The Sage’s Students
Satou here. When I was a kid, my family took me to see the Iga and Kouga ninja houses. Wearing a children’s ninja outfit and exploring the traps and gimmicks of a ninja house, I felt like a fully-fledged ninja myself.
“Here we are.”
The sage pointed at a place that looked like a large assembly hall.
This was the Fooma ninja house in the Village of Adepts. There was also a place called the Eega ninja house, but the instructors there were currently away on an expedition, which left this one by process of elimination.
The sage guided us into the building.
No one was inside the classroom-like area. We heard voices that suggested they were practicing in a courtyard or garden.
“If the instructors do not suit your needs, please notify the caretaker. We will do our best to accommodate you.”
“We appreciate it very much.”
The “caretaker” was apparently similar to the helpful fortysomething-year-old woman we’d met at the town hall before.
“Run with all your might! No dinner tonight if the cloth touches the ground!”
Entering the garden, we found an elderly instructor in ninja clothes putting some kids through their paces, most of whom looked to be around the age of ten.
A few of the students were a little further into their teens.
“Hard workers, sir!”
“Go, gooo?”
Pochi and Tama cheered on the struggling students.
“Miss Liza. Miss Nana.”
While we observed, the sage spoke to Liza and Nana.
“I was very impressed by your spear and shield skills, respectively, in the Den of Evil.”
“I am honored.”
“Praise registered, I report.”
Liza looked rather proud, while Nana was, of course, expressionless.
“Is there any chance you’d be willing to demonstrate that strength for the younger generation?”
The sage explained that he wanted to hire the two as guest instructors in the village’s spear and shield classes.
“Our path lies ever with our master.”
“I would not ask you to stay on permanently,” the sage persisted. “Only as long as Sir Pendragon is staying here. I wish to show the skills of true masters to our ‘Adepts’ in training.”
The two looked at me; I nodded.
“Request accepted, I declare.”
“I shall do my best, though I have never taught others before.”
Nana and Liza accepted the guest lecturer positions.
“I should like to make similar requests of you three, too…”
The sage asked Arisa and Mia to teach a magic class, and Lulu a marksmanship class.
“Sure, I can do that. We taught classes at the royal academy before.”
“Mm. Agreed.”
“U-um… I’m, erm, not so sure…”
While Arisa and Mia readily agreed, Lulu looked reluctant.
“Ah-ha-ha, I think Lulu would prefer to teach a cooking class or something,” Arisa suggested with a smile.
“Then I would gladly hire you as a guest cooking instructor. We have been looking for someone to teach classes about cuisine from beyond Parion Province and the inland sea.”
The sage was quick to change his request to suit Arisa’s suggestion.
“A-all right,” Lulu agreed timidly. “Cooking I can manage, I think.”
“Sir Pendragon, if you would teach swordsmanship or hand-to-hand combat…”
“My apologies. I was hoping to study at the ninja house with Tama.”
I wasn’t sure if I could teach anyone, when I just use my high level to brute-force everything. Besides, I was worried about leaving Tama alone at the ninja house.
I had concerns about the others, too, of course, but I could always keep an eye on them with Space Magic.
And admittedly, I was a bit curious about the ninja classes.
“I see. I had hoped that learning from one who has fought demons and demon lords would be good stimulation for our students…but I would be remiss to deny your wishes.”
The sage quickly accepted my decision despite looking briefly dour.
Meanwhile, Pochi was obviously waiting eagerly for the sage to ask her to teach swordsmanship. However, he never requested anything of her.
“…Boo-hoo, sir.”
“Don’t worry, be happyyy?”
Thus, my days in the ninja house with Pochi and Tama began.
“I am Gozaroh the Thirteenth, chief of the Fooma ninja house.”
After the sage left with my companions, the elderly ninja introduced himself in a haughty tone.
“I am Viscount Sa—”
“No need for that!”
He interrupted me before I could introduce myself in kind.
“You are mere genin, low-ranking ninja. Thus, I shall call you with the black hair genin thirty-one, the white-haired-ear girl genin thirty-two, and the brown-haired-ear girl genin thirty-three. If you wish to be called by your names, you must first prove yourself by completing your training!”
A pretty lady on standby in the classroom brought us ninja clothes with numbered tags.
We changed into our new attire and joined the training.
“Hippity-hop, sir.”
“Ka-boooing?”
The students were practicing jumping over some reeds, or at least local plants that looked like reeds, set up in one corner of the training area.
“Too slow! Hurry up, over here!” the ninja instructor bellowed mercilessly. “Let’s see you jump, too, new blood.”
The reeds in question were cut to only a foot or so in height, so the students were leaping over them easily.
“Easy-peasyyy?”
“No problemo, sir.”
Tama, Pochi, and I jumped over the reeds just as smoothly, of course.
“Ninjutsu is about constant practice. If you keep jumping over these red reeds that grow a little every day, eventually you’ll be able to jump reeds as high as these ones!”
He pointed to a cluster of reeds that was close to ten feet tall.
“Can you jump that high, too, sir?”
“But of course!”
The old ninja’s response was immediate.
Can he really jump that high when he’s not even level 20? That’s impressive.
I couldn’t help being awed as I looked at the old man’s level.
“Amaziiiing?”
“I wanna see, sir!”
“Thing is, I was fighting alone to buy time for my comrades to escape, and a cowardly opponent shot me with a poison arrow in the knee. Can’t hardly even walk anymore. ’Tis a shame, truly.”
The old ninja unabashedly shook his head at Pochi’s request.
(My AR display didn’t show anything wrong with his knee.)
