God of Tricksters

"Rea…"

"Rea…"

"Rea…"

The Sword Saint kept knocking on her door but to no avail. She never came out.

Eventually, his wife stopped him to give Rea a bit more time to sort out her thoughts.

His wife asked, "What's wrong?"

The Sword Saint clutched his head while telling the entire story.

"… I just want to be a good father to them. I want to support both of them in whatever they're doing. But…" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't find a way to make Rea surpass her limit. Sojuro would just beat her again and again.

"I know you have done your best, Dear. Rea is more talented in another place, but you respect… I respect her decision in wanting to become someone like you."

They weren't that far from her room, so Rea ended up listening to their conversation. She finally learned the hurdle that her father faced because of her.

The tears that hadn't stopped since earlier flowed even stronger. She bit her lips because she had made her parents suffer due to her lack of talent.

She fell right next to her bed while hitting the quilt again and again.

"Why? Why am I so untalented?" She bit her lips. "Stronger. I need to be even stronger!"

From that day onward, Rea swung her sword even harder. She shrank her sleeping time just to get more time to swing her sword.

The Sword Saint couldn't see Rea in the same way anymore. He never thought that loss actually caused harm to Rea's body.

A few months after that incident, he was walking down the hallway and caught sight of Rea swinging her blade in her favorite spot.

However, he found something he never thought would appear with Rea's personality.

A red droplet fell to the ground, coating the snow on her feet red. In fact, the snow had become quite red, showing it wasn't the first droplet that had fallen from her hand.

'Blood?!' The Sword Saint widened his eyes in shock. His heart felt like it was going to stop as he hurriedly came to her and caught her blade.

"Honorable Father?" Rea was startled with one of her eyes closing due to the pain. However, when the Sword Saint looked down to confirm the blood, Rea's face became pale. "This… This…"

The Sword Saint forcefully opened her hand and took her blade away, looking at the state of her hand.

The cut was already quite deep.

"Rea, you…"

"This is nothing, Honorable Father. There's no need for you to worry!"

"No!" The Sword Saint didn't even bother to listen to her anymore and immediately brought her to a doctor. In the end, he bought the most expensive medicine to heal her hands.

"Father, this is…" Rea was dragged by her father into their mansion. According to the path, her father would most likely lock her inside her room to force her to rest.

"No, I won't listen to you. Do you think I'll let you injure yourself like that?" The Sword Saint gritted his teeth, looking pained.

Rea was also frustrated. She ended up shouting, "Father!"

The Sword Saint's body trembled, and he turned around, looking at Rea's crying face.

"Please… Please let me continue training." Rea was begging her father to let her suffer, or that was what flashed in the Sword Saint's mind.

But Rea even dropped to her knees while crying, "Please, Father… I can't stop training even a single day. Or else I can't ever catch up to my brother anymore. I know that you care about me, but…

"Do you know what people think about me? People consider me as your useless daughter. They said Big Brother is the most talented person they have seen, and he will lead the Nagasawa Family in the future.

"That's a fact I have accepted for a long time. But what I can't accept is that when they question my brother's ability because I'm not as talented as him. They're pitying me and treating me like a girl who will be married away someday.

"I don't want it! I want to be your pride as well. I want people to uphold our honor. That's why please… let me continue to practice… let me continue chasing after my brother."

The Sword Saint was speechless on that day. He could do nothing but let go of his daughter's hand.

Rea had been suffering this whole time. He had tried his best to help her, but the pressure of becoming the daughter of the Sword Saint was simply too big.

She was strong to begin with, so she faced that pressure head-on even if it meant destroying herself.

But if he took that away from her by locking her in her room to let her rest, it would be the same as taking away her effort and determination.

The Sword Saint couldn't bear to do it.

On the one hand, he was thankful and gratified to know his daughter thought this much for him. On the other hand, he didn't want her to be destroyed by this pressure.

In the end, the Sword Saint lowered his own pride and started searching for a tutor. He would be labeled by the world as a number one swordsman who couldn't even teach someone to be a swordsman, but he didn't care about it anymore.

For his daughter, he lowered his head to others, asking them to be her tutor. He asked all kinds of tutors, no matter if they taught a sword or magic.

As the Sword Saint, he knew that swordsmanship might be their foundation, but it didn't mean they should only pursue this swordsmanship. They could use magic to strengthen the foundation too. So, he wanted to teach her all kinds of things, hoping that ability could improve her strength drastically.

It took two years, and Rea finally went to high school. At that time, she met a classmate that inspired her to summon a creature to aid her in battle.

And that was the start of her Summoning Ability.