood.

Yuel Razian, however, did not leave. Only the carriage she had arrived in remained in the city.

As the lord watched her anxiously, Yuel, who had been standing still, slowly tilted her head. Her gaze was directed toward a narrow alley in the trading city.

"I understand that Regenof is a trading city."

"Y-yes. It is, but..."

"I have a question. Please bear in mind as you answer that, depending on your response, you may be deemed an accomplice to a crime."

"... Pardon?"

The lord's shoulders trembled. Yuel looked at him with her red eyes. She extended an arm, pointing into the depths of the alley.

"I sense demonic energy there. It seems things that must not be sold are being traded. I hear voices. Merchants' voices."

Nothing could be heard. Even the knights guarding the lord heard nothing. Neither Najin nor even the Sword Saint, had they been present, would have heard a sound.

But Yuel Razian heard it. Her senses were abnormal even among Sword Masters. Her ears caught the voices of merchants conducting illicit trades. Her nose detected the stench of the goods they bought and sold.

"Is this an enterprise you oversee, my lord, or are the cultists settled here acting on their own?"

The lord realized what Yuel was referring to.

'The black market.'

A black market existed in Regenof, and its presence was tacitly tolerated. It was quite profitable, and the trading city owed its rapid growth to that market.

The lord had turned a blind eye to it. At times, he had even supported it and allowed it to expand.

But he could not reveal that. The executioner before him would behead someone merely for involvement in a crime, and she held a position that allowed her to do so without punishment.

"I... know nothing... about it..."

"Is that so?"

The lord before her was lying. Though Yuel knew that, she merely nodded. It did not matter to her anyway.

"In that case, I shall clear it out for you. It is my duty as the order's executioner."

It was a trivial affair that did not require someone of her stature to intervene. Even so, Yuel Razian stepped toward the alley. The lord had no grounds to stop her. He squeezed his eyes shut.

That day, Regenof's alleys were stained with blood.

No screams rang out.

But the sword's cry, resembling a human scream, echoed through them.