Chapter 46
The consequences for having angered the stone-faced Buddha were severe.
“No, that’s not it.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“That’s even weirder than before.”
Ellen pointed out something wrong in every swordsmanship movement I showed her. Then, she demonstrated the correct motion cleanly in front of me.
“This is how you do it.”
“... Okay.”
“Try it.”
Damn it. What goes around comes around. I was just trying to have some fun by teasing the kid, but I’d ended up really ticking her off, and I was now paying the price.
As I awkwardly attempted to mimic her movement, she shook her head.
“No, that’s completely wrong.”
Once again, Ellen showed me the precise movements, step by step, and told me to do it again. Of course, whatever I did would surely look strange in that kid’s eyes, because my motions were extremely clumsy.
In the end, as a consequence of having irritated the stone-faced Ellen Artorius, she began to point out problems in my swordsmanship and give specific advice.
It was actually a good thing that the strongest person in my class was voluntarily giving me advice. If I had personally asked for help, she would have found it bothersome and refused.
However, as a result of me driving her crazy with my nitpicking and old-fashioned nagging, Ellen was now helping me not because she wanted to; she was giving me advice out of frustration and revenge.
The outcome was definitely a good one, but the process to get there was just messed up.
It was even more annoying because it had happened unintentionally.
“No, that’s not it.”
Ellen kept repeating “No, that’s not it” as if she were seeking revenge for all the advice she’d had to put up with.
What... what was going on?
I mean, I should have been absolutely grateful. One of the strongest beings in the world who possessed phenomenal talent was looking over my swordsmanship. It was right to be grateful.
“... Why can’t you do it?”
But I was annoyed. What’s worse, I didn’t even have the right to be annoyed. I was getting back exactly what I had dished out, just in a different context, and it was infuriating.
I was the embodiment of hypocrisy. When I did it, it was funny, but when it happened to me, it was irritating. I was the classic case of a hypocrite.
It made sense if a kid like her acted like this since she was still young, but for me, a fully grown man, it was seriously messed up.
“Look, I get that you’re gifted, but if you’re going to give me advice, can’t you at least teach me properly?”
Confronting my hypocritical, childish nature head-on made me a bit passive-aggressive.
“Like this.”
Ellen demonstrated the sword movements with perfect precision, and her gaze seemed to question why I couldn’t do it. It felt like I was being prodded all over.
‘Okay fine, I admit it, I’m the embodiment of hypocrisy. But you, let’s see you later at the dining hall.’
***
From that day on, whenever something needed to be made in the dining hall, Ellen would end up cooking and I would be by her side giving her advice, possessed by the spirit of an extreme nitpicker, endlessly nagging her. And on the training ground, Ellen would watch me as if she was the one who possessed the spirit of an extreme nitpicker, giving me advice.
Two friends exchanging advice for the well-being of the other... it sounded like a beautiful friendship when put into words.
But in reality, the only thing that grew through our constant exchanging of advice wasn’t friendship, but mere malice.
When in the kitchen...
“Ah seriously, how can you not get this simple thing? Is the measuring cup just for display? You should just buy a cookbook and actually try reading it.”
“That’s annoying.”
When on the training grounds...
“Just move your arm like this, by just this much. Why can’t you do it?”
“I’m out of strength, that’s why. It would be weird if I were able to even move properly after all these hours of training, dummy.”
“That’s what you said earlier as well.”
“... Well... I was definitely better earlier, wasn’t I? I was in a better state then, so I must have been!”
“... If you thought that your performance back then was better... I think you should be very distressed right now.”
“You’re so full of yourself. Yeah, I get it.”
We exchanged so much advice, but we had built up a chain of malice that connected one to the other.
Despite complaining about the hassle and how annoying it was, it seemed clear that Ellen had found some fun in cooking something herself, perhaps having grown tired of the ready-to-eat foods.
Even though she struggled, she stubbornly followed my instructions. Strictly speaking, it seemed like she preferred to learn and make food on her own even if she had to endure my nagging, rather than eating what I made and listening to me boasting about it.
On the other hand, I also had to—somewhat reluctantly—follow Ellen’s instructions and struggle with it to improve my physical skills through her swordsmanship training.
But my swordsmanship form wasn’t the only thing I was receiving advice on.
“Alright. Come.”
Ellen and I also sparred as well. When I lunged in, thrusting my practice sword, Ellen deflected my blade with hers, slid it away to the outside, and at the same time, hammered her right shoulder into my solar plexus.
Thud!
Cough!
As soon as I fell, Ellen pointed her sword at my neck.
“You’d be dead now.”
Swordsmanship wasn’t about clashing and crashing blades together like they did in the movies. Rather, it was about ending the match with a single strike. Life would leave you in a moment if you took a single thrust in the blink of an eye.
