Strangely Familiar
"Again."
"Hah… hah…"
"Too slow. At that pace, you couldn't cut down an ogre, let alone a demon."
"No… you're just too fast, Knight Commander…"
"Again."
Roughly ten days had passed since Adela's training began.
In the very first exchange, every last hero had been sent straight into the Goddess's embrace — but that had only been to demonstrate the gap between them. After that, Adela restrained her power and continued sparring with the resurrected heroes, and qualified candidates began to emerge in short order.
Nya-nya and Ka-zen, who fought primarily with magic, passed on the third day. Yong-ba and Yugi made it on the fifth. Hidene passed on the seventh. And on the ninth day, one of them deserted.
I'm quitting. I don't think I can do this.
One of the two remaining failures. Whether she had simply sensed that elimination was inevitable or had planned to leave all along, she walked away. There had been a few deserters before, but she was the first to state it outright. I nodded and told her I understood.
That left a single unqualified candidate.
He stamped his feet and begged Adela for a spar by any means necessary, but it was no use. Watching his attempts grow fewer and farther between, I wondered if he might follow the deserter out the door.
And so came the night of the tenth day.
Clang! Claaang! Screeech…!
"Urgh…!"
"Again."
"Why am I the only one getting worked this hard?!"
"Don't take it poorly. It means this Knight Commander thinks highly of you."
"If I fail, it's over…!"
"Is that so?"
In practical terms, the only one who still hadn't passed Adela's sparring was Haring.
She was the sole hero in the nest who wielded a sword. Whether mercenaries or heroes, sword-users were common enough elsewhere — yet for some reason, they were vanishingly rare here.
Haring kept charging in with the practice blade I had given her, and Adela simply turned every strike aside with ease.
Thud…! Clang!
"Ghk!"
Whoosh!
Once again Adela deflected Haring's attack and leveled her wooden sword at the girl's throat.
"Again."
"…I appreciate the extra training, I do. But why only me?"
"You are the only one who uses a sword."
"Then just make the others use one too. If you told them to pick up a sword, they would."
"There is no time."
Whoosh!
Adela gripped her wooden sword. Instead of thrashing Haring as usual, she began to flow through a sword form in the empty air — elegant, fluid. At times the blade was razor-sharp; at others it moved so softly one almost feared the form would collapse under its own grace.
Haring watched, eyes wide, drinking in every motion.
Whip!
When the wooden sword was withdrawn, golden afterimages scattered and faded in the air.
"The time this Knight Commander has to teach all of you is two weeks at most. I cannot spare more, so I will instruct only those who show promise."
"…It's not like I'm some amazing swordswoman or anything."
"It is not merely a matter of familiarity with the weapon. In learning His swordsmanship, you appeared to hold the greatest potential."
"Oh? I've got talent? For real?"
"Then we continue."
"I'll take that as a yes! Yes, ma'am!"
Haring reignited her resolve and pressed on with the sparring. Elsewhere, heroes watched Adela and Haring trade blows, trained off on their own, or practiced magic — each of them occupied with something of their own.
Heroes who grew and improved without me having to teach a single one of them. I gazed upon the scene with quiet satisfaction…
"Kuaaaa…"
…and fell asleep.
"Fire Dragon."
"Nngh… five more minutes…"
"Fire Dragon. Two weeks have passed."
"Huh? Already?"
"Yes."
At Adela's call I opened my eyes and rose from where I lay. Being in dragon form, I Polymorphed first, then stretched long and luxurious.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah. Slept enough."
There had been noise in between, but with heroes that loud, what could you do? I had managed to treat it as white noise and sleep through it. After a proper rest for the first time in a while, I almost felt refreshed.
This much refreshment from a mere two weeks?
"This is why power naps are essential for health…"
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. More importantly — did everyone do okay?"
"I have taught them all self-defense and basic swordsmanship at the least. To the hero named Haring, who showed the most talent, I had her learn the foundations of Airi-style Swordsmanship."
"And the ones who passed?"
"Six in total, including Hero Haring, who passed on the fourteenth day."
The fourteenth day.
Even in my sleep I had caught snatches of Haring whining that she was about to wash out — but she had pulled it off in the end. Of course, Adela had deliberately held her back for the sake of training.
