episode_0011

“You came in twice yesterday and today.”

The inside of the guardhouse was considerably larger than it looked from the outside. Glenn had expected to see idle Capital Guardsmen sitting around or swinging their spears, but there was no such thing. Each person seemed busy looking at the papers in their hands, checking their weapons, or listening to their superiors.

Among them, Glenn found a familiar face from yesterday. Among the guards, he looked to be the oldest and the highest ranking. Wait, what was his name? Oh, right.

“Uh, Captain Elton?”

As Glenn shouted quite loudly, the man who was giving orders to his subordinates turned his head. He saw Glenn’s familiar face and his face brightened, but then he quickly approached with a very surprised face. It’s really hard to get used to it.

“Ah, you’re the adventurer who came yesterday. But…the person next to you…could it be…”

“I hope you are well. I am Milicia Airgrants, a saint of the Airgrants doctrine, serving God. Thank you for always dedicating yourself to the security of the royal capital.”

“Oh, yes, yes! Nice to meet you, Your Majesty.”

The platoon leader was flustered, but as expected of a platoon leader, he did not lose his composure and bowed his head to the saintess. However, the subordinates behind him looked different.

What is that? That beauty. She’s pretty. Have you ever seen such a beauty? You idiot, it’s a saint. What? Why is a saint here? Hey, gather around quickly! It’s a saint!

Soon, people began to gather behind the platoon leader. It seemed like almost all the guards from the Eastern Branch had gathered. Seriously, it was hard to get used to it. Glenn felt like he would get tired of it quickly. However, the saintess kept a gentle smile and, even under the gaze of those people, looked at him without changing her appearance.

“Today, I am accompanying Glenn on his journey. Please take care of me.”

Wow, you’re going with the saint? I’m jealous! Oh, a gold badge. A high-level adventurer? That shabby-looking person? Oh, there’s someone next to you. What’s that rag?

Glenn tried hard to ignore the guards chattering in audible voices.

“Huh? Oh, yes! Please take care of me. And… these kids, why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you all do your own work? If you want to have a one-on-one interview with me all day, feel free to keep looking at me!”

“Ah, let’s work. Work!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

When Captain Elton noticed the group behind him and shouted, the guards dispersed in an instant. Some of them still had their eyes fixed on the saintess, but they were led back to their positions by their nearby comrades.

The platoon leader sighed and turned his attention back to Glenn and Militia.

“I’m sorry. Then, what’s going on?”

Glenn gave his order.

“Last night, didn’t I hand you over to me for attempted assassination? I came here to talk to you about that.”

“Oh, you mean those two? They’re dead.”

“…Huh?”

It wasn’t unexpected, but it was clear that the worst was happening. Glenn was horrified, and the saintess had a hard expression.

“Wait, wait! We didn’t kill him! It was suicide. There were traces of poison in his mouth. It seems he prepared it in case he was caught. In the end, instead of interrogating him, we had no choice but to bury his body.”

“Then, have you checked your belongings?”

“Well, I checked it out, but… It’s not right to tell someone something like that…”

The captain’s words were understandable. Normally, such crimes should be dealt with directly by guards or sheriffs, and not by commoners, adventurers, or even nobles. Even if it was Glenn, the victim (attempted).

However, the platoon leader was also human, and upon seeing the saintess with a rather gloomy face next to Glenn, he quietly leaked the information, perhaps pricked by his conscience.

“Let me make it clear that nothing special came out. It’s enough for our Coast Guard to end the investigation in one fell swoop.”

“Are you saying that there was nothing special or decisive about the outfit?”

“Yeah. There was nothing.”

“What about the weapon?”

“Throwing daggers? There were some nearby weapon shops and guild items mixed in. It was hard to tell with that. That’s it.”

The platoon leader made a firm face after explaining in considerable detail. Yes, help should be given to a certain extent. Anything more than this would be tantamount to giving away all the liver and gall bladder. Glenn gave up. And lowered his head.

“Thank you for letting me know.”

“That’s too bad.”

After exchanging a few words, the saint and Glenn escaped the guard post. Yes, it was really unfortunate. The evidence had completely evaporated, and what was left was useless. Isn’t he a thorough man? The author of Operschpel. As expected…

“That’s sad. I thought I had found a way to strangle that man. I never thought he’d choose suicide.”

“Mr. Glen…”

The saintess was about to say something more, but then stopped and placed her hand on Glenn’s arm. It was an act of comfort. Warmth was transmitted from her to Glenn. It was similar to an older sister comforting her younger sibling. Oh, it was just a little regretful, but not particularly disheartening. Really, the saintess is so kind. Glenn was about to laugh it off…

Ah? Saintess? On my arm? Hand? Right now? Touch?

‘Euaaa …

My composure was seriously shaken. The warning lights in my head that had been quiet for a moment began to ring like crazy.

