A Surprise Gift for Two Women (3)
About two hours before I gave Yeon the sword, the old man said to me:
"The name of that sword is 'Morglay.'"
Morglay. A sword out of medieval English legend — an enchanted blade said to hold tremendous power. The only difference was that the legendary Morglay was said to be large enough to match a grown man in height, while the sword in my hand was a more modest weapon, somewhere between a longsword and a shortsword.
"It holds the formulas my wife helped me with, back in the days when imbuing magical effects gave me trouble. She insisted I manage it with my own power, no matter what."
"Formulas?"
"The sort of magic you'd routinely work into a blade. Of course, in my younger days I struggled with them — without my wife's help, they were beyond me."
"These days, whether thanks to her help or not... I can manage them on my own."
I drew Morglay from its sheath. What met my eyes was a black blade so finely polished it threw back my own reflection, layered over with countless magical workings.
Watching me, the old man slowly began to tell me what enchantments slept within it.
"Sharpness. A spell that raises the blade's keenness."
"Restoration. A spell that mends scratches, small cracks, and nicked edges alike."
"And last, Swiftness. A spell that lightens the wielder's body and lets them move even faster."
A magic sword bearing three enchantments — Morglay. For her, there could be no finer gift.
Back in the present, Yeon — flush with my praise — lifted the ordinary iron sword she'd been swinging until a moment ago. Then she put distance between us and raised her blade.
"I'll show you just how much I've come to love this sword style. Spar with me."
I'd been racking my brain for a natural way to hand Morglay over, and her proposal handed me the answer instead.
"Gladly. Let's spar."
Normally, my right hand would have summoned the Sword of the Azure Sky, my main weapon, dyed sky-blue. But the blade I held now was black — the very opposite of that sky-blue.
"I'm coming at you first! Don't be surprised!"
With that, Yeon swung at me, her blade tracing a line from left to right.
I raised my sword vertically to check her entry and drove a kick toward her abdomen. But of course, her swordplay — laced with that signature flexibility of hers — had no intention whatsoever of taking my kick head-on.
Whoosh!
She simply spun away from the incoming impact, and — her body already mid-rotation — the blade in her hands came around for the spine of Morglay. I dropped my sword at once, slipping free of the edge descending to shear through mine, and quickly opened the distance.
"Now I'll really start showing you — my own sword form, rebuilt from my master's technique."
Butterfly Dream
The blade she charged in with had split from one into two. Anyone else would have been thrown into confusion, but they'd picked the wrong opponent — my intuition was telling me to block the sword on the left.
CLANG!
I parried the twin blades flying at me with room to spare.
"Whaaat?"
So much so that she — the one wielding the technique — was the more startled of the two of us.
Still, why was she calling out technique names? I decided to ask her later. For now, I focused on the spar.
The distance between us had opened in a flash, but Yeon kept her blade swinging without pause. Even as she pressed on, she slipped past my attacks at just the right moments and turned my own strikes against me, her combat sense on fuller display by the second.
Butterfly Dance Among the Flowers
Her sword became a single butterfly, sweeping freely wherever her body flowed. And somewhere in that exchange, something felt off. I was certain I'd blocked cleanly, yet my intuition kept insisting, unmistakably, that that wasn't it.
...Behind me!
CLANG!
Turning my back on a sparring partner was inviting danger, but I trusted my gut, swept my sword behind me, and cut off its path.
"H-how...?!"
"Trait effect."
At my answer, Yeon finally seemed to understand— ...yeah, not even close.
"No way, I was sure you hadn't noticed..! Isn't the Successor of the Four Divine Beasts' trait just broken?!"
I think so too, so rest easy.
The real problem was that even more demons carried abilities more broken than that trait... so it didn't exactly look like cheating.
And so the spar drew to its end — with her never once managing to bring her blade anywhere near me. Of course, I'd only blocked it all thanks to the intuition granted by the Azure Dragon's Authority. Without it, I likely wouldn't even have seen the strike that seemed to split in two mid-flight, let alone the technique that deceived the opponent's senses.
