episode_0097

“By the way, it’s fun, but why did you bring me out?”

Ion took a bite of the large strawberry on top of the parfait he had bought her and bit into it.

“Um… … a date.”

To my question, Ion blushes and answers as if it were nothing.

“Aha, then just say that. Why were you so embarrassed?”

“It’s not easy.”

She answered, sipping her iced Americano. Of course, there is no such place as America here.

“Still, it’s fun. Where are you going next?”

“If I go, I want to go to a bookstore.”

“Hey, a book?”

At my words, Ion smiles and shakes his head.

“Haha, even with the books that the kids in the book club have, I won’t be able to read them all in my lifetime. What I want to buy is the ‘Standard Swordsmanship Compendium’. ”

Listening to Ion’s explanation, the Perion Empire collects the sword techniques of each clan or known swordsmanship to the extent that they can be made public, and steadily compiles them every year with feedback gathered from changes, improvements, and actual battles. This is called the Standard Swordsmanship Encyclopedia.

“I heard this year’s version was published last week.”

“Looks fun? Let’s go right now.”

I also got interested and ate the remaining parfait in one bite and got up cheerfully… but then I staggered because my head was dizzy due to the brain freeze.

“Ouch, I think I ate too fast…”

“Hahaha.”

Ion patted my back until my headache got better and took me to a large bookstore.

“Wow, the bookstore is big.”

“As far as I know, the standard swordsmanship encyclopedia is only supplied to the largest bookstore in the territory. Lulu’s will be supplied here… maybe? I always bought the standard encyclopedia from our territory.”

As we entered the bookstore, the bell hanging at the end of the ornately decorated door rang out with a clear sound.

The inside of the bookstore is quiet, and there are no staff members to respond. Most of the people who visit are quietly looking for or reading interesting books.

The place where Ion headed was the corner that said ‘Technical Books’. He looked around the widest and most noticeable section among them.

“Ah, here it is.”

The standard compendium of swordsmanship was a rather large and thick book, and its cover featured a female knight in fine heavy armor, shield and sword raised low.

“This year’s cover model is Enlil Kyung. He’s awesome.”

“What about ions?”

At my question, Ion smiled faintly and shrugged his shoulders.

“My skills aren’t that great, and the knights who are more famous and stronger than me are tough and fierce. Well, maybe someday I’ll have the honor of becoming a model for the cover of the standard encyclopedia.”

Compared to the other books piled up, the space where the standard swordsmanship compendium was stacked was quite low, so it seemed like it sold well. Ion also picked up one of the neat ones.

“Does this help?”

“There’s more to it than you think. If you have time, you should read it too and you’ll understand what I mean. ”

Ion explained that especially referring to other swordsmanship and imagining how to respond and attack effectively with the swordsmanship you have learned is very helpful in improving your skills and preparing countermeasures.

“If you simply learn swordsmanship, you may have questions. Why is this action necessary? It doesn’t seem to have much meaning with this sword… You may think that. However, when you see this, you will usually realize it.”

Ion said so, but only people with outstanding talent like her and Elfin would have such questions while learning swordsmanship, and unfortunately, I never had such questions and just learned as I was taught… Is this what they call a difference in talent?

“No, Ain. It’s not that you lack talent, it’s that it’s your strength. If you question your swordsmanship, your growth will stagnate.”

However, if you learn diligently like me, your skills will come out as you have, and you will be better off because you can naturally deal with the swords that you don’t know why they exist in real combat, Ion defended me.

“Well, listening to your story, people who have such questions seem like they have the talent of a great general…”

“Ahahaha…”

Ion just laughs without much objection, wondering if I made a mistake. It seems that both Ion and Elfin are very talented.

We looked through the book further, with the standard swordsmanship compendium tucked under our arms.

It wasn’t that there was no income, but I noticed four or five books that the miscellaneous book research group in the Knight Sustained Estate had tried to obtain but were out of stock and had been put off until next time.

Besides, there weren’t many people in the book corner, so there was plenty of stock, so I bought it on their behalf, requested delivery to the Knight Sustained Mansion, and paid for it.

“You’re meticulous?”

“Just thinking about it. Um… To be exact, Hoyona and Bandi had a look of bereavement.”

That’s probably why I remembered it better. As soon as I saw that there was a bookshelf, I looked through it to see if there was any books they wanted.

