by Aneko Yusagi
They needed to think of it as a trial on the path to strength. There was just no getting around it.
“The Shield Hero’s companions are boisterous, aren’t they?”
The knight standing with the queen removed her helmet. She looked like the typical strong, female knight character than you ran into in RPGs. She was very beautiful also, like Raphtalia.
She had long strawberry-blonde hair. She must have kept it tied up when she wore her helmet. Had she dressed like a man, she could have passed for a prince.
“Please introduce yourself,” said the queen.
The knight took a step forward, saluted, and spoke loudly and clearly.
“My name is Eclair Seaetto. I am honored to assist in the Shield Hero’s training exercises.”
“Seaetto? I don’t think we’ve met before, but...”
I felt like I’d heard that name somewhere.
“Mr. Naofumi. Seaetto is the name of the territory my village was in.”
“That’s right. Nice Guy had mentioned that.”
Did that mean this woman was part of the nobility that had ruled over Raphtalia’s region?
But I’d heard that the nobility there had been killed.
“This woman is the daughter of the nobleman who once governed the land that Raphtalia’s village was a part of.”
Heh. I liked her choice of knights.
I’d heard that the noble family that had ruled there was exceptionally talented. Raphtalia had mentioned that losing them in the wave had been another major tragedy for her people.
“Okay. What has she been doing this whole time?”
“When my father died in the first wave, a portion of our knights and soldiers tried to take advantage of the ensuing chaos by hunting down survivors and selling them off as slaves. I have been hunting those cowards down and ensuring their imprisonment.”
Well, well. I never expected to find someone so upstanding in such a rotten country. I appreciated that she had taken that upon herself, both as the Shield Hero and as Raphtalia’s friend.
“It is just as she has said. They have been imprisoned in the castle dungeons. She finished her work while you were in the islands. So I have selected her to assist in the training of the other heroes.
I guess the church and Trash had still been in power before we left, so if she had tried to hunt down the slavers at that point they might have had her killed off.
There was only one problem. Was she any good?
That was the most important thing. There was no reason to receive instruction from anyone who wasn’t at least as strong as Raphtalia.
“Is she any good?”
“Very. She was the winner of the last national fencing tourney.”
“Are there others as good as she?”
“Not ones that haven’t been imprisoned, killed, or demoted.”
So there was no one else in the kingdom that was good enough to train us further.
She seemed like an upstanding person, but...
“You can hate me if you like. I realize I was unable to defend your lands after my father’s death.”
“I would never. That was not your fault. Please, don’t bow to me.”
The introductions just kept on going.
This Eclair woman was talking to Raphtalia as if she had nothing to worry about.
“If that is how you feel. I am happy that I can do anything in the service of our people. Thank you for the opportunity to help, Ms. Raphtalia.”
“Please, just call me Raphtalia.”
“Understood. Now then, Raphtalia, I do not know how worthy I am to be teaching you anything at all, but I will do my best to show you the things I know.”
So this Eclair person was going to be teaching Raphtalia what she knew about sword fighting.
“I should probably participate in the training too, huh?”
“I do not know if I have anything to teach you, Master Shield Hero, but I will certainly do all that I can to assist.”
She was so proper! I could tell she was one of those overly serious types.
“Thank you for your time. I will be returning to my duties now. Please let me know if there is anything you need from me.”
The queen turned and left us alone with Eclair.
“So what should we do? Do you want to start training right away?”
I felt like they were going to make us run laps, or whatever counted for combat training in Melromarc.
“We must begin by evaluating your current skill level.”
“You’re not going to make us run laps, are you?”
“I am confident that you are far beyond that level of training. I would like to start with actual battle operations.”
I wondered if I should tell her that I wasn’t a track star or anything like that.
The only work we’d really done was that I taught Raphtalia how to hold her sword and we did some pull ups. And I only did that when we’d had free time.
And as for myself, all I’d really done was sit around making medicines and accessories.
Oh! I had made dinner a few times, too.
That made me nervous. We hadn’t really done any physical training at all. All the exercise we had gotten had just been from fighting monsters.
“Honestly, we haven’t done much. All the skill that we do have really just comes from my shield’s abilities. Raphtalia is the only one that has actually done some work.”
“Mr. Naofumi, don’t be so crude.”
“Really? Well then, shall we start with a run around the interior courtyard?”
I didn’t really want to run, but Eclair was probably right.
We should go for a run. At the very least it would loosen us up a bit.
Eclair took the lead, and we ran a few laps around the castle training grounds.
We ran at a pretty good clip, but the stat boosts I had from my shield kept me from tiring.
I was sort of annoyed by it the whole time. Running behind Eclair.
She was kind of slow.
“Do you mind if we speed up a little bit?”
“I’m sorry if my pace was holding you back. Please, run at whatever speed you like. I’ll adjust my pace to match yours.”
