He continued to walk away from me even when I ran up to him so I could ask him more questions. His voice had changed back once more to the usual one he used.
"When I give you a quote like that you're not supposed to ask any more questions. You should have just walked away, maybe put it in a book somewhere."
"A quote? What are you talking about? I understood you up until you basically told me to do whatever I want."
"Well, you seem to understand what I was telling you to do."
"Alright, fine, I do understand what you were telling me to do, I don't understand why."
He opened the door and walked inside without answering my question. I paused for a moment but then quickly ran after him.
"Hey!"
He turned around and I saw that he was grinning at me. Great, what did I do now?
"What happened to the kid that was refusing to get off the couch?"
"Are you really bragging?"
"No, I'm just, thinking... about how great of a teacher I am."
"Fine, I'll go back up to my room and not talk for the next month. In fact, I'll leave toda-"
"You've made your point. Sit down, I'll make us something to eat."
I found a comfortable position for myself on the couch.
"What about Koyo? Where is he?"
He was walking into the other room to make food, but just as I realized what I had said he was already peeking his head through the doorway to grin at me even more.
I couldn't even grasp why I said that, I probably just did it instinctually. Y'know, someone else is living with you, you want to know where they are, make sure they didn't get themselves lost. I stuttered out some explanation to him.
"Well, he can't fight me if he hasn't eaten. Plus, if he got lost you'd blame me."
He popped his head back into the other room but I knew he was probably laughing to himself about my mistake. I was waiting on the couch with my face burning up, if he tells Koyo about this I'll never wake up without him shoving it in my face. I heard him scream from the other room after just sitting there for a bit.
"Does boiled binsiel sound good?"
"Food is food."
"The last time you said that I watched you toss the entire plate of food straight out of the window."
"Fine, yes, it sounds good."
I didn't think that he would ever cook any of the spoils of his last hunting trip. He said he was saving them for a special guest, maybe they weren't coming anymore.
I waited for what felt like a while, but eventually, he came out with two plates. He took the part of the binsiel with the bone in it and gave me the other half. He also brought two tankards, and both of them had beer. He gave me the one that had a weaker smell.
We sat there in silence just eating and drinking. I knew that if I tried to speak to him he just wouldn't respond, so I was better off just eating with him waiting until we both finished.
When he finally drank the rest of what was in his tankard, he slammed it down on the table and spoke again.
"Now, what are you confused about exactly?"
"You said that I should just do whatever I want, right?"
"That's putting it simply."
"Then don't put it simply. When you told me that I should just swing the sword how I want to, why did you say that? Why do you want me to just abandon technique?"
"I'll stop you there because that's your first misunderstanding. I don't want you to abandon technique as a whole, but-"
He struggled to say anything and repositioned his hands every few moments. Eventually, he laid back in his chair and gave me an actual explanation.
"Do you know why people study the techniques of great swordsmen?"
"Because they're good?"
"What makes them good?"
"The swordsmen were good?"
"Stop responding to my questions with not-answers. What made the techniques of great swordsmen appealing?"
"Those techniques were good in battle."
"How do we know they were good in battle?"
"The swordsman who used them won fights."
"Right."
He started to lean in.
"So people follow these techniques because the swordsman who used them won fights. Have any new sword styles been created recently?"
"I don't think so."
"Why do you think that is?"
"Because nobody uses new techni-"
"Alright, never mind I'm just going to skip to the point."
"Since when is the teacher the impatient one?"
"I realized that my line of questioning would have taken way too long. It's not just impatience, I should be setting an example as your role model."
"Right."
"Don't you- how- stop. Anyway, here's the point."
He leaned fully in, resting his right elbow on his right leg, and putting his left hand on his left knee with his right hand up near his face.
"There is a full possibility that you can create your own sword style, that you can create your own technique. If you win battles, it doesn't matter what technique you use, all people will talk about is the fact that you won. I'm not telling you to abandon every single thing that you've learned, but what I am telling you is that instead of focusing on the rules and the way things are 'supposed' to go, you need to focus more on developing the way that you fight."
