Next chapter is decently long(about the same as last/this) so probably tonight/tomorrow morning, chapter after that is average/short so soon after that.
Year 7442, Month 12, Day 28
The practice match between brother and the commander heated up with both sides making intense movements. Wooden sword and wooden sword hit together, we"re evaded, and the two of them yelled words like "Eh!!", "Ya!!", "Tseei!", "Muun!", and "Two!!" as the spirit in their attacks surged, before the simple shield on their left arm can be driven into the opponent they step in and repel that, the one who has it repelled immediately jumps back and puts distance, then another intense exchange of techniques starts again.
The commander is making use of the rubber protectors that you wouldn"t believe it was his first time using them.
Brother showed his last resort the two-consecutive thrust that he almost never shows but after the commander parried it on the first thrust with the wooden sword in his right hand he twisted his face in surprise for just a moment but splendidly brushed off the second thrust with his left hand even though it was his first time seeing it. Even though it took me close to a month to be able to do that while practicing with brother...
Once he holds the wooden sword in both hands you never know which hand he"ll switch it to, the commander was splendidly reacting to brother"s technique of using both hands. So you can raise the skill with swordsmanship this high..I was so fixed on it I even forgot to breath.
However, brother couldn"t win. He held out just like me but in the end the commander forced him into defeat. Not to mention he lost to the same two-consecutive thrust that he uses. There was a small difference in the shoulder when he used it so the commander probably used it as well originally. The speed of the commanders was faster.
After that there was the match between brother and the commander of the third company Viscount Kendus. I"m sure he was tired after the match with the commander but just like he did with the sub-commander he made light of the company commander wearing his splint-mail and when there was an opening he finished it off with his two-consecutive strike winning in no time at all. Amazing~ as expected.
I guess sister is allays having matches against the company commander, it seemed like they both already knew all of each others movements and neither one moved at the start. Eventually, sister got tired of it and tried make use of her speed while the company commander stood his ground firmly as he met with her attacks. Although it seems that the company commander was above in terms of technique but he couldn"t avoid losing to sister in terms of speed so by the time each one of them had landed one hit each 10 minutes had pa.s.sed and it was decided as a draw.
Next up is sister and the commander, is what I was thinking but the commander said we should take a break for a bit. And unexpectedly it seems I"m having a rematch with the company commander before sister and the commanders match. Of course that first time would be invalid. It"s too much to consider that a loss. It"s true we"re about to fight so it was my fault for showing my grat.i.tude.
But, you can"t even call that a practice match. It"s true that I was about to have a match for the purpose of learning things and I knew that there was no need to greet each other during practice matches. However, I thought I shouldn"t be rude to sister"s direct superior and did it without thinking too much, so I had the naive thinking that it would be fine and he would overlook it. I learned that no matter what the occasion during practice matches greetings and grat.i.tude aren"t necessary but that"s it. If it"s something on that level you could just say it. There shouldn"t have been anything the company commander could learn from that.
No matter what, no matter what even if I have to use my last resort I"ll win! Even if they say it"s cowardly I don"t care. Sister said it was {OK}. If I can win against the company commander that tied with sister then..Well something like that doesn"t matter. I just need to think about fighting and winning right now.
Just like I have until now before I entered the training field I crouched down and rubbed dirt on my palms to prevent sliding. And I face off against the company commander who"s on guard with his wooden sword after taking a short break. After all I guess I should take him on with speed. I close the distance all at once and thrust with the wooden sword using my left hand.
The company commander parries my trust with his wooden sword and tries to make use of that moment to cut down but compared to the match with the commander just now I was able to evade it with ease.
Unlike against the commander I had enough composure to use foot techniques. However, after all the company commander is used to practice matches against people using rubber protectors. It seems he"s a bit confused over how to deal with things like foot techniques after being used to the normal swordsmanship of the first knight group but he"s almost completely parried or received my attacks with the wooden sword and even managing to counterattack.
I jumped back a bit and opened up a distance of about 4 m and acted like I was fixing my hold on the sword. The company commander is fixing his stance and lowering his waist as well showing his resolve to receive any attack and counter them. I took up a stance with my left side behind like in knife fighting where my right side is facing him and the wooden sword is held in my left hand while I approach from my left lower back. Since my body twisted to the limit on the left side is in the way the company commander can only see it as if I"m hiding the blade of my sword while building up power from the twisted state of my right shoulder.
