Ch.202The Forgotten One (4)

“About teaching the sword.”

“What is it now, out of nowhere?”

“When your master speaks, listen quietly.”

One day while learning swordsmanship from the Helm Knight.

The Helm Knight caressed his sword hilt and spoke.

“It feels like I’m telling you about my life. It’s a strange feeling.”

“Telling about your life?”

“I’ve been wielding a sword for nearly 300 years, right? I did say I was teaching you the essence of 300 years, but that was half a joke. But…”

“But?”

“But as I do it, it actually works. Watching you learn gives me a peculiar feeling. When I see you wielding a sword like me.”

The Helm Knight smiled.

“It’s like seeing myself from the past. I thought I’d forgotten, thought I couldn’t remember. But watching you brings it all back.”

Who I was.

How I lived.

What kind of sword I wielded.

“Anyway, damn you.”

The Helm Knight clicked his tongue.

“You make me greedy. Make me unable to let go of attachments. You really are a damnable fellow.”

* * *

“You want me to teach you spear techniques? Me?”

“Yes, you.”

The Blue Spear blinked at Najin, who was kneeling on one knee looking up at him. With a considerably bewildered expression, he opened and closed his mouth repeatedly.

“Najin, was it? My diary says we’ve met about twice, but did my past self ever say ‘I’ll teach you the spear’?”

“No. You never said such a thing.”

“Then why?”

“Does one need a reason to request learning?”

Najin smiled as if there was nothing strange about it.

“Besides, you said it yourself. That this spear technique shouldn’t be forgotten. That the history of an entire nation rests on the tip of your spear…”

So, Najin said.

“When I heard that, I felt regretful too. As you said, it’s a spear technique too precious to let fade away.”

“Have you seen me wield the spear?”

“It’s your daily routine, isn’t it? You spend nearly ten hours a day wielding the spear, how could I not have seen it?”

“So you want me to teach you the spear?”

Najin nodded. The Blue Spear didn’t look particularly pleased. Rather, with a troubled expression, he said:

“I appreciate the sentiment, but… I don’t think I can teach anyone anything. How could I, when I can’t even remember myself?”

“That part is fine.”

Najin smiled confidently.

It was an expression mimicking Merlin’s, and Merlin muttered “How annoying!” while watching that face.

“I’m naturally good at learning even when people don’t try to teach me. When taught one thing, I understand ten, and sometimes I figure things out on my own without being taught anything.”

What nonsense is that?

With such an expression, the Blue Spear looked at Najin and began his daily routine with a disgruntled face. And before long, the Blue Spear understood what Najin meant.

Whoosh!

The moment he saw the trajectory of Najin’s spear, he couldn’t help but understand, whether he wanted to or not.

“How on earth?”

The Blue Spear stared at Najin with wide eyes and mouth agape. Seeing the Blue Spear’s astonishment, Najin twirled his spear shaft and smiled.

“I told you, didn’t I?”

That I learn quite well.

2.

There’s a famous saying among swordsmen.

‘A swordsman speaks with the sword.’

Minstrels often express this saying as ‘first-class swordsmen understand each other’s hearts just by crossing swords, without any conversation,’ but Najin thought that was nonsense.

How can one know without speaking? For that to be possible, one would have to be a magician trained in mind-reading, not a swordsman. Though he wasn’t sure if such magic existed.

-That doesn’t exist. If it did, I’d want to learn it.

Since the great magician said it didn’t exist, it seemed it didn’t.

Anyway, while Najin thought the expression about reading minds through swords was nonsense, he didn’t deny the saying ‘a swordsman speaks with the sword.’

Even if not the heart, there are things one can show to others by wielding a sword. Broadly through swordsmanship, and in detail through the habits of wielding a sword.

For instance, by using a specific sword technique, one can say ‘I learned this sword and am a disciple of so-and-so,’ and through the way one steps and holds the sword, one can tell how they’ve lived.

A swordsman who has traversed battlefields for many years shows habits of wielding the sword concisely, briefly, prioritizing efficiency.

A swordsman who has lived in harsh terrains like snowy mountains shows habits of emphasizing footwork and being mindful of terrain when wielding the sword.

In this way, swords reveal the lives their wielders have lived, and this wasn’t just true for swordsmen. It applied to all warriors who had long handled a single weapon, be it spear, bow, or otherwise.

And now Najin was watching one such warrior.

The knight of Rondinell, the Blue Spear.

Since he was said to have been a transcendent even before Rondinell fell 300 years ago, he must be at least 400 years old. So, a warrior who had wielded a spear for at least 400 years was before Najin’s eyes.

Whoosh.

The spear shaft cuts through the air. The spear tip wraps around the wind, creating an eerie sound. With wide eyes, Najin engraved every movement into his pupils.

‘Even if one loses memories every day…’

The Blue Spear had said that one doesn’t forget the habits engraved in the body and the movements repeated daily. Of course, the Blue Spear doesn’t know what meaning is contained in each movement or what principles are embedded in them.

That point.

That was precisely the point Najin focused on.

From the movements the Blue Spear showed unconsciously, Najin tried to find principles. He tried to read the history of Rondinell contained in that spear tip. Even for someone with eyes as good as Najin’s, it wasn’t an easy task.

Well, the Blue Spear was a transcendent after all.

Reading the movements of a transcendent was very difficult even for Najin. Even after watching repeatedly, far from finding principles or history, it was challenging just to follow the movements.

-The very idea that someone who isn’t even a transcendent could mimic a transcendent’s movements is absurd, you know?