Anyway. That aside…
I stared at Adela, who had finished preparing to leave.
Well. The good times are over.
Having her handle the training by proxy for two weeks had been peaceful and wonderful. Once she left, I would have to supervise the heroes myself again. And with the golem broken on top of that, I would have to watch them even more closely.
The pleasant feeling drained away, and a creeping sense of annoyance began to take its place.
"Hmm…"
"Is something troubling you?"
"…Does the kingdom happen to have any spare golems?"
"Pardon?"
"The golem I got from the former Tower Master broke. Going all the way to the Magic Kingdom is a pain, so I need a replacement."
"Why do you need a golem?"
"Well…"
I gave her a rough explanation of the golem's purpose and the heroes. Even though I kept it as brief as possible, Adela nodded as though she understood everything.
"So the heroes have been living in the nest so long they disturb your peace, Fire Dragon."
"Yeah. But kicking them out at this point feels weird. Wait — should I just kick them out?"
I spread my fingers, then folded them one by one.
I had taught them an excellent mana cultivation method. Taught them magic. Planned to hand out decent weapons.
That's everything, right?
Was there really anything more I needed to do? Wouldn't the proper course of action be to write down five years' worth of training material in a book, hand it over, and go back to sleep?
Adela shook her head and spoke.
"Then assign them missions."
"Missions?"
"Yes. Have them hunt certain monsters, or fetch something for you — errands of that nature."
"And how does that change anything?"
"Simply by completing missions, the heroes grow stronger. It is a mysterious grace the Goddess has bestowed upon this generation of heroes."
"…They get stronger just from running errands?"
"Yes. The precise reason is unknown… but I suspect it is the Goddess's design for the immortal heroes."
"…"
"To cherish and love this world…"
"…"
"Is something the matter?"
"It feels strangely familiar."
Someone issues a mission. Complete it, and you receive a reward and grow stronger. That was exactly like…
"Like a quest."
A word I had heard constantly in my previous life. And one I seemed to have heard a few times even in this one, recently.
"Safe travels!"
"Knight Commander unnie! See you again!"
"Adela! Adela! Adela!"
"Don't gooooo!!!"
Adela waved back at the heroes' heartfelt send-off as she left the nest. She may have been the one who beat them senseless and killed them more times than they could count, but the Knight Commander had been sincere in teaching them. She had focused on Haring, yes — but she had given the other heroes the attention they needed as well.
I sat on a rock watching them go, and a thought struck me.
Come to think of it, Bahamart told me to teach Adela.
In two whole weeks, all I had done was spar with her once and then dump the hero training on her. A flicker of guilt rose, then I shook my head.
If she wanted real teaching, she should have stayed half a year, not two weeks.
You couldn't expect much from a mere two-week visit. Besides, Adela was already a complete package — Bahamart-style mana cultivation and Airi-style Swordsmanship both fully mastered. The only thing I could really have taught her was magic.
"Just giving her a few precautions was probably enough."
Anyway, I had done what I needed to do.
That aside…
"Lea!"
"What do we do now?"
"I almost made two stars!"
"About the golem — when is it coming back…"
"Lea?"
I looked down at the heroes in silence. After about five minutes of wordless staring, the heroes who had been laughing and chattering abruptly turned serious. The atmosphere, better than it had ever been just moments before, had gone ice-cold.
I smiled as I watched the users cluster together and murmur among themselves, just like a bunch of rabbits.
"From now on, you're my official disciples."
"What?"
"Y-you mean it?!"
"Yeah."
"Woooaaaah!!"
"Ooooh!!"
At a single declaration from me, the heroes threw their heads back and cheered at the sky. The six heroes who had survived to the very end. Calling immortal heroes "survivors" was a little ridiculous, but still — six who had neither quit nor lacked talent.
Whether they would break free of the mass-produced-hero mold going forward was something only time would tell.
"And to my newly official disciples, your first mission…"
"Ohh! An official mission?"
"What is it? We'll do it right away!"
"Are you giving us weapons, maybe…"
"No."
"Huh?"
Yeah, "mission" still didn't sit right. I needed a word that was a little more refined — a little more familiar. A word the heroes had surely heard coming and going any number of times, yet for some reason had never paid much attention to.
I decided to define the task like this:
"I'll give you a quest."
A quest.