Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Lilia
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 04 – Mock-up Tutorial
For the time being, Sharon said that she wanted a Job with an artillery component.
Since the three students succeeded in roughly solidifying their career goals, I could proceed with the lesson without worrying.
“Err—well then, I think the three of you are already at a level where you can handle actual combat. So I’d like you to fight some monsters.”
The tutorial, or at least, something resembling it, would finally begin.
The sequel’s tutorial was during the graduation exam of the adventurer school when the protagonists who passed the exam set out on their first adventure.
In other words, this first training right after admission would be like the tutorial for the tutorial. Wait, what the heck I was saying just now?
“…………”
Sharon, who stood in the front row, or rather, right in front of me, quietly nodded.
She was so close. If either of us took a step forward, her chest would be pressed tightly against me.
“Ah~ um, Sharon-san? Could you step back for a bit?”
“……Why?”
She tilted her head with a dumbfounded expression, which made my cheek involuntarily twitch.
“It’s better for female adventurers to keep their distance from male adventurers. You can avoid unnecessary trouble if you live your life thinking that men are basically scum– guoooooohhhhhh.”
“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden, sensei…”
That was totally me (Haruto) in the game version, and the thought damaged my internal organs.
Thinking about it calmly, I didn’t think it would be a good idea for them to have anything to do with me. According to the plan, I was sure that I, as a scum hero, would have an unfavorable reputation in society as a whole, although that became a bit less reliable because of a shitty idiot who happened to be that monk.
“W-well anyway, you should set some distance. Some boundaries.”
“……I understand that as an instruction. But are such male adventurers and sensei the same?”
“Like hell we are.” I was only forced to be scum for the sake of the plot.
“Isn’t it fine then?”
“…………”
My younger, freshly admitted student made my argument invalid, which made me cry.
“Hic…”
“Sorry, I might have teased you too much. For the time being, I’m ready.”
Sharon began maintenance by activating the assault spear equipped with a bombardment mechanism.
I wiped my tears and headed over to the other two.
“Oi, you heard me, right?”
“I heard you~”
Erin made a peace sign.
She showed me her katana, which was still sheathed.
A tree branch was attached to the tip of the sheath, making it look like a broom.
“Leave the cleaning of the training grounds to me!”
“If you want to slack off, just say so…”
Since she was putting so much effort into showing off her lack of motivation, I had a suspicion that she might just be trying to make fun of me.
If I didn’t know about Erin’s background, there was a possibility I might snap because of this. She was making fun of the teacher in a very polite way.
Erin was simply not raised in an environment where she could say such things after all.
“……E-err.”
“No, don’t say it, you don’t have to say it. The burden will become heavier if you do. Anyway, the goal of this adventurer school is obviously to help you grow, but I won’t get angry just because you failed to reach the peak of your path.”
Erin opened her eyes wide.
……Ah, did I just say something I wasn’t supposed to know? I had no idea.
But I was their teacher, so I could make excuses if I did a little research beforehand, maybe.
“But at the very least, I want you to do things like cutting a thrown ball later, for example. You don’t have to fight monsters this time if you don’t want to.”
“……Then I’ll do it.”
“Eeh……?”
Erin turned her head away and spoke in a flat voice.
I didn’t understand children’s minds at all.
They wouldn’t do it when I told them to do it, yet they wanted to do it when I told them they didn’t need to. What was going on here?
“T-then I’ll be going on ahead……”
I saw Erin running next to Sharon.
For the time being, the class was going well. I could consider it to be going well, right……?
I headed toward the last student. She was waiting for me with a grin on her face.
“Now, what are you doing? Why aren’t you going with them?’
“I’m waiting for sensei to come. Hey, see here♡”
Kuyumi pulled daggers from her waist, ankles, and sleeves.
There were eight daggers in total. Where did she hide them?
Kuyumi then threw them into the air and began to deftly juggle them.
“Can you do this, sensei? You can’t, right, you small fry♡”
“It’s just dangerous, so stop it.”
Even though I said that, I didn’t think it was a danger she had to worry about.
Everyone would feel nervous at first when seeing someone handling drawn knives like that, but that wasn’t the case for her.
“Well, I admit that’s amazing… but you’re just used to it, aren’t you?”
“Ehehe, I guess.”
Perhaps Kuyumi didn’t feel bad about being praised, because she smiled and instantly put her daggers away in various places.
Her behavior was so sophisticated that it was scary.
“Then let’s go♡”
“Aah…… that’s right, I don’t know if it will answer your question. I’ve never juggled daggers the way you did. But I’ve done something similar.”