Merlin, who had been muttering thus, soon shook his head. Even the most astonishing things become accepted as normal when seen repeatedly.

“How on earth…”

The Blue Spear felt the same.

“Well, this is something.”

When Najin first imitated his movements, he stared with wide eyes and an open mouth in amazement, but as the same thing happened repeatedly, he too accepted it and continued wielding his spear.

“…”

Najin silently focused on the Blue Spear’s movements.

He knew it was difficult. But if asked whether it was impossible, that wasn’t the case either. Najin had already had a similar experience once before.

‘Alderan Basaglia’s Triumphant Sword.’

While traveling with the Helm Knight for several months, Najin had succeeded in mastering the Triumphant Sword. He couldn’t reproduce it perfectly, but theoretically it was flawless. There was no doubt since Gerd, an 8-star Sword Master, had evaluated it as ‘excellent.’

Najin observed the Blue Spear with perseverance.

And as the sun began to set, Najin was able to gain one insight.

3.

“This part.”

Najin took a stance, referring to the very first movement among those the Blue Spear wielded.

“Could you show it to me slowly once?”

“Of course.”

The Blue Spear slowly wielded his spear. The extended spear cut through the air with a whoosh sound.

“Ah.”

Najin exclaimed briefly as if realizing something.

Then he immediately imitated the Blue Spear’s movement, but while the movement itself was similar, the sound was slightly different.

Swish!

It wasn’t just a sound made by wielding it quickly. Though the stance was imperfect and the spear tip wobbled slightly, the momentum at the moment the spear was wielded was different from the Blue Spear’s.

“…!”

The Blue Spear opened his eyes wide.

“Just now, how?”

“This first movement.”

Najin said, adjusting his grip on the spear.

“The second movement is like this, with a feeling of striking down the flow of the first swing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. But?”

“Now we’re wielding each movement separately, but in actual combat, there’s no need to distinguish them, right? So if you assume they’re connected as one movement and wield the spear, putting a bit more force here like this…”

Whoosh, swish!

“Wouldn’t it be more natural?”

“Indeed, let me try…”

The Blue Spear imitated Najin’s movement.

Unlike Najin who had wielded the spear with an unstable stance, the Blue Spear’s stance was perfect. He actively incorporated the theory Najin had proposed.

From the first strike to the second.

Naturally, as if continuing the flow without interruption.

The moment he wielded the spear like that, the Blue Spear sensed it. That this was the correct answer. The moment he thought to wield it that way, his body moved naturally even without conscious effort. As if it were a movement repeated countless times.

Crack!

There was a sound of something splitting as he wielded the spear. Until now, he had merely left thin traces in the sand, but this strike by the Blue Spear deeply plowed through the sand.

So deeply that it wouldn’t be easily erased by the blowing wind.

“Oh.”

Najin briefly exclaimed in admiration and clapped.

The Blue Spear stood frozen in his stance after wielding the spear, his eyes wide open. The corners of his mouth trembled.

“How did you?”

“Before coming to find you, I met a knight from Rondinell. Kirhov, you know him, right?”

“I do. The last knight of Rondinell…”

“I’ve seen Sir Kirhov’s sword a few times. When I recalled those memories, I noticed it resembled your spear technique.”

Kirhov’s sword and the Blue Spear’s spear.

The weapons are different, and so are the movements. But Najin felt that their roots were similar, and the goals they pursued were not vastly different.

“I compared your spear with Sir Kirhov’s sword and pointed out the differences…”

The trajectory of the Blue Spear’s spear.

Glancing at the deeply carved sand along that trajectory, Najin nodded.

“It seems I was right.”

Najin smiled as he said this, but the Blue Spear couldn’t smile.

The amazement at gaining a new insight.

The sense of achievement that today was not just another meaningless day that his memory-losing self might have repeated hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times, but a special day.

The Blue Spear’s expression, mixed with numerous other emotions, couldn’t be described in a single word. But there was one emotion that erased all those expressions.

“…”

The Blue Spear looked at the sky. As the sun set, night came to the desert. Then he looked at the hourglass. The sand had almost run out, with only a handful remaining.

“Ah.”

The Blue Spear groaned.

The sense of fulfillment he had felt just moments ago was marred by disappointment, fear, and regret. No matter how remarkable the insight he had gained, he would forget it after one night.

Plop.

As the handful of sand fell toward the bottom, the Blue Spear’s head also drooped. Just as he was about to bow his head:

“Blue Spear.”

Najin called out to him.

The Blue Spear raised his head. Before him, Najin imitated the strike the Blue Spear had just demonstrated. The Blue Spear immediately understood why he was showing this to him.

Imperfect and unskilled, but.

The movement Najin was demonstrating was a clear clue. If tomorrow’s self, who would have lost his memories, saw that movement, he could perform the same strike as now.

“…Huh.”

Understanding the intention, the Blue Spear laughed.

“Huh, well this is something.”

He laughed as if it were absurd.

“Truly, I don’t know how to express this.”

The end of the hourglass approaches.

As death approached, the Blue Spear, instead of fearing as usual, burst into laughter. He laughed heartily and planted his spear shaft in the sand.

“Najin?”

The Blue Spear loses his memories every day.

For him, each day was not a continuous life but a separate, disconnected day. That’s why the Blue Spear was like a mayfly. A mayfly feared its death and extinction.

But now the Blue Spear was not a mayfly.

He realized that his current self could pass something on to his future self. Even if he lost his memories, today and tomorrow would not be disconnected, separate days. He was certain that tomorrow would be a ‘next day’ continuing from today.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The Blue Spear entrusted a letter to Najin.

It was a letter to his future self.