Chapter 2 - A Wooden Sword and the Fare
The scent of the sea reached us before the sea itself came into view.
After reaching the top of the slope along the highway, I stopped in my tracks. Beyond the reddish-brown rooftops, a vast expanse of blue stretched endlessly into the distance. White sails billowed in the wind, and the ships far away looked no bigger than leaves floating on the waves.
"This is Coenna. We've arrived, Lady Eliana."
There was excitement in Luca's voice, too. The boots I'd worn while walking along the river for days were caked with dirt from the road. Pressing a finger against the spot he had repaired for me yesterday, I began descending the slope.
The sea breeze brushed my cheeks. The rumble of carts, the sailors calling out to one another, the smell of grilled fish—all of it swirled around me, moving along without waiting for me. The thought that I could step right into the middle of it all on my own two feet filled me with indescribable joy.
The grilled fish skewer I'd bought from a stall at the harbor had wonderfully crispy skin. As I bit into the hot flesh, the savory combination of salt and rich oils spread across my tongue.
"Careful, Miss. If you rush, you'll get a fish bone stuck in your throat. Just like the Hero did."
I looked up just as I was about to take another bite.
"The Hero was here?"
"Yeah. Gray hair tied back, scruffy beard. He came here toward the end of last summer."
"Lord Severan?"
"That's the one. Seems even the man who defeated the Demon King can't beat a fish bone."
Luca covered his mouth. Before I could even laugh, I found myself thinking that sounded just like my master.
"Is he still in town?"
"No, he crossed the sea. The moment he heard they served fish stew at the port over there with fish so big it stuck out of the pot, off he went."
The Demon King had already been defeated.
My master, the man who had accomplished that feat, hadn't settled down in a castle of his own. Instead, he continued traveling. Next month, I'll cross the sea. This very harbor lay at the end of the path those words had opened up for me in the woods.
I turned my gaze toward the horizon. What should I tell him first if I managed to find him? If I said, I cut through the palace gates with a wooden sword, would he ask whether I'd paid for the repairs?
"Luca, I want to see what lies across the sea, too."
"Of course. Let's find a ship."
He returned his empty skewer and fell into step beside me as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Buoyed by his reassuring presence, I headed to the ticket window at the pier, only to be brought back down to earth by the pitiful lightness of my purse.
"Twelve silver coins for two. Meals cost extra."
I opened my purse. Three silver coins and a few copper ones. Even after Luca turned his own purse upside down, we still didn't have five silver coins between us.
"...That's just for a one-way trip?"
"If you want to take the ship back, you'll have to pay for the return trip, too."
Fair enough. I might know my way around a sword, but there was no haggling over the width of the sea.
We left the ticket window and sat down on a mooring post. Luca recounted our remaining coins before looking at me.
"We need to set aside enough for lodging and food, too."
"Right. Let's work here for a while."
"I'll look for a shop that needs someone who can repair shoes. What about you, Lady Eliana?"
"I'm sure there's something I can do, too."
As I answered, a notice posted on the wall of a warehouse caught my eye.
Wanted: Monster extermination in the northern inlet. Fishing boats have suffered damage. Participants will receive a base payment, with additional rewards based on the number of monsters slain.
I read the notice to the end, then touched the wooden sword at my waist.
"This is something I have a bit of experience with."
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The next morning, a crowd of armed people had gathered in front of a warehouse at the harbor.
Swords and axes gleamed silver in the morning sunlight. Amid them, my oak practice sword was the only weapon that looked as dull and worn as the leg of an old chair.
"Hey, Missy, what do you think you can do with a wooden sword?"
A man with an axe resting on his shoulder pointed at the sword hanging from my waist. Several people nearby laughed, but the man himself wore a worried frown.
"We're up against giant crabs. Their shells are so hard they can chip the blades of iron swords."
"I can cut them."
"I'm not talking about firewood!"
"Neither am I. I'm talking about crabs."
The man stared at me for a while before turning to Luca.
"Aren't you going to stop her?"
"I believe it would be more beneficial to everyone if she stopped the crabs rather than if I tried to stop her."
He delivered the line with such a straight face that the man seemed to take it as a joke. With a sigh, he simply told me to fall back if things got dangerous.
Luca was checking the shaft of the spear he'd borrowed from the organizer. The only thing he had in the scabbard at his waist was the broken hilt of his sword.
"You didn't have to come with me. I could have joined on my own."
"I'll be crossing the sea with you, too. Besides, I'll still have time to visit a shoemaker afterward."
He adjusted his grip so that the spearhead wasn't pointed at anyone, then took his place beside me.
