Snow Flower Sword Emperor
Snow Flower Sword Emperor
Winter.
It was a night of violent blizzards.
Asilia gathered her sword.
As she carefully stepped out of the house, someone tugged at the hem of her clothes.
—Mmn. Mommy, where you going?
Fear suddenly struck Asilia.
Would this be the last time she saw her daughter?
If so, could this tiny child stand on her own?
But that was precisely why she had to go.
To hide her trembling eyes, Asilia pulled her daughter into an embrace.
—Mommy has to go do something very important.
—Is it to catch bad guys? The, the Blood Rock... Cult?
—That's right.
—What if you get hurt? Can't you... not go?
Asilia looked at her daughter, eyes brimming with tears, and hesitated.
Should she just run away?
If they fled together, could they live even a little longer?
...She couldn't.
They were everywhere.
And Richard would inevitably take her daughter too...
That was why they couldn't flee together.
—Sharon. My baby.
—Sharon not a baby! I can wait!
—Hm?
—How many do I count this time? Last time was thirty!
Asilia gazed at Sharon.
The child fidgeted with her fingers with a determined expression, then promptly bent and straightened both hands three times.
—Thir...ty! Look, Mommy! So tell me. How many do I count this time!
Was it right to give the child false hope?
But she could not, before those sparkling eyes, say it.
That this time, she likely would not return.
That all her mother could do was take them down with her.
—...Ten thousand.
—Sharon don't know what ten thousand is.
Sharon, having bent all ten fingers, asked.
—Count one hundred, one hundred times.
—Hweh... One hundred! That's too many!
Asilia held Sharon.
She held her tight, as if to pour in every embrace she would never get to give.
—Mommy... can't breathe.
—Sharon. While you count to ten thousand, you must chew your food well, okay?
—Okay.
—And eat your carrots without being picky.
—Ehh... carrots...
—And you must practice your swordsmanship a lot. You have to become strong enough that no one can ever push you around.
—Okay! I'll become the best knight, just like you!
—Good. Promise.
—Okay. Promise!
—Mommy!
—I'll eat all my carrots!
—So you have to come back!
She could not bring herself to answer.
◆
As she turned over the memory of the day she was defeated by Richard, Asilia held the boy in her arms.
Unease, anxiety, and tension.
The boy was shoving all the emotions he should have been feeling into a deep corner of his heart.
Asilia wanted to relieve even a little of that.
"You've worked so hard."
Why had she wanted to comfort this child?
Perhaps because he resembled her younger self.
Or perhaps because he was her daughter's age.
'...Sharon must have grown this much by now.'
There were so many things she wanted to teach her.
So many things she wanted to do together.
She had wanted to watch her chatter about academy life. To see her grumble after a fight with a friend, and see her face light up talking about a good friend she'd made.
'Why would she clash with such a kind boy?'
Asilia looked down quietly at Ian.
Only after their skin touched did the boy's true worth finally resonate with her.
Purely refined mana. A rock-solid foundation.
She even felt a faint, unfathomably noble energy of an exceptionally high order.
A prodigy blessed with innate genius.
'...It must be jealousy. She's always been fiercely competitive.'
She thought she understood, vaguely, why the boy and Sharon did not get along.
The inability to be honest with someone who caught your interest — Sharon was just like Asilia herself.
But the reason their emotional rift seemed so much deeper...
Had Sharon gotten the wrong idea stuck in her head?
With her unyielding personality, she would have to learn to bend through experience.
Asilia swallowed the flood of worries.
Now, with so little time left, all of it was pointless anxiety.
Instead, she wanted to focus on the boy before her.
Why did she pity him so deeply?
She knew the answer now.
"Ian."
"?"
Because the boy resembled her when she was young.
A life of striving as though dying, of agonizing.
A life of cutting away everything about oneself for the sake of a single goal.
That was the path Asilia had walked.
For her, it was also a path of failure.
She could not let the boy go on to repeat the same failure.
And so she asked.
"Would you like to be my student?"
◆
My throat felt parched.
I had been held in Asilia's arms as if spellbound.
It was the first time anyone had comforted me.
The first time my heart had felt this at ease.
In that state, Asilia asked.
Whether I would become her student.
Pulling free of her embrace, I asked.
"Your student?"
Asilia cleared her throat with an ahem! and straightened her posture rigidly.
"Believe it or not, I am known as the Snow Flower Swordmaster."
I was taken aback.
I knew how strong Asilia was.
Because I knew the power of the 'Snow Flower Sword.'
I simply never expected her to volunteer to become my teacher.
While I stood bewildered, Asilia's face flushed red.
