A Strange Visitor
Sian's daily life in the countryside could be divided into three broad categories.
1. Helping with farm work.
During the busy season, no amount of labor was ever enough, so he lent a hand. In return, he got a share of the harvest.
2. Going to the nearby mountains.
That usually meant gathering herbs, or hunting if he happened to spot game. The villagers did say monsters appeared around here every once in a great while, but in all his years living in the village, Sian had never laid eyes on one — or even a trace of one. A village peaceful beyond all measure, apparently.
3. Looking after the children.
Frankly, he'd never intended to babysit anyone. But the kids had taken such a shine to him, the former adventurer, that before he knew it, the role had landed in his lap. The villagers kept dropping their children off and bringing him things, asking if there was anything he needed — so there wasn't really any reason to refuse.
Category one only came up during certain seasons, and he went to the mountains maybe once or twice a month rather than daily. Strip the mountain of every herb and every animal day after day, and the place would run dry in no time.
Which meant category three was his usual occupation — and that's what he'd assumed today would be, too.
“The kids aren't here?”
If only one or two were missing, he might have wondered what was up. But all of them gone at once could only mean a merchant caravan had come through, or some outsider was visiting. The kids adored Sian, but he was still a villager like anyone else — and when someone came from outside, the natural thing to do was gawk at the stranger while you could, since you never knew when they'd leave.
“In that case, today... maybe I'll head for the mountains.”
Some fresh herbs would be nice, and it'd be even better if he found something to hunt.
He'd just gathered his things and stepped out of the house when—
“Over there! He's over there!”
“There he is, it's the Teacher!”
“Teacher!”
“Hm?”
A burst of noisy chatter drifted over. He looked toward the commotion and saw the children approaching his house alongside a girl he'd never seen before.
The girl just stared at him, her face oddly taut with tension.
“A-are you, by any chance, Sian... -nim?”
'...Nim?'
Sian frowned and gave the girl a discreet once-over. Her equipment was, even to a casual eye, fairly high quality. She certainly didn't look destitute — proof that she'd either traveled here in comfort or had the skill to make the journey quickly.
There was no reason for someone like that to be using honorifics with him.
'Doesn't feel like she's here to hunt me down, though.'
He hadn't committed any crime worth tracking to some backwater village, and her whole bearing didn't suggest it either.
Drawing on his stock of web-novel knowledge from his past life, he tried to reason out the situation.
'Usually this trope means I saved her when she was a kid, or something like that... but.'
The face was completely unfamiliar. He'd been a five-year-old brat when he arrived in this world and had grown up here, weathering his fair share of ups and downs along the way — but he could say with certainty he'd never seen this girl.
No, more than that:
'I've never rescued anyone in my life.'
He'd been too busy keeping himself fed to go saving anybody. He'd once gotten into an argument with a local alchemist over whether certain herbs from a gathering quest belonged to him, sure — but he'd never escorted a lost child home or pulled anyone from the jaws of a monster.
Since he'd never rescued anyone, there was no chance of some fairy-tale scenario unfolding where a child he'd saved grew up and came knocking, saying, “I'm so-and-so, whom you saved all those years ago.”
Having racked his brain and failed to come up with a single reason anyone would seek him out, Sian decided to just continue the conversation.
“Yes, I'm Sian, but—”
Thud.
Before he'd even finished speaking, the girl dropped to her knees.
He scrambled, flustered, about to ask what on earth was going on — but her mouth opened first.
“Please, take me as your disciple!”
“...I'm sorry?”
So utterly out of left field was the request that a baffled squeak escaped him. A girl he had never once laid eyes on had suddenly shown up and asked to be taken on as a disciple.
It was more than he could process in a single breath. He even pinched his cheek to check whether he was dreaming, but the sting assured him this was very much reality.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
For the time being, Sian ushered the girl inside. Talking outside had proved impossible — the kids were raising such a ruckus that no conversation could survive it. She'd insisted she would sit quietly and listen, clinging to him with impressive persistence, but that was never going to fly. She'd be butting in within ten minutes, so he'd shooed the children all off.
