Chapter 7

Chapter 7. I Received Training, But... (1)

The moment he left the training ground, Flora asked me, where I lay sprawled on the ground,

"Can you get up?"

"No way. No way."

My arms felt as though they were about to fall off, and my legs were trembling uncontrollably.

"Then climb on."

Flora hoisted me onto her back with a somewhat pleased expression.

What was she so happy about?

"Has it already been two years since the last time I carried you on my back? Young Master, you have always been too mature for your age, so Madam has been rather worried... and a little regretful too."

Of course, that has made things easier for us as well.

She added that last part quietly, but at that point I could barely hear anything she said.

No, my eyes were already half closed, so I could not even make out what she was saying anymore.

It seemed she kept talking after that, but by then I was already asleep.

My body recovered quickly. The body that had been wracked with pain was completely fine before the next day had even ended.

And that recovered body was different from the day before. It had become harder and stronger.

While I spent a full day resting, I passed the time with Mother.

A half-body bath, a massage, and even tea and sweets. It was all Mother’s way of helping a body that had been worked to the point of collapse recover, but in truth, my body had already fully recovered.

Then, on the morning after that leisurely day, Knight Miguel came to my room in person.

"From now on, I will be in charge of your training, Young Master."

At his words, I tilted my head.

"I thought this was only supposed to be a test."

"You may think of it as training combined with a test. It is not an ability that can be fully understood in a single day."

The Duke himself had come to see it, and now a full-fledged knight was training a child who had only just turned six...

Even if the testing was continuing, did that mean I could assume they had some expectations for me?

"And you may speak casually to me now. Since you have already gained an inherited ability, there is no problem with that."

At Miguel’s words, the corners of my mouth curled upward. Since he had told me to drop the formalities, I decided to do exactly that right away.

"Is this not a little too early?"

"Yes?"

"In practice, the youngest ones who begin real training start at fourteen. Even attendants who do menial work are not taken in before seven at the earliest, are they? I only just turned six."

Miguel made an awkward face at my words.

"It is not as though I am going to start out as a squire, and even the amazing Brother Simon did not begin knight training until he was eight."

Besides, our second young master, that little brat who had inherited his ability from his mother’s side, was still not receiving this kind of training.

Well, other than his lightning ability, he was still just an ordinary little brat, so this sort of training would have been too much for him at his age.

"I also think it is rather early, but... it is the Duke’s order."

There was nothing I could say to that if it was the Duke’s command.

What exactly did the Duke want?

It was only a body-enhancement ability that could not use mana. Was there really some secret hidden in it that I did not know about?

In any case, it was the Duke’s order. If I did as I was told, I would find out eventually.

"I suppose I have to follow orders. The training ground in the back again today?"

"Yes, sir."

The knight answered at once, looking relieved.

He really was a rather innocent knight. Then again, there was no way a seasoned veteran would have been assigned to educate an illegitimate son like me.

I looked him over from head to toe.

He did not seem like an outcast, so was he just the easy-mark type?

Well, it did not matter either way, so long as he was skilled.

I changed my clothes at once and followed after him.

Once Mother learned that the training would continue, she fixed the knight with an icy stare, but all she could do was sigh after hearing that it was the Duke’s order.

Flora ran off to the dining hall to prepare a lunchbox, and Mother embraced me tightly before I left the room.

Knight Miguel and I headed for the training ground alone, and when we arrived a little later, I came upon someone unexpected.

No, not truly unexpected. He was certainly someone I could very well have met here.

"Why are you here?"

At the sight of me arriving with Miguel, the Duke’s eldest son frowned.

He had been training in swordsmanship on the training ground with another knight.

The sword blade hanging low in his hand shimmered faintly with a blue glow as he looked at me.

It was sword aura formed from mana.

For a mere ten-year-old to produce materialized mana like that. I was seeing it with my own eyes, yet it was still difficult to believe.

'As expected of the heir the ducal house of Gresia is so proud of.'

The knight standing before Brother Simon also looked thoroughly displeased.

"What is the meaning of this? This is the ducal house’s training ground. It is not a place one may enter so casually!"

The knight, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, rebuked Miguel.

Ah, how annoying.

I could have answered him myself here, but there was no reason to.

So I simply looked at Miguel as well.

With an embarrassed expression, Miguel answered,

"It is the Duke’s order that Young Master Alex be trained here. The Commander issued the instruction during morning assembly today."

"That cannot be..."

At the knight’s groan, Simon barked furiously,

"That is absurd! I will confirm it myself."

Abandoning his training altogether, he strode quickly toward the mansion.

He was trying, in his own way, to preserve his dignity by not running, but that somehow looked even worse than if he had.

I only wished there had been a camera. It was deeply regrettable that I could not preserve that moment.

That day, Simon and the knight who had gone off to confirm matters never returned to the training ground, and from the very first day onward, I was worked to the bone under Miguel.

Unlike the training I had received on the first day, Miguel kept making me run.

And not running suited to my age, either. Just like on the first day, he drove me until I collapsed unconscious.

One day, two days, three days.

