131 – Growth (1)

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I took a step back.

At the same time, a sharp flash of light slid down right in front of my eyes.

As I squinted slightly, anticipating the impending shock, a huge gust of wind blew in, violently scattering my bangs.

The gust of wind that had been blowing for several seconds finally died down, and the fluttering hair settled down calmly.

Sylvia’s excited voice was heard from ahead.

“Yeah, you’re definitely doing well now, Ash.”

“…after,”

After a week of training, I was able to perfectly dodge the branches Sylvia swung at me.

No, if Sylvia continued swinging it like she had been doing, she would definitely be able to dodge it even if it was a sword.

But I tried hard to hide my excitement and remained humble.

“Now, I can barely avoid it.”

“That’s true.”

Sylvia nodded in agreement with what I said.

…

To be honest, I wish she would have praised me a little more for this, but it seems like it was nothing special to her.

Well, after trying it, I realized that it was possible if you just focus properly, just like she said.

If you try to follow her arms and weapons swinging with great force and speed with your eyes, you will never be able to dodge them, but the trick is to carefully watch her raised arms and fly away at the moment when her body stiffens slightly just before she swings them.

If it had been a bare fist flying straight at me, it would have been difficult to measure the distance, but with a weapon that was swung wide, there was always a moment of strength before the attack, so it was possible.

Of course, in order to do that, I had to observe the opponent without being afraid of him until the moment he attacked me, so it wasn’t easy for me, who had been running away in fear just a few days ago.

Get up, look straight, avoid it.

Ha, it was definitely as she said.

“For me and the other inspectors, avoiding or blocking the opponent’s attacks is not some incredible feat like predicting the future or anything like that. It’s just a matter of detecting the opponent’s changes in this way. In other words, you could call it basic.”

“This is… the basics?”

“Yeah, now Ash has basic eyes.”

“Oh my god, this is the basics, what is the world of prosecutors like…”

“We don’t have time, but Ash learned it pretty quickly. It’s a bad thing about Ash that he gets scared so easily.”

I nodded at her words.

I felt a bit proud that I had learned it pretty quickly, but at the same time, I was scared that I had only just gotten a taste of the basics after all the hard work.

Sylvia came to me with a bashful smile and gently smoothed my messy bangs with her hands.

I asked her like that.

“If this is the basics, then what about Sister Alice?”

“Of course. Why would someone who can’t even do this say they want to join the warrior party?”

“Then when two people fight, it doesn’t mean that neither of them actually gets hit? They all avoid each other.”

“…”

Sylvia looked down at me with her eyes half-closed.

The look in her eyes was… like the sigh of a tutor listening to a child’s somewhat innocent and ignorant question.

“Of course I would avoid an honest attack, but you know.”

moment,

In the blink of an eye, Sylvia’s branch passed over my shoulder.

The sound of her arms cutting through the air was as loud as a huge pillow being slammed against the ground, like a pop.

“Skilled inspectors sometimes hide their preparatory movements in this way.”

“…Even if you say it like this, I still don’t understand.”

Sylvia laughed heartily and bent her arm over my shoulder, cradling my head in hers.

“You’re cute, Ash.”

“…”

“Just think of it as hiding a real attack intention between various actions. It’s like walking so slowly that it looks like you’re not going to run at all, and then suddenly taking about five steps and running away, would that make sense?”

“I don’t know… So does that mean I can’t dodge if Sylvia really swings it?”

“You can never avoid it.”

“…”

“And I can correct my trajectory while swinging.”

“How is that possible?”

“You can just twist it with force.”

“…”

I realized anew how my petty arrogance was just arrogant confidence.

Sylvia, knowing or not, began to tell even more terrifying stories.

“In addition, you can continuously spray light attacks to create an opening for your opponent to see you but not dodge, fool the timing, use a large attack as bait to stab them with the dagger in your other hand, use a step to get out of their sight and stab them from a place they can’t see… There are many ways to do this. Of course, your opponent will do the same. In the end, swordsmanship between humans is like a game of rock-paper-scissors with many numbers.”

Indeed, I have only barely scratched the surface of the basics.

To the point where I felt desperate, I didn’t understand her explanation at all.

Sylvia brushed the dirt off my hair, shoulders, back, and arms, then kissed me on the forehead.

“Still, now Ash will be able to easily dodge things like the slow-moving bats swinging by the big ogres. And that alone will greatly reduce the amount of things Alice and I have to worry about.”

