Since I’ve talked with her, I got contacted by the dormitory leader after one week.
I got called by someone as I was about to get out of the dormitory in order to head to the morning cla.s.s.
“Good morning Eldo-kun, do you have some time?”
“Good morning. Why?”
“it’s about the matter of the sword practice from before. he has accepted”
“really?!”
I tentatively tried to advance my training by reading books related to swords and follow cla.s.s, but as expected as long as I don’t have a professional person in order to watch every detail, it appeared to me that I will not become better.
Well, if everyone could become better by swinging his sword for one week, no one would have any hardships buut…
“So, I was told to tell you to come here this evening, when can you go see him? He told me that any time from today on is possible tough”
“Of course, I need it from today on. As for the sword skill, I already have appointment so I really can’t go rigth now.
Can you understand the bitterness of being unable to make someone exchange shots with you and keep doing nothing but basic practice-swing during cla.s.s? It’s really embarra.s.sing.
Meanwhile, Layla, baptiste and Leon are exchanging great sword techniques to one another. Things like swinging the sword one time near the ground and a crack appears. It look like their movements are gradually getting faster, honestly I do not want to get close to them during their practices.
“Understood. Once cla.s.s is over go to the janitor’s room”
“Yes, then see you later”
“Take care”
With a bow to janitor, I went to the Academy.
After finishing cla.s.s, I walk toward the janitor’s room. Due to the menu put together in order to raise us into soldiers combinede with normal cla.s.ses I become pretty tired. But if it’s in order to go to the top, I have to don’t put more effort into it from here on out. Shaking off the fatigue, I knock on the janitor’s room.
“It is Eldo”
The door opens, the usual janitor came out.
“Come in, that child has already come back. Go in since I’m going to introduce you ”
“Excuse me for disturbing”
Prompted, I go into the janitor’s room.
The inside is as large as two student rooms .
Then, at the table placed in the center, sat a woman. The woman raises her gaze, meeting my eyes.
As a first impression, makes me wonder if she’s a little harsh woman. She looks likes she’s in her twenties based on her appearance.
With her silver hair she gives the impression of coolness, her slightly elveated outer corner of her eyes gives sharpness to her gaze.
Because I thought the person that’ll come would be more elderly, I was quite surprised.
“Is it that child?”
“Yes, it’s the child that I want you to teach the sword to.”
“Oh, My name is Eldo”
“Lune[TN: meaning moon in french]. I think you have heard it, But since you’re also going to be grandma’s support from this day on, please take care of her”
“Yes, thank you.”
Because Lune-san reached out her hand as she stood up, I reciprocate with a handshake.
“Then I’d like to immediately go practice, is it alright grandma ?”
“We already discussed about what we have to discuss. Make sure to properly teach him”
“I know. So, leave your package and come to the back yard”
“Yes”
When I hurriedly go back to my room, I throw onto the bed the bag I was carrying, I get dressed in clothes that I can exercise in.
As I run down the stairs and come out into the back, Lune-san was already waiting with a sword in hand.
“Your warm-up exercices… They seem to be unnecessary, First, I’ll start by seeing your practice-swing”
“Understood”
With the middle-sword I received from Lunse-san, I produce the stances as I learned them at the Academy.
Basically, with interruption I take my posture, right foot in front, I place my left foot behind. Since it resembled a stance of kendo, this was surprisingly easy accomplish.
From there, swing the sword upward, and directly swing the sword down.
Stop the sword tip when the swung down sword reaches your chest-height , hoist it overhead once again.
When I repeated that several times, Lune-san slowy came closer to me.And then, she catched my arm from my back while I was raising up the sword.
“Stop for a minute. Your are good as it is, pull your elbow a little bit more, in order to more easily transmit power”
Saying so, she little by little corrects my stances.
I swing the sword once again while paying attention to what she has told me. Then, compared to before I felt even less of the sword’s weight.
Just changing the stance by a few centimeters, changes so much of the increased force
Since it became a little easier, I increase the speed of my swings.
From the start, I have good muscles. I’ve never gotten suddenly tired like an amateur.
“Yeah, it turned out pretty well.”
It’s a little embarra.s.sing to be looked at in a downcasting manner, but this is also a test of concentration so I swing my sword.
*Fu fu fu* Just as I started to be out of breath, It took a “stop” from Lune-san.
“For the fundamentals, this much should be enough. Later on, repeat this everyday”
“thank you very much”
“But you’re not satifisfied with only this, right? I heard that you’re aiming for the top grade”
“Yes, the results of the test from the entrance ceremony’s day came out today , I was 4th amongst the pilot department”
“if it’s 4th place don’t you think it’s pretty good performance?”
