Thus the Blind Bodyguard Takes Up the Sword
Ugh... everything aches.
To think so little work would leave me this wrung out. Still, perhaps because the body was young, it seemed to recover quickly.
I hauled myself upright, joint by joint, and stretched—only to feel a stifling tightness across my chest. I must have collapsed into bed the moment I arrived and slept the whole night through in my maid's uniform.
Just as well. I drew the watch from my front pocket and checked the time.
Five and three, on the left. I had slept twelve hours straight.
Not a bad hour to wake, all things considered. I had gone to bed soaked in sweat and felt grimy for it, but by now everyone else ought to be asleep.
I moved my steps as quietly as I could and let my ki sense drift, soft as breath, through the changing room. Fortunately, no one seemed to be inside. Every cabinet stood open, which settled the matter.
Once I was sure it was safe, I finished preparing to wash and stepped into the bath. Partitions divided the room into several stalls.
They were all young ladies of noble houses, after all; it seemed the place had been screened off with that in mind.
Inside a stall I felt soap, and the same water handle I had found yesterday. I confirmed once more that I was alone, then went in.
Perhaps because my body was small, the stall felt larger than I expected. Calling up yesterday's memory, I turned the handle to the left. Warm water began to spill over my head, and at the sudden heat my whole body shivered.
It really was convenient. In my days as the Hero, Yuria had had to conjure the water herself and heat it by hand...
I could have basked in that warmth forever, but I did not have the time. I needed to wash quickly and get out. Someone else might come.
No—what if someone walked in even now?
There was a way to narrow the range of my ki sense and feel more finely in exchange, but with my present skill it was impossible.
Then there was only one thing to do.
I closed my ki sense. It was a little uncomfortable, but there was always the chance.
Put yourself in the other person's place. I had only come to wash, and some woman who had slipped in ahead of me was running her senses over my body? That would hardly sit well, would it?
I might not be the Hero anymore, but I was no pervert. Best to wash quickly and leave.
The soap... it was around here... this?
Tok.
No. I had brushed the handle by mistake, not the soap.
So it turned to the right as well as the left. What was the difference?
"Eeeeeeeek!!"
Cold!! Cold!! Cold!! Cold!! Cold!!
The handle!! The handle!! The handle!! The handle!! The handle!!
I flailed wildly and just managed to twist it back—
Slip.
Eh...?
B-breakfall—!!
"Hieeeek..."
...
I dried myself in a hurry and scrambled back into the maid uniform, and a horn rang through the dormitory.
A weak body meant a body that suffered...
Still, I was glad no one had been there. In more ways than one.
Looking pathetic was the lesser problem. If anyone had been around, I would have had to wash in the pond out in the woods.
Yes. Better to look on the bright side. A little loss of dignity was preferable.
I dressed neatly in time and made my way to the office.
And there, a short exchange with Elouis...
"Training in a maid uniform is awfully stifling. Would it be all right if I wore something more comfortable?"
"Hmm... No. Article 8, Clause 5 of the Blake family regulations: attendants work in attendant dress, and maids in maid dress. It would be a violation."
That again?
Once that was settled, breakfast...
Delicious...! Delicious...!!
I wiped my tears, ate every bite, then shouldered a wooden sword and set off for the woods...
"May I help you?"
"You must be the new maid. Could you lend a hand, then?"
"Of course."
Before I went, I also helped a servant who was struggling under a load of laundry...
"Thank you, miss. Here—something in return."
"Thank you!"
"Not at all. I'm the one who should be grateful. You saved me."
I received a piece of candy as well, and headed into the forest in high spirits.
Before me lay a small pond so clear that simply facing it seemed to wash the heart clean.
My body still throbbed, but the most important rule was never to skip training.
I set the wooden sword on the ground and was about to drop into a push-up when—
"Yaaaaah!!!!"
A black figure limned in red light came charging at me, fury written in every line of it.
That child again? Had they taken on something like a forest keeper's post?
"I called you! Why didn't you answer!!"
"Ah, I'm sorry. When I concentrate on feeling my way, I don't hear very well."
That was one of the greatest flaws of ki sense. Speech from outside its range simply did not reach me.
If I could feel out to a hundred meters or so, as I had in my Hero days, it would not matter. In this unskilled state, it was a truly awkward weakness.
"You're still telling that lie?"
"Isn't the one lying the person standing in front of me? As you promised yesterday, tell me who you are."
"Hmph! This time you won't be able to wriggle out of it!"
My words went in one ear and out the other. The child rummaged through a pocket and produced something egg-shaped.
"If you can guess what's inside this random capsule, I'll really acknowledge you!"
A challenge to name whatever was sealed inside a completely closed capsule. They couldn't have guessed it themselves either.
"I don't know."
