The Wandering Swordsman

(1 year and 6 months after Klada Disaster)

[Kyrielle's POV]

My visit to my grandmother and grandfather ended a short while afterwards. As we are prepared to head out of the mansion... "Goodbye, mother."

"...Mmm."

Even though I know I asked Joanne to give her attention to mom, I know that you can't just fix a damaged relationship that easily. That's just not how things work.

"....Sorry, mother."

"For what?"

"About everything... After I got married, I wasn't able to even find time to visit you and I was just so happy and busy with my life back then... I should have at least told father and you about my situation."

"You don't have to apologize, I never blamed you even if I am angry at you for never telling me."

"Mother....'

"If you must redeem yourself, then do it by taking good care of my granddaughter. Your mother is old already, I can no longer raise another child."

"I... see... Thanks, mother."

"Regardless... I still want to see my second granddaughter. Remember to bring Marielle back to visit us when you find her. I'm sure you'll bring her back sooner or later."

"....I promise. You have my words."

"Hmm." Joanne grunted with a small smirk on her face.

"We'll stay in the city until the winter passes. For now, farewell mother."

"Goodbye, Grandma."

"I'll see those two out, mistress."

With Beaman leading the way out for us, both mom and I turned to the exit and started walking....

"Wait a moment."

"....What is it, mother?"

"How about you two stay here until then? This mansion feels empty ever since your father stopped accepting guests, and your brother is still away. Don't you think it'd be more lively that way?"

"Mother.... What do you think, Kyrie?"

"I'd certainly like to stay here. We don't have to pay rent, that's a good thing!"

"Hahaha, money is important afterall. Then we will stay here for now, Mother."

"Very well. Maids, prepare the guest rooms."

"Yes, mistress." (4x)

______________

Even though we decided to stay in the Barret mansion, we went back out of to regroup with the rest of our party members.

To pass time, we decided to accept a quest in order to earn some money for the winter because the other three party members still need finances.

"Hmm... There is an extra pay bonus for goblin hunting, shall we do it?" Said mom as she took a poster off of the billboard inside the guild.

"They are going for 50 coppers a kill... That is a very handsome price."

"If we do it properly we'd earn enough to cover our entire expenses during the winter!"

"Hmm... I need some money to repair my katana as well. It's been broken for half a year already, I can't exactly have it stay that way right?"

"....So you all want to do this right? Let's do it tomorrow then!"

"Oh!" (4x)

____________

The next day came, we sets off for a nearby mountain in the morning where an abandoned village lies.

(8:00 a.m.)

After about 2 hours of travelling we soon reached our destination... The mountain that had a ruined village in the woods. The ruined village is nested by many goblins, a great hunting grounds. While it is a bit dangerous for normal adventurers to take on, we are confident that we can take them on.

Besides, this goblin tribe is not that dangerous because they haven't learned how to use bows. A single Goblin's rank can jump from E to C just because they have projectiles, but luckily these ones doesn't have such technology.

Following the highway we arrived at a closed off road that leads into the village. We left our horses there, and headed deeper into the woods.

As we travelled along the small mud road...

"...Everyone, I hear something." Said Gazeth, with his unusually good hearing.

"What is it?"

"....Sword clashes further down the road."

It seems that someone is already fighting goblins before us.

We all looked at each other in the eye...

"...Let's go everyone!"

"Oh!" (4x)

Blaze Edges.

Preparing to fight, I summoned four fire swords hovering just over my shoulders.

Gareth turned to me, looking concerned over my magic. "Kyrie... Try not to burn down the forest this time alright?"

"Haha... I'll have to rely on Jenny to cast Fused magic with me then!"

"Oh? Just give me the signal when you want to do one."

"Got it."

Jenny is specialized in wind magic... And although I'm only good at fire magic, my earth magic is also somewhat better than normal. It's my go to magic right after shooting Blaze Edges, which is just a stronger version of Mana Bullet and Mana Balls.

As for our team combos, I have three with Jenny... Explaining it is a bit difficult, so we'll just have to use it in a fight.

"....Hostiles to the sides!" Said Gazeth.

Quite a few goblins jumped out from the bushes on both sides, we didn't even notice their presence before we walked right into their trap! "Grahh!" (?x)

They surrounded us... I can't tell how many there are but they outnumber us about 3 to 1.

"Shit, Kyrie rear guard!" Yelled Gareth as raises his great sword to guard both Jenny and Gazeth, leaving their back to me.

"Very well!" I immediately turned around and prepared myself to fight.

"Grah!" One of the goblin threw a knife at me...

'Tink!' I easily caught the blade in my hand... It pierced my skin, but that's all it did.

"Careful, there's toxin in their blades! Lord of blight and poison, relieve this one from one of thou's curse and allow this one to receive your blessings. Detoxification!"

