My name is Belius Schlstein, I am 32 years old, and I am a fairly well-known Grand Master of the Knights.
Today, my purpose is to teach a child swordsmanship at a noble family's home. I don't usually like doing this kind of thing, but I can't refuse because of the other party's status. We also agreed that I would only be teaching for 3 days, so I chose to come to the other party's mansion during the group's long vacation.
What an impressive house! No wonder it belongs to a marquis. I suppose most of the great noble families in the country are like this.
"Are you Lord Belius Schlstein? Thank you for coming all this way. I've been waiting for you."
I was greeted by a maid who looked obviously very experienced, and... a boy.
Judging from the boy's attire, he was clearly not a servant. Could he be the Marquis's child?
"Are you Lord Belius Schlstein? Thank you for coming all this way."
When the boy bowed to me, mimicking a maid, it made me feel a little flattered.
"Oh, no, no, no, you're welcome. By the way, may I ask who you are?"
"I am Robert Von Anglus, son of Marquis Bahod of the Anglus family. Thank you for accepting my father's invitation to be my swordsmanship instructor. I look forward to your guidance over the next three days."
Oh, so he's the one I'm supposed to teach. He's quite a polite child. To be honest, I initially thought the Marquis Bahod's son would be a spoiled and arrogant young master. It seems I was wrong and have to reflect on my prejudice.
"Where is Lord Bahod now? I'd like to go and say hello first."
"Unfortunately, my father is not home at the moment. He will probably not be back until tomorrow. Is there anything urgent?"
"No, I just wanted to say hello. If you're not here, that's fine."
"Then please come inside and rest. You must be very tired after such a long journey. This maid will take you to the guest room. If you have any other requests, please feel free to tell her."
"No, there's no need for rest. We shouldn't delay. I want to start the swordsmanship lesson immediately. What do you think, Young Master Robert?"
"Of course I'd love to, is that really okay?"
"Now that I've accepted the responsibility of teaching swordsmanship, I want to understand your current level as soon as possible so I can develop a teaching plan. I'll come find you after I put my luggage in the guest room."
"I understand. I'll wait for you in the backyard of the mansion."
I was quite surprised when I first received the letter from Marquis Bahod. He actually asked me to teach his child swordsmanship, and I had no idea what he was up to.
As far as I knew, noble families like the Anglus family didn't have a tradition of martial arts, and Marquis Bahod himself didn't know any martial arts and was a pure magician. The main reason was simply that there was no need for it. Most nobles possessed innate magical talent and didn't need to engage in hand-to-hand combat like soldiers in war. No matter how well they learned swordsmanship, there was no practical use for it.
So even now I'm still very confused. Does this boy named Robert really want to learn swordsmanship? Or does he have some other purpose? I really want to figure this out right now.
It's faster to communicate with swords than to ask directly.
...
Are you ready, young master Robert?"
"Yes."
Once we got to the backyard, I had Robert take the wooden sword I'd brought and asked him to spar with me first. Of course, I wouldn't attack first; I only planned to defend, and we'd stop when he was almost exhausted.
"By the way, Master Belius, you don't need to call me Young Master. You are a much older elder than me, and I feel very uncomfortable being addressed with such a respectful title by you."
"Really? Alright then, Robert."
I was somewhat surprised that they had absolutely no airs of nobility.
"Then please forgive my rudeness."
"Bring it on."
Robert charged at me with all his might, swinging his sword repeatedly. For a child his age, his strength and speed were a bit too fast even exceeding that of a trained soldier. But I detected no Magical enhancements or Qi of Martial Artist, on him.
Was this really a child of Anglus family and not the Arnold family which was rich in Martial Heritage?
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I could clearly feel he was giving it his all as I parried his attacks. However, it's a pity that his Swordsmanship and Martial Arts doesn't match his body. He hasn't even practiced basic Martial Arts Breathing Technique and can't even utilise full strength of his body.
But what can I expect from a child. Having this much ability is already beyond ordinary.
Surprisingly enough, Robert learned very quickly and used his constant thinking and trial and error during the fight. If one angle didn't work, he'd try another; if one height wasn't good, he'd lower it. He even used feints to try and confuse me. Of course, none of them worked on me.
