An Old Man from the Countryside Becomes a Swords Saint: I Was Just a Rural Sword Teacher, But My Successful Students Won’t Leave Me Alone! - Chapter 113

“Fuh!”

It was two or three times. Thyssel swings her wooden sword while advancing.

A torrent of magical power flies out from the tip of her blade each time, the projectiles approach me at tremendous speed. At the same time, she’s closing the distance between us, so the scope of things I had to keep track of grows massive all at once.

“Heave… hoh?!”

I use the wooden sword to block one of the oncoming magical slashes.

An impact one or two steps different from when I blocked her physical sword attacks runs down my wrist to my arm.

I intuitively understand.

This is dangerous. It was a good idea to block it completely. In addition to being able to attack from outside my range, her speed and power have increased dramatically. To put it simply, it’s a pretty sly tactic.

All that said, she seems to know this is just a sparring exercise.

If not, her magic should have split my training sword in half already. Still, the impact of her attacks is the real deal, it shows off her incredible ability.

I don’t know any other Sword Magician.

To begin with, I had little experience fighting mages, and the one opponent you could say I had, Lucy, was a pure magician who did not use weapons.

Even so, I knew that Thyssel’s sword magic was quite refined and complete and that it was extremely troublesome to deal with it.

Unlike Lucy’s magic, Thyssel’s sword magic is based on swordsmanship techniques.

Therefore, the “wind-up” of an attack is still easy to understand. This is because it is possible to predict, to some extent, what kind of slash will be delivered from what kind of posture. Moreover, she is my former disciple, and my knowledge of her style remains the same.

However, the biggest difference from Lucy is that Thyssel, also a magician, rushes in while casting.

If you look only at the spells, you cannot respond to Thyssel’s approach, and if you pay attention only to Thyssel’s movements, you will be taken out by the sword magic.

Additionally, I don’t like that she always has the option of not approaching.

In short, when it seems that she will be counterattacked, she can safely retreat while firing off a magical slash, and there is less need to step into a position where she puts herself at risk.

It’s also extremely difficult to do something like a sudden grab attack like I did when I was sparring with Alexia. It is unlikely that Thyssel will be within grappling range.

“… Ei!” Thyssel cried.

“Woah!” I yelled.

And while I was thinking, Thyssel’s wooden sword sharply looked thrust at my face, in the gap between her magical slashes.

Fuck, I knew this was possible, but that was really dangerous! Isn’t that supposed to be a foul?!

In terms of the sheer number of moves, Selena probably has more. However, attacks that can always hit at any distance have less chance of counterattacks than Selena.

“Uh oh!” I yelled.

As a result, I fell into a rather unsightly combat position, where I was simply dodging Thyssel’s attacks and looked terrible from an outside perspective.

Although her attacks barely hit, Thyssel is completely in control of the battle’s pace.

I’m starting to sweat as evidence of that, but her complexion is still cool. If she doesn’t feel any extra pressure, she doesn’t have to rush. If you can afford it, you should avoid exhausting your physical strength.

“Mmm… still can’t do it,” Thyssel muttered.

However, though her expression remained cool, she was off her game.

Apparently, she’s not satisfied with just putting me on the defensive.

No, I just swore that I couldn’t lose awkwardly, and I had a strong feeling of it before I was asked to do this sparring, but this one is a bit ugly. What should I do? I felt that it was only a matter of time before I was overwhelmed.

“… Then, I’ll do this,” Thyssel said.

“Oh……?” I went.

Thyssel’s aura changes.

Her movement hasn’t changed. Same as before. However, with the wind-ups now, the frequency of her magic attacks has changed.

Specifically, the speed at which they fly began to vary.

Are you kidding me?

It’s possible to adjust the speed? I haven’t heard of anything like this.

“Amazing, huh, so that’s what sword magic is!” I cried.

“Yes,” Thyssel said. “But, only with your sword skills, Master Beryl.”

Her reaction could be taken as admiration or bitterness.

It’s dangerous just because the sword speed is fast, but it’s even more dangerous when interwoven with staggered-time attacks. The attacks I predicted did not fire immediately, and instead, it was another slash that struck or Thyssel’s moving differently.

In any case, unlike the attack with a wooden sword, it is difficult to calculate the power of a spell at first glance. If I make a mistake in adjusting the force, my posture will be destroyed and it will create an extra opportunity to hit me, so I will have to put in all my focus.

“Kono!”

Another magical slash fires. At the same time, Thyssel’s wooden sword flies forward. If you dodge, she will move back again and fire off more magical slashes. This is repeating. There is no space to fire a counterattack.

To be specific, it’s not impossible, but if you force it, I’ll almost certainly be hit. Considering that spells of that intensity would hit, it was a difficult tactic to use.

What do I do?

It’s hard to push through like with Alexia. Thyssel’s style is not without gaps bigger than the eyes of needles, as with Selena, but it’s too far to pierce through it.

The brute force like when I defeated Rose will not work. I have just a wooden sword now.

Distance.

If you can close the distance, I should be able to find a way to survive.

–Oh, that’s right.

“… Is this, all?!” Thyssel yelled.

It’s the usual loop. Thyssel comes charging in when she thinks a magical slash has hit. And when I intercept her, she backtracks and puts distance between us again.

At the moment she retreats. There is a small gap that you can barely call an opening.