It happened when my right arm broke while protecting a bystander in a battle against some kind of greater demon.
Using the remaining left arm, and with the three swords I had with me, I used an upward slash and threw the sword above, then at the same time I grabbed the falling sword, slashed, and threw it upward again… it was a continuous attack, somewhat like juggling with one hand.
But if I think about it, juggling eight daggers was more difficult. In comparison, what I did wasn’t something to brag about. I did it out of desperation, and probably couldn’t do it again.
“Fu~hn?”
I just spoke with a light feeling of answering the question I was asked, but Kuyumi looked up at me with interest.
Since it seemed like she would see through everything at this rate, I silently sped up to where Erin’s group was.
“Then, I’ll have you defeat that monster.”
On the spot I pointed, there was a monster resembling a wild boar. It had been brought to the practice field and one of its legs was chained down to the ground.
It was pitiful, but monsters tended to hurt or kill all humans they encountered, and would also destroy human structures without being provoked.
It was something instinctive to them. The canon explanation was that the demon lord tweaked their genes to work that way.
That was why they not only shouldn’t be left alone but instead needed to be actively hunted.
For the sake of practice, I needed a monster to be captured alive like that.
“Then first……Yep, Kuyumi, how about you?”
“Oka~y.”
After nominating the one who seemed to be the most stable, Kuyumi pulled out the dagger from her waist, spun it around, and held it in reverse grip.
“You can start.”
“It’s going to end in no time, but is it okay?”
“I don’t mind.”
Right after I replied, Kuyumi disappeared.
Even though there should have been a distance of about 10 meters between them, the petite girl was already above the monster’s head in an instant.
“Small-fry♡”
She put her hands on her opponent’s head and did a forward somersault while twisting her hips.
I could see the dagger’s blade slash the monster’s throat with just the slightest movement as she passed by.
“Scary ……”
I couldn’t help but mutter that.
Well, I guess that monster really was a small fry for her. What were you thinking, to make such a convincing provocation, you mesugaki…
“Sensei, did you see it, did you see it~?”
Kuyumi turned away from the monster who struggled helplessly as it collapsed, and approached me.
“Aah, I saw it. I’m still an evaluator of your ability after all……”
“That’s not what I’m asking, though~”
“Do you mean more practical advice? Judging from how it struggles, it seems you haven’t completely destroyed its respiratory system and nerves, so I think you should observe it a little more before you start moving, I guess?”
“…………”
I pointed my finger at the monster, which was still weakly struggling as its blood soaked its feet. I twisted my finger in a smooth motion.
A precise pressure was applied to its entire neck in an instant. A loud cracking noise sounded and the monster slumped to the ground, this time completely dead.
“Don’t be the kind of person who enjoys seeing that kind of struggle and suffering from your victims, okay? It might just be a monster today, but it could become a human tomorrow.”
“……I know that much.”
Contrary to her relaxed attitude until now, Kuyumi curtly turned away.
Seeing her ears were slightly red, I guess she was a little embarrassed.
“Well…… I guess you moved as fast as you possibly could to show off, though.”
“!! Y-you shouldn’t say that if you already know! You suck!”
So you actually could speak with “!”. I thought it’d all be converted to “♡”
Kuyumi hit my side to hide her embarrassment.
For a moment, she made a motion to pull out a dagger, so I got ready to block with my hand, which made her walk to the corner with a satisfied look on her face. She was so skilled but still acted childish.
“Then the next one, Sharon……”
After bringing the next monster, I placed it in front of Sharon.
“Okay.”
After nodding, she activated bombardment mode and fired a magical bombardment just like before.
Most of the monster’s body was blown away by the direct hit, leaving only its toes that were still stuck on the ground.
“How is it?”
“Quite far from the goal.”
“Hah?”
“I mean it’s amazing.”
When I hurriedly added that, Sharon just muttered “I see,” and stepped back.
She had shown me this earlier, so I guess I didn’t have to ask her to do it.
“Then the last one…… Are you ready?”
As I wrote down my evaluations on a piece of paper, I called out Erin, who had come forward.
“Okay oka~y.”
Erin properly removed the tree branch and held her two long swords, one big and one small, at her waist.
The gap between her gal-like appearance and her full bushido equipment was quite painful to witness.
“You can start.”
As soon as I said that,
I thought I heard the sound of something cracking.
“Flash Slash!”
It certainly looked like a line of line flashed across my field of vision.
I see… so it was the initial skill [Horizontal Flash Slash!], huh. Was an initial skill supposed to be this powerful?
The monster was completely separated into top and bottom halves and then collapsed on the spot. It was an instant death.
