Good Friends (9)

The darkness lifts its curtain, reflecting past stories. Although nothing is visible, I can see the face of the kneeling man and the bearded captain.

The story begins with a sword flying through the air. I was kneeling in a vast wilderness, and the captain, who had been secretly watching my training, revealed himself the moment I threw the sword. The sword that flew over my head and stuck precisely between the rocks tilted slightly.

“This is unfair.”

I should have been scolded for mishandling the sword, but the captain didn’t scold me then. I impulsively threw out rude words, but the captain merely stroked his white beard without getting angry at me.

“Why do you say that?”

Thanks to this, I seemed to be able to share my concerns in a slightly calmer manner.

“Yesterday, I heard that Muspel had mastered the sword aura. The family’s master knew how to handle sword aura, and he reached that level through the family’s secret swordsmanship.”

“That’s right. It’s an achievement made at a young age. I was so happy that I attended the celebration.”

The captain’s tone was indifferent. It was a day when that tone felt particularly cruel.

“My peers are drifting away one by one. They’re all moving forward with someone’s help, with the power of their families, but I have nothing. Everyone keeps growing, but I’m stagnating.”

“Is that why you threw the sword?”

I turned my head. The sword with the knight order’s emblem was stuck upside down, emitting a brilliant light towards me. At the captain’s words, I bowed my head and said:

“I’m sorry.”

“So you were jealous of your peers?”

My face flushed at those words. Although our families and status were different, we were all knights the moment we entered the order. We had promised to move forward as friends, but suddenly I found myself acting shamefully, putting up walls and setting conditions.

Unable to face the captain, I kept my head bowed and said:

“…Shamefully, yes.”

The captain raised his hand. Fearing the impending rebuke, I tightly closed my eyes. If I were a bit younger, I might have covered my ears. But instead of hitting me, the captain reached out towards the sword. The sword stuck in the middle of the ruins looked like a holy sword from an ancient tale.

“I can understand being impatient for not achieving. But don’t mishandle your weapon. Acting recklessly becomes a habit, and later comes back as trouble.”

The sword hilt pointed towards me. The captain’s hand was stained from grabbing the dirt-covered blade. I received the sword with both hands and knelt down.

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

The captain waited until I put the sword back. He blinked, scanning the stones and dry grass scattered across the field, and touched his own sword while looking me over. I put the sword away and knelt again.

“You said it was unfair?”

“…Yes.”

Shamefully, I couldn’t change my answer even after the captain asked several times. At that time, everything felt unfair and unreasonable to me.

“You’re right. There’s clearly a difference between knights who receive family support and those who don’t.”

I raised my head. The captain was nodding and looking down at me. There were scars on his strong hands, and the wrinkles on his face were particularly deep.

“Because the paths we’ve walked are different, the paths we take will also be different. It can’t be helped. There will surely be differences in the future between you, who picked up the sword through self-study, and children who have trained systematically from a young age.”

I hung my head. A pessimistic future was forming before my eyes. How cruel it was to say that I would eventually fall behind and not be able to keep up with my peers. Was I destined to remain a low-ranking knight? Was it my fate to stay in a minor position in the knight order for years and then retire?

My mind was swirling with complicated thoughts. Unable to suppress the complex feelings that seemed like the embodiment of despair, even my breathing quickened.

Then the captain grabbed my trembling shoulders and asked:

“But what does that matter? Do you want to become Muspel?”

“Pardon?”

I looked up.

---

“Hahahahaha!”

And darkness again.

The world was in pitch-black darkness. But the demon’s voice kept tormenting me. He was making arrogant footsteps, confident of victory, and was observing my reactions by swinging his sword in the air or clashing it.

No matter how much I glared, in the darkness that I couldn’t get used to, I was ultimately a puppet moving as he wanted.

If it couldn’t be helped, it couldn’t be helped. How could an ordinary human like me have a fair fight with a demon who could innately see clearly in the dark?

“Your trembling figure is even laughable! You seem to handle the sword decently, but your life ends here!”

Once again, a sword came flying. Judging by the sound of the approaching sword, it was from the front. I tilted my sword sideways and applied force at the right timing.

Clang!

With a light explosive sound, sparks flew for an instant. The demon’s face flashed by momentarily, and I trembled at the impact transmitted through the sword hilt. Having blocked haphazardly, I hadn’t blocked with proper posture, so the impact was reaching my wrist and hand.

“Hahahahaha!”

But the demon seemed to be enjoying himself. Even while I kept my mouth shut, he continued to open his and attempt conversation.

“It’s a shame you’re not the hero. Even if it were the hero, they couldn’t target me in this darkness. Since you have no means to see me, and I can see you clearly, I am invincible!”

Once again, a sword came flying. Confusing footsteps with unpredictable angles. I gritted my teeth and swung my sword. Intuitively swinging the sword in the direction where I sensed killing intent, sparks flew and the creature was deflected.

The sound of retreating footsteps. And a snickering laugh. He might be a fairly skilled swordsman, but in terms of personality, he was a twisted one.

