Chapter 12: Sword Saint III
To be honest, life with the clumsy girl—Eris—was quite enjoyable.
“It’s essential for a master and disciple to share the same room,” she insisted.
Despite her clumsiness, she displayed an odd stubbornness, and in the end, I found myself living in the same room as her. Her persistence knew no bounds, and we ended up spending nearly all our time together, not just during training but in our daily lives as well.
“Oh ho, so this time you finally did it with a beautiful girl, huh?” I could almost hear the teasing thoughts of my friends. They always seemed to pinpoint my misfortunes with uncanny accuracy. But this time, they were mistaken. Ha ha ha! This time, you lose!!
Of course, I hadn’t done anything shameful (tears of blood).
Well, there were moments when I found myself thinking, “Is it really okay for me to get involved with her?” She had a certain defenselessness about her that made me question things. No, it wasn’t just a little; upon reflection, she was as defenseless as a child without any armor.
For instance, during meals, she would come at me with an “Ah—n!”
She had no qualms about saying that feeding me was her duty as a disciple.
“I can eat by myself!” I protested.
“Am I not a worthy disciple…? Master, I am a Sword Saint unworthy of wielding the Holy Sword. If I can’t even manage a simple ‘Ah—n’ for my master, what value do I have…?”
“Alright, alright. I want you to do ‘Ah—n’ for me! Ah—n!”
“Ah—n.”
Eris opened her mouth wide with a smile.
“Wait, am I really feeding you?! What kind of disciple feeds their master?!”
That wasn’t the only incident.
For example, when I was taking a bath, I heard the sound of the door sliding open with a clatter, followed by Eris’s voice.
“Master! This is Eris, here to accompany you! Please, let me wash your back!”
“Me wash yours?! Isn’t it usually the other way around? What kind of master-disciple relationship is this?!”
There were other moments too. Like when we went for a walk to enjoy the night breeze, I heard her footsteps pattering behind me.
“Master, I shall accompany you.”
“It’s just a walk. There’s nothing fun about it.”
“I don’t mind! As long as you’re by my side, every day is enjoyable!”
“Is that so?”
How shamelessly she said that. Faced with her pure affection, I could only respond evasively.
“By the way, Master! The moon is beautiful tonight!”
Is she saying that on purpose?!
“It’s just a coincidence, right?”
Is this one of those clichés that’s been overused to the point of being trite?
Eris tilted her head innocently, asking, “What do you mean?”
“And the stars are beautiful too.”
Ah, thank goodness. It was just a coincidence.
“I really want the next leader of the Yamada Familia Order of Knights to be the eldest son!”
“That’s not a coincidence at all!!”
What even is the Yamada Familia Order of Knights?! Who are the eldest son and who’s the father?!
Amidst all this, the usually dignified Eris turned into a clumsy girl only when she was beside me. Life with her was warm and peaceful, gradually healing my once-frayed heart.
Of course, she never slacked off in her training, which was our main purpose. I can still vividly recall that day.
We were at the usual Guild Training Grounds, where I was coaching her.
“Hey, look at that swing!”
“Look? It’s too fast to see!”
“Even if you can’t see it, you can tell it’s not normal.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“More importantly, how long has she been at it?”
“Apparently, she starts right when the training grounds open.”
“So, it’s been eleven hours? Surely she must take a break.”
“Actually, she hasn’t taken one. When she gets tired, she just drinks a Potion and keeps going. I’ve never seen anyone use Potions like that.”
“Last time an S-rank adventurer came to this Guild, they were shocked watching her train.”
“Yeah, I remember them complaining at the tavern, saying, ‘If I have to train that hard to reach the top, I might as well die trying!'”
The murmurs of other adventurers watching were a daily occurrence, so I had grown accustomed to it.
I ignored them and continued to swing my sword at Eris. The sound of our wooden swords clashing echoed continuously. Ka-ka-ka— the intervals between the sounds gradually narrowed.
All that could be heard were the sounds of swordplay and our breathing. It was her extraordinary concentration and mental fortitude that made this situation possible.
It was a world just for the two of us. She was a natural Sword Saint. The more she swung, the faster her strikes became. The more she swung, the more refined her technique grew.
She was on the verge of grasping something.
Breaking through the shell of her struggles, she was awakening as a hero, as the strongest swordswoman in history.
I knew that moment was close.
For the final touch of today’s training, considering her fatigue, I unleashed a strike just above her limit.
Perhaps due to fatigue clouding her vision, or simply a lack of ability, her wooden sword was woefully slow to respond.
I intended to stop just before hitting her. Yet, her eyes were still alive with determination.
With her strength and speed lacking, her sword would not even reach a clash and would instead rebound back to her from the impact.
But I had a conviction. I knew she would reach the rank of “Hero.”
With a fluid motion—her sword flowed like water, effortlessly deflecting mine.
It was at that very moment.