Fairy Tale Chronicles

Chapter 16.1

「Stop right there!」

Hiroshi and another knight had been locked in a duel until Douga had spoken up, relaxing and taking their distance from each other. Since he had free time, Hiroshi was currently being forced to participate with the knights in their training in order to resolve battle-related problems.

「He’s continuously tied with 20 people and counting.」

「Yep, guess when it comes to people who actually train ’emselves, I can’t do much.」

Hiroshi could only give a wry smile at Julius’s review of results. In actuality, Hiroshi’s attacks didn’t get anywhere with this platoon, who were the elite of the elite in this order of chivalry. With that being said, the knights as well could not peacefully accept these results.

「Hiroshi-dono, are you really a craftsman?」

「Honestly, it felt like we were taking on Sir Douga, or even someone with more resilience than him.」

「Nah, other than actin’ as a tank, I’m purty average at everythin’ else.」

「But that’s already ridiculous!」

One of the imperial guards burst out, but Hiroshi tilted his head, not able to comprehend what he was trying to say. Why were they so surprised that a tank was essentially a novice with attacking in terms of division of roles?

「Be as that may, do ye not think that by merely learning how to deal with attacks, your skills also get an ample increase?」

「There aren’t many people who can pack so much into just one Smash, you know.」

「Whaddya mean? Old man and Ju-san could easily do that much if they put their minds to it.」

「All we did was match you. Plus with your level of defense, there isn’t even any point in attacking you with practice swords like these, because no amount of firepower could break through that.」

Cut down by Julius so easily, Hiroshi had an expression of discontent on his face.

「I am sure that ye have many a thing that ye’d like to say, but first, I’d say that ye need to understand yourself a bit more precisely.」

「How do I even begin to precisely understand myself…」

「No need to hurt your brain over it. The gist is that your defense is at least equal to Sir Douga, or even superior in certain aspects.」

(I think I had a similar conversation with Makoto way back), thought Hiroshi as Julius and Douga did their best to make him aware of his own capabilities. But it seemed like Makoto was on to something, as he hadn’t thought that he would have more than an equal chance of winning against Farlane’s strongest, Julius. In all honesty, they couldn’t find it in them to understand how someone’s actual power and their cognition of it could be so contrary, having gone through many a battle themselves.

However, it was pointless to give up just because of that. First, though the swords were just shams used for practice, they had to help him understand that it was not normal for someone wearing nothing but clothes to receive the steel-like, earnest hit of a trained knight head-on and just say “Ow, that hurts!”. If he were in the same situation, even Douga would get some sort of bruise and it was normal to break some bones as long as you didn’t mess up. Incidentally, as to why Hiroshi was wearing only regular clothing, it was because if he were to wear training armor, his movement would become absurdly slow. Julius had noted that if any future battles were like the previous, he wouldn’t be fighting with armor anyway, and Douga had added that various adjusted enchantments were on him to prevent him from likely getting any wounds, which was how he had ended up participating in a mock battle with just his clothing on.

In addition, no matter how far you searched in the world, there was no way you could find someone with the kind of magic resistance that could nullify and crush Great Magic unleashed by someone with higher-than-average mana. All things considered, this meant that it was practically impossible for humanoids (elves and dwarves included) to damage him with magic. With these two conditions in mind, it was best to think of this man as impossible to kill by normal means.

With that being said, his attack power being less than that of an average adventurer was a minus that they couldn’t ignore. After all, the moment that he could no longer fool his opponent with his abnormal defense, they would focus their attacks on Haruna, undoubtedly behind him, and the situation could get ugly from there. He needed to be taught thoroughly that as long as he couldn’t think of a plan to strengthen his firepower in a short amount of time, he would first have to figure out how to not let his opponents know that he was a paper tiger.

「First, do something about your weapon. The handaxe and shovel you use aren’t too bad either, but they’re a bit too light.」

「Even if ya say that…I dunno if I have enough time to make the ingredients, and how many do I even gotta have?」

Both of them began contemplating Hiroshi’s question. From what they examined out of his skill with his main weapons (excluding a number of large ones), the non-heavyweight weapons that he could use decently were only his dagger and shovel. Everything else was that of an amateur. With the aforementioned weapons, he could easily slay a Berserker Bear, and could in a sense hold his own against Pieranorks, but as he didn’t have any attack skills other than Smash, they had no choice but to conclude that he was not by any means at a satisfactory level.

