小嫂子的味道

Reshi and I were walking through a tunnel and headed for the mouth of the cave. It was finally time for me to go, and that was also the reason why I\'d been quiet for a while now.

I\'ve spared you a lot of details you probably won\'t be able to relate to, but during these five years, I\'ve come to know a lot about Reshi. To explain it in short, he was a simple-minded person who wanted to avoid trouble, but he was of good heart.

And I\'d grown attached to this place too so leaving everything like this thrilled my emotions.

Seeing that the silence stretched out for too long, I finally decided to say everything I\'d been wanting to ever since we started walking. Thus I took a deep breath and made up my mind.

"Reshi?" I said.

"Hm?" He turned his face in my direction as he continued to walk alongside me.

"I\'ve never been able to say this to you, but…thank you."

"Heh, thanks? For what?"

"For saving my life, for allowing me to live here, for agreeing to train me, for giving me this sword…for everything."

"Haha, you say some interesting things, but keep that thanks to yourself. I don\'t accept those. But if you truly want to repay the debt you owe me, then you better stop this war. I hate it as much if not more than you."

He patted me on the back multiple times and a warm smile covered his face. I was worried at first, thinking I might make things awkward, but in the end, it all worked out and I returned his smile.

Soon we arrived at the mouth—the exit—of the cave. I was a little surprised to see the view from here had not changed at all in these five years. There were still dark-gray clouds stretching as far as the eye could see and flashes of thunder rumbling within them and the rough gust of wind grating against the rocks of the mountains.

I stepped to the far edge of the cliff, one step, and I would be down. Then I turned back and faced Reshi; a bittersweet feeling rising in my heart.

"See you later, Reshi," I said, knowing deep down that I won\'t see him again. He was free from the sword now, if this stood as he said, then now he was free to die, there was no one to stop him.

"What are you going to do now? I mean, how will you climb down?" he asked, a worried expression covering his face.

A wry smile appeared on my face as I looked directly into his eyes. I spread both my arms and said. "I won\'t."

With that, I took a step backward and let myself fall. The wind helped me push down as the earth pulled me toward itself. In no time I smashed through the wall of clouds and going through them I disappeared into the scenery.

***

"That was how I obtained the Requiem sword and learned to control my mana along with many other things which acted as the pillars for everything I did afterward, every technique or spell I developed," Req said and then took a pause, letting the silence fill in the gaps.

However, her words fell on deaf ears as Zero\'s mind was focused on something entirely else. He raised his eyes and met Req\'s gaze.

"True-red hair, green eyes, a sword powerful enough to slay dragons, and the power to see the soul of things. Could it be that Arthurus The Great was your teacher?" he asked.

Arthurus The Great. He was a storybook hero—a legend, who existed in this world. His characteristics were the same as Reshi\'s; green eyes and red hair, on top of that he was said to be so good-looking that the princess fell for him at first sight.

There were many stories revolving around him, and he was your basic all-good hero who stood against evil. In most of the stories, he fought against beings such as demons, powerful monsters who trampled cities, or evil kings who had become tyrants due to the great amount of power in their arsenal.

But the bad guys varied from story to story. Sometimes it was the evil stepmother of a princess, sometimes a hunter who killed all the animals in the forest, and sometimes they were just a bunch of bandits who were harassing a young maiden.

There were many stories about him and they changed themselves according to the needs of the lister, but in the end, all they were was stories. Arthurus The Great was not real; no one had seen him nor was there any proof of his existence.

"I mean, both of them have the power to see the soul of things and a pretty powerful sword. Wouldn\'t be so strange if they turned out to be the same person. If we follow your teacher\'s reasoning for why he was living in a cave despite being so powerful, everything pretty much adds up.

"The great hero gave up on the world when despite all the efforts made him he wasn\'t able to stop the world from being plunged into war. In the end, he got fed up with humanity when he saw their lust for power and the ugly nature of the human race. Thus he retired and disappeared," Zero finished and waited for Req.

His theory made sense, but there were some holes in it. Like why no one noticed when the hero disappeared, or why he was not mentioned in any of the historical files.

"That\'s a pretty interesting angle actually, sometimes I wondered about that too. But it was way late, and I wasn\'t able to ask him this since, during the time I lived in the cave with him, I had not heard about Arthurus because the stories had not made it to my village," Req explained.

"It was way late when I was out in the world hunting for the kings that I came to know about the myths. Although it was pretty much useless since by that time it was already too late.

Zero still wasn\'t satisfied and the topic piped his interest. But for the moment he decided to give it a rest and made a mental note to research this later.

"What happened next?" he asked.

At this question, a disappointed look appeared on Req\'s face, a dull expression that was so unlike her.

"I spent the next couple hundred years wandering throughout the world and hunting for the kings. And I was successful to some extent as I encountered the kings of the Askington kingdom, Acreyvania, and Swuisten multiple times. But I was not able to kill them as sometimes they ran with their lives on their palms or sometimes I had to retreat to save myself from the cliff of death.

"I fought them and it turns out Reshi was right. The kings were strong, stronger than anyone I\'d faced so far. They were powerful to the point that they were not able to die until someone killed them, that\'s how they were alive for hundreds of years. Though that wasn\'t particularly a problem for me since acquiring the Requiem sword had made me immortal too, but unlike Reshi I could be killed.

"There was one time when I was the closest and almost achieved my goal of killing the kings. It was in the Askington kingdom, I was able to chase the king out and lured him into a fight. He was more than half dead, but I stopped when I saw my surroundings.

"The shockwaves and stary spells from our battle had destroyed almost all of the kingdom and people had died. I regret it to this day, as I\'ve done the same thing I hated the kings for. I\'d repeated the cycle. Some kids must have seen their parents die right before their eyes, their hearts must\'ve ached too as they watched their loved ones burn into flames I lit up.

"They must\'ve felt intense hatred for me, just like I did for the five kings. They would have resented me and I\'m a courageous handful of them who must have decided to chase and kill me. Just like I did.

"I regret doing that to this day, and I regretted it even more at that moment, to an extent that I almost quit everything and gave up. But all of it was not negative, I did receive a push from that event which helped me achieve my ultimate goal…"