Don't Look at the Finger
"I'm tired of it. So tired."
Rimer shook his head as he headed back toward the lodgings. He understood Glenn's principle — that a man whose hands were so full of regret had no right to hold Raon. What he could not understand was the ice-cold act. When he clearly loves the boy that much…
In the end, Glenn had even put Roen to work writing down everything Raon had said in a notebook. The idea that a man compiling his grandson's collected quotations still could not get the words I love you out of his mouth was so absurd it was almost impressive.
"Hah."
Rimer let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. Not that talking to him does any good. He had told Glenn that if he could not bring himself to approach the boy first, he could at least let Raon see how he really felt. Glenn, stubborn as bedrock, had ignored the advice entirely. The moment he laid eyes on Raon, his face would freeze over and his brow would crease.
"I give up. I don't know anymore."
His head hurt worse than it did when he forced himself to gamble. All he wanted was a glass of something sweet and a bed.
"Hm?"
He had reached the foot of the mountain and was about to enter the city when he felt presences in the undergrowth.
"Come out."
Rimer narrowed his eyes and flicked his fingers.
The bushes to his right rustled, and Marta burst out of them, dark hair spilling over her shoulders like a fall of night sky.
"If you knew I was here, you could've said something sooner."
"That's rich, coming from the one who was hiding."
Rimer let out a dry breath, looking faintly put upon.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I was on my way to find you, Squad Leader. Then you suddenly left the city, so I waited."
She must have seen him climbing the mountain after Glenn.
"You could have waited at the lodgings."
"I had something I wanted to say in private."
"Go on."
Rimer raised an aura barrier and leaned back against a tree.
"I want to learn Sword Realm Manifestation."
The black eyes looking at him held a will as unyielding as stone.
"Sword Realm Manifestation, is it…"
Rimer clicked his tongue and looked toward the bushes on the opposite side from where Marta had appeared.
"You two as well. Out."
At his word, Runaan crept sheepishly from the left-hand thicket, and Burren dropped down from a tree behind them.
"Wh-what? You two were here too?"
Marta's mouth fell open as she stared at Runaan and Burren.
Rimer snorted at her shock. She had been so focused on tailing him that she had never noticed the other two following her.
"Me too. Sword Realm Manifestation."
Runaan lifted a hand, faintly. She wanted to be taught as well.
"I wish to learn it too!"
Burren stood ramrod straight and all but shouted it.
"What's gotten into all of you? What a pain."
Rimer waved a lazy hand at the three of them.
"I've told you this before. Even among the Six Kings, talents who can keep up with you at your current level are rare. Almost nonexistent, honestly."
It was not a lie. The Light Wind Squad had survived death at Raon's side more times than they could count; calling them the strongest of their generation was no exaggeration. Raon was so overwhelming that it was easy to miss, but any one of them would be treated as a prodigy wherever they went.
"That's not enough."
Marta bit her lip and stepped forward.
"The bastards whose heads I have to take are up in that sky. As long as my feet are stuck on the ground, I can't even fight them!"
"Mm…"
She was not wrong. Marta's enemies were the 10th Apostle and the White Blood Cult Leader — and the White Blood Cult Leader, in particular, was a monster Rimer himself could not face even if his full strength returned.
"And you two?"
"Raon and Marta are my comrades. I don't want to watch them get kidnapped again. I don't want to watch them suffer again."
Burren's enemy was his comrades' enemy. He said it plainly, and his hands curled into fists.
"…That's right."
Runaan started to say something, then seemed to decide it was too much effort and simply agreed, dropping her head in a deep nod.
"Sh-shut up! This is my business! You stay out of—"
"As long as you belong to the Light Wind Squad, there is no such thing as your business alone."
Marta had been about to wave them off when Raon dropped from the same tree Burren had come down from.
"Hah—!"
"Raon?"
"Wh-what? Why are you coming out of there? There was definitely nobody there!"
Marta's eyes flew wide. Runaan's lit up. Burren stumbled backward as if he had seen a ghost.
"You were all trailing along one after another. Looked like fun."
Raon gave a light shrug.
"You kids really have changed."
Rimer looked over the four of them and laughed under his breath.
"Marta. Raon's right."
He turned his gaze on her scowling face and shook his head.
"There isn't a single person in the Light Wind Squad who treats a squad member's problems like someone else's. Especially not after Raon was taken. You know that better than anyone."
"That's…"
"If you insist on handling it alone because it's your business, then I'll fight the White Blood Cult however I please."
Raon came to stand beside her and lifted his chin.
"Me too."
Runaan approached from the other side and bumped Marta's shoulder with her own. She looked faintly sulky about what Marta had said.
"Of course I'm going. No — as the Squad Leader said, the entire Light Wind Squad will go. Even if we all die!"
Burren folded his arms and snorted, looking like nothing in the world would make him back down.
