The Foreign Swordsman

"So you two came all the way from the Marsa Kingdom?"

"Yes. When we heard a knight tournament was being held, we couldn't resist our curiosity and set out on the long road."

"In that case—"

"We passed the preliminaries yesterday."

As the conversation flowed, Luden came to see that Reus was a rather fine fellow. Handsome looks and courteous manners, and being the same age besides, the two of them had common ground to spare. Above all, since he had come to Talon for much the same purpose as Luden, the talk naturally drifted that way.

"You could say the same of me. I too entered this tournament to win and earn a knighthood."

"Are you perhaps thinking of joining a knight order?"

"No, that's not it."

Joining an order and becoming a full knight came with all manner of benefits—a generous salary, material support, and with a stroke of luck, even a fief of one's own. But Luden hadn't entered the tournament with any of that in mind.

The knight title alone will be useful enough.

If he meant to roam far and wide in the days ahead, he would need a solid standing. He had his mercenary credentials, but when it came to freedom of movement, a knight's name opened far more doors.

"With any luck, we may yet meet as opponents in the lists."

"I won't be going easy when that happens."

"Hah. Then we're of one mind. I intend the same."

As they talked, the food they had ordered arrived.

"Hold on. You two mean to eat all of that?"

"Well. We do have a rather prodigious eater in our company."

Casner and Reus made no effort to hide their astonishment. With far too many plates for two people blanketing the table, their surprise was only natural. But it was the sight that followed that left the pair speechless.

"Waaah!"

Chomp, chomp.

In the blink of an eye, the food was vanishing from the plates into the little girl's mouth. The way she snatched it up hand over fist was like a beast of prey stalking down its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quarry. The sheer ferocity of it overwhelmed Reus and Casner before they knew what was happening.

"……Miss Sarah certainly eats with gusto."

"If you don't mind, please, join us."

"W-would that really be alright?"

"It's no trouble at all. Meeting like this is fate, after all."

At his urging, the two hesitated a moment before taking up their utensils.

"Thank you. Then we shall gladly accept your hospitality."

"...Much obliged."

Luden allowed himself a faint smile. Money, after all, he had in plenty, courtesy of Viscount Valen. Befitting the lord of such a prosperous city, the man had readily handed over a hefty fee for taking on the escort of his son. Thanks to that, funds were nothing to worry about for a while yet.

If I can coast through quests like this, it's profit all around.

Not that wasting it would do, but he had come all this way to a thriving city, and Luden was in the mood to enjoy himself too.

By the time the four of them finished their meal and stepped out of the restaurant, darkness had settled thick over the streets.

"Thank you for the meal. I feel bad having done nothing but freeload on our first meeting."

"Think nothing of it. I enjoyed myself as well."

"Still, I feel bad. Ah—then how about we share another meal once the tournament ends? We'll treat you next time."

"Hmm. Would that be alright?"

At that, asked with a sidelong glance at Sarah, Reus's face stiffened for an instant before an awkward laugh slipped out.

"Haha. Of course. She may eat until she bursts."

"We'll hold you to that."

Luden chuckled and parted ways with the two of them. He didn't know why the quest had sought to bind him to Reus, but it hadn't been a bad meeting at all.

"Still, why does he seem so familiar?"

For some reason, the man named Reus didn't feel like a stranger to him—even though this was unmistakably their first meeting. Could he have crossed paths with him in his past life—

"Must be my imagination. He's not the sort of face you'd forget."

"Luden. Sarah is sleepy, yep."

"Yes, yes. Let's hurry back and get to bed."

Brushing the thought aside, Luden headed back with Sarah in tow.

In the main rounds the next day, too, Luden claimed victory without difficulty.

"Gwahk!"

The shock transmitted straight through solid plate stiffened his opponent's movements. Naturally, Luden wasn't about to miss such an opening, and he drove in his next attack at once.

Wham!

Struck in the chin, the man staggered and collapsed where he stood. It wasn't a lack of skill. If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠anything, he was stronger than the fighters Luden had faced in yesterday's preliminaries—but he was no match for an opponent wielding the unpredictable power of skills.

"Ugh. I... I lost."

"Well fought."

A jackpot.

He had meant to win regardless, but now he had a reason he absolutely must. A unique skill alone would have been a windfall—and on top of it, two Intermediate Growth Elixirs. There was no letting this slip away. Luden's eyes blazed with drive.

Just then, someone leaped onto his back.

Wham.

"Luden! You won, yep! You're strong, yep!"

"Gwah! Sarah, don't just pounce on me out of nowhere!"

Steadying his swaying frame, Luden peeled Sarah off his back. At that innocent face, utterly devoid of remorse, a sigh escaped him of its own accord.

"Luden, Luden. Sarah wants to fight too, yep!"

"Hm?"

"There's heaps of strong prey here, yep."

A hot fire burned in Sarah's eyes. Watching the fierce duels had evidently brought her Black Wolf blood to a boil. But Luden shook his head firmly.

"No."

"Whaaat?!"

"You're still clumsy at holding your strength back, Sarah. Once you've improved like Kyle, we'll enter you next time."

True to her beastfolk nature, Sarah's strength and stamina were extraordinary even for her age. In terms of raw physical ability, even Luden would have trouble handling her. If she entered the tournament, she would surely make a strong showing—

But Sarah is clumsy at reining in her strength.

