Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

The Battle They Were Waiting For 

ON OUR LAST DAY OF TRAINING, Aaron taught me swordsmanship. Because our time together was limited, he focused on basic movements. Fighting stances, sword swings, and defensive parrying—Aaron passed these skills on to me in the way his ancestors had passed their knowledge down to Aaron himself. 

For this particular practice session, I wasn’t using Greed. Instead, I held a stripped wooden branch. I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate with Greed’s sarcastic comments cutting into my practice, and I couldn’t waste this opportunity to learn from Aaron. So, Greed spent the day baking in the sun alongside Myne’s black axe, Sloth. 

I was intent on making the most of the time Aaron and I had together. I put my heart and soul into absorbing all of his teachings. 

“Keep your arms in tight,” Aaron said. “Bend your knees slightly, and let your posture drop with your center of balance.” 

“Like this?” 

“Hm. Almost.” 

Aaron stood in front of me and demonstrated the mid-level stance again. To me, his posture looked the same as the stance I’d already taken. However, Aaron taught me every move with great care and attention, so there must have been a difference. 

My teacher had zero tolerance for even the slightest mistake. Because of his fastidiousness, my basic swordsmanship quickly improved. Aaron said my movements were already becoming less goblin-like, more human. The adjustment was natural, really. Until now, the wild way I swung my weapon about, copied from the enemies I’d fought, had defined my swordsmanship. Now, as I began to genuinely understand the weapon, I could wield my blade with certainty and intelligence. 

I fixed my footing, and following Aaron’s example, dropped into my own mid-level stance. 

“How’s this?” 

“Hm. Much better,” said Aaron. “Lower your sword a touch.” 

These tiny adjustments were difficult for me. I let the tip of my sword drop just a hint. 

“Yes, like that. Make sure your body remembers this exact stance.” 

“Understood.” 

Satisfied with my efforts, Aaron slid his holy sword back into its scabbard. 

“I think we’ve done enough stance work for the moment,” said Aaron. “Now, I want you to parry my full strike.” 

“Wait, what? I’m, uh…I’m just wielding a wooden branch here, you know.” 

I could see it already: the golden sword splitting my branch in twain before I had a chance to parry, then slicing me into neat halves as the deadly stroke concluded. I shook my head to indicate “No, no way,” but Aaron gripped the handle of his holy blade decisively. 

“Do just as I taught you, Fate. You’ll be fine. With your eyes, you can do it.” 

He meant the red stare of my half-starved state. It was true enough that, because that state boosted my stats, following Aaron’s movements was simple, especially with all the practice I’d been getting. However, the problem wasn’t my eyes—it was whether my untrained body could keep up with my enhanced vision. 

I’d never know if I could take it if I just stood there, thinking about things before they even started. Besides, parrying a holy sword with a whittled tree branch would be an impressive feat. 

With that thought, my answer was decided. “Let’s do it.” 

“Very good,” Aaron said. “Here I come!” 

He stepped forward, at once unleashing his sword from its sheath. He brought the blade up high and swung it toward me. 

Thanks to my crimson eye, I saw his fluid movements in slow motion. I gripped the branch tight in my hand, recalling what Aaron had taught me in the past two days. I saw the arc of the blade, predicted the angle of attack. I did not aim to knock the sword completely off its trajectory, and instead met it at the curve of the arc to subtly shift it away from me. 

Wood shavings, and a few strands of black hair, danced into the sky as Aaron’s holy sword swept over my head. It was so close that I felt air from the passing blade across my face—but I’d succeeded. I deflected the blade. It felt to me that I had succeeded because of the fragile tree branch. It had forced me to find the path of least resistance, lest I be sliced to pieces. Perhaps Aaron had known this all along, and this was the very reason he’d made me use the bough. 

I would not forget the feeling of this technique. As I looked at the branch in my hand, a brittle stick ready to splinter at the slightest threat of stormy wind, Aaron smiled. 

“Your training is now complete,” he said. “We only had three short days, but you kept up with every one of my teachings. I have to say, your parrying technique is brilliant. Remember, Fate, the path toward mastery of the sword is not short. Be sure to sharpen your basic skills daily. You’ll need to make the most of all your experiences to become a true master of the blade.” 

“Thank you, Aaron.” 

I had endured three days of grueling training, nonstop except for brief pauses for food and sleep. I was exhausted. I thought Aaron must have been too, but he didn’t seem to be flagging in the least. Perhaps that was to be expected. In the last few days, he had also told me more of his past—about being the Blade of Light. 

A long time ago, Aaron had earned the title “Blade of Light” from the King of Seifort. This was a great honor bestowed only on those who gave the kingdom many long years of their bravery and valor, and who defeated no small number of crowned beasts. 