Emergency, emergency! On the verge of losing your mind! On the verge of losing your mind! We need to calm down immediately, we need to calm down immediately!

My heart was pounding, my face was hot, my vision was spinning, and I couldn’t look straight at the saint.

‘No, no, no! Why are you reacting so strongly after just one touch! I even gave you a handkerchief! Come on, Glenn!’

“Mr. Glen?”

“Okay, Saintess. Let’s put this aside for now and go to the training ground. We have more important things to do. How about taking your time and thinking about what you’re going to declare to Count Bronkhorst tomorrow?”

The saintess tried to maintain her composure and stared at Glenn, who was making the suggestion, for a while without saying a word. Something, she felt bitterness and regret in her gaze. It was a face filled with clear sympathy and regret.

No, I said it was okay. She was a really worried saint. Well, that’s what a saint is. But I feel like my heart is going to explode right now, so please stop. I’m going to die.

“Okay, I’ll make up my mind too.”

After barely answering, the saintess took the lead this time. She had already told them where she was going. It was a place she knew well.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

If you were to choose the city or region with the most adventurers in the Southern Kingdom of Alcrea, the first place would naturally be the capital city of Alcrea. The adventurer’s guild headquarters is located in the capital, and it has a large population, so you can complete various requests, such as not only hunting monsters, but also guarding nobles, and cleaning up the city.

Here, as it was the city with the most active logistics exchange and capital accumulation within the Southern Kingdom, the salaries were several times higher than in other regions. The cost of living was also high.

Anyway, since it was such a royal road, it was natural that many new adventurers would gather. However, the guild did not aim to accept all the idiots as adventurers. Adventurers had to be experts, and if they failed a request, not only the adventurer himself, but also the guild’s trust and reputation would fall.

So, a test system was introduced to select and recruit adventurers, and a separate training ground was set up to train new adventurers who had just established themselves as adventurers.

It’s a story that’s already established as common sense, but the main goal of adventurers is to exterminate monsters. This has been the most basic mission of adventurers since the days when the Demon King was in power, and it originated from the vigilante group.

However, the Demon King disappeared, the Demon Clan fell, and as a result, the demons also lost their momentum compared to before. In addition, the capital was the city with the cleanest public order within the kingdom. In other words, there were fewer demons than in other regions.

The Adventurer’s Guild also understood this very well. So, the Adventurer’s Guild purchased land outside the eastern gate of the royal capital where they were located and created a place where they could train to fight monsters. They created an environment where various monsters of different difficulty levels could live for the adventurer’s training and asked for the understanding of those around them.

It took a lot of effort, but the quality of the adventurers in the Adventurer’s Guild improved accordingly. In addition, the King was able to receive a more stable supply of valuable materials from monsters.

For this reason, Glenn chose this place as a place to train with the Saint. There is a disadvantage that new adventurers come here to train, but it is okay for now. Because the adventurer recruitment test is three months later, and last year’s newbies have already finished their training and left here, so except for a very few adventurers who train regularly, it is hardly noticeable.

“I have a question, Milishia.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Huh, Master?”

Glenn, who was about to gather his courage and ask Milicia a question, was instantly taken aback by the title she used to call him. In the Adventurer Training Grounds, Milicia and Glenn were facing each other. Unlike her previous outing outfit, Milicia was wearing only a shirt and fairly short pants this time, allowing her to move her arms and legs freely. Her hair was tied in a ponytail so as not to be in the way.

But I, I am not ready to be called a master yet. The saintess answered Glenn with a serious face, who was filled with doubt.

“As I said earlier, I intend to thoroughly prepare myself for the duel from now on. So please, treat me as your disciple Militia, not as a saint. Please, Master!”

Oh, right. She was serious. In two months, Milicia will no longer be a saint. She assumed that situation and, in order to cultivate her own power as a saint, she stepped down from her position and called herself a disciple. In that case, Glenn must also make up his mind.

“Okay. No…Okay, Militia. Let me ask you a question. What do you think is the most important thing in a fight? Strength? Punching power? Or physical superiority? ”

“I think it’s the punch.”

Glenn shook his head.

“Sadly, all three are important, but not all are correct. There are two correct answers: footwork and intuition.”

“Footwork and intuition, right?”

The saint’s expression was filled with doubt. It was understandable.

People who have never trained in martial arts have the idea that you need to have strong fists to be able to fight. It is not entirely wrong. If your fists are too weak, no matter how great your skills are, you will not have enough strength to inflict damage.

However, fighting basically allows not only punches but also kicks. And the most important thing in fighting is to be able to move yourself so that your punches can reach your opponent or so that you can avoid being hit by your opponent’s attacks. So there were two things that were important.

