Chapter 4
KONJI MENTIONED “FLOWER fae.” I was reminded of the girl with leaves growing from her head. I believed she was part of Hieda’s group, which also meant she had contributed to the dragon girl’s revenge count. I didn’t know her race, so I always assumed it was something related to plants. I now realized she must have been a fae, just like the elves. I never really noticed her before, so my only impression was that she didn’t stand out much. She always hid behind someone else.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Beginning tomorrow, you will be starting your long-term survival training, so you will each be given a real knife today. There will be no replacements if you lose it before the training.”
That morning, we were informed about a new type of training. Its name gave us a good idea of what it might entail. I guessed that our frequent trips into the forest were to get us used to that environment. We had also learned to stay on guard when there were beasts about. The question was how long we could hold that high level of attentiveness.
I also noticed something strange about the latter half of the instructor’s speech. If we wouldn’t get a new knife if we lost ours, why distribute them now? My guess was that he was giving us implicit permission to turn them into arcane tools. In doing so, we ran the risk of failing and destroying them, and we would have to undergo survival training unarmed.
We were all handed a knife of the same size. I expected the weight to throw me off because we had only used wooden blades so far, but it felt surprisingly comfortable in my grip. It wasn’t that much heavier. It probably wasn’t that the knives were lighter, but that our wooden blades had added heft. I gave it a few test swings. My movements were awkward because I feared hurting myself. I was grateful we had them the day before our training started. If we’d been given them without warning, I might have ended up dropping it carelessly at a critical moment.
I swung my knife several times during training that day, getting used to the feeling of bearing the metal weapon.
✦ ✦ ✦
Once training was done, the children went to compare their sheathed knives in a flurry of excitement. The elf boy, Monk, was already turning his into an arcane tool. We had undergone several more special training sessions with Sister, but that didn’t change the fact that it was harder to make an arcane tool from an unfamiliar object than one you were used to. Monk’s courage impressed me, even though he was probably only doing it because he was confident he would succeed.
The other children seemed just as impressed, their voices hushed as they gathered around him.
“There...” he murmured, and it was only then that he seemed to notice the eyes on him. He shrank back. “Wh-what are you all looking at?”
“That’s really something, Monk!” said one of the girls.
I had looked into where the nickname came from. It was originally meant to be teasing because he always came top in essence training. He didn’t seem to realize that though, instead taking it as a compliment and being secretly pleased about it.
“I’m really scared of our training tomorrow. It’d be cool if you could transform my knife for me!” the same girl said.
“M-me?” Monk stammered. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” Her eyes sparkled, and her words dripped honey as she flattered him. “I’d really love an arcane knife...”
“Me too!”
“And me...”
“Same here.”
A bandwagon formed, with the kids who weren’t confident in their essence skills all passing their knives to Monk.
“I-I might mess up,” he said.
“You’ll be fine!”
“Yup!”
“We all believe in you!”
He had to have some confidence in his skills, or he wouldn’t have taken the greater risk of transforming his own knife. They must have recognized this. While he sometimes failed when working with a new object during special training, once he made a successful tool from something, he never made the mistake again. The children who had seen this were completely certain that he wouldn’t break their knives. Those who hadn’t probably saw his timidness and were confident they could take his knife for themselves as way of “apology” if he failed with theirs.
I watched as the children piled him with their requests of what effects they wanted on their knives. I was a little uncertain myself. Should I ask him too, or should I do the work myself? If I did the latter, I would simply make it sharper. I didn’t want to do anything too crazy to it, in case we were required to give them back later. This would also be my first time transforming a knife, so I wasn’t confident I would succeed. On the other hand, asking Monk might mean I would owe him a favor down the line. There was also the slim possibility that he would fail on purpose and I would lose my weapon. I would have no recourse then.
It was down to what I wanted to place my trust in: his character or my ability to create arcane tools. Putting it like that, there was only one answer.
I decided to have faith in my own skills. I couldn’t trust anyone else.
As I couldn’t focus here, I sheathed my knife and left.