Chapter 485

The Black Demon King 485

Swordsmanship Training?

“Hey! Heey! Heey!!”

“Wow, huh?”

I returned to the church from the tavern in about 30 seconds and at that moment I heard a strange shout from behind.

It was easy to notice these were Reki and Ursula’s voices. Are they still playing outside? It’s already late and pitch black.

Reki and Ursula went out to help the villagers with their work in the afternoon after their morning classes were over. Unlike in the city, the children in rural areas are good at manual labor. Even the apprentice Sister won’t just stay in the church all the time.

That’s why they can only play at this hour, now that they finished helping and returned, but I should return to the church already.

Therefore, I appeared from their backs and spoke out.

“Hey, Reki, Ursula… what are you doing?”

I was asking a different question from the one I had planned to ask.

Oh, Kuroe, welcome back! Can’t you tell by looking?

Reki was holding a branch in her hand that couldn’t even be called a stick from a tree near them. Ursula was holding another even smaller branch with his hand as if it was a wand.

“Are you doing pretend play?”

“Exactly!”

That’s right, she meant.

Reiki swung the branch with a smiling face and said “Hey!”. So it was a baseball practice and not swordsmanship training?

“Perhaps, do you mean you also want to stop us from training with our swords?”

I wonder if I looked at them with fishy eyes, Reki looked at me with dubious eyes.

“I can stop.”

“No! You must protect yourself! Self-defense!”

It seems Reki wants to practice swordsmanship seriously. Ursula doesn’t seem to feel like it at all, as she had already thrown the branch from her hand.

“Do you want to become stronger, Reki?”

“Yes, I want to become stronger and certainly protect Ursu next time!”

She already looked strong enough as she said that with her red eyes shining.

Even though they were attacked just two days ago, she is trying to overcome it instead of leaving it as a terrifying memory, she looks powerful and refreshing.

“Is it a bad idea? Nikolai was angry because training with swords is not something that Sisters do!”

“That’s why I am doing it.”

“This time, I will train seriously and power up! Please, Kuroe, don’t stop Reki’s training! Non-stop!!”

I see, Reki has had this aspiration to become stronger since a long time ago. And the day before yesterday, it grew even stronger.

It’s no wonder Nikolai, being a legitimate priest, stopped such a little girl from trying to become a swordfighter. He probably wanted them to become good Sisters.

However, being a berserker as my main job, I don’t see why I would stop them from wielding a sword and wanting to become stronger. No, I would actually suggest they do so.

“Reki, if you want to become strong, you should do it. You can devote yourself to your training as much as you want.”

“Really?! Is that true? C-can I do it?!”

“Yes, it’s a good idea. Why don’t we give it a try now?

Reki couldn’t help but jump from excitement and said “Please, I’m counting on you!” and bowed her head. I’d say she’s honest and cute, but she looks rather dazzling.

“Ursula, well, if you don’t want to do this, you can just come and watch us.”

In contrast to the enthusiastic Reki, Ursula nodded with a delicate expression and moved next to the wall.

“Then, wield it.”

On the opposite side of this, there is a fairly empty space, with only a house built a dozen of meters from here. Perhaps if there weren’t this much snow, it could be the church’s backyard or a vegetable garden, but now it’s just a vacant lot. We can practice with swords as much as we want here.

Reki started swinging triumphantly with branches in both hands.

“Hey-y!”

“Wait a minute.”

I took a glance at her first swing and stopped her.

I see, now I get it. The first strange voice I heard was her swinging shout.

“Isn’t that shout a little weird?”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… Then, what should I say?”

And I had a hard time answering.

By the way, what did I use to say when I swung my sword?

No, the problem is that I haven’t studied swordsmanship at all, to begin with. There seems to be some kind of logic for the voice you use when you practice it, but I don’t have such a thing.

I can’t teach that to others. At this point, the fatal flaws in having learned by myself are becoming apparent.

“Eh! Or, hey!” Is normal, but … it’s a good idea to think carefully about what kind of voice you can easily make and use. ”

“ ”Eh!” or “Hey!” are the most common ones, but it’s a good idea to think carefully about what kind of voice you can use comfortably.”

“Hmm, okay!”

Reki said, and I think it’s a fairly appropriate answer. I feel like I’m just telling lies lately.

“Eh, eh! Hey!”

For the time being, Reki is using “Hey!” and her shout improved. She started swinging again.

After seeing it several times, I noticed something.

That it was a terrible practice.

“Reki, have you ever been trained in swordsmanship before?”

“No, there’s no way that could have happened!”

“The only children who can be trained with swords are aristocrats or at knights’ houses.”

I see, it makes sense. Swordsmanship is less useful in everyday life than literacy or math. It seems logical that there is no place to practice it.

Then it’s only natural that Reki who hasn’t received any kind of instruction is just swinging the sword like any other child.

