Ch.9Swordsman Guild (2)

Blink. Blink.

When I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted me.

“Nngh…”

As I tried to force myself up to check my surroundings, I felt an intense fatigue—I must not have been unconscious for very long.

Still, I managed to sit up and look around. An elegant room welcomed me.

A large window offering a panoramic view of the outside, with luxurious curtains hanging beside it.

Various high-end furniture including the sofa I was lying on, a table, and bookshelves.

And finally, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

It was clearly a room meant for distinguished individuals.

Where was this place, and why was I here?

To solve this mystery, I tried to recall my memories.

The events right before I passed out came flooding back.

Taking the guild entrance exam, blocking the Guild Master’s strike, and then losing consciousness.

Combining these memories with my surroundings, I could guess that this was the VIP room of the Swordsman Guild.

Still, I wondered why I was lying here.

At least the bandages wrapped around my torn palm suggested I’d received proper treatment.

‘But isn’t it normal to wake up in a medical facility after fainting?’

As I was examining myself with these questions in mind, the door opened, and the Guild Master entered with a woman.

“Oh, you woke up rather quickly? I guess being young has its advantages.”

He said this as he sat in the chair across from me and checked my condition.

“How are you feeling? Anything wrong?”

“Except for being tired, I seem fine. But I don’t understand why I’m here.”

“Ah, about that. I originally planned to send you to a clinic or church. But your appearance is quite… distinctive. I was worried some strange incident might occur, so I had you rest here instead.”

At his words, I stared at him intently.

As if to say, aren’t you one of those who might cause such a strange incident?

Of course, I didn’t really think that.

I hadn’t found any suspicious marks on my body during my brief examination, and I couldn’t sense any such emotions in his gaze.

‘Being a Succubus has made me strangely sensitive to others’ emotions.’

The change was too clear to simply attribute to improved senses.

“Uh… don’t get any weird ideas. I didn’t lay a finger on you.”

Of course, unaware of my condition, he grimaced and told me not to misunderstand.

His reaction was quite amusing, so I continued to look at him suspiciously. As he rambled nervously, he finally turned to the woman behind him for help.

“Elena, please explain something to her…”

“You don’t need to worry. I handled both your treatment and transport. And while Kaiden might look at other women occasionally, he can’t do anything beyond that.”

Her explanation continued calmly.

I noticed something odd in her explanation and spoke up.

“What do you mean by ‘can’t’?”

“I squeeze him dry every night. Not a drop left.”

Words delivered without a hint of expression change.

The moment I heard that, I burst out laughing.

I never imagined this bear-like man would be so thoroughly controlled.

“Pfft…”

“Elena…?”

As I tried to suppress my laughter, Kaiden turned to Elena with a betrayed expression.

The shock on his face was so complete that anyone would think he’d been stabbed in the back.

“Let’s end the joke here.”

“Yes, I’ll stop the joke now.”

Having enjoyed Kaiden’s reaction enough, the woman and I stopped teasing him simultaneously.

Though he looked even more dumbfounded.

“You… really are a Succubus, aren’t you?”

He spoke as if he couldn’t believe it.

Hearing his words, I felt that the inevitable had finally come.

With each passing day, I’d sensed something increasingly off about myself.

The most obvious example was becoming sensitive to emotions, as I mentioned earlier.

So I’d long suspected that my personality would change eventually too.

But even though I knew it, the sensation of being contaminated by something that wasn’t me was still chilling and eerie.

As my expression hardened, Kaiden showed concern while still maintaining some caution due to our earlier joke.

“Sigh… Back to the main point… Are you hurting anywhere? You’re not planning another strange joke, are you?”

“I’m not in pain, and I’m not planning any jokes, so don’t worry.”

I ignored the unpleasant sensation crawling up my spine and refocused on the conversation.

“Well, take these first.”

He held out two items to me.

“A silver badge…? And this isn’t my sword…?”

One was an adventurer’s badge.

The other was a sword far better crafted than the one I had been using.

Both were unexpected.

‘Shouldn’t adventurers normally start with a bronze badge?’

When registering as an adventurer, starting with a bronze badge is standard.

No matter how strong an individual is, they must start with bronze and accumulate achievements to earn a silver badge.

‘When I asked Nelly, there wasn’t any difference…’

As if understanding my confusion, Elena began to explain briefly.

