And so, for several days, I underwent rehabilitation and recovered my health.
It was thanks to all my party members taking it easy and buying time, saying they wouldn't move unless it was a fairly urgent situation without me.
On the second day of rehabilitation,
I gradually became capable of basic daily life.
It wasn't that I couldn't move; it was just that my newly reconstructed body was unfamiliar. You might wonder why daily life became possible starting then,
- Clang.
Hmm...
Actually, rather than being too weak to live normally, the problem was that my body had become much stronger than expected.
For example, it felt like needing to hit exactly 15cm but constantly getting 20cm?
Just so you know, I'm not talking about size.
....
And it's not small either.
...
Anyway,
in such cases, daily life is daily life, but since I use a sword, that kind of discrepancy was actually quite a big problem for me.
To give a simple example, with swords, victory and defeat could strangely be decided by minute differences in angle.
Because the wrist turned slightly more, because the foot stepped slightly further forward.
The position where blades meet could change, or the center of gravity could get weird, leading straight to defeat.
Anyway, being able to perfectly control my body was especially important.
That's why, starting from the third day, I slowly picked up the sword again and devoted myself to training.
The training method... well, it wasn't particularly different from before.
Just swinging the sword in as many different directions as possible?
And imagining various situations while thinking in advance about how to swing.
Well... that's what I was doing.
Personally, I think actually swinging to not lose the sense of the sword is important,
but I tend to think visualizing and hypothesizing various situations in my head is more important, so I was focusing more on that.
Someone might ask this.
???: Come on, how often do predetermined situations even come up in a fight? You just adapt on the fly, right?
Well... they're not wrong.
Of course, a battlefield is already complicated and chaotic; how diverse can the situations be?
Even if you prepare for specific situations, there are countless times when those situations don't actually occur.
But,
precisely because a battlefield is complicated and chaotic, I think I need to train like this in advance.
That way, even if a specific situation occurs with really low probability, I can respond with something already ingrained in my body, get through it quickly, and face the next enemy.
And rather than thinking about it casually, when you assume countless situations, the responses often overlap more than you'd think.
Also, the funny part is,
actually, the feel for weapons demands more ability from a martial artist than dealing with various situations on the battlefield.
You can memorize situations, but the feel for weapons is truly endless—impossible to memorize.
Swords alone vary by 50g increments in weight, not to mention all the different designs.
On a battlefield, you sometimes have to abandon your usual weapon for some reason.
Whether the edge chips or blood makes the blade sticky,
there are times when you inevitably have to wield someone else's weapon,
and quickly grasping the feel of that weapon is quite difficult; the speed at which you grasp it is the realm of talent.
But this doesn't apply to me.
I was just speaking based on ordinary martial artists.
As for me...
I probably wouldn't have known in the old days.
If I were still living as a mercenary in a mercenary company like before, I'd probably still use enemy weapons a lot during small-scale skirmishes.
These days... well, I have no reason to use other weapons unless I lose my sword.
The sword I use now doesn't rust, doesn't chip, and doesn't break.
It was just absolutely lovely.
'Though it would've been nicer if the blade were still black like before.'
This thing is really peculiar.
Clearly, at times it's one of the few legendary swords in the world that glows black from its very appearance,
but at times like now, it reverts to feeling like an ordinary dwarf-made steel sword.
'Ah, right. Come to think of it, shouldn't I just ask the dwarves?'
I had spoken before about the destroyed kingdom of the dwarves.
I think I said it when we discovered the underground city,
the dwarven kingdom no longer exists.
There was a damned gate to the demonic realm in the peaceful dwarven paradise,
the dwarves who were diligently digging tunnels and mining ore as usual unearthed the gate to the demonic realm that had been buried and sealed underground,
and then the gate broke?
Boom.
A part of the demonic realm manifested in reality?
And it kept expanding its influence?
The dwarven kingdom couldn't withstand the increasing demonic beasts and perished.
Thanks to the few surviving dwarves entering the Empire and settling down, the dwarven race itself didn't go extinct,
but if all dwarves had died out then, humanity would be in quite a predicament now.
Most ego weapons and special weapons passed down from ancient times usually remain intact,
but sometimes they receive shocks even they can't withstand,
and every time that happened, the owners entrusted their weapons to the dwarves.
