The reason she’d become one of the Five Stars had to do with how strong her sword was.

Even her basic attack pattern that came through the shadows needed five senses beyond the realm of humans to deal with.

Public opinion was that there were few people apart from the Masters who could stop her surprise attack.

‘Even disregarding surprise attacks, her ability itself is very good.’

The Shadow and the Serpent.

Few knights could resist her starting trick of moving through the shadows, treating them as her limbs.

Even Callius wanted to avoid fighting Helena whenever possible.

It came as no surprise that she’d finished the Sword of Sorrow in one blow.

“Oh? Why’re you here?”

Rather than that, he was more curious as to why Helena had come all the way here.

“Rather I should be the one asking why you are here.”

“Someone made a request. He asked me to stop this guy, but he’d already lost his head by the time I arrived… This thing was probably the reason behind all this, huh? Ugh, disgusting.”

Helena threw Gid’s arm that was still clutching the sword to the ground with a sickened face.

Surprised, Callius took a sneaky glance all around.

The eyes of the surrounding knights and paladins, who’d witnessed the power of that sword, were shining with greed despite knowing how dangerous it was.

‘I bet someone’s going to aim for it.’

Callius frowned at the momentary cry of anguish that wafted out of the Sword of Sorrow as he reached down to grab it before anybody else could.

‘Who knows what that was about.’

Instead of touching the sword again, he grabbed Gid’s arm that still had the sword in a death grip, and pretended to put it inside his cloak.

And hidden from all the watching eyes, he actually pushed it into subspace.

At that moment, a window arrived indicating that the quest was complete, and the reward issued.

Callius checked it once to be certain, then looked around.

“You deserve our thanks. A large number of soldiers and knights have already suffered at his hands. He started moving around even after being decapitated, taking us completely by surprise, but thankfully you showed up just in time to stop him from running off.”

“The timing was good, wasn’t it? Oh, long time no see, Golden Lion.”

“It’s been a long time indeed, Lady Golden Death.”

Helena and the Golden Lion started a pretty friendly conversation, apparently already well-acquainted.

It made sense. They both belonged to the Five Stars.

Helena did have a wide social circle – which included Callius, too.

“Boss, was Miss Helena actually a member of the Five Stars?”

“You’re still alive?”

“Yep! Although I got a few bruises and scratches on my back, I’m right as rain!”

He’d gotten away with a few scratches despite suffering through all this mess?

Considering his skills, Callius didn’t know whether Bruns was really lucky or really resourceful.

“You’re uselessly healthy. Honestly, how do you keep surviving with your level of skill?”

“A fortune-teller checked my palms one time, he said I have a loooong life line. Haha!”

What a weird guy.

“Is the sixth squad alright?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. A few got frostbite and need treatment, but as long as they get a good rest, it won’t be a problem.”

“They’re pretty lucky.”

It seemed that even the degree of frostbite wasn’t too severe for most of them.

Callius was glad that there was little damage.

Only the soldiers and knights of the aristocrats seemed to have suffered.

‘It ended better than expected.’

With the death of Count Valentine, his enemies were now left without a leader.

Of course, the archbishop was behind them, but since he couldn’t come out in the open, the noble faction’s reach would be greatly reduced.

They wouldn’t even be able to denounce the count’s death.

Not only did he harbour the notorious criminal Flesh Shaper Gid, he even boiled ninety-nine knights alive and then got himself killed by the same madman he’d given refuge to.

It was a different story from being sentenced to death with the Judgment Sword. The count would be publicized as a piece of trash, and Callius would become the hero who saved the county from a calamity.

『Kingdom Quest』

【Imperial Spies】

◆ Save the kingdom from ruin by killing the spies of the empire.

◆ Number of spies killed: 11/?

<Reward>「Monarch’s Flag」

The number of spies killed, had increased from eight to eleven.

Besides, the side quest, Sword of Sorrow, has been completed, and it was time to check the reward.

『Rare Constitution Lottery Ticket』.

For knights, the body was a pretty important factor. The constitution determined the quality of their bones and muscles.

Callius couldn’t help but look forward to it.

It was a pity that it was a lottery instead of a choice, but it couldn’t be helped.

Because that part had never been under his control.

‘It’d be great if I can get [Divine Bones].’

If his bones themselves became blessed with divine power, the amount of power he could store within his elixir field would shoot up, and operating the extra power wouldn’t even burden him any further.

Of course, something like that won’t come out in a rare lottery.

Let’s consider what happened in the last rare talent draw.

‘Pheromone, of all things.’

Didn’t he get a pretty useless reward last time?