Having realized as much and still unable to beat me, Yeon sat crouched on the floor of the training grounds, utterly deflated.
"Why... why couldn't I even get close...?"
From the energy I could feel off her, she really had rebuilt her swordsmanship and broken through the wall. But at this rate, she'd end up raising a wall where none existed.
"Get up. How long are you planning to stay like that?"
"I'm trash... Master... I guess your disciple just has no talent..."
Yeon, if you said that in front of actual swordsmen, they'd throw rocks at you...
Rebuilding a sword style from the ground up is no child's game — and she'd managed it in five hours. Was "no talent" really a sensible complaint?
Besides, she'd held her own for a long while against a Successor of the Four Divine Beasts, no less...
If I had to name the strongest foes I'd ever faced, I'd pick Gaap and Florence. And if you assumed neither of them could use their authorities — not a guarantee, but Yeon's odds of winning would have been high.
That's how far the sword style she rebuilt had come — in power and in speed alike, beyond anyone's reach.
Seeing this style, even Ryu Shin — that old coot — would be stunned.
Yeon had been the last disciple he ever took in, so Ryu Shin had always trained her with particular severity. In his mind, it probably sprang from worry — that left as she was, she'd fall behind the others and be dragged into their infighting...
But the thing is, Yeon was the only woman among Ryu Shin's disciples.
Why would she ever have felt the need to rebuild her swordsmanship? If there had been even two female disciples counting her, Ryu Shin himself would have overhauled the style. But when he taught her, she was still a child — too young for the differences between men's and women's bodies to show — and watching how well she mimicked the powerful strikes, he must have wanted to plant a hidden card in her: a woman reproducing power strikes with a woman's body.
On Earth as here, plenty of places belittle women and treat them as the weak point. The East Kingdom Ryu Shin belonged to was no exception — if anything it was worse, certainly no better.
Perhaps the idea was for her to serve as a joker card — to startle those who sneered at women with her fiercely aggressive blade and put them in their place. I can't say for certain, since I can't read the man's mind.
But whatever the master intended, the disciple began to struggle as she grew — and beside senior disciples wielding the style with effortless ease, her skill must have seemed to shrink. And sure enough, the wall found her soon enough. As her body changed, she could no longer swing the sword the way she once had, and inevitably, she hit it.
Fortunately, I showed her another way, and she built — in her own fashion — a devastating style that kept the power and the speed alike. Hand her the Morglay I was carrying, and that power would multiply. No one would be able to stand against her. At the very least, even against the senior disciples who'd studied under Ryu Shin before her, the odds looked to be in Yeon's favor.
"What do I do..! What am I supposed to do... Master..!!"
And the owner of that style was carrying on like this over nothing more than having her attacks blocked... Honestly...
Enough marveling. Time for the presentation.
"Up. Now. Come on — how long are you going to lie there?"
"Hnnng...."
Deflated, shoulders still slumped, Yeon took my hand and stretched her legs out flat. She grabbed on and pulled herself up so quickly that her chest gave a little bounce... Pretending I hadn't seen, I spoke.
"There's one thing different about me today. Find it."
Of course, I could have just handed it over... but where's the fun in that?
"Huh? Different how?"
Yeon tilted her head, hunting for the difference, crimson hair whipping this way and that as she searched—
"Hm? Was your sword always black?"
Called it.
A swordsman has to find an opponent's openings and pry them open, so a sharp eye is essential. It's fundamental — and the people and servants alike always said all three of us — me, Yeon, and Ellie — had sharp eyes.
Putting that sharp eye of hers to use, I slid Morglay into its sheath and held it out to her.
"Why are you giving me this?"
The moment I passed her the sword I'd been carrying, she sensed something odd and asked me point-blank. I looked at her face and smiled.
"It's a gift."
"A gift?"
