Chapter 4 — Whistling New Tunes

Part 19 — Advancement

No matter the person, everyone has the right to choose to close a chapter of their life. Every person spends at least part of their life climbing various mountains toward a desired summit, and they use that time either helping others climbing the same mountain by lending them a hand or otherwise trying to kick the competition off of the mountain. This, of course, depends on the exact type of mountain that person is trying to climb.

Combat instructor for a regional lord, complete with the blessing and recommendation of House Sepaeda of the Four Great Houses... To those who sought to make a name for themselves with their fighting prowess, it was a worthy summit to their climb. Of course, there were always higher levels than that. Sansui Shirokuro, who was currently on his way to Magyan, had already received a relatively high-ranking title, and so he himself was now a noble in his own right. In Saiga Mizu’s case, he had been chosen to be the heir to one of the Four Great Houses. It was hard to deny that simply becoming an instructor for a regional lord was much less impressive than what those two had accomplished.

Still, being a combat instructor for a regional lord was still a good job, with perks such as good, steady pay, a fair amount of authority and respect within the specific region, and the lack of any superiors other than the lord himself. While there was the responsibility to maintain one’s own skill with the blade, so long as they continued to maintain that prowess, there were no real demands for deliverables, and there was no need to put oneself in personal danger.

After all, the deliverable for a combat instructor was for the lord himself to improve in his own martial skills. Given that a regional lord had a laundry list of other responsibilities, most weren’t going to aggressively pursue the additional burden of serious training. The job basically required training the lord and/or his progeny a fair amount, making them maintain their skill by exercising, then praising them for doing well.

Further, the combat instructor stood at the top of the warrior food chain of that lord’s region. If they decided to open a salle, they’d have no shortage of students knocking on the door.

It was an extremely attractive job, but that also meant the competition to get those jobs was fierce. There was plenty of non-fighting competition that happened behind the scenes, such as greasing the right palms and knowing the right people. There weren’t frequent openings, which was exactly why when there were such openings, there was an intense amount of behind-the-scenes conflict to secure that position.

Sansui’s students were sent out with a personal letter of recommendation from Lord Sepaeda into that intense competition. The letter guaranteed, on the word of Lord Sepaeda himself, that the holder was worthy of being an instructor. Frankly, the letter had more authority than the regional lords themselves. If there were any problems, the letter guaranteed that House Sepaeda itself would take care of it, and removing an instructor with the letter without cause was essentially the equivalent of picking a fight with House Sepaeda. As such, the holder of the letter was set for life.

It would be an exaggeration to say they had gained a fortune that would let them live large for the rest of their lives, but it meant they could monopolize the extremely alluring role of combat instructor for as long as they wanted. The letter had so much gravitas that even if the regional lord the holder served was somehow stripped of their title as part of a scandal, they could simply go find another lord to employ them. The letters essentially ensured that, so long as the Arcana Kingdom didn’t collapse, the letter-holders were guaranteed a certain quality of life.

“Man... It almost feels like too much.”

“Don’t say that. I mean, I get why you might feel that way.”

“We’ve definitely seen way too amazing stuff...”

“It really is like a dream...”

“Well, yeah. To think, we’ll be able to go home, body intact, and hang a celebratory wreath in our homeland...”

When they had first arrived in this world, Saiga, Sansui, Shouzo, and Ukyou had all harbored dreams of becoming great men and showing everyone what they could do. Those dreams had been vague and they’d had no actual idea of how they would achieve them, but there was nothing special or strange about those dreams. It was true that those four had been unique, in that they’d been given sacred treasures, or powers, or letters of recommendation from God himself, but the world was filled with young people who had dreams of making it big without even a little hope that it’d ever actually happen.

That had been true of those swordsmen, like the five here, who had challenged Sansui, lost, trained under him, seen battle after, then witnessed the battle between Fukei and Suiboku. They all harbored ambitions of their own, and while they had given up the dream of taking the place of the truly powerful people of the world after witnessing what the heights of power truly were in this world, they hadn’t abandoned their dreams of achieving advancement through their own fighting skills. They continued to train and put in the effort even after they recognized they couldn’t become the strongest in the country, and as a result of their hard work, they had been rewarded with the job of being a noble’s combat instructor.

“Going back home after being given Rare Arts weapons, with plenty of preparation, money, and even a ride in a noble carriage... Hard to think it’s true.”

“How many times have you said that now?”

“Who cares? It doesn’t make it any less great.”

“They’re not magical items, but noble treasures... But, well, I honestly can’t tell the difference.”

“I’m so glad we trained under Master Sansui.”

The noble treasures Suiboku had made for them didn’t look particularly impressive, but they were extremely capable items. They were at least equal to the equipment carried by the Royal Guard. In addition, the House Sepaeda seamstress had added a small crest of House Sepaeda and Sansui’s name in kanji to each of the pieces of clothing.

Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, a sword and dagger crafted of stone.

The Sashes of Strengthen Self and Quicken Self, crafted out of bark.

The Wind-Fire Wheel, a wheel crafted by bending wood.

The Great Sage, clothing woven out of stone and grass.

When all of them were equipped at once, the wearer looked rather strange, but the wild, primitive-looking equipment was all crafted from materials that had absorbed Suiboku’s ki over fifteen hundred years.

Bearing those items, five of Sansui’s students were riding the carriage taking them back to their homelands. While the carriage was a bit lower in quality than the carriages that Douve or Sansui were riding to Magyan, it still bore the crest of House Sepaeda. All five of them had been born commoners, making riding the carriage even as bodyguards nearly inconceivable, never mind the even more implausible reality that they were now the passengers.

“I mean, even if they’re treating us as part of the same class, that all five of us are going to be combat instructors is nice too.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s big that we’re all from this region.”

“Evidently, the guys from outside of Sepaeda are going to be Prince Tahlan’s subordinates.”

“I’m told they’re getting paid more, though that makes sense.”

“I guess they’re seeing the Magyan sky about now...”

Obviously, they had already met and introduced themselves to the lords they were going to serve. For better or for worse, they were all rather ordinary as far as regional lords went, and since all five of Sansui’s students were fine with receiving the same compensation and treatment as anyone else in the role, the lords had happily agreed to hire them as combat instructors after seeing Lord Sepaeda’s recommendation letter. They may have appeared to be currying favor with House Sepaeda at first glance, but evidently all five lords had wanted to replace their current instructors because there had been issues with their characters. At any rate, the five of them were happy to be welcomed with open arms.

“So, what am I supposed to tell my family when I get home?”

“How many times have you asked this question?”

“Oh, who cares how many times?!”

“My family’s poor, so... Actually, the whole village is poor, so I’m sure they’ll be overjoyed at the sight of gold coins.”

“In my case, I’m pretty sure my little brother’s taken over the business, so I doubt they’ll make that much of a fuss.”

They were all men who had run away from their homelands with the declaration that they weren’t content with just settling for an ordinary life there. They had been lucky. They had fought other men who had run away from home with the same dreams, and through sheer luck, they had survived those encounters. They had been even luckier to receive instruction from Sansui. Luckiest still, they had received positions as combat instructors.

In a sense, they had been right not to pursue ordinary lives in their homelands. Even if they had been blessed with remarkable luck, they had still worked hard, struggled in the process, and achieved their dreams. Now, they were on their way home in triumph. It was understandable that they were all excited.

Conversely, vast expanses of fields and emptiness before them held nothing but boredom. The desperately poor village had a hardscrabble life that made the future look bleak. The stifling city held no dreams or hopes. Each of them had less than happy memories of their homelands, but they were still happy to have succeeded in life and to be returning home in triumph. What was important was that they had triumphed to the point that no one could doubt their success, and that everyone would envy how far they had come. They had nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of.

“I bet my grandma’s going to faint when she sees the money!” said Lamp, the young man who had escaped the poverty of the slums.

“I bet my little brother’s going to be super jealous of me!” said Woulnut, the prodigal son of a great merchant family.

“I’m sure the thugs from the countryside who always looked down on me will try to start something,” said Yuen, who had come from a mid-sized city.

“Me, the guy everyone in my hometown considered a nuisance, coming home as a hero! Who could have ever imagined that? Bet my relatives are going to swarm me,” said Cabbo, who had come from an isolated backwater.

“All of my relatives are going to come asking for favors, I bet! Hah!” said Inke, who had invited his friend to run away from home.

No one could blame them as they celebrated their success in life. At the very least, Suiboku and Sansui would admit that their joy was legitimate. After all, the five of them had survived through their skill and gained their new positions on the basis of their hard work and effort.

Part 20 — Carousing

“The hell is this?”

Cabbo, one of Sansui’s students, stood staring with his mouth agape at the entrance to his hometown. He had already paid his respects to his new employer, the lord of the region, and had left his belongings at his new lodgings before taking a series of carriages to get back to the small city where he had grown up. But what a sight he had arrived at.

The city itself was festooned with handmade decorations and his name was plastered all over them with sloppy handwriting. From the entrance to the city, he could hear the commotion as people celebrated with drinks and songs. He knew that this was all to celebrate his return, but his mind refused to accept the information it was receiving.

“No way. No way, no way, no way...”

Yes, Cabbo had thought he was going to surprise everyone in his hometown. He had expected to show everyone who had treated him as a nuisance what he had accomplished. He had expected every single woman in town to throw herself at him. He had known his family would be overjoyed and had even expected to come home to a vastly expanded extended family. Still...

“This really is a backwater.”

Now that his fantasies had become reality, he was completely mortified. It was true that he had secured promotion beyond the wildest dreams of not only the inhabitants of the city, but of all the towns in the surrounding area. Becoming a regional lord’s combat instructor paled next to Sansui, who had become a noble after serving for years as the bodyguard to the daughter of House Sepaeda, or Saiga, who had become the heir to one of the Four Great Houses. Even so, it was still viewed, understandably so, as a great accomplishment in this sleepy backwater town.

“Maybe I should go back to the lord’s estate...”

It was understandable, but it was still extremely embarrassing. Surely they were overdoing the celebrations. Cabbo couldn’t help but feel that his hometown cut a pitiful figure next to everything he had witnessed along the way. Any sentimental feelings he had held toward his hometown had been blasted away by his complete and utter mortification. It was ridiculous. The whole region was celebrating merely because he had been made the instructor to a regional lord. Cabbo saw the whole to-do as excessive and was thinking of just turning around and walking away when the people of the town found him.

“Hey! He’s back!”

“Wow, he really looks the part, doesn’t he!”

The group that had found him consisted of people that were, at best, acquaintances of his, and Cabbo wasn’t sure if he could even put names to the vaguely familiar faces. He certainly didn’t have the energy to fight them in his dazed stupor, and they gleefully ushered him toward the town square.

“Ahh, it’s the return of our town’s great hero!”

The man who was probably the current mayor embraced him. He was then followed by a group of the town’s important personages seeking handshakes and embraces of their own. They were accompanied by a group of country maidens done over with thick makeup and dresses that were several years out of fashion.

“I knew you’d make it big!”

“You’re the pride of this town!”

“I always knew you could do it!”

“I always figured you’d accomplish something big!”

The people who had looked down upon Cabbo when he had lived in the town and had been relieved to see him go, the people who had forgotten entirely about him until the recent news, now lined up to offer him unstinting praise, unconscious of their own hypocrisy. The scene was exactly what Cabbo had pictured, but it also exceeded his wildest dreams. Or perhaps the welcome, the rejoicing, the praise, were all just far more intense and heartfelt than he had dared to imagine.

“Y-Yeah, thanks...”

Cabbo put up no resistance as he tried to process the sheer shock to his system. He simply returned embraces or handshakes as people came up to him.

“Yes... Thank you so much.”

His old self would probably have been enraged at their complete change in attitude. It was true that, even now, Cabbo felt some displeasure at how everyone in the town had completely changed their attitude toward him. Still, there was also a part of him that appreciated everyone’s joy and praise, and he didn’t want to be the one to ruin the mood.

“I didn’t expect to be so warmly welcomed, so you’ve caught me by surprise. I appreciate it, though.”

Cabbo somehow forced a smile onto his face, even as his words left a faint bitter tang in his mouth. He thought about Sansui, the master he admired, and did his best to emulate him as he tried to play along with the crowd. If he were to cause a scene, or throw a fit here, that alone would besmirch his master’s name. It would also inconvenience Lord Sepaeda. Cabbo steeled himself, convincing himself of those words, and decided to play along with the people’s hero worship.

“Ahh, my son! You’ve grown into quite a man!”

“We always believed you would succeed!”

His parents, who had always treated him as a nuisance and a burden, appeared with tears in their eyes. Their about-face in how they regarded him was a little too blatant to be convincing. It was so obvious that it made him wonder if his parents had somehow altered their memories in order to remember him as a good, well-behaved son. Cabbo had, after all, stolen his parents’ money when he left the house. It would have been perfectly natural if they had disowned him afterward. This amount of rejoicing at seeing him return was clearly out of place. That wasn’t his parents’ fault, however; it was all his fault. Cabbo was aware of his own failings and swallowed all sorts of retorts, instead simply apologizing to his parents.

“Dad, mom... I-I’m sorry for causing you two so much pain. Here’s the money I borrowed, and I’ve added a bit of interest on top of it.”

“Ahh, yes, yes! You’re the best, son!”

“I’m so happy to have such a thoughtful son!”

Cabbo’s father quickly snatched the pouch full of gold he held out and hid it in his fob. Cabbo’s father hadn’t shown even a moment’s hesitation. Instead, he hid it from prying eyes as though he were a thief swiping a wallet. Based on the looks his parents were giving him, Cabbo understood that they probably would have preferred if he had given them the money when no one was looking, which was fair.

“I’ll be working at the lord’s estate, so I’ll be able to send money to you guys too.”

“Ahh, that’s wonderful!”

“Then our family’s future is secure!”

As the little family reunion took place, the people around them also cheered, as though the money was going to flow into their own pockets. Cabbo was more than happy to send money to his parents, given all the trouble he had caused them over the years. But he wasn’t so well paid that he could throw money around to everyone in the town. He found the blind optimism of the simple folk of the town unbearable. He couldn’t help but think they were operating under some misunderstanding. It’s like they were expecting something of him and he was pretty certain he wouldn’t be able to fulfill those hopes.

“So, ahem... I heard that you have a letter of recommendation from Lord Sepaeda himself!” Cabbo’s father said after a brief, awkward pause. Ordinarily, a resident of this town would go their entire life without seeing the head of House Sepaeda’s handwriting, so it was understandable that Cabbo’s father wanted to see it. For this town and its surroundings, even the regional lord was an exalted person. Compared to them, Lord Sepaeda may as well have been a god. While Cabbo was the only one who was going to gain any direct benefit from the document, perhaps the people around him thought they could get a bit of good luck simply by paying respects to the letter.

“Yes, he gave it to me. I can’t show you the contents, though.”

Cabbo held out the envelope, which was securely wrapped in expensive fabric. Everyone around him shrank back respectfully as they laid eyes upon the envelope that was, in a sense, more valuable than Cabbo’s own life. It wasn’t an overreaction; if anything happened to the letter, the person who damaged it could very well be executed.

“You really...have become something...”

The town’s important people looked upon the envelope with trepidation while the elders clasped their hands together in reverent admiration. The youngsters kept their distance, but they still tried to move others out of their way to get a better look. The reactions of the people around him confirmed to Cabbo that he was now painfully out of place in this town.