However, once again my style of swordsmanship doesn’t let me give accurate advice. I think I’ve been wielding my weapon just by maneuver experimenting. I’ve experimented with light golems and other humanoid monsters, with weapons such as knives, swords, spears, axes, and hammers I stole from them.

I have never known the correct way to swing a sword. And that doesn’t change even after having escaped becoming free.

Perhaps my sword skills were naturally refined by the will of the curse as I kept using the Cursed Broadsword Tsugijiri. If you pay attention, you can use almost any weapon in its own way.

That’s why I can’t teach her the proper way to use a weapon.

“… Correct your posture and don’t open your armpits too much. Look straight so that your body doesn’t shake… After that, don’t swing vaguely, first think about how you are going to do it and then swing quickly.”

“Yes!”

I am disappointed this is the only proper advice I can give. I was never conscious of what I just said.

In the end, Reki’s skills did not improve much.

Well, swordsmanship isn’t that easy that it can be improved just immediately after hearing one piece of advice.

Or if Reki has a natural talent,  it’s okay to keep swinging and master “Slash”. I heard at the seminary that there are rare geniuses who can learn martial arts just by looking at them once.

“Okay, it’s alright.”

“Hey! Oh, hey”

Reki, who had finished swinging about 100 times, had a fresh face with no sweat.

“Kuroe, what’s wrong?!”

Great, you have talent! I honestly said so to Reki, who looked up at me as if she was expecting me to say something like that. I noticed certain discomfort while looking at her swinging.

“Reki, isn’t that branch light?”

“… Huh? The branch is light?”

I borrowed the branch Reki was holding to see it myself.

When I was about to swing it, I realized I was still carrying Sariel.

“Yuri, I’m going to leave you here a little.”

“Yes.”

The ground is bad because of the snow, but I got Sariel off my back. I couldn’t just throw her down, so I sat her down next to Ursula who was observing the flowers on the wall.

Well, this branch is the problem.

“Hmm…”

One light swing.

You can see that its weight and flexibility are not unusual for a branch of a tree.

Conversely, it is not particularly lightweight. I’ve used several wooden swords at seminaries, and it seems that it’s about the same weight in comparison. In other words, it can be said that it is a reasonable weight for a stick to practice with.

And its weight shouldn’t be something that just a very little girl can easily swing.

“Can you swing it even if it’s heavier?”

“Yess! Because Reki is powerful, I can even hold bigger water buckets than Uru does!”

Apparently, she is the strongest among girls of the same age.

Even so, I felt that the lightness she showed was more than just powerful for a child.

I’d like her to try swinging it with a real longsword, but suddenly I feel that seriousness was dangerous… Oh, well, an ax or a pickaxe would be good.

“Wait a minute.”

Immediately after entering from the back door of the church, there is a warehouse. Of course, it is also a small place, but there are scoops and other things all around the place. Most of the farmers’ essentials are also available here.

I immediately found the tool I was looking for. I picked up an ax and returned quickly

“Try swinging this one.”

“Huh, can I?”

Her reaction is probably because Nikolay said it was dangerous for children and asked her to never touch these tools. It is a correct judgment for a guardian. I can see that the previous priest was a person of character.

“Handle it with care, If it’s too heavy, don’t try to force it.”

“It’s alright! I’m good with this much, right?”

She easily carried the ax on her shoulder to show me that she was not just pretending to be strong.

“Okay, then try to swing it. Avoid cutting your legs out of momentum, be careful.”

“Yes!”

And so, Reki swang up the ax.

Yeah, now at this point I see that she does it in the same way. After all, that branch was too light for Reki.

“Hey!!”

That swing was quite powerful.

Without being swayed by the weight of the ax, Reki stopped the blade just before reaching the ground.

“Great power, Reki”

As expected, I can only think that it exceeds the strength of a child.

“Well, is that so? Ehehe.”

Reki is a little embarrassed and looks so cute, but I was just wondering how strong she was.

As expected, she doesn’t have the superpower of Erio but she’s been blessed with physical strength to be proud of. If that’s the case, then Reki has the talent to become stronger as a swordfighter or warrior.

“This requires a physical endurance test before swinging.”

When the sun went down and the village was surrounded by the dark night, Reki’s physical endurance test was over.

I tested her running power, jumping power, throwing power, muscle endurance and everything I could here.

First of all, I measured her running power by making her run 50 meters on the main street, which passes in front of the church and is the easiest to run in this village. Of course, there is no stopwatch, so I measured the time with my body clock. But there is not much measurement error.

The next one was her jumping power. This one consisted of long jumps and vertical jumps.

Her throwing power could be measured by excavating one of the rocks around this area from under the snow.

A minor problem was the pull-ups to measure muscle endurance. There isn’t a conventional horizontal bar. I had no choice but to ask Reki to hang inside the church, at a beam that was just right to grab.

Yet, as a result of her hard work, Reki demonstrated her terrifying ability with her pull-ups.