"Yep. You lost yours, didn't you?"
"Wha...? How did you know?"
Her sword had been a blade Ryu Shin handed her before she set out on her long journey, telling her to keep herself safe. It bore no enchantments and was nothing more than an ordinary sword — but to her, it must have meant far more than that. After all, it was the first gift her master had ever given her.
Of course, she'd wandered from place to place, fallen into a trap, and nearly had everything — sword included — taken from her. Everything but the sword had come back to her, so perhaps it didn't matter... Still, seeing her make do with a plain iron sword in place of that special blade was what made the urge to give her this swell.
"Of course I knew. You were kidnapped, weren't you?"
"Yeah."
"And you think your weapon would still be there?"
When we searched the place where the slaves had been bound, there was truly nothing left. If the sword had been there, we'd have found it during the investigation — since we hadn't, it looked like they'd sold it off.
"Right... that was the first sword Master ever gave me..."
And just like that, she sank back into gloom. To soothe her, I urged her to draw the blade.
"Draw it. Just once."
"Okay."
The black blade that slid free was inscribed with blue magical formulas, which glimmered for an instant before fading from sight. But Yeon was far too skilled to miss even that fleeting moment. "What is this?" she asked me.
"It's called 'Morglay.'"
"Morglay?"
Hearing the name, she stared at me as if to say, explain properly.
"It's a magic sword with spells inscribed into the blade."
"Wha...??"
Magical formulas are astronomically expensive. Imbuing a sword — or anything else — with them requires a special technique called enchanting, and enchanting is absurdly difficult. I remember players who specialized in crafting skills dropping like flies because of it. It was so brutal that there was even a running joke asking whether crafting was the game's true endgame content.
"I... I can't accept something like this."
Yeon knew this as well as anyone, and feeling the weight of it, she tried to press the sword back into my hands.
"A sword with magical formulas inscribed on it, no less... It's too much... Honestly, I don't have the money to buy something like this, or the standing to deserve it. Take it back."
"No. You use it."
"Did you not hear what I just said...?"
"I heard. And I know why you won't accept it — why you won't even hold that sword."
"Then... why give it to me...? Why are you treating me like I'm special...? This is the kind of thing you should be giving Ellie..."
"Ellie's getting something better than this, so don't worry. And 'special'... hey. If you're a Sword Master's direct disciple, this much is standard kit."
That's what I said, but...
I was fairly certain Yeon's feelings for me ran deeper than friendship. Our first meeting had certainly been memorable — in quite a different sense. After all, Yeon had first come to me in a state of undress.
"Remember? When the lord tried to attack me — do you remember the look on your face?"
"H-how should I know that."
"A swordsman never abandons their blade, no matter what befalls them."
Those were the words Ryu Shin had hammered into his disciples from the day he took them in — and Yeon was counted among them, of course. Yet to save me, she had chosen to defend even as her sword broke — knowing full well that once it shattered, she'd have no weapon to reach for. Ryu Shin was, above all, a man who despised breaking or throwing away swords. If he could go back and watch Yeon in that moment, he'd have clutched the back of his neck — I never taught you that, he'd say.
For Yeon — with that teaching drilled into her body and mind — to throw away the very act of protecting her sword and bar my way? Something felt off. Suspicious, I rudely laid hands on her body to check — and far from rejecting me, she drew closer and asked for instruction. The final confirmation came just yesterday, in a single murmur from her lips.
"I was happy, being with you..." — with my senses as sharpened as they are now, at point-blank range, there was no failing to hear it, however much I might have wanted to.
I'm not one of those oblivious web-novel or manga protagonists. I have dating experience from Earth, and Ellie and I have been together for over half a year now.
The question was whether I could accept her. On Earth, save for a handful of countries, monogamy was the law of the land — harems simply weren't allowed. In theory, with everyone's blessing, you could keep a common-law marriage with one woman and a registered marriage with another, and hold two or more — but that was the plot of a trashy melodrama, and there was no telling if it was even truly possible. Accepting her in a situation like that? Would that even be sane...
