Legend Chapter 223

Day 7. Today, Rei and Baslero headed to the guild training ground again.

Before using the training ground, Rei had gone ahead to let Lenora know and fortunately there weren't any drunks who tried to mess around with Baslero, which was understandable in a sense if you considered the events of the previous day.

「Teacher, is my training partner today also Hasta?」

On the way to the training ground, Baslero asked Rei, but Rei shook his head.

「Hasta's not a particularly high rank, but he's a busy guy.」

Rei explained that Hasta hunted monsters to supply meat to the eatery at his home.

「Heh……so Hastsan is also thinking of his family.」

For Baslero, he often thought about his father, Mouet, and the maid, Ashie, so he understood Hasta's feelings.

「Well, that's why Hasta should be out of the city today. Together with some other adventurers low on money.」

「So, will I just be training with teacher today?　But then, in the garden……」

「Don't worry, I've called a special guest in today.」

While saying that, Rei looked towards the training ground.

Over there, there was a female warrior wearing leather armour made from monster skin.

For a moment, Baslero was amazed at her beauty, but the next moment that all collapsed.

The moment the woman saw Rei and everyone with him, she rushed towards them at an incredible speed to Baslero.

At that speed, he felt a sense of crisis and tried to pull his sword out from his sheath involuntarily……but he was stopped by Rei, who smiled as he spoke.

「Teacher?」

「Don't worry. She's always like this.」

「Set-chan, Set-chan, Set-chaaan~!　How have you been!?　Are you hungry?　I've brought some things that Set-chan likes today, so let's eat it together!」

The female warrior, Milein, quickly shortened the distance between them and passed by Rei and Baslero as if she couldn't see them at all before hugging Set's neck, who was behind Rei.

「Gururu」

He gave a cry at Milein, who he had already become accustomed to, and rubbed his face against her.

「Um……teacher?」

Baslero asked Rei, confused at the scene of the ecstatic female warrior he had just seen.

「Ah, don't worry. She loves to spoil Set. She's always like this when she sees him.」

「……Is that okay?」

Baslero asked Rei unintentionally while watching Rei, who was embracing Set and rubbing his cheeks and back with a blissful expression.

At that question, Rei replied with a wry smile.

「Well, there's no point worrying about it, she might look like that, but she's a leader of a C rank party. Especially because she also uses a sword as her main weapon, I thought that she would be the best opponent for you.」

「Rank C!?」

Baslero shouted at Rei's words. He couldn't imagine that the female warrior who was trying to spoil Set so much right now was a higher rank adventurer than Rei.

Rei could understand Baslero's feelings. While looking at Milein, who was playing with Set, he gave a wry laugh as he looked at Baslero.

「She's a typical example of a person with a personality that doesn't match her ability. In fact, I have no doubt about her sword skills. ……If she fought Hasta, who you trained with yesterday, her win rate wouldn't be below 90%. ……If she was up against two Hasta's, it would be about an equal match.」

「So strong……」

She might have noticed that they were looking at her. Milein finally left Set and turned towards Rei.

「Mm, ahem. I've gotten a bit distracted, but I'm Milein and I will be training with you today. Nice to meet you.」

「Yes!　I'm grateful to be able to train with an adventurer of a higher rank than teacher. I'll be in your care!.」

Although Baslero bowed his head vigourously, Milein's cheeks twitched involuntarily at his words.

「Um, Baslero, was it. I'm certainly a higher rank than Rei-san. But, you know?　What I don't want you to mistake is that Rei is someone outside normal standards. Even if his rank is lower than mine, if you just consider his strength, he's the equivalent to a rank A adventurer, so don't have any strange misunderstandings.」

Milein said that to tell him to drop the thought if he thought she was stronger than Rei.

In fact, the adventurers in Gilm who had worked with Rei for the longest time were Scorching Wind, so she knew how crazy Rei's power actually was. If all adventurers above rank D were at Rei's level or had the same level of talent, the city of Gilm would be a gathering of monsters. Baslero nodded, as if forced by Milein, who was in a semi-reflective state.

As Rei watched the two of them, he eventually gave a sigh and clapped his hands to draw their attention.

「Okay, that's enough talking. That aside, Milein, you ready to go?」

「Of course. I won't forget about the reward.」

「Ahh.」

Since he had pulled Milein into this, who was completely unrelated, to help with his request, there was a need for a reward. There was no issue in terms of compensation for winter training with Hasta yesterday, but that was a special case. Most ordinary adventurers would close up for winter.

「Fufu~, a date with Set-chan, a date with Set-chan. A date with Set-chan. A date with Set-chan.」

Milein pulled out her sword from her sheath while repeating those words like a broken radio. Rei noticed that her sword was different form the sword she had used when Set had been teleported by the transition stone.

(Maybe she bought is with the reward from back then……she's spent a lot of money.)

Originally, Milein wasn't usually that pushed for money. However, after meeting Set, Milein was shot through the heart and began to spend a lot of money to feed him to show her affection. And as her gold spending habits changed, the end result was the new sword in Milien's hands.

「T-Teacher……I'm feeling scared.」

Although Baslero hurriedly said that to Rei, with his eyes starting to tear up, Rei responded as if it were nothing.

「Don't worry, don't mind it. If you become an adventurer, there's a possibility you'll end up fighting against opponents who will talk in a similar way. Think of it as training to get used to it.」

「……I feel like I've lost some of my urge to become an adventurer.」

Baslero said that in a small voice. However, his mindset soon switched over. Pulling out his sword from his sheath, he took a stance facing Milein.

