The Royal Capital Barga (4)
Perhaps because I had gone to bed early, I opened my eyes to find it was still dawn.
“Hmm, it’s early, but should I get up?”
Sleeping longer wouldn’t have been bad, but I decided to rise anyway. Since I was already awake, I figured I might as well get some exercise. I grabbed my spear and headed down the stairs.
“Having my room on the third floor is a bit inconvenient.”
The moment I stepped outside, cool air filled my lungs.
“Ugh, a little chilly.”
Once I started moving, my body would warm up soon enough, so it should be fine.
A short walk to the side brought me to what looked like a garden.
“What brings you out so early in the morning?”
“Y-Young Master?!”
There he was—the young master himself.
“Morning training?”
“Y-Yes. I haven’t been able to train properly while traveling.”
I really ought to train diligently every day, but I had been far too lazy. The young master’s presence made me a little self-conscious, yet I moved to a corner and began slowly loosening up. I repeated sitting and standing, stretched my lower back, rolled my shoulders… and even did the splits.
But I could feel an intense gaze from beside me.
“W-What are you staring at like that?”
I might not be a woman—well, not originally—but being stared at so piercingly still made me uneasy.
“My apologies. Your training is rather unique…”
“Is it?”
Come to think of it, even when the Instructor taught us, we never did stretches like these. Training always began with a run. This kind of stretching was a bizarre exercise only I performed.
I had recommended it to others before, but most of them just shrugged it off.
My sister had been much the same… Was it because this world was different? Even though we were the same humans, our bodies might differ somehow. Mana existed here, and there were organs that circulated it, so it wouldn’t be strange if things worked differently.
After finishing my stretches, I threw myself into simple spear practice.
Originally, swordsmanship had been my main focus, but now the spear had taken that place. I thrust, swung, and used footwork to gauge distance.
I was moving hard when the gaze from the side grew even more burdensome.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
The young master had sheathed his sword and was studying me intently. It was the kind of stare that made me self-conscious and pressured.
“Ah, I wanted to see your skill.”
My skill? Come to think of it, I had never properly shown it. During our travels I hadn’t really moved my body much. So that was why he was watching.
“So, what did you think?”
The Instructor had always spoken well of me. But back in my adventurer days, my actual skill hadn’t been particularly impressive. I could hold my own against monsters, yet it was hard to be recognized as a true expert.
I was stronger now thanks to my holy power… but how did I look in the eyes of a knight like the young master?
“Your fundamentals are solid. You have good adaptability as well.”
“Really?”
Unexpectedly high praise.
“Yes. But that is as far as it goes.”
Hmm…? The young master regarded me with cool, analytical eyes.
“Miss Julian, your spear technique does not suit the spear you currently wield.”
Well, of course. I had originally learned the long spear. Handling a short spear and a long spear was similar, yet there were major differences. I knew that much myself.
Still, being pointed out like that somehow made me angry.
“And?”
I decided to hear him out first.
“Your small stature puts you at a considerable disadvantage. It would be better for you simply to provide magical support from the rear.”
Huh? Now I was getting mad.
I knew my skill was lacking. I was clearly no genius like my sister or the young master.
But hearing it said so bluntly still pissed me off.
I knew being short was a disadvantage. Even so, when I closed the distance and got inside an opponent’s guard, it had its own merits.
“Is that so?”
I spoke with a clear edge of irritation in my voice.
“Yes. The fact that you can use both holy magic and regular magic is a great advantage of yours, Miss Julian.”
Well, that part was certainly convenient. Compared to Sister Mary, who could only use holy magic and whose rear support felt a bit limited, I could strengthen allies with blessings and harass enemies with magic. It was definitely a set of abilities that shone when I stood in the back line.
“That’s true, I suppose.”
Hearing something that sounded almost like praise soothed my mood a little. The anger itself hadn’t completely faded, though…
“But why do you have to say it like that?”
“Pardon?”
The young master’s eyes went wide with flustered surprise.
“I know my skill is lacking, but do you really have to put it that way?”
He could have just said my basics were solid and left it at that.
“Then how about we see just how outstanding you are, Young Master?”
Honestly, remembering how he had fought bandits and death knights, I was nowhere near his level.
He had looked stronger than even the Instructor who taught me. But wasn’t that something you only knew for sure once you clashed directly?
I stepped toward him and adjusted my grip on the spear.
“Let’s go one round.”
If I fought with only the spear, I would clearly be no match. The gap between us was that large. But if I used blessings and magic, it would be different.
“Pardon?”
The young master looked so startled his mouth hung open.
“I said let’s go one round. Did you not understand? Draw your sword.”
“I apologize. I spoke out of turn.”
“So draw your sword.”
I wanted to see his skill, and I wanted to show him mine as well.
“Must you insist?”
“Are you afraid of a short, unskilled girl like me?”
The young master hesitated, then drew his blade.
“Very well.”
“You’d better take this seriously.”
I immediately cast a blessing to reinforce my body and layered magic on top of it. And that wasn’t the end.
Highly lethal magic would be too dangerous, so something moderate…
“Water Bullet.”
A sphere of water formed from mana shot toward the young master. Without so much as blinking, he infused his sword with mana and sliced the spell apart.
I used that opening to close the distance in a flash.
“Tch.”
He had anticipated even that and retreated the moment I lunged in.
“Linking with magic? Excellent.”
