Sword Saint.
It was the title bestowed upon the strongest swordsman of the human race.
The title was inherited when a Sword Saint nominated a successor, and that nominee defeated the master in combat. Because of this, only one person could ever claim the title at any given time.
A Sword Saint was bound by two sacred duties.
First, they had to constantly strive to be the strongest.
Second, they had to strike down anyone who falsely claimed the title.
As long as they upheld these two rules, a Sword Saint was a presence permitted to do almost anything.
Currently, Pirika Winup was the one recognized as the Sword Saint.
Or so Galf explained to me.
"Why would the strongest swordsman in the world want to become your disciple, Galf?"
"To my shame, with my current level of skill, I am no match for Lord Galf," Pirika answered.
"...But you're the strongest swordsman, right?"
"I would not lose in a test of pure swordsmanship. However, in a real fight, I would be defeated."
I didn't quite grasp what she meant. Wasn't "strongest" supposed to mean she won?
As I tilted my head in confusion, Galf suggested that it would be easier to show than tell. He set a reasonably thick wooden pole upright in the ground.
While I wondered what he had in mind, Pirika moved.
No, that wasn't right. She didn't move—not exactly.
What moved were Pirika’s clones.
There were four of them. Each clone slashed at the thick wooden pole with its sword. Since they struck four times, the pole was split into five pieces.
Wait, no—six.
The real Pirika had swung her sword right from where she stood.
Even as an amateur, I could tell how incredible the feat was. I almost started to applaud, but I stopped when I heard dissatisfied grumbles from Daga and Yoko standing beside me.
"No good," Daga muttered.
"Not with that attitude..." Yoko added.
I was baffled. What was so "no good" about it? I didn't feel like I could beat her at all. When I asked for an explanation, Daga gave me a blunt response.
"Lack of experience."
Yoko tried to explain it a bit more gently.
"To put it in terms the Village Head might understand... think of magic. Even if someone can conjure fire skillfully, they aren't actually utilizing that fire effectively."
I felt bad admitting it, but even with a magic analogy, it didn't quite click for me. If I tried to break it down... did she mean it was all for show?
Galf filled in the blanks.
"Lu-neesan or Tia-neesan could perform a trick of that level easily. But you've never seen them use it during the village’s martial arts tournament, have you? That's because it has no practical use."
No practical use? It looked plenty useful to me.
"If you want to bring clones up to a practical combat level, you have to go as far as someone like Lady Bulga," Galf continued.
I thought about the difference between Bulga's clones and Pirika's. In Bulga's case, every clone moved independently. It was less like a clone and more like she was literally splitting into multiple people. Pirika’s clones, however, felt more like afterimages. Now that he mentioned it, I could clearly tell which one was the real body.
"From an opponent's perspective, it is merely a five-point simultaneous attack," Galf said. "It's easy to defend against."
...Was a five-point simultaneous attack really that easy to defend against? It was five places at once! That sounded impossible to me.
Galf argued that it was actually easy because the points of attack were fixed. If you blocked just one point before the strike landed, the momentum of the others would falter. I could see the logic, but the actual execution still sounded incredibly difficult.
Pirika then engaged in a mock battle with Daga. It was immediately apparent that Daga was handling her effortlessly.
"By its nature, the title of Sword Saint is passed down to ensure that the techniques for properly wielding a Holy Sword aren't lost," Galf noted, his tone turning sharp. "So I imagine she would only show her true power if she were holding a Holy Sword. But even so... she is terrible."
If she was terrible, where did that leave me? Was I at a level that wasn't even worth evaluating?
"Not even worth discussing," Daga said, concluding the mock battle.
Pirika’s eyes began to tear up. It was a pathetic sight, so I asked Daga to give her some actual advice.
"...You've spent too much time training in a dojo," Daga said. "Your techniques aren't bad, but you've developed a habit of being careful not to kill your opponent. That makes every move you make third-rate or lower. Furthermore, you've spent too long acting as a spectacle. Your techniques are too beautiful; they aren't suited for a real battlefield. I hate to say it, but was the previous Sword Saint really a man who could be defeated by someone of your caliber? You should honestly return the title and start your training over from the beginning."
Under the weight of Daga's "advice," Pirika collapsed into tears.
Galf scratched his cheek and whispered, "Ah, I told her something similar..."
Galf eventually explained Pirika's circumstances to me.