My last resort is hanging from my waist on the rubber string attached to the D ring.
I held the handle of my wooden sword along with my last resort and moved my body from the right using my left hip following along that. I held my wooden sword while bending the hinge on the D ring and properly held on to my last resort along with the handle of the sword.
My right hand is reaching it"s limit soon so I stretch it out to my left hip.
I gently put the dirt I still had in my right hand into the compartment of my buckshot slingshot.
After pouring it into the condom-shaped end of the slingshot I grabbed on to it and pulled it back all at once with my left hand. After letting go of the stretched out end of the buckshot slingshot a bit more than a tablespoon or so of dirt, just enough for blinding someone was launched at the company commanders face.
I"m sure the company commander had no idea how to comprehend what happened. The sand which was fired off with quite a bit of force dispersed without missing it"s mark and in instant pa.s.sed through the eye portions in the helmet which are almost like a net, and displayed just the effect I was expecting of it. After I fired the slingshot I simultaneously let go of both my slingshot and my wooden sword and went around the company commander closing the distance on his right side.
He"s swinging the wooden sword around like crazy but as expected something like that won"t hit. I put a kick into the inner part of his right knee and after his posture collapsed I grabbed his right arm in just the right position to do a one arm shoulder throw (there"s no problem with grabbing on to the inner part of the splint-mail where it"s made of leather) while letting out a yell of "Cheeeesst!" as I lifted him on to my shoulder from his right arm as I lowered my waist and rotated him to the left and then while hitting the company commander"s thigh with my a.s.s I threw him over my shoulder. And with the bra.s.s knuckles on my gauntlets I do a thrust at his helmet, and stop short of hitting him.
Just the same as the time when I was against the sub-commander I can hit him in the head with my bra.s.s knuckles as much as I want.
"Greed-kun"s victory!"
After it was declared my victory I immediately took off the company commander"s helmet and used the spell shower to create water and wash away the sand I blinded him with. Since I was so happy I won the fact that I failed at holding the power of it back and a bit of the water entered my gloves is a charm point.
Alright, I was able to win against the company commander that sister couldn"t defeat! I was so happy that I felt like doing a dance but endured it. However, whether it be the company commander or the sub-commander, if I were to take them on with the sword once more I probably wouldn"t be able to win for as long as I just use the sword. Thinking like that and sister is amazing that she managed to get a hit off of him while fighting countless times, or at least I thought that once again, but I"ll never speak of it.
After that, sister and the commander had their match. Unexpectedly the commander lifted the ban on sister"s magic. We moved as far away as we could to observe the practice match. She didn"t go to the point of burying him but she easily concluded things using {Water Bolt Missile} (almost zero attack power). Before the second attack hit the commander was using magic as well to try and desperately intercept it but before he could concentrate and materialize the attack he took a direct hit from sister"s spell and lost. No matter how light the armor is if you lift the ban on sister"s magic it"s impossible.
"Hmm, I thought I could dodge magic with this armor though..but, it"s certainly good armor. It"s light and easy to move. The defense is high for it"s weight as well. I like it."
After hearing what the commander said we were all shocked. If just by becoming light you could dodge guided magic no one would be troubled. There"s several methods to cancel out a missile that"s being guided but they"re all pretty difficult.
1. Escape from the valid range of the user.
2. Faster than the projectile being guided can hit it"s target interrupt the concentration of the user.
3. Block the sight of the user.
4. Erase the projectile before it can arrive at the target while in mid-flight.
5. Swallow the projectile itself in an {Anti-Magic Field} before the projectile hits.
Out of these the first one is almost impossible because of the difference in speed. Unless they"re already at the very edge of the valid range from the start or if they"re at a place about 10 m away and they use a powerful wind magic to send themselves flying out of the guided range then it"s impossible. And it"s not that easy to tell where the opponents valid guidance range starts and ends as well. If you just pour a bit of extra MP into it, it"s not impossible to extend the range a bit as well.