I kept pressing forward while casting other spells. Yet the young master casually cut every one of them down and widened the gap again.
His leisurely movements seemed to ask whether that was really all I could do.
“Kh…”
I decided to use a more powerful spell, even if it carried some risk.
“Lightning Arrow.”
The crackle of electricity filled the air beside me as several lightning arrows took shape. I loosed them all at the young master.
He wouldn’t be able to block these with a sword. The moment he moved to dodge, I would close in.
I fired the lightning arrows and fixed him with a sharp glare, lowering my stance so I could rush in no matter which way he dodged.
But the young master’s response far exceeded my expectations.
“Lightning is not something one cannot block!”
The mana in his sword swelled. Mana rippled and poured out around the blade.
“Wh-What?!”
He swept his sword from left to right, and every one of my lightning arrows vanished. A powerful burst of mana combined with a slashing wave…!
The slash itself did not reach me, yet my body locked up. I couldn’t throw myself into that cutting force.
“Standing there dazed is dangerous, you know?”
Hah?! In the blink of an eye the young master was upon me, swinging his sword. I somehow thrust my spear out to block, but the difference in strength shoved me back.
His offensive was fierce. I was hard-pressed just to parry with my spear. And after ten exchanges, then fifteen, as the number of times our weapons met increased, I understood.
He was holding back… using only enough force for me to receive the blows, and deliberately slowing the speed of his successive strikes.
My teeth ground together.
No matter how large the gap, this… this was too much, wasn’t it?
If he was going to overpower me with overwhelming strength and skill, fine! But was he toying with me?
I could no longer contain my anger. So I pushed even harder.
“Explosion.”
Even at point-blank range I detonated holy power. Boom—the blast of holy power made the young master’s movements falter. I took some of the backlash myself, but he suffered more.
“Explosion.”
I tried to detonate holy power around him again.
“That is enough.”
The same lightning-fast movement as before. I couldn’t react. My reflexes simply could not keep up with his speed.
Still refusing to give up, I stubbornly tried to swing my spear.
“Ugh!”
To restrain me, the young master dropped his sword, seized my right hand, and knocked my left aside.
“You seem to have grown a bit too aggressive.”
I dangled from his grip like a caught fish.
“That hurts.”
“My apologies.”
He carefully set me down on the ground.
“Ugh…!”
I almost flung my spear away, but held back.
“Your skill was quite good.”
“Hah, is that so?”
After holding back… If he had simply gauged my level and subdued me the way the Instructor did, I would have understood.
No, that was just an excuse. I had simply gotten emotional and overdone it…
“I lost.”
“You were strong. Your coordination with magic was solid, and holy magic made your movements faster.”
“None of it worked at all, did it?”
“Ahem! It was at a level that would make for a good match against Academy students who still lack experience.”
The problem was that I had no idea what level that actually meant.
“Were you strong during your Academy days, Young Master?”
He smiled faintly.
“Yes. It was faster to count my rank from the top.”
He didn’t give an exact number, but clearly he had been strong.
“Hah, is that so?”
He was even more impressive than I had thought… With the full power I had just used, I should have been able to fight the Instructor, yet I never expected to be subdued so easily.
Suddenly the young master started watching my expression carefully. Did he think I wouldn’t notice?
“An average knight would not have been able to handle your magic.”
“Hmm… For someone saying that, you blocked every single spell without trouble.”
“That is not an easy feat.”
Yet he had blocked them all without taking a single hit.
“And the fact that you have little real combat experience as a mage played a large part, Miss Julian.”
“What do you mean?”
I had built up a fair amount of combat experience as an adventurer, hadn’t I?
“I mean experience as a mage. Your magic activated quickly and packed considerable power. However, your choice of spells was regrettable. Against monsters that level would have been more than enough, but people—knights—are different.”
Ah…
“You used an explosion spell, correct? Seasoned combat mages prefer spells like explosions that are hard to notice over projectile attacks flying through the air. With those, if you fail to sense the mana the moment the spell forms, you have no choice but to take the hit.”
Ah… Now that he mentioned it, that made sense.
“Of course, that style of magic becomes difficult to use at longer ranges and takes time to cast.”
That part belonged to the domain of mages, so as a knight he claimed not to know the details well.
“Hah…”
I sank down onto the ground in pure dejection. The anger had drained away. Everything this man said was simply correct. There was not a single wrong word.
That was why I felt so empty.
“Ugh…”
Should I get stronger? But I was an alchemist… a mage… and a nun. Did I really need to fight in close combat?
Being able to handle a weapon at a decent level should be enough…
“I-If I have hurt your feelings, I apologize.”
“It’s fine.”
Those words only made it worse.
“You truly were strong. Y-You would have been able to compete even with a newly minted knight.”
The young master kept talking, trying harder and harder to dress up my skill in a better light.
Watching him flounder like that, a small laugh escaped me.
“Augh, I get it. I’m sorry too.”
“Miss Julian…”
“I just wanted to try sparring with you.”
It hadn’t quite been competitive spirit—I really had been angry—but seeing him act so endearingly like this made all the anger melt away.
“Augh, I’ve worked up a sweat, so I should wash up.”
There was a bathroom on the first floor, so I would just rinse off roughly.
When I stood and headed back into the mansion, the young master hurried after me.
I didn’t understand why I found a man’s behavior so cute, yet everything he did was utterly adorable.