The Sword Master’s Son-in-Law

– The Suspicious Old Man’s Offer (2)

With a struggle, I stood and looked down at the five men, now corpses.

‘So, a fantasy world, huh…’

A world so close to death.

Those who attacked me had, by some cruel twist of fate, become victims themselves.

‘Somehow… I feel nothing.’

It was the first time I’d seen someone die.

If they hadn’t tried to rob me, their fate might have been different.

My fault, in a large part.

But that didn’t mean I felt sympathy for them.

I had to steal to survive.

‘And besides, they were trying to kill me.’

Even if I was the cause, they were trying to kill me.

So, I decided not to feel guilty.

Didn’t I have something more pressing to worry about than that?

“Um… what should I call you?”

The conversation with the old man, whom I would be tending to from now on.

Sir Hans?

Master Hans?

Old Man?

I considered various titles, but none of them quite fit.

“Hmm… Ah, right! Just call me ‘Old Geezer.'”

“Understood. Old Geezer Hans.”

He wanted to be called ‘Old Geezer.’

At least, he didn’t seem to have any sense of authority.

“Anyway, can you walk?”

Old Geezer Hans’s gaze turned to my thigh.

More precisely, to the arrow embedded in my thigh.

Frankly, in my current condition, I couldn’t even take a step.

Even standing up was difficult.

I told him as much.

“I don’t think so.”

Old Geezer Hans approached me.

Then, he grabbed the arrow in my thigh.

A sense of unease washed over me at his action.

“Uh… Old Geezer Hans?”

I immediately knew what he was about to do.

My thigh tensed up involuntarily.

“Crabgrass.”

You son of a—!

*Thwack.*

Before I could brace myself, it was out.

The arrow’s extraction brought a fresh wave of agony.

“Ugh!”

This time, though, I stifled the scream that had ripped from my throat when it first struck.

Old Man Hans already had a bottle in his hand.

And he poured its contents over my thigh.

*Sizzle-*

A sound like meat cooking, and with it, the pain began to subside.

I could see the flesh knitting itself back together.

I knew what this was.

“A potion?”

“That’s right.”

My thigh was already healed.

Walking felt perfectly fine.

I couldn’t help but be bewildered.

“To give something this precious to me….”

The speed of the healing made it clear this was a high-grade potion.

To pour it out for another without a moment’s hesitation.

Old Man Hans had to be a bigger deal than I thought.

“Don’t give me that look. I intend to add it to your debt.”

I must have been looking at him with undisguised admiration.

“Well, now that your wound is healed, follow me.”

“Yes, I understand.”

I naturally assumed we’d be heading down the mountain.

But the old man started climbing higher.

‘So, it wasn’t an old man climbing the mountain at night, but an old man who lived on the mountain coming down.’

After a long climb, a small cabin came into view.

“This is my home.”

“It’s… not much of a home.”

A cabin built of wood.

Wood that was, frankly, rotting.

It wasn’t a place you could call good, even to be polite.

Old Man Hans seemed to know it.

He didn’t react to my comment.

“Clean this place up for me. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Understood.”

I was now in service to the old man.

Cleaning was the natural thing to do, of course.

After the old man departed in such fashion, I was left alone to tidy the house.

*

It had been a month since I began attending to Hans, the old man.

My first impression of Old Man Hans was that he resembled a mountain spirit.

And why wouldn’t he? With his flowing white hair and long, trailing beard.

Besides, he’d appeared suddenly, in the dead of night.

And in the mountains, no less.

If that wasn’t a mountain spirit, what else could it be?

But now, he just seemed like a lazy old codger with a penchant for nagging.

“Ahem, to fail at the hunt again… Truly, you are quite useless.”

Old Man Hans was scolding me for my latest hunting failure.

I’d been attempting to hunt for a fortnight, but hadn’t succeeded even once.

Though, this was only to be expected.

“…Old Man Hans is skilled with a blade, which is why he hunts so well, isn’t he? I have never even learned to wield a sword.”

Never learned to wield a sword, nor to hunt, for that matter.

If I’d known how to hunt in the first place, I wouldn’t have resorted to pickpocketing.

I would have just holed up in the mountains, hunting for a living.

“Ahem! What does a sword have to do with hunting? In any case, try again.”

If he was going to say that, he could at least teach me how to hunt.

Grumbling, I went out hunting again.

Such were my days for the passing of a half-year.

Half a year had passed since I’d started living with Old Man Hans… or rather, just Hans.

“Old Man Hans, I caught a rabbit today.”

Finally, I understood the key to hunting.

However-.

“That’s a relief… Aigo, you rascal! This size isn’t even enough for one person.”

“…We can make soup out of it, can’t we?”

