A Hook of Gold Coins (1)
“About the people coming after you.”
Inside the carriage bound for Cambria, Dieta began with her arms folded across her chest.
“Inside Cambria, the only ones who could actually threaten you are the White-grade adventurers, right?”
Najin nodded.
Aside from Sword Seekers, there was no real danger. A few dozen Experts might be troublesome, but if a force that large moved as a unit, he had ways of dealing with it.
Hit and run, over and over. Flight and pursuit, then flipping the field for a counterattack—that was Najin’s specialty.
“There are five White-grade adventurers in total. Kaufman Teosis is dead, so four remain. And three of those four will never come after you.”
“Why?”
“One: Roselyn Ascalo. You’ve met her, so you know. For better or worse, she’s pure. Not the type to dirty her hands with this kind of filth.”
Dieta folded one finger down.
“Two: Richard Paulsen, former knight commander of the Zenovels family. The Church could never recruit him. He has ties to the Imperial House. Every move he makes gets reported, so he won’t touch something like this.”
Another finger.
“Three: Bashen Corte. A White-grade who keeps his information sealed. He loathes the Church with a passion—stripped of his knighthood for killing a high priest. Odds of him getting involved are low.”
And more than that, she added,
“Bashen Corte is our trading company’s exclusive adventurer. We might even be able to call on him for help in this mess.”
Three candidates gone.
Dieta pointed at her last remaining finger.
“Grisel Paramelt. Almost nothing public on this one, so I can’t be sure. If someone comes for you inside Cambria, Grisel’s the most likely.”
“What’s their preferred weapon?”
“A halberd.”
A halberd. He’d never faced one before.
“But that’s only speculation. I think they’ll come from outside the city rather than from within.”
“I’m thinking the same.”
“And if I were the Church, I’d unleash every hunting dog I have this time. Kaufman’s already down. They’ll be certain you’re not someone they can just probe.”
So what happens then? Dieta muttered, tapping her forearm with a fingertip.
“For reasons I don’t know, you said the Holy Light Church ‘absolutely will not move their holy knights directly,’ right?”
“That’s right. They won’t want to be caught.”
“Assuming that’s true, there aren’t many paths for outside muscle to set foot in the city.”
She spread a map.
“Anyone who’s reached the rank of Sword Seeker has to go through reporting procedures for a ‘normal’ visit. Aimless visits stand out, and they leave a record. They won’t use that route.”
She pointed not at the main gate but at the rear entrance.
“So they’ll disguise themselves and come through the back. Or scale the walls. Even then, targeting you won’t be easy. Your residence sits right next to the Central Church, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
“That district is off-limits to anyone below Green-grade. Unverified identities can’t set foot there.”
In other words—
“Assassinating you inside Cambria is hard. Even harder given your skill. A fight in the central city would draw other adventurers and blow up fast.”
“That’s true enough.”
“So they’ll try to lure you out.”
Beyond the city walls.
Najin rubbed his chin. Did that mean he should stay inside for a while? But if he did that…
“But we don’t have to just sit here and take it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you forget?”
Dieta shrugged.
“I’m the head of the trading company that runs Cambria. Measured by gold coin and goods circulating inside the city, no one outranks my firm.”
She flicked a platinum coin into the air from her pocket.
Just as a swordsman swings a blade, an archer looses an arrow, a mage scatters mana— a merchant snatched the spinning gold from the air with a sharp flick of her fingers.
“Gold coins can make more things possible than you’d think.”
The serpent that swallowed gold coins smiled.
One day after returning to Cambria.
The first thing Najin did was move his lodgings right next to Dieta’s trading company. She had insisted, firmly, that the old place was fine but living closer would be better.
Perfect timing—there’s an excellent property near my company that’ll be listed at a very cheap price ‘soon.’ How about moving there?
Being close to the company means we can see each other more often! Just bring yourself. I’ll have people move your things ahead of time.
He suspected “safety” wasn’t her only reason, but he couldn’t deny her claim that the new place would be safer. After finishing the move, Najin offered Dieta a brief greeting and set out.
With her help he had laid several plans.
Still, when everything was stripped away, what mattered most was his own strength. At the final, final moment, the only thing he could trust would be the sword in his hand. The need to reach Sword Seeker as soon as possible had not changed.
But…
Dieta’s support had bought him breathing room.
That breathing room let him look back over the training he had been doing, and he reached a conclusion: swinging a sword blindly wasn’t helping much.
His technique and physical ability already sat infinitely close to Sword Seeker level. What he needed was something else.
Knock knock.
To learn what he lacked, Najin went looking for someone who might offer advice. Luckily, the perfect person was available. He rapped on the door, waited a moment, and it creaked open with a long squeal.
“What. This early in the morning, what the hell…”
A figure emerged, scratching a messy head of hair.
The White-grade adventurer Roselyn Ascalo spotted Najin and her eyes went round.
“What. What’s this about, brat?”
“That one-time favor you promised me last time.”
Najin said,
“I’ve come to cash it in.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Yes. Out of nowhere.”
Despite the sudden visit, Roselyn told him to wait a bit and disappeared inside. A few minutes later she reappeared in casual clothes, slippers scuffing the floor.
“Alright, what’s the favor, brat?”
“I’d like a spar. As close to real combat as possible.”
“A spar? With me?”
Roselyn let out a dry laugh.
“Look at this kid. Hey, this big sister’s been a Sword Seeker for over ten years. I’m no slouch, got it?”
“I know.”
“And you still want it as close to real as possible?”
