It was the next day after agreeing to provide combat instruction to Baslero at Baron Cisne’s residence. After finishing breakfast a little earlier than usual, Rei headed for Baron Cisne’s residence in the nobles district. As the weather was still quite cold, the ground was still covered in snow.

Set, who was usually with him, was nowhere to be seen. Part of the reason was that Set didn’t like the garden he had lay in yesterday that much, but the biggest reason was that Milein had charged into the Dusk Wheat for the first time in a long while. She had bought a lot of food with the reward she had received from the Lizardmen subjugation request and had forcefully entered the stables as usual.

(Still, it could be said that he’s started to grow up and settle down since he was able to decide not to follow me.)

Rei thought to himself as he stepped on the frozen ground early in the morning and enjoyed the sound of the ice and snow being crushed.

Still, considering the amount of stuff that Milein had brought for Set, he was worried about how much she would have left over from the Lizardmen subjugation.

「Well, if I really run out of money, I’ll take on a request with Scorching Wind again.」

Remembering that, Rei felt a little sympathy for both Sulunin and Ecryll.

While thinking like that, he showed his guild card at the entrance to the nobles district before entering and heading for Baron Cisne’s residence.

Naturally, there was no sort of gatekeeper to the residence when only the master, his son and a maid lived there. Rei silently opened the gate and entered the mansion. The day before, Mouet had told him that they didn’t have enough money to hire a gatekeeper so he could just enter when he arrived.

When Rei had heard that, he was surprised by the lack of security, but when told that there was almost nothing that could be stolen, Rei could only agree.

(That said, anything important enough that it would cause an issue if stolen should be hidden in an appropriate location.)

Thinking of that, he knocked lightly on the door of the mansion. Ashie immediately appeared from the hallway behind it.

「Welcome, Rei-san. I’ll be leaving the young master’s combat training to you from today. Please take care of him.Call me immediately if there are any injuries. I’ll use healing magic right away……kyaa-!」

Seeing Rei, Ashie smiled and spoke with a bow, but as she bowed down……she should have remembered the broom in her hand.

There was a broom handle at the end of her bow and naturally, the broom handle hit her forehead. Ashie gave a cry at the pain and dropped the bag in her hand onto the floor.

「……Are you okay?」

「Y-Yes……I’m okay……」

Ashie’s forehead was red and there were some tears at the edge of her eyes, but she smiled as if there was no problem.

「Well then, the young master is already ready so I will take you to him.」

「No, if it’s just the garden from yesterday, you don’t need to guide me there you know?」

「That’s true……but I was told to guide you properly.」

「……I think it would be better for you to take care of your own injury first rather than guide me.」

「Ah……」

Perhaps she realised that her forehead, which had been hit by the broom handle, was swollen red. While giving an embarrassed whisper, the next moment, she produced a white light from her hand. When the light touched her forehead, all traces of the bruise disappeared in less than a few seconds.

「Hou~ As I had heard, your healing magic is quite good.」

「Ah, that is……thank you. I, I’ve always been clumsy……because I kept using healing magic to heal myself, I became good at it. Originally, it was only effective on healing small cuts. Because I improved in that way, it’s not something that’s really praiseworthy.」

Unlike her previous pained expression, Ashie laughed shyly.

But Rei, who was listening to her story, shook his head indicating it wasn’t an issue.

「I don’t care about what the reasons were and how you eventually got good at healing magic. All that matters is that you can use healing magic. That’s why I decided that it would be okay to go a bit harder on Baslero’s training.」

「R-Rei-san!?　That’s harsh on the young master……」

「I’m not going to bully him. But, it’s true that some danger is necessary to become stronger.」

(The strength my body that Zepairu created was there from the beginning. But in order to master it, I had gone through battles with monsters and people over and over again. If I think about it, if Baslero gains the power to fight by starting from the beginning, he should eventually become stronger than me. And that’s why healing magic will be useful.)

「Anyhow, I would like to start the training first so please take me to Balero. No, the garden I mean.」

Rei encouraged Ashie while thinking secretly to himself.

Hearing those words, Ashie immediately gave a bow to invite him.

「Yes, I’ll take you there. This way……kyaa-!」

Ashie fell to the ground when she suddenly turned around and lost her balance. Seeing that, Rei was convinced that this maid was a clumsy girl.

 

「Good morning, teacher.」

As expected, Rei was guided to the mansion’s garden. However, what had changed from the previous day was that there were no longer any more tree branches lying throughout the garden. It was just as strange as the large branches that Set had piled up yesterday.

Baslero probably guessed Rei’s surprise after seeing his expression. Baslero smiled and looked towards Ashie

「Actually, Ashie cleaned it out yesterday because it was dangerous to to practice mock battles here. ……I wanted to help, but Ashie didn’t let me.」

「Of course. Young master is the son of Baron Cisne, you can’t be allowed to do any cleaning!」

She was proud of her work. Ashie announced that resolutely.

「Ashie……even if I look at it, the Baron Cisne house is waning, it will definitely collapse soon……」

「That’s not true!　Despite how he looks like, Master is a person who works hard. I’m sure he will help Magrave Rowlocks a lot.」

(……Despite his appearances……is it okay to say that?)

Hearing Ashie’s words, Rei immediately thought to himself.

But maybe that was normal in this house. There was no intention from Baslero to interrupt so the conversation regarding Baron Cisne continued.

