Chapter 4
As I was laying in bed enjoying my blissful sleep, my door was suddenly slammed open, causing me to jump up in shock.
“Wake up Alice! Change and meet me in the courtyard in 5 minutes!”
Charging into my room with an oppressive pressure was my father. Instantly I was swept up into his pace, as I quickly rushed to put on a simple linen shirt and trousers. As I was changing, my father was already waiting at the courtyard for me, and I quickly rushed down.
He stood there waiting with his arms crossed behind his back. At his sides were two wooden swords embedded in the ground.
“Good job Alice, much faster than some of the soldiers in the army.”
Ugh, should I call him father or sir? Better safe than sorry I guess.”
“Thank you, sir!”
“Haha. I guess I don’t need to tell you what to call me anymore. Alright, down to business. Before you even pick up a sword, we’re gonna have to do some basic training. 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 laps around the courtyard. Go!”
What is kind of training is this?! I pray that I don’t go bald.
“Yes, sir!”
This is gonna be a long day.
***
“Hah...hah… That was hell…”
Holy shit. You gotta admire the people who can do this shit every day. Even with my ridiculous stats, I was barely hanging on.
“Good job. Now get up, that was just the warm-up. Now pull out the wooden sword from the ground.”
“Is that all? Isn’t that too easy?”
“Easy? You’ll see for yourself.”
Well then. I unsteadily got up to my feet, before staggering over to the wooden sword. I grasped the hilt, then tried to pull out the sword from the ground.
Eh? Why is it not moving? This has to be a joke right? Instead of using one hand, I switched to using both my hands, yet it still refused to budge.
“Haha. Not so easy right? I used a strength of 100 to wedge that sword in the ground. That’s the bare minimum for you to start learning the sword forms. Guess you’re not strong enough yet huh? Go for another round of exercises, we’re gonna focus on building up your strength.”
Oh god. Please please tell me you’re joking. You’re not right? Hah… Maybe it was a mistake to do this.
“Yes, sir!”
I guess the long day became indefinitely extended.
***
As usual, I get out of bed and slip into my training gear, a simple linen shirt, and trousers, before heading down to the courtyard to meet father. When I’m there, he is already waiting there with his arms crossed in an imposing stance.
“Good morning sir!”
“Good, you’re getting up much earlier than before. Do the same as usual.”
“Yes, sir!”
100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 rounds around the courtyard. This is the endless hell that had fallen upon for the past week. Wake up, do these exercises, try to pull out the sword and as usual, fail, before repeating the exercises. Today is different, though.
For every time I try to pull out the sword, I could judge the progress I’ve been making, and it seems like today is the day I finally succeed.
Completing my exercises, I walk up to the sword and grasp the hilt as usual, yet this time I’m brimming with confidence. Pulling on the sword with my full strength, it finally dislodges itself from the ground.
“Finally! That only took like what, a week of torture?”
“Good job Alice, most can’t even take it out for months.”
Well, I’m basically a cheat character with this stat growth cheat.
“Now we’ll start the actual training. Any sort of style you have in mind?”
Style? Wait, does that mean my father knows different styles?! What kind of monster is he?! Mmm… I lose if I mind it. Yes. Style huh?
“How about one that focuses on precise strikes and parries?”
“Haha! So the staccato style huh? It’s a style that focuses on irregular strikes, focusing on pressure points and vital points. Add in parrying and you become a musical monster! Get it? Cause staccato you know. Hahaha.”
Yeah… Definitely funny father. I gave him a distasteful look when he told the joke, signaling for him to get over his joke.
“Ahem. Now then, have you already memorized the different pressure points in the human body?”
How could I have not? I spent so many years reading, and the anatomy of a human body was one of the books I read the most.
“Yes, sir.”
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“Good, now I will show you a demonstration of how the staccato style would look like.”
As my father said this, he pulled out his own sword out of the ground effortlessly, before taking up what seemed to be a fencing stance. He started pulling off high-speed thrusts, before inclining his sword which seemed to be parrying an imaginary sword, using the momentum to pull off a quick slash into a leaping thrust, seemingly piercing through an imaginary heart.
I don’t know how to describe it. Beautiful? Maybe that’s what it looked like, but there were things I was sure of. Simple, efficient, deadly.
