Of course, that alone could not make me an Adventurer right away.
A person's will was important.
Dreams were not easy enough to achieve without will.
But neither was the world easy enough for will alone to accomplish anything.
Grandma Sujin, who understood that better than anyone, rose from her seat.
“Good. Shall we begin the second test, then?”
“Yes.”
“Hey, Aldo! Go to the backyard and spar with this one.”
At her ringing shout, the man who had been laughing loudly and teasing Grandma Sujin rose to his feet.
He scratched the back of his head roughly and grumbled as though it were a bother.
“Why me again? There are plenty of other bastards who know their way around a blade.”
“Then shall I do it? And throw you out for not earning your keep?”
“Ha, seriously. I ought to become the Branch Chief myself, just to get away from this filth. Hey, kid, follow me.”
“Yes.”
I readily answered Uncle Aldo and followed behind him.
Out the door at the back of the guild building was a fairly spacious clearing.
The racks hung with a variety of weapons were especially eye-catching.
Uncle Aldo selected a longsword and said to me.
“Pick one for yourself, too.”
“Yes.”
There were swords, spears, axes, polearms, and even shields.
Limping over to the rack filled with every kind of weapon, I took hold of the one I had been eyeing.
Seeing what I had chosen, Uncle Aldo tilted his head and muttered.
“A Pirate Blade?”
The archipelago was a nation of Fairies that came to plunder the peninsula whenever it had the chance.
The people of the peninsula treated the archipelago not as a nation but as a band of pirates, and they called the swords its people used Pirate Blades.
Instead of Tachi, the name the Fairies used among themselves.
Perhaps because of that.
After fighting each other for so long, the peninsula's blades had come under their influence as well, but few people went out of their way to use an original Pirate Blade.
It was not strange for Uncle Aldo to ask in a puzzled voice.
“This is more comfortable for me.”
However, a Pirate Blade, which was single-edged like the peninsula's Fairy Blade but at least a little longer, suited me well.
More important than its length, however, was the polygonal cross-section unique to the Pirate Blade.
That structure connected with the core of the Sword Saint's swordsmanship.
“You are an odd one. Of all things, a Pirate Blade. Well, I suppose it does not matter.”
“It does not.”
“Then shall we begin? The edges are dull anyway, so do not worry and come at me with everything you have.”
“Yes.”
At Uncle Aldo's words, I immediately gripped my sword and assumed my stance.
In truth, even this Pirate Blade was somewhat short and too curved compared to the Sword Saint's sword.
It was a stretch to say that it was a perfect fit.
But what did that matter?
It was a martial artist's virtue to be able to use any weapon.
Rather than complain, I looked at Uncle Aldo through the True Sight Stance.
“That is an unusual stance. Where did you learn it?”
“Who knows? In a dream?”
“Puh! You bastard, you know how to joke, too?”
We exchanged words while facing each other.
Uncle Aldo glared at me from a Hawk Stance, his sword raised high.
I gradually narrowed the distance in the True Sight Stance.
Unable to move vigorously, the Sword Saint had chosen stability and stealth instead.
The result was a footwork technique that moved as if gently scraping the ground with nothing but the toes: Shadow Walk.
It was impossible in heeled shoes, and it would not fool someone experienced, but it was stable.
Supported by it, I had inconspicuously reached a distance from which one large step would let me target his body.
“Interesting footwork. Shall I start moving, too? Watch out!”
Uncle Aldo took a powerful step toward me and brought down his sword.
It was a strike similar to one Andrea had used before, but more precise and more intense.
What I did in response was no different from last time.
Thunder Severance.
It was a technique that deflected the weak part of a falling sword with the strongest part of my own sword as I brought it down.
The technique born from eyes that commanded space and time was powerful.
With a sharp metallic CLANG, Uncle Aldo's sword sprang away to the side.
Up to that point, it had been the same as with Andrea, but what followed was different, as expected.
As my sword fell toward Uncle Aldo's head as though to strike, as though to thrust.
Uncle Aldo drew his rear foot to the side and twisted his body completely.
As a result, my sword cut through empty air, and Uncle Aldo turned his blade sideways to slash across my body as he passed by.
Without armor, it would have been a rather lethal strike.
The people who had come out in a crowd to watch gasped.
They had sensed my defeat.
Of course, I had no intention of losing.
I stopped the sword that seemed to have lost control and pulled it back.
