“Nova!”

The familiar black-haired girl shouted as she dashed toward me with a speed that was unbefitting of her age.

I could hear Edward preparing his weapon from behind me, so I gave him a kick to the shin to stop him. 

I turned around just in time for Ihwa to pounce on me and hug me.

“Too long.”

“It’s been hardly a week.”

“Same thing.” She pouted. Then, Ihwa scratched the back of my ears and giggled,

“Thank you.”

“For what?” I cocked an eyebrow.

“For helping me awaken my Aura. Father praised me!”

“That’s good.” I was genuinely happy for her. “Did he say anything about the dungeon?”

“Oh…” her tone went down a notch. “...’You barely passed.’ He said.”

That bastard…why did he sound so much like Herald? Well, I was pretty sure that people like Herlad were common amongst Nobles.

“Guess that’s one thing we have in common.”

“...?”

Seeing her questioning gaze, I chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.”

Then, Ihwa’s face went red as she realized that she’d been hugging me.

“It’s okay. As long as you pat me, I’m fine with hugs.”

{N-No, i-is the Swordsmaster becoming a pat-slut?}

‘A what?’

{Hic… I knew I should’ve raised her to be better…}

Tapping on Nira to stop her nonsensical babbling, I turned my attention back toward Ihwa again.

“Let’s go— huh? What are you looking at?”

I waved my hand in front of her face, but got no reaction out of her. I soon found out that she was staring intensely in my direction like she was a wolf looking at a piece of meat; her mouth half-drooling.

Thankfully, she wasn’t looking at me. Instead, her gaze entirely landed on the guard who was with me.

‘Oh.’

I looked at Ihwa’s infatuated gaze.

‘Oh!’

I saw Edward’s annoyance. It seemed that he’d encountered this kind of situation enough times for it to be a hassle to him.

‘Ooooh!’

Connecting the dots together, I grinned on the inside.

‘A love story between a lowly guard and a Noble lady…’

{I knew I shouldn’t have let the Mage girl feed you nonsensical romance novels.}

‘What are you, my Mom?’

Fun as the drama might be, I didn’t like this development one bit. Ihwa was definitely going to be distracted, and I didn’t even want to imagine how annoying it would be for me if these two acted like lovebirds every time I hung out with Ihwa.

‘Maybe I should get Edward a mask next time.’

Keeping such things in the back of my mind, I tried my best to make Ihwa focus on me again. However, it was simply impossible.

“Edward, can you hide your face?”

He obliged and put a helmet with visor on.

I could see Ihwa’s shoulders droop a bit, but she was still intensely staring at him. I briefly considered having Edward wake her up from her trance personally, but I decided not to. Chances are, and the chances were really high, that she’d faint on the spot with her face dyed red.

As such, I did the *only* sensible thing and went right up to Edward and hugged his arm.

“What are you doing?” He frowned.

“Waking my friend up from her delusion. By the look of it, you aren’t particularly interested in her… Are you?”

“As if. I’m only into older girls!”

“Good to kn—”

“A-Ah! N-No…”

Ihwa looked truly heart-broken; though, I wasn’t sure if it was my actions that caused it or the revelation that she wasn’t Edward’s type. With trembling eyes, she fell to the soft snowy ground in shock.

“Too much?” Edward asked.

“...I don’t think so.”

“But she literally passed out.”

“It’s only a small little crush that had literally less than fifty seconds of development. I think she’ll recover soon enough.”

“You know,” he sighed. “Sometimes I doubt if you’re really a five-year-old.”

“A genius, that’s what I am.”

After successfully deflecting Edward’s possible suspicion, I sat down on the ground next to Ihwa.

“Why are you doing that?” Edward asked as he stabbed his spear into the ground.

“She’ll need a friendly face beside her when she wakes up. Go hide behind a tree or something. I don’t think she’ll take your presence well. Mom gave me five days to play, so don’t you dare think of returning before then.”

“...As you wish.”

.

.

.

.

As I sat down on the ground, whistling to pass the time, I could feel something tugging at my tail. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Ihwa hugging my tail; fully awake.

