At Grusso’s question, Milein looked over at Rei while thinking to herself.

Grusso had a battle axe, Courage had a spear, and Conomir had a bow.

Conomir aside, who had a timid personality, and Courage, who was cautious, Grusso was confident in his own abilities.

Of course, confidence in one’s own strength was essential for adventurers. However, if it was over confidence, it would be harmful.

This was especially true for Grusso, who’s confidence was high despite his middling strength.

If things continued as they were, he would end up in a world of pain in the not too distant future. It was because of this that Milein came up with this idea when she saw Rei.

(It’s not at all because I wanted Set-chan all to myself.)

Milein called out to Rei, who was facing Grusso, as she thought to herself.

「What do you plan to use for weapons?」

「Hm? Of course……」

Seeing Rei bring out the Misty Ring, Milein hurriedly interrupted him as he was replying.

「Wait. I’ll prepare a weapon. We have weapons with blunt edges in the training ground.」

「……Well, that’s fine. I don’t mind.」

Succeeding in stopping Rei from taking out his Death Scythe from the Misty Ring, Milein gave a sigh of relief.

Considering the rarity of item boxes, they would have been able to identify Rei just by the fact he had one.

Fortunately the trio had just come to Gilm about 20 days ago and were yet to recognise Rei, who was very well known in Gilm.

If Set had been around……or if Rei had taken out his scythe, which was just as well known as Rei, Grusso might have realised who Rei was.

「Well then, there you have it. Let’s start with Grusso. Stop when you think you have won, so please don’t cause any fatal injuries to your sparring partner. Okay?」

Rei was given a sword with a blunted edge by Ekril as Milein spoke up to warn him.

As her words were mostly directed to Rei, Grusso was naturally not amused.

Considering Milein’s actions, it seemed like she had judged that he had no chance of winning.

Everyone else naturally moved away in order to give Rei and Grusso space to fight.

「I understand. Let’s get started.」

Hearing the tone of Rei’s mutters, Grusso felt that Rei was looking down on him and the blood suddenly rose to his head.

Although she saw that, Milein didn’t seem bothered by it as she gave the signal to begin.

「Start!」

「UOOOOOH-, don’t expect me to go easy on you-!」

Grusso brandished his battle axe at the start signal and rushed towards Rei.

A big hit from a battle axe would certainly have a lot of power behind it.

……But only if it hit.

「Naive.」

Rei avoided the battle axe by taking a small step backwards.

The battle axe struck the ground after passing several centimeters in front of Rei’s face.

The power that struck the solid ground was certainly not bad for a rookie.

「You’re too over confident.」

The tip of Rei’s sword thrust out and was up to Grusso’s throat without any signs of movement.

Grusso stopped moving, imagining what would have happened if Rei had seriously followed through with the attack. The tip of the sword would have easily pierced his neck.

「Eh? ……What? I, I lost?」

「The swings of axe type weapons tend to be large because of its weight. Even if the blood is rushing to your head, what’s the point of making an even bigger swing? Try to be less wasteful in your movements. ……Next.」

Rei prompted Milein for his next opponent, leaving Grusso to mutter in disbelief that he had been defeated so easily without even crossing blades.

「Well, well, pardon me. ……Next, Courage. Start!」

「I understand. From what I saw in Grusso’s fight, it looks like you’re considerably skilled, I’ll take this seriously!」

Along with Milein’s signal, Courage thrust his spear out towards Rei.

As Rei struck the spear tip away with his sword, he thought to himself with some admiration at the way Courage handled the spear. The attack was sharp and it was hard to believe that Courage was a rookie.

(He’s far from a rookie at handling the spear. ……I heard he came from a noble family, did he learn it from his home? He wields the spear well.)

As Rei thought about that, he lightly handled the spear tip as it thrust out multiple times.

That said, while it was a surprising level of skill from a rookie, the speed and sharpness was incomparable to the attacks from Oricule that Rei had experienced recently.

That was why Rei was able to deal with the thrusts with just a single hand.

He repeatedly parried all of Courage’s attacks with his blunt sword.

Courage gritted his teeth as he realised that if Rei’s sword had a sharp edge the tip of his spear would have been cut off by now.

He wasn’t as emotional as Grusso, but Courage was still someone who aspired to be an adventurer. It was no fun to have his spear dealt with so easily.

No, the fact that he had been trained to wield a spear from a young age made the impact even greater than what Grusso felt.

「HAAH-!」

Courage struck out with such thoughts.

However, the attack was just as easily parried by the blunt sword and, before he noticed, Rei was right next to him, sword at his neck, just like Grusso.

「……I give up.」

Even after exerting all his strength, he still couldn’t get Rei to take him seriously at all.

He couldn’t help but give a laugh as he spoke.

「Hmm, your spear handling is good. However, your moves always follow a pattern, probably a negative effect from you many years of training. That may be fine when you’re dealing with people, but there are many monsters who will make unexpected moves. If you pay attention to that, you will be able to improve your spear skills by leaps and bounds.」

「Thank you very much.」

Bringing his spear back, Courage gave a deep bow.