"A-ah... do young people these days not know who the Snow Flower Swordmaster is? I-I didn't think the generation gap was that wide... I-I've been less active, admittedly, but..."
"No, it's not that. I was just wondering why you would want someone like me as a student."
"Oh my."
Asilia blinked her large eyes.
"How forward. Were you planning on making the lady confess first?"
...This woman.
Was this really the same person who had been so infinitely maternal and warm just moments ago? Asilia, who sometimes even seemed a little dazed, now resembled a fox gently swaying its long tail.
To be precise, a professor luring naive students to graduate school with a beautiful tail. ...A rather outrageous professor, at that.
Heh-heht. Asilia smiled with her eyes.
"I'm joking. Seeing your expression, it seems my senses haven't dulled yet."
Asilia smiled faintly, then spoke seriously.
"Even if I disappear, I would like at least a trace of me to remain."
"A trace? Like a sword technique?"
That was my vague assumption.
That she wanted a successor for the Snow Flower Sword technique she had created.
But Asilia slowly shook her head.
"Mm. It's a little different. For example..."
Asilia took my hand.
The movement was so natural I had no chance to pull away.
Her fingers brushed over the calluses embedded here and there.
"The moment you wake, you train. Even while doing other things, you dwell on how to become stronger. Food is about nutrition, not taste. You pursue efficient meals over conversation with others. A day when you can squeeze in even a moment of training during a break is a lucky one. After finishing your tasks, you train a little more, then collapse into sleep from exhaustion. Day after day."
"......"
I could not say anything.
It was an unnervingly accurate description of my daily routine, as if she had been watching.
"Just looking at these hands tells me how much effort you've poured in."
I had.
Because that was the only way I could survive.
"But have you ever felt it?"
Still holding my hand, Asilia placed it directly over her left chest.
"What another person's heartbeat feels like."
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Through my hand, I felt her heartbeat.
Delicate. But a distinct pulse announcing that she was alive.
"This is the first time I've felt it."
"How was it?"
"I felt life."
"Good."
Grinning.
Asilia smiled.
"What I want to pass on to you is a set of values."
"Values?"
"Shall we take the Blood Rock Sect as an example? They are people who chose to absorb others as their method of growth. They do not know how to love or acknowledge anything outside of themselves. They only ever see others as targets of absorption."
"......"
She was right.
One could not match the growth of a Blood Rock Cultist through normal means.
"Then how should we stand against them?"
"You're not about to say... more effort, are you?"
Asilia nodded and asked.
"Have you ever listened to the sound of snow piling up?"
I shook my head.
"What about the way Danya's lips curve so beautifully when she's sneaking glances at you?"
She had been sneaking glances, so I wouldn't have known.
"Rina's passion may seem a little excessive at times, but occasionally, new experiences aren't bad either."
That... I already knew.
"Then, what does love feel like?"
"I don't know."
Asilia's face drew near.
Her hair softly brushed against my cheek.
Her eyes were as clear and blue as if they held the skies above the snowcapped mountains.
A gentle touch settled on my shoulder.
It traced down my forearm to my fingertips.
"There are things you can only learn by loving."
Our hands met, and she intertwined her fingers with mine.
"How the other person's fingers move when they're happy. The subtle mismatch between their eyes and lips when they're sulking."
"......"
"The trembling when you share love, the ragged inhales, the heated exhales."
I sank into thought.
I could feel what she was trying to say.
But it hovered just out of reach.
"Feel the world. Its myriad sounds and colors, its landscapes and forms. Listen to all of it."
Asilia's face was gentle.
Utterly natural.
"When I become one with the world."
Only then did I understand.
The reason I had been unable to follow Asilia's movements, moment by moment.
"There comes a moment when the world itself becomes a part of you."
Asilia was the snow.
She was the wind, the earth, the sky — nature itself.
"...Becoming one with the world."
At my murmur, Asilia smiled.
"Not quite to that extent."
She took a step forward.
A footprint etched into the snow.
Asilia raised her hand and stretched it out.
She looked like a winter branch.
Snowflakes fell from the sky and gathered, one by one.
Like a branch yielding under the weight of the gathered snow,
Asilia's arm fell gently.
Snow scattered into the air.
Countless snowflakes bloomed in the wake of her hand's movement.
As they resembled flowers, people called it the Snow Flower Sword (雪花劍).
It was sword aura, and yet unmistakably, it was a snow blossom.
Thus the snow flowers softly dissolved away, leaving traces upon the wall before vanishing.
She sheathed her sword.
Only then did I realize Asilia had been holding a sword at all.
"If I exist within the world,"
Asilia turned back toward me.
"Then soon, the world comes to exist within me."
Sasha Asilia, the Snow Flower Swordmaster.
She asked me to become her student.