I fought a mock battle against Mr. Ekenhart
For a few days after that, we continued our basic training every day, as well as the one thousand sword swings.
And just when my body was starting to get used to the training, Mr. Ekenhart ca out into the back garden and told that the training would now include so actual combat.
“Actual combat… How will we do that?”
“Oh, a simple duel with swords. Obviously, that will an that I’ll be attacking you two as well.”
“With father…”
Mr. Ekenhart was holding a sword made of wood as he faced us.
Tilura looked at it nervously.
A real fight then… Well, we had learned how to swing a sword, and the basics, on top of our nightly training. So we should have improved a lot. But I was still anxious.
Mr. Ekenhart wasn’t even pointing the sword at us. But just by holding it, he looked intimidating.
People who were used to fighting had a different aura…
“Father, are you sure about this?”
“Of course, I will have so restraint. This is just a test to see how much progress they made during the past few days.”
Ms. Claire sounded concerned, and Mr. Ekenhart replied while swinging the wooden sword a few tis as if to test it.
…It definitely made a much louder sound when cutting through the air, compared to Tilura and I…
As I would be starting first, Tilura stepped back, and Mr. Ekenhart and I faced each other.
Ms. Claire and the others were here again, and they watched us from a distance.
“Now then, you can start. Co at .”
“Yes!”
While he had a wooden sword, I had an actual blade.
And for just a second, I wondered if he would be all right. But then I rembered that such thoughts would be quite rude, considering his ability. And so I raised my sword.
As if I was practicing, just as I had been taught…
In my head, I decided on how I would move, and then I swung the sword at Mr. Ekenhart.
Well, he hadn’t taught us that much yet, and so I was mostly just swinging down with all of my might.
“Ha!”
“…Your swordsmanship has improved…but it’s not enough.”
Even though I was swinging with all the strength I could muster, Mr. Ekenhard seed to just flick his wrist, and push my sword to the side.
With my trajectory altered, my sword slamd into the ground instead.
The vibrations that I could feel through the sword started to make my hands numb, but I ignored it and tried to raise the sword again. But then I saw Mr. Ekenhart sway in the corner of my vision.
“It looks like you’ve died once, Mr. Takumi. You cannot take your eyes off of an enemy during a real fight.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
By the ti I had registered Mr. Ekenhart’s movent, he already had his sword at my neck, and the battle was over.
If this was an actual sword, and he wanted to kill … Then I would really be dead…
I knew that I had made a mistake by caring only about the sword after it had been turned aside.
Though, I doubted I would have been able to do anything even if I did keep my eyes on Mr. Ekenhart.
“Next is Tilura.”
“Yes!”
Tilura was called by Mr. Ekenhart, and so she took a step forward and faced him.
In the anti, I sheathed my sword and moved back, while shaking my numb hand.
…It will feel prickly for a while…this hand…
Tilura swung down, much like I had, but her attack was blocked, and her sword bounced away.
Once she had lost her balance, Mr. Ekenhart thrust the wooden sword towards her face.
“And now you are dead too, Tilura. It is not a bad thing to swing with all of your might, but you have to think about what you will do if you are thrown off balance.”
“Thank you.”
And so in just a few minutes, both Tilura and I were defeated by Mr. Ekenhart.
It could not be helped, as we had only been training for a few days, but I did feel a little resentful over how easy it had been for him.
“Now, I think you both can see how lacking you are. It’s only natural, as your training has only just begun.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“But there is not a whole lot that I can teach. In order to use a sword, you need to practice until you can beco one with it. And you have to be able to think.”
“To think…”
“To think ahead. How will your opponent move? How should you move? And whether or not you can actually do it… Well, there are also a lot of smaller details…”
The movent and counterasures would depend on the opponent.
And the thing that would tell you how you should move, was your daily training.
According to Mr. Ekenhart, that was the basics of combat.
I didn’t know much about fighting, but the words of soone who easily beat us sounded quite convincing.
“I’m a busy man, after all. And so today will be the last day that I can oversee your training.”
“You are leaving, father?”
Mr. Ekenhart was a duke. And so it was no surprise that he was busy.
I had to be thankful that he had spent ti to train us during these past few days.
Tilura had looked nervous and a little crestfallen when learned that he was visiting, but she looked very sad now.
Well, she was still young, and so it made sense that she’d want to be with her father. She had only been upset earlier because of the matter of arranged marriages.
“Yes, I cannot stay here forever. Besides, there is the business of selling Mr. Takumi’s herbs.”
“I apologize for the trouble.”
“There is no need for you to apologize, Mr. Takumi. This is also for the benefit of our family.”
After that, Mr. Ekenhart tousled Tilura’s hair to cheer her up, and then he told us the next part of our training.
It was a little less harsh than before, but still harsh enough.
We repeated it over and over, and then he said that there was one more thing that we could do. By mastering this training, we should be able to handle a sword without any help.
But as it was ti for dinner, the training would have to wait for the following day.
And after dinner, Tilura and I practiced our swings as usual.
I thought back on my fight with Mr. Ekenhart as I tried swinging in different ways. And I did feel that I was swinging less aimlessly and more efficiently, compared to before.
Mr. Ekenhart had also warned us to not develop any troubleso habits, which I had kept in mind.
On the other hand, I hadn’t been able to play with Leo very much… It was with such thoughts that I went to bed.
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