Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===

While cautiously choosing her words&mdash;

Claire recounted Kamito's experiences to this date.

After the Instructional School was destroyed, wandering all over the place without anywhere he belonged to, Kamito was taken in by the Dusk Witch and enrolled into this Academy as the continent's one and only male elementalist. Then as a member of Team Scarlet, he had participated in the Blade Dance.

"...I entered the Blade Dance?"

Kamito muttered with an expression of disbelief.

It was the continent's biggest festival that was only held every few years or decades.

For an Instructional School's combatant living in the dark side, it was a completely foreign world.

"Undoubtedly. Thanks to you, Kamito, we obtained victory. However&mdash;"

During the Blade Dance's finale, Kamito was injured when engaging the Strongest Blade Dancer Ren Ashbell in blade dance, suffering damage to his memory.

"So that means that this contracted spirit also, at the time&mdash;"

Kamito's gaze fell upon his right hand.

Branded on the back of the hand was the spirit seal belonging to the sword spirit he had contracted in the underground cavern at this school.

The facility's instructors absolutely forbade Kamito from forming spirit contracts.

When the time is ripe, we'll give you the strongest spirit&mdash;That was what they had promised.

(The strongest spirit huh...)

Throb&mdash;

His head began to hurt again.

...Again. Again when thinking about spirits&mdash;

"Kamito, are you okay?"

"Yeah... Just a headache..."

Claire asked with worry at the sight of Kamito holding his temples.

"Maybe I said too much at once. Or perhaps when you tried to recall your memories, it caused a rejection reaction."

At this moment, she saw the seal on Kamito's hand.

"Eh?"

Claire showed a surprised expression.

"No way, this..."

"What's the problem?"

"No, nothing, nothing at all..."

Claire shook her head in denial.

(...What is she hiding?)

Although a bit concerned, Kamito did not press the matter much.

"Can this contracted spirit be summoned?"

Instead, he asked something else.

Having lost his memory, Kamito did not know how to summon a spirit. However, if Claire were to teach him, he might be able to recall the feeling and perform a successful summon.

"...Probably not. Est is currently in a materialized state and sealed underground at the Academy. Currently, we have to wait for the headmistress to authorize the unsealing."

"Why is the spirit underground?"

Unsummoned spirits were supposed to return to Astral Zero instead.

"That I'm not too sure about. But Est had been living in this place for the past few centuries. She's a special sealed spirit..."

"...Sealed spirit huh. So it's actually possible to contract with that kind of thing."

Spirits sealed in ancient artifacts had a tendency to be ill-tempered and would harm humans.

Unless overflowing with confidence, one would not make a move on them&mdash;

Kamito looked at the spirit seal on his right hand again.

Although the result was a runaway reaction&mdash;

(Sword spirit, do you really intend to protect me?)

At this moment, a meow was heard from within the room.

"...?"

Kamito turned his head to see a hell cat spirit in the kitchen heating a pot.

"Oh, the stew seems to be warmed up."

Claire stood up from the chair, her twintails swaying and hurried over to the kitchen.

Soon, she came back with a dish of stew.

...Kamito could smell a fragrant aroma. Beetroot stew with herbs scattered on top.

Kamito's throat gurgled.

"This is?"

"Borscht. A local dish from the Laurenfrost region. Rinslet... The girl who uses a wolf-shaped spirit taught me how to make it."

Kamito tried a mouthful of stew.

Thanks to the deadly cookie, Kamito was quite wary this time, however&mdash;

"......This is good."

Although the salt content seems to be wrong, it was good enough for an empty stomach.

"...!"

The twintails swayed happily.

"...Th-Thank goodness."

Then she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Actually, I was wondering if it would turn into charcoal."

"Ch-Charcoal?"

"Because until Nee-sama taught me how to use flames, I've never been able to control the intensity. All I knew was how to manipulate the power of flames to use for attack magic."

"Oh, so you have an older sister."

"Yes. Nee-sama was also saved by you, Kamito."

"...Sorry, I don't remember."

Kamito quietly put down the spoon.

"...Claire Rouge. What should I do next?"

He had no idea when his memory would recover.

Right now, all Kamito knew were the combat skills he had mastered at that facility.

What should his goal be next, to be honest, he had absolutely no idea.

"Life here isn't bad at all. Before your memory recovers, just relax and recuperate for now."