“If you’re up, then let’s go.”

“But fluff…”

“...I’ll let you fluff my tail later. Just go with me for now.”

“Yay!”

Finally convincing Ihwa to let go of me, I said, 

“Did you bring your sword?”

She nodded and placed her hand on the hilt of the sword that she strapped on her waist.

“Can you show me your Aura again?”

She complied and manifested her Aura.

Staring at the deep purple hue that extended out of her body, I reached my hand out to touch it.

‘Solid and thick…’

Yet incredibly flexible. I hadn’t seen anything like this before, but if I had to guess, her Aura could block most Physical and Magical attacks of the same level.

‘That’s the exact opposite of my sharp Aura…lucky me, she’s not an enemy.’

And I wasn’t going to make her one, either. So, after some deliberation, I said,

“Do you want to get stronger?”

Without any hesitation, Ihwa stared at me with starry eyes and jumped up and down in excitement.

“Yes!”

.

.

.

.

In my past life, I was famous for my Star-breaking swordsmanship. However, only a few managed to witness me using said swordsmanship and come back alive.

The same was true for my Star-linking swordsmanship—few managed to see me using it. However, it was because I…hadn’t used it as much ever since I acquired the Star-breaking swordsmanship.

How did the saying go again? Something about breaking things being much easier than creating things?

Point was, Star-breaking was much more efficient and powerful than Star-linking. Some might say abandoning the technique that you had poured blood and sweat into making to learn another technique from someone else was shameful or even blasphemous, but the past me in my pursuit of power didn’t care.

Now, though…I still couldn’t care less. However, considering this body’s pitiful Aura reserve, especially after my Aura reserve got permanently reduced by the disease, Star-linking was the best choice.

‘The only silver lining in this situation is that Star-linking sword is versatile…’

With eighty-eight forms and who knows how many different sub-forms, I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said it was the most versatile sword style there was. Though, only a handful of them were suitable for my sharp Aura. Even if I were to use them in their pure form without any Aura, it still wouldn’t work with the fast and sharp sword style that had been engrained in my soul.

That was why I didn’t have many qualms about teaching Ihwa one of the eighty-eight forms.

“First, stab your sword forward and condense your Aura into your sword tip,” I said as I guided Ihwa’s hand from behind.

Ihwa nodded and relaxed her arm, letting me guide her.

I drifted her arm from the center to the left, and then to the top, and then downward, and then to the right; making a diamond-shaped pattern.

I repeated these motions a few more times. One thing I noted was that the tips of her ears grew redder and redder as time passed.

‘She’s probably exhausted. Probably. But what if— no, what am I thinking? She’s nine!’

I shook such thoughts out of my head and repeated the motions once again. Then, I whispered in her ear,

“Say the form’s name. The Stars will heed your call.”

Ihwa shuddered upon feeling my breath in her ear. After calming down, she barely managed a stutter.

“W-What’s its name?”

‘Right, I forgot to tell her.’

Name, huh?

I used to call it “The Shield.” Though, my Ihwa came up with a much better name; apparently, she took the name from one of the constellations in her world.

“Scutum. That’s its name. Remember it.”

That was it. My kindness only extended so far. Now, whether or not she developed this form further was entirely up to her.

Ihwa nodded. The redness in her ears intriguingly retracted with great speed. Then, I could feel a never-seen-before seriousness exuding from her.

Her Aura flared up, and—

“[Scutum]!”

—A kite shield made of pure purple Aura appeared.

{Wow.}

‘I know. To succeed on her first try…’

What kind of monster had I created? W-Wait, wait, I mustn’t get ahead of myself. Maybe the shield was more fragile than it looked. 

Not wanting to feel inferior to a literal nine-year-old, I summoned Nira and slashed at the shield.

My sword bounced off the shield harmlessly.

Sighing, I used [Aura sharpening] and tried again. This time, the shield shook a bit; but overall, it was fine.

“Do you want to test the shield’s limit?”

“Mhm! Please help your Unnie!”

