Cursed Sword Master Prologue Part 1
The End of The World.
「Thank you for your hard work, XX-san.」
Muttering in a completely expressionless voice, I stabbed that person’s throat with my beloved sword in my right hand without hesitation.
However, I’m also currently on the ground, having been defeated and unable to move… My back is hot… but the rest of my body is cold.
So this is how I die, huh...
With the decision that I hadn’t even expected to make in such a calm manner, I twisted my lips in amus.e.m.e.nt for just a moment and held my beloved sword in my right hand while slowly closing my eyes.
Come to think of it, how did this situation happen?
――――――――――――
My… Fujinomiya Soujirou’s mother is the only heiress of a prestigious local family and also a bit of a celebrity. A so-called “Ojou-sama.”
Therefore, Mother’s parents possessed an extremely gorgeous and elegant mansion which was purely j.a.panese-style and possessed a storehouse with a pretty nice garden.
Grandfather, who is the current head, seemed like a strict person, but he was actually very generous to mother and I, the grandchild. On the other hand, however, my father was especially strict. Aside from the scowling treatment, I was always left with no holidays; that’s the father I had.
When I entered junior high, a message with a single word was left to mother and I when he left the house, “Tired”.
To be honest, I think he had it.
Since grandfather didn’t permit mother to move from this mansion even after she was married, father was also gradually forced to live in the mansion, too.
Also, Grandfather didn’t allow mother’s family name to be changed from Fujinomiya after marriage.
With this, mother became pregnant, and I was born with the Fujinomiya family name and will continue on with it.
The loneliness Father was experiencing in this situation within the large mansion must surely have been unimaginable.
There were several times where Father tried to convince us to leave this mansion, but Mother, who was raised within a mansion like a princess, free of any malice, could not understand Father’s words of “At this rate, our family will be ruined” at all, so we didn’t leave.
Well, even if we had done that, it wouldn’t have lasted for longer than a single week before we would be taken back.
Although Father seemed to have expectations for me since he wanted to take even if just me away from this mansion, I had refused.
Though I didn’t particularly hate Father and I didn’t think that living a humble life was unpleasant, I had some reasons why I did not want to leave this mansion.
Father leaving the house because of a reason like that didn’t really matter.
Rather, I believed that it’s better for Father’s sake, that he was liberated instead by leaving this mansion.
Though there was the matter of him leaving, living life at grandfather’s house without any inconvenience, it could honestly be said that it was a comfortable living environment.
But, other than financial reasons, there was a certain thing kept within the storehouse of grandfather’s mansion that is of utmost importance for me.
The reason why I hated leaving here with father was because of that.
In the old family lineage of Fujinomiya, Great-Grandfather and Grandfather liked collecting antiques as a hobby. I was charmed by one of the things inside called a “Katana”.
Several famous j.a.panese swords were displayed and adorned in the gla.s.s display within Grandfather’s storehouse in complete sets from ancient and modern times.
I was a child who liked to look at j.a.panese swords in the storehouse when there was time.
And after having father finally leave, as a celebratory gift for entering junior high school, I was bequeathed with one of Grandfather’s swords.
Up until then, no matter how many times I had inquired before, to be honest, I think the matter of father leaving and my admission to a famous private middle school might’ve been what caused Grandfather to approve of placing one of his j.a.panese swords under my care.
Naturally, I was prohibited to take it out of the mansion, and I was also prohibited from attempting to slash at anything.
It was under the pretense of maintaining the sword that I was permitted to bring it to the garden. Moreover, I was limited to only practice in the early morning before anybody woke up to prevent any mistakes and perhaps injuring someone.
Because it’s the norm for a common maid to be a live-in employee, waking up after the maids in this mansion who wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning is considered late.
Because of that, I was scheduled to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to swing my katana without reservation, and then, it became a daily routine to continue swinging the katana uneventfully for about two hours before the maids started their activities.
The j.a.panese sword which I received from Grandfather has a blade with three shaku, three sun, four bun, five rin (about 100.35 cm). It’s an odachi, and it was heavy and difficult for me to handle since I’ve only entered junior high, but if I have time, I will tend to it. When I sleep, I put my sword within the range of my hand at all times, and for approximately three years, I continued swinging it early in the morning.
And now, I have reached today.
It must have been the black-suited guards in charge of security that noticed first. Perhaps the security system installed in the storehouse was activated?
Thus, according to their usual nighttime training, the three black-suited guard should have reported it to grandfather and the remaining two should have rushed to the storehouse.
Perhaps by now, a burglar would be actively searching for something to disguise themselves with. (In the end though, I don’t know how many they are.)
At this stage, when the security system has been activated, the security company should’ve already alerted the police, and at a time like this the black suited guard should’ve instantly started unsheathing their batons and running for the controls.
However, the burglars must’ve been prepared to perform a bold crime on this occasion.
I jumped out of the storehouse as soon as one of the burglars pulled out an object with a black l.u.s.ter from his pocket while the black-suited guard was rus.h.i.+ng at him.