“Have some tea.”
“Thank you, Master.”
“Let's not go with 'Master'...”
“Oh — then shall I call you 'Teacher'?”
“...”
So it's already a done deal that you're my disciple, is it?
There was more than one thing he wanted to argue, but he decided to first work through, step by step, how this girl had found him in the first place.
“Well — your name?”
“It's Tiana! And please, speak casually with me!”
She looked younger than him, at any rate, and she'd told him to relax — so he did.
“...Fine. So, Tiana... Tiana?”
He was certain he'd never seen her face, but the name felt like something he'd heard before. Where had it been? He mulled it over, and the memory surfaced.
— “What's this? Another S-rank adventurer just got certified!”
— “And they say she's young, too?”
— “What's her name? Ti... Tina? Tiana, something like that!”
— “Well, got nothing to do with the likes of us, anyway!”
— “Regardless! A new S-rank is born — that calls for a drink!”
— “Says the guy who said it's got nothing to do with us! BWAAAHAHAHA!”
— “Oh yeah? Then make it something to do with us!”
— “A toast — to Tiana!”
The chattering of the drunks at the adventurers' guild tavern came back to him.
This world was full of adventurers, but among them, S-ranks were exceedingly rare — fewer than a hundred across the entire globe.
'And what's more...'
There had reportedly been stretches of ten years where not a single new S-rank emerged. Because of that, whenever a new one appeared, the guild promoted it far and wide, and the city where an S-rank was born would even throw a festival. Anyone who had spent so much as a moment as an adventurer could not possibly fail to know the name.
'No way... it can't be, right?'
Just a case of two people sharing a name, surely? There was no reason on earth for an S-rank adventurer to come looking for him.
Still, better safe than sorry. He opened his mouth cautiously.
“Are you — are you an adventurer, by chance?”
“Yes, I am!”
“...Your rank?”
“It doesn't feel nearly enough, but — S-rank!”
...So it really is her.
No wonder her gear looked so good.
That clean-looking robe was no ordinary garment. It was probably enchanted — a top-tier robe with better defense than most shields, temperature regulation included. Equipment like that would cost what the entire village earned in a year of idle luxury.
No. That wasn't the point.
He'd caught himself fleeing into denial, an escape from a situation too absurd to face.
Why is an S-rank adventurer looking for me?
The question rose to his throat — and he fought it down for dear life.
“So, Tiana. This — this request to take you as a disciple. What exactly do you mean by it?”
The voice of someone gently soothing a child. A skill honed through years of wrangling village brats.
She bowed her head deeply at his words, then spoke.
“...Some time ago, my hometown was slaughtered by monsters.”
“...”
In this fantasy world, monsters wiping a village off the map wasn't an everyday occurrence, but it happened — now and then. Even this very village: if a monster of B-rank or above ever showed up, the entire population, Sian included, could throw themselves at it and still lose.
That was how harsh a world this was for human beings.
Perhaps at the memory of her burning village, Tiana's body began to tremble. Her fists clenched tight with fury.
“I wanted revenge. But it was beyond me. It was a Calamity-class monster — all I could do was run.”
Even an S-rank adventurer, hailed as the pinnacle of humanity, was not the strongest thing in this world. There existed beings beyond all scales — the creatures most people called Calamities. They were treated as natural disasters given flesh, dreaded enough that even nations hesitated to mount extermination campaigns against them. For an S-rank to face such a monster alone was nothing short of suicide.
“So I came here, to beg for your instruction, Teacher...!”
“...?”
The circumstances, he understood. What he could not understand, not in any way, was how that led to the conclusion come find me.
The answer came flowing out of Tiana's mouth immediately after.
“At first, I went to find Elina.”
“Elina?”
“Yes. She's an S-rank adventurer like me, but far, far stronger. But Elina said she's fighting another Calamity right now, so she couldn't help me or teach me... Instead, she told me to come to this village and meet the person who taught her — you, Teacher. She said that under your instruction, I could break past my limits.”
Now, at last, he could see where the wires had crossed. But the question remained — it had to.
