Episode 026.
Chiiik—!
With the smell of burning, fierce flames swept across the training grounds.
Soon, the iron sword Pricia was holding glowed red-hot, and then, starting from the tip, bent like clay and melted away.
“Master! The sword has melted again! At this rate, I cannot train!”
She held out the ruined sword with a tearful face.
It was already the third one this week alone.
The Twenty-Four-Move Plum Blossom Sword Art… no, the intense heat given off by her flaming plum blossoms was something an ordinary iron sword simply could not endure.
I let out a light sigh as I looked at the lump of metal rolling on the ground.
It was now time for her to have a proper weapon as well.
It couldn’t be helped. The deeper my bond with Pricia grew, the stronger her flames became.
At this point, an ordinary iron sword could no longer withstand the flaming plum blossoms.
++
[Bond Weapon: ???]
└You must discover the first clue.
++
‘Mm… A bond weapon would be nice, but it’s too far away to go get right now.’
Her growth was simply too fast.
Even if our bond had deepened, there was nothing I could do about physical distance.
There were still quite a few things to do in Artem, so in the end, for the time being, we had no choice but to make do with disposable weapons.
“There are plenty of swords, so don’t worry about it.”
“Eeh… But iron swords melt after just a few swings, and it feels strange!”
“Consider it good training. Condense your mana further and control it so it doesn’t touch the blade. If that doesn’t work, release it outside the sword’s trajectory.”
“Aha! I am worried whether I can do it….”
“It’s about time to move on to the advanced stage. There’s no one here but you and me, so don’t worry.”
After roughly finishing the training, I moved out.
Because we needed more swords.
Fortunately, the head of the Adventurers’ Guild had told me to ask anytime if I needed anything, so I planned to use this opportunity to place a bulk order for iron swords.
If I attached the pretext that they were for the young lady of the lord’s family to train with, they would be produced faster than just about anything else.
When I opened the guild doors, the gazes of the noisy adventurers gathered on me.
“Yo! Tanas!”
“You’re late today.”
By now, there was no one in Artem who didn’t know Pricia and me.
I returned the greetings in passing and headed for the guildmaster’s office.
“You need that many iron swords? Are you planning to rent out every forge in the territory?”
“The young lady’s swordsmanship is rather fiery.”
“Ah… now that you mention it, that’s true. Was it called the Mount Hua Plum Blossom Sword Art or something? I only caught a glimpse of it, but it was truly terrifying.”
“…….”
The guildmaster nodded as if he understood.
Setting down his pen, he added in a strangely subdued voice.
“By the way, Tanas. Be careful.”
“What do you mean?”
“There have been more outsiders in the territory lately. Not just the ones trying to pick up scraps from the Viscount Gondor affair, but people moving with a clear purpose.”
“…….”
“They seem to be spies sent from the royal capital. It’s even more troublesome because they each belong to different factions. From what I’ve heard, the Church will also be sending people soon.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“…Among the people who come all the way out to this eastern frontier to work as adventurers, who doesn’t have a story? If something happens, I’ll help. Just say the word anytime.”
“…….”
It could be said that this was because Pricia had grown strong too quickly.
It couldn’t be helped.
I had expected it to some extent.
The fact that the Church and the royal capital had taken an interest meant that word would soon reach the heroes and my former party members as well.
‘I don’t care about those hero bastards who hold a grudge against me…’
What bothered me was something else.
The hero’s divine artifact that had been forcibly confiscated when I was detained under the pretense of standing trial.
The item, an artifact exclusively for heroes that maximized the authority of healing, was probably being stored deep within the Church by now.
Taking it by force was nearly impossible at my current level.
In truth, the reason I had been able to beat those bastards back then was partly because they had let their guards down,
and partly because I had drawn on my innate true qi,
but the most important factor was that their mana had been sealed by the Church’s sacred relic.
Since I was an F-rank useless hero with almost no mana to begin with, the mana penalty itself would barely affect me,
but telling me to break through all sorts of debuffs and barriers to reach the heart of the Church was suicide.
If they found out I was trying to seize it, the heroes would come running in delight.
Analyzing it coldly, I couldn’t even guarantee victory in a one-on-one fight.
Their personalities were trash, but each of those heroes was a monster with fraudulent specs on the level of strategic weapons.
They must have grown stronger since then.
Telling me to withstand wide-area magic and lightning-fast spear strikes in my current physical state was no different from telling me to die.
‘The Church will never hand over the divine artifact for free.’
What kind of people were those greedy old men?
Even after my innocence had been proven, they would nitpick and threaten me….
=We cannot return the divine artifact unless you take with you Seria, candidate for the next Saintess, and Arche, the acting representative of the Church of Tyr=
I could already see that farce playing out.
They would try to fill my side with their own people again and establish the authority of the Church.
