Dark Fantasy Normalized – Chapter 87

‘Huh?’

Ricir suddenly felt a strange presence.

Something had taken up residence within him.

It was similar to the sensation he had when Verbandes moved in.

“Hey.”

It was at that moment that the woman’s voice echoed once more.

‘Could it be, the voice of Master Rodan…?’

Ricir belatedly realized the identity of the intruder within his inner world.

For some unknown reason, it seemed as though the consciousness contained within the sword had shifted into his inner realm.

“Who do you think you are? How long do you plan to ignore my words?”

This was an unconscious reaction.

Ricir focused his mind on the source of the voice within his inner world.

A pure white world devoid of anything.

There stood a tall woman with her arms crossed.

Her short hair, tinted with dark blue, harmonized perfectly with her aloof expression.

Ricir immediately recognized that she was Rodan’s master.

The lawless intimidation he felt from Rodan radiated from her as well.

“Ah, now I see your face clearly. You’re cuter than I expected.”

A subtle smile graced her lips.

“What are you dawdling for? You can’t introduce yourself to your master?”

“…”

Ricir frowned.

Your master?

What about your disciple?

“Wasn’t Rodan your disciple?”

“He’s quite adorable.”

Adorable?

Ricir doubted his hearing.

“But, he’s too soft.”

Too soft?

Ricir questioned his hearing once again.

“I can tell one thing about swords: if I teach one, I’ll learn ten. But his pathetic personality shows no signs of improvement. When is he planning to stop being just a strong brat?”

“Ah…”

He began to understand what was going on.

For instance, it was this.

She had grown weary of Rodan’s reckless personality and had decided to let him go.

Having been swept up in the natural disaster that was Rodan, Ricir could empathize with her feelings.

“Certainly, he does have that side.”

“…”

She looked at Ricir meaningfully, her smile turning sly.

“Right. You think so too, huh? From the perspective of ‘us’ beings, he appears utterly inferior and lacking.”

“?”

Ricir felt a moment of discomfort.

Her demeanor appeared somewhat out of place for a ‘teacher disappointed in their disciple.’

‘Even if I was disappointed, saying such harsh things about someone who was once my disciple, isn’t that too much?’

Moreover, considering Rodan’s reaction, it appeared she hadn’t completely severed her master-disciple relationship with him.

“If you wish for me to take you as my disciple… what are you planning to do about Rodan?”

She spoke nonchalantly as if it was nothing important.

“At first, if he managed to draw this sword, I would’ve considered taking him back. However, the more I watch him, the more I feel it’s hopeless. He will never become like us. A defective product, it was my fault for misjudging his character.”

“…”

The one who had once been Sword Master Rodan’s teacher was now considering herself superior to him.

Yet, all Ricir felt was discomfort and unease.

This wasn’t what he thought a master-disciple relationship should be like.

– “My disciple~ I’m sorry for saying that, but when you took me in, I never thought about the after-”

‘…’

In any case, it wasn’t like that.

He had no intention of becoming a disciple of such a person.

“I’ll be honest. I have no intention of becoming your disciple.”

“Your will doesn’t matter. What’s important is that I have decided so.”

Despite the nature of the situation, she did not appear arrogant at all.

Her demeanor was regal, based on the belief that what she desired would surely come to fruition.

For a moment, curiosity overtook his reluctance.

Why would someone like her have any interest in him?

As Ricir voiced his doubts, she wore a devious smile.

“Why, you’re just like me.”

“Like me?”

“I know how much blood you have on your hands.”

“…?”

“Playing innocent won’t help.”

That sly smile twisted further, morphing into a mischievous grin.

“Why don’t you tell me more about yourself? What have you done? How could you have spilled that much blood at such a young age?”

She extended her hand towards Ricir, filled with delight.

She assumed he would gladly fit into her expectations.

As mentioned multiple times, he was clearly of the same kind.

The conditions to draw the sword.

The criteria to awaken her true self.

That was a body and soul drenched in blood.

A murderous fiend asked a fellow murderous fiend (?).

“?”

The murderous fiend(?) tilted his head.

“What blood?”

“…?”

The naïve expression on his face finally made the murderous fiend feel discomfort.

Something was off.