Certainly if you only look at the numbers, it may be enough. However, the possibility of being a.s.signed to an aluminare’s squad as a pilot ends being 50/50.
The ones that are always a.s.signed to an aluminare’s squad are the top 2 members. For the remaining people, it depends on a squad’s opening.That’s why, if I have to aim at something, I can only aim for the top 2 position.
Besides…
“The difference between me and the top is too large”
First place was, sure enough, Layla. Then second place is Leon, followed by Baptiste in the third place. And, there was also a difference of 40 points in grades between me and Baptiste. The difference of points with Layla is close to 100 points.
“My disadvantage is history and sword skill. Because I got close to perfect score on the others ones, To close up the gap, I have no choice but to boost these two”
“so that’s how it was, huh? Sounds like this year’s students are fairly excellent students. Two got an almost perfect total grade, another one is almost but quite there, certainly Eldo-kun’s generation might have some fierce battles ”
“It’sn’t a nearly perfect score”
I nod my head in an agreeing manner, I correct Lune-san’s word.
“Huh?”
Lune-san tilted her head, her silver hair shakes.
“The one in the 11st place is called Layla, She’s got perfect score in all subjects. Without any mistakes too, [All Perfect]”
Indeed, Layla pa.s.sed all her tests with full marks. This has been extensively announced today as the first ever since the beginning of the Academy.
Among the professors, there are rumours saying that Layla should certainly get an entry in an aluminare’s squad, perhaps not as the co-pilot and even the possibility of her serving as the main pilot.
“I won’t go as far as catching up to her. Otherwise, I can’t confidently become an aluminare’s pilot.”
“Why do you want to become an aluminare’s pilot so much?”
“Huh?”
This time I was puzzled.
“I think you’ve heard from grandma that I was a support maid”
“Yeah, it was a junior.”
“Yes. So we have seen an actual battlefield”
A sad expression rose from Lune-san’s facial expression. As her eyes tremble, although faint, I can see something shine on the outer corner of her eyes.
As she stands still while holding her elbows, she completely changed from the cool woman she was earlier, there was a fleeting moment in which I wanted to protect her.
“Way before Jakarta, the mission of the squad I had been a.s.signed to was the defence of the buffer zone with Obardo. Even in the town where I was on standby, because we were receiving injured people, Itemporarilly was working there”
It is the reason for the support maid is on standby in a nearby city while the other team members are in the battlefield. Meanwhile,because there are no more life support, they are a.s.sisstants of the nearby first-aid station.
“Every day, the unceasing voice of the injured persons suffering from pain kept remaining inside of me. If I close my eyes, I hear the anguish of the injured persons. Unable to sleep sufficiently because of that, It was so bad that I had to work otherwise I’d probaly lose my sanity”
“That is…”
“Yeah, it continued to provide medical treatment in order to maintain my sanity, It’s because of this medical treatment work that I’ve see too many soldiers gasping in agony. Caugth into the negative spiral, with my heart closed off I continued to do medical treatment like a machine”
To perpetually treat medically without end. I wonder how painful it was. Support maids are not trained for rescue. They are maids who were trained to help the knights in their daily life. That’s why, the voice of the soldiers caused her heart to be gouged out.
“such days kept going on for 2 weeks. A single soldier was brought into the first aid station I was working for. That man was my squad’s mechanic. Having lost his rigth arm, having a broken leg and a vast amount of blood was flowing out of his forehead. Fortunately the medical tratment was done in time we manaaged to save his life, but it didn’t end with just that “
The mechanic’s injury. But, mechanics stay in a standard camp ground and things like that, they should make repair when the aluminare comes back. The only one going to the frontline is the aluminare pilot.Yet the fact that the mechanic had been injured means that…
“Yes, It means that after the squad’s aluminare is destroyed, it allowed them to advance until the campground. And, the mechanic is the only one remaining from my squad”
That’s the worst outcome.
“It’s probably at that moment. When my mind broke. After the squad dissolved, I was dispatched once again with new personnel, but rejecting that, I returned to this city”
From Lune-san’s eyes tears endlessly continued to flow while narrating.
“I was scared. Although it was a short period of time, they were colleagues with whom I laughed together. However their end was in an unknown place, they died before one knows. What if the same thing happens? I couldn’t bear it as soon I continue to hear that anguish“
What Lune-san is telling me, is the reality of war.
I can’t understand it with just a video and some doc.u.ments, the real deal. The devastation and sense of emptiness, such things has acutely been transmitted.
“You, why do you want to become an aluminare’s pilot? Exerting yourself to such an extent, Are you trying to go to that battlefied?”
