Sword Lord (1)
Sword Lord (1)
We searched through the mountains.
Because there was a chance the Thunderbird hadn't been defeated and might still be there.
We spent a long time searching, even getting cooperation from the soldiers, but there was no Thunderbird. In other words, it had been defeated in front of the cave.
'This was a seriously sweet mission.'
Everything we prepared was useless. I felt a bit empty, but also relieved.
As the sun began to set, we started to withdraw. We'd keep searching through Thursday and Friday, and if it wasn't there, we'd just report it as defeated.
"Only two days left of hotel life."
Lee Ji-ah muttered listlessly. It seemed she liked hotel life more than she thought. The service here was definitely good, and every single item was high-class. The food was incredibly diverse and delicious, too. It was packed with elements that women would love.
"Si-woo, do you want to go eat, too?"
"I'm going to take a quick shower."
I said, running my hand through my hair. I had just finished training at the hotel's training gym and had sweated a lot.
"Really? Then we'll wait for you."
As Lee Ji-ah spoke, Kim Harin also nodded in agreement. I wondered if there was any need to wait, but recalling that women like to act in groups, I nodded and went up to take a shower.
After roughly finishing my shower using the rosemary body wash, shampoo, and conditioner whose scent I liked, I put on a light short-sleeved shirt and shorts and headed down to the dining hall, only to feel a buzz of commotion.
"I'm not dreaming right now, am I?"
"Y-yeah."
I saw familiar brown hair and pink hair. Lee Ji-ah and Kim Harin were staring blankly in one direction, muttering to each other.
I turned my eyes in that direction, too. A woman with blue hair that reached her neck, as if it had been plucked strand by strand from the sea. She was dressed casually in a white short-sleeved t-shirt and black skinny jeans. She stood there with a desolate expression, possessing eyes the same blue as her hair.
'Sword Mistress?'
If Heroes of the Middle Assault are called true heroes, heroes of 'High Rank' or above symbolize the power of their respective nations. They are genuine monsters, numbering fewer than 1,000 even if you searched the entire world.
The Sword Mistress, Nam Da-yoon, was a figure expected to rise to the very top rank of heroes—fewer than 50 people—among those high-ranking heroes before long.
Someone like the Sword Mistress shouldn't have any reason to stay in a place like this. Even if the Signature Hotel is the best in Osan, to put it another way, it's ultimately just the best hotel in Osan.
For a person like the Sword Mistress, it wouldn't be strange for the government to support her with a Warp Gate so she could stay at one of the top three hotels in the country.
"Could we... get an autograph?"
"Wouldn't that be difficult? Sword Mistress-nim has her own private life, too."
Lee Ji-ah said this with a serious expression, while Kim Harin looked troubled. Come to think of it, the Sword Mistress had many similarities to Lee Ji-ah.
Both the Sword Mistress and Lee Ji-ah didn't know about their talents due to penalty traits, but were discovered by the principal's divine artifact, the Eye of the Sky, enrolled in the Hero Academy, and blossomed their talents.
In short, it means there's a high possibility that Lee Ji-ah's future will be that of the Sword Mistress. Of course, with the fortuitous encounters I'll get for her, Lee Ji-ah will grow much faster.
"Let's go eat."
"Gasp, Si-woo, are you hungry now?"
"Yeah. I'm starving to death."
I nodded at Lee Ji-ah's fussing, rubbed my stomach, and said it playfully.
That was when it happened.
I felt an intense gaze from somewhere. Puzzled, I turned my head, and there was the Sword Mistress. Her blue eyes were shaking violently as she stared at me.
"Si-woo...?"
She quietly muttered my name. However, as someone who had barely managed to reach the level of a superhuman, it was a voice I could hear. Why was the Sword Mistress calling my name?
'Uh...?'
Something came to mind at her reaction. Nam Da-yoon's younger brother's name was Si-woo. Nam Si-woo. Is it you again, Si-woo?
Come to think of it, the appearance was similar, too. Though I'm a bit more handsome...
The moment I thought that far, she was right 'in front' of me. As if she had been there from the beginning, she had approached me and was looking at me.
She must have used Chukji, one of her traits. It was no surprise that I missed her movement.
Her movement technique, which folds space to travel, boasts mobility fast enough to be counted in the top five within the game.
"......."
Her blue eyes, which resembled the sea, kept shaking. Her trademark expressionless face kept changing, as if the word 'astonishment' was carved into it.
Emotions like joy, ecstasy, astonishment, and doubt could be felt.
Her eyes began to slowly scan me from my feet to my head.
"The same."
She said, as if moaning.
I didn't say, "What's the same?" She was probably trying to say I looked just like her younger brother... Nam Si-woo, who died at the hands of a villain.
"Excuse me?"
I said it to her, almost as if tossing the words out without thinking. I realized my mistake immediately after saying it. I cleared my throat and spoke to her.