“…I’m sorry for toying with you so much. But looking at you reminds me of someone I know in the demon world. He also used Imperial swordsmanship like you.”

I didn’t answer. I just hardened my expression and took deep breaths. Since I couldn’t see anything, I could almost see the creature’s form like an afterimage. At any moment, it felt like a sword might fly at my neck, or he might jump out from right beside me.

Darkness where I couldn’t even see my own arms and legs, like struggling in a sticky swamp.

“I’ll kill you, and then I’ll kill the hero who’s wandering somewhere in this cave.”

The demon kept provoking me. Joyful laughter and light steps. And neurotic impact sounds of hitting the wall and rustling sounds from all directions. Knowing that I relied on hearing, he was teasing me by using all sorts of interference tactics.

It felt like dozens of demons were surrounding me.

The creature’s voice echoed, and the overlapping sounds of the walls resonating hurt my ears. Every time he hit the wall, sparks briefly rose, but I couldn’t move forward to chase him.

Dragging his sword with a scraping sound, he said:

“I wish you were someone that guy knew.”

Footsteps approached. Chaotic moving footsteps. The step commonly used by those who wield swift swords was now approaching in a grotesque and perplexing way that shook the direction. In the darkness, along with the creature’s laughter, I saw an illusion of dozens of people pouncing on me.

And through the gaps in that illusion, memories of those old days poured in.

---

“Just because you’re in an unfavorable environment, are you going to do nothing? Do you want to become Muspel? Or do you want to become a knight?”

“…I want to become a knight.”

The captain’s sharp tone shook my mind. The captain carefully drew his sword and held the blade forward. A single blade of grass flew onto the sharp cross-section and gently settled on the blade. With his eyes closed, the captain carefully moved the sword.

Even as the sword stretched out forward, the blade of grass merely swayed with the wind, maintaining its balance.

As the captain lightly shook his hand, it fluttered in two parts as if it had been waiting.

I could only sit there, lost in admiration of the captain’s skill.

The captain said:

“Muspel and the other children all learned the basics from me, but you’re the only one who faithfully implemented those basics. They only imitate the basics of Imperial swordsmanship, overly trusting their family’s training methods. But you, having learned nothing from others, believed in and followed only my teachings.”

The captain gripped his sword firmly. The sword that was thrust down vertically suddenly rose diagonally. The surrounding dry grass swirled in the air pressure and was cut off with a graceful curve. As the flow of wind cut off in chunks, silence fell, and within it, the captain was performing a sword dance.

It was clearly Imperial swordsmanship.

Sometimes tyrannical, yet leading its master with an elegant flow. A lightly striking blow bounced up lightly as if skipping on water, and the footwork that seemed simple led its master in unpredictable changes.

But examining each trajectory closely, it was ultimately the Imperial swordsmanship that I and other knights had learned.

“…Muspel will surely become an excellent general. He will certainly achieve great feats and raise the Empire’s name high.”

The sword dance had ended before I knew it. Finally, the wind blew, and the grass surrounding the captain was in uproar at the sight of its sharp edges being cut off. The captain said:

“You will surely walk a different path from Muspel. But no one will be able to say that path was miserable or incomplete.”

The captain caught his breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Then, tapping the hilt of my sword, he said:

“Your sword. This swordsmanship. It will prove that.”

The captain’s hand patted my shoulder.

“In any situation, your effort will not betray you. Because you are my disciple.”

---

“Die!”

I hear the creature’s voice. I closed my eyes. In the dark cave, such a thing made no difference.

I didn’t care about the creature’s voice or the confusing footsteps.

What I was about to do was simply what I did best.

The practice I had consistently done even after fleeing the Empire, and before that.

And sparring.

Following the movements of my body that moved out of habit, I took a stance and walked forward.

Imagining the movements of the fighting opponent, I changed my movements according to the killing intent. I twisted the step I was taking forward by half a step and re-gripped my sword.

Turning at a right angle, I lightly thrust down the sword,

And strongly slash upwards diagonally.

“Haha…! Hahahaha!”

The creature’s laughter sounded like a trumpet from a distant city.

As I came to my senses, cold sweat poured down.

A beat late, I felt a sharp pain in my side, and the creature’s laughter became vivid as if shouting in my ear.

“Hahahahaha! I, I won! I won! Hahahahaha!”

Clutching my side, I turned my body.

Not a single drop of blood was on the sword.

I hadn’t even felt the sensation of cutting.

Due to accumulated injuries and fatigue, my body wouldn’t move properly.

“I won! I was surprised by your strange swordsmanship! But yes! In the end, I succeeded in dodging!”

My head hurt. If another attack came like this, I couldn’t block it.

“Hahahaha…! I, I won…! I wo-! Ah! Ugh…! Kuk…!”

The creature’s voice cut off. There was a sound of something gushing, and a fishy liquid splattered on my face.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Not a single drop of blood was on the sword.

I hadn’t even felt the sensation of cutting.

“Captain.”

In my hazy consciousness, I called out to the captain.