Out of all that, if they had to identify anything particularly good or bad, they felt that he was a bit more adept at axes and blunt weapons. Adding to the fact that there wasn’t enough time, they would probably do well to start from there.

「I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to give him a two-handed axe.」

「And a weighty one with a long handle at that…Yeah, something along the lines of a pole axe.」

「Or mayhaps he could go for a blunt weapon like Heavy Mace as opposed to an axe. At any rate, a lad like yeself probably wouldn’t suffer any fatal wounds even without a shield, so all ye need use is something with a bit of power.」

Douga and Julius brought over bulky, heavy weapons to show Hiroshi. They were all weapons that had bad handling and slow attack speed in the game, and if you were to hit someone it would be over for them but these weapons were still not popular. Without quite a bit of strength and adjustment, even assuming you hit your target, it would collapse your balance, leaving you wide open to plenty of hits. It was quite understandable why they weren’t popular.

Incidentally, a mace is essentially a long pole with a large steel sphere at the edge. If you were to attach thorns to it, it would become one of the weapons known as a Morning Star. Its biggest selling point was that you didn’t have to think about the direction when swinging it, and its rustic and barbaric nature made it a specialized, primitive weapon for fending off any weapon.

「Ya say it like it’s easy, but these’re all tough ’n hard t’handle. I mean, d’you even know how scary it is just to swing it at the air?」

「Nonsense. Ye’ll understand once ye practice swinging it around fer a bit. Heck, even I can make a fine swing with that large spear.」

「Do ya really think it’s convincin’ t’hear that from someone of yer occupation, old man……」

「Still, try it at least once. If ye feel that it doesn’t fit you, then ye can think of a more suitable weapon.」

Douga added, and while albeit reluctant at first, Hiroshi decided to pick up two of the more prominent weapons that boasted heavy weight. There are those who would go a step further and choose a halberd for strengthening one’s attack power with long-handled weapons, but versatile weapons such as those took time to learn how to handle them. Plus, being the complex shapes that they were, the tips were quite heavy, rivaling the Pole Axe and Heavy Maul in terms of bad handling. If he were using these types of weapons, it might be more applicable to Hiroshi’s skills if he were to choose something akin to a Great Axe with a short handle.

「Now, it is true that we don’t have many places to store this weapons. I’ve sent someone to go find some, so in the meantime, I suppose I’ll get some more concerns out of the way with ye, lad」

「Concerns?」

「Aye. The most concerning thing is that after having participated in 20 battles, ye still aren’t used to doing mock battles, but well, let us leave that be for now. I saw earlier that ye were running into attacks. Why is that?」

What Douga had said about “running into attacks” wasn’t the most precise description. More accurately, despite clearly being frightened, Hiroshi would for some reason come closer whenever he detected motion from an enemy.

「Ahh, ya mean thaaat.」

「Aye, I do. Though it not always be a bad idea to gallantly step forward, I think it be a bit excessive in your case.」

「Well, it isn’t like I step forward with all this courage or anythin’…」

At a glance, it might seem as if it required courage in order to plunge headfirst into an attack. However, Hiroshi utterly denied that. As if demonstrating interest in that way of thinking, not Douga, but Julius sought out more information.

「If you aren’t mustering up the courage to do such things, then what are you doing?」

「It’s quite simple really. It ain’t like runnin’ will help me escape takin’ a beatin’, so I may as well just go right to gettin’ hit ’n take less damage in the process. It’s from experience that I charge headfirst. Sorta like when small fry villains lose their nerve and charge at the hero? Same thing with me. I’m just desperate.」

The two of them sort of got what Hiroshi was saying. It was true that there was many a person who would lose to fear and recklessly charge at opponents who were clearly out of their league. Still, looking at the situation comprehensively, they were pretty sure that doing the same exact thing to someone lower than one’s level was a bit too much on the paranoid side. With that being said, it was at least better than cowering in one place. They decided not to press further.