She had first knocked on the doors of the previous Sword Saint's dojo fifteen years ago. At the time, the dojo was home to over two hundred of the finest swordsmen in the land, all competing to sharpen their skills. Pirika had enough talent to be admitted at a young age and had progressed steadily.
The trouble started ten years ago, during Pirika's fifth year of training.
The previous Sword Saint died suddenly. Apparently, he suffered heart failure while at a shop where women were paid to be intimate with customers.
Normally, if a dojo master died, a successor would simply take over. But because the master was the Sword Saint, nominating a successor for the dojo was the same as nominating the next Sword Saint. He had died before naming anyone.
The senior disciples held a meeting and decided to return the title of Sword Saint to the Kingdom for the time being. They planned to manage the dojo as a collective and let the Kingdom eventually decide who the next saint would be. They were following their master's teachings—to hone their blades without succumbing to selfish desires.
At least, that was the plan until the Kingdom intervened.
The Kingdom, having received the title back, immediately bestowed it upon one of its own generals. From the government's perspective, they were free to give the title to whomever they pleased. Since they were in the middle of a war, they thought it would be a perfect tool for boosting morale.
The senior disciples, who had expected the title to eventually return to one of their own, were furious. Twenty of them ambushed the general’s unit. Despite the general being guarded by over three thousand men, the disciples successfully cut him down.
Outraged, the Kingdom moved to arrest the senior disciples. Most of them had died during the attack, and the two survivors were so battered that they were easily captured and executed.
The Kingdom initially ordered the dojo to be abolished, but the Church stepped in to block the move. They argued that the dojo was the sole repository of the Sword Saint's techniques and that allowing them to vanish was unacceptable. After a series of negotiations, the Kingdom allowed the dojo to remain.
At that time, the highest-ranking person left at the dojo was Pirika. She was the only senior disciple who hadn't participated in the ambush, mostly because she was so young that the others hadn't told her about the plan. Or perhaps they had left her behind precisely so that someone would remain to carry on the legacy.
Pirika became the Dojo Master to save her school and began her training in earnest. However, the Kingdom prohibited her from participating in external matches or even leaving the premises without permission. Her world was reduced to the dojo for the next ten years.
Only a few months ago was the title of Sword Saint officially granted to her, giving her back her freedom of movement. The first place she traveled to was Shashato City, hoping to participate in the martial arts tournament she had heard rumors about.
She lost in the final round of the general division and had been clinging to Galf ever since, begging to be his disciple.
...Wait. If she lost, shouldn't she have gone to the person who beat her? Galf didn't even compete; he was a special judge.
As it turned out, the winner of the tournament had immediately challenged Galf to a match—and Galf had crushed him.
I also learned why the title was suddenly granted to her. It seemed the Kingdom wanted a "Sword Saint" for political reasons and had challenged the dojo multiple times. Pirika had repelled every challenger until the Kingdom finally yielded to pressure from other nations to officially recognize her. Apparently, the title held weight across international borders.
...The Kingdom was clearly the one at fault for arbitrarily giving the title to a general. The country's name was the Fullhart Kingdom. They were currently at war with the Demon Kingdom, and I had yet to hear a single good thing about them.
As an aside, Galf, Daga, Hakuren, Yoko, and I all lined up. Daga then gave Pirika a task.
"Line us up in order of who you think is strongest."
"Umm..." Pirika hesitated, then placed us in this order: Daga, Galf, Hakuren, Yoko, and finally, me.
So, she judged Daga to be the strongest.
"Lord Daga, I sense the same aura from you and Lord Galf that I felt from my senior fellow disciples at the dojo," Pirika said.
Daga laughed. "I'm honored, but the real order of this group is this."
He rearranged us: Village Head, Hakuren, Yoko, Daga, and Galf.
"First off, if Galf and I fought ten times, I'd probably win eight of them," Daga explained. "But even if there were a hundred of me, I couldn't beat Lady Yoko. And Lady Yoko can't beat Lady Hakuren. And the Village Head has beaten Lady Hakuren."
"You have a lot of nerve saying I can't beat Hakuren," Yoko added. "Though, I certainly wouldn't want to try. I've fought the Village Head once... it was an utter defeat. I don't feel like I can win. I won't do it again."
Yoko looked at Pirika with a pitying expression. "Your lack of real combat experience is so severe that your 'eye' for measuring an opponent's strength is a major weakness."
...In my own mind, the ranking was Hakuren, Yoko, Daga, Galf, and then me at the very bottom. I'd probably even lose to Pirika in a sword fight.