Arrival
Gerard sidled up beside me and muttered in an unusually cautious voice. “Master. We should reach the vicinity of the Royal Capital by noon or early afternoon the day after tomorrow at the latest.”
I understood why he was suddenly so careful. Up ahead, Master and Iris were in the middle of a sparring session. No, correction—calling it a sparring session felt off. It looked more like she was being run ragged like a mad dog.
“You wretch! Already trying to collapse? Get up this instant!”
“Hiiiieeek!!”
“Stop obsessing over speed! The advantage of wielding two swords isn’t speed. It’s the unpredictable attacks that come from having two blades! If you can’t make use of that, they’re worthless!”
Master’s words were entirely correct. Many people, myself included in the past, assumed that dual-wielding would allow for terrifyingly fast attacks—after all, if the opponent strikes once, you can strike twice. But once you actually swing the swords, you realize how foolish that notion is. There is an insurmountable gap in power between a sword swung with two hands and one swung with a single hand. Speed means nothing in the face of that difference. One solid blow and you’d drop the sword you were barely holding.
That was why Master’s emphasis on the true strength of dual-wielding—unpredictable attacks rather than speed—was spot on. Two weapons made it easier to launch sudden strikes from unexpected angles, and you could pressure the opponent with the simple fact that two blades could reach them. Speed wasn’t the key.
“Don’t swing your swords in time with your breathing! Sometimes half a beat faster, sometimes half a beat slower, and sometimes completely reversed! Are you planning to throw away the only advantage you have—unpredictable attacks?”
Master’s method was brutally simple. She didn’t lower herself to the student’s level. She kept grinding them until they climbed up to meet her. She merely bent slightly at the waist. Only when the student reached that point would she straighten and offer the next lesson. If they couldn’t even manage that, they had no right to receive instruction from the Heavenly Demon herself.
It might seem like an utterly merciless way of teaching, but considering she had never taught anyone before and had reached her position solely through her own strength, perhaps this was the gentlest method she could offer.
“Hah, hah!”
“Breathing! I told you not to let your breathing fall apart! Do you still not understand? The moment your breathing breaks is the perfect opening to be struck! Maintain steady breathing even in the moment of death!”
“Hoo, hoo! Y-yes, I understand! Hoo! Grandmaster!”
“No need to answer! I won’t scold you for staying silent. Focus only on your own breathing. Think that if it falters, you die! Pay more attention to each breath you take than to each swing of your sword. I have never seen a strong person whose breathing was irregular, nor a weak person whose breathing was always steady!”
Watching the scene, a thought occurred to me. Maybe Iris had deliberately revealed her dual-wielding to Master. In the future she had experienced, she never received instruction from Master, so perhaps she had let it slip on purpose to gain more teachings. Of course, the result was that she was now being worked to the bone, but she endured without a single complaint.
More than that, I was surprised Iris’s dual-wielding had reached such a level. Watching Master teach her directly, it was clear she had talent. So why hadn’t Largo, that aptitude-testing item, recognized it?
Right now the sword was probably sulking alone back at our lodgings. Despite the grandiose title “Divine Sword” attached to its name, it wasn’t because it was truly magnificent. It just talked to itself and pulled all sorts of bizarre stunts, so “Weird Sword” would have been more fitting. Still, since there were so few items capable of testing aptitudes, it had been granted the name “Divine Sword.” It certainly hadn’t earned the title by cleanly slicing through heaven and earth or anything.
—It must have been tricked.
Largo had definitely been fooled by Iris. The sword only detected clear, outstanding “talent.” It could assess aptitude, but it only picked up on the highest peaks. If Iris’s dual-wielding wasn’t exceptional talent but merely a general level accumulated through long years of real combat, then from Largo’s perspective it might not have seemed particularly remarkable.
“Anyway, what a foolish disciple.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m talking about our youngest. What could possibly be so great that she felt the need to hide it even from Master and me?”
“Perhaps, since she felt she lacked anything outstanding, she wanted to show Master something even more remarkable—her effort.”
Yeah, that wasn’t it, Gerard. The kid was just hiding the fact that she was a regressor. Since you have no way of knowing that, your guess was reasonable enough.
“Master.”
“What.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to move while leaving the attached personnel behind?”
“Ah.”
I nodded at Gerard’s suggestion. While time meant little to the Heroes, even a single day made an enormous difference to ordinary people.
