Kays Translations

Chapter 132: I Lost

When Lionel and I entered the training ground, the few knights who remained behind stared at us in surprise.

“Commander, is something wrong?”

“No. Lord Julius insists on practising his swordsmanship.”

Lionel sounded deeply troubled. He had no faith in me at all.

I ignored that and performed some warm-up exercises while a wooden training sword was brought over. A pulled muscle would be humiliating.

“Good. You have a sword too, Lionel.”

“Are you certain you want me as your opponent?”

“You’re the strongest person here, are you not?”

“That’s true, but…”

The knights gathered around us, clearly assuming this would be a harmless demonstration.

The only thing I didn’t know was how well my techniques would work in my current body. My game character had been fifteen, while I was explicitly a ten-year-old boy now. That difference worried me.

We took our positions. I intended to surprise Lionel and take the first point.

The instant I raised my sword, Lionel’s expression sharpened. I launched myself forwards like a bullet.

He deflected my first strike to the side. I landed, swept at his legs and followed with a full-body thrust. Lionel leapt back and twisted away at the last instant.

He was good. I had expected the thrust to decide the match.

My following diagonal cut was blocked cleanly. I hesitated for a fraction of a second, and that was my mistake.

We exchanged several more blows. Once Lionel had recovered from the surprise of my opening attack, I couldn’t break his defence. Eventually, the shock of a parry numbed my arm and sent the wooden sword flying from my hand.

I had lost.

“I concede.”

Lionel didn’t answer immediately. He was breathing heavily, which at least meant I had pushed him harder than he expected. The surrounding knights stared with their mouths open.

“I didn’t realise the situation was this serious,” Lionel finally said. “Beginning tomorrow, I’ll personally supervise your combat training.”

“That isn’t necessary. You’re busy.”

“It’s necessary.”

His unusually sharp look made me fall silent.

The other knights’ eyes were shining. They begged for turns, so I changed weapons and faced five of them at once with a training spear. Lionel looked even more stunned when I defeated them.

I could also use an axe and bow, ride a horse and perform various acrobatic movements, but admitting all of that would only make things worse. I smiled vaguely and said nothing.

That evening, the collection team returned safely with the killer-bee honey. Because they had followed my instructions exactly, it was of excellent quality.

As thanks, I gave each knight ten elementary stamina-recovery potions. The fizzy potions were extremely popular.

“Only one material left.”

“Kyu…”

Mira looked at me oddly. This was partly for their sake, so I patted them while easing the fatigue from my training.

I had probably overdone it. My muscles would ache tomorrow, although children’s bodies recovered quickly.

At dinner, Rosalia immediately brought up the insect nets.

“Big brother, I want to catch Mira with the net again.”

“It’s a tool for catching insects, not Mira. Besides, I gave all the nets to the knights.”

“I see…”

“Kyu…”

Both of them looked so disappointed that I gave in.

“All right. I’ll make a special Mira net. It’ll be larger and easier to use.”

“Thank you!”

“Kyu!”

Mother looked suspicious.

“Julius, what exactly is an insect net? You aren’t teaching Rosalia some strange game, are you?”

“It’s a perfectly respectable game. Probably.”

That answer didn’t reassure her.

I completed the Mira net that night. Rosalia and Mira immediately began playing chase with it the next morning.

Mother later scolded me for encouraging Rosalia to run through the mansion. Apparently, even a mansion this large wasn’t an acceptable playground for a young noble lady.

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