Hearing what Rin said about training me into becoming an explorer, my new mother raises a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh, Rin seeing this tilts her head and asks, “Why is that funny mommy?”
After managing to compose herself my new mother responds by saying, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. Now before we can even talk about training, Kitten, I know this could very well be one of Rin’s impulsive ideas, but do you actually want to be an explorer in the future?”
From what Rin told me being an explorer would allow me to explore the world with her and, at least right now, I feel that I want to stay with Rin, so I nod my head in affirmation.
Receiving my affirmation my new mother smiles and nods her head before putting on a stern face while she says, “Right then, from what I saw in your status page last night, physically you should be very capable, but I will need to assess if you can hold your own in a fight.”
As she finishes talking my new mother calls out to a woman standing nearby and signals for her to walk over. When the woman reaches us my new mother wastes no time explaining the situation to her, “Right then, I want you to have a match against my daughter so that I can assess her combat abilities.”
After hearing what my new mother wants the woman seems confused as she says, “But madame Lady Rin has only received minor training with a sword, I can hardly think this would be a fair match.”
My new mother shakes her head briefly before responding, “I don’t want you to have a match with Rin, I am well aware of her faults with blades. No, the one I want you to battle against is my new daughter Kitten.”
The woman sends a surprised look my way before turning to my new mother and exclaiming, “Madam!? You can’t really be asking me to have a battle against such a young girl?! I could abide with having a match against Lady Rin because you have trained her since childhood, but-.”
“I am not asking you to have a match, it is an order. You, bring them both a wooden practice blade and let us commence this match,” having her complaints firmly rejected by my new mother the woman meekly hangs her head and when a man hands her a wooden training sword she quietly accepts it.
Having handed the woman her practice sword the man walks over and offers me the other wooden sword he is holding. I accept the wooden sword absentmindedly because I am currently trying to think of a way to end this match without hurting the woman too much.
There is probably no way I can go at her with full strength. Compared to that damned demon ogre she seems much, much weaker, but I am not sure exactly how much I am supposed to hold back. I guess I could try to close the gap between us as we start and sweep her legs out from under her before she can react.
Yea, that’s what I’ll try and if it doesn’t work I can adjust as I go, so long as I don’t break anything she should be fine afterward. But… just to be safe I should confirm with my new mother whether or not they can heal the woman if I don’t hold back enough. Ah, I guess I should start trying to think of my new mother as simply my mother since she herself seems to be trying to think of me as one of her daughters.
Nodding as I make up my mind I look towards mother and ask, “Mother, healing magic useable?”
A brief expression of disappointment crosses mother's face, but no one else seems to notice as she says, “I believe I know what you are worried about, though, I’m not sure who put the idea of healing with magic into your head, but using physics magic to heal others usually ends badly.”
“Don’t worry sis, she is one of the soldier's mommy trains, so even if you lose, she will make sure you don’t get hurt,” misunderstanding what I am worried about, Rin gives me some words of comfort and a brief hug before walking over to stand with our mother.
Once everyone is out of the way mother calls for me and the woman to ready ourselves. The woman takes a stance, but looking at her stance, while I can tell she is well trained, she doesn’t seem to be taking this fight very seriously. I am not sure if she is not taking me seriously because of my appearance, but this does make it easier to win without hurting her.
After I reaffirm my grip on the wooden sword and ready myself, my mother gives us the signal to start. In less than a second immediately I close the gap between us and throw a feint. Surprised and completely taken off guard, to the credit of her training, the woman still manages to try to raise her sword so she can block the oncoming strike. But, when she does I grapple her, reach my leg around the back of hers, and pull her leg out while throwing her to the ground.
Since I took her by surprise again, I manage to throw the woman without any resistance and she lands on her back a little harder than I had anticipated. But, other than have the air knocked out of her lungs, she doesn’t seem to be too worse for wear.
Pointing the wooden sword at the woman's neck I look at my mother and ask, “It’s my win, right?”
Receiving my question, mother makes rather a complicated expression before finally answering, “Yes, and a complete victory at that.”
As my mother announces my victory I lower my sword and I hear a murmur pass through the crowd of people watching, which now seems to consist of everyone who was previously training.
“You’re so amazing, sis! I can beat the soldiers when we are shooting targets, but I don’t think I could ever win if I fought one up close! But you beat her so easily, it was so amazing!” as I hear Rin's voice from beside me I get tackled into a hug.
Since I want to confirm that the woman is ok, I free myself from Rin’s hug and turn my attention back to the woman. But, when I look at her the woman is glaring at me while trying to sit herself up as she talks to my mother, “I want another fight, I had my guard down since she seemed so defenseless, but next time-.”
“Haven’t I always trained all of you to fight with everything you have, no matter the opponent? There is no need for another battle, even had you taken her on seriously, Kitten would have defeated you utterly anyways, but I am sure you understand that after facing her,” having mother cut her off, the woman seems ashamed with herself as she hangs her head low.
Seeing the woman's reaction mother quickly follows up on her statement, “Consider this loss a lesson for the future, never underestimate any opponent. This also extends to all of you watching, Kitten isn’t an opponent any of you could defeat and now, I will demonstrate why.”
