Chapter 1 Land and Sea BGM #01 “Auction & Pirate”

I suppose the simplest way of putting it was that I learned how to suppress unwanted emotion.

“Hah! Yah! Ho!”

In an alternate reality where complete isolation was just part of life, I continued to swing my sword.

One hundred thousand years later.

Recently, I’d started turning my attention toward things other than swordcraft. I’d become particularly enthusiastic about cooking. The art of cooking was extraordinarily deep. You could accomplish a surprising variety of things from the way you wielded your knife alone.

I focused silently in front of my cutting board.

“Eighth Style—Eight-Span Crow!”

My blade danced through the air as I performed eight rapid slash attacks in less than a second, carving the fish on the cutting board into eight slices.

I coated the perfectly fresh sashimi with soy sauce before taking a bite.

“That’s delicious!”

Afterward, I used some cookbooks in the library to study a variety of culinary techniques. I learned how to chop food into half circles, large chunks, and thin rectangles. There were many cutting skills I was unfamiliar with.

If I can translate this to my fighting style, I’m sure I’ll come up with some great moves!

Filled with anticipation and excitement, I devoted myself to strict training with the knife.

One million years later.

Long story short, it didn’t work out as I expected.

Cooking and swordcraft were two very different disciplines. That should be pretty obvious. No matter how fast I got at chopping vegetables, that skill wasn’t going to translate to anything else.

It was Dodriel I needed to defeat, not a cabbage.

I can’t believe how much time I wasted…

I felt like I was going a little crazy.

That wasn’t really surprising. I had been honing my blade alone in an empty world with no human contact for one million years, all while suppressing my emotions.

“Haaah…”

I took a deep breath to center my mind and body.

…I’m fine. I still have plenty of time. There’s no need to panic yet.

I still had ninety-nine million years left. That was a hard fact.

All right…I’m going to make the most of my remaining time!

After renewing my resolve, I once again set down the path of swordcraft.

Ten million years later.

I’d devised a new method of training, the art of “fighting oneself.”

By simply closing my eyes and focusing my mind, I would see my own form emerge on the backs of my eyelids.

My other self assumed the middle stance, pointing his sword toward my eyes. He radiated tremendous malice.

His fundamentals were as perfect as could be, so his guard was flawless.

I mirrored him by assuming the middle stance as well. We charged at each other the moment our eyes met, as if that were an agreement we had reached beforehand.

““Hah!””

Our swords screeched and sent sparks flying as they violently collided.

Unsurprisingly, our skills were completely equal. We were both intimately familiar with the other’s swordplay and had a full understanding of our opponent’s weaknesses. Our grueling duels would never conclude.

My swordcraft had achieved a new level of intensity.

Fifty million years later.

Around the halfway mark to one hundred million years, I began to feel a mounting sense of frustration.

I had spent fifty million years—an extraordinarily long time—devoting myself to my blade. Despite my lack of talent, I was pretty sure that I had become a bit stronger.

But could I really defeat that prodigy right now?

Dodriel Barton was the kind of genius who only came around once a century. He was a student of the Autumn Rain School of Swordcraft, a style famous even in the capital, and I’d heard he was one of the very best.

His slender physique belied his significant strength. He was capable of wielding a variety of swords, regardless of type, with such grace that they seemed like an extension of his body. Additionally, his innate talent allowed him to reproduce any move after glimpsing it just once. There wasn’t a single person in the area who had not heard the name Dodriel. He was undoubtedly the greatest swordsman at Grand Swordcraft Academy.

I’m still not good enough.

There was something still missing in my blade. It could have been a state of mind, experience, intimidation factor—I didn’t yet know what it was.

But I know I’m missing the special something I need to beat Dodriel…

I still had fifty million years… Actually, I only had fifty million years.

Now that I was thinking about it, the first fifty million years had really passed by in a flash. It felt like it was just the previous day that I’d pushed the 100-Million-Year Button.

I need to hurry!

“Hah! Yah! Ho!”

Spurred by a sense of panic, I devoted my undivided attention to my daily training regime. I practiced with demonic intensity, now investing every waking moment into my swordcraft with total disregard for day and night.

Dammit! Time is moving too fast…

Time is a mysterious thing. The harder one concentrates, the faster it moves. The tendency for time to move faster when you’re having fun is a well-known phenomenon.

So close— Time is short; I just need a little longer— Time always seems to accelerate when you think along those lines.

I swung my sword single-mindedly, and before I knew it, the end arrived.

The clock in the sky finally struck Year 099999999 Month 12 Day 31 23:59:59. The next second, the world began to collapse slowly.

“It’s over…”

The white house and the giant clock began to slowly disappear into white particles.

I was being returned to the real world.

Please, one more go, just one more time is all I need… I want another one hundred million years…

I was positive that I was on the verge of unlocking the special something I needed to beat Dodriel. It felt just beyond my grasp.

Shit! I only needed a little longer…

A feeling of dissatisfaction tormented me as the world was utterly destroyed.

“Huh…?”

When I came to, I was standing in a nostalgic place. I recognized it as the forest I trained in over one hundred million years ago. I looked up and saw the sun. It was shining brightly, right where it was supposed to be. I had returned to reality.

“Hyo-hoh-hoh! How was it? How do you feel after practicing for one hundred million years?” the Time Hermit asked me cheerfully while clapping his hands together.

“I feel strange…”

My body didn’t really feel that different. My mind was just a little hazy.

“Did I actually train for one hundred million years…?”

