A Misunderstood Mentor

Chapter 1 – My Disciple’s Disciple Came

 

“Art thou the Sword Saint Alice’s master, the Grand Sword Saint Takumi?”

“Huh, wait, I think you’ve got the wrong person?”

 

A young lady was kneeling in the overgrown grass by my feet.

It was about the time when winter would come rolling in, so I had some meat salting by the entrance to the cave.

Long, black hair with thin eyes.
Probably around fifteen or sixteen years old.
There was a sword perched on her back, it probably being a katana, or so they call it, from the East.
She was wearing eastern clothes, a white kimono decorated with vermilion peonies. 

I understood it with a single glance.

This girl was out of my league, at least in strength.

 

“Me being the Grand Sword Saint is insulting to the words ‘Grand’ and ‘Saint.’ I’m just a retired old man from the mountains.”

“Hahaha, thou jest.
Thy sense of humor is truly profound.”

 

But it wasn’t a joke.
It was just cold, hard reality.

It’s true that I used to be an adventurer, but it’s been more than a decade since I’ve last been in the adventurer’s guild.
And well, even when I was active, I was second from the bottom in the D rank.
I was a complete burden to my party.

I retired after I was kicked out from the party and have since been living in the mountains.

 

“You’ve probably got the wrong Takumi.
It isn’t me.”
“‘Tis not the case.
In this world, there is not a single other Takumi.”

“Fue?”

 

I vocalized my surprise in a very odd way.

 

“There’s no way? It isn’t common, but there’s gotta be someone else with the same name.”

 

The adventurer rankings have every single registered adventurer in them, listing their name and rank.
There had to be at least one other Takumi in there.

 

“Any other Takumi was required to change their name.
‘Tis now prohibited by law for any adventurer in the world to have that name.
Now and forevermore, thou art the only Takumi.”

“Huh, what the f*ck.”

 

I couldn’t understand the nonsense she was saying.

 

“And why would that have happened? And how in the world would that become a law?”

 

She tilted her head in confusion.

 

“It has been like that forever.
Nobody can posses the same name as the person first on the adventurer rankings.
‘Twas passed into law in the year 1xx.”

 

That law did seem to ring a bell.

But the top adventurer shouldn’t have changed since the bill was passed.

 

“Wasn’t the Grand Sage Nerissa rank one? Wait, for my name to be like that…”

“Yes, Nuellhach is rank three.
Now rank one is thee.”

 

I felt like a hammer smashed into my head.

Still, I couldn’t accept this reality.

 

“No, nononono, that makes no sense at all.
I retired ten years ago.
And even then I was rank five-hundred something.
And I only got that far because of my friends.
If not for them, I wouldn’t be anything.” 

“Still with the modesty, I see.
I am aware of all that thou hast accomplished.”

 

What exactly have I done? Unless you count hunting and farming as an accomplishment…

 

“The conquest of the Grand Cave of Alaifend, the subjugation of the Ancient Dragon, the recapture of King Gahbell City.
Thy feats have been recorded, and thou shalt be known through all of history as the strongest of humanity.”

“And when the f*ck did I do all this? I’ve just been lazing around in the mountains for the entirety of the past decade!”

 

My voiced peaked into a very confused scream.

 

“Despite thou declining to boast about thy deeds, thou truly art a magnificent person.”

 

It was hopeless.
We couldn’t communicate on even the most basic level.

I tried going with a new approach.

 

“Say, about that, did I do all of those things by myself?”

“No, according to the guild’s records, thou were in a party with Alice.
However, Alice has told me that ‘twas all thee.”

“Wait, b