I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (Web Novel)
-
chapter-252
Fran As A Teacher
Today was the day after Fran decided to accept the three adventurers she met back at the guild as her temporary apprentices .
It was still quite early in the morning, but she’d already gathered them so they could start another day’s worth of training .
「First, stretches . 」
「Stretches? What’s a stretch?」Liddick mulled over the word that he’d clearly never heard before, as if contemplating its meaning .
「I dunno, but I think it’s probably something related to some sort of super training!」
「Are you sure? It sounds more like a spell to me . 」
Miguel and Naria answered him in turn, each with their own respective interpretations of the exercise .
It turned out that stretching wasn’t actually something this world’s people normally did . They did have warm-up exercises, but none of them were meant to increase one’s flexibility . The concept of stretching, as I knew it, was completely foreign to them . In fact, Fran herself had only started stretching after I instructed her to and informed her that it was good for her . And now, she was taking that bit of information and spreading it .
「Warm up before exercise . 」
「Er, alright, but is there actually any point to it?」Liddick began questioning the exercise before Fran could get to demonstrating or explaining .
「Nn . 」
「Huh, interesting . Could you explain what the point is?」
「Warming up . Many benefits . 」
「Many? Could you give a few specific examples?」
「Nn? Many is many . 」
Although Fran knew that stretching would improve her condition, she wasn’t able to explain why . She had clearly forgotten all the theory behind it even though I vividly recalled explaining it to her not too long after we first met . As far as she was concerned, stretching was just another routine exercise she drilled into her body for the sake of getting stronger .
All three of her apprentices had initially reacted to her clearly incomplete explanation with a dumbfounded stare . It took them a few moments to shake their heads free of their doubts and begin following her instructions .
「D-Do we really need to do this?」
「Shut up and just do it, idiot! Look, even Teach herself is doing it . 」
Liddick continued asking questions, but Miguel silenced him with a shout .
「T-True…」
Though the spearman still seemed unconvinced, he felt that his party member’s logic was both solid and believable .
「I’m sure she’s doing it for a reason us lower rankers can’t even begin to wrap our heads around . 」
Sensing that, Miguel appended another convincing argument to the end of his explanation .
「Y-Yeah, you know what, you’re probably right . They’re even worth Ms . Fran’s time, so they’re definitely worth ours too!」
Mentioning his lack of knowledge caused Liddick to re-evaluate his stance yet again . Recalling his own faults made him much more willing to accept the unfamiliar exercise despite its purpose still being shrouded in mystery .
「You’re right . I’m sure these movements will lead to some sort of incredible effect!」
Like Miguel, Naria had also decided to abide by Fran’s instructions .
「Yeah, it has to have something to do with why she’s so strong even though she’s really young!」
Miguel took the lack of an explanation as a prompt to begin theorizing why Fran wanted them to stretch .
「That’s true! It might have something to do with making training more efficient . 」
The constant reinforcement his party members were feeding him eventually caused Liddick to come up with a more reasoned out answer .
「That has to be it!」
「Damn, do I like the sound of that . It’s getting me hella pumped!」
Naria and Miguel both unhesitatingly latched onto his seemingly logical conclusion .
And surprisingly, despite being overglorified, it wasn’t really that far from being the right answer . Stretching didn’t have the sort of miraculous effect they were expecting, but it did reduce the chance of injury . Hence, it technically did have the potential to allow one to train more efficiently .
「Stretches, taught by Master . 」
「Your master, teach?」
「Nn . 」
「What kind of person was your master?」
「Amazing . Best master in world . Made me strong . 」
「Wow! He sounds really impressive!」
「Master is best . 」
Liddick paused to let Fran make a comment before continuing .
「And he was the one that taught you how to stretch? T-」
「See, I called it! This stretching thing’s gotta have some sort drastic effect!」
Feeling validated, Miguel cut Liddick’s comment off with his own .
「Let’s give stretching our all!」
Neither of Fran’s other two apprentices disagreed with Naria’s suggestion .
They were all totally gung ho about it, and because of that, started off by trying to force their bodies as far as they could . Fortunately, Fran, who’d realized they misunderstood the exercise’s purpose, stopped them before they hurt themselves . She patiently continued to instruct them until they started going about stretching the slow but thorough way one was supposed to .
Fran was doing her job as their teacher incredibly well . The three were moved by the fact that she, someone way stronger than them, was willing to carefully instruct them . Their respect for her had been bolstered many times over even though all she’d taught them to do was stretch .
「Next, sparring . 」
「Eh?」
「Seriously?」
「W-Who will we have to go up against?」
Naria, Miguel, and Liddick reacted in that order . The first leaked a sound to represent dumbfounded surprise, the second proclaimed his belief, and the third ended up asking a question in hopes of a favourable response .