“Hear that, Raphtalia?”
So we picked up our pace a little. It still wasn’t giving Raphtalia or I any trouble.
“Fehhh...”
But Rishia had run out of stamina and had started walking. It was probably because of that kigurumi she was wearing.
Then just when we had been running for a while...
“Just a moment please, Master Shield Hero.”
Eclair called for us to stop. It sounded like she was getting tired out.
Rishia had run out of steam a while back, but I was doing just fine, so I’d picked her up and continued running.
“I think you are plenty fit for the training to continue. Shall we move on?”
“Really?”
“Your advanced level is no doubt an advantage, but from what I’ve seen you are more than ready to move on.”
Had the levels we’d gained in Cal Mira really helped us that much?
I didn’t get tired no matter how much I ran. And I could carry Rishia easily—she was so light!
I felt like I could have easily kept running with heavier baggage. Actually, I hadn’t even really been running, just walking quickly.
The game-like system of powering up had really changed the meaning of physical training.
Of course, I was glad that it was easy, but I still felt that if we made light of the training fundamentals, we would end up regretting it.
I wanted to raise my reaction time, and I wanted to get some good physical workouts in to help me move better in battle.
If I could improve my speed and strength, that would give me a better chance of dodging L’Arc and Glass’s attacks.
But Eclair was huffing and puffing, clearly out of breath. Maybe she was still recovering?
“Then let us move on to b
attle tactics properly.”
Eclair took Raphtalia aside and started showing her the minutiae of sword handling, from how to hold the sword and regard your opponent to how to set her footing.
Thinking back on it, the only instruction she had ever really gotten was a perfunctory lesson at the weapon shop. Everything since that time she’d had to teach herself. She’d managed to handle herself with magic and luck, but she had once had a difficult time taking down a particularly powerful bandit we ran into. She was sure to benefit from instruction by a real swordsman.
“Now then, may I ask Ms. Rishia to act as Raphtalia’s opponent?”
“That makes me a little nervous, but go ahead and do as she says.”
Rishia’s stats were so low that I was worried on her behalf. But I’m sure she would be fine.
Raphtalia was given a wooden training sword. She set her feet to stand against Rishia.
Rishia was still wearing that kigurumi. It made for a ridiculous-looking scene.
“Here I go!”
“Um . . . Okay!”
Raphtalia dropped her weight low and struck at Rishia just as Eclair had instructed her to.
“Fehhh!”
That’s all she’d done, but suddenly Rishia was flying through the air.
Oh jeez. I’d known she was weak and all, but she couldn’t even block an attack? I was hoping she’d be able to handle some melee work, but that wasn’t looking like an option.
What were we going to do about her?
“Huh? What?!”
Raphtalia was stunned. She kept looking from the wooden sword in her hand to Rishia and back again.
“Do us a favor and hold back a little.”
“I did! But she still went flying.”
Oh boy. I couldn’t let her get hurt, so I ran over and caught her out of the air before she crashed into the ground.
“Fehhh...”
“Hm. It may be harder to train Raphtalia and Ms. Rishia together than I had expected, Master Shield Hero.”
I was ready to throw in the towel and keep her out of melee entirely. She was so talentless there was really no hope.
But another part of me didn’t want to admit defeat so easily.
What was talent anyway? What she lacked in talent she could make up for with effort.
“Maybe so.”
How were we going to train her? Maybe I was the only person that she could handle facing off against, considering the fact that I was basically incapable of attacking or doing damage.
But there was still a problem. I wouldn’t get anything out of it!
“What would you like to do, Master Shield Hero?”
“I’ll focus on defending myself against your attacks.”
“Understood. Shall I come at you full-force?”
“I don’t know how strong you are, but if you think you can get through my defenses, give it your best shot.”
“Understood.”
Eclair readied her sword and turned to face me.
“Hya!”
Huh? She was really fast! There was nothing unessential in her movements. She thrust at me, her body shooting forward like a coiled spring. I was only able to respond just in time.
The point of her blade clattered against my shield.
“You were able to parry my thrust, just what I would expect from a true hero. Let us see how you do with this!”
She shot forward again, delivering thrust after thrust very quickly.
It was hard to keep up. It was like she was attacking with more than one sword at once.
Still, I was able to block the thrusts. But it was exhausting. I wasn’t sure I felt like it was a good skill to use in training. What if my shield had a counter attack skill? That could have caused real problems, so I stuck to mostly trying to dodge the thrusts.
Still, there were times when her attacks connected through an ingenious move on her behalf. She hit my shoulder and arm once or twice.
So these are the kind of attacks a skilled swordsman could deliver?
I was pretty sure that my stats were higher than hers, but I still hadn’t been able to completely cover myself from her attacks.
“You really are good with that thing.”