I sensed that Sharon and Kuyumi were a little surprised behind me. Perhaps they didn’t think she would do this much? Well, I also didn’t think so.
“Splendid. The way you move your body is really good.”
“Ehehe, I’m good at this kind of thing.”
Erin made an appeal by showing off her biceps.
The sweat running down her cheeks under the fine weather made her look healthy and beautiful. It looked like some sort of commercial.
“……Ah.”
Therefore, it could only be said that the weather was bad and it was luckily sunny.
The colored paint was peeling from her neck because of the sweat.
Beneath that, I could see scars that would probably never go away.
“You, that.”
“Hm, aah… I was told to hide it.”
She casually said that she was hiding it because she was told to do so.
“……Did you get it through training?”
“Yes, here and there. But isn’t it something you remember through pain?”
“Like hell it is.”
Seriously, what kind of education did the SwordX family provide?
“……But since I suck at learning, I was told to do it the way that even I could learn with.”
“Then starting today, I’ll also think of a learning method together with you. If you ask me, there’s nothing good about learning things your current way.”
“That’s…”
“Any method that the students wouldn’t like is already out of the question.”
She suddenly looked up. Her eyes shook, as if asking how I could have known that was what she wanted, even though she never said anything.
I couldn’t help but snort. Why did she ask, when she was the one who escaped from her family home and came to an adventurers school?
“You’re my student now.”
“……Yes.”
“The reason you put up with old methods before doesn’t apply here. Keep that in mind.”
If her face was scarred and her character design changed, the sequel might become a completely different thing. I couldn’t take on such a heavy responsibility.
Even though she was already covered with scars all over the place, I couldn’t give up on this.
Besides…… Well, there was no way an educator would tolerate their students getting hurt in front of them.
“I want you to act with your future in mind. So please tell me everything you want to do and you don’t want to do.”
As I reflected on Erin’s blue eyes trembling, she gave me a confused expression.
Even though I was just a teacher, I was currently in a position where I could affect the future of the sequel’s protagonists.
It would be bad if I just decided things on my own.
“I-is it okay……? But I don’t even know about things I want to do or what I can do.”
“Why don’t you just ask them to tell you about that?”
I pointed to Sharon and Kuyumi who were waiting in line.
“……But,”
“Listen, Erin.”
Erin seemed to try to deny her right to freedom that should be taken for granted at all costs.
I interrupted her words and spoke quietly.
“Let’s leave difficult things like whether you could trust me as things for the future… For now, your enemies aren’t here. There are only people who want to be your allies.”
I put my hand on her head and gave a wry smile.
It would be impossible to hold down such a great swordsman of the century from above. But for now, she was just a student.
“Eah…t-that’s not good!”
“Uoh! Ah, sorry, is this a sexual harassment?!”
Along with a noise, an Iai slash was launched, so I avoided it by leaning back.
Isn’t the speed from drawing to sheathing the sword too quick? Before I could smile about that observation, Erin quickly jogged toward Sharon and Kuyumi, like she was running away out of embarrassment.
“……Thanks, teach’.”
“Aah. Well, that’s the end of the class. I’ll clean things up, so go ahead and enjoy your break.”
After glancing at me for a moment, Erin quickly turned forward and started walking again.
It seemed she had a pretty rough time with the SwordX family. She might also need mental care.
I would leave it to her peers for now. I hadn’t interacted with her much after all.
“……Fools.”
I couldn’t help but let out resentment toward the SwordX family in a low voice.
They didn’t understand what kind of important existence she was.
“Phew.”
I shook my head and took a breath.
I let out my anger in a big exhale to cool my head.
Be it the first game or the sequel, the protagonists would ultimately overthrow the existence that was trying to destroy the world (the fact they were different existences made it suck even more) and return with glory.
The beings who wanted to destroy the world… Well, it was something like a demon lord and their minions, but in order to defeat them so they could never reappear again, the power of the chosen ones was necessary. Even if I could beat them down to death, they would be able to revive sooner or later.
I wasn’t the chosen one.
All I could do was to raise the chosen ones and guide them to the right ending.
Failure wasn’t an option for me. Their failure meant the world would be destroyed, because I, who knew the scenario, couldn’t do well enough.
As far as I know, the only people who were chosen to stand for humanity were Mariemaia and the student in front of me ── Erin.
“Ah~ my face feels hot……”
Erin was muttering something as she walked away, but in the end, the three of them were able to kill the monster swiftly, so I guess the tutorial was cleared easily? Huh? What should I do for the next class? I couldn’t help but tremble with fear.
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