Sword Whisperer: Chapter 2
Chapter 2. Reading the Sword (2)
A sword. Jansen. The two of them never really went together. Jansen usually showed his displeasure whenever he saw swordsmen. It was as if a sword was something that could never have around here.
‘Why is this here…..?’
“Van! Are you finishing up yet?”
“Ah, al…almost!”
Hearing Jansen’s voice, Van hurriedly placed the box back under the floor, and tried to relax. He felt that he saw something that he wasn’t supposed to see.
‘Forget it. Forget it.’
If Jansen didn’t want to mention it first then there must have been a very good reason for it. Van has reached the age in which he could make such an inference.
It was only that he couldn’t suppress his curiosity.
That day, Van waited with his eyes wide open until Jansen fell asleep. He thought of one thing and that led to other thoughts, and so on and on without an end.
‘Why is there a sword?’
‘Is it the master’s?’
He had many questions. However, at the end of the day after all those questions, what remained with him was a desire.
‘…..I want to hold it.’
Just a moment ago, he couldn’t hold the sword because he was afraid of getting caught. However, it was the true sword that he has seen for the first time in his life. Whatever that was, he didn’t want to let go of the chance to, at least, swing it once.
“Pughh….Zzzz…..”
“……..”
Focused on Jansen’s snoring, Van moved carefully. Then as soon as he got to the warehouse, he took out the sword and held it.
‘It’s rusty.’
It was something that he did not see as he was very nervous earlier. The sword was already rusted all over that it appeared as if it had already lost its function. However, he was satisfied with this. When has he ever held a real sword in his hand before.
A sword was a sword. It would have been much better had the sword been in a much better shape, but this was sufficient. And as soon as he held the sword in his hand, as if all the cautiousness that acted with until just now meant nothing, he was suddenly startled and almost dropped the sword.
“…..What is this.”
[You have recognized the sword.]
[Protector’s characteristic, ‘the whisper of the sword’ is initiating.]
[You have held the rusted long sword that is ‘sufficient for a novice swordsman to swing downward’.]
Material: Iron
Quality: Ancient
Owner: Jansen (1 Star)
Memory Retention Rate: Low
Note: It is an ordinary sword made by a nameless blacksmith in Leunghe. Having been left unattended for a long time, it does not appear to be easy to recall the traces of its previous master.
[Your present swordsmanship level is at 0 stars. Memory synchronization will be set to the lowest.]
[Training is needed!]
§
Van has never thought of himself as an extraordinary person since his head has grown. He wasn’t uniquely good looking, in good physical shape, or intelligent.
What he was good at was just climbing the mountains and gathering herbs, and that was his plan going forward as well.
Hence, the current situation has hit him as all the more being unexpected.
[Training is needed!]
Van kept on peeking at the flickering alert that came into one corner of his eye. The fact that the sword belonged to Jansen, but compared it to this…..
“Swordsmanship level is at 0 stars…..”
He didn’t know what ‘star’ meant, but the associated low number didn’t sound like a good thing. His skill wasn’t worthy of even receiving a 1 star.
The fact that he has received a 0 star was naturally appropriate as he has never held a real sword before. However, it was still disappointing. He did swing braches diligently, but it appeared that those efforts were completely useless.
After verifying that no one else was around, Van raised the sword. In fact, he couldn’t suppress himself from wanting to swing the sword from earlier.
The alert window was not the only thing that he saw after holding the sword. ‘Memory synchronization.’ It was a very unfamiliar term to him, but he thought he knew what that meant.
He swung the sword. The lines being drawn by it was sloppy as always. However, from beyond the sloppy lines, memories that rose up fluttering like threads were being absorbed into his body.
It was a refreshing feeling that he had never had before. When he swung the sword, he wasn’t alone. He swung as Van….and swung again as Jansen.
Even after a single swing, he felt that he knew what the issue was in his slicing technique as if he had swung it more than twice.
And soon, Van remembered that there were words of ‘sufficient for swinging down’ under Jansen’s title. After breathing, he got into a posture for slicing the upper body.
‘Different.’
He couldn’t breathe. Simply by getting into the upper body slicing posture gave him a fundamentally different sense from just before now, and it stoked his other senses.
Then how would he feel after he has actually swung and sliced.
[Recreating the swordsmanship with the master’s talent.]
[Memory synchronization rate is temporarily increased!]
“…..Wow.”
After swinging down the sword, Van could not talk for a while. It was such a mesmerizing feeling that he couldn’t speak. If it was a feeling of an ordinary slicing or piercing movements earlier…..The feeling this time around was as if three, or five sword movements were made concurrently.
