How to... Swing a Sword?
We sat at a table on the empty first floor of the inn, with no one else around but us, watching the sky outside the window turn a deep red.
"...There's still a long way to go, but this is about it for now."
"Hmm... There's a lot more than I expected."
"Most of it's just unverified hypotheses. Still, it's something."
I quietly listened to Huey and Lucy chatting beside me.
Hmm. Whoever put this together only collected the somewhat plausible theories.
Right on cue, the voice in my head chimed in, and just as she said—the hypotheses about dimensional travel that Osmon had compiled were all like that. Far-fetched at first glance, but dig a little deeper and you found yourself thinking, wait, maybe? Those kinds of theories.
Among them, the one that personally caught my interest was...
"I'm curious about the Floating Castle."
Of course it was the Floating Castle. A fortress built on an island larger than most cities. Apparently one day it would appear in the southern continent, and the very next day it would turn up in the north. If we could uncover that secret, maybe crossing worlds would be possible too. It was also a place I'd wanted to visit at least once for a long time.
"The Floating Castle... Yeah, that makes sense."
"What good is being curious? From the sound of it, it's not a place you can just go to because you want to."
Well, I can fly now, so if it just showed up in front of me I could go...
Floating Castle? While I was asleep, some pretty interesting things have popped up.
If my memory served, it had been over a thousand years since the Floating Castle was first discovered.
They do say beauties are heavy sleepers!
...I'll just ignore that.
"Anyway, this is the method that looks most realistic right now."
Around the time the protesting voice telling me not to ignore her finally faded out, Huey opened a section of the journal and placed it in the center of the table. The opened page was worn at the edges far more noticeably than any of the others.
"Water spirits?"
What was written on that page was about water spirits—more precisely, the special abilities that high-ranking spirits and above possessed.
"It says water spirits have the ability to manipulate space..."
"Right. Looks like Osmon had his eye on water spirits for that part too."
"Then we just need to find a spirit mage contracted with a water spirit."
"Probably."
Watching the two of them chatting cheerfully as if we'd already made progress, I decided to tell them one fact they didn't know.
"There aren't any."
"Huh?"
"Ren?"
"There aren't. Spirit mages contracted with water spirits."
You could comb through every spirit mage in the world and you wouldn't find one. And for good reason.
"Because all the water spirits have gone completely insane."
I didn't know since when, but every single water spirit, without exception, had lost their minds.
"Just summoning one for a contract is hard enough, and even if you manage to call one, the moment it materializes it goes berserk and rampages. Even the ones who subdued a rampaging spirit and forced a contract would soon be tainted by the spirit's madness and go crazy themselves."
"The theory is that one of the Spirit Kings from the legends went mad or something."
Whether Spirit Kings even existed in the first place was questionable. But scholars said so, so I guessed that was how it was.
"...So we're back to square one."
"I got my hopes up for nothing."
"Well, unless someone contracted with an ancient spirit sealed before they went mad..."
"Like that kind of lucky break would ever happen."
In contrast to how happy they'd been about finding a good method, Huey slumped down, energy drained from his face in an instant.
"Haa... Got excited for nothing."
"That's how the world works."
I finished off the remaining drink and patted Huey on the back.
"Anyway, so we have to stay here for the next two weeks?"
"Yeah."
"Two whole weeks?"
"No carriages available."
"Oh dear."
Thinking this was a perfect opportunity, I opened my mouth toward Huey.
"Hey. Starting tomorrow, let's work out together."
Huey looked at me with a face that said, what are you talking about.
"Already forgot? I said I'd teach you how to swing a sword."
"Ah."
"Come to think of it, you did."
Well, the things that happened right after that had been pretty intense, so remembering everything might have been hard.
"Well, teaching me is fine, but... how are you planning to teach me?"
"I've got my ways, kid."
"Ugh."
I smacked the top of his head with my wing as he dared look at me with suspicious eyes.
"You can look forward to it."
Just look forward to tomorrow morning for the details. After eating the dinner the innkeeper had put his heart into, we each made our plans.
"Alright, I'm going to bed first."
"I'll read the journal a bit more, then sleep."
"I should go for a walk."
With tomorrow to look forward to, we each spent some time and then went to bed.
"...Unbelievable."
I distinctly remembered locking both the door and the windows before falling asleep last night.
"Mmh..."