"Haha! I knew it, you liar. Today's my victory!"
"Common sense says that if it's sealed shut, there's no way I could feel it."
"Hmph. Excuses. Just admit defeat like a good sport!"
"How is a blind person supposed to know something even eyes can't see?"
"Th... that's true?"
"It is."
The child scratched their head as if thinking it over, then tore the capsule and pried open a narrow gap.
"There! You can guess now, right?"
At this distance... it would be cutting it close, but possible.
"Come on, hurry up and admit def—"
"It's a rabbit."
"A rabbit? Aww... a miss... wait, no! You just guessed!!"
"You can check for yourself."
"There's no way it's right... it is a rabbit?!"
"See? Then enough with the games. Would you give me an answer?"
"Th-that's amazing...! No, wait! It's a draw!"
"A draw?"
"Yes! I won one out of two, so it's a draw!"
"That sounds like complete nonsense to me."
"Anyway, it's a draw! Be waiting tomorrow, too!!"
"No—tell me before you go!!"
Ignoring me entirely, the child bolted off again.
They were lively, and it was pleasant to watch... so why did I feel faintly uneasy?
Strangely, the mere sight of that child stirred a subtle irritation, and unpleasant feelings rose in little increments. Because of it, my words came out a shade sharper than they should have.
Hero or not, a person ought not to harbor a prejudice like this... and yet, strangely, I could not make myself stop.
I had never been this way before, and it left me quite at a loss.
Still, what could not be helped would have to wait. For now, there was work that needed doing.
"Haaah... haaahn..."
In a single day I had made astonishing progress.
A whole one more of each than yesterday. I had even run ten seconds longer. Heh... I was certain of it now.
This body had a clear limit.
Even if I drove my training to the utmost extreme, I would reach perhaps thirty-five percent of the strength I had known as the Hero.
Of course, thirty-five percent was plenty strong. It was enough to serve as captain of an ordinary order of knights—strength beyond any comparison with ordinary people.
Comparing one's body to the Hero, the strongest of humanity, was absurd to begin with.
But if I meant to stand among the very strongest, it fell far short. Elencia, for instance, had possessed a body sturdy enough that she could not defeat me, yet could endure against me.
Then, to cover the strength I lacked, I would need technique and finesse surpassing anyone else's.
I would keep training, of course. The point was that skill mattered just as much.
And I had already thought that through. Slamming my head twice—yesterday, and again today—had confirmed it.
As I had said before, ki sense shut the moment concentration broke. And the sense most apt to shatter concentration was pain.
Banging one's head, as I was doing now, was mild. Being stabbed, being struck by an arrow—that was the baseline. Fire magic. The fangs of magical beasts. Further still, a dragon's breath.
The world was littered with things more agonizing, and more powerful, than anyone could imagine.
And if the flesh was as frail as this body of mine?
Merely blocking the longsword Elencia brought down would be enough. The pain in my wrist would snap my ki sense shut.
Then what was I to do? The answer was simple.
Dodge all of it. Let all of it slide past.
The answer was always simple. It was the doing that was hard.
But there was good news as well. This ki sense, which I had no choice but to use because I was blind, was the finest technique in that particular field.
If a sword was coming, people looked with their eyes and blocked. But what if the sword came from behind?
They could only predict, and block on the strength of instinct and experience.
But with ki sense?
There was no concept of seeing, and so the instant an action was perceived, there was no hesitation. A sword from behind and a sword from the front were no different.
One simply felt.
And it was felt.
The whole flow of a sequence of motion.
From the movement of muscle alone, one could foresee the trajectory a sword would take—and mana itself could be sensed, its current read through and through.
In defense, then, it could be called the strongest of techniques.
And in attack?
An attack always carried recoil. What if I failed to cut, and the opponent defended?
If they only blocked, that would be fortunate. But if they anticipated the strike and knocked it aside with great force, the shock would close my ki sense. This body's strength could not withstand it.
And the moment ki sense closed, it was over.
Blind, I would not even manage a single struggle before my head left my shoulders.
Then was I meant only to dodge, without ever landing a blow?
That was wrong. I had only to shift the idea a little.
Create a situation in which they absolutely could not defend.
The opening that appeared at the end of slipping every attack, of dodging every attack. Pierce that opening.
It would not be an easy road, of course.
I must never be hit. I must never be blocked.
But the one who honed the blade was not the Hero. It was the blind.
If the blade broke, then I would have to grip the hilt.
A fool like me knew no other way.
A foolish method—but the only one I knew.
There was nothing for it but to grip the sword.
Nothing for it but to grip the hilt.
And once the hilt was in my hand, what was there to do?
That, too, was simple.
One hundred overhead swings!!!
"Hieeeek.... heeeeh..."
Yes... there was nothing for it but to grip the sword.