There, I forcibly sent my wooden sword into it.

In other words, I threw it.

“… Woah?!”

And now, the calm and in control Thyssel screams in surprise.

It’s little wonder. When she thought she was too far to hit, a spinning wooden sword was flying right at her.

“Hey-ho!” I yelled.

“Mm…!” Thyssel grunted.

For a few moments, I’m certain she stopped moving. Although Thyssel reacted swiftly and knocked my flying sword down, there was still a momentary gap between her mind and her body as she responds to the surprise attack.

I close the distance and grab her by the nape.

“One strike,” I said.

“… Mmm… I yield…”

I hook her foot and drop her to the floor, and it’s victory.

In the end, far from a demo of sword magic or of swordsmanship, both have taken a backseat, though I would be happy if they just thought of this as a combat exercise in the broadest sense of the term.

“So-so amazing! I’m so impressed!!” Cindy cried as the first to cheer.

She conveys the extent of her emotions with her hands and body language, it seems she can’t contain herself.

“To think he could handle all those attacks… no, it really was amazing,” Nazia said.

“I see, this is what Prof. Thyssel’s teacher is like…!” Lumitte said.

“It’s wonderful… how truly wonderful…!” Feledora said.

The impressions from the other kids don’t seem to be negative, above all else. If I was told I was a coward, this Old Man would have been a little hurt.

“… Hmph.”

Miu snorts, after having silently watched the match from start to finish.

However, even that reaction was somewhat satisfying.

“You must have gone through some tremendous training,” I said as I helped pull Thyssel back up to her feet. “I could barely keep up.”

“… I did not make any contingencies about enemy projectiles,” Thyssel said. “I still have a ways to go.”

It was the same when I sparred with Alexia, but essentially, if my opponent has a certain level of skill or higher than that, my physical ability and skill will soon reach their limits.

Therefore, in order to win against such a match-up, there will be an increasing number of new methods such as the assumed rules or taking advantage of a momentary lapse in defense and somehow exploiting it.

Rather than swordsmanship itself, it’s more like the valuable live-battle experience since my physical abilities have completely halted, it seems I was only barely able to win thanks to my advanced age.

With that straightforward attack method, it would have been quite difficult to sneak in that trick and counter.

Just knowing that is good enough to win. I’m not going to continue pressing the fight, but I understand that if you fight against a magician in a real match, I wouldn’t win.

“But, would you really have won throwing your sword in the end, in an actual fight?” Nazia asked.

“Mm, this was in the context of a sparring match,” I said. “That said, it could be possible in a real battle.”

“It’s as Master says,” Thyssel said. “Use whatever you can, in a live battle. Don’t worry about it. If you have a bad attitude, you lose.”

“I see…” Nazia said.

Although Thyssel is young, she has a lot of knowledge about combat. This is a big difference from Kuruni, who’s about the same age. Her spirit has already risen to the same level as Alexia and Selena, and I wonder if Lucy’s teachings were to thank.

“Sword magic and magic in general are just means to an end, you see…” Thyssel said.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m glad you’re learning it, but don’t obsess over it more than necessary.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t develop an interest in the sword magic she’s teaching. However, I appreciate that she tries not to show it as an end in itself, or at least, not publicly.

I wonder if this attitude is due to Thyssel’s innate personality. Normally, the techniques I’m learning are something that I tend to integrate myself.

“… I wonder if I can be like that,” Miu mutters.

“You can be,” I said.

I patted her head, she looked down and turned away like always.

“……Stop,” Miu said.

“Hahaha,” I said.

“I said stop…!” Miu yelled.

But, it’s not a serious refusal. She’s just shy. I’m familiar with Miu.

“Ah! That’s so unfair, Miu! I want to be like that, too!” Cindy cries.

“Yes, same with myself,” Nazia said.

“Haha, I’m sure everyone can get to that level, too. You definitely will,” I said.

I was able to take on the position of the Special Instructor of the Knights of Revelio… no, that’s what I wanted to say. It all depends on my future efforts and luck, I’m not going to count my chickens before the eggs have hatched.

And whether it will come true depends on the efforts of the students themselves and the efforts of the teachers. Both I and Thyssel have become seriously responsible.

“Master. Master,” Thyssel said as she slid right next to me.

“Hmm?” I went, surprised.

“Bui,” Thyssel pouted.

“… That’s right, you’ve become even stronger too, Thyssel. Good job,” I said as I patted her on the head.

“Fufu,” Thyssel went, pleased.

By the way, since I left Bidden Village to move to Baltrain and reunited with some of my disciples, I never thought I’d be praising them again like this.

It’s not spoiling, but it makes me happy when a child I taught swordsmanship ends up growing up to be a warrior like this. It makes this Old Man want to lift his head high.

“Ah, umm… Mr. Berly, about the rest of the lecture…” Lumitte said.

“Oops, that’s right,” I said as I patted Miu with one hand and Thyssel with the other.

We were in the middle of a class for the Sword Magic Department. I can’t just be here giving head pats. Let’s continue the lecture.

“Then, now that we’re outdoors, let’s do a few swinging exercises, shall we?” I asked.

“Sir!” the students enthusiastically shout.

Under the clear blue sky, I spent some time teaching, surrounded by the students who were even more enthusiastic than before.