Chapter 10

After eating breakfast this morning we proceeded in max teaching me the necessary things i need to live in this empire such as common things

After that i could say that i'm already a little bit used in writing and reading the language here but ofcourse thats not enough so i still need to learn more

The day should proceed as it is but max walked up to me and

"Let's spar using the sword" he asked me then got to the open space at the front of the cabin

I followed him out wondering what is happening

I didn't contemplate much longer and just wanna get over it so i took a wooden sword from my inventory and got in to the position

While looking at me he nodded then sighed, right now he looks like a teacher who taught his students for so long yet learned nothing

"Before we start let me ask you a question first"

I just looked at him waiting and wondering what would the question be but then got shocked on how serious he looked

"Why did you picked up the sword?" He asked in all seriousness

I looked at him blankly thinking of what he asked about me, ofcourse the common answer would be because i want to look cool or something but i know that isn't the answer he was looking for

He then got ready and immediately lunge forward holding the wooden sword and swing at me so fast that i almost unable to block it

But then something incredible happened

Before i block his sword, his sword looked as if it dodge my wooden sword and struck me at my left shoulder

I immediately got away from him but he followed me around, as we spar with each other using swords he continued to talk

"Is it to protect yourself?"

Well ofcourse that is my reason for picking it up, what else should be my reason?

"Is it to cut your enemies?"

Well that is also one ofcourse

"Is it to become a knight? A hero? A swordsmaster?"

What..

"Or is it because you want to look cool?"

We distanced ourselves to each other, me gasping for breath while he doesn't look like he moved and swing the sword at all

"Xia, have you felt genuine emotions??"

That's when i got stiff while looking at him blankly

"I see. So you did" he looked at me with a hint of happiness at the same time sadness for the first time ever since he took me in

Wondering why is he asking me these questions, i got my answer after a while

"Xia, i will teach you my swordsmanship, everything i know about the sword, i will pass them to you"

I was internally shocked, because i know, from all the novels i read, that the techniques masters has developed are so precious that they would be unwilling to pass it to someone who weren't their descendants or people with no ties with them

"Why would you do that? Isn't swordsmanship too precious to pass it to someone who you barely know?" I asked him although i really want him to teach me i still need to know the reasons

"Yes you're right. But can you see someone other than you here?" He asked while grinning

He's really different today, but in a good way

"If that's the case then" i kneeled in front of him then bow 9 times to acknowledge him as my master

"H-hey what are you doing?!" He asked while looking troubled and somewhat confused

"This is what disciples do when they want to acknowledge someone as their master, though it depends on the master to acknowledge them as their disciple"

"I get it, i get it so just stand up, jeez"

I immediately got up and bow one more time before looking at him

"Before anything else let me tell you first on how this technique was developed"

"There was a boy, who felt that the world is unfair, he can't eat what he want to, he can't drink what he want to and he can't wear the clothes he want to, but even then he was content on what he have, on what they have"

"The boy came from a family of commoners, even they they lived happily everyday, but everything changed when a certain powerful someone came"

"The certain powerful someone came and took everything they have, his mother, his sisters even his father, no one was spared, even him was taken and they were sold as slaves, as a plaything for the nobles"

Typical story of a commoner and nobles, many novels have these kind of past in their stories

"But even then he still didn't lose hope, he think positively even in their darkest times, they still can meet up whenever they want, they escape from their owners and still became happy"

That's too harsh...i thought while listening to his story intently

"Not until they were discovered"

"His mother was killed and hanged in the plaza, same happened to his sisters that were raped and killed too"

"His father screamed and begged for them to be spared that time but alas, no one listened"

'What happened to his father? I asked'

He looked at me with blank eyes which is by the way the first time again

"He was killed too, infront of the boy"

"At that time the boy who always think positively despite being subjected to harsh punishment for the first time think negatively"

"Why is this happening to us? What did we do wrong? We just want to be happy...why..why..whyyy?"

"The people who killed his family laughed while talking how the family look so pathetic while dying, they took the boy and punished him as well"

"The murderers didn't give any food to the boy nor water. He starved and thirst for days. All the while the murderers will come and take him into a pool ful ofl of water and almost drown him, the torture didn't end there. He was also subjected to poisons. After having fun with him they will throw him in the cold cell and let him wither there in cold"

"There was a time he was able to escape the mansion as the nobles aren't there, he was chased day and night but then he was still able to escape"

"The boy cried that night and thought that it was all his fault, he clearly remembered the screams of his family while being killed, he remembered everything that happened"

"At that time the positive boy died and a boy full of resentment to the world was born, he promised that he would take revenge for his family"

His sword remembering all the screams, resentment and cries as well as all of the happiness and joy of the memories of his family took up the sword trained day and night and the day came when his sword heard him and answered"

"The boy swing and slashed while remembering the emotion he felt with his family"

