This applies to everything, but once someone reaches true mastery, petty tricks no longer work against them. Sazaki is the perfect example. Max wouldn’t hesitate to use surprise attacks if necessary, but he knew that such tricks wouldn’t work against people who stood at the peak. Sazaki, who was currently happily playing with his son, was first on the list of such individuals.
I don’t even need to ask to know how much abuse the Great Demon King’s forces hurled at him! Falke, who now once again blocked Sazaki’s wooden sword by a hair’s breadth, could understand the feelings of everyone his father had defeated. Sazaki was simple and straightforward, and as a result, he was fast, faster, the fastest; he was just fast, plain and simple.
I can’t step forward! Even Falke could only do his best to defend himself as Sazaki swung his sword without using any feints or bluffs. Moreover, he was clearly holding back. Some of those he’d defeated during the great war hadn’t even been given the time to use their most powerful abilities.
That was close! He used a feint! Furthermore, since Sazaki was playing with his son, he weaved in some feints that he didn’t normally use, so Falke couldn’t let his guard down for a second.
So he noticed... He really has grown. Meanwhile, Sazaki wasn’t at all concerned about his son’s panic. He’d just slightly shifted the actual swing of his wooden sword from where he consciously intended to swing it, yet Falke had noticed the feint, which meant that he hadn’t just read his opponent’s body but his mind as well. Moreover, it had been a very subtle feint that only someone like Stein, Max in a life-and-death situation, or Elrica in her killing-machine state could have noticed. An ordinary master who thought they had their opponent right where they wanted them would have fallen for it.
“I’m not done yet,” Sazaki said in a carefree tone.
“I do have work and other responsibilities to tend to!” Falke shouted back, far more frantically.
“Ha ha ha.”
“Oho ho ho ho.”
“What magnificent muscle harmony.”
“Things aren’t looking good for him.”
Ferd, Elrica, Stein, and Max continued just watching secretly to avoid interfering in the father-son bonding time.
Falke got stuck playing with his father for a while. When he finally went to bed, exhausted by the whole affair, he had a dream: a memory of when he’d still been too young to even be called a young man. Falke’s memories of that time were extremely ordinary. He’d just been a typical boy who played with his father and was spoiled by his gruff mother. Moreover, from a young age, he’d noticed that the eccentric couple of Sazaki and Lara had gotten along well, and there had never been any discord in their family. But it wasn’t like he’d understood everything about his parents, nor their history.
“Lara and I used to be part of the Hero’s party.”
“Huh?”
Back when Falke was still a little boy, Sazaki casually told him about his past, which left the boy slack-jawed. It was an era when the effects of the postwar period were pronounced, and if you threw a rock, there was a high chance it would hit someone who’d participated in the great war. Therefore, the reputation of the Hero’s party was significantly more ubiquitous than it was in the present day, and not something people would speak of jokingly.
“What are you saying, dad? Hey, mom. Mom?” Falke couldn’t take his father’s joke and turned to Lara for help, but the mother he trusted wholeheartedly just shrugged her shoulders.
“We live in an area far from the front lines, so we have few acquaintances, and those who do know us turn a blind eye. You’re the son of the one they call the Blademaster and the one they call the Witch of Annihilation. Right, dear?” Sazaki explained.
“That’s right, darling,” Lara confirmed.
“Huh?” Rather than joyful, Falke could only be dumbfounded at his parents’ words. Learning that his parents were two of the seven lights who had saved the world felt like a shock that turned the world upside down.
“And so, it’s about time we started training you for real. As a man, you have to at least be able to protect yourself,” Sazaki said.
Falke could easily understand what his father meant. Even after the end of the great war, the world remained a perilous place, with danger lurking in the most unexpected places. Furthermore, people still feared the possibility of the Great Demon King being revived and the great war rekindled, so it was better to be powerful.
And thus began Falke’s training, which was at least fun. He’d fully inherited his parents’ talent, and the more he trained, the more his skills grew. He was also joined by other apprentices around his age, and they lived an active, exciting life.
However, when Falke came of age, another strange thing happened.
“Wh-Why is there so much alcohol here?!” Falke asked one day, astonished at the massive quantity of alcohol bottles stocked up in their house. No one around him was a drinker, so he suspected that the bottles covering part of the house had been delivered by mistake.
“It’s mine,” Sazaki casually came over and explained.
“Are you feeling unwell, dad?!”
“Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!”
Falke had heard a few stories of people drinking to dull the pain, and since his father had fought in the great war, he thought that an old wound of his might be hurting.
“I’ll tell you, but this is confidential.” Sazaki stopped laughing and his expression turned solemn, which convinced Falke all the more that his father must be unwell. “I thought it would be bad for my son if his old man kept drinking all the time, so I stopped. But before you were born, I used to drink every day. Every single day.”
“Huh?” Falke couldn’t believe his ears at the emphasis in Sazaki’s words, but this natural drunkard really had abstained from alcohol for so long that Falke had never seen his dad drinking.
“Mom, how much did dad used to drink?” Falke reflexively asked Lara.
“Let’s see. He drank in the morning right after waking up, then also drank on his way to the front lines,” Lara replied.
“Huh?! Even while he was marching to battle?!” Falke didn’t yet realize that this was only the tip of the shocking truth.
“He drank after arriving at the battlefield and at the start of battle, then drank whenever he had time during combat. Then, he drank when the battle was over, he drank during meals, and he drank when it got dark. Finally, he drank before going to bed.”
“Huuuh?!” The verb “drink” was repeated so many times that Falke got so confused, he could only shout in response.
Sazaki had been suspected of being the heaviest drinker of all time, but even so, the most charitable description anyone had for him was “drunken fool.” That was why his period of abstinence had been so abnormal.
“But I thought it was about time I could drink again. And so, let’s drink, Falke. Call the others too. It’s every son’s and apprentice’s duty to drink with their father or teacher. You should also join us, Lara. I’ve bought some top-shelf alcohol, which is pretty rare for me.” Sazaki had actually been looking forward to drinking with his son and apprentices, so he’d apparently bought some good drinks for a change.
“Well, I suppose it’s fine once in a while.”
“Whaaa...?”
Falke still remembered the merrymaking that followed, which had stretched late into the night.
✦ ✦ ✦
Falke, the worldly wise man.
If he brought up his parents’ names, many would look upon him with awe and veneration, but some would only give him unreadable looks.