Chapter 9 – Sisters practice
As a condition to go to see and spar with Ghislaine, Master thought for a long time and finally reached a hot-blooded condition, “if you want to go to Ghislaine, you must first become stronger than me!”.
In response to that, I became fired up.
As fired up as I was, I decided to start with copying the lightspeed sword that Ghislaine showed the last time to reach a power-up, so I am swinging my sword as usual today.
“Hey, Emily. Can you teach me how to use the sword?”
It was then that Elder sister suddenly said something unusual.
I wasn’t surprised by that.
Recently, Elder sister seems to have realized some things like being too reliant on Rudeus after being told by Father things like “does Sylphy plan on being protected by him forever?”, and started working hard to become someone who could support Rudeus.
More specifically, she would go to help out at Zenith-san’s clinic, and even started to learn etiquette from Lilia-san, and start training hard to build up stamina.
She’s really working hard.
It’s amazing. The instant Rudeus disappeared, everything started to turn for the better, so I was impressed by Master’s decisiveness to ship Rudeus away.
When I honestly told Master about how I felt, he became even more arrogant, but let’s leave that aside.
“Got it. Do you, want it, to be, hard? Do you, want it, gentle?”
“Be hard on me.”
“Mm. Okay.”
I feel a little reluctant since my training time would decrease, but I haven’t become ruthless enough to leave my actual sister working hard aside.
Anyway, it’s also well known that teaching another person would deepen your own understanding.
And so, I decided to teach swordsmanship to my elder sister.
I thought that it would be better if she learned from Master with me, but she told me, “Paulo-san, he’s a little scary.”, so it was denied.
According to Elder sister, she saw the instant Master beat Rudeus up.
I didn’t see it, but when I thought about it, Elder sister was walking in front of us at that time.
So, seeing her beloved person receive violence that made him faint, she started to dislike Master.
To be hated by such a little girl.
Master’s so pitiful.
With that said.
Let’s start training!
I took Master’s way of teaching as an example.
I was undecided whether I should teach her the way my kendo sensei from my previous life taught me, but as the saying when in Rome, do as the Romans do, I decided to use the isekai curriculum now that I’m in another world.
And my master’s way is to fight once before teaching the techniques.
Like when Master taught me for the first time, it’s necessary to show an example, but Elder sister, who has seen me spar with Rudeus for years, should understand already, so it should be fine.
“So, you should, start with, attacking. Come, from any, where, you want.”
“U-Un. I got it. Yaaaaaaaa!!”
After finishing the minimal explanation I could say with my incomplete sentences, we started to fight.
Elder sister swung the wooden sword she borrowed from Master’s house in a way she found reasonable.
She quickly swung upwards, then forcefully swung down.
Her movements did not show any signs of stances or foundation.
But everyone’s like that at the beginning.
I was also like that in my previous life when I first held the sword.
While feeling a little nostalgic and smile-provoking, I blocked Elder sister’s sword head-on.
I didn’t parry at all.
We’re just practicing.
It’s important to let her first hit places that are easy to target.
I learned this in kendo.
“Ei! Yaa!”
Elder sister continues to swing the sword while moving forward.
Just like the heading-back practice method in kendo, I received Elder sister’s attack while slowly moving backward matching her speed.
But I immediately noticed that Elder sister’s sword had less momentum than I thought.
“Syl, you, don’t need, to hold, back. I am, strong. I’m, fine, even if, you get, serious.”
“U-Un!”
Even though Elder sister replied so, maybe she had a strong sense of discomfort when pointing her sword towards another person, her sword did not stop holding back.
Elder sister is kind, after all.
She might be incompatible with the Sword God Style that emphasizes attacking.
Mm?
Thinking about it this way, does Elder sister need to force herself to learn swordsmanship?
If it’s means of attacking, she has Rudeus’s special magic spells, and she could attack from afar, so maybe she doesn’t need to charge forward with a sword?
Unlike me, Elder sister doesn’t seem to have admiration for swords.
“Stop.”
“Haa… haa…”
For the time being, I decided to end our first battle after letting her a feel about fighting.
Elder sister is a little out of breath, but she is still energetic, probably because of her recent stamina training.
Hmm.
