Violet had a rectangular belt bag over her left buttock. - There was no other way to put it. The belt bag was not the eye-catcher with these pants. - After a short rummage, she had pulled out a pen and a notepad and given both to Yuri. She had then said something else to Yuri, but Meia hadn't been paying attention. After that, Yuri had gone behind the carriage and now, barely a minute later, she came back. Violet was given both back and pocketed them, then she came to Meia with the sword.

"Here. Attack me with it."

Meia thought she hadn't heard correctly at first. But Violet seemed to be serious. She held the sword out to her with the handle.

"I can't do that."

"Do it." Violet cut her off.

The tone was firm. It seemed impossible to refuse.

Meia gripped the sword hesitantly, but she didn't feel comfortable with it. Her fingers were even trembling. Why was she being forced to do this?

The trembling did not last long. When Violet let go of the sword and the weight was transferred to her hand, the tachi was heavy - very heavy. It was much heavier than it should be. Meia could barely hold it and almost dropped it, but managed to grab it with her second hand in time. The tachi was as heavy as a dumbbell. Meia only knew tachi from pictures, but she was absolutely sure that it shouldn't be like this. But the tachi was not even just difficult to hold because of its weight. The weight distribution was also completely wrong.

"A problem?"

"N-No."

Meia raised the sword and took a closer look at it. The tachi was in good condition for the most part, but it also looked a little battered. The blade was scratched in several places. As far as Meia could tell, the scratches were not from normal defense, but rather from improper use. Meia remembered how roughly she had been dragged to the carriage. The masked woman presumably handled her belongings that roughly as well.

The cutting angle of the tachi was sharp. From this position, Meias would estimate it to be 30 degrees, or 15 degrees on each side. The blade had only one further bevel from the cutting edge to the ridge line. The cross-section of the tachi was a real wedge. It could certainly cut very well. This was one of the advantages of single-edged swords. A double-edged sword with equal bevels on both sides would be too thin and would feather too much. For the first few years, Meia's training sword was a classic one-and-a-half hand sword. If it had been sharpened, it would have had a cutting edge, then a concave broadening, then a linear broadening, then a fuller, then the other side. When hit, the concave broadening quickly increased the resistance, but it could not be avoided either, because then the sword would not have the desired strength. It was therefore more difficult to get deeper than with a tachi.

Meia tried to think of the best way to attack with this sword. Her thoughtful gaze briefly met Violet's waiting one, which only put her under more pressure. Why had she even borrowed this sword when she had two of her own? Meia would have preferred to look at hers. They were much more interesting.

"I just want to assess your skills. Just hit for me."

Meia stood a few steps away from Violet. It seemed she wanted to defend herself unarmed.

Meia held the tachi two-handed to the right of her body and turned the edge towards herself.

"No. Please use the sharp side and full power."

Meia didn't think this was a good idea. She still turned the sword back around, but she would rather not do it. Was it really okay to attack someone unarmed with a sharp weapon? What if Violet couldn't defend herself? Meia wasn't sure if she could deflect her own attack in time. Especially with a weapon of this sharpness and the fact that Violet was wearing no protection at all, she would almost certainly injure her at the very least. How was she even going to fend off the tachi with its range without a weapon? There were techniques for it, but ... Meia didn't want to end up in the mud. Maybe she just wanted to avoid it? From above was probably the best option in that case.

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"Hmm..." Violet seemed to become impatient and took a step towards Meia.

"If you don't attack me..." Her aura changed from one moment to the next. Her gaze darkened.

Another step. It was oppressive. It took Meia's breath away. The blade wavered before her eyes.

One more step. Violet looked like a bloodthirsty beast. "... you will die now."

Meia was sure it wasn't a joke. She was serious. Meia noticed that her hands were shaking. Violet was frightening. Violet would tear her to pieces as soon as she got to her. That was evident. It was obvious. Why hadn't she realized it before? If she didn't manage to kill her now, she would die.

Meia took a step forward and struck with all her might. With a bit of luck, she would manage to split her skull.

The tachi rushed down. She felt how it split the air.

