Chapter 114

Chapter 114: Become stronger, please! part

The astonished look of Lorenzo was only second to that of his pupils.

“Are you sure?”

“Ahhh! I don’t know!” She ruffled her hair in annoyance “I mean, I’m not sure, it was you who asked me and now you want me to beg? if you’re having second thoughts we can just leave things the way they are”

“Eh, no, that’s not it. I mean, you got those guys and...”

He managed to stutter and took a quick glance at Shortie and Kinta who were right beside him.

“Oh, arent they cute little snacks?”

She licked her lips seductively.

.....

“Fine, let’s trade”

They went to the counter and asked Ebi to change their teams. After signing the papers Lorenzo became Bob’s and Luke’s instructor and Risa took Ryu, Thea, Kinta, Shortie, and the other rookies under her care.

To make things fair on instructors the guild would always assign the higher rank rookies to the highest rank instructor and the weaker rookies would be assigned in numbers to the other instructor, thus, giving the chance to earn the same amount of money to both instructors. In normal circumstances the stronger rookies would be assigned to Lorenzo, but since he was demoted he was the same rank as Risa. This meant the fact that Bob and Luke were assigned to her was nothing short of a miracle that occurred thanks to many coincidences alligning to make it happen, yet she gave up her right on her own volition.

Ebi, who understood this completely, couldn’t think of the reason she had behind her desicion. While technically both instructors would end up earning the same money in the long run, there was always the chance that rookies would die young. Nevertheless, it wasn’t her place to question instructor’s choices and after knowing them both for so long she knew there must be a reason behind this unusual exchange.

When Ryu showed up to the guild next morning he headed towards Lorenzo who was having his breakfast on the guild’s hall but Risa put her arm around his neck and dragged him.

“Where are you going? you’re all mine now”

“Uh? I’m sorry miss Risa, but Lorenzo is...”

“shush! We traded, now you belong to me”

She said placing a finger on Ryu’s lips making him blush heavily.

“I’m glad you’re the first one to arrive. I heard about your curse and I’m willing to help you”

Those words brought a wide smile on his face, he had been cracking his head trying to think on ways to bribe Risa into helping him. The best he idea he had so far was to give her a weapon, but her sword looked really expensive and he didn’t know if he could afford a better one.

“Wow, thanks, I don’t know what to say...”

“Then don’t say anything, just hear me out. I’ll help you to my best effort, but I don’t know If we’ll succeed. You’re going to follow my instructions and put your life on the line, If I see a half assed attitude I’ll simply let you be. If you get rid of the curse, no matter if it was thanks to me or to some miracle, you’ll still need to pay the price AND you’ll owe me a no question asked. Is that clear?”

Ryu, completely overwhelmed by her dominant attitude, simply nodded in silence.

“Fine, then starting tomorrow you won’t be using any more holy water. It’s expensive, hard to come by and we’ll leave it for emergencies only”

When Risa’s group gathered Ryu felt a little awkward around them, and not just because they’ve been bonding all this time and seemed to get along, they were glaring at him with murderous eyes. They didn’t know the details, but they all knew it was because of Ryu that they shifted instructors.

Every single one of them felt they lost a huge opportunity, even Shortie who was the closest to Ryu among them and even owed him his passing grade, because Lorenzo was well known in Celarent as one of the strongest, if not the strongest, adventurer. The chance to train under his care was a once in a lifetime experience, and they just missed it because of a gawky guy with a fancy sword.

“Since you’ve all been accepted into the guild you don’t have anything to prove, or so you think. Lorenzo gave me your guild’s profiles and I really hope you didn’t show everything to Ebi when you signed in at the counter, because if that’s the case I’ll be really disappointed”

Risa’s harsh words made more than one lower their heads in shame. They knew that keeping some skills hidden was a good idea, but they were too ashamed to show how weak they were so they showed their complete information in the soulbound card. But that was far from Thea, Sera and Ryu’s case because. While Sera and Ryu kept some skills to themselves, such as the magic related ones, Thea was already an E rank adventurer in her hometown and was impersonating a rookie to spy on Ryu following her cousin’s comand.

Just a couple laps around the courtyard wasn’t enough to get them tired, but what followed disheartened them deeply. The spar wasn’t against each other as they inicially thought, instead, they had to face Risa.

“Now boy, I want everyone to come at me with all you got at the same time! Use everything, I won’t get mad even if you grab my ass by mistake!”

She was so excited she could barely hide her emotion.

“Yes ma’am!”

Ryu shouted and jumped forward with his blade over his head ready to strike, but suddenly he saw instructor Risa spinning around not knowing what just happened. Only when his back hit the floor did he realize Risa struck him with a wooden sword, making him fly in the air.

From his position he saw that beside him, only Sera had moved to face Risa while the others just watched.

Shortie was hesitating, he too was mad at Ryu for being the cause of the exchange, but he was also excited to be up close with Risa. While Lorenzo was well known as a strong adventurer, Risa was better known for her flirty demeanor and good looks.

“Come on, show me you got your balls well placed. Oh! I almost forgot there are ladies in here, sorry” She said apologetically, Thea and the other girl in the group besides Sera thought she was apologizing for being rude, but Risa’s next words proved them wrong. “You two! show me you got your tits well placed too!”

After that, everyone stood forward and faced Risa, surrounding her in a team effort. She dodged their attacks effortlessly and hit them back softly only to correct their posture. She laughed in between strikes moving at what seemed to be normal speed, but she was completely beyond reach.

Ryu lied on his back for a few seconds looking at the sparring practice trying to grasp the situation. As long as he remained there, the instructor would not attack him anymore and he took advantage of that.

Risa kept spinning and twisting, contorting her body so gracefully that Ryu was even able to see her muscles in action. He lost himself in the charm of a perfect combat able body before reacting and going back to think on a strategy to beat her, and then it hit him.

‘Even working together, we have no chance of beating her directly, but she’s been cautious not to clash her weapon against her opponents. Everyone is using wooden swords made for practice, they are sturdy, but still made out of wood’

“Everyone! stop aiming at her body and aim at her sword!”

The first to follow his instructions was Sera, she didn’t even question the reason behind it. Thea stood up a couple seconds pondering the idea, while Shortie ran towards Ryu to help him stand up. Without time to speak, Ryu simply walked back into the fight.

Soon, the clanking sound of wood against wood was heard and Risa’s smile grew wider when her sword cracked. Without a weapon to defend herself she simply lifted her arms in surrender.

“It seems someone got it. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, if you’re facing a beast and don’t have a weapon you’re dead, that’s why tomorrow we’re going to do some shopping. I’ll lend some money to those who don’t have enough and you should be able to pay after a week or so, bring as much as you can, rob your grandma, sell your bodies, I don’t care. Because your life is at stake”