This chapter was brought to you by the collaboration between PolterGlast and Saekano Translations.
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Volume 1 Chapter 2.1
The Encounter with the Forest Hermit
and Its Beginnings Part 1
Translator : PolterGlast
The Academic City of
Arcazam is a relatively new city, built about ten years ago.
The city was built
with funds and technology donated by various countries on the Arcmel continent,
with Solminati Academy as its center, with each district built around it.
The Solminati Academy,
its affiliated organizations, and research facilities are built in the central
part of the city, while the political institutions, including the administrative
offices that govern the politics of the city, and the wealthy nobles of various
countries that organize these political institutions live in the northern part
of the city.
The eastern part of
the city is the residential district, where student dormitories belonging to
the academies and many ordinary citizens live.
The southern part of
the city is the commercial district, where merchants and goods gather from all
over the world, forming the center of the city's economy.
There is also an
adventurers' guild, where students can get jobs depending on their rank.
The western part of
the city is the craftsman district, where many craftsmen gather. Blacksmiths,
artisans, seamstresses, and other craftsmen who utilize the skills of their
respective countries are engaged in a daily struggle for their success.
Outside the city, a
large highway runs through the southern part of the city, and narrow roads
continue to the north, east, and west.
However, beyond the
roads, dense forests spread out, preventing people from entering the city.
Spasim Forest.
Also known as the Void
Forest, this forest was originally a buffer zone between two great powers, the
Cremazzone Empire and the Forsina Kingdom.
Although neither
country claimed ownership of the land, due to the fact that powerful demonic
beasts inhabit the dense forest, the area was once cleared and a pathway cut
through the forest was made for the construction of Arcazam.
The forest is
inhabited by various types of demonic beasts, ranging from those that can be
defeated by ordinary people to those so powerful that even veteran adventurers
have difficulty keeping up with them.
However, powerful
beasts are generally found deep in the forest and do not appear around the town
and roads.
Deep in such a forest.
In a remote corner of the forest, surrounded by tall trees like giants, there stood
a hut that seemed to be hidden from the public eye.
Normally, such a place
would be quiet, with only the rustling of leaves and the chattering of animals
being heard.
However, right now,
there was a loud, high-pitched sound of metal striking against metal.
The source of the
sound was two shadows that clashed against each other in front of the hut.
One of them was a
bottom-of-the-barrel student, Nozomu Bountis.
The other one was an
old woman who, like Nozomu, carried a katana in her hand.
Her hair had
completely lost its color and turned gray, and wrinkles were etched across her
face.
Her name was Shino,
and she had clearly reached old age.
Both of them were wielding
the same weapon.
Both were wielding genuine,
unsheathed katanas, not the dummy swords used at school. Both wielded their
katanas without hesitation, weapons that would definitely inflict serious
injuries on their opponents if they made a wrong move.
*Clang!* The blades
collided with each other, and Nozomu's body was flung backward by the impact.
"Ugh…...”
"Hmm, that wasn't
enough, huh..."
The old woman quickly
stepped forward and swung her fist mercilessly at Nozomu's bare cheek,
whereupon Nozomu stumbled from the impact.
"Gah…!”
Nozomu's vision went
blank as his head was shaken by the blow. His upper body then swayed to the
side.
Nozomu reflexively
retracted his arms over his body as his vision darkened and twisted his body to
prepare for the impact.
At the moment of
impact when half of his body hit the ground, Nozomu rolled on the ground
without killing his momentum and tried to stand up immediately.
But before Nozomu
could get up, the old woman pursued and swung down her katana without hesitation.
"Kuh!"
Nozomu gave up trying
to regain his posture. He focused his Qi on his legs and released them all at
once.
Qi-jutsu [Flash Step]
A Qi-jutsu in which
the Qi concentrated in the legs is released and powerful acceleration is
instantaneously achieved.
Accelerated in an
instant, Nozomu rushed towards Shino's side and tried to escape.
However, Shino also
immediately activated her [Flash Step] in the same way as Nozomu. With an
acceleration that far exceeded Nozomu's, she went further ahead of him, and by
the time he realized it, she was already lowered her hips and was in position
for drawing her katana.
"You're
slow."
While voicing such
words, Shino's sheathed katana, which was at her waist, was pulled in a
flash... A strong chill ran down Nozomu's spine, and in the next moment,
Shino's katana was unsheathed.
"~ ! "
Nozomu quickly relaxed
his legs and threw his body down.
The flash of Shino's
katana passed over Nozomu's head by a hair's breadth, slicing off a few strands
of his hair.
Following that, blade
of Qi flew along the trajectory of the slash, cutting down several large trees
in a straight line.
Qi-jutsu [Phantom].
A technique in which
the katana is covered with extremely compressed Qi and released with a quick
draw slash.
