Roholan Village (3)
After that, Rubia and I whiled away the hours until nightfall, trading idle chatter about nothing in particular.
The secret of my Qi Sensing.
The reason Rubia had come to dislike people.
Stories of the magic beasts I had hunted.
The things Rubia had endured during her five years as a priestess.
And when she had first guided me to the blacksmith’s shop, calling it a quiet place—
She even apologized, saying she had thought I was deliberately teasing her and had gotten angry over it.
I hadn’t meant anything by it…
We talked so much that by the time the bottom of the jelly bag came into view—
“Miss Aileen, and the little one! Have you two eaten dinner yet?”
Heinzel and Luci came looking for us.
“L-Little one…?!”
Th-This bald bastard!
I glared at Heinzel and shoved a jelly into my mouth, seething with righteous fury.
“Pfft… We haven’t eaten yet. Have you and Luci not eaten either?”
“We were just about to. Perfect timing if you haven’t. Care to join us?”
Luci pointed toward the shop behind him.
“Stone-slab steak? Sounds good. What do you think, Noah?”
“Mm…!! Mm!”
I nodded vigorously while chewing my jelly.
“Heh heh… Yes. Let’s eat together.”
Rubia gently released my hand and rose from her seat.
“Mm… Mmm…!”
Why… why are you letting go…?
What am I supposed to do if a mage shows up…!
“Here, give me the bags.”
While I was still flustered, Rubia turned and took the bags from my arms.
Then she leaned in and whispered against my ear.
“You need one hand for mine and the other for your greatsword. There might be mages around.”
Rubia!
You’re not a priestess—you’re a saintess!
“Mm, mm!”
My mouth was still packed with jelly, so I answered with my whole body and took her hand.
Her fingers uncurled—
“Not like that.”
—and slipped sticky-sweet between mine, the way they always did.
“You have to hold it like this so I don’t lose you.”
Maybe it was because I still hadn’t gripped the hilt.
Or maybe it was Rubia’s dizzying whisper.
The fingers sliding between mine felt like the sweetness lingering at the corners of my mouth.
Like the soft chew of the jelly.
Like the jelly still filling my mouth to the brim.
“Right, Noah?”
All I could do was swallow that bliss whole.
“Y-Yes…”
“Let’s hurry. You must be hungry.”
“Yes… L-Let’s go…”
“Kahahahaha! So that’s why, back then with that manticore—”
The quiet restaurant filled to the rafters with Heinzel’s booming voice.
Weird uncles specialty: once the drinks start flowing, it’s all “back in my day this, back in my day that, I was freaking awesome.”
“Khhah—! S-So. You’re saying you took that manticore down all by yourself?”
“Huh? Pretty much just me, yeah!”
“Ha. Unbelievable. And who was it that severed the tendons in its ankles?”
“You did that, Luci, sure. But I was the one holding its attention up front the whole time!”
“A guy whose only talent is flexing his muscles has to do something, I suppose.”
“W-What…?!”
Veins bulged purple across Heinzel’s forehead.
Whoa… if I can see the veins even through Qi Sensing, how much must they be popping in real life…?
“Haah… Everyone. Please calm down for a moment… Let’s finish our meal first.”
Rubia sighed as if she were thoroughly sick of it all and kept cutting her steak.
And me?
What was I doing?
“Here, little one. Who do you think did better!”
“Noah. Looking at it objectively, it couldn’t possibly have been that bald idiot, right?”
I was serving as the perfectly impartial judge in the uncles’ childish quarrel.
“W-Well… Heinzel was the one who landed the finishing blow, so… E-Especially since manticores have really hard bones, right? Crushing that… I think Heinzel wins this one…”
Gotta give credit where it’s due for smashing a manticore’s skull.
That’s the kind of feat a flimsy one-handed sword couldn’t even attempt!
“Kahahahahaha! Luci! You lose! Drink up!”
“Ha. Fine.”
Luci drained an entire cup the size of my torso in one go, pouring the liquor straight down his throat.
They’d already put away six cups each.
“Here, Noah. Say aah—”
“Aaaah— mm.”
Chew chew—
Heh. Delicious.
Thanks to the uncles’ noisy bickering, Rubia and I were polishing off all the leftover meat.
“Anyway. If the young lady wants to learn the sword, she’ll need a new one made.”
Luci wiped his mouth after another rough swig and spoke.
“Ah, right. What size would be appropriate?”
Rubia dabbed the sauce from her lips and set down her fork and knife.
“Hmm. First, try lifting my sword once.”
Rubia nodded and took Luci’s sword.
And then—
“Ah, ahh…!”
She dropped it immediately.
“Mm—!”
I barely managed to catch it. Whew.
“Thank you, Noah… But it’s… far heavier than I expected…?”
“Kheheheh… Right. My sword’s heavier than it looks. Judging by this… the young lady’s strength is sorely lacking.”
“Yes… I’ve never trained in this sort of thing even once…”
I rubbed her back to say it was all right.
“Then a wooden sword would be best.”
Luci nodded and began muttering over every detail—size, weight, shape, and more.
“Little one. Between these two, which do you think looks cooler?”
Heinzel quietly sidled up and told me to choose between a sword and a halberd.
I answered without a single second of hesitation.
“B-Both suck. Greatswords are the coolest…”
“Huh?”
Luci stopped muttering and looked at me.
“Ha. Is that so?”
Heinzel, who had been bent over, straightened up and peered down at me.
“Yes… Greatswords are the best… I’m the strongest.”