“Too baaaad?”
“Pochi will jump for you, then, sir.”
“Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha, that’s far beyond a child with no ninja training.”
Tama looked worried, while Pochi attempted to comfort the man, who looked down at the two and snickered.
Whoops. I forgot to mention that they’re both over level 50… Oh well.
Pochi and Tama strode up to the tall reeds.
“Here we go, sir!”
“Time for you kids to learn a lesson.”
The old ninja jerked his chin toward the reeds.
“Hi-ya, sir!”
After swinging her arms around a few times to charge herself up, Pochi leaped over the reeds in a pose like an alien from Nebula M78.
“NWHAAAAAAA?!”
The old ninja’s jaw nearly hit the floor in shock. The ninja students watching from behind reacted with similar surprise.
“Wheeeee?”
Tama followed suit with the elegance of an Olympic high jumper.
Now I was curious to try it myself. After Tama, I jumped over the reeds as well.
“Huh, they’re pretty low.”
At level 312, I didn’t even need my “Jumping” skill to clear it.
“I-inconceivable! Only the top ninja of Fooma are able to leap such heights…!”
The old ninja looked shaken.
Maybe he wasn’t actually that great of a ninja in the first place. I noticed he had titles like “Runaway Ninja” and “Fooma Genin.”
Unlike the teacher, who was trembling in shock, the students erupted with excitement.
“Ahem, ahem… Silence!” Coming back to his senses, the teacher scolded the students. “Th-this is only the beginning. On to the next exercise!”
The old ninja led us to an area where the exposed ground was rugged and uneven.
It looked like the students all knew what exercise was next; all but the most physically confident ones wore a look of dread.
“Next, we practice doton, the earth ninjutsu.”
At the teacher’s declaration, the students picked up wooden shovels that were stuck into the ground.
“Begin!”
As soon as he gave the signal, the students dug as fast as they could, then hid themselves in the holes they’d created.
Their speed was impressive, even if the areas were probably soft from being dug up so many times already.
“It may seem unimpressive, but this technique is ideal for losing pursuers in a wide-open wasteland,” the old ninja declared. “Now you try.”
When we picked up shovels and moved to dig next to the students, the teacher stopped us. “Wait. You three do it on that soil there.”
The old ninja pointed to an area that didn’t look like it had been dug up before.
“Come on, isn’t that area super hard?”
“Even our upperclassmen can’t do it there.”
“Master’s being awfully mean.”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up murmurs from the students in their holes.
“Hurry up and do it,” the old ninja ordered triumphantly.
I already know how this is going to end, though.
I gave Pochi a “go” sign via hand signals.
“Yaaah, sir!”
Heedless of the hard earth, Pochi dug her hole in a matter of moments.
“N-not bad.”
The ninja teacher seemed to have been prepared for this as well; he was calm enough to begrudgingly compliment her work, albeit with cold sweat on his forehead.
We’ll see how long that lasts.
“Pochi, you forgot ninjutsuuu?”
“Oopsie, sir. I’m such a sillyhead, sir.”
“Wh-what are you saying?”
Sensing something ominous about Pochi and Tama’s exchange, the old ninja reached out as if to stop them. The girls didn’t notice.
“Show me how it’s done, Tama, sir.”
“Aye-aye!”
Tama walked to the appointed area empty-handed.
“You’ve forgotten your shovel, child.”
“No worriiiies?”
Tama was unbothered, as usual.
“Nin-niiin?”
Tama scattered something that looked like sand on the ground, and a hole appeared instantly. She must have used earth stone powder for her “ninjutsu.”
“What in the world?!” the old man shrieked.
If this were a cartoon, his eyes would probably have popped out of his head.
“Ninjutsuuu?”
“It most certainly was not!”
The old man stomped indignantly, practically steaming.
“Mew…”
As he raised his voice, Tama’s ears went flat, and her tail hid between her legs.
“Sir, if I may, this is Tama’s ninjutsu. The sage has seen it and brought her here to improve her techniques.”
I stepped in front of Tama protectively as I spoke.
Though the old ninja didn’t look satisfied with this explanation, he stopped yelling at her.
We should probably try to go along with it, since he was technically showing us how to do normal ninjutsu.
“Tama, let’s learn some traditional ninjutsu, too.”
“Aye.”
I handed Tama the shovel, and we started digging together.
The ground was hard, but not as hard as solid rock. I didn’t even need to use “Spellblade” on my shovel to dig a hole in no time flat.
“…All right, you pass.”
The old ninja nodded reluctantly.
“Lunchtiiime!”
“I’m staaarving!”
Our morning classes concluded, and lunchtime began.
I’d heard that having just two meals a day was common around Parion Province. In the Village of Adepts, however, they had three meals a day under the sage’s policy.
“Quiet down! We’re handing out this week’s meal!”
The children quickly lined up in front of the old ninja. Next to him, a pretty lady in a ninja outfit poured some sort of grains into the small bags that the young students held out. Incidentally, the woman had the title “Kunoichi.” I wondered what sort of ninjutsu she used.
We didn’t have bags, but luckily the female ninja had bags prepared for us.
“Do we just eat this as is?”
Maybe it was something like the dried cooked rice they used for travel rations in the olden days?
“That’s right! This is ninja food! The lifeblood of a true ninja!”
“Mew!”
The phrase “ninja food” seemed to pique Tama’s interest: Her eyes sparkled, and her ears and tail straightened up.
Pochi kept sniffing the air, intrigued about the contents of the bags.
“Chew it thoroughly,” the old ninja instructed, then left the room along with the pretty ninja lady.
