Chapter 65: Training (2)

“…Did you say training just now?”

After a brief pause, Jessica eyed me suspiciously.

I felt hurt that Jessica didn’t trust me more after all the time we’d spent together, but it couldn’t be helped. Only another practitioner of Baldo could truly understand the delicate mindset of a Baldo user.

“…You’re not planning to spout nonsense or force me to use Baldo under the guise of training, are you?”

“Jessica, you know better than anyone how well I keep my promises.”

“That’s… true.”

I was the one who resisted the urge to tease her for days when told not to speak to her.

Recalling that incident, Jessica clenched her fist slightly and glared at me with sharp eyes.

“But why are you offering to train me? What’s in it for you…”

“There’s plenty in it for me. You wouldn’t understand.”

When I first met Jessica, my goal was to humiliate her to create an opportunity to fight Jessica’s father.

However, that objective changed when Jessica declared she would never snitch to her family, shifting to making her a Baldo practitioner to promote the art.

And now, knowing Jessica’s ancestor was a possessed person like me, my goal had changed once again.

‘Pierre wrote a diary in Korean besides what he wrote on the tombstone, right?’

If that was the case, there was a high chance the original Jessica also wrote a diary in Korean like Pierre.

After all, as a noble, she would often need to use a cipher that only she could read.

Moreover, if she used such a cipher, there was a good likelihood it contained clues related to possession or at least useful information.

‘For that alone, I need to deepen my relationship with Jessica somehow.’

My goal was to either provoke a duel between Jessica’s father and me to get my hands on the ancestor’s relics, as I initially planned, or become close enough with Jessica to at least catch a glimpse of them from afar.

Of course, the fact that Jessica’s reactions were too amusing to stop teasing her also played a part.

“Besides, at this rate, I don’t think you’ll challenge me to a duel before graduation.”

“W-What?!”

“If I’m wrong, shall we set a date right here and now for our duel? When would you prefer? Tomorrow? Next month? Next year?”

When I asked her to name a specific date, Jessica, well aware of her current skill level, kept her mouth shut.

“So… you’re saying that since it seems I won’t be able to challenge you no matter how much time passes, you’ll teach me?”

“Exactly!! You’ve got it!”

“H-How little do you think of me to say such things!! To think I’d accept such nonsense…”

As Jessica gripped her hammer tightly in anger, I tried to calm her down with a gesture.

“Whoa, whoa~ Calm down, Jessica. I may have treated you like a child, but I’ve never once looked down on you!!”

“If that wasn’t looking down on me just now, then what was it?!”

“It’s an objective assessment of your skills. If anything, aren’t you the one looking down on yourself?”

“What?”

If it wasn’t looking down on someone to think you could defeat a person far superior in both talent and physical ability without using Baldo, then what was?

If it had been a stricter Baldo practitioner instead of me, they would have cut Jessica’s throat the moment they heard those words.

“Jessica, you have some idea why Peter, who was supposed to be our homeroom teacher, locked himself in his room… don’t you?”

“…”

Jessica wasn’t stupid, despite my childish treatment of her. She must have roughly guessed what happened based on the events of the class assignment day.

She just didn’t want to believe it.

The fact that Peter, who was superior to her in every aspect except for the curly hair, had lost meant that she had absolutely no chance of winning.

“You didn’t really… defeat Sir Peter…”

At first, Jessica tried to deny it, but as she recalled the events of the class assignment day, she realized the implications and turned pale.

It wasn’t just Jessica who was shocked. Rain, who had been eavesdropping on our conversation with a prim expression, was also looking this way with disbelief.

“Did you… did you really win? Against the commander of the Royal Knights, even if he’s retired…!”

“It was a clash between a katana and a hammer. Even a stray dog could easily guess the outcome.”

If anything, I couldn’t understand why Jessica and Rain were so surprised.

Isn’t it common sense that when a katana and a hammer clash, the hammer will either break or be cut?

“Does it still sound like I’m looking down on you when I say I’ll teach you?”

“But still…”

Jessica seemed close to giving in, but she was hesitating, unable to let go of her last bit of pride.

To break that hesitation, I whispered in Jessica’s ear.

“Jessica, do you really intend to win?”

“Ugh…! W-What do you…”

“Well, you know. You don’t want to learn Baldo. You don’t want to swallow your pride and learn from someone stronger than you either. It doesn’t seem like the behavior of someone who actually wants to win, does it?”