After about ten minutes, Robert, who had used all his skills to attack but had been completely blocked, finally sat on the ground panting only slightly with no extra fatigue.
Not only strength but even his endurance was extraordinary.
'Do you exercise regularly?"
"Yes."
Did he prepare his body beforehand to learn swordsmanship? It doesn't seem like a spur-of-the-moment decision.
But...
"I will speak frankly, Robert. Your physique seems extraordinary and you have the quality required to be a Martial Artist."
"As for your talent in swordsmanship, I will judge it when I teach you. If you don't meet my standards, I don't really recommend that you delve deeper into this area. It would be more meaningful to use that time to learn Magic."
"Compared to Swordsmanship, Magic isn't bad."
Possessing such physique, his talent for swordsmanship is destined to be good. But we still need to test it.
"I see."
He seemed unfazed by my words and readily accepting my compliment.
Taking this opportunity, I asked him the question I most wanted to know right now.
"Robert, can you tell me why you want to learn swordsmanship?"
Robert looked at me and thought for a while, and I roughly knew that this question would be very important for the future.
"The most important reason is simply that I believe learning swordsmanship can train one's mind. In actual combat, close-range collisions between weapons create a strong sense of crisis in the body."
*In such situations, only those who can calmly assess the situation and seize fleeting opportunities can win. What I want is to maintain a calm mind under any circumstances, and learning swordsmanship is the best way I can think of."
It turned out to be a more serious reason than I had imagined.
Why train one's inner self? What is the reason or opportunity to do so? No, as an outsider, I shouldn't concern myself with these things; it's his private matter.
"You say this is the main reason, but are there any other reasons? Tell me about them."
"There are many other uses, such as self-defense, physical exercise, and brain development. In short, I believe that good swordsmanship will definitely be useful in my future life, which is why I asked my father to help me find a teacher."
"That's certainly true, but the path of swordsmanship is extremely difficult. To acquire swordsmanship that surpasses all others, one must put in extraordinary effort. For those with exceptional talent, you might need to put in two or even three times the effort to catch up. Are you mentally prepared for that?"
"I don't want to become the world's number one swordsman. I don't have a fanatical love for swordsmanship, and I don't want to compare myself with anyone. I just want to increase my strength, even if it's just a little bit. I don't want to regret not learning something practical when I was young when I grew up."
It sounds very positive, but anyone can do what they say. Whether Robert is lying or not can only be found out over the next three days.
As a martial artist, I believe more in the dialogue between swords than in what others say.
"Get into position."
"Yes."
Once he recovered his strength, I plan to give him my final guidance for the day.
"It's my turn to attack now. Try to defend against all my attacks."
"OK."
Robert looked nervous. He probably knew I couldn't possibly go all out against such a small child, but psychological pressure is something that's hard to overcome.
I steadily rushed forward.
"Snort!"
He stopped me, which is only natural.
Then they changed their angle and continued their attack...
This continued for about 10 minutes and the more I fought, the more I felt Robert's extraordinary talent.
He not dodged his attacks several times at moment but even blocked my attacks which even trainee Knights would find difficult.
What a Strong Dynamic vision?
Marvelling at his talent, I increased the pressure on him, wanting to see his limit.
What reflected afterwards were Strong physique, High dynamic vision, ability to think and courage to try.
Qualities which are essential for a swordsman were clearly shown in him.
As the pace increased, Robert couldn't keep up after 10 minutes and was directly hit in the body by the wooden sword in my hand, which meant the end.
"This is... Could it be that Master Belius has memorized all of my attack patterns from just now?"
"Oh, it's good that you noticed that."
I felt slightly embarrassed. Initially, I reduced the force and speed as much as possible, and slowed down the rhythm of my attack to give him enough time to react and my swordsmanship was also like that of an amateur, with no rules or method. My movements were almost a copy of how he attacked me just now.
But after the battle pace went up, I started using my experienced eyes to analyse his attack and deconstruct his attack pattern.
"In short, let's set the goal for these three days as follows: defeat your current self."
Let me wait and see how far this young master of the Marquis's family can go.