“Yeah, true. I’m pretty impressive now.”

While he was nothing compared to the aces, Cabbo had essentially achieved the impossible. Having accepted that fact, he was able to bear the looks from the townsfolk.

“Ahh...”

“Wow...”

“So cool...”

“So, this is what a real man looks like...”

That was, in a sense, just the understated confidence of the successful. Even so, the townspeople were all deeply moved by how Cabbo wasn’t making a big show of his status or his success. They were thoroughly impressed by his natural confidence. As for Cabbo himself, he felt that, yes, he had succeeded, and that his success was impressive, but it didn’t seem that big of a deal to him. At the very least, it wasn’t something that he thought would be the target of such admiration.

I wonder how the others are doing...

The exaggerated reactions by the townsfolk reminded him of how he and his peers ordinarily regarded Sansui or Suiboku. As he considered that, he thought about how the others were doing. Were their homelands holding ridiculously overdone celebrations as well?

“Hey, if I work hard, do you think I can work at the lord’s estate?” an innocent child walked up and asked him. Cabbo put away the precious letter, his face furrowing into a troubled frown as he told the child the brutal truth.

“Probably not, no.”

“Why?!”

“I was lucky. I met the right people, I was in the right place at the right time...”

It was true that he had put in a great deal of effort, but effort alone wasn’t enough to earn a letter of recommendation from Lord Sepaeda. It was because he had been lucky enough to run into Sansui and train under him that Cabbo had been noticed by Lord Sepaeda.

“If I hadn’t become Master Sansui’s apprentice, I wouldn’t have been able to get this far...” Cabbo said quietly, reflectively. It was the simple truth and there were no other reasons for his remarkable feat. However, that statement was also perhaps a bit thoughtless.

“Then introduce me to this Sansui person!”

“Oh, no, he’s really busy and he’s not in this country right now...”

“What! That’s not fair!”

Cabbo didn’t have a response. The innocent child had simply pointed out the truth and Cabbo struggled to find a rejoinder, while the adults started yelling at the child with a faint note of panic.

“Quiet!”

“What if you upset him?!”

“Shut him up now!”

The child was scolded as though he had inadvertently offended a noble. No doubt the adults were frightened that they were looking a gift horse in the mouth or the goose that laid the golden eggs was going to run off. They were overreacting, but it was an understandable overreaction.

I really do wonder how the others are doing...

Part 21 — Reversal

This is the story of a family of merchants located in a particular region of the Sepaeda territories. The family had been working as a merchant house for several generations, and although the oldest son had run off with the family’s money, the father and the second son had worked to keep the house afloat. But despite their efforts, the house declined steadily and found itself facing ruin. It wasn’t that anyone had made any major mistakes. It was just that their business was caught in a gradual spiral of decline.

The problems for a struggling merchant family often snowballed as the slow decline brought panic about its solvency. Those who had lent the family money began to call in their loans, harassing the family to repay them as quickly as possible. The other merchant houses, the ones that had recently been their trading partners, began looking for alternative suppliers. Their behavior was natural. Had another house been failing, this family would have done the same to them.

However, since it was their own house that was in peril, the father and son needed to do everything they could to avoid further losses. They put all their effort into arresting the house’s decline. When loans were called in, they sold off heirlooms and furniture to make the necessary payments. They held parties despite the lack of money in order to put up a prosperous front to the other houses. They worked to show that their house was still alive and kicking as a means of gaining new business. It went without saying that this process was difficult, but the father and second son both knew what awaited them if their efforts failed.

Yet, one day, all of their problems disappeared practically overnight. The creditors stopped trying to collect on their loans and some even went so far as to offer more. Other houses began to invite both father and son to parties that they were hosting. There were even offers of business relationships from larger merchant houses, and they had sealed several major deals that were about to come into fruition.

The problems hadn’t gone away because the father and the second son’s efforts had borne fruit. They had gone away because the oldest son, the one who had taken the family’s money and ran away, had been appointed to be the regional lord’s combat instructor. It wasn’t as though the lord had said he was going to support the newly appointed instructor’s merchant house, or that the instructor himself had gone around boasting about his appointment. No, the people who interacted with the merchant house simply changed their tune after learning of the elder son’s appointment. In essence, the prodigal son had solved all of the problems the family had been facing, the problems that the father and younger son hadn’t been able to solve despite all their efforts, without so much as lifting a finger. Furthermore, he hadn’t even realized he had solved his family’s problems.

“I see... I didn’t know things had been that bad.”

Woulnut, one of Sansui’s apprentices, the prodigal son who had returned home in a strangely feral-looking outfit, furrowed his brow as he heard of his family’s financial problems. He faced his father, his mother, his younger brother, and his sister-in-law and frowned as he sat in one of the great rooms of the house that looked bigger due to the lack of furniture.

“I had been planning to at least pay back the money I took...but that’s definitely not enough, is it?”

Woulnut’s father, mother, younger brother, his sister-in-law, and their servants all knew him well. As such, they were troubled by Woulnut being troubled at learning of his family’s struggles.

“Let me be honest. I’m only the lord’s combat instructor, so I’m not paid that well. And since all five of us are equals, I’m not even that important.”

The family, when informed by the regional lord that their prodigal son had been appointed as combat instructor and had advanced beyond their wildest dreams, had dreaded his return, resigning themselves to dealing with Woulnut’s arrogance. In fact, because their problems had actually been solved by the elder son’s success, they had even been prepared to grovel and flatter him. They had been ready for any abuse he wanted to heap on them. They had been fully prepared to bear anything that he threw at them.

“For example, even if you wanted me to talk His Lordship into favoring the family, I can’t do that. I don’t have that much influence.”

And yet, contrary to their expectations, Woulnut listened quietly to their story and appeared completely apologetic as he explained he wasn’t going to be able to help them that much. Even though Woulnut really had achieved an amazing feat by advancing, he was speaking with a proper understanding of his own position. Something was wrong. The Woulnut they knew had never been this humble.

“I don’t have any influence with Lord Sepaeda either. It’s true that I’ve spoken to him a few times, and I once served as his sister’s bodyguard, but we’re not particularly close or anything.”

What was going on? Wasn’t speaking to Lord Sepaeda something that he ought to be more proud of? At the very least, the father and younger son, who ran the merchant house, had never spoken to even the regional lord, never mind the ruler of all the Sepaeda territories.

“And my master, Master Sansui, has a big title, but he’s still just a combat instructor. He doesn’t have any subordinates, nor is he the sort of person who interferes in business.”

Sansui Shirokuro, the Young Sword Apostle, was the kingdom’s greatest swordsman and the epitome of fighting prowess, the pride of House Sepaeda. Surely being one of his apprentices ought to come with a bit more boasting?

“So, while I feel bad for admitting it... There’s nothing I can really contribute to this house. I mean, I can do something like get married in order to cement political connections, but an instructor like me isn’t really a big deal. I might end up playing instructor for His Lordship and the people around him three times a week or so... I mean, is there anyone who’d actually want to send their daughter to marry me...?”

There was nothing wrong with what he was saying. Woulnut had a proper understanding of his position and his importance. It would have been a much bigger problem if he had claimed something along the lines of “I can talk to Lord Sepaeda for you,” or “I’ll arrange matters with His Lordship,” or “My master can take care of anything, no matter how hard.” Indeed, their Woulnut had been exactly the sort of man who would say such things. He wasn’t a man who was this self-aware.

“What happened to you?”

“Hey, why’s that the first thing you ask me?!”

His father’s confusion was perfectly understandable. Even so, Woulnut himself hadn’t grasped that his father was confused. Instead, he thought that his father was disappointed in him. He believed it was only natural that his father, having received the happy news that his elder son had been given a prestigious position, would think of making use of that new position to solve the family’s problems. He even considered that his father might be desperate and would even bow his head to the son he resented. What he hadn’t imagined, not in the slightest, was that the simple fact that he had been appointed an instructor to the local lord had solved his family’s problems. Not even in his wildest dreams would he have thought that he was being given an after-action report about problems that had already been resolved.

“It seems impossible that you truly understand your own position or its importance.”

“Okay, even I’m hurt by that... Lord Sepaeda would have never written a letter of recommendation for a man who didn’t know his place, even if that man was an apprentice of Master Sansui and armed with items crafted by Master Suiboku.”

None of the servants could believe what they were seeing. It was true that what Woulnut was saying was logical, but they couldn’t help but wonder if this really was the same man who had been so arrogant and abusive when they had last seen him.

“Even if you’ve never met Lord Sepaeda in person, you’ve at least heard about his personality, right? He really is as stern as they say. He wouldn’t give a recommendation letter to a thoughtless fool.”

“Sure, I’ve heard that, but...”

“Yeah, when I left this house, I wasn’t someone who could have gotten one of these letters. But Master Sansui gave me a lot of training. He didn’t just help me grow as a swordsman, he made me into a proper man. Master Sansui really is the greatest...”

It was at this point that the elder son’s expression finally took on a look of pride.

“At first, I was skeptical about this whole Young Sword Apostle thing, but he really is ridiculously strong. He’s just a much better man than I am. He’s not just strong, but he’s also kind, or I suppose he has a lot of easy confidence... He’s just a man who has an awful lot to admire about him.”

The entire family was now firmly confused as they observed Woulnut’s demeanor. The man who had been the epitome of self-expression and ego when they knew him was now going out of his way to praise someone else.

“Saiga, the ace of House Batterabbe, is also really powerful. He’s the wielder of Eckesachs the Legendary Sword, but even without it, he’s super strong. Of course, there’s a lot I can’t say about him.”

Evidently, Woulnut was privy to a secret about the heir to House Batterabbe as well.

“Caputo’s ace, Shouzo... He’s also ridiculous. You know how the rumors say he can blow away the clouds? Turns out it’s all true. I can understand now why they call him the world’s greatest mage. It’s pretty much impossible to imagine anyone with more destructive power. I also caught a glimpse of the new emperor of Domino, the royal house’s ace. He’s really, really scary.”

Having seen just how big the wider world was with his own eyes, Woulnut regaled his family with just how insignificant he truly was compared to what he had seen.

“Well, the one who’s most overwhelmingly ridiculous is Master Suiboku. Look, the clothes I’m wearing were made by him. Oh...but they’re not for sale, sorry...”

No one in the manor had any way of knowing just how strong Woulnut was now or how well he actually knew people in the upper echelons of society. But just hearing how happy he was recounting his encounters with those more powerful, those substantially greater, than him was enough to get across that this was someone who had matured substantially in his years away from home. Everyone who had known the younger Woulnut couldn’t hide their surprise at the sheer maturity he now showed.

“Oh, I’m sorry about going on about myself. You don’t want to hear me bragging when the house is facing bankruptcy, right? Anyway...there isn’t much I can do, but I’ll do what I can.”

The surprise wasn’t a bad thing. The elder son had run away from home, only to have made a name for himself, learned his place in society, and developed connections with lofty personages. It was surprising, but not in a bad way. In fact, it was a good thing for this house and family.

“What the hell!” Woulnut’s younger brother shouted angrily, cutting him off. Yes, Woulnut’s advancement and achievements were surprising and worked in the family’s favor, but it was also only human nature to be unable to simply just be happy and accept what had happened.

“Huh?”

It was Woulnut’s turn to be surprised by his brother’s sudden outburst. The brother Woulnut had known wasn’t a man who would suddenly yell out in anger.

“Do you know how much we struggled because you took the house’s money when you left?!”

“Yeah, I mean, I feel guilty about it. That’s why I’m going to repay all of it with interest...”

“That’s not the point! It doesn’t matter now! Do you know how much the people around us laughed at us because of your bad reputation?!”

His brother’s tirade brought Suiboku and Fukei’s argument to mind. No, that hadn’t even managed to reach the level of an argument. He paused for a moment before replying.

“I see. I’m sorry I caused you that much trouble,” Woulnut said, electing to simply apologize. He knew it wasn’t enough to earn him forgiveness, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. His brother, in the end, showed no sign of forgiving him.

“I worked so hard to fix all the problems you caused! Why the hell does everything have to end up being solved like this?!”

“Huh?”

“The moment news came down that you were the lord’s instructor, everyone started treating us like royalty. All the people who wouldn’t even give us the time of day, no matter how much money we spent or how much we groveled, all turned around and started doing business with us just because you’d spent all your time playing around and swinging a sword! That’s ridiculous! It’s unfair! It makes me look like an utter moron for taking my work seriously!”

The elder son looked over at his father, and the older man’s silent support for the younger son’s rant finally made all of the pieces fall into place in Woulnut’s mind.

“Me and dad worked ourselves to the bone to protect the house! We worked hard, we put in the effort, and we did our best to build up trust slowly but steadily!”

“I’m sure everyone noticed.” Woulnut understood why his brother was angry and tried to calm him by complimenting his efforts. He knew it would probably make his brother even angrier, but he couldn’t do anything else. “No matter how successful I might have been, if no one trusted you or dad, no one would have spared you a second glance. My success just gave you the little push you needed.”

Everyone was once again caught by surprise by Woulnut’s words. The younger son’s anger, his criticism of Woulnut, was extremely unfair. At the very least, the older son had contributed plenty to the house, certainly more than enough to make up for everything he had taken from them in the past. And yet, the younger son was enraged that his brother had ultimately contributed to the family’s fortunes. It would have been perfectly understandable for the older son to be upset by his brother’s attitude and let it devolve into a shouting match. Yet, in spite of all that, Woulnut was actually admitting that his brother had a point.

“Think of it this way. Consider me something to be used, as much as you can, to make up for all the problems I’ve caused you to this point.”

His words were met by silence.

“I understand why you’re angry at me, but just yelling at me is putting mom, dad, and your bride in an uncomfortable position.”

Even more silence greeted that.

“This is the sort of thing we should hash out alone over drinks...” Woulnut said with a forced smile, accepting and deflecting the venom directed at him. While his phrasing wasn’t perfect, it was still a mature response worthy of an adult. However, Woulnut was already aware that this sort of response would simply pour more fuel on the raging fire of anger that burned in his brother’s breast.

“This is ridiculous!”

The younger son stood up and slammed the door behind him as he stalked off. His wife hurriedly followed after him. The parents were caught between following the younger son and not simply leaving their older son sitting there by himself.

“Well, guess this is about how it goes.”

Woulnut couldn’t help but wish things had gone a little more smoothly. He sighed, recognizing that even when the problems had all been solved and all the wrongs of the past had been atoned for, the resentments festering in people’s hearts wouldn’t be so easily forgotten.

Part 22 — About Face

Yuen, one of Sansui’s apprentices, hailed from a relatively large city within Sepaeda. Unlike the backwater parts of Sepaeda, there was no great furor over one of the city’s sons being appointed as the regional lord’s new combat instructor. At most, it was one of many rumors circulating through the city. Now, things might have been different had he become a noble or something along those lines, but given that he remained a commoner, there wasn’t any public celebration to commemorate his appointment.

Yuen, disappointed by the lack of an official celebration, had decided to hold a party of his own. He gathered his friends at his favorite bar and decided to hold a party to commemorate his elevation.

“Here’s everything to cover all your tabs to this point and what we’ll be having today. No need for change. Yo, everyone! All drinks are on me tonight! Help me celebrate my promotion!”

