By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 34

Chapter 3 Episode 34: Point Of View

After I finished giving my report and returned home, I heard some lovely music. The Semroid Troupe was still in the middle of practice. Trying not to interrupt, I snuck toward the sound. After a few minutes, I found a nice patch of grass that gave me a good view of the troupe, so I hid there and watched.

Maiya and Sordio were currently up to practice their sword dance. Sordio had an ornamental round shield and longsword. Maiya had two longswords identical to Sordio’s, and she danced around with them as if in combat. Prenance stood outside the line that marked the edge of the stage, along with some musicians who were playing the music. As the dancing grew more intense, so did the melody. But when the two dancers drew apart and glared at each other, the song became forebodingly quiet. And as their blades clashed, magic was used to produce special effects like sparks flying from the blades. There was no spoken dialogue at all, but it was like watching a story unfold.

I had only watched a bit of their practice before this, when I left home in the morning and lent them the space. But they were probably just warming up then, judging by the passion they were displaying now. It was breathtaking, so I didn’t want to get in the way.

When the music finally reached its climax, Maiya swung her sword at Sordio’s neck, stopping just before it hit. He had been wearing a decorative cape, but now, it was torn from his neck. Sordio collapsed to the ground at the same time, so it looked as if his neck had been sliced. Then the instruments thrummed, and the show came to an end. A few seconds after their job was done, it looked like they had all settled down, so I stood up and applauded.

“Ryoma, when did you get here?” Sordio asked.

“I’m sorry, I’ve actually been watching for a while. When I got home, I happened to hear your music,” I said, unsure if it was wrong of me to watch without permission.

“That’s fine, but I had no idea you were there.”

“You kind of surprised us,” Maiya chimed in.

“In a sense, it’s our job to be watched. I take pride in my ability to notice watching eyes, but this time my senses failed me,” Prenance said. “How were the plains, by the way?”

“Well, not great, it seems.”

When I reported to the guild, I heard that they were getting constant reports on new colonies beyond just the ones I found. They wanted continued help with locating colonies for the foreseeable future, and they were proactive about requesting aid from everyone who came to the reception desk.

“If they’re not dealt with quickly, the ants might obstruct travelers and negatively impact the festival, so I’ll be working on that conundrum for a while,” I said. “If you don’t have any problems with practicing here, you’re free to keep using this space in the following days.”

“Thank you, we’d love to,” Prenance answered and bowed, followed by the rest of his troupe. After that, they got all their tools together and returned to town. It looked like the sword dance was the end of their show.

I saw them off and then got to training myself. For a brief moment, I tried imitating the way that they danced, but it didn’t work out so well. When I tried to use magic, I felt my movements grow stiff and awkward. Maybe those magic special effects would actually be a good way to practice using magic and weapons at the same time. When it came to using magic and weapons in conjunction, they could do it more smoothly than me.

■ ■ ■

A day passed.

“You want to know about our magic special effects?”

“Are you interested in becoming a sword dancer?”

When the troupe came to practice, I asked the two sword dancers directly. “When I saw your performance yesterday, I thought it’d be interesting to learn your techniques,” I said.

“I wouldn’t mind teaching you, but why?” Sordio asked, so I told him how I felt yesterday. My fighting style primarily revolved around using weapons and martial arts for close combat. I could use magic as well, but didn’t often use it in battle, so I was inexperienced with it. I also told them that I wanted to expand my skill set. “In other words, you want to see if you can use offensive magic the way we use our special effects magic?”

“Yes. I’d very much like to learn, if you have the time.”

“I don’t see why not,” Maiya said.

“I suppose so,” Sordio agreed. “We can teach you a little bit without taking too much time. We don’t use the same weapons, so it may not be exactly the same for you, however. Do you still want to learn from us anyway?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Then, can you make it back here around the same time you did yesterday? I’m sure you have work to do today yourself, so we can teach you after our practice is done.”

“Thank you!” I said. I was worried they might say it was a secret technique, but they were surprisingly willing to teach me. “Will I need to bring anything special?”

“Just your weapon is fine. We can just test your skills today,” Sordio answered.

“Oh, and make sure you have some magical energy left over,” Maiya added.

“Got it. I’ll see you tonight, then.”

“Good luck out there!”

■ ■ ■

Before I knew it, night had fallen. The excitement I’d felt since the morning helped me to find twice as many ant colonies as yesterday before I went home. When I got back as promised, the troupe members were gathering their things together.

“Sorry I’m late. Did I keep you?” I asked.

“We’ve only just finished ourselves,” Sordio said. “Let’s prepare right away. Maiya!”

“Gotcha!” Maiya shouted and came out from behind the troupe’s cart. She was holding some kind of package. “Here, this is for you, Ryoma.”

“What’s this, firewood?” I asked. It looked like a tiny log. The wood had been chopped down to a small enough size that it could be carried in one hand.

“We’re gonna start as soon as we’re finished cleaning up, so just give us a minute!”

“Hey, wait,” I said, but she had already left.

