CH 60

I don’t understand it at all. My mother, a warrior whose power surpasses my demonic father? That warm-hearted mother of mine? My mother with the big boobs? I can’t tell you her exact age, but I’m 13 and my oldest brother is nearly 20, so my mother, who should be at least nearly 40?

Ah… I was staring at her just now… her age seems to be taboo.

But I don’t think it’s a lie. She was swinging a spear like a gigantic halberd while letting out terrifying rushes of wind in her wake. The tip is like a regular spear-point, and there are blades on both sides of it. If that’s all there is to it, it’s just a sword catcher, but there’s even something like a claw to hook an opponent toward you. It’s closer to a halberd. But it’s significantly different from a halberd.

Even though it should be of a considerable weight that you can tell just from its appearance, the handle is even longer. Even though the tip looks so heavy, the handle is so long that it takes a lot of strength just to hold it in front of you. Even so, Mother swings it around with one hand so lightly that it doesn’t feel like it’s heavy at all.

“Come on, Flora dear, let’s play!”

With a tight jerk, the tip of the weapon is pointed at me and stopped. The fact that she was swinging around at such high speed and still being able to hold it perfectly meant that her physical strength was unbelievably strong. To begin with, it might be difficult for me to hold that heavy-looking spear being pointed right at me.

“Uuh…” I whimpered.

No, don’t get overwhelmed. If you are swallowed up by fear, you will lose before you even fight. It’s the name as usual. Rather, today, the usual members under Father are watching from a distance. Does that mean that Mother alone is more dangerous than the usual four…? But I’ve spent years training day in and day out. Yesterday I was able to get in a single blow, even though I only grazed Father.

…… By the way, why does my father have a huge sword that is as tall as his body, unlike his usual sword? Even though he’s not facing me and just standing far away, he’s already drawn his blade and is ready to swing at any moment.

Then that means, my mother’s spear… the edges aren’t blunted, are they? It’s a sharp edge, right? The claws are also sharp.

“Flora dear…if you don’t get serious, you’ll get seriously injured you know?” Mother said.

“Uuu… I’m sorry,” I said.

I got scolded……. it was the first time in my life that Mother scolded me. Let’s get serious with her, not playful. If I’m not serious, I’ll get seriously injured in an instant.

“You’re alright. Now, come on,” Mother said.

“…”

It seems that she’ll give the first move to me. The moment I set off is the signal to start. I’ll carefully close the gap. I’m smaller so my reach is shorter. Moreover, I am a sword user and my opponent is a spear user. The opponent has the reach advantage, and for me to compete, I have no choice but to enter her pocket.

“-!”

Dahn…! I stepped in and closed the gap at once. I naively rush in from the front without any leeway.

“Fuhn… be careful not to get hurt, Flora dear,” Mother said.

“-!”

A thrust. A divinely fast thrust comes at me. It’s a spear, so it’ll come straight for me. But a thrust is a linear movement. If you dodge this and close the gap faster than the opponent’s pulling it back, you can use the spear’s…

“…… Huh?”

I should have dodged the spear to the left, but it goes cleaving down. They were right… it’s completely different from Dominique’s normal regular spearhead. It doesn’t just thrust. The strength of this kind of weapon is that you can thrust, cut, and hook your opponent, just like this.

“Kuu!” I squealed.

I bend my posture forward even more and pass underneath the spear as it is swung at me. When I feel the displaced air and terrifying whoosh of it passing over my head, I feel horrified. If it hits me even a little, I’ll be blown away like a ragdoll. No, if the blade part hits it, I’ll be sliced in half.

But I dodged it. And closed the gap. With this…….

“Too confident, you know,” Mother said. “You still have a long way to go, Flora dear.”

“Wha, huh… how…?”

I should have closed the gap. I dodged the spear strike… but Mother is so far away. This distance is bad!

“I’ll press you one more time,” Mother said.

“Hiuuh?!” I screamed.