The second one is normally difficult. After the spell has been activated it depends on the distance and the type of spell but it"s extremely difficult to interrupt the users concentration in at greatest a few seconds to less than a second. Unless they"re a considerably skilled sorcerer using another projectile spell that can be used and arrives faster to the user of the spell then it"s impossible. Furthermore after the guiding has completed there"s the final vector with remains so it"s necessary to avoid that. Even when it comes to using a bow or crossbow unless they already have their aim set before-hand because of problems relating to the speed it"s for the most part impossible.
The third is the most realistic. Hiding behind large objects, if you can use magic then making a dirt wall and hiding behind that is fine as well. If they can"t see the target then the user has no choice other than to try and aim using intuition. If the projectile is the exploding type like {Fire Ball} then even if they aim using intuition it"s difficult to avoid damage so it"s not absolute but it"s a valid method. Even if it"s a shield if they use an experience technique depending on the force and type of projectile they might be able to defense against it or avert it. Though that"s considerably difficult.
The fourth one is the next most practical. I said erase it but it would be more correct to say hit the projectile with something else and in essence invalidate it. I"m sure it would be most often to use it with the second method but depending on the type of projectile that comes flying it might not have much meaning. What"s definite is to intercept it with the same type of missile spell but it"s not hard to imagine that it"s difficult.
The last method is generally impossible. About the only one who can do it is me. Among spells {Anti-Magic Field} is a low-level one but it requires all elemental magics and at the very least you need to pour more MP into it than the projectile that comes flying or it"ll pierce through. It"s fine if you only intend to use it once and pour your MP into it to the limit as you setup an {Anti-Magic Field} but as long as it"s unknown how much MP the opponent pours into their attack it"s nothing more than a gamble with bad odds.
In any case us three siblings...or rather, in the case of sister this time..in this case no matter what kind of defense he would have used her attack would have pierced through or just blown away the defense altogether. I"m sure that the commander can use magic decently as well so I would imagine he at least knows this much.
So this is the end of the practice matches. I did two wins and one loss (it seems I was able to get them to overlook the first match against the company commander). Brother did two wins and one loss as well. Sister did two wins one draw. Uo..we won. For my two wins I barely even used the sword so I really have to question them, and I really doubt the same sort of methods would work another time but even if you take me out we still won. Particularly older brother won against the company commander and sub-commander fair and square with just sword techniques.
Huh? But the only one who won against the commander wearing rubber armor was sister who used magic and..The sub-commander and company commander were wearing heavy armor. Even if you say it, it can"t be helped but I guess if we were under the same conditions then I wonder if even brother could have won? I couldn"t even win against them a second time while they"re wearing heavy armor, if they had been using the same rubber armor as I was wouldn"t I have been done in the same way as the commander with no time to use my tricks?
Everyone is offering us words of praise but I guess I was the only one with a discontent expression.
"Greed, you won against the sub-commander and company commanders of the first knight group, though it was a practice match it"s still a victory. It"s fine for you to be more honestly pleased over it."
Yulu said to me.
"That"s right, it"s quite the achievement. As expected of your older brother as well, he"s an excellent knight."
Marin said that as well praising me. However, I..
"Ha..Thank you for the words of praise, I"ve grateful for them. Nevertheless, I was able to win thanks to this light armor and my skill with the sword didn"t work against them at all. I"m sure I wouldn"t be able to win a second time, so in essence it"s a loss."
I said that and drooped my head. And then,
"Well, it"s not something you need to depreciate yourself own. You"re quite strong for your age. Even your skill with the sword isn"t all that far behind. If you were to take the entry exam I"m sure you would pa.s.s. And I think even among our true knights quite a few of them would lose to you. How about coming to our place even starting right now? How about it?"
The sub-commander said that while laughing.
"That"s right, Greed. You, aren"t you misunderstanding something? If you can use the sword at that level at 16 or 17 it"s splendid. Even more so the three you fought against it wouldn"t be overstating it to call them the strongest in our country."
Yulu smiles while saying that.
"Ha, thank you very much. And I"m very pleased over your invitation but I"m an adventurer of Baldukk, and I have my company as well. Also, while I will reach adulthood the month after next but I"m still 14."
I, did my face seem that adult-like? I have the characteristics of an Asian and according to my common sense I thought I would look younger than my age though. Well I"m sure it"s flattery as well. Going off of my expression and the things I say I"m sure it"s difficult to see me as being 14. And other than Molin they haven"t seen my status so it"s not unreasonable they wouldn"t know my exact age, even if they had seen my status I"m sure they wouldn"t bother remembering things like that every time. I don"t remember the Identify details of the commander and other members like their ages either.
