4
## Chapter 4
The training room of the First Knights.
Ethan headed there together with Arin.
“Oh my… She’s so cute.”
“How can her eyes be so bright and sparkling?”
“I suppose it’s because she’s Young Master Ethan’s child. She’s already showing signs of being different.”
Just as when they had headed to the dining room, several people in the corridors admired Arin when they saw her.
“Please… Just don’t let her take after the Young Master’s temper.”
“Don’t say things like that. Words have a way of coming true.”
And everyone sincerely hoped for the same thing.
That the innocent little girl would not grow up to become like Ethan, the family’s notorious wastrel.
‘…I want that too, you know?’
Ethan, who had become the father responsible for Arin, was included among those people.
‘And I have no intention of living like a wastrel anymore.’
Living a hopeless life had been enough for his first life.
In this life, Ethan had resolved to become someone who would prevent the downfall of his family rather than a wastrel.
“Dad! The hallway is huge!”
“Yeah, it is.”
At the same time, he also resolved to raise Arin properly and help her grow into an outstanding person. Even though she
was not his daughter by blood.
‘In a way, she’s closer than blood relatives.’
They had spent more than several years together in his previous life.
They were practically companions of the soul.
There was no way he could have no attachment to her.
‘Considering she sensed that killing intent earlier… She must definitely have some other abilities.’
The problem was the power Arin possessed.
Ethan could not protect her forever.
At the very least, he needed a way for her to protect herself.
‘If Arin really became an ordinary human with no power whatsoever, taking her outside would be impossible.’
She had once been a legendary sword, but now she was a five-year-old child.
No matter how much Ethan cared for Arin, it was impossible to take a powerless child somewhere dangerous.
‘If a situation arises where Arin has to fight on her own, she’ll be in serious danger.’
If she happened to encounter something like a monster, a major disaster could occur.
“We’re here. This is the training room.”
Just as Ethan finished thinking, he stopped walking.
Then he looked at the enormous door in front of him.
The entrance to the training room used by the First Knights stood imposingly before them.
“Wow… The door is sparkling.”
Arin’s eyes widened as she looked at the golden decorations on the door. Perhaps because she was a child, she seemed
quite interested in shiny things.
“This is called gold.”
“Gold?”
“You can think of it as a very expensive kind of rock.”
“Oh!”
Arin nodded at Ethan’s explanation.
“Let’s go inside.”
Ethan chuckled at the sight.
Then he pushed the entrance door open with both hands.
Creeeak!
The interior of the First Knights’ training room was revealed.
“Hmm…!”
Ethan strode inside without hesitation.
Then he took a deep breath.
“Let’s see… Shall we begin?”
He picked up one of the wooden swords lying beside the door.
“Dad! Give me one too!”
“A wooden sword?”
“Yes! Arin wants to touch a wooden sword too!”
Seeing that, Arin asked for one as well.
“Hmm…”
Ethan looked around at her request.
Then he spotted the smallest wooden sword.
He handed it to Arin.
“See that scarecrow over there? Try swinging the wooden sword at it.”
“Yes!”
Arin smiled brightly at Ethan’s words.
“Hmm!”
Then she took the wooden sword, which was about as long as her arm, and headed toward the scarecrow. It seemed a little
heavy, because Arin could barely move while holding it with both hands.
‘Cute.’
Ethan quietly smiled as he watched Arin struggle along.
“Phew! Dad, watch carefully!”
Arin reached the scarecrow and took a deep breath.
Then she spoke to Ethan, who was watching her, in a confident voice.
She was telling him to watch her.
“Sure. Sure. I’m watching.”
Ethan answered absentmindedly.
He figured there was only so well a five-year-old child could swing a wooden sword.
‘She may have been a legendary sword… But she couldn’t even cut meat properly with a knife. So she’s probably still busy
adapting to her human body.’
Even if her origins were extraordinary, she was still clumsy with a knife. Ethan watched Arin with an indifferent
expression.
Then—
Thump.
“……”
When he saw the stance Arin took in front of the scarecrow—
‘Huh?’
His body stopped moving before he even realized it.
‘Her stance…’
The position Arin had taken was surprisingly convincing.
And then—
Whoosh!
As Arin swung the wooden sword—
“…Whoa?”
A dumbfounded sound escaped Ethan’s mouth.
Her arm movement was completely free of unnecessary motion.
Her breathing was steady as well.
Arin’s stance was so stable that it would not have been out of place for a seasoned knight.
‘No way.’
At that moment, a possibility surfaced in Ethan’s mind.
‘So this is what it means for a legendary sword to be different?’
If he helped Arin bring out her true strength—
‘Could she regain that power that manifested right before my death?’
It was a glimmer of hope that he might be able to use the mysterious power he had felt at the very last moment of his
previous life once again.
---
Ethan’s original plan had been to practice by himself in the training room.
“No. Turn your foot a little farther to the right.”
“Like this?”
“Yes.”