As soon as he was gone, the students relaxed and started gathering around us.
“So where’d you come from, huh?”
“How come you can jump so high?”
“What’d you use to make a hole real fast like that?”
The students peppered us with questions.
I guess kids are always curious no matter where you go.
As I gave them simple and safe answers, one of the students started imitating the old ninja.
“A true ninja must tolerate a diet of simple food!”
The kid sounded just like him.
“Is this all we get to eat, sir?”
“Yeah, basically. It comes with broth in the morning and evening, though.”
The students crunched on mouthfuls of the millet-like grains.
Eating this every day would probably give you some serious jaw muscles.
“That’s rooough?”
“Pochi will share some of her Mr. Jerky, sirs.”
Pochi produced some jerky she’d hidden in a pocket of her ninja outfit and started handing it out to the kids, who threw up their hands in delight.
Everyone started blissfully biting into their jerky.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
The old ninja teacher practically kicked the door down as he charged in.
“What is this?! Ninja food is a way of training your bodies so you can survive in even the harshest environments. You can’t just go eating whatever you want!”
The old ninja snatched the half-eaten jerky out of the students’ hands.
“If you want to be a true ninja, eat ninja food!” he bellowed.
Maybe that was why there was a bit of weak poison mixed into the grains?
“You must prioritize becoming a top-class ninja in order to be of use to the great sage and the Holy Woman!”
Invoking these names seemed to persuade the children. Those who hadn’t had their jerky taken away yet handed it back to Pochi and reluctantly returned to their ninja food.
Only one pudgy child quickly swallowed the jerky without the sage noticing.
“You don’t get special treatment, either. I’m confiscating these.”
The old ninja took the bundle of jerky out of Pochi’s hands and left the room.
“My Mr. Jerky…”
Pochi hung her head dejectedly.
“Let’s eeeat?”
“Okay, sir.”
Tama and Pochi each popped a fistful of the grains from their bags.
“It’s yummier than weeds, sir.”
“Aye.”
The pair wore dubious expressions as they chewed on the grains.
Following their example, I popped some into my mouth as well.
Yeah, this is even worse than I expected. I bet the dried rice rations from ancient times were much better than this.
It tasted like food that was meant to turn one’s body and mind into a machine.
In the afternoon, we trained in ninjutsu techniques like water-walking and water-escape.
The old ninja teacher was shocked to find that Tama and Pochi could already walk on water by using “Skywalking,” and alarmed by the remarkable amount of time they could stay underwater, thanks to the lung capacity granted by being over level 50. For the most part, though, the exercises passed without much difficulty.
“Grrr…the final exercise will be—five laps around the outside of the village!”
A ten-kilometer marathon after a day of training? Ninja classes were pretty intense.
“No one beats us when it comes to running!”
“Yeah! We even won against our beastfolk upperclassmen!”
Two of the students challenged Tama and Pochi to a race.
They were probably looking for a rematch in their field of expertise, since they couldn’t beat the girls at ninjutsu.
Both boys had the “Sprinting” skill, presumably the source of their confidence.
“Tama won’t lose?”
“Pochi doesn’t even lose to Usasa, sir!”
Tama and Pochi accepted the challenge head-on.
On the old ninja’s signal, the kids started running. I started from the back, giving advice to kids with poor running form as I jogged along, until I somehow caught up with the front of the pack.
“Master’s heeere?”
“You’re right, sir! Master! Pochi’s right here, sir!”
Tama and Pochi seemed to have been waiting for me.
“Dammit!”
“How are you…so…relaxed…?!”
I passed the boys who were chasing Tama and Pochi with bright red faces, and fell into step beside the girls.
“Pochi’s in serious mode now, sir.”
“Bye-byyye?”
Pochi and Tama started running at full tilt, more suited to a short-distance sprint than to a marathon.
“H-hmph, they think they can keep that up the whole rest of the way?”
“We’re gonna win…in the end…!”
I heard the boys muttering sour grapes as I followed behind Pochi and Tama.
Later, I’m pretty sure I heard their hearts breaking when Pochi and Tama fully lapped them and all the other kids.
Sprinting skill or not, they never stood a chance with a difference of over forty levels between them. Hopefully this wouldn’t discourage them from living strong.
I felt eyes watching me from the direction of the village several times during the marathon, but it didn’t feel hostile, so I just ignored it.
The combination of a young man running with a bunch of little kids all kicking up dust was bound to attract some curious glances.
“I’m first, sir!”
“Goooal?”
Pochi seemed to have a slight edge at long-distance running.
“Y-you little scamps! You must have taken a shortcut, right?! Fess up!”
The old ninja came running over, bellowing with rage.
Tama and Pochi took cover behind my back, trembling.
“Meeew?”
“We didn’t take any shortcuts, sir.”
The pair poked out their heads from behind me to protest.
“Inconceivable! You expect me to believe that you came back that fast without taking any shortcuts?!”
As soon as he retorted, the pair zipped right back behind me. It was a little cute.
“Please listen, sir. They’re telling the truth. We only ran normally.”
“…Chief. I can confirm that they did not cheat in any way.”
The ninja lady hopped down from the village outer wall to support my statement.
It must have been her gaze I felt while we were running.
“Grrr…”
The old ninja scowled at us.
Then his lips curled into a sneer, as if he’d thought of an idea.
“Well, you’re not sweating at all. I take it you haven’t run enough yet? Then run all the way to the tower over there and bring back a few flowers that grow at its base.”
The old man pointed at a watchtower at the peak of a mountain some distance away.
“Aye!”
“Yes, sir!”
