Chapter 25

“Adelheid von Lenart, the girl, had almost no real combat experience.”

As a member of the Lion Duke’s Bloodline, she had received basic training, but never really threw herself into it, and nobody around her scolded her for it.

After all, there was her Older Brother as the heir to continue the family line, and since she would eventually marry into another family, there was no need for Adel to be particularly strong.

Thus, Adel was utterly clueless about combat.

She occasionally gained knowledge by watching others train, but it was merely surface-level. She couldn’t even honestly call it expertise.

And into that blank canvas, the devastating figure of the Tin Knight was introduced.

The way the Tin Knight taught Adel was split into just two categories.

Physical training and one-on-one sparring.

From these sparring sessions, Adel was able to learn various ‘Common Sense of Combat’ she had missed out on until now.

【Common Sense of Combat, First】

【An attack is expected to be continuous, and a counterattack doesn’t come after the opponent’s attack ends but is stuffed between attacks.】

Wham! Whoosh! Swish!

After dodging a series of attacks targeting her right forearm, left thigh, and upper body, Adel tilted her head as she watched the opponent suddenly stop attacking.

‘Why do these folks suddenly stop attacking?’

The very first opponent, Paulo, was the same.

After pulling off a nice thrust, it was natural to follow up with a combo, but he would only hit once and call it quits.

After dodging and following the Tin Knight’s advice to counterattack immediately, Adel did manage to win, but it felt like a hollow victory.

This second match was no different.

She attempted to unleash a combo of her own, but when it was time to analyze the gaps and figure out where to strike, the opponent’s attacks would suddenly cut off.

It was truly incomprehensible.

Even if she didn’t understand—

‘-The Knight said to hit when the chance arises!’

Thwack!!

With no mercy, Adel’s wooden sword smashed against the bridge of her opponent’s nose, sending him crashing to the ground.

The other apprentices swallowed their saliva in dread at her merciless grip, but Adel remained oblivious.

【Common Sense of Combat, Second】

【When attacking, it’s best to hit places that hurt the most and are dangerous if struck.】

When sparring with Adel, the Tin Knight pressed for strikes to vital points without hesitation and encouraged her to do the same.

Even though it was a wooden sword that could kill if used properly, it was clear that hitting someone dead wasn’t an issue.

That’s why, while Adel had honed her dodging skills to their utmost, she still hadn’t even grasped the basics of swordsmanship. If she didn’t dodge, she’d be staring death in the face.

Not only that, Adel had no qualms about striking others.

In a daze from exhaustion, she continued to swing her weapon at the Tin Knight, whose body either left minor scratches or at times none at all.

While she did understand to not equate the body of a normal person with that of the Tin Knight, it didn’t matter at that moment.

Because what was in Adel’s hand was a wooden sword.

Unlike the deadly steel sword that could truly kill if misused, she thought she could swing her training sword freely without any risk of death.

What a misguided delusion. A wooden sword could also be fatal when used incorrectly.

No, even if she didn’t necessarily kill, it was already a serious problem when she based her measure of violence not on ‘how much her opponent would hurt’ but rather ‘whether they would die or not’. But in a state of heightened tension, Adel failed to grasp this.

Bang!

During the sixth spar, the wooden sword in Adel’s hand flew into the air.

Watching Adel’s tactic of ‘striking right after dodging an attack,’ her opponent had deliberately shown an opening to lure an attack, then countered.

This also proved that Adel still lacked the perception to distinguish between a genuine opening and a feigned one.

Charging at her now defenseless self, the opponent unleashed a barrage of strikes.

【Common Sense of Combat, Third】

【A weapon is just one of many tools. If you lose it, use something else. Like your body.】

Dodging a jab aimed at her face by merely tilting her head, Adel lunged into her opponent’s arms.

Her opponent, despite being surprised by Adel’s speed, tried to shake her loose, but Adel was faster as her hands clamped onto his head.

With a firm grip on her opponent’s head with both hands, she leaped and delivered a knee strike to his face.

Wham!

“Gah!”

Even though Adel was quite petite, using her entire body like a spring for the knee strike was definitely not something to be underestimated.

Especially if it landed multiple times.

Wham! Wham! Thwack!

Splattering red blood and a few white teeth on the floor, yet another opponent went down.

Picking up the wooden sword that had fallen without a care, Adel took a deep breath before declaring,

“Next, please!”

***

“Huh.”

Ruben let out a sigh.

What? Was it cruel to evaluate a girl who had never undergone proper training in her life against the standards of apprentices who had undergone years of discipline?

This wasn’t an assessment from someone else.

This was a thought Ruben himself had conjured just minutes ago.

Yet, he couldn’t treat that thought as nonsense.

The girl’s actions, her movements, were undoubtedly not those of someone unfamiliar with fighting.

‘Did Gisel feed me false information?’

He briefly questioned that, but soon shook his head at the idea.

There was no benefit for Gisel to do something like that.

‘Could it be that Gisel was fooled? Did she have hidden talent from the beginning?’

This seemed a bit more plausible, but still carried little weight.

If she had possessed such skills, she would never have gotten captured by mere thieves or sold into slavery in the first place.

