I’m Kind of a Coward After All
"Haa... haa...."
The training yard was quiet.
At its center, Linvel was dragging in ragged breaths.
Sweat poured off her in sheets.
Her clothes and hair were already drenched through.
It had been half a day since she started swinging her sword like this.
"Linvel, aren't you pushing yourself too hard?"
"Shut up. Do I look like I'm pushing myself too hard to you?"
"Yeah, that's exactly how you look."
When Linvel shot him a murderous glare, Bram shook his head.
Once she dug her heels in, nobody could stop Linvel.
The reason she had come to the training yard today was because she had insisted on it.
Damn it...
Linvel grit her teeth.
She still couldn't forget what had happened yesterday.
Not only had she gone all out against opponents she had dismissed as mere guards, she had even lost her composure.
Was there really any need to get that carried away?
Baren's words, spoken in the middle of it all, had lodged in her like a thorn.
For the commander to say something like that meant, in effect, that she had already lost.
It had stung her pride.
Badly.
I lost to two guards...
And that Luke bastard wasn't even the end of it.
The commander had fought that guard captain, Kael, and shown an expression Linvel had never seen before.
And when he took the final blow, he had even coughed up blood.
Grrrk.
Linvel tightened her grip on the sword hilt.
She didn't like this city of Nox, and she didn't like the guard either.
But what made her angriest of all was herself.
Me. Full of myself despite having no real ability.
It was anger at her own weakness.
Whoosh!
She kept swinging without pause.
If she didn't do something like this, the tightness in her chest wouldn't go away.
It was training that came close to punishing the body itself.
And then, just then.
"You using it like it’s your own place, huh?"
A sly voice drifted over.
Kael was strolling toward her, picking at his ear as he came.
His expression, his gait, his eyes. Not a single thing about him looked clean.
When Linvel saw his face, her own expression hardened.
"It's fine to use the training yard, but don't you think you're crossing a line? We treat you like guests, and you want to start acting like the owners?"
Kael blew on the pinky he had been using to clean his ear.
By now he was speaking casually without even thinking about it, but neither Linvel nor Bram noticed.
"Ah, well, that is certainly our fault...."
"Stay out of it, Bram."
Linvel cut off Bram as he was about to step in.
"So, I guess acting like the owner rubbed you the wrong way?"
"Not just a little. A lot."
"...Yeah, I guess that was our mistake. Then we'll just leave now."
"No, no need to leave."
Kael grinned and went on.
"Since we're already here, why don't we have a little spar?"
"...You want to spar?"
"Ah, now that I think about it, maybe that's a bit much. Sparring should be between equals. We wouldn't want to go too far and end up bullying a kid."
It was an obvious provocation, but Linvel, already on edge, fell for it completely.
It felt as though the taut thread of reason inside her had snapped.
"Fine. Spar with me. But don't go making excuses afterward."
"Since you could get hurt, using weapons would be a bit much. How about we fight like this?"
Kael raised a fist, and Linvel narrowed her eyes.
He wanted to fight bare-handed?
"If you're scared, then quit now."
"S-Scared?! Who's scared? Fine, let's do it!"
The veins in Linvel's forehead bulged. She snatched up the weapon at her waist and hurled it aside.
Kael set Balmung down on the ground as well, then glanced at Bram, who had been watching silently from the back, and snorted.
"What, you planning to jump in if things turn bad again?"
"Haha... don't worry. That won't happen."
"Yeah, hard to trust that."
When Bram frowned, Kael shrugged.
The endless stream of taunts was something he had done so often back when he was a fighter in his old world that it had become second nature.
So-called mic work.
In other words, trash talk.
Kael had been a professional fighter once, so provoking an opponent's temper was practically a specialty.
"Ah, how about we make this interesting and place a little bet?"
"A bet?"
"Yeah. The loser becomes the winner's dog from then on. No backtalk, and you do whatever you're told. How's that? Sounds fun, doesn't it?"
"...Yeah, sure. Sounds fun."
"Linvel? I don't think that's exactly a goo...."
"Shut up, Bram. Winning is all that matters, right?"
Crack.
When Linvel loosened her hands, a chilling sound rang out.
A savage curve tugged at the corners of her mouth.
Hand-to-hand combat?
Linvel snorted.
He might not know it, but she hadn't been studying the sword for all that long.
Before she ever learned to use a blade, Linvel's specialty had been bare-handed fighting.
He won't even dream of this.
Of all things, he had decided to pick a fight with her at her specialty. What rotten luck.
I'll make him regret it.
She meant to pound him into the ground this very chance.
And so the bare-handed spar began.
But to her surprise, once the match actually started, the situation began to veer in a strange direction.
Fwap-fwap-fwap!
Relying on her inhuman physical ability, Linvel unleashed a furious barrage.
But Kael was slipping past all of it by the narrowest margin.
Fluid footwork and natural upper-body movement.
That wasn't something you learned in a day or two.
The moment she saw it, she knew.
That bastard knows how to fight bare-handed!
Linvel grit her teeth.
