9 Moving Towards a Better Future

Ludwin was asked by Souma to test Hinata's combat potential. Even at a glance, he could tell that Hinata had a lithe body suitable for combat. He made some small talk with Hinata as they were walking towards the barracks, both out of genuine curiosity and also how she knew how to fight.

Apparently, Hinata's father was a former knight from the Gran Chaos Empire before leaving the knight force and wanting to travel. He met Hinata's mother after settling north of the kingdom in one of the Union of Eastern Nations. One day, a young Hinata saw her father training with a sword and practically begged him to teach her. He eventually relented, and, seeing how much she absorbed his knowledge, sought to eagerly train her in earnest.

Unfortunately, shortly after her eighteenth birthday, tragedy struck with the monster attacks, and her village was burned to cinders. She fought off as many as she could, but with the monsters' sheer numbers, they had to abandon the small village. However, she fared far better than her older parents, specifically her mother who was suffering from an illness. Refusing to leave her behind, both her and her father fought many of the monsters off before her father forced her to run. Her last memory of them was being killed and eaten by the monsters.

Of course, this story was completely fabricated with Hinata talking about Benimaru and the other ogres' demise from her world as if it were her tale. Promising to make it up to her brother and sister-in-law, they arrived at the training room.

Ludwin quickly apologized for making her remember such a memory, but Hinata dismissed it, saying that she was here to fight, not to reminisce. While Aisha and Liscia looked slightly uncomfortable at this, they elected to say nothing.

Showing her the array of training weapons, Hinata found herself quite at home due to the European style of weaponry. Choosing a straight sword that she has found plenty of comfort in the past, she walked to the arena and was met with Ludwin holding a broadsword.

"Are you certain you don't want a shield?" Ludwin was worried that blocking a broadsword with just a straight sword would put her in a disadvantage, but she insisted.

"I feel the most comfortable with just a straight sword."

"Right then. As far as the rules go, no magic. As much as I wish to know your full capabilities if you fight with your lightning affinity, there is a good chance one of us might get seriously injured or die. Is this acceptable?"

"Yes."

"Good. Whenever you are ready, come and attack me."

Ludwin held his sword in a battle-ready stance, and both were wearing leather armor that could defend against the training weapons. A clean hit would still hurt, but not kill. More importantly, Hinata could see that the test had already begun.

In monster attacks, the normal course of action would be to defend. Defense was far easier than attacking and letting mindless monsters attack with no strategy in place was usually fairly easy to defend as long as you had the proper personnel and equipment, as you could just react to the other person's attacks. What Ludwin wanted to test from her was how well she would be at attacking. The kingdom expects a war soon and plans to be on the attacking side, so someone who didn't know how to initiate a battle was going to be a hindrance to them.

Without hesitation, she ran to the man with her sword at her shoulder, ready to thrust. Ludwin was prepared to sidestep this, but she quickly turned her thrust into a diagonal slash which he blocked. He countered with a sweep of his sword, but she closed the gap so that even if it did connect, he would only be hitting her with the hilt.

Realizing that she has proper combat experience, he took this more seriously. Stopping his sweep midway while retreating, he was able to parry her slash in the nick of time. She gave him no breathing room, however, and continued her assault.

The spectators watched the dance of blades between the two and were seeing that Hinata was putting far more pressure than either Liscia or Aisha anticipated on one of the best fighters in the country. Additionally, she was skillfully moving around the range of Ludwin's strikes so as to not cause any more wear and tear on her blade. This awakened the battle-hungry nature in both Aisha and Liscia, who were eagerly awaiting the end of their spar.

*This woman trained in a village?!*

Almost three minutes in, and Ludwin had barely been given room to counterattack. He was honestly stunned at development, as even against Liscia, their spars had usually ended either in a tie or with one of them winning, and just barely at that.

If we were using magic, the outcome would be even more one-sided...