*

[Initiating interaction with the ‘Ego Sword: Blue Lotus’]

[Activation condition: Karma 0]

[Conditions not met]

[‘Ego Sword: Blue Lotus’ rejects you]

[You resisted]

*

[Initiating interaction with the ‘Ego Sword: Blue Lotus’]

[Attachment condition: Karma -300]

[Conditions not met]

[‘Ego Sword: Blue Lotus’ rejects you]

[You resisted]

*

[All conditions met]

[You are now bound to the ‘Ego Sword: Blue Lotus’]

[You resisted]

[‘Ego Sword: Blue Lotus’ binds to you]

*

Blue Lotus? Oh, you mean Klana.

If someone had said she was a madwoman who used to place flowers over the people she killed in the distant past, I would have understood immediately.

Like that, the Blue Lotus was a notorious battle maniac and murderous fiend.

She was the kind of evil spirit who would stop at nothing if it meant seeing blood when facing people and swords.

Her killing spree only ceased after two Sword Masters intervened. Do you know how stubborn the Sword Masters are about matters related to swords?

For those guys to suddenly team up against her speaks volumes about her power.

…But now that I think about it, it’s a bit ridiculous.

What? Ah. Not that.

The name Blue Lotus.

If a mad killer like that can have a name like Blue Lotus, then one like me who is disciplined and serene…

– Crawling Library Eloiran <Dialogue Keyword: [Ego Sword: Blue Lotus]> –

*

[Title: What the hell is this?]

Content: ‘You are now bound to [Ego Sword: Straightened Will]?’

Suddenly taking up space in my inventory and won’t let go?

-: Congratulations. You have been chosen as the master of the Straightened X Sword.

– [Writer]: What the hell, I didn’t apply for this.

-: You interacted while meeting the conditions, didn’t you?

That’s basically a given.

– [Writer]: What conditions did I meet, freaking hell?

I’m a Mage, for crying out loud!

-: The sword prefers Mages.

– [Writer]: ?

-: Mages who raise their strength stats with the intention of using the Moonlight Sword are approached with ‘You wanted this, didn’t you?’

– [Writer]: No, I raised my stats to use the Moonlight Sword! What the fuck?

So that warning I sometimes saw in the guides about the Straightened X Sword meant this, huh?

-: You’ve been straightened… (Sword weeping emoticon)

*

[Title: Is this a translation error?]

Content: ‘You have been bound to [Ego Sword: Blue Lotus]?’

Isn’t that supposed to be the opposite?

-: Apparently the ego within the ego item is so massive that it selects its owner (not master) in reverse.

– [Writer]: But the ego items I’ve owned in the past weren’t like this!

-: Normal ego items show ‘XXX with a consciousness,’ and when they’re activated, they ask for a name to call their master.

-: For real, what thing has so little shame that it would have a name? Shouldn’t it ask to be called something cool, like its master?

– [Writer]: So what’s this one about?

Is it unusable?

-: It has good performance… the performance is good but…

-: Its exclusive skills and traits are absolutely erratic.

It activates and deactivates on its own whims.

The item stats are the same too.

-: Damn, I thought I was fighting a boss so I wouldn’t die, but it turned out the Ego Sword was deactivated.

I spent 40 minutes smacking it with a totally useless sword.

– [Writer]: No way!

Listening to this, I thought I was dealing with trash like no other and tried throwing it away, but why isn’t it working?

-: You’re bound to it.

-: It’s a cursed item, so you’ll have to complete a quest to break free.

-: The quest conditions will accumulate as you fail, so keep that in mind.

-: But how the heck did you bind yourself to the Blue Lotus?

-: Isn’t that supposed to come out after defeating Rodan?

-: Yeah.

-: Wasn’t the attachment condition Karma -100?

-: The activation condition is Karma 0, and the binding condition is Karma -300.

-: What the hell did you do to drop your Karma to -300?

– [Writer]: I went around killing every male I could see because I didn’t want to look at them.

-: Is this the so-called Dark Lily Squad?

-: Keeping guys like this locked away in an online world is really the game’s saving grace, seriously.

-: Ah.

-: By the way, when you’re bound to an ego item, a thing called ‘Affinity’ appears, so take care of that.

If it drops too low, penalties will occur, so be sure to clear the ego quest before it lowers!

*

Blue Lotus Klana.

She struggled to understand the situation.

The completeness she hadn’t felt while in Rodan’s hands.