At the same time, I drew my front foot back, turned it outward and bent it, then grasped the spine of my blade, twisted its direction, and pushed it to the side.
The lower portions of Uncle Aldo's blade and mine collided, becoming a contest of strength.
Uncle Aldo pushed while holding the very end of his sword, while I pushed while holding its spine.
It was obvious which of us could exert force more strongly and steadily.
As a result, Uncle Aldo's blade stopped without touching my body.
Propelled by the force of my left hand, my blade touched Uncle Aldo's neck.
“Will this do?”
It was a clear victory with no unnecessary flourish.
***
Unless they died of illness or were murdered, Fairies lived for nearly five hundred years.
Fairies saw, heard, and felt much in lives that long.
A Fairy who had reached old age found it hard to be surprised by most things.
That Fairy, Sujin, was astonished.
‘Aldo… that easily?’
Whatever else might be said about him, Aldo was a Silver Plaque Adventurer.
He was the second-highest of the four ranks: Wood, Iron, Silver, and Gold.
Among Adventurers, he was one in a hundred, and combat was even his main specialty.
He did not fall short even compared with a mercenary of the same rank.
Yet a fifteen-year-old boy had defeated him.
Decisively, leaving not even room for argument.
Unconsciously placing a hand over her chest, Sujin let out a sigh.
Her heart, withered from having lived too long, tingled.
Like a desert receiving one drop of rain, then another.
‘You are… sincere.’
Johan, who dreamed without yielding to reality and who steadily prepared himself, was romantic.
Romantic enough to enchant any Adventurer.
But reality was still reality.
Unlike mercenaries, who usually worked in groups, Adventurers operated in small numbers, and each had to do more than their own share.
Otherwise, they endangered not only themselves but their companions as well.
Naturally, even for Johan, she could not grant Adventurer qualifications easily.
That would not be right, either as an adult or as a Branch Chief.
That was why Sujin had selected Aldo as Johan's opponent and tested him once more.
As though testing him for the qualifications of a full Adventurer rather than an Apprentice Adventurer.
“What is with this kid? He is insanely strong!”
“Uh, uh? Let me go!”
“Why would I let you go? You are a hero who knocked that bastard Aldo's pride down a peg. You deserve at least this much!”
“Aaaah!”
Making Sujin's worries seem needless, Johan passed the test cleanly.
More perfectly than she had expected, defeating Aldo.
Had the guild members secretly hoped that Johan would win?
They rushed in to tease Aldo and toss Johan into the air.
The experienced Adventurers understood Sujin's intent, and they celebrated Johan all the more loudly.
As though he had been a companion who had been with them for a long time.
Sujin gave them a bitter smile.
Even though she knew that the world was vast and full of strange people and strange events, and that one should not judge people lightly, she felt as though she had been perversely obstinate.
Only for a moment.
Looking proudly at Johan, she made a clear declaration.
“All right. If you can defeat Aldo, you are more than qualified. You are now an Apprentice Adventurer. No one has any objections, do they?”
“I do! Should we not give him a Silver Plaque and demote that bastard Aldo to an apprentice?”
“What did you say, punk? You would get flattened if you fought him, too!”
“I am not even a combat specialist. Johan, can you handle something like relic analysis, too?”
“Ah, no. I can only make a rough guess as to whether something is a relic.”
“See? I am better than him in my field! You are not.”
“Shut up! It is not that I cannot do my share. He is just freakishly strong!”
Following Sujin's lead, those fools had gathered around Johan and were already bickering among themselves.
The distance between them, now tremendously closer than at first, showed that they had already accepted Johan as one of their own.
Watching evidence more certain than words, Sujin slipped a hand into her robes.
Her hand emerged holding a wooden plaque engraved with a quill, boots, and a sword.
With her other hand, Sujin took Johan's hand and placed the plaque on it.
“This plaque is not anything special. Anyone can become an Apprentice Adventurer just by applying. But.”
“With that plaque, you are our companion! Hahaha! Tell us if you ever have a difficult task!”
“We are different from those mercenary bastards who only fight over factions! All Adventurers are one family, you know?”
“Where did you learn the insolence to interrupt the Branch Chief? You wretches!”
“Grandma is angry! Ruuuun!”
Just as Sujin tried to say something serious, the guild members could not resist cutting her off.
When Sujin shouted furiously, they fled into the guild building like young horses with their tails on fire.
