CH 155

Episode 155 – Demonic Instructor

The entire battle lasted a mere 15 seconds. Looking only at Edward’s moves, it seemed as if he was able to beat them so easily due to the Rampage Boars being too weak.

But having fought them myself, I knew that those monsters were by no means weak. Even though the Rampage Boar took a perfect blow from my steel sword, it didn’t die immediately. I was only able to kill it by stabbing it with my sword afterwards.

I had no idea why Edward’s thin rod was able to defeat all of them in a single blow. I didn’t see him using any sort of strong force behind the blows, so perhaps he was doing something special? I was feeling pretty curious about this.

“How was it? Did you get a good look at it?” (Edward)

“I saw it, but I have no idea what kind of technique you used.” (Lewin)

“It’s nothing that fancy. I just put in a bit of strength… and poked them in the head with a technique.” (Edward)

“No… I fought one myself; there’s no way you’d be able to defeat them simply by poking them in the head! Look at this one. After cutting it so deeply, I still had to come over and finish it off before it died, you know?” (Lewin)

“Hohoho. That’s just because you don’t have the technique and required knowledge to do it, Lewin. Of course, those with talent could just swing their sword around without thinking. But people without such talent had to be more creative. ‘Technique’ is something that was invented by people without strength in order to win against those with strength. I think you get what I’m saying without me having to spell it all out for you, right Lewin?” (Edward)

Edward’s words echoed in my mind. When I left Grezesta, Kirty clearly told me that I had no talent. Maybe that’s why he decided to say these words to me.

“…You’re right. Please teach me this technique.” (Lewin)

“Of course, that’s why I’ve decided to do this. In the time that we’re traveling together, I’ll put forth my best efforts to impart to you some of the techniques that I developed so that I wouldn’t lose out to the talented people around me.” (Edward)

“…..Well, that’s the simple explanation for it. How does that sound? I’m sure you can do it, Lewin.” (Edward)

“I guess so. Just from what you’ve said so far, I think I should be able to do it, but… after thinking about it more, there’s no way it’s that simple, is it?” (Lewin)

“Well, I suppose. But, as long as you’re cognizant of what I’ve taught you, you should be able to do it naturally. From here on, I’ll be giving you pointers after each swing to fix things as you go, and your body should begin to remember it eventually.” (Edward)

“Okay!” (Lewin)

After that, as we proceeded along the roadless mountain scenery, Edward taught me how to correct my mistakes after each of my swings while I defeated any monsters that attacked us. As for the speed of our progress, it was going quite well considering that the monsters were being easily defeated, but… there was a slight concern.

“Lewin! No, no, that’s wrong!! I told you to reduce the contact area of the blade!! Eliminate the dispersion of force. That’s the way a powerless man can strike a powerful blow!” (Edward)

“Yes! I’m sorry, I’ll fix it right away!” (Lewin)

At first, Edward spoke kindly when he was instructing me on what I was doing wrong, but it gradually turned into intense yelling. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was passionate about teaching or if I was just that much of a good-for-nothing at learning, but… it was pretty terrifying given how gentle he was normally.

As for the instructions he was telling me to be aware of, it was mainly to pack all of the power into a single instant and to not disperse that force… to make small and quick movements and hit the target area accurately. He had only given me these four directions, so I thought it would be easy to pull off, but it turned out to be very difficult.

‘Pack all the power into a single instant’. This was something that I had already started doing of my own accord before he started teaching me. But then there were still the other parts: ‘make your movements smaller and faster’, ‘do not disperse the force’, and ‘hit the target area accurately’. Having to execute all of these requirements at the same time made the difficulty level soar dramatically.

Pulling off both ‘packing all of the power into one instant’ and ‘making small and quick movements’ at the same time was difficult, and for every one out of three swings, my movements became too big or I ended up not putting in enough power. Plus, if I tried to be conscious of making my movements small and fast, it became more difficult to hit the target accurately. And if I couldn’t hit the area I was targeting, the force would be dispersed.

It would be more manageable against a stationary opponent, but since the monsters were still alive, they would dodge my attacks and attack me back. Honestly, no matter how much Edward yelled at me from behind, I didn’t feel like I could get it perfect right now.

“Oi!! The movement on that thrust was too big! It worked because that monster was weak, but that won’t work on that Venom Troll you fought before!! You know that better than anyone!” (Edward)

The moment I killed a Black Ape with a thrust, I heard Edward’s angry voice again. It made my body jump in fright, but… I totally understood what he meant. I could recognize on my own that the movement behind the thrust just now was too big and that if I were to attack a Venom Troll in that manner, then I would have gotten hit with a counterattack.

“Yes!! I’m sorry!” (Lewin)

“Don’t apologize! Just fix it!!” (Edward)

In this way, we crossed the mountain in one day, with me getting yelled at constantly as I fought the monsters and being calmly instructed on the points I could improve on when I wasn’t fighting.

When we arrived at the village, I was physically and mentally exhausted to the core… and I couldn’t help but feel slightly regretful for asking Edward to teach me. For some reason, my sixth sense kept going off nonstop, telling me that I was about to be yelled at by Edward at any moment even though I wasn’t even fighting monsters right now.