Its concept is simple,
but the extremely compressed Qi is hard to perceive, and since it flies at a
very high speed, it can land almost instantly after the katana is drawn within
a dozen meters.
As one can see, the
highly compressed Qi has enough cutting power to even cut down a large tree,
and if a human were to receive such a blow, it would definitely be fatal.
As the trees rattled
and collapsed, Shino swung her katana down from above Nozomu's head in pursuit.
The katana, like the [Phantom] released earlier, emitted a radiance of extremely
compressed Qi.
Facing the swung
katana, Nozomu also put all his strength into his own katana, for an instant
tensing the muscles of his legs, which had been relaxed, to take Shino's slash
head-on.
*Clang!* A deafening
sound of impact rang out as Nozomu and Shino were engaged in close-range
crossed swords, competing against each other.
"Shisho! Are you
trying to kill me!?"
"If I wanted to
kill you, I would have done it the moment you tried to escape. I deliberately
went around your evasive maneuver and readied my next attack for you to see, so
it's only natural that you should be able to parry it."
Nozomu was angered by
the clearly excessive use of the techniques.
Shino, on the other
hand, stated without being offended that if she had intended to kill him, she
would have done so already.
The old woman was
Nozomu's master in the art of katana-jutsu, a vagrant who wandered into this
forest before the construction of Arcazam.
Her skill was
exceptional, and despite her old age, she was more skilled than anyone else
Nozomu had ever known.
Under the old woman's
guidance, Nozomu was thoroughly trained in katana-jutsu.
Quite literally, by
putting his life on the line.
As a result, Nozomu
had come to be regarded by Shino as [a reasonably good swordsman].
But even so, the
difference in ability between Shino and Nozomu was apparent.
"Hmph! "
In the middle of their
banter, Shino momentarily put strength into her arms and made a move to try to
push through.
Nozomu, judging that
it was useless to resist the momentary increased pressure by force, shifted his
body and tried to break away, but at that moment, Shino had instead relaxed the
strength she had put into her arms and went inside Nozomu's attack range.
"Ah, Shi-……
-gah!”
Before Nozomu could
regain his posture after being caught in a feint, Shino mercilessly slashed
Nozomu's legs.
"Guh…!"
Shino raised her
katana in front of Nozomu, who was about to fall to the ground.
However, Nozomu
quickly took a defensive stance and quickly regained his posture. From his
kneeling position, he quickly retracted his katana, assumed a thrusting stance,
and activated his [Flash Step]. He then raised his katana and launched a
horizontal attack toward Shino's now exposed abdomen.
"Mu…!"
Facing her disciple's
counterattack, Shino's face contorted for a moment.
The next moment,
Shino's body disappeared from Nozomu's vision, and at the same time, a strong
weight fell on both of his hands.
The weight, as if a
boulder had been placed on top of them, forced the katana he had thrust to fall
from Nozomu's hands, pushed it down, and it pierced the ground.
"Wha!"
"It’s over…"
As he heard Shino's
voice, he saw his master pointing the tip of her katana at his neck.
She had sensed the
attack that was about to be made against her, so she immediately moved her body
to the side in time with Nozomu's attack with her [Flash Step], and then with
her raised foot, she stomped on the oncoming katana.
"It's my
loss..."
Nozomu was annoyed by
his master's eccentric behavior, but he honestly admitted defeat once the
katana was pressed against his neck.
After confirming her
disciple's surrender, Shino slowly returned the katana to the scabbard at her
waist.
"You still have a
long way to go. It's good that you saw an opening in your opponent and acted
immediately, but you were a little too hasty."
"Shisho is just
too strong. Only Shisho can react in such close range..."
Nozomu stood up
slowly, flicking the dry leaves off his body.
"What are you
talking about? You were desperate in your last attack, weren't you? Your whole
body shows obvious signs of it. It was only natural for me to counter it."
Nozomu fell silent in
response to Shino's precise words
Actually, Nozomu
didn't think he would make it in time either, but his reflective actions made
him choose to attack.
"Nozomu, it's
almost dinner time. While you're jogging, go and get some food for
dinner."
That was the end of
the instruction. As if to say so, Shino put her hands on her hips and pointed
at the forest with her index finger.
Nozomu's routine at
the end of the training session was to do a light jog to loosen up his body.
"Sure, sure. Only
if I can find it tho..."
"What the heck?
When your master told you to go and get it. You have to get it."
"So
unreasonable..."
There was no guarantee
that one would find the desired food in hunting and gathering.
But the glare in
Shino's eyes as she looked at Nozomu was serious.
If you couldn't get
any food, I would give you a beating, she declared so while raising her eyebrow
and releasing a silent pressure with a frightening smile on her face.
Nozomu sighed at such
unreasonableness from his master and sprinted off into the forest.
Upon seeing Nozomu's
back, Shino's raised eyebrows turned into a melancholy expression.
