Chapter 4: Learning how to fight with a sword (Rated 6+)

  HidingInTheNovels

  Soon, I finish the steak. As I'm about to walk out again, my dad calls after me.

  "Wait for a moment, Luna!"

  I turn back, slightly confused.

  "I have a birthday present for you."

  Hearing him, my eyes sparkle. Right, there was that!

  It was something I was already expecting for some time. My dad promised to gift me a wooden sword for my fifth birthday. I immediately dash back.

  "So where is it?!"

  "Here," Dad pulls out an approximately 70-centimetre-long wooden sword while talking. It has the shape of a Longsword. Considering that I am 120 centimetres high, it was clearly fit for my height.

  "Thanks!" Trembling, I receive the sword. It feels light in my hands. This is not a surprise. After all, I have trained my physical strength and stamina since I was young.

  "Furthermore," he continues, "I will personally instruct you in swordsmanship."

  "Thanks, Dad!"

  My father is a former B-Rank adventurer. Not the cream of the crop, but still way better than me in swordsmanship. In other words, he could teach me a lot.

  "Then come with me," he tells me before leaving the house.

  I follow, and we reach the free area near the woods. There, he turns around and speaks.

  "Let's first talk about the proper sword-holding stance. First, stand firm on the ground with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold your back straight and rex your arms as you hold the sword. Hold the sword in a way that makes the edge parallel to your body. Generally, your strong hand should grip the front part of the handle. Gripping the handle should be done by completely wrapping your fingers around it. Then lift the sword, so that the tip is approximately at chin height."

  I do as I'm told, and he slightly corrects my stance, moving my body. Then, he continues.

  "Now I want you to do one hundred vertical swings. For those, just lift the sword above your head until it's parallel to the ground, before swinging it down. Stop when it's once again parallel to the ground. What's important is that you don't turn the sword. In general, it should always move in the direction of its edge."

  I follow his instructions once again. As I swing my sword, he tells me all the fws of my swings. And so, time rapidly passes. At 10 PM, we finally stop and return. Then, I get ready for bed before plopping on it exhaustedly.

  As I lie on the bed, I think about my parents. My dad is Hec and, as I already said, a B-Rank adventurer. In this world, as in most other fantasy worlds like this, there exists an adventurer's guild. It posts quests, from herb gathering to scouting or fighting monsters or demons, which one can complete. The more quests one completes, the higher the rank.

  The ranks go from F-Rank to S-Rank. Starting from C-Rank, for every rank up, one needs to complete an examination. Therefore, my dad being a B-Rank adventurer is pretty impressive. He would face preferential treatment in most cities.

  My mom is called Fana. She is a herbologist and an alchemist. Dad often took the herb-gathering quests she posted on the adventurer guild's bulletin board when he was still starting as an adventurer. That's how they came to know each other.

  Later, Dad once rescued Mom when she was about to be kidnapped for her potions. Since then, Mom fell in love with Dad, after which she won him over by always providing potions whenever he went adventuring.

  I can't believe it. Dad really rescued the damsel in distress. Is he going to become a prince on a white horse? Well, jokes aside, that's how they got to know each other and fell in love.

  Later, after they had accumuted enough money, they both retired to raise me and also to engage in certain intimate stuff as much as they wanted. Honestly, the only reason I'm still an only child is because of Mom's excellent alchemist skills. Even I, according to them, was "an accident". I know they love me, but still, to say that to a four-year-old?!

  Well, Dad immediately regretted saying it, tho not because he considered my feelings, but because I was drinking water when he said that and he was sitting across from me. Talk about a well-deserved bath.

  As I lie on the bed, I think about a lot of things. About my parents, about this world, about the goddesses, about the bet and about my future path. Then, I decide to practice Magic Power control before sleeping.

  The next morning, I wake up feeling refreshed. Contrary to my expectations, I could sleep even better after practice. It seems like, since controlling Magic Power drains my Mental Power, and low Mental Power is the reason people sleep, I can actually lull myself to sleep by using up Mental Power.

  Mental Power is an energy that enables people to think and, at the same time, connects the mind with the Magic Power, allowing for Magic. Sleep is the process during which Mental Power is restored.

  From then on, I begin to develop a routine. From morning to lunchtime, I would practice Magic with Signs, since my Magic Power control was not advanced enough yet to do signless magic. In the afternoons, as Dad promised, he would teach me swordsmanship. Then, before sleeping, I would use up my Mental Power by practising Magic Power control. And so one year quickly passed.

  That morning, I once again move out after breakfast. On my way, I see several children about my age pying with a ball. I never really bonded with the children. It wasn't that I saw them beneath me or that I believed that as a former adult, I couldn't become friends with a child. No. The whole thing had a different reason. Back when I was four, I got to know them, as that was the time we moved into this vilge. Before that, my parents were still saving up money.

  Anyway, I got to know them and at the introduction, patted their heads, praising how well-mannered they were. As we know, it's a chronic disease for all children to hate being treated like a child. One can only imagine their displeasure when it was a literal child treating them this way. Since then, they avoid me.

  As I reminisce, a ball flies toward me and squarely hits my head. I look toward the source and see the children from earlier looking at me with some fear in their eyes, so I pick up the ball and approach them. With a warm smile, I speak to them.

  "You should watch out who you're hitting. Some people don't take kindly to getting hit by a ball."

  They, after getting the ball, scurry away as if fleeing from a terrifying monster. Puzzled, I look behind me. Whenever these children look at me, I always feel like there is some kind of scary monster behind me. Finding nothing, I go to the practice field to train my magic.