Dawn light was slanting down onto the dirt floor of the training ground.
Garen’s wooden sword was as heavy as ever today, and I took my beating without fail.
“Foot.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your reaction is slow.”
“...Yes, sir.”
Thwack!
The sword tip bounced, and immediately the wooden sword tapped the back of my hand.
For a moment, the sword nearly flew from my hand, but I gritted my teeth and gripped it again.
“Faster.”
“...”
“Relax your hand.”
Each time a brief pointer fell, my body reacted first. Stance, wrist, sword tip. Now there were moments when my body moved half on its own.
Of course, I was still getting hit.
Whenever I thought I was getting a little better, that I was doing well, Garen would cut that thought short by coming in even harder.
Thud!
“...Kuk.”
“Focus.”
“I am...!”
By the time training ended, both arms were as heavy as lead weights. While wiping sweat and catching my breath, Garen spoke shortly.
“You’ve improved.”
“Huff... huff... Oh, you finally acknowledge it...”
“Don’t get cocky.”
“...I know.”
I bowed my head and put away the wooden sword.
Tomorrow too, at this time, I would be standing here again.
✧ ✧ ✧
The moment I opened the guild door, the reception desk caught my eye.
It wasn’t Luce.
“...Huh?”
A sound escaped on its own.
The one who raised her head wasn’t Luce. A middle-aged woman with her hair neatly tied up. Her features were sterner than Luce’s, but experience could be felt from her demeanor.
“Have you come to accept a quest?”
‘That’s right, today was Luce’s day off.’
“Ah... yes.”
The answer came a beat late.
Beside me, Marie laughed silently.
“What, feels empty since she’s not here?”
“Not at all. It’s just a bit awkward since it’s our first meeting, that’s all?”
“It shows.”
“Shut it.”
Kaya quietly held back her laughter.
Maella Bern.
She was said to be the longest-standing member of the guild. I had seen her a few times turning ledger pages behind Luce or handling difficult receptions, but this was the first time speaking to her directly. She wasn’t talkative, her hands were quick, and anyone could see she was skilled.
“It’s a patrol of the northern forest outskirts. Two scouting traces and one Iron Fang sighting have been reported. Please be careful.”
Short and precise. As expected of the most senior member.
“Thank you.”
“Return safely.”
Even her farewell was without frills.
Even though it was just that Luce wasn’t there, the reception desk somehow looked different.
✧ ✧ ✧
A few similar days passed.
Morning was Garen, then Kaya and Marie, the reception desk, the forest. That was always the order.
The quests were similar too.
Goblin extermination, outskirts patrol, sometimes a cave.
Similar didn’t mean boring.
The three of us were definitely in sync. Kaya spotted openings, Marie cleared the path, and I dug in between them.
Now a short battle was nothing much.
The speed of our assault and the speed at which we finished were much faster than before. All three of us felt it. The opponents we faced now were no longer walls.
Then one day.
Two normal-types and one warrior-type burst from the bushes. I cut the warrior-type’s neck, and the two normal-types were burned by Marie’s flames.
The moment I thought it was over, brushing off my sword and catching my breath—
To the lower left, a shadow sprang up low.
“Siyun!”
Before Kaya’s voice could even finish, my body twisted first.
A rusty blade came in as if digging into my lower abdomen.
Whoosh!
It narrowly missed. The sensation of fabric scraping was vividly left behind.
Reflexively, I kicked the creature’s upper body and stabbed my sword straight in.
Thuk!
The goblin was pierced through the head and nailed to the ground.
For a moment, my breath caught in my throat.
My heart was racing. My hand was gripping with full force. My body was honest.
‘...That was dangerous.’
If I had been even one beat slower, it could have been a truly fatal wound.
Roy suddenly came to mind.
‘Ah. So this is how he got hurt.’
The goblins weren’t the problem. Complacency was the problem.
Kaya ran over first.
“Siyun, are you okay?”
“...Yeah, it didn’t hit me.”
“That was dangerous.”
Marie wordlessly prodded the dead one with her toe. Her expression was stiff.
“That was a close call.”
I looked down at the one nailed to the ground. The strength in my fingertips still hadn’t left.
“Now I understand how Roy-hyung got hurt so badly.”
“Yeah. Complacency is the most dangerous.”
I slowly exhaled.
The forest didn’t always come from the front.
✧ ✧ ✧
Well, even so, goblins weren’t our opponents anymore.
The word massacre fit perfectly.
That feeling became clearer when we returned to the guild and settled accounts.
The feeling of having grown.
Luce turned the ledger pages and read the reward. A magic stone bonus was added, and silver and copper coins fell into my hand.
When I put them in a leather pouch and shook it slightly, the coins clinked.
I liked that sound.
Before, the first feeling was relief that I had survived the day, but now it was different. I had earned a lot today too, and it was piling up as real weight.
Luce saw that.
“Do you like it that much?”