"He still has a
long way to go, but he's a little better now..."
Thinking of her
disciple which was already out of sight, Shino muttered to herself quietly.
In her mind, she
recalled the first time she met Nozomu.
It was about a year
and a half ago.
It all started when
Shino was scouting in the forest and heard the sound of swords swinging from
afar.
The area around
Shino's hut was close to Arcazam, but it was an area inhabited by relatively
powerful demonic beasts, and ordinary people rarely came around that area.
In order to find out
who came to such a place, she headed toward the source of the sound, and there
she found Nozomu swinging his sword in frustration.
What was this
youngster doing in such a dangerous forest?
Slightly intrigued,
Shino watched him for a while, but Nozomu at that time was in a terrible state,
to say the least.
His complexion was
lifeless, his muscles were skinny and dry, and his cheeks were sunken and
hollowed as if he was starving.
The skin on his hands
was torn and peeled off, and his joints were inflamed. With every swing of his
sword, his body would convulse and he would lose his footing.
He was extremely
fatigued and malnourished, clearly the result of excessive training.
His condition was so
bad that Shino decided to interrupt him, telling him that there was no point in
continuing his training, but he ignored Shino's warnings and showed no signs of
stopping.
He was so skinny that
he almost looked like a mummy. However, the black negative emotions emanating
from his eyes were the only thing driving the boy's body.
He was dumped by his
girlfriend, blatantly ostracized at school, and ridiculed by others. The
reality that he could not return to his hometown and the fact that his future
was completely shattered due to the manifestation of [Ability Suppression].
The extremely
stressful environment caused by multiple factors had led him act out of desperation
enough to have his reasoning impaired, accumulating meaningless training, and
self-harming behaviors. Meanwhile, in her cloudy eyes, Shino could see herself
inside him, having been shunned from her hometown, and she could not help but
feel a terrible discomfort.
And then,
"Hmph!" She spat and immediately left the place.
After that, she
decided to ignore him and not to go near his training place, but as time
passed, instead of disappearing, her discomfort intensified and turned into a
sense of restlessness, as if she was being strangled with a cotton ball.
Nozomu's eyes, which
kept appearing in her mind even when she tried not to think about it, made her think,
"Oh, gosh! That stupid brat!". She went to check on Nozomu and found
that he was being attacked by demonic beasts.
The beasts that
attacked Nozomu were dog-type demon beasts called Wild Dogs. They harm humans
and could be found all over the continent.
Wild Dogs are
low-ranked demonic beasts, and although a single Wild Dog can be defeated by an
ordinary person, they are usually found in packs of several to a dozen or more,
making them as great of a threat as dragons to Nozomu, who was at the peak of
his exhaustion at that time.
Due to extreme fatigue
and blood loss from wounds all over his body, Nozomu's movements became
sluggish in the blink of an eye.
The Wild Dogs then bit
down on Nozomu's limbs in an attempt to finish off their slow-moving prey. His
was in a hopeless situation. Both of his limbs were severely injured, he was
pinned to the ground, and there was no one around to help him.
Amidst all this, he
surrendered himself to the fact that the beast was about to tear him to shreds.
With dark resignation
and despair glinting in his eyes.
The moment she saw
this, Shino immediately moved into the Wild Dogs hunting grounds and cut off
the heads of every demonic beast that had attacked Nozomu.
"Haa...... good
grief. How insane would it be for me to help such a death-hungry person?"
Shino confronted
Nozomu with a hateful tone of voice, out of frustration at being moved by such
an unacceptably immature person.
"Now then, You,
the inexperienced fellow over there. Your sword skills are so terrible that I
can't bear to look at them. If you want to die, I'll let you die after you can swing
your sword a little better."
"Well, there's a
chance you'll die before you can swing it properly though....", Shino
added while smiling provocatively.
A week later, in front
of a small hut deep in the forest, there was a boy wielding a katana instead of
a sword.
A slight spark of life
returned to those eyes that had been seeking death.
"I've been
training him for a year and a half since then, just for convenience, and
he's... turned into one hell of a monster."
Even from Shino's
point of view, Nozomu was getting stronger. It was far beyond her expectations.
"Does he even
know what he's doing? What does it mean to be able to confront my sword
head-on? ......"
In the previous combat
training, when Shino was fighting against Nozomu, what was enveloping her
katana was an extremely-compressed Qi blade that was on par with [Phantom]. It
was a blade that could easily slice through steel just by touching it.
[Phantom・Clad]
A Qi-jutsu (Qi
technique) in which Qi that is originally released as a flying blade of Qi, is
instead held inside the blade to maintain its sharpness.
The technique of
enveloping Qi in the weapon itself is a basic technique in Qi-jutsu, but since
it is basic, there is plenty of room for improvement.
The fact that Nozomu's
blade of Qi could compete with Shino's blade of Qi meant that his blade of Qi
also had the same level of sharpness and density as Shino's blade.