Looking at Lucy, who was lying next to me as if it were the most natural thing in the world, covering herself with my wing first thing in the morning, I pressed a wing to my forehead at the absurdity washing over me.
Pfft. Isn't it nice that she's cute?
Cute my ass. If she got any cuter, one of my arms was going to fall off.
"Hey. Hey. Wake up."
"Uuun..."
Since Lucy was gripping the feathers of my left wing one by one with both hands, I lifted my relatively free right wing and slapped her cheek with it.
"Ugh... What is it. First thing in the morning..."
"That's my line, you know?"
After peeling off the girl who curled up even tighter, still clinging to my wing as if she were tired, I shook my throbbing wing and grumbled.
"I locked all the doors. How the hell did you get in?"
"I have my ways."
Looking at Lucy, who smiled blankly with a dazed face and made a V-sign with her hand, I eventually sighed.
"Sheesh."
From the moment I didn't wake up when she crawled into my bed, I'd basically given my consent.
"Anyway, I'm planning to take Huey out for morning training. What about you?"
"Since I'm up, I might as well come watch."
And so, together with Lucy who kept yawning beside me, we took Huey—who'd gotten up first and was drinking tea on the first floor—out to an empty lot on the outskirts of the city.
"So, what should we start with?"
"You're surprisingly motivated."
The moment we arrived at the empty lot, Huey fiddled with the sword at his waist, looking at me with a face that said he was secretly looking forward to it.
"Let's start with theory."
"...It's a little weird hearing the word 'theory' come out of Ren's mouth."
Huey seemed to feel the same way. He awkwardly averted his gaze from me.
"Would the peanut gallery please shut their mouth?"
"Yes, yes."
After sitting on a nearby rock, I began in earnest.
"There are quite a few people who get this wrong."
"A sword is a weapon, not a shield."
Starting with the most basic content.
"Huey."
"Yeah?"
"If someone swings a weapon right in front of you, what would you do?"
"Well, I'd draw my sword, block, and counterattack."
Figured as much.
"That's where you're wrong."
"Why?"
"A sword is a more delicate weapon than you'd think."
Even a masterwork forged with a great craftsman's heart and soul—if the person wielding it didn't take care of it, the edge would chip in no time.
"Even if you learn techniques and sharpen the blade yourself, there's a limit."
In other words, the best approach was not to create situations where it collided in the first place.
"...Easier said than done."
"Don't worry. Just keep at it until you can."
There were plenty of methods.
"The best is to cut them down before they attack you."
Unfortunately, that wasn't something the current Huey could do.
"So let's start light."
I stood up after a light warm-up.
"Start? Start what?"
"I won't make it hurt. Just focus on dodging."
And toward Huey, who was still standing there dumbly as if he hadn't grasped the situation, I casually extended my leg.
"Huh? Whoa!"
He hurriedly threw himself down to dodge my leg.
"Your movements are too big."
Thud!
"Guh!"
While advising that the previous attack could have been avoided just by ducking his head, I kicked the legs of the guy who was trying to get back up from lying down, toppling him.
"What the hell all of a sudden...!"
"Dodging is best learned with the body, you know."
If he'd just stayed dumbly on the ground after falling, I was planning to thoroughly stomp him. Unfortunately he wasn't that bad—he put distance between us and protested.
"In short, that's it. If you don't want the swords to clash, just dodge everything...!"
Announcing the start of proper training, I kicked off the ground and charged in.
"Whoa!"
"So, dodge well."
"This is a complete mess!"
"I guarantee you, there's no better training for you right now than this."
Because to keep dodging attacks, you had to watch them all the way through. There was no better training for building focus.
"Still, just getting hit the whole time would be unfair. If you manage to not get hit even once by my attacks for five minutes, or if you land a successful counterattack, I'll give you a reward."
"...A reward?"
As I continued swinging my legs and added that, color returned to Huey's face, which had been full of complaints.
"Hmm. Should I give you another wish ticket?"
See, training needed rewards after all.
"For real?!"
Oh, for reference—the time it took me under the same conditions to dodge all of Master's kicks was about three years.
"Of course. So work hard."
Lucy, watching from the side, seemed to have caught on the moment I put a wish ticket up as the reward. Naturally, I had absolutely no intention of giving out any reward.
Wow. Dirty. This is exactly how my successor should be!