“We’ll stay together until today and depart tomorrow morning. Tell your knights and Iris’s followers to take their time. Naturally, instruct them not to approach the Royal Capital.”
“I could order them to wait here instead.”
“If they’re too far away, people start getting anxious. It’s better to keep them at a distance where the capital can reasonably monitor our entire group.”
“Ah… I hadn’t considered that. My apologies, Master.”
What was he apologizing for? It was nothing. I patted Gerard’s shoulder and was about to focus on the training again when he spoke once more, his tone cautious.
“By the way, Master, there’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while.”
…Don’t tell me this guy had also sensed something strange about Iris? If her secret got out, there would probably be some kind of penalty. Constant suspicion like this wouldn’t lead to anything good. I looked at Gerard with a hint of tension, silently hoping he would just keep his mouth shut even if something felt off.
“It’s about Grandmaster.”
“…Grandmaster? What about my master?”
“I already knew she was a rather strict person. But when she’s teaching the youngest, she seems even harsher than usual—almost excessively so.”
At his words, I unconsciously turned my head. Until now I had simply thought Master had grown closer to Iris and had been viewing it positively, but hearing Gerard’s observation, it did seem… rough. No, perhaps “harsh” was the right word after all.
“Don’t swing that pathetic excuse for a sword! Are you a kitten? I told you to move your hands, not flap them around!!”
Listening to Master’s booming voice, I got the feeling Iris was in for quite a bit of suffering. Not just a little—quite a lot.
A plain not far from the Royal Capital. A group of infantry and knights stood in formation at its center. They hadn’t come out merely for a brief inspection. Their armaments and atmosphere made it immediately clear—they were ready to engage in combat at any moment. They were tense, waiting for something.
Even the knights positioned in the center weren’t ordinary. Anyone could recognize the royal crest they bore. The armor they wore and the swords they carried had all been forged with mana stones. They were the Royal Guard Knights—the one and only group worthy of protecting the single most important existence on the continent. Today, they had left their usual post and come all the way here.
“Vice-Commander. It looks like they’re coming over there.”
One of the Royal Guard Knights pointed toward the horizon. At his words, the vice-commander narrowed his eyes and looked in that direction. After a short while, the tiny dot gradually grew larger.
“Is it them?”
“It appears so. There’s a carriage but no escort in sight. More than anything, the timing is too perfect for it to be anyone else.”
“Hmm.”
The vice-commander nodded and gave a hand signal. The already disciplined soldiers grew even more rigid, their focus sharpening further. The sharp aura radiating from them was so intense it felt as though they were about to charge into a bloody battle against tens of thousands of enemies.
“Whoa, whoa.”
Finally, a single carriage arrived before them. The Royal Guard Knights couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
“The Holy War?”
The title “Holy War” was another name for Gerard, the Guardian Hero. The reason for their startled voices and the use of that title was simple. The Hero who was supposed to be riding inside the carriage was instead sitting in the coachman’s seat, driving the horses.
“Hup-cha.”
What came next was even more surprising.
“Peerless!”
The woman who had once knocked out dozens of knights with a single punch and whose kicks could crush monsters—the Fighter Hero, Iris—was stepping down from the carriage while carrying several pieces of luggage.
“…”
“…”
It was bewildering, as it should be. Each of them possessed tremendous social prestige. Even if they didn’t enjoy as much public support as the Shadow Hero, their martial prowess alone was extraordinary. That was what it meant to be a “Hero.” Naturally, their confidence and pride should have been immense. Even ordinary knights carried pride in themselves, yet here were Heroes—one acting as a coachman, the other playing the role of a porter.
Whoosh!—Gerard leapt down from the coachman’s seat as if the knights’ reactions didn’t matter. With an extremely respectful demeanor, he opened the carriage door and spoke.
“Master. We’ve arrived.”
He even stepped back several paces, worried he might obstruct Master’s descent. The sight of the Guardian Hero bowing deeply at the waist was nothing short of shocking to the Royal Guard Knights who had met him before.
Tap, tap—.
Escorted by the Hero, a man stepped out of the carriage. Unlike the sturdy Gerard, he had a slender, well-balanced physique. His appearance leaned more toward a gentle impression than a fierce one—more of a handsome man who seemed far removed from rough battles. At most, he looked to be in his mid-twenties.
As he alighted from the carriage, he spoke casually.
“Is that the Royal Capital over there, my disciple?”
“Yes, Master.”
The master of the Heroes had finally arrived at the Royal Capital.