The guild's backyard, which had been noisy, became quiet in an instant.
Johan quietly looked at the wooden plaque resting on his hand.
Sujin gently embraced him and whispered.
“Your dream will not be easy to achieve. Even so, dream. Keep moving forward without stopping. If you do, someday there may come a day when you can reach out and touch that dream.”
“…Yes.”
On the day Johan's answer, which summed up all the many words he wished to say in a single word, quietly echoed through the end of spring, the Raechia Adventurer's Guild welcomed a dreaming boy as a new member of its family.
***
Today, two months later.
“Be good, kitty. Come here. Oh, oh, it is running away!”
“Ah, you idiot! Of course it is scared when you loom over it with that face and that huge body!”
“You little…! I am plenty manly and handsome!”
“Ugly people always insist that they are manly!”
I was taking on a request to find a cat that had run away from home.
I was with Andrea and Anna, who had become Apprentice Adventurers right after following my example.
I found being with friends much more fun, so it was not bad.
So long as they did not occasionally turn an easy task into a difficult one like this.
“Aaaah! How many times has this been? No, more importantly, why do I have to catch cats?”
“Are you a goldfish? Grandma Sujin told you many times that this is the process of building trust.”
“How does delivering letters and finding cats build trust?”
“It is more important because it is a small task. Between someone who does their best even with small tasks and someone who is careless with them, which one would you find more trustworthy?”
I patted Andrea's shoulders, which had grown broader in the past few months, and gently soothed him.
There was a reason Apprentice Adventurers were given only tasks that were practically neighborhood errands.
It was partly because making children, who were not even adults yet, do dangerous work was not ethically right.
It was also a procedure for judging character by one's attitude toward small tasks.
At the same time, it was preparation.
During the year Apprentice Adventurers were active, the guild taught them map-reading, survival skills, and information about monsters.
So that they would not lose their lives pointlessly once they became full Adventurers.
When I thought about it, it was truly a good system.
All the more so considering that mercenaries were often simply handed a sword and shoved onto a battlefield.
However, to hot-blooded fifteen-year-olds, it was a thoroughly deflating system. Since no one wanted to do it, it was fading away.
I had heard that even people who joined without thinking it through quit after doing nothing but odd jobs.
If it had not been for us, would Andrea not have done the same?
“Ha… I would choose the former. Fine, I have calmed down. Let us go.”
Fortunately, although he was impatient, he took advice well.
He also had the sense of responsibility to finish a task once he had accepted it, even with his shoulders hanging low.
I gave his shoulder a few more pats and focused.
The gift Heaven had given me in exchange for an uncomfortable leg was not just my eyes.
I sharpened one of those gifts, my hearing, to the utmost and focused on the cat's cry that we had missed a moment ago.
All kinds of noise came from every direction.
It did not take long to pick out the same sound of a cat meowing that I had heard earlier.
“That way!”
“Got it! I will not lose it this time!”
“Go slowly! Do not lead with your face again and make the cat run away!”
When I gave them the direction, Anna and Andrea immediately began to run.
The plan was for me, who lacked speed, to give directions while the two of them caught the cat themselves.
As a result, I began to walk leisurely after them as I watched them rush away.
How long had I walked like that?
“Kids should not run around with swords. Put your swords down and get lost.”
“Could you talk, at least? Kids, I do not know what is going on, but we need to take that cat with us. Would you do this pretty big sister a favor?”
In the distance, I saw Anna and Andrea confronting some children.
Every one of the children gripped a keen blue-steel dagger and glared at the two of them.
Yet neither Anna nor Andrea would shrink from them, so neither side could move first.
The children were tense because of Andrea's size, while my weaponless friends were wary of the daggers in the children's hands.
“HISSS! HISSS!”
Caught in the middle, the cat could neither advance nor retreat and only hissed with its fur standing on end.
Even as I watched the situation become completely tangled, I smiled.
Then I limped forward without hesitation, gently pushed Anna and Andrea aside, and stepped to the front.
“Come here. It is safe here.”
When I crouched and spread my arms, the cat unexpectedly ran obediently toward me, then leaped into my embrace.
Holding the creature, which trembled as though it had been terribly frightened, I rose and turned away without a word.
I had accomplished my goal, so there was no need to create an unnecessary conflict.
That was what I thought.
“Leave the cat behind!”
A voice filled with venom stopped me, turning an unnecessary conflict into a necessary one.