After Vice-Commander Neil’s apology, Lyon-san filled me in on the current state of the knight order. The order’s main duties are defending the capital — city security, palace guard, escorting VIPs. Most members come from noble houses, but predominantly second sons or third sons — not the eldest who’d inherit. That status, apparently, breeds a lack of responsibility — and produces the kind of self-important, family-name-flexing types I’d just dealt with.
“Mind you, I’m a second son too. Just — our house isn’t like the others. Do something selfish or harmful and you eat my father’s fist…”
Lyon-san said it with a wry smile. Ah, with that dad, yeah — checks out. Doesn’t sound like there’s any room for being spoiled.
“There are a few, though, who really cling to bloodline. A new recruit from a count’s house refusing to take orders from a captain of baron’s house, or — flipping it — a captain who sucks up to a noble-son recruit. Honestly, ridiculous stuff.”
Neil-san spoke bitterly. Every organization has its troublemakers.
“That said — today was something of a gift. Those types were on the way to becoming a tumor inside the order. Their families used to manage to smooth things over. Not this time, though. They went and laid hands on the princess’s fiancé. They should be grateful their heads are still attached.”
This person was watching the whole thing from the start. Knew exactly what was happening. Sly. Then again — I bit the hook. So that’s on me too.
“More importantly — your weapon, just now. What is that?”
Neil-san eyed the sword-gun Brünhild at my hip with interest.
“This? It’s a weapon designed for me — only I can use it, only I can make it. Long-range and close-range both. Transforms between short-sword and long-sword forms; can also paralyze the target.”
“Hoh — that’s a serious weapon. Could you make one for me as well?”
“Sorry, that one I can’t…”
With firearms I have to be careful. This is a thing that kills people easily. Transferring it to someone else needs serious trust.
”…Pity.”
“Ah — but I can make a transforming weapon, or one with paralysis enchanted? Whether you can actually use it is another question.”
“Really!? Then please!”
I took Neil-san at his word and pulled a steel ingot from [Storage]. Mithril is harder, but it’s not really suited for weapons — too light. To put mithril to use you want a thrust-focused weapon like an estoc, or a cutting-focused weapon like a katana.
“What weapon are you most skilled with, Neil-san?”
“That’d be the spear. I can use a sword as well, of course.”
Those two, then. Plus a dagger — three transformation forms.
I used [Modeling] to shape a roughly two-meter spear. Design was based on a Western-style spear I remembered from an old game — the head a dagger-shape. Effectively a dagger with a very long handle.
The handle is hollow; in transformation, the mass shifts into the cavity, shortening the haft. That gives you the dagger form.
Same trick as Brünhild — for the long-sword form, the dagger blade thins out and the handle re-hollows, becoming a one-meter long sword… yeah, that should work. I enchanted it with [Modeling] using [Enchant]. Then to finish:
“Program start /
Trigger: owner speaks “Spear Mode” / “Sword Mode” / “Dagger Mode” /
Effect: rapid [Modeling] transformation of blade and haft into spear, longsword, or dagger form /
Program end.”
Ah — and paralysis effect. I applied [Enchant] for [Paralyze] as well.
“Program start /
Trigger: owner speaks “Blade Mode” / “Stun Mode” /
Effect: blade transformation in stun mode, with [Paralyze] effect applied /
Program end.”
“Right — looks done.”
I twirled the spear once. Same as the one I made in Eashen — balance is still bad. Will take getting used to.
“Dagger Mode.”
In an instant the haft shortened; the spear became a 40cm-blade dagger. I swung it around — no problems. Convenient form for carrying around.
“Sword Mode.”
The blade lengthened; one-meter long-sword. The grip lengthened enough for two-handed use. I held it at guard and swung it down. Yeah, not bad.
“Spear Mode.”
Back to the original. Transformation works fine. Now—
“Stun Mode.”
“Eh?”
I grinned and tapped Lyon-san’s shoulder with the spear. Next instant, Lyon-san crumpled to the ground.
“Hauu!?”
“Paralysis works too — confirmed.”
“Hey, now…”
Neil-san sighed in exasperation. Eh? Need to test it. Right?
In Stun Mode the blade disappears — no cutting edge. Can still thrust with it, though. I’d set the paralysis to weak, but it still takes an hour to wear off. I cast [Recovery] on the downed Lyon-san to clear it.