In actuality, when Haruna had been attacked by the Berserker Bear, the reason why he had gone in front of her to cover her wasn’t because of anything like chivalry, justice, or courage. It was the simple reason that even if he were to abandon Haruna, he had no confidence of escaping the bear. After all, it was normal for Berserker Bears to not let any human-sized creatures out of its sight until they killed them. Being slow, Hiroshi could only choose between getting hit sooner, or later, once Haruna had become a corpse. As long as he had no easy path out of this situation, he might as well just get it over with, which was why he had ended up getting hit. Any straightforward thought processes like saving his classmate to have her be indebted to him or saving her because he would feel bad otherwise? None whatsoever.

Even in the case of the Piaranorks and afterward, he generally had no choice but to get himself hit, which was the only reason why he had consistently put himself in front of the enemies. Leaving aside incidences when he could take enemies like Giant Spiders by surprise, if he could escape or push the problem onto someone else without issue, he normally prioritized running away without fighting, no matter how weak the opponent.

This was the kind of man they were talking about. Of course there was no way he would be insistent on sharpening his battle prowess. Sure, he was vaguely aware that this wasn’t a good habit, but he always found himself hesitating to learn battle skills. If he were still in the game, he could bring himself to casually learn more, but this was reality. At this rate, it seemed like he would continue to end up being forced to do things that he didn’t want to do, so he just couldn’t find it in himself to become motivated.

「Well, for the time being, let us leave aside this talk of fighting. If ye cannot decide on a weapon, then there is not much I can teach ye.」

「It is as you say. Which leaves us with the vanguard, yes?」

「Aye. How about we leave Fortress for later and focus on Out Phase and Around Guard?」

「That sounds about right.」

The two of them decided to focus on breaking through ranged attacks and catching the opponents’ attention. In Hiroshi’s case, it seemed that his pure body defense was above that of a metal-armored knight, and on top of that, he had soft laser armor called Wyvern Laser Armor that was superior even to full-plated armor in defense. Surely there wasn’t any point in further raising his defense by training.

「Let us start with Outface. I shall show ye once, so look well.」

Douga said, bursting into focus. The next moment, there was a feeling of pressure filling the room, to the point where the shockwaves were physical, and Douga, the source of all this, looked as if he were the size of a small mountain, albeit an optical illusion. There was no escape. If they were to do nothing about it, they would all die. Overwhelmed by that fear, Hiroshi stepped forward and let his instincts push him onto Douga, stopping him in the nick of time.

There was still pressure in the air, but it was a shell of its former self. Not true fear, like earlier. Something inside of Hiroshi continued to whisper that as far more fearsome thoughts racked his brain. Sure, the physical fear was less than before, but it didn’t even compare to the mental fear. However, the trauma and danger he had experienced prior to this overpowered it. Because of the memories of his past, Hiroshi had been able to regain his composure in under a millisecond.

「Hm, so it was a dud. Quite the guts ye have there, lad.」

「Nah, that was mighty scary, I’ll have ya know. But thinking ’bout it a bit, it ain’t nothin’ compared to chocolate.」

「Chocolate? And what might that be?」

「It’s food. Dun worry ’bout it.」

Hiroshi thought about the incident that had given him gynophobia, and then the cause of all that, candy, as he shivered with a face too pale to be made fun of. Douga and Julius were completely off the mark, wondering if he had been drugged or something.

「Well, anyhow, have ye gotten the gist of what kind of technique Outface is?」

「Uhh, yeah, I’d say so.」

「Then I shall teach ye the ropes, so first make sure to practice in order to activate something similar.」

「Ya got it.」

Afterwards, Hiroshi would practice the art of pressure numerous times with a voice full of vigor, until he finally was able to activate a similar move. Due to Outface taking the effects of one’s mental power, when Hiroshi had finally gotten said move, he ended up emitting a dangerous amount of pressure, which caused even Douga and Julius to have to resort to momentarily letting out serious bloodlust, frightening their surroundings in more ways than one. But let us keep that to ourselves.