“I think that’s the only way I’ll get a feel for it.”
Roselyn blinked.
A feel for it? Come to think of it, she had heard the rumor—something about clashing with Knight Commander Griffin and walking away alive. Her eyes narrowed.
“You in the middle of Eclosion or something?”
“Pardon?”
“You don’t know Eclosion? Eclosion?”
“What is that?”
“Tch. Have you awakened a fragment of your mindscape?”
Without a word, Najin raised his sword.
A white swarm of stars bloomed over his aura. It had already left Sword Expert aura behind and was pressing close to Seeker level.
“Ha. You crazy bastard.”
Roselyn barked a disbelieving laugh.
That age, already brushing Sword Seeker? No—until recently he’d only been an Expert, hadn’t he? And in a month or two he’d grown this far?
“Alright, spill it. What’s the situation?”
Roselyn crossed her legs on the bench and lit a cigarette. Smoking, she listened to Najin’s explanation. When he finished—
“Yeah… makes sense.”
Roselyn rubbed her chin as if she’d expected it.
“You know that to become a Sword Seeker you have to completely break down your aura and rebuild it, right?”
“I know.”
“Right. That process is so much like a butterfly cracking out of its chrysalis that people call it Eclosion, or Moulting…”
She raked her black hair back with her fingers. The dark strands swayed after her hand.
“The process is different for everyone. Some are crazy fast, some crawl. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because souls mature at different speeds.”
Between the swinging strands of hair, red eyes appeared. Just like the last time he met those eyes, Najin heard Merlin suck in a sharp breath beside his ear.
“Expert, Seeker, Master… in the end, that whole chain means one thing. Stripping the impurities from the soul until it becomes complete. Elevating it until it touches transcendence.”
“Transcendence…”
“Yeah. At Expert it doesn’t show much, but from Seeker on, the soul side starts to matter a lot.”
Roselyn drew a sword from her hip.
She spun it lightly on her fingers; fierce aura flared along the blade—aura like a beast’s claws.
“Has to be that way. A Sword Seeker is someone who can pour their mindscape into their aura. Someone who can project the shape of their soul onto a sword. If the soul isn’t mature enough, of course the process takes forever.”
She pointed the tip at Najin.
“From where I’m standing, you’re exactly that type. You woke a fragment of your mindscape, but you’re stuck there—that means something’s snagged.”
“Snagged…?”
“Yeah. Lingering attachments, stray thoughts that mess up the picture you’re trying to paint—stuff like that.”
She let the aura die and exhaled a long stream of smoke.
“I know because I lived it. From the day I woke my mindscape to the day I became a Sword Seeker took me three years. Most people finish it in a few months even if they’re slow.”
She snorted a laugh and stood.
“So in a case like this, I can help. Let’s start by taking a look at that sword of yours.”
The sword bout that followed went on for some time.
As they exchanged blows, both Najin and Roselyn felt genuine surprise. Najin’s surprise was that Roselyn was far stronger than he had imagined.
Griffin, knight commander of the Arvenia ducal house.
The demon knight Bernhaigen.
The ranger Kaufman Teosis.
Najin had already fought several Sword Seekers. Of them, Griffin had been the strongest—and the one he was certain he still could not beat even now.
But…
The Roselyn in front of him was stronger than Griffin.
He couldn’t measure it precisely, yet she felt as if she sat a full step higher. The speed of her thrusts, the arcs she drew, and above all the freedom of her aura—none of it compared to Griffin’s.
Najin had no way of knowing it, but his instinctive judgment was exact.
A Sword Seeker who would become a Sword Master had to pass through three stages: Sprouting, Blooming, Full Bloom. Roselyn Ascalo had already completed Sprouting.
Kiiiiiiing—!
Her aura tore through space like a beast sinking its teeth. It spread like a net, snaring, raking, and biting every quarry in the area. The precision of that control left Najin astonished.
Huh. Look at this kid.
At the same time, Roselyn Ascalo was astonished as well—by the fact that Najin was reading and answering her techniques. He had been an impressive brat the first time they met, but now he was on another level entirely.
Back then he had simply been a Sword Expert who handled a blade well—a young genius with a few standout traits.
Now he was infinitely close to Sword Seeker, a powerhouse who would soon stand shoulder to shoulder with her. Already his physical ability and reaction speed would not lose to most Seekers.
This much in only two months?
The speed made no sense.
This guy’s completely insane.
He had said he’d awakened a fragment of his mindscape but couldn’t advance from there, so she had given him serious advice… yet from where she stood, the problem looked like the opposite: growth that was simply too fast.
Different case from me.
The thought left a faint bitterness. Well, of course—who else would be like her? Who else had soot clinging to half their soul? This cursed bloodline of hers.
Anyway.
Roselyn clicked her tongue.
The way Najin closed distance in an instant, claimed the blind spots of her vision, and slipped free of the aura net—those were not movements talent alone could produce.
Just who the hell has this kid been fighting in that short time to move like this?
Experience. She could feel the experience.
The weight of facing countless strong opponents lived in every line of Najin’s body. After the bout finally ended, Roselyn wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Man, this is a real fun one.”
Grinning, she walked over to Najin. He had driven his sword into the ground and was still gasping for breath. Roselyn crouched beside him on one knee.
“What you need isn’t more sword work or body training. What you need is time alone—meditation to sort out the scenery you’re trying to paint.”
The woman who had spent three years alone in a cell, looking inward, clapped Najin on the shoulder.
“Think it over carefully. The answer’s closer than you think.”