As if the memory spewed out of the sword, like unwrapping threads, was being absorbed into every sensory cell in his body.
The sense of exhilaration that he has never felt before was being felt in the weight of the sword. It wasn’t because it was the true sword. The touch and the traces of its former master that was deeply rooted within the sword were being recreated through the ends of his hands, although it was rather sloppy.
It wasn’t a perfect slicing. Not the former master’s, nor his own. However, the present downswing that he has just performed was on a completely different plain than when he was practicing with the braches or wooden swords in the past.
First, he could feel that he knew where the error was with respect to his downswing maneuver.
The memory of the man who made thousands of failures was telling him what made up a failure. And so, even that failure came to Van as a kind of pleasure.
Ultimately, Van could not let go of the sword form his hand until the night has passed.
§
Ever since he took hold of the sword, he sneaked out of the house and submerged in training whenever he had a chance. As he repeated that and prolonged it, he knew that he would be caught some day, but he could not resist the charm of learning the swordsmanship, all be it somewhat late.
Van’s downswing today has become better than yesterday, and even just moment ago. Little by little, he learned the technique of downswing, without making any ‘errors or failures’. It was still too hard to even sense what perfect successful downswing would be like, however.
However, as he felt more and more with respect to the lines that he made, and the power that was being distributed throughout his muscles were finding more balance, he became happy as the muscle aches didn’t even come to his thoughts.
Of course, that didn’t mean that he did not have any more questions. He couldn’t help, but be dangled more by the strange phenomenon that has found him as he was feeling more relaxed as he became closer to perfecting the downswing.
‘Why did the master place the sword here?’
Van thought about Jansen’s image as it was kept in the sword’s memory. He even thought how a person could put everything on a simple downswing, like his master had done. The fact that Jansen’s skill was not at the earth shattering level could even be felt by someone like him who was a layman when it came to swordsmanship….So it was more impressive to him.
Despite that very slow progress, Jansen’s effort was relentless.
He couldn’t ask directly, either. And there was a clear problem that he had to take care of.
“…..What? What did you just say?”
“Let me borrow the sword. Just for a moment.”
“Are you crazy? Asking to borrow the sword from a guard?”
Dolby said with a ludicrous expression as he looked at Van. He was something else when it came to bravado since he was young. Dolby said no, widely shaking his head.
“Hey. Don’t get any foolish ideas, and just go make medicine. Sword doesn’t go well with a geek like you?”
“Come on, let me just touch it once. I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Drink, wine? …. Ah, no! The sword is like a swordsman’s other self.”
Clearly, I remember that he was the worst skilled one in the gymnasium as far as Van could remember. Dolby retrieved by looking rather like an authoritarian. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand it. Even the guards would have their own rules.
However, even for Van, he couldn’t give up at this point. It was very important to be able to feel his sword right now.
The fact that he read the sword’s memory was only because that specific sword was like a ghostly one….Or whether it was his own talent. He needed to learn what case it was. Only then, he could decide what path to take for his future endeavor.
Of course, based on the flow until now, there was a high probability that it would be his personal ability, but whatever it was, wouldn’t it be good to know it for sure? He was the type of person who would knock twice before crossing a bridge.
He had no choice. He had to use the forbidden move.
“I heard that you weren’t doing too well with Yuri, lately?”
“….How, how do you know that?”
“In a small village like this, such a rumor will catch fire in an instant? OK, I’ll make it for you. ‘The secret medicine for man.’ How about it. Still saying no?”
“Man’s, man’s secret medicine?”
Dolby’s eyes opened wide. Van put on a big smile. Yup. If you don’t go for it, how could he call himself a man. Jansen has always thought that such shallow medicines downplayed the decorum of the pharmacist, but who is worrying about decorum at a time like this.
“Yuri will be happy too. Just let me hold your sword for once, that’s all. No? If not, I’ll just go find someone else.”
“Hey, hey! Wait, wait. Who said no? Well, you have to give me some time to think about it!”
“Not too much time though.”
“…..You are just going to hold it?”
Hesitating until the last minute, Dolby took out the sword. Nodding his head, Van took the sword quickly from him. Before Van who looked blank as he was holding the sword, Dolby nervously raised his voice.
“Hey, give it back now?”
“…..”
“Van? Hey, Van!”
“…..Hey, Dolby.”
Van spoke in a vacant tone of voice. Insurmountable passion and delight permeated in his mouth.
“I, I’ll be a swordsman.”
“What? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“I said that I will be a swordsman.”
[You are holding a sloppy long sword of ‘unskilled novice swordsman.]
It was the moment that Van was certain.
He knew that he would become a swordsman.
Not an ordinary swordsman, but a very special swordsman.