It was no help in battles, it just gave him a bit of a nicer smell in general.

Just that.

Still, no matter how trash a constitution might be drawn, it couldn’t be worse than [Strong Bones], so it’d definitely be helpful in battle.

‘But please, give me something better.’

It would be really dissatisfying if [Strong Bones] was actually drawn.

“What’re you doing?”

“Ah!”

Callius was startled by Helena’s face suddenly popping up so close.

Thanks to that, he involuntarily pressed the draw button.

Along with the sound of a roulette spinning, a jigsaw of letters recombined to form a single phrase.

“Ah…”

I wasn’t ready yet…

The name and effect of the selected constitution formed along with a strange sound effect.

『Smelting Bone[1] (融骨)』

Grade – Rare

◆ A constitution that inherits the medicinal characteristics of the ancient tribe of Rianta.

『Medicinal Bloodline[2]』

Any drug can be taken and absorbed with more than three times the normal efficiency.

『Medicine Smelting[3]』

Changes the constitution by allowing the absorbed medicinal properties to permeate into the body.

“Hm?”

[Detected medicinal properties that have already permeated into the body. Activating Medicinal Bloodline to accept them.]

[Accepts and absorbs a small amount of divine power and poison properties.]

[The medicinal energy is weak, so 70% of it is lost.]

[30% permeates into the body.]

[Overall physical ability increases slightly.]

“Ugh…”

A pleasant pain hit Callius’ whole body.

His bones changed due to the rare constitution called Smelting Bones, and his muscles and nerves also underwent a transformation.

The divine and poisonous medicinal energies in his body were probably the influence of all the sacred stones and holy water that he’d taken before.

Since he’d drank a lot of holy water, it was natural to have remnants in the body, and sacred stones weren’t supposed to be eaten in the first place, so naturally he couldn’t have digested it all.

‘It’s not as good as Divine Bones.’

Still, a pretty good physique had been drawn.

Callius usually didn’t have much luck with lotteries, but he’d been quite lucky this time around.

‘Such a strange characteristics popped out last time, so I wasn’t expecting much.’

He’d decided to just accept it and move on even if the lowest grade, [Strong Bones], came out.

But it was [Smelting Bones]!

Finally, he’d managed to escape the shackles of his trashy original physique.

The passage of his divine blood had widened and cleared and the circulation of power felt smoother.

His condition was indubitably better than before.

With how much strength seemed to be welling up from his muscles, it was almost as if he’d switched to a completely new body.

“What happened? Did something change?”

This woman was nothing if not observant, with how quick she was to notice.

“Probably just my mood.”

“No, that’s not it. Did something change? C’mon, look straight at me. Really, you’ve changed! Did you realize something?”

“Well…”

Callius couldn’t help but nod his head, and her eyes shined with envy.

The Golden Lion was the same.

“I heard that you had an achievement just a few hours ago, but to have one again… What terrifying talent.”

‘What talent?’

If he’d had such a thing, he wouldn’t have to struggle in the dirt so hard to get stronger.

He’d faced death many times while learning from Bernard, but that didn’t mean he realized something.

「Callius von Jervain」

「Occupation」 – Pilgrim

「Spirit」 – Level 3

「Divine Power」 – 13332/16531 ▶ 13332/16934

「Talent」 – 【Bard’s Blessing】 【Instinctive Intuition】

「Characteristics」 – [Verse of Grace] [Nobility’s Duty] [Scapegrace of the Count Family] [Death Verse Composition] [Prodigal Son of the Order] [Gluttony] [Tricolour Eye] [Pheromone]

「Constitution」 – 『Smelting Bones』

「Ability」

Strength – 81 (30) ▶ 87 (30)

Agility – 55 (30) ▶ 60 (30)

Skill – 16 ▶ 17

Health – 53 (30) ▶ 61 (30)

Faith – 83 ▶ 95

‘Slightly increased overall physical ability… The amount of divine power also increased.’

It was quite refreshing.

Since he’d found no quests via Verse of Grace since the fortress, there hadn’t been any chance to increase his physical ability, but to see it go up so easily?

Even if he’d drawn some other constitution, his physical abilities were bound to increase a little. But no other constitution would’ve been able to absorb the energies of the sacred stone and holy water remaining in his body.

[Strong Bones], for example, would’ve merely granted him a slight increase in health and strength.

“Ohoho? You look like the cat that got the canary. Right, Bruns?”

Bruns cleared his throat, ahem!, and nodded.

