#53: Chapter 53 — I Became the Sword Saint’s Disciple

His heart pounded as if it would burst.
Perhaps it had already burst.

The pounding throb was the sound of his heart screaming.
His body had long since gone stiff.
He was holding his sword, but the thought that he had to swing it could not rise in his mind.

“This is called killing intent. For the next two months, I intend to teach you how to handle this.”

Lucas slowly walked toward Serpens.
With every step the distance narrowed, it felt as if death was coming closer.

His entire body began to tremble.
When Lucas stood right in front of the boy.
Serpens couldn’t look into his eyes.

‘I’m going to die.’

His instincts were telling him that.

On the other hand, one part of his reason was saying that wasn’t true.
That Lucas wouldn’t harm him.
It whispered that to him.

But he couldn’t be certain.
He couldn’t tell whether that thought was his reason, or a desperate wish.

Whoosh.

Lucas reached out and pulled Serpens, who had sunk to the ground, back to his feet.
At the rough touch, the boy’s body staggered.

Only then did Serpens feel the invisible pressure lift.

“Killing intent means exactly what it sounds like. The energy of trying to kill something.”

Serpens panted from the lingering aftereffect.
It was an experience he never wanted to go through again.

“How do you use it?”

But his thoughts soon changed.
If he could use something like this, it meant he could become that much stronger.
And if he became that much stronger…….

‘I can be useful too.’

Serpens’s light brown eyes became quite serious.

“Puhaha!”

Lars’s laughter spread through the training ground and broke the boy’s seriousness.

“Sorry, sorry. I just thought you were quite the odd one yourself.”

Lars slowly approached the two.

“That killing intent just now was enough to make even me tremble. I was just caught off guard because instead of being cowed, you immediately wanted to learn it.”

Serpens smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

“It’s praise, praise. Having a strong will to learn is never a bad thing!”

When Lars smiled gently, the corners of his eyes curved softly.
He felt like he understood why Lucas was still keeping this kid around.
The playfulness that came only with his young age brought a small vitality,
and when it was time to be serious, he became serious at once.

Seeing someone put effort into everything made those watching smile.
Bro was a human whose emotions had dried up due to his circumstances, but…….

‘If he were my disciple, I would have taught him while laughing quite a bit.’

From the position of a teacher, it was difficult to dislike someone who tried hard to learn.

‘They really are alike.’

Lars recalled old memories for a moment.
It was from before he met Lucas, in other words, from the fairly distant past.

The reputation about Lucas he had heard back then.
Had they called him a madman when it came to learning?
The fact that rumors had spread that Lucas observed monsters without killing them in order to learn swordsmanship
said it all.
In any case, he had no choice but to acknowledge both Lucas and this kid’s will to learn.

‘You two are so alike, I tell you.’

Lars gently stroked Serpens’s head.

“Bro. Are you starting right away?”
“We will start right-”

Growl.

A pitiful sound rang from Serpens’s stomach.
At the sudden sound, Serpens gave an awkward smile.

“……Let us eat first.”

Lucas took it back.
A trace of awkward emotion lingered at the end of his quiet answer.

Lars was quite surprised.
He didn’t show it on his face, but he couldn’t help being surprised by the unfamiliar warmth he felt.

“Should we buy something to eat?”
“You say that as if buying food is only natural.”
“There’s not a single thing to eat inside that black house. Even if there is, it’s probably all rotted.”
“…….”
“Now then, off we go to eat meat!”

Serpens trotted off with light steps.
Lucas followed after him, now somehow used to it.

Lars looked at the two.
His dark red hair swayed in the blowing wind.

‘It’s warm.’

The biting wind had softened, and warmth was carried within it.
A single flower blooming in the corner of the training ground caught Lars’s eye.
A single flower blooming among the weeds on the dry soil.
Lars smiled at the flower.

In the season called spring, when dryness faded and warmth began to bloom.
Lars also moved his feet after Serpens.

After finishing a simple meal, the three took their places in the training ground again.
Serpens’s face was full of satisfaction from the meal, but that satisfaction didn’t last very long.

“Serpens, what do you think killing intent is?”

Lucas asked while holding his greatsword.
Serpens was holding his sword as well, but he wasn’t putting much strength into it, so the tip of the sword was touching the ground.

“Killing intent…….”

The tip of his sword carved the letters into the dirt ground.
From the crookedly written words ‘killing intent,’ none of the bloodthirstiness carried by their meaning could be felt.

Lars watched the sight with curiosity.

‘Do beggars know how to read these days?’

He was purely curious, and there was no malice.
Serpens was a beggar and an orphan.
Most lower-class people were illiterate.
Because there was no one to teach them letters.
But did this kid before his eyes not read and write letters with ease?

Whiik.

Lars took one step back and whistled.
A foreign image reflected in his eyes.
Serpens was inside it, but it wasn’t the Serpens currently holding a sword.

A moment later, when Serpens and Lucas were about to point their swords at each other.
Focus returned to his dark red eyes.

“Wait, wait!”

Stopping the start of the training, he took one step toward the two again.

“If we’re going to train, let’s do it properly.”

When he lightly gestured, the ground at the edge of the training ground rose up.
The wall that rose about three meters curved inward and formed a dome-like shape.

“What are you doing?”

Lucas asked while looking at the wall.
This shape was not meant to stop anything from coming in from the outside.
It was a shape meant to stop something from going out from the inside.
Considering it was Lars’s magic, with Serpens’s ability, it would be difficult for him to leave of his own will.