A brief silence.
Luci broke it.
“Then how about we settle the superiority of weapons with a spar?”
“Mm. Good idea.”
“S-Sounds good…”
“Y-Yes…?”
Silence fell again.
And this time, I was the one who broke it.
“B-But… no Unique Abilities from you uncles.”
“You know about Unique Abilities too… Fair enough. We’ll do it that way.”
“Mm. Good idea.”
“N-Noah…?”
I thumped my chest while looking at the flustered Rubia.
“Aileen. Watch carefully. Just how strong I am…”
“Kahahahahaha! I’ve thought it since last time—this little one’s got guts of steel!”
“Hope it’s not just recklessness.”
“No… what on earth is going on…?”
Heinzel and Luci gathered their things and stood.
I gripped Rubia’s hand tightly and rose as well.
And the three of us spoke at once.
“L-Let’s go.”
“Let’s go!”
“Shall we.”
“What kind of spar in the middle of a meal…?”
Hup…!
“Nice and proper words… Pretty words…”
“Haah… You shouldn’t be saying things like that, Noah. Let’s just get outside first.”
“Y-Yes…”
We left the restaurant and headed for a wide open lot.
A corner of the village, just outside the fence meant to keep magic beasts at bay.
That was where we took our places.
“All right, then one of us will advance by default. Since we only need to decide first place.”
“Mm. Good idea.”
“H-How do we decide?”
“What’s there to decide? Just Noah. You’ll take the bye.”
“Mm. Excellent idea.”
Me?
Why?
I tilted my head.
“Little one. You’re the weakest, aren’t you? So it makes sense for you to advance.”
“We’ve got far more real combat experience, so this much is a handicap.”
Ha.
They’re completely looking down on me…?
“D-Don’t regret it…”
I ground my teeth and stepped back.
“Noah… do you really think you can win?”
“Yes. I w-will definitely win. No. I have to win.”
For the honor of the greatsword…!
“Haah… All right. Just don’t get hurt. I’ll be right behind you… I can heal a little damage, but still—don’t get hurt. Understood?”
Rubia squeezed my hand tight.
I squeezed back just as hard.
“Rules are simple. Fight within a hundred-meter radius, and stop before dealing a fatal wound. Even a bald idiot can tell the difference, right?”
“Mm. Good idea. But you’ve only got one eye—can you even see that?”
“True, the glare off that bald head might make it hard.”
Crrrack—
Heinzel clenched the halberd’s haft as if he meant to crush it.
“Watch your own eyeballs.”
The air shifted.
Shiiing—
Instead of Luci’s voice, his sword answered.
“I’ll count.”
Three.
Luci’s blade leveled parallel to the ground.
Two.
Heinzel’s halberd stood vertical to the earth.
One.
Both bodies vanished.
Across the empty lot rang a sound too violent to believe came from two humans colliding.
I focused my Qi Sensing on a single point and painted the battle inside my mind.
The halberd’s movements were savage.
The sword’s movements were fluid.
Savagery shattered fluidity.
Fluidity restrained savagery.
The sword flowed.
From right to left.
The halberd surged upward.
From below to above.
First blood went to Heinzel.
The halberd thrusting from low to high knocked the sword aside.
Yet the sword’s motion never broke.
It continued.
The blade, flung upward, arced on a diagonal.
Its path drank in the moonlight.
Kaaang—
The halberd’s shaft snuffed out that moonlight.
The follow-up slash came without pause.
A horizontal sweep from left to right.
The sword, still rebounding far away, could never block it.
But Luci did not flinch.
He spun his body and recovered the blade.
In an instant it was gripped reverse-hand.
The sword hugged his waist.
The halberd smashed against its flat.
The sword flowed.
Luci’s motion was fluid.
It did not rebound—it slid.
Right after the horizontal cut, a gap opened in Heinzel’s guard.
Luci did not miss the timing.
Still reverse-gripped,
a rising slash from below.
Heinzel ground his teeth and contracted every muscle.
A force that ignored inertia yanked the halberd back.
Crrrack—
With the sound of muscle tearing in his right arm, the rising sword was driven back into the dirt.
Then the halberd’s shaft slammed into Luci’s gut.
Luci’s body jackknifed backward.
At the same time he thrust out an arm, planted a hand on the ground, and recovered his balance.
Heinzel pursued relentlessly.
He contracted the shredded muscle once more.
Blood burst from his arm.
Heinzel did not stop.
The halberd swept on a diagonal.
Luci swung his sword.
What followed was pure melee.
Savagery seized fluidity.
Fluidity checked savagery.
Heinzel threatened Luci’s life.
Luci whittled away Heinzel’s stamina.
Kagagagak—
At the end of the chaos, sword and halberd locked.
Heinzel thrust out his right arm.
Luci twisted his body and let it slide past.
Luci’s body spun.
Heinzel’s body froze in place.
The sword fell from above to below.
It drank the moonlight.
The halberd rose from below to above.
It scattered blood-light.
Steel met steel.
Savagery met fluidity.
Beast met hunter.
The beast’s claws tore the hunter’s body open.
The hunter’s snare
closed around the beast’s throat.
“I lose.”
It touched.
Heinzel’s declaration of defeat.
Heinzel’s blood ran down his neck.
Luci’s blood
“Shit… Even if I win, kheuk… ptoo. It doesn’t feel like winning…”
shot toward the sky.
The hunt was over.
Ah… maybe I shouldn’t have suggested a fight after all.