“A strong person is not one who is without weakness. A strong person is one who stands tall and takes on all comers despite their weaknesses.” - Saying attributed to Gregorian Aurelius Secundus, famed General and later Second Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.
“I see, so you got fed up with being beaten up by Aly all the time and asked her how to grow stronger, did you?” asked Elfriede with her usual, rather unnerving nonchalant tone when Alycea brought Astrid over to her that day. Astrid had blurted out the question out of frustration one day, and to her surprise, Alycea immediately perked up and told her that of course she could grow stronger.
And then Alycea led Astrid straight to her mother, the captain’s wife and one of the deadliest fighters in the company as a whole the very next day.
“That you asked someone for help is a step in the right direction,” said Elfriede after she noticed that Astrid did not reply to her previous rhetorical question. The way she seemed to just glance over whoever she was talking to remained unnerving for Astrid, even though by then she was aware that Elfriede was blind and did not do that on purpose. “Admitting that you are weak is the first step to grow stronger. Can’t really do that well when you’re laboring under the delusion that you’re already strong, after all.”
“I understand, Ma’am,” answered Astrid as she listened to Elfriede’s words. There was a particular certainty in the way she said it that made Astrid believe in what she said. Of course, that was notwithstanding the fact that the blind woman was one who definitely backed her words with the force of arms as well.
“The next step is to understand how weak you actually are. This is something I’ve taught Aly early on as well, as we all share the same circumstances,” Elfriede continued even while she stretched one of her hands to the back to catch a pair of wooden training swords customized to feel like her actual weapons that Erycea threw her way. “Only when you know where you stand can you begin to climb properly.”
“Yes, Ma’am… though… What do you mean by sharing the same circumstances?” Astrid asked with some curiosity.
“You, me, Aly, we’re all humans. Women, at that. That puts us all under the same handicap,” replied Elfriede nonchalantly. “Had we been born as pretty much any other race other than a goblin, we’d be superior in some physical way compared to a human. Many of those races also have little to no difference between their men and women, with some even having the women be the stronger ones.”
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“But instead, we’re saddled with being human women. The circumstances don't matter. If we are to fight against a man under fair conditions, that is, against someone with the same general level of skills and training as ourselves, we would be at a disadvantage, just because we are born as women. That is something you have to understand and accept first thing,” she continued. “As such, we need to stack the tables, make use of every advantage we can get, and do everything in our power to make sure that any fight we get into will not be a fair one. For our opponents.”
“Uh… All right,” said Astrid as she was at a bit of a loss for words. Typically the sort of talk she received from instructors was more along the lines of how she too could fight as well as the men with hard work, or something along those lines. Something like what Elfriede stated so openly was new to her, but again, when she considered how dangerous the other woman – or her children, for that matter – was, she couldn’t help but be convinced that there must be something right with the way she thought.
“Now, do you already know how you might do that? How to turn the tables on your foes and wrest away the advantage most of them took for granted since they were lucky enough to be born with it?” asked Elfriede next, which left Astrid rather speechless once more. “There is no shame in having no answer to this yet, as it takes work and sometimes a bit of talent and luck to find your answer to that question.”
“For example, I mostly use my senses to gain an advantage over my foes. They are unaccustomed to fighting someone like me, who rely on completely different senses than what they use to fight, which grants me a certain degree of advantage,” said Elfriede as she continued. “These weapons, as odd as they might look to you, present another advantage in being something people I fight are unaccustomed to.”
Astrid nodded to Elfriede’s explanation. At the same time, she also realized how much of what the blind woman said hit home, as the way Astrid fought was a standardized one, the same style taught to practically all soldiers under the March’s employ. For that reason, it would not bring her the advantage Elfriede talked about.
“Take little Aly there. She’s even smaller and physically weaker than you or me,” Elfriede added while pointing at her adopted daughter using one of her practice blades. Alycea was about the average size and built for a human girl her age, perhaps a bit on the smaller side, which made Elfriede stand nearly half a head over the girl. Quite a difference, even if one accounted for how the girl might still be growing a bit more. “She’s also trained with that staff of hers for years and made use of it to gain an advantage of her own. You sparred often with her, so I’m sure you’ve tasted what it’s like to fight against her, haven’t you?”
“I believe so, yes,” replied Astrid with a nod, her hand subconsciously moving towards the right side of her torso which still sported a stinging bruise from the previous day’s spar against Alycea before she stopped it.
“That’s the sort of thing you will need to find for yourself,” noted Elfriede with a nod. “For now, though, I guess we should see what you can do first. Ery, would you be a dear and try her skills out?”
“Sure thing, Mom.”