“That is……”
I couldn’t follow on my words.
I couldn’t answer to her that it’s because I simply like aluminares. I felt that such an answer would trample upon her feeling. But~~
“In that battlefield, do you understand that you yourself may die? Have you ever thought about the feelings of those you’ll leave behind?”
“Yes, I have.”
“So why!”
“I’m not boasting, but when I was coming here I got confessed to by my childhood friend”
Saying so, I retrieve the amulet from my chest. It is a charm that I’ve always worn except when I’m home from the moment I received it.
“I was quite happy. But I rejected it. It’s because I knew that aluminare’s pilots have a high rate of mortallity. If she had clung to me and told me to not go, I might pretty much waver“
But in actually, she supported my dream. She sent me out with a charm she made while burning her hands.
“Because It’s my dream to become an aluminare’s pilot. It’s because I love operating aluminares”
“That is… Do you give that more precedence than the person that loves you?”
“I guess so. Honestly, I don’t even know”
After hearing a raw battlefield experience, I realized that my resolve still has a long way to go.
However, not once did I feel like giving up on becoming a pilot .Maybe, that’s how I am.
Until I got reincarnated I thought I want to pilot robots, it’s obvious those are my true feelings.
That’s why I do not intend to give up.
“Although I don’t understand, I don’t want to lie to my own heart. I think it’s because I’m like that she even fell in love with me. That’s why, I’ll directly aim for the position of an aluminare’s pilot”
“…”
“‘You can’t a.s.sent to such an answer?”
“If you had answered: It’s for the people, it’s for the king, as a knight I could easily refute all of those but… You’re also like the captain. The captain of the squad I got a.s.signed to also told me the same thing. “The battlefield is scary, but it’s even more fun to pilot an aluminare”. He wondered, in a world without conflict, how much happyness would he be in if he could pilot that”
Certainly it also looks interesting. Although a battle of robots makes my hearts pound in excitement, but wouldn’t the second be to do construction word and civil engineering work with an humanoid robot? Lifting logs, lifting stones, getting covered in mud, once the day is over clean the muddied robot. If there is such a job in modern times, I should absolutely have found employment.
“It, indeed would be nice. If so, I have to immediately put an end to this war. Please continue to guide me. When I become an aluminare’s pilot I’ll immediately capture all the enemy’s aluminares”
I clearly see that the final goal is to put an end to the skirmishes with Obardo.
With an aluminare of absolute military power. And once I took them all, It will start an uncoverable difference against the opposing country.That will be the end of this war.
“those are promising words. Understood, well then, I will teach to Eldo-san all the sword skills that I have. My guidance is tough”
Wiping the tears, saying so Lune-san smiles, she looked very gentle.
Six months since I started receiving Lune-san’s guidance, I improved to a level where I can directly exchange blows with Baptiste.
“How did you become so much better at it!”
“Of course, by training to the point of death!”
We hit each others swords with a clank, I speak with Baptiste while locking sword to sword and pushing each other.
Although Lune-san’s smile at that time was truly gentle, during practice she turned into an ogre.
It was a completely merciless and thorough training. Of course, if my stances were a little bit off she’ll mercilessly point it out. Not in words, she’ll attack it with her sword…
When I take off my clothes, I could find I don’t how many traces of cuts throughout my body. By the way, the one with the most cuts is my right-arm and the next largest is my left foot.
At first, she seemed to make sure not to cut my clothes, but midway since it became troublesome she mercilessly decided to cut through my exercises clothes. So nowadays, I am practicing with my upper half naked.
When I tried to gain a point by using little tricks, I ended up with a red line on cheek and my neck. Honestly I thought that I was dead at that time…
“Even I trained for many years! I will not let you easily overtake me!”
“It’s not the time, the problem is the density!”[TN: that’s what written in there I think the author meant intensity]
As the violents sword exchange pile up, our physical strength starts to run out.
When I started to become tired, that’s an important junction of the fight. I have to turn the table on him here or I’d lose as it is.
Eluding Baptiste’s sword, I aim at his belly with the handle. as he dodged it, a gap was made on my back.
Baptiste attacks there without a moment of delay. But if I expect it, it isn’t a gap.
Centering on one leg, I forcibly dodge the sword by rotating my body while falling even more. While striking the gorund with one hand and dispersing the shock, I swing my sword towards Baptiste’s foot.
Although he dodged that by jumping, time is provided to me according to his jump.
While taking some distance until his landing, rebuilding his posture, I restored my sword stance.
“Why do you avoid me so much?! Am I strange!?”
“It’s because I’m to solely focus on defense and avoidance.”
“What is he, Eldo’s mentor?!”