"He who wished things would always be like this while inhaling the scent of the flowers in the spring"

"His sword who felt the genuine hope the boy feel responded"

"Sword of the Hopeful Spring"

"He who felt warm in his heart that spread to his body while playing with his family in the sunny rays of summer"

"Sword of the Cheerful Summer"

"He who saw how things fall apart, his beautiful family, the memories of the other seasons crumbled and collapsed"

"Sword of the Autumn Fall"

All of these emotions max are conveying felt so genuine, honest and sincere, although i don't understand or more like i can't since i never felt those before

I saw max struggle to continue, i reached my hand out to stop him but he continued, his demeanor changing from Hopefulness to Happiness to a feeling that everything falling apart crumbling, is this despair? And then now he felt cold, his eyes blank devoid of emotions as he utter the last sentences

"He who saw how his everything was taken away from him, he felt despair and then empty, his everything....was gone"

"Sword of the Winter Despair and Emptiness"

"All the emotions he felt, he gathered it all and hone it to become his sword"

"He want them to feel all of the emotion he felt, to start of he needs to destroy and cut those peoples hope and happiness then plunged them to despair, to fall into the abyss where he resided, he wants to take it all away for them to feel the emptiness he felt"

"But even before he was able to take revenge to those who destroyed his everything a big change has come to the empire"

"After the new emperor ascend the throne, corrupt nobles, officials, soldiers and many more are purged and punished. They were executed in front of so many people"

"At that time the boy saw the nobles that killed his family, he saw how their eyes that were full of entertainment that night turned into that of despair"

"The boy felt glad, he felt ok but there is still this nagging feeling that he should be the one to push and plunge those people into the abyss, but he can't."

"The boy was thankful for the change that has come to the empire but also felt that it was too late, his family, everything was gone but he knows that he is being unreasonable as change is something that won't come that easy and fast in an empire so big, powerful and full of arrogant nobles"

"Although the royal family is the strongest faction in the empire, it still cannot disregard the force of the nobles that was why change has come this late but nevertheless the boy still think that this is better than nothing, atleast no one would fall victim anymore from what he gone through"

So the boy wasn't able to take revenge on the nobles who killed his family?" I asked him more like i blurted out

"Yeah" he answered weakly

"After that what did he do? Since he weren't able to take revenge" i asked him softly earning me a little smile from him, maybe because i spoke softly

"Nothing, i..he just gave up his revenge, he wants to take revenge but to whom? The murderers already died, that time maybe he thought that this would be for the best, his family would be happy even though he wasn't able to take revenge on them" he said with glistening eyes

"Is that you?" i said while looking at him in the eye, searching for answers, i continued "The boy..is that you?"

Who knows?"

I continued looking at him, after a while he got up and looked at me

"Then let's start" he said while looking at me seriously he took a wooden sword and then lunge at me

I immediately tried to parried his sword but just like the other times its trajectory is ever changing, its not constant so its hard for me, who has no experience with the sword to defend so i tried my best to cope up by peaking into the future

"In order to learn this swordsmanship you should first know and feel the emotions that this sword conveys"

I tried to feel the emotions, first is the hopefulness, but they keyword is i tried, its already been so long since i felt the feeling of hope, even in the gacha games i play or other things i never hoped after my past since i know firsthand how it felt when that hope was destroyed and crumble

"Remember all the emotions you felt xia, the genuine and extreme emotions, try recalling the memories that caused those emotions"

"Recall those happy memories, the memories with the important persons in your life so it would be easier"

I almost stopped swinging my sword when he said that, these would be hard, specially when it comes to the emotion of Happiness since i never felt that

Max continued to tell me that i need to recall the emotions but all i recall is despair and emptiness, the hope is vague and hard but happiness is impossible

Max saw this as he stopped swinging the sword, i looked at my hands as i thought of the memories of my past, happiness, how would i feel happy when i never felt it in the first place?

After a while i stopped, since i thought that learning his swordsmanship is pointless

Sure i can try learning the other two forms of his swordsmanship but we all know that wouldn't be easy since a swordsmanship cannot be broken down to parts specially so when i'm only a little bit good at this

Most swordsmanship techniques forms are interconnected to each other, just like how you need to first know what is happiness to learn what is sadness and vice versa.

That's why if i really want to learn any kind of swordsmanship techniques i need to ask and tell max why can't i learn it as a whole

But looks like i wouldn't need to that now since max walked at me

"Looks like i have been too inconsiderate" max said as he looked at me like searching for something and when he found it he look at me with these eyes that tells you he understand what you feel

"Then should i just teach you the latter part of it first?" max asked at xia looking guilty since he think that he brought memories that should have been forgotten but because of his rashness he messed up

"Yes please" xia answered as he bowed

"Okay let's start later, we should rest a bit first" max said as he invited xia to sit and talk about things later on after resting they continued to train until dusk then the stopped and prepare for the end of the day