So I'd been trying to see her as a woman, too. If I couldn't accept her as things stood, then I'd simply have to make myself able to. I'd have to win Ellie's blessing and beg on my hands and knees for it — but leaving a woman who loved me hanging while I just watched from the sidelines would earn me the name of a truly mad bastard, and I'd deserve every word.
The sword I was giving her carried that meaning, too. That I meant to close the distance between us — close enough to put a sword this fine in her hands. It might be reckless, and I could always choose to push her away instead. And yet, somehow, I couldn't bring myself to.
Whether she knew any of this or not, Yeon stood there holding the sword, caught between taking it and refusing it.
"Just use it. It won't mean more to you than the one your master gave you, but I'd still like to see it in your hands. I commissioned it because I thought you'd be the one to do it justice."
At that, Yeon finally gave in, nodded slightly, raised the sword, and swung. The speed of her arcs, boosted by the magic, grew faster still — and she must have liked the sword, because she put it through quite a workout. The result: I found myself crossing blades with her all over again.
This, from the woman who'd sworn she couldn't accept it — there she was, swinging it with pure delight.
For the record: after the spar ended, I asked why she shouted her technique names, and this was the answer I got:
"If you call out the name as you strike, it's easier to picture how the technique will unfold?"
And that final spar went to Yeon. I simply couldn't outpace her — though it might have been a different story with the Authority of Wind.
Now it was the second gift's turn to find its owner: rings, cut and polished from the diamonds Gerald and his wife had given us. Diamond couple rings might seem like overkill between lovers — but I wanted to say: like this diamond, we'll come through whatever hardship or adversity finds us. For that message, I couldn't imagine a better gift. And I'd already planned out just how I'd give her the ring, too.
First, though, I needed to see Ellie — as naturally as possible. I made my way to her office and knocked gently, and she bade me enter. When I opened the door and stepped in, Ellie greeted me with a bright face.
"Hyun!"
"We saw each other this morning. Miss me already?"
To my question, Ellie replied:
"Mm-hm. I did. But I guess the Hyun asking that question didn't?"
Huh? This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Flustered, my mind gone white as paper, all I could manage was incoherent stammering.
At the sight of me, Ellie let out a laugh — pfft — and said:
"It's fine. If you hadn't missed me, you'd never have come all the way here."
"Is there a lot of work?"
"Mm... a little? I should be finished by tomorrow afternoon. Why?"
Perhaps her pride as a lord wouldn't allow her to slack — she seemed to have cleared a mountain of work these past few days. My plan began with a date with Ellie... but if she wasn't free until tomorrow afternoon, her window of leisure would shrink. Nothing to be done.
"I was going to ask you on a date tomorrow, that's all."
"Ah... sorry... I don't think tomorrow will work..."
"It's fine. I'll just work through it with you."
"Huh? You?"
"Let's do it together. It'll be done faster that way."
Ellie looked at me, ran her hand through my hair, and said:
"Now I wonder what my darling is scheming, that he'd offer to help with my work of all things?"
Sharp as ever — that's Ellie for you. Her words startled me half to death, but I threw everything I had into keeping my face still. Otherwise, days of careful planning would burst like a soap bubble.
"Well, I'll let it slide. In that case, start with this."
Ellie fixed me with a suspicious look, but I was managing my expression, so I didn't seem to give anything away. Or... did I? Well, either way, she'd never guess I was preparing a surprise.
And so Ellie and I set to work side by side. Work meant for one, split between two, took on a momentum of its own, clearing at a tremendous pace — and before long, with a careful review on top of it all, we finished everything within the day.
Watching me at it, Ellie kept prodding — what on earth was I planning? But I wasn't one to be baited into revealing it, so her curiosity would only keep growing.
And so, wondering how Ellie would react to my gift and my little surprise event, I drifted off into a peaceful sleep beside her.