Tama and Pochi were happy to take on the extra mission with all their extra energy, although I had a feeling it was intended as some mean-spirited hazing.
“Grr…be sure not to let any petals fall off on your way back. If even a single petal is missing, you’ll have to do it again!”
“Aye-aye, siiir?”
“Roger, sir!”
Tama and Pochi took off toward the distant tower.
“Be careful—there are Dens of Evil near the tower!”
I thanked the lady ninja for the warning and followed after the pair.
“Den of Evil fooound?”
“It’s small, sir.”
Tama and Pochi discovered a Den of Evil entrance about two kilometers away from the village.
It was narrow enough that only a child would be able to enter. I stuck my head in briefly and used my “Search Entire Map” skill. It was just a winding cavern about sixty feet long, with nothing more than bats and bugs hiding inside.
“There’s a cave over there, too, sir!”
“And here, and back theeere?”
Pochi and Tama spotted more Den of Evil entrances in fissures in the crags and on a far-off slope.
There were a lot of small empty areas on the map, suggesting a cluster of Dens of Evil in this area. I was a little curious, but the terrain was too rugged to walk, and if I used “Skyrunning,” I’d be clearly visible from the watchtower.
“I smell water, sir!”
Pochi clambered onto a nearby boulder.
Tama and I followed, and we saw a familiar growth in the hollow beyond the boulder: a breezebranch tree. Small animals and deerlike herbivores were drinking from the puddles that formed at its roots.
Noticing us, the animals fled at once.
“Meeeat?”
“Aw, they ran away, sir.”
Tama and Pochi moved to chase after the animals, so I grabbed them by the belts to stop them.
It was rather nice and cool here, probably a boon of the breezebranch trees that the sandfolk called their “guardian deity.”
As we plucked flowers around the base of the tower, rough voices called down to us.
“Hey there! Training, are ya?”
“Better work hard to impress the Holy Woman and the sage!”
Some men in soldiers’ uniforms waved at us.
We waved in return, then headed back toward the village, being careful not to scatter the flowers’ petals.
Although the old ninja looked dissatisfied when he saw the flowers without a petal out of place, we were able to finish our afternoon training without any further incidents.
“Yaaay?”
“Dinner, sir!”
Tama and Pochi sniffed at the smells coming from the kitchen and cheered along with the other kids when they saw the lady ninja carrying out a large pot.
The vegetable-heavy dumpling soup–style broth was a whole lot better than the plain ninja food we were given for lunch.
As I watched the kids dig in with healthy appetites, I got a call from Arisa.
“Hellooo? This is your beloved Arisa speaking.”
“Me too.”
Mia’s voice followed Arisa’s.
She must have connected everyone via Tactical Talk.
“How’s the magic school?”
“Good kids.”
“I think we’ll be fine. One of the teachers was a bit of an obnoxious elitist, but the head of the department handles things well.”
That was good to hear.
“…Oh, and the sage gave us local Water Magic and Fire Magic spellbooks as a reward in advance. He also showed us a few older spellbooks that we could only borrow.”
“Satou, guess what? The spellbooks are amazing. They had lost theories and everything! There was one really, really old theory that even the elves had lost. Miss Aaze might know about it. But I’d never seen it before. It’s true, you know?”
Mia expressed her excitement with one of her rare lengthy rambles.
I’d have to visit them tonight and get a peek at these books myself.
“He also lent us a few scrolls that are apparently materials left by a chant researcher from the Flue Empire era.”
“Scraps.”
“Yeah, some parts are missing, so you wouldn’t be able to use it as is. You might be able to make an original chant if you research the information written in them, though.”
“Wow, very cool.”
I couldn’t wait to take a look. I love that sort of thing.
“Master, I wish to speak, too, I declare.”
After Nana chimed in, I had each of them tell me about their classes.
By the time they wrapped up, our dinnertime was over, and we’d moved away from the other kids, allowing Pochi and Tama to tell everyone about the ninja classes.
Once everyone had a turn, I asked how teaching went for them.
“How did your magic class go?”
“We practiced chants in the morning. In the afternoon, we gave a lecture on convenient uses of magic in everyday life.”
“Mm. Basics.”
That was a far cry from the contents of the specialized classes they taught in the Shiga Kingdom royal academy.
They added that since there were a lot of troublemaking kids, Arisa and Mia wore glasses and used pointing sticks to seem more teacher-like.
“They said we should do training tomorrow to help them learn skills like ‘Chant Shortening’ and ‘Meditation.’”
“Not actual magic lessons?”
“Yeah, there’s not much of that. We checked out the other teachers’ classes, and they’re all just practical training.”
“No theory.” Mia sounded disgruntled.
“Maybe the idea is to learn by doing here.”
“Not to mention, teaching skills to the kids who don’t have any seems to be the top priority.”
…Hmm?
How did those kids get invited to the Village of Adepts if they’re not adept enough to have any skills?
I asked Arisa for a bit more information.
“They seemed to know how to use magic. They just did it without the skill and put up with the headache.”
I wonder if that counts as being an Adept.
“The students I taught were a little strange as well,” Liza volunteered.
“In what way?”
“I suppose I would say their bodies couldn’t keep up with their sharp eyes? I’ve seen explorers who recently recovered from serious injuries before, and several of the students reminded me of that.”
“Master, there were a few in my class as well, I report.”
Hmm. If it’s more than just one or two, that does seem a little odd.
“What about you, Lulu?”
“Me? Well, all of my students worked hard.”
No problems in Lulu’s classes, then? Oh, wait a minute.
“Did any of them season food strangely?”
