4: Sword Intent

One morning, several moons had passed since Eliza had slain her first goblin.

Right as soon as she woke up today, or rather, on any day, the first thing she did was make sure that Lily was right beside her.

Ever since her second day in this world, which went much the same as the first, instead of making Lily sleep on the couch, Eliza held her daughter in her arms so the two of them could sleep on the bed together.

Seeing that Lily was comfortably asleep in her arms, Eliza breathed a sigh of relief. In a way, she wished she never needed to sleep, so that way she could always keep an eye on her.

Though, she knew she was only able to say that because of how calm and restful Lily is.

“Rise and shine, princess!” Eliza said, holding Lily up in her arms. “Don’t you want to work on letters again today?” she asked gently.

For the past week or so, Eliza had spent every moment with Lily trying to teach her to read and write, thinking that her daughter was a genius. Eliza was extremely proud at how fast her daughter learned, despite the fact that she still wasn’t accustomed completely to being a parent, suddenly. It had only been a week since she had arrived in this world, yet during times like this, she feels more peace than she had ever expected to have in her life.

Compared to dealing with customers who complain that their boba tea doesn’t have enough boba in it, dealing with a kind, sweet angel like Lily was no problem.

“No…” Lily whined. “I wanna…go bed.”

Eliza giggled, hearing her daughter so tired. She was initially a bit worried about how often Lily slept, but when she asked the system, it had told her that her health was fine, and 12 hours of sleep is normal at her age.

“Okay, darling.” She said, gently setting her daughter back into bed. 

These past few days, although Eliza was wearing the same clothing as before, she managed to find enough cloth to make an adorable green dress for Lily to wear. She had also made many more things, such as a small satchel, a basket, and another stitched pocket on her leggings.

And thankfully, she only needed to scavenge half of the material from corpses… She was shocked, but the corpse of Blake wasn’t the only corpse she had seen this week, so far. The other half were discarded scraps, but they were enough.

Of course, she made an effort to thoroughly clean all cloth she obtained, going to a stream she had found in the forest and cleaning any and all ‘stains’ up, whether they be blood or other fluids. Either way, she had used a method she once saw her grandma do of trampling and beating the cloth while in flowing water. She admittedly didn’t know if it worked or not, but it was probably healthier than the potato sack Lily used to wear.

Eliza smiled, thinking about how just one week ago, she was a man living a modern life, yet she had already adapted better than she had ever expected.

‘But I have to admit… I think I like this life better. The neighbors are weird, sure, and I don’t yet have an escape plan to move into a better town or city, but… it’s nice.’ she thought to herself.

Eliza made some quick notes on a board of wood, writing down some letters in English so she can teach Lily later in the day. Luckily, the language here was English rather than being a new regional language just for this new world she lived in.

Or, perhaps, the system she had automatically translated everything for her and she just didn’t know about it?  Either way, Eliza was satisfied. She didn’t care much about the market by now, but it did help confirm that she could teach Lily to read without issue.

Though, she did still occasionally think about the old lady she met there who had helped her survive. If not for her, she might have starved that first day here.

When she returned from writing, Lily was still asleep on the bed, but had somehow grabbed ahold of her doll and was holding it close. Eliza realized Lily would probably be asleep for another hour and a half at this rate, so this gave her a chance to go out and maybe meet the old lady once more, then go out for a quick hunt in the morning before Lily woke up.

With a quick trip to the market, she saw everyone avoiding her, as always, but with her confidence boosted from several successful hunts, she wasn’t awfully worried about things like that anymore.

With a quick search, she didn’t directly see her anywhere, so she decided to go back, but when she did, she bumped right into someone, yet again.

And… this time, once again, it was the old lady.

She felt the familiar feeling of her pockets made heavier once again. Eliza shook her head.

“Thank you, miss. But… that’s not what I’m here for, this time. I’m here to thank you. You helped me out when I was at my lowest, and thanks to that, me and Lily are doing well. Thank you, genuinely.”

The old lady looked a bit odd at her words.

“I’m glad to hear that, dearie.” She said, smiling gently. “You know… I have heard a rumor recently. As it goes, I’ve heard that there might be an adventurer’s hall built in the area… It’s like a smaller version of a guild, you see. If you ever want a place that won’t discriminate against you, you could go there. If you have the coin, you could even make an order for food, or other things there.”

And then, she paused.

“Or even… a map to other cities.” the old lady said with a smile.

Eliza blinked, a bit interested at the idea. She didn’t realize her way out of this town was so close already. Looking down, she thought about how a city might give Lily a chance to grow up like a normal child, similar to her own childhood on Earth.

When she looked up once again to thank the old lady, she was gone again… Eliza wasn’t as shocked the second time, but it was still disappointing

She shook her head. Right now, she wasn’t strong enough to make it to a full city on her own. And that meant that she needed to train more, probably by continuing to hunt monsters in the forest.

After a quick stop by her house, she checked up on Lily, who was still asleep, and then made her way to the edge of the forest once again before venturing in.