「That is, althought I look like this, I was reasonably confident in my own abilities……I didn’t expect to be supressed completely. If you don’t mind, I’d like to know your name……」

「Yes, that can wait. You can find out his name later. There is still one mock battle to go.」

Milein interrupted Courage as she prompted Conomir with her eyes.

However, the person in question, Conomir, fidgeted restlessly the moment Milein turned to look at him.

「This, do I have to do this……as well?」

「Of course. That is why I asked you to come here today.」

「But my bow is nothing if Courage couldn’t even hit with his spear……」

「Alright then, get ready! Considering you’re an archer, we will start the mock battle from a further distance.」

「But……」

「Just get going, will you? While I’m still smiling, okay?」

Perhaps she was starting to get annoyed with Conomir’s attitude. Milein spoke to him with a smile, 3 seconds before exploding.

Hearing what seemed to be an ultimatum, Conomir hurriedly moved some distance away from Rei with a pitiful cry.

Conomir’s timid but earnest character was evident from teh fact that he didn’t immediately run away and still followed Milein’s instructions.

「Do you really need to do that?」

「Of course. It will be dangerous for that kid if we can’t understand his skills.」

「……Understand.」

Pushed along by Milein’s words, Rei faced Conomir at a distance of 20m.

Even at such a distance, Conomir’s gaze was slightly averted away from Rei.

(Can he make it as an adventurer with such a weak personality?)

With regards to being quiet, Byune, who Rei had met in Exil, was similar, but the difference was that she wasn’t just quiet but also strong willed.

Rei was seriously worried about Conomir, who seemed quieter than the 10 year old girl. But, as it was certain that Conomir had chosen the profession himself, it seemed like he had something to show as they faced each other in silence.

「Start!」

An arrow flew out as Milein gave the starting signal.

As a rookie, the speed of his arrows wasn’t that fast, so there was nothing remarkable speed wise.

Swinging his sword, Rei struck the arrow down as he closed the distance……and as soon as Rei got within 5m of him, Conomoir raised both his hands in the air.

「I-I give up!」

「……Are you sure?」

「Ahh……it can’t be helped.」

Milein sighed as she put her hand against her face.

Eventually, she closed her eyes to think before clapping her hands to gather everyone’s attention.

「Okay. I’ve gotten an understanding of your abilities. Everyone come over!」

At those words, everyone, including Rei, went over to Milein.

「Speaking of which, you didn’t give any advice to Conomir?」

Rei shook his head at Milein’s question while looking at Conomir.

「If it’s a weapon like a battle axe or spear, I can still give some advice. But, if it’s a bow, that’s completely out of my specialty.」

In the first place, Rei had no need to use a bow. His ranged attacks consisted of magic, throwing spears, or sending slashes out from the Death Scythe.

Milein, who had worked with Rei several times before, immediately understood. She just gave a small nod back without saying anything.

「That said……I think it would be better to fix that timid personality of yours if you want to continue being an adventurer.」

At Rei’s words, Milein nodded again before speaking.

「Now, do you all understand that appearances doesn’t equal ability? Let’s try one more time as a three person team.」

「Do you still want to keep going?」

It was Rei who asked.

However, Milein just asked the rookies instead.

「So, how about it? You’re not going to say it’s not fair with three people, right?」

「I won’t say that. You’ve shown me the difference in our abilities.」

Courage replied as he held his spear while Grusso silently nodded to show his agreement.

Conomir was the last to respond and he seemed lost for several seconds before eventually nodding as well.

「Then it’s decided. Take some distance from each other. Conomir, you go further.」

Ignoring Rei’s question, Milein just continued giving instructions.

That said, Rei was looking to kill some time, so he didn’t really mind it too much.

Taking the sword he had been using, he also moved a slightly further distance away.

「Are you all ready? Then the last mock battle starts……now-!」

At the same time as Milein’s signal, Conomir shot an arrow towards Rei.

Although it was a premptive strike, the arrow was easily struck down by Rei’s sword.

「UOOOOH-!」

Grusso wasn’t about to miss his chance as Rei struck the arrow down and swung his battle axe with a shout.

However, Rei pulled his body back half a step and just stepped on the battle axe as it hit the ground to stop it from moving before thrusting the sword out towards Grusso’s neck.

「That’s just the same attack as last time!」

The moment Grusso felt something approaching his neck, he released his hands from his battle axe and retreated.

Courage’s spear then thrust out as if to support him.

「I see.」

Rei was immediately impressed by their level of coordination but quickly pulled his sword back before deflecting the spear tip away. At the same time, he dashed over to Grusso, who had fallen backwards before placing his sword at his neck.

Although Grusso could follow Rei’s approach with his eyes, he was surprised to find that his body couldn’t move at all.

Rei twisted his body around as he struck away another spear thrust that came from behind him with his sword.

Conomir shot out more arrows, targeting the gap in Rei’s actions, but they were all struck down.

The result was the same as when they had fought earlier.

As if a series of thrusts were woven together, in an instant, the tip of Rei’s was placed against Courage’s neck. The mock battle finally ended as Rei placed his sword against Conomir’s neck, who had all his arrows struck down.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]