He looked around and saw Tetsu no Sosuke leisurely eating rabbit meat, leaving him momentarily bewildered.
The wilderness was silent. Aside from his teacher, who else could have ambushed him?
As he pondered that, a strange sound reached his ears.
He whipped his head around and saw a figure standing at the edge of the woods, though he had no idea when it had appeared.
The figure's head was lowered, its long hair trailing on the ground and obscuring its face.
It stood there, utterly motionless.
Yuichiro was startled, but in the next instant, the figure suddenly began to fade. He instinctively stepped back. "T-Teacher!"
Tetsu no Sosuke was hugging the Sunflare Hammer, sleeping soundly.
"Teacher, stop pretending! You were eating just a moment ago. How could you suddenly be sleeping so soundly?"
Yuichiro was furious.
Tetsu no Sosuke had no choice but to open his eyes sheepishly and pick up the remaining half of the rabbit. As he ate, he said, "We swordsmiths don't usually face danger directly, but things can still go wrong when we head out to deliver swords. Take right now, for example. We weren't planning to pick a fight with these things, yet we ran into one anyway. As a swordsmith, you're bound to encounter situations like this in the future. What do you do then? If I'm around, of course you'll be fine. But if you're on your own... things could get tricky."
At that, he looked at Yuichiro with a grin. "So, while I'm here, do you want to see whether you can kill a demon yourself?"
Yuichiro stared in disbelief, but when he noticed that Tetsu no Sosuke's expression was actually serious despite his smile, he quietly nodded. "All right."
"You agreed that easily?" Tetsu no Sosuke asked in surprise. "Feeling confident?"