Chapter 132: Chin up

The man brought his chin up, straightened his back, let his eyes grow fuller, and looked down on me from above with contempt. I wasn't imagining it: even when I was the one who stood up in front of the man who sat down, he was looking down on me, as if he were physically above me.

Another thing that I wasn't imagining was that he, with his cold and scornful eyes, genuinely was blatantly both taunting and disgusted by me. I still had my doubts up until this point, but for some reason, this man was out to get me.

I didn't know him or anything related to himself, but the mysterious swordsman seemed to have been waiting for me. Was there some bad blood between us? I stood in front of him, and with steady eye contact, the man's lips pressed together as a slight frown climbed upon his impassible complexion.

Holding my gaze, he stared deeply into my face, my tilted head, and raised eyebrows. With seriousness, the man's eyes turned to a thin slit as if he doubted he even saw the young, black-haired teenage boy standing blatant in front of him in his dojo, but then shook his head with strength before breaking eye contact with a long sigh.

Good grief. Should such encounters be a daily occurrence in your life? I didn't think so, but as it stands, I didn't really know. In any case, it felt normal to me. Still, the way the man was glaring at me a second earlier was troubling me: Youngsters, nowadays... I thought. I can take him out. Just as I planned. Using Mana Perception... he seems like a tough opponent, but I can pull it.

Still, should I? I'm curious now.

"So?" I inquired, putting my hands on my hips. Now was my turn to look down on the swordsman. "Have something for me?"

The swordsman, formally sitting like a very polite person in front of me, shook his head.

"Look, I..."

He shook it again.

"I do need some feedback, though. So why don't you just, I dunno..."

For the third time, the aloof swordsman shook his head. I made the comment that, at the very least, he chased away all of the disgust and anger he seemed to have toward me. In reply to that, he nodded to me.

"Hmm... So you don't have something for me?" As if it were absolutely natural for me to spend some casual time with the eerie swordsman who probably wanted to kill me, I sat down on the smooth wooden tiles of this poor dojo. Sitting, I didn't pay him attention. "Sorry, tell me again? You don't have 'something' for me, then?"

The swordsman nodded, but then shook his head.

"Wait, what?" Scowling, I gaze up at him. His strong posture was unchanged, but I now saw a certain gleam of liveliness and playfulness in his eyes. And he answered me again: I asked "what?" and so he repeated the gesture, nodded at me but shook his head right away. Just to make sure, I confirmed that the swordsman wasn't just a crazy person and asked him if he was answering the question I thought he answered: Did the man have something for me? To that, he nodded, and I sighed.

"So... you're answering my question... but then you don't make sense!" I complained that a nod followed by a shaking of his head meant both yes and no—and the swordsman nodded at me.

"Yes or no? ...You nod at me again, that means 'yes,' but... that figures, you shake your head again, so it means 'no.' A-Are you making fun of me, by any chance? Your answer is 'no.' Hmm... shouldn't you pick either yes or no, then, when answering THE important question, eh? ...H-How can you say 'no'?! Look! I'm asking you one last time: Yes... or friggin' no so I can kill you right away, hm? You wouldn't know it, but there's some quest about you, after all! ...Yes or no?"

The last instructions from the System I received were about the Player meeting the instructor of the Player's guild. I had a quest involving the swordsman, but whatever, if he wasn't down to laying a proper reason for which he repeatedly projected killing intent toward me, I'd slay him then and there. Maybe he just wanted me to recognize him, thinking "I hope senpai notices me, today..." or something! That's why I asked him.

But what followed was the mess two absolute weirdos meeting up produced together. For one additional minute, I tried to get the man to actually answer my question like a normal person would, yelling that he had to if I demanded it, but he was nowhere near actually employing words when conveying his message to me. By the way, I did ask him whether he had problems of disability when it came to speaking a language, but he said there were none.

The swordsman, after I kept repeating the important question, kept tossing rounds of "yes, no, yes, no" at me, but only through either shaking or nodding his head.

Squinting my eyes at him, I made sure to list every word he transmitted to me: "Yes, yes, no, yes, yes, no, no, no, nyes, yes, no, yeno, yes, no, no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, both yes and no, yes... no..." and, believe it or not, this went on for longer than two minutes. That was our duel, and I well intended not to lose to the silent swordsman. In the end, I gathered that the ratio of yes and no was exactly 1:1. And so, that probably meant the swordsman did have something for me... but that, parallelly, he didn't.

Then again, that answer couldn't make sense. So rather, maybe the mysterious swordsman meant that we both had something for each other. Regardless of the important answer I sought, before we knew it, this little moronic game had grown well on us.

Before long, I fortunately got back to reality, brought both hands in the air, slammed them down on the smooth floor of the dojo, and yelled, "Stop! Enough! This is too much!"

Right then and there, the silent, stern swordsman burst out into laughter. These laughs came from deep within his chest and were as hearty as could be. At a loss of what to think of that sudden switch in demeanor, I shook my head and jumped up. "I don't quite understand why... but this is my win!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" The swordsman's features were delighted, and he admitted it. "Yes! It! Is! ...God, how weird can you be...?" I would have never imagined such a bright and warm voice belonged to the swordsman. I mean, at present, the voice certainly did suit his bright complexion and his smile that couldn't be contained. Seconds earlier, that swordsman was the total opposite of that.

"You admit it, human!"

"Surely, I do, I do," he laughed enthusiastically.

"My win!"

"Absolutely true!"

We basically went from total strangers clearly having a problem with each other to close besties who hadn't met up for long. From the cold and tense atmosphere, we went to a warm and cheerful peace. Both smiling at each other harmoniously and chuckling, I made a comment, "...Know what, we both win."

"Aww," the swordsman tilted his head, fondly. "How can I ever repay you?"

Laughing some more and exchanging a few more words, complimenting each other for the good fight we had just pulled, our laughter gradually died down. Still, the laughter's good vibes hung around the place, and that played a huge role in changing the atmosphere dramatically: we met thinking we'd kill each other (that was probably just me), and now we were best buddies.

I really thought the swordsman was out to get me. He sounded like a monster, and he was out to eat me whole. After I told him as much, he shook his head, saying, "Of course I wouldn't eat you, boy." With his relaxed posture and light smile, I could tell he was telling the truth and that he only meant peace.

"I really did think that, though," I chuckled, grinning back.

"Well, you thought wrong, obviously," he said, somewhat longingly. "...And, tell you what—in the end... or let's rather say in my end, you're the one who kills me all right, ha-ha-ha!"

That was a weird thing to laugh about, but I usually laughed about that kind of stuff, too, so I felt like I could relate to the mysterious swordsman in front of me.

Out of the blue, we sank back into our silence. Again. Still staring at each other. Now, the silence wasn't so off-putting for me. I was the one who engaged in it, in any case. Tilting my head to the side, I sank into thoughts.

When I'd found my elven princess, I'd found the first and only person who embraced me for what I truly was, without seeking interest from me at all. I was happy. And now that I had found this human swordsman, I probably found my relative, in a way.

I wasn't looking for that weirdo, but at the same time, I could say that because I had found him, I felt like I was looking for him all along.

Thus, as I said, the monster met the bigger monster. The System had named the quest "He who became a monster."

I had yet to find out, but the swordsman was similar to me in so many ways. And he found me, too. Though I didn't know, of us two, he was the one who could be said to have been looking for me.

According to the System, I had finally met and got acquainted with the instructor of my guild.

New instructions quickly kicked in.