"Oh? So that was the case. I thought you were much older based on how you talk. Then you should be even more pleased. The fact that you were invited to the first knight group at 14 is exception. You siblings are excellent."
Yulu said that and praise me, praised us siblings.
"Your highness-es, did you understand what I wanted to say? It"s not an excuse but even if it"s me if I were to fight against Green-kun once more I have no intention of losing. However, this time I lost. There"s no second chances on the battlefield. If this was the battlefield I would have been finished off by Greed-kun. Certainly he had a surprising level of skill but I lost to him even though he"s still 14 years old and hasn"t received formal knight training. That goes the same for Lord Kendus. The only one who won against him this time was the commander wearing the new model of armor. What this means, I"m sure with how wise your highness-es are you already understand but..how about it, weren"t my words this morning completely justifi"Ah, it"s fine already, I already get what you want to say."
Yulu interrupted Sub-Baron Bittwaz"s words saying that.
"That"s right. We"ve confirmed that the armor is effective. It"s not unreasonable that you would compete to be the first to get your hands on it. Commander Logan, in light of raising the war potential of the knight group from here on make the orders fairly."
Marin followed up her words by ordering that of Baron Logan.
"Wa ha..I"ll carve your highness words into my memory."
And the Queens left the training place. After seeing them off the Baron said to older brother.
"Lord Greed, is one more match alright? This time it will be a match on horseback. The weapon will be the sword."
"I understand. Is it fine for me to use my own horse?"
Brother calmly responded.
"Yeah, of course I don"t mind."
It seems that brother and the knight commander will have one more match. A battle on horseback huh?
Brother gets on his war horse and with the wooden sword in his right hand, holding the reins in his left hand, he shows off his gallant mounted appearance while still maintaining an air of refinement. I"ve practiced combat on horseback as well but I can"t do it very well at all. I guess it would be a good idea to take out some time to practice combat on horseback as well. Ah, no I guess I can use magic so even just that is fine?
The commander and brother are separated by about 70-80 m or so. They"ll both face each other and when they both take off at the same time, whenever they get near each other again they"ll cut at each other with the wooden sword. If they fall from the horse then it"s their loss at that point. If they land two solid hits then it"s a loss as well. Come to think of it brother sometimes did it with sister-in-law Shani at Bakuddo.
It seems like it"s about to start. I can tell that the tension is rising.
Both of them kicked off the stomachs of their horses.
The two war horses gradually increased their speed.
Both of them are lifting the sword in their right hand.
When they closed in on each other the speed of the war horses had become quite something.
The two of them swing their swords in collaboration.
It seems that the two wooden swords. .h.i.t each other.
After going to the edge of the training ground they faced each other again.
This time they immediately accelerated with their horses.
Again, they"re striking sword to sword.
Even just watching from the side the tension of the two of them can be felt from here.
I"m not sure if it"s because I"m breaking a sweat or because the water from the shower is still remaining in my glove, it"s an unpleasant sensation but I naturally clenched my fist strongly.
Both of them have a high level of technique, or rather, I can"t see anything more than the two of them swinging their wooden swords at each other with all of their power while making use of the velocity of their war horses.
The third round.
The fourth round.
The fifth round.
It"s not reaching a conclusion.
And the sixth round starts.
The war horses start running, the distance between the two of them gradually narrows.
Older brother came from the left and the commander from the right.
It seems they hit at the same time again.
The seventh round started.
Just the same as until now they"re both accelerating and shortening the distance.
Soon after they started running I heard a groan from the sub-commander.
After looking closely older brother"s left foot wasn"t on his stirrup.
Like that he"ll only able to support his body weight with his right foot.
"Everyone, watch closely!"
The sub-commander roars.
When he crossed over the commander, older brother received the commander"s sword with his own sword and his posture collapsed.
Of all things, just be taking the sword his body bent backwards and just the moment I thought he was on the verge of falling from the horse.
He let go of the reins just like that and supported his back using the horses back.
And after raising his left foot he shortened his body down on top of the horse"s form.
