As usual, I was training in the garden against the dummy. I haven’t had the chance to battle many monsters but occasionally, I’d get to kill a few when escorting Mother to the forest. Although they are usually no stronger than D-Rank.

Ever since I was born, I had a natural ability with handling the sword so Father decided to start training me when I was 10 year old, although Mother was against it at first. I think it is because she thought that I would be wasting my time; she believed that I was would be as bad as big brother when it comes to fighting skills. It turns out that I was talented and 1 year of training is all I needed to finally defeat Father in a mock battle.

Now, one might think that Father is weak, being defeated by a 11 years old, but despite his clumsiness, he is actually able to face average level C-Rank monsters and come out victorious. After I realised that I wouldn’t learn anything more with Father, I started training alone.

One day big brother came back with his friend. Tras was his name and even though it was the first time I met him, I had heard about him before. He was the best warrior in the village despite being only 14 and he far outclassed Father. Everyone had high hopes for him as a knight and rumors said that he had the potential to defeat an inferior B-Rank monster by himself. I was quite impressed that such a talented swordsman was friends with my brother who literally had no fighting skill whatsoever.

My brother, who was a rather calm and plain person, and Master, who was outgoing and laughed loudly all the time… how did they end up together ? Well, I guess opposite personalities attract each other, as they

say.

I call him Master ever since he started training me. I was already acquainted to him through my brother so it would have been stupid of me to make light of this opportunity and not at least try to ask him to help me with training.

“Put more strength into your slice. You have to visualize your enemy getting cut in half ! Look at me, hahaha !”

“… Yes, Master.”

Today, we were practicing 『Furious Slash』. Master had already fully mastered the technique whereas I had just recently started learning it.

“Try to cut my shield in half ! If you do that, I’ll acknowledge that you’ve become strong enough to have mock battles against me, whahaha !”

“… Yes, Master.”

Although Master’s 『Furious Slash』 was powerful enough to slice a tree in half, my version could barely leave a scratch on the wooden shield. Most techniques I knew were Beginner level and a few were inferior Intermediate skills but 『Furious Slash』 was the strongest Intermediate attack. I thought to myself that I needed more training to fully control it.

As I was about to attack the shield one more time, big brother’s girlfriend – yes, that introverted brother of mine got himself a girlfriend, a beautiful one at that; most likely thanks to Master – arrived, running.

“Yo, Blume ! Sup’ ?”

“Hello, miss Dorthfield.”

“Tras ! I-It’s terrible ! It’s Zwölf, he… he…”

Soon after she arrived, we noticed something was wrong. She wasn’t her usual cheerful self and instead of her natural gentle smile, tears were overflowing from her eyes.

Tras’ face immediately darkened.

“Blume, calm down. What happened to Zwölf ? Weren’t you guys together ?”

“Ah… a huge monster looking like a boar appeared out of nowhere… it killed the guard who was meant to patrol around the forest ! Zwölf held it off on his own but he isn’t strong enough to defeat it !”

“An Iron Boar ? What the… They’re not supposed to be living in the forest or anywhere near the village… Anyway, Blume, Hell, go search for the remaining guards, I’ll try to take it down myself.”

“Master, I refuse ! Allow me to come with you. I want to show you that my training has paid off in a real life-or-death situation. I am not scared of monsters !”

“Whahaha, despite the danger you’re volunteering yourself ? I like that ! Sure, come with me. Let’s hurry !”

“Yes, Master.”

We hurried to the place Blume came from and found big brother lying on the ground. He was holding his left arm, which was bleeding. The monster that was facing him was no joke either. I had fought a few E-Level monsters before but that thing was just way bigger than what I had imagined. Not only that, it also emitted an aura that induced fear in my heart. Despite this, big brother had been able to fight against the beast for that long ? Until now, I didn’t dislike him but I couldn’t help thinking of him as weak. I never thought of him as a warrior and yet, he was able to face a monster that paralyzed me in spite of having little to no fighting experience ? I couldn’t help but be impressed.

As I was thinking that, I saw Master sneaking behind the giant boar as readying himself. It looked like he was waiting for something. I saw the boar preparing to charge towards big brother.This time, he wouldn’t be able to dodge it. Without thinking I jumped straight in front of the boar and blocked its tusk with my best parade skill, 『Hard Wall』. Although I was expecting to be blown away, the impact was lighter than I expected. It was weak enough for me to hold on. Then I noticed that Master had grabbed the monster from behind.

“I leave the immobilisation to you, Hell !”

“Roger.”

As soon as he let go of the boar, the burden I was trying to hold on doubled. However, I successfully protected big brother and in the meantime, Master took down the beast’s lower legs with a 『Furious Slash』. As the monster collapsed, I was able to test my own 『Furious Slash』 on a monster for the very first time. I slashed the enemy’s upper legs with it but as I thought, it wasn’t as neat of a cut as Master’s. Though dealing with the weakened beast was a walk in the park after that.

Having saved big brother, Master approached him to laugh.

“Hahaha, Zwölf you should take a look at your face. Don’t worry, I’ll save you any day, any time. We’re best buddies after all ! Hahaha !”

“Big bro, you should train more. Otherwise, you’ll end up as bad as Father.”

Although I said these harsh words, I respected him for being able to pull off such a fight. But if he wanted to become a magic warrior, he would need to train much more.

We thought we were safe and that’s how Master and I committed the one mistake a warrior should always avoid. We let our guard down.

***

Everything happened so fast that I can barely remember what happened. From what I could see, we got surrounded by 5 more boars. As much as dealing with one wasn’t a problem, their strategy was quite smart. Even if we were to fight them like we did with the first one, we would still get squashed by the others.

Realising that death was inevitable, even Master seemed scared.

The one who saved us was unexpectedly big brother. In less than a second, he fired three crescents that looked like wind razors and took down 3 of the boars by himself. Master, who had somehow recovered from the shock, grabbed me and we dodged the attack. The fight then proceeded smoothly as Master and Brother got rid of the remaining two monsters.

I thought I would be the one saving big brother but it turns out he is the one who ended up saving both Blume, Master and I. Instead of feeling ashamed, my respect for big brother grew much bigger than before and I started seeing him as a genius. Anyway, I would never treat him as coldly anymore. I have now acknowledged the fact that big brother is one worthy of respect, at least as much as Master.