Secret (6)
Secret (6)
Maybe it was thanks to the earnest training I'd been doing all along, but my stamina had genuinely improved quite a bit.
The problem was, the stamina I'd built up still wasn't nearly enough to keep pace with Leo, the protagonist, or Alice, the sword-wielding heroine.
"That's what happens when you pour your skill into a mere firearm."
The Sword Saint looked at me and spoke with an expression that was thoroughly unimpressed.
"If you compare proficiency with a gun to proficiency with a sword, naturally the one who wields the sword will develop far superior physical ability. To begin with, isn't a firearm something anyone can learn to handle adequately after just a few weeks of training?"
Hearing that, I seriously debated whether to argue the point or not, and in the end, I simply chose to keep my mouth shut.
The Winterfield region up north never got brutally hot even in midsummer. But summer was still summer here. Even though the temperature hovered in the mid-to-upper twenties, the sun hung high in the sky, and training under that blazing sun with practically no shade was never easy.
I'd been running around frantically under that same blazing sun, and now, during a break, I was sprawled out limply on the ground.
The Sword Saint stood over me and made that remark.
A part of me wanted to argue, but the thought also crossed my mind that it wasn't worth wasting energy by talking for no good reason.
I was the one who had sought out the Sword Saint, after all, not the other way around.
Besides, one of his students, Jennifer, had left the mountain the moment she'd learned just enough swordplay to be satisfied. She'd squeezed out exactly what she deemed useful in real combat and promptly started learning to mix firearms into her technique, so from the Sword Saint's perspective, guns had to be deeply unpleasant objects.
"Hm. Even so."
The Sword Saint looked at me steadily and said,
"Your guts don't seem half bad."
I had trained by repeating time over and over again, turning back the clock countless times.
If my physical strength was inferior to the other two, then my only option was to find every trick I could.
I wasn't trying to hang back and cheat. The Sword Saint would spot that and I'd be out of his favor for good.
As I climbed the slope, I would rewind time and search for the best footholds. A spot where the stone wouldn't slip when I planted my foot, a spot with an easy handhold, a spot where I could dig in the toe of my boot without the rock giving way and spare even a fraction of the strain on my thighs.
I'd seek out those places step by step, conserving every bit of stamina as I moved forward. After all, rewinding time didn't require any other kind of effort.
"No, wait. Is it that you've been here before?"
The Sword Saint asked, sounding honestly curious.
It was a reasonable guess. From my perspective, I was rewinding time second by second and building the optimal route, but from anyone else's point of view, I must have looked like someone who'd already scouted the entire path in advance.
The Sword Saint, who wouldn't have slacked in his own training even while living alone, would certainly have seen it that way.
"No matter how I look at it, you're an odd one. At first, I simply thought you were someone with no talent who happened to be lucky."
The Sword Saint settled himself a short distance away from where I lay sprawled, squatting down to look quietly down at my face.
"Were you able to find the place where I live because someone told you?"
"......."
"At first I assumed one of my students must have told you, but then again, it also seems like you might have located it by some other means. Well, I do say I'm in hiding, but I haven't gone to any special lengths to conceal it."
As you'd expect of the Sword Saint, he seemed to see through my identity to some degree, just like back when I'd trained with him before.
Judging by the slight upward curl of his lips, I had clearly succeeded in catching the Sword Saint's interest.
An unidentified presence had suddenly burst into an otherwise tedious daily routine. That must have been how I appeared in the Sword Saint's eyes.
"You. What are you?"
"......."
I gave the question serious thought.
The Sword Saint's face from before, when he'd said to come find him again, flashed through my mind. Well, the Sword Saint back then and the Sword Saint now were not different people. He'd simply met the being called me a little later, that was all.
I considered telling the Sword Saint the whole story this time, but decided against it.
The Sword Saint might believe me. He was someone who could assess a situation with terrifying speed. But......
If you truly wish to repay me, then come find me one more time before I die. And when you do, I'll try to guess your identity. Don't tell me anything. A riddle loses its fun if the one who poses it gives away too many hints.
That was what the Sword Saint had said to me back then.
It was the kind of situation where some people might have felt their entire lives had been invalidated, or that everything they had done had been stripped of all meaning, and yet the Sword Saint had said that.
When the one posing the riddle gives too many hints, the fun of figuring out the answer disappears.
And I was also the Sword Saint's student. He'd acknowledged me himself.
In that case, as his student, robbing my teacher of his amusement would be wrong.
I pushed myself up into a sitting position.
