The Sword and The Shadow

Leguna spent three days of travel to arrive at the camp Eirinn was at, and that was already a rather short time. The lack of more convenient means of transport and Melindor being up north in Hocke meant that it usually took around ten days to half a month to travel to the southern border.

Obviously, he couldn't wait nearly that long. He used a portal gate of the empire. Those gates usually had two fixed entrances and not many places had them. It also cost up to a hundred gold coins per use. Their maintenance was also really expensive and sometimes, one couldn't use them even if one had money.

But Leguna was the bureau head, and these conveniences came with his position. Even so, he felt that it was a little too slow though it saved him much time.

He had no choice but to travel on horseback for the last stretch of the journey. When his war horse finally expired from fatigue, he cast it away and relied on running and blinking his way there, saving him another hour of time.

"Hold! Entry to this camp is for authorized personnel only!" said the guard as he saw Leguna running over haggardly.

"I'm from the bureau. I've come to see a priestess under your care by the name of Eirinn." He wasn't in that much of a rush to beat up the soldier who was only doing his job. She only managed to survive thanks to their protection anyway, so he held a good impression on them from the get go. He took out his medal and showed it to the soldier.

"Oh, so it's Sir Dark Requiem. I didn't think you'd make it here that quickly!" The soldier hurriedly saluted after seeing that medal. While the youth before him appeared to be younger than him, Leguna's reputation spread throughout the continent and the soldier had heard many of those rumors. The many high-stakes assassination missions he completed was enough to earn the respect of the troops.

"How did you know who I am?" Leguna was quite surprised. He only said he was from the bureau. How did they guess?

"I told them," a warm female voice said, "I said that if a youth below the age of 20 rushed here and says he's from the bureau, it'd definitely be you."

Leguna looked in the direction of the voice and mused, "Lisana?"

"Long time no see, Leguna." She greeted him with a warm smile. Usually, she would call him Sir Leguna, but Marolyt was quite unhappy with that method of address and insisted that she call Leguna by name given her status as the swordsaint's disciple.

"That's more like it! You're my disciple and Leguna's that darned elf's disciple. Why should my disciple address another so respectfully?" was Marolyt's justification.

"Why are you here?" he asked, puzzled. Leguna recalled that Lisana returned to the frontlines with Alissanda. Shouldn't she be with the knight brigade by the prince's side? The brigade should've been deployed in the east of the empire and Lisana shouldn't be here in the south.

"Let's go. We'll talk as I take you to Eirinn."

"Alright."

……

"Were you practicing your sword just now?" he guessed at the sight of the sword on her back and the other she held in hand. Incidentally, Marolyt quite liked this disciple of his and the two swords were his gift to her.

Those were two enchanted swords. The first sword's enchantments were Ultimate Edge, Greater Speed and Savage Tear. The other had Greater Toughen, Critical Precision and Greater Stabilization. Though those were common enchantments, unlike those unique ones found in Ebony and Lighteater, having three enchantments together made the swords quite rare.

The material used to make Lisana's swords wasn't normal either. They used a kind of special metal called meteor steel. Basically, it was a kind of alloy with great elasticity and some memory-retaining properties. It was indeed the ideal material to make light weapons with.

Though it was a kind of alloy, the alchemists intentionally sold it as rare metal that came from fallen stars to increase its value, hence its name.

It was quite apparent that the alchemists' boasting wasn't useless either. The various magical guilds in the world valued meteor steel five to eight times more than gold with the same volume instead of weight. The reason volume was used instead of weight was the density of meteor steel was about a tenth that of gold, so it was in fact far more precious than gold was.

Since Marolyt officially took Lisana as his disciple, it was only right for him to offer her a symbolic gift. Thanks to Leguna's pestering, Marolyt had no choice but to go to the palace to ask Larwin for those weapons to gift to his disciple.

Naturally, Larwin, couldn't be happier to oblige the swordsaint's request to gain his favor. He didn't hesitate to take two pieces of meteor steel out of the empire's treasury and ordered the court magi association to get the best alchemists to enchant the weapons made out of the material. As a result, the two swords Gale and Swiftshadow were made to complement Lisana's lightning-quick dual-wielding sword style.

"That's right. Master said that I can't neglect my skills. I have to familiarize myself with these movements daily. Gale and Swiftshadow are also wonderful weapons. Swinging them around is pleasurable in itself. Come to think of it, I have to thank you for this. If not for you, Master wouldn't have thought of giving me these."

"Hehe, it's all his fault for coming to pestering me nonstop. I had to do something to get back at him." He still found it funny whenever he recalled how much trouble Marolyt went through for those weapons. "So, why are you here?"

"The knight brigade's necessities were delayed far too long, and the captain wanted me to come back and take a look," she explained.

"I see…" Lisana's relationship with Alissanda also seemed to change. Back then, the prince would most likely get Jast to do something like this, but he had picked Lisana for it this time around. Looks like that brat finally got it through his head. Guess my efforts getting you two together in Melindor wasn't wasted!

Upon that thought, Leguna shot her a thumbs up with an expression that seemed to spell, 'my assist worked, right?'

But she didn't seem to understand him at all and returned an odd look. "I had been dealing with that matter nearby and when I heard something happened to the fort, I rushed there to see."

"What?" He hesitated, before he asked, "So you were the one who saved Eirinn?"

"You can say that." She knew Leguna's personality well and didn't act humble when she didn't have to. Stretching out her hand, she said, "I saved your precious Eirinn, so how are you going to thank me?"

His expression turned solemn. "If you really saved Eirinn, I'd give you my life if you wanted it."

"Alright, Leguna. There's no need to be so serious about it."

"No, you don't know what this means to me. If something had happened to her, I would really go insane. So, I'm incredibly thankful that you saved her. As for the gift…"

Leguna hesitated at that point. He didn't know what he could get her to pay her back. Nothing felt adequate to represent how thankful he felt for her.

Seeing his troubled look, she giggled.

"Looks like you really care about her after all!"

"Of course. She's the one who gave me a second chance at life. Without her, I wouldn't be here as I am now. So, what do you want in return? I'll do anything I can."

"I know what I want," she said with her finger to her lips.

"Tell me."

"I want you to leave Miss Annie and Innie and be with Eirinn alone," she said with a sudden leer.