Chapter 74 – The Nation’s Best Swordsman (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I think I put a little too much force into it, for the first time in a while.

“Hoo.”

I stepped outside the restaurant to cool down my heated body. Exhaling the breath I had been holding back, I steadied my breathing.

Extreme fatigue came rushing in, and even my finger joints were tingling. I leaned deep against the bench placed outside the shop and muttered.

“Even I really am…”

Was it because I had been given a proper chance to wield the knife again after so long?

In less than a minute, I had filleted three whole fish.

Put simply, that meant removing the guts, splitting the fish into three sections, and slicing it for sashimi all within twenty seconds.

But speed was only speed. In food, what mattered most in the end was taste. With agile knife work, I preserved the fish’s freshness.

As a result, I ended up exhausted after receiving endless praise and handshakes from the customers and came outside to catch my breath.

One of them had even called me a messiah for bringing dead fish back to life.

“I know it’s meant as high praise, but…”

Smiling faintly, I opened my palm and looked down at it. My hand felt good.

With how it felt right now, I could probably split a single grain of rice with my eyes closed.

After spending all my time cutting unpleasant things like magical beasts and people, handling fish again felt this good.

At first I had thought it would take time to readjust, but once I actually did it, the old feeling returned almost immediately. If anything, I might have surpassed my own prime.

“Maybe I really should just open a sashimi place after graduation.”

It was while I was thinking that when I sensed someone beside me.

I turned my head to check who it was. Unexpectedly, it was Nox.

“Oh, what? Aren’t you busy?”

“All the food sold out thanks to you. The boss said he’d handle closing things out. Your friend is helping with the serving. Chloe told me to go see you, so I came.”

Saying that, Nox sat down beside me. He untied the bandanna from his head and shook out his hair, scattering sweat. I watched him without saying a word.

Apart from being damp with sweat, Nox wore a genuinely pleased smile at the corners of his mouth.

The dullness that had once clouded his pupils had now given way to a distinct light.

‘For some reason, I feel kind of proud.’

When I kept staring at him, Nox stopped wiping the sweat from himself with the bandanna and flinched.

“What, do you have something to say?”

His tone was still stiff, like a period drama. But the hostility had completely vanished from his voice.

“That aside, why the sudden part-time job?”

“…Kang Geom-ma, weren’t you the one who said that if I worked hard and sweated for real, I’d gain something from it?”

I tilted my head. Then what I had said flashed across my mind like a bolt of lightning.

“Ah, right. I did say something like that.”

“Don’t tell me you actually forgot?”

Nox asked in disbelief. I answered him with a shrug.

“Of course I remember. You’ve really got serious initiative, don’t you.”

Nox awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. The corners of his mouth twitched visibly. Maybe because he could feel my gaze, he put on a deliberately vague expression and abruptly changed the subject.

“Ahem, ahem. Kang Geom-ma, I’m not admitting you were right, but… I definitely gained something from it. I learned the value of labor earned through sweat.”

“Well, that’s good.”

Nox was talking more than usual. He threw a series of questions at me about work, and I answered him sincerely in return.

Most of them were trivial stories about things he had experienced while working. But Nox listened to each one with obvious intensity.

“I still can’t believe you’re the same age as me. You aren’t lying about your age or anything, are you?”

“…Would it kill you to just say I have a lot of life experience?”

At that, Nox finally let his suspicious look go. Just as it seemed our conversation had more or less run its course and I was about to stand.

“Wait, I have something to tell you.”

At the seriousness of his expression, I sat back down.

He moved his lips once, then continued.

“Ordinarily, revealing the business of the family to an outsider is a grave offense. So I meant to pass this on through Chloe, but she never answered the phone. Anyway, that’s not the important part.”

Nox drew in a long breath. The determination in his eyes was steady and unshaken.

“The House Auditore has completed its investigation into you. Fortunately, there was nothing suspicious. So the request commissioned by the academy elders has been canceled on our end. More than that, the family head has begun investigating the elders in return. To fabricate a commission is, from our perspective, deception. The House Auditore is not their hunting dog. We are a group that exists for the sake of order.”