Suddenly she realized what she was about to do. She wanted to stop. She wanted to deflect the attack. But it was too late for anything. - The tachi had already stopped.

A gust of wind blew against Meia's body. Her mouth fell open.

Violet's hand was on the sword. She had gripped it between her fingers. She had simply grabbed the sword out of the air.

"Not bad for some teaching."

~Not bad...~ Meia didn't even know what to respond to that. That was a real attack and she had just grabbed the sword. You couldn't do that. That was kind of unfair.

Meia released her grip. She had struck with all her might. ~How could she just catch it like that?~ Was she that much faster? She didn't even look like she was struggling. It wasn't even close. It wasn't even dangerous. It was humiliating. Meia was disappointed in herself. She would rather have ended up with her face in the mud.

"Ha-Ha-Ha... Only lasted a second, but laughing at me."

The fairy laughed. Meia understood that she had been tricked again. She just didn't care that much. The fact that her attack was stopped so easily was more on her mind.

The trick was different from the fairy's. It was probably simpler. She had a ... thought? 'Kill her. You have to kill her or you'll die. Kill her.' Something like that. Meia knew it wasn't her own thought. Maybe it was more like a voice? In any case, it sounded sincere. There was such an unshakeable confidence behind the claim that Meia believed it. That was all. It seemed so simple that Meia felt stupid that it had worked on her. As if she had been told: 'Do this', and she did it.

Violet ignored what the fairy had said. She took the sword aside and put her hand on Meia's shoulder.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes..."

"I'm sorry, I wanted to see what you could do and you wouldn't have gotten serious otherwise."

Meia had collected herself a little. She straightened up again.

"You're pretty fast."

Meia meant it. Meia was faster than her master in some ways. Speed was the only thing she had. Still, Violet was so much faster.

"Well... Thank you."

Violet accepted the praise, but she seemed used to it.

"What would you have done if I was stronger?"

"Then I would have died, fufufu."

~What's funny about that?~

"Well, let's have a look." Violet took out the notepad and handed it to Meia. "Read."

There was crooked text on the first sheet. It was a mess and it was in block letters. Meia had to decipher it before reading it aloud.

"'Right leading hand, bent leading arm, strike at 30 degrees to the right shoulder, full step'"

Violet seemed impressed. "Almost one to one." She took the pad back and looked at the masked woman.

"Standard opening."

Meia wasn't too impressed. It wasn't impossible to predict. It really was a standard opening. It was a standard opening from training fights. If you looked up curved swords in a book and there was only one attack pictured, it was usually this one. It was a standard slash. The slash also had a name. It was called [Wrath Slash].

"What would you have done?"

"Throat thrust." the masked woman said emotionlessly.

The answer almost made Meia take a step back. The woman really scared her. If you knew Violet better, you knew for sure that she wanted to catch the sword, so she would have done what was hardest to catch. The intention was presumably to force her to dodge with the thrust, ruining the show.

"Well, she didn't want to kill me."

Or not.

"..."

Now she didn't say anything. That was even more scary.

"You can go back to eating now. I'll give her back her sword. Then she won't have to glare."

She hadn't actually. It had been rather indifferent. NOW she was glaring. Meia was glad to be allowed to move away.

While Violet brought the sword back, Meia climbed back onto the carriage. She didn't need to tell the fairy anything. The fairy had long since vacated the seat. By the time Meia reached the top, she was already sitting on the other side of the bench and getting ready to eat. At that moment, Meia noticed a scent. It was the same scent that she had noticed on Violet. It smelled of raspberry. It seemed to come from the fairy. It was just something that Meia noticed. It didn't mean anything. Meia turned her attention to the rest of her soup.

"You have a high resistance. That's all."

The fairy had said that, but when Meia looked to her, she was only concerned with her food. The spoon the fairy had was no smaller than Meia's. She had to hold it with her whole hand, like a child. It didn't fit in her mouth either. She picked up a piece of carrot and nibbled it off the spoon until it was small enough to suck into her mouth in one piece. In any case, it didn't seem like she wanted to talk to her. It had just been a side comment.

.../ End Part