Getting to Know Him (1)
The blade hummed through the air. She thrust, parried, then cut and fell back. Every hand that reached, every foot that advanced, settled exactly where it belonged. The whole of it flowed like water—smooth, elegant, unbroken. Sunlight glanced off the steel and shattered into glittering shards, until it seemed she were scattering light itself.
The last stroke—the one that would have finished her opponent—hung frozen in empty air.
"Haa..."
Another form came to an end, and Sien slowly drew her sword back.
She could feel it now, unmistakably, even without anyone telling her. The path of her blade, once cramped and dull, had become utterly natural. She had grown—there was no comparing this to what she had been before. Steady training. A resolve she had set her heart upon. And someone good enough to lead her forward. Perhaps that was why she had found her stride so quickly.
A light round of applause sounded a few paces behind her.
"Well done, Lady Sien."
Her escort had been watching everything. Adel clapped once more, then gestured toward a seat, poured water he had prepared ahead of time, and set the glass before her. Every motion was so natural it was as if he had been raised from the cradle to serve as her guard.
"..."
"...Lady Sien?"
Sien did not sit in the seat he offered. She simply stood there, looking at him.
"Is something the matter?"
Then a soft little laugh slipped out of her. Adel could only tilt his head, utterly at a loss. He had no idea why she was smiling at him. Still—watching her smile was pleasant, whatever the reason.
"Ahem. Sorry, Adel. It's just... you've adapted to all this surprisingly well."
"...Ah. I understand what you mean."
Three months had already passed since he had entered her service as attendant and escort. Old habits from his former life still slipped out now and then, but he had adapted almost perfectly to every duty a bodyguard required. At some point he had even started taking on a butler's work, bit by bit. Sien, it seemed, still found that side of him fascinating.
"Haa..."
She sat in the seat he had offered and allowed herself a brief rest. She cooled her sweat-soaked body, drank the water he had poured, and breathed in the faint scent of flowers drifting on the breeze.
Time really does fly...
A month had passed since that day. The day she had sat there like a fool, like a coward, drowning in grief. Something that was always going to happen had simply happened—and still she had torn herself down, berating herself as pathetic.
Don't try to do anything about what can't be helped.
She slowly lifted her head and looked at Adel.
You just pretend it doesn't bother you.
She hadn't noticed at all. That even someone as strong and unshakable as him could falter. That he hid it from others and from himself alike, and simply walked his path in silence, step after step.
After receiving that unexpected comfort from Adel, she had fallen into a truly deep sleep that night.
"You shine."
Each word had sent a tremor through her chest. Not a shred of pretense in them—nothing but sincerity. How could anyone remain unmoved before that? Who could stay still in the face of such honesty?
"Lady Sien."
"...Ah. Yes, Adel. What is it?"
"Would you give me your hand for a moment?"
"My hand? Why do you suddenly want my hand...?"
Even as she asked, her body was already offering her hand to the man in front of her.
"May I take a look at your hand?"
"Uh, of course? But why on earth my hand..."
Adel took the hand she offered and began examining it from every angle.
"..."
He was only holding her hand and looking at it. And yet Sien felt as though she had been stripped bare. She was that embarrassed—her skin prickling, her body going rigid. And yet there was something strange about it, too. She was dying of shame, but it didn't feel bad. Other people's eyes on her had always been so unpleasant. Strangely, Adel's gaze didn't bother her at all.
Whether he knew what was going through her mind or not, Adel was absorbed in examining her hand.
"...You've been putting in a great deal of effort."
"Pardon?"
"You must have had no shortage of work, and yet you never let go of the sword."
A person's hands told the whole story—what work they had done, and with what intensity they had done it. When he had first seen her, Sien's hands had not been like this. They had been trained just enough, the way any child of a noble house might be. Now calluses stood out clearly here and there, all of them born from gripping a sword and swinging it. None of them were old. Flesh had grown over torn wounds, torn again, and grown again.
He had seen the bandages wrapped around her hands when she handled her duties. And even on those days, Sien had swung her sword without fail. He had found that somehow pleasing, and so he had pretended not to notice.
"You should be able to hold your own against the knights by now."
"Really? That's wonderful! It hasn't even been half a year yet..."
"That said, being able to hold your own is not the same as being able to win. Climbing the smaller steps is something steady effort can accomplish. Beyond that, it will likely get considerably harder."