No—the real problem was that she had no intention of reining it in at all. One slip and she would tear her opponent apart as thoroughly as she had the Forest Troll, which was precisely why Luden had talked her out of entering.

If I do take her into the party, that's the first thing I'll have to teach her.

Folding the thought away, Luden turned to the deflated girl.

"Still, seeing you this worked up—did you find someone you want to fight?"

For Sarah, who had felled even a Forest Troll, to show this kind of fighting spirit toward someone. That this tournament held a fighter of that caliber piqued Luden's interest.

Sarah nodded with all her might.

"That silverhead from yesterday! Sarah wants to fight him, yep!"

"Silverhead? You mean Reus?"

"Yeah!"

"So he was no ordinary man after all. Sarah, can you tell me exactly what you saw?"

"Umm. So, like, silverhead went like this, and then bam, and the other guy went flying! Yep?"

"...I see. Thanks for the explanation."

Watching Sarah earnestly act it out with her whole body, Luden gave up on understanding. He was curious how the man fought, but he would have the chance to see soon enough. For now, it was enough to know that an opponent not to be underestimated had appeared.

But as I recall, the winner of this tournament wasn't Reus. It was someone else.

Ashamed of falling in the preliminaries, he had left Talon before the finals even began—yet the news had reached him all the same. A swordsman from a foreign land, was it? As of now, there was no participant Luden needed to watch more carefully.

"Come tomorrow, I'll be facing one of the two."

He had to win his two remaining matches today to reach tomorrow's semifinals. Fortunately, neither Reus nor the foreign swordsman was in Luden's bracket, but reach the semifinals, and he would meet them whether he liked it or not.

When Luden returned to the inn after finishing his third match, a letter was waiting for him.

"A reply already?"

The sender was Viscount Valen. The favor he had asked of Gunter before parting with him in Talon had borne fruit remarkably fast. Luden opened the letter at once and read through its contents.

"You've got to be kidding me."

A groan soon escaped Luden's lips as his eyes raced down the page. The letter's contents were nothing out of the ordinary. Viscount Valen's regards, and the matter of the Black Wolf Tribe. Fortunately, the misunderstanding with the Black Wolves had been cleared up without incident and settled nicely. If anything, it had gone so well that the two sides would not only exchange visits regularly from then on, but the Viscount had even been granted partial passage through the Wolf's Forest. Because of that, two-thirds of the letter was given over to his expressions of gratitude.

But what truly mattered was the letter's final line.

There, word for word, lay a message from Vargar, who had heard news of Sarah.

"He's joking, right?"

The flicker of doubt vanished in an instant. When the child had been kidnapped, the entire tribe had risen in fury—yet their reaction to her running off was calmer than he'd expected. And naturally so. Once a thing was decided by one's own will, the Black Wolf way was to respect it and watch how it unfolded. Luden, who had lived among them, knew this well enough.

"To think they'd entrust a child to an outsider."

Of course, it wasn't simply because the Black Wolves wanted the girl to grow strong. That Vargar had told her to do as she pleased surely owed much to his faith in Luden. From where Luden stood, though, he couldn't begin to fathom what exactly they were placing that trust in.

"Haah. Well, no helping it now."

The decision now rested entirely on his shoulders. But with the tournament not yet over, Luden resolved to shelve the matter for the time being.

"For now, let's worry about tomorrow's match."

From the semifinals onward, the caliber of opposition would certainly rise. He couldn't afford to take it lightly. Without a certain amount of preparation, he might well find himself in a bind.

In that spirit, Luden claimed the rewards he had yet to use.

"Confirm rewards."

"Magic, huh. A shame, but I can't use this one."

Unfortunately, the use of magic was forbidden in the knight tournament. Strictly speaking, Mana Shield was a skill, but to everyone watching, it would amount to the same thing.

"The boots, though, should be fine."

Swapping on the new shoes and hopping in place a few times, Luden smiled in satisfaction.

The heat in the arena as the semifinals began was a notch higher than yesterday. Unlike the earlier rounds, every fighter who had climbed this far was proven in ability, and the matches promised to be well worth watching. The bouts of the standout competitors, in particular, were on every spectator's lips.

"Quite the racket."

"Mm. Sarah wants to fight too, yep."

"Be good, now? Watch quietly, and I'll buy you something tasty later."

"Sarah wants to hunt, yep!"

Naturally, Luden's name had spread as well, and he was being spoken of as a favorite for the title.

If the finals wrap up today, the jousting comes after that, right?

If he had time to spare, a quick look wouldn't be bad, he thought.

Just as that thought crossed his mind—

"Hm?"

Something caught his eye, and Luden stopped without meaning to.

Who is that?

The man was impossible to miss. A light outfit of a shirt stamped with flashy floral prints and blue shorts. Between the vacation-at-the-lakeside getup and a height of a good two meters, he drew every eye in the arena.

Luden's gaze fell to the sword in the man's hand.

A competitor? Then don't tell me—

The thought struck him, and his eyes flew wide. The eye-catching, outlandish garb. The foreign features.

No doubt about it.

"The swordsman from a foreign land."

The man who had won this tournament, in his past life.