## Chapter 33 – The Swordsman’s Guild
“Good, good. Very smooth. You have the qualities of a born killer.”
After five exchanges, Karin said with satisfaction when I landed a successful strike. Of course, I was giving it my all, but Karin claimed she wasn’t even using 1% of her full power. It’s hard to grasp, but honestly, even that might be generous.
But a killer?
“Isn’t that a bit of a harsh thing to say? Saying someone has the qualities of a killer… makes me sound like a weirdo.”
“It’s a compliment, you moron. In this world, the better you are at killing, the better you eat and live.”
Come to think of it, she was right. Knights with incredible strength were essentially killer aristocrats who rose to prominence solely through their killing skills. Their wealth must have accumulated from constantly killing people in repeated wars.
In this fantasy world, it’s an undeniable truth that the better you are at killing, the more successful and well-off you become. I mean, professional mercenaries make a lot of money, right? It was an era where killing was a skill.
“It sounds so true that I suddenly feel incredibly sad about this world. Why can’t people live without killing and taking from each other?”
“You can even express yourself poetically.”
Karin sat on an orc barrel for a break, chugging water. How could such strength come from such a slender neck? The cause must be that unknown energy source called mana. Even Winia, the mage who was shorter than me, had the strength of a young bull.
“But talking to you, I get the feeling… are you secretly from a fallen noble family or something? The manners you have, the common sense you show in everyday life… it seems like you were properly educated.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
She wasn’t wrong.
I came from modern Earth, where culture exists. Compared to most of the vulgar, rude, and senseless people in this world, my character is in the top 0.1%. In fact, I’m probably better than most religious people, don’t you think?
“Nah, it’s just because I’m damn nice.”
Above all, Karin is my superior. I need to be respectful.
“Nice guys don’t say that about themselves.”
“But it seems to me that you’re more like that, Guildmaster.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
But to be able to recognize that, even though she sometimes makes psycho-like remarks, Karin seemed to have some common sense. Only a person with common sense can recognize another. A person without common sense can’t recognize one with it.
“Like common sense.”
“What are you saying to flatter me?”
Karin waved her hand at my words. But she seemed pleased. Few women dislike compliments. When talking to a woman, subtly mixing in compliments can generally have a good effect.
“No, it’s not flattery… come to think of it, you have a surname, don’t you? Could it be that you’re from a noble family?”
“Well, yeah?”
Karin’s full name is Karin Vestatt. A surname is a measure that distinguishes the privileged class, the nobles, from commoners. Commoners don’t have surnames. I’m too ignorant to know which noble family she’s from just by hearing the name Vestatt, but at least the fact that she has a surname explains her sensible side.
Since she’s a noble, she must have learned culture and stuff.
“Well, I also served in the Royal Knights.”
“You mean you have that kind of backstory!”
I’d heard rumors of human weapons who could split rocks with their swords and traverse hundreds of meters in an instant! But I’d seen many mages, but never knights with such superhuman bodies.
Still, seeing Karin’s strength, the rumors seemed somewhat true.
“But joining the Knights was fine, but as you know, I’m a half-breed. I don’t know if that’s why, but they wouldn’t promote me no matter how many times I applied. So I quit. Then I worked as a mercenary for a few years before starting the guild.”
“Huh? You have quite the career…”
She joined the Royal Knights, served for the time it took to apply for promotions several times, quit, worked as a mercenary for several years, and then founded this long-standing guild?
I suddenly felt a kind of shock. Time is absolute, so achieving something means putting in that much time. Time never flows slowly, nor does it ever flow quickly. It flows steadily as much as it’s consumed.
Then.
Then how old is Karin?
Excuse me, but how old are you?
“Excuse me, but how old are…”
“…You wanna die?”
Karin drew her sword again at an imperceptible speed and spoke. The smile that hadn’t completely disappeared from her shadowed face seemed sharp, as if she would stab that sword into my throat at any moment. I broke out in a cold sweat.
“No, no, no! Wait, put the sword down!”
“Asking a woman’s age recklessly is the same as challenging her to a duel…”
“Wait! Just wait! I’ll guess!”
I had to change the subject! A question about her age that suddenly popped into my head was about to cost me my life!
“I’m really, really. Just telling you based on how you look, without any ulterior motives? So calm down for a second… so there’s a saying called face value, and if you just look at the Guildmaster…”
“Look at me.”
“Your age…”
“My age?”
Karin kept repeating the end of my sentences, with a face that I couldn’t tell if she was anticipating or interrogating.
