Chapter 7: Can a Swordswoman Who Demands an Exclusive Counselor Be Considered Independent?

“…Hey, Nagi. I’m a good girl, right?”

It was an innocent, desperate, and terribly dangerous smile.

A-Rank Adventurer, Lise. One of the strongest swordswomen was trying to cling to the single point that was me, even if it meant cutting away the rest of the world.

If I get this question wrong, our future trajectory will probably be catastrophically bad. After running my brain at full capacity for just a few seconds, I carefully opened my mouth.

“Lise.”

“Yeah.”

“You are a perfectly good girl.”

“Ehehe.”

“And a strong swordswoman.”

“Yeah.”

“But, I cannot agree with that conclusion.”

Her smile froze perfectly still.

“…Why?”

“Because ‘not partying with anyone’ seems like it solves the problem, but in reality, you’re just distancing yourself from the things that scare you.”

“But, if I don’t party with anyone, no one gets hurt.”

“That is ‘not dragging anyone down’ — it is not ‘you recovering’.”

Lise furrowed her brows just a little.

“I’ll be fine. As long as I have Nagi.”

“I am a receptionist. I might get transferred someday, and I will eventually die like anyone else.”

“Then I’ll follow you.”

An immediate answer.

Hey, wait. Don’t trample right over logic in under a second.

I sensed Fran, who was watching from behind, let out a small sigh.

“…The pinnacle of irrationality.”

“Please don’t provoke her right now, Fran.”

After massaging my forehead, I looked at Lise once more.

“Lise. Being isolated is different from recovering.”

“…But, I don’t want to see anyone get hurt anymore.”

“That is a genuine fear. I won’t deny it.”

“Then—”

“The problem isn’t just ‘whether you form a party or not’.”

I lowered my voice slightly.

“It’s about your habit of constantly blaming yourself.”

“…Kh.”

Lise’s eyes wavered.

“If you’re alone, the situations where your comrades get hurt might indeed decrease. But, if you still keep the habit of thinking ‘It’s my fault after all’ every time something happens, changing your environment will only change the way you suffer.”

“…”

“Even if the enemies on the outside disappear, the enemy on the inside remains.”

Lise bit her lip. It was the face of someone who knew I’d hit the bullseye. It was just too painful to admit.

“Lise. What you’re trying to do right now is ‘live so you don’t get hurt,’ not ‘learn how to recover even if you do get hurt’.”

“…Nagi, you’re mean.”

“The ones being mean are the world and that habit of thought.”

“…Mmph.”

She made a slightly sulky face. But it wasn’t a face that was shutting everything out like before. She was properly listening.

“You don’t need to come up with an answer here today.”

“…”

“When your head gets stuck, moving your body is a valid option. Swinging your sword helps clear your mind a little, right?”

“…It does.”

“Then, how about you go do that for a bit?”

“…Okay. I’ll go.”

Lise headed toward the training grounds with reluctant steps.

Her back was slightly hunched. But she wasn’t sinking into despair like yesterday. It was the walk of someone who still had room left to think.

The air in the small room grew quiet.

“…Are you really just a receptionist?”

Fran was the first to break the silence.

“Yes, just a receptionist.”

“After stopping an A-Rank swordswoman with words alone?”

“I didn’t completely stop her.”

“It’s plenty abnormal.”

Fran stared intently at me without leaning back in her chair.

“If you were merely kind, you would have accepted that girl’s proposal.”

“That wouldn’t be kindness, it would be neglect.”

“…You say things like that with a straight face, don’t you?”

“I’m not calm. On the inside, my stomach is in quite a bit of pain.”

When I answered honestly, Fran laughed just a little.

“You are remarkably cruel, and remarkably sincere.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Yes. I evaluate you quite highly.”

She continued without missing a beat.

“As I thought, as my exclusive counselor—”

“I decline.”

“I hadn’t finished my sentence yet.”

“I’ve already learned my lesson.”

Fran narrowed her eyes in reluctance, but backed down.

“…Very well. I shall go home for today.”

“A wonderful decision.”

“But I will come back tomorrow.”

“You won’t budge on that part, huh?”

“Rational follow-up observation is necessary, is it not?”

“Aren’t you using that logic a little too conveniently?”

“Useful logic is meant to be used.”

Leaving those words behind, Fran exited the small room.

The type that closes the distance using logic is really troublesome, after all.

＊　＊　＊

Afternoon.

Once the mountain of paperwork had settled down for the time being, I directed my feet toward the training grounds behind the guild.

Part of it was that I was worried about Lise. On top of that, the intermittent sound of slicing wind coming from the training grounds was steadily starting to bother me.

Swish. Swish, swish.

That’s not a wooden sword. It’s a real sword. The sound tearing through the air was sharp.

In the center of the training grounds, Lise was swinging her sword alone.

She was fast. And beautiful.

She wasn’t just slashing with brute force. Her weight shifting, her footwork, her counter-slashes — there was zero wasted movement. With a single flash, the wooden training dummies were cleanly severed all at once.

She looked like a completely different person from the one who clung to me and begged not to be abandoned.

Ah, this person really is strong, I thought to myself once again.

“…Amazing.”

It unintentionally slipped out of my mouth.

