There are five ranks of swordsman.

Sword beginner.

Sword walker.

Sword runner.

Sword expert.

Swordmaster.

Most swordsmen remain somewhere between sword beginner and sword walker. Only those who reach the rank of 「sword runner」 begin to be regarded as truly powerful.

They are treated well wherever they go and reign over battlefields like specters. In any country, a sword runner can easily become a knight and live in grand style.

And 「sword experts」?

They are warriors so powerful that ordinary people would be lucky to see one in their entire lives. On the battlefield, they can turn the tide of a battle single-handedly. They are often called gods of the battlefield.

Only those born with exceptional talent can reach that rank, and only after grueling effort.

What about swordmasters, then?

They are always left out of discussions like these. They are not gods of the battlefield, but beings of such heavenly power that they ought to be classified as actual divine entities. There are only six living swordmasters on the entire continent. Even throughout history, they have appeared only very rarely. Unbound by any ties, swordmasters have always lived however they pleased.

No one could constrain them.

Because only a swordmaster can kill a swordmaster.

These beings of absolute power never fight one another, nor do they seek to interfere actively in the affairs of the world. Except for a few oddballs, that is.

'I never knew, back when I was holed up in that rural backwater. Never knew those damned swordmasters were such exalted beings.'

At any rate, there was no point discussing swordmasters now.

The rank I hoped to attain through the sword I had just acquired, the weapon called 「Needle」, was far humbler than that.

「Concentrate, and make sure you digest it properly.」

Through this weapon, I would become a sword beginner.

As the name implied, I was only now taking my first step...

* * *

The sword I had picked up on the garbage mountain, 「Needle」, had an unusual shape.

It was far too slender for a sword. At a glance, it even looked thinner than my finger.

Enough to make me wonder, 'Can you really hurt someone with this?'

Needle was as light as it was slender. Holding it felt less like holding a piece of metal than a hollow piece of wood. Even the wooden practice sword I had swung behind the manor would have been heavier.

“I think it would snap the moment I tried to cut anything with it.”

「Indeed it would. If you tried to cut with it.」

If I tried to cut with it?

When I gave him a questioning look, Liam answered.

「Unlike other swords, that sword is not a weapon for sweeping cuts and crushing your enemies. It was made to pierce a precise vital point with exquisite skill, ending a life in a single attack.」

Thrusting.

It was certainly a deadly attack one could perform with a sword.

But if you were going to thrust, wouldn't a spear be more effective than a sword?

Why go out of your way to stab an enemy with a sword?

As I considered that, Liam spoke as though he had read my mind.

「As I said before, you will understand once you eat it.」

“...”

「Incidentally, that sword holds memories that suit you perfectly. They will help someone born with a body as small and feeble as a girl's.」

I placed Needle in the hot fire to heat it and answered.

“What do you mean?”

「That sword was originally wielded by a woman.」

A sword wielded by a woman?

I frowned at that.

Female swordsmen were rare on the continent. Their physical capabilities and various other qualities tended to fall short of men's. In all of history, there had been only one female swordmaster. Women tended to distinguish themselves in fields other than swordsmanship. Magic, for instance...

「Your thinking is more rigid than mine, and I am as old as they come.」

“I was only thinking in terms of common sense.”

「Then I must tell you this first. When it comes to the sword, discard conventional common sense. The moment you take up a sword, believe that you can become anything and do anything. Only then can you reach the summit.」

Liam's deep voice struck my ears.

By the time he said that, Needle had grown hot enough.

I took the heated Needle out, but before I put it in my mouth, the pain I had felt earlier crept back into my mind, making me hesitate. Liam spoke.

「The woman who owned that sword, Needle, took more than two hundred lives before she died. All on her own.」

His casually delivered words erased my hesitation.

I opened my mouth wide, placed the slender Needle inside, and bit down with a sharp snap. The maddeningly hot metal heated my tongue and scorched the roof of my mouth, then traveled toward my stomach with a sensation like it was tearing my esophagus apart.

Ah, I probably wouldn't get used to this pain in my entire life...

“Kheeeck!”

As I coughed hideously, this time the heat spread not just through my belly, but into my head as well.

Amid the sensation of my brain being heated, unfamiliar memories began to flash through my mind.

Someone else's memories, not mine.

The memories of the former owner held within this sword, Needle.

『The last thing I remembered was a burning manor.』

* * *

The last thing I remembered was a burning manor.

Amid the raging flames, Mother and Father were reduced to blackened ashes. I don't know how I survived that vicious blaze. When I regained consciousness, I opened my eyes in a bed at a run-down orphanage funded by the Church of Sergen.

“Mary, are you awake?”

The flames had stolen my lovely face and soft skin. What remained was a face and body too hideous to seem a woman's. My skin, mottled and twisted by burns, looked as though a demon had cursed it. I didn't want to look in a mirror. I hated the way I looked.