In that case, I would…
“I just won’t take it.”
It was a support-exclusive item anyway.
It would be a shame not to have it, but that was all.
What mattered most right now was not something like that, but Pricia’s growth.
She needed to show overwhelming strength, to the point where no one else would dare object.
************
“Tanas. We’ll head back first. Why are there so many monsters here…?”
“I need to get treated.”
On the way back after finishing the monster subjugation,
dark clouds suddenly gathered in the clear sky, and thick raindrops fell one by one before pouring down in a rush.
It was a cold rain carrying quite a chill.
“Let’s get back quickly before we catch a cold.”
Using my cloak as an umbrella, I hurried my steps.
But Pricia, who had been trotting along under me, instead slowed her pace and blankly looked up at the sky as the rain struck her whole body.
“What? Are you trying to wash up already?”
“No, no! That is not it….”
Pricia quietly looked down at her palm where raindrops had gathered and murmured softly.
“When it rains, I like how quiet the world becomes. Tears, sorrow, even the noise of burning flames—rain washes them all away.”
It was a little different from her usual fussy air.
What was she thinking about?
One thing was certain: I had an instinctive feeling that the rain held some memory for her as well.
Because Pricia on a rainy day was a little calmer, and there was something lonely about her atmosphere.
Since I knew her story, I immediately closed my mouth.
“Mother loved rainy days very much. She said that just as rain washes the dust of the world away, it also washes away the pain of the heart. So whenever it rained, she would sit me on her lap and tell me old stories.”
“…….”
When I covered Pricia’s head with my cloak as well, she brushed back her rain-soaked bangs and continued.
“When Mother held her sword, she protected people while standing in the rain. Without retreating even a single step.”
Her voice trembled faintly, mingling with the rain.
“Until the very last moment, she stood there in the rain. Back then, I thought it was fortunate that it rained.”
“Fortunate?”
“Yes. Because this rain was the only thing that comforted and cooled Mother, who had burned for the territory until the very end. I thought that perhaps this cold rain had been her final rest….”
“…….”
“…I wanted to believe that.”
“…I see.”
I placed my hand gently on her head.
This was Pricia’s true heart, something she had never told anyone until now.
“That is why I like rainy days. Even if I cry out loud, the rainwater washes all my tears away. Until now, no one has ever seen me fall apart. The rain protected that pride of mine.”
Pricia looked up at me slightly and smiled.
Raindrops clung to her lashes and flowed down her cheeks like tears.
To her, rain was both a memory of her mother and the only refuge where she could hide her weakness.
It must have been impossible for her to hate it, because it was the rain her mother had loved.
“I hate rainy days.”
“…Pardon? After listening to all that, why so suddenly? Master, you even let me rest from training when it rains.”
She blinked and looked up at me in confusion.
With my fingers, I lightly swept aside her drenched bangs that had drooped over her face and continued.
“You might be able to hide your tears, but you can’t hide that tearful face. Your expression, I mean.”
“……!”
Her shoulders flinched and trembled.
Rainwater streamed down, but to my eyes, Pricia’s crumpled brow and trembling lips were clearer than ever.
“I’m saying that even if you try to hide it in the rain, it all remains on your face. What’s the point of forcing yourself to hold it in and waiting only for rainy days?”
“…….”
“Rainy days have their own charm, I suppose, but I think it’s better when you’re smiling.”
“…Master.”
Her eyes shook greatly.
Liquid that might have been rainwater or tears flowed down her cheek and dropped from the tip of her chin.
But soon, she smiled bashfully like usual and tightly gripped the hem of my soaked clothes.
“Then, Master, you will keep making me smile from now on, won’t you?”
“…….”
At the unexpected question, I stopped speaking for a moment.
Her eyes were filled with unconditional trust toward me.
Taking responsibility for someone’s smile was far heavier than one might think.
Especially for someone like me, who had once lost everything.
But as I looked at those small shoulders, tucked beneath my cloak and trembling in the rain, I couldn’t bring myself to give my usual kind of answer.
“I’ll think about it if you don’t skip training.”
“Eeh! Master!!! At times like this, are you not supposed to say something cool like a knight, such as ‘I promise’?”
“I’m your master. Smiling is only possible when your skills improve. This is a world where, if you’re weak, you can’t smile even if you want to.”
With my cloak over her head, Pricia pressed even closer to my side as she walked.
“I like that answer too, because it is so very like you, Master. Then it is a promise, yes? Every time I grow stronger, Master will make me smile!”
How did it become that?
“Well, I’ll think about it.”
Amid the sound of rain striking the ground, Pricia’s laughter mingled in.
The forest of Artem was still cold and sunken, but the small flame beside me had, before I knew it, begun to burn brightly, giving off enough warmth to pierce through the rain.
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