“Could you cut that out!?”
“Sorry — I needed to test it.”
I apologized while restoring the spear from Stun Mode back to Blade Mode, then handed it to Neil-san.
“It’s handmade, so the balance is pretty rough. Will take getting used to.”
Neil-san took it, set guard, thrust, spun, swept — clean, flowing movement. Vice-Commander indeed.
He cycled it through dagger and long-sword form, checking each motion. Finally, he switched back to spear mode and turned to look at Lyon-san.
“Stun Mode.”
“Wait, please — wait a minute!”
“Joke.”
Watching Lyon-san panic, Neil-san laughed and shifted the spear to dagger form. Looks like he’ll handle it fine.
“Note: Stun Mode’s paralysis is blocked if the opponent has anti-magic talismans or wards. Also, once it takes hold, it normally takes about an hour to clear — be careful not to paralyze allies.”
“Understood, noted.”
Neil-san looked at the dagger, pleased. Glad he likes it.
“Hey — Vice-Commander only?”
“No, I’ll make one for you too, Lyon-san.”
“That’s the Touya-dono I know! That’s how it should be!”
I made an identical one and handed it to Lyon-san. He played with the form changes, swung it around, enjoying it.
“Honestly — receiving something like this makes me feel like I owe you. If there’s anything I can do in return…”
“Don’t worry about it. Well — if those guys cause any trouble, step in between us, that’s enough.”
“Understood. I promise.”
Neil-san laughed and gave his word. Well — they’re not that stupid, I’d hope.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
”…That was the conversation we had yesterday.”
Turns out they were that stupid.
In our moonlit garden, roughly fifty attackers lay scattered. Among them: the blond, the brown-haired, and the redheaded idiots from before. The rest — well-built men. Private men-at-arms, or hired mercenaries, probably.
A suspicious group was heading our way — that intel came from Lapis-san. I’d asked our gatekeeper Tom-san to pretend to be dozing off.
Sure enough, as Lapis-san — member of the king’s direct intelligence unit “Espion” — predicted, the suspicious group slipped into the garden under cover of night.
They were briefly thrown when they saw me waiting alone — but on realizing I was alone, they all jumped me at once.
After that, just fifty rounds of rapid fire. Honestly anticlimactic. Horn-Wolves move better than these guys.
“Was it because you didn’t catch what Neil-san said? Maybe?”
I walked over to the downed blond and squatted, tapping his shoulder with Brünhild.
Paralysis doesn’t take consciousness, so he can hear me. Eyes wide with fear — proof of that.
“You realize what you just did? Swords, axes, the lot of you. This is an attack. Attempted robbery? Attempted assault? Maybe attempted murder? Doesn’t really matter which.”
“Is it sorted, Touya-san?”
Yumina stepped out onto the terrace. The blond’s eyes widened. Hah — even an idiot like this recognizes Yumina. Makes things easy.
“Yep. So: what you did is treason. Insurrection. Rebellion against the royal family. Sad to say — thanks to you, your house is finished, and you and yours are headed cleanly to the execution block. Good work.”
The blond’s eyes rolled back and he passed out. Honestly — only a little threat and he folds. Tried to launch an attack in that state — wow.
I had Tom-san pedal a bicycle over to the knight order to report.
“What’re you going to do with them?”
“Well — there’s been no actual harm done, so I’ll ask them not to execute them. But the punishment will reach their houses. Title revocations, possibly. Either way, they won’t be strutting around in public ever again.”
Brought it on themselves. Their parents knew what they were doing and covered for them. Ignoring Neil-san’s warning — meaning they thought this through and figured… Yeah, no, they didn’t think. Idiots.
Probably the plan was: night raid, overwhelm with numbers, then pin it on a robbery. Cheap-novel level scenario.
Child-grade thinking with no consequences considered. Parental discipline didn’t take? Probably didn’t. With this kind of upbringing they’d never have turned out this stupid otherwise.
Eventually the knight order Tom-san had brought arrived and took the lot away. Wouldn’t be meeting these guys again.
A few days later, the king’s word came down: several houses’ titles were revoked.
The knight order took it as a shame on themselves, redoubled discipline, and from then on family-name distinctions became meaningless inside the order.