My brain felt sluggish, as if I had awoken from a very long sleep. I found myself wondering if the 100-Million-Year Button and the strange alternate world were both just a dream.

“Hmm, you may be feeling a little timesick. But fear not, young swordsman. I guarantee that the one hundred million years you spent diligently honing your swordplay will benefit you in the real world.”

“Are you sure? I don’t feel any sign that it did.”

“Hyo-hoh-hooooh! The changes you have undergone are too great for you to even notice! Well, you know what they say—seeing is believing. Give your steel a swing.”

“…Yeah, why not?”

Was that one hundred million years real, or a dream? I would know immediately after one wave of my sword.

I reached for the blade at my waist.

“Hmm?”

When I touched the scabbard, I felt an odd sensation. It was as if it were adhering to my palm without the need for me to consciously put any strength into my grip. I had never felt that before.

No way…

I felt a small spark of hope and lightly brandished my weapon.

“Hah!”

A violent gust of wind immediately stirred the trees in front of me.

“…?!”

Unless my eyes were deceiving me, the power of that slash had just broken three branches. It was so intense that it created an optical illusion of the space in front of me being distorted.

“Hyo-hoh-hoh, was that not amazing? You’re a new man, young swordsman!”

The Time Hermit clapped his hands and laughed, but I wasn’t ready to celebrate yet.

I-it wasn’t a dream?!

I was able to perform a slash attack exactly as I’d learned to do it in that world.

I need to do it again before I forget that feeling!

Directing my excitement into my blade, I attempted a horizontal strike.

“Hah!”

A few seconds later, I heard a delayed sound of something cutting through air. I had just effortlessly surpassed the speed of sound.

“I-incredible!”

I didn’t feel like I had merely become more comfortable with the sword—I felt almighty, like the sword and I were one.

“Hyo-hoh! Let me guess—you feel as if you have been reborn.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly it!”

I had endured one hundred million years of training and emerged with a firm grasp of the true essence of swordplay.

But I’m not quite there yet… There’s still something missing…

I still wasn’t good enough. I would not be able to beat Dodriel as I was now.

It was undeniable that I was significantly stronger than before. If my duel with Dodriel were to consist only of simple attacks—diagonal cuts, upward slashes, horizontal sweeps—I would at least be able to give him an equal match.

The problem is his moves from the Autumn Rain Style…

The moves in a school of swordcraft were developed over great periods of time. Generations of predecessors had birthed these devastating attacks over lifetimes of training.

I had never once been accepted into one of these schools, so I didn’t know a single move of theirs. This created an enormous gulf between me and Dodriel.

He’s a real prodigy. I definitely need a special something to breach that gulf and beat him…

And I would also need time to find it.

“Hey, can I…press the 100-Million-Year Button one more time?”

I had nothing to lose by asking. After hearing my question, the Time Hermit broke into a wide grin.

“Of course, young swordsman. You can press it as many times as you like!”

He cheerfully passed me the 100-Million-Year Button.

“R-really?! Thank you so much!”

Giving him my heartfelt gratitude, I pushed the button again.

I found myself back in the World of Time. The clock in the sky displayed Year 000000000 Month 1 Day 1 00:00:01.

How many times is this now…?

I had lost count somewhere around my tenth trip to this world. If I had to guess, I would say I’d pushed the button around fourteen or fifteen times. Anyway, I was pretty sure it was less than twenty.

I had made many trips between the real world and the World of Time, resulting in over one billion years of silent training as I searched for that special something I was missing. The results, however, were unsatisfactory.

I guess this is the barrier you can’t overcome without talent…

It felt so close but still incredibly far away. A massive, invisible barrier towered over me—the wall of talent.

I had been made to feel the gap between geniuses and normal people many times in my life…though, in my case, it was the gap between geniuses and failures. Now that I had spent so much time trying to cross it, I understood that gap better than ever.

That didn’t mean I was going to give up. Hard work will always bear fruit—sincerely believing in my mom’s words, I practiced free from distraction every single day.

Then one day, something suddenly changed.

“Wh-what the?!”

When I swung my sword down like I always did, the space its tip passed through swayed.

I knew I wasn’t merely seeing things. Although it was very slight, my weapon had torn through the world itself.

“Ha-ha-ha… This—this is it…! This attack is the special something I’ve been searching for!”

The small hole I had just opened up might have enabled me to bust through the impenetrable barrier of talent. My hard work spanning many one-hundred-million-year trips to this world had finally paid off.

I swung my blade intently for another million years. The swaying its tip created grew larger day by day. I could hardly contain my joy at having finally achieved real growth.

Devoting the rest of my time to practice, I repeated the motion over and over again. Before I knew it, the clock in the sky had reached Year 099999999 Month 12 Day 31 23:59:30.

In thirty more seconds, I would once again be returned to the real world.

“Phew…”

I can do this.

With my next swing, I was going to obtain that special something… I would be capable of a world-tearing slash.

I wasn’t sure why, but I was confident in that belief.

“I’ll never see this world again…”

Once I perfected my world-rending slash attack, I would finally be ready for my duel with Dodriel.

This would be my last good-bye to the World of Time. It had served me so well for more than one billion years.

At that thought, a strange feeling welled up inside me, a complex combination of joy, sorrow, and the sense that I was going to miss this place.

“All right, let’s do this.”

After preparing myself emotionally, I flourished my sword above my head and brought it swinging down.

“HAH!”

As I opened an enormous rift in the air, the World of Time began to crumble around me noisily.