‘No, that’s not right. I don’t care about letters or any of that. What matters is that even after seeing her with my own eyes, I judged her to be a greenhouse flower. Why was that?’

It wasn’t because Adel was more skilled than Ruben.

While she was showing unexpected performance, her skills were still raw compared to Ruben.

If so, why did Ruben not perceive Adel’s true skill despite the clear deficiency?

Ruben quickly found the answer.

‘There’s no balance. No foundation. She didn’t even know how to properly hold a sword. Her physical abilities are decent enough, but even that is only solid given her size and gender—it doesn’t come close to overwhelming trained individuals.’

There were no clear signs of her being strong, but plenty to judge her as weak or a novice.

This led him to conclude that Adel’s skills were terrible.

However.

‘The ability to read and dodge attacks. The audacity to inflict and accept injuries without hesitation. The versatility to not get stuck to one approach. These three factors are abnormally high.’

Ruben shifted his gaze toward the Tin Knight.

What kind of training did that fellow conduct to yield such a bizarre outcome? He had no clue, but it was clear he was the root cause.

And simultaneously, Ruben realized something scary.

‘Based on the letters from Gisel, it looks like Adel had only been training seriously with that knight for about fifteen days— …Results like these in just fifteen days? Seriously?’

If those two continued to stick together, how far would she rise?

With that thought in mind, Ruben couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

He couldn’t easily discern whether the feeling swirling within him was fear or anticipation.

Thwack!

Another apprentice fell, and silence hovered over the dojo.

Ruben looked at Adel.

“Huff, huff.”

Adel, boasting the miraculous record of seven consecutive victories, was clearly exhausted.

Her breathing was ragged, her limbs trembling uncontrollably.

As a warrior, it was essential to hide one’s fatigue, but the girl seemed either unaware of how or lacking any technique to conceal it.

If pressured like this, it seemed likely the end result would tilt in favor of the dojo.

Ruben turned to his apprentices and asked,

“Is there anyone who wants to step up voluntarily?”

No answer came.

Ruben examined the faces of his apprentices.

All of them wore expressions of sheer intimidation.

Plenty of them were physically fit, and many were technically superior to Adel, yet they were all already crushed under her momentum.

“Well, that’s something.”

Ruben felt a bitter taste fill his mouth.

Well, the truly capable apprentices among them were likely wandering the continent for tests or had returned to the Empire after passing them. Those left were more or less a second-string, and it couldn’t be helped that quality suffered slightly… yet he still felt sour about it.

‘I’ll have to tighten the reins from now on.’

Of course, he could forcefully point someone out and push them into sparring, but he didn’t want to do that.

That was not an action befitting the name Lenart.

“I’ll ask one more time. Is there anyone who wants to fight?!”

“……”

“Alright. Since there are no challengers left, the rest of the matches will go to Adel by default. As the instructor of the Lenart Dojo, Rowefelt branch, I believe Adelheid von Lenart has demonstrated sufficient skill to earn our dojo’s recognition! If anyone disagrees, speak now!”

“None!!”

After confirming the apprentices’ responses, Ruben stepped toward Adel and stood before her.

Adel wore a bewildered expression, perhaps unable to grasp what was happening.

Seeing her innocent face juxtaposed with such merciless attacks made him want to chuckle, but Ruben suppressed it and said,

“Congratulations on passing the test.”

“Uh, th-thank you! And thanks to all the other apprentices for sparring with me!”

As Adel bowed deeply and thanked everyone, the previously tense atmosphere began to thaw.

Even the apprentices who had been somewhat reluctant began to acknowledge Adel, thinking, ‘Well, a victory is a victory.’

Thus, Adel successfully passed her first hurdle.

***

On the way out of the dojo.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ congratulates you on passing the test!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ praises your locket as being magnificent!]

“Right? I think it’s magnificent too!”

Adel held a disc-shaped locket in her hand. One of the five slots inside the locket was filled with a fan-shaped piece.

The fan-shaped piece had a stunning design, indicating that all the pieces together would complete a picture like a puzzle.

“Hah, hehehe…!”

Adel was visibly elated.

Despite having cuts all over her body from the relentless sparring, she was humming a tune without an ounce of pain visible on her face.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if you’re that happy!]

“Who wouldn’t be!”

Adel responded instantly.

“It’s the first proof that I’m not lacking as an heir! And I earned it through my own fighting! Not something given to me by someone else, but through my own effort!”

She particularly emphasized the part about being ‘herself.’

This was proof that she had been sensitive to the perception of being ‘incapable of doing anything alone.’

[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests you gather the remaining four pieces as well!]

“Exactly. Well, I’m not sure if I’ll be lucky enough to cross paths with other dojos or with a witch on my travels like this.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says if they don’t overlap, there are always other tasks to perform!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ assures you that he’ll come up with an intense training regimen!]

“…No, I mean, I just passed the test so I’d like at least a few days of rest, you know.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ droops his shoulders!]

As they exchanged these light-hearted words, both were laughing and joking when suddenly, the miniature skull hanging from the Tin Knight’s neck rattled and opened its mouth.

《Escort! Come forth! Escort! Come forth! The Witch calls! The Witch is under attack! Escort! Come forth! Escort! Come forth!》

Both of their laughter ceased.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the two took off running.

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