Right now, she had regained her full power and identity.

This was only possible when resonating with an ideal counterpart as the sword’s owner.

However.

After a brief conversation, she acutely felt that the new owner was someone far removed from her ideals.

How could someone like that draw the sword and awaken her true self?

It was an incomprehensible matter.

The only thing certain was that he did not merit possessing her.

Having made her judgment, Klana immediately sought to sever the resonance with Ricir.

An item discarding its owner.

While it would normally be impossible, Klana’s strong ego made it possible.

She had always been the chooser, and she also did the discarding.

Just like she had unilaterally dragged Ricir into her inner world, she now sought to unilaterally expel him.

“…”

“…?”

But Ricir remained unmoving.

He simply stood there, staring blankly at Klana.

“What on earth are you doing?”

She shook her head.

– Whoosh!

With that, she drew her sword and approached Ricir.

If she couldn’t expel him, she would just make him leave on his own.

Though in reality, she was just a weapon without a body depending on her owner, here she was whole just like when she was alive.

– Crash!

Klana kicked the ground and shot forward like an arrow.

Her body moved faster than the eye could follow, and by the time Ricir’s gaze caught up to her, the cold blade was already resting against his neck.

Just as Ricir’s neck was about to be severed—

– Whoosh!

“…!”

The sword cleaved through the air.

An unknown force acted upon Klana, sending her body back to where she originally stood.

Without a care, Klana once again kicked off the ground.

– Crash!

– Whoosh!

“…”

This series of events continued to repeat.

Until the cold gaze of the murderous fiend was stained with shock.

Eventually, she reached one possibility.

Perhaps this wasn’t her inner world after all.

“Impossible.”

Klana immediately dismissed the idea.

For that possibility to come true, it needed to be predicated on one condition.

Her ego had to have been bound to that of the opponent’s.

For example, Ricir should have been her master.

Therefore, it was impossible.

Klana had never once recognized him as her master.

Since becoming an item, she had never had a master.

All owners of the Blue Lotus had revered and followed her, easily discarded at her whim.

“Hey. Get me out of here.”

She commanded Ricir in a chilly tone.

At that moment, the presence of the murderous fiend, who once filled the world with terror, was attempting to oppress him.

“…!”

Suddenly, Klana’s senses heightened, sending alarms ringing in her head.

The world flipped upside down.

The pure white space that contained nothing but them transformed into an infinitely sprawling desert.

– Whoosh!!!

A dust storm engulfed the vast desert.

With its arrival, the desert, bathed in scorching sunlight, plunged into night in an instant.

It was a disaster.

An area of providence that was beyond human control.

Yet that disaster moved with self-awareness.

Manifesting its will with a thunderous roar towards Ricir.

“What, really?”

Ricir faced the disaster with a look of utter calm.

His eyes, his demeanor, reminiscent of how one would treat a child.

Klana felt an intense cognitive dissonance, leading to a headache.

Upon momentarily closing her eyes and then reopening them, the desert had vanished without a trace.

In the now-visible pure white space, Ricir and a small spirit faced each other.

Soon, their gazes turned towards Klana.

Klana involuntarily stepped back.

“W-What on earth…”

A trembling voice escaped the lips of the cold-blooded murderous fiend.

What on earth is this place?

And who are they?

“…!”

At that moment, another ‘incomprehensible’ wave washed over her.

Klana’s gaze drifted aimlessly through the air.

As if something could be seen in the nothingness.

“Affinity…?”

*

[You are now bound to the target]

[Affinity activated]

[If affinity drops low, corresponding side effects may occur]

[Affinity: 6%]

*

“Hey!”

“…Huh? Ah.”

Ricir snapped back to reality at Rodan’s call.

About three minutes had passed since Ricir had become dazed while holding the Ego Sword.

“What is it? What happened?”

The Sword Master outside was visibly flustered.

He sensed something was off with Ricir’s unusual reaction.

“Don’t tell me you heard Master’s voice!?”

“…Yeah, I did.”

“…!”

Rodan rushed to grab Ricir’s shoulders.

“What did she say!?”

“…”

Ricir looked away from Rodan’s gaze as he spoke.

“She told me to be her disciple.”

“What?”

That master just took on a new disciple?

When I’m still here?

The eyes of the Sword Master outside began to tremble violently.