This old man’s conjecture had hit the nail on the head. When the name Ferd had first become famous, it had practically been synonymous with recklessness and stupidity, and it had definitely not been welcome back then. And since there had been very few people alive with the name Ferd at the time, there was very little way to know how those people felt about the name now.
“Did you know that the title of Hero isn’t even something he gave himself?” Ferd asked in reply.
“Yes. I’ve been taught that people just naturally started calling him that.”
“Mm-hmm. I know this firsthand since I was alive back then, but as the war approached its conclusion, I noticed that he was being called the Hero.” The old man seemed to think that it would be boring to leave the conversation off after the discussion of the name, so he started telling the young man a story. “I think the Hero didn’t care much about his name or title. He wasn’t after anyone’s praise, nor was he thinking about having his name go down in history. To put it bluntly, he might have even thought it would be fine if he was forgotten entirely.”
“He defeated the Great Demon King, yet he was fine with being forgotten?” Franz repeated the old man’s words, taken aback by his opinion.
“Yes. For the Hero, the fact that his name became famous and that he came to be called the Hero was just a recognition of the fact that he had defeated the Great Demon King, one which simply stuck with him afterward, I would assume.”
Just like any young person, Franz believed that wanting to become famous was just natural, but people had an infinite variety of opinions.
“At first, he was only treated as a kid who was spouting nonsense about bringing the blue back to the sky. People just called him whatever back then. In fact, perhaps they weren’t even interested in him at all.”
Yes, he’d never dreamed of saving the world simply because he was the Hero. He’d never thought of it as some mission. He’d had no need for the condescending praise of the gods. He’d possessed no desire to be eternally praised by all living beings to satisfy some need for approval. He’d just charged ahead, doing as he pleased. The Hero had only sought the return of the blue sky and the survival of the world. Purely hypothetically, even if he had been considered dangerous and was betrayed by the gods and mortal races, to be wiped from existence, as long as the blue sky and world continued to exist, that counted as a victory in his mind. He’d have felt no pain or anguish if his achievements and name were erased from history after that.
“You and your friends are studying. Children are playing. Young people are falling in love. Couples are raising their children. Old people are smiling at their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Hero might think that this is enough.”
“I see...” Franz nodded, acknowledging that this was also a way of thinking. He had unintentionally succeeded in renewing recognition of the old man’s accomplishments, something which, unknown to all, had been on the verge of disappearing.
“Well...I know I’ve just said a lot of things, but...it might be best if we pass on the story of the fight against the Great Demon King too, to ensure that something similar to the great war doesn’t happen again in the future.” It was a voice, a cry, from the memories of the old man who was looking off into the distance and would become part of history. Unlike the words of the Hero, these chronicles were recorded properly and passed down to future generations.
“It looks so cool when you jump up and swing your sword!” After returning from the bathroom, Franz was trying all kinds of things with his wooden sword in the garden.
“Why are we talking about it being cool or not?” The exasperated Hagen shut him down at once.
“There are swordsmanship schools that involve fighting while dancing, so what’s wrong with a style that’s about looking cool?” Franz noted a famously eccentric school of swordsmanship as an example.
“What kinds of swordsmanship would that even be? Swordsmanship is just the accumulation of basic training.”
“Exactly. Besides, how are you supposed to fight while dancing?”
Hagen and Emmeline rejected Franz’s idea.
“No, it does exist! Right, Connie?!”
“Are you talking about the Madley School?” Connie immediately recalled the school’s name.
“Yes, that one!” Franz was relieved at Connie’s confirmation.
“Wh-What? It’s actually real?”
“I can’t believe it...”
Hagen and Emmeline were expecting Connie to deny it as well, but they now stood perplexed.
“The school utilizes leaps and dancing-like moves in its maneuvers. I’ve heard that the practitioners use special moves to dazzle their opponents, then bring them down once there’s an opening,” Connie explained.
“I-Is it strong?” Hagen asked, his disbelief evident on his face.
“In the nationwide martial arts tournament held in the Rin Kingdom, they came in...what place was it? I feel like some of the school’s members advanced quite high. Oh, but the highest-level fighters weren’t participating.”
“Huh...” Upon learning that the school had actually been successful in a proper tournament, Emmeline looked truly confused.
“Exhibition matches, huh? Come to think of it, I’ve never had any interest in those.” Sazaki, who had been listening to the kids, cocked his head slightly in confusion.
“As far as I know, your apprentices don’t participate in them either,” Lara added.
“You can’t really fight seriously in them, and those guys aren’t interested in money and fame.” He shrugged.
As these were martial arts tournaments held by the powerful Rin Kingdom, the rewards for victory were certainly outstanding. Therefore, many aspirants dreamed of victory, but some had a different opinion. Those at the very top often said they weren’t particularly interested in money or fame, with that position being rather prevalent among Sazaki’s apprentices.
“Besides that, some swordsmen find showing their techniques to others absurd.” Among the martial artists Sazaki knew, some didn’t take apprentices and just honed their skills in solitude. People like them would probably shudder just at the thought of their techniques being seen and studied by a large crowd. They’d also gotten into disagreements during the great war.
“Some people even brought this up during the war.”
“Certainly.”
The like-minded couple shrugged their shoulders in the same manner.
Even during the great war, there had been extremely obstinate swordsmen and mages, but some of them would never show their skills in public, even if it had meant the extinction of all mortal races. Some had even said that they’d rather die than reveal their techniques.
“Despite all their claims, most of them weren’t that big a deal.” Not all of those obstinate people had refused, of course; some had cooperated, albeit reluctantly. However, from what Sazaki could remember, their skills had been nothing to write home about, despite all their boasting.
“Cutting off contact with the world means that you can’t keep up with the changes and growth around you—with some exceptions,” Lara suggested.
“For sure.”
It was beneficial for swordsmen to hone their skills and for mages to immerse themselves in research. However, the technology of the world progressed thanks to the efforts of a huge number of people. Those obstinate individuals who had fought in the great war had been confronted with the fact that their skills and research had already become outdated and obsolete in this modern age, and in most cases, they were no longer of any use at all.
There were two exceptions among exceptions, though: the killing machine that the church declared was the pinnacle of perfection, who had indeed maintained those killing techniques, and the man possessing the power of light beyond what anyone else had yet achieved; despite the fact that they’d secluded themselves in the mountains for nearly seventy years, those facts still held true. Although there might be others qualified to attain the peak of the power of light, as that power had been honed under the extreme conditions of the great war, it would be difficult to gain the necessary experience to attain such a level in a peaceful world.
Speaking of obstinate hermits, there was one present who had been unfortunately influenced by such individuals: Emmeline, at whom Lara was currently looking.
“Maybe I should brush up on some common sense...” Emmeline told herself, perplexed by this dancing sword style.