Every day, I ran until I fainted, then got carried back to the mansion on Flora’s back.

After the first day, this training ground effectively became mine alone.

Simon never came back, and the Duke never stopped by either. No one else from the family, no knights, and none of the mansion’s servants ever appeared.

Time passed, and one week later...

"Huff, huff. Is knight training really supposed to be like this? How does anyone endure it?"

On the first day that I did not faint, I asked Miguel that question.

Once again, Miguel wore an awkward expression.

"Of course not. If classes were taught like this, no one would survive them. Even I would have run away."

"What?"

I tried to force myself upright at that ridiculous answer, only to let out a groan instead.

"Then why am I being trained with such a barbaric method?"

"But thanks to it, you are growing stronger quickly, are you not?"

At his words, I had no choice but to fall silent.

He was not wrong.

Even in those moments when I collapsed every day, I could feel myself continuing to grow.

At some point while running,

I became a little faster, breathing became a little easier, and my body became a little sturdier.

It felt distinctly different from the ordinary process of simply growing physically stronger.

Like leveling up, almost? As though I were rising in discrete stages?

I did not feel it every single day, and as time passed, the intervals between those moments grew longer and longer, but there was no doubt that it was a clearly different sensation.

'I felt it four times from the first day until now, so does that make me level four?'

The training was so brutal that it made me think all kinds of nonsense, but in any case, just as Knight Miguel had said, my ability was definitely growing.

---

"I heard that child is being trained separately at the family’s training ground."

"Yes. Both the Duke and Young Master Simon are using other training grounds."

"And I heard the Duke himself even went to that training ground."

"Only on the first day."

"The number of days is not what matters."

"My apologies."

"Why, I wonder? Why is he paying attention to that child? A sharp mind is useless, and his inherited ability was nothing worth noticing either..."

"Shall I investigate the reason separately?"

At her subordinate’s question, she shook her head.

"No, there is no need. The Duke’s protection over him ended on his Awakening Day anyway."

I had intended to watch a little longer, but the Duke was showing interest in that child. I absolutely could not leave him alone now.

"More importantly, I hear the family’s training ground is rather secluded?"

"Yes. It is surrounded by forest, so no one aside from the foresters and members of the ducal house can approach it."

"Then if an accident were to occur there, it would be difficult for others to find out."

"Unless the Duke happens to come by unexpectedly, that would likely be the case."

"There is no need to worry about the Duke."

When the words stopped for a moment, it felt as though the temperature in the room had dropped slightly.

"Find someone. Someone skilled in ambush. Someone who could easily kill at least a young knight."

"Understood."

The man bowed his head, then left the room, and the beautiful chamber fell silent once more.

---

"Huuuu..."

Letting out a long breath, I shook the sweat from my body. I could feel vitality returning to me.

I had run for nearly an hour until I reached my limit, but now I no longer fainted.

Of course, it was still utterly exhausting, but if I rested a little like this, I recovered to some extent.

Only a month had passed, yet even I could clearly feel how much I had grown.

I could smell the rich scent of the forest surrounding the training ground. Since the ground itself was not large, it almost felt as though I were standing in the middle of the woods.

"Well done."

Flora, who had been waiting nearby, handed me a cup of water. Once I had drunk the cool water, Knight Miguel, who had also been waiting, spoke.

"Now then, let us continue with swordsmanship training."

At his words, Flora took the cup and headed toward the edge of the training ground, while I drew the wooden sword hanging at my waist.

It was a toy-like wooden sword sized for a six-year-old, but it was just as sturdy as the practice swords used by adults.

Miguel had a face too gentle for a knight, but whenever training began, he drove me so mercilessly that he reminded me of a drill instructor from my previous life.

If this had been my previous life, or if I had truly been just an ordinary six-year-old, he would have been reported for child abuse.

Until not long ago, even Flora had panicked at the sight of my training and fidgeted about, saying she needed to tell Mother.

But now she simply sat in the shade of a tree and watched at her leisure.

I steadied my breathing and swung the sword in my hand.

Downward strikes for two straight hours, without a single technique mixed in.

It was an absurd number of repetitions, and difficult even for an adult, but after training for a month, I was more than capable of enduring it.

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

As I continued my sharp, clipped shouts and brought the sword down, I felt something like wind stirring around the blade.

There was no actual wind, of course, but the sharp force flowing through the wooden sword felt like wind against my skin.

The training that had consisted of nothing but running for an entire week gradually shifted, over time, into sword training instead.

Now, the amount of time I spent swinging a sword was far greater.

It was not yet training that could truly be called swordsmanship, but it was obvious that if enough time passed, I would eventually be taught properly.

"Hm, your growth is faster than I expected. You are pushing yourself quite hard, yet nothing seems to go wrong. Perhaps it really is a noble’s ability after all..."

Miguel muttered as he watched me swing the wooden sword. His tone was filled with unmistakable surprise.

"Huff, huff, that is good, then."

I had nothing to compare myself to, so I could not tell exactly how good my ability was. But seeing a sworn knight like him react with such surprise, it was clearly not bad.