“Oh, shoes, huh? Yeah, shoes are pretty important,” said Waine, nodding to himself.
It was the next session of our browplate-striking training. Once again, I was swinging a wooden stick around and pretending it was a spear. Meanwhile, Waine, who was entirely responsible for my suffering, dodged my attacks by a hair’s breadth every time and made it look easy too. The tone of his voice was lazy, like we somehow weren’t in the middle of a fight. “I’ve never worn any of those fancy shoes. Hell, I’ve never seen anyone wear stuff like that on an adventure. Didn’t even think to check.”
The rules were exactly the same as yesterday. Waine had the same little twig, while I wielded a spear-length stick. And I still couldn’t land a single hit. Meanwhile, my browplate had already been smacked three times. That twig? Still in one piece.
“We didn’t have anything that fancy in my village, but we did have special shoes. People only wore them on really important occasions, though.” I wanted to sigh. A big one. If I wasn’t in the middle of training, I probably would have.
When I left my village, I traveled for three days before arriving in this town. I didn’t bring much with me, just the clothes on my back and the most practical things I had. Of course, that included good walking shoes. I had never worn anything fancy in my life, so I’d never even had the chance to make the same mistake Liluetta did. Which meant I wasn’t in a position to judge, but still...
How had she not realized that her shoes were no good for adventuring? No. It wasn’t just about her. Sure, Liluetta had messed up. But the real issue wasn’t just that. If Old Badger had been leading the party, he would’ve noticed before we even left town. The reason today’s adventure had been a complete disaster over something so stupid was because I was the leader. In other words, it was my failure too.
I gritted my teeth, trying to shake off the frustration. I thrust my pole forward again and missed.
Waine was still as relaxed as ever as he avoided my attack. “So what happened next?”
“We went back to town,” I explained. “Found a shoe shop and bought a proper pair of shoes. That was it. We started late, so there was no time left for adventuring by the time we finished all that. We just called it a day and disbanded.”
“Ha ha ha!” Waine burst into laughter, which pissed me off.
I swung my stick in a wide, wild arc to try and smack him sideways, but he dodged with ease. That only pissed me off more. “Who do you think is responsible for me wasting an entire day?!”
“Ohhh, so basically, today was just a shopping date with two girls, huh? Damn, must be nice,” said Waine. “Real ladies’ man, aren’t ya?”
“Take this!” I yelled. I was too frustrated to care about form or discipline, so I just raised my weapon up high and slammed it down with all my strength.
Waine effortlessly sidestepped and smacked my browplate again.
Damn it!
“Hah! If you let some dumb taunt throw you off, you’re gonna get yourself killed, kiddo.”
“Shut up!”
I swung again. And again. And again.
Waine dodged every single time, grinning like the infuriating jerk he was. His smug face only made me angrier. Nothing was working. How the hell was I supposed to land a hit on this annoying guy?!
“Look on the bright side. At least you found out early.” Waine stopped moving just long enough to speak normally. “You guys had just left town when it happened, right? That’s good. You caught the problem when you still had time to fix it. Now, imagine if you’d been far from town. Imagine getting chased by monsters, only for one of your party members to take a tumble because she couldn’t run. Wouldn’t be a funny story anymore, right?”
“Well, no, but...” I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. I should be grateful we had learned this lesson before something truly bad happened. Failing like this was only funny because it wasn’t a serious mistake.
“See? That’s exactly why I’m laughing at you, kiddo!” Waine grinned. “So? Did you have fun on your little shopping date, surrounded by two lovely ladies?”
I gritted my teeth. Just swinging faster was not enough. Big, reckless swings weren’t landing. If he was always going to dodge my first strike, then I needed to change my approach. I adjusted my stance, holding my weapon shorter. Smaller, more precise thrusts. Keep probing. Keep looking for an opening. When I find it, I’ll go for a critical strike. Somewhere tender like his groin.
“So since you bought the shoes, that means you’re going out with them again tomorrow, huh?” said Waine.
“Yeah, that’s the plan.” I tried to keep my voice neutral. But my bitter expression must’ve been obvious, because Waine laughed again.