The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It

-Kill him.

My brother…

-Cut him down.

…

I looked down at my right hand, gripping the sword. My hand remained steady. 

Silence.

 Yet, I felt an uncontrollable tremor beginning to overtake my body.

 My mind regained its rationality, but my body couldn’t shake off the instincts of a sword demon. If things continued like this, it wouldn’t be long before I became one with the sword and lost myself again.

‘…It’s been so long since I held a sword. I can’t control it like I used to.’

 Sword demon. One that does wield the sword, but is instead is wielded by the sword.

-Kill him.

If a sword demon cannot break free from the control of its sword for an extended period of time, they fall into a state of ‘complete assimilation.’

In this state, they lose human rationality and degenerate into a ruthless beast of the sword, only capable of cutting down everything in sight. 

Once fully fused, the sword demon can never return to being human.

They are designated as targets and are hunted down and killed. There is no other outcome.

‘Can’t I completely suppress these instincts if I achieve full unity of body and mind?’

-Cut him down.

The loud ringing in my ears enveloped my mind. These damned instincts…

Whoo!

At that moment, a black aura similar to mine brushed against my cheek and flew into the waterfall.

Kwang… 

The rocks behind the waterfall instantly crumbled and fell. 

“Hey, woman. Snap out of it and come to your senses.” 

The man, no, Andert, aimed his sword at me with a displeased expression. 

“I’ll help you, so get out of there. It’ll be a real pain if someone like you fully fuses your ego with your sword, so hold yourself together. You’re not a sword demon crazy enough to want to slaughter Westwinterre, are you?”

-Kill him.

As I slowly slipped my finger into the gap of wound on my shoulder, I replied. 

“Well, yeah.”

 The surge of unfamiliar presences came rushing towards us at that moment. 

Three knights who had just arrived stood on the waterfall, looking down at us.

“Mr. Gavroche.”

Anders glanced at the knights, who seemed ready to pounce at any moment, and smirked briefly. 

“Don’t bother coming down, you worthless late trash. Just get lost.” 

“But-” 

“But this, but that, just get lost. If you don’t want to get tangled up in this and die for no reason.” 

At the chilling command, the knights obediently stepped back. 

“Ha. Now they’re up to no good… Damn, it’s getting annoying. How did you manage to stop a sword demon on the verge of complete fusion?”

 “To stop the fusion, you must maintain their sense of self by talking to them about anything.” 

Andert coldly glared at me as I kindly provided an answer.

“This crazy sword demon – you sure have a good sense of humour. You want me to talk to you? Fine, I’ll talk to you as much as you want. Did you just call me Andert? That’s not my name. You’re mistaking me for someone else.”

-Cut him down.

“Mistaking?”

“Yeah, a mistake. Sometimes people mistake me for ‘that man.’ The hero, Andert Fager. It’s not like their minds are impaired along with their eyes. Even if it’s a mistake, how can one mistake the dead with the living?”

-Kill him.

Look at him. He’s angry that I’m mistaking Andert for Andert.

Pfft.

 “Puh-ha…! Ah, ow.” 

As a sharp pain shot up my spine, my mouth sealed shut.

Oh, I wanted to laugh to my heart’s content, but I couldn’t. The life of a swordsman with a pierced shoulder was so miserable.

“Ah, ah.” I rolled my shoulders and shook my feet, removing the fingers that were dug into the wound. 

Andert looked at me as if I were a crazy woman.

 The pain was so intense that it cleared my mind. 

The life of a sword demon, where pain was necessary to maintain one’s sanity, was truly agonizing. 

“Phew. Mistake? That’s not it. It’s your mistake to think your name is Gavroche. It’s the people who know you as Gavroche who are mistaken. You’re not Gavroche. Do you think I wouldn’t know?”

The man I currently faced was Gavroche, not Andert.

Gavroche Berkeley-Gratten.

The most promising heir likely to succeed the Berkeley-Gratten family. A young man with exceptional talent, even when compared to the renowned Jean Berkeley-Gratten, known as a genius of the sword.

And perhaps the one who stole the Diary of Dian Cecht under the command of the swordmaster.

Then I looked again at Andert, not Gavroche.

Andert Fager.

A boy who enlisted in the Imperial Army to protect his hometown, Queen Island, at the tender age of less than twenty. He perished in battle within a year, but his body was never found in the burning ruins of Queen Island.

And my one and only family.

The family I could not protect.

‘But he didn’t die. He’s alive.’

But he doesn’t remember me.

So what if he doesn’t remember?

If my dead brother has come back to life, does it matter if he remembers me? 

Memories can come back when squeezed out of a person. That’s how my younger brother always was.

“You.”

Andert’s green eyes looked at me murderously.

That’s not scary at all, you damn punk who can’t even recognize his sister.

“You know me.”