To think someone capable of using such high-level swordsmanship would also know hand-to-hand combat.
Instead of panicking, she pressed harder.
The thought of losing had already been wiped from her mind.
Feels like I'm fighting a cat with the worst temper in the world.
Watching her, Kael thought to himself.
Her momentum was good. Her speed was fast, and her combinations weren't bad either. She knew how to make proper use of the quick burst speed and explosive force that came with a small frame.
Linvel had skill good enough to make even Kael impressed.
Because weight classes don't mean much here.
In his old world, size was king. Here, it was different.
Since the limits of physical ability were much higher, talent mattered more than body size.
If he let his guard down because she was small and exposed even a single opening, it would be over before he knew it.
Not that that's happening.
Kael smirked.
That said, it does feel a little bad to hit a woman...
Smack!
The instant Kael threw a punch, Linvel's head snapped backward.
Blood streamed from her nose.
...not at all?
Equality between men and women.
That was Kael's philosophy.
"Haha, you okay?"
"...I'm fine."
Linvel's eyes darkened with killing intent. Wiping away the nosebleed with her sleeve, she charged again.
Her already blazing speed accelerated even further.
Kael evaded every attack with the minimum necessary movement.
"How long are you planning to do nothing but dodge?!"
Linvel shouted at the top of her lungs.
Kael decided to stop dodging, just as she wanted.
Whoosh!
Linvel, growing impatient, swung a wild punch.
Kael seized the opening and went for a counter tackle at the perfect moment.
"Tch!"
Linvel struggled and tried to get back to her feet, but it wasn't going to happen that easily.
If you didn't know, you got dragged down.
That was jiu-jitsu.
"Hahaha, how is it? Fun, right?"
Kael started to toy with Linvel in earnest.
Whenever she tried to rise, he knocked her down again. Whenever she tried again, he knocked her down once more.
She couldn't break free from his grip.
"Aaaagh! That's way too cowardly!"
"Yeah, I'm kind of a coward."
What high praise.
The word cowardly made Kael want to dance.
Delighted, he started messing with Linvel even more seriously.
He even gave her a few airline rides, keeping her thoroughly entertained.
"...What exactly is going on here?"
An uninvited guest had arrived.
Baren stood with his arms crossed, staring at Kael.
"How long have you been watching?"
"Since a little while ago."
"As you can see, I was just having a little fun with her. Right?"
"...Commanndaaan...."
After failing to land a single proper counterattack, Linvel whined tearfully.
Large tears welled in her eyes.
"...Bram, explain."
Bram wore an awkward expression as he explained the situation to Baren.
After hearing the story, Baren frowned as if his head were aching.
"...Haa. Can't you stop at this point?"
"Why should I?"
Kael answered shamelessly.
Even then, Linvel was still being pinned in a ridiculous pose by Kael.
It no longer looked like mixed martial arts. It looked like something out of professional wrestling.
"Just how much more accommodation am I supposed to make here? If you heard the story, then you know this was a fair bet agreed to by both sides."
"...."
His voice was perfectly serious, but the pose he was in had nothing serious about it.
Baren let out a deep sigh.
He might not have been someone who lost at the level of temper easily, but with Kael, he felt he had to give a little ground.
In the first place, the justification was on Kael's side, so Baren had no ready rebuttal.
Gotta take what I can get.
Kael swallowed a laugh to himself. He was pretty petty.
He had no intention of letting this pass just because they asked nicely. Why would he let it slide when a sucker had come to him on his own two feet?
"Commander! I'm still fine, so don't worry...."
"Enough. That's far enough, Linvel. In that position, nothing you say is convincing."
At Baren's blunt remark, Linvel looked so shocked that she shut her mouth.
"What do you want?"
"Well, you'll have to cover it yourselves. Ah, two vouchers will do."
Kael grinned.
In other words, he was telling them to hand over something else.
What a bandit.
Baren gave a wry smile.
He should have been annoyed, but for some reason, he didn't dislike it all that much.
"Let her go first. I'll give you something else."
"In that case."
Kael finally let Linvel go. She collapsed onto the ground with a vacant, soul-depleted expression.
Baren unfastened the bracelet he was wearing and tossed it over.
Kael snatched it out of the air.
It was a strangely designed bracelet. Red scales had been linked together into a ring-like chain.
"...What is this?"
"A Dragonblood Bracelet. Something you can't buy with money."
When Linvel saw the bracelet, she was so startled that she shot to her feet.
"Commander...? No matter what, you can't just give that away!"
"As promised, I'll leave Linvel in your care for the time being. That's collateral. Well? Isn't this a trade you can accept?"
Collateral meant it had to be returned later.
Hmm.
What was the best move here?
He could push for more, but if he did that, he might end up souring his relationship with Baren. Rather than take that risk, it seemed wiser to be satisfied with what he had here.
"Fine. We'll do it that way."
After thinking it over, Kael nodded.
Linvel aside, and this so-called Dragonblood Bracelet aside, it was a shame both were only temporary....
Guess I'll treat it like a trial version.
Until they were set loose, he intended to wring every last drop out of them.
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