Lune-san has thoroughly taugth me evasion and defense. Although I personnaly want to learn about various ways of attacking, but according to Lune-san “as long as you avoid it all you eventually your opponent will be tired. Once they are tired, it doesn’t matter what kind of attack you use they’ll all hit” so she said. It certainly may be so, but this fighting style is too time consuming…
After continuing our fight for more than 30 minutes , the spectators were watching with a little surprised look. That’s because an ordinary sword skill contest would last for about 10 minutes or if it’s long it’s decided within 20 minutes.
“I’m going to put an end to this contest. It’s going to be noon time”
“What!?”
“*Kutsu*…It’s the fault of Baptiste and his obssession with physical strength!”
“I guess you too!”
In the end, we were unable to put an end to this contest before noon, the outcome of this contest has been postponed, it carried-over to the cafeteria.
“are young men really this stupid?”
“Hey, don’t lump me with these guys. Because these guys are idiots”
A mountain of piled up high meats and vegetables was in front of me and Baptiste. Layla and Leon see it with an amazed expression.
“Okay, Who ever finishes his food earlier. Let’s compete with this”
“I was going to do that”
“Layla, We’ll rely on you for the start signal”
“Yes yes, Well start”
As she produces the starting signal with a dull mind, we start to cut the mountain in front of us.
Sinking my teeth on steaks, devouring the vegetables. After washing them down with water, I chew on the breads.
As I single-mindenly keep eating and munching, occasionally glancing the state of my adversary.
Baptiste is also eating with considerable momentum. I guess it’s about the same as mine. If that’s the case, I’ll accelerate some more here!
I eat bread after soaking them down in water. At fisrt, baptiste was surprised by my action, but once he understood its meaning he started eating while copying me . However, I’ve got the start dash.
Establishing a small lead, the meal progresses. Imperceptibly an audience start to gather, our table was surrounded by students.
“The both of them are past the half point, they’ve already consumed 70 percent ! The one currently in the lead is, the boy that’s somehow greedily eating with extremely sleepy eyes, according to the information he’s Eldo-senshu a 1st year student from the department of pilot![TN: it’s a t.i.tle adressed to athletes like san, sama, etc…] Also his opponent baptiste-senshu is desperately eating, but he can’t catch up from the back because they’re eating at the same pace! “
Sleepy is unnecessary. By the way, before I knew it there’s a live reporting… with play-by-play information.
“Here, Eldo-senshu finished eating the vegetables! There’s only meat afterward! However, It seems that Baptiste-senshu just now finished eating meat! This choice how will it affect the outcome, I’m looking forward to it! Oh, in here, the hands of Baptiste-senshu became slow?! However, although Eldo-senshu is biting off the meat he seem to some diffiulty! To guarantee the amount of meat they had no other choice to use hard meat! “
Baptiste is not good with vegetables. That’s why I guessed they would remain until the end. in contrast, I left the meat alone in order to erase the meat’s heaavy taste I was eating vegetables.
Even if these meats are really hard. I didn’t worry about that becasue they’re always cut into dices, but in the case of steak, it’s firmness is simply hard.
My jaw is getting tired. But I can’t lose!
“Oops! Eldo-senshu, cuts the steak into 2 sheets in order to cover the weariness of his jaw! Baptiste-senshu is adding a large amount of dressing. Wouldn’t it make it too spicy?”
Baptiste also came over with a spurt. He intends to erase the bitterness of the vegetables with dressing. But it’s way too late! My strategy has already been completed!
“This is…! Eldo-senshu, by cutting them in two pieces at once, he shorten up the cutting time! after that, he only have to shove it into his stomach! As for Baptiste-senshuu-, it’s green pepper! His fork is stopping on green peppers!”
With this, it’s my win!
Tossing meat into my mouth, I start chewing. I can no longer sense any taste. Just chewing on a hard meat, swallowing them down since they weren’t large they pa.s.s through my throat.
And –
“Finished!”
I put down the fork and the knife with a bang, I lift both arms up while standing up.
“It’s settleeed! The winner is Eldo-senshu! Baptiste-senshu cracked on green pepper!”[TN: Never seen someone crack on vegetables, lol(unless we’re talking about sayans)]
“I wOoOon!”
“Kuso~o~o!”[TN: my version of PG13]
As the winner loudly look up on the heaven, the loser hang his head.
In there, is one of the settlement. I exceeded Baptiste!
“Haah, They’re nothing but fools… I’m going ahead”
Astounded, Layla goes out of the dining room in order to prepare for the after noon cla.s.ses.
How did I do? I was happily sleeping in the insurance room with Baptiste.