I listened to him quietly. It was a more serious matter than I had expected.

Nox tightened his brow and continued.

“A task force on an unprecedented scale will probably be assembled. With the target being what it is, the investigation will be thorough. Of course, I also agreed to help with it. I’ve gone on too long. In any case, I wanted to tell you this.”

“……”

When he finished speaking, I quietly organized my thoughts. The conclusion was that the House Auditore would not be targeting my neck. In other words, I no longer had to account for the possibility that they might bend to the authority of the elders.

It felt as though one annoying little concern that had been occupying a corner of my head had been resolved.

Sure, there was going to be an even larger-scale incident involving the House Auditore investigating the elders.

But that was no longer my concern. Once I finished my thoughts, I held a hand out toward Nox.

“Thanks. It couldn’t have been easy to tell me that.”

He stared at my hand for a moment, then gripped it.

“I haven’t really done anything. If anything, it’s more my side that should be tha…”

Nox let the words trail off.

At that, the image of Chloe and Nox from just a little earlier inside the restaurant flashed back to me.

Maybe because they were siblings, they had worked together flawlessly, taking orders and serving things with smooth ease.

‘Looks like things have improved a little between Chloe and him.’

I smiled soundlessly and gave his shoulder a light pat.

He lowered his head with an embarrassed look. After that, I brushed off my pants and stood up.

“I’m heading back inside first. Take a little more time and come in l… Ah, right.”

Just as I was halfway through opening the restaurant door to go back in, one question suddenly occurred to me.

I hadn’t used honorifics with him from the start, but Nox was my upperclassman.

On top of that, as a member of the House Auditore, he belonged to Bear Class. I opened my mouth, hoping to clear up the question drifting through my mind while I had the chance.

“Nox, do you know Hana senpai?”

“You mean San Hana?”

Nox asked vaguely in return. I nodded and added.

“Yeah. She joined our club this time, and since she’s in the same class as you, I thought maybe you’d know her.”

“It’s strange to see you taking an interest in someone else.”

“…Is that really the kind of image you have of me?”

“The version of you I’ve seen so far doesn’t seem like someone who pays much attention to others. It’s not that you’re selfish exactly. It’s more like… someone who came here alone from somewhere else.”

For a moment, I felt a sharp twinge. As if a small hidden weakness had been exposed. The fact that Nox, whom I hadn’t even known long, had seen through that made it all the more awkward.

‘Guess that’s to be expected from someone raised as an assassin. His instincts were sharp.’

Or maybe he had sensed something off while the House Auditore was investigating me.

Kang Geom-ma, meaning me, had all traces of his past neatly erased.

There was no way the information network of the House Auditore would have missed that part.

That was probably why he had been staring at me with such a questioning expression from a little while ago. And because I was so deliberately hiding it, Nox couldn’t quite bring himself to ask directly.

Even so, maybe his mouth itched to say more, because he kept glancing at me.

A brief silence. The one who broke the strange current first was Nox.

“In any case, yes, I know San Hana because she’s in the same class. She’s a female cadet who does nothing but quietly read books, with no especially strong traits.”

“Even if she doesn’t stand out, everyone has some notable point or another. Doesn’t she have anything like that?”

At my question, Nox stroked his chin and thought deeply for a while. He narrowed his eyes.

“Hmm, now that you ask, there is one thing I can think of. I’m not sure if you’d call it a special point, but… San Hana is always exactly in the middle of the class.”

“In the middle? What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Written tests, practicals, field exercises, training, all of it. She’s always right in the middle of the rankings. Even if someone tried to do that on purpose, it would be difficult.”

“I see.”

As he said this, Nox gave a slight shrug. His body language made it clear that he had nothing more to add on the subject.

When I tilted my head a little, my eyes met Nox’s.

His questioning gaze was fixed on me. He looked like someone with many things he wanted to ask. Then Nox’s lips moved.

“…Kang Geom-ma, you…”

But I abruptly turned my body away. A small night breeze swept past us.