"How do you know?"
"First, I know because you continuously lose to Koyo, who you denounce for not following the 'rules' of swordplay. Second, I have a personal experience."
"Is it-"
"Yes, congratulations, I'm going to tell you a story."
I realized that I was fully leaning in, resting my elbows on my legs as I listened to him speak.
"A friend of mine who I don't get to see a lot anymore was the most famous swordswoman in all the land. She was that way before I even met her, and it wasn't for no good reason. Every single time she fought with someone she would proclaim her victory before the fight even began. No matter who she fought, every time she would win."
I noticed he was smiling while telling me this story.
"Now the thing is, she had this extremely weird sword. It was like this lance that doubled as a rapier in a way. The only truly sharp part of the blade was the tip, but she was versatile with her usage of the blade. Anyway, I always insulted her blade and one day she got sick of it and challenged me to a duel. I thought it was a good chance to-"
"What did you bet?"
"What?"
"You said it was a duel, which means both of you bet something on it."
"I'm getting there."
I leaned back and let him finish the story.
"Before we started she told me that if she lost, she would throw her sword away and never use it again, and if she won, I would have to listen to everything she asked me to do for a month's time."
"Well, what happened?"
"I won, because of something unrelated."
"So she threw away her sword?"
"Why are you so interested in this story? I'm trying to make a point."
"You're talking about Alena Karamazov, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I love her. Not like "love" love her, she's the entire reason that I picked up a sword."
"She's the reason you picked up a sword? You told me you picked up a sword because your family was murdered in front of you."
"Well, I did. I continued to fight with the sword after I made it to Cyndor because of her. When she told the world that she was an orphan it caused riots, you know."
"Well of course I know that, I was right there when she made that announcement. I was the one who told her to make that announcement?"
"What? Why did you never tell me this?"
"Well, I didn't know that Alena was your personal hero."
"How do you know Alena anyway?"
He paused for a moment before answering.
"Wait a minute, I was telling you a story so I could teach you a lesson."
"Oh come on!"
"I'll tell you more about that some other time, now, back to what I was saying."
"When are you going to tell me about how you know Alena?"
"I didn't end up forcing her to throw away her sword."
He was ignoring me on purpose now.
"Making her throw that sword away would have ruined her career anyway, but I realized something after the fight. Even though I had one, it was only by a small margin. If I had underestimated her in the slightest I probably would've lost before getting the chance to adjust."
He leaned back into his chair again, he couldn't stay still. Neither could I, I had leaned back in just as he changed his position.
"What I took away was respect for the way that she fought. Even though she didn't follow any techniques that I knew, even though she used a sword that I thought was ridiculous, after that duel, I couldn't say that she wasn't a great swordswoman. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
He was grinning at me, he wouldn't do anything until I answered. I could just lie and say that I didn't understand a single thing, but then he would never tell me about how he knew Alena.
"So she was great with the sword without technique."
"Exactly. The thing is, technique isn't bad, but you'll find that if you only follow someone else's swordsmanship you're only going to limit yourself. Sometimes, it's good to know the basics, to have that foundation, but there are extreme examples like Tidugo where they force aspiring swordsmen to approach every fight like a mathematician. The last time I went over there they tried to lecture me about how I wasn't embracing the truths of geometry and whatnot."
He leaned back in again.
"When you're good enough with the sword, nobody will ever have any reason to question you. Any naysayers, anyone who tries to tell you that you're doing it wrong is someone who you can beat in a duel, and people won't care about what they say. Just like Koyo using his sword with one hand, if you are good with your blade it doesn't matter how you use it, all that matters is that the way you use it works, and will continue to work."
"And if it doesn't?"
He paused for a moment again.
"If it doesn't..."
He ran his hands through his hair before finishing his sentence.
"Then you find something new that does."