Then, looking toward my teacher, I asked,
"Are you curious about how I was able to find this place, and how I can make use of this training method?"
"Wouldn't any human being be curious?"
Yet even as he said this, the Sword Saint was still wearing that faint, elusive smile. As if he already knew I wasn't going to tell him.
"It's a secret."
But I could hardly just hand him the answer out of the blue.
At my words, the Sword Saint's eyes widened, just for an instant.
And then,
"Hah......!"
He let out a short laugh, like a man who'd just taken a sip of some harsh, exquisite, and precious liquor.
"So, that's your game, is it?"
The Sword Saint grinned at me.
"You're saying that if I want to know your secrets, I'll have to come with you to the imperial capital? Because if I watch you from up close, I might be able to figure out what secrets you're keeping."
"That's not exactly an incorrect guess."
I looked the Sword Saint squarely in the eye.
"Aside from the secret of how I was able to move around here as I did, there are a great many other secrets in the imperial capital that would be very enjoyable once you learn of them."
"And naturally, you have no intention of telling me any of those secrets directly yourself."
"Naturally."
At my reply, the Sword Saint studied me for a long moment. That somewhat wicked-looking smile still hung at the corner of his mouth.
"Impudent brat."
But at least this time, he didn't flick my forehead or anything.
*
"Everyone, pack your things."
The next morning, the Sword Saint announced that.
We were sitting around the small, worn dining table eating a dish made from the meat of a rabbit-like beast when the Sword Saint declared it outright.
"Master?"
Leo, who'd been eating his meat with gusto, went momentarily blank. But the Sword Saint, seeing Leo's expression, didn't appear to change his mind.
"Everyone will descend the mountain after today's meal."
...... Had I been too provocative?
Had my excessive impudence gotten on the Sword Saint's nerves?
In the original work, he'd had a magnanimous personality, so I'd figured it was better to make him an offer that would intrigue him rather than haggle over practical benefits. But that didn't seem to have been the case.
I was wondering whether I should rewind time to before that conversation when the Sword Saint continued.
"By the way, Sylvia."
"Yes."
Frederick the Sword Saint had nonchalantly returned his gaze to his own bowl. He picked up another piece of meat and put it in his mouth as he spoke.
"On the imperial capital, is there a house where I could stay?"
"......."
I was completely lost for words for just an instant before I snapped back to my senses. The lapse was so brief that probably no one but Alice or the Sword Saint would have caught it precisely.
Though, admittedly, that made it two out of the three people sitting with me right now.
"Of course."
Just in case, I had set aside one of the guest rooms in the imperial palace. It wasn't a room specifically reserved for the Sword Saint; I'd kept it vacant in preparation for bringing another person to the palace.
Finding a separate residence could wait and be considered over time. For now, letting the Sword Saint stay there would be best.
There probably wouldn't be many in the palace who'd object. Wouldn't the knights be over the moon?
The Sword Saint himself would not be too pleased about it, but I made a point of not bringing that up for now.
"Then I'll trust you on that."
With those words, the Sword Saint resumed his meal.
Alice and Leo turned their eyes toward me as if expecting an explanation, but, like the Sword Saint, I merely focused on my own food.
*
"...... The Sword Saint?"
A supply ship, having completed its resupply, would ascertain its condition according to the manual and then return to the imperial capital.
Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't have had the time to board an airship. If we'd been even one day later, the supply ship would have already been in flight toward the imperial capital.
But because the Sword Saint had made up his mind much faster than I'd anticipated, we were able to take the supply ship on our return journey as well.
Leo was the eldest son of a family that was among the imperial household's closest confidants, and the Sword Saint was...... the Sword Saint.
It was hardly unreasonable that Jaden was startled when he saw the Sword Saint like that.
Having rushed from the front lines after hearing that his younger sister was returning to the imperial capital, Jaden recognized the plainly dressed old man in his tattered clothes at a single glance.
"So you're Jaden? I've heard news of you a few times through Jennifer."
The Sword Saint said this while stroking his chin, but Jaden couldn't even manage a proper reply, only gaping wordlessly.
And soon, as if realizing that his duty required him to remain here and he couldn't hold a longer conversation with the Sword Saint, his expression fell into disappointment.
"You're my student's elder brother. I'd like to see your skill one of these days."
Hearing the Sword Saint say that, Jaden whipped his head around toward Alice and me.
"......."
As a side note, since I had resolved not to speak to Jaden, I simply averted my eyes.
Jaden's shoulders slumped again as if he were disappointed, but what did I care.