Alrn Knight Order Training (4)
True to her Patran blood, she had been born with a breathtaking wellspring of mana and an extraordinary affinity for it, and her talent had blossomed before she was even out of childhood.
Whenever the family mages taught her something, she would get a feel for it within a day and wield it with practiced ease before a week had even passed.
The Duke and Duchess of Patran, who doted on their children to begin with, cherished Joy all the more once they recognized her gift — so much, in fact, that they assigned several capable knights to escort her even on the easiest dungeon raids.
Because of that, Joy absorbed through all that field experience what a party's mage was supposed to do, yet she never learned a single thing about what a mage ought to do when left all alone.
That pattern changed little after she entered the Academy. Having met Lucy, she sharpened her magic at a remarkable pace, but she still never once practiced fighting on the front line as a mage. After all, Lucy, Arthur, and Frey were always at her side, holding the line for her.
Joy's combat experience was, in the end, only ever the experience of a party mage. Not once had she tried to manage something entirely on her own, and she had never felt the need to. With someone trustworthily guarding her front, why bother learning to fight that way? Better to spend that time mastering new ways to be useful to them.
Now, at last, Joy understood that the choices she had once considered rational had really been nothing but laziness.
That's right. Lady Alrn is right. Assuming someone would always be there to guard my front — that was just childish entitlement.
As long as I'm a noble's daughter, entering dungeons is inevitable. In a place full of unknowns where anything can happen, how could I possibly assume someone will be standing beside me?
Need aside, though, the Lady's training is honestly brutal.
My mana ran dry ages ago, and my stamina hit its limit long before that. Part of me just wants to collapse face-first into the dirt, but the Lady is applying pressure with that look of hers, so up I go.
Scowling, Joy tried to push herself upright, only to nearly topple forward as dizziness flooded in without warning.
"Shall we call it here for today?♡ You scrubby little Scatterbrain♡"
Fortunately, Lucy caught her faster than Joy's face could meet the dirt. Chuckling at the dazed look Joy gave her from below, Lucy carefully lowered her back down to the ground.
"A Scatterbrain who couldn't do anything even at full strength has only gotten scrubbier — no need to check the results♡ You think so too, right, Scatterbrain?♡ Right?♡"
Though she puffed out her lips at the taunt, Joy couldn't quite bring herself to argue.
From lunch until now, with the sunset deepening outside, Joy had not blocked a single one of Lucy's charges. It wasn't as though she had simply been helpless, either.
'You made me toys?♡ How thoughtful of you!♡' — when she upended the earth to block her approach, Lucy came on without touching the ground at all.
'Puhuhu♡ Doesn't really seem like the season for playing with ice, does it?♡' — when she raised a barrier of ice, Lucy simply smashed straight through it with a headlong rush.
'So toasty♡ You'd make a perfect little heater♡' — when she drew a ring of flame around herself, Lucy passed through as though she couldn't feel the heat in the slightest.
Beyond those, Joy tried everything that came to mind, and every last scheme proved powerless before Lucy.
Come to think of it, this is so unfair.
Isn't Lady Alrn just flat-out broken?
Against practically any other enemy, I don't think they'd even dream of closing the distance?!
I mean it! Even when I started firing in earnest from midway through, she just batted it all aside with her shield and kept charging — what am I supposed to do about that?!
That's not something any mage can do anything about!
Forcing her fading consciousness to stay upright, Joy wiped away the sweat and flopped onto her bed, shuddering with indignation — but nothing changed for it. As long as her opponent was Lucy Alrn, the "it would be different with anyone else" hypothesis was meaningless.
What am I supposed to do? Staring blankly at the ceiling as it darkened bit by bit, Joy turned old memories over in her mind.
It's not that I don't know what a mage should do when facing a knight alone.
I learned it from the family mages, and it's been drilled into me again and again since I entered the Academy.
'The best option is to never create a situation where you face a knight or monster alone in the first place.'
'But should the unavoidable occur, your first priority must be preventing their approach.'
'No matter how well-trained you are, a mage cannot beat a knight in close combat. Your goal has to be blasting them apart before they ever reach you.'
Those pieces of advice are useless. I already tried answering Lady Alrn based on every one of them, and the result was a crushing defeat. I was left helplessly allowing her to close the distance.
But it isn't as if there's better advice out there. Most of what the mages stronger than me told me was more or less the same.
With one exception.
'Did you really think one of your sloppy little spells could stop me?♡ Puhahaha♡ Oh — what, is that the only spell you know how to cast?♡ Is that it?♡'
"Grrrgh!"
Recalling mocking laughter in place of advice, Joy hammered her pillow wildly, raging on the inside.
What am I supposed to do?! Lady Alrn, you're only giving me time to complete ONE spell! And if I cast something half-baked, you'll charge right at me sneering that I call THAT magic! What do you want from me!...
