Swordsmanship Training
Following Bella’s advice, I went out to the training yard, where Derick was already waiting for me.
Why had he called me here?
Had I done something wrong?
“You’re here.”
He must have been in the middle of training, because Derick was drenched in sweat.
Thanks to that, the smell was pretty awful.
Bad enough to make me wrinkle my nose.
Not that I actually did.
No point in making him dislike me for no reason.
“I heard you wanted to see me.”
“That’s right. I did.”
“Did you need me to do something?”
“Not exactly. I just had a few questions for you, so I called you out here.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Is the work manageable?”
Work.
It had only been a day since I arrived at the villa.
I was clumsy at first since this was my first time serving as a butler, but the job itself was manageable.
Compared to the days when my life had been threatened every single day in the circus, it was several times easier.
“It’s manageable.”
“...I see.”
“Is that all you wanted to ask?”
“Yes. Now I’ll speak of something else.”
Something else?
What else was there to say?
“You may have heard, but in a week, young lady will be returning to the academy. You’ll be going with her.”
“Pardon?”
“Exactly as I said. The only people allowed inside the academy are professors, students, and those who manage the academy. Knights like me are not permitted inside.”
Derick glanced at me for a moment, then continued.
“So you’ll be the one to enter. We need at least one person capable of protecting the young lady.”
All of a sudden, I was entering the academy?
It was unexpected, but not bad.
Find the proper master and prevent Serapion’s destruction.
If I wanted to stop the destruction of the Serapion continent, I had to stay by Medeia’s side.
“So starting today, I’m going to train you.”
“Train me?”
“You need to be capable of protecting the young lady.”
Derick kicked a wooden sword lying on the ground, sending it skidding toward me.
I caught it reflexively.
“Oh?”
Derick’s eyes lit up, as though he hadn’t expected me to catch it.
“You caught that well. Are you truly blind?”
“My other senses are a little sharp. I just noticed the sound of your kick.”
It was a complete lie.
In my mind, I could already see Derick’s face, the armor he wore, the sword in his hand, even the expression on his face, all in vivid detail.
But I didn’t say that.
What would I gain from telling him?
“I’ve heard there are some blind men like that.”
Derick said that and looked at the wooden sword in my hand.
Then, all at once—
Whoosh!
Derick’s wooden sword moved without the slightest warning.
“...!”
On pure instinct, I raised my own sword.
Clack!
The sound of wood striking wood rang out across the training yard.
“...Huh. You blocked that?”
Derick looked genuinely surprised that his attack had been stopped.
I was the one surprised, thank you very much.
“What was that for? You startled me.”
“I was only testing your skill.”
“Do knights really ambush people when they’re checking their skill?”
“......”
Derick’s face stiffened.
Had I been too harsh?
For a moment, the thought crossed my mind.
But then I shook my head.
No.
The bigger fault lay with him for attacking without a word.
Good thing I was a blind man who could actually see well enough, because if I’d truly been blind, I would’ve been badly hurt.
“...That was my mistake. I apologize.”
Derick apologized readily.
That shocked me.
The knights I knew were famous for their pride, yet here he was apologizing to a slave like me.
Was Derick unusual, or was knightly pride in this world not quite as rigid as I’d thought?
“As I said earlier, I only wanted to see whether you were capable of protecting the young lady. I had no intention of... ambushing you.”
At his words, I nodded.
He’d already apologized. What was I supposed to say now?
“Still, let me give you one piece of advice.”
“Advice?”
“It would be best not to act like that in front of other knights. Not everyone will let it pass the way I did.”
At that, I quietly nodded.
Right. A knight’s pride wasn’t about to disappear just because Derick happened to be an exception.
He was the unusual one.
“So, have you seen enough of my skills?”
“Not yet. It’s difficult to judge from a single attack.”
Derick raised his wooden sword again.
“This time I’ll tell you in advance. From now on, I’m attacking you.”
“A spar?”
“A spar... I’m not sure I’d call this a spar.”
The next instant, Derick’s wooden sword moved in a blur.
At first I managed to block a few of his attacks, but after that I couldn’t stop a single one.
That said, I wasn’t getting hit.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Derick’s sword kept slicing through empty air.
Every time one of his blows was about to land, I twisted my body and slipped past it.
That was all thanks to my Evade (A) skill.
All those times I’d dodged daggers and arrows for dear life in the circus were finally paying off here.
“Hah... unbelievable.”
Derick stared at me as though he couldn’t believe I was dodging every single attack.
His gaze made my shoulders puff up a little.
“I’ve got some skill, don’t I? What do you think of me now?”