“Hey, using your body to attack isn’t part of the rules. Isn’t that cheating?”
Ellen cocked her head at my frustrated complaint.
“There are no such things as ‘rules’ when you’re in a life-or-death battle.”
It was a chilling thing to say for a child her age, but it was true, so I couldn’t argue.
After that, Ellen continued with our practice duels, showing me various forms of swordsmanship, methods of attack, and techniques for subduing an opponent. Ellen even knew things that hadn’t been taught in the theory classes.
It was true that training with a live, moving opponent was far more beneficial than practicing movements alone or with a practice dummy.
Out of curiosity, I looked up her physical data. It was posted in the classroom, although the details weren’t revealed and her talent was understated. It was almost like a simplified system status chart message, and was something that existed in the original work too.
Royal Class first-year A-2, Ellen:
[Strength 16.5(B)]
[Agility 18.3(B+)]
[Dexterity 20.2(A-)]
[Mana 23(A)]
[Stamina 15.3(B-)]
Talents:
[Weapon Mastery] [Mana Control]
Compared to the status chart shown to me by the system, hers was greatly simplified. The physical scanner couldn’t display information it couldn’t assess, such as the rank of her swordsmanship or other skills.
Despite Ellen’s tremendous talents, the Temple had downplayed her abilities, listing just weapon mastery and mana control. Weapon mastery, while specific, still encompassed a wide range of abilities, and mana control also included a comprehensive range of talents such as mana operation, mana attunement, and mana growth.
Just possessing those two alone would be enough to put her above Vertus, but they had deliberately ranked her as second.
In fact, she didn’t even need any talents.
Ellen far surpassed me in just her physical attributes, since mine were peppered with F and D ranks.
In the rank classification system, the higher one’s rank increased, the less it would change, even if the absolute numbers kept increasing.
In such a classification system, Ellen’s status was already considered unbelievably high.
An S-rank status was beyond ordinary human ability, and that rank was reserved for masters or higher.
I wasn’t certain about her combat level, but she would easily be an A-rank.
No one else in the Royal Class, much less among her peers, possessed such a level of physical abilities.
“Cough!”
“Ugh!”
“Urgh!”
“Oof!”
.
.
.
I wondered if she was just trying to beat me up under the guise of sparring.
But I also learned a lot.
Swordsmanship, I realized, was not just about using a sword; it encompassed everything, including fists and feet. There were techniques that seemed almost like wrestling, such as deflecting the sword and grabbing the opponent by the collar to flip them over, or using the unarmed hand, which was also crucial. Techniques also involved wielding the sword with both hands, confronting an enemy’s blade with one hand and then subduing them with the empty hand, or even grabbing the enemy’s blade or one’s own blade to attack.
There were so many techniques that it was impossible to remember them all.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
She knocked my sword away and almost pounced on me, pinning me down and pointing her sword at me, doing all sorts of bizarre maneuvers.
“You’re dead.”
She always made it a point to tell me that I was dead after subduing me.
“You’re heavy! Get off of me, damn it...”
Even if it was a practice duel, she shouldn’t just climb onto me any way she wanted.
During our sparring, Ellen showed me numerous ways to finish off a person with a sword right in front of me, some of which were quite shocking.
“... Are you mocking me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Now you’re beating me with the sword held in reverse?”
She had struck my head with the cross-guard while holding the practice sword by the blade. Being on the receiving end of such a move left me completely dumbfounded. This was the epitome of humiliation.
Ellen shook her head.
“... It’s an actual technique, used against heavily armored enemies.”
“You mean to say there’s really such a ridiculous technique? What if you cut your hand?”
“It doesn’t cut that easily.”
Ellen insisted that it wasn’t just a trick she was doing with a practice sword, but that it could be used in real situations as well, but I still couldn’t quite trust her.
Anyway, after experiencing it, I knew for sure that Ellen was far beyond her peers when it came to swordsmanship.
When Ellen taught me various swordsmanship techniques, including how to subdue an opponent, she also encouraged me to try them on her. In other words, she was essentially telling me to go ahead and beat her up, which caused me to hesitate, but I had no choice but to proceed.
I practiced what I’d learned, deflecting the sword or using the non-sword arm, and even techniques that were similar to the grounding moves found in martial arts that flipped the opponent over.
Even as I executed these moves on her, I began to wonder if this was really okay.
“You’re too slow, and your moves are clumsy.”
Pinned beneath me, Ellen shook her head as if to say that this wasn’t it, not at all.
‘That’s not the point! If I was a teenage boy, my heart would be racing right now! Don’t you realize you’re crossing a line here?