"Ahem. Sword Mistress, Nam Da-yoon-nim, right? Did you have something to say to me?"
"By any chance."
"Yes?"
"By any chance, w-what is your name?"
She tried to feign bluntness, but her voice kept trembling.
"It's Lee Si-woo."
"Si-woo..."
It seems she didn't hear the 'Lee'. Nam Da-yoon kept muttering Si-woo. Si-woo, Si-woo, Si-woo. For some reason, I got goosebumps.
"Excuse me."
There was a beautiful voice cutting between me and Nam Da-yoon. It was Lee Ji-ah.
"Do you happen to know Si-woo?"
"Ah, I apologize. You look so much like someone I know."
As if she had regained her composure, Nam Da-yoon spoke bluntly to Lee Ji-ah's question.
"Even the name is the same. Si-woo. It was my younger brother's name."
"Ah."
Lee Ji-ah sighed low. Her younger brother was famous for having been killed by a villain.
In the early days after she graduated from the Hero Academy, she specialized in hunting villains, and it was revealed that her younger brother had been murdered by a villain, which had garnered the sympathy of the entire nation.
"Nam Si-woo. That was my brother's name. I heard the same name and looked at Lee Si-woo-nim, but you looked so much like my younger brother that I made a mistake without realizing it. I apologize."
She bowed her head and apologized. I waved my hands, saying it was fine.
"It's fine. Well, things like that can happen."
"No, it was rude of me... It's not much of an apology, but may I treat you to a meal?"
A meal? I looked at Kim Harin and Lee Ji-ah for a moment. Lee Ji-ah had an expectant expression, and Kim Harin was the same. They were probably thinking about how to act while recalling the Sword Mistress's profile in their heads.
'Though I'm the same.'
I recalled what the Sword Mistress liked and disliked. Those two things were easy to know. Because there was a Sword Mistress fanboy in the Loque community.
What she likes are chocolate and macarons. She looks like an expressionless cold-blooded person, but she goes crazy for sweets. Her hobby is collecting famous swords or precious swords.
What she dislikes are mushrooms, bell peppers, and carrots. She dislikes them because the texture is weird and they don't taste good. She also dislikes sea cucumbers or sea anemones. Because they're ugly.
And the thing to be careful about is...
'It's about her younger brother.'
I think I can skip this. No, rather, it seems Nam Da-yoon will be the one talking about it, not me.
And to get close to her, talking about villains was good. They said if you ask what a certain villain's weakness is, you can get close to her quickly.
Nam Da-yoon opened her mouth, looking at me with a wistful expression.
"Do you happen to like meat?"
I nodded at her words.
I don't think a boy in the middle of puberty would dislike it.
'He looks like him.'
Nam Si-woo.
She quietly muttered her younger brother's name. My only blood relative left after my parents died. It was a name I thought I would never be able to see again.
'No, this isn't just a resemblance...'
Seeing him up close, I knew. It wasn't just a resemblance.
The name was the same, and the height was the same.
She quietly thought of Nam Si-woo. He had long eyelashes. He was a boy who would look up at her with clear eyes like a lake.
A boy who would sometimes play mischievous pranks with a playful expression, but when she was having a hard time, he was the boy who would run to her before anyone else and comfort her.
Si-woo.
When she heard that name and turned her head, she recalled the expression the boy named Lee Si-woo had when he played a prank on the brown-haired girl next to him. The expression Nam Si-woo had when he laughed while playing a prank on her was the same as the expression of the boy named Lee Si-woo.
She remembered the boy who, when she was having a hard time, would smile brightly instead of making a tearful face and tell her it would be okay. She looked at the boy named Lee Si-woo. It made her think, if Si-woo had grown up, would he have grown up like that?
As if Nam Si-woo had been reincarnated as Lee Si-woo.
Pause.
Once her thoughts reached that point, all sorts of ideas began to branch out like tree branches.
"Maybe. Just maybe, could Si-woo have been reincarnated? Because he was worried about me, as a person named Lee Si-woo. If so, it makes sense. Same name. Same appearance. Same height. Same expression..."
She suggested a meal because she wanted to find out more details. Meat, which Nam Si-woo in his previous life liked. He nodded with a bright smile.
"Thank you."
-Thank you, Noona.
The words her younger brother had said overlapped with the boy named Lee Si-woo. The words were different. But the expression was the same. She watched that scene blankly for a moment.
Zzing.
Her phone rang and the screen turned on. A notification popped up. As she turned on her phone, her eyes widened. It was because the title of a novel she enjoyed reading came to mind.
'About Me, Who Reincarnated as a Duke's Daughter, Being Engaged to My Younger Brother from My Previous Life.'
She recalled the contents of the novel. The protagonist dies and is born as a duke's daughter. However, the appearance of her fully grown self after reincarnation was the same as in her previous life.
Then wouldn't Si-woo also be the same as the protagonist in the novel?
She looked at Lee Si-woo with an unreadable expression.