But Aaron insisted that he’d lost the right to that esteemed title. He said he had forsaken the right to it when he forsook his family, a treasure that, for him, was irreplaceable. Even standing in front of me as my teacher, he blamed himself for having been unable to defend what had truly mattered to him. I felt a loneliness emanate from him, one that spoke to the depths of his self-loathing. He keenly regretted the man he had been in the past, the knight who had single-mindedly slaughtered monsters to earn a title that couldn’t protect his family. 

Aaron wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled at me. “It’s going to be lonely here after you leave tomorrow.” 

“I still have a lot to do,” I replied. 

“Galia…a terrible country. I’d warn you not to go there, but I doubt you’d listen.” 

During training, I’d told Aaron of my plan to go to Galia, although I hadn’t told him my reasons, or about Lady Roxy. For some reason, I’d expected Aaron to be shocked, but instead I only saw understanding in his face. Sooner or later, every skilled adventurer made Galia their aim. 

Due to the abundance of monsters, the border of Galia was the ultimate hunting ground. All of the most worthwhile bounties prowled there. Every hunt was as dangerous as it was rewarding, and any hunt could be your last. Staking out that territory was the very definition of high risk, high reward. That was why all adventurers dreamed of one day venturing into deadly Galia and bringing home the huge bounty that’d finally set them up for a lifetime…if not multiple lifetimes. 

“Fate, let me say one thing. If you’re going to Galia for the sake of somebody else, don’t. Life is fleeting in the country where the Heavenly Calamity roams the skies. You’ll use everything you have, everything you know, just to stay alive. You must not travel to such a place to fight for anyone other than yourself.” 

“But even then, I…” 

“I can see it in your movements, Fate. You’re no good at protecting others in battle.” Aaron fell into a short silence. “No, I’ll say no more. Your future rests in your own hands.” 

He walked to the well to wash away the sweat of training. From where I stood, there was something lonely in his silent silhouette. Perhaps he was worried that I was going to Galia to die. It’d only been three days, but already, Aaron considered me his student. 

I was ashamed to think that I’d taken his training as a simple convenience that suited my own ends. At the very least, today I could play my role as student and pull up the well water my teacher needed. 

As I ran to catch up to Aaron, I heard Greed speak through Telepathy. “Adventurers like Aaron are the rarest kind. They’re practically an endangered species. I haven’t seen one in a long time, and this one even did you the favor of helping you grow stronger. Make sure to thank him from the heart, Fate.” 

“Don’t worry, I hear you,” I said. 

*** 

Myne joined Aaron and I for our final dinner together. As usual, she looked deeply disinterested as she shoveled food into her mouth. Maybe she didn’t like the boiled vegetable porridge, but I loved it. 

“Myne,” I said, “you make every meal look like it tastes terrible.” 

“I don’t have a sense of taste,” she said. “So, everything tastes the same.” 

Oh. I’d had no idea. I suddenly felt embarrassed about the countless times I’d commented on the food we were eating. 

“It’s nothing for you to worry about, Fate,” said Myne, shrugging off my expression. “The decision was mine.” 

I had a feeling that her missing sense of taste was entwined with her Skill of Mortal Sin, but I was in no mood to pry. Tonight was my last dinner with Aaron, and I didn’t want the moment to end up derailed and focused all on Myne. 

But I was afraid it was too late. Aaron peered at Little Miss Wrathful and I with a mixture of curiosity and interest. 

“Through all of my travels, you’re the most competent adventurer I’ve ever met, Myne,” he said. “The way you move and hold yourself, your strength of spirit…all of it, sharpened to a razor’s edge. You’ve honed yourself to a level I can’t even imagine reaching.” 

Myne didn’t respond to his observations with her usual grim silence. Instead, she turned toward Aaron and spoke directly to him for the first time since they’d met. “Good eyes for an old man,” she said. “I’ll remember your name. With a thousand years of training, you might begin to reach my level.” 

Aaron laughed. “A thousand years? That’s difficult to imagine—and perhaps difficult to achieve, for an old man like me.” 

“That’s how it goes,” said Myne. “You’re only human. You have limits.” 

The way she said “only human” struck me. It was like she was talking about a different species, even though—however you looked at it—Myne was a human girl herself. Aaron didn’t seem to feel the same suspicions I did. Perhaps he’d already made peace with Myne’s strange bearing and presence, her detachment from society. Or perhaps he simply didn’t consider her a threat to his village, and could therefore dismiss her eccentricities. 

“Myne,” Aaron said, “may I ask you one question?” 

“You may.” 

Aaron set his spoon on the table. “Fifty years ago, after a large herd of monsters appeared east of here, I saw you. You looked exactly as you do now. The very image of the goddess of war. So, my question is…what are you, Myne?” 

“I…am a spirit who is not allowed death. The person you saw was indeed me, but I don’t remember that day. I don’t remember insignificant battles.” 

“Hunh. So, you consider even that battle an insignificant affair. You and I, Myne, we truly reside on different planes of existence.” Aaron stared at the ceiling for a moment as a battle fifty years past played through his memories. He smiled. “I never thought I’d encounter such a strange phenomenon at my age, I truly didn’t! It seems a long life is a treasure trove of surprises. In any case, I’m sorry to have interrupted your meal. Now, please, eat up. There’s plenty of porridge left for second and third helpings!” 