“Hmm? I suppose so. Their food tasted better once I told them to follow the amounts specified in the recipe, though.”
I wasn’t sure if that made them similar to the students Liza and Nana mentioned, or just plain bad at cooking.
“Didn’t you see any kids like that, Master?” Arisa asked.
“Sorry, I don’t remember. I wasn’t really paying attention to that sort of thing.”
I was mostly too busy enjoying the old ninja’s reactions.
“What about you, Tama and Pochi?”
“They’re good kiiids?”
“They are, sir! They all worked really, really hard, sir!”
They didn’t seem to have noticed anything, either.
I said I would pay closer attention starting the following day, and we ended our call for the evening.
While I was at it, I checked in on Raito with the Space Magic spells Clairvoyance and Clairaudience. It looked like he was working hard and getting along well with the other kids. Nothing to worry about, then.
By the time I finished up the call, it was already time to sleep.
“I don’t mind a wooden floor, but isn’t there any bedding?”
“Nope.”
“Our master says ninjas should be able to sleep anywhere.”
Evidently, sweeping the wooden floor where we’d just eaten dinner was the only step in preparing for bed.
Since all the students were here, it looked like we’d be sleeping in a coed jumble.
I guess it’s fine if I just think of it like camping. The windows stayed open even at night because this was such a warm region anyway.
“Hey, tell us about the outside world!”
“I wanna hear stories about the hero.”
Clearly unable to sleep, the kids started pestering Tama and Pochi for stories.
“Okeeey?”
“We fought a demon lord with Mr. Hero, sir!”
“Oh, wooow!”
“What about Lady Seina? Did you meet her?”
“Yeah, tell us about Lady Seina!”
Seina, the sneaky scout of the hero party, seemed to be popular with the ninja students.
“Seina likes omurice and curry, sir!”
“She likes yakitori, toooo?”
While that probably wasn’t the kind of information the kids were after, they seemed equally interested in foreign food, given their simple diets here, and asked about the dishes in question. This topic got everyone excited, and they continued chatting until the old ninja came in and yelled at everyone to be quiet.
I put Tama and Pochi to sleep and waited for the other kids to fall asleep. Once I was sure they were all out, I went to visit Arisa and Mia and had them show me the old spellbooks and research scrolls they borrowed from the sage.
Arisa and Mia fell asleep pretty quickly, but the materials were so interesting that I accidentally stayed up all night reading. All these sleepless nights were starting to catch up with me.
I returned without waiting for Arisa and Mia to wake up, since ninja classes would resume early in the morning.
“Today I will teach you about concealment jutsu using cloaks and fabrics appropriate for various situations.”
The ninja classes for the day were much more mundane than the practical training. I had to wonder if the old ninja teacher had had enough of Tama’s and Pochi’s physical prowess.
“Reveeersible?”
“The back is forest-colored and the front is earth-colored, sir!”
“Precisely! Excellent observation! A true ninja must ever be light on their feet. The less you have to carry, the better!”
The old man seemed pleased that they understood.
I guess throwing stars and caltrops are probably pretty heavy. I’d never thought about it when I read all those ninja manga.
“Now, hide yourselves! I will count to a hundred, then come looking for you. If I find you, you must do three laps around the village. Hide like your life depends on it!”
At this bellow, the students all grabbed their cloths and started running.
It seemed to me that they were enjoying it a little, probably because it was basically hide-and-seek with a penalty game.
“Nin-niiin?”
“Pochi is a hide-and-seek pro, sir!”
Tama slipped into the attic through an opening in the eaves, while Pochi swiftly hid herself under the porch.
The other kids hid themselves in chests, behind furniture, and so on.
Ooh, not bad.
A couple of the students hid themselves brilliantly, even though they didn’t have skills like “Concealment” or “Invisibility.”
Their levels were low, too… Wait, whoa. One kid developed the “Invisibility” skill even as I looked on. Judging by the fact that it was grayed out, he must have acquired it by leveling up from the experience gained playing hide-and-seek.
I see…that certainly did make him an Adept. What an impressive natural talent.
“Beruto, Radori, Dorato! And over there, Shibato and Zazari!”
The old ninja found the kids at a remarkable pace.
But even an expert ninja couldn’t see through my maxed-out “Invisibility” skill. He walked right past my hiding spot.
Maybe I should’ve toned it down a bit.
In the end, he never found Tama, Pochi, or me.
“You three are really good.”
“Uh-huh, no one’s ever made it all the way to the end without getting found before.”
“Nyee-hee-hee?”
“You’re making me blush, sir.”
Tama and Pochi turned bashful at the children’s high praise.
“Hmph, they’ll be exposed as frauds sooner or later.”
“Yeah, you can’t become an Adept that easily.”
A few angry-looking students standing off to one side were grumbling about us.
Those were the kids who’d showed really impressive hiding abilities without any skills earlier. It probably rankled them to see newcomers getting all the attention.
“Meeeew?”
“Ouchy, sir.”
The purehearted Pochi and Tama looked dejected about the kids’ harsh words.
“Don’t worry about them.”
“They’ve been kinda stuck-up since they came back from the other school.”
The other students reassured the duo.
“Do a lot of kids come back?” I asked, a little curious.
“Uh-huh, sometimes kids who go to the next school come back, too.”
“Some kids quit, but others get Adept right away and go to the advanced school.”
“Yeah, sometimes new students have a hard time here.”
“Mostly ’cause ninja food is gross.”
The kids started talking about that instead.
Still, if there was an advanced school, maybe Tama and Pochi would get promoted to that one soon.
