Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Unexpected Training (2)
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'What the hell is there to be so happy about?'
Ban let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the pebble in his hand. It felt like he'd just overcome some massive hurdle. Well, if you could call it a hurdle, it was one. This wasn't just any ordinary pebble. It was one that could fly at him at any moment during the day, and it came flying while naturally concealing its presence.
Ban sat down in place and quietly waited for Heavenly Spirit. He hadn't heard a voice, but he knew the man would appear soon.
"You've taken your first steps."
The voice came from above. Ban looked up at the top of the prison wall. Heavenly Spirit was gazing down at him from there.
'Impressive stealth.'
Above all, what was impressive was the sharpness of his eyes in reading Ban's vigilance. If he'd taken just one more step closer, he wouldn't have been able to evade Ban's senses. Ban peered into Heavenly Spirit's eyes. The target's pupil stared down at him emotionlessly.
"If first steps are like this, how do you walk at the end?"
"Your vigilance is far too lax."
Heavenly Spirit slowly descended from the wall. Even as he did, he walked that thin line of entering Ban's vigilance or not quite entering it. Heavenly Spirit continued.
"And crude. It's good that you're trying to read your opponent, but if what you're trying to read becomes readable, what's the point?"
"I don't recall ever losing a battle of wits and backing down."
"If they're mediocre, they might not read you. So, do you want to remain a mediocre swordsman? Then quit."
Heavenly Spirit said with a sneer. There was no response to give. Ban slowly watched Heavenly Spirit's feet move.
'If only I had a sword.'
"Want to say it would have been different if you had a sword?"
"I didn't know mind-reading was your specialty."
"It's obvious. With your eyes full of that stubbornness, it's more ridiculous to expect it won't be read."
"What stubbornness are you talking about?"
"You know better than anyone."
Heavenly Spirit's sling began to spin threateningly. It looked like ordinary string and a stone, but depending on whose hand wielded it, it could become a more fearsome weapon than any spear or blade.
One pebble shot out. Ban didn't move. He already knew that stone wouldn't harm him. Heavenly Spirit twisted the corner of his mouth.
"Yes. So now you can read it."
"I have no choice but to distinguish between attacks and non-attacks."
"Then why did you get hit by so many stones at first?"
"Because I couldn't adapt?"
"So, do you plan to get beaten like that against every enemy, using 'I couldn't adapt' as an excuse?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I heard the gist. You have great pride in your life as a swordsman. There's one common trait among such people."
Heavenly Spirit said chillingly.
"If their sword is taken, they crumble immediately."
It was the next instant. Heavenly Spirit's sling launched dozens of stones continuously into the sky. Ban knew right away those stones would rain down on him like hail. But there was no way to dodge. If he had even a wooden stick in hand, he might do something, but bare-handed...
Tadadadadak!
His dilemma didn't last long. The stones that had risen into the sky were struck by more stones Heavenly Spirit fired in succession and bounced away elsewhere. Ban looked at Heavenly Spirit, sweating coldly. Heavenly Spirit spoke as if he hadn't expected anything.
"See? You can't do anything."
"Isn't it natural for a swordsman without a sword to be helpless?"
"If you're helpless without a sword, then who's strong? You? Or the sword?"
Ban shut his mouth again. Just the absence of a sword made him feel powerless. In a way, Heavenly Spirit's question was valid. Was power that could only be had by gripping a sword truly power?
"Being a small-minded fool swayed by the sword means meeting him would be pointless."
"What do you want from me?"
"It's not what I want. It's what you want."
Heavenly Spirit countered.
"Didn't you come to me seeking to learn because you want to grow stronger?"
"But the strength you speak of sounds so vague to me."
"It's simple."
Heavenly Spirit answered curtly.
"Even when you don't draw your sword, you must not weaken."
§
Heavenly Spirit's words reverberated in Ban in many ways. You must not weaken just because you didn't draw your sword. That paradoxical statement ironically brought Ropo to mind.
Ropo was exactly the person those words described. He became strong by letting go of his sword. And Ban had gripped a hammer and an axe because he wanted to follow and understand such a Ropo. Still, Ban knew there was something he couldn't match in Ropo. It wasn't just a matter of the sword's speed, cunning, or sharpness.
'Just as that blade demon was light, I'm light too.'
Kshatu had fought relying on the blade skin draped over his body. Thanks to that power that no one dared approach, Kshatu didn't understand what it meant to fight 'cautiously.'
In a way, Ban was ultimately the same as Kshatu. He was too strong, and he had grown too quickly. And because of that, there must have been many sceneries he hadn't properly looked at deeply and had let slip by.
Above all, Ban as a person... was still lacking compared to Ban as a swordsman.
Ban half-clenched his fist and imagined a sword in his hand. And he swung that imaginary sword in the air several times.
'All the qi I have, all my history, was built only through the sword.'
He couldn't hear a voice from empty hands. His hands, always gripping a sword, naturally couldn't exert any power when empty. That's what those hands were.
Ban thrust his fist toward the wooden doll. He had learned basic hand-to-hand combat, but it was truly just the basics. The power in his fist was nothing compared to the power in his sword.