“Tsk. Always complaining…!”

*You’re* the one complaining, Old Man Hans, not me.

My position, unable to say such things, was truly pitiful.

I had much to repay Old Man Hans for, after all.

So passed a half-year, and then a year.

“Arthas, come here.”

“Yes.”

Grumbling, I stopped what I was doing and stood before Old Man Hans.

With an expression more serious than I’d ever seen, Old Man Hans spoke.

“Have you ever considered… learning the sword?”

“A sword…? The sword, you say…! Of course, I have!”

The only thing Hans had shown me up to that point was the image of a bum sitting in a corner.

But I hadn’t forgotten.

No, I couldn’t forget.

The remarkable skill old Hans had shown me a year prior.

I’d never learned swordsmanship.

Even so, I sensed that old Hans was quite the figure with a blade.

‘Even if his life is a mess.’

Old Hans held out a wooden sword to me.

Just as I was about to snatch the wooden sword placed before me…

Hans stopped me.

“I suppose it’s time I showed you just what kind of person I am.”

“Huh? Who are you?”

I already knew.

Wasn’t old Hans just a bum who lived in the corner of my room?

“I am… an aristocrat.”

Old Hans, an aristocrat…

Somehow, it made sense.

‘If he lived like a layabout, and then I consider the family’s collapse… he might very well be an aristocrat.’

Old Hans was a fallen noble.

Thinking of him that way, it fit.

But even fallen, old Hans didn’t seem to possess any sense of authority befitting a noble.

That’s why I couldn’t be entirely sure about his claim.

Of course, he had no reason to lie to me.

“A Count, I was.”

“A, a Count?”

Old Hans was a Count?

That startled me.

This place was the Kingdom of Detiosk.

A kingdom without Dukes in its peerage, meaning that he was the third highest noble, second only to the King.

Depending on one’s capabilities, they might even be called a great noble…

“Then why are you here? More importantly, what does this have to do with learning swordsmanship?”

Why was such a Count here?

Had he really fallen on such hard times, as I suspected?

Was he perhaps hoping I would avenge his family?

But if that was the case, I felt old Hans himself would be more than capable.

“True. Ordinarily, there would be no connection.”

“But why…?”

“Ordinarily, I say. The truth is, I was a noble who made a name for himself with the sword.”

“So you did make a name for yourself with the sword!”

“Indeed, I did. Another name I’m called! It is the Sword Saint of the Detiosk Kingdom!”

In an instant, the excitement vanished.

Sword Saint, you say.

Even someone as ignorant of worldly affairs as I am knows of a Sword Saint.

“Ha ha, in that case, are you by chance a past Count from the Messiah family, old Hans?”

“Oho, so you know of the Messiah family.”

The Messiah family, called the Sword Saint family for having produced a Sword Saint.

It was clear as day old Hans had gone senile.

To pick a name, of all things, like Sword Saint.

There was no reason for a Sword Saint to be in this backwater village.

But…

“Why would someone as great as you be in a place like this?”

I decided to play along.

I was the one tending to old Hans.

If I just went along with it, it would save me a lot of trouble.

“I have an appointment. That’s why I plan to be here for the next fourteen years.”

“Is that so?”

“So while I’m here, I plan to teach you the sword. However… as I just mentioned, I am a Sword Saint. I can hardly teach you the family’s sword.”

“Of course not. After all, you couldn’t leak the family sword outside…”

He seemed quite taken with the role of Sword Saint.

Unable to leak the family sword to outsiders.

Listening to him talk, he really sounded like a Sword Saint.

“So I only intend to teach you the basics of the sword. You must create your own sword from there.”

I nodded.

Even if old Hans was senile, the swordsmanship I’d seen him display was undeniable.

To be able to learn from someone like that.

‘Just being able to learn is a stroke of luck.’

I will learn the sword from old Hans and become strong.

Then I’ll become a mercenary or something and make a name for myself… and become a noble?

‘A noble… I’m not so sure.’

Even someone as impressive as old Hans has become a fallen noble.

Seeing that, I didn’t particularly want to become a noble.

Although, to begin with, it was dubious if old Hans really was a noble.

And frankly, I didn’t know what I wanted at all.

If there was one thought that came to mind, it was this.

‘Let’s get strong so that I can continue to survive.’

If I had the strength, I could escape any harsh adversity.

*

About ten years have passed since I started living with old Hans.

Old Hans was lying listlessly in the center of the room.

I shook him several times, but he didn’t respond.

“Old timer… Why aren’t you waking up!”

Hans, the old geezer… nowadays everyone just calls him old man Hans, figuring he’d shuffled off this mortal coil by now…

“Oi, shush! Let a man sleep, will ya?”

