Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as the weakest Sword God

Oh shit...

Now there was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Still, he still didn't attack me, he used his words instead.

"That's wrong" he said.

"Yeah! You're right about that! It's all wrong! Totally wrong!" My words were getting to him.

"You're not worthy? Of course you are! You absolutely deserve it! I mean, come on! Who says you have to be number two to earn a chance against number one? Just because someone else got it, does that mean you can't face Orstesd? Who says that? No one!! Now when you think about it that way, you have more right than anyone! You spent your whole life working for it!" I said

I saw a shadow in his eyes, he was breaking down, all that was missing was a little push.

"You must challenge Orsted, who cares whether you win or lose? You may be weak! Your prime may have passed, who cares? Hell! Maybe this is for the best! You really could be better! Now is when you can shake off those chains! You can go face him with nothing holding you back!!" I continued.

"Yeah, sure, maybe you'll be crushed! So what? What are you going to do? Wander aimlessly until you're old and frail and die like a stray dog? Are you really okay with that? You're not lazy, are you?" I continued.

"So what's stopping you? Come on! Join me! Then we'll face Orsted! What do you say?!" I finished, then reached out a hand towards him.

He didn't say anything, his eyes were somber, hesitant, and stared straight at me.

Oooh... I think I overdid it.

The best thing was always to just blurt out all the information you had at once, and only give the other guy a chance to think something through once you've got him on track.

The problem with this kind of approach is that if you talk too much, they don't respond anymore.

He was reacting to something I was saying, so I thought I was doing it right.

But he wasn't the smart type, it would be unexpected, but this was the kind of risk I had to take.

Anyway, you can't force people to think like you by stuffing a bunch of words into their heads.

So the best thing was to overwhelm them a bit, set the tone, and let them digest it.

I gave him all the facts, he just had to put them together, but something inside him was holding him back.

He needed an excuse to take the bait, and then I'd have him in my pocket, that's my approach.

In fact, if he was smarter, I think he'd be on board already, too bad.

He didn't speak, he was very quiet, this ravine was the Winter Dragon's lair, here no other monster would bother us, there was no wind, I couldn't even hear the sound of the water from that frozen river, only the sizzling of the roasting meat told me that time was passing.

The man wasn't alone in silence, he didn't move a muscle, he was so still that he could have been dead.

Silence makes me anxious, when everything is silent, that means I'm alone, I'm not alone at all, all I would need would be a monster from around and I would be a dead man, I wasn't going to cry, but I wasn't going to fool myself that I could win either.

All I could do was...

"I'm not interested in becoming anyone's pawn, even if it means rotting here" Gull suddenly said.

He didn't take my hand, even worse, he reached for his sword, I felt cold sweat coming out of my entire body.

Every cell was screaming at me to get out of here right now.

But my brain resisted that and told me to stay calm.

I knew I couldn't escape, this guy could cut me into pieces in the blink of an eye, my corpse would be buried in the snow until spring uncovered it and the bugs came to eat me.

But I was in one piece, he wasn't messing with me, if he wanted to kill me it would all be over in a second, so why?...

"Hey monkey face, why are you doing this?" Gull muttered.

"You didn't think that after you came with me, and said that shit, I would have just cut your head off and left your pathetic corpse here," Gull whispered with a smile.

Ah yes, I thought about it, more than a few times, every time I approached a deranged stranger, I resisted the urge to scream, and used my tongue and every ounce of courage I had to reason with them.

"What dream is your master granting you, huh? Why are you doing this?" Gull asked.

"Why?..." I hadn't expected that question, but, now that I think about it, it made sense, my actions must be confusing to others.

"Just so you know, I am a fervent servant of Hito-"

"Don't give me that faith bullshit," he spat.

"I've come across many devout followers, maniacs like those knightly orders of Millis who would do anything for their precious god, I don't sense that in you, not one bit" Gull muttered.

Everything sank back into silence, my mind began to recall the past, from the moment of my own birth to when I became an adventurer, before I met Hitogami.

I was born in a small village in the south of the Demon Continent, I was the third of the five children of the village, it wasn't much, but we had a better life than the average villager.

But, back then, I felt quite restricted.

You see, my future wife was chosen for me the moment I was born, as was my future job.

The job of a village child was to live the life that was meant for him

As long as I did that, I could do anything else.

Back then I thought there were many more things I could do, if only I had the chance to take up a sword or study magic I would prove it to everyone: I would become someone.

