## Chapter 21 – The Prosecutor (2)
The Kingdom of Barenhausen.
If Barenhausen were to be compared to something, the most accurate comparison would be to modern Western Europe.
They possessed characteristics distinct from the Groden Kingdom at the center of the continent, the Sistina City-State, and the Eastern Chao Xing Empire.
That was steampunk.
With extremely advanced technology in high-strength, high-quality mass production, smelting, and engineering, the Kingdom of Barenhausen had developed in a different form from the Groden Kingdom, which was characterized by arcane punk, and the Chao Xing Empire, which was similarly characterized by bio-punk.
If they had a single weakness, it would probably be firearms that used gunpowder.
But what they already possessed was more than enough to establish a nation.
Their power stemmed from a combination of a staggering mass production capability reminiscent of the former Soviet Union and a large-scale mechanized wave generated by various manned and unmanned weapon systems.
This served as a deterrent, preventing the Groden Kingdom, with its magic that led to mass slaughter spells and a balanced combination of symmetrical and asymmetrical firepower thanks to skilled swordsmen, and the Chao Xing Empire, which possessed so-called “Transcendent Ones”—formidable warriors with the power of one against a thousand or even ten thousand based on gene synthesis and manipulation, artificial mutation, and forced evolution—from encroaching upon them.
Among the weapons produced by Barenhausen’s artisans, embodying the essence of their technology, some were exported to other countries at high prices, and this mechanized longsword was one of them.
‘This… definitely…’
No matter how much she thought about it, Anne was certain that she had seen this object before, and she began to recall her memories while maintaining maximum concentration.
For some reason, this memory just wouldn’t come to her.
Anne felt an inexplicable unease in her heart and glared with wide eyes at the two second-year students charging towards her.
For some reason, she felt a sense of clarity in her mind.
It was as if the dark clouds that had filled her head, which she had felt until she was scolded by the professor, had her wooden sword confiscated, and was kicked out, were now receding.
“I… against the likes of you…”
“Die!!”
“I won’t lose…!!”
The pure white blade swung quickly, as light as it was.
Anne deflected the blade and quickly struck the neck of one opponent with the flat of her sword. In the same motion, she leaned her body to the side, narrowly avoiding a sword coming down from the opposite direction.
Anne, her eyes fixed on the blade passing right in front of her nose as if watching in slow motion, swung her arm again, and the other student, who was struck squarely on the head with the flat of the sword, collapsed to the ground with a groan.
Glancing at the sword swinging with balance even in a slightly unstable stance, Anne let out a small exclamation.
‘Amazing… it’s a really good sword…’
As she slowly raised her sword again, having quickly defeated two opponents, a brawl began with the shouts of an enraged follower.
‘I need to get away first.’
Having always been taught the dangers of fighting multiple opponents, Anne used the terrain to evade being surrounded as much as possible.
Fortunately, she was in a circular flower bed surrounded by a fence.
Unlike before, she now had a sword in her hand, and she could now use her training experience to some extent, as she could now effectively keep her opponents in check using the fence as a boundary.
Quickly leaping to the opposite side and jumping over the fence to escape the flower bed, Anne took a stance with the flower bed between them.
However, the confrontation with the followers, who were not letting their guard down despite their numbers, began with the sudden outburst of one follower who seemed agitated.
“I’m going to kill you!!”
“Hey… hey!!”
The follower who tried to climb over the fence was struck on the head by the flat of the sword as soon as they crossed it, due to the gap created, and rolled to the ground.
Two of the three followers who were about to jump forward in surprise at their companion’s sudden action began to tumble around in the flower bed as if caught on something, leaving only one follower to face Anne alone.
“Roo… roots… I’m caught on the roots…!! I can’t get up…”
She ended up making a mistake because she was distracted by the situation of her companions who couldn’t get up, even as she faced Anne, who was meeting her blade with her own.
In the end, Anne seized the large opening and struck her on the side of the head with the flat of her sword, causing her to stagger and collapse.
Anne plunged into her arms and thrust the sword hilt into her abdomen, causing the follower to clutch her stomach and collapse as if fainting, thus retiring from the fight.
The remaining followers belatedly tried to confront Anne, but now that their companions had all fallen, the two remaining followers could not display any great ability.
They had hoped to pass the test, but as is often the case with delinquent students, they were not individually formidable.
They prioritized numbers over individual skill, so they were all defeated by Anne’s attacks, which aimed to take them down one by one.