「Here I come!」

「Yes, come.」

After exchanging words with each other, the next moment Baslero dashed forward and thrust his sword towards Milein.

This was basically his substitute for a greeting. It was different from yesterday's thrust, much sharper than before Hasta had taught him the technique of thrusting with an estoc. However……

「Naive. If you're going to throw out a thrust, put more emphasis on speed.」

A metallic clang was heard and, the next moment, Baslero realised that his sword had disappeared.

「……Eh?」

Baslero suddenly turned to look at his hand. However, his sword was of course not there. A few seconds later, he could hear his sword fall to the ground to his right.

「What's wrong?　Is it over already?」

Milein threw out some provocative words. And Baslero, who returned to reality at those words, hurriedly picked up his sword that had rolled to the ground.

「Not yet!　H-Here I come again!」

He faced Milein again with sword in hand and took his time. This time, instead of going straight for her like before, he watched Milein intensely.

「What's wrong?　You're not coming over?　Then you're running from me?」

With that voice, a sword shot forward. In the first place, Milein was a swordwoman who was better with speed and skill than strength. However, she still had more than enough strength in comparison to the 10 year old Baslero. Because of this, although Basleor managed to block her sword at each swing, the shock would run through his hands and they were getting numb. And of course, there was no way to block her attacks like that indefinitely.

「Yes, that's the end.」

Although he managed to block the blow coming in from his side, his wrist was twisted aside and the next moment, the tip of Milein's sword was pointed at his neck.

「……I surrender」

「Mm. You seem to be bad at defense. In the first place, you can't really block attacks with raw strength with your physique, so learn to parry it instead of blocking it directly with your blade. Understand?　When your sword is swung like this, don't receive the attack with the blade vertically but with it slightly shifted. That way, you can deflect some of your opponent's power.」

While explain, she demonstrated how to parry an attack with his own sword. Being careful not to miss it, Baslero concentrated on Milein's movements so as not miss even the smallest of movements, absorbing her actions intently.

In Baslero's mind, she was no longer someone with a suspicious personality and was someone who had taught him practical skills.

「Um, like this?」

Baslero mimicked Milein and cut down with his sword at a slight angle. Seeing that, Milein smiled as she spoke.

「Yes, yes. That's it. So, ready?　Do you want to try again?」

「Yes!」

They separated from each other before clashing again. As before, Milein's sword was swung from the side. Baslero tried to parry it with a slight angle as he had been taught……but the next moment, his sword was knocked away by Milein's attack as they collided.

「Look, now you're too weak. You can't use too much strength, but you can't use too little either.」

「Um, then how much power should I use?」

「That depends on the person. You have to fail many times through trial and error. Look, get ready. Here I come!」

「Ah, yes!」

After seeing Milein ready her sword again, Baslero ran to grab he sword that had been knocked away.

And repeated the parry.

「Uw!」

「Look, you've used too much strength this time. Think of the difference in physique between you and me.」

Following Milein's advice, this time he had put too much strength into his hand holding the sword. Milein's attack numbed his hands and dropped his sword.

Then, after about an hour of repeating the same attack many times, Baslero was already so exhausted that he couldn't even hold a sword or get up.

「Milein, how about a break?　Seeing Baslero's condition, he'll only get injured if you keep going.」

「Eh?　Hmm……that's true. I forgot he was still a child. Let's take a break for 30 minutes.」

Baslero took a deep breath at the word ‘break' and silently nodded while his face sweated like a waterfall even though it was winter.

Although the weather was fine, it was still winter and the surrounding temperature was could, so it looked like steam was coming off Baslero's entire body.

「Hey, wipe away your sweat for now. And don't forget to drink and rehydrate.」

Rei handed over a towel taken out from the Misty Ring as well as a bottle of fruit juice.

「Ah, thank……you……」

Even though it was just a short period of time and the opponent used a sword, the same as him……he was exhausted having to deal with Milein, who he was not comparable to at all. Somehow saying that while wiping away his sweat, he brought the bottle to his mouth and gulped it down.

「……So, how was it?」

Rei asked Baslero……no, he asked Milein, who had been moving around more than Baslero but had yet to break out in sweat. as he threw over a bottle like the one he had passed to Baslero.

The difference in their physique was the difference between and adult and a child, an amateur and a rank C adventurer.

「Yes, I think he has some natural talent when it comes to attack with the sword. However, he's neglected his defense because of his talent. If I rated his talent out of 10, his talent for attack would be a 7……no, 8. He would be something like a 2 in defense though.」

Rei listened to Milein and sighed unintentionally.

He had been told a similar thing by Hasta yesterday, who had been involved in training, and Rei realised once again the bias in Baslero's talent.

「Then……how would you use him if he was in a party?」

「Yes, true. If i was in a party with that kid, I would give him a buckler and use him in the vanguard. And I think that kid would take the role of a dedicated attacker. As an attacker, he has a lot of talent, if there was a mage like Sulunin, he could use magic to raise his defenses……but, there's still an element of anxiety.」

「……So you agree.」

Even if it was Rei, if he had to form a temporary party, his honest feelings were that he would want to stay away from teaming up with such a heavily attack focused warrior.

That was because if he was hit, the chances of him going down would be high. Even if he had a high attack power, the element of chance involved was too high.

(In the end, there's no choice but to train his defense. ……Or maybe, I could use magic like my Death Scythe's Magic Shield skill……)

While thinking like that, he waited for Baslero to recover and resume training as he talked.

Chapter end