Chap 28-Training

 

“By the way… you two seem very close.”

Lina’s voice, as cold as ice, pierced my ears.

I stopped breathing for a moment.

The face that had been lamenting loneliness and looked as if she would cry any second ago was gone, and she was glaring at Bella with a chilling gaze.

Especially the gaze directed at Bella seemed to carry even blatant displeasure.

“W-What are you talking about!”

I was the first to panic and stammered.

Next to me, Bella also looked surprised by Lina’s sudden change.

“Close? What do you mean!”

I tried to act nonchalant, or rather, I retorted with a voice mixed with annoyance.

“I… I was just trying to check if the item was working properly, but I got caught by the professor…”

‘Why am I making excuses for this?’

But did my excuse work?

The chilling aura disappeared from Lina’s face in an instant.

As if nothing had happened, she smiled again with her usual gentle and kind smile.

“Ah, is that so.”

She said with a look that seemed genuinely disappointed.

“That’s a shame. I was hoping you would have a close friend you could rely on too. It must be lonely to walk around alone like that every day, right?”

Her gaze briefly swept over Bella.

But there was no hint of regret in her tone.

…

The unexpected three-way encounter at the dessert shop ended more blandly than I had expected.

As soon as Lina finished her cake, she said that ‘it was time for prayer’ and hurriedly left.

Her back as she headed towards the single dormitory seemed busier than usual for some reason.

Well, Saintess Candidates are usually busy.

But to think that…

That chilling gaze.

That eerie expression that I had never seen in the game.

‘Did I do something wrong?’

In any case, I shouldn’t get close to her…

I decided not to worry about it anymore.

Once again, it was just Bella and me.

On the way back to the academy after leaving the shop.

The evening streets, now devoid of the earlier commotion, were quite deserted.

We didn’t have anything to say in particular, so we just walked side by side.

An awkward silence hung in the air, but strangely, it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Rather, I felt much better now than I did with the subtle tension from before.

“Hey, Yeon.”

How long had we been walking?

Bella broke the silence first.

She hesitated for a moment, then averted her gaze slightly and continued.

“If… if you’re not busy, would you like to…”

‘…Huh?’

Like to what?

Surely she’s not suggesting we go for more dessert, is she?

“I… I mean…”

Bella cleared her throat once, then continued as if nothing was wrong.

“How about we train together?”

“Train?”

I looked at her with a puzzled expression.

Suddenly?

Of course, Bella is an instructor at the academy, and I am a student, so it wasn’t strange, but…

The timing was too abrupt.

And above all…

‘My training isn’t something I can show to others.’

Breaking fingers, deliberately inflicting wounds, or even more than that, my ‘training’ methods were far beyond the common sense of ordinary people.

I didn’t have the confidence to do that in front of Bella.

Besides, it would only cause her more worry.

As I hesitated without answering, Bella asked again.

This time, her voice contained pure curiosity.

“Come to think of it, I’ve been wondering, why don’t you use Martial Arts at all? The Bennet family is a renowned family of swordsmen. You should have learned at least the basics of swordsmanship… Your fighting style is too… how should I put it, inefficient.”

She was right.

The Bennet family’s swordsmanship was known as the best in Terra.

Even in the original game, Serena Bennet showed powerful swordsmanship skills.

But…

I had no choice but to answer with a slightly gloomy expression.

“Well… I don’t have the talent for it.”

At my answer, Bella stared at me with an expression that said, ‘What nonsense are you talking about?’

“That’s impossible.”

She immediately retorted.

“Six High-ranking Monsters. The number of people who can fight against those guys as well as you do… can be counted on one hand even on the front lines. And you say you don’t have talent?”

Bella’s eyes were serious.

She seemed to think that I was lying out of modesty or for some other reason.

But this was a clear fact.

“It’s true. I’ve tried this and that since I was young… but strangely, it never improves. All I can do is wrap Mana around my body and swing it around.”

I shrugged my shoulders and said.

This was not an excuse or acting.

I really had zero talent when it came to Martial Arts.

I couldn’t even follow the basic Martial Arts that even street thugs learn.

“That’s strange…”

Bella still looked at me up and down with an expression that she couldn’t understand.

As if there was a hidden secret somewhere in my body.