Lise perfectly halted her movements and looked back this way. Her sweat-dampened silver hair reflected the sun, gleaming brightly.

“Nagi.”

“Did I interrupt you?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

Lise returned her sword to its scabbard and trotted over to me. Her cheeks were a little red. She was slightly out of breath. But her complexion wasn’t bad.

“Were you watching?”

“I was. Quite a bit.”

“…Did I look cool?”

“Yeah. Very.”

It wasn’t flattery. I was genuinely mesmerized.

With that single word, Lise’s face instantly brightened.

“Ehehe…”

“You really do love swinging a sword, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Because a sword always responds to you properly.”

She looked at her own hands.

“If you hesitate, it slows down — if you rush, it wavers — if you force it awkwardly, the swing gets sloppy. But if you fix your stance, you can cut true.”

“Easy to understand.”

“Much easier to understand than people.”

I felt a hint of loneliness in those words.

To her, human relationships probably aren’t as simple as a sword. That’s why she gets hurt, and that’s why she wants to avoid them.

“Nagi.”

“Yes.”

“I really thought about what we talked about earlier.”

Lise put on a serious expression.

“I thought it would be easier if I just didn’t get involved with anyone.”

“Yeah.”

“But when you told me that was just running away… it frustrated me.”

“…”

“But, you’re probably right.”

Lise clenched her fists tightly against her chest.

“I want to change.”

“Right.”

“Someday, I want to be able to talk and laugh with someone again. I don’t want forming a party with someone to be a scary memory forever.”

“That is more than enough.”

I was naturally smiling.

“It doesn’t have to be a perfect answer. If you can think that way, you’re moving forward.”

“Yep.”

Lise nodded happily. Thank goodness. This time, it looked like we might actually be heading in a somewhat decent direction.

“Then, as the next step, let’s lower the frequency of your follow-up observations.”

“…Eh?”

“It doesn’t have to be every day. Once or twice a week might be plenty.”

“…A week.”

“What you need right now is to increase the amount of ‘time you can regulate your own breathing without me around’.”

The color instantly drained from Lise’s face.

“I can’t see you every day?”

“It’s not that you can’t see me — it’s that we’re making time where we don’t see each other.”

“That’s basically the same thing.”

“It’s quite different.”

“It’s not different.”

She grabbed my hem tightly.

Yep, I knew it. I had a feeling this would happen.

“Lise, what ‘independence’ means is—”

“Being okay even when I’m alone.”

“That’s right.”

“But Nagi said he would support me.”

“I will.”

“Then, I just need to be at a distance where it’s easy for you to support me, right?”

Ah.

Those eyes are bad news. That’s the face of someone who just thought of something.

“Please wait. Didn’t you make a weird leap in logic right there?”

“I didn’t leap.”

“You did.”

“I didn’t.”

Lise started muttering and calculating something.

“I’m an adventurer, and Nagi is a receptionist… so if I go outside, I can’t see you.”

“Well, physically speaking, yes.”

“But, if I station myself at the guild full-time, I can see you.”

“Full-time?”

“Requests only in the nearby vicinity. I’ll only go out for emergencies.”

“Lise.”

“I can do guard duty, too.”

“I don’t need a guard.”

“But you got a weird letter too.”

“I can’t exactly deny that part, but please don’t use that as a reason to become my exclusive bodyguard.”

She wasn’t listening.

Lise was heading straight toward the “optimal solution” she had completely constructed in her head.

“If I’m a solo adventurer directly affiliated with the guild, I won’t have to form a party.”

“Don’t just cherry-pick that part.”

“But it doesn’t mean I’ll be a shut-in. I’ll properly work.”

“That may be true, but—”

“And I’ll get to see Nagi every day.”

It was a perfect, full marks smile.

No. That is not the goal.

“I figured it out!”

Lise suddenly wrapped her hands around both of mine.

“I’m going to become a solo adventurer exclusive to the guild!”

“…Come again?”

“Directly affiliated with the guild, basically in charge of nearby emergency requests and guard duty! That way, I have a reason to be at the guild, and I can stay right by Nagi’s side!”

“The direction of your independence is completely wrong.”

“It’s not wrong. It’s properly forward-facing.”

“It is forward-facing, yes, but the direction you’re facing is entirely toward me.”

It’s no use. My words aren’t reaching her.

Lise fully intended to adopt that future.

“I’m going to consult the Guild Master!”

“Wait. You haven’t even gotten my consent—”

“Wait for me, Nagi!”

Without giving me a moment to stop her, Lise sprinted out of the training grounds.

Her silver hair fluttered. Her footsteps were incomparably lighter than when she first collapsed in front of me.

…It’s true that she’s moving forward. She really is.

It’s just that her trajectory is converging far too precisely into a five-meter radius around me.

From the direction of the guild, I heard the sound of a door being thrown open with a loud bang.

“Guild Master! I have a contract to discuss with you!”

She sure is energetic. Being energetic is a good thing, but still.

I stood rooted in the middle of the training grounds and let out a deep breath.

Can a swordswoman who demands an exclusive counselor be considered independent?

…No, she cannot, at least, probably not in the normal sense.

Even so, if it means she can run forward with her head held just a little higher than before, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to deny her entirely.

Which is exactly what makes this so troublesome.

While massaging my temples, I slowly began walking back toward the guild.