Training or Taming (2)
The training grounds were already cold enough with the wind cutting through, but the tension hanging over them felt thick enough to draw blood at any second.
Damn it. Did I push this too far?
It had been a gamble to pry the heroine’s obsession off me, but the table had turned far more dangerous than I’d expected.
At the same time, this crisis might be the perfect chance to rewrite the dynamic between those two.
I saw Basil swallow hard. His eyes burned with the resolve to protect me, yet the Ricotta standing in front of him was a predator of an entirely different caliber.
“Understood, my lady.”
Basil picked up the wooden practice sword I had dropped. In front of a rapier radiating pure killing intent, that wooden blade looked as pitiful as a twig about to snap.
Ricotta sneered at the laughable resistance.
“Your courage is admirable. But that is all.”
The words had barely left her mouth before her body shot forward. A speed no human eye could track. The tip of her blade became a silver flash locked onto him.
Basil threw himself into desperate rolls, kicked off the ground, planted his sword for balance—anything to dodge the rain of strikes.
Not a single clean counter. He was barely managing to stay alive.
The gap in skill against the ducal heiress known as the Sword of the Empire was painfully clear.
“Kh…!”
A razor-sharp slash. Basil’s training uniform tore open, and a bright line of blood sprayed from his arm.
Ricotta’s ash-gray eyes narrowed. That fleeting opening. Without a second of hesitation, she prepared the finishing thrust.
I can’t let this end like this!
Still sprawled on the ground, I wrung every last scrap of strength into a shout.
“Basil! Lady Ricotta’s weak from behind!!”
In that instant, the blade that had been about to end Basil froze. Her ash-gray eyes, shaken by a sudden surge of emotion, flicked toward me.
Weak from behind.
Instinct moved her body.
A physique carved by countless hours of training reflexively shifted her center of gravity backward, trying to settle into a defensive stance. In the posture that had been fully committed forward for a lethal thrust, a hairline crack appeared for a single heartbeat.
Basil did not miss it.
Forgetting even the pain of his bleeding arm, he gritted his teeth and launched himself off the ground.
He wasn’t circling to her back. He was diving straight into her guard—the most dangerous place of all, where her razor tip might swing back toward him at any moment. A pure gamble.
Before the rapier could return, Basil’s wooden sword slammed into her side.
Thud!
A heavy crack of impact rang out as the practice blade struck her shoulder dead-on.
Her body staggered half a step.
Ricotta… wavered.
A silence so complete it felt like the air itself had stopped breathing.
A blow no one had seen coming.
Key character Ricotta's emotional state is changing.
Added to Ricotta's current status: <Cognitive Dissonance (new!)> and <Shame (new!)>
Feelings toward Basil: <Interest Mixed with Disgust> → <Incomprehensible Interest>
The system window floated right in front of my eyes.
Hooo… so it actually worked.
After a long silence, Ricotta finally spoke.
“As promised, today’s training ends here.”
She sheathed her rapier without a shred of lingering attachment. Then, as if Basil no longer existed, she locked her gaze solely on me.
“Saya.”
“Yes…? Yes, my lady. Please speak.”
“From tomorrow, we will change the training method… I need to test just how far those baseless little tricks of yours will actually work, don’t I?”
For the first time that day, she showed a proper smile. It was so captivating it sent a chill down my spine.
“Both of you. Be here at dawn tomorrow.”
“My lady, that may be difficult.”
“Oh…?”
“The outdoor practical evaluation is scheduled to begin tonight and run for two nights and three days, is it not?”
In Melting Recipe, the newbie-slicer, the newbie-crusher—that evaluation—was about to start.
A few hours later.
The moment a woman stepped onto the platform, the noise filling the auditorium died as if it had never existed.
Professor Madeleine, in charge of outdoor practicals.
Despite her slight frame, her voice tore through the hall like a blade.
“The stage for this outdoor practical evaluation is the Moonlight Forest!!”
A low wave of excitement rippled through the students.
The Moonlight Forest only opened its paths after the sun set. That was why academy students called it the entrance to another world.
“The rules are simple. Form teams of three. Your task is to collect Moonshadow Spring water from the heart of the forest and return safely!”
Professor Madeleine’s eyes flashed.
“Remember this well. This is not a picnic!! That forest is as deadly as it is beautiful. It will lead you astray with enchanting lights and cloud your mind with sweet fragrances. Every year, idiots who cannot resist those temptations drop out in droves.”
Her cold warning pressed the air in the auditorium into something heavy.
“By noon today. Submit the teams you will live or die with.”
The words had barely finished before the great hall erupted into the chaos of a marketplace. Everyone rushed toward close friends or skilled classmates. But amid that noise, my mind went ice-cold.