That afternoon, we practiced with throwing stars and learned how to use caltrops for making an escape. Then the old ninja went on at great length about his glory days, and eventually taught us about the “decoy jutsu” he’d used to escape in that fateful mission.
“You see, ‘decoy jutsu’ is about distraction.”
He untied the string that fastened the sleeves of his ninja outfit, picked up two thick branches from a basket at his feet, and tied them together in a cross shape.
“If you have smoke bombs, best to use those. Only after you have used up all your smoke bombs, caltrops, and throwing stars should you consider using this last resort.”
While he spoke, the old ninja removed his coat and put it on the cross-shaped branches.
“As you can see, such a small thing cannot fool an enemy’s eyes.”
The students nodded in agreement.
“Hide behind a tree, bushes, a boulder, anything you can find, and wait for your chance. Use heat haze, twilight, darkness when the clouds cover the moon. And as soon as your opponent cannot see you, set this as a decoy and make your escape.”
“Wait…so we run away?”
“Shouldn’t we attack when our enemy’s distracted…?”
The children looked surprised, turning to one another and whispering.
“Exactly. Run away. If it was an enemy you could defeat, then you would not be driven to your last resort in the first place. Our job is to bring back the information we gained in enemy territory. You must never forget this.”
The old ninja firmly reminded them that their duty was intelligence gathering, not combat.
Tama and Pochi, who were plunked down on the floor holding their knees, nodded vigorously, taking the lesson to heart.
Thus, the unexpectedly serious conversation about decoy jutsu brought our afternoon classes to an end.
After dinner, I did a routine check-in with the others.
“You had kids like that, too, Master?”
“Why, did you see the same thing?”
“Mm. Confirmed.”
I reported that I’d seen a kid gain the “Invisibility” skill by leveling up during training, and Arisa and Mia told me that someone had acquired a magic skill during their day’s classes, too.
“I did see one student get the hang of things during training and suddenly get much better, although I don’t know whether they gained a skill or not.”
“Yes, Liza. There was a similar student in the shield group, I report.”
The others had all seen a similar phenomenon.
However, unlike Arisa and me, they couldn’t see the students’ levels or skills and could only speak from what they saw while teaching.
“How did things go on your end today, Lulu?”
“Me? Today we made some lovely dishes with fish paste! It was so delicious, I wished I could share it with all of you, too.”
“No, no, that’s not what I’m asking,” Arisa insisted. “I mean the students. Did any of them suddenly get really good?”
“Um… I don’t think so?”
Things must be nice and peaceful in the cooking classroom.
“I wonder if this sudden growth in ability is a trait of Adepts?” Arisa remarked.
“Yeah, maybe so. It’s partly because their levels are so low, but it did seem like they went up faster than other kids’ levels at around the same starting level.”
Although since I was just keeping an eye on the one kid after he suddenly gained the “Invisibility” skill, I couldn’t say for sure if that was really the case.
“I wonder how they find these kids, then?”
“Maybe it’s the sage’s experience, or he just has good instincts?”
Or maybe there was some kind of artifact or treasure that told him which kids to pick.
In the end, we concluded that it didn’t really matter, since it wasn’t doing any harm, and ended our check-in for the night.
The next day, the sage appeared at the ninja classroom.
“I shall train you and Tama today, Sir Pendragon.”
The pretty lady who worked as a ninja teacher was with him, possibly to be his aide.
“P-please don’t forget about Pochi, sir.”
“Ah, yes, sorry. You’re welcome to come, too.”
Although this seemed like a brush-off to me, Pochi joined us with a look of relief.
“I think you have experienced enough normal ninja training in the past few days.”
Aah, is that why he put us in the old ninja’s class?
“As I’m sure you’ve realized by now, your ninjutsu is very different from that of any ordinary ninja, young Tama.”
The sage looked at Tama.
She looked back with a confused “Meeew?” clearly unsure how to react.
“As far as I know, you are the originator of this magic-like ninjutsu using elemental stones. Perhaps there are some who have tried similar things, but none have mastered the technique so well.”
Finally figuring out that she was being paid a compliment, Tama giggled bashfully.
“Show me the lineup of ninjutsu you can use with elemental stones, if you would.”
“Aye.”
Tama demonstrated her ninjutsu using stone powder of the respective elements: fire jutsu fire dancing and fire blades; a water-escape technique using water stone powder; wind jutsu that included a strong gust of wind, a smoke screen, and wind blades; earth jutsu like trench-digging, pit-making, and earth walls; lightning jutsu including lightning blades and electric shocks; ice jutsu that could freeze the surface of water; and light jutsu like light flashes, illumination, and weak flash bombs.
Seeing them one after another, I was impressed anew by the wide variety.
Since elemental stones were expensive, it would be difficult to popularize these techniques, but I had enough for Tama to use without a problem.
“What of shadow stones and dark stones?”
“No shadow yeeet?”
Tama showed an example of the shadow-splashing jutsu she could do with shadow stone powder.
The most she could manage was making small ripples or sinking in only to her ankles, a far cry from being able to capture enemies, like the Shadow Magic spell Shadow Whip.
“It seems you’ve a ways to go on perfecting this one.”
“Meeew, not enough stooones?”
“You’ve used up your shadow stones?”
“Aye.”
Tama nodded, and Pochi shiftily averted her gaze.
She probably felt guilty for using up a bunch of the shadow stone powder a while back.
“Then let me give you a few more.”
The sage produced some shadow stones from his Item Box and gave them to Tama.
“May I ask where one might acquire shadow stones?”
