Reunion with My First Disciple
"Leban, examinee. I wish to speak with you alone."
With that voice dropping chillingly cold, our reunion with my first disciple came about unexpectedly. The moment I first turned around, joy at seeing her again nearly had me rushing forward to embrace her in an instant. After all, the last time we'd faced each other so closely had been three years ago.
"……!!"
But in the next moment, the icy, murderous glare piercing from Ceres's blue eyes. Seeing her delicate right hand drifting toward the rapier at her waist, I finally realized something was gravely wrong. I had no choice but to hastily harden my face, which had been softening with a foolish smile.
...Why didn't I think of it? Of course she wouldn't recognize me.
No photo, no portrait of my youthful self remained. My disciples, who met me as a middle-aged man and grew accustomed to my gradually aging form, could hardly be expected to know me like this.
The price of letting emotion override reason, rushing here without any plan or thought—it seemed to be coming back to bite me now.
Why does she want to speak with me alone? ...Even letting that fierce killing intent I always taught her to conceal seep out so menacingly.
For now, there was no way to know the reason. But I was certain of one thing: whatever motive she had for facing me alone, it wasn't a positive one.
"Whoa... Leban, it's Ceres...!! Doesn't she look even more beautiful up close like this...!?"
Seemingly oblivious to the tense air between Ceres and me, Nerin—excited to see a celebrity of the empire right before her eyes—whispered to me quietly.
"Nerin, examinee."
"Y-yes!?"
"I have something to discuss alone with your partner, so would you mind stepping away for a moment?"
Ceres addressed Nerin politely, but with an even colder, more chilling tone, asking her to leave. If there was any misunderstanding on Ceres's part, it had to stem from me. Not wanting to drag Nerin into it, I quietly asked her to go as well.
"Nerin, it seems this knight has business with me today, so you go on ahead."
"Oh, should I...? Um, then before I go, please take this!"
"Paper...? What's this?"
"It's my magic orb number. If we're going to train together later, you'll need to contact me...."
"Ah, that... I see. I'll definitely call you on that magic... orb thing."
"Yes!! See you soon, Leban...!!"
With that, Nerin handed over her magic orb number, bowed to me, and trotted off. I felt a pang of guilt for not telling her honestly that I didn't have a magic orb yet, but...
"Follow me."
Right now, resolving the issue with my first disciple, Ceres, standing before me took precedence over everything else.
The place Ceres led me to was a small clearing across from the knights' training ground. Upon reaching what looked like a neatly maintained, modest training area, Ceres slowly stopped and turned to gaze at me, opening her mouth deliberately.
"This is my personal training ground. As captain of the knights, besides honing my skills... it's a place I often come to for private conversations."
Before I could respond, Ceres headed to a corner of the training ground. She slowly drew out something with a familiar silhouette, continuing calmly.
"When I personally checked your records, I thought it was just my mistake."
Screeech... screeech...
"Just a young examinee with the same name, similar aura, and eyes."
Clatter...
"I told myself it was just me, lost in longing amid this vast, meaningless world, seeing things that weren't there."
As the box opened and the clattering stopped, Ceres turned slowly, gripping something firmly in both hands.
"But this is different. It's not some trivial thing I can laugh off as a simple misunderstanding."
"……!!"
In her hands was my beloved sword, the one I'd temporarily surrendered to the organizers for the exam. It held twenty years of memories—from my days as a wanderer swordsman to teaching my disciples. That worn, heavy blade now rested in Ceres's grasp.
Step by step, she approached me, handed me the sword, then stepped back and drew her pristine white rapier, pointing it at me.
"This is the simplest question I'm putting to you."
Swoosh...
"A clear answer to my foolish thoughts."
The very first night of the basilisk hunting exam.
"Captain, here are the examinee's records you requested."
"Ah, thank you."
"No problem. Is something bothering you?"
"......Just something I wanted to check."
Ceres was reviewing the examinee's records she'd requested earlier.
"Name: Leban... the same as Master."
As expected, the young man's name that caught her eye matched her master's. However, his age in the records was 20—seven years younger than her.
......Younger than me. Must've been a mistake.
