Long ago, a boy walked along the road to Park.
The path he found himself on was the Yellow Brick Road, which had many paths all around Schwertland, all of which led to Park City. The boy took a seat at a roadside bus station, and soon enough the scheduled tumbler had arrived. The boy paid in denari and got on top of the turtle’s shell.
That was when everything began.
The boy was a Mermaid. His youthful face stood out in its beauty, drawing the gazes of the other passengers. As he sat down, the man sitting on the seat across from his called out to him.
“Sure is unusual to see a Mermaid taking the bus.”
It was a frank, easygoing Minotaurus man. He was incredibly muscular, even by Minotaurus standards, to the point where having him sitting there inside the bus made it feel so much more cramped.
“Really?” the boy said calmly.
“Don’t you mind sitting with other races?” the man asked, his friendly expression feeling quite strange given his martial physique.
“Not really… My peers at the marshlands often call me strange, but I don’t feel that way myself.”
“Heh, that right? What brings you to Park, then?”
“I came to meet my other self,” said the boy.
“What does that mean?”
“I still only know my masculine self.”
The man frowned, but then he recalled the unique physiology of the Mermaids and nodded. “Oh, so that’s what you mean.”
“Why are you going to Park?” he asked the Minotaurus.
“For this.”
Opening his bag, the man took out a massive poleax. It might have been one he’d made himself. It looked incredibly strong, heavy, and rough—a good fit for this man, who seemed to regard it with affection.
“I’m here to test this baby out.” The man grinned, flexing his arm, which was as thick as both the boy’s legs combined. “You going to live in Park all alone?”
The boy nodded.
“What are you gonna do for a living? How are you going to eat?”
“I used to weave water steel in my village in the marshlands.”
“Huh. At your age…?” the man asked, looking genuinely surprised.
Water steel was extracted from a special steel fruit that wilted easily if mishandled. This made refining water steel an extremely difficult feat, requiring both experience and talent from weavers.
“Yes. So I was thinking I could make musical instruments.”
“Ah, I see. In that case, you should probably go to a smith’s house. If you do well, it’ll keep you fed. Especially since Park is always in need of more instruments. What kind of instruments are you thinking of making? Farm instruments, or…?”
“Well, for example, something like the one you’re holding.”
The man blinked in surprise.
“Sword instruments…? Well, aren’t you confident in your abilities.”
“No, I only picked it because that’s an easier shape.”
“The shape…?”
“Yes.” The boy paused, trying to come up with a way to explain it. “Basically…I give shape to what I seek, entrusting it with the steel. It’s like it shows me that this sword’s worthy wielder will come to take it. Like a vision of the future.”
The man nodded pensively, looking lost.
“So what you’re saying is that you only sell your creations to their worthy owners?”
“You can think of it that way.”
“Being picky with your clients at your age, huh? That’s the sign of some real confidence right there.”
“I wouldn’t call it ‘being picky’… It’s just the only way that guides me forward…”
The man stared at the boy trying to explain himself.
“It’s my first time speaking to a Mermaid kid… I wonder if other kids are all as mature as you.”
“I only look like a child because I haven’t become female yet. Mermaids only reach maturity when they turn into a woman…”
The man nodded. “I feel like…I asked you all sorts of unpleasant questions.”
“Not at all.”
“Well, I’m sure this meeting means something. How about next time, you make me another poleax?”
The boy giggled and nodded. A moment later, the strumming of the coach driver’s instrument announced that they would arrive at Park City shortly. The boy later went to the castle with the man, where they stood in line for the audience hour, when they would be placed on the scales that would decide if they were just or evil.
There, the two were recognized as top dogs and allowed to live in Lower East Town.
“The man’s name was Gibson… Until I made my name as a swordsmith, I lived with him, and he helped me. I think we both had a premonition of sorts. Maybe it’s because Mermaids and Minotaurus have always been seen as highly compatible races… I think I was hoping Gibson would help me find my feminine self someday. And it went both ways…”
Dranvi peered into Adonis’s face.
“I’ll tell you the rest of the story another time…”
Adonis was dozing off, and the woman’s face was fading out of focus.
“A Mermaid…,” Adonis whispered softly but soon forgot he even said it as a deep sleep claimed him.
“Listen to the voice of your steel! And respond to the call you find there!” Sian shouted, taking Adonis’s strike head-on. “Think of that sword as your fated partner, not as a mere tool!”
Sian’s blows grew more powerful by the day, and he beat Adonis down with reserves of strength that seemed bottomless before forcing him back to his feet. True enough, when it came to teaching another, Sian’s strength was boundless, and the more Adonis tried to catch up to his level, the more the older man pulled away from him.
It wasn’t just limited to his skills with the sword, either. While swinging his sword, Sian used an assortment of spells, knocking down Adonis’s desperate charges.
“Have you never considered why spells are etched only on one side of the blade?”
With his usual indomitable smile, Sian used a finger to draw grammar magic on the side of the sword that didn’t have a spell on it, applying different effects to the spell and doubling its strength.
“Compared to long ago, Solists have become solely focused on their swords. There are positives and negatives to performing such roles.”
He cast techniques Adonis hadn’t even tried before with perfect precision. Compared to that, Adonis’s swords techniques—which so far had been considered extraordinary among the Solists—looked like the savage flailing of a brute.