Support the translator on lazytranslations.com
~Beatrice’s Perspective~
About 30 minutes after finishing breakfast, we saw about 10 members of the village vigilante group coming up the hill to the training area.
Zack told me that the neighborhood watch is required to train twice a month and that they are to be trained by their previous lord and current lord’s Head Squire Vassell – Walt Vassell – and others.
The Village Patrol members perform preparatory exercises. The preparatory exercise is a “stretching” exercise that Zack has devised, which I also learned from him, and after about 30 minutes of this and some swinging, it’s time for the real training.
Since Zack returned today, all the squires were present at the training site, including the former lord and current lord, to see how good his skills were. Furthermore, each of the squire’s children also had a wooden sword and was doing preparatory exercises.
When their bodies were warmed up, the previous lord called out to Zack,
“Now then, let’s see how much you’ve improved. Mel, you’re first. Show Zack exactly how hard you’ve been working.” (Govan)
Mel is the girl who hugged Zack yesterday, the girl who stared at me until the very end. I had heard about her, but I had not expected her to be so hostile.
Today’s Mel was wearing leather armor covered in scars and holding a bastard wooden sword in her hand. Her lovely appearance of yesterday had changed, and she had the appearance of a warrior. The term “war maiden” came to mind.
I believe she was twelve years old, one year older than Zack.
I am not surprised because I have seen Zack and Sharon, but I wonder what these girls are capable of at their age.
As usual, Zack was dressed in black equipment and had a wooden sword in his hand.
The two were facing each other across a distance of about five meters.
Zack smiled and said, “It’s been a while since I’ve had a mock battle with Mel. I’m looking forward to it.”
Mel was also smiling happily and was not in the air for a mock battle.
However, the atmosphere suddenly changed when the previous lord gave the signal, “Ready!” the atmosphere changed at once.
Mel’s smile disappeared from her face, and she looked at Zack with a sharp gaze.
I gulped at the change in atmosphere.
With the previous lord’s “Begin!” Zack and Mel started a mock battle.
I had expected Zack to charge forward as usual. But it was Mel who made the first move.
She closed the distance in a single bound.
Then, with a fierce, waving side slash, she swung her wooden sword sideways.
Zack, perhaps anticipating the move, only took a slight half step back, avoided the slash of her side slash, and swung out to thrust at Mel’s shoulder, which showed an opening.
Mel must have read the attack, too, because she jumped to the ground to roll forward, then spun around and stood up cleanly.
Mel didn’t even try to brush off the dirt but turned around and delivered a slash aimed at Zack’s feet, scooping him up. Zack lightly flicked her wooden sword to deflect the slash, then slashed down at her arm from the top with the momentum of his flick.
At that moment, it looked to me as if his slash would be the finisher.
However, Mel forcefully pulled back the trajectory of the deflected wooden sword and caught his slash.
Gan! The sound of wood striking wood echoed through the training hall.
Both fighter backstep and retreat immediately after striking each other. Not only that, but both of them were also trying to slash at the other’s vital point by releasing slashes while retreating.
It was here that Zack spoke up for the first time.
“You’re getting stronger, Mel. I thought your attack was going to end the fight. I can’t read your moves any better than before.” (Zack)
“Master Zack is strong too. I thought I was going to decide with the first blow, but you easily evaded me.” (Mel)
She smiled as she said this, but her expression quickly tightened.
Immediately after that, Mel jumped into Zack’s reach again.
As expected, they seemed to know each other’s moves and knew that if she let Zack keep his distance, he could easily avoid her.
Zack smirks slightly at this move, but then he puts his own sword alongside Mel’s sword as she jumps in, giving the sword a further twisting motion. Yes, he was trying to entangle her sword.
But Mel seemed to have expected that, too, and she dodged it, holding the sword in one hand and turning it with only the flexibility of her wrist.
Zach still remained calm. He quickly gave up twirling the sword and went the other way, into her range.
Mel looked slightly surprised, perhaps not expecting the move. However, she also sensed something and quickly tried to pull back her sword.
Zack had given up attacking with his sword and switched to an unarmed attack.
He and I often engage in mock battles, and he often makes unpredictable moves. In the worst cases, he would let go of his sword and use elbow strikes or take my arm and throw.
This time, he used his unarmed technique to grab Mel’s arm and elbow her in the chest, then threw a kick to knock her down.
Mel, with her arm in his grasp, desperately blocked the elbow strike, but could not cope with the kick that followed.
With a thud, a slight cloud of dust rises. The two fighters fell to the ground in a tangled heap.
When the dust cleared, the two were clearly visible. Zack had pulled out a dagger and was holding it to Mel’s neck, which had been momentarily left unprotected by the impact.
“That’s enough!” (Govan)
The previous lord’s voice ended the mock battle.
I heard a gasp as those who had been gawking at this advanced battle exhaled in unison. I seemed to have been holding my breath as well and let out a long puff of air.
Zack helped Mel up and laughed, “I didn’t think you could block my elbow strike,” he said. Mel, on the other hand, was smiling and laughing, not showing any expression of regret.
Mel was about to say something, but the previous lord spoke up first.
“Zack. Matt is next.” (Govan)
Without giving Zack a moment to rest, the previous lord ordered a mock battle with the current lord.
The current lord smiled softly and said, “It’s hard to do this after a battle,” but he already had his wooden sword at the ready.
Zack said, “Pleasure to fight you, father,” and held up his wooden sword as well.
As it turned out, it was a hard-fought victory for the current lord.
Zack’s tricky moves did not faze the lord, and he responded appropriately. Furthermore, he took advantage of the difference in reach (he is shorter than me, but nearly 190 cm taller than Zack) to block Zack’s movements with a series of attacks, finally knocking away Zack’s wooden sword with force.
Zack bowed his head and said, “Thank you”, but to me, it seemed as if Zack would have won if he really wanted to.
The lord is also a very powerful man. But Zack had not used his trump card, Magical Combat.
If he had shown a move using Magical Combat, the lord would have been forced into a defensive position at once.
And Zack, who took the initiative, was strong.
Even I could have taken him by the horns if I had done a bad job.
He is a man who loves his father, so he probably tried not to embarrass his father, the lord, in front of the squires and the vigilantes.
The current lord seems to understand and feels that he was handicapped, saying, “I didn’t know you could become so strong in just one year.”
The previous lord asked Zack to continue the mock battle and named his next opponent.
Byron Seedorf, the new squire.
T/N: Support me by donating on Paypal and Ko-fi or become a Supporter. You can also rate and review the series on Novel Updates. Don’t forget to add it to your reading list! Thank you.
Support the translator on lazytranslations.com