The Name of Your Sword
Sian let out a quiet sigh. It was the sigh of a man resigning himself to the inevitable — the thing he'd been dreading had finally arrived. 'I had a feeling it would come to this.' That heavy sense of foreboding he'd felt ever since Astria first approached the village — this had to be it. 'Couldn't this one have missed the mark, just this once?' Everything else glanced off him like a missed arrow, yet this alone landed dead center. There had to be a limit to how ironic life could get. The world repaying his good deed of helping a collapsed stranger like this felt downright unfair. 'Or... do I actually have something going for me?' Starting with Tiana and all the way to Selene. Elina... probably not, but if he counted her too, that would make three — three S-ranks he'd raised with his own two hands. 'Though my conscience wouldn't let me call it that.' They'd all arrived on his doorstep already carrying S-rank strength. Still, the fact remained: every last one of them treated him as their teacher. 'At this point, maybe it's not a misunderstanding. Maybe I really do have some kind of hidden gift.' It would have been a natural conclusion, all things considered. But he'd barely finished the thought before he had to shake his head. 'As if that could be true.' Aside from Elina, there were plenty of village kids he'd taught over the years. If his teaching was what made people strong, why had none of them gotten any stronger? Honestly, in Sian's eyes, some of them had looked even more talented than Elina back when they were little. 'Then again, that one eventually quit adventuring and came home with her tail between her legs.' He'd wondered for a moment, but no — that theory was a bridge too far. Which meant, in the end, one thing was certain. He could not take Astria on as a disciple either. 'That merchant mentioned it earlier, didn't he?' Astria's family, Lucenoct, was a house renowned for the sword. What could he possibly teach a swordswoman raised in a place like that? She'd probably size up his basic stance once and conclude there was nothing to learn. "The truth is, I'm really not that great of a teacher." "...Really?" "Really." "Tiana calls you Teacher." "The kids told you that?" Astria nodded, and nodded again. Sian sighed and admitted it. "...I mean, technically, yes." "And Selene Vesperia?" "...She calls me Master." "And Elina?" "...She says Teacher." "...And saja." Those bright golden eyes stared up at him, sharp and unblinking. She seemed convinced that everything he'd said was just a lie told to dodge the hassle. It hadn't been any different with Tiana, but Sian genuinely felt wronged. To be honest — Selene, and now Astria too. He'd never once opened his mouth to invite any of this, yet the misunderstanding was fully formed before he could get a word in, and no amount of denial could make them swallow the truth. 'Should I be muzzling the kids instead?' Those little heads poking out from behind the distant tree, watching the whole thing — they were probably the root of all evil here. "Teach me..." 'She calls me Master and then talks to me in casual speech?' But since he wasn't actually going to teach her anything anyway, he decided to let it slide. When Sian turned toward home, she naturally fell in step behind him. "......." Imagining this dragging on for a while was enough to wring another sigh out of him.
In a back alley of the city, where darkness hung thick as smoke. Only the flicker of a lantern intermittently lit the damp brickwork and the sinister ground below. It was the very alley where Astria had collapsed. "Hm." And there, a figure waited. A man with a hood pulled low crouched down, examining the traces left on the ground. He studied the faint marks, already fading with time, then muttered a single word. "Clean work." The lingering mana and the traces were immaculate. The pursuers must have died in a single strike, without even the chance to resist properly. This was not the handiwork of the Astria they were hunting. "Does she have an accomplice, then?" Even as he said it, he couldn't help but find it strange. This land was far removed from Lucenoct. How could a woman who'd been caged within her family since birth have an accomplice all the way out here? He briefly considered whether she'd simply been caught up in some unrelated incident— "Captain, we found eyewitness reports in this area. The target is confirmed." The subordinate's report put that theory to rest. "Companions?" "She was traveling with a man named Sian." "A name I've never heard." Given his profession, he made it a point to track every strong fighter above a certain threshold — which was exactly why the ignorance nagged at him. Anyone capable of slaughtering his subordinates this cleanly would not have escaped his notice. "We looked into him as well. He seems to be the subject of a rumor that's only recently begun to spread. Solid information is scarce." "What did you find?" "That he's a retired adventurer, and that he taught Tiana, the S-rank adventurer. That's all." "......." Tiana. It was a name he remembered. Her activity had