The Sword of My Fiancée
From the day after my fiancée collapsed while swinging her sword, I devoted myself to training every single day. Sir Leon watched me with eyes so intense it went beyond mere admiration and bordered on suspicion. The thought Is that kid gay? must have crossed his mind, because right around then he called me over and said he had something interesting to show me. Just as my suspicions were about to turn into full-blown dread—wondering if the “interesting thing” was the sleeping dragon hidden in his pants—he showed me something else entirely.
“There are four powers in this world. Are you aware of them?”
“What, like gravity and stuff?”
“Gravity…? No, my lord. I mean Aura, Force, Mana, and Holy Power.”
Familiar words flowed from Sir Leon’s mouth. Aura and Force, Mana and Holy Power. The four abilities players could choose in the game. Powers that let you slice boulders with a sword or soar through the sky.
“Since you are the eldest son of a knightly house, young master Kyle, you will be learning Aura.”
“Can’t I learn the others?”
“Well, you could study magic, but… it would be difficult. Unlike Aura, magic requires a great deal of talent.”
To become a mage, one needed not only talent for Mana but also the intelligence to understand spell formulas and the perseverance to sit and research for ten or twenty hours at a stretch. In other words, unless I had been born a mutant genius, I shouldn’t even dream of magic.
“Then what about the rest? Force or Holy Power?”
“Force is an innate supernatural ability. It cannot be taught or learned from anyone. As for Holy Power… do you wish to become a priest, young master?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Then in the end, only Aura remains.”
I let out a rather disappointed sigh at Sir Leon’s words. In movies and comics, protagonists often wield every power thanks to some hidden bloodline, but it seemed I had no such thing.
Perhaps he read my expression, because Sir Leon chuckled and said,
“No, it’s not that I dislike it.”
“Once you see it for yourself, young master, your thoughts will change. Allow me to demonstrate.”
With those words, Sir Leon drew a wooden sword. He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and began to radiate something that shimmered around him.
“Knights who wield Aura are divided into three stages.”
The something that had been rippling around his body was suddenly sucked back inside with his breath. In that state, Sir Leon swung the wooden sword. A speed so fast it was nearly invisible. A swing so swift it seemed physically impossible swept past me.
“First is the Aura User stage, where one can reinforce the body through Aura.”
“Oh, so next is Expert, and the final stage is Master?”
“……Who told you that?”
“No one. It was just too obvious.”
I recalled the setting I had seen in the game. A cliché straight out of some generic fantasy novel had been faithfully reproduced in reality.
No matter how you look at it, those names are seriously lazy.
They had simply translated Beginner, Expert, and Master into English. It was almost enough to make me laugh in disbelief. I stopped myself from snorting and looked back at Sir Leon.
Even though he realized I already knew about Aura, he continued the lesson without pause.
“As you know, once you can imbue Aura into objects other than your own body, you reach the Expert stage.”
CRACK!
Sir Leon shattered a log with his wooden sword and sheathed it.
“And if you can manifest Aura outside your body, you become a Master.”
“You’re not going to show me that part?”
“Hahaha, you say the funniest things, young master.”
Sir Leon scratched his cheek in embarrassment and looked away.
“I apologize, but I have not yet reached the Master stage. It is not an easy thing to achieve.”
“Are Masters that rare?”
“Not only among knights, but even His Lordship the Count has yet to reach the Master realm.”
“Huh? Even Dad?”
“Yes. The Master stage is not something just anyone can attain. If you, young master, were to reach the Master realm, you would earn the title of Sword Saint and at the same time─”
At the same time─ Sir Leon gazed up at the sky as if recalling an ideal he could only dream of, and continued.
“Even become king or emperor?”
“Hmm… Emperor might be a stretch… but perhaps the king of a small nation would be possible.”
“What? So it’s not actually anything.”
Hearing me grumble, Sir Leon simply smiled and looked at me. I hopped down from the log I had been sitting on and said,
“Still… to get there, I’ll have to train like crazy, right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Then let’s go─ right now. Training time.”
I left Sir Leon behind and took the lead, breaking into a run. After all, there wasn’t anything new about the training. That was what effort was. A continuous string of painful routines. Even though success wasn’t guaranteed at the end, you still threw yourself into the pain.
It had already been three months since I pestered Sir Leon into training me. During that time, the territory had grown strangely busy. Feeling puzzled, I asked the tutor who was educating me. He looked down at me in surprise and answered,
“His Lordship will soon return from his expedition. Did you really not know?”
“Uh… first I’m hearing of it.”
