The Captain of the Knights

"Do you or don't you want to be a swordsman?" She asks.

"Of course, I want it!"

"Then no complaining."

Tsk.

After a very long, and even slightly painful, moment, I repeat the same movement 99 times.

"Arf..." I position myself to make the last blow. "One hundred..." I complete the attack, stopping him halfway. My arms are completely weak, and the sweat doesn't stop running down my body.

It's weird because I haven't moved every part of my body to be this tired, but I am exhausted. I can't even feel my arms anymore...

I look at Yanma and she is dozing off.

Approaching her, I shake her armor to wake her up.

"Huh?" She slowly wakes up. "You already did?" She asks with her eyes still half-open.

"I just finished." I answer.

"What time is it?" She asks in a sleepy voice.

"I think it's about six at night." I look up at the sky, and the sun is already setting, with the moon appearing on the other side of the horizon.

After Yanma truly wakes up, she sits down on a bench. Well, I would go home, but I think I can ask her a few questions. Because she filled me with questions earlier.

Sitting me down on the bench, she looks at me a little confused.

"Aren't you going to your house?" She asks.

"I will. But before that, I wanted to talk to you." I answer.

"Interesting. And what are you thinking?"

"Have you ever been an adventurer?" I ask clearly.

Yanma looks ahead with a somewhat melancholy look.

"Yes, I already went." She says. "I was a silver badge adventurer. That was a long time ago..." She says as she clenches her fist, looking at it.

"Long time ago?" How old should this be? "How old are you? Thirty-five?" I question.

"Almost that." She speaks. "But I've already met an adventurer with a gold badge!" Yanma adds to the other topic, it seems like she doesn't want to reveal her age.

Light once told me never to ask a man's salary or a woman's age. It looks like he was right...

Now, talking about her meeting an adventurer with a gold badge, that's a bit impressive. The gold badge is the third-strongest badge, if I'm not mistaken.

"But you're still silver, aren't you?" If she is a silver-level captain, then being a captain shouldn't be that difficult. "It's a bit disappointing for a knight captain to be at the level of a silver badge." I say.

"You're pretty cruel, aren't you?" Do I need to answer this question? "A badge doesn't represent much; it just takes an average of your skills and puts it on a stone. But that doesn't mean someone with a low-level badge can't defeat someone with a high-level badge." She says.

"Got it. So you might be better at something that someone stronger isn't, basically." I conclude.

"Exactly. I can guarantee you that most adventurers will have the silver or bronze badge. Only the truly strong can get past that. Not to mention that getting past the gold badge is also a difficult task." She says. "Very few people get a diamond badge, and with the emerald badge, I can count on one hand how many people have it in the whole world." Yanma explains, gesturing as if she were a teacher.

"Then tell me what they are." I ask.

"Hmm... There's the Supreme Mage, Zoe; there's the Supreme Swordsman, Kalos... I'm bad with names, but there's a really cute swordsman who's also super strong." She takes time to think. "But what I want to explain is that for a prodigy or genius like you, perhaps this isn't very impressive, but for most adventurers with the same badge as mine, it is surprising." She says.

Come to think of it, when I dueled her the first time, I was able to match her speed, even for a small instant!

Yanma lets out a long sigh. "I don't have anything special, like two spells or anything like that. I'm just hardworking." She says. "But you will definitely become a strong swordsman and join Skylar's Academy of Magic. You are the best of both worlds, talented and hardworking."

I'm already a little uncomfortable with her calling me a genius or talented...

"To tell you the truth, I'm nothing like you say." It's a little sad to admit this, but I need to be honest. "Actually, I'm only like this because of my brother, Light. He's a genius. You can give him all those words, and it still wouldn't be enough." My heart seems to beat faster when I speak.

I feel my shoulders feeling strangely lighter, and my chest feels relieved. It feels like something came out of my back.

"Is your brother that boy who interfered in our battle?" She asks, looking at me.

"Yes, it was him." I answer. "I'm sure he'll become an emerald badge adventurer. No, he'll definitely become the Supreme Mage, the strongest there ever was!" I got a little carried away...