“Okay, now we spar.”
What? WHAT?! Ok ok, so basically, my father shows me the style once and wants me to spar with him. Why I am not surprised anymore.
“Yes, sir…” I replied in a dejected voice.
As we took up arms, I tried to copy the stance that my father took, albeit failing in the process.
“You will strike first.”
Well ok then. Nodding in response, I rushed forwards, pulling off a downward slash. My father remained in his stance, before redirecting my sword to the side, then thrusting the blade to my neck.
“First off, your balance is off. Place your left foot straight in front of you, your right foot will arch at a 45-degree angle. Next, stand on the balls of your foot, so you don’t get easily thrown off balance. Second, use your body to add more force to your slashes. You don’t simply use your arms and swing, there’ll be no force behind it. If you’re slashing downwards, lower your body slightly as you bring your blade down, so you have more force behind your strike. You can figure out the rest for yourself. Alright, continue.”
Nodding in response, I head back to my starting position, before taking up stance again.
This is gonna take a while.
***
“Start!”
Rushing towards him, I started off with a leaping thrust, which was easily redirected by him. He slashed downwards, prompting me to leap to the side to avoid it. I then followed it up with a horizontal slash, causing him to block instead of parrying, due to his awkward position. I quickly spun on my heel, before launching off into another leaping thrust. Due to the fact that I spun to the side of him, he couldn’t bring his sword up quick enough, thus making me sure that I was going to win. That is, until he hit the flat of the sword with his palm, causing my strike to go off course. He promptly took a step to the side to avoid me, making me hit nothing but empty space. I landed in a crouched position, before spinning around only to find his sword pointed at my neck. Another loss again.
“Hah… And here I was sure I was gonna win this time.”
“You did good Alice, and who’d think you barely knew how to swing a sword 2 weeks ago. If you repositioned instead of spinning on the point, you could have won. Simply the difference between experience.”
Right. Experience. I almost forgot the fact that father is an experienced general in the army. Experience huh? I wonder if I’ll be able to kill anyone.
“Alright then, that ends today’s training. Go wash up and meet me in the study after you’re done.”
“Yes, sir!”
Finally a break! I went up to my room, grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom. Yes, we don’t have separate bathrooms, it’s like a communal bath. Anyways, I slipped off my dirty clothes in the changing room, tossing them into a basket meant for laundry. I grabbed my towel, before heading into the bath. There were two outlets, one for cold water and one for hot water. Both were powered by a magic stone, which uses the user’s mana to operate. Filling the bath with warm water, I lowering myself in slowly, letting the heat relax my muscles. Hah… Warm baths are the best.
After what seemed like 20 minutes, I wasn’t quite sure, I came out of the bath and drained the water, before changing into a one-piece summer dress. I then headed to the study, knocking on the door.
“Come in.”
Upon hearing that, I opened the door to the study, only to see something wrapped in cloth flying at my face. Thankfully, from the training with my father my reflexes had improved, and I easily caught the object.
“Father, what’s this?”
“My gift for training so hard. Go ahead, open it up.”
Following my father’s words, I opened up the cloth that was wrapping it. Completely unraveling the cloth around it, I was astounded. What my father had given me was a rapier. Like, an actual rapier, not the one used for fencing. The blade was straight, with a keen edge on one side, most likely meant for slashing. The guard curved towards the hilt, much like that of a bird cage. The hilt itself didn’t look remarkable at first, but upon looking closely, I could see how intricately wrapped the leather was around the hilt. I was stunned, simply at a loss for words. I stared at the rapier, before staring at my father. I tried to open my mouth to say something, but no words came out at all. Seeing my conduct, my father chuckled.
“You did good Alice, I was always worried that I was taking it too hard on you, but you pushed through. I’m extremely proud of you.”
Hearing this, I finally snapped out of my stupor. I stood at attention before bringing my arm up into a salute.
“Thank you, sir!”
He put his hand on my head, patting it, before shooing me away so he could do his work.
Afterward, not much happened throughout the day. I drank some tea with mother, watched Lillia prepare dinner, had dinner together with my family before heading back to my room for bed.
Well, almost everything was normal that night.
As soon I fell asleep, I was quickly woken up by a loud explosion before the sound of metal clashing started ringing.