I slashed again and again. Each time, the shield fractured a little. Then, on my twelfth slash, it broke into a million pieces.

‘...She’s a true genius.’

{I agree. But…why did you?}

‘...?’

{Why did you teach her this? Aren’t you afraid of her betraying you later? She may be innocent now, but there’s no telling what would happen when she grows up.}

‘Ah, you worry about the most useless things, Nira.’

{What do you mean?}

‘You see, as she gets stronger…’ a sharp glint flashed through my eyes. ‘...she’ll know how foolish it is to betray the trust of a Swordsmaster.’

{So cool!}

‘What was that?’

{Ehem, nothing.}

Ignoring Nira’s nonsensical babbling, I turned my attention back toward Ihwa again.

“Do you think you can conjure the shield again?”

“...Five more times.”

My jaw dropped. Seriously, how much of a genius was this girl? But, that fact only meant that I had to get on her good side no matter what.

So, after a brief moment of consideration, I decided that I’d take her on my hunt for Octalicum silk.

I told Ihwa about it. She was of course excited at the prospect of testing out her new power. However, as soon as the name of the Monster that we’d be hunting left my mouth—

“W-What?! No! I don’t want to!”

—She recoiled in fear.

‘What’s up with her?’

{Do you seriously not know?}

‘Enlighten me.’

{How old is the girl?}

‘Nine. Maybe ten.’

{What are you going to hunt?}

‘Some Octalicums.’

{And what do they look like?}

‘Giant spiders with white fur and metallic legs— ohhhhh!’

I could understand Ihwa’s woes now. 

After all, this Ihwa was only nine. That was still understandable compared to my Ihwa, who was scared of spiders despite being a fully-grown woman; a 11-star Archmage at that. I could still remember the time she burned down an entire inn just because she saw a spider…

{Good thing the Hero was absolutely loaded.}

‘Yeah. Good looks, money, and he’s the literally fucking Hero. I’m not surprised that every girl falls for him.’

{Not every.}

‘Y-Yeah…’

I was once again reminded of how lucky I was that I had my Ihwa, and was once more reminded of how faithful Eric—the Hero—was despite his frivolous looks. Seriously, he could’ve taken every girl in his party (excluding Ihwa) as his wife and no one would’ve complained, and yet he settled with only Saintess Emelia.

{Haaaah, I miss seeing your face when you found out that Emelia rejected you and said that she was in love with the Hero.}

‘S-Shut up! It was just a small crush! I-I would be the weird one if I didn’t have a crush on Emelia!’

Despite being two years older than Ihwa, Emelia was much more beautiful. It was almost like comparing a piece of s— ehem, that didn’t sound right. 

It was like comparing the current me and Edward. With her kind red eyes and lush blonde hair, she was prettier than Ihwa could ever hope to be.

Though, Ihwa was still beautiful in her own right. In fact, her charm was comparable to the current me: cute and, quite frankly, a little bit devious and annoying.

{I wonder what the Mage girl will think when she knows that you’ve been comparing her to another woman.}

‘Y-Yeah, you got a point.’

I didn’t know much about Magic, so Ihwa could’ve been peering into my mind while in Heaven for all I knew.

Back to the part where I confessed to Emelia. As it turned out, Eric was following me when I met Emelia behind a church, and he heard the part where she said that she loved him. After that, they made out right in front of me, who had just been rejected literally seconds earlier.

So…I inadvertently became a matchmaker. A Cupid, as the Otherworlders would say. Or a Cuck, as Zhen Shi would jokingly refer to me as. 

Alright, enough reminiscing about the past.

The Ihwa before me was looking at me weirdly, which was understandable since I must’ve been staring blankly into thin air for at least a minute.

I approached Ihwa again and began speaking to her. After some more convincing, she begrudgingly agreed to join me on the hunt.

“Oh, and you’ll be the Tanker.”

“Nooo! I changed my mind!”

“Too late now!”

“You monster!”

Ihwa screamed as I dragged her deeper into the forest.

‘This is going to be fun.’