But that plan was completely revised.
All because of Arin, who had given him such an unexpected surprise.
“What do I do next?”
“You need to strike upward from below. I’ll demonstrate first, so watch and follow along.”
“Yes!”
Arin nodded at Ethan’s words.
At the same time, she stared so intently at Ethan’s sword that it was almost as if she could bore a hole through it.
‘…Teaching swordsmanship to a child who used to be a sword in her previous life. This feels incredibly strange.’
Her eyes were those of an enthusiastic student looking at her teacher.
Ethan felt slightly amazed as he looked into Arin’s eyes.
He had never imagined that one day he would be teaching swordsmanship to a five-year-old child.
Whoosh!
Ethan’s heavy wooden sword rose from below to above.
“Wow…”
Arin let out an admiring sound when she saw it.
He had merely performed one of the simplest slashing movements, yet it felt like it belonged to an entirely different
level from her own.
“Dad! It feels like your sword is alive!”
“You were a sword too.”
“…Ah!”
Arin opened her mouth wide at Ethan’s observation.
Then she stared blankly at him.
“Hmm. But I’m human now, so I’m not a sword anymore!”
She argued against Ethan’s point according to her own logic.
“Sure. Let’s go with that.”
Ethan shrugged at Arin’s words.
He had no desire to win a verbal argument against Arin.
There was absolutely nothing for him to gain from it, and all he would accomplish was making Arin dislike him.
“Can you copy the upward strike I just showed you?”
“Yes!”
Arin answered energetically.
Then, the moment she gripped the wooden sword tightly with both hands—
…!
A light flashed in Arin’s eyes.
Whoosh!
The wooden sword moved powerfully from below to above.
‘!’
Ethan swallowed hard when he saw it.
The movement Arin had shown was not extraordinarily impressive.
But—
‘Her eyes…’
He had sensed something strange in her eyes the moment she performed the movement.
It was almost as if an entirely different person had entered her body.
It felt exactly like watching a hero from mythology swing a sword.
A kind of ‘presence’ that could never have come from a five-year-old child seemed to radiate from Arin.
‘Just as I thought.’
Ethan became convinced once again.
Of Arin’s hidden talent after becoming human from a sword.
‘I have to help Arin grow.’
By human standards, Arin was nothing short of a swordsmanship prodigy.
He needed to awaken her talent as quickly as possible.
---
Ethan and Arin’s training finally ended after nearly three hours.
They had trained so intensely that the entire training room seemed filled with the heat of their exertion.
“This body of mine…”
During their training, Ethan realized something.
“It’s really pathetic.”
His former self had possessed a truly terrible physical body.
“How can I not even do fifteen push-ups?”
No matter how strong his mentality was or even if he had reached the level of an Aura Knight, none of it mattered if his
body could not keep up.
‘I have to become stronger.’
Knowing that, Ethan became certain that he needed to transform his body.
‘But the conventional way will take too long.’
He could build his body through exercise.
But reaching a level that would satisfy Ethan himself would undoubtedly take several years.
‘I need to reach the level I had in my previous life within two years at the latest.’
To prevent the downfall of the family, he needed to become stronger much faster.
Only then would he have a chance of barely stopping the coming crisis.
‘…Come to think of it. At this point in time, Hewarn’s potion should already have been completed, shouldn’t it?’
As he wondered if there was some way to solve the problem, a piece of information suddenly came to mind.
An alchemist named Hewarn who lived in this territory.
‘Originally, everyone called it a failed potion… But once a method of taking it was discovered, everything changed.’
Hewarn’s potion would reveal its true value much further in the future.
‘For now, it should still be classified as a failed product.’
Ethan figured he should be able to obtain the potion without too much difficulty.
This was still a time when people did not know how to properly take Hewarn’s potion or what its effects were.
‘The problem is money.’
But there was one problem.
Even if it was considered a failed potion, he still had to pay for it.
‘This damn version of me from the past never knew the meaning of saving money.’
Whenever Ethan got money, he spent it all on alcohol.
There was no way he had anything left.
“Hmm.”
Just as he was wondering how to raise the necessary funds—
“Huaaah…”
His eyes landed on Arin, who was sprawled out on the floor of the training room.
And at that very moment, an ingenious idea occurred to him.
“Arin. How about we go outside and look around?”
“Look around?”
“Yeah. In other words, we’re going on an outing. An outing.”
“With Dad?”
“Yeah.”
“I like it!”
At Ethan’s words, Arin immediately sat upright.
Then she looked at Ethan with sparkling eyes.
Grin.
Ethan smiled as he looked at Arin, who was so cute that simply looking at her made him want to laugh.
“Then, Dad has one little favor to ask you.”
“What is it?”
Ethan then explained to Arin.
“It’s simple. When Dad is talking with Sebastian and I clear my throat, make a teary-eyed expression. Open your eyes as
wide as possible and look at Sebastian. Make him feel as guilty as you possibly can.”