Chapter 36
“Huff…….”
[0:59:08]
“Ugh, ah……!”
[0:59:56]
“Just a little more!”
[1:00:00]
“Waaah!”
“I almost died for real.”
Arius and Daphne looked at the artifact showing one hour had passed and collapsed on the spot.
“Huh, ah, I really, thought my heart was going to jump out. Wow, waaah…….”
Arius felt his pounding heart, tightly shut his eyes, and then opened them again.
The world felt like it was spinning, and he felt nauseous.
“Drink a potion.”
Daphne poured a potion into Arius’s mouth.
“Cough!”
It went down the wrong way, making him choke, but as the potion went in, his breathing eased somewhat.
Arius rolled onto his side and looked up at Daphne with a dazed expression.
“Daphne, I think you’re really amazing……. You’re three years younger than me, but you kept up…… and you were just lying down until not long ago…….”
“Now you realize I’m amazing?”
“If only you’d keep that mouth shut…….”
Even as he said that, Arius respected Daphne.
She was three years younger than him, not only endured the same training, but also seemed to have much more energy left than him, who was completely exhausted!
Daphne still didn’t look well. Even after drinking the potion, she had vomited blood a few more times. Just the day before yesterday, she had even collapsed once.
So, Arius had secretly thought Daphne wouldn’t be able to do it within the ’10 days’ she mentioned.
But he was wrong.
Daphne had done it.
‘Was Daphne always like this?’
The old Daphne was a child who would throw a tantrum if she had to wait even for tea to brew, so when did she develop such perseverance? It was incredibly surprising.
“Hoo, hoo.”
Regardless of what Arius was thinking, Daphne continued taking deep breaths to calm her raging breaths.
The tenth day.
They had completed all the training the Hero had specified.
Now, she should be able to learn swordsmanship from him.
Daphne quickly raised her head and looked around.
Since Pauline had been watching over them until morning, she thought the Hero would arrive around now.
“……!”
As expected, Daphne was right. Spotting the golden-haired man in her sight, she shouted.
“Heroh!”
Daphne’s confident shout was filled with the sense of accomplishment from having completed the assigned task. Noticing this, the corners of Heros’s lips curved into an arc. Heros himself didn’t even notice his own expression.
“You really did it.”
Pauline, standing beside him, shook her head with a look of disbelief.
“Putting Sir Arius aside, even the Young Lady managed it. Is that a stamina recovery potion or a stamina enhancement potion? It doesn’t make sense.”
As Pauline, who knew well that it was a training regimen even adults would struggle with, Daphne’s success was all the more astonishing.
After all, it wasn’t long ago that she was a child who would collapse and vomit blood at the drop of a hat.
“She must have endured it.”
Heros gave a short reply and approached Daphne and Arius.
“Why are you so late! I called for you earlier!”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“So you’re late!”
“I said I’m here.”
“…….”
Huh? Daphne’s mouth half-opened, but then she exercised superhuman patience and swallowed her curse.
Be patient. He’s your friend’s grandson. Don’t act childish and fight.
Remembering her friend Vertio in her heart, Daphne composed her voice.
“As you can see, I succeeded.”
“I see.”
“Teach me swordsmanship!”
“Understood.”
A simple demand and a simple reply.
Anyone hearing it would find it strange.
But it seemed only Arius and Pauline thought it was weird.
Ignoring Arius and Pauline nodding at each other, Heros moved the stick he was leaning on and spoke.
“I won’t be at the mansion starting tomorrow, so I’ll teach you a sword technique you can practice until I return.”
“Good. I’ll train so hard it’ll amaze you.”
“It probably won’t be easy.”
“Says you!”
Daphne snorted and trotted after Heros as he walked away.
Both had bright golden hair, making them look like a mother duck and a duckling.
Arius, who had been staring blankly at them as they trotted away, scratched the back of his head.
Now that the training he did with Daphne was over, Arius could return to the knight order as before.
Since the knights were also practicing the sword techniques Heros taught, learning them shouldn’t be a problem.
But he couldn’t help feeling regretful.
He had the thought, ‘If only I could learn from Father too……!’ but then shook his head with a bitter smile.
‘But I’m not his real son. It can’t be helped.’
How could he teach the family’s secret swordsmanship to an outsider?
No matter how much Heros was the Hero for all people, he probably wouldn’t do that.
Just then.
“What are you doing, Arius?”
Daphne, who had been walking ahead, turned back and said.
“……Huh?”
“Why aren’t you following?”
“Uh…… Should I come too?”
As Arius stood there dazed, Daphne’s face scrunched up.
She quickly ran and tugged hard on Heros’s sleeve.