I figured it out here but it seems that he didn"t have his right foot in the stirrup as well.
So he had only been hanging on to the horse with the power of his thighs until now?
And just as I saw the power gather from the muscles in his arms he went into a handstand and jumped into the air twisting his body as he sat right behind the commander.
It was the moment a Black Eagle flew through the sky of Rombertia.
In no time at all the sword was in his left hand and the opened right arm was entangled with the commander"s right arm from behind. On the b.u.t.t of a horse with no saddle, I"m amazed he can keep from falling off the horse by just entangling his right arm with the commander. Everyone was watching with their breath held. Whether that was because of the frightening level of balance he was showing or the instant he showed an abnormal level of acrobatic capability, or from both.
He was able to attack the commander"s left flank as he pleased with the sword in his left hand.
The referee on the other side of the two war horses raised his left hand.
"Lord Greed"s victory!"
...........
"It"s a street performance. That type of thing can only be used under very limited circ.u.mstances."
Older brother said that. It"s the first time sister and I saw something like that. It seems like the people of the knight group were shocked as well and they"re all praising older brother.
It seems that the only one who knew about it was the sub-commander. Supposedly he had only done it once during a battle in the past. Sister-in-law Shani didn"t teach me about it either. It seems that he bribed her into secrecy. The squires of the village were making an uproar. I wanted to join in that as well.
"Listen well, if it"s rubber armor then you can even become able to do something like that."
The commander said something like that but I"m pretty sure only older brother could make such acrobatic movements like that. As proof of that no one is a.s.senting to the commander"s words.
"Farne-san, you"re cool! As expected~"
Ralpha is looking ecstatically at my older brother.
"He"s already married and has kids. Don"t think about anything weird."
"I already know. Something like that. I"m even fine as the second wif"You"re okay with bigamy? Are you really a former high school girl? And sister-in-law is an amazing beauty. I can"t imagine older brother would be interested in someone like you."
"Eh~ but I thought that Farne-san was cool as well. When he jumped between horses like that, that was amazing!"
I won"t deny that, but Bel was in the brother faction as well, I"ll report it to You-chan.
"Master, as expected. Two wins against true knights. And even though you lost once, the opponent was the commander of the knight group, so it"s plenty."
Angela, out of the women the only one who praised me was just you. I bought a good slave.
"Yeah, I was surprised. So there"s methods of fighting like that as well. When training, I"ve never seen you use that sort of fighting method so it was unexpected. I was completely amazed."
Zulu is saying something and it seems he"s praising me as well.
"Al, that was splendid. Even when the opponent was the first knight group you didn"t take a single step back."
Zenom praised me as well.
"Saying something like {Chesto}, I almost broke out into laughter. Isn"t that "Judo"?"
Since everyone was praising me I guess she remembered, Ralpha faced me and said that. The one arm shoulder throw is a judo technique but I also had some barehanded fighting mixed in there as well. In some ways it"s one of the few and valuable techniques you can throw someone without a dogi.
"Well it"s something similar. Since I"ve mostly been against monsters up until now, I"ve never used it though. I was amazed my body moved even though I haven"t properly trained with it in a while. Even I was surprised."
I really was surprised myself. My body moved naturally. However, it seems that movements that are beaten into you when you"re young aren"t so easy to forget. I ended up naturally moving like in the past before I could think about it. Repet.i.tion practice of forms is a frightening thing. Of course, any training that I can do alone I did here and there. However, when it comes to throwing techniques I couldn"t practice them alone. If it"s like this then I might remember the strangle techniques as well. Maybe I"ll take Zulu on with them later sometime.
After leaving the training field it seems that brother and the squires are going to their inn once. Matching with that Zenom and the others are going to their inn as well. My two slaves and I are returning to Baldukk after we dinner. For the time being I go to brother and the other"s inn and pick up the delivery goods, a rubber bag with the emblem of the royal family on it and with it still packaged I put it into my saddle bag, I"ll sight-see around the capital until dinner.
Zulu and Angela said they were going to randomly look around and I want to talk with brother but I still haven"t properly talked with the squires either. Since I talked a lot with brother and sister this morning on the way to Rombertia from Baldukk, that should be fine for today. Either way I"m sure he"ll stop by Baldukk tomorrow morning. Today I"ll lend brother to Ralpha and Bel.