Yuen was pleased that he had been able to gather all his friends in his favorite bar and say the words he’d long dreamed of. A revel in an ordinary bar in an ordinary part of the city wasn’t all that expensive, even when he was paying for everyone’s drinks. However, it was enough to feel that he had finally made it in the world. Just watching the others enjoy free drinks was enough to put Yuen in a great mood.

“Hey, hey, Yuen, you’re not going to drink? That’s not like you. You can order whatever you want!”

The owner of the bar, who had seen the tabs he had long since given up on as a lost cause be repaid twice over, came over as he noticed Yuen himself wasn’t drinking. Up until today, the owner would have regarded Yuen skeptically and considered him a flight risk, but he had already received enough money up-front to cover all of the alcohol in the bar, so he was in an extremely good mood.

“Well, yeah.”

However, Yuen refused the offer of a drink. While he wanted people to celebrate his success, he knew not everyone was going to feel the same way. Even as he hosted the festivities, there was a part of him that was still on guard. At the very least, he had no intention of having a drop in this bar.

“Oh, looks like there’s a private event tonight.”

“They’re saying there’s no drinks for us, eh?!”

Yuen’s caution wasn’t misplaced, and several bellicose men soon walked into the bar. They were a group of men that made up a quasi-gang and had been his enemies when he had lived in the city. It was clear that they weren’t interested in participating in the festivities.

“Ahh, it’s you guys.”

As those enjoying the free alcohol froze, Yuen, the host, was alone in welcoming them into the bar. At first glance, he looked like a fool who had let his extraordinary success go to his head.

“I don’t know if you guys heard, but I made it big recently, so I’m throwing a party to celebrate. We had our differences in the past, but now that they’re in the past, they’re just good memories for me. If you’d like, you’re welcome to join in the party.”

However, the fact that he hadn’t had a drop to drink belied what Yuen actually felt about the newcomers.

“Yeah, we heard. Looks like you did well for yourself.”

“You got into Lord Sepaeda’s good graces and now you’re the lord’s combat instructor, right?”

“So jealous...”

They were all armed and it was obvious what they were thinking of doing. The bar owner was on guard, as he didn’t want them trashing his establishment, but given that the newcomers had come in ready to fight, he wasn’t able to make any concrete moves to stop them.

“It must be an easy job, since even you can do it.”

“It’s nice to be loved by important people, eh?”

“Heavy responsibility, don’t you think? Sure you don’t wanna let me do it instead?”

Yuen wasn’t sure how seriously to take their provocations. However, based on the sheer hostility they were directing at him, it was clear that they resented his success enough to want to hurt him. It didn’t take an Immortal to feel out their intentions; even a small child would have been able to see it.

“Jealous, hm?” Yuen stood up from his seat at the bar, smiling confidently as he taunted the thugs. “I see, I see. I’m happy to see that you lot are so jealous.”

His demeanor wasn’t simply the confidence of the successful. No, there was an air of strength about him as well.

“Don’t worry about it. The party is open for everyone. You can drink, you can sing, you can dance... Do as you want.”

Of course, there was a good reason for Yuen’s confidence. Part of it was the fact he hadn’t had anything to drink, but he was also wearing all of his noble treasures. That meant that everyone looked at him as though he were a bit of an eccentric, but also that he would be perfectly fine even if he was attacked. If anything, the thugs who had come into the bar expecting to attack a defenseless opponent were the ones who were unprepared for what was about to happen.

“Gotcha, gotcha... You want to retire due to injuries even before you start, eh?”

“In that case, we’ll lend you a hand.”

“Get him!”

In contrast to the men, who had already drawn their swords when they entered the bar, Yuen had kept his weapons in their sheaths. Just seeing that difference, all of the bystanders imagined a tragic fate for Yuen.

“Obviously hostile, worked up, and attacking as a group from the front in a crowded bar.”

In spite of the odds, Yuen remained calm, as he had already accounted for this outcome. Even if his weapons were still sheathed, he was already prepared to fight. His words expressed an easy confidence, but his eyes were completely focused. He reached down, not for his long blade but for his dagger, and prepared the Sash of Quicken Self as he slowly walked over to his opponents. Yuen was carefully judging the distance, looking for an opening to take the initiative.

“To take down reckless fools like that so easily and thus show my strength to the world... I suppose that’s what it means to have to maintain one’s reputation.”

The thugs attacked with overhead slashes, each move so obvious that it felt choreographed, and Yuen almost felt insulted. He activated his Sash of Quicken Self and rapidly stepped forward as he drew his dagger. He swung through with his blade, without putting his weight behind the strike, and instead moved past them. It wasn’t just against one of them; he had stepped and slashed between all of them as he wove his way through their ranks.

“House Sepaeda is a martial house and I’m one of the warriors recognized by the lord of the house.”

The dagger, being shorter than the sword, was easier to handle, and Yuen checked its weight in his hand before he flicked the blade. Blood spattered on the floor as it wicked off the stone surface of the dagger.

“Ordinarily, I would take your heads, but today’s a festive occasion.”

Whoo, that sounds just like something Master Sansui would say, Yuen thought to himself. He wasn’t drunk on alcohol, but rather on his own skill, and finished the statement he had wanted to use at least once in his life.

“I’ll just treat it as a drunken joke and let you go with a single index finger.”

Blood stained the bar’s floorboards red, dripping from the hands of the attackers. Each of the attackers had lost a single finger each. What was perhaps more frightening was the fact that they hadn’t suffered any wounds other than the amputated fingers.

“Ah...!”

“Agh...!”

“Owww...!”

When doing hard physical labor, it wasn’t unusual to lose a finger or two. There was nothing strange about it happening in mid-combat either. However, it was another matter entirely if the swordsman meant to slice off a single finger and was able to do so without causing any other damage.

“If you intend to keep fighting, your heads are next. But none of us want that, do we?”

The men who had lost a finger each bit back the pain. That was the very most that they could manage. They were clutching their mangled hands out of sheer stubbornness, but their eyes couldn’t hide the fear they felt. Yuen’s technique, which was hard to describe as Yuen had merely grown stronger, had thrown the thugs into a state bordering on panic.

Yuen was pleased to see the fear on their faces. He was reveling in the fact that he had been able to act like Sansui and to have his opponents fear him like people feared the Young Sword Apostle. It gave him a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. He lightly chided himself for winning in a faintly obnoxious manner, then gestured breezily to the bleeding men.

“If you go to a mystic now, you should be able to keep your fingers, no?”

The three men, either believing they were really at risk of losing their heads or having simply accepted their opponent was too strong, quickly picked up their fingers and left the bar. They had originally come to the bar to harass Yuen for his success. That wasn’t worth losing a finger, never mind risking their heads.

“Hmph... They haven’t changed.”

Had his fellow students been here, Yuen knew they would have chastised him for this little dance. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a certain pleasure at the fearful respect that he saw in the gazes of the people around him as he sat back down at the bar. Exclamations of surprise and admiration sprang up around the room. What had simply been an excuse for free drinks had turned into a proper party of appreciation for Yuen himself.

“Wow...”

“That’s badass...”

“He totally just chopped off their fingers!”

“Unbelievable...”

Yuen knew that his master would probably say that finding fulfillment in hurting someone meant that he still needed training, but he hoped that maybe it was acceptable just for one night. He had always admired Sansui’s ability to so casually defuse a situation, but doing it himself was more satisfying than he had imagined. It really was enjoyable to gather admiring looks without having to overtly put effort into showing off one’s strength.

Everyone in the bar looked at Yuen with admiration and envy. The little display had shown them that the man who was buying them drinks really had been appointed to be the lord’s combat instructor. They understood that a man who had been one of them until just a few years ago had really achieved success and obtained promotion.

“Hey... Can I see that sword?”

One of the revelers showed an interest in Yuen’s weapons. Yuen showed him the sword and the dagger without any particular hesitation.

“Yeah, sure.”

Neither Gan Jiang nor Mo Ye were particularly good-looking weapons. That was why many of the people in the bar had thought Yuen was using some truly pitiful weapons, despite his new title. But having seen him actually wield one in combat, the simplicity of the weapons went from plainness to a certain mysterious charm. Everyone found themselves drawn to the blades, and they wanted to see for themselves what they were like.

Many of Yuen’s old friends began to come around to touch the stone sword and dagger. Their expressions were extremely serious, as though they were touching jewels or some other kind of valuable object. Showing off the two weapons that had been crafted for him was quite fulfilling. Yuen watched them with an expression of enjoyment.

“Wow... So, you can do that with these, huh?”

Still, Yuen wasn’t without his concerns. There had been an occasion when Sansui had remembered how he had been years ago when lecturing Saiga. Similarly, Yuen imagined unfortunate conclusions that his old friends might be drawing. They weren’t much different from how he had been before he had been given an opportunity to grow, and he was wary of them doing something stupid with his weapons.

“Hey, how did you end up with these weapons anyway?” one of his friends, sword in hand, asked with a drunken expression.

“I became the apprentice of Sansui Shirokuro, the Young Sword Apostle and the ace of House Sepaeda. Then I put in endless hours of effort and training until he gave me his blessing as a swordsman. The sword and the dagger were crafted by Master Sansui’s master, Master Suiboku, as a graduation gift for me. Not just me either. All of Master Sansui’s students who have achieved a certain level of skill have a set.”

Yuen pretended to recount the story boastfully, as he already understood what his friend was about to say. He spoke with a breezy confidence, but he still felt a certain sadness at that realization.

“Do you think I can become his apprentice too?”

“Not anymore. Master Sansui is now a noble, so he won’t instruct anyone who isn’t in the army or already one of his students. Besides, he’s currently off in a distant kingdom.”

A strange awkwardness, a tense silence enveloped the room.

“Gotcha...”

“Yup.”

“That’s not fair.”

Oh, yes, his friends misunderstood.

“You were able to get an amazing weapon like this...”

“Yeah, isn’t it great? It’s made just for me. Entirely for me.”

“Hey, you’ve had a lot of good things happen until now, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true. I was able to meet a lot of people who may as well live in a completely different world.”

There were those among them who were operating under that misunderstanding as well.

“That’s not fair. You weren’t any different from us until a little while ago.”

“Yeah, I guess life takes strange turns.”

“Then, c’mon, gimme these swords.”

“Ha ha ha! I can’t do that, of course.”

The gazes of the people around him started to change a bit. They had gone from congratulations to jealousy. They were no different from the thugs from earlier; both groups were completely consumed by envy.

“C’mon, you’ve had your fun.”

But that, too, was understandable. Both Yuen’s friends and his enemies in this city were all about the same level in terms of personality and character. The only difference was whether or not they were close to Yuen. Otherwise, they were all pitiful characters who had little in the way of future potential. Today was fun and tomorrow would likely be fun too. However, there was no clarity, no future for them beyond that. Almost all of Yuen’s friends were like that. And now, Yuen alone had a bright future ahead of him. They couldn’t help but resent him.

“Hey, hey, don’t be ridiculous. I still have more to accomplish. I mean, I might be able to when I’m an old geezer.”

“Don’t say that. I wanna have some good times too.”

The friend operating under the wrong idea showed exactly what he was imagining for his own future. He intended to replace Yuen, to take the future that had been promised to him and live in glory. It was a delusional fantasy, but Yuen understood why his friend wanted to believe in the possibility. He couldn’t help but understand.

“C’mon, we’re friends, aren’t we?”

“We’re friends. That’s exactly why I’m buying your drinks.”

The alcohol was probably speaking too, but the friend had turned Yuen’s blade in his direction.

“C’mon, lemme have it.”

“Hey, so what are you planning to do when you have that sword? Do you think you’ll be employed by His Lordship just because you have it?”

“Yeah, why not? I mean, you’re not much different than me and you get to be employed by His Lordship because you have these awesome weapons.”

“No, no, I also have a letter of recommendation from Lord Sepaeda. See? Signed by Lord Sepaeda himself.” Yuen continued the conversation without correcting his friend’s misconceptions.

“Then give me that too.”

“No way, this already has my name on it. Besides, I’ve already introduced myself to His Lordship.”

“Then switch with me! I can manage if I have these, right?!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t serve as a combat instructor. You’ve never used a sword or a dagger, have you?”

“You’re not much better, are you?!”

Yuen’s friends were operating under a grave misunderstanding. They believed that the fight earlier was all thanks to Yuen’s weapons. Their confusion was understandable and they were at least half right. But Yuen was actually substantially different from the friend that sat in front of him. Yuen had trained and practiced with the sword even when he had lived in this city. Without that foundation, he wouldn’t have gotten as strong as he did with just a few years of training. His friend from this city didn’t even know about the effort Yuen had put in when he had still lived here. It was perhaps only natural, but there was still something about it that saddened him.

“That’s not right! How did you do it but not me?!”

“You’ve had too much to drink. That blade’s just really sharp. Having it doesn’t make you a better swordsman or anything.”

In his friend’s mind, there was no way that Yuen was that impressive, so he couldn’t be all that different from him. Hence, there was nothing Yuen could do that he couldn’t do too. Yuen knew that, in the past, he would have felt the same way. He would have looked at nothing more than the person’s surface and completely misunderstood the situation without looking even a little bit further. It wasn’t like his friend was particularly unusual or ignorant.

“Here, give it back. That’s a special weapon that Master Suiboku gave to me. It’s worth more to me than all the money in the world. Don’t take a friend’s treasure, man.”

“You aren’t... You aren’t...!”

You, the one hogging all the glory, aren’t...

“You aren’t my friend, dammit!”

No, the one hogging all the glory is my enemy.

“Hey, now, no need to say that. Don’t be such a jerk about it.”

When the friend drew back with the sword, his line of sight was blocked by the blade and his own arms. Yuen used that brief moment to close the distance, grab a fork from the table, and press the prongs against his friend’s neck. He hadn’t used a single one of his noble treasures.

“Even if you’re drunk, it’s not a funny joke, buddy.”

“W-Wait, please.”

“We’re friends, right?”

“Y-Yeah... We’re friends.”

Yuen was the one who had changed. His friends hadn’t changed at all. His friends were bad people, and back in the day, Yuen himself had been a bad man. While he had put in the effort to train with the sword, he had been a pitiful man who had nothing else to be proud of. Should Yuen be happy or sad that he had left that pathetic man behind?

“Then give that back to me. It’s about as important to me as my life. Life is important, right?”

Everyone present tensed, as though each of them had a blade pressed against their throat. It was only at that moment that they all realized that the Yuen before them wasn’t the same man they had once known.

“Yeah, here, have it back!”

“Don’t be so scared. It’s just a drunken joke that got out of hand, right?”

If there was one saving grace, it was that Yuen was now strong enough to settle the problem without having to hurt his “old friends.”

“I mean, it wasn’t funny, but still.”

Part 23 — A Turn for the Worse

Inke, who had bet everything on a one-in-a-million chance of success when he left his hometown, had been lucky enough to find success. But not everyone who had left that town had been as lucky. He and a friend had left their hometown together, and Inke had been fortunate in surviving long enough to meet Sansui, but the friend had died before he reached that point. Inke hadn’t done anything to cause his death; his friend had simply pushed his luck a step too far.

“So, you’ve become a nobleman’s combat instructor, huh?” A woman lay in a bed in a cramped, dirty room. She was the mother of Inke’s dead comrade. “And what happened to my son?”