A purple aura engulfed my body, apparently a miracle that cleanses me of any poisons and make me resist them. "Thank you!"

"Watch out Kyrie, there's a lot of them. We'll leave them to you!"

A few of the goblins rushed forward ready to attack me.

Blaze Edges, Round Trip!

The fire blades behind my back starts to spin rapidly like a buzz saw....

"Grah?!" (?x)

'Fwuosh!' (4x) I sent my blades out at them, slicing up every single goblin that tried to rush at me.

"Come back!" With my control, all of the swords flew back at me and hovered above my shoulders again.

"Kyrie! Combo A!" Yelled Jenny from the back.

"Okay! Within the very lands lies an impenetrable wall...." I paused and waited for Jenny's signal.

"Now!.... Wind Blast!"

'Fwuom!' I turned around and saw that as a few of the goblins rushed forward trying to assault Gareth, he jumped out of the way for Jenny to blast them with winds, pushing them back.

"Earth Wall!"

'Thump!' As the goblins was blew away, I raised an Earth Wall for them to knock into, stunning them in the process.

"Behind you, Kyrie!" Gazeth yelled out as he shoots an arrow at my direction. I immediately ducked my head and...

'Stab!' The arrow impales a goblin that was trying to hit me.

"Thanks!" I turned back around to the goblins behind where I grabbed a Blaze Edge to use as a melee weapon and fight off another goblin that tried to attack me.

Jenny finishes our combo. "Saint of the air, guide my path and grant me the ability to slice through my obstacles, Wind blade!"

'Slash!' Without even turning around, I can tell that Jenny used an arc of wind to slice up all the foes caught in the Earth Wall, killing them all in an instant. This is Combo A, one of the three magic combos that we came up with.

"Nice work ladies! Yah!"

'Tank!' With a swing of his greatsword, Gareth slams it down at the goblin that I was fighting with.

With that, the fight is over.

"Good work everyone! That was some fantastic teamwork there. Gather up the goblin's ears."

The ears of the goblins were used as proof for our kills, we put all the ears into a bag.... It's nasty, because we are literally skinning ears!

"Urgh... I don't want to ever skin goblins again."

"You'll get used to it." Gazeth said, with a hint of compassion in his voice.

"Ahaha.... I'll never fight goblins again in the future."

Immediately as I said so, Jenny yelled out to me. "That is a good choice Kyrie! Goblins are despicable and brutal, they use tricks and poisons to harass their victim, and cute girls like us will get taken back to their nest to make babies!"

"What... the fuck?... That's... Isn't that like extremely dangerous?!"

I need you here, goblin slayer.

But before my mind could go haywire, Gareth yelled out to Jenny instead. "Shut your fantasies, what are you saying to a girl her age? Goblins don't 'use' humans for babies!"

"Hahaha, I was just scaring her since she's so strong!"

"Jenny... Mana Ball!" I shot a really small Mana ball at her feet. The Mana ball exploded lightly and blew up her skirt, flashing everyone in the party with the sight of her panties.

"Kya?! Kyrie!" Gareth and Gazeth looked away respectfully.

"Sigh... Can we please focus on cutting the ears?"

____________

After a little while of messing around, we soon gathered all of the goblin's ears. We skinned about 12 pairs of goblin ears, enough to earn us almost an entire month's wages.

"Let's proceed onwards now. There is still that unknown sword clashes that we have to worry about."

We walked deeper into the forest. Following the trail that leads to the village, we soon arrive on a section of the road full of goblin corpses.

"This again... Dead goblins, slash wounds, clean cut." Gareth said as he kneeled down and analyzed one of the corpses.

"It's the same person from yesterday. Their ears aren't cut off, the person who did this didn't do so for money."

"Interesting, I wonder if they are further down the road into the village?"

"Well, only one way to find out.... Let's hurry."

Hearing Gareth's words, we all jogged lightly following the trail. Soon, we arrived at the entrance of the ruined village...

We saw even more dead goblins on the entrance, but more importantly...

'Tink... Tank... Clank...'

"It's sounds of fighting!"

"Let's go!"

"Oh!" (4x)

Upon entering the ruined village, I saw a very familiar-looking man wearing a straw hat fighting with goblins. On his hand is a slim, curved blade with a small round guard by the handle.... A katana.

He is the same guy that we passed by yesterday when approaching the city.... He is about 100 meters ahead of us, a bit too far to reliably hit anything with magic or arrows.

He's fighting at least 30 goblins in the middle of the street... And it seems that he was about to be overwhelmed.

"I'll proceed ahead to assist him!" I said as I jumped up the sky.

"Kyrie, wait!"

Thruster Flight. 'Bwuom!'

With a burst of my thrusters, I flew forward at the man and closed the distance in seconds....