After being lost in thought for a moment, she grabbed my wrist again as if she had made up her mind.

“Follow me.”

“Where?”

“To the training room. I need to see it for myself.”

Bella led me into the academy without hesitation.

We arrived at a private training room assigned to professors or special students, not the common training ground used by ordinary students.

The interior was quite spacious, and various training equipment were neatly arranged.

“This is my personal training room.”

Bella said as she closed the door.

“No one can enter without permission, so you can rest assured.”

She took me to the center of the training room.

“Now, let’s see. Whether you really have no talent for Martial Arts.”

Her eyes were serious.

I sighed.

Does she have to confirm this to be satisfied?

Well, I have nothing to hide anyway, so I might as well show her.

This is going to be a pain.

“Let’s start with a light sparring match. With wooden swords.”

Bella threw me one of the two wooden swords hanging on the wall. A heavy sensation.

It was the first time I had held a sword in a long time.

“Are you ready?”

She lowered her stance and aimed her wooden sword.

A flawless posture.

“Anytime.”

I also awkwardly held up my wooden sword and took a stance.

Whoosh-!

Bella moved first.

A fast and concise movement. The wooden sword made a sharp whistling sound as it flew towards my shoulder.

It wasn’t an unavoidable attack.

But I didn’t bother to avoid it.

Because that was the fighting style that suited me.

‘This much is nothing.’

Thwack!

A dull sound rang out, and a shock was transmitted to my shoulder.

I felt a slight thrill along with the feeling of my bones slightly vibrating.

“…!”

Bella flinched for a moment and stepped back. Her expression was filled with bewilderment.

“Haa…”

She let out a deep sigh and touched her forehead.

“Yes, I know about the Regeneration Magic Circle engraved on your back and that… strange Unique Ability. Maybe that’s more helpful to you.”

She stopped talking for a moment and looked at me. Her eyes held complex emotions.

“It can’t be helped since it’s sparring… but I hope you don’t deliberately allow unnecessary attacks.”

“……”

‘…Too bad.’

I clicked my tongue slightly inwardly.

But I couldn’t just keep getting hit when she asked me like that.

And the fact that someone was worried about me wasn’t a bad feeling in itself.

I shrugged my shoulders as if I couldn’t help it and replied.

“…Okay. I’ll do that.”

I readjusted my wooden sword and straightened my posture. This time, I decided to fight in a more orthodox way, as she said.

The sparring started again.

Surprisingly, I almost overwhelmed Bella at first.

Unlike before, I paid attention to evasion and defense, but my reaction speed and movement using Mana were much better than I had expected.

Bella seemed flustered by my unexpected skills, but she gradually seemed to be engaging in the sparring match with sincerity.

The sound of wooden swords clashing echoed sharply in the training room.

‘Is it about to end soon?’

After a few more exchanges,

I tried to land a finishing blow by aiming for Bella’s opening.

It was at that moment.

Whoosh-!

Bella’s movement changed in an instant.

She lowered her body and charged into my right field of vision.

A movement that I would have been able to detect and react to normally.

But right now…

Thwack!

“…Ugh!”

A strong impact came to my right side, which I hadn’t been able to react to.

It was fortunate that it was a wooden sword; if it had been a real sword, it would have been a fatal wound.

I staggered back from the unexpected blow.

“Ugh… I got hit. As expected, you’re strong, Bella.”

Contrary to my expectations, Bella didn’t smile in victory or tease me.

Rather, her expression was frozen coldly.

She didn’t say anything and took her stance again, then charged into my right blind spot without hesitation this time as well.

‘…Damn it!’

This time, I had predicted it in advance, so my body reacted.

I tried to block it by raising my wooden sword, but it was impossible to perfectly block an attack coming from an unseen direction.

Clang!

The sound of wooden swords clashing echoed, but I couldn’t overcome the impact and dropped the wooden sword I was holding.

The wooden sword fell to the floor with a loud noise.

“……”

Bella didn’t attack anymore.

She stared at me with an expression as if she didn’t want to believe it.

Bella’s gaze lingered around my right eye.

After a suffocating silence, she asked in a low, trembling voice.

“Yeon… what happened to your right eye?”

Author’s words:

Thank you for reading!