“Oh, I’m saying this because we’re alone.”

As I leave the bookstore, I reveal to Ion a piece of the great truth.

“Is there a fat writer with folded ears?”

“Oh, I remember. Did you get it from the book?”

“That’s a bandit.”

In my great truth, Ion seemed to be thinking about something here and there.

“…Ah, so that’s why your reaction was like that at that time and other times.”

“I also think I’m good at writing, but I’m not confident in myself.”

“I also found it quite fun. Well, the members of the miscellaneous study group were generally subtly lacking in confidence. Even though their abilities were above average.”

The miscellaneous book research group evaluated by Ion said that Hoyo was much stronger than he thought, Bam was as capable as he knew, and the one who surprised him the most was Bandi.

“I knew she had a crush on me, but I was really surprised when I heard about the business she was involved in. Did you hear about it?”

“I’ve heard about it, but I don’t have a sense of what level it is. Should I say I have no sense of life?”

I can talk about ‘how much I can match my specs with my colleagues’ with the same amount of money,’ but I don’t know ‘how much I can live on,’ so I answered honestly.

“The current level of wealth that Bandi possesses is enough to form a family of a nobleman or higher. In addition to his talents, he also has many other talents. It’s just a shame that his body is so shrunken.”

Well, in a way, she’s a typical female gold bunny, Ion adds.

“Then what about the females of Moratium?”

“Us? Well… If you think about it, we’re the same. We were stiff towards males. We were just crazy about swords. My cousins and my father’s other female clans’ sisters are at a similar level. Now, I’m one of the luckiest ones.”

I heard that Ion’s half-sisters are also devoted to the path of a knight, and that there is still no good news about the male and female.

“By the way, I wonder if I’ll ever meet the half-siblings of the females in the group. I didn’t see them at the ball either.”

If you think about it, their parents probably all form a herd, but I’ve never met any of the females in that herd or their children.

“Ah, we’ll meet later. There’s a good reason for that, a family anniversary.”

“Family anniversary?”

“Usually it’s a day to commemorate the first day of the family. Think of it as something like the founding anniversary of the Academy or the founding anniversary of our empire.”

“So that’s why you didn’t come looking for me.”

“That’s right. We’ll be meeting at that time anyway.”

“Well, if there are regular family gatherings, then it would be standard to go then.”

“Hasn’t your family ever done that?”

“Um… I don’t really remember.”

“I guess that’s what the North is like.”

We walked along the street leading to Anastasia’s mansion, chatting about this and that, and then we met Elfin at the entrance to the mansion.

“Elfin!”

“Ain, Ion. Have you been out?”

I hugged Elfin, and Ion exchanged a female-style greeting, elbow-butting Elfin.

“Yeah, a date.”

“I’m jealous.”

“Then, player substitution?”

Elfin laughs and shakes his head at my playful remark.

“You must be tired, so next time.”

“I’m fine. Then next time, I’ll have a good time with Elfin. Today, I’ll spend time with Ion.”

So when we enter the mansion and reach the room, Lulu is looking at the circuit with a funny vision goggle?

“Are you here?”

“Yeah. What are you doing?”

“Circuit inspection. Even if it works well now, it may break down in the long run if the finish or connection is not good.”

Seeing Lulu like that, Elfin and Ion laughed softly and giggled, saying they should warm up and went down to the knight training grounds, leaving only me and Lulu behind.

“How is it?”

“The finish is fine. I’ll praise it.”

Lulu took off her glasses and acknowledged my skills with a proud expression.

“Isn’t it difficult to make a circuit while optimizing it?”

“Yeah, Lulu, thank you for explaining it well.”

Originally, I would have connected the circuit very simply, but as Lulu suggested, it is a bit cumbersome, but it saves circuit space and is good for optimization, so I am doing it as succinctly as possible.

“A date with Ion?”

“Yeah. Next time together?”

“Good.”

Lulu nodded coolly to my words, took off her thin outer garment and changed into a free-spirited outfit of a tank top and dolphin pants, and put on her vision engineering gloves.

“I’m talking about the ‘use item’ mechanism I told you about last time, but I thought of a way to optimize it further.”

“Oh, let’s do it right now.”

So Lulu and I spent our time playing with the arcade game until Ion and Elfin had a good fight and finished showering before going back up to my room.