“So you suddenly found yourself training in martial arts with Herta?”
Klaus, who heard the whole story about me, burst into laughter. I pursed my lips.
“Do you know what the captain of Herta says? ‘It is the study of black-minded training,’ he said. So I said, ‘I don’t like studies and my mind is a mess, so I can’t do it,’ and he said it didn’t matter.”
“Herta is not a person who listens to what others say. That’s what I said when I said it was the study of black mind training.”
“Is that what your highness said? For some reason, I felt strangely bad!”
okay. A strange sense of superiority felt in that sentence! That’s not what Hertha would say!
Klaus narrowed his eyes and smiled as if recalling the past.
“That was probably the first time Herta had a sword fight with me.”
“Did you even say that to the person you defeated in sparring? Your Majesty, you really are an unpleasant person.”
“No, listen. We lost the swordsmanship sparring and ended the fight by saying hello to each other, but from the next day onwards, they came at us with swords everywhere, asking how we could become so strong.”
“Oh my goodness.”
If it were anyone else, the first thing that would have occurred to me was, ‘How can they do something so irrational?’, but for Hertha, the first thing that occurred to me was that it was somehow possible.
Klaus also trembled slightly, probably remembering what happened back then.
“One time, they knocked down all the guards blocking the way and even invaded my bathroom.”
“Yes? Was it okay?”
“It was very good. When he realized I didn’t have a sword, he even threw me a sword he had prepared in advance.”
“……and.”
“It would have been nice if I had thrown my clothes in too. It’s a shame I didn’t take them all off before I took them off.”
… … Isn’t this a huge situation? Klaus’ face also frowned slightly. However, he soon seemed to regain his spirits and smiled brightly.
“Because it bothered you so much, I just told you to learn it as if it were a study of black mind training.”
“And then it fell off?”
“Surprisingly, the next day, he started chasing me to explain that he didn’t understand what I meant, so I got tired again.”
“……It’s really a wonder that he’s still alive.”
If I were emperor, I would have at least sent Herta into exile.
Klaus chuckled at my admiration.
“I thought about it, but you still can’t kick out the empire’s swordsman talent. I told your Majesty well.”
“You have a bigger heart than I thought, Your Highness.”
He is the type of person who turns a blind eye to his own personal harm in order to prioritize talent.
He is a decent human being.
While I was mentally raising Klaus’ score a little, Klaus elaborated.
“My revenge ended with intensive sparring with Hertha for a month.”
“You even gave me intensive sparring? No, wait a minute. Are you a fan?”
“I’m glad that the young lady understands my feelings so well that I don’t have to explain it.”
After all, raising your score is a cancellation.
“so.”
Klaus smiled as he refilled the empty teacup in front of me with tea.
“Are you learning martial arts well?”
“You can even call it a martial art. In reality, it’s just a fighting technique with this.”
I held up the dowsing finder that was the culprit of the whole thing.
Whenever it moved uncontrollably, it was always held in a careful hand.
“It looks thin. Can you attack with it?”
“But maybe because it was a gift from a demon, it was harder than I thought. It’s not enough to break the sword, though.”
“It’s ambiguous performance.”
“Actually, I think so too. If it’s a gift from a demon, shouldn’t we have to break the ground and break the sword before doing it?”
“Does Nantajutsu itself fit well in the hand?”
Klaus asked, brushing aside my complaints. I brought the teacup to my mouth and thought deeply about the past few weeks.
I would be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult at all, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Unlike swordsmanship, which involves a variety of swordsmanship and attack and defense, smiting basically involves striking everything in front of you with a dowsing detector.
“Yes. It fits better than I thought.”
Unlike swordsmanship, where a lot of things change depending on how you hold the sword, how you straighten your wrist, and what angle you move your shoulder, you only need to pay attention to two things to be good at striking with a dowsing detector.
Strength to hit harder and agility to avoid getting hit before you hit.
Although my strength was weak, my agility was quite good, so I was able to achieve about half of the results.
No, wait a minute. If you’re good at dodging, isn’t that just learning evasion?
“……Now that I’m thinking about it again, it seems like what I’ve been learning lately is evasion techniques.”
“Isn’t this basic physical exercise?”
“It seems like that…”
As I trailed off, Klaus laughed.
“It is a very welcome and recommended story from the perspective of the imperial prince who is responsible for the health of the imperial citizens.”
“Doing physical exercise? Yes, exercise is important.”
“Anyway, it means that the young lady can now protect her body on her own.”
“That’s right.”
He nodded calmly. He didn’t mean to refute it.
okay. It’s a good thing to have one more skill to protect myself in this dangerous Western-style fantasy where assassins may be roaming around.
‘Hmm, maybe it’s because it’s tea for the imperial family, but it smells nice.’