“He died a while ago,” Inke answered quietly as the woman glared at him. She had already been prepared for that news. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say she had already given up on her son. He simply accepted her harsh gaze as he set down a bag full of gold coins and a piece of fruit.

“Money and fruit to pay your respects, huh?”

“I don’t know how seriously he meant it, but he always said he was going to earn enough money to cure your illness. Consider that purse to be that money. Also, the fruit is a cure for all diseases. It’s fine if you don’t believe me, though.”

His friend’s mother had an illness that required a lot of money to cure. However, having achieved an appropriate position in life, it was a sum that was easy enough to earn. Inke, who had been appointed to a position of that level, had brought enough money to treat her disease, and a piece of fruit that no amount of money could buy.

“You want me to consider us even for talking my son into going with you?”

“No, not at all. It’s just to get closure.”

The gifts were extraordinary, but they were no consolation for the woman. Inke had known that it wasn’t enough to make up for the death of her son before he had come here.

“I might use that money to hire an assassin.”

“I can handle anyone willing to work for that amount of money. If you want to waste it, go ahead and do that.”

His friend’s mother burned with resentment. It seemed she was cursing the fact that he had survived more than his actual success. Inke simply took the abuse before he left the room.

“Well... It’d be worse if she was happy with this outcome.”

Inke had returned all the way to his hometown to hand over the money and a cure, only to be abused by the very person he had come to visit, and yet he felt a sense of relief. Perhaps his dead friend was also cursing him, but even so, Inke had no intention of dying just because people resented him. He felt a certain amount of responsibility to the memory of his friend, but not so much as to simply lie down and die for the sake of his friend’s memory.

Inke and his friend had simply wanted to become strong and important. There hadn’t been much difference between the two of them and Inke didn’t feel in the slightest that it should have been him who died rather than his friend. Even so, that didn’t mean the friendship wasn’t real. Inke valued his friend’s memory enough to at least report his death to his mother and fulfill the goal that he hadn’t been able to accomplish.

“Well, then... Guess I’ve run out of things to do.”

Inke left the small, dirty house and wandered around his hometown. Given that he was dressed in the feral fashion of his noble treasures, he stood out like a sore thumb in the city.

“What’s with that guy? He’s dressed weird... Eh? Isn’t that Inke?”

“Are those clothes and weapons equipment imbued with a Rare Art?”

“Guess it’s true... The whole story about him finding favor with Lord Sepaeda and getting a big promotion.”

The men watched him resentfully, wondering why Inke had all the luck, cursing the fact that they hadn’t left the city themselves. The women looked at him with envy; why did it have to be Inke? If they had known, they would have cozied up to him more in the past.

Inke had to admit the stares actually gave him a sense of smug satisfaction. He hadn’t actually hurt anyone in the process, so no doubt his master would forgive him for that bit of vanity. Besides, he had been ordered by Lord Sepaeda to dress this way. Just as Sansui always wore a kimono and sandals, Sansui’s students were ordered to always wear their noble treasures and not to hide them from the world.

“Now that I think about it...”

It was a pretty big deal to be given orders from Lord Sepaeda himself. He held the second most important title in the kingdom, and here in the Sepaeda territories, he was effectively a king. Essentially, Inke had been given direct orders from the ruler of these lands. That was quite a feat indeed. Although, like all orders issued by Lord Sepaeda, those specific orders had a rather frightening addendum that came with them.

“Hey, it’s been a while, man!”

“Ahh, hey.”

As Inke wandered the city, briefly letting himself believe the world revolved around him, an old friend called to him from behind. His friend looked happy to see him and even smiled widely at being recognized. Smiles had a special power to them, and even if it wasn’t from someone Inke had particularly missed, it still gave him a sense of warmth to be greeted with one.

“I heard you made it really big!”

“Yeah, it’s just as it looks.”

“I see, I see. So, the rumors were true.”

The old friend seemed genuinely happy as he wrapped his arm around Inke’s shoulder. Inke casually accepted the friend’s invasion of his personal space and wrapped his arm around his friend’s shoulder in turn.

“All right then, I’ll buy us some drinks! Tell me stories about the capital!”

“Hold on now... You sure about that? I’m not drinking any rotgut. My palate’s all refined now.”

“There’s a bar that serves really good stuff! I swear you’ll like it.”

The stares from the bystanders grew even more pointedly hostile. It was only natural. Inke hadn’t simply gotten rich or come home for a visit; he had come equipped with a proper official title. The eyes that looked upon the successful man and his friend burned with resentment. There were quite a few who harbored the dark hope that the two happy individuals would be struck by misfortune.

“It’s a great hole-in-the-wall. It’s a special place where all the connoisseurs go to get the best drinks.”

Inke’s friend led him through an underground entrance into a small bar with a handful of seats. There was a small table located in front of a luxurious-looking sofa, with countless bottles lining the bar’s walls. It didn’t look like it was purely for the enjoyment of alcohol, but rather more like a shady place for less wholesome activities.

“I see, I see. I’m surprised you know a place like this.”

“You might have made it big, but I’m earning a good living in this city myself. My boss told me about this place,” Inke’s old friend said boastfully before offering him a glass. “Here, have a dram.”

Inke quietly closed his eyes at the distinct scent of alcohol.

“Sorry, but I can’t drink this.”

“Hey, why not, man? I mean, even if your tastes are all posh, you can’t tell what it tastes like if you don’t have a drop, eh?”

“Then why don’t you drink it first?”

While Inke couldn’t see anything with his eyes closed, he could sense that his old friend’s expression had tensed up.

“Oh, before you start... Don’t try to make me the bad guy here. If you don’t like my skepticism, then you don’t need to drink that. Just tell me what you’re doing for a living.”

Inke was completely exasperated at his friend. He had been badly disappointed when he had been led into a bar in the basement, but this behavior had turned that disappointment into something more sour. The bar was clearly a shady establishment. It was easy enough to sense that there was some trap behind it. Even if they wanted to lure him in, surely they could’ve at least tried a little harder. He couldn’t even pretend to play along with such a sloppy setup.

“Even if there’s nothing in the drink, I can’t very well drink something paid for by someone whose job is a mystery.”

His old friend blinked in surprise. It was as though this turn of events was impossible, as though he couldn’t believe Inke’s reaction. Inke’s disappointment grew when he saw his friend’s expression.

“I figured you meant to exploit me somehow and make use of the fact I work for the lord of this region, but this? I mean, you may as well have a sign saying you brought me here with criminal intentions.”

“Wh-What the hell is that supposed to mean...? Don’t assume I’m doing anything shady for work.”

“Then you don’t have to tell me your job, just show me your wallet. C’mon, now, lemme see the contents.”

Asking a friend who was offering to pay for drinks to show you their wallet wasn’t particularly strange. After all, it would suck to be stuck with the bill after drinking and eating under the assumption that the friend was paying.

“You haven’t been promoted, have you? You don’t have the wits or the tongue for this. They just picked you because you were my friend, yeah?”

“I-Inke! Don’t let the fact that you’re important now go to your head!”

Inke had set the sword and dagger from his belt next to the sofa. He was ready to draw them at a moment’s notice. Even without an Immortal’s ability to sense auras, Inke was prepared for what he could sense was about to happen.

“That’s enough. Stay out of the way, will you?”

Several armed men, clearly belonging to the underworld, stepped into the room. Seeing them enter, Inke’s old friend bowed his head and fled the room.

“So...it seems you noticed quite a bit earlier. Does that mean you’re willing to talk?”

“I’m willing to listen, at least.”

“Good, that makes things simple.”

The man, apparently the leader of the group, came and sat in the seat that Inke’s old friend had just vacated. The man looked Inke over with a malicious, appraising grin.

“So, how’s business, Mister Combat Instructor, sir?”

“Well... I’d say I’m happy, even though it sounds cheap.”

“Yeah, cheap... Very cheap.”

Inke gazed expressionlessly at the drink in front of him, the one his old friend had poured him, not even bothering to look over at the man.

“So, it sounds like you’re aware that combat instructors don’t get paid a whole lot.”

The underworld man was basically correct. Someone like Sansui, who was employed directly by the royal family or one of the Four Great Houses to conduct training for soldiers and officers, was paid handsomely. Unfortunately, just being an instructor to a regional lord wasn’t particularly lucrative.

“Well, of course that’s the case. Combat instructor is mostly an honorary position. The whole job is meant for some geezer who’s too old for the army to get paid to flatter a useless noble.”

While the phrasing was quite crude, the man had the right understanding of what the job entailed and the amount that it paid. Combat instructors were paid relatively well, but it wasn’t enough to live in luxury.

“But the title is worth a lot. That alone brings in a lot of money, eh?”

“Planning to open a salle or something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Gathering poor students is just a pittance. It’s all about making deals with merchant houses that want to do business with the lord. You know, tell them that for the right price, you’ll get them invitations to the lord’s parties.”

The man was proposing a scam. Yes, the ones who ran those scams were terrible, but those who fell for them weren’t exactly innocent either. These were common enough, though, and there were quite a few people who fell for them.

“Oh? You’re not sure things’ll go that smoothly? Don’t worry about it. Your predecessor did the same thing and it went well for him.”

That was why the lord had wanted a replacement for Inke’s predecessor. The underworld figures believed that, because the previous holder of the office had succeeded, the new one would succeed now, and this belief showed their own character. Ordinarily, when someone got caught committing a crime, it was human nature to want to get out of that business before you yourself got caught. But there were plenty of people who thought they were the exception, that they would never get caught. Or perhaps they believed that they wouldn’t lose anything if Inke was fired.

“The whole title is cool, you know, combat instructor and all. So, they bring all the proposals themselves without you having to lift a finger. All you have to do is sort through them. It’s just changing the order that they get to go to the balls, eh?”

“Before you go any further, Lord Sepaeda already told me what my predecessor did.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. If you stay quiet, no one’s gonna find out.”

The underworld figures thought that Inke was on board with their scheme by his presence. That was why they mistakenly assumed that whatever he said, it was all an effort to negotiate terms.

“Further, my master...my sword instructor...is extremely good at detecting lies. If I do anything like that, he’ll come to take responsibility and kill me. So, I’m afraid the answer is no.”

“Oh? You talking about that Young Sword Apostle or whatever?”

Inke closed his eyes as he began to hear the words he had expected to hear.

“Don’t need to put up that sort of front. It’s all lies, right? He’s called Sepaeda’s ace, but it’s at least half lies. There’s no one who can do all that.”

It was understandable. Sansui’s accomplishments were unbelievable even for those who saw them firsthand. For those who only knew of them through rumors, it was understandable that they wouldn’t believe them at all.

“I don’t believe there’s even anyone real behind the whole thing. So, what’s the truth there?”

Inke knew very well that Sansui had to be seen to be believed. Even so...

“You know, right? The truth about the scam artist called Sansui Shirokuro.”

Inke wasn’t such a good man that he could sit still as someone insulted his master...

“Care to see for yourself if it’s a scam?” Inke’s anger was clear in his tone as he reached for the sword at his side. The negotiations, such as they were, were now officially over.

“Oh, looks like we made him mad.”

However, these were men of the underworld. They weren’t going to be intimidated by Inke reaching for his weapon. They were there to talk to a man who had been chosen to be the regional combat instructor. They had made appropriate preparations. Several armed men surrounded the sofa as Inke sat with his weapon sheathed and at his side. The thugs were certain they had cornered Inke and held the advantage.

“Don’t be so hasty. This is a good deal for both of us. We don’t want to kill the combat instructor. That would cause a fuss. So...”

“A fair amount of money is moving over this, right? So, you’re pretty high up in the organization?”

“Hm? Yes, of course. Meaning...”

“Then you’re worth more than enough as a hostage.”

Inke always wore his Sash of Quicken Self. That meant that he could prepare to fight without even picking up his blade. If the most his opponents could do was wield magic, if they had no way to enhance their physical abilities, then needing to pick up and draw his sword presented no complications for Inke in a small, enclosed space.

“Huh?”

The armed thugs had been certain of victory the moment they had surrounded Inke and created the conditions for checkmate. They had let their guard down in that confidence. Before they could regain their focus, Inke rapidly drew his blade and attacked.

“You, the survivor.”

With his attack complete, three of the standing men collapsed. Their heads slid off their necks and dropped to the floor at exactly the same moment their bodies crumpled in place.

“If you don’t want the sitting one to die, go gather your organization’s soldiers.”

The moment Inke demanded more sacrifices, blood drenched the room.

“Eeep... Ahhhhhhhhh!”

“H-Hey, what...?”

“Don’t move.”

The last man still on his feet turned ghostly pale, with an expression of sheer terror unsuited to his manly visage, and he scrambled out of the room. The man sitting on the sofa tried to stop his subordinate as he escaped, but Inke brought the man up short by pressing his blood-soaked blade against his throat. The man chose not to get up from the sofa.

“H-Hey, do you have any idea who you’ve picked a fight with?!”

“Just how stupid are you? I’ve gotten the approval of Lord Sepaeda.” This was why bumpkins were a pain to deal with. “Do you really think you all can get away with picking a fight with House Sepaeda?”

Completely exasperated by the criminals he faced, he placed his dagger back on his hip. As Inke prepared to deal with any reinforcements, the man on the sofa began to panic.

“I get that you’re strong! I get it, so wait! Please, let me go! If not...!”

It was soon after the henchman had fled the room that something was thrown into the bar. When the object landed, the entire bar caught fire and began to burn.

“This place is rigged to go up!”

“Ah, I see. You aren’t all that important, are you, to be discarded so easily?”

Inke’s old friend, the one who had taken him to the bar, stared at the burning building. There were several dozen henchmen armed with polearms surrounding the building, shooing away any potential bystanders.

“Your ‘friend’ is a fool...to end up like this because he lost his temper.”

“Yes, indeed...”

“So, how do you intend to make up for this?” A middle-aged man who was probably rather high up in the organization glared sharply at Inke’s friend. “We let you handle it because you claimed the new combat instructor was your old friend. You cost us a bar and four men.”

“U-Um...”

“Don’t think you’ll die an easy death.”

The thugs around the two glared at the small fry who had been the cause of the whole incident. The small fry in question went deathly pale and looked like he was about to faint. Yes, there was a price to be paid by the man who had tried to drag his friend into misdeeds.

“Hm? H-Hey! Wait! Someone’s coming out!”

“That’s impossible! The building was built to collapse immediately!”

But the ones who were more to blame than the small fry were his superiors. They were guilty of far more egregious crimes than the lowly henchmen beneath them. They were far more deserving of punishment than the petty crooks.

“I have orders from Lord Sepaeda.”

Inke had escaped by cutting open the ceiling of the burning bar and flying out. He then slowly settled to the ground, avoiding the smoke and flames. Having casually escaped what should have been a lethal trap, he gazed coolly, ruthlessly, at those gathered around the building.

“If anyone tries to talk you into petty crimes, then kill them all as an example.” Inke tossed the four heads he held in his hands onto the ground. They were the heads of the four fools who had been in the bar, which he had taken the time to retrieve. “To show the truth of Sansui Shirokuro to those who don’t believe in his power.”

The several dozen men who surrounded the building, the middle-aged boss, the man who had once been his friend...

“Your heads are going to decorate the gate.”

They all understood that they were about to die.

“Well, that was a close call on your part.”

The heads and bodies of criminals littered the ground. They had all been beheaded while alive and the corpses had sprayed blood as they fell, drenching the ground. It looked like a scene straight out of hell.