If the effects of [Ability
Suppression] were taken into account, his other techniques had correspondingly
reached a level not much different from Shino's.
This was quite
remarkable considering it had only been a year and a half.
Of course, due to
Nozomu's initial physical quirks, he was more suited to using curved swords
than the straight swords originally used on the continent.
However, she believed
that what made him strong was his own effort and, above all, his consistency, which
kept him committed to the task at hand with everything he had.
"He might soon
give up or lose the will to live again under such rigorous training. Or so I
thought, but that idiot disciple went through with my hellish training."
At first, he only did
simple movements throughout the day and jogged through the forest.
Naturally, he was
attacked by demonic beasts.
She secretly took care
of the ones that were too difficult for him to handle, but for most of the
monsters that attacked him, he was able to handle them on his own.
After the basic
training was completed, the next step was real combat training.
Naturally, Shino threw
all the skills she possessed into Nozomu to the extent that he was on the verge
of dying. Broken bones, vomiting, and fainting were the usual occurrence. Even
so, Shino never reduced the intensity of the training, but rather made him
continue to train harder.
An ordinary person
would have given up in less than a week. But Nozomu persevered.
"But that didn't
solve the main issue which was in his mind. He was simply able to avoid looking
at it because he continued to focus all his attention on the training in front
of him."
He ignored all his
problems and immersed himself solely in training to the point that he even forgot
that he was seeking death.
As a result, Nozomu's
mastery of the katana techniques improved tremendously.
He no longer suffered
serious injuries, such as broken bones, even when he fought with Shino.
However, the reason
why his performance at the academy did not improve despite his skills was
largely due to his [Ability Suppression].
His physical and
magical abilities were severely restricted, and he had almost no magic power,
such that he couldn't even use basic magic.
Even when he was able
to use Qi-jutsu to strengthen his abilities, it had little effect, and even
when he was able to do so, it was only by a hair's breadth.
To compensate for this
drawback, he had improved his katana techniques and Qi control, but the
techniques he mastered were inevitably too deadly, and their extremely high
killing power meant that they could not be easily used in the school's combat
training.
Fortunately, his
overall physique and footwork were not affected by his [Ability Suppression],
and he was able to thoroughly train his body and footwork.
However, due to his
low efficiency of Qi-jutsu and other enhancements of magic, his overall
abilities still didn't seem to be sufficient, and if his opponents were to
strengthen their own abilities with magic or Qi, his opponents would completely
outperform him.
It simply wouldn't
work. Moreover, the problem wasn't just his [Ability Suppression]. On top of
everything else, there was the matter of the mind.
Another problem that
Shino feared was that Nozomu was unaware of his own "escapism".
He only focused on
training and didn't demonstrate or show off the skills he had acquired.
He completely ignored
the problems that he really needed to face, pushing the problems to the edge of
his mind and not even trying to pay attention to them.
It was a kind of
escape from reality.
"The techniques I
taught him to have high killing power, but there are still many ways to use
them if he just wants to demonstrate his skills. But the reason he's still
hiding it is because he has his own problems...."
It's fine if he wields
the katana just to distract himself from the problems he has. But there will
come a time when Nozomu will have to face the problems he has.
[What are you living
for? What makes you strive to be strong?]
In other words, his
"driving force" will be brought into question.
If one were to develop
strength without a driving force, one would eventually be swept away by that
strength.
And Nozomu's driving
force had been destroyed once. He escaped from reality by repeating rigorous
training and even turned away from his escapism itself.
It wasn't hard for
Shino to imagine that this was precisely the reason why he had an instinctive
fear of human interaction and was isolated even at school.
"I'm not saying
that running away is bad. But if one were to turn away even from the fact that
one is running away, in the end, one will not be able to recover..."
As those words came
out of her mouth, Shino felt a bitter thought burst out of her chest.
The dark past that she
had been hiding inside.
The reason why she
decided to hide in this forest also started with the so-called
"escapism".
"I wasn't
qualified to scold my disciple. That's why..."
Being reminded of the
thorn in her chest, Shino resisted the urge to scratch her chest by clenching
her fist.
"All I have is
this Mikagura style of katana-jutsu. I will pass it on to him. I will leave it
behind so that my last disciple can break free from his chains someday..."
Thinking back to the
past that would never be turned back, Shino looked deep into the forest where
Nozomu had run off to.
"Ah. Well then,
let's see how my ungrateful disciple is doing. If he were to get entangled with
a strange demonic beast on his way, it would be troublesome later. Good grief,
what a very troublesome disciple..."
Letting out a helpless
swear, Shino jumped from where she was standing. Leaping over the branches of
the forest trees, she chased after Nozomu.
A self-mocking smile
flashed across her lips as she ran, unbeknownst to her disciple.
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