Chapter 8

“Haah. Haah.”

Serpens breathed roughly.
The man who had been slung over his back was now being dragged along the ground.

He really was a heartless man.
If someone was groaning behind him, could he not at least glance back once?
It was tiring, but that didn’t mean he could give up on this heavy man.
After all the damn suffering he had gone through until now, he had to receive compensation for it.

Chirr. Chirp.
Prrr.

The sounds of various beasts could be heard.
Perhaps they were the sounds of monsters.

How much time had passed?
Serpens couldn’t remember seeing anything except trees and bushes.
Ah, occasionally, insects of unknown kinds flew around.

“Hoo……”

Yesterday, he had been covered in blood. Today, he was covered in sweat.
He wanted to take off his clothes right away, but he had no proper clothes to change into.

On top of that, the entire path they had walked was uphill.
Despite being called a gorge, they did not go down at all and only kept climbing.

‘If it is going to be like this, they should call it Killip Mountain Range, not Killip Gorge.’

His complaints slowly increased.
It had already been a long time since he passed his physical limit.
He was holding on with willpower, but the strength had left his grip several times already.

Step.

The sound he had been waiting for was heard.
The sound of the feet ahead stopping.

‘Crazy bastard.’

Unlike him, Lucas didn’t look tired at all, and he didn’t seem to have shed even a single drop of sweat.
To Serpens, it was simply absurd, and he wondered if they were even the same kind of being.

Meanwhile, Lucas closed his eyes and sharpened his senses.
The blowing wind. The living creatures passing between the trees. Even the monsters fighting over territory and the people moving busily.
Everything in the gorge was conveyed into his mind.

‘Here should do it.’

There was nothing nearby that would interfere with them.
He drew his greatsword and quietly looked at Serpens.
Until the boy caught his breath and could focus on him.

Serpens leaned the collapsed man against a nearby tree.
Aside from his swollen face, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully.
For some reason, the fact that only he had suffered made him feel wronged.
That was why he subtly twisted the man’s neck.

‘Wake up and suffer from some muscle pain. Compared to the damn suffering I went through, that is no more than a fingernail.’

It didn’t take long for Serpens, who had been giggling, to let out a sigh.
Lucas was holding his sword. The boy looked at him.

There were exactly two cases when Lucas drew his sword.
Either something was interfering with him, or Serpens was about to be thrown around this way and that.

“……Why. What is it?”
“Draw your sword.”
“…….”

Shff.

Serpens drew his sword, leaving his ominous feeling aside.
How long had it been since he had first held a sword?
A generous estimate would be one week. If counting only the time he had purely held a sword, perhaps about one day.
In that short time, holding a sword had become familiar.
No matter what anyone said, that was what Serpens thought.

“I will ask three questions.”

Whoosh.

A speed he could not follow this time either.
Lucas’s greatsword stopped right in front of Serpens’s nose.

Kugagagaga!

A massive wind pressure plowed through the ground behind Serpens.
Dust rose in an instant.
At something that had happened before he could even perceive it, Serpens reflexively swallowed.

“What do you think people take up the sword to do?”

An unexpected question.
He couldn’t understand the intention behind the question at all.
More importantly, if Lucas was going to ask such a philosophical question, why swing his sword?

‘What a crazy bastard.’

Serpens couldn’t understand, but he pretended to sink into thought.
Because he felt like he had to match the mood.

“Well, that depends on the person. Just like everyone has a different reason for living.”
“That is correct.”

Lucas stepped two paces back.
The sword quietly rose .
His sword was about to move once more.

Shwaek!
Clang!

“Uwak!”

Tudadak.

He reflexively blocked Lucas’s sword.
Though he rolled backward from the aftermath, he had blocked his sword all the same.

‘This guy, seriously!’

Lucas had clearly controlled his strength.
Serpens recognized that fact too.
The proof was that he could see the attack and block it.

He didn’t think for even a moment that it was the result of training for a short time.
He was neither stupid nor arrogant enough to misunderstand it that way.

“You crazy old man!”

Lucas’s control of strength was only his control of strength.
He may have controlled it, but for Serpens, it was still too much.

“Second question. What do you take up the sword for?”

His grip had split from a single defense.
The sword hummed and screamed, and his arm trembled as if frightened.

‘So the gap is this large?’

But that pain made Serpens happy.
If he reached that level, if he could only do that, he could realize the dream he had thought impossible.

The dream of not letting orphans like himself be made.

“I told you, didn’t I? I am going to challenge the impossible.”
“…….”

Lucas raised his sword once more.
The third sword. The third question.

“Huuup.”

This time, Serpens also took his stance.
He brought back the feeling from when he cut the goblin.
Set his foot down to find his center, and the strength as if splitting a great mountain.

Swaaak!

This time as well, Lucas’s sword was visible to Serpens’s eyes.
Rather, it had become even slower.
Was it because Lucas had seen him roll?
It was probably the best consideration Lucas could show.

‘It slowed down, but not enough that I can dodge it.’

The two swords moved.
Serpens chose to clash head-on.
If he experienced great force, would he not be less shocked by relatively weaker attacks?
It was a kind of reckless bravado born from that thought.
It was training for when he would someday clash swords with others.

Whoosh.

‘……!’

His sword cut through empty air.
Serpens had put in his maximum strength, thinking they would surely collide.
But far from colliding, Lucas’s sword disappeared from his sight in an instant.

Just once.
The moment Serpens blinked.

Shwaek!

Once again, an imperceptible sword strike grazed Serpens.

Swaaaaaa.

