The carriage stopped a little away from a well-maintained road, three young people gathered in a hurry next to it, and an orc and a cat were watching them.
Except for the fact that the party members were unique, nothing was special about that sight.
Maybe it was just a usual chat time after lunch. Actually, there wasnât much of a difference.
However, the words which came out of their mouths, Bratt and Judithâs to be exact, were bloody.
âAre you talking about it? The first of the 7 matches at Murray manor?â
âRight. When I stabbed you were flustered.â
âFlustered, what nonsense, donât you remember that I evaded to the right and that your sword didnât even reach me?â
âThatâs the proof. That you got hit because I attacked differently than usual, and because you got hit, I reflexively avoided it. Dodge to the side, dash, and then counterattack, it comes out like a habit. So, you expected me to do it right away.â
â⊠I will admit it. I need to pay more attention.â
An in-depth discussion about who stabbed and cut.
The two were truly demonstrating what âfighting with wordsâ meant, but Irene later realized that this was a replay of the matches.
And he was surprised by how they remembered every move they made, he could feel their mad obsession with swords.
They didnât just memorize actions, they thought about,
Why did they do that? What was the benefit from it? What if it got blocked, and what could be used next? What would the opponentâs response be?
Seeing the two weaving dozens of ideas into one, Irene couldnât help but admire them.
âWhat could be an easier way to attack in that situation?â
The discussion about swords didnât end.
After a hypothetical situation appeared, discussions followed one after another to solve it.
Judith would start and Bratt would continue, watching the two of them come up with topics three times in a row and then searching for the answer, Irene was able to realize a lot of things he missed.
Psychological warfare between swordsmen, coping and creative breakthrough techniques, and accurate judgement according to the situation.
Various other large and small things made up Judithâs swordsmanship.
âHow is that? Do you get that?â (*)
â⊠huh. I think it would be difficult to do it right away.â
Irene answered Judithâs question.
To be honest, just listening to them was overwhelming. âœÂčâŸ
And his realizations were also overwhelming.
âI was so overly concerned with my attitude towards swords that I neglected swordsmanship a lot.â
That meant that since he came out of the world of sorcery, he hadnât paid much attention to swordsmanship.
âIâm sorry, but can I just listen to you this time?â
âSure.â
Bratt nodded and looked at Judith again. And the verbal sword training resumed.
Of course, it didnât last all day. If it did, they would have had to sleep on the street instead of in a town.
They could have continued the discussions in the carriage, but they didnât.
Bratt was next to Kuvar, driving the carriage and Judith was on the roof of the carriage.
Lulu fell asleep next to her.
The only one left was Irene, who was inside the carriage.
In a space where he was alone and relaxed, he smiled.
He felt glad about the free time where he got to think for himself.
When he thought about it, it was the same in the school. The two always helped and he always received.
While it warmed his heart, his feelings of regret and desire to win grew little by little.
âI should do my best so that I can join them as well.â
He didnât want to constantly be helped.
He didnât want to be left behind.
In order to do that, he had to match the level of the two as soon as possible.
Irene Pareira, who had made a firm decision, slowly closed his eyes.
He wasnât ready for imagery training.
Will, mind, and belief. The most important things, but⊠now was the time to focus purely on swordsmanship.
The troubles which started then, continued for three hours while the carriage moved.
And lasted until they reached a village and entered an inn.
Irene had been concentrating on swordsmanship until it was time for dinner, but then he got up as the food was about to come out.
âSorry. But Iâll skip dinner.â
âWhere are you going?â
âTo practice swordsmanship.â
âAt this hourâŠâ
âIâll find somewhere. If it doesnât work, Iâll go outside the village to practice and come back in the morning.â
With those words, Irene left the inn.
Kuvar looked at him with a puzzled look, and Judith, who got up a few seconds later, also left the inn.
ââŠâ
The air became empty.
As food filled the table, Bratt shook his head.
âHeâs at it again.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âIrene. Every time he acts like that, he shows incredible growth. It seems like Judith was also stimulated and went away. Seriously, if that crazy monster is training, I canât even imagine the results.â
ââŠâ
âDidnât that happen when he was with you, Mr. Kuvar? It shouldâve happened.â
ââŠit did.â
âI knew it.â
Bratt nodded with a serious expression and then moved his fork, without losing his grace.
He finished his meal a little faster than Kuvar and Lulu and got up saying.