When we reached the northern inlet, the receding tide revealed a stretch of rocky shore. Broken planks from fishing boats lay scattered among the white foam of the incoming waves. At the far end of a tidal pool, an enormous claw slowly rose into the air.
The crabs were about the size of dogs. And there wasn't just one. Gray shells moved among the rocks in every direction.
"Please don't step on the wet, black rocks. They're covered in seaweed."
Luca called out to the people nearby. He tested the sandy gaps with the soles of his boots and pointed out a safe path through the rocks. I moved ahead of him and drew my wooden sword.
The first crab charged at me with its pincers spread wide.
Before stepping forward, I channeled my mana along the grain of the wood. A wave crashed at my feet, scattering cold spray across the back of my hand.
I dodged its pincers and swung my sword diagonally across its shell.
A single, sharp crack rang out. The giant crab slid past me before coming to a stop. Its legs curled beneath its shattered shell, and then it lay motionless.
"...She cut through it?"
Before I could answer the voice behind me, a second crab came at me.
I swept my sword low, severing its legs, then thrust into a vital spot with the return swing. The third crab approached from my left, so I redirected its pincer and slammed it against a rock. As its shell lifted, I struck once.
My wooden sword hadn't broken. The old grooves worn into its grip met my fingers in the same familiar places as always.
"There are more of them deeper in!"
I raised my head at Luca's warning.
An especially massive shell emerged from the shadows of the inlet. A giant crab as large as a wagon shoved the other crabs aside as it advanced.
The man with the axe turned around and lost his footing. He landed hard on his backside on the black rocks, and above his head, the crab's pincers opened wide.
Luca grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him back onto the sand. The rock where the man had been sitting shattered. Luca shielded his face with his arm against the flying fragments.
I stepped forward, placing myself between the two men and the crab.
The crab's other pincer came at me at waist height. Rather than block it, I ducked underneath. My wooden sword swept through the base of the pincer, severing it, and the heavy appendage plunged into the water.
Beyond the spray as the water surged upward—
I spotted a soft joint beneath its raised shell.
I exhaled and drove my sword into the gap. Keeping my mana flowing along the blade, I pulled it sideways, slicing through.
The giant crab's legs stopped moving.
I stepped back twice. When its massive body collapsed onto the rocks, a heavy tremor traveled all the way through the soles of my feet.
The sound of the waves returned.
"Luca, are you hurt?"
"Just a scratch. What about you?"
"I'm fine."
He got to his feet and helped the man up, supporting him by the shoulder. Once I was sure they were all right, I turned around and found another participant staring at my wooden sword.
"Is that really made of wood?"
"It's oak."
"That's not what I meant. I wasn't asking what kind of wood it was..."
After that, we checked the spaces between the rocks together and drove out the remaining crabs. When I headed toward the areas where they were most numerous, no one told me to stay back this time.
◇◆◇
◇◆◇
We had exterminated twenty-three monsters in total.
I had defeated eighteen of them, including the largest one. The organizer read through the tally twice, looked at my face, then read it through once more.
When we returned to the harbor, silver coins dropped into my palm.
They were heavier than I had expected.
This was money I had earned with my sword. Adding Luca's participation fee, we set aside enough to cover several days of lodging and food. We were still a little short of the fare.
"Hey, Missy."
When I turned around, I saw the man with the axe. He was pressing down on the repaired fastening strap of his boot, as if testing how well Luca had sewn it back together.
"Sorry about this morning. You saved my hide. You too, bro."
"If it comes loose while you're walking, please let me know. I'll fix it again."
"I'm not just talking about the boots. You saved my life."
Luca's eyes widened, and then, a moment later, he smiled.
The man bowed to me as well. I felt that I ought to say something in return, but my throat tightened, and I couldn't find the right words.
I had lost count of how many times people had bowed to me in the royal palace.
But even without the silver lion on my collar, there were people who could see me for who I was.
"...I'm just glad you're safe."
When I finally managed to answer, the man scratched his cheek bashfully.
That evening, the woman running the food stall gave each of us an extra skewer of grilled fish.
The next morning, a shoemaker at the harbor offered Luca some work. He was finally able to examine the boots worn by sailors, which he had long wanted to see. He spent the entire dinner that evening talking about the stitching on their soles.
Then, the following day, when we descended the stairs of our inn, two fishermen were waiting at the entrance to discuss a job with us.
"Are you the wooden-sword girl and the fellow who can fix boots?"
Luca looked at me. I looked up at him, too.
We had only meant to earn a little money for our passage across the sea.
Apparently, before our names could make the rounds of town, word of the wooden sword and the repaired boots had already spread everywhere.
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