Chapter 3
Chapter 3
First Meeting (2)
"...Run, commoner."
Yuki forced out in a cracked voice.
She was gripping the practice iron sword with trembling hands.
A heavy lump of metal without an edge.
There was no way that could even scratch the hide of that mad boar.
And yet, this stubborn young lady refused to step back.
"I said go! You’re a man! You’re supposed to protect a woman—!"
"Protect, my foot."
I lightly tapped Yuki’s shoulder and stepped beside her.
"Put that heavy thing down before you talk. At this rate, your wrist will give out before the boar even gets here."
"Y-you idiot, do you not understand the situation?! That thing is a monster! It tears people apart!"
Ignoring Yuki’s scream-filled warning, I slowly drew the dagger at my waist.
An old dagger my father gave me to drive away wild animals.
But it was also the weapon I had secretly trained with in the forest.
Feeling the cold touch of the blade, I steadied my breathing.
My heart slowed, but my senses sharpened.
Boom!
At last, the boar kicked off the ground and lunged.
It was unbelievably fast for its size. A black shadow filled my vision as it rushed toward us. Yuki couldn’t even scream, raising her sword in front of her chest and shutting her eyes tight.
Now.
I grabbed Yuki around the waist as if shielding her and threw us both aside.
Crash—!
The massive tree where we had just been standing shattered in an instant.
Wood fragments flew everywhere, and Yuki, held in my arms, gasped for breath.
"You... what are you doing...!"
"Be quiet. You’ll bite your tongue."
I roughly shoved Yuki into a safe spot beyond the bushes.
The boar, enraged at missing its target, snorted as its tusks dug into the broken tree trunk.
Then it turned its head back toward me.
I’d rather not become a skewer.
"No! Run!"
Yuki’s scream echoed through the forest. But strangely, my body remained calm.
The essence of a fight is using the opponent’s strength and exploiting a fleeting opening.
Not like that angry swordplay she had been showing, but something I had developed in this dull village—through reading books and observing animals.
The boar charged again.
This time, faster and in a straight line.
I didn’t dodge.
Instead, I gripped the dagger in reverse and lowered my stance.
When the boar’s red eyes came right up to my face.
Not yet.
When the smell of its coarse fur stabbed my nose.
Now.
Crash—!
The massive body of the boar struck the spot where I had just been standing, kicking up dirt.
But I had already slipped into its blind spot, past its left hind leg.
Planting my left hand on the ground to steady myself, I drove the dagger in my right hand deep into the back knee joint—right where the tendon was weakest.
Crunch—
A sickening sensation traveled up my wrist.
Kiiieeeek—!
A deathly scream burst out, shaking the entire forest.
With the tendon in its hind leg severed, the boar lost its balance and collapsed to the ground.
Dust filled the air, covering both Yuki and me.
"Cough... cough..."
Yuki sat on the ground, staring blankly at the scene.
The boar writhed in pain, trying to stand, but with one leg useless, it could only spin in place before disappearing into the bushes.
I calmly brushed off the dust and stood up. Drops of the beast’s blood fell from the tip of my dagger.
"It’s not dead. I just disabled one leg. If we run now, it won’t be able to chase us."
I dusted off my clothes and turned to Yuki.
She sat there, staring at me in a daze.
Her silver hair was disheveled, and the arrogant young lady from before was nowhere to be seen.
"...How is this possible."
A small voice slipped from her trembling lips.
"You... you’re a man. How could you do something like that..."
"Is there a rule that says a man can’t hold a blade?"
I replied indifferently, wiping the blood off my dagger on the nearby grass.
"Don’t lie! That just now—that was a movement technique used by my family! How could you possibly...!"
"I learned it by watching."
"What?"
"When you were swinging that iron sword earlier, I was watching your steps and how you shifted your weight. I tried copying it roughly, and it worked."
I wiped the dagger clean on the grass.
Then I straightened my disheveled clothes and slowly stood up.
Every muscle in my body screamed, but I tried to keep my expression as calm as possible.
"I told you. You don’t have to hold a sword to understand it."
I approached the still-dazed Yuki.
Her violet eyes were no longer arrogant, but filled with an indescribable mix of emotions.
"You... what are you?"
Yuki pointed at me with a trembling hand. To her, I was no longer just a countryside boy reading books idly.
"Just an ordinary villager who likes reading. Now that the danger’s over, let’s go."
Yuki couldn’t respond.
Instead, something more intense than anything before began to burn in her violet eyes.
"...Tell me your name. I need to know."
"Ian. Miss, you should get up. Before that thing comes back."
I reached out a hand to help her up. But instead of taking my hand, Yuki grabbed the hem of my clothes tightly with her trembling hand.
"Ian... teach me that."
"What?"
"Please. There’s no one my age who can do that. So... teach me."
For a brief moment, my face overlapped in her eyes.
I had a bad feeling my life was about to become troublesome.
"I refuse."
"...What?"
A little while later, the village head and villagers who had rushed to the mountain after hearing about the commotion witnessed a strange sight.
A half-dead giant boar lay collapsed on the path, and behind it, the silver-haired young lady Yuki, covered in dirt, was trailing after Ian.
Kara, the blacksmith’s daughter who claimed to have seen it first, ran down to the villagers in excitement.
"Did you see that just now? Ian’s crazy! He just swung once and the boar went down! From today on, I’m calling him Big Brother Ian... no, Sister Ian!"
"Hey, don’t exaggerate. Ian took down a boar? More like the boar took down Ian."
