CH 109

Episode 109 – Kirty’s Teaching Method

My finishing blow was stopped, but with our current postures, there was still a chance. I immediately moved to perform my next attack, but… I realized that my wooden sword that I just swung down with my full strength was snapped in half right down the middle.

If I wasn’t mistaken… At the end of that last strike, a somewhat metallic sound had rung out when our wooden swords collided. I stood there in shock, dazedly staring at the broken wooden sword, when Kirty called for a stop.

“It seems this is as far as we can go today. I’ll be honest…. I didn’t think you would be able to do this much, Lewin. In this fight, I wanted you to experience your lack of ability firsthand and make you learn that you can’t fight by just using the overhead slash.” (Kirty)

“Ah, no! I definitely came to the realization that I couldn’t fight with only the overhead slash. Even with the handicap that you couldn’t attack me, I still couldn’t land a single hit against you, so…” (Lewin)

I firmly responded to Kirty’s words. Since the only effective move I had at my disposal was the overhead slash, in the end I was being forced into using it. If I had properly learned other ways to swing my sword, there were a lot of things I could have improved in this fight.

“I see. It’s good as long as you understand. You’ve gotten pretty good at the overhead slash, but you need to be able to swing your sword in other ways. I wanted you to learn that fact not through me telling you so, but through you realizing it on your own through actual combat.” (Kirty)

….Sure enough, Kirty was a really brilliant teacher. Just as Kirty had intended, I became painfully aware through this battle that I absolutely had to learn different ways of using my sword. Today’s experience reminded me that I couldn’t neglect my training to solidify my swings. Since the repetitive training for sword swings was both boring and difficult, if I hadn’t come to realize the importance of it early on, there was a good chance that I would have neglected it. It seemed that Kirty conducted today’s mock battle in order to convey its importance to me.

“Thanks to Kirty-san, I’ve properly come to understand the reason for its importance. From tomorrow, I’ll― no. From next week, I hope you can teach me other ways of using my sword other than the overhead slash!” (Lewin)

“Hm? Does tomorrow… not work? I was thinking of teaching you the diagonal slash tomorrow though,” Kirty said while tilting her head slightly. I had also wanted to learn more from her tomorrow, but tomorrow was the day I was supposed to do my monthly plant gathering with [Iron Gear]. As a matter of fact, I went to Bee House yesterday to meet with them and put in a gathering quest commission.

The current wealth I had amounted to 28 gold coins, which gave me a lot of freedom. If I needed money I could just sell Glutamate Herb, but… I still felt like I should definitely continue to gather plants and herbs once a month. It was a great way to apply my training and deepen my friendship with [Iron Gear]. Not only that, I could acquire a lot of Magical Grass and find some Dumbbell Weed. No matter how much money I had, the merits of going were always overwhelmingly greater.

“I think I’ve mentioned this to you before, but my main occupation is gathering plants and herbs, which is where I’ll be going tomorrow. I’m going to be away from Grezesta for 4 days.” (Lewin)

When I told this to Kirty, she looked astonished for a moment before her expression turned extremely sad.

….Come to think of it, I forgot to tell Kirty in advance that I was going to go plant and herb gathering. Kirty would instruct me with every last minute she had in the morning right up until she had to leave for work, so we simply never got the chance to talk about it.

“….I see… Then that means… I won’t be able to teach you for four days…?” (Kirty)

“Ah, yes. That’s how it is. Sorry… I should have told you earlier, but I totally forgot to tell you.” (Lewin)

“…Ah, n-no. Don’t mind it. Now that I think about it, back when I was only observing your training from afar, there was certainly a period of a few days where you didn’t show up…” (Kirty)

Why did Kirty look like she’s in such a shock?

I was totally perplexed by her downcast, melancholic expression. Perhaps she had always been going out of her way to make room for me in her morning schedule— or so I thought, but it didn’t seem like she had anything else to be doing in the morning. I wasn’t sure what the reason was, but it was true that I did forget to tell her, so maybe I should apologize to her properly.

“I’m really sorry, Kirty-san. I would be very happy if you could continue to teach me when I come back from gathering plants.” (Lewin)

“Ah, yeah! Of course I’ll teach you. Then we would be resuming five days from now in the morning, is that right?” (Kirty)

“Yes. Early in the morning, five days from now. I’m looking forward to it! I’ll make sure to keep doing my practice swings even at the gathering site!” (Lewin)

With that decided, I decided to head to Iron Will to buy the wooden swords and then do some shopping for tomorrow’s quest commission. After returning from shopping, I wanted to reflect on today’s mock battle while practicing my sword swings.