And a mere half an hour later, Eliza realized how vastly she overestimated herself.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Eliza screamed, running back to her makeshift camp she had made, right in the area where she felled her first goblin.

Running right behind her was an orc, or at least an orc adjacent monster that happened to be quite big and scary.

It was 7 feet tall, big and wide, and wielding an entire tree branch as a makeshift weapon against Eliza. The skin of the orc was a pale yellowish color, and its head looked similar to a pig with two large protruding tusks going upwards. It smelled of rot, and continued to chase Eliza as her feet rustled, crashing into fallen sticks and leaves through the forest.

Near the big tree where she felled her first foe, she had set up several traps for a situation such as this, so she intended to run right back to her basecamp and lure it into a pitfall trap. But… When she arrived at the camp, all of her traps were activated, and in the center of the camp, resting near her campfire and log bench were two people. 

“Crap!” Eliza shouted. “You two, get out of here!” she shouted at the two freeloaders resting in her camp. There was an old man wearing a spotless white robe, and a young man around her age wearing brown cloth… that originally seemed to also be white. It seems he had trouble with her pitfall traps, Eliza realized.

She had checked her camp when she set out for a hunt just a mere half hour ago, so these newcomers had made quite a mess in a short amount of time. Though, she didn’t feel free enough to think on that further, due to the life or death situation she was in.

At that, the young man screamed, then the man in a white robe swayed in an unusual manner forward towards Eliza, pulling a sword from a sheath attached to his back as he did.

“Are you drunk?!” Eliza shouted. “Run!” she said, slipping past the old man.

As she did, the old man continued watching, and Eliza gritted her teeth, realizing she couldn’t let an innocent bystander die for her mistake. She pulled out her rough, damaged sword, and began running towards the orc.

But before she could, in her eyes, it was as if the world itself slowed down. The old man raised his sword above his shoulder, to the right of it, then swung it down in a completely clean line.

As he did so… the orc was cut completely through. It was like a line was left in the air where the sword strike was made, and the more Eliza focused, the more it was like time paused, frozen in that moment in the past. Despite the fact that the sword wasn’t as long as the orc was… the orc still remained cut.

As Eliza stood there, frozen in place, she wasn’t looking at the corpse of the orc. No, she was looking at the spot the sword had swung, as if temporarily entranced by the attack.

And with the orc slain, the old man, with his gray hairs laughed.

“Boy, fetch me the wine, then go chat with that swordswoman over there.” He said, sitting down on the log bench Eliza had made around a week ago.

The young boy’s eyes widened. But he did as his master said, bringing him a wineskin of goat hide, filled with a fragrant wine. The old man drank the entire sack at once, and then began snoring almost immediately.

“He’s asleep just like that…?” Eliza asked, stunned. “How did he… do that? The… sword?” Eliza asked.

“That’s just the way my master is.” The boy said. “Ever since he started teaching me the sword, he’s… been carefree. I can’t quite explain it… But it’s nice seeing him be more relaxed than before… And… If I knew how he did such a thing, I wouldn’t need to be training underneath him.” the boy said with a laugh.

Eliza thought about how teaching Lily new words, phrases, and how to do certain tasks made her feel… And she felt like she understood, just a bit.

“Anyways… my master called you a swordswoman. He doesn’t say that word lightly, you know. He calls almost all the adventurers we meet ‘newbies’, or ‘losers’ or ‘dumbass’ and even now, he still refers to me as only a novice swordsman… To be honest, I’d like to know why. What makes you better… What you have that I don’t. I know we just met… but… Would you mind being willing to show me what you have?” The novice said. His eyes had an almost golden glow in them, akin to as if he was chasing after the sunrise.

Eliza paused.

“I… don’t think I have anything?” She said, confused. “I just… I started swinging a sword for food, not to become a swordsman. I don’t know why he said that about me, sir.”

The novice swordsman nodded. His brown hair was still covered in dirt from the pitfall traps, so Eliza was not able to tell if his hair was naturally brown, or if she had done him a complete disservice in setting those traps.

“Just… tell me what you felt when you saw him swing his sword. That would be enough.”

Eliza paused. Then, she thought back to what she saw. The strike… It was almost beautiful.

As she thought, she began to explain.

“As I watched the sword move… it was almost as if a grey silhouette was left in its place. I could watch and see the path it traveled through that image. And I could tell… I would not be able to block that strike. But… I felt like imitating it wasn’t impossible.”

“I… see.” The man in front of Eliza muttered. “I’ve never heard of something like that before. I’m nothing more than a novice swordsman, as you know, but… you claim you could imitate my master’s sword? Do you care to demonstrate?”

He pointed his own sword towards Eliza’s rough scrap heap of a weapon, the weapon she had been using all this time. It was worse for wear, having been used in the forest all this time, yet the novice swordsman in front of her could tell that it still had enough edge to kill, if the need arose.

Eliza nodded. She knew that the man was testing her word, to see if she was telling the truth. She held her sword, pointing it up to the sky, then remembered the image in her head. At that moment, she recalled the path the sword had taken.