Turning to look at mother, I can see that she has a wooden training sword in each hand. Seeing this Rin and the woman hurry to join the crowd. The people crowding around, seeing mother readying to fight, start whispering even more loudly among themselves.
“It seems everyone is excited, even if I train with them, everyone is always too afraid to have a match with me. So I hope you will be able to give me an enjoyable time, it can be dreadfully boring since the soldiers don’t need my help with the local ruffian and monster populations,” having said her piece, mother readies herself to fight and prompts me to do the same with her eyes.
As I take a stance, I wonder about how much power I should be using in this fight. Mother definitely seems to be stronger than the woman I just beat, but if I compare mother to that damn ogre, I would have to say she seems quite a bit weaker.
“First lesson, don’t give your opponent time to prepare their strategies, in most situations those who strike first gain the advantage.” hearing mother's voice snaps me out of my thoughts just in time to see a wooden sword swinging towards my neck.
Since I noticed the attack late, I barely divert it, but mother doesn’t give me a chance to establish myself. She launches a flurry of attacks using both her blades. Each attack is weak individually, but the way she links them together and the speed she does it at makes her movements seem like an intricately beautiful dance.
No matter how many attacks I block or parry, the dance doesn’t stop, if anything mother seems to be getting faster and for some reason, it’s a little harder to move than normal. Eventually, mother starts going fast enough that she starts making slight errors and seizing one of those chances I completely disrupt the rhythm of her dance.
Mother seems momentarily stunned as I break her rhythm so I use this chance to launch an attack of my own, but when my sword gets close to her It suddenly slows down. Mother uses this slight decrease in my swing speed to lithely dodge my strike while putting some distance between us.
Since I don’t want mother to go on the offensive again I pursue her and launch my own offensive, but like the first time, when my sword gets near her, it feels as if it’s traveling through something incredibly viscous.
Always parrying or dodging by a hair's breadth, mother has a wide smile on her face while she says, “It is pleasant to see that your stats were not just for show, but you are clearly holding back. I am seriously fighting you with everything I have, being taken so lightly kinda hurts my feelings a little too. But, if we keep going like this, I am going to lose by simply exhausting myself, so I am going to try to end this now.”
As she finishes talking mother parries one of my strikes far to the side and it suddenly becomes incredibly hard to breathe, making me slightly light headed. Following up her parry, she attacks with her second sword, but since it seems impossible for me to block it in time with my own sword, I catch her sword with my tail instead. While wrapping my tail around mothers sword, I swing mine towards her neck, barely stopping just before it hits.
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Realizing what just happened mother lets go of both her swords and it also suddenly feels easier to breathe again. Putting both hands in the air, mother has a huge grin on her face while she says, “I give up, it’s my loss. Ah, that was fun, but it’s a shame I couldn’t make you get serious. I really wasn’t expecting that last action, using your tail like that was really clever. Not to mention that last swing, it was so fast that I didn’t even have time to increase the air resistance around it so I could dodge, but it also didn’t help that you managed to retaliate even after I suddenly lowered the air pressure around you so much.”
Letting go of the swords I am holding, I sink to the ground. Seeing me sink down Rin runs over and starts looking for anything that might be wrong. But I ignore her while thinking back on what just happened.
I just tried to seriously hurt mother. It was only for a moment, but if I hadn’t stopped myself I might have actually killed her. Why? Why did I try to attack her seriously? Even if I have only known her for less than two days, so far she hasn’t shown me any malice. Instead, she invited me to stay in her home, she invited me into her family and that’s how I repaid her kindness.
“You shouldn’t worry about that you know. That goddess may not have given us the whole story, but I heard enough. Being raised in that kind of environment it’s only natural that you might react like that in battle. If anything, it’s my fault for trying to make you fight seriously,” hearing mother's voice I look up and she ruffles my hair while giving me a soft smile before pulling me into a hug.
Why is she trying to comfort me? The person who was only a hair's breadth from removing her head. What if it happens again and next time I don’t stop? What if… what if inside, I really am…
Before I can finish my thought, mother quietly whispers into my ear, “You are my daughter, no matter what others may tell you, no matter what you may become in the future, you will always have a place in this home, as my daughter.”
After hugging me for a while longer, mother finally separates from me and helps me stand back up while saying, “Rin is right, you really are quite comfortable to hug.”
“Right!? Sis is so soft and that slight coolness she gives off is so comfortable. I could sit and hug her all day,” Prompted by mother's statement Rin answers while hugging my neck from behind.
Since I have calmed down, I take a look around and see that the crowd is still mostly stunned silent. Even though I can hear a few surprised voices, they are a minority. Finally, the silence is broken as a man calls out, “That… did that really just happen? You must have gone easy on the girl right? Us losing to that girl is one thing, but I can’t imagine you…”
Hearing the man, mother turns to him and replies, “Can’t imagine me what, losing? Well, you don’t have to imagine it, I was defeated by my daughter and in all honesty, I can’t say she was even close to getting serious. So if all of you want to defeat her one day, well, you will have to be able to win against me first.”
