Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

Having returned to the castle residence, Kamito opened the room door.

"Kamito!" "Kamito-kun!" "Kamito-san!"

Sitting around the table, the other three teammates called out all at the same time.

"Kamito, how is the headmistress' condition--"

"It's okay. Her life is not in danger."

Ellis had stood up and Kamito gave her the same answer he gave Claire just now.

"I-I see..."

Ellis soothed her chest with her hand in relief.

Amongst the students, Ellis particularly respected Greyworth. In addition to taking on the duties of the Sylphid Knights Captain, Ellis even worked in a capacity akin to her secretary. No wonder she was so worried.

"Kamito-san, you must be tired too. I will brew tea immediately."

As soon as Kamito took a seat, Rinslet served herbal tea. The warm and cozy tea fragrance instantly gave one a calming sensation.

After waiting for Kamito to catch a bit of a breather, Claire spoke up.

"So, now that Kamito has returned, let us continue our strategy meeting. Although we are greatly worried about the headmistress' condition, we must now focus our attention on handling tomorrow's final round."

"Yes, that is correct indeed."

Ellis nodded and answered. Fianna and Rinslet nodded likewise.

While Kamito was absent, they had discussed the rules of the finals. Several hours earlier, the rules had been delivered by a Queen's oracle -- Cross Fire.

This was similar to the Tempest event where teams competed for magic stones in a vast field, except this time it only lasted three days. Furthermore, the members of each team were going to be randomly transported to different locations.

Once transported into the field, the participants must search for their own teammates. Before converging with their team, it was possible to encounter and battle enemy elementalists.

This set of rules could be described as intermediate between an individual and team battle. How quickly one could converge with their team was the key to victory.

"On first glance, these rules appear to favor teams with Search-type elementalists, but teams will definitely target that aspect and counter it. Compared to a battle relying on strongholds with constructed barriers, this is a totally different game."

"Communications spirit crystals are probably unusable. Carrying them will be pointless."

Kamito agreed with Claire's assessment.

"...Right. Although there are no explicit rules forbidding participants from carrying spirit crystals, it would be better to assume that the field have been set up with a barrier to obstruct communications type magic completely."

"Regarding the field this time, I investigated a little..."

--Fianna took out several ancient books at this time, plopping them on the table.

"These books are?"

"Information about the field for the finals. Milla gathered them."

"Milla did this?"

--Milla Bassett. The representative from the Principality of Rossvale and originally the leader of the Rupture Division.

Unable to return to her home country because she helped Kamito, Milla had now become a maid for the Laurenfrost family.

This castle residence was clearly quite distant from the Biblion, but even so, Milla had put forth all her effort into gathering information for Kamito's group.

"Then we really must thank Milla properly afterwards... Well then, what have we learned?"

"Yeah. There are some rather interesting facts."

Fianna nodded.

The location prescribed by the Elemental Lords' oracle was the abandoned city Megidoa.

Even for Fianna who was from the Divine Ritual Institute, it was her first time hearing of such a place--

"The abandoned city Megidoa was formerly named the City of Ivory. Far in the ancient past, it was a city constructed by spirits--"

Fianna explained slowly.

"At the same time, during the Spirit War, it was the final battlefield."

"...Spirit War."

"You've heard of it?"

"At least I've heard the name before. I remember it from Freya-sensei's supplementary lessons... If my memory serves me correctly."

"...Looks like you really know nothing but the name. This is considered basic knowledge in the Divine Ritual Institute."

"Anyway, isn't that a war in fairy tales?"

The Spirit War -- a massive war between spirits in the past that had once turned Astral Zero into scorched earth.

Vying for domination over this world, the faction of the Five Great Elemental Lords fought against the faction of rebel spirits. After persisting for centuries, it was said that the faction of the Five Great Elemental Lords were victorious-- ...But in actual fact, the believability of that historical account was rather suspect. Besides, even if a war once took place on Astral Zero thousands of years ago, it did not feel real at all.

However.

"No. The Spirit War was not simply a war in fairy tales."

Fianna shook her head in objection.

"How so?"

"In recent research, a lot of evidence has been discovered that proves the existence of the Spirit War. You see, during the Ranbal War, weren't all the ruins and historical sites across the continent thoroughly explored for the sake of excavating sealed spirits and spirit crystals? At the time, many inscriptions were discovered."

"...So it's like that?"

Raised in the Instructional School, Kamito was not very educated in these matters.

Even though Restia and Greyworth had taught him a certain level of knowledge, Kamito was completely unacquainted with the latest theories and discoveries.

"Why did the spirits rise up against the Elemental Lords?"

"There are several hypotheses circulating but most believe there was an exceptionally powerful existence leading the spirits."

"A powerful existence strong enough to oppose the Five Great Elemental Lords eh..."