Even just considering the possibility of sparring with Fran had caused the colour to visibly drained from all three of the trio’s faces . They clearly remembered getting totally creamed by her just the other day .
None of them wanted to fight her . They all hoped that she would have them spar with one another instead .
A hope she mercilessly crushed .
「Nn . Me, one by one . 」
「…Alright . 」
Resigning himself to death, Liddick nodded and acknowledged the idea .
「I can let you go first if you want . 」
「Nah, you can go right ahead, Miguel . 」
「Sorry Naria, but I’m with Miguel . Ladies first, you see . 」
「Damn you Liddick, you traitor!」
Fran was getting tired of seeing the trio’s pitiful argument, so she raised one of her arms and pointed in Miguel’s direction .
「Swordsman first . 」
「S-Seriously…?」
「Hurry up . 」
「G-Got it, Teach . 」
「Do your beeest . 」
「Don’t die out there bro . 」
「O-Oh shut up! You two are going to be following me straight to hell in a few seconds anyways . 」
Miguel stepped up, his face dyed in a shade of hopelessness .
「You attack . 」
「H-Here I go then! Oraaaaaahhhh!」
Miguel came right at Fran with his sword in motion . There wasn’t even the slightest bit of hesitation in his movements; he swung to kill because he knew just how much stronger than him she really was .
The nearby sailors, however, didn’t . All they saw was a hulk of a man viciously lunging at a little girl with his greatsword in hand . Not all of them had watched yesterday’s battle unfold, so most judged based off of appearances and assumed that Miguel was way stronger than Fran .
They’d found the sight of her teaching him, the thing they’d been watching up until now, entertaining and humorous . That was precisely why the sudden change in activity had caused them to start screaming in panic .
But their concerns were needless . The tragic event they’d expected to see simply never happened .
「Wind-up too big . 」
「Toryaaah!」
「Power important, but no point if can’t hit . 」
「Shiiit!」
「Smaller swings . 」
「Haaaah!」
「Too rushed . 」
「Grgghhh!」
Fran basically didn’t bother retaliating . She instead spent her time dodging while giving him advice . She would also lightly tap him whenever he exposed an opening in order to show him what he needed to work on .
Watching the two caused the sailors to freeze up; they were completely dumbfounded .
As far as Miguel was concerned, however, things were going roughly as expected . The only thing he didn’t account for was that Fran wasn’t actually going to retaliate . He was glad to see that she continued instructing him as opposed to just totally wrecking him .
He ended up sinking to the floor completely exhausted after maintaining his all out assault for approximately 10 minutes .
「Nn . Last attack, not bad . 」
「T-Thank you very much!」
「Next, spearman . 」
「Sure thing!」
Liddick took Miguel’s place and began a second vigorous assault on Fran . He tried to strategically angle and shift his attacks such that they’d hit, but she totally saw through all of his tactics and maintained a flawless defense .
「Thinking too much before attacking . 」
「Kuh!」
「Too easy to read . More variation . 」
「Haaah!」
「Not bad, but too slow . 」
She more or less treated him the same way she treated Miguel . She dodged all his attacks and occasionally pressed her palm against his body to demonstrate that he’d made a mistake that would’ve lead to his death . In the end, Liddick, like Miguel, ended up collapsing out of sheer exhaustion .
Last up was Naria . Firing projectiles from a bow was quite dangerous given that we were on a ship with a bunch of people on it, and Fran wasn’t really able to offer too much bow-related advice in the first place . Hence, she instead focused on teaching Naria how to use her short sword .
Her methods remained the same, but she made sure to attack a bit more frequently since she wanted Naria to get more used to blocking than anything else .
「More attention to blocking . Less to attacking . 」
「Got it!」
「Dodge if can’t block . 」
「Ow!」
「Use dagger for control . Feints . 」
Naria ended up yielding a bit faster than Miguel and Liddick . I didn’t really blame her . She was using a weapon she wasn’t used to, and the need to block Fran’s strikes had drained her of her energy really quickly .
But either way, Fran was satisfied . She’d proven herself capable of functioning as a teacher .
「Archer, keep practicing with short sword . 」
「Got it!」
「Swordsman, spearman, focus on offensive footwork . 」
The three nodded after Fran gave them some feedback . She’d successfully managed to root out their weaknesses .
「Archer, can also keep practicing with bow . 」
But despite that, she continued to call them by their weapons as opposed to their names, and not because that was just how she wanted to refer to them . It was instead something that needed to be attributed to one of her bad habits: forgetting everything she wasn’t really interested in . In other words, although she was interested in having them as her apprentices, she hadn’t actually taken to any of the three individuals themselves . I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not any of them would be able to get her to remember them by name before the Algieba reached its destination .