“…Well, since I learned by getting beaten like that, it should help me to that extent.”

“Ash… were you in a lot of pain?”

“Three days ago… Don’t you remember? A tree branch dug into my right arm the size of a finger joint.”

“It stopped before it reached the bone.”

“…”

When I stared at her silently, Sylvia smiled awkwardly, brought her face closer, and whispered in my ear in a seductive voice.

“And… at night, Ash took revenge on a lot of people…”

“…”

“Every day… I was so exhausted…”

“That’s because Sylvia used her divine power to heal me… It’s the first time I’ve seen someone use divine power for that purpose.”

“lol”

“Who knew that the warrior would be such a pervert?”

Sylvia said, lightly biting my earlobe with her lips.

“So, you don’t like it?”

“…”

I shook my head silently.

Sylvia fell down with a faint smile on her face at my nod.

“Don’t forget what you’ve learned so far. Now is the time to move on to the next step.”

I gently touched the corner of my ear where Sylvia’s scent lingered and asked her.

“The next step is… a sword?”

“Haha, no.”

“… then?’

“I’ll explain slowly, but first, would you like to take off your shoes?”

“…?”

I took off my shoes obediently as Sylvia told me.

The only thing left of the clothes I had been wearing that day I first entered the forest were old black leather shoes.

When I stepped on the dirt floor with my bare feet, I was surprised at how cool and damp the air seemed to spread quickly throughout my body.

I felt the chilly air being transmitted through my feet to my whole body.

Perhaps because of the low temperature, the blades of grass digging between my toes felt as sharp as blades.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

“But it would be better to take it off.”

“…why?”

“I won’t be able to get new shoes.”

“…?”

When I tilted my head, not knowing what she meant, Sylvia waved the branch in her hand as if to tell me not to worry.

Then, without saying a word, he swung the branch at me.

“Whoa,”

Despite the sudden attack, I unconsciously dodged her attack.

“Well, I learned well.”

“Sylvia, what are you doing now!”

Before I could finish speaking, she attacked me again.

I dodged the flying branches by flying backwards again.

But Sylvia did not stop and continued attacking again.

Dodge, attack, dodge again, and another attack will come.

As this behavior continued without pause, I soon began to run away from her attacks.

Sylvia said as she chased after me.

“Okay, do you understand?”

“No! Right now! Eww, what are you doing?”

“running.”

“uh?”

Unlike me, whose breathing was getting more and more rapid, Sylvia spoke quietly, in a calm tone that made no difference to her standing and speaking.

“I’ll run until the sun sets. If you don’t run, I’ll hit you with the same force that almost cut off your arm.”

“No, that’s, ugh,”

“Don’t talk and run. You’ll lose your breathing.”

I started running around the lake like crazy, trying to avoid Sylvia who was chasing me with light steps.

Every time I felt like I was slowing down a little, Sylvia’s branches would slap my back.

It was like whipping a running horse.

“Ugh,”

After running for about thirty minutes, my legs started to get tired and my thighs started to feel hot and painful.

Naturally, my running pace gradually slowed down.

“Is this the limit?”

“Huk, huh… huh, huh,”

I shook my head up and down without being able to answer.

Sylvia ran beside me, touched my leg, and in one breath breathed divine power into it.

“Not anymore, right?”

“…Huh, gasp,”

“Run. If you feel like you’re going to die, I’ll save you. Don’t worry.”

Sylvia laughed heartily and slapped my butt with a branch.

I jumped forward and asked with heavy breathing.

“Why… huh, I… huh, huh, something like a sword…”

“One month is not enough time to teach her how to attack. My goal for this month is to make Ash able to survive while traveling with us.”

“Ah, huh, huh…”

“Hmm, it’s getting slower?”

Again, a sharp pain flashed across my back.

I clenched my teeth and glared at Sylvia.

Sylvia playfully made a sad face as if her heart was aching.

I said to Sylvia like that.

“This… This guy, at night… Ugh, just leave it at night… Haa,”

“…Oh my, Ash.”

Sylvia smiled brightly.

“When you say that with heavy breathing… it’s so dirty… it’s exciting.”

Once again a branch slammed into my back.

It hurt more than before.

It seems I chose my words poorly.

However, I never got a chance to correct my words.

I couldn’t say anything more because my lungs felt like they were going to burst.

I ran along the lakeside with Sylvia by my side until the sun went down that day.

.