“You were about to be killed by your boss.”

“Y-Yeah...”

Splattered with gore, Inke spoke to his friend, the sole survivor. From the friend’s perspective, Inke was a heartening sight. After all, Inke had killed the evildoers who had been threatening his friend. That said, Inke still had his sword in hand and didn’t look like he was going to sheath it, and there wasn’t a hint of humor in his eyes as he looked over at his friend.

“I’ll say it so there’s no misunderstanding, but I understand completely. You had no intention of killing me or fooling me, right?”

“Y-Yeah! Of course!”

“You intended to use me, but you didn’t mean to entrap me, right?”

“Th-That’s right! I-I just wanted to make a lot of money with you!”

There was no saving fools. Inke’s friend had tried to drag his old pal, who had finally acquired a steady, honorable job, into a criminal enterprise. His motives were half greed and half genuinely intending to help Inke. The result, of course, had been disastrous.

“But I also know you were mocking me until now.”

Inke knew that he was a fool. He didn’t have any special potential like Saiga or Ran. No, he wasn’t even anywhere close to Tahlan or Blois.

“You’re an obvious screwup. I’m surprised you were even able to say you could buy me drinks.”

Inke had just been lucky to survive. He knew that. He knew that he wasn’t much different from the man in front of him.

“P-Please don’t kill me!”

“Yes, of course. I won’t kill you.”

But there was a difference, a definite difference, between who he was now and the man before him. That, too, was obvious to him.

“I don’t mind, really. Whether you get caught and tortured, then murdered by your organization after you’re released... Or if you run away, only to get caught and murdered by your organization. Or if you run into the burning bar and kill yourself. None of it matters.”

“Huh?”

“I won’t kill you. Do as you wish.” Inke used the noble treasure on his ankles to fly.

“Well done.”

He thought back to the words uttered by the man who was far too great for him to feel comfortable addressing him as master.

“You’re now a fully capable swordsman.”

Yes, Inke had put in the effort. He wasn’t the same as his old friend anymore.

“Congratulations on completing your training. I look forward to hearing about your work as a combat instructor.”

He had his honor he had to uphold and protect, even if his opponent was as strong as one of the aces. Inke’s old friend had tried to tarnish that honor. Even if he hadn’t done it maliciously, even if he had done it out of ignorance, that didn’t make the crime any lighter. That he had no intention of tarnishing that honor wasn’t an excuse.

“Die as you wish.”

Even if Inke’s friend didn’t know what Sansui looked like, he had tried to tar Sansui’s name. That alone was worthy of death a thousand times over.

Part 24 — Violently Flipping

The slums in the Arcana Kingdom were where the poorest of the poor huddled together after being chased out of their farming villages. They were located near the glamor of the cities, but everyone within the slums scratched out a meager living, with no real hopes for the future.

“What the hell?! Explain yourselves!”

Lamp, one of Sansui’s students, hailed from this particular slum. Having graduated from a student to a combat instructor, he had returned home with high expectations. However, the only people awaiting him at the entrance to the slum were groups of brats, all under twenty years of age.

He had first been attacked by a group of five. That left Lamp wondering if there was some reason for the assault, and so he had defeated them while keeping an eye on his surroundings. Next came a group of about ten. At first, he had thought that group was the main body, but they had been completely lacking in coordination, so he recognized that they were unconnected to the first group and had defeated them all.

That group was then followed by a group of twenty, and as Lamp was fighting those twenty, their numbers swelled to double the original count. He had somehow managed to defeat them, but in the end, all of his caution had been wasted. The attackers had all been mere thugs who had attacked him without much in the way of purpose. He had been on guard, expecting a professional assassin to be hidden among one of the groups, but in the end, that had turned out to be an unnecessary worry.

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t piss off this many people!” Lamp shouted out rather childishly, but the faces he saw were all looking up at him in admiration. He had fought what seemed like a hundred delinquents and defeated them all without killing or even badly wounding anyone. While Lamp himself was currently throwing a bit of a tantrum, he had proved his mettle. The people who had witnessed the incident and the thugs who had attacked him all couldn’t help but shudder at his power.

“Just what the hell are you all thinking?!”

Lamp was well aware that crime was a problem in his hometown. He had expected people to try to swipe his wallet or try to intimidate him into handing over money. But he had never imagined he’d be attacked by this many people this quickly.

“Why did you attack me?! Answer me!”

“Um... We were told that if we beat you, we’d get a bag of gold.”

“Huh? No, I heard if I beat you I’d be able to get a job.”

“I was told that beating you would make me the kingdom’s best swordsman...”

“I...”

“Hold on! What the hell are you all talking about?! Who spread all these ridiculous lies?!”

It had all been based on clearly fabricated information. The stories were so ridiculous that anyone, yes, even someone from the slums, could tell they were false. A piece of poetic irony was that it was Lamp’s actual strength that lent those lies credibility. The children had been skeptical when they first attacked him, but were mistakenly convinced of the veracity of the stories when they saw how strong Lamp actually was. It had made them believe there was that much value in actually defeating him.

“Someone claiming to be your grandma...”

“That old haaaagggg!”

Lamp was immediately convinced they were telling the truth. This was definitely the sort of thing that greedy old hag would think of doing. Realizing what had happened, Lamp barely suppressed a snarl of irritation as he turned his back to his attackers and stalked off.

“Wh-What about us...?”

“I don’t care. Get out of the way!”

Lamp completely ignored the children when they asked him what he intended to do with them. He had been attacked by over a hundred of the little thugs, but they hadn’t presented the slightest threat to him. It was the stuff of legends for the children of the slums, but the experience held no value for Lamp himself.

“Tch... That damned hag...”

Lamp simply left the people who had attacked him where they lay without extracting any revenge or demanding any payment. The act made no sense to the people of the slums. However, Lamp was now a combat instructor to a regional lord. He was a man who had to live according to a certain code of honor, and to him, the fact that his own grandmother had whipped up this crowd to assault him was an extraordinarily humiliating discovery. He needed to take care of this as quickly as possible to prevent it from getting any worse.

Lamp’s family home was a ramshackle hut, one of dozens like it that lined the streets of the slums. He had no father or mother waiting for him in that house. The only resident waiting there was his extremely old grandmother.

“You haaagggggg!”

“Oh, welcome home, Lamp,” a woman, looking rather more sprightly than her age might suggest, said cheerfully as Lamp walked in the door. She was dressed in surprisingly decent clothes for the slums.

“Based on that, it seems they already attacked you. Did you avoid fighting and run away? How embarrassing.”

“No, I beat them all down!”

“That’s impossible. There were at least ten of them, right?”

“There were over a hundred of them!”

“There’s no way you could beat a hundred of them at once. You haven’t changed at all. Still trying to put up a false facade no matter your age,” the old woman said with a faint expression of exasperation.

What she was saying was perfectly reasonable, but it was infuriating for Lamp. He wanted to explain how he had grown much stronger than he had been when he walked out of these slums. But, well, explaining that himself would look kind of pathetic, so he just silently slumped into a chair. It wasn’t like she was going to believe him even if he told her.

“So, why did you send those brats up against me?”

“Well, it was all for you, of course. It was good advertising, right?”

“Just who the heck is it meant to advertise to?!”

“The people of this city, of course. You’re gonna open a salle, right?”

The combat instructor for the regional lord was considered the best swordsman in that particular region. That meant the swordsman in question could then open a salle under his name to gather a great deal of students, and that provided a source of reputation and money. This was a perfectly legitimate thing for a combat instructor to do. Whether Lamp and the others wanted to do this or not was another matter entirely.

“If you’re going to open a fencing salle, people would wanna see how well you fight, right?”

“Screw that. Neither I nor my comrades have any intention of opening a salle for a while.”

“What? So, you’re going to work for a pitiful little salary?”

“Pitiful? I mean, it’s a lot more than anyone in this town makes, that’s for sure.”

People were beginning to gather around the ramshackle hut. Part of Lamp’s attention was directed at the crowd gathering outside, but he was also aware that he was now famous, so he decided to let it slide for the moment.

“Besides, you’re always so half-assed.”

“What does that mean?!”

“You said you were going to become the kingdom’s best swordsman, right?”

“Well, yeah...”

“If that was the case, then you should’ve actually become the best in the country before coming back...”

Lamp’s grandmother wasn’t trying to be cruel. She was simply quoting what Lamp had said before he had left the slums. It perhaps made sense to the ignorant that if Lamp was going to bother with a half-assed job like that of a regional lord’s combat instructor, he could have put in the extra effort to go for being the best in the country.

“Don’t be ridiculous... The real Sword Apostle is... Well, he’s just beyond comprehension! Overwhelmingly strong!”

Lamp had seen the aces, not to mention Fukei and Suiboku, in battle. Frankly, he had to admit that he didn’t have the nerve to try to keep up with those monsters. They weren’t opponents that he could beat just by putting in the right amount of effort; they were so far beyond him that he couldn’t muster the motivation to even try to challenge them.

“Besides, isn’t it enough? It’s enough to get us out of this slum.”

“So, it’s not a scam?”

“You didn’t believe me?!”

“I figured the message to me was to get me to play along.”

“Who were you planning to fool?! House Sepaeda’s involved in this!”

Well, no, she was right. Given who he had been, it was understandable that she might consider his news to be a scam. Thinking back to when he had been a dumb youth in this slum, it was understandable that she hadn’t believed him. Lamp scratched at his scalp as he let out a deep sigh.

“Wait, so you really are the regional combat instructor now?”

“Yeah... Look, before I found out you’d sent those thugs after me, I was planning to make sure you had a comfortable retirement.”

Truth was stranger than fiction. The fact of the matter was that Lamp had seen a reality far more unrealistic, far more ridiculous, than any lie anyone could concoct. That was particularly true when it came to stories involving Suiboku.

“The five of us are going to be staying together, but we’ll be living in a manor near the castle. Your dream was to live in a big manor house, right, grandma?”

“That’d be nice, even if it was a scam.”

“I keep telling you it’s not a scam... Wait, you’re wearing pretty nice clothes. I haven’t given you any money... Hey, who did you fool to get that money?”

“The ones out there.”

Lamp’s grandmother pointed to the paupers milling around outside the ramshackle hut. They were a motley collection made up of children dressed in rags, along with men and women in tattered clothing. They were all either people who wanted to find their child a place as a student of the combat instructor, or else children who hoped to work for someone in that sort of job.

“Hey, you lot! How much did you give this hag?!”

“What? You want me to repay it? I’ve already spent it all.”

“I’m saying I’ll repay them! If His Lordship or Master Sansui find out you committed such a stupid fraud, I’m going to end up losing my head! Literally!”

Lamp took out a wallet that was crammed full of coins. When the paupers saw the wallet, they held up one or two fingers. They were indicating the number of silver coins they had paid, going as far as borrowing money from relatives to finance their payment.

“Then this should do! You better be the only ones!”

Lamp handed out gold coins in twice the amount of the upheld fingers. The people in the crowd stared intently at the heft of the gold coins they were holding for the first time in their lives. They were struck with confusion as they were given money that amounted to several times their initial payment.

“Oh, come on... You shouldn’t throw money around like that...”

“Shut up! It’s my money and I’ll spend it like I want! Besides, I’m going to work for His Lordship, so emptying my wallet isn’t a problem!”

Perhaps drawn by Lamp’s loud argument with his grandmother, the thugs that had attacked him earlier began to gather around the ramshackle hut.

“Don’t underestimate who I’ve become!”

Lamp didn’t notice the new throng of onlookers as he puffed out his chest at his grandmother.

“I’m a...student! A student of Sansui Shirokuro, ace of House Sepaeda, one of the Four Great Houses of the Arcana Kingdom!”

He couldn’t quite bring himself to call himself an apprentice of Sansui, but he was confident in the rest of his claims.

“I’m a man who had Master Suiboku, Master Sansui’s master, make him a bunch of noble treasures as equipment, then got a letter of recommendation from Lord Sepaeda himself, and will now be taking on the role of combat instructor for the regional lord! I’m not going to steal from the people of the slums...”

He was clearly stating that he was no longer one of the residents of the slums.

“I’m not going to go around doing petty crap like stealing from paupers!” Lamp shouted proudly as he finished paying out sufficient gold coins such that each pauper had received at least ten times the money they had paid his grandmother. It marked him completely apart from the residents of the slums, given that they had barely been able to make the initial payments by saving, scrounging, and borrowing.

“Grandma, we’re going to live in a mansion by the castle! You get what that means, right?! Don’t embarrass me in front of His Lordship or my coworkers! Don’t do anything embarrassing in front of them!”

“So, you’ve gotten to be so important that you can say things like that, eh?”

The greedy hag was surprised to find that the grandson who had been nothing but a petty thug had grown into a proper adult with a nice salary. Of course, he was still talking like the slum rat he had been...

“Besides, at salles, evidently they charge a monthly tuition fee, not a one-time fee. That’s the sort of business for rich people. I can’t take apprentices just because a poor brat in the slums paid me once. Besides, I’ve still got a lot left to learn. When Master Sansui returns to the kingdom, I’m going back to the royal capital to have him train me again.”

Lamp thought back to Sansui’s reluctance to take on apprentices. Until he had watched Suiboku fight, Lamp had thought Sansui had simply been modest when he had claimed he was nowhere near his master’s level, but Suiboku had been far more incredible, far more overwhelming, than he had even dared to imagine.

Yes, in comparison to Suiboku, Sansui still had much to learn. In which case, Lamp, who was nowhere near Sansui’s level, was in no position to take apprentices himself. He understood that teaching was a proper part of being a combat instructor, but he wanted to confine his instruction to a handful of people. Not that he was doing so out of an abundance of caution, of course.

“So, the next ten years will be spent training, I think. Once I’m done with that, my buddies and I can build a salle after getting permission from Master Sansui.”

Lamp seemed to thoroughly enjoy talking about his future. He was certain he would be even happier ten years from now than he was today. That belief, that hope for the future, was something no one in these slums possessed.

“I don’t know if you’ll still be alive by then, grandma, but at the very least, life’s going to be easy from here on out. Don’t do anything like trying to scam the people here.”

Lamp, who was dressed oddly in his noble treasures, smiled at the people who peered in through the ramshackle hut’s windows and door.

“Sorry that my grandma tried to scam you guys. Beating me won’t make you the kingdom’s best swordsman, and I’m not taking apprentices.” With that, he stood up from his chair. “Grandma, I’ve got money and the day’s still young. Let’s just get out of this town and go to our new house. I’m pretty sure it’s bigger than the farmhouse you lived in when you were younger.”

Lamp took his grandmother’s wrinkled hand and led the old woman forward. He tried to leave the hut. When he ran into the group of paupers surrounding the ramshackle hut, he tried to disperse them.

“You can do what you want with the stuff inside the hut, so get out of the way. We’re going to leave this town... Hm?”

But none of them moved out of the way.

“Please make him your apprentice.”

“You don’t have to give me back the money, so please make me your apprentice.”

“Please, take this child out of this place!”

“Please introduce my child to your master!”

“Please, we want to leave this place!”

“I’m sure my son can become great like you!”

“You’re super strong!”

“I wanna be strong like you!”

“Make me your apprentice! I’ll gather the money somehow!”

“I want to become a combat instructor too!”

“If we can’t become your apprentices, then at least introduce us to your master!”

