A few hours passed since Helcune and her sisters joined Alfina and the rest to train. They also went over the basics at first, before starting a 3v3v3v1 practice battle. Overall, they seed to be having a hard ti adjusting, as their cries could be heard from afar pretty often.
「Are you sure they’re going to be alright..?」
Bruce turned in the direction of those cries, looking concerned, and Mira just grinned, saying, 「If you can still worry about others then we aren’t training hard enough,」 and summoned another wave of Dark Knights.
That made all color drain from Bruce’s face.
Mira was currently training Bruce to be more adept at evading attacks from enemies, while bringing forth high level summons at the sa ti.
His partial summoning was still a bit clumsy, but he was able to make shields appear to block the Dark Knight’s relentless attacks and continue chanting.
Despite it all, Bruce continued to prove his strength, succeeding in completing the spells many tis. Still, that was only the beginning of his hardships.
The Dark Knights were equipped with wooden training swords instead of their usual black blades. The White Serpent Asclepius was also wrapped around Mira’s arm, ready to heal Bruce at any mont. They were taking a really spartan approach to training, as unlike Helcune and her sisters, Mira and Bruce only had a week to train there.
There were also theory study sessions waiting for Bruce later, as Mira would drill him on more knowledge involving summoner abilities.
When Bruce would later recount those monts, he described them as the most strenuous, but also the most fruitful week of his life.
Ti seed to fly by like that, and before they realized, it was ti for dinner. Everyone sat down and ate rrily. Helcune and her sisters were also eating with them, as Alfina had told them to live in the palace until she determined that they had improved to an acceptable level.
Earlier in the day when they heard that, the three were excited to set foot in the palace, but that excitent was gone now.
The exhaustion from training all day was weighing heavily on them, as they lay sprawled on the table, their eyes fatigued and struggling to stay open.
The seven sisters also looked tired, but not to the extent of Helcune and the other two. It was clear that the last stretch of training had been really physically demanding.
Frodina was not as exhausted, as she had ended early to prepare dinner.
Then there was Christina, who looked like she was about to pass away during training, but had swung back to life shortly after it ended. Or rather, she was the most energetic precisely because training was over.
「Master, Master, apparently we’ll get dessert with dinner too!」
Christina said that with a bright smile, still celebrating that Mira had arranged for them to be able to eat sweets again. She then began, 「Also, could you—」 only to cut herself off, quickly adding, 「I’ll tell you another ti!」 before dashing off to her seat.
A mont later, Alfina entered the dining hall. She had just finished compiling all the information on the three sisters’ current state and strength, as well as their training plan moving forward. All of that was written down in a chart, which Alfina presented to Mira.
「Hmm, I see. This looks pretty well balanced.」
Alfina’s discerning eye had clearly noticed the traits of the three sisters, and had already co up with the best plan to suit them.
Helcune was most proficient with a shield and would be placed in a defensive position, Erne was a close range fighter, and Lagrinne was best suited at dium range.
「What do you think, Bruce? This is the formation I found most suitable to their abilities, but maybe it could use so adjustnts depending on your own abilities and strategies.」
After reporting to Mira, Alfina went to the next seat where Bruce was, to hear what he thought as well. After all, it was the summoner who would direct the formation in the end.
「No, this is flawless. Please proceed like this.」
Bruce did not have any close range combat abilities like Mira’s Sage Arts, so two frontliners and a middle guard was perfect to keep him in the backline.
「Leave it to .」
Alfina bowed respectfully before heading to where the three sisters were sitting, tapping on their exhausted shoulders and showing them the training plan.
Helcune tried to scream, but her voice was completely gone.
***
「Oh, Sound Visualization. That sounds useful…there, written down.」
After a bustling dinner ti, Mira went to her room to wind down, reading the Encyclopedia of Skills in search for anything that could be of use. Then, just like the day before, soone ca to visit her room.
「…Okay, the coast is clear.」
Her head poked into the room, and after checking for any other visitors, Christina ran inside in tears saying, 「Master, please do sothingggg!」
「Hmm, I seem to rember you also said sothing like that last night. What is it?」
That ti, Alfina had been in the room as well, so Christina had turned around to run away as soon as she entered. This ti, they were alone, so Mira could glean that Christina did not want Alfina to hear whatever she would say.
When Mira asked about it, unsurprisingly, Christina began to complain and beg about training.
「…And usually that would be it for training, but now…」
As she explained, after their already strenuous training, Alfina suddenly decided to start one-on-one matches against herself, easily beating everyone.
Their training already involved fighting in groups of three against Alfina alone, showing just how strong she was. And then she still had the energy to fight everyone else one-on-one at the end and erged victorious, showing why she was considered the strongest in Valhalla.
But Christina also ntioned that they had never done that before, this was the first ti.
「I feel like she’s going over the top just because you’re here. So she’s going to keep doing that tomorrow, and the day after, and so on…So please! Could you at least co to check up on us?! Or maybe…」
Christina desperately pleaded, wanting to avoid going through that again. But was soon interrupted as soone knocked on the door. She instantly twitched, looking at the door in terror as her trembling voice said, 「It can’t be…」
Mira loudly said, 「Co in,」 and surely enough, the new visitor was none other than Alfina.
「Master, I’d like to continue where I left off last night. May I borrow the Holy Sword again?」
Alfina wanted to continue practicing a special move with the Holy Sword Sanctia. She was also looking forward to being granted the honor of holding that sword by her master again, as her eyes twinkled with expectation.
「Sure, go ahead. But only until midnight at most. You’ll rest properly when it gets too late, got it?」
Knowing Alfina, she was capable of staying up all night practicing, so Mira made sure to be stern about it. Mira’s assumption was completely right, as Alfina said, 「As you wish,」 with a slightly disappointed voice.
But her mood swung back as soon as the Holy Sword Sanctia was summoned, and she knelt down to accept it, trembling with excitent.
「Ahh, this is such an honor!」
She exclaid with elation as she stood up and turned around, ready to leave, sothing Christina was really hoping for, but contrary to her wishes, Alfina’s eyes landed right on her.
「By the way, Christina, is sothing wrong with our training? I believe I heard sothing about checking on it.」
「Huh?! Umm, I an…that’s…」
It seed Alfina had overheard their previous conversation, but only the last part.
Christina was panicking internally, trying to figure a way out of this. After a short ti, she thought of sothing and continued speaking.
「I was just thinking… It’s been a long ti since the last ti we switched up our training regint. A lot of things have changed since then, there’s that Holy Sword now…or those Ashen Knights… Our Master has also changed in many ways…」
Already used to coming up with excuses, there was no stopping Christina once she started, so she continued building up on that.
Reviews
All reviews (0)