The High Elf and the Sword Princess (5)

Sitting before the forge I had rented from the guild, I concentrated my mind while conversing with the fire spirit dancing in the flames.

Yes, it was a very lively fire spirit.

Today—or rather, starting today and for a while afterward—I would reforge Kaeha's sword, make my own sword, and forge several unsharpened practice swords for each, with the same weight and a similar balance.

Kaeha had said that she had developed her current swordsmanship herself, based on the Yosogi Style she had learned as a child.

In other words, considering her current circumstances, it was easy to guess what her training consisted of.

Namely, solo exercises: practice swings and forms.

I had not yet been taught a single thing about the sword by Kaeha, and had only heard a little about what Yosogi Style was like, but this guess of mine was probably not wrong.

And it was clear from the sword Kaeha had entrusted to me that she performed all her practice swings and forms using this sword.

It would not be an exaggeration to call this sword a major contributor to the growth of Kaeha's swordsmanship.

But if she wanted to rebuild the dojo, I thought she should use training equipment for training from now on, so I decided to prepare several practice swords while I was at it.

Kaeha's sword was a straight sword with an edge on only one side, an uncommon design around here, and a type of falchion or grosse messer.

Apparently, Yosogi Style was a swordsmanship tradition that had come here from outside the Rudelia Kingdom and taken root in this land, and it had originally used a somewhat different weapon, probably something like a katana.

However, since weapons of that kind could not be obtained in the Rudelia Kingdom, they had begun using this type of sword as a substitute.

As it happened, my master was a dwarf who was a master smith, so I had at least been taught how to forge katana.

That meant I could manage to forge something similar, but even if I gave it to her, Kaeha would probably only be confused.

After more time had passed, if she showed interest in one, I could forge a new one for her—or I could start using one myself first.

For now, I would reforge her sword without changing its weight or balance, improving its quality instead.

I woke early, ate the breakfast Kaeha's mother had prepared, and began by heading into the forest to gather medicinal herbs.

The herbs that worked well on the lungs did not keep for very long, so they needed to be gathered every day if possible.

However, even though the forest was close to the royal capital, it was not somewhere I could simply drop by during a leisurely walk, and gathering herbs before returning meant I would not get back until well after noon, even if I left early.

Therefore, I had a light lunch at a food stall and headed straight to the forge I had rented.

Then I hammered iron until night, returned to Kaeha's house, ate and bathed, and decocted medicinal herbs for her mother, preparing a day's worth of medicine.

After that, I went to sleep so I could gather herbs again the next day.

Yes, I had absolutely no time at all for sword training.

Still, this was obviously only temporary.

Once the swords were finished, I could reduce my smithing to once or twice a week, and once Kaeha's mother recovered, there would be no need to gather herbs anymore.

I felt sorry for Kaeha, who had been so excited about having a disciple, and even more so because she seemed to have been racking her brains over our training plan, but I wanted her to wait just a little longer.

Well, to keep her happy, I finished Kaeha's sword first and gave it to her ahead of time. She was so deeply moved that I would probably be fine for a while.

The smithing would be finished in a few weeks, and Kaeha's mother's health was improving thanks to the Apua fruit and medicinal herbs, so in another two or three months, we would probably no longer need to gather herbs.

Apparently, she had always been physically frail, so I could not let my guard down, but her coughing had stopped and her complexion had improved. At least as far as her lungs were concerned, she was on the mend.

Kaeha and her mother were both extremely grateful for that, and treated me very well.

Training had not even begun yet, but one problem after another was being resolved, and in the sense that I could see the road ahead, things were progressing smoothly.

And just as my days of smithing were drawing to a close, a letter arrived from the town of Vistcoat.

Yes, it was a reply from Clayas.

By the way, in the Rudelia Kingdom, there are two ways to send letters over long distances.

One is to entrust a letter to a merchant you know, and the other is to hire an adventurer.

Merchants—even those with shops of their own—serve as distributors because they are involved in procuring goods.

For example, a shop that sells wheat in the neighborhood trades with the surrounding villages and operates under a merchant company with a large warehouse, buying its wheat from them and selling it.

So although it is a shop that sells wheat, if you entrust it with a letter and some money, the letter will eventually reach the nearby villages.

Conversely, a reply would make its way back to the shop through the merchant company.

However, letters sent this way are not delivered to individual residents of a village; instead, they are handed over in a batch to the village chief, making this method poorly suited to exchanging letters in secret.

Even if the letter is sealed with wax, some village chiefs might insist that they had the right to inspect it and open it.

Therefore, if you did not want a letter to fall into other people's hands, or wanted it delivered as quickly as possible, you hired an adventurer, though it would cost a fair amount of money.

A letter entrusted to the guild where adventurers gathered would be carried by an adventurer traveling between towns, then delivered by another adventurer handling odd jobs in the destination town.

Alternatively, although it would cost more, you could designate a trustworthy adventurer and entrust the entire process, from handing over the letter to its delivery, to that one person.

If you specifically designated an adventurer, they could also accommodate detailed requests, such as delivering it directly to the intended recipient rather than their family, or delivering it within a certain number of days.

The person who had brought Clayas's letter was an adventurer from Vistcoat whom I recognized.

In other words, Clayas had gone out of his way to place a named request and have this letter carried to me.

I thanked the adventurer for bringing it, asked about the latest news from Vistcoat, and pressed some money into his hand as a little something for a souvenir.

Clayas had probably already paid the delivery fee, but the adventurer had still traveled all the way to the royal capital, so it was only fair to give him this much.

Clayas's letter said that he would take responsibility for putting the Lodran Greatswordsmanship dojo on notice, but asked me to contact him before destroying the dojo if any trouble arose.

Apparently, he would send the dojo a letter right away, but he also intended to visit the royal capital in person in about six months, once work allowed, and put the Lodran Greatswordsmanship dojo on notice himself.

He said that when he did, he would very much like to meet and talk with me as well.

…Hm.

What exactly did he think I was?

I would not suddenly think of blowing up someone's dojo just because I was a little angry.

Well, if something truly serious happened, that would be a different matter. But then I would not have time to notify him by letter, so this request would be pointless.

But Clayas was coming here himself?

After retiring from adventuring, he was still involved with adventurers, working as a swordsmanship instructor at the Vistcoat Adventurers' Guild.

He would probably want to see my current living situation.

But Clayas was a swordsman who practiced Lodran Greatswordsmanship.

So I wondered whether it would really be all right to let him meet Kaeha and her mother.

When that incident happened, he was already an adventurer in the town of Vistcoat, so he had not been involved in it at all.

But reason and emotion were separate things, and I had no idea whether Kaeha and her mother would be satisfied with that.

Though he practiced a different style, Clayas had reached lofty heights as a swordsman.

If Kaeha could form a friendly relationship with him, it should be an enormous source of growth for her, but...

Still, there was no point in my worrying over it.

For now, I would tell Kaeha and her mother that Clayas was coming to put the Lodran Greatswordsmanship dojo on notice, and let them decide for themselves whether they wanted to meet him.

If meeting him seemed out of the question, I could also get a room at the inn where Clayas was staying that day.

If it were a matter involving my relationship with someone else, I might sometimes force things forward.

But relationships between two other people were far too delicate for me to meddle in.

At times like this, I could understand, if only a little, why elves and high elves shunned the outside world and shut themselves away.

Yes, only a little.