"I’m serious! The young lady was just standing there in shock!"
But Kara’s cries were swallowed by the wave of common sense and faded away.
The villagers all thought the same.
"Oh my, child. Ian’s so frail, how could he do something like that? He’s always stuck in the study—how could he possibly hunt a beast?"
"Exactly. It must have been our noble young lady who defeated the monster with some secret technique."
"No, I’m telling you! Ian just went swish! and the boar went bam!"
"Ian is too weak for that. You must have been so shocked watching the young lady defeat it that you got confused."
At the village head’s conclusion, people nodded in relief.
A noble young lady defeated the monster with a secret method, and the poor village boy Ian collapsed from shock.
That was the most comfortable version of reality for them to accept.
And so, the boar incident settled into the villagers’ memories in a distorted form.
Yuki, who had stood blankly beside the boar’s body, was seen as exhausted after defeating a strong enemy, while I, brushing dirt off nearby, became the pitiful boy who had hidden behind her in fear.
I didn’t bother correcting the misunderstanding.
In fact, I welcomed it.
"Ian, you must have been so frightened by the boar that you collapsed. Here, drink this herbal decoction."
Under my mother’s worried gaze, I leaned against the bed and turned a page of my book. In truth, I wasn’t sick—I just didn’t feel like going to the forest and used it as an excuse.
"What will you do being so timid as a man? If it weren’t for the young lady, it would have been a disaster."
My mother handed me a warm herbal drink, stroking my head as if I were a pitiful son. I feigned a pale expression and nodded.
"Yes, Mother. My heart still feels like it’s trembling."
In the villagers’ perception, I was perfectly established as a pretty-faced but weak boy.
I didn’t correct the misunderstanding. Instead, I actively used it. Whenever I coughed lightly or pretended to lift something heavy, the neighborhood women would say, "Oh dear, Ian! That’s for girls to do!" and do it for me.
It was an efficient life.
But there was one existence that disrupted this peaceful deception.
"...I know you’re not sick."
A cold voice came from beyond the window.
Turning my head, I saw Yuki sitting on the window frame, her silver hair swaying.
The frightened girl from a few days ago was gone, replaced by her usual arrogant gaze. But within it burned a strange desire.
"Where in etiquette does it say a noble young lady can climb into someone else’s window?"
"Be quiet. You’re deceiving the villagers. I saw everything. That technique you used to slip between the boar’s movements... even I couldn’t do that."
Yuki jumped into the room and approached me. She grabbed my hand roughly and examined my palm.
"You don’t even have calluses. How does that kind of power come out of you?"
I sighed and pulled my hand away.
"It’s not about strength. It’s about drawing."
"My talent isn’t some blessed strength or mana like others have."
"Since I was young, the world looked like lines and surfaces to me."
"The angle leaves sway in the wind, the trajectory of falling droplets, the subtle vibrations created when living beings move."
"I became obsessed with drawing all of that in my own way."
"While others held embroidery needles, I searched through books. While the village girls swung wooden swords, I used a small blade to draw lines in the air."
"To me, swordsmanship isn’t force—it’s the art of drawing the most efficient line out of inefficient movements."
"Drawing...?"
"Everything has a grain. I just see it more clearly than others."
Yuki’s eyes widened.
She seemed to think over my words, then spoke firmly.
"Teach me. That technique you use."
"And if I refuse?"
"I’ll go to the village square and shout that Ian is actually incredibly strong. That you go to the mountains every night and split rocks with your bare hands!"
...That’s a pretty low-level threat.
But effective.
The moment that rumor spread, my peaceful life would be over.
Then Yuki took out a pouch from her waist and held it out. Inside were shining gold coins and several rare books from the capital.
A stick and a carrot—how very fitting.
"This is payment for information and tuition. And I promise. What happens in this forest will remain a secret between the two of us."
I glanced at the titles of the books. "Ancient Empire Military Strategies." Something I could never obtain in a rural village.
"...Ha, you’re really persistent."
Scratching my head, I picked up the practice sword lying on the ground.
"But I have one condition. In the village, you must act like you look down on me the most."
"That’s not difficult. It’s my natural personality anyway."
In the end, I got up from the bed and put on my coat.
"...Just one hour. And absolutely no one can find out that I’m teaching you. I want to live quietly, get married, and take it easy."
"Hmph, don’t worry. My pride wouldn’t allow me to learn swordsmanship from someone like you. I’m just... stealing the secret."
Yuki pouted and took the lead. But I didn’t miss the slight redness at the tips of her ears.
Avoiding the villagers’ eyes, we headed to a hidden clearing deep in the forest. Yuki held out her iron sword, and I picked up a thin branch from the ground.
"Now, swing it. Like you usually do."
Yuki swung her sword with force. Swish—! A sharp sound cut through the air, but I simply tilted my head slightly and avoided the trajectory.
"Your movements are too large. The timing of your left shoulder contracting is too fast. The line is leaking out through that gap."
"What? What does that even—!"
I lightly tapped the underside of her wrist with the branch.
It was a very small force, but striking precisely where the lines converged caused her sword to fall to the ground helplessly.
"What you just saw is my technique. Pick it up again. The night is long."
Yuki alternated her gaze between the fallen sword and me. Reflected in her violet eyes, I was no longer a frail boy.
As if entranced, she picked up the sword again.
In this forest, the two of us faced each other.
A flawed teacher, and a greedy student chasing his technique.
"Ian, have you ever seriously thought about becoming a knight?"
"It sounds like a hassle. I just like reading books."