The Beginning of a Legend
The sky was just beginning to lighten.
“Mmm…”
Even without an alarm, Sian's eyes fluttered open to the chorus of roosters crowing from every corner of the village. He stretched into a long yawn and downed a cup of water. Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he turned his gaze quietly toward the door of his house.
“…Tiana, you there?”
“Yes, Teacher! You called?”
Before the words had even left his mouth, Tiana flung the door open and marched inside. Sian sighed inwardly at the sight.
Seriously, does she ever sleep?
The way she responded instantly no matter when he called made him suspect she was stationed outside his door twenty-four hours a day.
Several days had passed since Tiana swore her loyalty(?) to Sian. She had intended to leave the village immediately, but he had stopped her.
Not that I wanted her to stay…
It wasn't really his fault, he reasoned, but sending someone off while they were still injured and wrapped in bandages here and there just didn't sit right with him.
And yet, over the past few days, he couldn't help wondering if that choice had been a mistake. Ever since Tiana had settled in, his peaceful, monotonous country life had been plagued by one bothersome disturbance after another.
“You really don't need to come by every day, you know.”
“It's no trouble at all!”
“And you don't need to sleep in the forest, either.”
The village didn't get enough travelers to warrant an inn, but if he asked around, someone would surely put her up for the night. Tiana, however, had adamantly refused the village chief's offer and insisted on camping in the woods.
“That's quite all right too!”
No, it's me who's uncomfortable with this.
But he couldn't very well tell her to sleep in his house, either. He owned exactly one set of bedding. And if he sent her to stay elsewhere and bunked somewhere himself, the result would be the same anyway. And so this bizarre stalemate had come to be.
When Sian headed for the kitchen, Tiana followed at his heels as though it were the most natural thing in the world. And before he'd even sat down in his chair, dishes wreathed in warm steam began appearing on the table one by one, produced from who knew where.
“For this morning's meal, I have prepared a stew made with mushrooms and herbs I gathered myself from the nearby forest, along with fresh bird's eggs. Rest assured, I checked for poison by tasting them first!”
When did she even make all this, and how is it still warm? When does she sleep, between the hunting and the foraging? And why is a sword-mage doing poison tasting? What am I, a king?
Ever since Tiana arrived, his simple breakfasts had transformed into a daily "sacred offering presented to the Teacher." The ingredients were so fresh and luxurious he half wondered if they'd really been foraged from the same forest he knew. And the sheer pressure of eating food that an S-rank adventurer had personally poison-tested was more than enough to give a man indigestion.
At this rate, I'm worried about what comes after.
What would he do when she eventually discovered he was just an ordinary man? How would he survive her wrath?
“I appreciate you cooking for me, but you really don't have to go to all this trouble…”
“Your health, Master, is directly tied to the peace of the world! I could never allow myself to be careless about it!”
Tiana answered with a look of grim resolve. To her, Sian was the hero who bore the fate of the world on his shoulders, and she carried a sacred duty to support that hero's work with everything she had.
Except, of course—
How exactly is my health connected to world peace?
There was no way Sian could parse her meaning. He simply chalked it up to Tiana's tendency to exaggerate, borne of the towering misconceptions she held about him.
As this routine repeated itself day after day, Sian began to ache for his old peaceful life. The days of eating quietly alone, of spacing out while helping in the fields, of idly goofing around with the village kids.
Enough is enough.
At this rate, stress would shrivel him up and kill him. His wounds had more or less healed by now—it was time to send her on her way.
After breakfast, Tiana sat on the packed dirt in front of Sian's house, hands pressed together in her "prayer of gratitude." When he asked why she wasn't doing the 10,000 Grateful Sword Draws, she simply replied:
“Thanks to your teachings, Teacher, I have come to understand that there is something more important than drawing the sword.”
Somehow, she seemed to have extracted something far beyond anything he'd actually said. Had he ever said anything like that?
Musing on this, Sian studied her quietly for a moment before speaking up.
“Your body—feeling better now?”
The bandages that had once wrapped her were gone without a trace, and her wounds had vanished entirely, leaving not even a scar.
Did she use a potion?
Potions that healed wounds completely were supposedly ruinously expensive. Watching her use one so casually, it seemed S-rank adventurers truly lived in a different world altogether.
Tiana's eyes snapped open mid-prayer, and she answered in a hearty voice.
“Yes! Fully recovered, thanks to you, Teacher!”
No, that was also because of me?
Everything was somehow thanks to him, apparently. She was so quick to credit him that he couldn't get a word in edgewise. In Tiana's eyes, it seemed the entire world existed thanks to Sian.
Sian swallowed the sigh that threatened to burst out of him and spoke.
“Tiana.”
“Yes, Master! Speak your command!”
She answered with military precision, eyes blazing with determination.
“Your wounds are healed now. It's time for you to do what you came here to do.”
“……!”
Her gaze wavered for an instant—then flared, burning bright.
“You… you grant me your blessing?”
What blessing did revenge need? If you wanted to do something, you did it. It wasn't like she was planning to murder anyone—she was going to take down a Calamity.
“You can't move forward until you settle the debts of the past.”
Sending a perfectly healthy—well, allegedly a screw or two loose—S-rank adventurer off into mortal danger didn't sit entirely easy with him, but he couldn't keep living like this either. And she clearly had her own resolve, given how she was burning with purpose.
