Chapter 214
When I visited the Yosogi-ryu dojo built in Vistcourt, I received a surprisingly warm welcome.
Honestly, I had thought it only natural that an outsider who showed up calling himself an adviser would be met with displeased looks.
Especially since, until now, I hadn't had much to do with this dojo.
When I wondered about it and asked for more details, I learned that Mizuha, who had built the dojo, was always telling people that her foothold in Vistcourt had been passed on to her by me.
But that wasn't quite true.
Mizuha had gained a stable position in Vistcourt first and foremost because she herself had talent and had worked hard.
If there were any other factors, Kaeha, Mizuha's mother, had also once worked as an adventurer in this same place and made a name for herself, which must have had some influence as well.
After all, Kaeha and Mizuha's unusual appearances made them stand out in Vistcourt.
Creias, who was related to Mizuha by blood, had probably offered support in various ways as well.
That was easy to imagine, considering that Mizuha had taken over the role after Creias retired as an instructor for adventurers.
Compared to that, all I had done for Mizuha was forge one magic sword and give her the house I owned in Vistcourt.
It wasn't as though I had given her any great assistance.
Well, I had many acquaintances in Vistcourt in the past, so I couldn't say I had no influence at all, but saying I had handed her my standing there was an exaggeration by any measure.
However, there would be no point in my denying Mizuha's words.
She must have had some reason for saying them.
One of those reasons probably included making it easier for me to act as an adviser.
I was a little surprised to realize how long Mizuha had been planning this, though.
In Vistcourt as well, I told the dojo's leading members about Yosogi-ryu as I had learned it in Fuso, an island nation in the eastern part of the continent.
I also offered to teach them how to make the swords their ancestors had once abandoned, if they wanted to learn.
Yes, just as I had at the dojo in the royal capital.
They were happy to hear about Yosogi-ryu, but they had no need for swords.
Because Vistcourt's Yosogi-ryu was pursuing a sword style for adventurers.
To them, weapons were consumables used to fight monsters.
Ease of maintenance, repair, and replacement was what they needed to value most when choosing a weapon.
For that reason, there was apparently even a movement at this dojo to abandon the straight swords Yosogi-ryu had used as substitutes for katana.
In other words, the Yosogi-ryu dojo in Vistcourt had begun following an entirely different path of its own from the one in the royal capital.
It was a fascinating development.
When the sword used changes, the techniques change as well.
No, more fundamentally, when the swordsmanship was designed from the outset for adventurers to use against monsters, techniques for fighting people would diminish, and its nature would shift toward a powerful sword style capable of destroying monsters.
In time, Yosogi-ryu in the royal capital and Vistcourt would surely come to wield entirely different swords.
That difference would surely become a major gulf between the Yosogi-ryu of the royal capital and Vistcourt.
It would be difficult for them to acknowledge the existence of entirely different swords bearing the same name.
But even so, the difference that had arisen was unquestionably a development of Yosogi-ryu.
Even now, I could probably work to make that difference disappear... with Mizuha's cooperation, at least.
But I didn't want to stamp it out.
If two things with the same origin yet different forms were reunited by some chance, they might give birth to something entirely new.
Ah, I realized that guiding them toward that outcome was exactly the role—and the pleasure—expected of an adviser.
When I put it that way, Mizuha smiled and nodded.
"Eisa-san hasn't changed, after all. Yes, if such a new sword is born, please stay and witness it too."
Because it was something she herself would no longer be able to see.
After that, Mizuha and I talked for a little while.
Though, strictly speaking, Mizuha did most of the talking.
Kaeha had wanted to hear about me in the past, but Mizuha simply talked at length about her own experiences.
Becoming an adventurer, meeting her spouse, becoming an instructor for adventurers, and building a dojo.
Having children, raising them, and having grandchildren.
Yes, as though I were a sheet of paper on which she was writing down her own story.
I remembered Mizuha as a lively child from long ago.
At times, she had dragged everyone around even more than Shizuki did.
Though Win was the one she'd led around by the hand most of all.
I thought this was a farewell very much like her.
She must have endured a great deal of hardship.
That hardship seeped through every detail of her story.
Shizuki had greatly developed what he inherited, while Mizuha had kept carving out a new path.
In the end, she did establish a dojo, but the paths taken by Kaeha's twins were completely different.
Of course, Shizuki must have faced hardships as the one who carried on what had been passed down, so his hardships couldn't be compared with Mizuha's.
"I've seen so many things since becoming an adventurer and living all these years, but... I never found anything as mysterious and wonderful as that great tree I saw back then."
Mizuha asked me if I remembered it.
Ah, she meant the time when, after I took Shizuki to Vistcourt and returned, I took her to the deepest part of the forest after she made a fuss about how unfair it was.
I showed Win and Mizuha a spirit tree, something normally visible only to elves.
"Eisa-san, you live in a world where such mysterious things are commonplace. I was so envious. If I have another life, I'd like to be born on your side of the world. Then... I might have been able to spend a little more time with Win."
With that, Mizuha brought our conversation to an end.
I had no intention of prying into the feelings behind her wistfulness.
Mizuha had found a spouse, had children and grandchildren, and was surrounded by many people, so simply seeing that from the outside was enough to satisfy me.
Win must have felt as though Shizuki and Mizuha, who had grown far faster than he had, had left him behind.
But the ones who leave someone behind feel something too.
That was only natural.
Shizuki and Mizuha, whom I had known since they were young, had grown old enough that death felt near.
To them now, perhaps I, who had not changed at all, was a being from the past.
After saying our farewells, I left the town of Vistcourt and headed for the Pulha Great Forest.
I was making for the deep forest where my past—and my kind, the high elves—lived.