“This is the chapel. Every morning, we begin our day by worshipping the goddess Sergen. We can live beneath the sun in this land only because the goddess Sergen has blessed us with light. Over there is the dining hall, and if you go down this way...”

Miss Derbein at the orphanage was very kind. Looking back now, I regret how harsh and prickly I was toward her, but at the time, I was a person bristling with thorns. I lived without opening my mouth. That caused no problems at the orphanage.

“She's disgusting.”

“She's a monster.”

The children at the orphanage neither approached me nor spoke to me because of my hideous appearance.

Apart from Miss Derbein, none of the teachers approached me either. I understand them. Even I found my reflection repulsive.

My days at the orphanage were hell.

What I hated most was the time spent worshipping the goddess Sergen. Sergen was a goddess of peace who symbolized flame. To someone who had lost everything to fire, being told to worship a goddess of flame was utterly dreadful.

“I want to die.”

That was something I said constantly.

Whenever I had a moment, I thought about taking my own life.

Sheer fear was the only reason I couldn't. The sensation of fire burning my body was still horrifyingly painful. How painful would death be, then? I had no confidence that I could endure anything worse. Those hellish days continued like that.

Until that day came.

'...?'

It was late at night, and I couldn't sleep. At that hour, the children at the orphanage were forbidden to go outside.

Feeling unbearably stifled, I went out into the garden and saw something glittering beautifully. It was moonlight reflected off a sword.

“Ah.”

The person holding and swinging the sword was Hegel, the orphanage's caretaker.

The patterns drawn by the sword of the old caretaker, now over sixty, looked impossibly beautiful to me. Watching that sword, I could forget the hell filling my mind, if only for a brief moment.

Had I been watching too intently?

Breathing hard, Hegel turned his head toward me and spoke.

“Child, it's late. Go inside. You're not allowed outside at this hour.”

Normally, I would have turned and gone straight inside without answering.

But for some reason, I didn't want to now.

For the first time in a very long while, I opened my mouth and spoke to someone at the orphanage.

“I want to learn that.”

“... So you aren't unable to speak, Mary.”

“Please teach me.”

I meant it with all my heart.

But Hegel answered firmly.

“I cannot teach swordsmanship to a child from the orphanage. It isn't much use in life. Especially for a girl.”

“...”

“What's so appealing about swinging a blade like this that you want to learn?”

I stared straight at Hegel.

“... I think if I learned that, I wouldn't be afraid of fire or the world anymore.”

After hearing my words, Hegel stood there for a long while. Then he steadied his breathing and walked away. He returned carrying a large tub filled with pieces of metal. Hegel was stronger than he looked. He had carried that all by himself?

“Pick one up. If you can swing it, I'll teach you.”

“Do I have to swing it?”

“What else would you do?”

After saying that to Hegel, I took hold of the longest, thinnest blade in the tub and pulled it out. A blade that even someone as small as me could easily hold. Gripping it, I twisted my wrist ever so slightly. As I changed the angle of my wrist, the tip of the needle-thin blade came to point at Hegel's throat.

“Whether I swing it or thrust it, isn't it enough that I can aim it?”

* * *

The memories held within Needle, the memories of Mary, the female swordsman of the past, did not come to me all at once. They seeped into me gradually. Liam said that was the process of digestion.

「You shouldn't merely wait for it to digest. You must develop your body as well.」

“Should I do strength training? I followed the training routines knights use, but they didn't help.”

I had tried plenty of strength training.

But it hadn't done much for me.

「No, that doesn't suit you. You aren't going to swing an axe like a barbarian. More importantly, the body you were born with is not suited to building muscle and overpowering others with strength.」

“Then what?”

「We will start by building your stamina and flexibility.」

Stamina and flexibility?

Would those help me wield a sword?

The thought crossed my mind, but I didn't voice it.

Liam would be far more of an expert than I was.

「Trust me. You will see results soon enough.」

“Yes.”

「If you can swing a sword all day without losing control of your breathing, that alone will enable you to kill five untrained people with ease.」

Liam spoke with certainty.

「If, on top of that, you become flexible enough to target an enemy's vital points from any position, and can freely assume whatever stance you picture in your mind... at least around here, no one will be able to take you lightly. That is what the fundamentals are.」

Since he spoke with such conviction, I decided not to doubt him either.

The first thing I started was running. The village had been abandoned; everyone had left, and no living soul remained. Every morning, I ran around it until I collapsed from exhaustion. At full speed.

「If you train while digesting a sword you have eaten, you can grow very quickly. You can trust that. Do as I say without doubting me.」

One day, two days, three days.

Four days, ten days...

I kept running through the village and improving my flexibility until twenty days had passed.

On the morning of the twentieth day, I was able to run at full speed for three hours.

Without stopping.

* * *

「Name: Needle」

「A long, slender sword used by the female swordsman Mary.」

「A sword specialized for thrusting.」

「Consumption Effects」

「You acquire Mary's swordsmanship.」