Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Underground Training
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"Are you insane or something?"
Mirabel's eyes rippled with shock.
"You plan to burn down the entire camp? Do you really think you'll make it out of here alive after that? The moment you're caught, the Church will hunt you to the ends of the Empire. You won't even get to die a clean death. And besides, how exactly do you plan to set the fire in a place this heavily guarded?"
She poured out her words, stripped of her usual composure.
In her thoroughly calculating mind, I must have looked like someone making a reckless, impulsive decision without a thought for the consequences.
"There's a way."
I gave a flat response as I looked down at the pouch containing various materials.
"I'm not asking you to trust me. But for the sake of the Empire's interests, you'll need this stage I've prepared. If we push forward with the plan as is, the Empire side will suffer considerable losses too."
Mirabel glared at me piercingly for a long while.
I couldn't tell if she was searching for hidden motives in my eyes or calculating the gains and losses from this unexpected variable.
A moment later, she let out a sigh as if she'd finished deliberating.
"Ha... You're really impossible to pin down. The Empire getting warnings from a heretic interrogator—what a joke. Even a stray dog would laugh."
Fortunately, she didn't draw her dagger on me.
She must have concluded this was the best judgment for the Empire's sake.
"Still, you'll have to tell me later how you're going to start the fire."
"Of course."
"Then I'll be off. Thanks to you, I've heard the most shocking and impulsive plan today."
Mirabel shot me a light glare as she began packing her things.
As I watched her preparing to leave, I uttered the name that had been circling my mind for days.
"Eleanor."
The moment the name left my lips, Mirabel's shoulders visibly stiffened.
The grumbling demeanor from moments ago vanished without a trace.
As expected, she knew something.
"Do you know anything about that woman?"
"..."
A heavy silence filled the space between us for a while.
When she finally spoke, her voice carried a deep loathing and fear unlike anything I'd heard from her before.
"You must never... never get involved with that woman."
Mirabel's lips trembled faintly.
"Eleanor is the one who dips her feet into the deepest abyss within the Church."
The next morning.
Seraphina and I spent the entire morning checking on Elena's condition.
Of course, I got an earful of curses again, and the actual care was left to Seraphina.
No matter how I tried to talk to her, all I got back were chilling curses laced with murderous intent.
If Seraphina weren't here, I'd really be at a loss.
I swallowed my bitterness and thought about what lay ahead when Seraphina approached with an armful of daily necessities.
"Are we done now, Seraphina?"
"Yes. Morning care is finished, Ian. Shall we head to your room?"
"No, we've got a new schedule starting today. Let's go."
The place I led Seraphina to was in the corner of the camp.
It was an underground training room now abandoned, thick with dust since no one used it anymore.
As I opened the door, a musty moldy smell mixed with the stench of rusted metal assaulted us.
This smell never goes away no matter where you are.
"Are we starting combat training today?"
Seraphina, following behind, asked in her usual flat tone.
"Yeah. From now on, outside of the time spent managing Elena, you'll train here."
I stood in the center of the training room and turned to face her.
The reason for coming here was clear.
In a few weeks, before the escape operation began, I had to break the brainwashing inscription in Seraphina's mind.
Even if it was impossible, if I could loosen it even a little...
Then she could start moving forward with her own will.
I said,
"From now on, we'll begin training to cultivate your autonomy."
"Understood. Do you need a weapon?"
I nodded at Seraphina's question.
"Yes. Pick out something usable from over there?"
I pointed to a pile of weapons haphazardly scattered in one corner of the training hall.
Seraphina approached the pile, swung a few experimentally, and slightly furrowed her brow.
"Ian, if I may be so bold, I judge that proper training is impossible with these."
She set down the massive mace she held and turned back to me.
"I have a personal weapon stored separately in my quarters. May I fetch it?"
"Go ahead."
"Yes, then excuse me for a moment."
Without another word, she turned and left the training room.
Left alone, I felt the cold touch of the stiletto tucked in my bosom and sank into thought.
Come to think of it, even reading the novel, I never saw what weapon Seraphina used.
She was only ever described as the Church's weapon or a butcher.
I was inwardly curious what weapon she wielded.
"Ian, sorry to keep you waiting."
A short while later, the training room door opened, and Seraphina returned.
And at that sight, I involuntarily drew in a breath.
She wasn't in her usual priestess robes but clad head to toe in heavy silver-white plate armor.
And strapped to her back was a greatsword far larger than her own frame.
"Time was delayed, so may we start right away?"
Just her gripping the hilt of the greatsword pressed down on the training room's air with an eerie pressure.
That slender girl wielding something that heavy.
But the moment she drew the greatsword and lightly set it on the ground, I had to revise my thinking.
BOOM!
Spiderweb cracks spread vividly across the floor.
That weapon was the perfect tool to harness her abnormal divine power and superhuman strength.
If it hits wrong, there won't even be bones left to pick up.
A flicker of unease stirred in my chest, but I calmly issued the prepared command.
"Seraphina. Attack me."
