“Hyah!”
Moroha smoothly dodged Yakumo’s powerful strike before then dashing right up to the girl in an instant.
“Watch your toes, kid.”
“Whoa!”
Yakumo’s legs were swept out from under her. Though she lost her balance, she managed to recover and roll to the side, gaining distance from Moroha. Moroha never continued into a follow-up attack, however.
“Kokonoe Secret Style: Bee Stinger!”
Yakumo leaped up and unleashed a piercing thrust. Moroha calmly dodged back.
“[Gate]!”
“Hm.”
The tip of Yakumo’s blade moved into a tiny [Gate] and disappeared before reappearing in the space behind Moroha. Everyone watching thought it would be impossible for the goddess to dodge.
“Not so fast.”
“Huh?”
As if going to scratch an itch with a backscratcher, Moroha took her sword and maneuvered it around her back, stopping Yakumo’s blade with the flat of her sword. And she managed all that without even turning around once.
Does this woman have eyes on the back of her head?!
Having deflected the tip of Yakumo’s blade, Moroha leaped forward and thrust the tip of her sword at the young girl’s neck.
“You’re still thinkin’ too simple, kid. If your opponent can predict where you’re sending your attacks with those little gates of yours, it’s nothing better than a parlor trick. Even aiming for the feet would give you a better chance of success.”
“Ngh... I concede...”
Once Yakumo raised her hands in surrender, Moroha lowered her sword.
Apparently, Yakumo had asked Moroha for more strict training because of feeling her own inadequacy during the raid on the Ark. From where I was standing, she had put up a good fight, but to her, there must have been something that left her feeling humiliated. I didn’t see any problem with it, so I granted her my permission, but I hadn’t expected them to go at it all morning.
“Yakumo, I feel like you should take a break.”
“Yeah! It’s not fair that you get to hog all the training time! It’s my turn!” Frei yelled from beside me, clearly desperate to get out on the field. I guess she was at her limit after having to hold in all her energy for so long.
“I feel so close to figuring this out. Please, just one more round!” Yakumo pleaded.
“That’s what you said last time!” Frei angrily shouted back.
If I don’t force them to stop, this is gonna turn nasty.
“[Gate].”
“Ah!”
Frei and Yakumo fell through the gates at their feet as they reappeared back where the other had been standing.
Take a look at my all-powerful swap-no-jutsu...! Just kidding.
“But, father, I can still...!”
“I dunno what’s got you so worked up, but right now, you’re so exhausted that you can barely move right.”
“Y-You could just cast [Refresh] on me and...”
“Absolutely not. Just rest.”
I immediately rejected her request, and Yakumo sat herself down in defeat.
The girl was right, I could have cast [Refresh] on her and she’d have gotten her stamina back right away, but something like that could have adverse effects on one’s growth. If you had two runners training every day, one casting [Refresh] on themselves every time, while the other let their body recover naturally, the latter would acquire the most natural stamina. Using that magic prevented one’s muscles from developing.
It was one thing to do it to an adult who had already finished their growth period, but using it too much on a child could stunt their growth, and I was certain Yakumo wouldn’t want that either.
“Here I go!”
Having been left to wait for so long, Frei’s first strike toward Moroha was explosive. They were both wielding spears, Frei’s being the sacred treasure. The long reach of the spear put a swordsman at a clear disadvantage, but such knowledge didn’t work against the goddess. She was humming away to herself as she deflected Frei’s barrage of attacks with the spear in one of her hands.
“How much training do I have to put in to reach such a level...?” Yakumo wondered.
“Uh, an impossible amount,” I immediately shot back. Reaching the same level as Moroha? No human could attain that. “That woman is insane on more than one level. At least have Yae as your goal.”
“I doubt I could even win against mother either...”
As much as it was my fault for becoming a god, Yae had halfway stopped being human herself. Then again, Yakumo was a demigod—maybe it wasn’t out of the question? As her father, though, I didn’t really want her to become my strongest child... Marriage proposals would practically disappear.
Wait...maybe this is a good thing.
“Well, just watch yourself, okay? It was thanks to you that our mission in the Ark succeeded, so don’t take it too hard.”
“But the sacred treasure had its divinity stolen...”
So that was what she was hung up on. There was nothing she could have done in that situation. In fact, I was the one more at fault here—I was so distracted by the idea of the fallen god that I’d completely forgotten to create a counter for the Gluttony Slime. I’d already refilled the sacred treasure with divinity and made some adjustments so it wouldn’t ever get its power absorbed from it again, so Yakumo really didn’t need to blame herself.
This girl was the kind of person who beat herself up over the tiniest of mistakes; she was exactly like Yae in that respect. Both were usually very straightforward, but they tended to be too strict on themselves and overthink things. They were always so stubborn when they got something in their heads, but they could afford to be a bit more carefree sometimes. Well, so long as they weren’t as airheaded as Steph was, at least.
Now, what would I do if Yae was in a slump like this?
“Oh, right. Food.”
“What?”
There was nothing better to help clear one’s head than something tasty. The moment I thought of that, I sent a message to both Lu and Arcia.
“And so, you decided to have a curry party?” Yumina muttered in slight disbelief as she looked out over the large carts lined up with all different sizes of curry around the courtyard. That wasn’t a mistake, by the way—what was being served wasn’t the Mismede cully, but actual curry from Earth. Though to the residents of this world, it just seemed like we’d arranged cully into something better.
The aggressive smell was permeating not just the courtyard, but all throughout the castle. It might be a bit tough on everyone having such a strong, mouthwatering smell hanging in the air right before lunch. I was pretty sure I heard a very loud tummy rumble from somewhere.
“They really made a lot, didn’t they?”
“To the surprise of no one, Lu and Arcia had both gone crazy with it... Through trial and error, they continued their search for the ultimate curry...”
The curries on the menu ranged from the usual pork, chicken, and beef curries to the all-familiar seafood, katsu, and veggie curries, and then stranger ones like curry udon and curry ramen. I could also spy some keema, green, and soup curries off to the side. There really were all kinds present.
In fact, it didn’t stop there—Lu and Arcia had their own original curries on display as well. It was absolute chaos. There was a bright red curry among them all, but...
I value my life, thanks...
The moment it became time for lunch, everyone, from the castle’s knights to the maids, impatiently made their way to the courtyard. Usually, they’d all eat in a separate mess area, but today, they all flowed to where we were waiting.
Hang on, don’t some of these people usually bring their own lunch boxes? Is this the true power of curry?
Next to Yae, who was wolfing down some katsu curry, was Yakumo doing the exact same thing. Had she managed to cheer up a bit? My grandpa always said that eating food helped your mood by making your worries feel a little lighter.