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When I made my orb, I was on
the verge of developing a hand pump and thought I was doing well in the
bathroom, so I felt like I was on a roll.
At that time, I had a pretty
hard schedule for a four-year-old, starting with my morning workout, spending
the morning receiving sword instruction from my grandfather, and then locking
myself up at Nicholas’ house from noon onwards.
(I do want to take naps,
though. I thought sleep at an early age affects growth. Didn’t have kids, so I
don’t know much about it…) (Zack)
As for sword training, as Mel
and I acquired Sword Arts skills, we started learning more realistic sword
stances in addition to repeated practice.
Until then, we had only
slashed down from the upper level and did left-to-right side cleaves, but now
we are learning thrusts that aim for vital points, powerful slashes using the
whole body like “kesa gake”, and combinations of other techniques, such as a continuous
parade of techniques. [T/N: 袈裟掛け or Kesa gake, characterized
by a hard slash in one direction, followed by the twisting of the blade and a
return slash in the opposite direction.]
In this world, enemies are not
only humans, but also large monsters such as dragons, small ones such as mouse monsters,
and even flying creatures such as harpies and giant bats. For this reason, the
main focus is not on martial arts that specialize in targeting humans, such as
kendo or fencing, but on how to inflict great damage efficiently on anyone.
My grandfather’s teaching
policy is to continue until the body learns the technique, and my brother and I
spend most of our training time repeating techniques. Since we had been
practicing for three years, they were not practicing the same level of techniques
as us but were practicing more practical movements.
Since we were still young, we
only had to train in the morning, but my brother Rod and Mel’s brother Sim had
the afternoon allocated for training as well.
As expected, the afternoons
were chosen for the cooler evening hours, but we often saw them hobbling before
dinner.
Meanwhile, my grandfather was
conducting training for the Rathmore Village Patrol Team while instructing us.
Here in the village of Rathmore,
there is a Patrol Team group made up of about 150 men between the ages of 15
and 40. The Patrol Team is required to train twice a month, and every day about
ten men go to the west of the house for training.
The commander of the Patrol
Team was my grandfather, who was also in charge of training.
Every day, from morning to
night, he would be on the training ground, yelling and screaming, but I never
saw him exhausted.
(He’s a little older than I
was when I was in Japan, but he’s in good physical shape for that. I guess he
is living up to the saying that a good diet and exercise are good for one’s
health.) (Zack)
I haven’t calculated the
average life expectancy in this village, but there are very few old people over
seventy. Considering this, his life expectancy is probably in his mid-sixties,
but my grandfather, who is in his fifties, is very healthy.
In late June, the development
of the hand pump reached its culmination, and I became extremely busy with
detailed instructions for the further development of the soap.
At that time, I did not notice
it myself, but I must have looked tired.
At lunchtime on June 30.
We were excited to find out
that Mel had acquired Sword Arts.
Dan looked a little sad, but
he was very proud of Mel’s acquisition of the skill as if it were his own.
The next day was July 1st. In
this world, it is the summer solstice, and a festival is held on that day.
I was often in the vicinity of
the mansion and did not notice much, but there was definitely a sense of
pre-festival excitement among the villagers who had come to train.
When our training was over, my
grandfather came to talk about the next day’s festival.
“Tomorrow is the
festival, and everyone is going to have a day of fun. Zack, come here for a
minute.” (Govan)
My grandfather called me
alone.
“Tomorrow is the festival, so
spend the day with the kids. You’ve been working a little too hard lately,”
he said, then smiled.
“It wouldn’t be a problem
even if you were made to return to your childhood, but you’ll need to still
learn to enjoy it,” he continued as he puts his hand on my head.
Having worked more than ten
hours a day in Japan, I did not have the impression that I was working that
much. But in this world, I seem to be an anomaly.
(Certainly, it would look
abnormal for a four-year-old boy to be training with a sword and working at the
same time, wouldn’t it? No, not only does it look abnormal, it is abnormal. In
Japan, such a child doing such will only be some successful child actor…)
(Zack)
Thankful for my grandfather’s
concern, I decided to spend the day tomorrow enjoying the festival, but I knew
that there was not much to enjoy at this village festival.
There are no stalls, no
entertainment.
A priest from the town of
Bogwood would come and offer prayers, after which young men and women would
dance and old men would drink. For little kids like us, the only thing to do
for fun was to share in the feast that the adults were enjoying.
Even so, I thanked my grandfather
for his concern, saying, “Thank you. I will rest tomorrow.”
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