“─I told you a month ago, before class began. It seems you weren’t paying attention.”
“Ah.”
In the end, the fact that I had been spacing out was discovered, and I was forced to take a pop quiz reviewing past lessons. When the tutor realized I remembered almost nothing, he flew into a rage and declared he would make me study again. I skillfully dodged his anger, escaped, and headed straight for the training grounds.
“Sir… Leon?”
Unfortunately, the training ground was empty. Well, the Count was returning soon. It would have been strange if the knights who served him didn’t go to greet their lord. I stared quietly at the silent training ground, then strapped on the wooden sword Sir Leon had made for me and began running laps around the drill field.
What did it matter if I was alone? What did it matter if no one was watching? In the end, life was something you lived by yourself.
“Let’s gooooo!”
I ran the lonely drill field by myself, finished swinging my wooden sword, and returned to the mansion. The Count, who had apparently just returned, was there to greet me.
“Welcome back, My Lord.”
“Mm.”
Karl Meyer, head of the Meyer family, received a report from his vassal and knight, Leon, about what had happened in the territory while he was away. The territory had been peaceful, with no damage from monsters or bandits. In a way, it was only natural. He had set up the system so the estate would run smoothly even in his absence.
“Any notable matters?”
“The young master has begun learning the sword.”
“Kyle?”
But nothing ever went exactly as planned. Upon hearing that his son had started learning the sword, the Count began to chuckle. Blood truly couldn’t be denied. He had thought the boy would want to play for at least a few more years.
“Did he show any talent?”
“……It’s astonishing.”
“Oh? You of all people say that?”
Karl looked at Leon as he spoke. Leon nodded with complete sincerity. Leon was the most outstanding knight the Count trusted. He hadn’t left the territory in the man’s hands for nothing. For such a knight to call something astonishing… Karl couldn’t even begin to guess the level.
“What did you teach him?”
“Only the basics—cutting, swinging, and thrusting.”
“Did he complain?”
“I told him you would be the one to teach him further.”
“Still, he could have whined for more advanced techniques.”
The Count said he would take a look himself and headed to the training ground with Leon. Or rather, to the corridor overlooking the training ground. Because of the welcome ceremony for the Count returning from his expedition, the training ground was empty except for one person—Kyle—swinging his sword.
One might have been displeased that his son was swinging a sword instead of coming to greet his returning father, but the Count rather liked the sight.
“……Sir Leon. How many months has it been since you started teaching him?”
“It has been three months now.”
Three months… Recalling the time when he himself had learned the sword, the Count let out a low groan as he watched Kyle swing. To reach that level in just three months? The sword path was so perfect that he would have believed it even if someone told him it had been three years instead of three months.
While the Count was inwardly marveling, Leon delivered an even more shocking piece of news.
“He has looked like that ever since I first began teaching him the sword.”
“……What?”
When the Count looked at him in disbelief, Leon gave a light nod as if to say it was no joke. Having realized his son’s talent, the Count abandoned the idea of teaching him personally in a few years. With talent like that, it was possible the second Master since the founding patriarch might appear. The Sword Saint who would make the family great…
“I should see his face.”
“I will bring him.”
“─Do not disturb his training. Bring him when he is finished.”
Leaving those words behind, the Count headed to the dining hall. There was a mountain of work waiting, but… how could he not throw a party on a day like this?
While I was swinging my sword in the training ground, I felt someone’s gaze on me. The owner of that gaze was Sir Leon, and as soon as my training ended he took me straight to the lord’s study. Dragged there without even washing off my sweat, I finally came face to face with the Count who had been waiting for me.
Realizing I hadn’t even greeted the lord who had returned late from his expedition, I hurriedly bowed.
“Kyle, have you been well?”
“Yes, Father.”
The Count who had returned from the expedition looked quite tired, yet a smile never left his face. In a very fatherly way, he ruffled my hair. It seemed he had seen me swinging the sword earlier, because he mentioned the training that would begin tomorrow.
“From now on, you will learn the sword from me.”
“Uh… yes, understood.”
“Good. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“I’m fine.”
The Count and I had a perfectly ordinary father-son conversation that didn’t feel very noble-like. While we were talking, the Count suddenly let out an “Ah,” as if he had just remembered something, and dropped a bomb.
“Now that I think about it, your fiancée will be arriving tomorrow.”
“……Pardon?”
I tilted my head, wondering if I had misheard the Count. But he only grinned and did not correct himself. I stared at him blankly, then let out a hollow laugh.
My Lord. No—Father. A fiancée at this age…?