When Eris woke up, she was her old self. She caught sight of the Superd kids as we walked around the village and exclaimed excitedly, “They’ve really got tails!” She actually got one to let her touch it. Her target was a girl. If I’d tried it the Superd, who were protective of their children, would have carried me off and flogged me. I’m not a perv! Don’t arrest me!
Sylphie was probably pretty done with my kinky crap, but if I were going to go there, I’d want her in a costume with a tail.
Anyway, maybe it was seeing Ruijerd again after so long, or maybe she’d loosened up with the fighting over for now, but Eris was so excited it was like she was a kid again. However, as we were going around the village, she suddenly stopped. Sensing danger, I stopped too. She was staring at someone, a middle-aged man who, without his helmet, gave a somewhat childish impression. It was Sandor von Grandeur, the cover name of Alex Rybak, North God Kalman II.
I saw Eris’s pupils contract.
“Hey, don’t—” By the time I tried to restrain her it was already too late. Eris dived forward with incredible speed and struck fiercely at Sandor with her sword.
“Ah!”
But Sandor was quick too. He spun around and caught her blow at the hilt. That was when I finally caught up. I grabbed Eris around the waist, apologizing to Sandor.
“Eris! Whatever Sandor’s done, back down—for my sake! Sandor, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over my husband—I mean my wife!”
“Where do you think you’re sticking your face?” She kicked me. Okay, maybe I did press my face into her butt, but that was out of my control!
“I’m sorry, Eris, but you can’t go around picking fights with people. Especially Sandor, when he just fought alongside us! Like yeah, concealing his identity and putting on stupid airs and talking like a cryptic sellsword got on my nerves, too. But that’s no reason to hit someone!”
“I know that,” Eris said.
Liar. If you knew that you wouldn’t be attacking people from behind with a sword, would you? I know a thing or two myself.
“Eris, you know, I’ve been seeing you differently lately. I thought you seemed calmer than you used to be. You’ve grown up, gotten more patient, you even learned how to teach sword fighting to other people. Norn was grateful to you for teaching her. It’s not easy winning people’s gratitude like that, you know! I see it as proof of the training you did at the Sword Sanctum. Looking at you now, I never could have imagined you’d grow up into such a wonderful person.”
I was getting a bit preachy, but it was important. Whatever had ruffled her feathers, she couldn’t attack people from behind out of the blue. When Eris swung her sword, it was on a different level from ordinary violence.
“R-really? But Rudeus…” Eris looked happy, but also a bit disappointed. I had to convince her.
“Ah well, Master Rudeus.” Sandor pulled the brake on me. “Let’s leave it at that. I expect Miss Eris wanted to see if the legend was true.”
“The…legend?”
“They say you can’t catch the Second North God Kalman by surprise. Combat ready at all times, even if you attack from behind, he turns like he has eyes in the back of his head and does away with the threat before it strikes.” With that, Sandor struck a pose like he was cutting away an arrow fired at his back. Ignoring his puffery, I had heard something like that before. It showed up in the middle section of The Epic of the North God. That’s right, I think it was the bit where, after the world starts to take notice of the Second North God Kalman, the monarch of the King Dragon Realm sends a bunch of assassins to eliminate him, and he kills them all?
“…I did want to see if it was true.”
“Master Rudeus, Miss Eris was properly considerate. When I caught her strike, I understood that she planned to stop at the last second.”
“Oh, right. In that case… But Eris, if you’re going to do something like this, say something to me. You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“If I’d said something, he’d have noticed.”
Really, though…? Well, I guess if you planned on stopping at the last second, it was just a game, so that’s fine?
What if Sandor had gotten mad and gone over to Geese’s side…?
Hmm. Maybe I was overthinking this. Joshing around between sword fighters always looked deadly to me.
“So you really can block attacks even when they come from behind?”
“Oh, well, I couldn’t back then. That bit in the epic was just my ally having my back. Only, when I started taking apprentices, they all wanted to see if it was true. So I picked it up naturally keeping them at bay.”
“So that’s it!” Eris said. She sounded moved by Sandor’s words. To be fair, when you hear that kind of inside story, it does kind of make you feel like you heard something amazing.
Even when the story itself is no big deal.
“Now, what would you say to a bout?” Sandor asked.
“For real?!”
“I would be honored to try my skill against the fighter who defeated Gall Falion.” Sandor’s eyes flicked over to me as he spoke, and he winked.
What’s that about… Oh, I see. This is a bit of fan service, huh? The Second North God Kalman, hero of the Epic of the North God. He was a big deal. He probably ran into people like Eris a lot.
Maybe he was giving her a special perk because she was my wife? At least, that’s what I thought. Yet Sandor’s eyes stayed on me.
“You know I’m not joining in, yeah? Eris would rather do one-on-one too. Right?”
Stop looking at me and give your fangirl some attention.
Eris might be a little grumpy after losing, but if he framed it as a teaching experience, she’d be happy to take the lesson on board. She was obedient to people who were stronger than her, that girl.
“Oh no,” Sandor said. “I just have a request, in exchange for the bout.”
“No problem! Right, Rudeus?” Eris said.
Could she at least wait until after he told us what he wanted?
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to grant it. It’s rather difficult, you see…”
“…Difficult, you say?”
Starting off like that is way off-putting. I mean, something the Second North God Kalman straight-up says is difficult?
I wasn’t sure that was within my power… But hey, I’d tried hard for the past twenty-odd years to get this far. Even if I couldn’t do it, I was sure I could help somehow.
“I think for you two, it just might be possible.”
“You’ll have to tell me what it is.”
“Let’s call it a surprise for when the fight’s over.”
You always do this.
Whatever.
“Depending on what it is, I’ll see what I can do,” I said. If he was going to be inscrutable, I’d just have to do the same.