The main reason as to why he requested that they not use magic is because those born with the lightning affinity often had many troubles when it came to using their magic. The primary reason was that it was extremely hard to train in a safe environment since those just starting to use magic often had very poor control over it. Elemental magic was completely indiscriminate in what it affected, but lightning had a propensity to go towards anything metallic without proper guidance, which meant that to train, you needed to go somewhere with no metal and wouldn't burn down. On top of that, since the speed of lightning is incredibly fast, it was difficult to adjust where you wanted it to go since you would only see the afterimage.

While lightning could certainly be an absolute nightmare in the battlefield to deal with since many soldiers both wore and wielded metal armor and weapons, very few people have ever had the displeasure of dealing with lightning mages, and so everyone just assumes that, since no one wants to bother training those with the lightning affinity, it was not something they had to deal with. Most people with the lightning affinity simply used it to start fires in their fireplace and use an incredibly low power for a light source in a pinch.

Eventually, a little after the three-and-a-half-minute mark, Ludwin decided that she was more than capable of joining the army.

"Do pardon me for doubting your capabilities, Madam Hinata. You are more than qualified to join the army. Do you have a specific branch in mind? If not, I can recommend the royal guard. We're always looking for more people, and if you show aptitude in leading, I can guarantee you a high position."

"I am humbled. I accept your-"

Before Hinata was able to accept Ludwin's proposal, Liscia suddenly blurted out, "Wait! How about you become a bodyguard like Aisha?"

Ludwin was shocked at the proposal, and looking at Liscia, he could quickly understand why. She has always been a tomboy, and part of the reason for this was her slight battle-junky nature. She simply wanted her to be a bodyguard so that she would have another convenient training partner, this time in terms of excelling skill, unlike Aisha, who is more along the lines of brute force. It is true that Hinata would be more than capable of being an excellent bodyguard in terms of skill, but to Ludwin, it was quite clear that her only goal was to kill as many monsters as possible. He didn't think she would be as loyal to her guard as Aisha is to Souma.

"Princess, I know her skill is incredible, but I believe military service is better suited for her."

"Shouldn't you let the woman in question decide that? Besides, didn't Souma state that he would listen to any request of the gifted ones?" Liscia then turned towards Hinata.

"If you join the military, ninety percent of your time there will be cleaning or doing something boring other than fighting. Even if you are one of the higher-ups, your day is still spent planning strategies and dealing with the soldiers beneath you. If you're a bodyguard, you don't need to deal with any of that. So, what do you say?"

Liscia looked at her with excitement and a slight bit of desperation. Hinata internally sighed knowing that she will most likely have to spar with the princess if her battle-hungry look was anything to go off of, but this was the best possible development she could have hoped for. Hinata made a show of thinking about her options before she walked up to Liscia.

"Princess Liscia, I wish to serve as your bodyguard. Will you accept me?"

*She really knows how to put on an act.*

<<Of course, unlike someone I know. Calculations show that she will reject and ask her to serve one of you.>>

*Ah, that's good.*

As if proving Ciel right, Liscia responded with a hand on the back of her head. "Ahaha, I don't really need a bodyguard since I have the royal knights protecting me at all times. Perhaps you can serve one of the other summoned heroes?"

Hinata looked at the two of them, awaiting a response.

"Hmm. I almost feel bad taking such a beautiful woman for myself. Though I have no intention of fighting the demons anytime soon, if you wish to serve me, I will accept, Madam Hinata."

[You're enjoying this way too much, aren't you?]

[My dear, whatever could you mean? More importantly, I'm waiting for your answer, Hinata-chan]

[... You can be so annoying sometimes.]

[Dear oh dear, well you can always say no.]

Hinata mentally sighed before accepting Rimuru's proposal. They both knew that Liscia had practically handed them the perfect situation for being together, yet he chose to let his mischievous side out this time out of all times.

[I'm getting you back for this.]

[Oh? Are you going to stab me again?]

Hinata gave a devilishly slight smirk. [I think I'll ask for Ciel's help in 'disciplining' you tonight.]

<<I'll be looking forward to it.>>

Rimuru paled at this. Since Ciel had complete control over his body, she often did things such as increase his sensitivity and completely deprive his sense of sight. Though he could always tell her not to do it any longer and she'd oblige, for some reason or another he has never thought to ask...