But no.

The old coot was disgustingly lively.

“Seriously? The sun’s high in the sky! What do you mean, ‘let you sleep’!”

They say old age makes you lose your need for sleep.

This old codger? The opposite. He just sleeps and sleeps.

Claims it’s some kind of spiritual practice or whatnot, but judging by the snoring, he’s definitely just snoozing.

“You little…! Daring to raise your voice at your master, you insolent servant!”

“Servant, my foot! I said I’d look after you, not that I was your personal servant!”

After bickering with the old man for a while, it was about time for me to head down to the village.

“Anyway, I’m going down the mountain. Keep an eye on the place for me, eh?”

“…”

At the mention of me leaving, the old man flopped back down.

It was enough to make the veins in my forehead throb, but I just gave up.

‘It’s not like a robber would stand a chance anyway.’

Because if you mess with this frail-looking old man, your head’s liable to get separated from your body.

I knew that for sure after learning swordsmanship from him.

That old man was a monster of the sword, not what he appeared to be at first.

‘Mentally a little off, of course.’

Believing with all his heart that he’s some kind of legendary swordsaint.

Leaving the old man snoring soundly again, I made my way down to the village.

It was market day, and the village was buzzing with life.

“Ho there, Arthas! Haven’t seen you down here in a while. That old coot still kickin’?”

“Clinging to life with surprising tenacity.”

“Hahaha, that’s old man Hans for you!”

After exchanging some casual greetings with acquaintances, I headed for the weapon shop.

Ting-a-ling-.

Opening the door, I was greeted by a dwarf with short legs and a characteristic red beard.

“You’re here?”

Rednil, the red-bearded dwarf.

A race you occasionally saw in the Detiosque Kingdom.

“Rednil, I need you to fix my sword.”

“Again? Didn’t you just buy one a little while ago?”

“I did. But the blade’s completely shot.”

I held out the sword, the blade damaged beyond my ability to repair it myself.

Rednil’s expression instantly filled with fury.

“Hey! You damned human! Using your sword so carelessly, the blade’s already ruined.”

“I don’t think I used it that hard…”

“What do you mean ‘not hard’? It looks like you’ve been hacking at rocks with it all day.”

“Sorry…!”

“There’s no need to apologize.”

Huh?

The fussy dwarf with the swords forgave me so easily for once.

“Because I won’t be selling you any swords anymore.”

Um…?

“You won’t sell me any swords…?”

“That’s right. Until I can make a sword that won’t break, I won’t give you one. Go find some worthwhile materials.”

Rednil’s words, seemingly disheartening at first glance.

But I understood the hidden meaning within them.

‘He’s going to make me my very own, extra-durable sword, so he wants me to find the materials.’

Such a tsundere!

“Alright. I’ll come back with some good materials next time.”

Hoping for the future, I left the armory.

But it was only after leaving that I realized.

“Wait… then, what about a sword?”

I need a sword, but I don’t have one.

Still, I didn’t want to go to any armory other than Rednil’s.

The swords made by Rednil, the dwarf, were the best in this vicinity.

There wasn’t a skilled blacksmith in this backwater town.

Except for Rednil, that is.

It’s only because it was Rednil’s sword that it lasted this long; if it had been a sword from another blacksmith, it would have broken after only a few swings.

“Should I just steal old man Hans’ sword…?”

Old man Hans’ sword was definitely a masterpiece.

He uses his sword just as roughly as I do.

And yet, it was never in need of repair.

Every time I saw it, the old man’s sword looked as if it had just been freshly maintained.

If that wasn’t a masterwork, what was?

But soon, I erased that thought from my mind.

“I might end up getting killed by the old man if I did that.”

I was walking down the crowded street aimlessly, lost in thought.

“Did you hear the news?”

“What news?”

“Well, it’s said that the Sword Saint’s granddaughter is engaged to the First Prince.”

“Huh? The good-for-nothing First Prince?”

“Hey! Be careful, someone might hear you and report you for defaming the royal family, which is punishable by execution!”

The Sword Saint’s granddaughter is engaged to the First Prince.

Suddenly, the face of the senile old man who calls himself a Sword Saint flashed into my mind.

‘Hehe, how would that old coot react if his granddaughter were engaged to a good-for-nothing?’

The thought of the delusional old man going to visit the Count’s family seemed like it would be an interesting spectacle.

Perhaps a battle between Sword Saint and hidden master was about to unfold.

‘This news… let’s take it to the old geezer.’

He couldn’t yet guess what reaction the old geezer would have, but he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from turning up.

Anyway….

‘The Sword Saint is a man without blood or tears, isn’t he? Sending his own granddaughter to be married off to a brute.’