I can’t breathe. Perhaps Mother stepped back. That’s all there was to it. A normal reaction. But she moves too fast. With such a heavy spear, even though I changed it from the middle of her thrust to the strike in the first place, she back steps faster than me despite the forward momentum of the spear. Impossible. What kind of movement is this…?

And then the deadly thrust comes again. A one-hit deadly thrust that has enough power to make me confident that if it hits me, it will go straight through me.

I was able to avoid it the first time. But next time Mother moves, she’ll assume I’ll dodge. In the first place, I’m afraid of her thrusting again, since that thrust will surely kill me if it hits. I completely forgot that a real life-threatening attack could be so terrifying. After all, consideration is given to preventing lethalities during training. Compared to that, my mother’s blows are all killing blows.

But it’s too dangerous to run. Yes, I have no chance of winning if I’m within range of the spear. So I have no choice but to come forward.

“Fuh…!”

I dive into the deadly thrust and approach again. I dodged to the left once more. My mother switches to swinging, as before. Instead of dodging this time, I take this swing with my sword.

“There…!”

When my mother’s spear entered the range of the sword, I blocked the blade with my sword… I blocked it…

“-!”

The moment the sword touched it, I couldn’t parry it or slide the spear away, and my sword was broken in a split second. How much power is put into this swing? It’s hard to believe that my sword shattered in no time at the moment of contact.

The sword is broken, and this time, Mother is aiming at a lower position than before so I can’t avoid it by bending over. If I dodge by flying back, there is no way to avoid the next attack before I land. But I have to fly. There is no other place to dodge.

“Oh my, my, you flew away, Flora dear,” Mother said.

“In-In-Incoming…!” someone yelled.

“Huh?” I asked.

My mother draws her spear to pursue me after I flew away to dodge the swing. At that moment, I cast buff magic and hooked the broken sword guard into the spear, and pulled it toward Mother. I threw away my sword and pounced on Mother.

“Hmm,” Mother hummed. “That’s a good reaction. But, it’s still over.”

“…… Huh?”

This time it was my turn to let out a surprised voice. I should have used buff magic with all my strength and slipped into Mother’s bosom… but in an instant, Mother evaded me again and was at her spear’s ideal distance. How?

“Just now… was that buff magic?” I asked.

At this moment, Mother was definitely using buff magic. I can’t see the technique because it’s too short a moment. And the effect is more dramatic than mine. Mother lifted her spear up at me at a speed that was almost unthinkable for a human… and she swung it down on me. At that moment, Mother shone again. It’s buff magic. Our techniques may be different, but they are definitely the same result. I can see the blade of the spear coming down on me.

Strength……! Quickly… avoid it… it’s impossible!!

Certain death is coming down on me. Even though it was moving at a tremendous speed, I could see its trajectory strangely clearly.

(I’m dead……)

All I can do is think that. However…….

Gagin…!

I heard a terrible metallic sound, and the blow that was supposed to kill me stopped halfway.

“It’s over.”

“Fa-Father…” I said.

When I fell to the ground with a thud, I looked up and saw my father holding my mother’s spear back with a huge sword. Apparently, Father intervened and stopped her. If he hadn’t, I’d be pieces of flesh scattered here and there.

Just thinking about it makes me shudder. I have definitely experienced near-death. By this time, cold sweat was pouring out of me and my heart was beating loudly.

“Ohh, you’re so wonderful, Papa~!” Mother said. “Thank you for stopping me~! I almost hurt Flora dear.”

No, no! This wouldn’t be serious injuries! I would have been certainly dead! If I got hit, I’d die! That was a killing blow!

“You’re not good at holding back, Maria…” Father said.

Is that the level of lack of restraint you were talking about? Don’t you think it’s a more fundamental problem than that?

Apparently, my mother was a battle maniac… she’s so young and beautiful…

“It was a good experience, wasn’t it? Let’s start training,” Father said.

Huh…?! Are we going to do the usual thing again from now on? Seriously…. in the end, after this, I was boxed by the usual four people.

