Chapter 67 – The Lord’s Daughter Longs for the Wide World 30

“GOOOOOO! Right there! Beat ’em up!! Do your best my dividend, I mean, Monta!! Work hard for the sake of my pocket money!!”

“Say Liu, will you shut up for a copper coin?”

“Yahooo! I’ll shut up for my entire life!”

“You have a cheap life …”

She went to buy beer with the coin I gave her, apparently Liu didn’t possess the notion of savings.
Since the idiot disappeared and it became quiet again, I went back to watching the arena.

Having shifted to attack, Montavo assaulted Yuutarou.

He’s less powerful and agile compared to Yuutarou, but Montavo had experience.
They differed in the amount of experiences they went through, and thus their mental strength.

He was pushed back at first, but having gotten used to it, this was what happened.
It developed just as expected.
Montavo wasn’t so easy an opponent that he could be pressured by a difference in status value.

“Humm, Monta’s quite good, isn’t he. Yes yes, that little scoundrel’s grown up. It was worth raising him”

Nodding to herself, the idiot Orc chugged her beer down.

“Oi Liu, didn’t you say you’ll keep quiet for your whole life?”

“Ah, I was born again just now. I’m Liu-chan ver 2 now. Nice to —”

“I want my money back”

“I already drank it —”

… I’ll deduct the copper from her pocket money later, first, Montavo.

Montavo firmly occupied his flank, backing Yuutarou down with standard sword moves.

Yuutarou fought back every now and then — but Montavo properly dealt with him.

He took Yuutarou’s thrust with the flat of his blade and deflected the shock behind him.

“Yuutarou’s swordfighting is weird, isn’t it. He keeps thrusting like it’s a spear”

“Yeah, he’s probably imitating Lugindall”

Lugindall — The main heroine in Yuutarou’s narrative, a swordswoman.
She used a rapier-like thin sword, and fought using thrusting moves.
Since Yuutarou had a brilliant swordswoman by his side, their fighting styles should of course be similar.

I expected Yuutarou to imitate Lugindall’s sword moves to an extent and made proper countermeasures.

I transformed into Lugindall again and again, instructing Montavo in that form.
After being attacked with thrusts thousands of times, the way to counter them had been carved into Montavo’s nerve pulses.

Thrusts are attacks that only work the first time.
You’d be instantly killed if you’re not used to it, but if you are, it’s not worth much.

Well, I never expected Yuutarou to copy Lugindall’s sword moves verbatim — but this was a good development for us. Easy to handle.

“………”

In all likelihood, Yuutarou doesn’t have much of what he say to be himself.
Since he had nothing to aim for, he tentatively copied the great person next to him, Lugindall.
That’s all he could do.

There are kids like that sometimes in theatre.
They had nothing of themselves, so they could only copy the acts of the people around them wholesale.
Never doing anything but that.

Strangely, those kids invariably, as if on purpose, made the same mistakes.
Repeating the same mistakes, the same injuries.
They had nothing of themselves, so their sense of self is thin.

Since they never thought anything on their own, once they fall they crumble down far.

Yuutarou in the ring, too, monotonously thrusted and thrusted at Montavo.
And Montavo easily dealt with them.

He could just change his approach if this one doesn’t work … but since he had never fallen into a predicament, he was definitely lacking in coping power.

“But still …”

Yuutarou wasn’t so easy as to go down with just this.

The most fearsome thing about reincarnators is their luck.
Or should I call it the power of fate … the power that attracts opportunity. It’s scary.

When cornered, they would conveniently awaken their “True power” and turn the tide of battle.

Montavo had awakened to be a Protagonist, too, but how far could he oppose Yuutarou’s opportunism —

“Take this”

＊＊

— the strongest, and yet the weakest.

That was how Montavo saw Yuutarou.

The sword skills the goddess gave him was overwhelming but he doesn’t understand the subtleties of battle.
His physical status was at the counter-stop but his mental strength was in tatters.

Only getting hold of a high power value by chance and swinging that around, just like a child.

“HAAAAA!!”

“— tsk!”

Montavo raised a yell and Yuutarou panickedly jumped aside.

That was an obvious feint, Phryne would never have fallen for it.

 

— He was strong, but his weaknesses were much too weak.

 

Montavo recalled something Phryne told him long ago.

“Bocchan, you cut a chain by the weakest link. The weakest part is the strength of the chain. People are the same. No matter how overwhelming their power is, if there’s any rotten parts on them then that part is their durability. No matter how strong the rest of them is, you can cut them there”

Montavo decided to shake Yuutarou’s weakest part — his mental strength.

Small feints, “flank”, “counter” — enticing him with small tricks.
Toying with Yuutarou who’s not used to competitions.

“Damn you cowardly bastard …!”

Yuutarou criticized Montavo as if he had nothing to blame himself.

“This isn’t cowardly, this is a fight”

How to block the enemy’s strong point — that’s the essence of fighting.

To begin with, “technique” is the tactics of the weak.
Underhanded acts so that the weak could triumph over the strong.

Sure, he did some things that shouldn’t be done.
But to make so much noise over just this, doesn’t that mean he couldn’t do anything.

“Damn you, are you a man …! I’m not giving Kirisha to the likes of you!!”

Yuutarou couldn’t bear being stuck in a situation where he couldn’t do anything.
Just like a child throwing a tantrum.

Unmanageable, like a child when it’s fired up.

If this went on, Montavo would be able to win against Yuutarou.

However —

“I, … I’m not going to lose!!”

UOOOOOO ———!!

Yuutarou took a jump back and roared like a beast.

A cloud of dust danced from the touki he burst out.
A belt of power flowed like a torrent.

In an instant, Yuutarou transformed into someone else entirely.

“Oi bastard … dirty coward. You’ve gotten really full of yourself haven’t you. But it ends here. I’ll show you my true power!!”

“Even though it’s not your power …”

That was something given.
It wasn’t something he won on his own, but how could he be so proud of it.

“………”

Montavo had power given to him by other people, too: the Sacrament Cage and Ghulcyut.
But he didn’t receive it for free.
He obtained it by walking the path on his own two legs.

Which was why he could firmly declare that it belonged to him.

He wanted to teach this child.
That joy.

Therefore

— I won’t lose to the likes of a goddess’ power.

⇐ Previous | TOC | Next ⇒