Chapter 202 - The One Who Forgot (4)

["Teaching someone the sword, I mean."]

["What is it now? That came out of nowhere."]

["When your teacher speaks, keep quiet and listen."]

One day, while teaching Najin the sword, the Helmeted Knight spoke as he ran a hand over his sword hilt.

["It feels like I'm telling you the story of my life. It's a strange feeling."]

["The story of your life?"]

["I've been wielding a sword for nearly three hundred years, you know? I said I'd teach you the essence of those three hundred years, but I was half joking at the time. And yet..."]

["And yet?"]

["And yet, once I actually tried, it turned out I could. Watching you learn feels strange. Watching you wield your sword the way I do."]

The Helmeted Knight smiled.

["It's like looking at my past self. I thought I'd already forgotten. Thought I'd never remember. But watching you brought it back."]

Who I was.

How I lived.

What sort of sword I wielded.

["You damned brat."]

The Helmeted Knight clicked his tongue.

["You make me want more. You won't let me give up my lingering attachments. You really are a damned brat."]

* * *

"Did you ask me to teach you spear arts? Me?"

"Yes. You."

Blue Spear blinked at Najin, who was looking up at him from one knee. Clearly flustered, he repeatedly opened and closed his mouth.

"Najin, was it? The diary says we've met twice or so. Did my past self perhaps tell you he would teach you the spear?"

"No. You said nothing of the sort."

"Then why?"

"Do I need a reason to ask to learn?"

Najin smiled as though there were nothing strange about it.

"Besides, you told me these spear arts mustn't be forgotten. That an entire nation's history rests on the tip of your spear..."

"So," Najin continued, "hearing that, I simply thought it would be a shame, too. As you said, these spear arts are too precious to let fade into oblivion."

"You've seen me wield my spear?"

"It's your daily routine, isn't it? You wield it for nearly ten hours a day. How could I not have seen?"

"And that's why you want me to teach you?"

Najin nodded. Blue Spear looked far from pleased. If anything, he looked troubled.

"I appreciate the thought, but... I don't think I'm capable of teaching anyone anything. How could I teach what even I can't remember?"

"That won't be a problem."

Najin gave him a confident smile. He had copied Merlin's expression, earning a muttered "So smug!" from Merlin as she watched him.

"I'm good at learning even when no one tries to teach me. Teach me one thing, and I'll figure out ten. Sometimes I figure things out on my own without being taught anything at all."

What kind of nonsense was that?

Blue Spear looked at Najin with that question written on his face, then began his routine with a dubious expression. Before long, however, he understood what Najin had meant.

WHOOSH!

The moment he saw the arc of Najin's spear, he had no choice but to understand, whether he wanted to or not.

"What? How?"

Blue Spear stared at Najin, eyes wide and mouth agape. Najin smiled at his astonishment as he twirled the spear shaft.

"Didn't I tell you?"

That he was rather good at learning.

2.

There was a well-known saying among swordsmen:

A swordsman speaks through his sword.

Bards often interpreted it to mean that master swordsmen could understand each other's hearts simply by crossing blades, without exchanging a word. Najin thought that was bullshit.

How could you know without saying anything? To do that, you'd have to be a mage who had learned mind reading, not a swordsman. Not that he knew whether such magic existed.

"There's no such thing. If there were, I'd want to learn it."

Since an archmage said it didn't exist, apparently it didn't.

In any case, while he thought the idea of reading hearts through a sword was nonsense, he had no intention of rejecting the saying itself.

Even if it wasn't your heart, there were things you could show an opponent by wielding your sword. Broadly, through your swordsmanship; more subtly, through your habits when swinging a blade.

For instance, using a particular style could say, "I learned this swordsmanship, and I am this person's disciple." The way you stepped and the habits of your grip could tell someone how you had lived.

A swordsman who had spent many years on battlefields would favor short, simple swings that prioritized efficiency.

One who had lived in harsh terrain such as snowy mountains would place greater emphasis on footwork, wielding the sword with the landscape in mind.

Their lives showed through their swords. Nor was this true only of swordsmen. It applied to every warrior who had spent years handling a single weapon, whether a spear or a bow.

And now Najin was watching one such warrior.

Blue Spear, a knight of Londinel.

He had reportedly been a transcendent being even before Londinel fell three hundred years ago, so he must have been over four hundred years old at the very least. In other words, before Najin stood a warrior who had wielded a spear for at least four hundred years.

WHOOSH.

The shaft cut through the wind. The spear tip drew the wind around it, producing an eerie sound. Eyes wide, Najin etched every movement into his vision.

'Even if he loses his memories every day...'

Blue Spear had said he did not forget the habits engraved in his body or the movements he repeated daily. Of course, he did not know what each movement meant or what principles underlay it.

That point.

That was precisely what Najin focused on.

He strove to find the principles in the movements Blue Spear performed unconsciously. He tried to read the history of Londinel that must lie within that spear tip. Even with Najin's exceptional eyes, it was no easy task.

After all, Blue Spear had once been a transcendent being.

Reading a transcendent being's movements was exceedingly difficult even for Najin. No matter how many times he watched, merely following the movements was a struggle, let alone finding their principles or history.

"You do realize it's absurd that someone who isn't even transcendent can imitate a transcendent being's movements at all, right?"

Merlin muttered those words, then shook her head. Even the most astonishing things became ordinary after you saw them enough times.