Joy. Engrave this upon your heart. What you need against a truly strong opponent is not powerful magic. What will save you in that moment are the things people call the basics — the things so easily brushed aside.
...Father definitely said something like that once, didn't he.
Along with the words that dealing damage and tying someone's feet are entirely different things.
Which means what Lady Alrn was trying to tell me must be the same.
Then—
Seizing on the clue, Joy bolted upright and conjured mana before her eyes.
Joy? Are you all right?
"Hey, Scatterbrain. Still alive? I'll bury you in the dirt so you can rest."
"...Hah?! Ah, th-that's... I'm fine! Perfectly fi... well, not perfectly, but I'm fine!"
Joy, who had been dozing against her staff, jolted awake and shook her head, insisting on her own well-being.
From the look of her, she'll pass out long before her mana actually runs dry. What on earth was she doing last night that kept her from sleeping?
Considering she rolled around training all day yesterday, collapsing the instant her head hit the pillow should have been the natural outcome. Was I too gentle with her?
Hmm. Then again, remembering how Arthur and Frey were already grumbling about it being morning... maybe not.
Right. Starting today, I'll add separate conditioning drills after sparring ends. In a week she won't be able to sleep even if she wants to, so until then I'll let her sleep all she likes.
"Come on! Over here! I'll show you what I prepared yesterday!"
I smiled at Joy, who was glaring at me with eyes ringed in dark circles, then moved without the slightest warning.
Several magic circles sketched themselves into being around her. Not one large array like yesterday, but the basic spells any mage could use, each given a circle of its own.
She's already figured out that against a knight, hindering their movement with many spells beats raw firepower? I'd assumed it would take her at least two or three days to notice — Joy really is sharp.
But she's still clumsy. There's no way a combination of circles like that could stop me.
The first spell to manifest was frost. Fired at my feet, it froze the ground beneath my soles in an attempt to bind me in place — but a flex of my legs shattered the ice without effort.
The next was earth. Seizing on the moment my feet paused, the will-driven soil lunged to seize my legs, but I slipped free of the ice faster than the dirt could move. The earth spell lost its purpose before it was even born.
Watching me charge, Joy hastily manifested three circles in rapid succession.
Let me guess — fire and wind blended to blind my vision, and a rock to the gut to stop my charge?
The idea isn't bad. Really, it isn't.
But did you think that would work on me?
The corner of my mouth curling upward, I hefted my shield — and instead of changing direction, I accelerated.
Trivial impacts glanced across its surface, and when I lowered it, Joy stood within arm's reach, nine magic circles ringing her protectively.
She replenished her mana in that window? Her raw talent as a mage truly is overwhelming.
What will it be this time? Planning to fling me far, far away? Or sealing off my approach with lightning?
Deliberately easing my pace a touch, I waited for the spell to take form — and when it bloomed open in a burst of light, I grinned and raised my shield.
BOOOM! The explosion, woven from several overlapping spells, was ferocious — but nowhere near enough to stop my charge.
Taking the blast head-on, I drove forward, shattered the barrier shielding Joy with the edge of my shield, and brought it to a halt right before her eyes.
"Well done."
"Not bad for a Scatterbrain. For a Scatterbrain, I mean."
Making her believe that keeping me from approaching was her only goal, then unloading her full firepower at point-blank range the instant I closed in. She only spent one night thinking it over — and she's improved this much already?
This is fun. A few more days of grinding her like this and she'll be genuinely worth watching.
Every time the smile on my lips deepened, the tremble in Joy's eyes grew stronger.
"Shall we go again?"
"That one doesn't count, right? You were brimming with confidence, so there's no way you're this much of a scrub! Going again. This time you'd better do it properly, got it?"
"...C-couldn't I rest just a little? I really do think I'm about to pass out."
"There. All healed. You're fine now, aren't you?"
"There, all better now? Doesn't hurt anymore, right? Which means I can bully you some more, right? Right? Yes?"
"You didn't have to heal me, so just let me rest! I said let me reeeest?!"
"Going."
"Give it your best shot, Scatterbrain!"
"Somebody liiiisten to meeee!"
After that, I pushed Joy to her absolute limit right up until we left the Alrn domain. Every day that passed, she improved so quickly that I worked myself up and simply couldn't stop.
Thanks to that, Joy's state grew more wretched by the day — but her skill rose just as fast, so she had fun too. Definitely. Without a doubt.
And so a week passed since my friends had visited the Alrn Knight Order, and just as the full-scale training was about to begin, I skipped my usual drills with the other knights and made for Benedict's office instead.
"Father..."
"Silly Father dearest. Are you ready to leave?"
"Of course I am! When our Lucy invites me out to play, what kind of Papa could possibly refuse! The imperial arena! Our Lucy will snatch its championship without breaking a sweat!"
All to fill in the one thing I was missing most right now.