The Curse No Sword Can Sever (6)

Nearly a year has passed since I returned to this dojo.

Today, too, I swing my hammer in the dojo's smithy.

I've already finished making all the Yosogi-style straight swords for Kaeha's other disciples, so now I mainly work on commissions taken on by the smiths' guild.

This time, I was making a prototype to submit to the appraisal exhibition being held six months from now—the exhibition where they would decide which sword to present to that king.

That said, I wasn't spending all my time smithing; as before, I still took part in sword training in the mornings.

Although I now understood that I wasn't a swordsman and couldn't become one in my current state, nothing had changed about my love for the Yosogi style and Kaeha's sword.

Therefore, I was still Kaeha's disciple.

Naturally, I told Kaeha the conclusion I'd reached.

It was an extremely difficult conclusion to voice as her disciple, but precisely because of that, I couldn't gloss it over to my master.

After listening to me, Kaeha closed her eyes and remained silent for a while, as if savoring my words,

"As your master, perhaps I shouldn't say this, but... Eisa, I can't help thinking it's just like you. However, the one thing I regret is that I probably won't live to see you become a fine swordsman. You are indeed far too strong even as you are."

Then she opened her eyes and looked at me, a faint smile on her lips, and said those words.

That smile held far too many emotions.

So many that I couldn't possibly read all of them.

I had long felt frustrated by my own inadequacy for having made her look like that.

Even though I knew there was no way to resolve it.

"Hmm... Is this no good?"

Looking at the sword I'd forged, I muttered with a furrowed brow.

Maybe it was because I'd been thinking about unnecessary things while smithing, but although the sword seemed perfectly fine, I felt some strange dissonance.

Was I simply in a bad mood and finding fault with it?

After pondering for a while, I decided to reforge this sword after all.

It went without saying that I couldn't submit a piece I wasn't satisfied with to the appraisal exhibition, but I didn't feel like delivering it for another job, either.

There was probably nothing wrong with its quality.

But my hesitation had seeped into this sword.

I didn't want anyone to entrust their life to a sword with such doubts mixed into it.

With a deep sigh, I tidied up my workspace.

It was still too early to finish work, but I couldn't make anything good while facing it in this state of mind.

I needed something to take my mind off things.

Of course, making something purely as a hobby would probably serve as a distraction too.

I could make a magic sword, for example, or a mace and shield, or even a complete suit of all-metal armor.

But that was just a little different from what I wanted right now.

Ah, yes—what I wanted as a distraction right now was Win.

I wanted to go somewhere with Win.

Where would be a good place?

The Vilestrica Republic was a little too far away just to go eat seafood.

It might be nice to take Win to meet the water spirit dwelling in the spring to the north, but... if she took too much of a liking to Win, I couldn't help feeling she might not let me have Win back.

That spirit of the spring was actually rather lonely.

When I finished cleaning up and left the smithy, a boy was waiting for me there.

Yes, it was Shizuki, one of Kaeha's twins.

"Eisa-san, I have a favor to ask. Could you take me to the town of Vistcoat? Please!"

The moment he saw my face, Shizuki said so and bowed.

...Huh?

Why was Vistcoat coming up here?

I tilted my head without thinking, but it didn't seem like a bad idea.

Vistcoat wasn't all that far away, and more than anything, it was a place filled with deep memories for me.

I definitely wanted to show it to Win at least once.

Having one traveling companion along wouldn't be much of a problem.

Besides, Shizuki and Mizuha, Kaeha's twins, were always very kind to Win, so since this was his request, I would grant it.

"Oh, sure, but we'll be walking, so a round trip will be quite a long journey. It takes ten days one way by carriage, but we won't be using one. It'll be rough if you're not used to traveling. Are you prepared for that?"

I asked, trying to intimidate him a little, but Shizuki nodded firmly without hesitation.

Then, well, I suppose that's fine.

Mizuha was a girl, so even if it were just Win and me, I couldn't take her along on a long journey with only men, but Shizuki was a boy.

"Then you'll have to get permission from Master Kaeha or your grandmother yourself. Otherwise, I'll be accused of kidnapping you."

In practice, I thought we'd built enough trust that they'd believe me even if we disappeared without permission, but it would still worry them.

So my words had been half in jest, but Shizuki nodded with the same serious expression as before,

"I'm sure Grandmother will say it's fine as long as I'm with you, Eisa-san, so it'll be all right. I'll go ask her later."

That was what he said.

...Huh?

I found that a little strange.

The way he'd put it made it sound as though Kaeha wouldn't grant permission.

Or was I overthinking it?

If he got proper permission, there should probably be no problem.

Taking it lightly, I decided to take Win and Shizuki to Vistcoat, a town I could call my old home.