NOVEL NEXT Book 1: Chapter 23
Combat Maid’s Training
「……What are you doing?」
I suddenly heard Sera’s voice while I was holding down the Cruzian boy and pushing my knife on his throat. I couldn’t hear her footstep or feel her presence like always. Even so I guessed that she was still several meters away from the volume of her voice. As I was still holding down the boy without putting down my knife, the boy raised his voice 「Kaa-san!」 to ask for help.
「…………」
So he was Sera’s son? ……I’m glad I didn’t carelessly kill him. The current me would have a certain death waiting for me if I made Sera my enemy. To show that I wasn’t hostile with Sera, I pulled away my knife while slowly taking distance from the boy. Then Sera asked me instead of her son.
「Did something happen?」
「He flipped my skirt.」
「……I see.」
Sera looked at her son who was still blushing red and frowned slightly in puzzlement. Then she lightly sighed and looked straight at me before bowing her head.
「It can’t be helped if my son has done such inexcusable act toward a girl. I apologize as his mother.」
「No problem.」
「Then, let’s set aside this matter with this……Seo, stand up already. We are starting the training.」
「……Kaa-san.」
Sera was strict with her son……. That son of Sera, Seo was standing up while looking a bit peevishly at his mother. But he blushed again when he looked at me and averted his gaze.
「It looks like you two have finished your “self-introduction” with each other. This is my son Seo, and this is Aria who become a maid apprentice here. Seo will continue with his usual training, as for Aria, I shall instruct you in the minimum requirement so that you can show yourself in the presence of a noble for the sake of your monitoring duty toward the “protection target” who is scheduled to arrive in ten more days.」
Monitoring duty on a child……it seemed that would be my job.
「……Instruction? In etiquette?」
「There is also that, but you will learn that at night after the normal duties end. At morning you will train in martial art together with Seo.」
「What about sorcery?」
With Sera’s magic power capacity, she should have mastery in some kind of sorcery. Even if it wasn’t Sera who healed my wound, if possible I wanted to learn about light sorcery. That was why I asked the question. Then Sera stared fixedly at me in evaluation.
「I didn’t plan anything for that because we have no time but……you, do you understand about your own element?」
「Light and……darkness.」
「So you have two elements. Did you learn darkness sorcery from Viro? If it’s light sorcery, I can use it until level 2 so I’ll teach you if there is time.」
「As I thought……was it Sera-san who applied Cure on me?」
「That’s right. If you can use light sorcery then please learn Cure no matter what. With the nature of our profession, we will get wounded sometimes, but there is a need for bodyguard maid to show themselves in the presence of noble, so it will stand out if they have wound on a visible part of their body. There will also be times when you have to change clothes during work. Please endeavor to erase your wounds as much as possible.」
「……Yes.」
「I can also teach you wind sorcery you know-!」
Suddenly Seo drew near me and interrupted. I see……when he flipped my skirt, he was able to do it from outside my range because he also used daily life magic Wind in conjunction. But.
「I don’t use wind sorcery.」
「……oh」
「But, I want to practice how to face against wind sorcery.」
「Yep, leave it to me Aria-!」
……He became attached to me after I kicked him and held a knife against his throat? In this world there was a lot of strange boys huh.
「Aria, looking at the way you walk, I can see that you have trained to some degree with your own style, but I’ll correct it. Specifically, it’s a footwork of a unique martial art used by 『bodyguard maid』 so that they can fight even while wearing a skirt. I’ll show it to you a little.」
After saying that Sera’s body slid to the side soundlessly without any change in her gait.
「……I don’t get it.」
「Of course, it’s not that easy. I’ll show you my feet so don’t miss it.」
Sera lifted her skirt that reached until her ankles to the level of her knees and then she showed me the same movement. Shuffling feet, crossing, acceleration and deceleration……it was a very advanced and complicated footwork. If I could master this then it would be useful for stealth and battle too. This kind of movement didn’t exist in the “knowledge”, so I burned the movement into my eyes hungrily.