“Ugh…”
In the end, a small sigh escaped from Anne’s mouth as she looked around at the delinquents sprawled around the flower bed.
“Whew…”
As the fight ended and strength gently left her hand, the mechanical longsword, as if sensing this, began to fold back into itself, transforming back into a white rod of moderate length.
Suddenly noticing this, Anne put strength back into her hand and drew the sword again.
– Click, click, click
This object that she had definitely seen somewhere before.
Looking down at the longsword that she had accidentally grabbed when she reached behind her to avoid hitting a large flower stalk, Anne was lost in thought.
At that moment.
“Aaaaargh!!”
A delinquent who she thought had fallen let out a scream and charged at Anne, the sight gradually etching itself into her retina.
‘Ah.’
Anne, who was not in a proper stance, could not face an opponent who was approaching so quickly and closely to kill her.
“What are you doing!!”
The voice that suddenly rang out from afar shook the flower bed, but the guards who had now appeared and were shouting from a distance were too far away to save Anne immediately.
Inevitably, Anne chose the best course of action she could.
With a disheveled stance, she laid the sword sideways, pointing the tip at the opponent, and the bodies of Anne and the delinquent charging with a raised sword collided as if becoming one, and by the time the guards arrived, it was all over.
“Swordsmanship club!! Dueling outside the training room is clearly illegal…
No? An injured person!! Call a medic!!”
“No, she’s already dead. Prepare to clean up.”
The moment Anne heard that voice, her heart sank as if a heavy rock had fallen on it.
She had killed someone.
Moreover, the academy students were mostly nobles, and these delinquents were also children of noble families, albeit lower-ranking ones.
Nevertheless, they were of a much higher rank than herself, a baron’s daughter.
This grudge would undoubtedly cause even greater turmoil than opposing Vivian, and she herself was likely to be brought before the Noble Ethics Committee.
With the thought that she had caused another incident despite her family’s already precarious situation, Anne desperately tried to make excuses to assert her innocence.
“Wait… this was unavoidable…”
However, the guard ignored her words and let out a groan as he looked at the dead female student’s body, causing her to begin to mentally waver.
“A stab wound to the neck, instant death…
I’ve seen this student during the Vivian Young Lady investigation.
This student’s name is… Delena de Druella…
What… what happened here…?”
However, hearing the voices of the other guards, Anne suddenly snapped out of it, her mind filled with confusion as she couldn’t grasp the situation.
“Judging by the name written on it, this is her own sword.
She must have fallen and stabbed herself in the neck with her own sword.
A common mistake for a beginner, I suppose. What about that one?”
“Body search complete.
No sword visible on this young lady.
I’ve searched the surrounding area, but there doesn’t seem to be another sword.
Now, tell me what happened.”
“I had opposed Vivian before… and these girls chased after me because of that…”
“I see. Go home for now.”
As he listened to Anne’s explanation, the guard wrote down the details of the situation in his notebook, recorded her personal information, and ordered her to go home. Anne bowed to him and began to walk away.
‘What… happened…?’
Anne’s mind was filled with complexity as she didn’t understand the situation that had just occurred.
The mechanized longsword that had suddenly appeared in a moment of danger, which she seemed to remember seeing somewhere.
The longsword that had disappeared as if it had never been there after she had stabbed the delinquent in the neck and rolled on the ground with her, and instead, the delinquent’s own sword was stabbed into her neck.
And when she recalled the battle in the flower bed earlier, the sense of unease only grew.
Even if they were rotten, they were still members of the swordsmanship club, and they were higher-grade students than her.
One of them suddenly got excited and charged over the fence all by himself, and two of them fell without even looking at their feet as they moved.
Even if they were delinquents, it was a mistake that seemed to lack even the basics.
Although Anne’s swordsmanship evaluation score was quite high among the first-year students, compared to the other grades, she was the beginner that the guards had mentioned earlier.
‘I don’t understand… how…’
And then, for a moment, Anne was startled by the clicking sensation she felt on her side, which she hadn’t noticed until now because she had been lost in thought, and she put her hand on her side.
A pure white rod was hanging from a wooden twig pierced like a ring in the side of her uniform.
It was an object that had disappeared and did not exist when the guard had searched her body earlier.
Anne’s eyes, as she tore it from her uniform and held it out in front of her, were filled with undisguised bewilderment.
The dark sky, herself lying on the ground, and the woman looking down at her.
A small murmur escaped from Anne’s mouth as she recalled her blue hair and the smile on her lips.
“Vivian…”