“I want to give my son a future! A ten years from now of his own!”

“We want to change!”

Standing there was a group of people, each of whom he had once been. They were all like the person he had been before he had left these slums.

“And?”

Meaning, he was facing a bunch of beggars.

“What specifically can you do?”

They were all small fry who could do nothing but beg for handouts and help.

“Can you say yes if I order you to do this or that?”

“Yeah, of course!”

“We’ll do whatever you say!”

“If they’re orders from someone as successful as you!”

“Give us your orders!”

The local thugs all shouted out to him. They were shouts of truth, but they were depressingly pointless, depressingly worthless, shouts of desperation. All of them sincerely believed what they were saying, none of them were lying in the slightest, and none of them had the faintest intention of betraying Lamp. However...

“Then if I told you go get the head of a guy a lot stronger than me, can you do it?”

“D-Don’t be mean!”

“Yeah, there’s no way we could beat someone way stronger than you!”

“We could manage if we had those weird weapons you’ve got, right?”

“We’ll follow you! So protect us! That’s what we’re asking for!”

Yes. They wouldn’t even be useful as suicide warriors. They were simply fools who had no imagination or ability to think. There was no value in continuing the conversation.

“You don’t want to suffer, you don’t want to be afraid, and you don’t want to get hurt or die.”

There was nothing wrong with that in and of itself.

“Then go ask someone else.”

But he was the wrong person to ask, in that case.

“All you’re willing to do is ask someone else to fix your problems for you. You think that if you pay a pitiful amount of money, someone else will make everything better. That’s why you got scammed by a greedy old hag like her.”

His job, his comrades’ jobs, hadn’t changed in that regard. Even if he was now a combat instructor, he wasn’t allowed to avoid fighting people who were much stronger than he was.

“If it’s your child? Figure out a way to give them a future by yourself. If it’s you? Then figure it out for yourself.”

If they wanted an easy life, if they wanted a safe life, then it was a mistake to chase after him.

“There’s no way I’d introduce people who’d run away when told to fight, people who’d hide behind my back, to a martial house like House Sepaeda!”

They wanted someone to fix things and they were even relying on someone else to come up with the actual solution. That was exactly why these people were stuck in the slums. Lamp had grown, but it hadn’t turned him into a saint with infinite compassion, and he couldn’t help but look down upon the paupers from his hometown with contempt as he yelled at them.

Part 25 — Devotion

After listening quietly through each of the five stories, Sansui couldn’t bear it any longer as they reached the end of Inke’s story. He pinched the bridge of his nose, turning his head downward. The worst part about the stories was that he could completely sympathize with each of them, and each of their stories were all perfectly easy to understand. The way the people around each of the five reacted when they had returned with news of their success was perfectly natural. It wasn’t that those people were strange or aberrations, it was simply that the five and Sansui were unable to humor them. While there were a number of actual villains among those people, most of the others were well within the range of acceptable behavior.

“I don’t know what I can say.”

“Right...?”

Cabbo was the one who agreed particularly enthusiastically with Sansui’s words. The others had some reason to complain about the people from their homelands. But Cabbo, who had been welcomed with celebrations and open arms, really wasn’t in a position to criticize how he had been greeted. Still, they all understood why he found that treatment embarrassing.

“I used to hate how snooty people in the upper classes were, but...now that I’ve gained a certain amount of rank myself, I’m starting to understand how people look at you when you have authority...”

Cabbo, the one who had been held up with reverence in his backwater hometown, was the one who felt most pained by the situation. The people of his hometown were all trying to exploit Cabbo’s advancement for their own gain.

“When I actually started my job, I started getting lots of letters...asking to help with tax evasion, or to rat out a neighboring village, or get them an exemption from forced labor...”

“Those are all undoubtedly crimes...”

Cabbo wasn’t exactly an admirable individual himself. He had been quite the little terror when he had lived in his hometown, and he had stolen his parents’ money when he had left town, so he was also a thief. Further, he had probably committed crimes along the way, before he had the good fortune to meet Sansui. While he had gained an official position and been pardoned for his past crimes, his resume was hardly spotless. For him to be disgusted by the petty crimes of ordinary people was, in a sense, a form of hypocrisy.

At the very least, the people of his homeland would probably regard it as the height of hypocrisy for someone like Cabbo—who had done whatever he wanted, when he wanted, causing problems to all and sundry—to suddenly object to minor crimes like tax evasion. The logic was perfectly sound. After all, Cabbo had killed people on his way to advancement, but now he was objecting to helping people dodge a tax payment... Their reasoning was sound and it was, to an extent, understandable, but if Cabbo actually did help them, he’d lose his head. Not just figuratively, as Sansui would go and chop it off to take responsibility for Cabbo’s wrongdoing.

“Still... I’m sure you’ve already discussed it with your employer.”

“Yes... He laughed dryly and said he’d pretend not to notice for a bit... That he’d let it go if they decided to give up on their schemes.”

“Do you think they’ll give up?”

“They haven’t given up at all. If anything, they’ve started writing more letters... They’re even sending letters directly to His Lordship’s estate...”

“Those’re some impressively bold requests for tax evasion...”

“It was enough to make me want to go and kill them myself... It gave me a good understanding of what it would feel like for you to have to come kill us if we misbehaved...”

Cabbo shed no tears. He had gone from sadness to flat-out exasperation. He had always thought he was the worst of the worst in his hometown and that the others, while poor, were ordinary, good people. That hadn’t been the case at all. Many of the people in his hometown had been villainous in their own way. They simply hadn’t had the opportunity to commit any crimes, and when they were presented with a golden opportunity, they pounced to make sure they could exploit it.

“Woulnut’s the lucky one... I mean, with a rich family and all. After all, your little brother came and apologized to you afterward, right?”

“Well, yeah, he did apologize, but...”

“You’re so lucky, Woulnut, to have a family that’s not trying to drag you into their criminal schemes. Don’t you guys agree?”

Woulnut squirmed as Cabbo commented on his situation with a sour expression. Evidently, Cabbo was extremely envious of the fact that Woulnut had a good, normal family.

“Yeah, agreed. Compared to Woulnut’s dad and brother, my grandma... She’s loud and she’s embarrassing to have around. I should’ve left her in the slums.” Lamp, who had brought his grandmother to the home provided to him, joined Cabbo in enviously needling Woulnut. “Can you believe it, Master Sansui? My grandma always nags me about taking her to parties and balls. Even today, all I said was that I was going to visit my boss, which she thought meant I was going to a party, and she threw quite a fit... She kept nagging me to take her along...”

“I-It would have been fine if you had brought her. It would have been nice to have her meet my daughter... And I’m several times her age...”

“No, that would have been a bad idea! My grandma is still... I don’t know how to put it, still dreaming of hitting it big? She thinks she’s still got a big chance to strike it rich! Despite the fact that she’s pretty much done!”

No, I’m trying to say it’s not much different for me... It makes me sad just thinking about it...

Sansui understood what Lamp was saying, but Sansui himself wasn’t much better, given that he was a lot older. If anything, he was worse. Perhaps there was an ethical problem with marrying a woman four hundred and eighty years his junior, having a happy married life, and even having a child with her.

But, wait, Lamp’s grandmother met Lamp’s grandfather when she was younger, and I’m sure she was happy after having Lamp’s dad or mom... I didn’t have that when I was younger, so...I’m allowed this much... Right?

“Um, hey, Lamp, that’s enough about you.”

“Yeah... You’re bothering Master Sansui.”

Yuen and Inke stopped Lamp as they noticed Sansui’s mood plummeting. Their master was a man with a strong sense of restraint and propriety, so when he saw other people embarrassing themselves in public, or even when he heard about such things, he couldn’t help but compare himself to them. His students were well aware of that fact and so they hurriedly intervened to stop Lamp from driving Sansui further into gloom.

“Well... Perhaps we can stop talking about personal matters for now and discuss work...”

“Your work as combat instructors, yes? How is that going?”

Sansui was the supreme combat instructor of House Sepaeda, so it was his responsibility to direct and instruct the five of them in their endeavors. Even though it was technically his job to actually listen to them talk about their jobs, Sansui was actually eager to hear their stories. That prospect seemed to be a lot more enjoyable than listening to complaints about their personal lives.

Yuen looked a tad uncomfortable despite being the one who had broached the subject. After all, the five of them had come to congratulate Sansui on his daughter’s birth; it felt a bit wrong to force him to talk about work on this occasion. Still, since Sansui had perked up at the change in subject and because he couldn’t think of anything else to talk about, Yuen decided the subject would serve for the time being.

“I’m primarily working on instructing the young heir to the title, but it’s been a struggle. He’s not taking his swordsmanship very seriously yet.”

“That’s probably unavoidable. It depends on how old he is, but it’s hard to be motivated to do something you’re not interested in. I’m sure you’re all aware of that.”

Just as there were children who hated studying, there were also children who hated exercise, and there were children who hated all lessons indiscriminately. Sansui acknowledged the difficulty in dealing with children in general. Evidently, the comment about not being motivated to do something someone had no interest in struck particularly close to home for Woulnut and he winced as he spoke up.

“Yes, but it’s still our job to teach them. Besides, if we can’t hone their skills properly, it besmirches your name.”

“While I would like to say you don’t need to worry about it...given that I’ve taken on the role of supreme combat instructor, I can’t quite say that, can I?”

When Sansui had been a bodyguard, his only job was protecting Douve, and anything else had been a minor matter, unimportant, not worth his attention. While failure wasn’t something Sansui was generally connected to, he could get away with being yelled at if he failed at a minor task of one sort or another. On the other hand, if he had failed in his mission of protecting Douve and she had been hurt, he wouldn’t have been able to complain if he had been killed by way of punishment.

Going from being a bodyguard to an instructor meant that, while he had been freed from his daily guard duties, he was now responsible for fighting instruction across all of House Sepaeda. He wasn’t in a position where he could tell instructors not to worry about the outcome of their instruction.

“Since it’s sword instruction, I’m sure you can’t avoid a bit of roughness every now and then. But think carefully about when that’s necessary. If you cause excessive pain, that’s mere violence, not proper instruction.”

“I’ve been very careful in that regard. The lad isn’t much different in age from Lain. Or, rather, I don’t know how harsh to be, so I’ve been really cautious about how I proceed.”

“Since this is your first time in the role, I think that sounds about right. I believe for the rest, it’s best to discuss it with the lord who’s employing you.”

“Indeed. Fortunately, His Lordship is being very patient. He even gave permission for all of us to come visit you today... As having no plan at all is a bad idea, I thought I’d ask you for your advice, but the boy is... Oh.”

There was no special meaning to the “oh” uttered by Yuen, but it seemed he had suddenly remembered something in the middle of his sentence. The other four also looked uncomfortable. Watching their discomfort, even Sansui started to feel uneasy.

“Is something...the matter?”

“Well... The young lord is really interested in our noble treasures...”

The noble treasures were equipment that allowed anyone to wield the Immortal Arts, which Sansui’s master, Suiboku, had crafted for his apprentice’s students. With those treasures, even a child could fly or move like the wind. Of course a child would be interested in them.

“I see...”

Sansui himself found it difficult to accept the existence of those noble treasures and the fact that Suiboku could craft them at all. Suiboku’s ability to let anyone use the techniques Sansui had spent hundreds of years learning still irked him. His expression clouded at the mention of those noble treasures in the conversation.

“But that’s enough about work, Master Sansui! Let’s talk about little Miss Fanne! I’d love to hear more about her from you, Master Sansui!”

“Very well, then.”

Inke, noticing Sansui’s change in expression, forcefully changed the subject. Sansui seized the opportunity and began talking about the new topic at hand. However, even that shift in topic didn’t change how Sansui had fled from discussing the noble treasures, and he felt a stab of embarrassment at the fact.

I suppose I still have a lot of training left to do...

All six men present were aware of, and ashamed of, their failings, their immaturity, and their weaknesses. It simply meant that for them, living required continual training and effort. The combat instructors had set aside fighting for the moment to focus on other matters, but all swore that they would devote themselves anew to their training.

Part 26 — Omen

Lord Sepaeda, Douve’s older brother, was spending time in the royal capital with Tahlan, Douve, and his father, the Lord Emeritus of House Sepaeda. While he had been given a summary of the events that had occurred on the journey and subsequent stay in Magyan beforehand, hearing the stories directly from the three of them gave him a distinctly different impression than simply reading the events unfold on a page.

“Douve dressed as a bride. On the one hand, I’m sad, but on the other, I’m glad I missed it...”

“She was beautiful.”

“That goes without saying. I have no doubt about that. But...seeing her marry is less straightforward.”

It seemed his first observations had to do with his younger sister’s wedding.

“Still...I never expected to hear that Saiga would be able to hold his own against Sansui.”

Lord Sepaeda had witnessed the third fight between Sansui and Saiga directly and there had been a part of him, at the time, that had wanted to see Sansui struggle against an opponent, but Sansui had quickly squashed that hope. Lord Sepaeda had heard that Saiga, despite being completely overpowered by Sansui, hadn’t let it break him, and had continued to train and improve himself. If that effort had finally borne fruit, Lord Sepaeda had to admit that he felt a certain respect toward the young heir to House Batterabbe.

“In all honesty, there were times when I found myself worried about Sansui. Well, we were worried, but Sansui just had to dust himself off.”

“If it was enough to worry you, given how well you know Sansui and his abilities, I’m sure it was even worse for those around you. It’s good that Saiga left a strong impression on the people of Batterabbe, but it would be another thing entirely if that was at the cost of Sansui’s reputation. If they fought evenly and overwhelmed everyone who watched the fight, then that’s the best possible outcome we could hope for.”

Lord Sepaeda had a deeply held desire that Sansui Shirokuro the swordsman be known as an overwhelmingly strong warrior, a warrior without peer in the kingdom, or even in the world. And that desire, that wish, had continually been granted by Sansui’s overwhelming strength. Sansui Shirokuro was the swordsman that a lord’s dreams were made of, the ultimate swordsman who served the great martial house, loyally following the lord’s orders and never disobeying.

But at the same time, there was a part of Lord Sepaeda who had wanted to see Sansui put in all of his effort, fight with all of his available skill, and win after a hard-fought battle. That was not, of course, a wish that Sansui become weaker. It was simply that he wanted Sansui to have an opponent that he couldn’t simply take down in the blink of an eye, someone who would make Sansui work for his victory.

When Saiga had first appeared, when Lord Sepaeda had seen his sheer talent and possession of Eckesachs, he had hoped that Saiga would be the one. It had taken a bit longer than expected, but Saiga had now grown into that role. Saiga becoming a worthy rival for Sansui was a good thing, both for Sansui himself and for Lord Sepaeda.

“Still, he better not have lost.”

With all that said, he still didn’t want Sansui to actually fail. Based on the conversation, it had probably been a draw, but Lord Sepaeda put forward the idea, just to be sure.

“We stopped it at the right moment, so there was no actual winner or loser. However, if they had continued the fight, Saiga would probably have collapsed first.”

While Saiga possessed multiple forms of energy, he still had a limit to how much he had of each. If he continued to use each of them, he would eventually exhaust that supply. By contrast, Sansui only had ki as a source of power. However, ki itself was extremely efficient, and Sansui never wasted his ki with unnecessary moves. He used the bare minimum necessary to dodge, to block, and to attack, and he was always far from exhausting his reserves. As such, had that duel continued, Saiga would have run out of energy first. Saiga himself had admitted as much.