“Nngh…!!”

I held out my hand to Jessica, who was struggling to make a decision, and said:

“Abandoning your pride to win isn’t shameful. It’s actually a courageous act that few can do. Will you remain a loser who clings to pride? Or will you become a brave winner who discards it?”

Jessica hesitated for a moment, staring at my outstretched hand, but then nodded resolutely and took it.

“I-I’ve decided!! To defeat you, I’ll endure the embarrassment and train under you!”

“Train under me?”

“Yes! That’s what you said earlier!!”

“Then why is your tone like that?”

“Huh?”

Even if we were the same age, and Jessica’s family was of higher status than mine, such a tone was unacceptable when establishing a master-disciple relationship.

“Ask more politely, with a tone that conveys your desperation.”

“B-But you said you’d teach me first!!”

“Just because I offered to teach you first, does that mean you can speak so disrespectfully? Is that the proper demeanor for a noble?”

“Ugh…!!”

When I brought up proper conduct, Jessica bowed reluctantly with a bitter expression.

“P-Please… allow me to… train under you…”

“That’s not enough… Since we’ve come this far, why not kneel instead of just bowing?”

“K-Kneel?!! Are you asking me, the Lady of House von Grund, to kneel?!”

“Jessica… If our positions were reversed, do you think it would end with just me kneeling?”

If our positions were reversed, even if I knelt and bowed my head, Jessica wouldn’t have taught me.

Jessica knew this well, but even so, her knees wouldn’t bend as she couldn’t completely abandon her pride.

“Haah…”

Seeing this, my mischievous side kicked in, and I sighed deeply, pretending to turn away.

Startled by this, Jessica unconsciously dropped to one knee, and I turned back immediately to say:

“Oh? What’s this? You actually knelt? I was just joking… Why so serious…”

“Y-You!! Eeek!!!”

Jessica sprang up using the momentum from her kneeling position and swung her hammer at me.

But as before, this sloppy attack fueled by anger was easily avoided with a simple body turn, posing no threat to me.

“Jessica! As I said earlier, letting anger take control isn’t a very wise choice…”

“Shut up!! Shut up and die!! I’ll kill you and erase this humiliation from this world!!”

“To erase that, wouldn’t you need to kill Rain over there too?”

Saying that, I looked towards where Rain had been standing earlier, but she had already left the training ground.

“Tsk tsk… Mediocre talent and skipping training… Jessica! You mustn’t end up like that! Got it? Come on, promise your teacher~!!”

“Shut up!!”

Jessica swatted away the pinky finger I held out and swung her hammer at my head, but of course, such a clumsy attack had no chance of hitting me.

How much time passed like this? Just as in the classroom this morning, the scene repeated itself until Jessica, having exhausted all her energy, collapsed on the floor.

“Haa… Haa…”

“Hmm… Jessica, I can roughly see your problems from your attacks just now.”

“Haa… W-What do you mean?”

“I said I can see your problems. First, your attacks are too monotonous, making it easy to read your next move.”

Peter’s attacks were also simple, but Peter had a swordmaster’s unique ability to read moves and the physical prowess to make even simple attacks hit.

However, Jessica lacked both the move-reading ability of a swordmaster and the physical ability to make attacks hit that normally wouldn’t.

“So you need to increase your attack options. The martial arts I mentioned earlier would be good, but using a shield to increase stability or carrying attack-purpose magic tools or daggers to throw in emergencies would also work.”

“…You’re giving surprisingly normal advice.”

“Of course, if you learn Baldo, you won’t need to resort to such tricks, but…”

“…I have no intention of learning it.”

“…I figured. Oh, one last thing, Jessica.”

“What is it?”

“Take a shower when you get back… I’m used to the smell of sweat, but still. You’re the curly-haired lady, so you should get rid of the smell quickly…”

Jessica’s uniform, which had already been somewhat sweaty before coming here, was now damp with sweat after her exertions.

“N-No!! T-This isn’t my smell…!!”

“What do you mean it’s not? Come here for a sec.”

“Come where… Kyaa!!”

I buried my nose in Jessica’s chest, where sweat would have accumulated the most as she sat on the ground, and sniffed. A sweet yet tangy scent filled my nostrils.

“It’s definitely your sweat smell…”

“Y-You perverted bastard…!!!”

[raei: Bruh. Please don’t try this.]