“Hrah!” It was a brilliant thrust with accuracy and speed capable of hitting a small insect out of midair. When aimed directly at the eyes, the skill of the blade’s wielder made it next to impossible to avoid. At least, it would have, had the target been anyone else.
Tilting my head to avoid the incoming blow, I placed my sword on my opponent’s neck. Had it been a battle to the death, I would have simply removed her head from her shoulders in one fluid motion and that would have been the end of it. However, both my opponent and I were using wooden swords. It was a mock battle.
My opponent was a beautiful woman with blue eyes, blonde hair, and slanted bangs. “I surrender,” said Myra, sweat dripping from her brow.
“Good effort.”
“You are truly incredible.” We both pulled back our wooden swords—the mock battle was over. Myra looked at me with eyes full of respect.
“You’re pretty incredible yourself. I only won because I have three hundred years of practice on you. That would’ve been a close match back when I was alive.”
“Really? According to the founder’s notes, you were a candidate to become one of the Twelve Knights.” Of course, that “founder” referred to Myra’s ancestor, my adoptive brother, Robert.
“Something like that. I’m sure you would’ve been chosen too if you’d been around three centuries ago.”
“I-I’m honored you think so.” We were in an outdoor training area on the campus of an academy for training saints—people who killed curions, undead turned by the curse. We had permission from the instructors to use it after class. A short distance away, two beautiful, silver-haired, blue-eyed sisters were practicing their magic.
“Don’t forget to practice fighting with your holy woman’s divine protections too,” I mumbled, looking over at the princess and Orlaya.
“I admire your flexibility in adopting the tactics of a new era and not letting your three hundred years of experience blind you!”
“Nah, I was just stubborn. I should’ve relied on the princess a lot sooner.” A few days ago, we had defeated the Pestilent Guardian Dragon, one of the Twelve Corpses—special curions located in each of the twelve Forbidden Cities. Up until then, I’d thought the divine protections provided by holy women were unnecessary, but after learning more about my partner, Astrantia, I’d changed my mind.
“Still, it’s only because you fought without Lady Astrantia’s divine protections that she was able to store up so much mana in her manastones. Without that mana, it would’ve been impossible to suppress the dragon’s rampaging skeleton.” In addition to healing magic and magic to release the souls of the undead, holy women could use divine protections known as Physical Protection and Physical Enhancement. The other holy knights used their holy women’s divine protections during training, but I had fought without them the entire time. That had given the princess the opportunity to store excess mana in the manastones, which had been instrumental in defeating the dragon.
“I guess it wasn’t all bad. Still, turning back into bones every time is a pain.” Although the technique developed by the princess’s family had restored my flesh, I was still undead. As long as I didn’t lose my head, I could keep on fighting in my skeletal form. The problem was that it took a lot of mana to then restore my flesh again.
“I see. Being able to fight as a skeleton is certainly one of your strengths, but divine protections have their own advantages.”
“Let’s train with divine protections next time. You’re more experienced on that front, so you’ll be the one teaching me.”
Myra immediately straightened up in response to my request. “Of course! I’ll give it my all!”
“Thanks.” I patted Myra’s head. Since Myra was already nineteen, I figured she might dislike it, but that didn’t seem to be the case. On the contrary, she just smiled bashfully. Robert had told me to be nice to her in a dream I’d had the other day too.
“U-Um, Sir Albert! Can we go another round?”
“Sure.” Fighting someone strong was good training. We had a few more matches after that, until...
“Albert!” I shifted my attention to the angry voice I heard and found a girl with big boobs and a red ponytail, her hands on her hips. Cuphea looked just as mad as she sounded. At some point the sky had turned a shade of crimson. Apparently time had really flown by.
“Oh.” I suddenly remembered that I’d made a promise with her.
“Don’t ‘oh’ me! You promised to eat with us at the orphanage today!”
“Sorry, sorry. I lost track of time.” The princess and I had been invited to dinner. Saints were given rewards for exterminating curions. Those rewards were donated by various people who wanted to see the Forbidden Cities freed. Some wanted to see the souls of their ancestors and relatives freed, some wanted to return to their ancestors’ hometowns, and some simply mourned for the dead. Many people donated, most of them nobles.