“Yes. I’ve been serving Boss for thirteen years. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him so happy! Except for the time he won the great war in the North, I can’t think of another…”

It was necessary to correct Bruns’ babbling.

“Where did thirteen years come from?”

“That’s just how long it feels in my heart. Hehehehe! Why, what’s wrong?”

Bruns restlessly shuffled his feet, his eyes twitching towards here and there.

To be blunt, he was trying to say that there was some kind of bond between us.

As always, he was sincere about useless things.

‘By the way, it seems that a year has passed since I first met Bruns.’

From Tristar to the North.

From the beginning of the war in the North to the end, and until now.

It’d been almost a year.

I’d changed a lot in that time, but this guy hadn’t changed much.

‘I know he hasn’t had it easy, but he’s such a wuss.’

Even so, I did feel a measure of affection, so I couldn’t just kick him out. It’d be more convenient if he just stayed behind at the villa, but his sincerity was part of why he always tagged along.

It was kind of annoying, but if Bruns disappeared one day, I thought it’d feel a little boring.

“Leave that for later, and take care of yourself first. A lot of people died, so we need to clean things up.”

“Okay. So now what?”

“Yes, indeed.”

Helena and the Golden Lion agreed and looked around. Frozen chunks of flesh were scattered here and there, and corpses of soldiers were all over the area.

It wasn’t a good sight.

“There’s no one here in Valentine County with a higher rank than me, so I’ll take temporarily command. Anybody who’s dissatisfied should scram.”

I stared at the young man who was standing there in a daze. Tala de Valentine.

Tala, son of Count Valentine.

Even though the knights looked to him for guidance, he was still in shock.

Seeing such a hair-raising massacre wrought by a single sword with his eyes was a bit too much of a shock at his age. It was the responsibility of the adults present to rectify the situation.

“Then, let’s start with collecting the bodies.”

There was a lot to process. First, we had to match the scattered pieces together to make the corpses whole, and then deliver them to the families of the deceased.

If there was no family, we had to cremate the body. And finally, there were those who had signed away their corpses before death[4], who had to be made into carcasses and then either sent to the Church or returned to the county.

The chaotic situation soon began to settle under my command.

Things started to clear up quickly and neatly.

A few days later.

The situation had returned to some semblance of calm, and we were having dinner together.

Me, Helena, and the Golden Lion.

And Tala too.

“Does bread taste better if you eat it with a knife and fork…?”

“Shut up.”

“Hahaha! It does look cool. It probably takes patience, though. What do you think, Golden Death?”

“Don’t call me by that weird name, call me Helena. I don’t like that nickname much.”

“Ah, I see.”

As I kept eating, ignoring them, Tala put down his cutlery and looked at me.

He seemed to have something to say.

“If you have something to say, then out with it.”

“I was thinking. All this, happened because of that sword.”

“Have you given up on your dream of becoming a nurturer?”

“No. No, I haven’t.”

“Why?”

“There’re so many people out there who go crazy trying to make swords. So I thought I’d rather be the one to make a great sword.”

Helena asked in a curious tone.

“Oh? And?”

“If I can craft a great sword, I’ll be able to shut some of those crazy bastards up. I saw a sword slaughtering scores of knights. I also saw it move with its own will. I think there should be a better use for something like that.”

Why was he looking at me as he talked?

I’d never done him any favours.

But here, I had to be faithful to the role of an adult. After all, I’d made a lot of profit off him this time.

I wiped my mouth with a napkin, got up and tapped Tala’s shoulder.

“You know, when a man has a weight on his shoulders that he must bear – that’s when he starts to shine.”

“Yes.”

“Count Valentine. I hope you get what you yearn for.”

Now Tala was the count.

Count Valentine.

A young aristocrat who bore the name of his family, and a young man who aimed to become a nurturer of the sword.

All I could offer him was encouragement, but this was time for the young man to grow up and become an adult.

Because he’d made his decision.

“Are you leaving?”

“I’ve done all I had to do. Now it’s time for me to go.”

“Then, next time. I look forward to seeing you again, Count Jervain.”

And, next time –

“Call me Tal.”

Pft!

I couldn’t help but laugh, and nodded my head.

“I hope it’s not such a big mess when we meet next time, Tal.”

“Yes!”

Now it was time to go back to the capital.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] 융골(融骨) (lit. cartilage) is being translated as Smelting Bone.

[2] 약성 (lit. weakness) is being translated as Medicinal Bloodline.

[3] 약납 is being translated as Medicine Smelting.

[4] Of course it makes sense that people will do that, donate their bodies to scien- I mean religion. Great worldbuilding, but you just know this’ll probably never come up again…