「Speaking of that, where is Mouet?」

「Master went to work at the Lord’s residence. Originally, he had been planning on taking a week off to wait for Rei-sama, but fortunately Rei-sama came yesterday.」

「I see. ……Well then, let’s start training now shall we?」

「Yes!」

Baslero gave a nod at Rei’s words and pulled his sword out of his sheath.

Ashie seemed worried……but continued to watch seriously.

Doesn’t she have work to do as a maid?　Rei thought about that, but when he saw Baslero not saying anything unlike yesterday, he concluded that some sort of discussion had been held with Baron Cisne.

To Rei, he had thought that Ashie’s presence, as someone worried about Baslero, would interfere with his training. But in the event of an emergency, he understood that she would be able to use healing magic immediately.

And then, he stopped Baslero, who was about to attack him.

「Please wait a moment. First, let’s review yesterday. Think back to yesterday’s mock fight, how many times were your feet attacked?」

「Eh?　……Ah, yes. Because of how many times it happened, there’s no way I could forget.」

「So you agree. Then, do you know why I focused your feet so much?」

「Um, because me feet were full of gaps……is that it?」

Rei nodded, impressed with Baslero’s words.

Even Baslero would remember after it happened so many times during yesterday’s mock battle. Of course, he hadn’t expected to be able to win against Rei, who was an active adventurer, but he had trained desperately while following the book left by Mouet’s great grandfather. He thought that he would be able to hit Rei at least once, since Rei was using a cheap spear that would have been sold a local weapon store rather than his original weapon. There was also his own pride from training so much. Nevertheless, his feet were struck by the spear handle so many times and tripped him to the ground so many times that it was ridiculous.

After Rei left, he had been found by Ashie and was taken to a bath immediately. While he was thrown into a bath heated by a magic item, his body washed without any questions and healing magic used, he was still in a state of surprise.

In such a situation, Baslero thought back to his mock battle with Rei several times and eventually reached the natural conclusion that his feet had been full of openings.

……In addition, when Ashie greeted Rei this morning, part of it was her professionalism as a maid, but part of it was also because Baslero had almost no injuries when she had washed him in the bath.

Rei agreed with Baslero’s words.

「That’s right. I know you didn’t got to a sword school or hire a fencing instructor. That’s why you learnt from the book that was handed down. But because of that, the result is that you’ve given too much focus onto attacking.」

「T-That is……」

At Rei’s words, it came to Baslero’s mind.

It was true that the contents of the book that was handed down was rather attack oriented. That said, of course, notes relating to how to practice defending were also written……but, even though Baslero seemed quite mature, he was still only 10 years old. It could be said that it was inevitable that he focused on the better looking offensive training rather than the plain looking defense training.

「That’s because I’ve neglected defensive training.」

「That’s right. There’s that as well. Well, there’s no helping that. If you had gone to a sword school or had a sword instructor, it would have been a different story.」

「Still, the young master has been doing his best.」

Ashie felt that Rei’s words were disparaging Baslero and spoke up loudly to support him.

Rei nodded at Ashie before continuing.

「Of course I know that. Yesterday’s mock battle let me fully understand how desperately Baslero has trained. As for this, he had no one to teach or guide him, so it can’t be helped. ……And, it’s not so bad to be biased towards attacking.」

Rei recalled the thrusts Baslero had made several times in yesterday’s mock battle.

The power of the attacks were still limited by his muscle strength, but his speed and skill was at a level that he should be able to easily kill a Goblin.

「Well, that’s more or less your current situation. So, in future mock battles, I will attack the places that seems to be your weak points. Of course, the most obvious attacks will be at your feet if you leave an opening, but that doesn’t mean I won’t attack anywhere else.」

Telling that to Baslero, he took out the same iron spear from yesterday.

「Yes!　Defending my footing. I understand, I’ll pay attention to that today.」

「Ahh. ……Now then, discussion is over. Come!」

「Here I come!」

With that cry, just like yesterday……no, even faster than yesterday, Baslero closed the gap. However, the moment he moved to attack, a moment of awkwardness appeared before disappearing again. Even his thrusts, which were Baslero’s greatest strength, felt awkward for a moment.

Rei understood why. After the issues with his defense had been pointed out……Rei felt his awkwardness came from him paying more attention to the area around his feet.

「Look, you’re too focused on defense and you’re starting to neglect your attacks!　It’s your strength, so keep your focus on it!　In order to slow your opponent’s attacks, first of all attack aggressively to prevent your opponent from having the opportunity.」

Saying that, Rei tried to knock out Baslero’s legs with his spear handle……

Kin~!

Baslero parried the spear handle stretching towards his feet with his sword.

For a moment, joy lit up his face. But……

「Don’t think the enemy’s attack is over with a single blow!」

Drawing a large arc with the spear while using the rebound from the sword parry, he swung around to the other side of Baslero’s feet and attempted to trip him again.

If you only looked at the movement, Rei’s was much larger. Because of that, Baslero tried to shift his sword around to the other side. However, because of Rei’s physical ability, it was faster for him to swing his spear around in a circle than it was for Baslero to shift his sword.

「Uwa-!」

Baslero fell to the ground with a cry.

Ashie watched him worriedly, eager to use her healing magic.

Thus, the second day of combat training ended.

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