“You can let them take care of it themselves; no need to help,” Sordio told me. Watching how the troupe worked, it did look like they had the flow of this cleanup process down pretty well. My unpracticed help would probably only get in their way. “Before practice, take a look at this. This is one of the swords we use in our dances.”

I once again couldn’t help but notice how many little ornaments the sword had, but now that I was looking from up close, I also saw a strange pattern. It looked like it was painted onto the surface.

“This is paint made from processed rainbow slug fluid. It can store the light it touches and save a bit for later use.”

It didn’t glow in exactly the same way, but it was like a sort of fluorescent paint that used magic. When light magic shined upon it, light rushed through the painted lines. When these swords struck another sword or a shield in the right way, it looked to the audience like sparks were flying. But to actually achieve that required swift control over one’s own magic in the middle of a fight.

“And to accomplish this, you need some degree of mastery over the magic and swordsmanship,” Sordio said. “So the first thing I’d like to do today is test your skills. Once I have those results, I’ll decide upon the best way to teach you.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey! We’re ready!” Maiya announced, so we headed to the training area she set up. The rest of the troupe stood in a circle around it.

“What are you all standing around for?” I asked them.

“We’re going to help out a bit.”

“That’s half of it, but we’re also just curious to see how it goes.”

“I see. Thanks for the help,” I said.

“Then point your weapon at Maiya,” Sordio said. I readied my iron slime katana. “She’s going to toss that firewood at you. Slice it.” Chopping thrown objects in midair was one part of the sword dancers’ show, and it seemed that it was one step toward learning to exchange blows with others. This would be a test of my abilities. “You can chop the wood in whatever manner you’re able, but try your best to cut through the center.”

“Got it. I’m ready!”

“Here goes nothing!” Maiya shouted and lobbed a piece of wood at me. As this was only the first one, she didn’t throw it that fast. It softly arced through the air, and when it came into range, I cut it in half. “Oh, you did it? Awesome! Here’s some more!”

I chopped through the next one in the same way, then she threw another one over. They came faster and faster, the intervals between throws constantly shrinking. But I managed to handle them all. The firewood was running out.

“Last one!” Maiya announced.

“Got it!”

When I chopped the final log, the test came to an end. Curious about my performance, I looked to Sordio. He had a conflicted look on his face. “Let’s move on,” he said, and the rest of the troupe helped pick up all the chopped firewood. Sordio distributed it to everyone aside from myself. Then they painted the top and bottom of Sordio and Maiya’s pieces with red paint. This time I had to dodge the pieces thrown by the rest of the troupe while only chopping the pieces thrown by Sordio and Maiya.

As soon as I said I was ready, Sordio tossed the first piece. When I cut it in half, more and more wood came flying from all around. There were usually one or two logs thrown at once, three at most. I dodged those as I sliced Sordio and Maiya’s logs.

They threw wood from one fixed location at first, but then they silently nodded at each other, picked up their pieces, and began to move around. They ran outside the circle formed by the rest of the troupe, then tossed wood at me from between the other members. Not only that, but Sordio matched everyone else’s timing to make his pieces harder to cut, and threw them from awkward positions as well, so it was kind of frustrating. I needed enough focus to watch Sordio and Maiya while dodging the other logs, enough decisiveness to promptly chop the correct pieces, and enough skill to put this all into action.

“How did I do?” I asked after the test was over.

“I can’t complain about your swordsmanship,” Sordio said.

“Yep, you were great!” Maiya agreed. “Why do you need magic when you can do this, though?” We were surrounded by diced-up firewood. Even I was satisfied with the results of the test, but apparently I was so good that it prompted this question from Maiya. To be honest, this wasn’t a skill that I ever needed before, but it was something that could help in the future. “You must just love to learn stuff.”

“You’d do well to work as hard as he does,” Sordio said. “Otherwise he might surpass you in no time.”

“I’m already pretty sure that he’d beat me in a sword fight, though.”

After that conversation ended, we proceeded to the magic test. This just involved me using magic like normal, rather than anything special. But they did have something interesting to tell me.

“Silent incantations?” I asked.

“Yes, you can cast magic without saying a word,” Sordio said. “Sword dancers need to be able to set the mood through their expressions, you see. By casting spells without chanting incantations, we don’t have to move our mouths.”

“Well, it really depends on what school of sword dancing you’re coming from,” Maiya explained. “Some sword dancers wear masks to hide their mouths, and some even use incantations during the show and make it part of the performance itself. You can also have your sword turned into a magic item specifically for sword dancing. That’s actually the most popular method.”

“It’s heresy,” Sordio said with a scoff. “Back in the day, sword dancers enchanted their audience with excellent swordsmanship and magic alone. Nowadays it’s all masks and magic items with these people. They depend on simple tools for their magic, and they know nothing of swordsmanship beyond the basic stances. This is why sword dancers are seen as mere performers who couldn’t fight to save their lives.”

“Uh-huh, yeah, I know. I was just telling him, yeesh,” Maiya grumbled. I didn’t know exactly how long ago ‘back in the day’ was according to Sordio, but it sounded like maintaining old traditions was important to him. “Well, anyway, do your best!”

“Okay, thanks!” I said. This was a prime opportunity, so I wanted to learn all the skills I could.