There are surely others with the same name as Master. That brief moment our eyes met, when his image overlapped with Master's... it must've been a hallucination born of longing.
With that thought, she closed the records, set them on the desk, and shut her eyes.
Yeah, no way it could be. I must've been overthinking it.
Yes, it should've been nothing more than a mishap born from missing her beloved master too much. For her, this should have ended simply.
"Captain Ceres, would you like to check that examinee's weapon as well?"
"......His weapon?"
"Yes, there's a heavy sword temporarily surrendered under his name. I couldn't bring it here, but..."
"...Where is that sword now?"
"Pardon? Oh, in the training ground."
But the moment Ceres encountered Leban's worn sword, left alone in the training ground—something neither the Central Guild's staff nor any Baekya Knight could lift—the situation that should've been a mere misunderstanding began pulling her toward an absurd hypothesis rising in her mind.
"......Master's sword."
Having received his teachings for twenty years, facing that beloved sword every day, she could never mistake it. Nor could anyone have killed her master—who was stronger than her—and wielded it, for no one in the world but someone stronger than her master could even lift it.
"No way, Ceres. Get a grip. You know it's a foolish thought."
Though she denied it aloud, Ceres knew well that all signs pointed to one inescapable truth.
"Draw that sword, examinee Leban. And block my blade."
Now, toward the man standing casually gripping the sword she'd handed him with both hands, she posed her final question—hoping against hope for confirmation of her foolish dream, cherished only in sleep.
The tip of her snow-white rapier gleamed like the new moon piercing the dark night sky.
Slash!!!
With the sound of crashing waves, Ceres swung her sword at the man's throat. In the faint glimpse of his eyes on the trajectory of her strike—too swift to even blink—she saw the answer she'd denied but desperately hoped for.
......Well done, my disciple.
"!!"
Clang!!!
The clear ring of the battered old sword clashing with the pristine white rapier rang out, and master and disciple halted in unison.
"......Leban... Master."
"My disciple. Your swordsmanship has improved greatly."
"I... I missed you so much. It hurt so bad."
"I missed you too, Ceres."
"Uu... huuu...."
Beneath the quiet clearing, the noble captain of the Baekya Knights shed tears for the first time. In the warm embrace of her master, whom she hadn't seen in three years since he left for the wide, desolate world—receiving the long-craved strokes on her head.
"I really... really missed you, Master."
"I missed you too, my dear Ceres."
"I'm sorry... for not recognizing you at first glance......"
"Heh heh heh... Look how young I've become. It'd be stranger if you had recognized me."
In her private training ground, empty of all others, I stroked the head of my beloved disciple, reunited after three years, and shared our hearts openly.
"How... how did you become so young?"
"I don't quite know myself. I just reminisced about our days together as I slept, and woke up like this."
"......Is it a blessing?"
"Heh heh heh, perhaps it is."
I began with the story of how my body had rejuvenated.
"Um... thanks to your teachings, Master, I became captain of the knights."
"I know. I saw all those young ones in the training ground looking at you with eyes of respect. Well done."
"......Then pet me a little more."
Praise for my disciple, who had grown into the captain of the Baekya Knights.
"What do you think of this young version of your master?"
"You're handsome."
"Heh heh heh, even empty words of praise from my disciple feel wonderful."
"......No, I mean it."
Though delivered in a prostrated bow of respect, her evaluation of my rejuvenated appearance, and more. We sat in the center of the training ground, lost in three years' worth of trivial stories, oblivious to the passing time.
In the midst of our endless conversation with my cherished disciple, Ceres, who had been gazing quietly at my face, asked me.
"Now that your body is young again... is there nothing you want to do, Master?"
"......What I want to do."
At first, I only wanted to give my disciples everything I hadn't before. But upon reflection, I realized I wanted to spend this precious time not just with them, but forging new bonds as well.
"First, I'd like to meet my other two disciples and talk. And......"
After a moment's thought, I smiled at Ceres half-jokingly.
"I've never had a lover in my life, so maybe this time I'll try courting one. Wouldn't be bad, eh?"
At that instant, Ceres's softly smiling face hardened coldly.
"......A lover?"