That being the case, let’s try what I just thought.
“Next, let’s fight, while you, use, magic.”
“Huh? B-But magic is dangerous…”
“It’s, okay. As I’ve, told, earlier, I’m, strong.”
I forcibly convinced my reluctant elder sister and started to spar with magic allowed.
Come to think of it, I’ve also asked Rudeus to do a mock battle like this because I wanted to gain experience in dealing with magicians.
Though that guy also refused me, saying he didn’t want to cast magic spells against me.
Now that I think about it, this is also my first battle against a magician.
And although I told Elder sister that way, I’m also not absolutely sure to win against a type of opponent I’ve never fought against…
I should be more careful not to be surprised by an unexpected attack and die instantly.
“H-Here I come… Air Burst!”
The first spell Elder sister chose to use was a wind-attributed magic spell that generated a shock wave.
Normally, it should be a colorless and transparent blow, but I could see it clearly thanks to my Magic Power Eyes.
I mean, it’s so easy to tell since the air is literally bursting, so I should be able to deal with it even without my Magic Power Eyes.
I swing my sword.
Cutting the shockwave with just that.
When it comes to frontal attack, it’s better to slash to destroy than parrying.
“Ei~! Ei!~!”
Elder sister released tons of shockwaves, water bullets, and ice blades while posing with the small staff she received from Rudeus.
There’s one thing I thought of after seeing that.
Unlike swordsmanship, in which skills matter a lot, magic is also quite strong, even if you just throw a random attack.
For example, it’s similar to amateur civilians shooting guns everywhere.
It might not be useful against master opponents, but it’s possible to defeat opponents like the Terminate Boar Master defeated before with just that.
On top of that, thinking of various kinds of magic spells Rudeus I’ve seen when he was practicing and the way they were used, it could probably be applied in many ways depending on one’s mastery.
There are a lot of ways even just with the things that Rudeus tried, like throwing Air Burst to one’s self to move at high speed, creating a quagmire under the opponent’s feet to block their movement, or blocking vision using smoke and explosions.
Being able to attack in both a frontal and tricky way, I think that she would be fine even if she only attacked using magic spells.
In that case, the swordsmanship that Elder sister should learn with the best benefit is…
“Yo.”
“……!?”
I closed the distance between straightforwardly by parrying Elder sister’s monotonously released magic spells using Water God Style technique.
The shorter the distance, the shorter the time it takes for the magic spells to hit, but it doesn’t work for me since I’ve already completely read Elder sister’s attacks.
It’s normal, since it is a beginner’s monotonous, simple attack.
I should say that I might be embarrassed if I couldn’t come up with a way to deal with her despite training for years.
As soon as we closed our distance, Elder sister couldn’t do anything.
Even if she desperately cast a magic spell to freeze the ground on my feet, a single step made me easily escape from the effective range.
After that, Elder sister is already right in front of me.
Unlike the first time I fought against Rudeus, Elder sister couldn’t deal with even my considerate and held back slow slash, and our battle ended quickly with my wooden sword on her neck.
“Un, I get, it, now.”
After the battle, I decided the way I should teach Elder sister.
This is the best thing I could teach Elder sister.
“I’ll, teach, Syl, Water God, Style.
“Water God Style?”
“Right. Water God, Style. It’s a, defensive, sword. It’s, enough, to attack, using, magic. So I, teach Syl, sword to, defend.”
This is probably the best way to let Elder sister become stronger.
If she’s able to use magic and Water God Style’s technique at the same time, a nightmarish combo of a ranged attacker with a shield will be born.
For example, it’s like shooting with turrets while riding a highly defensive tank.
What a cheat.
Of course, I don’t think that it would be that simple.
I know very well the difficulty of using magic spells and swordsmanship at the same time since I also haven’t given up learning magic, and Elder sister doesn’t even have a magician as a teacher.
Unlike me, who’s lucky enough to find a master who could teach me swordsmanship, Elder sister’s path to becoming stronger isn’t a paved road.
Even so, it shouldn’t be a waste to learn a new technique.
That’s how I started Elder sister the Water God Style.
In the end, Elder sister would become a skilled magic swordsman holding a short staff in her right hand and a short sword in her left hand, but that is still a long way off.
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