If Raphtalia could learn to use a sword like Eclair, she’d probably be a lot stronger than she was now.
During the last battle, Raphtalia hadn’t been able to defeat a powered-up Glass. But if she learned to fight like this, then she could probably do the job of the all the other heroes combined. We might even stand a chance.
“As for you, Master Shield Hero, it seems to me that you are already advanced beyond the point where my instruction will be of any use.”
“It’s only because of how high my stats have become. Don’t worry about it. Though that reminds me. . .”
“Yes?”
“Is there any way to imbue those sword attacks with additional effects? I mean, can you have magical sword attacks or anything like that?”
“It is possible to apply such effects. Try to block this one.”
The female knight laid her hand on the tip of her blade and chanted a spell. When she finished, she readied herself and thrust at me again.
When she did, the blade was immediately engulfed in glowing energy that expanded to form the shape of a wide lance.
She was fast!
I readied my shield, and the lance energy blade glanced off of it, shooting over my head.
From what I could tell, it didn’t seem powerful enough to hurt me, even if the attack had connected. That was only because of my special defense rating though. I bet it would really do a number against a monster, or against Glass.
“I see. That was pretty impressive.”
“It is called the ‘applied sword technique.’”
“Another question. Could you use that to make your attacks turn into defense rating attacks or into attacks that ignore the enemy’s defenses all together?”
Eclair rubbed her chin and thought for a minute.
“Not in the school I’ve been trained in. But I have heard rumors to that effect.”
That’s right. Normal humans in this world didn’t have access to the same sort of skills that the heroes did.
But I could tell from the way she was fighting that they DID have access to attacks that could be just as effective.
It was probably similar to what Raphtalia had done with her magic and the magic sword.
I think she’d called it “illusion sword.”
It was an attack that turned her invisible long enough to sneak around behind the enemy for a thrust at their backside.
Aside from that, Raphtalia had probably done something similar without intending to. I’d seen her sword glow in the same way that Eclair’s just had.
So Raphtalia would be able to make attacks like that when she was done training with Eclair— awesome.
“Do you mean to say that you’ve seen an attack like that before?”
“Yeah. One of the enemies that we fought in the last wave used it. As you can tell, I am the Shield Hero. Which means that I’m very weak against attacks that can break through my defenses. So I’m trying to find a way to get around those defense rating and defense ignoring attacks.”
“I see. I do not know if I will be of much use to you in that regard. I do not believe that I have much to teach you at all, Master Shield Hero.”
Eclair nodded slowly to herself, looking a little wistful.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m a weird case. I can’t even attack on my own. But I hope that you’ll help teach the other heroes a thing or two.”
“Your judgment is impeccable. I agree with you.”
She was so proper!
I didn’t like to be so polite. It made me feel like she didn’t know who she was actually talking to.
Anyway, at least I’d gotten to see her real skill level.
If Raphtalia could learn from her, we’d be in better shape than we were now.
“Fehhh...”
As for Rishia, we couldn’t start with anything advanced. She could barely run around the courtyard.
For her level, she was very weak. She was probably too weak to even participate in the training exercises.
She did have the drive to work at it, but did she have the necessary stamina?
“Okay, well, until the other combat advisors arrive, I’ll be working with Rishia on the basics.”
“Understood! I will also assist Madam Rishia with the fundamentals of sword use!”
“Fehh...”
“Stop with that weak sigh. You’re trying to toughen up, aren’t you?”
“Feh... Yes!”
She did seem committed at least.
We spent the rest of the day training on the castle training grounds.
Just before evening fell, Filo came trotting back with Keel.
“We’re baaaack!”
“How was it?”
“After all the running, it looked like the sun was going to set. So we had to come back! I guess we didn’t get to fight very many monsters!”
Keel was limp and exhausted where he lay on her back. I checked his stats.
Level 14. That seemed like good progress to me.
“I feel sick.”
“Keep it up. You’re getting stronger.”
“Did Raphtalia have this hard of a time?”
Raphtalia had gotten really sick after riding in the carriage for a day. She was out for a while after that.
So in that regard, yes, she’d had a hard time. But to be fair, she’d never gone out fighting monsters on Filo’s back.
“She never tried leveling from Filo’s back.”
“What? Then why do I have to do it?”
I had sent them out as an experiment, but it looks like Filo’s version of boot camp was pretty tough.
I couldn’t wait to see how quickly Keel leveled up.
“Ugh. I’m hungry.”
Keel’s stomach was growling loudly.
Demi-humans’ bodies matured with their level, not their ages.
“Keel, how was it?”
Raphtalia finished her training with Eclair and came running over to see him.
“Filo, you can’t push him too hard.”
“Huh?”
Filo had no concept of what people’s limits were, regarding anything.
“Anyway, why don’t we all have dinner? Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.”