'First, I need to escape Heavenly Spirit's eyes.'
No matter how thick the walls, they couldn't block Heavenly Spirit's gaze. That meant even if no one was around Ban, he couldn't do anything foolish. For the same reason, he couldn't go searching for Shiraz, who was bound somewhere.
'Ubowo holds goodwill toward me, but how far that goodwill extends to my comrades is still unknown.'
He only sighed more. Anya had said not to leave her behind again, but honestly, in this situation, the only thing Ban could think of was leaving her behind. Of course, escaping together was possible too, but if he did that...
'It might be the last chance. I can't let go of Kalsmori Library like this.'
In conclusion, the best Ban could do was ensure they were all safe, then head to Kalsmori Library.
And what he could do right now was solely to grow stronger.
'Is this what it means to grow stronger?'
Ban slowly clenched and unclenched his palm. How much power was in his hand, how his nerves moved to apply that power, what the air felt like against his fingers—all those minute details floated up and sank in his consciousness.
In truth, this was less a stage of growing stronger and more a stage of realizing his own power. If Ban were a sword, he was already a sword that had been hammered enough. He was sturdy, well-centered. All that remained was to sharpen the edge.
"Try meditating."
It was Anya's words.
"During that time when I meditated a lot, I thought my understanding of White Flame was pretty high. But looking back now, the truth is I still don't properly understand what White Flame is."
"But my power isn't something like White Flame."
"Then what is it?"
To that question of what it was, Ban couldn't find an answer.
So in the end, he had no choice but to meditate whenever he had a moment. Both Anya's words and Heavenly Spirit's were right. He didn't properly know what his power was. He'd thought swinging a sword made him a proper swordsman now, but actually, it was the opposite.
He was the one being swung, and he wasn't a swordsman—he was the sword.
'Jensen.'
The Overhead Slash his master had shown was too perfect. Even years later, when Ban performed Overhead Slash, he thought of Jensen.
'Obun.'
Obun's thrust was now laughably slow and incomplete compared to Ban's. But even so, Ban couldn't deny that Obun had poured more time into thrusting than he had. Obun's thrust was his life, everything. So Ban still felt he owed Obun for thrusting.
'Shade.'
Shade's Scorpion Sword formed the foundation of the dual-wield swordsmanship Ban wielded. In a way, it wouldn't be wrong to say Ban's dual-wield had taken root in Shade's land.
'Senior Yuri...'
Yuri's Deflection occupied the most characteristic part of Ban's swordsmanship. Deflecting any sword and slipping into the gap created by the deflection was Ban's basic tactic. Perhaps because it was the finest swordsmanship among the swords he had as a child, but during his awkward growth spurt, Ban had built his skills aspiring to be a swordsman like Yuri.
'Mr. Lucas taught me what talent is.'
When he didn't even have a basic concept of swords, Lucas's short sword showed Ban how talent could change a swordsman. He'd wielded countless talented swordsmen's swords after Lucas, but when talking about talent, the first thing Ban thought of was Lucas's world.
'And Sir Ropo...'
Ropo's case went without saying. His sword had completed Ban. Or so he'd thought. But only now did Ban realize.
'Where is my sword in there?'
He had taken everyone's swords. And made them all his own. But unconsciously, Ban thought they weren't his swords. Compared to what they had poured in, he had paid too little. He'd added too little short contemplation and reflection. Perhaps it was inevitable for one who heard the Voice of the Sword, but what Ban wanted to be was not a guardian, but a swordsman.
He had to find himself. If it didn't exist, he had to create it and stand it up. Ban rose from his seat and moved as if he were truly gripping a sword. His invisible swordsmanship was sometimes too clumsy, sometimes too beautiful. But in none of them could Ban find himself.
He had to grip it. He had to meet it. An obsession-like passion urged Ban's steps. At the boundary of consciousness and unconsciousness, Ban wandered searching for the self he hadn't dared look back at, his own power. At the tips of such a Ban's fingers, illusions of a sword truly being gripped flickered and vanished repeatedly.
'...Already glimpsing the realm of Formless Sword?'
Heavenly Spirit quietly watched such a Ban. At this point, clumsy admonitions would only be a hindrance. As the sun rose, set, and rose again, Ban immersed himself in the exploration of his self without even taking a sip of water.
And so, on the day the third sun rose.
"......"
Ban looked like a corpse, on the verge of collapsing any moment. Heavenly Spirit looked at such a Ban and spun his sling whirring. Just spinning the sling made the air tear with sound. Even if one held a shield, that stone held enough power to shred the shield and its bearer.
And the moment such a stone shot toward Ban, it was truly in an instant.
The stone was so fast even the sound couldn't keep up. The stone aiming for Ban's nape seemed about to send him to the next world. But the next moment, Ban's hand fluttered like a scrap of cloth,
And Heavenly Spirit's stone lost its power and was deflected like a feather.
"You're quite the prankster, Heavenly Spirit."
Ban said in a feeble voice. A glint appeared over Heavenly Spirit's emotionless eyes.
The man who had been a sword finally became a true swordsman.