「Originally when training a child, I’ll hammer our movement into you starting from the basic like with Seo, but Aria has groundwork and real battle experience to some degree, and we also have no time, so I won’t teach you with great detail. Learn it by watching. In a sense I’m treating you the same like Viro and his kind but, you don’t mind don’t you?」
「No problem……ma’am.」
「Very good.」
……All the adults I knew were strict with child. But, learning by practice with only knowledge was nothing new for me. I recalled what I was told and used polite language. Sera smiled just for a little for the first time to that.
「Also we will provide you with weapon. A common maid is forbidden from owning weapon and the like, but we are allowed to carry the minimum amount of weaponry just like soldier. Even so outsider has to leave their weapon in custody when entering the mansion, but in your case you are permitted to bring weapon with the permission of Viro of Rainbow Sword and me as your guarantor.」
After saying that Sera handed an object that was wrapped in cloth to me.
「If you do anything suspicious with that weapon, Viro and me will be the one who have to clean up after you so please be careful.」
「……Yes.」
I would definitely lose my life if that happened.
「Also……where did you keep the black knife just now hidden?」
「I tied it on my calf with leather strap……」
「I’ll permit it if it’s just that. Pay attention so that it won’t be found out by other people.」
「「…………」」
On my calf……Seo who had seen the throwing knives tied on my thigh looked like he wanted to say something at that point, but I stopped him with a glare. It was better to have as many usable weapons as possible. I didn’t have any intention to do anything unnecessary but, I would use them without hesitation if there was danger to my life. Especially when wearing this kind of fluttery outfit. My fighting style would be mostly focused on throwing like this.
The weapons that were supplied to me consisted of two thin knives and four knives for throwing. I could tie the thin knives at the opposite calf of the black knife. Even so carrying two would weigh me down so I’d keep one as a spare.
For the throwing knives……my leg wasn’t thick enough to have enough space to tie up all of them there. The knives were thinner than the knives Viro gave me, so could I hide one of them each in my sleeves? And sooner or later I would have to buy or order a specialized holder for them.
.
After that, other than footwork and the way to fight using the thin knife, I was also taught how to fight in maid outfit and also martial art to perform throw and lock. Furthermore to familiarize myself with that martial art, I was also made to have hand to hand mock battle with Seo whose physique was close to me.
「A-Aria? You mustn’t use kicking you know!?」
「I know.」
For some reason Seo was bothered with my skirt. Sera also said that it would be better to keep kicking technique as last resort in order to make use of the long skirt that was hiding the movement of your legs.
Seo was six years old, one year younger than me. He was tall for a six years old. It must be because his growth was also quickening like me due to magic power.
My skill in fighting against human opponent was lacking. Only two months had passed since I actually began training so it was only natural that I was lacking, but I ended up eating dirt many times when facing Seo who had gone through formal training in an exchange of skill head-on.
「The morning training will end soon. Both of you come here, I’ll remove the sweat and dirt on you.」
「……?」
I approached near Sera while wondering what she was going to do, then she started muttering something and light magic particles began to gather toward her hands.
「──Clean──」
The smell of sweat vanished from my body when the light touched me. The slight dirt on my maid uniform also vanished.
「This is……」
「It’s level 2 light sorcery Clean. Originally this spell is for purifying miasma and the like, but it also can remove small stains and smell that got attached on your body like this. It’s impossible for it to work on large trash though……how do you feel?」
「I want to learn……」
「By all means please do so. Only a few people who can use this in our line of work, so I have high hope for you who have light element.」
The level 2 spells of light sorcery was Clean and Treat. This was my first time seeing it but, Clean removed filth that was visible, while Treat removed miniscule amount of foreign substance inside the body. From my perspective they were very useful spells.
But from what Sera said, both spells needed the caster to comprehend the “filth” that they wanted to remove. Even when using it to remove harmful gas, you needed to understand that it was a harmful gas you were dealing with.
It seemed Treat also couldn’t remove poison unless you knew what kind of poison it was. Because of the inconvenience in its usage, it seemed that only healer or adventurer would learn it. There was also medicinal herb for light poisoning, and you needed specialized knowledge in order to be able to use the spell well, so perhaps that was the reason why there was only few light sorcerer with high level.
「Also Aria, drink this every morning from today.」
At the end of the training, Sera handed to me a porcelain bottle filled with potion.