True to Adel's nature—a man who had nothing to do with empty hope—he told her, quite frankly, that she still had a long way to go. From here on, simple effort would not be enough. She would need insight as well.
Sien nodded as if she already knew. If swinging a sword a bit were enough to make someone a knight, everyone would be a knight. She had heard that between a person who was merely good with a blade and a true knight, there existed an overwhelming gap that could never be closed. So she understood what Adel was saying perfectly well. And yet she felt a little disappointed, somehow. Sometimes it would be nice if he said something kind instead of that cold assessment. Those calm, warm words he had given her last time—she wanted to hear them just once more. But he never gave her an opening.
"How's your chakra? Any progress?"
"None yet. Still just one band."
"Really? That's strange. It usually doesn't work that way."
Someone as strong as Adel typically had an exceptional sensitivity to chakra as well. Anyone with talent would naturally start adding bands in short order. Even the attendants who hadn't been able to use chakra at all were almost all using it now. One of them had already wrapped a single band around the disk nearly to completion.
If it's Adel, he should have at least two bands by now, no matter what.
Physical ability and chakra sensitivity were precisely proportional. There was no one skilled in the martial arts who couldn't use chakra, and no one riddled with flaws in their martial foundation who excelled at it. You couldn't call the rule absolute, but it held true in the vast majority of cases. Looking at Lichtenauer, Fiore, even the Imperial House itself—all of them prized a knight's martial prowess. That hypothesis was all but confirmed.
"Adel. You've been doing it the way I taught you, haven't you?"
"Of course. Whenever I have time, I sit in meditation, still my mind, and turn the Chakra Disk, focusing on expanding the band. And I don't leave the disk still—I keep it turning at all times."
He was following her instructions exactly. At this point there should have been some change, however small. Even if the band was still only one, even if it hadn't increased—she should at least be able to sense the next one, however faintly. And he said there was nothing.
"Hold on, Adel."
She was supposed to go inside, bathe, and attend to her afternoon duties. But how was she supposed to concentrate after hearing all this?
"Use your chakra the way I taught you."
"Right now?"
"Yes. Right this instant."
At Sien's urging, Adel gathered his focus and concentrated on the flow of the disk. A clear, ringing energy began to well up from within his body, then surged vigorously through his veins to every corner of him.
"...It's done."
"Is the band around the disk still just one?"
"Yes. One."
"Let me check again. Is it really one?"
Adel delayed his answer and focused a little more intently. The disk spinning vigorously near his heart. The number of bands wrapped around it was...
"...One."
"All right. Hold on. Stay just like that for a moment."
Unlike Adel, Sien circulated her chakra with effortless ease. She showed no small talent with the sword, but her greater gift lay in chakra manipulation—which was what made this possible. She concentrated energy at her fingertips and reached forward. And just as she was about to proceed to the next step, she let out a small sigh and parted her lips.
"Um, Adel?"
"Yes, Lady Sien."
"I'm going to take a small liberty. Just for a moment."
"That's quite all right."
"Well, that's a relief, then. So..."
She swallowed without meaning to and reached toward Adel's chest. After a brief hesitation she steeled herself and laid her hand against him.
When one's own command of chakra surpassed the other person's, it was possible to examine them this way.
Sometimes a band splits without the person even realizing it, however faintly... That's what I'm trying to find. Don't think about anything else. Just focus on examining Adel's chakra...
I am absolutely not thinking anything strange. She whispered it to herself again and again as she pressed her hand a little more firmly.
A moment later, the thought that entered Sien's mind was...
Nngh... wow, that's really solid. Wait—no! That's not it!
She shook her head and hurriedly focused on what lay within. The chakra spinning vigorously, the space around the disk. She reached for the shape of the bands, which were directly tied to one's control.
...It really is just one. No. There has to be a place where it's splitting. There has to be...
She patted and prodded, feeling her way along. Sien examined Adel's chakra with complete absorption. So absorbed, in fact, that she forgot she was groping the chest of the man standing in front of her to a degree that was, perhaps, a bit much.
"..."
What was he supposed to do about this. Should he say something, or just endure it. It tickled. It was a little awkward. In any case, he had never experienced anything like this in his life, so Adel could only roll his eyes this way and that, trying to read the room.