‘Can’t you see Number 5 Cliffman right there, who’s fiddling with his sword alone, stealing glances at us and unconsciously drooling at the sight? He’s looking at us as if we were doing something we weren’t supposed to!’
“Try it again.”
Both Ellen and I were drenched in sweat from bickering back and forth for so long.
Normally, one would think this would be an opportunity for mutual affection to blossom, but my opponent was absolutely impassive, and to me, she just seemed like a kid.
As a result...
Clang! Clang!
“My hand is going to be ripped apart!”
“No, it’s not.”
We both were completely focused on swordsmanship training and battering each other with advice.
***
The date of the duel was set for Sunday, right after lunchtime.
From the Friday before that, Ellen began to instruct me in something odd.
“Endure.”
Clang!
“Ugh!”
Clatter!
She vigorously struck the flat side of the sword I was holding out in front of me. The practice sword slipped from my grip and rolled across the training ground floor.
“All swordsmanship skills are useless if you drop your sword.”
It was as if I had dropped something that was considered as important as my life.
“Your grip strength is too weak.”
My grip was so weak that a single hard strike like that was enough to make me lose the sword. That Friday, instead of practicing subduing techniques, Ellen focused on testing whether I could hold onto my sword. She hit my sword hard, expecting me not to drop it. Naturally, my hands grew numb, and the more we trained, the more strength seemed to leave my grip.
And then...
Clang!
I didn’t know how long we had been at it when the practice sword broke apart as Ellen struck its flat side again.
“What... what the?”
My hands didn’t hurt when the sword broke, but how was Ellen capable of smashing a sword with another sword simply by striking it?
As she looked at the broken practice sword and picked up its remains, she commented, “Practice swords are meant to be fragile. They break easily.”
It seemed as though it wasn’t her first time witnessing the destruction of a practice sword.
“They use something so flimsy in the Temple?”
“If the practice swords are too sturdy, that would also pose a problem.”
Practice swords had no edge to them. They were deliberately designed that way to prevent injuries, considering the serious trouble that could arise from accidents that occurred during practice.
Moreover, it appeared that they were intentionally made from a weaker material, because more durable practice swords could still cause harm when wielded as a blunt-force weapon, even without an edge.
“Don’t drop the sword.”
“That’s easier said than done!”
With the sword broken, I collapsed onto the floor of the training ground, unable to do much more. My grip strength was totally gone, and I couldn’t go on anymore.
Grip strength was definitely important.
That was why Adriana emphasized grip strength during strength training. She kept saying that a strong grip was essential, and continuously made me train it.
That day, Ellen had focused solely on striking my sword with powerful blows all day to see whether I would drop it or not. Cliffman had gone off to rest, leaving only the two of us on the training ground.
Of course, it wasn’t always just the three of us there. Vertus and Erhi also came to train sometimes.
Vertus watched me training with Ellen with an odd smile on his face. He didn’t say anything about my duel, but he seemed secretly pleased to see me trying to do something about it. His gaze was like that of a superior watching his first and most capable subordinate doing well on their own.
In addition, I did not find myself in any conflicts with the other kids during this period, as I was fully committed to training for the duel. They didn’t bother me much either, perhaps because I had built some sort of a reputation with them.
Still, the upcoming Sunday was going to be the main event for everyone.
It was the day that the psycho thug Reinhart would get a taste of his own medicine. Everyone who disliked me was going to watch the duel.
“You’re going to lose,” said Ellen abruptly.
Until then, she hadn’t said a single thing about my duel.
Of course, she wasn’t unaware of it. She must have known why I was suddenly so devoted to training.
“I know.”
Everyone told me that I was going to lose, and so I was aware of that too. Ellen certainly knew that I was not brimming with confidence, so why did she bring this up all of a sudden?
“Do you want to win?” she asked out of the blue.
I couldn’t fathom why she was asking this. Did it mean that she at least considered me somewhat close, to ask such personal questions?
Did I want to win? Of course I did.
“Of course I do.”
I obviously preferred winning. Whether I could do so or not was a separate question. The reward in terms of achievement points if I won were three times higher!
Ellen hadn’t been looking at me, but she suddenly met my eyes. Her calm, dark blue eyes were focused on me.
She really did look like someone out of a painting.
“There’s one way you could win.”
“... What?”
What was she talking about? No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t see how I could possibly beat someone from the second year who had better talents in swordsmanship than me.
But whatever the case, Ellen seemed to think there was at least one way I could win the duel.
“What is it?”
“... Think carefully about what a duel really is about.”
That was all Ellen said, and she didn’t elaborate any further.
“What kind of half-explanation is that?” I muttered, imploring her to tell me what she meant.
But Ellen kept her mouth closed, as if she did not want to disclose any more information.
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