The One Who Guides Wind and Flame (11)

A year passed as I accompanied the Barm while they moved from settlement to settlement.

Since being able to ride a horse made it more convenient to keep up with these nomads, I successfully learned to ride this time around.

Of course, I couldn't ride as well as people who had been familiar with horses since birth, but I no longer had any trouble traveling while swaying on horseback.

But I wasn't the only one who had grown over the past year.

The three of them—Tseren, Shuro, and Juyal—had grown at different rates, but all three had properly learned the fundamentals of Yosogi Style. Tseren had also learned several methods of attacking with the aid of the wind spirit.

Now that I had become the teacher, though, I had realized that Yosogi Style was actually a very difficult form of swordsmanship, and that its training was severe.

Especially for Shuro, who was still only eight—ah, no, he was nine now—the youngest of the three, there were many painful stumbling blocks.

And at such times, it was often Juyal, who was somewhat older and more at ease, rather than Tseren, Shuro's older sister, who reached out a helping hand. By undergoing the same training, the three of them were gradually growing closer.

...But as Shuro grew attached to him and Juyal consequently grew closer to Tseren, Juyal's worries grew deeper and heavier.

Because he, of all people, had killed their father in war—the man who had been the Barm's chief.

No, perhaps Juyal hadn't personally killed their father on the battlefield.

But he seemed to believe that the battle had happened because of his existence.

I didn't think that was the only reason, but at the same time, it probably was indeed a fact.

"Eisa... What am I supposed to do?"

He had asked me something like that once before.

But it would be meaningless unless Juyal thought it through himself.

Circumstances slowly changed with time, so what was best for one person changed as well.

What was best for the Barm, what was best for the Daria, and what was best for Tseren, Shuro, and Juyal, too.

So he should take his time agonizing and thinking it through.

However, if the threat known as the Child of Flame disappeared, I would leave this land.

Those were the words I had once said to the Barm elders.

But that applied not only if the Barm harmed Juyal, but also if he harmed himself.

When I told him that, Juyal's face twisted with grief.

Apparently, he had considered that possibility as well.

That really would be a terribly boring ending, though.

Of course, what I would do when leaving this land was another matter.

I might kidnap Tseren and her family, or perhaps launch a raid on a Daria settlement myself this time.

Even without killing anyone, if I used my power to spread destruction, they would never want to come near any settlement in this area again.

Well, he should think and agonize as hard as he could, then find his answer.

He had spent so long hurting people without thinking, so it was only natural that he have some time to think and hurt himself.

Leaving the elders aside, the Barm's gaze toward Juyal had begun to soften, little by little.

Whether that was true only of the Barm or was a trait of the grassland peoples in general, they were very straightforward.

They saw good as good, disliked what they disliked, and admired what was impressive.

They revered the strong and mocked the weak.

However, the strong were expected to conduct themselves and work as befitted warriors, while the weak were protected.

How should I put it? Though it's a poor way of saying it, perhaps they were like a pack of beasts.

Beasts that counted horses, sheep, and other livestock as members of their pack.

Nor did they cling to grudges for long.

What Juyal had done over the past year wasn't limited to training with his sword.

He took part in the daily work of the settlements, including caring for the livestock. When he joined a trading caravan, he took the initiative in carrying cargo, and he also helped with the work at the forge I had set up at the winter settlement.

The gains produced by his actions didn't make up for everything the Barm had lost, but it was fairly difficult to keep hating someone who worked so hard for the group they belonged to.

Through Juyal's actions, the circumstances surrounding him were changing, very slowly.

Though that seemed to trouble him even more.

"Wind cannot easily hurt someone simply by remaining wind. Even if you strike someone with objects using the same amount of force, a hard object and a soft one hurt differently. And wind isn't merely soft—it has no physical substance at all. But if it truly blows violently, it has enough power to send a person flying with ease."

Meanwhile, I still couldn't see the depths of Tseren's heart, even as she nodded at my words.

She had begun showing me the feelings beneath the mask of her role fairly often, but that was still as far as things had gone.

"So, to use wind for attacks, you need to strongly imagine either giving it a hard physical form or making it blow with truly tremendous force. The wind spirit lends us its power according to our imagination, after all."

I was telling Tseren words I had already repeated many times.

Tseren had been able to call upon the wind spirit's aid at a high level from the very beginning.

In fact, setting aside simply learning about the weather, asking the wind spirit to tell her what was happening in a distant place was more difficult than merely borrowing its power for an attack.

I may have said this before, but making a spirit act under detailed, complex conditions was much more difficult than simply having it attack an opponent right in front of you.

Thus, all that Tseren lacked was an image of how to use it for an attack.

How much power did the wind blowing across the plains truly possess?

How violently could it blow when it raged?

And how could that power be changed into destructive force?

Once she knew and understood those things, the wind spirit would gladly strike down her enemies.

But I still didn't know why Tseren had sought power.

Did she want to avenge her father's death, protect the Barm, or gain freedom by possessing power?

Or perhaps all of those things.

In any event, as the person who had taught her how to fight, I needed to see where the power she had gained would lead her.

It would be too futile for me if gaining the power to fight only made Tseren unhappy, so I hoped, if at all possible, that she would find happiness.

Lastly, Shuro was simply an earnest boy, and very cute.

Shuro had no special power, and his body wasn't fully developed yet, but he grew stronger little by little, one step each day.

With the goal of protecting his family, while also being considerate of Juyal, he continued to grow day by day.

Of the three, Shuro would probably ultimately improve the most in swordsmanship.

Partly because he had started learning at the youngest age, but also because he had no doubts about growing stronger.

Shuro was a child without any special power, but... perhaps because of that, he was the most dazzling of them all.