“All right, let’s give it our all today!”
“Yes, sir!”
Just like any other day, I found myself in the order’s training hall early in the morning. I greeted the knights as usual, and another day of clashing swords began.
I didn’t find this routine boring at all. If I did, I would never have inherited my dad’s dojo. You could say I was repeating the same thing over and over, my days passing without any change, but yesterday, today, and tomorrow were all different, even if spent the same way. And this extended beyond just swordplay. I believed it was important to find fun in discovering these small changes.
Aimlessly repeating the same thing every day wouldn’t lead to growth. That applied to both swordplay and magic. There was almost nothing to gain from mindlessly swinging a wooden sword up and down. Tiny and repeated accumulation of training felt like a roundabout—yet also the shortest—route to improving. That was how I’d gotten to where I stood now, and I took pride in that.
“A bit late to be realizing it, though...” I muttered.
“Hm? Did you say something?” a knight asked.
“Oh, no. It’s nothing.”
It was best to retreat before anyone prodded too far into my musings. These were thoughts I’d always had, but I was only now reflecting on them in a self-critical manner. I’d spent several decades teaching swordsmanship in Beaden, and I would be lying if I said I’d held steadfast to those beliefs the entire time.
At some point, had I given up on achieving anything and fallen into a routine out of habit? Had I lost my conviction? I was the only one who understood my own heart, so I couldn’t seek an answer from someone else. However, a part of me didn’t have the confidence to deny the possibility.
I’d always done my best with my daily training—I’d never slacked off. However, there had definitely been a period when I’d arbitrarily decided that I’d reached my limit. But thanks to the efforts of my excellent former pupils, I was once more aiming for the summit of swordsmanship. I couldn’t allow myself to let my willpower fade away ever again.
I didn’t have that much time left. My body would reach its physical limit in the near future, and there was no guarantee that I would be able to see the scenery from the summit before then, but that was no reason for me to give up.
“Okay! Let’s put some spirit into it!” I shouted, slapping my cheeks.
“Y-Yes, sir!” the knights responded, taking my words the wrong way.
I was simply scattering my idle thoughts away and focusing on the task at hand. Well, I was putting my spirit into my daily training too, but I wasn’t implying that I was going to go particularly hard on them today. I felt a little guilty for giving them that impression.
“It’s been getting hotter, so pay attention to your condition,” I warned before we got started.
“Yes, sir!”
It was getting hotter every single day. Things were still fine in the morning and evening, but in the middle of a clear day, it was warm enough to really feel it, even when lightly dressed.
Since it was still early in the morning, the weather wasn’t really a problem, but with so many grown knights moving around so vigorously, it was going to heat up inside the hall as we continued training.
It was important to remind the knights to stay safe, even when everyone already knew it. Just thinking, I figured it’d be fine, was a cop-out. Humans were strange like that—they were only careful of things after someone voiced them aloud. People tended to forget to put on the brakes otherwise.
“Good morning.”
“Hm? Morning, Allucia.”
Just as I finished warming up and was raring to get started, Allucia entered the training hall. Since she was here early in the morning, she must’ve gained a fair bit of free time due to the scrapping of work related to the delegation from Sphenedyardvania. While the cancellation of the event wasn’t something to rejoice, I personally saw her reduced workload as a good thing.
“Master, may I have a moment?”
“Yeah... Sure thing.”
However, it didn’t seem like she was here to train with us. When working, she rarely let her emotions show, but her eyes were now so serious that even I could tell at a glance. That usually means trouble. This was one of the things I’d learned in my few experiences in Baltrain...but would I need to be involved in said trouble?
Well, if my sword was capable of solving things, I had every intention of giving it my all. I wasn’t reluctant to help with anything so long as it didn’t involve politics. Maybe this was another sign of growth.
“Forgive me—let’s talk elsewhere,” Allucia said.
“Got it.”
It was something she’d gone out of her way to come to the training hall to inform me of. It didn’t seem like a message she could just pass along on the spot either. So, it was perfectly natural for us to have this conversation elsewhere.
If I had to guess, this was some kind of emergency or unexpected event. If she’d planned to consult me over something less serious, she would’ve sent a knight to inform me. She’d used Evans for exactly that purpose in the past.
That meant there had to be some kind of trouble. Normally, this time of the year would involve a lot of dialogue with Sphenedyardvania, so maybe there’d been some kind of development on that front.