At his words, Tiana fell silent for a moment. Complicated emotions flickered across her face—joy, resolve, and… hesitation.
“But, Teacher… will you truly be all right?”
“…Huh?”
“While I am gone, who will look after your well-being? Who will stand guard over this place of such grave importance? Surely I, humble as I am, must remain at your side to serve and attend you!”
Serve and attend? He wasn't some feeble old man who couldn't lift his own spoon. To Sian, the whole notion was absurd. Weak as he might be, he hardly needed someone waiting on him hand and foot.
But he lacked the courage to argue the point with a superhuman S-rank adventurer.
“There's no need to worry about me. I've been on my own this whole time, after all.”
“You are telling me to put my affairs in order. Understood.”
“……?”
She said she understood, but something about the nuance felt off. Still, the news that Tiana was finally leaving brought such relief that he couldn't bring himself to press her on it. What if he poked at her and she changed her mind? Something was clearly being misunderstood somewhere, but either way, once she walked out that gate, he'd have his freedom back. That was all that mattered, wasn't it?
And so, with every preparation complete, Tiana stood before Sian.
“Then, Teacher, I shall be off!”
“Right, take care… wait, what?”
She's coming back? Again? Here? Why?
Was "I shall be off" just a figure of speech, or did she genuinely mean to return? Bewilderment washed over him—but before he could even finish the thought, her mouth opened again.
“I shall prove your greatness and your teachings upon the road I walk! The world will soon learn of you, Teacher—the hidden light that guards it!”
“No, hold on—”
He'd meant to say hold on a second, but before the words could leave his mouth, Tiana's figure had simply vanished. She disappeared without even an afterimage, leaving him nothing to grab, nothing to say.
“…Phew.”
Letting out a long, deep sigh, Sian stared emptily in the direction she'd gone.
“…She's gone. Finally.”
A sigh of relief escaped him naturally, unbidden. These past few days, her presence had kept him so on edge he hadn't managed a single proper rest.
Now, at last, he could relax. His only thought was to go home and sleep the entire day away.
Although…
A faint unease had taken root in some corner of his heart. Tiana's parting words echoed in his ears.
I shall prove your greatness and your teachings upon the road I walk! The world will soon learn of you, Teacher—the hidden light that guards it!
Prove what? Tell the world what, exactly? Please, please just don't let her spread any weird rumors.
He wanted no more commotion than he already had.
But as Sian made his way back home—
“Waaah! It's Teacher!”
—he never made it to his destination. This time, it was the children who ambushed him.
“Teacher, did Tiana-unni leave?”
“Yeah, she did.”
“Aww, I wanted to talk to her more!”
“My mom and dad say Tiana-unni is an amazing, amazing person!”
“Well, she is pretty incredible.”
An S-rank adventurer, no less. Ordinary people could go their whole lives without ever laying eyes on one. Come to think of it, though—Tiana had been glued to his side this whole time. When had she found time to chat with the kids?
Does she seriously have two bodies?
He was still puzzling over it when the children started chattering all at once.
“Teacher! Tiana-unni says you're the most incredible person in the whole world!”
“She says everything you ever taught her is true!”
“Teach me too! The, um, the grateful praying and then the slashy thing! That one!”
“……What?”
It seemed that while talking with the children, Tiana had gone and spread outright slander about him. Listening to their excited chatter, a thought suddenly struck him.
The villagers haven't gotten any weird ideas too… have they?
He could only pray it wasn't so.
Meanwhile, having left the village behind and hastening down the nearby forest road, Tiana came to a sudden halt. She turned and gazed back at the small village she'd departed—the home of her one and only hope, the great master who stood guard over the world.
Teacher, you opened a path for me.
In Tiana's eyes, fixed on the distant village, there was only unwavering gratitude. Without Sian, she would still be wallowing at the bottom of despair's pit, and she would have gone on dying, ignorant and blind, never learning the truth of this world.
And besides…
If she helped shoulder his burdens, even a little, surely it would ease his labors. He had told her to save those suffering beyond his reach rather than tending to him. If that was the Teacher's command, then her course was set.
“In the name of the Teacher's will—”
She would sweep away the darkness of the world.
The moment her resolve crystallized and she moved to press onward, a sinister presence stirred across the path ahead.
“These things… they're not monsters that belong around here.”
Tiana surveyed the monsters encircling her. They were not the sort of creatures one would find in these woods.
Are they being drawn to Pandemonium?
The Teacher held back the monsters of Pandemonium, but their miasma itself could only seep outward so long as the seal went unrepaired. Perhaps that faint, leaking energy was slowly luring the monsters in, one by one.
“Grrrrr…”
Low growls rumbled as the pack of monsters closed in on her. Creatures that would have set her heart pounding not long ago—but the Tiana of today was different. Her hand never even drifted toward the sword at her hip. She simply brought her palms together in a quiet, reverent gesture of prayer.
And then—
Hiss!
A whisper of steel. A flicker, faster than sight.
The monster lay split in two on the forest floor.
“Krrk?”
The other monsters nearby tilted their heads, utterly failing to grasp what had just happened. And as the corners of Tiana's lips curled upward, her eyes gleamed.