「Watch out! He’s got a gun!」
Jumping quickly, I grasped for the sword since I heard a voice opening the shoji door in the following corridor.
As the urgent voices of the black-suited guards drew near, doubting their alternatives , they tried to escape from danger. For some reason though, hiding didn’t come up as an option at all.
Thus, the moment the shoji door* opened, the head of one of the black-suited people popped open.
[Daily: j.a.panese Sliding Door]
There weren"t any loud sounds. Perhaps, they had a silencer attached
After considering things for a while, another black-suited person stooped over in an instant. From the force of a bullet, he bent backwards and fell down, never to rise again. He was probably shot in the abdomen and then again in the chest.
「Ehh! What the heck!」
Grandfather took the last black suited guard along as he emerged from the garden.
「Wh-... What is this... Are they really dead?」
Did Grandfather just notice the black suited corpses scattered around the garden? However, it’s obvious they’re dead. You need not purposely validate it with words.
... A human being can’t live with half of their head blown off.
「Master! It’s dangerous! Please leave it to us.」
The black suited guards stood in front of Grandfather as they tried to keep him away and protect him.
But considering that the masked burglars had guns and were considerably skilled with them, Grandfather was shot in the shoulder by a sharpshooter even though he should have been protected by a black-suited guard.
「Kua!」
「Master!」
Grandfather crouched down and held his shoulder, and as his worried black suited guard crouched down to carry him away, they turned their backs to the burglars.
The burglar, without hesitation, pointed the muzzle to their backs...
I had already started running. My room is located slightly behind the robber with the gun who was looking at the black suited guards and didn’t take it into account.
The black suited guard’s back blossomed with petals of blood; furthermore, it was both of them.
Anyone who can become a threat will surely be killed. He’s considerably well-versed in the fighting and have grasped their potential threat as well.
That being the case, I can naturally say that there should be as many as three guards in my home, and those three people, because of their slight carelessness, are sure to be killed.
Complying with what I planned, I ran straight under the armed burglar without hesitation.
The burglar noticed me a bit late, and while he was about to point his gun at me, as a conditioned reflex, I calmly grasped my katana and swung.
Boto~
Dragged by the weight of it, the gun held in the burglar’s right hand dropped to the ground.
In the end, I believe that I might not be able to live as a human with a j.a.panese person’s mindset in this modern age.
In particular, it wasn’t something like achieving something unbecoming of a j.a.panese, possessing some special power, or being able to carry out a bad deed without concern.
For humans, the abilities they have attained are quite ordinary, but I’m not weak in a social standpoint. Of course I can differentiate between right and wrong.
Things like destroying, stealing, violating, deceiving, and killing have no meaning to them.
Though it may seem like I’m saying “Do it if there’s meaning,” that’s a misunderstanding. Certainly, there is no need for things like those to happen. It’s obvious that it isn’t good to commit something like a crime, and I don’t desire for it.
Then, what’s incompatible...
I believe I’m the only one that can’t absolutely follow the ethics of those around me.
It’s the villain way of thinking. Where is the line of a villain drawn? Certainly, I have my own criteria for it, though it is not a reason, and it can surely become a matter of my own self-righteousness...
I killed a person whose goal is money. He ruined another human’s life by cheating and exploiting them. I can’t recognize those so-called human animals that l.u.s.t about the lower part of the body and commit the brutal crime of raping women.
I can’t really understand why people so loudly declare that those types of people also have human rights.
For instance, holding the wrist of the man who was crouching with fear in his eyes, I felt nothing as I lifted his mask off and looked at his face.
This feeling can be compared to crus.h.i.+ng a mosquito who"s sucking your blood without hesitation; it is beyond our control... won’t you agree?
Therefore, while looking down at the masked man with dampened eyes, I brandished the sword in my right hand onto his neck without hesitation.
Slash
As I calmly thinking in my mind that the sound was duller than I expected, blood began to burst out.
Pierce
In that instant, there was a sensation of something cold pressed on my lower back as I was simultaneously pushed forward.
What? This is bad. It’s a good thing that the liquid which was bursting out earlier has calmed down. It was going to mess up my clothes.
As I turned my neck to confirm the real surprise while breathing a sigh of relief, I see a kodachi had pierced my back.
I see, this guy must’ve entered into my Grandfather’s storage earlier to carry it out.
I observed the Kodachi that has pierced into me and turn my eyes to the person who struck me.
The person who struck me trembled as he sat down paralyzed with fear.
I understood everything as I look at his frightened eyes which were visible through the mask.
Ahh… I see. So there was such a thing?
I strangely understood at that time that my back felt abnormally hot. While feeling annoyed, I turned my body and moved to the man in front of me who was paralyzed.
My knees trembled as they’ve nearly lost all strength, and with a bit of frustration I tried to maintain them.
The man continued to cry towards me as he attempted to appeal about something or another, but I could no longer hear any human words from him so I can’t reply.
Although I don’t know whether this wicked insect can understand, I’ll say a few words to him at the end.
「Thank you for your hard work, Father.」
As my conscious was fading away, with my muscles holding the blade, I flawlessly stabbed my father’s throat.