“Cursed Arsenal?” As she repeated my words, Asami canted her head to the side.

“Cursed…?” Nexu said, trying to get a closer look at a sword that had approached him.

I nonchalantly batted it away from him. “Yes. In other words, these are all cursed… I dare say this is the largest collection of cursed items in one place in the world.”

Cursed items—in simple terms, artifacts with an ego and the status of a living being. Oftentimes, they also possessed skills which would harm the user in some way—essentially, the item’s ‘curse’. They were rather rare to encounter at all, and even rarer to find being used by someone—after all, they often possessed particularly strong elemental enchantments, which would limit their potential users.

After all, one could not channel a fire-attribute spell through a wind-attribute magic sword, and even accessories of the wrong attribute had the potential to interfere.

“Erm, M’lord,” Charlotte said, hesitantly raising her hand, “may I…”

“Speak your mind, Charlotte.”

“Might I inquire as t’ why thou never shared the exist’nce o’ this ars’nal with me? Nay, with us?”

“I… Charlotte, you are the treasurer. I had assumed you knew this… Well, you aside, I cannot imagine anything good would come of letting any of the other four know of this.”

It seemed she imagined the results of such an action, because she grimaced. “I… cannot bring m’self t’ disagree.”

“And to add, it is far easier to defend something if no one knows of it. Such a trove… I do not want to imagine how many guards you would have to station to protect it.”

“I… Thank you for your consid’ration, M’lord. And, erm… May I p’rhaps…”

I sighed and looked away for a moment. “Very well. I will bestow upon you a piece of equipment. Actually, I think there is one which would rather suit you…”

As I imagined the prim and proper, light-attribute user Charlotte wield such a sinister, pitch-black blade, a dark chuckle left my mouth. It seemed to catch her attention.

I shook my head. “In any case, we have drifted from the topic. You two.”

The children, addressed, straightened up and turned their attention from the equipment to me. Once more, I batted away a curious weapon.

“In order to select for you a suitable weapon, it is first necessary to discern your magical talents. For the sake of the future. Now, there are artifacts for that, but such pedestrian methods are… That said.”

I cleared my throat and raised a finger, as if lecturing them.

“The method I have in mind, when compared to the classical way of a mage—diligent study and practice—is no more than cheating. Riding the coattails of the strong, so to speak. Are you two okay with that?”

The two of them nodded—Asami enthusiastic, Nexu meek—and gave words of assent.

“Very well. Nexu, your hands.”

He extended his hands to me, and I took them in mine. After a moment’s concentration, I poured my mana into his right hand, and pulled out his from his left.

The first step to becoming able to use magic, after all, was to open one’s magic circuits so they could properly control their own mana. One of the reasons [Spirit Magic] was useful was that this was unnecessary in that case. Normally speaking, one would train for quite a while to achieve this, but…

After a few moments, I felt the flow of mana clear up, as if the residue mixed in had been erased. Rather than erased, cleared out might be more accurate.

I repeated the process with Asami.

“With that done, your magic circuits are now open. If you concentrate on that power—the same one that just flowed through you—it should be possible to use magic. Well, that aside, I have indeed learned of your attributes. Nexu, you possess a talent for the water attribute, though your potential for darkness cannot be ignored either. Asami, you possess the rare combination of talent for the light and darkness attributes.”

A number of candidates amongst the weapons arose in my mind. I shook my head and clapped my hands. “All weapons larger than Nexu, forward.”

The weapons that presented themselves were mostly polearms—spears, halberds, tridents, the like—but there were also a number of sinister-looking bows and massive black swords.

After a bit of consideration, I grabbed a sword, a bow and a halberd and shooed the rest of the weapons back into the room. “Pick one,” I said, placing the weapons I had chosen in front of Nexu. Of course, they remained in mid-air.

“Ah, uh,” he said, “I like swords, so… Please…”

I grabbed the sword and tossed the other two weapons back into the room, ignoring the feelings of regret of the many unchosen weapons.

“Then, I shall lend you Betrayal, Pledge of Treachery. Do not betray me, or the sword.”

“Yes, sir!” He investigated the sword from up close. I could not blame him—after all, it was quite pleasing, appearance-wise. Black—likely some form of Black Silver alloy—and, although it had a thick blade, it possessed an indescribable sort of elegance. The jewels in the hilt served only to enhance the blade’s sinister aura. In fantasy terms, it would likely be called a greatsword, though there was little way to wield it without some manner of enchantment.

“As for its effects,” I said, “the main effect is that, as long as you have the will, the sword will respond to your wishes without fail. That is…” Before I noticed, a vile sneer overtook my expression. “As long as you wish to cut your enemy, you can use the thing no matter how heavy it is. In addition, as its name implies, it possesses the power to turn your enemies against one another. And then it will serve you quite well as a focus for both water- and darkness-attribute magic… Learn to use it well, and you will certainly be useful to me.”

He nodded, and then tilted his head to the side. “It talked?” he asked, his ear flicking.

“It is a cursed sword, after all. There is a soul in there, and thus, a consciousness.”

“Ah, okay. Um… Please take care of me, Betrayal.”

“Uh, mister demon king?” Asami said from the side, looking a little left out.

“Speak.”

“If he could hear it, why couldn’t I?”

“Sis,” Nexu said, placing his hand on her shoulder, as if to deter her from asking too many questions.

Although it was an understandable action, I could not prevent myself from contemplating its uselessness.

“It is simply a matter of skills.”

“Skills? You mean our unique skills?” Asami asked, canting her head to the side once more.

“But I never got mine to activate,” Nexu said, shaking his head.

“Of course not. They do not have conditions one could trigger by coincidence. Regardless, we are moving on. Paired weapons. Forward.”