With that, Aaron and Myne fell into a comfortable silence as they turned their attention back to their food. The two had found common ground, although I had no idea what battle they had been talking about. 

Nevertheless, Myne’s words sat uneasily in my mind, particularly the bit about her being “not allowed death.” Did she mean she was immortal? Or did she simply not age? I remembered Greed saying she was an acquaintance of sorts, which made me think that perhaps she’d been around for a very long time. 

As these thoughts swam in my head, Gluttony clawed at me angrily, aggressively. I’d held it down, forcing it to endure hunger for the three days since we arrived. Now, if I left it unfed much longer, Gluttony would become fully starved. I was nearing my limit. 

“I’m sorry, Aaron,” I said. “The meal you prepared tonight is wonderful, but I…” 

Aaron looked at me with concern. “Fate, what’s wrong? You don’t look well.” 

“Aaron, I…I have to go hunt them. The monsters. There’s a nest…or gathering…in the old castle west of here, isn’t there?” 

The old knight continued to look at my red eye without flinching. I hesitated at first, but eventually, it was too much. He was my teacher; I wanted to trust him. I gave in. 

I told Aaron the story of my Gluttony, and that I could only maintain control by hunting monsters. Aaron didn’t seem afraid, and he didn’t doubt a single word I spoke. He believed it all. The moment he’d seen my red eye and the pain it caused me, he’d become convinced I carried some dark burden. 

“So, if you don’t hunt, the weight on your soul grows heavier,” Aaron mused. 

“I’ve gotten used to it, for the most part,” I said. “But it seems, despite my training, I still don’t have as much control of Gluttony as I thought.” 

“Now, to release yourself from that weight, you want to go hunt at the old castle?” 

“Yes.” 

I’d felt the presence since the minute I’d entered my half-starved state. Outside, during training, I’d caught the ambrosial scent of a powerful monster drifting on the wind from the direction of the old castle. A day earlier, Aaron had told me a little about the place, though I’d thought he was being intentionally vague. 

“There’s a powerful crowned beast to the west,” he’d said. “Most monsters that find their way here, to this village, come from that castle.” 

“Aaron, I know you didn’t want to tell me yesterday, but I’ll ask again. Why won’t you cut those monsters off at the pass? Finish them off?” 

I didn’t expect him to answer, but on that night, Aaron changed. He looked over at the portrait of his family resting on the shelf by his bed and closed his eyes. Slowly, he spoke. “That place… A long time ago, it was my castle. And my family…they’re still there.” 

So, the castle in the background of the picture…it was the same one. As I’d vaguely suspected when I first saw the portrait, the estate once belonged to Aaron. If Aaron’s family were still in the castle, though… How? In what form could they possibly exist among monsters? 

“The monster that inhabits the castle is a lich lord, a crowned beast which bears the name ‘The Genesis of Death.’ It controls the dead. It used my wife, my son…my people…as a shield against me. I was powerless.” 

Sadness—no, despair—reflected upon Aaron’s face as he stared at the picture on his shelf. 

He turned back to me, his gaze resolute. “Perhaps your arrival was destiny after all,” he said. “You may present my last chance to free myself from the shackles of my past.” 

“Aaron…” 

“I will take you to the castle,” he continued. “After all, I know it like the back of my hand. May I ask for the honor of fighting alongside you, Fate?” 

This time, I didn’t hesitate. “Of course. We’re stronger together.” 

“Thank you. We haven’t a moment to lose, then.” 

As Aaron and I began to prepare for battle, Myne sat alone at the table, still eating. I wasn’t sure whether she was uninterested in fighting, or simply in following our conversation. 

When our preparations for leaving were complete, Aaron addressed Myne. “My apologies, but I need someone to stay and protect the village while we’re gone. May I ask that of you, Myne?” 

“You can,” she said. “But it’ll cost you five gold.” 

I couldn’t believe she’d ask for money at an emotional time like this. I stepped in to say something, but Aaron raised a hand to stop me. 

“A warrior of your caliber? Five coins?” he shook his head. “You undersell yourself. There is still treasure in the coffers of the old castle. Upon our safe return, I will pay you fifty.” 

The tiniest hint of a smile crept over Myne’s otherwise expressionless face. Clearly her thoughts had turned toward her own village, and Aaron’s offer was too good to pass up. 

“You have yourself a deal,” Myne said, and she immediately set down her bowl to pick up her black axe. Then she began swinging it—indoors, much to my dismay. 

But as Aaron and I headed outside, Myne paused her combat exercises for a moment to call out to me. “Don’t go dying out there, Fate. I still need you.” 

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I have no intention of dying until I reach Galia.” 

“Good,” Myne said. The change was subtle, but I noticed something like relief in her features. 

With that, Aaron and I headed for the old castle to the west.