Chapter 83

Chapter 83

Open Class (6)

The early morning of the second day of open class.

Before entering the Colosseum, I made time for a short while to meet someone.

Inside the room where a quiet silence continued.

Across from me, Sword Saint Chris was looking fixedly at me with a faint smile.

In the game, when one drew the Sword Saint’s interest and entered the “Sword Saint’s Attention” state, the Sword Saint would personally come to speak during open class.

However, it was only to the extent that, while speaking to you, he would discreetly throw out tips about swordsmanship and the skill level would rise.

He did not arrange a separate meeting like this.

Even so, considering the impact of Rebellion Against Heaven, it had to be called a natural result.

As I expected...

...Sierra could not hold back her killing intent.

Sierra’s gaze as she glared at the Sword Saint showed killing intent that seemed ready to charge at him and tear him apart at any moment.

The Sword Saint also seemed to have detected this dense killing intent.

That did not mean I could blame Sierra.

Because I knew very well what sort of story she carried.

“I knew it would turn out like this...”

I was simply thinking about how to break through this situation.

I had expected to face him, but I had not expected what words he would bring up.

In the end, the one who broke the cold silence that had continued without even a formal greeting was Sword Saint Chris.

“Have you and I met before, by any chance? You are giving off killing intent as though we were sworn enemies... but I simply cannot remember.”

He did not bother speaking in circles.

To think the first words he spoke without even exchanging greetings were that.

I held no ill feelings toward him, but since he could not perceive Sierra’s existence, it seemed he had mistaken me as the one giving off the killing intent.

Would he truly become a deep ill-fated relationship for me?

No, perhaps it was only natural.

As Sierra’s disciple, I could never have a good connection with him.

If there was one strange point, it was that for some reason, the smile did not vanish from Chris’s lips as he said such words to me.

[ You are rather relaxed, Chris....Do you think this is laughable? ]

Then Sierra’s murderous voice rang out.

“Haha, killing intent? We have never met separately. I would be grateful if you saw it as nothing more than an excessive ‘zeal’ to surpass the Sword Saint.”

Even I thought it was a truly absurd excuse.

However, Chris did not especially mind it.

Chris’s following words sounded as if he did not care either way.

“Hmm... You wish to surpass the Sword Saint, do you...”

“...”

“As it happens, I called you here because I wanted to make one proposal.”

“A proposal...?”

At my question, the Sword Saint bared his teeth fully in a smile and answered.

“How about becoming my disciple?”

“Pardon?”

At Chris’s proposal, I could not hide my bewilderment.

“A disciple...”

Since I said I wanted to surpass him, why was he saying I should become his disciple? What kind of absurd nonsense was that?

To begin with, in the game, one could not learn the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship no matter what one did. He did not take any more disciples because he already had Kaen.

[ Disciple... draw your sword immediately... Immediately...!! ]

Unable to contain her anger at this, Sierra shouted for me to fight the Sword Saint without delay.

Even under her urging, I did not draw my sword.

No matter what, that was impossible.

[ To dare take my disciple... my Zeto... ]

Sierra growled.

Her emotions had completely surged.

“While watching your swordsmanship this time, a thought suddenly occurred to me. Your swordsmanship and my swordsmanship... if these two sword arts were to harmonize, might the strongest swordsmanship in all history be written?”

However, whether Sierra gave off killing intent or not, Chris calmly continued speaking.

“I do not know the reason, but it seems you hold some deep grudge against me... If so, I thought becoming my disciple in order to surpass me might be one way. What do you think?”

Chris’s solemn voice rang through the room.

His gaze was extremely serious.

The Sword Saint was a highly unique person, but at this moment, it was clear that he was not speaking in jest.

“If I learn the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship, I will certainly become stronger than now.”

I did not know whether the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship and Sierra’s Rebellion Against Heaven could be combined, but judging by how far he was going, it seemed he did have some idea.

Certainly, if the two sword arts were combined, the strongest swordsmanship might be born.

“But...”

That could not be allowed.

Surpassing the Sword Saint that way would hold no meaning for Sierra.

Following the Sword Saint would become an act of abandoning Sierra.

So my answer was decided.

“I already have one and only one master. So even if you say that, I think it would be impossible for me to accept your proposal.”

I drew a firm line.

[... ]

Sierra, who had heard my answer, soon grew quiet.

She seemed to be regaining control of her emotions.

“Oho... I see, so that is how it is. I did not know you had a master. It was swordsmanship I had never seen before in my life, so I thought it must have been swordsmanship you created yourself...”

Chris’s voice was filled with regret.

“There is no way that could be. My swordsmanship was all created by my master.”