Basil. That hopelessly pure idiot was the first person who came to mind. I could already picture him walking into that dangerous forest with zero knowledge and zero caution. At the same time, if I wanted “that thing” obtainable only during this practical, I had to follow the predetermined sequence.
I ran to Basil first. I had to hammer the warnings into him properly.
“Saya, this time, will you team up with m—”
The moment Basil hesitated and started to speak, I cut him off a step ahead.
My hand on his shoulder tightened without my meaning to. Meeting his widened eyes straight on, I spoke in the lowest, most serious voice I could manage.
“Basil. Listen carefully. Keep your head on straight. In the forest, never follow the blue lights.”
“Uh… okay. Got it.”
His awkward answer made me bite my lip. He clearly still didn’t grasp how serious this was.
“And never put any eye-catching mushrooms in your mouth. Even if they’re not poisonous, they’re dangerous.”
“Okay, okay. Just calm down, Saya.”
Basil tried to soothe me with a gentle smile.
That smile only made me more frantic.
He still knew nothing.
That every single one of these warnings had his life hanging on it.
“Avoid any place where animal cries sound bone-chilling. If butterflies scatter weird powder, don’t even meet their eyes, and stay far away from flowers that glitter unnaturally. And also…”
“…….”
Maybe the fear in my long rant finally got through.
The soft smile vanished from his face, leaving him pale as a sheet. The hand that had been trying to calm me fell limply away.
That silence was my only hope.
I steadied my breathing and opened my mouth again.
“This is important, so I’ll say it one more time from the beginning.”
“Haha… it’s fine, Saya. I’ll be careful.”
He won’t die on the very first outdoor practical… right?
A flicker of regret that I should have just teamed with him crossed my mind, but for the protagonist’s happy ending, I had to get stronger too.
Time to set aside the cupid role for happy endings for a while.
It was farming time for a veteran transmigrator.
To obtain the items and traits available only in this stretch, I had to get involved with those twin siblings as planned.
Without hesitation, I approached the two-person group in the corner of the plaza who gave off a distinctly unique atmosphere.
The one who raised an eyebrow at my voice was Kado. Jet-black hair and arrogant eyes. He looked me up and down, then snorted.
“Ha? You want to be on the same team as us?”
“Yeah. You’re still short one member, right?”
“It’s not that we couldn’t find one. There just wasn’t anyone who matched our level. Right, Abo?”
At Kado’s words, the long-haired girl who had looked thoroughly cowed tilted her head.
“I-is that it? Weren’t we… just getting rejected the whole time?”
“Huh? Do you really have to say that out loud? And I told you those weren’t rejections—they already had teams!”
“Anyway, one spot is open.”
When I cut into the conversation, Kado’s face openly crumpled.
“Yeah, it’s open. But I don’t want to get mixed up with you. You caused a massive incident at the entrance ceremony and got disciplined, then got completely wrecked in the recent sword sparring. Why would we walk around with you and end up embarrassed too?”
Attacking with nothing but facts… how cheap.
Fact violence always cut deep. Even if everything had been for Basil’s sake, I never expected my reputation to be this rock-bottom.
Then Abo, who had been staring hard at my face, suddenly cut in.
“But Kado, this person… is super pretty.”
“Ah, damn it! Being pretty fixes everything? She’s an accident magnet with no skill—completely useless!”
“No… if she’s pretty, that already makes her useful enough. Hehe.”
Abo grinned like an oversized dog. I couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or an insult, but I wasn’t in a position to care.
“…I know the forest pretty well. I’m more confident as a guide than anyone. I’ll definitely be useful.”
That wasn’t a lie.
At least when it came to knowledge of the forests that appeared in this game, I was more confident than anyone.
“Haa? Then if you properly handle guide-and-porter duty, I’ll specially let you join our team.”
Porter… meaning he’d dump the luggage on me?
The Explorer’s Glasses Kado owned were a core item for this practical site. Using the porter excuse was a natural chance to get my hands on them.
I’d planned to invent some excuse mid-practical to borrow them, or just quietly take them…
“Deal.”
My instant answer made Kado glare at me with a “what is with this girl?” look, while Abo grinned happily right beside me.
“Same team… hehe…”
Kado’s arrogant attitude was exactly like the original, so I was used to it. The problem was his twin sister Abo. In the game she had been timid and gloomy, but she never grinned at other people in this creepy way.
…Well, whatever. Once this outdoor assignment was over, I wouldn’t have much reason to get deeply involved with those siblings anyway.
“Then I’ll be counting on you, teammates.”
I really am counting on you. You’re the only farming equipment I’ve got for this practical.