Chapter 5:
Private Tutor
TODAY WAS THE DAY HIS PRIVATE TUTOR WAS SUPPOSED to arrive. A month had passed since his social debut, and Garm had finally managed to find an appropriate tutor for him.
Noon arrived, and as Cain waited in anticipation, Sylvia came to get him.
“Master Cain, the adventurer who will serve as your tutor has arrived. I’ll take you to the drawing room.”
“Thank you, Sylvia. I’m coming.”
After knocking on the door of the drawing room, Sylvia opened it and she and Cain entered. There were two people waiting for them inside. The first was a female warrior in her early twenties. She wore light leather armor and her red hair was tied up in a ponytail. The second was a female mage wearing a robe with a hood that covered her head. Cain sat down across from them.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Cain von Silford. I recently reached the age of five. I’ll be in your care.”
The female warrior was the first to respond.
“I’m Millie, an adventurer operating here in Gracia. Nice to meet ya. Oh—I mean, nice to meet you. I fight on the front lines with a sword and shield, and I’m a D-rank. This here next to me is Nina.”
Millie clearly wasn’t that comfortable using formal language, as she would occasionally stumble.
“I-I’m Nina… Hey.” She kept her face covered by a hood as she introduced herself.
“Nina, c’mon! I told you that you had to speak formally since we were headed to a noble’s place, didn’t I?”
Despite Millie’s rebuke, it seemed like Nina had no intention of speaking formally.
“Maestra Millie and Maestra Nina, right? You two are the teachers here, so there’s no need for you to speak formally. I’ll be in your care.”
Millie’s tense expression immediately brightened at Cain’s words.
“Phew, that makes this a lot easier! Nina is shy, so she’s always like this. She’s also a D-rank adventurer. Nina, at least take your hood off!”
Millie pulled Nina’s hood down for her.
Oh, an elf, Cain thought. This is my first time seeing one.
Nina immediately pulled her hood back up.
“Jeez! There’s no helping it when it comes to you,” Millie chastised. “Still, we’re supposed to tutor the son of the Lord responsible for this region, but you’re still five, right? Is that really necessary?”
Cain’s expression turned serious at Millie’s question. “I’m the third son, so I won’t be inheriting this land. I told my father that I wished to become an adventurer.”
“Hmm? So that’s why that request was put up at the adventurer’s guild. Okay, I get it now. The contract says that we’re supposed to come twice a week, with one day being swordsmanship training, and the other day being magic training. We’re going to give you homework, so make sure to do it.”
Cain nodded. “Understood.”
“Let’s head to the training grounds then. Nina, get moving.”
“Mm. Okay.”
Sylvia led the group of three to the training grounds in the backyard of the mansion. As one would expect from the territory of a margrave, the mansion had a training ground attached to it since there were always soldiers stationed nearby. There were training swords at the training ground, but they were meant for adults, so Cain had to bring his own personal wooden sword.
“Let’s start with swordsmanship. I’ll take a look at your swing, so show me what you’ve got,” Millie said. “I’ll point out your problems as I notice them.”
Cain held the wooden sword in a kendo stance and swung. Since he had the military arts skill, the sword swung naturally. Downwards, upwards, in a sweeping motion—he saw the moves in his head and acted accordingly. After finishing a sequence, he turned to look at Millie, who was staring at him slack-jawed.
“What the heck, Cain?! You’re so good, there’s nothing for me to point out!”
“He might be stronger than you, Millie…” Nina muttered.
Millie caught her words and shot back, “I won’t lose to a five-year-old! Cain, if you’re already that good, then we can focus our sessions on sparring.”
“Okay, understood, Maestra Millie.”
The two of them moved about twenty feet apart from each other before turning around and holding out their wooden swords. This was Cain’s first time facing someone else in combat, so he figured using the full level 10 strength of his blessing from the God of War would be a bad idea. He instead decided to limit himself to roughly twenty percent of his powers. If that wasn’t too problematic, he would gradually increase from there.
“Show me what you got,” Millie said with a relaxed tone.
“Here I come!”
Cain pushed strength into his legs and leaped, instantly closing the twenty-foot distance. He swung his wooden sword, but it was stopped at the last second by the wooden sword in Millie’s hand.
“Cain, are you really only five years old? There’s no way.”
“Yes. I just got baptized recently.”
“You’re already strong enough to be an adventurer.”
Cain continued to swing his sword.
Millie dodged and parried Cain’s swings, but she was barely hanging on.
“Hang on! Time out! I won’t last long at this rate,” Millie said.
“Okay! Understood,” Cain replied.
The two of them separated once more. Cain was perfectly fine, but Millie was already gasping for breath.
“Cain, you have the God of War’s blessing, don’t you. It’s impossible for a normal five-year-old to have such sharp swordsmanship.”
“My father said I wasn’t allowed to tell outsiders about my Status, but I guess it should be fine to tell my teachers. Yes, I have the God of War’s blessing.”
“As I thought. There’s no way I can handle teaching you swordsmanship for an entire day. Let’s change our plans,” Millie said, recovering her breath. “Let’s do both swordsmanship and magic each day. I’ll take the first half of the day, while Nina takes the second half. I need to rest for a bit, so it’s your turn, Nina.”