“Ah, did it show?”
“Pfft... a little.”
Luce laughed and tapped the ledger once with her finger. Her gaze slowly swept over the three of us.
“What do you all do on your days off?”
Kaya was the first to speak.
“I usually help out at the sanctuary or read books.”
“That’s so like you, Kaya.”
Marie said curtly with her arms crossed.
“I just rest.”
“That’s all?”
“Yeah. That’s all.”
Luce smiled softly.
“That’s so like you, Marie.”
Then her gaze reached me.
“What about you, Siyun?”
“Me? Well... help out at the healing sanctuary, equipment maintenance, walks, that sort of thing?”
Luce’s eyes widened slightly.
“You rest more productively than I thought.”
“Ah... really?”
Marie snickered.
“He can’t stay still.”
“That’s not true.”
Kaya laughed too.
“That’s true enough.”
Luce said with a smile.
“I usually browse at general stores or bakeries. Sometimes I walk around quiet places.”
“Oh.”
I laughed without realizing it.
“That feels very like you, Luce.”
“Like what?”
“Like you rest very neatly, I guess?”
Luce paused for a beat, then laughed.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”
“It’s a compliment~”
Beside me, Marie snorted shortly.
Luce added lightly while turning the ledger page.
“If our days off overlap next time, I’ll let you know a good place to eat.”
The moment she finished speaking, she lowered her gaze to the ledger.
I pretended not to notice and smiled.
“I’ll look forward to that.”
Marie narrowed her eyes, and Kaya smiled wordlessly.
The moment we stepped out of the guild door, Marie glanced at me.
“What, why that expression again.”
“What expression.”
I grinned and looked at Marie.
“What’s bothering you, Miss Marie.”
Marie snapped back.
“...Shut up.”
Kaya laughed silently.
My steps were light for no reason.
✧ ✧ ✧
Each time I stopped by the healing sanctuary, Roy’s condition had clearly changed.
When I opened the door, Roy was standing by the window. He was slowly rotating his shoulder.
Extending his arms back and forth, bending his wrists to push his fingers toward the ceiling. It was a routine ingrained in his body.
The moment I saw that, a thought popped out before I knew it.
‘Wow... his physique is insane, seriously.’
It was on a different level from when he was lying down. Roy standing and moving was simply overwhelming. His shoulders, forearms, the muscles turning as he moved.
“You’re here.”
Roy spoke while rotating his shoulder.
“Yes! Hyung, you’ve really improved a lot, haven’t you?”
“I have.”
“Isn’t it about time you can return to duty?”
“Don’t rush it too much.”
“No, hyung. You’re moving perfectly fine now.”
Only then did Roy lower his arm and snort shortly.
“Moving and fighting are different.”
“Well... you’re not wrong.”
I smirked.
“But still, a four-person party with Roy-hyung... honestly, I’m looking forward to it.”
The corner of Roy’s mouth rose.
“It’ll be soon.”
That single phrase was enough.
✧ ✧ ✧
Time passed in the meantime.
Morning was Garen, day was the forest, evening was coins. That was a day.
Bresen was no longer an unfamiliar village. It was simply the place where I lived.
But within that familiarity, something began to catch my eye from some point on.
Magic.
To be exact, Marie’s magic.
At first, I just thought it was cool.
When she raised light in a dark cave, when she drove goblins back with flames, when she blocked a passage with a wall of fire, when she cleaned everything up with a single ember.
After seeing that countless times, my gaze kept going there.
During battle, on the way back, even while settling accounts.
Even when I closed my eyes, flames remained.
‘I haven’t changed class yet. Can’t I learn magic too? Ah, but I decided to learn Aura... Damn it!’
I had considered holy power too, but it was different. It was a power close to faith, so it wasn’t something that would take root just because I shouted “I believe!” right now.
In the end, it was Aura or magic.
The sword was something the body remembered. Enduring while getting hit, holding stance while enduring, embedding it into the body bit by bit like that.
The type of strength built up by taking hits from Garen every morning.
But magic—
Click.
—and it just comes out.
Flames are born from fingertips, block paths, change battles. It was on a different dimension from the sword.
One day on the way back from the forest. Marie floated a small flame on her fingertip and slightly burned the tip of a bush.
A goblin startled and jumped out, but I stared at the flame longer than at it.
Marie glanced at me.
“What.”
“...Huh? What?”
“What are you blankly staring at.”
“Just... magic.”
“Boring, isn’t it.”
Marie said so and flicked her finger.
Whoosh!
The flame disappeared in an instant.
That short scene wouldn’t fade from my head.
That night, even lying in my room, it circled in my head.
The sword was good too. I wanted to learn Aura too. But now magic too...
The sensation of the world changing with a single fingertip.
Light, flames, the flow of battle.
I truly longed for it.
I blankly looked up at the ceiling. I slowly exhaled.
‘I’m screwed... I want to click too.’