With that out of the way, Hinata received another challenge, this time from Aisha. Fortunately, before Hinata could accept the challenge, a soldier came into the arena explaining that the king wanted to see them.

As they were escorted into the government office, they met up with Souma and Hakuya. He and Liscia could only sigh as, despite trying ever since her parents left the castle to go back to Albert's domain in the countryside, Souma has refused to move into the king's bedroom. Hell, his bed was next to his desk so that right when he woke up, the work was right there, ready for him. It slightly disturbed the maids somewhat, seeing that they had better living conditions than the person they served.

"Ah good, you're all here. Just wait a bit for Poncho to come and we'll start."

Souma, apparently, wasted little to no time regarding his plans.

When Poncho came in, Souma gave him a task to immediately resolve the food situation. He was told to go to every place both in and outside of the country with a wyvern and gather food that was not common cuisine for most of the people of Elfrieden. When he asked how he would carry this, Souma handed him a bag and explained that it was imbued with an extremely rare kind of magic called special magic. When Liscia heard of this, she was outraged that they'd use a one-of-a-kind treasure like this, but Souma kept up with his 'we need to use every resource available' mentality.

Poncho was set to leave tomorrow, but as he did not have anything major to prepare for his departure, he was ready to go as soon as the wyvern was prepared with the knight accompanying it. He was the key proponent to Souma's plans to deal with the food problem, so until he got back, Souma would be working on other issues that were on the backburner.

The next thing Souma wanted to tackle was the immediate natural threat to the dark elves. The ones who would be sent on this excursion would be Aisha, Hinata, and Testarossa. Though travel to and from the God-Protected Forest was usually three days each way, this was done at a leisurely pace and was normally through plenty of rest stops. With a fast horse and a bit of luck, a round trip could be done in as little as two full days and nights. Aisha initially protested about not being able to guard him at all times, Souma assuaged her doubts by saying that Liscia would be by his side, and that he would effectively be a shut-in until at the very least Poncho returned.

The next thing on his list was the creation of an aqueduct and sewer system. Both he and Rimuru had been talking about how to best manage a proper sanitary system, as it was undoubtedly the best way to combat diseases. Though many farmers could make use of manure from both their horses, and in rare cases, themselves, the common folk couldn't. There wasn't a designated place to dump it, so most just put it in a wastebasket and dumped it far enough away so that the smell didn't bother anyone.

This was obviously less than ideal, so with a water and sewage system making use of the old catacombs underneath the castle whose only purpose right now seemed to be gathering dust, Rimuru, Ludwin, and the royal army were tasked with bringing in water from a nearby big river and expanding on said catacombs throughout the immediate castle town. Eventually, he wanted to go through with the entire country, but small steps first. If a pandemic happened right at their doorstep, they were virtually powerless to do anything but let it run its course.

Though Souma was initially reluctant to accept Rimuru recommending himself for the job, considering that Rimuru used to be a general contractor, he figured that it would be extremely beneficial for him to join the royal army to tell them where to make entry and exit ways. He was initially suspicious of him trying to skirt out of doing any more paperwork, but the androgynous man drove a hard bargain.

Finally, with that settled, all that was left was for Souma, Liscia and Hakuya to plan on the inevitable upcoming war, and in the worst possible outcome, the upcoming civil war. Their discussion didn't get extremely far, however, as night was approaching very quickly, but Hakuya came up with an objectively cruel, yet efficient plan to root out the corruption from the kingdom. Souma had some apprehensions about implementing such a plan so quickly, so he put it on the list of things he wanted to seek more counsel on.

Around the same time the three were finishing up their meeting, a different group of three were finishing up dinner and closing in on their rooms. Hinata, now officially a guard to Rimuru, was able to stay in the castle. Though she technically had a room to herself near Aisha's as a bodyguard, she wagered that she wouldn't be using it most nights. As they drew closer, the door opened to what would be one of Testa's most memorable nights.