Many of the weapons seemed to feel rather disappointed, but a few pairs came forward. After a few moments of considering Asami’s build and attributes, I plucked a pair of swords from the bunch and shooed the rest away once more.

“In the end, it is the twin swords, Silverlight and Blackest Heart, huh…”

In a way, the pair almost represented the paths of life Asami the children could take from here. I shook my head to clear away my grim thoughts.

“Uh, mister demon king?”

“Speak.”

“Why do I get two swords while Nexu only gets one?”

I had to warp my face into a sneer to prevent myself from laughing out loud at the mental image that formed. “Could you imagine someone of his stature wielding two swords of that size?” I asked, pointing at Betrayal.

“I… I guess not,” she said, nodding. “Then, mister demon king, are those swords for me?”

“Indeed.” I pushed them into her hands. “I am sure you can figure out yourself which is Silverlight and which is Blackest Heart.”

“This one is Silverlight, right?” she asked, raising the sword in her left hand.

I nodded.

A silver-coloured blade, though with an unmistakable tinge of black. Unlike Betrayal’s unorthodox shape, it was more traditional in form, somewhat slender. Despite its relatively noble colour, it looked rather sinister, much like every weapon in the armoury.

Blackest Heart looked essentially the same, down to the identically-coloured gems in the hilt, but rather than ‘silver tinged with black’, it was simply black in colour.

After a few seconds of silence, she spoke up once more. “Uh, mister demon king? I’m not hearing anything…”

“It is a question of skills. Your activation conditions are slightly different.” I cleared my throat. “That aside, these two swords’ main strength is their great ability to serve as magical foci. Of course, they also have some other effects, such as increasing the wielder’s parameters if they wield both swords…”

She did not look like she was listening, so I stopped talking.

“Then, next, I would give you armour, but I do not think you can wear it, and that would require extra training in the first place…”

“Eh~,” the children cried out, clearly disappointed.

“Have you looked at these suits of armour? Do you think you would fit?”

“Uhm… that’s true,” Nexu said, nodding.

“Then, mister demon king, can you give us something else, instead?” Asami asked, her ears flicking with hope.

“Astaroth,” Lady Entropy said, “how about a uniform?” It seemed she had picked up on the children’s hidden desires.

I looked over the children and ran through my imagination. “A uniform, is it?” I said, placing my hand on my chin. “Certainly, not a bad idea. Then, for now, this.”

I snatched two brassards from the collection of cursed items and handed them to the children.

“One for each of you. They act like a weaker version of [Telepathy], though of course the only viable targets are the wearer of the other band and your direct superior. —Me.”

I decided not to mention the brassards would also give me a slight impression of their feelings.

“Thank you,” the children said simultaneously.

I turned my back on them once more. The accessories amongst the cursed items must have sensed my intentions, because they arranged themselves into neat, sorted lines, which allowed me to easily pick out a number of accessories for each child.

Like such, it took me perhaps ten more minutes to outfit the children completely. It goes without saying that Asami was overjoyed when she first heard the items’ voices.

“I shall give you your uniforms later. Charlotte.”

“At thy serv’ce, M’lord.”

I retrieved another sword from the treasury and snapped my fingers, sealing the room away once more. “Lifedrinker. I believe it will suit you. Do not disappoint me.”

It was similar in shape to the swords she commonly forged from her own blood, except with canals running through it like blood vessels, and it was naturally made from metal rather than blood—the gold-like sheen and strong mana reaction revealed it to be Orichalcum. Although its appearance was elegant and dignified, its effects were far from.

In a sense, it was almost similar to her.

The corner of her mouth raised into a sly smile as I pushed the sword into her hands, and she looked over it from a few angles. “I shall be sure t’ meet thy exp’ctations,” she said, raising the sword in front of her face, its blade facing to her left.

In other words, the ‘present arms’ command.

Asami tried to imitate her, but quickly gave up.

“Very well. Moving on, then.”

As we once again walked through the castle’s labyrinthine halls, Lady Entropy rather naturally took a spot by my side, leaving Charlotte and the children walking behind us. I could sense a slight dissatisfaction inside her.

«… Could it be you are jealous?» I asked.

«Not particularly,» she replied, looking away. I decided to ignore how strange that would look from an outside perspective.

«In that case, please do not worry,» I said, completely ignoring her answer. «I shall prepare for you a most splendid present, far more valuable than any sword.»

«I told you I wasn’t… but… I’m looking forward to it.» I could feel her dissatisfaction melt like snow before the sun.

“M’lord?”

Charlotte tapped my shoulder to draw my attention.

“Speak.”

“ ‘Tis about the sword… Aft’r getting acc’stomed to it, would it be accept’ble for me t’ go vis’t Rhud and have it forge a scabb’rd? ‘Twould not be pract’cal to…”

“I am not stupid. Go ahead. There is no merit in carrying around a blade by hand.”

“Thou hast my thanks, M’lord.”

“Uh, mister demon king?”

This time, the one who approached me was Asami, running forward a little to catch up to me.

“Speak.”

“Could we maybe have sheaths, too? It’s…”

“Like I just said, I am not stupid. Once you have reached the proper level, I shall have you sheaths made, as well.”

“The proper level?” Nexu asked, tilting his head.

“Yes. After all, you two can grant my army something it lacks. Something I would very much like to get my hands on. The power of a Class.”

“A Class?” Asami repeated, tilting her head, just like Nexu.

“Indeed. Classes give one access to special skills, after all. Currently, you are both Sacrifices, but if you could obtain some manner of Swordsman class, it would please me greatly.”

“But, doesn’t getting a Class…”

“Usually take a while?”

“Surely you do not wish to disappoint me. Besides, I have faith in your skills,” I said, a sly grin on my face.

With that kind of statement, they had no room to refuse.