Or maybe if I could just be hired into the service of some country, you'd all hear of my heroic deeds, I'd go down in the history books!

My father would beat the shit out of me every time I started saying things like that.

"Know your place!" was what he liked to say to me.

Looking back, I recognize that my father said it because he saw who I really was, my father knew the limits of my potential, obviously, I didn't.

How the hell am I supposed to know my place? I'd never been outside before.

So I emigrated from the nest, quit my job, ran away from home, and joined one of the merchant caravans that went to trade with our village.

I abandoned my family and my fiancée to flee to the nearest big city.

That was where my legend would begin, I was absolutely convinced of that.

But reality hit me right away, I was a lost cause every time I used magic or wielded a sword.

I couldn't even come close to comparing myself to the average.

I guess, leaving aside the battle, I did just as well as anyone else, but I sure didn't stand out in any way.

I could barely surpass the average when I tried my hardest, but to master something? Don't make me laugh!

The only reason I continued to live was because of the dreams I had every now and then, dreams of Hitogami.

And so... I survived.

From that day on, young Gesse became an apostle of Hitogami.

I came out of some really unpleasant situations that I would never have been able to overcome on my own, which made me stand out and be noticed by the really powerful guys.

But part of me felt empty, that feeling was stronger after the black wolf's fangs separated and I spent some time wandering alone, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was a fraud, that I had never achieved anything on my own.

The adventurous version of me was just a shell of lies and pride.

Have you seen how the shit on goldfish hangs off of them as they swim? That was me.

All I had were cheap tricks and a quick tongue.

Was I living that way? In the end, what did I really want? Who did I want to be? Those feelings had always been lurking deep inside me.

"You probably won't understand but in my entire life I've never been ahead" I said.

"I've always gotten crumbs, I've been trying to analyze people, lying and flattering so I could take advantage of other people's influence, I've never achieved anything alone" I continued.

"That's why...how should I put it?...I can't let it end this way" I said and then closed my mouth, I was surprised at how right those words sounded to me.

All this time I thought I was having a good enough life, enjoying it, but that one day I would die in a ditch and that would be it, but deep down I felt differently.

"You can't huh?" Gull said, moving his hand away from his sword, his eyes were now dull, without that shine from before.

"Hah, that's right, you're exactly right" he said

I had blurted out what came into my head, but thinking about it, what I said fit perfectly with this guy's situation

I can't let it end this way, I couldn't, neither could he.

"Very well" he said with a wild smile, then he stretched out his arm and took my still outstretched hand.

"I'll be your pawn" he said.

It all happened so fast that it felt a little disappointing.

But what I had just said convinced that guy, this guy, the greatest swordsman in the world, so powerful that all of humanity knew his name.

"So what do I do now? Do I protect you?" he asked

"Eh, no..." I answered

I felt like I was going to smile, but I forced myself to remain serious, maybe I didn't need to, but it's not good practice to go around smiling at people, it scares them away, that's also bad luck, write that down.

"For now, you have to go here" I said and handed him a map.

"Once you get there I'll tell you what comes next, one more thing, if we meet by chance, act like you don't know me, this is all top secret" I warned him.

The location of the ambush was already decided, when I wasn't making invitations to guys like this, I was already preparing it.

I was being careful, taking my time to strengthen everything, I wasn't going to lose.

"I understand" he said after taking the map, but one thing, I'm not an actor, if you don't want to be discovered, you better stay out of my way" he said and started to walk away, it was as if I didn't matter to him at all.

I liked that, you could tell that he had lived his whole life dedicating it to his sword, without useless actions or wasted words.

When he decided something, he just did it, he wasn't the easiest person to handle, but he was insanely powerful, and now... he was my pawn.

I saw his back walk away until he disappeared from sight, then, giving a sato, I raised my fist in the air.

That first guy was the easiest, he was important enough to not need an introduction and he sure didn't act like he had time for a nobody like me, but in the end all we had to do was talk, he accepted what I said and joined me of his own free will.

Timing probably had something to do with it.

After all my planning and worrying.

In the end it was something I hadn't even intended to use as persuasion which conveniently ended up resonating with him.

People will always open up about what's bothering them if someone comes to them with the right words.

In the end, that was it, I did it right, right?

At times I got lucky, but still, I convinced him.

But here's the thing, oh holy Hitogami, ever since I talked to that guy, I feel like something's wrong, maybe we missed something, you know?

It's just that I have the feeling that somewhere along the way we're going to fall into a trap.

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