Chapter 5- The World’s Coincidences Converge
“…It’s been pretty boring lately.”
In a room bathed in the red light of the setting sun, a lone old man stroked his beard.
The way he crossed his legs while sitting in a soft-looking chair couldn’t be called polite even as a compliment.
Perhaps getting tired of stroking his beard, the old man listlessly reached towards the desk.
He sluggishly grabbed the cup of cold tea and brought it towards his mouth.
The black tea could be considered a top class brew. However, perhaps because it had cooled, its taste was sorely lacking.
The old man with the elven ears sighed and put down the cup.
His idle hand reached towards his beard once again. His mustache was slightly stained with tea.
“It’s been exactly 30 years since Slava died, has it… Too long. It’s been too long.”
He reached into his rough clothes, which seemed out of place in the room, and pulled out a crumpled photo.
The photo showed him with one other old man– Slava Shijima.
“That idiot… This is why humans are no good.”
The old man looked like he would crumple the photo, but he returned it to his clothes, taking care not to crumple it.
The old man threw himself towards the chair in apathy. Though his aged body lacked strength, the chair creaked under his weight.
The old man’s name was Chester Prime.
As founder of the Prime dueling arts, he was a martial artist whose name was not written in the spotlight of history.
In both human and elven history, there are those who are not depicted in history’s spotlight and remain in obscurity.
If Alma Shijima can be considered a representative of the martial artists on the surface, the old man known as Chester could be considered a representative of those who fight with their lives on the line for money and power behind the scenes.
–That old man, Chester, fought on even footing with Slava Shijima in the past.
Though he was an elf, he had wasted no time honing his skills, training so quickly it seemed he was in a rush.
Day after day he beat people. Before he knew it, he had reached the top.
His meeting with Slava Shijima was inevitable.
“Damnation. What I’d give to fight him once more…”
He had amassed his wealth with his fists. He should have wanted it desperately, but whether it was the chair he sat in or the other luxuries that filled the room, they all felt empty.
He was a man who was just about to surpass 800 years of age, and yet his hands hung lifelessly.
In the end, what was it that he truly desired? — The brilliant room instantly lost its color. Or at least, that’s how it felt to him. At that moment there came a knock at the door.
“Master, are you here?”
“Ah. I’m here. Enter.”
“Well then, excuse me.”
A maid came in through a pair of ostentatious doors.
The maid was beautiful enough to make him think that if he were 200 hundred years younger he may have gone after her. Her hands held something that resembled a letter.
“You have a letter, Master.”
“I can see that. So? Who’s it from?”
If it’s from some random person you should have just thrown it away, he implied, but the respectful maid looked at him with a smile.
“Shijima”
“—Huh?”
“It is from Alma Shijima-sama.”
“Oh, so it’s from the little miss. It’s been a while… Bring it to me.”
Chester’s expression changed at the unexpected name.
It wasn’t from the person he was hoping for, but there was no way that a letter could come from the person he wanted to hear from.
Even so, it was the perfect distraction. He signaled for the maid to come closer and gingerly took the letter from her hand.
He broke the letter’s seal with a satisfying sound. What greeted him inside were characters too refined to have written by a martial artist.
“That’s just like the little miss,” he mumbled with a smile.
The letter was formal and started off with a stuffy greeting.
The letter was too polite to have come from the daughter and disciple of the man said to be his friend and rival . He smiled at the fact.
It was a pleasant letter from an old friend.
While Chester was looking through the letter, he stopped at a single word.
The smile quickly vanished from his face.
The change in his expression was enough to make his longtime maid worry.
“Master…?” the worried maid called out to Chester.
The only time the old man wore such an expression was when he was furious – or just the opposite. The maid knew that he also wore the expression when he was overtaken with joy.
What was it this time? The answer was…
“Kukuku, kakaka! This is interesting. Oi, look at this!” Chester laughed from the bottom of his heart.
The answer surely lay in the letter he handed her. The maid began to read the letter.
She soon understood the meaning behind his laugh.
Changing the subject, I finally found someone to inherit the Shijima name. I plan to take him as a disciple and have him inherit Master’s will no matter what.
I thought I should inform you since you were Master’s friend.
His name is Slava Marshall. He is a young boy that, at the age of 12, reminds me of Master when he uses the Shadow Leaf technique.
They do not look anything alike, but somehow his image is reminiscent of Master. I would love for you to see him as well.
“—I see.”
“Kuku. Interesting, right? A brat with the same name as that idiot, she says. That little Miss Alma even says he’s like that guy.”
Chester continued to laugh boisterously. Anybody could see that he was happy from the bottom of his heart.
For that little miss who’s infatuated with Slava to say that they’re similar, just what is he?
–I wanna meet ‘im. I really wanna meet ‘im. It seems like my life has finally started to regain its color… It’s worth living a long life.
The old man finally stopped laughing but his face still bore a wide smile. He stood up from the florid chair.