Since my mother is still here today, I decided to talk with her after the morning training. Come to think of it, I know nothing about my mother.

“So you see, Mother didn’t have the status to marry Papa, to begin with,” Mother said.

“Huh?” I asked.

This mother of mine? She’s so graceful, I wonder how she was a nobleman of low status? Well, the sight of her wielding a spear this morning was certainly shocking…

“Even so, Papa still insisted on marrying Mother no matter what. At first, we were refused, but in the end, they were overwhelmed by our passion, you know? We worked hard, so hard to overcome the opposition from those around us, and through good luck, good, luck, and more good luck, our engagement was accepted and we were married.”

“Oh, is that so…?” I said.

Good luck, she says, but the things she said are terrifying. It seems that the two of them singlemindedly went out to the battlefield and achieved various forms of military recognition. It seems that they were allowed to marry because of that achievement, but they also came with the infamous titles of the Hero of the Border, Margrave Albert the God of War, and The Blood Virgin Maria.

“Then why do you sometimes leave so suddenly, Mother?” I asked.

“Ah, about that,” Mother said. “Occasionally, I go out to subjugate powerful monsters~. Mother is still active, you should know.”

No, I do know already. I tasted it myself. I’ve gotten a little stronger, haven’t I? I was thinking that. Now, no longer. My father wasn’t being serious either. I know he stopped Mother’s blow today. He wasn’t serious about training with me at all. Even then, Father took it easy on me.

I was completely blindsided. I thought I would be reasonably strong with buff magic. Not at all. My buff magic is child’s play.

I could only see it for a moment, but my mother certainly used something like buff magic. I could see the brilliance of her magic. That’s not a mistake.

Then, after another round of Mother and Father’s nonsense, I headed to Manor Caan.

It’s getting late today, so I wonder if Mikoto is there. I think so, but I came to the usual place just to confirm.

“What!?!” Mikoto yelled. “You’ve come here just now!? How long do you think I’ve been kept waiting for you?!”

“Sorry,” I said.

I was late because I was talking to Mother today. But that has nothing to do with Mikoto, and it’s entirely my fault… huh? I wonder if that’s true? It’s not like planned to meet at a specific time, is it?

Well, fine. Saying things like “I didn’t plan to meet up with you.” or “We didn’t set a time, right?” will only make Mikoto angry. I would like to express my sincere apologies here.

“How can I possibly earn your forgiveness?” I asked.

So let’s ask the other person for their forgiveness first. Apologize and ask for forgiveness. That’s the best.

“Uuu… Don’t look at me like that! You’re making it look like I’m the one at fault!” Mikoto whined.

I don’t see it with that kind of intention. Well, if Mikoto thinks so, then so be it.

“What should I do?” I said.

“Uh, that’s right… ah!” Mikoto said. “Tomorrow! Come here before noon tomorrow! And we’ll exchange lunches with each other. What do you think?”

“So the two of us are going to eat here?” I asked.

“Yes! Let’s do it!” Mikoto said.

Before I knew it, the two of us decided to exchange lunch boxes and have lunch together tomorrow. I don’t think it’s compensation, but… I can understand if she eats the bento I made, but if it’s an exchange, Mikoto will have to make a bento, too…

Well, alright. Isn’t it rather a reward to be able to eat a cute girl’s handmade bento? For me, it’s nothing but merit, and if Mikoto will forgive me, I won’t deny her.

“Ah! Let me tell you, it’s useless if you ask a maid or a chef to help you!” Mikoto said.

“I don’t mind, but you’ll do the same, right, Mikoto?” I said.

I can make at least simple dishes. Putting aside whether it’s delicious or not, I can make simple Japanese dishes, and since I’ve made the ingredients, the number of things that I can reproduce is increasing.

“E-Even I can cook!” Mikoto snapped. “I’ll surprise you tomorrow!”

“Fufu, I’ll look forward to it,” I said.

After having a pleasant chat with Mikoto and making an appointment for tomorrow, I went home in a good mood.