“Anyway, thanks for telling me. I’ll head back in first.”

“……”

Gratitude was one thing, but there was no reason to reveal more about myself than necessary.

It wasn’t coldness, only a purely practical judgment. I didn’t want to start speaking lightly and create unnecessary discomfort.

Ignoring the look in his eyes, I opened the restaurant door. A rich scent of alcohol brushed the tip of my nose.

* * *

It was only close to midnight that the lights of Korean Sushi were finally turned off.

The customers, who had been drinking and carrying on all evening, clicked their tongues in regret and left one by one. Among them, the old gentleman who had first sampled the fish kept gripping my hand and saying.

“Young man, be sure to contact me. I promise you won’t regret it.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll contact you when I have time.”

I bowed my head and upper body. Only then did the old man smile in satisfaction and climb into his car. The black sedan, polished to a glossy shine, gave a rough idea of how wealthy he was.

Once the commotion had died down, owner Mansur approached first.

“Master, I learned so much today. I can’t exactly call this repayment, but please accept this.”

He held out a carefully maintained sashimi knife to me. I frowned and replied in a low voice.

“To a man who lives by the blade, a knife is his life. Can you really hand it over to someone else this easily, boss?”

Mansur looked as though he’d been caught off guard and hurriedly waved both hands.

“Ah, ah, if it offended you, then I apologize, Master. I meant no offense. It’s just that this knife is too much for someone like me. All I’ve ever done is sharpen and polish knives, but only after meeting you did I finally realize that a true expert should polish his own skill before worrying about the tool!”

Mansur clenched his fist as he repeated that resolve to himself. Then, with a humble posture, he once more offered the knife with both hands. I let out a short sigh and finally nodded.

“Well, if that’s what you mean, I won’t refuse it.”

At that, Mansur bent at the waist over and over. His eyes sparkled like a child’s.

“Ah, it truly is an honor that you would accept my knife, Master!”

“…Could we perhaps do something about the title Master?”

“Come now, I feel as though my life with the blade is beginning anew because I met you. I should call you my parent, if anything…”

“Just call me what you did before.”

People whose enthusiasm overflowed too much were always exhausting. I let his words pass in one ear and out the other, then shifted my gaze to the sashimi knife.

Light flowed across the blade in a way that made it obvious to anyone that it was a high-end item. In terms of craftsmanship alone, it felt closer to armament than to a kitchen tool.

Though I had spoken like that, anyone who lived by the blade yearned for a fine knife. I cleared my throat once and gripped the hilt.

“Hmm, hm.”

It was the very knife that had just been slicing sashimi tirelessly a little while ago. But now that I was thinking of it as my own, the sensation felt strangely unfamiliar.

The moment I gripped the hilt firmly, my first master came to mind. He had been a man absurdly obsessed with knives.

‘Even after always preaching that true experts don’t blame their tools.’

Whenever Master managed to get his hands on some shiny new sashimi knife, he always insisted on naming it. When I once asked why, this was how he answered.

A good knife was like a chef’s other half. Give it a name, and your resolve became embedded in it.

After speaking in that grand tone, he had given his knife names like Supreme Sashimi Machine and the like.

At the time, I had looked at him as though he were pathetic, but…

“Master, is something wrong? Is the knife not to your liking?”

“No. I was just thinking of what name to give it.”

“I had never even thought of that. As expected, Master truly is different.”

Mansur spoke as though buttering me up shamelessly. I smiled bitterly, but the truth was that I really did stand there thinking hard for quite a while. Various words floated through my mind.

“…Seori.”

I murmured the word under my breath. Was it because I wanted to leave some trace of my parents in this world? The word that had suddenly surfaced was Kang Geom-ma’s clan origin. Once I fixed my mind on it, my grip around the hilt tightened.

“…Permafrost.”

I grinned to myself. It was absolutely not because I was satisfied with the name.

There was a saying that one pot of greens was much the same as another. And so I found myself reflecting on how I’d once sneered at my master’s naming sense.

At the same time, I silently thanked the parents of this world for having given me the name Kang Geom-ma in the first place.