“We’re leaving tomorrow. I don’t even need to say where, right?”
“Tomorrow? What about her lessons—no, it’s pointless. I understand. I shall make the preparations.”
Now that his mind was set, he couldn’t stay away.
His laugh belied his 800 years of age—it was the laugh of a child.
The man once known as the strongest in the underworld stood up—
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
“Aah-choo! …mm. I wonder if I caught a cold.”
If someone had been there to hear it they would have definitely said that I sounded like an old man. A bad feeling came over me when I sneezed and said that.
It was my day off and I had gone to the mountain that could be seen from school. The place was at a high altitude, so it was colder than at ground level, but since I was clad in magic I could hardly feel it.
Which is why I did not know why I sneezed so strongly but, looking at it, the cold and sneezing do go hand in hand. The only reason I could think of was that I caught a cold. but—I do think I take good care of my body. As a result, I had not caught a cold since being reborn.
Or so I said, but it was nothing to be overly cautious about.
–Hmm. I left the trip to the waterfall for another day and decided to thoroughly practice Shadow Dance.
I did not feel anything wrong, but I did not let my guard down. Going to the waterfall is a great way to train both mind and magic power, but if one wishes for strength they must take care of their health.
It was regrettable but, it had to be done. I looked at the waterfall with some lingering disappointment while I created a clone of myself and faced off against it.
After training for a while I had come to realize that the clone was slightly stronger than I was. In other words, it meant my reborn body had yet to catch up to my previous self.
The physical abilities of my body hadn’t changed much, but it seemed having better mobility did not make up for my shorter reach. The clone from my previous life had a much longer reach and could continue battling longer, which put me at a disadvantage.
I kept thinking about ways to deal with someone that has longer reach but… at any rate, this was a precious opportunity to train that I only had twice a week.
The ideas and strategies I thought up during those 5 boring days—I must make sure to test them thoroughly. It was my precious outing; I couldn’t just head home without doing anything.
“—Let’s begin.”
Like this, twice a week, I battled with my clone.
I had no intention of doing anything else today. I decided to hit and be hit to my heart’s content.
The mountain rang with the sound of each strike. Animals kept away from the area.
My fight lasted all day. I used my remaining strength to somehow get back the dormitory.
Since I did not have any magic left, I had wounds left in unseen places again. Even if I did only do it twice a week, I may have been spending too much magic on training. I needed a little more self-restraint.
I had been reckless, but I somehow managed to will myself to my bed. Soon the sound of deep breathing began…
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Morning came.
Even if it was an endless cycle, I guess I could not help but feel somewhat depressed when I thought about how long I would have to wait for my next day of training as the cycle began again.
I put on my school uniform and headed towards the cafeteria. The dormitory was one story tall and had its own cafeteria. Since the dormitory separated students by gender, the cafeteria on this side was filled with boys.
Today’s breakfast was fish. In my previous life it was something I ate often in my later years. After having had tasted the deliciousness of fatty foods once again in my new life, I didn’t think much of the food and simply headed to my seat.
I felt the cold touch of the metal as I took the fork and knife and expressed my thanks for the meal.
Hmm. It smelled nice. Even though it was made for so many students at once, why was it so…?
The smell from the fish really whetted my appetite. It truly bears repeating: fish really is great.
There is no doubt that smell goes from the nose straight to the stomach. I was so hungry that the fish was all I could think of as I raised my knife and fork to dig in.
“Ah, this is the one. Hey Slava, good morning.”
…The timing was almost as though Alma had planned it out.
I stopped my knife at the familiar voice.
Lately, Alma had been meeting me like this more frequently. It seemed that she wanted to make me the successor to the Shijima style. She invited me to become her disciple.
Becoming my disciple’s disciple would be a laughable story. Every time she asked I refused with a reasonable explanation, but…
Hey, during a meal—especially breakfast! What is this?!
When I turned to voice my complaint, I expected to find Alma’s eyes below mine.
But there was something there that I was not expecting.
–Alma was certainly there, but that was not all. Smiling at me was another familiar face that I never expected.
“Hoh. This brat, is it? I should say it’s nice to meet you, brat. I’m Chester Prime. I’m this kid’s master’s… His rival, I guess.”
He had an elf’s characteristic pointed ears, an annoying white mustache under his nose, and a body smaller than mine had been in my previous life. His smile could only appear to be sarcastic.
There was no way I could forget that face—
“What he says is true. Let me introduce him to you, Slava. He is my master’s friend, Chester. I wrote about you in a letter and he said he wanted to meet you, so I thought I would introduce you to him.”
Chester Prime.
My lifelong rival, he was so strong he was even called the Underground’s King of Fists.
There was no way I could forget that idiot’s face after fighting him so many times.
I see, that’s right. Since Alma was still so young, there was nothing strange about the fact that that old man was still alive, or rather, there was no way he would have died.
The connections from my previous life just kept popping up one after another. I felt as if though I was bound by the chains of fate.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login