The Academy’s Sashimi Sword Master

The silence had gone on so long that, when we finally spoke, the boss and I had many things to say to each other. Fifteen years had already passed since the last time we saw each other.

Again and again I had put it off, telling myself, “I’ll call him someday, someday…,” and I ended up regretting it more times than I can count.

Yes, it was true—I had avoided him because the boss was someone v—violent. And this time, the moment I met him again, he had already given me a smack on the head.

‘If I think of all the times the boss reached out to me…’

I can’t help but reflect on how miserable I’ve been.

Of course, since he was my adoptive father, maybe this counts as self-criticism against myself.

Either way, the years of distance had piled up so many topics of conversation, and the depth of each one was as well matured as the passage of time.

From Japanese restaurant worker to boss.

From Heavenly Sword to founding hero.

Our dialogues were, at least in my desire, filled with the dignity and presence befitting such titles.

……

Well, that’s what I expected.

“Uaaagh!”

The boss trapped my head under his arm and ruffled it with his fist.

“You little brat! You save the world and end up with not one, but two wives? And on top of that, a girlfriend!”

“Hey, come on! That’s not true!”

“Do you have any idea how much Media and Rachel hassle me because of you? Media always wants to poison me, and Rachel… better not even mention her.”

“Then if you’re not going to mention her, let me go already!”

“Hoo, getting defiant now, are you?”

Dear god. I felt like my skull was about to split in two. I wanted to resist, but how? I was facing the founding hero; escaping wasn’t something simple.

“On Earth you didn’t even touch a woman’s hand, and here you’ve turned into a Casanova!”

“That’s not how it is!”

I barely managed to wriggle free of his arm just in time; otherwise, he would’ve crushed me like a can.

“I swear it’s not what you think. I didn’t go after them, they were the ones who confessed to me!”

“And you expect me to swallow that?”

“There’s nothing to swallow, it’s the truth!”

“Oh, sure. Turns out you’re the handsome man of the century. Getting confessions? What are you, Leon? With that face of yours… really, what woman in the world approaches first a man with such tiny eyes?”

I knew it better than anyone.

My character, both in my past life and now as Kang Geom-Ma, was naturally unsociable. An extremely uncooperative person.

Always indifferent. And on top of that, there was Leon, always smiling, making me look even more surly in comparison.

And yet…

“Women like that exist. And there were two.”

“Every time you open your mouth, it’s just another lie…”

“Believe it or not, that’s how it was.”

“…Haa…”

The boss let out a helpless sigh.

In the end, what more could he say? He had seen the result for himself. Ryozo and Abel were pure devotion to me. And in the days he had spent with us, he had noticed it firsthand.

The feelings were the same, but they expressed them much more than I ever did.

“So then.”

The boss gave me a look of suspicion. The kind of look that appeared when he started to half-accept what he was hearing.

“I want to hear that story of the confessions, see how good it is.”

“Don’t we have more important matters to discuss?”

Like future plans. His vision about the suppression force he possessed. Things I thought were the point of this talk.

“You said they’re your family.”

“Yes.”

“There’s nothing more important than family.”

…Truly.

This man, with phrases that seem trivial, manages to stir my heart. Makes it impossible to turn away the admiration I feel toward him.

I lifted my gaze to the sky, full of lanterns, and remembered. Then too, just like now, the night was splendid.

There was no turning back. I began to speak slowly.

“You see, what happened was…”

***

The Joaquin Academy is a very conservative educational institution. And that’s not strange—after all, its main role is to train heroes.

Besides, the founding hero himself was such a rigid scholar that his rules seemed like iron.

Only since a new director arrived has the academy become a little freer.

Back in my days, the rules bound us hand and foot.

The most representative example was the ban on romance.

Even today, officially, students are forbidden from dating each other. But in my time, it wasn’t just forbidden—it was absolutely banned. If you were discovered, you faced sanctions, no matter what family you came from. Not even if you were the youngest hero to achieve the title of Seven Stars.

It was about a year after the end of the Second Great Human War.

My classmates and I were eighteen years old.

At that time, Kang Geom-Ma’s popularity was at its peak.

Imagine it—I even overshadowed the absolutely imposing Leon when it came to attractiveness. Can you believe it?

‘Though maybe it also had to do with Leon having taken a leave of absence.’

Back then, Leon was branded as a traitor to humanity. They treated him like a sellout who had turned his back not on one country, but on the entire human world.

Even though I and the Master of the Sword explained many times the truth behind his actions, even though we tried to make them understand the weight of the mission he had taken on, the people didn’t accept it.

After all, with his sword, he had killed Saki Kojima. And that was something not even we could excuse. A mistake made demands responsibility.

Anyway, Leon isn’t what’s important here.

In contrast to Leon’s bad image, I became the most popular hero in history.

“Heavenly Sword, are you free today?”

Girls, even strangers, threw hints at me.

“S-senior, please accept this.”

“Aaah! It can’t be! She really gave it to him!”

Receiving letters with hearts attached from younger students was my daily bread.

“Look, there goes my boyfriend!”

“Hey, idiot, how can Heavenly Sword be your boyfriend!”

The shouting matches were so common they kept me on edge.

“Heavenly Sword!”

“Heavenly Sword!”

“Oppa!”

“I love you!”

I never thought the words, “Sorry, I can’t give you my number…” would come out of my mouth.

What an irony, living two lives. Just a year ago, my image was in the gutter.

At eighteen, I moved around dragging crowds. The line of people following me was so long that they even made waiting lists.

Did I like it? It wasn’t bad.

It wasn’t… bad.

And that’s as far as I can say.

Because back then, I—

“I’m going to die.”

“……”

The refuge where I escaped from obsessive fans was, as always, the bench.