Hearing that, the first thing that surfaced in Kamito's mind was--

"That particular name" -- the one he only found out recently.

The sixth Elemental Lord who had been purged from all records.

(...Ren Ashdoll.)

Could the mastermind behind the Spirit War be the Darkness Elemental Lord who seemed to share deep ties with Kamito--?

Just as Kamito was caught in deep thought.

"This is the first time in history for the abandoned city of Megidoa to be selected as the field for the Blade Dance festival. Surely, there are too many irregularities in proceedings this time."

Claire grumbled with a serious expression.

"Oh well, putting that aside for now, that's basically all the information we have regarding the field. Since it is an ancient battlefield, it is very likely the leylines are chaotic and unable to be used. Ritual magic must be used with care. Also, seeing as unpleasant spirits tend to congregate in ancient ruins, everyone should prepare some spirit crystals to make it easier to activate barriers."

Based on the information at hand, Claire offered sensible advice.

...As expected of the Academy's honors student?

"One more thing. This came from whispers of the wind I heard earlier--"

Ellis spoke up at this point.

By "whispers of the wind," Ellis was referring to intelligence gathered by wind spirits just as the words implied. Wind spirits had vast movement ranges and amongst the five great attributes they were the most suitable for gathering intelligence.

"The representative from the Holy Kingdom of Lugia, Luminaris Saint Leisched of the Sacred Spirit Knights, has obtained divine armaments from her home country."

"...Divine armaments?"

Claire asked with great surprise. Kamito also felt intrigued.

Unlike elemental waffen which took form from contracted spirits, divine armaments were physical weapons at best.

Even if it was a special weapon imbued with the divine attribute, it was still just a weapon.

The Blade Dance did not prohibit participants from carrying conventional weapons. In actual fact, Kamito also carried short swords for throwing, though that was a special case.

Considering there was a weight limit for items brought into the match, there were virtually no advantages for an elementalist to prepare conventional weapons if they were capable of using powerful elemental waffen.

"What would she do with that kind of thing?"

"...Who knows. It would be hard to imagine it being essential for the renowned Paladin."

"Perhaps it's used for some sort of ritual magic? Isn't there a type of spirit magic that requires swords and blades as catalysts to activate?"

Claire, Ellis and Fianna discussed the matter as Rinslet poured new tea in everyone's cups without caring about the matter.

(The Holy Kingdom of Lugia's Paladin...)

Three years ago, the user of the holy sword elemental waffe who competed against Ren Ashbell for victory. Although she was a knight of foreign country, she was definitely powerful enough to qualify as a candidate for the Numbers.

Purely due to Restia's darkness attribute being a poor match, Luminaris was the only opponent who posed a difficult challenge in the last competition. Of course, despite such an overwhelming handicap, the Strongest Blade Dancer, Ren Ashbell still defeated her with pure power--

That beautiful knight with her head of pretty blonde hair.

...In the end, Kamito had not even exchanged a single word with her.

An elementalist who had given him trouble in the finals -- to Kamito, that was all she was to him.

However, the girl's forthright gaze left him with some impression.

Compared to Ellis who was likewise a knight, she was different.

Completely steadfast -- ''a gaze of purity to a dangerous degree''.

--At this moment.

A deep ringing of a bell sounded in the corridors outside.

The clock had struck midnight.

"...It's time to start."

"Yeah."

It was finally the day of the finals. Claire and the girls all showed nervous expressions.

--The blade dance in the next three days will decide the final victor.

Everyone had clawed their way for victory in the cruel ranking battles for the sake of this day.

"There's not much point in continuing this meeting. Let's retire early and rest in preparation for tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's true." "Right." "Staying up late is not good for the skin."

All the highborn ladies agreed with Claire.

"Well then, see you tomorrow."

Kamito was just about to return to his own room.

"Oh right."

Suddenly he recalled something.

"By the way, I have a letter from Greyworth."

Taking out the sealed envelope from his uniform, Kamito handed it over to Claire.

"The headmistress sent this to us?"

"Yeah. It's probably for mental preparation before the finals or something like that."

Even though the witch did not seem like the sentimental type, she must have put a lot of thought into her student's important stage.

Like entrusting the final secret technique. Definitely, there was something she wanted to transmit to them.

Claire opened the letter while the other three girls watched from beside.

"..."

They read the letter silently for a while--

" " " "Eeeeeeeeeeeh!?" " " "

Suddenly, they all screamed loudly, blushing to their ears.

"...What is it?"

"N-No, n-nothing at all!"

Claire frantically hid the letter behind her.

"Uwaaaaah, w-what should we do..."

"Th-This kind of task is completely impossible!"

"But, if we don't do it then Kamito-kun will--"

"Th-That's right, since the headmistress has said so..."

The group of girls chattered away quietly in discussion.

"...?"


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