“Regarding the adventurer’s badge, Kaiden used a special promotion right he had.”

With this explanation, I finally understood how I received a silver badge.

A special promotion right is like a hidden piece that can be obtained through S-rank adventurers or guild masters.

I had researched this route early on since nothing was better at the beginning, but I failed.

‘The conditions are difficult to meet, and even if you do, it’s random whether an NPC will have it, so I gave up.’

So it was something I had tucked away in a corner of my memory, and I could only say I was lucky.

“Thanks to that, your current rank is C-rank, silver badge. Besides the higher rank, there are various benefits, so check them out later.”

“It doesn’t seem like something easily used. Is there a special reason you used it on me?”

I looked at him suspiciously.

Simply because I seemed talented? That couldn’t be it.

‘If he were selecting based on talent alone, he would have chosen someone else long ago.’

Moreover, the look in his eyes suggested he had something to ask of me.

“Indeed, you have good intuition. That makes this conversation easier.”

He looked at me curiously for a moment, then spoke directly without embellishment.

“Become my disciple.”

“Your disciple?”

“Well, being my disciple will be a bit different from what others do.”

I had expected the offer to become his disciple.

As I was considering which route would be best, I expressed my doubt at his following words.

“What do you mean by different?”

“Other guys take their disciples to some mountain and teach them their sword techniques… I won’t do that. My sword style doesn’t suit you anyway. And I’ve never taught anyone before.

So, when you think you’ve grown enough, come find me. If you satisfy me, I’ll give you a gift.”

From a gamer’s perspective, he was offering level-up rewards.

‘This is a hundred, no, a thousand times more beneficial for me than for a newbie without a growth route.’

I questioned whether this truly constituted a master-disciple relationship, but I was satisfied with the proposal since it meant I wouldn’t have to waste time unnecessarily.

Of course, the conversation wasn’t over yet.

I had only heard about my benefits from becoming his disciple.

“That sounds good for me, but what do you want from having me as your disciple?”

“Ah, mainly two things. One is watching you grow. I’m curious how far someone who hasn’t learned proper swordsmanship can go with proper training.

The other is that I want to put my damn friend in his place. He’s always bragging about his disciple… so you’ll need to crush that disciple to pieces.”

It seemed like the former was the pretext, and the latter was his true intention.

Well, I decided to let it slide since it worked out well for me.

That concluded the discussion about the adventurer’s badge.

Throughout our conversation, I had been curious about the sword, so I finally asked about it.

“But where did my old sword go, and why are you giving me a new one?”

“Ah… about that? Let’s call it a master’s gift to his disciple…?”

When I asked about the sword, Kaiden suddenly started sweating.

Finding his behavior suspicious, I stared at him intently until Elena stepped in to explain the details.

“The sword Frey was using was damaged by a certain idiot who couldn’t control his strength. So we had to prepare a new one.”

“Ahaha… that’s the reason.”

After hearing Elena’s explanation and seeing my narrowed gaze, Kaiden finally surrendered, and only then did I stop glaring.

“That sword saved my life… It helped me defeat a giant Demonic Wolf too.”

Instead, I put on an extremely sad expression.

As if that sword had a very long story behind it.

“I-I’m sorry! That’s why I brought you an even better sword.”

“Today, I was almost killed by the hands of a cruel human who once again saved me…”

Kaiden tried to emphasize the compensation he had provided with the new sword.

But when I mentioned his final strike where he failed to control his strength, he finally sank.

“Ah… well, is there anything you want? Just say it. I’ll buy it for you.”

“Then, I’ll ask for just one thing.”

I quickly stopped pretending to be sad and stated my request, afraid he might change his mind.

‘I’m getting quite a lot out of just fainting once.’

“Huh…?”

“I’ll be in your care, then?”

Kaiden belatedly realized he had been tricked.

* * *

The next morning.

“Having a robe makes things much more comfortable.”

I was walking down the street with my face hidden by the robe I had received from the guild as compensation for my damaged sword.

Unlike yesterday, when I attracted stares after just a few steps, today was much more pleasant thanks to the robe.

My destination was the guild’s official library.

Originally, it would have been a lower priority since the sections I needed were restricted due to rank issues.

“May I see your adventurer’s badge, please?”

“Here it is.”

“…Verified. Have a good day.”

With a silver badge, especially one with special promotion benefits applied, there were no problems.