"...What the?!" The man saw me approaching and immediately jumped out of the way.

This is perfect... Incinerate!

'Bwuom!!!' Him jumping out of the way meant that I can blast the entire street ahead of me with flames.

Using Incinerate like a brake, I fired out a sea of flames and engulfed the entire street with it, burning up multiple goblins and killing whatever caught in the blast.

"Grah!!!" (?x)

'Thud!' The blast slowed me down enough for me to land on the ground safely without issues.

"You... Just who the hell are you?" Said the man immediately, as he points his katana at me.

"Woah! Please don't point that at me, I'm friendly."

"....Hmpt." With a grunt, he sheathed his katana back to his saya, making a satisfying clicking noise.

"Kyrie! I warned you!" Gareth ran up to me, with his greatsword in hand, immediately pulling me away from the man and covering me with his body.

"Stop it Gareth, he was just surprised."

"Is that so?... Sorry about that, this girl has issues with controlling herself." He smacked my head as he said that to the stranger.

"I don't mind. In fact, I am thankful." As he said that, the rest of my party members caught up to us.

"Huh?"

"I was actually getting annoyed by the amount of goblins here. You dispatched them all in an instant, it's impressive. What's your name?"

"I'm Kyrielle."

"Ki... rieru?" He said my name with a weird accent, mispronouncing all the tones in my name....

Come to think of it, I didn't notice it before but this man here actually looks Japanese. Is he from the Moonfall Continent?

"Well... You can call me whatever."

"Regardless, my name is Watabe, thanks for your assistance back there. Looking at you five, you must be travellers huh? Are you all hunting goblins as well?"

Mom stepped in to answer him instead. "Yes, we received a quest to kill these monsters and came here to do exactly that."

"A quest? Do people hire you to do that?"

"Correct. Since you don't know that, are you not an adventurer then?"

"That's right. I'm not an adventurer, just a travelling swordsman."

"A travelling swordsman?" (5x)

"Why are your travelling?"

"In my culture, swordsmen will travel the world in search of stronger opponents to duel in order to hone their skills. That is what I'm doing...."

"Oh, a martial art journey!"

Back in Japan, I've heard of warriors travelling the country to duel skilled opponents... Miyamoto Musashi, a famous swordsman has done that after all.

"Hmm.... Since we are all killing goblins, why don't you join us for now as well? This can make things easier, and we can cooperate." Mom in

"I'd be glad to work with you. Shall we proceed then?"

"Yes. Do keep in mind that we are going to cut off goblin's ears as proof for the kills.... So don't be surprised if you saw us doing that."

"Understood. I've scouted this village's layout... The goblins that this girl just blasted away are the last of them, but just down the road is a big mansion where the main nest is. We need to head down there and destroy it."

"Thanks for the information. Everyone, let's go!"

"Oh!" (4x)

We headed deeper into the village... Most of the abandoned buildings are all burning from my blast of Incineration, and the ones that aren't burning are ones that didn't get caught in the fire.

Just one spell... I have the power to almost eradicate half of a village with just one spell. This is the power I have now, the fire power of my affinity for fire magic.

As we walked down the street, we soon came to an area of the village where weare met with a double storied big house. A group of goblins holding wood shields stand guard on the gate to the house, waiting for us to arrive.

Multiple goblins also gathered on the second story of the building, seeming like they had some sort of projectile weapons to handle us.

"....Heads up, goblin shaman on the second floor and a hobgoblin on the floor." Said Gazeth, with his keen eye sight.

"A shaman and a hob?" I asked out, curious.

"A goblin that can use magic is called a shaman... A hobgoblin is an unusually large and strong goblin, about the size of an ogre."

"I see... Not that it makes a difference if I blast them all at once-"

"Stop it, girl. You'll handle the second floor, leave the ground to me... this would be a great test for my skills!"

"A test huh? Hahaha, understood!"

This guy is real about wanting to hone his techniques huh?

"Kyrie, I trust that we can leave the shaman to you?"

"Yep. One two three.... There's only five of them up there, I can handle them."

"Good. The rest of us will back up Watabe."

"Understood!" (3x)

"Now... Let's go!"

"Yah!!!" (3x) Except mom and Jenny, the rest of people charged towards the mansion's gate. The goblins on the second floor starts flinging rocks at the three trying to stop them from approaching, but the shaman didn't do anything. It instead watches me carefully, waiting to interrupt whatever spell I am going to cast.

"Okay, if you aren't going to cast your spells then here I go. Forbidden Sun!"

A blue crest forms in front of my hand, aiming towards the second floor of the house.... A fiery vortex ball the size of a basketball formed in front of my hand.

Seeing my spell, the goblin shaman holding a staff also started to chant for a magic as a blue crest forms on his hand.... But I didn't wait for him.