If there were no dwarves, the strongest on the continent might be fighting with iron swords similar to ordinary soldiers in the worst case.
Then they'd have to discard their swords every time they used a technique, right?
'Hmm...'
Come to think of it, a mysterious master carrying over 100 swords?
That might actually be kind of cool...
"Ahem."
Anyway,
the conclusion after that long digression is: let's go show the sword to the dwarves.
And while it would have been difficult in the past, showing the sword to a dwarf isn't particularly hard now.
Why?
Because this place, the Magic Tower, is where the second-largest population of dwarves on the continent lives.
Although the dwarves here mostly specialize in making magical tools, since they were born dwarves, they would surely know something about my sword.
At the very least, they could tell me who to take it to.
'Then... who should I ask to go with me?'
I could go alone,
but the interior of the Magic Tower isn't constrained by the tower's outer size.
For example, even if the tower looks like it has 100 floors from outside, there might actually be 200 floors inside.
Me, here for the first time, wandering around such a place?
'The chances of getting lost in the Magic Tower would skyrocket.'
After pondering briefly, Signika was the first person I thought of to go with me.
Ah, right.
Her recent situation...
I visited her a few times during my rehabilitation,
"Hello."
and found her lying on the sofa reading a magic book.
She looked much better than me.
Maybe her skin regenerated along with the treatment; her skin was practically glowing.
I even wondered if I had worried for nothing.
Anyway,
I planned to visit her today.
- Swish! Click.
I swung my sword once and sheathed it.
Come to think of it, if I could request something from the dwarves, maybe I should commission a scabbard too.
The scabbard I have now isn't the original; it's a temporary one.
That was probably why it didn't feel great to use.
There was also the possibility that the sword wouldn't come out smoothly during a quick draw.
'Damn, but that's not important right now.'
I left the training ground (originally for mages only; I didn't forcibly take it over) and washed up cleanly.
***
"Haah..."
Until now, I had maintained cleanliness with magic,
but washing properly really did feel different.
I felt like even if an age came where a single capsule could replace a meal, I'd still eat rice.
Everything has its gains and losses,
but by my personal standards, replacing meals with capsules and washing with magic felt like I was losing more.
- Rustle, rustle.
Anyway, after changing into neat clothes,
"Where could Signika-nim be..."
as I was pondering and about to head out,
- Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on my door.
'Who is it? Lady Ariel?'
Ariel had been looking after my body a lot recently.
I naturally assumed it was her and opened the door casually.
But,
'Huh...?'
My eye level had been adjusted to Ariel's usual height,
so at this angle, I couldn't see my visitor well.
Of course, I couldn't see well, but I immediately knew who had come.
Silver hair was certainly one of her traits, but whether to match her family name or not, she always carried the faint scent of violets.
"Signika-nim?"
Hearing me, she put her hands on her hips with a sulky expression and looked up at me with narrowed eyes.
"I told you to call me noona, not nim."
"Ah..."
Right.
It might be a bit embarrassing,
but this was her real personality.
I'd probably learn a lot more about her after today... well, I could figure that out gradually.
Since she had come to me first, I was going to ask where the dwarves were, but...
"Signika-nim, um..."
She,
"Let's go on a date, right now."
beat me to the punch before I could speak.
"Dwar... huh?"
"I told you before. Once the Magic Tower business was done, we'd go on a date. We've both recovered, so shouldn't it be fine?"
"Ah..."
That's right.
I had completely forgotten.
"The Imperial Court has been going on about the situation here lately, so we'll probably have to leave soon. We don't have time. We're the Hero's party, so we can't rest too long."
"True... you're right."
I nodded and said to her,
"Let's do it today. Noona."
"Okay. Y-ye... what?"
Signika's body twitched like a rabbit caught during hibernation, then she quickly stepped back at a speed rivaling martial artists and pointed at me.
Her pale, slender hand was trembling violently along with her body.
"You told me to call you noona."
"T-that's true. But it's so sudden!!"
"I did it on purpose."
"You...!!"
After bickering for a moment, we headed outside.
'She's fun to tease.'
For some reason, I had a feeling today would be an interesting day.