been quiet lately — had she been training under her master all this time? "Any other rumors?" "They say Tiana uses a bizarre technique, and that it was Sian who taught it to her." "A bizarre technique?" "She folds her hands together before swinging her sword... and afterward, the monster is already dead, and the sound arrives late." "......." He wanted to call it nonsense, but the man held his silence. He was an assassin of the Blood Sword — bound to kill whoever he was ordered to kill. Precisely because of that, he had to measure his opponent's strength with cold accuracy. Never once in his career had he allowed himself the laziness of declaring something impossible. And yet the moment he heard the words a blade that outruns its own sound, nonsense was the first thought that came to him. And...' If it were true — if he had trained a disciple to that level — then there was no ruling out the possibility that the master himself was her equal, or stronger. He'd thought the target fully in hand, and now out of nowhere, this bolt from the blue. "It seems others have heard the recent rumors and are beginning to move to find him. If we don't act fast, this will become a headache." "Hah. Nothing for it. Where did the target go?" "Toward a village nearby." "Is the one called Sian with her?" "Yes. It appears to be the village where he resides." "...Hoo." The man let out a long breath, then spoke. "Contact the scattered operatives and order them to assemble. Securing the target is our top priority." "Understood." At his command, the subordinate bowed his head and melted into the shadows as if dissolving into them.
While all that was brewing, Sian was... "......." Swish. Pop. Rustle. Digging up herbs in the stillness of the forest. The same peaceful daily routine as any other day. Except— "......." "......." Except that Astria was trailing at his heels like a duckling. She had been like this ever since the day she'd asked him to take her as his disciple, and not once had she stopped. She would simply follow in silence, and whenever he so much as glanced her way— "...You're going to teach me?" She'd ask, golden eyes shining. And of course, "No." His answer never changed. He'd said it a handful of times since then, too, but she clearly believed none of it. "A strong denial means an affirmation." "...That's not what that saying is for." "...Really?" "Did the kids tell you that one too?" "Yeah. Piña told me." She nodded earnestly. A few days of observing Astria had taught Sian something: the girl was naive to a degree beyond imagination. So naive, in fact, that she took everything the village children said at face value. The pranking itself was one problem, but thanks to it, the misunderstanding showed not the slightest crack. 'What kind of environment did she even grow up in?' Was she some shut-in duchess-to-be who'd done nothing but practice the sword her whole life? For someone so sheltered, she was really sheltered. Which made shooing her away anything but easy. Tap, tap. He brushed the dirt off his hands after digging up the last of the herbs and rose to his feet. She followed him the moment he moved, smooth as a shadow. Those golden eyes clung to him with relentless focus — like a hawk eyeing its prey, or a puppy waiting for its master. 'Is she seriously planning to just settle down in the village?' She seemed fond of the place, and he couldn't detect any intention of leaving. Sian could only sigh at the sight of her. 'Ugh. I'm just being petty, honestly.' To his eyes, Astria was also terrifyingly strong. She looked about on par with Tiana before she'd learned the grateful sword draw — or so it seemed to him. Granted, Sian couldn't hold a candle to either of them, so his comparing their strength might have looked laughable. 'And she's that strong at her age.' It wasn't as if she lacked effort, but that level of power at that age simply couldn't be reached without true talent. And people like that were latching onto a man who had nothing to offer, begging to be his disciple. How absurd could it get? With Tiana and Selene, the sheer bewilderment had been overwhelming. But by the third time, he'd grown somewhat used to it — it felt less like confusion now and more like getting teabagged. 'Putting it into words makes me kind of mad, actually.' At that thought, Sian looked at Astria as if a new idea had struck him. "You want me to teach you?" "...Yes!" Her eyes lit up as she nodded. The purity in that gaze pricked his conscience for an instant — but he quickly steadied himself. 'No. Think about the guy getting swarmed here, would you?' He just wanted the misunderstandings to stop. So, spicing in a little personal mischief, Sian resolved to finally assign a task that was absolutely, categorically impossible. "Then first, one question before anything else." "...?" This one she genuinely can't do. Then she'll give up. She has to. This is beyond unreasonable. The mischief Sian unleashed on Astria was this: "The name of your sword. Do you know it?" He was going to make her uncover her blade's true name. Just like in that manga with the death god in it.