“Are you just going to leave him? You’re not going to teach him? He did the same as me!”
“Uh, Young Lady?”
It was Pauline who spoke up first at those words.
Pauline held the belief that her biological daughter, Daphne, and the other adopted children could not be placed on the same level.
It wasn’t because Pauline was particularly bad, but because everyone would think this way.
After all, Arius and Vifer were from an orphanage to begin with.
“Please let go for now. The Young Lady and the Young Master are a little diff……”
“Is he not your child too?”
But Daphne was immovable.
“Can you discriminate against your child like this? Is that what your teacher taught you?”
Daphne, who thought she was asking somewhat calmly, was on the verge of explosion.
She was furious at the thought of these insignificant people making petty distinctions.
If you adopt a child, you should raise them as your own! How much would it hurt the child to be discriminated against so openly?
Damn it. I coddled that guy as a grandson who doesn’t even resemble Vertio as much as his claw. I must have been crazy! I’ll really teach him a lesson……!
“I never said I wouldn’t teach him.”
It was Heros’s nonchalant words that cut off Daphne’s anger.
Heros tilted his head with an expression of utter innocence.
“I never told him not to follow either.”
“Y-Your Excellency?”
Pauline called out to Heros with a gesture indicating it wasn’t okay, but Heros lightly ignored his pressure.
“Come along.”
“…….”
Arius, who had been standing there dazed, unable to follow the conversation, finally realized the situation was real when he saw Daphne reaching her hand out to him.
Father thinks of me as his child too.
I can learn too.
Arius’s face brightened up.
“Yes! Thank you!”
Watching Arius run over and tightly grasp her hand, Daphne let out a soft chuckle.
‘I guess I can say he resembles Vertio’s claw.’
Let’s say, about as much as the dirt under his claw.
Daphne followed Heros, together with Arius.
There are many mages and many swordsmen in the world.
Only the outstanding ones display their own unique magic or swordsmanship and pass it down through their descendants for generations.
The swordsmanship of the Archion Grand Duchy follows the same line.
“The Sword of Archion is the universe.”
Having arrived at Vertio’s birthplace, Heros raised the stick he used for support and pointed it at Daphne and Arius in turn.
“It’s also called the Galaxy Sword.”
Containing the universe within a sword is nothing but the arrogance and haughtiness of a mere mortal human.
But he is Heros Archion.
A Sword Master who reached the 8th Star at the age of 15 and gained the recognition of the sword.
A great swordsman who seized the title of Hero under the permission of the exalted Emperor.
Because he was someone walking a path no one had ever tread, creating as he went, the ‘universe’ coming from his lips was by no means that of a ‘mere human’.
“The universe is something too distant for humans. Something we can see but cannot touch. Something we yearn for all the more because of that. Therefore, you must envision your own universe within your heart and continue the sword path.”
That…….
What kind of nonsense is this?
What does ‘envision the universe’ mean?
Daphne was thinking, ‘What the hell is this nonsense?’, but Arius beside her seemed to feel otherwise.
He was listening intently, as if he didn’t want to miss a single word.
“The universe holds the birth of all things and the end of all things.”
So what does that mean?
“To purely contain the universe within your sword path, you must feel the birth of the universe, learn its growth, and accept its death until the end. Understood?”
“Yes!”
“…….”
I don’t get it.
Daphne smacked her lips and rolled her eyes.
“Hey, hey. Arius.”
So Daphne leaned closer to Arius and asked in a whisper.
“Do you understand what the Hero is saying?”
“Huh?”
“You do, right? You understand? Why, don’t you understand?”
At his overly casual reply, Daphne unintentionally bluffed.
“Ah…… No? I understand too! I understood everything!”
“Ah-ha. Were you worried I might not understand? No, no. I understood everything. Father explains things so well. He didn’t need to teach us such basics. Ah! I’m so excited!”
“…….”
Ah, what do I do about this?
I feel incredibly stupid right now.
I’m sure what Vertio taught me before wasn’t like this.
I think he just taught me swinging, slashing, and stabbing. I don’t think there was any secret sword technique or anything like that.
Leaving the still confused Daphne behind, Heros spoke again.
“You two haven’t yet activated sword aura, so you can only learn the basic First Form. Later, when you can handle sword aura, I will teach you the subsequent sword forms then.”
“Sword aura……!”
Arius clenched his fists tightly, his eyes sparkling. It seemed he was thinking that he too wanted to wield sword aura someday.
‘Right. Sword aura I understand.’
Sword aura, that paltry thing. If Daphne just regained her original power, she could manifest it in no time.
So, she just needed to learn this First Form or whatever first.
“I will show you a demonstration.”
Heros raised his stick.