I scrutinized Karin’s face once more. Her makeup was light. She must be a natural beauty. And no matter how I looked at it, her beauty was that of a woman in her twenties. Looking at her elastic body, clear skin, and the shine of her hair, she looked younger than me, but surprisingly, I was in my mid-twenties with this face. It’s been two or three years since I came to this world, so I must be in my mid-twenties now.
Then is Karin in her early twenties? Or late teens? Just looking at her, it would be one of the two.
But then, her career wouldn’t make sense.
It was reasonable to assume she was older than me.
“No matter how I look at it, you look five or six years younger than me? For reference, I’m around my mid-twenties.”
“What?”
Karin, who had been listening intently to my words, made an unreadable expression.
“Kah! Kiyahahahahahat!”
Suddenly, she started laughing cheerfully. She was laughing so hard that tears were welling up in her eyes. She even started pounding my back with her palm, as if she was suddenly excited again. The superhuman power that came over the armor seemed to make my bones resonate.
“Ugh! Stop! Stop hitting me!”
N-No way! The armor is dented!
“Please stop hitting me! I was wrong! Guildmaster, you look like you’re in your late teens, not your twenties!”
“AHAHAHAHAHAT!!”
After laughing for a while longer, Karin finally calmed down and caught her breath.
“…Why are you laughing?”
“Hoo!”
“The armor is dented. Does that make sense?”
The iron armor was dented. This was impossible unless her palm had the power of a mace. If I hadn’t been wearing this, my body would be…
“Alright, get up! We’ve rested long enough, so we should start again soon?”
“No, but how old are you…”
“Grab your sword and hurry up! More than that, I’m more shocked that you look so young with that face!”
Hey, what’s wrong with my face..!
Oh.
Wait a minute.
My mid-twenties, which can be said to be the full-fledged beginning of a damn old man… is `young`?
Guildmaster, are you perhaps in your thirties…? I pushed the question back into my throat. There will be a time when I find out, but not now. Look at that smile. Look at that woman’s smile, realizing that she looks a dozen years younger than her actual age. How could I pour cold water on that?
After that, Karin’s guidance began, but somehow the intensity seemed a little lower. I won’t have muscle pain today.
**
Now, let’s summarize. What I’ve learned.
I, who only knew how to stab and make clumsy cuts. I, who didn’t even know the basics of swordsmanship, acquired a somewhat structured swordsmanship in less than a month due to the effects of Karin’s intensive training.
Offense and defense in close combat, closing the distance with the opponent, how to defend the body while attacking, etc. I became familiar with methods that I would never have known in the past.
First of all, Karin’s skill was amazing. I always put my heart into my swordsmanship with murderous intent, and Karin accepted it all. That seemed to have a very big effect. Anyway, there’s no specific name for the swordsmanship. She said that just `how to use a sword` is enough.
In conclusion, I learned how to use a sword.
It’s basically swordsmanship for dealing with people, but accurate cuts and thrusts will also work against monsters. It will definitely be different from swinging and stabbing randomly like before.
Another thing is the dramatically increased strength and stamina in a short period of time. If I use swordsmanship with my strengthened stamina, I won’t be inferior to adventurers of the same level. Accurate attacks and the lower body that supports them. If I succeed in a few more high-difficulty quests with this strengthened spec, I think I’ll be able to get promoted to D-rank adventurer soon.
Finally, adding the fact that I learned how to aim for people’s vital points and acquired basic close-range grappling and striking techniques, 5 silver was not a waste of money at all.
How much is 5 silver?
It was a huge sum of money that I could live on for a few months without working if I became a complete homeless person and saved to the extreme.
Besides that, I also learned various skills such as [Sand Throwing] [Spitting in the opponent’s eyes during a sword fight] [Crushing balls with the knee] [Throwing stones (I already knew this, though)] [Suddenly ambushing] [Hitting the back of the head] [Falling and rolling]. I realized my combat power.
“Ah, is this `strength`?”
Today was my day off from the once-a-week underground waterway patrol job, so I stayed in the training grounds alone after training and checked my skills. Cut, thrust. The feeling of the wind splitting was clearly transmitted from the handle.
I didn’t run out of breath even after doing it dozens of times in a row.
Beginners tend to hold their breath and give strength when swinging a sword, which makes them tired and exhausted quickly. It was important to breathe continuously during combat. This was a bit difficult, so I’m still practicing.
“Good, I’m satisfied.”
After perfectly checking my skills, I left the guild.
Since it was my once-a-week day off, I wandered around Isvant to learn the geography. My main goal was to find a library. It was my routine to visit the library and read books to acquire knowledge of this world on days like this, but I hadn’t been able to do it at all since coming to Isvant, so I was getting antsy. I’m surprisingly a bookworm.
Anyway, it was a sunny day off, so I started walking in a good mood.