After listening to mothers response the man is silent for a moment before he starts laughing as he says, “Forget winning, I don’t think anyone here could even think anyone here could even think about surviving against you or your husband. Let alone even harboring the thought of defeating the little miss there. Compared to the rest of us the lot of you are closer to mons-.”
The man's words die in his throat as mother shoots him an incredibly icy glare and once she is sure he isn’t going to say anything else, mother shouts out, “Well, I hope everyone learned something from today’s matches! Now stop crowding around and all of you get back to training, a certain someone's actions have earned you another three hours! I will be taking my leave with my daughters.”
As she finishes talking mother leads me and Rin towards the mansion. We do have to stop several times to peel Rin off me, since walking while getting hugged is rather difficult.
Mother eventually convinces Rin to stop reattaching herself to me by telling her we’re all going to the bath to get cleaned up before the evening meal. That statement, however, does also prompt Rin to pull me and mother forward by our hands while urging us along.
Being pulled along by Rin I stumble forward, almost falling over, but mother catches me before I do. Rin still completely oblivious to what just happened behind her, is stopped by mother, who then proceeds to lecture her, “Rin… I do believe I warned you this morning to be gentle with your sister. Or maybe, It’s that I didn’t make myself clear enough?”
“I’m sorry mommy, you said we could all take a bath together and I got excited because we don’t get to take baths together very often. Plus we have sis here now too so it’s even better! Hugging sis while relaxing in the warm water sounds so comfortable and we can wash each other's backs, and I can brush her hair, and...!” Rin quickly tries to explain herself, though, she seems to forget her original purpose midway, which seems to make mother even more unamused with her.
Since mother doesn’t seem like is going to stop lecturing Rin anytime soon, I sit myself down in the grass and wait patiently while thinking about what happened today.
Today was fun, I saw a lot of new things, but it’s surprising how late it is already. Also, I don’t think Rin ever mentioned anything about lunch, maybe this is a society that has two larger meals a day?
More importantly, mother is quite strong, that damn demon ogre was way stronger, but looking at her, I would have never thought that I would have trouble fighting her.
Actually thinking back to that battle, mother was using her mana quite liberally, wasn’t she? Ah, now that I think about it, mother also mentioned that she was changing the air resistance and pressure didn’t she? So, mother was using physics magic to control the air around us while we were fighting. Honestly, doesn’t that make her quite incredible?
My magic is really simple, I say or think it’s name in dragonic and the spell I programmed initiates. But, from what I remember about physics magic, the caster has to focus on how every aspect they wish to use works. Then that means, mother was fighting like she was while focusing on controlling the air around us, and If that's true, then mother really is quite amazing.
As I sit in the grass thinking, I feel a light breeze blow by and it finally firmly sinks in, I am outside. I was distracted by seeing so many new things when we entered the garden and with the battles at the training grounds it never really dawned on me that I was outside. In my other life, I took going outside for granted. Grass, trees, they were things I thought nothing about in that life, but thinking about how I was stuck in that lab for eight years, I now feel that I understand how easy it is to under appreciate things we take for granted.
Throwing my arms out to the side, I lay down in the grass and simply listen to the sound of the wind blowing over the grass. It’s a little hard to believe I missed something so simple, but it is incredibly comforting to know that I’m not locked in an isolated room anymore.
Slowly thinking it over more I start wondering if maybe my fight with that damn demon ogre, waking up yesterday, and my day today… maybe it’s all been a dream. How could I realistically have been found by a family that would actually adopt me? Pulling from experiences in my other life, wouldn’t a sisterly relationship, like what I have with Rin after only two days, normally be impossible?
What if I opened my eyes right now and I am lying on the same hard floor I’ve slept on for the past five years. What if I open my eyes right now and the blue skies, the grass, mother… Rin. what if I opened my eyes right now, and they are all gone.
With that last thought in mind, I tentatively open my eyes. The first thing I see is, mother looking down at me with an endearing smile on her face and an intense feeling of relief goes through me.
Reaching over mother carefully removes a stray hair that the wind has blown into my face, as she softly says, “You know, they say that the goddess that governs over dreams and reality is actually quite weak when compared to other deities. Personally, I think that’s quite wrong.
The most common belief is that dreams and reality can never coexist and so the goddesses power is split into two. However, I believe that dreams and reality are inseparable, one cannot exist without the other. When a person reaches their dreams, those dreams become a reality, creating an environment for new dreams to be nurtured and without those dreams reality would stop moving. Because how can people move forward without dreams to chase?
Hmm, I guess what I’m trying to say is if you ever feel lost, just look to your dreams. Now, give me your hands and let me help you up. I got Rin to wait patiently, but I am unsure how long she will last if we don’t hurry at least a little.”
Getting up as she finishes talking mother extends her hands down to me and when I reach my hands towards hers, she takes them into hers before helping me to my feet. Still holding one of my hands, mother directs us towards Rin who, upon seeing the situation, grabs my other hand and, just like that, we walk the rest of the way to the mansion.