“You heard her,” I said, addressing the knights. “Sorry, everyone, I’m stepping out for a bit.”
“Understood.”
I didn’t know how serious this was, but either way, I was stepping away from my duties, so it was only right to apologize. Nobody was really at fault, but this was the kind of thing better addressed earlier rather than later. If I could reduce any future friction with a quick word and a bow, it was best to be proactive about it. That said, I was careful of who I lowered my head to.
“This is rather unusual,” I remarked as Allucia and I walked through the office—I was just trying to fill the silence.
“It is,” she agreed stiffly. “We received a somewhat unexpected report.”
“I see...”
I wondered what it could be. Even if such information came to the Liberion Order, I couldn’t understand why she had to go out of her way to tell me about it. This was Allucia we were talking about—she was perfectly capable of selecting what information was and wasn’t meant for my ears.
“Please come in,” she said at her office door.
“Aah, thanks.”
I still couldn’t picture what this was about as I stepped inside. We weren’t in the reception room, but her office. That meant the intel couldn’t be leaked to outsiders, which was even more confusing for me.
“Forgive me, but I don’t have any tea to serve,” Allucia said as we both took a seat.
“Don’t mind me. It was just that sudden, I assume?”
“Yes, you could say that.”
When I’d come to the knight commander’s office several times before, I’d usually been served something to drink. But at those times, I’d been expected, and preparations had been made beforehand.
However, there was none of that this time, so it’d been completely unplanned for me to be here today at this hour. I once more wondered what this could possibly be about. Well, she was about to tell me, but still, this felt like a pretty unique circumstance, even compared to everything else that had happened during my time as a special instructor.
“Please do not mention a word of what I’m about to tell you to anyone,” Allucia started.
“Yeah, of course.”
I wasn’t the type to spread such information. You could interpret her words as a lack of trust, but it came off as more of a reminder. It was important to confirm things verbally.
“Confidential information was just passed to us,” she continued.
From the way she phrased it, the information had come from outside the order. Despite it being passed confidentially, she was immediately telling me about it, but I decided to just trust in her judgment.
“Lysandra...has missed her return date to the guild, and they are unable to contact her.”
“What...?”
Her words caught me off guard. I completely lost myself for a moment. I stood up before I even knew it, knocking the table askew in the process. The sound was quickly drowned out by Allucia’s voice.
“Master!”
“Gh!”
“Please calm down. Things are still in an early phase.”
“Aah...”
She’d known Surena for quite a while. They didn’t seem to get along, but Surena knew Allucia’s temperament relatively well and could talk to her without formalities, which was a valuable thing for a woman in Allucia’s position. In a sense, she’d spent far more time with Surena than I had. And since Allucia was acting calm, I was somehow able to regain my composure.
Even though I’d calmed down somewhat, I still found myself thinking that now wasn’t the time to be sitting around. Surena was assumed missing. I wanted to run out of there immediately and gather what information I could. If some stranger had told me to calm down, I would’ve probably yelled at them to shut up.
The reason I was able to restrain such an impulse was that Allucia was the one telling me to calm down. I bounced my knee restlessly. Another voice inside me was ringing alarm bells, telling me I was too shaken. I knew that already, but I had no way of ridding myself of this irritation.
“Where’d this information come from?” I asked.
“The adventurer’s guild. That’s why the information itself is trustworthy...”
“I see...”
If this had been a leak from some random stranger, Allucia wouldn’t have taken it this seriously. However, this came from the adventurer’s guild. While it’d been disclosed confidentially, it’d been sent through formal channels. This couldn’t be ignored.
Surena was strong. By all means, she had the skills and experience to break out of any dilemma. She was trusted to do so. She also wasn’t one to misjudge when to retreat, and she understood the importance of reporting in. That was why she’d managed to climb to the height of a black rank adventurer.
Something must have happened. However, what exactly that was remained a mystery.
I had an idea of what it could be, but even if I was right, it didn’t ultimately explain Surena’s current predicament. She could just be having trouble getting in touch. Or maybe she was wounded. Or maybe...she was dead. I really hoped that wasn’t the case.
However, those who chose a life of battle were always hounded by that risk. That went not only for Surena but for me and Allucia as well. Randrid had even chosen to retire from adventuring when he’d become a father. No matter how many achievements you accumulated or how much fame and money you earned, it all came to nothing if you died. Knowing that someone close to me was in such danger had me losing my presence of mind.