“Of course, I know you very well. Your real name is not Gavroche. That’s probably a name given to you by the swordmaster. It’s the worst. It’s a name that suits a mountain guard. The swordmaster has always been bad at things like that.”

“…….”

“How well do I know you? Shall I start with what I remember? Let’s see. There’s a mole on the back of our dear Gavroche’s neck, right? And unfortunately, you get uncomfortable when it’s sunny. Does drinking milk give you an upset stomach? I think if these details are correct, I must know you pretty well. So? You must be curious as to how I know all this, right?”

Andert’s expression turned sour. Even that face looked the same as before.

“Curious, aren’t you?” 

He tried to maintain an indifferent expression, but as a family member, I knew better than everyone.

He was so curious that he was about to burst. 

“If you’re curious.” 

A damp chill filled the air between us. I could feel Andert’s ears perking up on both sides.

He was completely focused on every word I said.

‘Ah, I want to bully you.’

Seeing his feigned disinterest, I became fervently eager to torment him. 

The long-lost familial love of a sister began to stir within me.

“I’ll reveal it after 60 seconds.”

“…What?”

 As soon as I finished talking, something surged up from my throat. 

“Gag.” 

Blood spurted out. Like a fountain, the blood splattered all over my chest and stained the rocks crimson.

“Ugh.”

My brain and heart seemed to tighten. The axis of my body was beginning to collapse, and the strength in my limbs was fading away. 

-Kill.

 Oh no. 

“I thought the conversation was going so well that I was out of that state.” 

It was a mistake.

‘Was the time I’ve lived as a sword demon just  too long?’

 Indeed, it was too long, and I couldn’t stop the fusion with mere conversation.

 Heat started to build up in my head. Deafening noise and chaos enveloped the world. 

-Kill and cut them down. 

There was no other choice. 

Wiping the corners of my mouth, I drew my sword and addressed the tense-faced Andert. 

“That statement  from earlier is canceled. I’ll say it again. If you’re curious, curious… when I fall, you must take me. Because what you seek is in my head….” 

“Hey.”

I could not clearly hear Andert’s retort.

Before it reached me, the sword I held pierced through my other shoulder.

I was dizzy. It was natural, since blood was gushing out the pierced hole.

My bleeding body slowly leaned to the side.

Excessive bleeding was my final resort to prevent complete transformation. In reality, the probability of death was very high, but… I had no choice.

I can’t fully become a sword-demon and kill Andert.

“Most importantly, bring the blue-haired man who’s most likely wandering around this area to me.”

“…….”

“Andert.”

Faint confusion rose in Andert’s composed eyes.

“You..”

Don’t leave. Stay by my side.

My vision blackened. I lost consciousness without uttering those words.

* * *

As he stormed out of the place, Gavroche was thrown into brief doubt. 

Why were his legs moving on their own? 

In truth, Gavroche had no intention of following the demands of the deranged swordsman who incessantly rambled in front of him. 

However, the mind was one thing, and the body was another.

When he came to his senses, he was already supporting the head of the fallen swordsman.

She was cold.

‘It’s almost like holding a corpse.’

She was in a terrible condition.

Aside from the holes in both of her shoulders, the amount of blood she’d lost was far too much.

‘Is it suicide?’

There were often such swordsmen. Those who chose death right before the assimilation.

Gavroche had seen it once before. 

The sword demon, who was once a member of the Berkeley-Gratten Knights, had deep trauma from the war that couldn’t be washed away.

During a mock training session, he fell into a state of complete transformation and took his own life before losing his sanity completely.

But this case was a little different.

This swordswoman was undeniably skilled with a sword. The fact that she pierced her shoulder instead of her heart or neck meant that she had no intention to die, at least for now.

‘Bring the blue-haired man who’s probably wandering around here to me.’

To think she would even leave him to clean up the aftermath.

A bitter smile was painted on his dry cheek. 

“No matter how I look, she looks like an idiot.”

wow, sword demons are actually way more scary and tragic than I initially realized. also, I always assumed Andert was a loving well behaved sibling for some reason, but him being an average trash talking younger brother is even funnier

Daisy proves that she’s a true older sister yet again with the desire to bully her younger sibling.

I had to even the chapters anyway so here ya go ^^

for a little explanation: sword demons channel their personal feelings onto their swords until the sword develops an ego of it’s own. their feelings are probably carried over to any sword they use. Daisy became one during the war (that must have been why the swordmaster said Jean reminded him of Andert) and her sole objective was to defeat mephisto’s army.

sword demons seem to fight very offensively, disregarding any care for their own safety, and they’re probably likely to continue the fight until they win (Raphael and the swordmaster called Andert a reckless/heartless bastard because of the way she fought). the sword is telling her to cut everything down because of the instincts she developed in the war. I hope nothing’s too confusing!

Thank you again for the ko-fi, Bec!