Sword Whisperer - Chapter 3
Chapter 3. Reading the sword (3)
Van, the sword god, stood on the top of the hill. Wintry wind was blowing over the barren landscape. There stood a swordsman, before him, whose face was hidden. Based on the robe and bamboo hat, he appeared to be from the East.
Van, the sword god, asked.
“Are you challenging me, knowing who I am?”
“Certainly. You’re Van, the best swordsman in the empire.”
“And you still want to challenge me?”
“If not the best in the empire, to whom should I challenge?”
“That’s reasonable, I suppose.”
Van gripped his sword with bitter smile. Standing in a posture as if to be readying to strike downward at any time, he stared at the opponent who was soon to fall like a falling leaf.
The opponent was charging. He attempted to swing the sword like a ray of light, but it was no use. Van’s sword was quicker than the light. Before the opponent’s hand even moved, Van swung his sword downward…..
“…..Ah.”
Raising his hands up in the air, Van opened his eyes. It has now become a familiar moment. The ‘dream of the sword god Van.’ Lowering his hand from the posture of having been all set to strike down, he slowly got up.
‘At least the sense of shame is less than before.’
The sword god Van dream was no longer just bitter since he began to earnest train in swordsmanship. He thought it to be an unreachable dream back then, but now….. Perhaps, it could really be possible. Such a hope has emerged.
‘At any rate.’
Van chuckled. There came one more change in sword god Van dream since the training had started. That was, Van, the sword god, was always trying to ‘downswing’ in every situation.
He was certain that he has grown fond of downswing since he has been training for a while. It was rather interesting. Van got up and swung down with an empty hand, and he soon smiled.
“I have certainly gotten better.”
Although his hand was empty, had there been a sword in his hand then it would have been a perfect downswing.
Van has recently understood, for the first time, what it was to be ‘improving such that the improvements were even visible’ by people. With a single swing, he was able to experience when applicable, performing the same skill for two, or even five times, there was no wonder that he was sensing that difference each day.
His experience level was piling up many times faster than others. Was there any other blessing that was a greater blessing than this.
“This is the lowest synchronization rate.”
Then what would the maximum synchronization rate look like? That was, what if he came in possession of a sword which was used by a famous and super swordsman, rather than the one used by an ordinary swordsman like Jansen…..
Thinking about such possibilities, Van could not help, but feel suffocated with his life of living as a pharmacist’s apprentice.
‘Not much longer.’
Van has decided. As soon as he was to make Jansen’s sword skill, the downswing, as his own….. He would leave behind the passage of a pharmacist.
He knew that that moment would come not too long in the future.
§
Swing down the sword.
Downswing, downswing, and again.
The line that was drawn by the blade of the sword was overlaid by memory, and the blade of the sword again overlaid on top of that memory. It has already been a while since his clothes became soaking wet. It was also vague as to whether Jansen was swinging the sword or he was swinging the sword, in the dream.
It was tough. Even the muscles which he has developed through climbing the mountains couldn’t withstand swinging the sword each and every day. He went to bed aching, and even the speed in which he gathered the herbs has slowed. Naturally, the time for him to practice the sword has also been reduced.
Unless one was a fool, there was no way that anyone wouldn’t notice something was up with Van. However, Jansen did not say anything. Without a word, he would just simply give herbal medicine which he has personally made to Van whenever Van returned home with blisters in his hands.
What would Jansen be thinking. Did he know that Van was practicing swordsmanship. Van stopped thinking. As the days went by, his mind was filled with only sword.
Even to the point of forgetting about the overwhelming exhaustion, the ‘sword’ was an interesting thing.
That was, to the point of saying why has he only come to know this now. That was, to the point of being unable to contain himself from the frustration for not knowing it sooner.
Therefore, he swung the sword again, unable to contain himself. By reducing the gap a bit by bit to reach the point of the ‘optimal downswing’ motion that was being told by Jansen’s memory.
[You have increased the understanding of the swordsmanship of the sword’s master.]
[Memory synchronization is slightly increasing.]
Without even reading that notification, he was sensing that his swordsmanship was rapidly progressing. The unfamiliarity of Jansen’s memory was no longer unfamiliar. Step by step and even without listening, he was coming to an understanding on how the sword was held, how the sword was swung, and why they were done that way.
From that perspective, Jansen was also his master with respect to swordsmanship. Although, whether he would be in approval of it or not wasn’t certain.
According to Jansen’s memory, there was a very ancient way of training in swordsmanship. It was none other than kicking a tree and slicing the leaves as they fell. What was unique and special about that was the fact that what must be sliced was only a single leaf, even by swinging the sword in exactly parallel to the ground.
It was in the fall.
Unlike Jansen, Van had to slice a leaf.
Unlike Jansen, Van had to swing a sword which hasn’t even been sharpened properly.
The leaf crumbled as soon as the blade came in contact with it. It was a, rather, different scenery than what Jansen had made in his memory.
However, Van was not disappointed. Jansen failed more than he had succeeded according to the dream that Van peeked in to. Each time he failed once, Jansen had failed three times, and five times.
In the face of Jansen’s such dream, it was a very shameful thing for him to complain about such failures. Gritting his teeth, Van held the sword. While the formation and tearing of calluses repeated, his ‘downswing’, too, has become smoother.
Before he knew it, he was able to cut through a leaf rather than crushing it.
Before he knew it, he was able to cut through much less number of leaves than before.
From ten leaves to nine leaves. From nine leaves to seven leaves. In some attempts, there would be ten leaves, but ultimately, the count went down to five leaves.
Four leaves.
Three leaves.
Two leaves.
Then.
§
“….Why isn’t he coming?”
Aidan murmured.
Van. There was no one in the village that wasn’t aware of Van’s passion about being a swordsman. Even the members of the guard knew that it would be almost the end of the day whenever Van appeared at the gymnasium, so something was definitely up in the recent few weeks. The lad would always come to the gymnasium and showed his face no matter how much everyone chastised him to not come. However, that lad was a no show for an extended time, recently.
‘Did he really give up?’
Then it must be celebrated. That’s because he had tossed out a vain dream.
But then why so much interest in him like this.
Was he, perhaps, rooting for him somehow. By hoping that he would accomplish the impossible dream?
‘Only if he wasn’t Jansen’s apprentice.’
If that had been the case, despite his somewhat mature age, he would have brought Van to the guard unit and try to nurture him to be a guard, no, to be a swordsman. There weren’t that many lads these days that showed such passion in swordsmanship.
It was when he was in the middle of sighing heavily like that. Dolby approached and stared at him with a concerned expression on his face.
“Captain, is anything wrong?”
“Uh? No, nothing. Ah, Dolby. Have you seen Van lately? Haven’t seen him for a while now…..”
“Va, Van? Uh, hm, well…..”
Dolby stuttered momentarily in reaction to the sudden unexpected question. He couldn’t reveal the fact that he has received the ‘secret medicine for men’ for the sake of his pride.
He quickly followed up, not giving Aidan a chance to doubt.
“Now that I look at it, he said something like this. He said he will become a swordsman?”
“….Not wanted to be one, but will be one?”
“Yes. Well, I thought that he had already cleared it with you, captain…. Has he not?”
Without replying, Aidan cringed. Wouldn’t it be the case that if he was going to become a swordsman that he would show up to the gymnasium more often. To beg him to accept him as a member of the guard, or ask to train together, or something.
“Where is this lad, and what is he doing?”
“I’m not sure about that, either…..”
Dolby awkwardly laughed.
Then it happened after some time later.
Van appeared at the gymnasium.
He said that he would take the aptitude test to join the guard unit.