A wind rose past the silence.
It didn’t take long for Serpens to understand the situation.

“Third question. What can you offer for what you aim for?”

The question came, and a hollow laugh escaped him.

A diagonal slash aimed at him.
Serpens had thought he knew how Lucas would come at him.
He had thought Lucas would use the same diagonal slash as the second one.
But that was a miscalculation.
Right before the swords collided, Lucas changed the direction of his sword.
The sword shot up into the sky. The moment the boy cut through empty air, it drove down at high speed and cut through the space beside him.

‘I was completely…… played with.’

When people feel a wall before something, two broad reactions often appear.
They despair. Or they burn with passion.
Most people despair.
They say it feels like the effort they have made, their very existence, has been denied or something.
But Serpens’s hollow laugh came entirely from the latter.
Because he had not made enough effort to despair over.

That was why the boy resolved once again.

“Even if I die, I will not go back to being a beggar.”

No matter what happened, even if he had to give his life.
He would achieve his dream.

Whoooosh-

A fierce wind blew.
It cooled the sweat he had shed before he knew it, making the wind feel even stronger.

‘To some degree…… he may be worth acknowledging.’

Lucas had never raised a disciple before.
Neither during his life as a knight nor afterward had he ever accepted anyone as a disciple.

The reason was simple.

There had been no one who satisfied Lucas, and only a very small number of people had even crossed paths with him.
Even among them, most did not need a teacher.

During his days as a knight, countless soldiers praised him and tried to imitate his sword.
But none of them could.
That was only natural.
Walking one’s own path and walking after someone else were completely different paths.
Moreover, that someone else was Lucas.
A greatsword, an unconventional sword. A human body that had surpassed its limits. Overwhelming experience and combat sense.
It was not a path one could walk simply because one wanted to.
That was why he had never raised anyone, nor had he ever thought of doing so.

‘What if it is a sword other than a greatsword? As for the body, he’s still young, so training will do. Experience can be built up as well. It’s not certain, but if he’s someone who has a sword for survival, then combat sense goes without saying.’

Lucas thought.
He would not make another version of himself, but try raising the boy called Serpens.
He would take up once more the sword he had laid down after losing his purpose.

‘Did he say it was just a feeling?’

Lucas recalled when he first met Serpens.
Because he had a feeling that following him would be good.
That was what the boy had said.

Lucas was not the type to trust things like feelings or intuition.
Because he hated the disappointment one had to accept from vain expectations more than the happiness brought by needless expectations.

But the small resonance he felt in one corner of his chest.
Whether it was a feeling or intuition did not matter.

“It will be hard. You will want to give up. You will regret it.”

That was why he spoke.
His eyes were directed at Serpens, but his voice was aimed at himself.

“Isn’t that the kind of thing you prepare yourself for before taking on a challenge?”

The boy’s shining eyes.
They put strength into Lucas’s grip.

“Raise your sword, Serpens.”

Shff.

Under the shining sunlight, two swords gleamed.
One was a massive greatsword, and the other was a sword that had, before anyone knew it, become shabby with its edge badly chipped.

“This time too, it will be a diagonal slash.”
“Yes!”

Put strength into the grip and swing the sword.
That was Lucas’s answer and his conviction.

Takang!

With a sharp sound, Serpens’s sword broke.

“Haah……. Haah…….”

Before he knew it, the sunset hung in the sky.
The sword had been miserably split in two. Serpens felt regret.
There were still things he wanted to try through sparring.
Things like the irregular technique Lucas had shown him.

“……The sword cannot keep up.”

Lucas felt regret as well.
But he had no complaints or questions.
For a sword bought casually at the market, it had lasted a long time.
It was neither a famed sword nor a sword made by visiting a blacksmith, so enduring Lucas’s sword this much was impressive.

“Euratcha! Still, I improved quite a bit, right?”
“…….”
“Tch.”

Lucas’s bluntness no longer bothered him.
Would it not be scarier if a person’s mood suddenly changed completely?
Though the lack of any change in expression made things awkward, it also put him at ease because Lucas was so consistent.

“Anyway, today was the first time I used this sword.”
“Don’t cling to it. You can simply get a new sword.”
“It’s just that I had only just started growing attached to it. It was my first sword in life, after all.”

Serpens subtly rubbed his nose.
He gently placed the handle where the broken blade had fallen.
Serpens finished his mourning by looking at it for a moment.
Then he scurried over nearby and grabbed the dagger he had carefully set aside.

‘Until I get something else, I’ll use you……!’

Swoosh. Swish.

After swinging it this way and that, the feeling was definitely different.
A light but sharp feeling.
It was certainly easy to use, but it seemed difficult to cause direct damage with it.

“Lucas! Do you know how to use a dagger?”
“It’s not that I cannot use one. However, with something that small, it would be difficult.”
“True. It is about the size of my palm, so in your hand, Lucas, it would look like a needle.”

It was a shame.
He had used this dagger quite usefully when he killed the goblin too.
It was a memory that turned his stomach, but whatever the case, was it still not a good memory of surviving?
If he learned the dagger, it might be useful even when he trained repeatedly and became accustomed to a longsword.

“I can teach you the basics. Though I have no talent for explanations with words alone.”
“Really?”
“Yes. But not right now.”
“Huh? Why?”

Lucas answered by shifting his gaze beyond Serpens.

“Uh?”

The boy turned back in confusion, and his eyes widened.
The man he had dragged here through damn suffering.
The man he had forgotten about while taking part in training.
The blond man with a refined appearance opened eyes that seemed as if they would never open.