It was as if time had paused in her mind. The sword path was like an invisible line, filled with grey silhouettes of swords, showing where the sword would move. Each sword perfectly touched another.

Then, each of the swords split into two more, filling the path more perfectly in her mind. The swords overlapped, filling the space more.

And again, and again, until the movement was a clear, shining gray light. Not a single space of the movement had a gap in her mind.

And then, she demonstrated it. From the top right of her shoulder, she swung the sword in the same way that the boy’s master, still drunk and asleep on the nearby log, had swung his sword just moments ago.

The sword made nearly no sound in the air, much the same as the elderly drunkard’s had, but right at the end of the path…

A mark was left on the dirt. A mark on the ground, in an area where the sword had not touched. 

The novice swordsman stared, his mind running wild with ideas. How had she left a mark in the ground like that… especially when the tip of her sword had long been destroyed? Could it have been ‘that thing’ that his master always pushed him towards?

And then… a ‘pop’ was heard from behind Eliza.

Standing right behind her was that mysterious drunkard… who just mere moments ago was asleep on a log.

Eliza felt chills. She hadn’t heard his approach, or even felt the brush of the wind from his movements.

“Do that again.” The elderly swordsman stated. “Don’t worry about failure, or me punishing you for copying my movements. Just do it again.”

Eliza nodded, her mind calming down at the elderly man not being upset. Once again, she moved her sword in exactly the same way as before, and once again, a notch was left on the ground as a result.

The man nodded.

“Why do you think you swing the sword in that way?” He asked Eliza.

Eliza paused. Was she getting taught by this drunkard? She didn’t mind. As of right now, the most she could hunt were wild rabbits, or goblins. But just mere moments ago, she had seen this man sever the entire body of an orc with a swing of his sword. If she could do that, too… she could leave for a city, for a better life with Lily.

So she thought seriously. Instead of applying what she had learned about swords, she decided to think upon it like a modern person. After all, that modern thinking is what had helped her learn to the point she’s now reached.

“Inertia.” She stated. “To use the weight of the sword to cleave properly, and the reason for proper sword paths is to ensure that your momentum is properly carried without loss. If you think about the movement behind your strikes before you strike, you can ensure that you’re not wasting energy.”

The novice swordsman was confused at her words, but the old drunkard laughed heartily.

“Inertia… Inertia, you say?” He said, chuckling. “Nah, miss swordswoman. What you’ve got there ain’t so simple. I mean, sure, you’re right. Steel’s heavy, so don’t waste your effort when swingin, but you’ve got something else there that you’ve learned without even realizing it.”

The old man laughed, but not so heartily this time.

“You mentioned seein a path, huh? That’s not a bad way to think about it. What I call it is ‘intent.’ You told the world that you’d be cutting there and the world agreed. Of course, your actions of actually swinging the sword don’t hurt either.”

The novice swordsman looked at the old man with awe.

“Intent… This woman doesn’t even look 30 years old yet, and she’s already learned sword intent?” he asked.

The old man smiled. Eliza didn’t know about it, but for the novice swordsman, seeing the drunkard smile was rarer than any elixir.

“Intent’s helpful, but it’s still one step away from my level, ya know.” He said, grabbing his sword and holding it straight. “You’ve already told the world what you want, but you haven’t truly got what you yourself want pat down. You know, everyone’s got some energy inside em. Some people call it aura, a bunch of nerds call it mana, and those martial artists call it qi. Whatever it is, it don’t matter one bit. All that matters is you’ve got a world inside you, too, just like the world outside. All that energy’s ‘you.’ When you learn how to go beyond just makin the world agree with your will and instead harmonizin your own world with the world outside… You can do this.”

With that said, the sword of the man began visibly changing. At first it was like a light grey color began surrounding the sword… but in a few moments, that grey light began shining with a pure white color, becoming a radiant sword that cut through the dark of the night. 

Eliza stared at the sword, enthralled. She felt like her sense of fantasy that she wanted to have ever since she arrived in this world was beginning to be ignited.

“Everyone’s got somethin different. When you can do things like this, people call you an ‘expert,’ but it ain’t as special as it sounds. You can push your inner world to the outside of the world. Basically… What you’ve got inside of you can give you strength. Makes you stronger the more sure of yourself you are. When you get the inside of you strong enough to overpower the world, you become a swordsmaster… but I ain’t seen one of those ever. Heard there’s only 3 of em left alive, ever since the age of war ended… Ah, you can consider my teachin as repayment for using your campsite, little lady.”

Eliza thought about something for a moment, feeling a shiver run through her.

‘Swordsmaster… Lily… she was a ‘destined swordmaster,’ wasn’t she? Does that mean that she’s guaranteed to achieve that level of strength, no matter what?’

There was a strange mixture of curiosity, fear and one other emotion mixing within Eliza right now… but that third emotion was overwhelming everything else.

‘As expected of my daughter!’ Eliza smiled, beaming with pride.