At any rate, we had received a reward for our hands-on training the other day. A saint was a saint, even if they were still a student, so we were paid all the same. Once things settled down, Cuphea had invited us to dinner at the orphanage where she lived. She and Linum wanted to celebrate getting paid.
“I-I’m sorry, Cuphea! I got carried away training with my sister...” The princess came running over and apologized to Cuphea. Orlaya was slowly walking over as well, but she stopped in her tracks when she heard Astrantia say she got carried away with her sister. That probably made her happy. After we’d established her love for her sister, it was kinda cute seeing how much she had changed.
“At least try to keep the schedule you set for yourself,” said Cuphea. It sounded to me like she was just trying to hide her embarrassment. “Albert has a soft spot for Myra so I’m not surprised, but Astrantia too...” Cuphea pouted.
“Sorry about that, seriously. Let’s head over now. That’s gonna be it for today, Myra.”
“Of course. Thank you for your guidance.” Myra gave a polite bow.
“We’ll do this again sometime.”
“Certainly!”
Once the princess had finished saying goodbye to Orlaya, we walked over to Cuphea. “Oh, finished already?” She was still pouting. It was on us, so I couldn’t blame her. She turned her head away from us with a “hmph,” her ponytail shaking behind her.
“Oh, you’re using the hair tie.” I saw a silver accessory as her ponytail swished by me. It was something I had bought for her.
“Don’t try to change the subject.”
“I’m glad you’re using it. It looks good.”
“D-Does it?” Cuphea’s cheeks were red, and not from the setting sun. “A-Ahem. Anyway, you guys don’t hate coming over, do you? If it’s annoying, you don’t have to...” Her voice trailed off as she spoke.
“Of course not! No one wanted to be my friend growing up since I’m the witch’s descendant! Being invited to dinner is like a dream for me!” The orchestrator behind the tragedy three centuries ago was a mage known as the Eternal Witch. She was a noble, and the princess was descended from her family. For that reason, the princess had been feared and spent her childhood without any friends.
“I’d never hate spending time with you, Cuphea. I don’t care about the brats, but at least Linum and Edel are there.” Linum was Cuphea’s partner, a holy woman with a blue bob cut, while Edel was a beautiful blonde woman who managed the orphanage. She was apparently a holy woman too, though she wasn’t active.
“A-All right then.” Us not showing up had apparently made her anxious.
“I really am sorry. I’ll make it up to you somehow.” Even though she was still just a girl, causing a woman close to me to worry made me a failure as a man. I gave a genuine apology.
“I-It’s fine. We’re saints, so training is important.”
“Nah, it won’t sit right with me doing nothing.”
“A-All right then. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“You bet.”
“I-I’ll think of something too!” Astrantia added.
“Jeez, I get it already. I forgive you both, so stop apologizing.” Cuphea smiled as though she felt silly for all her pouting. Now that she was back in a good mood, we headed on over to the orphanage. I remembered to stop and buy a present on the way.
“Ah, Al’s here!” The moment I stepped into the orphanage’s yard, a girl with purple pigtails clung to my leg.
“Hey. Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“You’re late!”
“Yeah, my bad. I bought you guys some sweets to make up for it.”
“Sweets!” The little girl, Linaria, jumped with joy.
“Sweets are for after dinner,” said Cuphea, though it wasn’t clear if Linaria heard her. Entering the run-down building, we headed to the dining room where the children were waiting. It seemed like they had just finished setting the table, which meant we were just in time.
“Oh, Al’s here!”
“Holy woman!”
“Tia, sit next to me!” The princess had become quite popular with the children lately. Well, she was pretty, kind, and good at magic, so I could see why. Still, if any of the boys were rude to her, they’d meet a swift punishment. I’d let the girls slide though.
“Welcome. Thank you for coming.” Edel, a beautiful blonde with all the charm of an adult woman and who filled the role of the children’s mother, gave a gentle smile as she welcomed us.