Dawn [5]
"Mmm. This is good."
Lee Seol-ah chewed the boar meat, her eyes sparkling.
"Isn't it bland?"
Honestly, the food here tasted terribly bland to me. Maybe it was because I was a modern man, long since broken in by every aggressively seasoned dish there was, even if I did eat demonic beast meat. Not that it mattered. I didn't eat for the taste anyway, which was why I'd asked Seol-ah about the seasoning in the first place. She was a local, so it probably wouldn't bother her—but just in case.
"A little? But I haven't had salt in so long that I'm used to it."
"Ah."
Was I an idiot? Anyone could see this civilization was nowhere near the modern age, and still I'd assumed they could season as freely as they liked with salt. Salt, as I understood it, was incredibly precious in this era.
Maybe my wits have slipped because I haven't been using my head lately.
It was possible. Looking back over the road I'd walked, I was a severe case of bipolar disorder, plain and simple. Mental strength affects memory and the ability to think. That much is obvious, so yes—it could be.
Well. What does it matter.
So long as I could swing a sword properly, that was enough. From the very beginning, it was the only thing I knew how to do. As long as I didn't forget that, nothing else mattered.
I got to my feet and, with a sword gathered in crimson sword-qi, carved the boar into pieces fit to eat.
"Whoa..."
Seol-ah watched as if spellbound, her eyes glittering.
She didn't lose the point of the blade this time either.
Combat isn't anything special. Stay calm, follow your opponent's movements with your eyes, and keep your own body under your control. That's all there is to it. That's the foundation. And Seol-ah had that foundation set in her to a degree that defied all measure—better, even, than I had been at the same age.
"Seol-ah."
"Yes?"
"Want to learn the sword?"
"Ah— I'd love to!"
At a single offer to teach her the sword, she wore the face of someone who had just been handed the whole world. And yet she herself, afflicted with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, could not swing a blade properly. It was a pity.
And I'm the one who hates the sword.
A world where the one who hates the sword swings it unto death, and the one who loves it cannot swing it even unto death. The world is cruel, as ever.
"You can't use internal energy, and even moving your body is hard enough... I'll only teach you a little self-defense."
"Hehe... I'd love that!"
By now even the stars shining in those ocean-blue eyes of hers were plain to see. Why she loved the sword that much, I could not understand. I probably never would.
"Eat properly first. If your body can't carry you, you won't be swinging a sword or doing anything else."
"Yes! I'll eat with everything I've got!"
Seol-ah nodded hard, her voice bright with energy. I had no idea what eating with everything she had was supposed to mean. I chuckled and held out a piece of roasted meat, and she took it and ate it with exactly that kind of earnestness. Right—at that age, you need to eat well. At that age I'd been tearing demonic beast meat raw with my teeth, but anyway.
"About training. Once in the morning, once at noon, once in the evening. How's that?"
"Perfect! Hehe... back in the clan, they wouldn't even let me hold a sword."
Color bloomed across her face as she accepted. Taking on a disciple felt better than I had expected.
And so a fortnight passed.
Aside from the three rounds of training and meals—morning, noon, and evening—every waking hour was spent on the move. Even then, that our destination still refused to show itself was nothing short of astonishing. The training, at least, had borne fruit.
"...Huh."
I knocked Seol-ah's sword aside with a tree branch and let out a hollow laugh.
"How was that?"
Seol-ah asked, eyes shining.
"Don't tell me you reincarnated too."
"That's a compliment, right?"
"Yeah. The line of the sword was clean, and that strike went straight for the opening. Take away the lack of strength and speed, and it's close to perfect."
I meant it. Leaps and bounds, in the most literal sense. If Seol-ah had not suffered the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, if she had taken up the sword from childhood, and if she had met me as an enemy, she could have beaten me as I was at seventeen—even without internal energy. I'd wondered whether I was simply a good teacher, but growth of that speed could never be wrought by instruction alone. It was enough to leave even me with a sense of accomplishment.
"Hehe."
Seol-ah laughed brightly and scratched the back of her head. Flushed cheeks, glittering eyes—all of it proof of her excitement. She was always like that the moment a sword was in her hand. An obsession that deep was genuinely frightening.
And so—
"At this point, if you play it right, you might even beat a martial artist who's only just stepped into Second-Rate."
"Whoa, really?!"
Seol-ah set her sword on the ground and bounced up and down.
"Kyaaa—!"
She even let out a scream of pure delight. Not a child. Not even close.
"That's twenty-six?"