“In forests too deep for humans to tread. Where the sunlight is strong, yet it cannot reach the roots of the trees. Such a world of shadows is ideal for the stones. Especially a quiet forest where the shadows will not be disturbed.”
Aah, I see. I guess they wouldn’t be in a place like Bolenan Forest that was thoroughly settled and maintained by the elves, then.
I’d have to go looking sometime. I might even know a few places that could qualify.
“You have no ninjutsu using dark stones yet?”
“Not yeeet?”
Even Tama hadn’t gotten around to something that advanced.
“Could you not do something like this?”
The sage spoke a Dark Magic chant, and a black vortex appeared behind him.
“Whirlpoool?”
“That’s right. It absorbs magic and fire, among other things. Try using fire jutsu on me.”
“Aye.”
As soon as Tama created fire with some fire powder, it was sucked into the black vortex.
“Meeew!”
“It got sucked up, sir!”
Tama’s and Pochi’s eyes widened.
“Dark Magic excels at absorbing and neutralizing. I have no doubt that even dark stone powder could neutralize attacks from the likes of a Fire or Lightning Rod.”
“Aye!” Tama nodded eagerly. “Pochi, help meee?”
“Yes, sir.”
Tama made some dark stone powder, then tried scattering it into the air to block a Spellblade Shot from Pochi.
Even though Pochi seemed to be holding back the strength of her shot, the dark stone powder only dampened its velocity very slightly before it pierced right through.
“Ouchie!”
Too focused on the ninjutsu to dodge, Tama was struck square in the forehead by the slightly slowed-down Spellblade Shot.
“Tama, are you all right, sir?”
“Don’t worryyyy? One more tryyy?”
“Yes, sir. Pochi is good at controlling her strength, I promise, sir.”
“Wait a second, Pochi. Use this instead.”
Concerned about the danger, I had them practice with a low-capacity projection gun instead.
I watched anxiously as the pair practiced for a while.
“I did iiiit?”
“Tama’s amazing, sir.”
With her mastery of so many other ninjutsu, it took less than an hour for Tama to manage neutralizing a scattershot from the projection gun.
The sage giving her a few suggestions during the practice might have helped, too.
“Excellent. But you must not rest on your laurels.”
“Aye, Mr. Saaage.”
Tama nodded seriously.
Sometime during the course of their practice, Tama and Pochi had started calling the sage “Mr. Sage.”
“Be careful not to assume that darkness can only absorb. There are fairy tales of mages who used Dark Magic to soar through the skies. The only limit to your ninjutsu is your imagination, Tama. Keep your eyes and mind open and seek out new possibilities.”
“Aye, I’ll do my bestest.”
Tama struck a pose and saluted.
For some reason, Pochi stood next to her in the same pose. Very cute.
“That’s the spirit. Then allow me to demonstrate more Shadow Magic for your studies…” The sage paused to look at Pochi and me. “Sir Pendragon and young Pochi, you may practice with elemental stones as well if you wish, but perhaps it would be more beneficial to study special ninja techniques from the chuunin.”
“Special techniques?”
The sage nodded and gestured to the pretty ninja lady who’d been nervously watching Tama’s ninjutsu.
“Clone jutsu.”
With that, the woman demonstrated a realistic cloning technique, repeatedly using “Blink” and pausing between quick movements to create the illusion of afterimages. I would probably be able to reproduce something like that.
“Super speedy, sir!”
“Quick and respooonse?”
That’s not quite right, Tama.
“How was it? It looked like there were several of me, right?”
“Nyooo?”
“You were one person the whole time, sir.”
Unfortunately for the triumphant-looking lady ninja, Tama and Pochi had such excellent kinetic vision that they were able to track her movements just fine.
“That can’t be… Watch this, then.”
Narrowing her eyes, the ninja moved even faster than before, creating even more convincing afterimages.
She seemed to be using the feinting skill “Gap Defense,” too.
“W-well, how’s that?”
The pretty ninja panted for breath, wiping away a river of sweat.
“Meeeew?”
“You were very fast, sir…?”
Clearly the girls still weren’t able to see the afterimages.
“Looks like you could use more training yourself.”
“S-Sir Sage…!”
The ninja lady looked on the verge of tears.
“To me it looked like there were at least seven of you. The trick is to vary your speed, right?” I quickly tried to back her up. “What other techniques do you know?”
“We have disguise techniques for sneaking into enemy territory and techniques for escaping when you’ve been caught and tied up. Wall-running and glamour jutsu are convenient, too.”
The ninja counted on her fingers as she listed techniques.
“Wooow!”
“Pochi is very curious about those, sir!”
Tama and Pochi looked at the lady ninja with their eyes sparkling.
“Tama, you’re training with me today. You can have Sir Pendragon teach you those techniques later.”
“…Aye.”
Tama looked a little disappointed.
Pochi and I moved a short distance away from Tama and the sage to watch the lady ninja demonstrate her chuunin, or intermediate, ninja techniques.
“The rope-escape trick isn’t too exciting, so we’ll start with wall-running.”
The woman pulled out a few black-bladed daggers and threw them into the wall, then used them as footholds to ascend the wall as if running on it.
When she reached the top, she stood on the narrow edge of the wall on one foot and threw us a wink.
Finally, she waved her arm, and the daggers she used as footholds flew back to her grasp. They must have been connected with some kind of wire.
“Amazingly amazing, sir! That was very, very cool, sir!”
The overexcited Pochi used “Skywalking” to run up next to the pretty ninja lady and shower her with praise.
“…Thank you. I’m not quite sure how to feel about that, though.”
I considered running up the wall to join them but decided to refrain so as not to inflict any further shock on the woman.
