Chapter 17 TRG Vol. 1 Special Bonus Story 2

Special Bonus Story – As Told By a Certain Merchant

“There’s a kid I need you to take on your wagon.”

I was visiting a lonely, run-down village in the mountains when the old man, a retired adventurer, said this to me.

“If you’re askin’, I’ll do it… but what’s he to you?”

“My disciple,” he said. “He has inherited my sword, and my partner’s. He is my first and best.”

I couldn’t hide my shock at those words. Back when I was still an adventurer, I’d heard plenty of rumors about this old man.

A grizzled veteran who’d survived countless scrapes against monsters on the northern front line, and came back with all his limbs. One of the ‘Twin Walls’ of the front line, a man who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the ‘Sword Demon’ who took on monsters all by himself.

I was surprised when I’d heard a man like that had returned to his home village to be a simple hunter, but at the same time, I understood. That’s the path it takes, even for the strongest.

There are two main roads for an adventurer who manages to retire in one piece.

The first is to use the money and connections from your adventuring days to become a merchant, like me. Even retired, an ex-adventurer who can fend off beasts and bandits is the perfect person to deliver supplies to remote villages. That’s why the guild will even teach you the trade and give you plenty of support.

The other path is to go home and become a hunter. You get a hut in the mountains, work a small field, and manage the forest. The villagers value you, and you’ll never have to worry about food or finding a wife.

Whenever I came to this village, I’d drink with the old man and listen to his stories. And now, this same old man, out of the blue, was telling me he had a disciple. And his best one, at that.

“Is he really that promising?”

“I’ve never seen another one like him,” the old man said. “A kid that age… killing a monster, all by himself.”

He killed a monster? Solo? A kid?

“So take him. He’s too good to be left to rot in this village.”

I was about to ask if the old man was going senile, but my mouth was snapped shut by the sharp look in his eyes… and by the object in his hand. A reddish-black, twisted horn. The unmistakable mark of a monster. For him to show it to me now… it meant this kid he was talking about was the one who’d killed its owner.

“It had been living in that mountain for years, hoarding power. It wasn’t your average small-fry. It was an opponent I couldn’t kill. And that brat… he finished it.”

I’d heard the rumors about that monster. If it had come down the mountain, I would have skipped this village for the year. But now it had been subjugated. The old man wasn’t one to joke. If he said it, it must be true.

“Just take him to the nearest town. That’s all I ask. After that, let the kid handle himself.”

“You don’t want me to take him all the way to the Capital?”

“No. In fact, give him as little help as possible. That brat just needs to be pointed in the right direction. He doesn’t need to be taught anything else.”

He already knows what he has to do.

That’s what the old man was saying, without saying it. What kind of monster was this kid, to make this old man say that? I agreed, half out of my own curiosity, and half out of duty to the old man.

“Next time you’re in the village, let me know what you hear about him.”

“I don’t mind, but I can’t promise I’ll hear any rumors.”

“Oh, you’ll hear ’em,” he’d said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

At the time, I just thought the old man was finally getting soft, overhyping his favorite student.

After I dropped the kid off in town, I had to finish my business and head out right away. I wondered if the kid would even be alive by the time I came back. But when I finally returned, a long time later, the town was overflowing with stories that I could barely believe.

They said there was a kid who was hunting monsters, all by himself. A strange kid who lived in the woods, not even registered as an adventurer, who just… silently hunted monsters and brought them to the guild. In the short time I’d been gone, the kid I’d brought to town had become stronger than any of the local adventurers. Or maybe… he’d been that strong from the start.

I saw him from a distance one day. The kid from back then had shot up in height and had the face of a man. And he was leading a smaller kid behind him.

“That’s his disciple,” one of the local adventurers told me. “He’s apparently teaching him that same, crazy ‘monster-killing’ sword style. I pity the kid.”

According to the adventurer, he was working his disciple to the bone, every single day.

“The man’s a sword-maniac, but his skill is the real deal. A ‘Sword Demon’ like that… where the hell did he come from?”

It was only then that I finally understood what the old man had meant. Not just the adventurers, but the townspeople, the other merchants… everyone was talking about him. The quiet ‘Sword Demon’ with the single blade. The anomaly who, without being asked, just… kept killing monsters, all on his own.

“Old man,” I said, back in his village, “that kid you sent off. What in the world is he…?”

“Ka-ka-ka! So he’s a rumor already, is he?”

“You can laugh? They’re calling your disciple an ‘anomaly’!” I said, a little bitterly. I’d only spent a short time with him, but it’s not like I felt good hearing an acquaintance of mine talked about like a freak.

“It’s fine. That kid… he was born to swing a sword. My old partner… he was called a ‘Sword Demon,’ too.”

“You really shouldn’t compare him to a front-line legend…”

I poured him another drink as his cup emptied, and at his urging, I told him all the stories I’d heard about the kid.

“But… what you said back then,” I told him. “It was true.”

“Hah? What’d I say?”

“You said I’d definitely hear rumors about him. I went to that town, and all anyone could talk about was that kid.”

“Well, of course,” the old man said, downing his cup in one go. He was smiling. It was a happy smile, but also… a little lonely. “that kid is going to accomplish something great. I’ll never forget those days I spent teaching him. Even if all he ever called me was ‘damn geezer’ and worse.”

“Sounds like he really hated you.”

“And that’s fine,” the old man laughed. “That’s how hard I trained him. I beat every last thing I had into him. I’m satisfied… just being able to sit here, drink, and pose as that kid’s ‘Master.'”

Watching the old man smile, just purely, happily… I felt a little jealous. I wish I had a disciple I could talk about like that.