"How in the world..."

Blue Spear was no different.

"Well, now. This is something."

When Najin first imitated his movements, he had stared in amazement with his eyes wide and mouth open. But after it happened several more times, he too accepted it and continued swinging his spear.

"..."

Najin silently concentrated on Blue Spear's movements.

He knew it was difficult. But did that mean he couldn't do it? No. He had already experienced something similar once before.

'Alderan Basaglia's Sword of Unfolding Return.'

During the months he traveled with the Helmeted Knight, Najin had finally succeeded in learning the Sword of Unfolding Return. He couldn't reproduce it perfectly, but his grasp of the theory was flawless. There was no room for doubt when Gerd, an eight-star Sword Master, had judged it "excellent."

Najin persisted in observing Blue Spear.

And as the sun began to set, he arrived at a realization.

3.

"This part here."

Najin took a stance, indicating the very first movement in Blue Spear's sequence.

"Could you show it to me slowly?"

"Of course."

Blue Spear swung his spear slowly. The long weapon cut through the wind.

WHOOSH.

"Ah."

Najin gave a brief exclamation, as though he had realized something. He immediately imitated Blue Spear's movement. The motion itself was similar, but the sound was slightly different.

SWISH!

It wasn't merely the sound of a faster swing. His imperfect stance made the spear tip waver a little, but the force of the swing differed from Blue Spear's.

"...!"

Blue Spear's eyes widened.

"How did you just do that?"

"This first movement," Najin said, adjusting his grip. "The second movement feels like bringing the flow of the first swing downward like this, doesn't it?"

"It does. But what of it?"

"Right now, you're separating each movement as you swing, but in an actual fight, there's no need to keep them separate, is there? So if you swing assuming you'll connect them into one movement like this, and put a little more force into this part, like so..."

WHISH, SWISH!

"Wouldn't it feel a little more natural?"

"I see. Give me a moment..."

Blue Spear imitated Najin's movement. Unlike Najin's unsteady stance, his was perfect. He fully incorporated the theory Najin had proposed.

From the first strike to the second.

Naturally, maintaining an unbroken flow.

The moment he swung that way, Blue Spear knew instinctively that this was right. As soon as he intended to swing like that, his body moved naturally, without conscious effort. As though it were a movement he had repeated countless times.

CRACK!

His spear swing produced the sound of something splitting. Until now, his swings had left only faint marks in the sand. This strike gouged it deeply.

Deep enough that the blowing wind wouldn't easily erase it.

"Oh."

Najin clapped with a brief exclamation of admiration.

Blue Spear stood frozen in the position where his swing had ended, his eyes wide. The corners of his mouth trembled.

"How did you figure this out?"

"Before coming to find you, I met a knight from Londinel. Kirchhoff—you know him, don't you?"

"I do. Londinel's last knight..."

"I've seen Sir Kirchhoff wield his sword a few times. Thinking back on it, I found it somewhat similar to your spear arts."

Kirchhoff's sword and Blue Spear's spear.

Their weapons differed, as did their movements. But Najin felt their roots were similar, and that the goals they pursued were not so different.

"I compared your spear with Sir Kirchhoff's sword and pointed out where they differed..."

Najin glanced at the sand gouged deeply along the path of Blue Spear's swing and nodded.

"It seems that was the right answer."

Najin smiled as he spoke, but Blue Spear could not.

Astonishment at having gained a new insight. A sense of accomplishment that today had become something special, rather than another meaningless day his memoryless selves had repeated hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times.

Those and countless other emotions mingled in an expression that could not be described in a single word. But one emotion swept all those expressions away.

"..."

Blue Spear looked up at the sky. The sun had set, and night had come to the desert. Then he looked at the hourglass. Almost all the sand had fallen. Only a handful remained.

"Ah..."

Blue Spear groaned.

The fulfillment he had felt moments ago was stained with disappointment, fear, and regret. No matter how remarkable the insight, he would forget it after a single night.

PATTER.

As the handful of sand fell toward the bottom, Blue Spear's head began to drop as well. Just as he was about to bow it—

"Blue Spear."

Najin called to him, stopping him.

Blue Spear raised his head. Before him, Najin imitated the strike Blue Spear had performed moments earlier. Why was he showing him this? Blue Spear understood his intention at once.

Imperfect and unpracticed though it was, the movement Najin demonstrated was a clear clue. If his memoryless self tomorrow saw that movement, he would be able to perform the same strike.

"... Hah."

The moment he understood, Blue Spear laughed.

"Hah. Well, now."

He laughed in disbelief.

"I truly don't know how to put this into words."

The hourglass was nearing its end.

As death approached, instead of feeling afraid as he always did, Blue Spear burst into laughter. Laughing freely, he planted his spear shaft in the sand.

"Najin?"

Blue Spear lost his memories every day.

For him, each day was not part of a continuous life, but a separate day, severed and disconnected from the rest. Thus, Blue Spear was a mayfly. That mayfly feared his own death and disappearance.

But now, Blue Spear was no longer a mayfly.

He realized that his present self could pass something on to his self tomorrow. Even if he lost his memories, today and tomorrow would not be separate, disconnected days. Tomorrow would be the next day, continuing from today. Of that, he was certain.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

Blue Spear entrusted Najin with a letter.

A letter to his self tomorrow.