“I see... I’m relieved to hear it. I don’t know what I would have done if I heard from you, father, that Sansui would have lost if they had continued...”

Before Sansui had departed for Magyan, he had fought and lost to his master, Suiboku. That had been perfectly natural, but it was still not something he enjoyed thinking back on. Even though Lord Sepaeda realized that the loss had helped hone Sansui’s skills and made him even stronger, he still couldn’t help but feel conflicted about it. He understood that he was being unreasonable and that he was unhappy whether Sansui’s opponents were too weak, equal to him, or stronger than him. He knew that he was pushing excessive expectations upon Sansui, when the Sword Apostle was already doing plenty to fulfill his responsibilities to House Sepaeda. No, he was just being selfish and childish. The only one who really burdened Sansui with any sort of expectations was probably Suiboku.

“That’s enough about this subject, I think. Tahlan... I’m sorry to hear about your mother.”

“No, it wasn’t just my mother’s responsibility. You have my apologies. The inability of my siblings to settle matters on their own forced the Arcana Kingdom to intervene,” Tahlan, who had been silently apologetic, replied briefly.

“It is true that it was properly the responsibility of those involved to settle the matter of succession. Even so, that experience was important in helping Saiga and the others grow. It sounds like those from the Tempera Village did well as well... If anything, it might have worked out for the best,” Lord Sepaeda said, giving his honest, unfiltered opinion. Tahlan actually appreciated the fact that it was a plain, unexceptional observation.

“I thank you for your tact. The Arcana Kingdom has spent a great deal of money and time on our marriages. I feel nothing but shame for how embarrassingly sloppy things were in my homeland...”

“If you feel that way, then the best thing to do is make a success of your next wedding. It seems you were extremely popular within your homeland, but you’ve also raised quite a stir around here.”

With that, Lord Sepaeda showed Tahlan a basket filled with piles of letters. They were all letters addressed to the Magyan swordsman from neighboring countries.

“You stopped in various countries on your way to Magyan, remember? It seems there are many women who can’t even sleep after having spoken with you, and I’ve gotten letters from their fathers and brothers.”

“I-I see... That was rather common around my homeland, but...”

“When you were in Magyan, you were the eldest son of the First Consort. Here in Arcana, you’re the husband of the daughter of House Sepaeda. No doubt that has something to do with it.”

Tahlan looked distinctly uncomfortable. Despite the fact that he was the one marrying into the family, this state of affairs made it look like he had gone around wooing women left, right, and center. Of course, Tahlan hadn’t expressed interest in any of the women he had met on his journey and, if anything, had been stuck to Douve like glue, making sure to mention at every available opportunity that they were going to Magyan to bring news of their marriage. Yet, in spite of that, women still sought to get closer to him. Of course, none of that changed the reality of the situation. However, while Tahlan had thought the Sepaeda family would be angry, none of the three seemed particularly moved. In fact, Douve seemed to be enjoying it, smirking as she watched him.

“If you were guilty of anything, Sansui would have killed you, or I would have done it myself. I know full well you’re not that much of a fool.”

“I don’t doubt my father’s judgment. Besides, given how you only have eyes for my sister, I can’t imagine you’d find any other woman worthy of your attention.”

“What would be the fun without this sort of attention, mm? I’ve married such a wonderful man, and I’d hate for it to pass without all sorts of envy directed my way.”

“I really have been fortunate in finding a new family...”

As was their character, the members of House Sepaeda remained firm and unflappable. Even though a man who had married into their family was being courted by other women, they didn’t consider it to be a problem in the slightest. All they required of Tahlan was that he be strong and love Douve. So long as he fulfilled those requirements, they couldn’t care less about how others viewed him. Tahlan, with his penchant for worrying about how others felt, truly appreciated their strength in that regard.

“Even then... Even if it makes a connection with House Sepaeda, I’m still a man who’s married into this family. Besides, I’m a prince of a kingdom that’s not well known in the area. Am I truly someone anyone would want to marry?”

Because Tahlan was from a far-distant kingdom, his facial features were quite different from the norm for this region. Given that many people tended to dislike those who were different from themselves, just why was he drawing this much attention? Tahlan, who knew both the good and bad parts of human nature well, couldn’t understand this point.

“I understand what you’re trying to say. It seemed excessive at first to me as well. But thinking about how the Arcana Kingdom has changed lately, it’s started to make more sense.”

The Arcana Kingdom had forced the Domino Republic, a country of the same size, to submit as a satellite country, acquired all of the Eight Sacred Treasures, and recently started gathering up hitherto unknown Rare Art wielders. Arcana had always been a great power, but it was now starting to grow into a superpower. It was understandable that many countries would seek ties with Arcana through whatever method they could find.

“And there are several countries that have taken other measures.”

The countries trying to send their daughters out to marry into Arcanian houses were at least trying diplomacy. It stood to reason that there would also be countries that tried to acquire the secrets that the Arcana Kingdom possessed by force.

“What happened?”

The Lord Emeritus’s expression tensed as he detected the shadow crossing his son’s features.

“Several countries sent spies into our kingdom to try to steal noble treasures, Coiled Peaches, and Divine Ginseng.”

“That makes sense... The Coiled Peaches and Divine Ginseng go without saying, but even the noble treasures, while not terribly flashy, are also extremely useful devices.”

“There were plenty of people within the kingdom who wanted them... I’m sure it was easy for them to find collaborators...”

Daughter and father weren’t particularly surprised that such machinations had occurred. If anything, they had expected such things from the start, which was why they had forbidden any trade in those items and placed restrictions on their use. If they had been honest, they would have preferred not to distribute the items even to Sansui’s students.

“Did anyone actually get some?”

“Of course not. Our kingdom isn’t so foolish that we’d let someone steal objects that we knew they wanted to steal. While we weren’t able to capture all of the operatives, we did protect all of the treasures.”

Putting aside the items used by Sansui’s students, the other treasures had been under constant guard from the start. That, of course, meant that it was public knowledge where they were kept, but the kingdom had maintained a level of security that guaranteed their safety. None of the operatives had even laid so much as a finger on the treasures. That made sense, given that there weren’t anything like super-thieves with extraordinary thieving powers or the like. With enough security, it was pretty much impossible to steal objects that were under heavy guard.

“Then why do you look so troubled, brother? Nothing happened, yes?”

“Several countries took a step that we weren’t expecting.” The color drained from Lord Sepaeda’s face. His expression indicated better than his words that something dire had happened while Sansui and the others had been away. “The noble treasures, the Coiled Peaches, the Divine Ginseng... There were those who sought to steal not the objects themselves, but the creator of those objects...”

It would be one thing if they had Danue or Ungaikyo, but otherwise, stealing just one of the objects in question wasn’t particularly helpful. As such, it was worth much more to wrest away the creator of those items.

“You’re not saying...?” Douve’s expression twitched as she guessed what had happened. She wasn’t the only one. Both Tahlan and the Lord Emeritus paled as well.

“Yes... They went after Master Suiboku, the creator of those items.”

They had completely missed the possibility that there would be those who would try to kidnap Suiboku, wielder of the Medicinal Arts and crafter of the noble treasures. It was an option that no one in the Arcana Kingdom would have even contemplated taking.

“To go after Master Suiboku... I don’t know if that’s brave or just foolish...”

“Yes... Just hearing about it sent a chill up my spine.”

Having captured all his assailants, Suiboku had evidently said, “To think they believed they could capture me with so few individuals... They must not think much of me.” The operatives could do nothing but admit they had underestimated him, but they remained ignorant of the true meaning behind Suiboku’s words. They remained blissfully unaware that their very countries faced destruction.

“Master Suiboku is more dangerous than anyone or anything...”

For those who didn’t know the man Suiboku, it was understandable that they had interpreted his words to mean the operatives had underestimated him. That was the danger with the ignorant. They truly didn’t know just how dangerous a game they were playing...

Side Story — As a Father

I know it’s a lot of work to become a parent. It means not only creating the child, but also raising them. Children, especially babies, are very weak and fragile creatures. That is why parents need to live with an appropriate awareness about needing to protect the baby. It’s not enough to just feed the baby; there’s a lot of other work involved with child-rearing, like dealing with their colic and changing their diapers. In the world I was born in, all this was considered the job of the parents, but I’m pretty sure that everyone knew that it was too hard for just the parents on their own. As such, it was probably something that people around them helped out with, and it was known to be problematic when the father simply laid all the responsibility upon the mother.

Of course, I have no intention of leaving everything to the mother in this case. Given that this is our first child, I’m sure the labor was really hard on Blois, and when I got home, I was fully prepared to shoulder the entire burden on my own. At least, that’s what I was prepared to do. The reality is actually quite a bit different.

“My, my, Lady Fanne. Are you hungry?”

“Probably not! She probably needs a fresh diaper!”

“No, it seems both of you are wrong... Let’s pick you up and have a walk.”

I’m currently at the Wynne family estate and Fanne is with us, of course. However, as far as who’s actually taking care of Fanne, it’s not Blois or me, but the wet nurses employed by House Wynne. There are three of them, each taking turns caring for her, and when necessary, the other servants in the house come to support them. As such, there’s a perfect support system already set up to take care of her.

Blois isn’t actually doing most of the caregiving, the caregivers aren’t doing it alone, and, as might be expected, there’s no room for my involvement either. All I’m doing is occasionally holding Fanne. Otherwise, I don’t deal with any of the hard work of caring for her. Now, if we zoom out a little, I suppose you could say that the money I’m earning from my work is how we’re able to afford the wet nurses to take care of Fanne, but their direct employers are Blois’s parents, so...even if I give the Wynne family money, I’m not sure I can say that I’m the one supporting Fanne. All I’m able to do right now is watch as my own daughter is taken care of by other people.

“Hey, Sansui... I’m not saying what you’re doing is wrong, but you should probably lay off for a bit.”

“That’s right, papa. I feel bad for them right now.”

All I’m doing is looking at my own daughter from a distance, but my wife and other daughter are treating me like a suspicious character. Wait, this is my wife’s family home. There’s no reason I should be treated like this.

“Listen... They’re doing their jobs. And, technically, you’re one of their employers. You’d be really nervous if your employer constantly watched you work, right?”

Blois makes a perfectly valid point. It would be one thing if I was there to hold Fanne, but watching them while they’re caring for her is definitely verging into keeping an eye on their work. So, that’s why they keep glancing this way and their auras seem a little nervous.

“Papa, you might not realize this... But, papa, you’re the country’s best swordsman and the rumor is you’re really strong... So, I think it’s probably scary to have you watching them.”

My daughter’s observation lets me look at myself more objectively. It seems I’m not a suspicious figure, but a dangerous one. Given that there was a time when the royal capital was decorated by the heads of people I’d killed, I suppose it’s natural that they’re afraid of me.

“I see... Then let’s go somewhere else for a bit.”

When I say that and take Blois and Lain to another room, I feel the wet nurses relax. Ah, yes, my presence was what was making them nervous. As we’re moving rooms, I decide to tell Blois and Lain what’s been on my mind. As a father, it’s important that I check with my family on things that are bothering me.

“Hey, you two... What should I be doing for Fanne? You know, as a father.”

I wonder how my wife and daughter will react to my serious question.

“You don’t need to think so seriously about it. You just need to hold her and play with her.”

“That’s right, papa. That’s all you need to do!”

I’m caught in a bind because the bar they’re setting is far too low. I mean, even I, an Immortal, think babies are cute. If that wasn’t the case, I probably wouldn’t have adopted Lain as a baby. However, in my view, a father that does nothing but coo over his baby and doesn’t actually do any of the hard work is a terrible father. I mean, if I wanted to phrase it maliciously, Blois, as the mother, is leaving most of the work to others and isn’t doing much work either. Of course, she’s already done plenty of heavy lifting, what with giving birth, and hasn’t fully recovered yet, so...I feel like I’m the only one who isn’t really doing anything. I feel unfulfilled as a father. I want to do something for Fanne.

“Hey, papa, what was it like with me?”

“It wasn’t much different with you. Though I was Lady Douve’s bodyguard at the time...”

“Yeah... Honestly, you really didn’t have the time to take care of her.”

Since Blois and I were the only two people serving as Lady Douve’s bodyguards at the time, I was too busy to really feel any fatherly obligations. To get to the heart of the matter: basically, I have lots of free time right now, and as a result I feel the need to be engaged as a father. When Lain was a baby, I was hard at work because I knew I needed to support her, but now there’s no pressure at all in that regard.

“I understand how you feel. I was also really bored when you left for Magyan and before I found out I was pregnant. Or rather, not bored, just feeling really strange that I didn’t have anything to do...”

At times like this, Blois shows that she really understands me. She always felt like her training and escort work were burdens, but when those things disappeared, she suddenly found herself at a loss about what to do. The pregnancy took care of that void for her, though. I guess this is probably true for me too. I need something else to occupy my time, so I don’t feel like I’m not attending to my fatherly duties.

“Don’t stress out over it. The important thing is you’re here.”

“Yes, but I don’t think it’s a good thing to let this time go to waste either...”

I mean, it’s not like this free time is going to last forever, especially given that Lady Douve’s wedding ceremony here in Arcana is going to happen soon. After that, I need to accompany my master to his homeland, then after that I have to start my job as a combat instructor. As such, I want to make the most of the time I have right now. I think that’s only natural under the circumstances.

“I’ll be busy again in a little bit, so...”

That one point is the difference between me and Blois, who is retired, and Lain, who is still a child. When I say that, Blois and Lain start fussing over me. I feel like I’ll end up regretting it later if all I do is spend time just playing with Fanne. I want to find the best way to spend time with my adorable baby daughter. I don’t want to regret a missed opportunity once this time is gone.

With that in mind, I decide to go get advice from Blois’s family. Both Blois’s older sister and older brother already have children, meaning that Lain and Fanne have lots of cousins, while Blois and I have lots of nieces and nephews. As such, both Hetter and Chette have more experience than I do as parents. They’re good people to ask about how I should spend my limited free time with my daughter. I first go to Hetter, who lives in the same house as we do, when he has a bit of free time.

“I see... How to interact with your children when you have free time.” Hetter furrows his brow when he hears my question.

“I know it’s kind of an enviable problem to have...”

“Yes, I envy you... When my children were born, I was happy on the one hand, but there was also a part of me that was embarrassed at just being comfortable in my current position...”

“I-I see...”

“Though that’s the same now, really...”

I understand at this moment that I’m asking the wrong person. My worry is a simple one. It’s not the sort of thing to inquire about with someone who is struggling with the work he’s supposed to inherit from his parents. Still, it’d be the height of rudeness to just turn around and leave right now just because it’s clear that it’s not going to be a productive conversation. Since we’re now family, I can’t afford to cause friction over something so silly.

“Still, I’m not much different from you. Unlike Chette, my children were born after our family was promoted. Life had gotten quite a bit easier, and we left most of the children’s care to the wet nurses.”

I had approached the conversation relatively lightly, but Hetter’s answer was a lot heavier than I expected. The Wynne family was originally in charge of a different territory, one that was much poorer, and their standard of living at the time had also been equally poor. Noble families weren’t rich just because they held a title. At the very least, the Wynnes hadn’t always been rich. It was only when Blois was hired as Lady Douve’s bodyguard that they had been given their current prosperous lands to rule. I guess back when they were poor, they had so little wealth that even affording a wet nurse was a struggle. Blois really had borne a heavy burden on her shoulders. I understand more than ever why her parents want me to make her happy.

