Episode 3 (Anime)

Soldier (死兵（ソルジャー）), Shi-hei (sorujā)) is the third episode of the Reign of the Seven Spellblades (Anime) series.

Synopsis
The new students find themselves trapped in Kimberly at night, with two powerful upperclassmen out to recruit them dead or alive.

Summary
Oliver tells Pete to not draw his weapon or it will give Ophelia and Cyrus a reason to attack them. Ophelia wonders if Cyrus is still desecrating every corpse he finds, something she finds disgusting. However Cyrus states that what she do to men is far more disgusting. Cyrus calls Ophelia a Succubus, which angers her. The two then release their magic summoning two beasts. As they fight, Oliver and his friends attempt to escape, but Cyrus stops them with his bone wall. Nanao shows up, noting that this is a place where men die, a feeling she knows well.

Nanao cuts down the bone wall. She tells Oliver, Pete and Michela to run after she joins the battle between Ophelia and Cyrus. As Nanao heads to fight them, Oliver joins her. However, the battle is stopped by another student who incinerates the two summons. He states that he told them that there is a right and a wrong way to "recruit" new students. The student introduces himself as Alvin Godfrey, the student body president of Kimberly and promises Oliver and the rest that they won't be hurt. Another fifth-year student Carlos Whitrow shows up and puts her blade on Ophelia's neck. Alvin tells Ophelia and Cyrus that he will tell them their punishments later, but for now they should head back to the depths of the labyrinth.

After Ophelia and Cyrus leave, Carlos notes that they usually don't got that high in the labyrinth, but they were probably curious to see the new students. Alvin and Carlos then lead the students out of the labyrinth. Outside, they meet with the rest of their friends and Oliver gets angry at Nanao, stating that she knew its a suicide to face Ophelia and Cyrus. He feels that Nanao actually wanted to die, but Michela calms him down and wish they to talk it out normally. She asks Nanao to explain and Nanao confirms that what Oliver said is true as she lost the will to live. She was in a battle where Souma Yoshihisa led a force of 50000 men. Her unit at the rear were only 200. She remembers that she kept on killing people until she reached the camp of Souma Yoshihisa. A warrior then engaged her, but she cut him down. She then tells Souma that she heard his son Yasutsuna, is their clan's strongest warrior and wishes to fight him. Souma then states that she had just cut him down without even knowing who he was. He confirms that he was a skilled warrior, but was also a poet and she doesn't know anything about him. He orders his men to kill her, without asking her her name as an act of revenge, so that she isn't remembered. Theodore McFarlane then shows up and prevents the soldiers from moving. He isn't aware of the customs in this country and asks how not asking her name is an act of revenge. Theodore states he is draw to children with potential and asks Nanao to come with him to his country and became a mage. Since then, Nanao felt that she lives in a dream. However before this dream comes to an end, she wishes to fight someone who she respects and admire, with no enmity between them. They call this shiawase and when she fought with Oliver, she felt this was the shiawase she was looking for. However Oliver refused to fight her again, which hurt Nanao and she stopped caring about everything and just wanted to die. Katie states that Nanao essentially fell in love and turned weird after Oliver turned her down. Nanao confirms, stating whether she fell for him or for his swordsmanship, its the same for her. Michela states that she can't let them kill each other and that Nanao needs to find a new way to live, and not a place to die, after all she now has found someone she loves. Oliver tells Nanao to promise him that she won't throw away her life and will use her sword for her own sake. Nanao promises and asks them to teach her on how to live as she didn't understood anything from today's classes.

In the morning, Nanao joins Oliver and the rest, ready to start learning. During Sword Arts class, one student asks Luther if he can use a Spellblade. Luther knew someone would asks sooner or later, and explains that spellblade is a specific type of sword art. A spellblade is a technique that, when used within the one-spell distance, it will kill the opponent without fail and without any way for them to resist. There are six known spellblades in existence. There are many who try to invent new spellblades and many who try to defeat the existing ones, however for a long time the number of spellblades has remained at six. Those are secret techniques and who can use them and what they do is kept in secret. Because of that, Luther cannot tell them if he can use spellblade or not.

Richard approaches Oliver and Nanao and tells them that they need to practice. Oliver states that they are all on the same level and all need to practice. Richard takes that as Oliver accusing him of slacking and wants them to fight. Nanao senses no boldness in Oliver and asks him if he intends to lose. She wants him to give his all, as she doesn't want him to lose unless he is truly beaten. Richard gets annoyed as Oliver doesn't find him worth taking seriously.

Michela tells Oliver that she grew up with Richard and they were constantly compared. She feels its partially her fault that he is so fixated on showing off his strength. Oliver doesn't want to worsen his relationship with Richard, but at the same time, he doesn't want to disappoint Nanao. Pete then comes and tells them that Katie ran off as she heard they were going to kill the troll that attacked at the parade.

Darius Grenville tells Katie that there are a few things he can't abide, and one of them is having to say the same time to the same person twice. If they make him say it three times, he starts to wonder if they are actually a monkey and not a human. He asks Katie of her name and hearing her family name, he realizes who her parents are and states that among the "civil rights" people there are not many who are more stupid than her parents. Katie will pretend that she didn't hear the insult, but asks him to not kill the troll. Darius wonders who will take responsibility if he kills someone, but Katie states that she will convince the troll to not attack again. He finds it funny that she intends to have a conversation with a troll and decides to "educate" her that even a monkey will understand. He uses Dolor on her. Moment later, Oliver and the rest arrive. However before anything happens, Vera Miligan shows up and stops them, stating that objections to the death of that troll has been filed. The person who objected, Luther, then shows up stating that the use of extreme pain spells in teaching was banned five years ago, however Darius states he has no intention of changing the way he teach. Luther explains that they haven't done full investigation into what happened at the parade and the troll should be kept alive as evidence. Luther isn't joining the civil rights advocates, but notes that they are no longer a powerless group and if they kill the troll without full investigation, it will cause them to complain a lot. Darius accepts it and leaves.

Vera introduces herself to Katie, noting that he is a four-year student and she was also worried about the troll. Since Katie also loves demi-humans, Vera tells her to come to her if she needs anything. After they leave, a familiar brings a letter to Michela, informing them that Richard is challenging Oliver and Nanao to a duel.

Characters

 * Oliver Horn
 * Michela McFarlane
 * Pete Reston
 * Nanao Hibiya
 * Cyrus Rivermoore
 * Ophelia Salvadori
 * Alvin Godfrey
 * Carlos Whitrow
 * Richard Andrews
 * Darius Grenville
 * Vera Miligan
 * Theodore McFarlane
 * Marco

Light Novel-Anime Differences

 * The scene in Sword Arts class omits a sequence where Nanao spars with Luther Garland so that he can get a better idea of how to modify his curriculum for her, as well as a brief conversation between Oliver and Nanao on the nature of her attraction to him. Also, Garland's explanation of the concept of a spellblade took place on the first day of Sword Arts in the novel (corresponding to episode 2).