The Swordmaster Wants to Fall in Love 96. The Swordmaster Was the Heavy Laborer at the Site?! (1)
One must not eat if one does not work.
……The saying exists, but Evan was the kind of being who could eat and live without working at all.
He lived in a sprawling mansion in the royal capital, with free rent, and shared it with two maids plus Mirinae, his escort, yet none of the usual wages entered the picture.
The title of Swordmaster filled his account every year with a staggering sum of one hundred thousand Elso coins, and unless Evan was wildly extravagant, he could live the high life without a care.
“──Good. It seems I’ve finally gotten used to things.”
But if that were the only reason Evan could loaf around and enjoy himself, he never would have become the Swordmaster he was now.
It had been the same back in his hometown. He helped with his parents’ work, and in the spare moments he swung his sword for all he was worth. The fortune-teller’s baseless prediction that a lover would appear if he kept swinging the blade had led him to the act.
In truth, he never met anyone, yet Evan refused to give up. And eventually he succeeded. The experience of moving one’s body and working hard enough to achieve one’s goals had been burned into his brain and soul.
“Time to head to work.”
He didn’t need to travel all the way to the distant South Eli for a commission. The Adventurer Guild in the royal capital was more than enough, and in fact he could take on higher-level jobs here than the ones he’d been assigned in South Eli.
Thinking that way, Evan set off alone for the Adventurer Guild. The noisy bustle inside left him flashing a grin. It smelled like people living their lives. Warm, friendly air.
After soaking up the atmosphere to his fill, Evan immediately made for the quest board. There he could get a rough idea of what the guild needed right now and what kind of trouble was brewing in recent days.
“There are plenty of jobs involving trains.”
Track-laying assistance, escorting laborers, and the rest—clearly the mysterious carriages Evelyn had mentioned had finally begun to be manufactured.
Curious, Evan picked up the train-escort commission and headed to the reception counter. The staffer there, face heavy with exhaustion, looked up and smiled when he saw Evan.
“What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to accept this job.”
“Let me see…… train escort? Only Copper-rank and higher can take this one—do you have a guild card?”
“Um…… I don’t.”
Precisely. He had been completely outmatched. The guild card he’d somehow managed to slip into his bag thanks to Seolhyang’s magic-tool bookmark would never have sufficed for any of this.
The staffer’s expression soured instantly. It was obvious he had mistaken Evan for a brand-new, first-time applicant.
“Ha……” The staffer sighed, grabbed the form, and shook his head.
“Then you can’t. This commission is only for Copper-rank and above. Come back when you’ve leveled up and try again.”
“……You don’t recognize me?”
“……”
The staffer’s eyes burned with irritation as he pointed at a wooden plaque beside him. A sign reading [Don’t ask if you don’t know who I am……] was scrawled across it.
Seeing it, Evan realized the man was genuinely clueless. After a moment’s thought, he figured the reason: the messy hair hanging in front of his eyes.
“Statues don’t shave their heads……”
Strangely, no one recognized him. Evan smiled with mischief in his eyes and spoke up.
“Then what missions are available for me?”
“Not many. Pet retrieval, sewer cleaning, errands, the usual……”
“No, I’m talking about the ones related to trains.”
“……Ha, the only train job anyone can take without rank restrictions is this one. Okay with that?”
The staffer held out a single form.
[Railroad Construction Laborer]
Evan accepted it, barely holding back laughter, and nodded.
“The Swordmaster hauling heavy loads at the site?”
This was impossible to ignore.
When Evan nodded and agreed to the job, the staffer started scribbling.
“Name.”
“Huh?”
“You have to register as an adventurer, so a name.”
“Ah, Er─”
“Er?”
“Eri.”
Evan had almost blurted his real name on instinct. Using quick thinking, he successfully concealed his identity. The staffer tilted his head but handed over the guild card without a second thought and accepted the commission.
“─You depart tomorrow morning. If you’re late, there will be a penalty, so don’t be late. And don’t forget this tag.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
Evan accepted the wooden tag with a bright smile and left the guild at a cheerful pace.
He needed a sword right away. Something cheap and plain that anyone could recognize.
“Dragon Suit and Dragon Killer are far too noticeable.”
If he wanted to hide his face, a face someone could identify might appear. That would kill the fun.
Evan made his way straight to Artisan Street. Well, any junk from the entrance vendors was cheap, as Yumir had warned. Anything there would do.