He had never taught Elina anything worthy of being called “Teacher.”
'She did pester me with questions about adventuring since she was little, and I answered them... but.'
In terms of combat, he had taught her nothing. Unless you counted that one man's training regimen he'd traded a set of pull-up bars for — something about building stamina?
'And even if it did shatter your limiter, that's strictly a thing from manga...'
There was no way that worked in reality. It was simply that Elina's talent was so monstrous she'd grown strong off of that alone.
Tiana dropped off her chair and knelt on the floor once more.
“I heard that you, Teacher, defeated countless Calamities and achieved deeds beyond all praise! I heard you have retired, wanting only a quiet life now — but please! I beg you! Take me as your disciple!”
It's Elina. It's always Elina.
How many times had he told her the stories were fiction, that none of it had happened to him?
Apparently she was one of those children who believed every tale Sian told was drawn from lived experience.
“...”
Her plight was pitiable, truly — but he had nothing to offer her. The only option was to clear up the misunderstanding and send her home.
So he laid it out for her, patiently, piece by piece. But—
“I know that in Teacher's eyes, I must seem sorely lacking compared to Elina! But please... please, I beg of you! I will give you everything I have!”
She had come to him clutching her final straw. There was no way she'd accept that it was all a lie. The moment she admitted Sian's words were true, her last hope would evaporate.
'Nothing I say is going to get through, is it.'
His head throbbed at the sight of her.
“Whew. Fine. For now — understood.”
“Th-thank you...! Thank you so much!”
Tiana beamed with a gratitude that made her look like a drowning man who'd just found land.
Sian studied her, mulling over his next move, and finally spoke.
“However — there are conditions.”
“Anything! Just say the word!”
“The training I teach requires a 'special talent.'”
“A... special talent?”
“Right. Elina grew strong because she had that special talent. Since you don't share it, I won't put you through the same training she had — it would only leave you with nothing to show for it.”
“Understood.”
“And if I do teach you, and you make no progress — you give up and go home. Understood?”
“...Yes!”
She nodded fiercely, resolve blazing in her eyes. Sian had called her lesser than Elina, but Tiana was a genius in her own right — S-rank at her age was proof enough. She had no idea what this “special talent” entailed, but she was certain she possessed it.
'Good. Now I have grounds to send her packing.'
Of course, the “special talent” Sian spoke of was pure pretext. But laying the groundwork in advance meant he'd have an excuse to fall back on later.
“So — what should I do first?”
Tiana looked up at him, eyes wide and shining.
As he'd said, he had no intention of putting her through Elina's regimen. One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten-kilometer run, every single day — what difference would that make to an S-rank? She'd do ten times that without breaking a sweat.
Better to give her a different kind of training. Besides, she was so blinded by vengeance right now that she couldn't even properly gauge Sian's abilities — she needed to be calmed down a notch first.
And so the training Sian came up with was this.
“Your main weapon is the sword, I take it?”
“Yes, Teacher! I can use magic as well, but the sword is my mainstay!”
“Good. Then come outside.”
Sian picked up his own sword from where it leaned in a corner. Old, yes — but well maintained, and still very much in active service on his mountain trips.
He'd expected the children to be lurking outside, but apparently they'd grown bored of waiting; not a single one remained. Just as well, he thought, fixing the sheath at his waist and settling into a stance, standing still.
“Now — watch closely.”
He spread his palms and brought them together before his chest.
As if in prayer.
He stilled his mana, stamped down with his right foot, drew the blade in the same instant, and cut along a diagonal line.
Shwick!
A keen whistle split the air. And then Sian slid the sword back into its sheath.
That was all.
“...?”
Tiana, who had been watching with the determination to miss nothing, wore an expression of pure bewilderment. Sian addressed it.
“Do that ten thousand times.”
“I'm sorry?”
“From tomorrow on — ten thousand Gratitude Punches... no, wait. Ten thousand Gratitude Sword Draws. A day.”
The training Sian had devised for Tiana.
It was, in short, the ten-thousand-per-day Gratitude Punch regimen — rendered with a sword, which made it the Gratitude Sword Draw.