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Chapter 2 – 14 (part 2)

From Farewells, to…

The battle was to be held at the training grounds.

The result was an overwhelming victory for Tenma. All five of the Knight Captains used swords, their coordination was clumsy at best, and from the way they approached the whole thing, it didn't seem like they were seriously trying to win.

“Okay you guys, get into position for your 1 on 1 matches.”

Alain said, and the five of them decided which order they would fight in.

The first one up was Aida. The feeling I got from just observing her was that she was a knight with an emphasis on speed, and probably used many different techniques.

“Well then, have at it.”

With those words as the cue to start, Aida held her narrow sword in both hands, and thrust directly forward as she approached. In order to make a feint attack, I stuck out my sword (actually an imitation sword), and used it to repel her outthrust sword, catching her off guard. I then kicked, hitting her in the abdomen and used the force to push myself backwards.

Right after that exchange Aida took up a defensive posture.

“Too slow!”

Starting on Aida's lower right, I swung my sword upwards and disarmed her, sending her sword flying into the air.

Aida seemed numb with shock. With my sword firmly in both hands, I struck her once. Unable to endure the blow, she was defeated.

“Okay! My turn!”

My second opponent was Santos, who swung a large claymore like sword using only one hand.

I noticed as he approached that his attacking method was likely a close-range style. It would be quite threatening if he managed to land a hit, but it would amount to nothing otherwise.

While I was preoccupied with my own thoughts, Santos had somehow grabbed a nata like sword without me noticing, and gripped it in his free left hand.

The claymore was probably just a decoy, and this was his real weapon. Even seeing this I didn't really care, and even boldly stepped forward.

“Hm!”

I pinned his left hand down, then with my own left hand, I struck him in the abdomen and then released my internal energy (or something like it).

“Uggh!”

He cried out. Santos kneeled on the ground and surrendered.

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The third one up was Simon…… For some reason, we seemed to be mutually incompatible. Simon's attacking style was mainly based around stabbing attacks similar to fencing, where he would pressure his opponent with a rapid flurry of movement. It was a dexterous weapon style that could be changed a bit to suit his opponent. For an opponent like me though, I could see through all his thrusts and lightly attacked back. As a so called “jack of all trades”, I easily surpa.s.sed his method of frontal attack.

Alain was the fourth to come out.

“Just as I expected you're quite strong…… Even in the royal capital, I don't think there's someone this skilled. Who taught you?”

“My father and grandfather (both Merlin and those from my previous life), but lately it's become closer to my own style of combat.”

I didn't use overly polite language. It was clear that Alain was the strongest among everyone I had met so far.

“Let's go!”

Right at the moment I yelled to psyche myself up, all of the usual signs I could detect from Alain vanished. To be more precise, he had suppressed his presence as much as he could, probably to make it difficult to sense where he would attack from. I took the initiative and lunged forward to attack, but was very easily repelled.

Returning the favor, Alain attacked me with a sharp thrust. We exchanged sword strikes after that, but neither side landed any decisive blows. While he was trying to regroup and make another charge, I suddenly flew behind him then rushed in with all of my strength and stabbed. Alain moved his body to one side to dodge.

“Too easy!”

I turned my sword sideways and swept it in the same direction as he had dodged, then lunged forward using the flat of my sword.

Alain was indeed surprised, but easily defended against it. However, his surprise had created an opening.

“I've won.”

On my swords' returning swing, I pointed the cutting edge of my sword toward the base of his neck.

“Too bad.” I muttered.

We shook hands, and the other captains came around and applauded.

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“Umm~ I haven't gone yet though……”

Primera murmured while gently raising her hand.

” ” ” ” ” Oh, I forgot! ” ” ” ” “

Everyone slumped over after saying that, while Primera was sitting down, holding her knees.

She regained her footing and then faced me. I learned that she was unexpectedly good at fighting.

She had a solid grasp of the basics but implemented them clumsily, but most interesting was how she would get caught up on my feints.

“Please take this seriously!”

She yelled many times during the match. I thought it was bad how many times she got caught.

Before long it was over and I beat her, though after she finally became used to the feints she had put up a decent fight.

“Tenma. I'm sorry to ask you to continue, but would you give the others some practice too? Of course, you don't have to go easy on them.”

Alain brought high ranking people from each unit out.

“It'd probably be annoying to do all this 1 by 1, so is it alright for them to all attack at once?” I asked.

“I don't mind. But just between you and me, it's bad for our reputations as Captains to all have lost to a 15 year old. Because of that, even if they're subordinates treat them the same way. Even if it's just a little bit, I want to train these guys up into proper accomplices.”

He whispered a rather worthless idea into my ear.

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“Then wouldn't it have been better to do that from the start?” I asked.

“You're not a member of the knights, so it's a good chance for them to seriously fight for once. It would be a waste not to, right?!”

He said with his chest filled with pride.

“I get it but…… I apologize in advance if this damages your confidence.”

I said and then turned toward the knights.

“Come at me!”

I said, provoking them.

As for the end result…… about 10 minutes later, I was victorious. There were 20 knights from each squad. At first, they crowded around and tried to surround me, but because five of them (clearly from the fourth division) very inconsiderately interfered and ruined the others' cooperation, I crushed them one by one.

After I took them all down, they returned to their respective division's spots with bitter expressions all around. Among them, Primera's division seemed particularly ill at ease.

“We need to go over even the fundamentals of our training…… especially the fourth division.” Alain grumbled.

“……Yes, we're very sorry……” Primera responded, with a voice that trailed off to nothing.

It was decided that from tomorrow onward, Primera's fourth division would take on especially hard training under Alain's supervision, with Primera herself included.

A few years later, the so called “slacker” fourth division would go on to be called Gunjo City's elite unit…… or it would nice if they did, anyways. That absurd thought popped into my head as Primera looked at me with eyes filled to the brim with bitterness.

“Well, I'm off to spend my spare time, then.”

Escaping from Primera's line of sight, I left the knights behind.

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I stopped by the guild, but as usual, the Guild Leader wasn't there. I decided to just go back to the inn.

Flute-san was still there in the Full Belly Inn's dining area, but something seemed amiss.

“I'm back…… What's wrong, Flute-san? You seem really fl.u.s.tered.”

“Ah, Tenmsan. Lilly and her sisters are……”

After she said that, I hurried over to the room where Lilly and her sisters were.

“Bleh, I feel awful~”

“Hrk, I'm going to throw up”

“It's all gonna come up~”

The three girls were lying down with swollen stomachs.

“…………What's going on?”

I asked flute, pointing to the three of them.

“This is all because they were stress eating. They wanted to forget that they couldn't go with you and tried to distract themselves. Ever since you went out they've been eating and drinking……”

They were worried to the point of hurting themselves. That means that these three had been eating for several hours.

“Ah~ Tenma. Sa~ve~ me~~”

“I feel awful~~”

“Gimme more medicine please~”

“Then go to the bathroom and throw up! That's the best medicine!”

After hearing that, the three of them slowly…… really slowly, like a turtle slow (actually even a turtle would be faster), headed toward the bathroom.

I don't even want to think about what happened after that. Right during the dinner rush when the dining area was crowded, the three of them practically needed censors.h.i.+p beeps to drown out the gross noises. It seems that some of the guests inside at the time, went back home without even ordering anything.

[Author's Note]

The three catgirls have job changed from heroines to GEROines…… maybe. (TLN: GERO being a sound effect for throwing up)

It was disgusting, sorry.

Chapter 2 is coming to an end soon.

Refulgent, your translator here, if you like my translations, you can show your support by leaving a comment or constructive feedback at Four slimes . com I'd love to hear from you directly~

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