'Bang!'

Right as my spell fired out, the goblin shaman finished his chant and fired out a big ice spear towards me.

'Boom!' Our spells collided mid air, exploding right above the charging warriors right below.

"Watch it, Kyrie!" Gareth shouted at me, before continuing to charge towards the goblins.

"Sorry!" A Master ranked ice spell. That shaman sure is a bit too smart for a monster.... Well no matter, I won't be beaten by a mere goblin mage.

Forbidden Sun.

'Bang!' I fired out another ball of fire towards the shaman... He chanted for an Ice Spear again.

But I've got him this time.

With my Magic control I forcefully tilted my Forbidden Sun to the sides, avoiding the ice spear that was going to intercept it....

"!" The shaman seems to be shocked.

And as the Ice Spear flies at me, I casted a thruster aiming to the sides.... Thruster Dash.

'Bwuom!'

'Thump!' The spear stabs right into the ground missing me entirely, by the same can't be said for the shaman.

'Boom!!!' Alongside the four other goblins, the shaman was blew up by my spell, catching the mansion on fire and collapsing the entire second floor.... Just a weak Forbidden Sun already did this much damage.

It seems that while I was having a magic battle with the shaman, the rest of the people have approached the mansion on the ground. Mom and Jenny is backing up Gareth and Gazeth, who are fighting multiple shield goblins. They didn't have any trouble at all, it seems that there is no need for me to interfere at all.

"Hmm...." It seems that Watabe had already jumped over the shield goblins and into the front yard of the mansion.

Right now he is having a stand off against 3 normal goblins and a giant hob goblin about 250cm or so tall.

He still had his katana sheathed.... Is he not ready to fight yet?

He opened his mouth, seemingly taking a deep breath. The three small goblins rushed forward at him in tandem with each other, surrounding him from three sides and attacking him at the same time. But....

'Slash!' (2x) Even from this distance I could still hear the sound of him decapitating his two opponents. He swing with such force that he cleanly sliced through the two goblins with ease, cutting them in half.

"Iaijutsu?!" His sword draw was so fast that I could barely even see when he drew it!

The third goblin attacked him from the left, but he instantly turned towards it and deflected it's attack.

With a swift counter attack after the deflect, he easily cuts at the third goblin's stomach, fatally wounding it and making it drop to the ground.

The hob goblin didn't knew how to cooperate with its teammates, but seeing it's teammates dead, it raised the giant wooden club and swung at Watabe wildly.

"!"

'Thump!'

It's slow but powerful smash almost hits him, but he was able to barely dodge it's attack by jumping to the sides. He slashed at the goblin's arm after the dodge, but it was a shallow cut.

The hob goblin swung at him again, but Watabe jumped away right in time making the hob goblin miss again.

"Rah!!!" It screamed in frustration after missing it's attacks twice...

But while it's roar is intimidating, Watabe didn't get shaken at all. He calmly swings his sword at the air and flung off the blood on his blade before he sheathed his katana back into the saya again.

He puts his hand on the sword while still keeping it sheathed, ready to launch another drawing slash at the hob goblin.... He is preparing to end it in one attack.

The hob goblin stared at him with caution... Watabe watched it's every movement without any mistakes... The next exchange will decide the outcome of the fight, but I was sure that the winner will no doubt be-

"Rah!!!" The hob goblin left behind any kind of tactic and instead opted to raise it's club overhead and swing at Watabe wildly again.... What an idiot.

'Thump!' Watabe stepped to the sides with minimal movement, dodging the attack by mere centimeters..... This is checkmate.

'Slash!' With one draw, he swung upwards with so much force that he sliced the hobgoblin's entire shoulder off while launching himself to the air at the same time. Once again, I could barely even see the moment he drew his sword, let alone actually react to it.

"Hah!"

'Slash!' With a quick follow-up slash midair he sliced at the hob goblin's exposed neck, cutting open it's artery and making it bleed out like water tap.

'Thud!' With a kick on the hobgoblin he jumped backwards, doing a flip midair before he lands on the floor with full control of his balance.

The hobgoblin writhes in pain, covering the bleeding wound on it's neck with it's only arm, but soon dropped to the floor. Watabe flung off the blood on his blade and sheathed his katana back into the saya.

"How incredible...." There's no doubt that even with magic, I'd have problem trying to fight him.... He might be a Saint ranked swordsman just like Kentwood.

I want to learn those moves.... They just looked so incredible, I can't help but be drawn in by that amazing display of skill.

"Kyrie! Stop daydreaming and come regroup with us!" Yelled mom from the gate of the mansion.

It seems that the rest of the goblins are already killed, I was too distracted to notice.

"O-oh... Coming!"

I want to make this man teach me how to use a katana.... I HAVE to after I witnessed that.

(Chapter 74)