“Really, it was more that I would complain to my wife and she would comfort me...”

“I-I see...”

Oh dear, this conversion is even less helpful than I thought. As Hetter says, I’m considered by everyone to be this kingdom’s greatest swordsman, and everything is going well in both my public and private lives. That’s exactly why I have the luxury of worrying about something like how to spend my free time with my daughter. Meanwhile, Hetter is dealing with the more serious problem of being an heir not trusted by his own father... That hasn’t changed much in the last year or so. In fact, his parents trust Lyra, his little sister, more than they do him. Given that, Hetter’s still dealing with the struggles he had when his children were first born.

“But both then and now, my children are a source of strength. Even if I’m young by society’s standards, I’m their one and only father. I do my best to be a father that they can be proud of.”

“That’s a wonderful thing!”

“I’m sure that’s not something you ever worry about... You have the approval of your master, the world’s most powerful man; you’re trusted by Lord Sepaeda; and everyone considers you the kingdom’s greatest...”

“N-Not at all. I mean, I don’t even know how to interact properly with my own daughter...”

“I doubt you can ever understand how I feel...”

Oh no, now it feels like I’m just here to torment him. At this rate, it’ll just end with me boasting about my own happiness. Or rather, Hetter is taking it in that direction with his own self-deprecation. This guy really is a pain... Maybe it’s a sign that he trusts me, but I feel like this isn’t the right way to show his trust...

“The other day, Master Suiboku came to visit to check in on Blois...and that caused quite the stir... I was nothing but a leaf blown away by that storm...”

“D-Did my master cause problems?”

“No... There was nothing of that sort. But, even so, everyone around me treated me like a link to you and Master Suiboku... In a way, that was what I had wanted, but it’s quite hollow to be in that position in reality.”

Oh, right, from what I recall hearing, Hetter was trying to maneuver things so that Blois and I getting married would work to House Wynne’s advantage. He wanted to make me take the Wynne name, call myself Sansui Wynne, and become part of House Wynne. I honestly don’t care all that much and there’s a part of me that’s fine with that arrangement, but evidently it’s actually kind of inadvisable. That’s because I myself am higher in importance than House Wynne. I hate saying it, but it seems I’ve gotten pretty important.

“The fact that I can meet with you directly...that I’m the older brother of your wife. That’s the only value that society sees in me, it would seem...”

“Y-You need not be so hard on yourself...”

“I feel nothing but shame...about the fact that I need to use other people to hide the fact that I have no value...”

I came here to get advice and instead I’m listening to Hetter talk about his problems. I guess, in a way, that’s what families are like.

Now, as I was dealing with Hetter, I was also informed that Chette, who had married into another family, wanted to speak to me. Evidently, she wants to talk about Master Suiboku. Frankly, she’s someone I don’t want to see, other than at really important family gatherings like funerals and weddings. Even so, I am fortunate to have something I’d like to ask her. Even if our chat gets derailed, I have a way of forcing the discussion back on topic. At least that’s what I tell myself as I go to visit Chette at her home.

I’d already heard about it ahead of time, but it seems the house Chette married into is ranked lower than House Wynne. Of course, they’re also considered lower than me, a direct vassal of Lord Sepaeda himself. That is why they treat me with utmost civility and hospitality. It’s really uncomfortable, actually. I’m not used to being treated like the highest-ranked person in a room, so I feel like I’m imposing and being a nuisance.

Then you add in the fact that I’m going to be talking to Chette. All of this makes my original worries seem insignificant in comparison. Why didn’t I use my day off to spend time with my beloved daughter? All of this is enough to make me regret my choice, but I also feel it’s probably rude not to see her when I’m off and she specifically asked for my presence. This is what it means to be family, right? I guess I need to put up with it. Saiga puts up with his in-laws, so I need to do the same.

“Master Sansui, do you understand how supple my skin is? It’s really smooth and silky, like satin!”

“Y-Yes... I can see it’s much better than it used to be...”

“It’s all thanks to the secret medicine Master Suiboku gave me! It lets me sleep very well, and every morning when I wake up, I’m completely refreshed! The only problem is that I sleep so well, it’s hard to wake up, but thanks to that, I also feel much better of late...”

While I’m trying to have a conversation with my sister-in-law, Chette is busy talking about herself. Seeing as how I just came back from a distant country, surely she could at least ask something about that? I mean, even setting aside manners when dealing with relatives, you’d think it’s something she’d have some interest in asking about.

At the very least, the people in Magyan were really interested in learning about the Arcana Kingdom. It’s not like I’m expecting Chette to enthusiastically quiz me about Magyan and tell me how much she’d like to see it for herself, but at the very least, I think she should at least ask how my work went on my journey, right? Even if she’s not interested, I think she should at least pretend to be.

“But Master Suiboku has been teaching other people as well...and he has been instructing them on further restrictions on diet and the like, as well as exercise... Unfortunately, the people who follow his teachings put me to shame...”

I’m hardly one to talk, as an Immortal, but Chette has little in the way of common sense. Or maybe this is a sign that she accepts me as a member of her family. I mean, I’m sure even Chette behaves like a proper lady in front of strangers.

“When Master Suiboku comes by again, I’d certainly like to learn more from him!”

“Ah-Ahem... Yes, indeed, my master does know quite a lot. As his apprentice, I have only mostly learned his mastery of the sword, and I’m always surprised by the other types of knowledge he possesses.”

I say what I’m actually feeling. I imagine that ordinary Immortals have a wide range of knowledge like my master. Since I spent all five hundred years of my training focusing on swordplay, I’m sure other Immortals would be quite disappointed in me. I’m still quite immature by Immortal standards, and given that I only know how to fight, I’m far from being a proper Immortal. Of course, if we go in that direction, there’s a part of me that thinks it’s my master’s responsibility for not teaching me those things. But since I also know doing anything in half-measures is a bad thing, I suppose it’s hard to tell whether or not his teaching policy is the right one or not.

“However, there are things I can’t ask my master.”

“Oh? What would that be?”

“I don’t know how to interact with my young child...”

I naturally take the conversation back to the original subject. Honestly, maybe it’s a little strange to be discussing my struggles as a father to a woman who is a mother, but there’s nothing particularly wrong about it, right? That, and I’m just scared to hear more of her beauty-related complaints. There’s always the possibility she’ll fall into a spiral of depression and end up in her manic-depressed state again.

“I currently have a fair amount of free time, but I’m going to be busy again soon. I want to do something for little baby Fanne in the short free time I have left...”

Chette looks surprised as she listens to me talk. It seems I really have caught her off-guard.

“Um, does that mean Master Suiboku has no family?”

“Yes... I’ve asked him in the past, and it seems he has no experience with women either.”

“Oh, my...”

It seems the thing that completely caught Chette by surprise is that I’m not able to discuss how to interact with children with my master. Basically, that means my master has no children, and that seems particularly strange to Chette. Still, that’s understandable. From Chette’s perspective, I’m an Immortal and her younger sister’s husband at the same time. So there’s no reason for her to think that Immortals remain chaste or unmarried.

“Oh, yes, I believe I heard that you and Master Suiboku can’t get drunk and you don’t feel hungry unless you take medicine, yes?”

“Yes. That’s how Immortals work.”

“I could certainly never manage that.”

She seems intensely surprised, which feels a bit odd, but I agree that it’s really hard to imagine if you’re not an Immortal. I mean, I felt the same way back before I started training.

“So, that’s exactly why I don’t know how to interact with a baby. I’d like to do something for her as a father...”

“I don’t think you need to worry too much about it?”

Chette’s remark is similar to what Blois and Lain told me earlier. She’s not trying to flatter me; she really seems to feel this way.

“How do I phrase it? I’m told that you raised Lain from the time you adopted her as a baby. Given how good a job you’ve done with her, I think you just need to interact with Fanne in the same way, no?”

What Chette’s saying seems right. Since my first child has turned out pretty well so far, she’s telling me I just need to do the same thing with my second one. With that said, it’s a little different from what I’m trying to get at. I’m not too concerned about how Fanne will turn out in the long run, after all.

“It’s true that Lain is a good girl, and she adores Fanne. But...I just want to do something for her.”

“My... Blois certainly is a lucky one. To have a husband who cares that much for his family.” Chette smiles and for the first time I really see her as Blois’s older sister. “I hear quite a bit of complaining about husbands at society functions. There are things that are unique to nobles such as work and titles, but...there are also those concerns that are universal to men and women everywhere.”

Even nobles who have money and rank, and who are wealthy enough not to have to deal with the hard work of raising a child, don’t necessarily have perfectly smooth husband-wife relationships. No doubt there are plenty of people who take those problems seriously.

“That’s true when it comes to children. There are quite a few men who think child-rearing is the wife’s responsibility and won’t intervene, won’t try to be involved even when there are problems. In those cases...not only is there the influence on the child, but what’s just as painful is the lack of interest shown by the husband... That’s what it means to be a woman, a mother, a wife, and a human being.”

“I really don’t want to be a man like that.”

Yes, my concerns are valid, right? If I leave raising Fanne to the wet nurses, Lain, and Blois, not only am I neglecting Fanne, but I’m also taking Blois and Lain for granted. It’s not good to think that I’m fulfilling my role as a father just because I hold Fanne...because I soothe her when she cries...because I play with her.

“Then, allow me to tell you a secret about us women. How to make your wife and daughter feel appreciated and relax.”

“Really?”

It’s rude now that I think about it, but I didn’t expect Chette to give me useful advice. Which is why I can’t help but ask “Really?” In this case, the “really” means “I really can’t believe you’re giving me useful information,” but it seems that the unspoken part of the sentence didn’t occur to her.

“This isn’t limited just to child-rearing, but...when talking adoringly about husbands at society functions, it’s often about the mistakes that the husband makes. That’s not because the wife wants to see them fail, but because they can talk about it afterward as husband and wife, and because they trust one another to speak to each other about their concerns and insecurities.”

“Ah, I see.”

It really is useful information. Yes, the relationship she’s talking about is the complete opposite of the sort of relationship that I’m worried about creating. I do want to do something for Fanne, but that’s not just for Fanne’s sake, that’s also for Blois’s and Lain’s sake as well. In that case, then talking to the two of them about Fanne also has something to do with that goal.

“However, do make sure you obey the wet nurse.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I feel some pressure from Chette, not the kind that comes when she’s teetering on the brink of madness, but because she’s deathly serious in her warning. I suppose she feels this is one thing she needs to make sure to warn me about before I do anything. After all, there are certain types of failures where just apologizing won’t cut it...

I return to the Wynne family estate from Chette’s manor. I feel some satisfaction at the unexpected bit of useful information. At the very least, my conversation with Chette was a lot more useful than my conversation with Hetter. I suppose Chette’s ability to see things as a mother and tell me what makes mothers happy in terms of what their husbands do is what makes her advice so valuable.

This, too, is similar to swordsmanship. For example, even when you’re thinking about how to go on the offensive, if you think of things solely from the perspective of the attacker, you’ll miss out on potential avenues of attack. You need to think from the perspective of the defender to fully understand where your attacks will be most effective.

That, and I’m starting to get a general sense of what I need to do. More than anything, I need to avoid moving without telling anyone and talk things out with Blois. Then, once that’s done, talk things over again...

Communication and discussion... Those things are also important in maintaining a good relationship between husband and wife. Just as I’m pondering that fact, I feel my father-in-law’s and mother-in-law’s presences. They’re both near Fanne, quietly shedding tears as they play with her and she crawls around the room.

“Heh, Sansui said the same thing, but she really does look like Blois.”

“Yes, she looks exactly like her.”

They both look happy, but there’s also a certain sadness to them, as well. Both of them are emitting the same aura. And that’s not mere coincidence; they know and understand each other perfectly, basking in the same shared emotion. Fanne is my second child and she also isn’t their first granddaughter. As such, the tears aren’t from matters related to noble titles or the complications concerning that.

“I never thought I’d be able to hold Blois’s child like this...”

“Yes... It’s like a dream come true.”

I can’t interrupt these two right now. Their suffering is something only they can understand and share. Blois has already finished her appointed task, that of serving as bodyguard to Lady Douve. She will never have to risk her life as part of her job in the future. But to them, while it was all in the past, the wounds are still fresh. No matter the reason, it hasn’t changed that they had offered up their own daughter to serve as a shield for Lady Douve. They had literally given Blois to House Sepaeda to stand between their daughter and danger, and Blois had risked her life every day. There was no way to undo what had actually happened. Even if that fact doesn’t bother Blois, it still bothers them. It simply means they’re good people.

“I’m told Sansui is wondering how best to act as a father... That’s proof he cares deeply about Blois.”

“Yes, he truly seems to love her...”

It makes me realize that families are connected to each other by a bond so strong that it doesn’t even require that they actually know everything about each other. Even so, the words we exchanged are still there. Even if the weight is different, there’s no misunderstanding between us.

“Sansui promised he’d make Blois happy and...it seems he wasn’t lying.”

“Yes... All that we failed to provide her, he’s giving her instead...”

I turn my back to the two and go to Blois. I feel that it’s the most important thing, the most vital thing, I can do for all of us, and for the entire family.

Later, Blois, Lain, and I are playing with Fanne. Fanne is already able to sit up on her own, and she looks over at me as she sucks on her fingers. I suppose she’s trying to observe me carefully and remember who I am.

“Such little feet... They’re going to get big before you know it and then she’ll start walking around.” I gently squeeze Fanne’s little feet with my fingers. Maybe I shouldn’t do that to a baby girl, but she accepts it without resistance. Instead, she watches me intently. “Lain, there was a time you were this little too. You grew up really quickly... Do you mind sitting next to Fanne?”

“Are you going to touch my feet too? It’s fine with Fanne, but don’t treat me like a baby!”

“Ha ha ha! Yeah, you’re right, sorry.” I apologize for my faux pas and continue to touch Fanne’s feet. Not just one foot—I’m holding both of them. “Hee hee... Your parents were telling me that she looks just like you, Blois. I bet it won’t be long before she starts to remind me of you too.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Sansui.”

“She’ll probably look good in boys’ clothes... No, I mean, I bet Lady Douve might make her dress that way.”

“Aha, you really did think I looked good that way, didn’t you?”

“You’re beautiful, so you look good in anything, Blois.”

Blois huffs a bit and picks Fanne up, taking her away from me. “Fanne, your dad is terrible. He’s already planning to make you dress up like a boy. He should try putting on a dress instead, don’t you think?”

“I don’t look good in anything... C’mon, Blois, let me play a bit more with Fanne.”

“Hmph! I can’t leave my beloved daughter with some weirdo who touches feet!”

“I just wanted to touch them because they were adorable little footsies... Forgive me, Blois.”

“Don’t apologize to me. Isn’t that right, Lain?”

“That’s right, papa. You need to apologize to Fanne!”

Neither of them is actually angry, but they still direct harsh stares in my direction. I laugh as I apologize to them. I suppose the laugh spoils the sincerity of my apology, but it still feels the right thing to do. And from a corner, a little girl is watching us. It’s Lyra, of course.

“My, my... It seems I have no reason to be worried.”

If she says it, it must be true. I’m spending valuable, joyful time with my family.