I enjoyed having a conversation with the squires of Bakuddo, Seans, and Dianne for the first time in a while. Sean stayed in Rombertia during sisters exam so he"s the only one among them that has been here before. The inn that he stayed at together with father and the others and the restaurant they all went to eat at when it was decided that sister had pa.s.sed. We also went to an area of small stores where he bought the gifts to bring back to Bakuddo.
Just like when I went to Keel for the first time everyone is restlessly looking around the unusual scenes of the capital like people from the countryside.
"Al-sama, the master mentioned it. Next year or the year after he intends to have one family of rubber artisan"s stay in the capital in order to sell armor and repair products. It seems that he will have the families of the artisans shift places every couple of years. It seems that he wants for you to choose a building that will act as the headquarters of Greed Company."
Sean said that evoking my attention. I heard about that story from brother this morning as well. In other words it seems he"s come up with the idea of a base of operations for repairs of the armor in addition to being a place to sell them directly from. I originally wrote in my letter previously to think about something like that. I left the selection of personnel up to father so I"m sure he"ll send people who are loyal.
"Yeah, I know. I"ll finish negotiations by fall of next year and prepare a place by then. I said it to brother as well but I"ll make sure I"m in a position to give a progress report during the deliveries in spring and summer. I"ll find a good location. Look forward to it."
"Of course, it"s Al-sama after all. I"ll be looking forward to it. However, for this armor to have been that popular with the members of the first knight group..I was extraordinarily surprised."
Sean said that. The squire Jamie also jumped into Sean and my conversation.
"That"s right. I was tremendously happy when I was granted the armor three years ago but for it to have been something that was this popular...Since the members of the first knight group were just quarreling and delighted over being able to purchase it after all. Ah, that"s right, Al-sama, starting next year we"re going to be expanding the work cabin. Now we"ve become able to gather rubber from the 6th field and before summer of next year I"m sure the 7th field will be ready as well."
I see, so it"s already that sort of season?
"I see, that"s great. I think you"ve understood from today but this armor, it"s quite popular right? If we don"t limit it to 10 suits of armor every 3-4 months I doubt we"ll be able to keep it under control."
When I was responding to Jamie, Dianne came to my side and said.
"Hn~ About that but, Al-sama, why don"t we take more orders than that? Right now we can make double that number. Well in that case we"ll have to shift a bit out of other products but I think that it can be done though.."
She said that with some reservations but I faced her, smiled, and opened my mouth.
"Yeah, I"m sure that"s the case. However, in regards to armor, once you"ve bought it unless something out of the ordinary happens you won"t need anymore for a while. That"s why if you sell them all at once you"ll be troubled after that. We also need to think about the amount of armor other than ours that are appearing on the market and sell them a bit at a time.
There"s two reasons. The first is if a lot of armor suddenly appeared on the market, the armor of other places would stop selling. If it comes to that then it can"t be helped so the places who can"t sell their armor will end up having to lower the price. If that ends up repeating then no one will be able to make a profit anymore. If it comes to that then the places that were making armor until now will resent us and in the worst case might even start hara.s.sing us.
One other reason is while preventing the value of armor from collapsing by limiting the number of our armor that are on the market it will become easier for it to be recognized as a high-grade product. In other words, even we sell the same number our profits will increase. After that we can increase them a bit at a time, slowly increasing the quant.i.ty. Simultaneously we"ll also sell a lot of other rubber products than armor. We"re making an image for Bakuddo of rubber products and high-cla.s.s armor."
After saying that far and the other squires came over to our side and were listening as well. I stopped my feet and,
"It"s not something to talk about on the side of the street. Let"s all go for some drinks of bean tea."
said that and headed towards a restaurant nearby.
After that I talked about my ideas from the letter I wrote to father and brother for about an hour and the things that I predict will happen from now on and we enjoyed sightseeing around the capital again.
Evening, after arriving at the gathering place we had all discussed before-hand and everyone was already there so we went for dinner just like that. After Zulu, Angela, and I said our farewells we split up from everyone and returned to Baldukk on the night road. Since I"m sure there"s no monsters wandering around here either way I played around by using the spell {Light} near the end of my bayonet, and Angela and Zulu"s head and tails as we returned.