「……What’s this?」
「Say 『What could this be』. Also this is a “poison”.」
She explained to me that it was a special mix of weak poison. It wouldn’t make you feel pained, but apparently consuming it would make your stamina to be reduced by ten percent for a whole day. ……Why was I given such thing……as I thought that, Sera explained that apparently there was a possibility you could obtain the skill Poison Resistance by continuing to consume it. It seemed that bodyguard maid had to serve as their master’s poison checker, so I had to drink this diligently if I didn’t want to die. ……As I thought, this person was strict with her subordinate.
.
It was breakfast after the morning training. I ended up eating together with Seo.
It seemed that there were also other child apprentices than us before this, but they quitted quickly. I didn’t know if that was why but, a part of the maids were looking at me with wary gaze. But, I wasn’t bothered by something at that level anymore at this point. I would be bothered if it was a killing intent at a hobgoblin’s level at the very least though……I thought that while turning my gaze to the maids. For some reason they averted their gaze from me.
「……Aria, the look of your eyes is bad you know?」
「I know.」
After the breakfast, it seemed that Seo had work as butler apprentice and we parted from each other. When we parted, he blushed again and said something like 『illtakeresponsibility』, but did he have some kind of involvement with my work?
During the morning I followed Meena and helped with collecting bed sheets and washing them. There were also things to take note of when cleaning and washing. In that regard, it seemed that woman was lazy even when she lived at her teacher’s place, so her “knowledge” wasn’t useful at all.
Even so I slowly and thoroughly learned what I was taught. I did it at the same time with my martial art training. The first step was learning the technique thoroughly. I could work with increasing the technique’s speed and power later.
The lunch consisted of the same menu like breakfast. According to Meena, the cook created the stew all at once in one big pot, so the menu wouldn’t change until it ran out. But for me who ate snake and rabbit every day, it wasn’t any concern. At the morning it wasn’t Meena, but my direct superior Sera who I followed. We looked around and she taught me the points of importance of the security inside the mansion and around the castle.
「「…………」」
I was reunited with Castro in the middle of that. His mouth opened while he looked like he wanted to say something when he saw me, but in the end he only bowed his head to Sera and left without saying anything.
「Although he looks like that, he is feeling guilty to you.」
「Hm~mm……」
To be honest, I had forgotten about that man until we met again just now.
After that it became evening and I ate again. Perhaps my body was growing again because of the increase in my magic power, I was feeling quite hungry so I silently ate.
At night Sera constantly supervised me to teach me about etiquette. She corrected my way of walking and posture, and she also showed me the correct way of bowing. In my case I had “knowledge” so I already had the foundation but, actually learning it was still a hardship.
The way to speak and act toward noble was drilled into me thoroughly. Even after the bell that chimed every four hours rang out six times, I was made to learn in the darkness how to write letters, and the names and territories of the nobles in this northern region.
.
At night I had my own personal business to do.
It was my training of darkness magic. Not darkness sorcery, I instead learned darkness magic inadvertently. Perhaps because of that, I became able to use the Noise spell that I couldn’t use before this.
The MP cost of level 1 sorcery was around 10, but when I somehow reproduced that spell using darkness magic as a test, it consumed more than 20 MP. Unlike sorcery, magic was applicable to various things but, its ease of use was bad. As expected there was a reason why magic became obsolete with sorcery taking its place.
For example, rather than making a stew starting by gathering and preparing the ingredients, it would be cheaper and tastier to eat stew from a stall as long as you weren’t fixated with your taste preference. Even so, wasn’t there a recipe that could be made far easier and cheaper if you cut down on the meat and spice quantity?
There was no need to make the spell had both strong “power” and “effect”. What was demanded from sorcery was versatility and so a completed product was created, but with darkness type illusion magic there wasn’t even any need to create something perfect. It would be enough if it could trick the enemy just for an instant like what I did with the hobgoblin.
「……What should I “trick”?」
There was sorcery to trick eyes or ears. What else was there other than sight and hearing? Smell? Taste?
「Touch huh……」
I muttered while chewing just a bit of dried medicinal herb that had the effect of stimulating the heart to fight off the drowsiness and training my poison resistance at the same time.
In order to make the faint idea of “something” that I got to take shape, I continued training darkness magic in my temporary base at the forest until my sleepiness hit the limit, in preparation for my chance meeting with the 『noble』 that was steadily approaching.