episode_0034

What is fencing?

I don’t really understand the martial arts thinking, such as killing Sima Weida for the purpose of salvation, or enlightening the Tao and becoming an immortal. If I had been born there, I might have known, but at least not now.

So what is fencing? Why was it created?

Of course, it’s to kill people.

There is no reason to carry a sword for hunting. Since there is no reason to get close to the prey, it would be much more efficient to hone your skills with a spear or bow. The advantage of simply having a long firing range far outweighs the other advantages of a sword.

The sword and swordsmanship were created and developed solely for the purpose of killing fellow humans. This is the origin that I have learned and accepted so far.

So, if anyone were to look at it and say, “Hey, that guy is good at cutting people,” what would be necessary and important?

It doesn’t die right away.

To be exact, it means that proper swordsmanship is ‘killing the opponent without dying yourself’.

Even if there is a crazy swordsman who holds a peerless sword and strengthens his body with incredible magical powers to split the bodies of all enemies who block his path with a single stroke of the sword,

If the soldiers who are prepared to die are hit with just one or two stabs or are unable to dodge the pouring arrows, they will lose their strength and die, as long as they are human.

But what if this inspector had armor of a similar level to the sword? If it couldn’t be penetrated unless one was exceptionally skilled? He would have gone berserk like a madman. That’s the story.

The most important thing in swordsmanship is ultimately the method of defense that prevents you from being attacked by your opponent and the method of destroying that defense.

So, if you look closely at and examine the standardized swordsmanship, you get the impression that it is like a textbook.

‘If you attack like this, you will never be able to stop it.’

‘If your opponent attacks like this and you counterattack like this, it’s effective.’

‘In this situation, it is easy to gain an advantage by attacking like this’

It shows the intentions of the same predecessor. It tells you how to attack and in which direction to make it as difficult for the opponent to block as possible and how to defend most effectively in various standoff situations or engagements.

So why do we need to know this intention?

In my previous life, there was a saying called “Supari (守破離)”. I learned it while reading a martial arts novel, and I don’t know the origin of its origin, but I remember it talking about the posture of a person who practices.

To put it simply, Su (守) is practicing the basic techniques taught by the master until your body remembers them. Pa (破) is modifying or applying the basic techniques to suit your own situation. Li (離) is creating new martial arts yourself or reaching a state where you have escaped from the basic techniques… something like that.

It may sound like a far-fetched story, but it is actually applicable to all fields, not just martial arts or swordsmanship. Following the teachings of the past, confirming the meaning of those teachings, and furthermore, teaching others yourself is a profound and profound truth.

Although memorizing dozens of defensive techniques taught in swordsmanship is very important and absolutely necessary, the important thing is to properly understand ‘why’ these defensive techniques are necessary, ‘when’ they should be used, and ‘how’ they should be applied in order to properly practice them.

“Ouch!”

“In other words, please understand that the reason I’m tormenting Cosette like this… no, training her like this right now is not because I’m a little upset that Cosette said she wouldn’t team up with me, ditched me, and only played with Agnes before sneaking back to the swordsmanship class. It’s for Cosette’s future. ”

“Ah! No, that’s it! Gosh! This way too, Eek! There’s something!”

While talking, he swings the branch nonstop, hitting Cosette all over her body. Since he adjusts the strength appropriately when he hits, it won’t feel more than a slight sting, but it’s still a punishment for the annoying Cosette.

“That’s strange. Cosette from a while ago seemed to have blocked about half of them… Maybe she didn’t train properly? ”

“Ouch! The princess! Whoa! She’s swinging faster!”

I knew you’d notice this. You’ve grown up, Cosette.

“Hee, heeek..”

After patting Cosette’s entire body, he approached Mathias, who backed away with a cute sound.

It’s cute, but… this isn’t right.

“Mathias. If you make such cute sounds in the future, you will be punished immediately.”

“After?”

Exactly!

As I struck Mathias on the head with a whirlwind of lightning speed, Mathias fiddled with both hands at the place where he had been hit and made a face of confusion. I guess I can hit him a little harder.

“A knight is not simply a swindler who is good at wielding a sword. An excellent knight is an honorable being who represents the ability and dignity of his master and has a duty to inspire awe in others. If you whine like a puppy, you will never become a great knight.”

It was just a bunch of nonsense that was just thrown together, but it was surprisingly easy for Mathias to understand. He straightened his posture and straightened his shoulders.

Of course, the day will never come when Mathias will become the dignified, serious, and cool middle-aged knight he imagines, but it’s not entirely wrong.

I sparred with Mathias in exactly the same way I had with Cosette. The only difference was that I swung my whip much slower, but there was a good reason for this, other than my intention to tease Cosette.

Cosette had very poor physical strength when she entered school, but she was learning the basic swordsmanship that Mathias was desperately learning now… In other words, she had learned the basics, the very basics that can be learned anywhere on this continent and are the basics learned before learning swordsmanship. It wasn’t that she had trained properly, but it felt like she had learned it while her siblings were learning it.

He had memorized the way to move his body and sword, as well as the shape of the sword, so I taught him a little bit in a quick manner, but Mathias hadn’t even memorized that yet, so he knew how to block when I slowly slashed him with my whip, and he had enough time to actually move his body, but he hadn’t gotten used to how to block it with what movements. It’s easy to just swing the sword around, but that’s not the intention of the training.

He must be frustrated, too, so this will be an opportunity to realize how important the basics are. If he doesn’t know that even after doing this, there’s no hope, but Mathias isn’t that stubborn.

“At least Cosette and I should be able to deal with Ayla together.”

Ayla, who glanced over, was muttering something next to Cosette, who had already stretched out. I thought they were originally close, but seeing the two’s fearsome affinity, it seemed like they would have acted the same way even if it was their first meeting.

After dealing with Matias for a while, I told them to practice their movements again and then approached the Isla.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, princess, I was telling you the information about the competition I found out.”

“No, you didn’t tell me, the team leader?”

When I looked at Ayla with a look of “What is this?”, Ayla snickered and waved her hand.

“The princess was busy teaching the cutie, right? And I didn’t really get the information by running around. I just saw it posted on the bulletin board.”

Well, if that’s the case.

“So what is it?”

“You register with the guild as a team, and when you complete a request from the guild, they give you points based on the difficulty determined by the guild, and then you are ranked based on that, right?”

“It’s really guild-related, as Ayla said last time? And since it’s a request, it’s easy to say… There must be dozens of teams, and the guilds in this area are handling them all?”

Are things really that rotten? Is public security a mess?

“Perhaps the lower the score, the more likely you are to receive tasks that don’t require additional manpower, such as ordinary cleaning or security. Special requests are first-come, first-served.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then it wouldn’t matter.”

A team of lower-ranking students is forced to do tasks like cleaning sewers, so dozens of people end up doing work that would normally be done by 4 or 5 people. If it’s a simple labor request with a very low daily wage anyway, even if dozens of people do it repeatedly, the academy or guild won’t pay much in commission fees.

Guild!

In this exciting other world life, it was a place I had yet to experience, and a place I absolutely had to be. When we entered the guild, there would be a bald old man with all kinds of scars who would tease us, saying, “Hey, why did you kids come to the guild?” Then, when we got our abilities measured and we got S-class, he wouldn’t accept it and started a fight, giving us a “real lesson.” Or, the device that was used to test magical power or whatever broke, and the guild master who had been watching the situation for some reason said, “I guess there’s nothing we can do, I’ll measure it for you myself,” and ended up having a fight… The same developments were waiting for us.

Of course I knew it was unlikely to happen, but it’s not a crime to have even a little hope, right?