âI too will train. When I saw that face, I felt like I had to do something,â
ââŠâ
In the end, only Kuvar and Lulu were left.
It was still the third day after Bratt and Judith joined them.
A week passed since Irene went into training.
During that time, he went back to the basics and spent days thinking about swordsmanship.
Fortunately, he realized something. He remembered something he had forgotten.
It was what the roots of his swordsmanship was.
âMy swordsmanshipâs center isâŠâ
He entered the world of sorcery to find his sword and acquired various swordsmanship.
Brattâs sword which resembled water, Judithâs which resembled fire, Ilyaâs which resembled the sky, and the sword of the man.
And the basics he learned at Krono.
None of them were unimportant, but the main things were the manâs swordsmanship which he learned and Kronoâs swordsmanship, which contained a little heaviness.
âThe problem was that I forgot them and tried to just imitate Bratt and Judithâs swordsmanship.â
There are some things that he vaguely felt through their matches and discussions.
The point was that he couldnât be Bratt or Judith.
It wasnât a good idea to let the opponentâs attacks flow or to imitate the sword of Judith which was explosive.
If he did, it would mean that he was chasing after the two, and would do that for the rest of his life.
If so, what should he do?
Should he throw away everything he learned so far in the world of sorcery and start over?
No.
âFocus on the content. Add only the parts which can be taken and applied from Bratt and Judithâs.â
Instead of losing his center and being dragged here and there, hold onto the center and harmonize the other attributes.
Having reached a satisfactory conclusion, Ireneâs swordsmanship slowly began to bloom.
Whoo!
Whoo!
He couldnât follow the free and light footsteps of Judith.
Because he wasnât her.
It was because he was dull and heavy compared to her, who moved like fire.
However, he was able to capture her explosiveness. And it melts away the heaviness.
Ireneâs attack, which was completed in that way, was as if a red-hot sword was flying.
Whoop!
Clang!
It was impossible to make an attack flow as smoothly as Bratt did.
Because he wasnât Bratt Lloyd.
He didnât dare imitate the movements.
The water that dissolved the heaviness which made one feel stiff wasnât there, but it was fine.
Because he made a defensive technique, which was like striking a deep puddle, it relaxed the incoming attacks and made them lose their strength.
Bratt Lloyd, who felt that was shocked.
âThis crazy bastaâŠâ
It wasnât him who said that.
Judith constantly complained over and over again as she looked at Irene, who changed in a week.
She had no choice but to do so.
It was because her win percentage against Irene, which was at 90% had fallen to 70%.
âShit. How can the world work like this?â
âThis is how the world works. I felt this 5 years ago when I saw Ilya. And I feel it now.â
âFuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FuckâŠ.â
Lulu trembled at Judithâs rather different choice of words.
The air in the carriage was overflowing with the desire to compete.
However, instead of being uncomfortable with that, Kuvar felt a kind of compassion.
âItâs hard to stay with a genius.â
He knew that because he was a spiritualist.
The intense fire which cannot be compared to ordinary people.
A person with such an attitude will never be able to lose.
Whether itâs rock-paper-scissors or a quick meal, if thereâs a competitive element, no matter how trivial it may be, that type of person has to win.
And when irrational talents appear in front of such a person, they will suffer.
Perhaps Judithâs heart would swell like an active volcano.
âIt will be my job to manage it well. Of course, right now⊠that might be difficult.â
From an adultâs point of view, Kuvar was concerned about Judith.
He hoped that the talented young woman wouldnât burn herself with her passion and get injured.
⊠exactly a week later, he realized that he had greatly underestimated her.
Kak!
âUgh! I won!â
âJudith learned from Irene. Thereâs a mixture of lightness and heaviness in her footsteps. Itâs gotten pretty trickyâŠâ
ââŠâ
Even without Brattâs explanation, they knew.
Because Kuvar was attentive, and even if his body didnât know, his eyes showed him.
Just as Irene absorbed Judithâs strengths.
Judith did the same thing with Ireneâs strengths.
At that, in a very short amount of time.
What made it possibleâŠ
âTalent and tenacity⊠I was greatly mistaken. Judith is a genius.â
It wasnât just her.
Bratt Lloyd, too, accomplished something during the time when the other two grew.
Just looking at his attitude would make anyone realize it. There was no nervousness in Bratt anymore.
Kuvar finally realized.
Irene Pareira.
Judith.
Bratt Lloyd.
There was no way he could have accurately judged the full scope of their talent.