"Urgh…"
Marta clenched her teeth, but she could not find another word. Her mouth shut.
"Marta."
Rimer bent a little at the waist so that his eyes met hers.
"I've barely done a master's job, so it's a little embarrassing giving advice. But suffering shared is suffering halved. Once your heart is a little steadier, consider telling your comrades what you're carrying. It'll ease, even if only a little."
"……"
Marta did not answer, but she did not look as if she hated the idea.
Rimer clapped his hands once, loud enough to gather every eye.
"Then let's get to the point. All of you want to learn Sword Realm Manifestation. Yes?"
"Yes!"
"That's right!"
"Honestly, it's a pain — but you came to the right person."
Rimer nodded with great confidence.
"I poured blood, sweat, and tears into forging a Sword World of the Zieghart bloodline with my own two hands."
He sniffled and wiped away tears that were not there.
"And with this recovery, I even put together a formula that can keep the side effects to a minimum."
"Th-then…"
"That said, I can't just hand over a secret art packed with my tremendous effort."
He was going to teach them anyway. But this was a chance to recoup some of the money Raon had drained out of him.
Rimer curled his thumb and index finger into a circle — the gesture for a gold coin.
"Give me fifty to start, and I'll explain everything. First—"
The words were barely out of his mouth when something heavy hit the ground at his feet. A pouch of coins, thrown by Raon without a second's hesitation.
"Please begin."
Raon flicked his fingers as if to say get on with it.
This little—
The whole pleasure of a deal like this was starting a little high and jacking the number up the moment they tried to haggle. That rich bastard had thrown fifty gold at him from the outset and killed the game dead.
Damn it! I should have opened at a hundred!
"You look upset for someone who just got paid. Please start."
Raon smiled as if he knew exactly what Rimer was thinking.
"I really can't win with you."
Rimer heaved a sigh and nudged the fallen pouch aside with his foot. It felt heavy — heavier than fifty coins, if he was any judge.
"First of all, all four of you are capable of using Sword Realm Manifestation. Raon and Burren should be able to use the original form. Runaan and Marta will have to use my method."
"What's the difference?"
Marta swallowed and stepped closer.
"Raon and Burren's Sword World is free. You can fill it with an attribute or leave it empty. You can even use something other than swordsmanship. You can pioneer it in whatever direction you want. But for me, Runaan, and Marta, we have to rely on the attributes we already have."
"Ah, so then…"
"That's right. Runaan is fixed as water. Marta as earth. That cannot be changed. You're substituting the power in their blood with elemental force pushed to its extreme. To be precise, it isn't a Sword World at all — it should be called an Elemental World."
Rimer smiled faintly and pointed at Runaan and Marta.
"And this is only possible because your elemental affinity is at an elf's level. Be grateful you were born with blessed talent."
He looked at all four of them again.
"Because a Sword World and an Elemental World are different, the way you open them is different too. Starting today, Marta and Runaan will train to grow their elemental force and work on visualization. This has nothing to do with your basic training. It's extra."
"Of course!"
"Yes."
Both of them nodded as if that went without saying.
"Raon. Burren. Concentrate on your mindscape. Meditate, and expand your imagination. Extra training for you as well."
"Is that different from the visualization we use when we train swordsmanship?"
Burren tilted his head.
"Good question. Put simply, a Sword World is a barrier — a formation. You draw the enemy into a space where you hold the advantage. So what do you need for that?"
"You have to know what you do well, and where you hold the edge. Knowing how you look to the enemy matters too."
Raon answered without a flicker of hesitation.
"Mm…"
Rimer's eyes narrowed. So this one is already in. Hearing him speak like that, unlike the others, Raon had already set one foot inside a Sword World. Rimer barely swallowed the word insane before it left his mouth.
Still, it will take time. This was only the threshold. Even at the fastest, it would be three years before he could open even a half-formed Sword World. If he managed to build one before the duel with Buwang, the timing would be perfect.
"Raon's right. Keep imagining what you do well, and how you appear to an enemy. How you can become stronger. How you can defeat them. Break the limits inside your own head, and go deeper. Go farther."
The most important things in a Sword World were the experience you had accumulated and the imagination with which you wielded it. If those two were in place, all four of them had more than enough to use one.
One last piece of advice, and he would be done.
"What's that?"
Rimer lifted a finger and pointed at the moon.
"It's the moon."
"A red moon."
"The moon?"
"No. I pointed at the sky."
Rimer smiled, needling all four of them.
"What?"
"But…"
"In the end, the moon is only floating in the sky."
Burren and Marta started to argue. Raon and Runaan stayed quiet.
"Mm…"
"What you need to focus on right now is swordsmanship and aura. If your martial realm doesn't rise, then even if you complete a Sword World, you will never get the destructive power you're hoping for."