At my words, Seraphina's eyes shook violently for an instant.
Her face twitched faintly, openly revealing undisguisable bewilderment.
"May I ask a question? Attacking a member of the Church violates all orders I've received so far. And you could get hurt..."
"This is part of the training. So attack."
I cut her off firmly, and Seraphina, unable to hide her confusion, barely nodded.
The reason for her hesitation was obvious.
The Church had subjected her to all sorts of torture and abuse under the guise of training, but sparring partners were always monsters or prisoners.
To block even the slightest hint of rebellion against them.
They had forbidden her from ever pointing a sword at Church members.
If she showed even a hint of defiance, the inscription carved into her brain would immediately trigger a pain spell to subdue her.
That was why Seraphina felt such repulsion.
But it seemed my command took priority for her.
"...Understood. Here I come, Ian."
With those words, Seraphina swung her greatsword, slicing through the air as it grazed right past my head.
BANG!
The stone floor where the greatsword struck shattered like a bomb had exploded, debris flying everywhere.
Crazy...!
Even though it was a command I'd given myself, my mouth went dry.
Seraphina still wore a bewildered expression, but her body was already moving like a machine along the optimal attack path.
This wasn't an attack you could dodge just by moving your body.
Clang!
I drew the Black Iron Stiletto and deflected her strike, recalling Benedict Style techniques.
The destructive power of the swinging greatsword was overwhelming, but perhaps because its trajectory was too straightforward.
Compared to the shock transmitted through my wrist, it felt manageable.
Clang! Crunch!
As Seraphina's attacks were deflected, smashing only innocent walls and floors.
A strange fighting spirit began to flicker in Seraphina's eyes.
"Haa...! Haa...!"
Her movements grew more natural, picking up speed.
I dodged her attacks by a paper-thin margin, sharpening my bodily senses at the same time.
This was training for her, but also self-discipline for me.
"Seraphina, don't stop and listen."
I dove into the blind spot of her wide greatsword swing and spoke.
"First, don't rely only on what you've learned. Adapt your fighting style to your opponent, or you'll get badly hurt against someone stronger."
"...!"
Seraphina, startled, forcibly pulled back her greatsword and thrust at my chest.
But a forced thrust with a greatsword couldn't be sharp.
Thud!
I stomped down on the blade, embedding it in the floor, then pressed in deeper.
"Second. Don't attack so desperately. It feels like you're swinging your sword because someone pushed you—no room to breathe."
With that, I thrust the stiletto into the air.
Benedict Style First Form: Piercing.
A technique that condensed mana into a single point, piercing through the opponent's vital spots and weaknesses all at once.
Seraphina tried to drop the greatsword and block with her hands, but the compressed mana had already slipped through her gap.
BOOM!
With a dull impact, Seraphina knelt, losing her balance.
In that moment, I was already behind her.
"Haa...! Not yet...!"
Seraphina suppressed the shock and reached for the greatsword again, but.
"That's enough."
At my declaration, the joints of Seraphina's heavy plate armor let out screeching noises as they burst one by one.
The result of precisely targeting only the armor's seams, not her body.
Clang, crash!
The silver-white armor pieces fell to the floor with harsh clamor.
"Haa... Haa..."
Freed from the armor's constraint, Seraphina panted roughly, propping herself on the floor.
I looked down at her, about to lecture her to etch today's spar into her mind, but I had to shut my mouth.
It wasn't because she showed any anomaly or injury.
Simply.
The sight of her without the heavy armor was more embarrassing than I'd expected.
Sweat-soaked thin sleeveless undergarments.
Her slender shoulders and curvaceous figure were blatantly visible through the wet fabric.
Seraphina, feeling no shame whatsoever, indifferently looked down at her own body and spoke.
"The armor is damaged. It will need repairs."
Her tone was impassive, but her cheeks had already flushed sunset red.
An emotion even she hadn't recognized had instinctively seeped through the cracks in her self.
I too turned my head to hide my strangely heating face, then suddenly focused on the presence outside the training room.
Someone was watching us.
I immediately hardened my expression and pulled a towel from my bosom, tossing it to her.
"Training's over for today. Wipe yourself down first."
Even at the sudden object, Seraphina reflexively caught it and stared at me blankly.
I fixed my gaze on the entrance as I walked, adding,
"Don't come out for at least an hour. That's an order."
Without waiting for her reply, I opened the training room door and stepped out first.
Thud.
Stepping out into the training hall, an eerily still corridor stretched long before me.
But I murmured lowly toward the empty air.
"You can come out now, Chief Priest Eleanor."
No sooner had my call ended than the thick darkness at the corridor's end rippled like heat haze.
From the slowly undulating shadows, a woman emerged, exuding an elegant yet chilling aura.
"Oh my, I thought you'd pretend not to notice. Your senses are sharp."
Eleanor smiled innocently and clapped lightly.
As if she'd just watched a splendid performance.
She approached slowly, locking eyes with me and whispering softly.
"I wanted to have a little tea time with you, Ian. Do you have time?"