“As I said, let’s train him properly, bro. You could call it special training for our admirable kid.”

Lars’s body slowly rose and landed on top of the wall.
When he tilted his head toward Lucas, Lucas also leapt up onto the wall.

“Um…… excuse me?”

Scratching his head after being naturally left behind, he looked up at the two.
He was flustered, but the greater reason was that he was nervous.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine, kid.”

Lars calmed the boy, who looked uneasy.

“And see you later!”
“What? Why see me lat-”

Clap!

The sound of a clap filled the training ground.
At the same time, Serpens lost consciousness and collapsed.

Lucas’s toes twitched faintly.

“Don’t worry, bro. If it’s that kid, nothing will happen to him.”
“I am not worried.”
“Just saying.”
“……What did you do?”

Lars shrugged.

“You know the way to awaken killing intent. The will to kill someone simply has to grow stronger.”
“So, are you saying you will plant murderous intent in him?”
“If we are being precise, that is the correct answer, but it isn’t what I intended.”
“Intended?”

Even as they conversed, the gazes of the two did not move away from the fallen boy.

“Bro. Have you ever thought it strange that a beggar and orphan like that kid knows letters?”
“……Who knows.”

Lars smiled with his eyes and gestured with his chin.

“That kid taught himself to read for two years because he wanted to live a better life. And he did it at nine years old.”
“Nine years old?”

Lucas asked back.
Learning letters alone at nine years old.
Was that even plausible?

“Some merchant openly looked down on him. Called him a beggar who didn’t even know letters.”

Bitterness was added to Lars’s expression.

“From that day on, he matched countless people’s words to letters and taught himself to read. For about two years. Without missing a single day.”

Whether it was persistence or stubbornness, it was true that he was a tenacious one.
But the fact that he had taught himself to read at such a young age…….
was something close to impossible for an ordinary person.

“…….”

Lucas recalled the things that had happened before.
Whenever he taught the boy the sword, he learned at a surprising speed.
When it came to learning ability alone, he might have had an innate talent.
Of course, what had made the current Serpens was not only his learning ability.
A time of effort that could not be denied.
That was the reason for his growth.

After all, the seed called talent was meant to bloom in the environment called effort.

Lars continued speaking.

“To be honest, teaching the kid killing intent is not exactly pleasant.”
“I agree. But without killing intent, it will be difficult for him to endure what comes later. That kid hesitated to kill not only humans, but monsters as well.”

Lucas felt something similar to bitterness.
Serpens’s smile briefly passed before his eyes.

Once he possessed killing intent, he would gradually lose that smile.
It would certainly make him stronger, but…….

‘Is this truly the right thing?’

He had the thought that this was not a strength suited to Serpens.

“That is why I came up with a different method in my own way.”

Lars said, placing his hand on his waist.

“When the kid took the knight examination. You remember the Aura that went berserk, right?”
“Yes.”
“That Aura. I felt something similar to killing intent from it.”
“……?”

Lucas turned his head as if asking what he meant.
Lars smiled at him.

Gooooooo-

At that moment, a foreign energy began to flow from Serpens.
Lucas furrowed his brows for an instant.

“Lars, don’t tell me…….”

Black and pure white light began to mix and ripple from the boy’s body.
Amid the tremor gradually growing like a storm, Lars also began releasing his blue Mana.

The boy’s Aura and Lars’s Mana collided.
The two energies slowly intertwined.
Lars’s body, reflected in Lucas’s eyes, slowly began to fade.

“That Aura of his. I’ll go take care of it.”

Serpens opened his eyes to a bustling noise.

When he raised himself, he instinctively knew something was wrong.
In the distance, the bell of a small church was ringing.
Faces that seemed familiar passed along the street one by one.

The boy reflexively ran toward a narrow alley.

“Haa……. Haa…….”

Women heading to the market while dragging the hems of their skirts,
merchants with shabby cloaks,
and children running around energetically.
The familiar surroundings before his eyes made the hair all over his body stand on end.

Serpens hurriedly felt around his waist.
When he confirmed that his sword was there, a sigh of relief came out.
He was relieved that the past year hadn’t been a dream.

‘What is this?’

Then what was this?
These damnably familiar things.
Why had he returned to Satus?

“Ouch.”

Even when he pinched his cheek, pain came through.
Could there be a dream where he could feel such vivid pain?
Hmm, probably not.

Serpens moved elsewhere.
Because the alleys of Satus were not a good place to calmly sort out his thoughts.

He climbed onto the roof of a nearby building.
Perhaps because of the results of his training so far, climbing a building around two stories high wasn’t difficult.
Once he lay down on the roof, no one below could see the boy.

“Just what kind of training am I supposed to do?”

Even when he retraced his memories, only one question came out.
This situation had to be something Lars created.
He had already experienced Lars’s magic that changed space before.

‘How am I supposed to develop this thing called killing intent……?’

It was true that Satus was an irritating town.
But what did that have to do with handling killing intent?

Serpens rested his chin on his hand and thought.
But the answer didn’t come easily.

The moment he was agonizing and racking his brain.

Tadada.

Urgent footsteps sounded from not far away.

“You little rat bastard! Stop right there!”

A voice chasing after the footsteps followed as well.

At the sudden sound, Serpens became interested.
He figured it was probably a beggar and a merchant.
Who had stolen what?
He wanted to check.

“……?”

And when he saw the small boy running away from the merchant.
Serpens doubted his own eyes.

Light brown hair fluttering.
A body covered in wounds and clothes that were failing to do their job.
Even so, the boy’s eyes were shining.