Rimer's eyes shone with a sudden, serious light.
"Don't make the mistake of looking at the finger when it points at the moon. Concentrate on your martial studies and your aura cultivation. After that, if you have time left, practice your Sword World. You four know what I mean."
"Yes!"
"Thank you!"
Raon, Burren, Marta, and Runaan all bowed their heads.
"Then go. I still have to teach the two of them the elemental reinforcement formula. Marta, Runaan — stay by my side tomorrow."
"Understood."
"Yes."
Burren, Marta, and Runaan bowed to Rimer and headed back toward the lodgings.
"Squad Leader."
Raon did not follow them. He stopped in front of Rimer.
"You're actually being serious today."
"Once I saw the look in your eyes, I couldn't bring myself to mess around."
"I thought you might, so I put in a little extra. Thank you."
He bowed with genuine courtesy and started toward the lodgings.
"Mm!"
Rimer smiled, satisfied, and picked up the coin pouch from the ground. Heavy, all right. He had felt it when he nudged it aside, but this was not the weight of fifty gold. A rough count put it at a hundred, easy.
Well. He wouldn't be walking around with exactly fifty.
Muttering that he had lucked out, Rimer opened the pouch.
"Huh?"
And froze where he stood.
"Th-there's a lot. There's a lot, but…"
There was certainly a great deal of money in the pouch. The color, however, was not a brilliant gold. It was a dull, mute silver.
"These are silver coins!"
Rimer let out a howl and charged after Raon.
"You swindling little—! Where do you get off giving me silver—"
"A swindler? I gave you a hundred and eight."
Raon rounded his mouth as if he were the one who had been wronged.
"A hundred and eight, nothing! These aren't gold, they're silver!"
"I never said I would give you gold coins."
"I clearly said gold—"
"You didn't say gold either, Squad Leader."
"Ah…"
Rimer's eyes spun. I… didn't, did I. He had been getting along so well with the squad lately that he had avoided saying the word gold so he would not look like a miser. That had been the mistake.
But who in this situation would think of silver? By unspoken agreement, it was obviously gold.
"I'm handing down a secret art like this — of course it's gold! Who pays in silver—"
"You're teaching me in this area too. I don't have much experience with this kind of deal, so I didn't know."
Raon smiled and scratched his head.
"I'll be more careful next time."
With that, he waved and walked away.
"Ah…"
The pouch slipped from Rimer's fingers.
"You demonic little bastard…"
That one was going to make it big.
Filthy, disgustingly big…
Raon followed the others at a zombie shuffle, clicking his tongue. Not easy. Thanks to Rimer's and Wrath's advice, he had been unfolding his sword inside his mindscape for years — but building a Sword World was another matter entirely.
The swordsmanship that could reach the farthest. The swordsmanship he was most confident in now. The swordsmanship most efficient against a wide range of enemies. The moment he started weighing all of it, the work went nowhere. There's no end to it.
He understood now why Rimer had ordered them not to skip basic training, and to practice the Sword World last.
Still. If I keep at it, it will come. In his past life and this one, he had never lived anywhere near surrender. Even if it took ten years before he could use a Sword World, he would keep advancing until he built the one he wanted.
He was about to return to sword training inside his mindscape when Wrath's head popped out of the ice-flower bracelet.
"Hey."
Wrath pointed at Rimer, who was slumped in the saddle, letting the horse take his whole weight.
"That fool looks ready to die."
Mm…
Raon looked at Rimer's vacant eyes and clicked his tongue. Still like that, is he. Four days had passed, and Rimer was still hollowed out by the shock of finding silver in a pouch he had believed was gold.
I should make it up to him. He had simply happened to be carrying silver. He had not set out to mess with Rimer. He decided that once they returned, he would see the tuition paid in full.
"While thou art making it up to that one, take care of This King as well."
What are you—
"A set of mint-chocolate bead ice cream will suffice."
The sheer shamelessness left him without words. He had no idea where this cotton candy had rolled in from.
You really are…
He was about to push Wrath back in when the footsteps at the head of the party crossed a hill and stopped.
He followed the freshly made tracks forward, and below the hill a vast silver royal castle came into view.
A deep, resonant pressure rolled off the walls, as if the castle itself were a martial artist, holding itself with lofty pride. Different from House Zieghart. If House Zieghart was rough and violent, Owen Royal Castle exuded a presence that was straight, and keen as a blade.
"Hmmm!"
Wrath, his face half-squashed from being shoved by Raon's hand, let out a sound of appreciation as he looked at the castle.
"There's a fairly decent one in that place as well. His presence reaches even here."
I would think so.
Raon looked toward the heart of the castle and closed his hand around his sword hilt. Because he's there too.
The third Transcendent of the Six Kings.
It was time to meet the man they called the Silent Sword Sovereign.