"And this is fifty-one?"
Right. I was past fifty. Come to think of it, I didn't exactly act my age either. No. No, that wasn't it.
"If I don't act my age, I'm living young. If you don't, you're just a kid, aren't you?"
"I don't know! Aren't you happy about your disciple's achievement?"
"I am happy."
I laughed along with her, scooped her up, and tossed her into the air and caught her, over and over.
"Hwaaak...! Your disciple is dyiiing! Hiyaaak!"
She was screaming, and yet her face was smiling.
"Can't have you dying, so I'll put you down."
I smiled back, caught her, and set her on the ground.
"Hoo... huu..."
Seol-ah caught her ragged breath, then let the corners of her mouth droop.
"That... was way too exciting..."
"It was worth getting excited over."
I kneaded her shoulders and laughed.
"Haaah... I used up all my strength..."
Melted down into something liquid, Seol-ah murmured it in a dazed voice.
"It's travel time now, so sleep a bit if you want."
"Is that okay?"
"Since when have you asked permission to sleep? You're always out in under five minutes. Yesterday you even drooled all over yourself."
"...That's true."
Sheepish, she cleared her throat with a stiff little ahem.
"If you keep sleeping in my arms every day, won't you start dropping off the moment I so much as touch you?"
"Wouldn't that be nice? When bedtime comes, I can use you as a sleeping pill."
"Am I your slave?"
"Heehee. Kidding."
Still smiling, I gathered Seol-ah into my arms.
"Even babies don't sleep this well in their mother's arms, from what I hear."
"I slept in my mom's arms when I was a baby, though."
"Oh, yeah? I didn't have a mother."
"Ah."
An earthquake ran through Seol-ah's pupils.
"It's fine. It's still an even number."
"An even number?"
"Zero's an even number too."
"Ah."
Her reaction was cute enough that I wanted to tease her more, but I held back.
"You don't have to do that. I've never even seen my parents' faces, so it's not like I miss them."
"That makes it even sadder...?"
"Mm... anyway. So just sleep. Sleep is the best medicine."
"Haaahm... I guess I should."
Ten seconds later.
Not a twitch behind those closed lids. Her stomach rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Astonishingly, Seol-ah had fallen asleep in ten seconds.
How is a person even like this.
For someone like me, who can't sleep more than three hours because of insomnia, it was incomprehensible. A bed, I could have understood. But sleeping this comfortably in someone else's arms, in the middle of traveling by lightness art? She slept this well, so why did her body still look sixteen? Shouldn't she at least have grown taller?
"Nnng..."
Seol-ah furrowed her brow and let out a pained sound.
...What kind of timing is that.
As I gave a dry laugh, her face crumpled and she clutched my collar tight.
"Don't... go..."
Sleep-talk. She did this every time she slept in my arms. Was she having some kind of nightmare? At times like this, holding her a little tighter and stroking her back made it better.
"Hnn... Mo...m..."
A sigh of relief slipped out between her clenched teeth, and with it a murmur to herself. I had never asked about Seol-ah's family, but it wasn't hard to infer that it had left a deep scar on her. They say it's better to take the beating early, if a beating is coming—and being cast off by your parents is the same. The sooner, the better. I was thrown away from birth and feel nothing at all, while Seol-ah suffers like this.
Of course, the fact that she can live so brightly might be thanks to her parents too.
It didn't particularly matter. I only hoped she would hurt a little less.
"Hehe..."
Swish, swish. Now she was cutting the air with her arms as if a sword were in her hands.
...Swinging a sword even in her sleep.
I only did that when I was twenty. And I certainly never did it while smiling. Once we actually reached a city, I would have to look into a way to treat the Nine Yin Severed Meridians. She loved the sword that much, and yet a few swings drained her stamina completely. Wasn't that too pitiful?
I was thinking exactly that when—
"Huh?"
From where I stood up in the tree, a city far in the distance caught my eye.
"Uuugh... what's going on...?"
Seol-ah asked, rubbing her eyes. My startled sound seemed to have woken her.
"Ah, you're up? Then take a look at that."
I said so, pointing at the city before us.
"...Oh. Are we finally there?"
"Not quite. There's still some distance, so it'll take a while."
A smile on my face, I stroked her back and went on.
"Sleep a little longer."
"Aww... if I just keep sleeping, I'll feel bad."
"Then would you mind wiping that drool off your mouth first?"
"Ah."
Seol-ah flushed with embarrassment and scrubbed hard at the drool trailing from the corner of her mouth with her sleeve.