“Reki seems to be very powerful after all.”

The number of repetitions Reki could do was unmeasurable. I stopped counting on the way. I did so because I realized I could just keep counting forever.

It may be because she is lightweight but this is ridiculous. Incidentally, I can keep doing pull-ups endlessly until I get tired of it. If you measure my resistance with the number of times, you would need a unit of weight in the hundred of kilograms.

Leaving aside my specs, I noticed again that Reki has high physical endurance overall. When she runs, she is fast, if she jumps, she has good jumping power. The more she throws a stone, the farther it will fly. It is amazing for a child, but she is still in the human category.

Still, Reki’s stamina found when she did the pull-ups is amazing. Because she can keep swinging the ax at the same power and speed all the time, which means she can withstand long battles.

Regarding this, not even the adults out there would win.

“Uh, but I’m a little tired.”

Reki lay down on the snowy field despite the cold, and she exhaled a cute white breath. We were behind the church again.

“I’m glad, Reki. If you have this much power, you’re definitely going to become stronger.”

“Really, is that true? You don’t need to flatter me!”

“If you have any doubts, try competing with other kids with what you just did. Reki will certainly win.”

On the contrary, if children with such abilities had been all over the place, Spada would have lost already.

While I was immersed in my slightly cold thoughts, Reki was slackening with a joyful face. How should I put it? She is pure, like a Lily.

“Well, then teach me martial arts, Kuroe!”

“Huh?”

I’m having trouble answering her questions again, my self-taught Chrono. Crap, I don’t have anything that I can teach properly. I am very proud of my combat abilities, but as a master, I am totally incompetent.

Teaching martial arts is impossible no matter how much I might try.

Oh, damn it. If this is the case, just because I used  “Kuronagi”, I could have taken Mr. Oak’s martial art classes until the end, even if I regret it, it’s too late now.

Either way, I have to tell Reki that there’s little I can teach her, anyway, that would come out soon.

If I’m going to tell her, then now it’s my best chance.

“I’m sorry Reki, actually I…I learned it by myself so I don’t have any skill I can teach to others.”

“Huh, huh?! Even when you’re so strong, Kuroe? You defeated that bad soldier by yourself!”

“Yes, that’s right. But the techniques I use are a bit special, and I have no idea what another person other than me should do to use it.”

“Oh… I  see…”

Her expression changed completely, and she seemed as if she was about to cry, I almost cried too.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet your expectations. The only thing I can do is a simulated battle.”

“So you’re going to have a simulated battle with me?!”

“Well, you can do as much as you want as if you were fighting a real one. Of course, you can even go easy on me too.”

“I want to try it! Reki wants to give it a try! Let’s do it!”

She really got into it. Perhaps Reki is completely bored of this practice where she just swings. Well, it’s not fun, it’s such a repetitive practice. Even more so, it’s hard to convince yourself that it’s helping in some way.

In that respect, a simulated battle where you can actually face the opponent would be more interesting, because there are movements and changes.

“It’s already dark today, so what about tomorrow?”

“Just a little! Dinner is not ready yet so it’s alright!”

Ursula and Sariel went back to the church first because I was interested in testing Reki’s abilities. I felt sorry for Ursula, but she had supper prepared by herself.

“It’s so dark, will you be able to see anything?”

“Reki, can you see even when it’s dark?”

It’s amazing how good she is even at night. Reki has excellent specs. I think she’s actually a werewolf, that’s what I think when I see her dog-eared hairstyle.

“Okay, then just a little.”

“Yes!”

Reki and I faced each other in a corner where a small lamp dimly illuminated the back corner.

The first branch I could get was the one that Reki used before. Its length was a little shorter than a normal longsword. Good enough to use for this practice.

On the opposite side, Reki has an ax that I got out of the warehouse. As it’s not me who is wielding that dangerous weapon, I wrapped a cloth around the blade considering a minimum of safety for the time being, as there is nothing else we can use.

“Bring it on.”

“I’m going! Fire!!”

It was a fake battle that started like that. But of course, Reki is powerful but doesn’t use any technique. It feels like I’m playing a sword fight with my own kid and so I’m treating it with moderation.

I evaded the swing of the ax, which would hurt if it hit, and occasionally parried her fiercely swung attacks with my branch, and when I saw a particularly weak point exposed, I gently hit Reki’s body with the branch.

“Dinner is ready.”

Shortly after, Ursula came to call us.

“Just a little more! A little more!!”

“Let’s leave it here for today. We can try it again tomorrow.”

“Hmmm, well I guess we can do it next time!”

Reki seems to be completely absorbed in this simulated combat, and she seems to have had a lot of fun.

Well, it’s good that kids move and play with all their might. I’m not sure if this really is effective as practice, but… if she’s so happy, I don’t think it’s a bad idea.

For the time being, let’s find out if there is a wooden sword tomorrow.