That bench again.

Thud.

Ryozo, who was already sitting there, closed her book. The thump of the paper sounded louder than usual—or at least that’s how it felt.

“Well, you’re popular.”

“…It was just a phase.”

“Was it really a phase? Look from here. You can see the whole Joaquin Academy, right?”

I only nodded my head.

Ryozo spoke in her monotonous tone.

“People always come here and repeat the same thing—founding hero, founding hero… It’s not strange. He ended the First Great Human War. Seven hundred years, or more, he deserves to be remembered.”

“Yes.”

“But our Geom-Ma was the one who ended the Second Great Human War.”

“That—”

“Listen.”

Yes.

“Geom-Ma, listen well. This isn’t something temporary. You know? You’re already a great hero who will be engraved forever in history.”

She took a deep breath.

And said again.

“Do you expect me to endure watching you surrounded by women for another two years?”

“……”

It was true.

I was in a secret romance with Ryozo.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment it started. Maybe when Ryozo stamped that first kiss on me. More or less since last year we had been a tacit couple.

But because of the ban on romance, we couldn’t show anyone. Not even the members of the exploration club.

There was still a year and a half left before our relationship could come to light.

“…I knew it.”

Ryozo’s eyes darkened.

“I knew it, but… I didn’t think it would come to this point.”

“Ryozo.”

“You!”

She looked at me with contained fury.

“Do you know how much I suffer because of you?!”

“……”

“Do you know that yesterday I had to shoot blunt arrows at some girls trying to climb through your dorm window?”

“What?”

“There were only a few yesterday, just twice. Sometimes it gets to be ten.”

This was madness.

“But Ryozo, how did you see—”

“Does it matter?”

“Not at all.”

No, not at all.

I straightened up rigid in my seat.

“Cadets should be studying, not blinded by emotions.”

“But that applies to us too…”

“I’m number one in written exams, and you’re number one in practice. Is it fair to put us on the same scale as them? That would be what’s unfair!”

Looking back, at that time Ryozo still carried a faint trace of elitism. Years at my side would wear it away.

“Anyway.”

Ryozo stood up, brushing off her skirt.

“Behave yourself.”

“I swear I’ve never looked at anyone else. And I never will.”

“That Kojima told my mother the same thing.”

Damn it.

The late Kojima stirring things up for me while I’m alive.

“Then tell me, what number wife was my mother?”

“……”

“Whatever it is, I’m not giving up first place.”

“In relationships there are no places.”

“For me, there are.”

“…I know.”

“Don’t take me for granted. I’m human too. Even that Vixbig runs out of power—don’t you think I’ll get tired?”

After leaving those sharp words, Ryozo walked away. I was left there, empty.

“Ah…”

I washed my face with my hands, burning with embarrassment.

“This has no solution…”

After clearing my head a bit at the bench, I returned to the dormitory. And that very night I came down with a fever.

Maybe because of the hectic days.

Or maybe because of the weight of living every day under the spotlight. I still don’t know.

“Ugh…”

For a future god of the sword to fall from a simple fever was ridiculous.

‘How absurd.’

Every time I coughed, laughter came out of me on its own.

That’s how I ended up hospitalized in the VIP ward of the hospital attached to Joaquin Academy.

Very different from the dormitory, with strict security. I spent the days in bed.

Of course I missed classes. Every moment of youth was precious to me and I wanted to attend, but my condition didn’t allow it.

“…At least I should eat something.”

I tried to scoop up the watery porridge, but gave up. The spoon sank into it, just as I sank into my state.

“Better take a walk around the hospital.”

I got out of bed and opened the door. On the first step, something hit my foot.

Looking down, I saw a rice ball wrapped in plastic.

“A rice ball?”

Did the hospital give out snacks too?

Gruu.

After so many days of unsalted porridge, I was practically starving.

As if hypnotized, I tore off the wrapper.

“The shape is… hmm.”

I had been a cook. It was inevitable to look at food with critical eyes.

‘This is amateur.’

It didn’t look like it was from the hospital, but a personal delivery.

Another obsessive fan?

‘It’s not poisoned, right?’

But it wasn’t like I would die from it.

After hesitating for a moment, I took a bite.

The taste was—

‘Sour.’

I felt an electric tingle in my jaw. The seasoning was unbalanced.

And yet, why did my heart feel so warm from that cold rice ball?

I instinctively pulled out my smartphone. I asked Vixbig, the AI, directly.

“Has anyone searched recently on your engine how to make rice balls?”

[Cataloged as level 1 confidential.]

Immediate response.

[Does that answer your question?]

I smiled.

“Yes.”

[The second years are currently in joint training at the practice field.]

“Vixbig, your performance is the best.”

No sooner had I put away the phone than I ran to the practice field. My body felt light, as if the fever had never existed.

A little later.

Just as it said, all the second years were training in the field.

“It’s the Heavenly Sword!”

At my appearance, the cadets surrounded me at once.

I didn’t hear them.

I pushed through them, walking straight toward a point of sky blue.

The murmurs grew, and she lifted her gaze. On her swollen fingers were band-aids.

The moment she saw me, she hid her hands behind her back.

I stopped in front of Ryozo.

I gathered every possible gaze.

I wanted everyone to see.

And when the tension was at its peak, I embraced her.

“E-e-eh.”

Three syllables.

Then I slowly let go.

“Let them punish me if they want.”

“……”

Ryozo looked like she was in shock.

And when her cheeks began to burn, she stood on tiptoe.

“A grain of rice.”

She went back down on her heels.

“I can’t let a Seven Stars walk around with rice stuck on his lips. They’ll blame me.”

Then she bumped her forehead against my chest several times.