I had blocked a knight’s attack once, and now I was avoiding them all.
Sure, Derick was holding back, but wasn’t that still impressive talent?
His answer, however, was disappointing.
“Pathetic.”
“Huh? Why?”
I couldn’t understand it.
If Derick wasn’t as blind as I was, then he must have seen that I’d dodged every attack.
So why?
“If you were fighting alone, that would be one thing. But you have to protect the young lady. From that perspective, your swordsmanship is pathetic if all you can do is avoid attacks and fail to hold your opponent in place.”
“......”
I had no rebuttal.
He was right. I’d only been busy dodging, and I hadn’t been able to counterattack or even properly deflect his strikes.
If Medeia had been behind me.
If a real enemy had come for her.
Could I have protected her?
I couldn’t honestly say yes.
“I’d like to acknowledge your movement, at least, but it doesn’t suit swordsmanship meant to protect someone.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“First, you need a foundation that won’t be knocked aside by any attack.”
“A foundation?”
“I’m talking about your lower body. Maybe because you’ve focused too heavily on evasion, your balance breaks down easily even against light attacks. Like this.”
Derick swung his wooden sword.
It came straight for the wooden sword in my hands.
Clack!
With a crisp sound, I couldn’t withstand the impact and rolled across the ground.
Thud.
After I’d rolled around the dirt in a thoroughly embarrassing fashion a few times, his words finally sank in.
“Blocking an attack is good. But if you don’t have the lower-body strength to endure that block, then it’s no better than failing to block at all.”
Derick lowered the wooden sword and brought over two sandbags, handing them to me.
“Hold these with both hands and take a horse stance. Until I say otherwise.”
Just as he said, I held the sandbags in both hands and took the horse stance.
At first, it was bearable.
But as time passed, my thighs began to burn like they were on fire.
Sweat poured from my forehead like rain, and my arms slowly lost all feeling.
How long do I have to keep this up?
I wanted to throw the sandbags down right then and there.
But I gritted my teeth and endured.
Derick hadn’t told me to stop.
My trembling legs finally gave out.
Thump.
I pitched forward onto the ground.
Only then did Derick speak.
“About thirty minutes, then. Not bad for a first try.”
The moment I heard that—
Skill acquired.
Basic Swordsmanship (E)
I’d only held a horse stance, and yet I’d acquired a swordsmanship skill.
It was swordsmanship so shabby it actually had the word “basic” in the name, but I was satisfied.
Finally, I’ve got a proper skill.
Up until now, the only skills I’d picked up were things like Evade, Tea Party, and Cooking—all painfully average guy skills.
So I’d been feeling a little disappointed, but now Basic Swordsmanship was in my hands.
If I trained hard under Derick from here on out, maybe someday I’d become a legendary swordsman who could split the heavens in two.
Every man had a dream like that, didn’t he?
“Heh-heh-heh.”
As I laughed with delight, Derick looked thoroughly alarmed.
“...Training was much harder than I expected, I see.”
“No! I’m pleased with it!”
“I-is that so?”
After that, Derick told me to come see him every day.
He said he’d train me as much as he could over the course of the week.
Since I had nothing else to do anyway, I readily agreed.
“Hm~ hm~ hm~”
I was walking through the villa in a cheerful mood when I caught a familiar scent drifting in from afar.
Flower fragrance?
It was the same flower scent I’d smelled in Medeia’s room.
Following it, I let my feet carry me forward.
The closer I got, the stronger the fragrance became.
At last, I reached a large garden.
Medeia was there.
“Young lady?”
“Hm? Kael. What are you doing here?”
“I was coming back after training with Uncle Derick.”
“Uncle Derick?”
“Ah, I mean the knight.”
At my words, Medeia looked dumbfounded for a moment, then burst out laughing.
“Pfft.”
“What’s so funny?”
“You.”
“Me? I don’t think I did anything that funny.”
“That’s what makes it funny.”
“I see.”
I didn’t really understand, but if Medeia was enjoying herself, that was enough.
Her laughing like that was good for me too.
Watching her smile made me feel lighter myself.
I looked around.
A garden blooming with flowers of every color.
I couldn’t just walk past a place like this.
If it was a garden, then a tea party was only natural.
“Would you like some tea?”
“Here?”
“Yes. Tea tastes especially wonderful in a garden.”
“Have you ever had tea in a garden? You?”
“No.”
“Then how would you know that?”
“I just have a feeling it would be like that?”
Medeia wore that same baffled expression again before a small smile touched her lips.
“Fine. Let’s see you try.”