As I put down the tea cup, enjoying the faint scent of lavender, my forehead felt stinging.
“……Do you have anything left to say?”
Klaus was staring at me. Klaus was late to answer my question.
“Aren’t you curious about Klaus Ertikev’s position?”
“Huh? You said it a while ago.”
“That is the position of the imperial prince.”
What’s different?
Even the cats in this neighborhood know that Klaus Ertikev is the imperial prince.
“Is there a difference between the two?”
“It’s a huge difference.”
“……Well, then, let’s talk about it.”
I really want to say this, is this it? I crossed my arms and waited to see what kind of nonsense Klaus would say again.
Klaus took a deep breath and opened his mouth.
“I’m anxious because I feel like I’m losing the link that allows me to protect my daughter.”
“Oh my goodness.”
What line did I just hear?
I lightly reflected on his unexpected remarks. And he nodded.
“Your Highness, have you recently developed your flirting skills?”
“what?”
“I know, I know. That’s not what you meant anyway.”
I quickly drank some hot tea to stop my pounding heart.
I was able to look back at this situation objectively with the pain that felt like my throat was going to boil.
‘okay! The hot thing is the bean pod stuck in my eye!’
My heart is full of baskets!
“You know, you know. There are people who have a handsome face and no matter what they say, it automatically becomes like a work comment.”
“Young lady, did you listen to me correctly?”
“I heard you correctly! And I clearly understood!”
I reassured Klaus by clenching my fists.
“Although His Majesty is misunderstood as if he is trying to get people to do work because of his overly handsome face, I know very well that in truth, he always cares about all the people of the empire equally.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m not a citizen of the empire. Still, since I roughly put on the guise of an imperial citizen, I think it’s okay to say I’m a citizen of the empire.”
Klaus was speechless after hearing what I said.
‘Is there anything else left to say?’
But in the end, instead of explaining, Klaus sighed deeply and smiled vaguely.
“Okay. Let’s see if the young lady has any other thoughts.”
“Huh? Are you keeping your distance from me?”
I asked again, but Klaus didn’t answer again.
“Now! Swing one more time!”
“Ugh!”
I’ve already become accustomed to moving my body to Hertha’s chants.
The muscles in my body, which at first were screaming as if they were going to die, started to accept the hard exercise without any problems.
“As expected, Elena! She has a great talent for dodging like a rat!”
“Hertha. If you call me a rat, it’s like an insult.”
“Uh… So you have a knack for dodging like Mr. Rat?”
“That’s Okay.”
It wasn’t that Hertha had any malicious intent, but I knew that they were just spitting out words without going through the brain, so I roughly waved my hand away.
Herta smiled brightly and patted his shoulder.
“But you really have an innate talent for dodging attacks. Hitting is more important in combat, but if you dodge for a long time, you can last a long time.”
“Are you saying we should avoid it until rescue comes?”
“Yes. There are a lot of people who can join the rescue team. Look over there.”
I turned my head. In the training hall in the back, Rudiot, Lariette, and Merwin were entangled together and showing off their swordsmanship to each other.
“Your Highness! Let’s attack from the right!”
“Peria, Your Majesty! You probably didn’t think I would be defeated by this coordinated attack, did you?”
“Lariette, be gentle!”
“Those people are really passionate too….”
I clicked my tongue.
Some time has passed since Lariat, the most skilled, held the sword alone, and Rudiate and Merwin formed an alliance and sparred together.
Since Lariat is a returner, it is assumed that she has the best swordsmanship skills, but why is Merwin’s swordsmanship skills improving so quickly? I really don’t understand.
As I was watching the incomprehensible scene, Herta tapped my shoulder.
“Elena. I know how you feel.”
“What?”
“Do you want to come in between me?”
In the heat of those sweaty prosecutors?
I shook my head frantically.
“Absolutely not. I’m going to go see His Highness Klaus.”
“Ah, your highness is looking for you already.”
“yes?”
You shouldn’t have told me that a long time ago!
I straightened up and headed to Klaus’ study.
A faint scent of tea was flowing from inside the study.
“Are you here, Lady Elena?”
“majesty.”
Klaus, who was sitting in his seat, smiled softly and greeted me. The holy relic placed on Klaus’ desk caught my eye.
“It’s almost transparent.”
“Oh, this?”
Klaus pointed to the relic and nodded.
“It’s thanks to the young lady.”
“I heard you were looking for me.”
“Okay. I have some news for you.”
We sat on the familiar sofa.
As soon as I sipped the tea water, which was at just the right temperature to drink, to my mouth, Klaus got straight to the point.
“The person who informed Duke Sisena of the violet disease was found.”
“Ah, great!”
“But there’s a little problem.”
“What is it?”
“It’s been more than five years since he died.”
… … It’s a bit of a problem, isn’t it?