“...Then let me ask one last thing. Who on earth is the one who became your master? I have roamed the continent and met countless swordsmen, but I have never seen anyone use such swordsmanship. Is the reason you hate me perhaps related to your master?”

He was asking.

Who my master was.

There was no reason to go out of my way to hide it until now.

I had already finished speaking with Sierra about this as well.

“My master is...”

***

Zeto revealed the name of his master, then said he might be late to open class at this rate and immediately left.

Thus, Chris, left alone in the room, could not easily rise from his seat.

Soon, Chris, who had been blankly opening his mouth, suddenly began laughing.

“Haha... So that was it, was it. I wondered who it might be, and he was ‘her’ disciple...”

From the last words Zeto had left behind, he had been able to learn who his master was.

“Purple Moon... were you alive? No, if you were alive... you would certainly have come yourself.”

Even for Chris, Sierra was an unforgettable existence even after several decades had passed.

“Sword Saint, a spar.”

“Ugh... Could you at least let me eat?”

“...Draw your sword.”

Chris recalled the past with Sierra, who would draw her sword at every opportunity and thrust it at him, requesting a spar at any time or place.

“Haha... I did not know she had a disciple...”

Chris laughed heartily and muttered that.

He too had wondered about Sierra’s sudden disappearance, but he had thought perhaps her long-standing illness had caught at her ankles.

...And it seemed that had actually been the case.

By the time Sierra completed her swordsmanship, her body had probably already been far from sound.

“Mm, yes...”

Then it made sense.

When Zeto said he was “Sierra’s” disciple, every situation made sense.

The killing intent felt from him.

The unfamiliar, powerful swordsmanship he had displayed.

Even his firm refusal to become the Sword Saint’s disciple.

“Her will was passed on to her disciple.”

Chris swallowed bitterness at the thought that Sierra had left the world, yet could not help admiring her absurd obsession.

“The only thing strange is that the killing intent seemed to come from empty air...”

Was the reason for that tied to Zeto being blind?

Even Chris could not know that much; it was enough to make a ghost weep.

Chris, resting his chin on the sofa as he looked back on the situation from a moment ago, nodded slightly.

“Even so... So it felt that way because it was swordsmanship she created to defeat me...”

Now that things had become like this, there was something he had no choice but to give up on.

Because of that, Chris could not hide his regret.

In one hand, Chris’s swordsmanship.

In the other, Sierra’s swordsmanship.

“I thought I might be able to see a sword art so complete and flawless it could be called the strongest come into being.”

Chris said that and clicked his tongue.

“Killing intent or whatever else, it was something that drew me enough to try to make him my disciple somehow...”

Originally, Chris had no intention whatsoever of taking any disciple other than Kaen. Until he met Zeto, that was.

After facing Zeto and taking into account the killing intent he felt from him, he had made surpassing himself a condition... but for Sierra to be his master, of all people, was something even he could not have imagined.

“Is there truly no way...?”

He was mad for the sword.

Sierra was not the only one with a strong obsession.

“Wait.”

Chris, who had been in deep thought, reached one idea and took something from his clothes.

It was the letter sent by Kaen, the disciple he had raised like a granddaughter.

He had remembered Kaen, whom he had met at lunchtime yesterday, excitedly reciting stories about Zeto.

Chris read through the letter again.

This time, he examined it more carefully.

Especially the parts where Kaen mentioned the blind swordsman, Zeto.

Kaen seemed fairly close to Zeto.

No, rather than merely seeming close, Kaen seemed to like Zeto quite a bit.

After reading the entire letter, Chris thought.

“It does not necessarily have to be passed on to Zeto.”

Was it not extremely natural for the swordsmanship of a mother and father to be passed on to their child?

Moreover, Kaen was currently hiding the fact that she was his disciple.

Having reached that thought, he slowly drew a picture in his head.

The disciple of the Sword Saint and the disciple of the Purple Moon see eye to eye.

The man and woman share love.

Eventually, a child is born between the two.

That child grows up and inherits both parents’ swordsmanship exactly.

“...How can it fit this neatly?!”

Chris admired the idea he had come up with.

Then he thought he might subtly ask Kaen whether it was time for her to find a partner.

Perhaps he did not need to completely give up on the strongest swordsmanship he desired.

“Though it may take a little longer to complete...”

Chris thought that and smiled brightly, rather satisfied.

Perhaps it was because Chris had spent his entire life looking only at the sword, and did not know a thing about love between men and women.

He did not even consider Kaen’s or Zeto’s intentions.

Whether during the days when he sparred with Sierra, or now.

Chris still knew nothing but the sword.