Once she recovered, she brought us to a classroom.
“Glamour jutsu uses an illusion powder that’s prepared in advance. Thus, the direction of the wind is very important. You have to be careful—on windy days, you can only use it inside.”
The woman lit the powder aflame with a candlestick, filling the room with a sweet scent.
“Wow! Lots of meat, sir!”
Apparently, Pochi was already seeing an illusion.
“Meat! Sir!”
Wuh-oh.
Pochi dove into the pretty ninja lady’s chest.
“H-hey, stop that!”
Wow, that’s some acrobatic jiggling right there.
I grabbed Pochi and stopped her before she could bite down.
“H-hang on. I dispelled the illusion powder. Just take some deep breaths, all right?”
“…Hmm? The meat is gone, and now it’s just boobs, sir.”
Pochi retreated from the pretty lady’s chest in disappointment.
“Last but not least, the escape technique. Here, tie me up with this rope.”
The woman started to hold out the length of rope to Pochi, then swiveled toward me instead. She probably got the feeling that the former wouldn’t go well for her.
Tying up a woman feels like a seriously sinful pleasure, but if she’s asking me to do it, I have no choice. None at all. Just for the record.
“Pochi will do it, sir!”
“Ah, wait…”
“Have a fear, Pochi’s here, sir!”
Pochi snatched the rope before I could take it and wound it thoroughly around the ninja lady. She even tied it all the way up to her mouth, leaving her to wriggle and say “mmph!” helplessly.
Thanks to Pochi’s enthusiastic work, she seemed to be tied too tightly to move.
If I remembered right, the trick to a rope escape was stiffening up when one was tied, then loosening one’s limbs to create gaps to squirm out of. Even if she dislocated her joints to escape like a fictional ninja, I don’t think it would help much in this tight of a bind.
“Ah! Be careful, you could cut yourself, sir.”
Just as the lady ninja was about to pull out a scrap of metal hidden in her sleeve, Pochi plucked it away with only the purest of intentions. The pretty ninja looked like she might cry.
At this rate, she would lose what was left of her dignity as a teacher. I used my Magic Hand to help just a little by creating a small gap. She let out a sexy-sounding cry as I did so, though I covered my ears and pretended not to hear, like a proper gentleman.
“I—I finally got out…”
“You’re amazing, Miss Ninja, sir!”
Pochi clapped enthusiastically with nothing but pure innocence in her eyes.
“Th…thank you.”
The lady ninja screwed up her face as she responded.
I feel like I could get used to seeing a pretty lady in a bind, which is a scary thought. Better bury that one deep.
Managing to recover yet again, the ninja helped us practice our own rope escapes, clone jutsu, and so on.
“I escaped, sir!”
“Pochi, you’re not supposed to rip the ropes to shreds!”
Pochi’s brute-force escape technique didn’t go over well.
“Super clone jutsu, sir!”
“Eeeek! The wall!”
Attempting the clone illusion, Pochi used “Blink” but couldn’t quite stop in time; her momentum sent her crashing right through the wall of the classroom and tumbling out of the building. The wooden ninja house must have been made of cheaper stuff than I thought. Even though I knew there was no way Pochi would get hurt from the impact, I wished she would be a little more careful, if only for the sake of my nerves.
“Is it something like this?”
I tried imitating the lady ninja’s technique.
By using skills like “Gap Defense” and “Blink” all together, I was able to manage a decent reproduction.
> Skill Acquired: “Doppelgänger”
Oh, hey, it worked.
I put skill points into my useful-sounding new acquisition and activated it.
“Master really can do anything, sir!”
“Impossible… He succeeded in just one try…?”
While Pochi praised me for what Arisa would call a “Master moment,” the pretty ninja applauded me with tears in her eyes. I felt a little guilty.
Incidentally, sexy kunoichi techniques were apparently reserved for higher classes. I didn’t think that would be good for Pochi’s upbringing anyway, but I would have liked to study it just a little, purely for research purposes.
By the time we finished our special training and headed back to Tama and the sage, they seemed to have finished their practice as well. The sage was giving her some kind of lecture.
“True power exists to aid and guide the powerless. Be careful not to let it go to your head.”
“Meeew?”
Noticing that Tama didn’t understand the sage’s words, I gave her an easier version. “It means you should help people who are in trouble, and not pick on anyone weaker than you.”
“Aye!” Tama responded enthusiastically.
“Have you finished your training, too, Sir Pendragon?”
“Yes, it was a very worthwhile endeavor.”
Whether it was practical or not, I’d had plenty of fun just doing ninja activities in a ninja house.
“I’m glad to hear—”
Before the sage finished speaking, the tinny ringing of a bell sounded out of nowhere.
He rolled up his sleeve, revealing a blue crystal bangle that must have been connected to the City Core. This seemed to be the source of the sound.
“…Holiness…”
My “Lip Reading” skill conveyed the sage’s soundless mutter to me.
“Apologies. Something urgent has come up. Learn more ninjutsu from this one until I return.”
With that, the sage sank into his own shadow and vanished.
That must’ve been the Shadow Magic spell Shadow Portal.
At the time, I was too distracted by the pretty ninja’s despairing cry of “Sir Sage, I can’t do iiiiit!” to fully notice that the sage had used Shadow Magic without a chant.
“Maybe something happened in the holy city?”
My best guess from my “Lip Reading” skill was that something had happened to Pontiff Zarzaris in the holy city.
Just as I opened my map to gather information, I got a Tactical Talk call from Arisa.
“Master, we’ve got trouble.”
I felt my pulse quicken at Arisa’s urgent tone.
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