“Footwork. Footwork is practically the basis and foundation of fighting. In fighting, it is important to fight against your opponent, but it is also important to constantly move without standing still. In addition, it is easy to change direction without difficulty to avoid your opponent’s attacks. Good footwork is a shortcut to good defense and good attack. Also, the area where you can fight in a fight is often limited. It is standard to fight in a limited space by drawing a square or circle. You won’t be fighting while running around the entire city. If you have good footwork, you can use that space well to avoid your opponent’s attacks and attack your opponent well. It won’t be easy, though.”

“Intuition. Why do you need to have good intuition? It is because you can predict the opponent’s next move just by looking at the movements of the opponent’s upper and lower body, and avoid the opponent’s attack or attack by taking advantage of it. Of course, if you have excellent physical ability, you can react quickly even if you don’t have much intuition. However, if you don’t have an advantage in physical ability over the opponent, you should at least develop intuition enough to be able to predict the opponent’s next move like a prophet. You have to overcome human fear and act by watching the opponent until the end. ”

“I see. My thoughts were short-sighted.”

The saint nodded without a single doubt and listened to Glenn’s words. Glenn thought that it was effective to memorize the contents of “Basics of Barehanded Combat” that he had read this morning.

In fact, even though Glenn, who was a fighter, already knew that eye contact and footwork were important, he had no idea how to teach them. If Glenn had taught him without reading this book, he would have definitely…

‘First of all. Look at your opponent! Is your opponent shaking his upper body like this? That means he’s going to attack this way. Then, with footwork, dodge like this and attack like this! And footwork! Footwork is important. It’s good to focus on endurance when exercising your lower body! Once you get used to moving your feet, you can dodge like this and go over there, and dodge that way and come over here! ”

In this way, a genius lecture will unfold, focusing on gestures that are impossible to understand. Unless you are a veteran fighter, no one will understand such an explanation right away. That is why Glenn is reassured by his reading habits. It is relatively easy to read a book quickly and understand its contents.

“But the problem is that in order to develop both intuition and footwork at the same time, you have to go through a fairly advanced training. That’s impossible. Because usually, such training takes a long time, and if we spend that much time, we’ll only have a short period of time to train the rest. Since we’ll be thrown into the real thing in two months, if we only build up the basics, it’s clear that we’ll just be wasting time.”

Glenn thought of the martial artists of the Northern Kingdom. In the Northern Kingdom, not only slaves but also professional martial artists were called ‘athletes’ and were made to fight in the ring while people watched for entertainment.

Here, professional fighters who are not slaves fight continuously, but there are many cases where they train for a long time with a long date to fight a specific person. It is said that it is common to prepare for a period of 90 to 120 days. In order to train everything again from the basics to the advanced. That way, they can fight without getting tired in the ring.

“So, we have prepared a super special training to experience everything from the senses and footwork to the actual fight. It will probably be very painful. However, we do not plan to increase the difficulty level from the beginning. Our training plan is to train from a low level to a high level, and then focus on body management for the last week.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Okay, then. How should we practice?”

Unfortunately, the book only taught the ‘basic’ content, and did not contain any details about the rigorous training. This was natural. There was not enough space in a 50-page book to write such detailed information. In the end, Glenn’s method was to borrow the contents of the teachings he had received in the past.

“Militia. I heard you can create a shield around yourself with divine magic. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Show me once.”

Milicia stood up. And, without any warning, a soft glow of magic that even Glenn could sense enveloped her. Although the sphere wasn’t in perfect shape, it was clearly a shield.

“Perhaps this has saved my life in countless close combats.”

“Yes. At first, it was only consciously possible, but after training, I was able to form it unconsciously when I felt a crisis. ”

“That’s…”

It was a fact that could be both good news and bad news. The good news was that she had been trained to defend herself unconsciously. The bad news was that she was used to shielding herself with divine magic, which could become a major Achilles’ heel when she was in actual combat two months later.

And then…Glenn had a brilliant idea.

“What is the maximum distance at which the shield can be deployed?”

“Yes? It’s probably about 80cm.”

“It’s quite wide. Where’s the center?

“Maybe it’s here.”

The saintess pointed to her chest without hesitation, or to be exact, her spleen. For a moment, blood rushed to Glenn’s head and he almost turned his face away, but his dignity as a teacher barely stopped him. Instead, he touched his chin with his right hand and showed a worried look. No, he was really worried. At this level…

“What happens to the material that touches the shield?”

“Well, usually the weapon or attacker bounces off.”

“I see. Any traces?”

“Trace, is that it?”

“For example, mud, sand, or something with some viscosity? Or poison. ”

“There is a trace. I actually spilled the poison, and it was in the form of a sphere that covered the shield. When I released the shield, it melted and fell to the floor. ”

“Hmm, that’s good. Just a moment.”