Chapter 12: An aimless impulse

Successfully entrusting the responsibility of the sword to Riven, I continued to observe the mana that flowed through that sword whenever she had it.

There hadn’t been any major changes yet, but the fact that the color of the mana was like that made me feel uneasy.

Well, that kind of sword saved Riven’s life when she was in danger, so I could assume that it wouldn’t go berserk (going wild or uncontrollable) if it was with Riven.

So what is that Riven doing now? She was sitting near me, watching me train.

In order to explain why Riven suddenly came to see me train, I have to go back to right after finishing the farm work yesterday evening.

Like any other weekend, after finishing all the helping with the old woman’s farm work, we organized the tools and talked until we went home.

Various stories came and went about how we had been doing and how Set was doing these days, and suddenly a question about me popped out of her mouth.

“By the way, Svasha, you look very delicate on the outside, but how can you do farm work so well? I’m confident in working with my body to some extent, but it seems that there are no muscles on your body.”

Svasha… She thinks of me to that extent… That’s not it, but to the question of why I’m so good at farm work even though I don’t have muscles, I said that I would show her my training method myself.

“Even though I look like this, I’m training my body? I don’t know about the muscles either… If you’re okay with it, would you like to watch me train tomorrow morning?”

It’s been a little less than 6 months since I started training, and it’s only been about 4 months since I started strength training, but even if it was just a little bit of lean muscle, my body was the same as it was 6 months ago.

…Well, it didn’t matter if I didn’t gain muscle as long as my strength increased. It was just that I was dissatisfied with the fact that I only looked weak.

Anyway, that’s how she came to see me training this early in the morning. In my estimation, it was a training volume that wasn’t even a drop in the bucket compared to the training she had done, but.

But in fact, she seemed convinced after seeing me exercise. I wondered if I should be convinced with this much exercise, but she seemed satisfied just by confirming that I was really training every day.

She seemed to think that I was just a little more physically fit than the average woman. After all, Riven couldn’t have predicted the growth of this body. Even I was surprised by the rapid growth at first.

Riven, who had waited for me to finish training, handed me water and said that she would train with me next time. She said that she felt a bit dull because she hadn’t moved her body much these days. Is that really dull…?

If I ask her for a sparring match later, she seems like she’ll jump at it. Hwaaa… Save me…

There were many people wandering around aimlessly in this Ionia. Everyone was wandering this land with their own special reasons.

Riven was also one of them, but she was taken in by the old woman. That’s why I started approaching and talking to the wanderers who passed by this area after that day.

If you ask how to distinguish between a wanderer and an ordinary person, it wasn’t that difficult. Most of the people wandering around at this time were often caused by the war, so their expressions were dark, and in the first place, I could distinguish the faces of people I saw for the first time in this rural area.

The reason why I suddenly brought up this story is because a new wanderer came to our village today.

I encountered him on a weekday afternoon, when I was returning home after finishing my delivery work. When I first saw him, I didn’t know he was a person for a while because of his bizarre appearance.

Wearing a helmet with seven optical microscopes attached to it, he didn’t look like an ordinary person to anyone.

Of course, he was just passing through this place, but he looked very tired, so I approached him without hesitation and said that if he didn’t have a place to stay since it was late today, I would provide him with food and lodging.

From another person’s point of view, he might have suspected the kindness that a stranger was showing, but he glanced at Set, who was fast asleep on my back, and accepted my offer.

Following me into my house, he took off the helmet he was wearing. Inside the helmet was the face of a handsome young man with a face that had lost someone precious.

That face was similar to the face that my mother sometimes showed, mainly on her wedding anniversary with that father, so I served him a meal and asked him about his story.

Then he chuckled at my words, took a sip of the tea I had given him, and said.

“For a swordsman to reveal his emotions to the point that even a woman like you can notice them, my training is still insufficient. That’s right, I let my precious people go because of my momentary arrogance.”

“Um… It seems that you’ve lost more people than I thought. I’ve committed a rudeness. Please forgive me.”

That voice was definitely not a voice that could come from someone who had lost one or two people. Thinking that he had lost at least 10 people, he shook his head and said to me.

“No, you don’t have to worry about it. All of this is my fault. To tell you the truth, I lost everyone I knew.”

“That means…”

“Everyone in my hometown. Died.”

Oh, dear. That was too big of a story. Not a few people, not a few dozen people, but everyone in his hometown? I thought, how can he still move without despairing? He must be a mentally strong warrior.

The man was the first to open his mouth in our silence.

“I still remember that day. The magical power that flowed through my hometown was defiled, and the people I loved were all dead. It was the last wound that the war left on me.”

I couldn’t help but feel solemn at his words. He closed his eyes for a moment, composed himself, and then began to speak again.

“But I couldn’t stay there. I became the only successor to the martial arts that had been passed down in our hometown. That’s why I’m wandering this first land now, and that’s why I’m focusing on training.”

“You mean swordsmanship when you say training…? You were holding a sword earlier, so there was a reason.”

At those words, he shook his head and pointed out the mistake in my words.

“To be exact, it’s swordsmanship. The power I use is borrowed from the spirit world and used in this world, so wouldn’t it be impossible to call it swordsmanship?”

Certainly, for that kind of school, swordsmanship would be the correct expression. That’s in line with magic.

But in order to continue talking to him, it’s a bit difficult to just call it swordsmanship, so can you tell me the name of the swordsmanship? I couldn’t resist my curiosity and asked him.

“Do you have a separate name for that swordsmanship? I’m just asking because I’m curious because I don’t know the name, there’s no other meaning.”

Then he thought for a moment, picked up the sword next to him, closed his eyes, and took an upright posture. Soon, a blue spirit settled on his sword and began to sway. Slowly opening his closed eyes, he gave an answer to my question.

“…Cosmic Stream Swordsmanship. I am the only successor and master of this swordsmanship, ‘Yi’.”

Very calmly, and as if immersed in futility.