CH 101

We were sitting there across from each other as a silence flowed between us. Looking at her carefully like this, I realized once again that she was a really beautiful person. Her hair was dark and tinged with blue, and she had large eyes. Her nose was placed moderately and her mouth was small. Even though she was a Knight, her pretty face had no scars, and if she wasn’t wearing armor, I would never have thought that she was a Knight of the Royal Order. Although her face was unblemished, she had visible scars on her hands and arms. The palms of her hands were rugged and didn’t match the rest of her appearance, hinting that she had been wielding a sword for many years. Just by these characteristics, it was clear that she was a knight.

“…It’s embarrassing if you keep staring at me like that. If you’re still suspicious of me, I’m telling you, I’m really a Captain of the Knights of the Royal Order, you know? I can bring you to the barracks if you think that I forged those identification papers.” (Kirty)

“No, I’m not suspecting you so don’t worry about that. I recognize the emblem of the Knights of the Royal Order on your armor, so I believe you. I just… wasn’t sure where to start with my questions.” (Lewin)

Now then, where should I start?

It would be strange to suddenly ask her to instruct me in the sword with this flow. First, I should probably ask her why she was watching me.

“Do you mind if I hear the reason why you were watching me?” (Lewin)

When I said that, Kirty, who had a cool expression, suddenly flushed red. Sure enough, she was embarrassed to talk about this.

“……Is it not okay to, as a Captain of the Knights of the Royal Order?” (Kirty)

“…I suppose. I’ve known for quite a while that you’ve been watching me, so I’d be happy if you could tell me the reason why.” (Lewin)

When I brought her to my room, she was acting all dignified and knightly, but now she was looking down at the floor as she squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.

Hey, you’re making me feel like I’m doing something bad here… Is there a reason she’s so embarrassed to talk about this?

“……….Was…watching…..sword….” (Kirty)

“…Eh? I didn’t quite catch that.” (Lewin)

“I said, I was watching your swordsmanship… Lately, you’ve been swinging that wooden sword in front of the inn, haven’t you?” (Kirty)

Watching my swordsmanship…? But what for? I had absolutely no idea what her reasons were.

“When you say you were watching my swordsmanship, does that mean you were watching my morning training?” (Lewin)

“Yeah, that’s right.” (Kirty)

“…May I ask why?” (Lewin)

“No reason in particular. As I was jogging, it just happened to catch my eye, that’s all.” (Kirty)

‘No reason in particular’, and yet you were staring at me so intently, huh?

I was wondering if the position of Captain in the Knights was one that was supposed to have a lot of free time, but I decided to go with a more sophisticated question. I felt like I’d glimpsed the right path to this conversation, somewhat.

If she was watching my swordsmanship, that meant that she was at least slightly interested in my sword technique. And if she noticed that I had talent with the sword, then there might be a small chance she would accept my request.

“Was there anything about my special training that caught your eye… or something like that?” (Lewin)

“Let’s see… if I were to put it briefly, it was like an extension of child’s play, so it caught my eye.” (Kirty)

An extension of child’s play, huh? That kind of hurt, y’know?

When she said it caught her eye, I totally expected her to follow that with words of praise, so for her to diss me that hard did considerable damage to my heart.

“C-child’s play, is it…?” (Lewin)

“Well, I guess so. In general, there were a lot of wasted movements and strange habits.” (Kirty)

Ugh. Just now, it felt like I was on the offense as I was asking her questions, but now it felt like the tables were turned on me in an instant. I thought my practice swings were starting to reach a somewhat appropriate level, but from a third party’s perspective, it was that bad, huh?

“…But, I’ve been watching you for a while, and I could tell that you had a talent for combat. That’s why this discrepancy caught my eye.” (Kirty)

She pulled back and praised me a little bit… and it made me feel quite happy. As she said this with her arms folded, it didn’t seem like she was trying to praise me, so I decided to just take her words at face value.

“Then you were watching me every day because my talent didn’t match up with my technique, is that right, Kirty-san?” (Lewin)

“……..I never said that I was watching you every day though?! Three days… or two days… a week, I think…” (Kirty)

“Um, whichever you say is fine with me, but I’d be glad if you could at least answer what I asked…” (Lewin)

A strangely insistent revision came from Kirty. I mean, there was not a single doubt that she was watching me every day though…

“Mmm, that’s right. It was bugging me because I felt that you could grow much more if you had a mentor to teach you swordsmanship,” Kirty said as she took a sip of the black tea. I had felt it myself after all, but even from a third party’s point of view, I knew that my sword skills were lacking. Before this, I was half-heartedly thinking that if I tried to talk to her and she refused, it would be fine to just continue my training as always… But after I heard what Kirty said just now, I felt that it was absolutely necessary to get guidance with my sword skills. Besides, Kirty seemed really reliable since she was able to precisely see through this matter and suggest such a thing to me.

If Kirty was willing to accept, I wanted to study swordsmanship under her. Now that I actually was able to talk to her, I truly felt that way.