A day passed, and Evan boarded the train bound for his destination.
──CLANK!
──CLUNK!
“Whoa……”
A carriage that ran silently. Evan felt its rhythm in his bones and let out an exclamation of awe, staring out the window.
He had once ridden a wyvern through the sky or galloped across the land himself, but this heavy iron beast raced far faster than any horse.
To Evan’s common sense, it was impossible. How in the world could something so heavy move at such speed? Even if he drove a train himself, he could never reach those velocities.
“Hey, dwarf. Mind-blowing, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yeah. It’s amazing.”
“Back when I was your age, we didn’t have this stuff. Going anywhere meant walking all day, and if you had money you could ride a carriage. Lucky you.”
While the dwarf was admiring the view, the fellow adventurer seated beside him opened his mouth, clearly bored.
Evan swept his eyes over the man from head to toe. The armor showed it was cheap junk, yet it was made of metal, and atop it gleamed a proud copper-rank guild tag.
Copper-rank. Judging by his speech, he had lived as a Copper-rank for several years. In his old life Evan would have dismissed him as worthless…… but Eri was different.
“Whoa- that’s a Copper-rank guild card? Impressive!”
“Eh? Uh- ahem. Pretty cool, huh? You’ll get there if you keep taking quests seriously. By the way, I’m Beige. What’s your name?”
“Eri.”
“A girl’s name.”
“Hahaha, well, it just happened that way.”
Beige looked Evan over curiously, wondering if he was truly a girl. Evan silently lifted his chin to show his Adam’s apple and settled the matter.
The dwarf let out a wistful sigh, then launched into his own boasting as if gender made no difference.
“So, when I ran into a goblin that time. But there’s no way this body would get scared by something like a goblin. I was about to chop its head off and head back, but in the forest a Shabel tiger appeared……”
“Oh, and then?”
“The guy saw my blade skills and started circling me slowly while keeping his guard up. What could I do? I circled too, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.”
Beige’s story was full of the kind of raw desperation the Swordmaster had never experienced firsthand. At the same time, it was genuinely entertaining.
Even without seeing the man’s skill in action, Evan could tell he wouldn’t starve as a storyteller.
Thanks to that, the ride to the job site flew by. Beige loved talking about himself, and with his long career there were endless tales to tell.
“So I met that woman that time……”
“──Shut up already. Go to sleep!”
“……Ah, yeah.”
Someone else barked from a different seat, startling Beige. He lowered his voice and whispered to Evan.
“That guy’s no good. If we fight he’s barely a match…… I’ll hold it in. Adventurers causing trouble only hurts everyone.”
“Oh…… impressive.”
“Hmm? Well, I’m pretty good, yeah.”
Beige burst into laughter, and Evan found himself smiling too. He was a fascinating person. An incredibly fascinating person.
Evan thought that if his life were ever in danger, he would help him once in a while, then turned his gaze out the window. Far ahead, the end of the railroad finally came into view.
The front lines of the construction were filled with countless laborers.
──Hey! Laborer! Bring this over!
“Me too!”
“Me too! Get three!”
“Yes!”
At the very front of the railroad construction, Evan watched the track expand in real time and hurried over when the laborers called for materials.
The men gasped in admiration at his speed.
“Kid’s got power for someone so young.”
“Legs like lightning. Doesn’t waste movement.”
“Don’t you want to try this work instead? We’ll pay well.”
“Hahaha- sorry, but no.”
Smiling, Evan refused their offer and dashed to the next man who called him, hauling loads again.
Superhuman physique meant no fatigue from such labor, so while the others panted and groaned, Evan carried several times as much as they did.
Seeing him was only natural to anyone watching.
“That guy works hard……”
“Says he’s a new adventurer. How do we get him to join our crew……”
“Can we? This kid is clearly talent for middle-rank and above.”
The laborers looked at Evan with envious eyes. He was simply displaying labor-optimized abilities.
Of course Evan would never become a laborer. Even if he had wanted to, the Spear King would never allow it.
“Hmm…… the thing I hoped for isn’t happening.”
Evan felt a quiet regret. The usual frustration of Copper-rank adventurers. That’s why he could feel no hostility at all.
Normally Copper-ranks dumped the lowest ranks with work, beat them, and stole their money, but Evan had never once witnessed any of that.
Because of it, he had expected something exciting to happen. Instead, he felt only boredom.
“If that’s the case, maybe something should blow up already.”