What Is Passed Down (5)

At dusk, around the time the sounds of insects begin, I sit before Kaeha's grave and close my eyes.

I don't do this every day, but when I come here, my thoughts often fall into place.

Yes, right now, I am troubled. Just a little.

After that, I told Shizuki and Touki—Aiha's grandfather and father—about Aiha, but neither of them blamed me.

According to them, it was simply Aiha's inborn temperament, and they had both understood from the start that she would naturally end up this way if she met me.

After all, they were the ones who had raised her without trying to change that innate temperament, so blaming me would have been misplaced.

"All of us, though in different ways, have been drawn to you and influenced by you. Mizuha and I were the same, and so were Touki and Souha. So it would be no wonder if our grandchildren were the same. I wonder if this, too, is blood inherited from Mother."

Shizuki says this with a smile on his increasingly wrinkled face, but I suddenly remember the word 'curse.'

I know Shizuki didn't mean it that way.

A bond etched into one's blood feels a little like a curse.

But even if it were a curse, I'm sure I'd accept it—and be glad for it.

Even I have to admit, I'm beyond help.

"In any case, with that girl's temperament, she would eventually have chosen the path of an adventurer. If she had fallen in love with one of the disciples, things might have been different, but... I doubt it."

Unlike Shizuki's, Touki's smile was more wry than anything else.

Ah, yes. If it were Aiha, she might have chosen the path of an adventurer even if I hadn't told her about Jizo or the life of a knight-errant.

But if she grew up as she is now and became an adventurer, that would be extremely dangerous.

"Eisa-san, I think this matter is a good opportunity for her to learn about the world while remaining herself. Because fortunately, you are by her side now."

Shizuki and Touki both bow their heads and ask me to lend them my strength.

At those words, I silently nod.

If I had considered them strangers, I would have taken their request for mere self-indulgence.

It would be one thing if they were utterly desperate, but Shizuki and Touki have plenty of leeway now.

They are fully capable of guiding Aiha themselves.

Even so, they want to involve me in Aiha's education because they consider me family.

And I feel the same way.

But what troubled me was another request that Shizuki made afterward.

In a sense, it was a much bigger request than the matter of Aiha.

"There is one more thing I'd like to ask of you, Eisa-san. I discussed it with Mother while she was alive, but unfortunately, she opposed it. Even so, I still want to ask this of you."

This was how Shizuki broached his other request.

It was a request Kaeha had prevented him from making while she was alive—

"Eisa-san, would you become an advisor to Yosogi-ryu? Not only for the dojo in the royal capital, but for the dojo in Vistcourt as well. Of course, I've already spoken with Mizuha and the current head there, too."

He was asking me to take an official position rather than remain merely one of the disciples, and to watch over Yosogi-ryu from here on.

The reason I am treated specially by Yosogi-ryu now is because I was Kaeha's first disciple.

...Well, that probably isn't the only reason, but there is no doubt that my position is thanks to Kaeha.

That special treatment will continue as long as Shizuki lives—or perhaps even as long as Touki, who learned from her, lives.

But once another generation takes over, that title will no longer mean anything.

Both my reason for being involved with Yosogi-ryu and Yosogi-ryu's reason for accepting me will eventually disappear.

Of course, that is unavoidable.

It is lonely to imagine, but I cannot walk alongside the people of Yosogi-ryu forever.

I understand the difference in our lifespans well enough.

But even so, Shizuki wants me to watch over Yosogi-ryu.

The Yosogi-ryu family has steadily grown, as have its ranks of disciples, and a new dojo has even been established in another town.

The bonds between the people of Yosogi-ryu are strong now, but they, too, are not eternal.

As the family grows, a struggle over succession to the position of head may arise.

As the number of disciples grows, factions will form.

There is also a very real possibility that conflict could arise between the dojo in the royal capital and the dojo in Vistcourt.

That is precisely why Shizuki must be thinking that, while there is still time, he wants to place me in a powerful position within Yosogi-ryu—one that would let me involve myself in those problems without anyone being able to object.

I can more or less understand why Kaeha rejected that proposal.

She probably did not want to make me carry that burden.

All the more because Kaeha knew that if she had wanted me to, I would gladly have shouldered it.

I found myself dreaming while still sitting there.

Yes, it was a lucid dream I recognized as such even while it lasted.

Or perhaps it was a vision conjured by my worries and desires.

In the distant future, I visit Warfield and learn of Yosogi-ryu's decline.

This is long after I have lost my reason for being involved and stopped involving myself in its affairs.

I feel only the slightest ache in my chest at that, and am about to leave the royal capital.

But then, I meet her.

A girl who is far too inexperienced even from my current perspective, and yet wields a very beautiful sword.

I will teach that girl the lost sword techniques, one by one.

Ah, what a sweet temptation, and what a shameful desire.

Yosogi-ryu is right before my eyes now, with a path I can reach for laid out before me, and yet I dream of what comes after everything is lost.

I open my eyes.

The sun has long since set, and the surroundings are already quite dark.

I reach out and touch it.

The feel of cold stone.

I slowly let out a long, long breath.

Was that an invitation, or had she pushed me from behind?

If it was Kaeha, she surely knew from the start what I would do.

"That's a serious responsibility."

When I murmur that, the air around me seems to grow a little lighter.

Just as it had when she smiled.

Tonight, the moon in the thinly clouded night sky is especially beautiful.