Sword Arts

Getting my father's permission was not that hard. In fact, when I said that I want to practice sword arts he was filled with happiness.

"Oh my dear son, I'm such a blessed father to have a son as hardworking as you!" was what he said before he broke into tears.

Anya was learning it from my father for the past one and a half years so I thought it would be better to have her teach me.

I decided not to learn it from my father because I do not want to see him burst into tears every time I do a movement correctly.

Long short story, I got permission to learn sword arts.

As of now, I was headed over to the training facility my sister had called me to. This place was a bit far away from my house and it took around five to ten minutes to reach there on foot.

I had left for the place seven to eight minutes ago so I was probably about to reach there. While walking I also gazed upon my surroundings; this atmosphere was giving off the kind of warm and comfy vibes.

I had not gone outside my house much; this was my second or third time I think. When I went out for the first time I had the thought in mind that I will see a world set in a medieval-time period but that was not exactly right.

This world seemed a bit more advanced than in the medieval period. The houses were built with a combination of wood and stone, the clothes people wore here were somewhat similar to what I've seen in anime and movies.

As I wondered about all this, I reached the training facility. The building was like a large coliseum albeit it had a dome-shaped roof, probably because this was used as a training facility and not as a place to hold tournaments.

I walked to the entrance and saw Anya standing there, waiting for me. I waved to her as I made my way near. She also waved back when she saw me and turned to face me.

After that we both went inside the building; a person stopped us at the entrance but then maybe he recognized Anya—as she came here regularly with Ron—and let us go inside.

There were a lot of people with weapons and armor inside the building, some of them could possibly be adventurers or mercenaries, or they might have come here to fight for fun. To be short, the place was filled with people.

We made our way through the hallways and stopped in front of a counter—which seemed to be the reception. There stood a woman behind the counter, dressed in formal clothing.

"Excuse me, we have booked a training room here," Anya said and took out a piece of paper from her pocket.

"Can you please show me the ticket?" the lady asked as she turned toward us.

Anya handed that piece of paper to the lady. She looked through it for a while and then put a seal on the paper and gave it back to Anya.

'Maybe Ron had booked this for us?' I thought while I quietly watched them from a distance.

That was all, then we went to the room we had booked. There was a number written on that paper [67], we looked for the room with no 67 on its door.

It took a while but we found it, and upon entering the room I saw that it had stone flooring and walls while the ceiling was made out of wood with several holes in it which made it possible for the sunlight to enter.

"First watch me and get an idea of what you will be learning," Anya said and walked to the center of the room.

On her way, she took one of the many swords that were hung on the wall. She unsheathed the sword and held it tightly while she stood with her back straight at the center of the room.

She looked at me as if saying "Watch closely" to which I replied with a nod.

Then she started swinging her sword, at first she stood in one place but after a few swings, she started moving back and forth while swinging the sword in different arcs. I can't judge how good she was as I have never seen someone use a sword before but still each of her strikes looked super-smooth and accurate.

She swung her sword from upper-left to lower-right and then she moved around and connected it by doing a lower-right to middle-left cut.

The way she was freely and easily moving her sword, it never looked like she was holding a real sword made of heavy metal but as if she were using a light weighted wooden stick or something.

Not a single movement was wasted, all of her swings connected with the other smoothly. 

After a while, she stopped and put the sword back in its sheath. "Did you get anything? This is a glimpse of what you will be learning," she inquired as she looked at me.

"Wow, that... that was amazing!" those words came out on their own; I was totally enchanted by her skills.

This was how things worked in this world. She was just a year older than me, and 11 years of age is considered very small according to my former world. But here, the way she was using that heavy sword without a sweat, it probably won't be wrong to say that a grown-up from my previous world could get beaten by a kid here. 

Though a believed this increase in physical strength was due to the mana present in the atmosphere of this world.

"Come on, now you try it," she said and handed me the sword.

The weight of the sword caused me to lose my balance for a split second. But surprisingly, the sword was not heavy as I thought it would be.

Perhaps it was because of my D rank strength status. I adjusted myself according to the weight of the sword and then moved to the center of the room.

I unsheathed the sword and held it with both my hands. I didn't have the slightest bit of idea on how should I go about this, therefore after thinking about it for a while I decided to mimic the actions of all the sword users I've seen in anime and games.

I recalled those scenes in my mind and then started swinging the sword accordingly.

'Ah well…this is…easier said than done!'

Even though I had a D rank strength status, I did not have any experience in real. When I swung the sword in a direction it also pulled my body with it and I lost balance every time.

"This is hard!" I said to Anya and dropped the sword. Only after swinging the sword for ten to fifteen minutes, I was completely drenched in sweat and panting like a dog.

"Your situation is not that bad; to be honest I'm quite surprised," she said, still watching me carefully as if assessing my abilities.

"What do you mean?"

How in the world was the situation "not that bad" I mean, I was only able to do a handful of complete swings.

'Wait for a second, she doesn't mean that my situation is not bad but worst, now does she?'

Honestly, I wouldn't have been too surprised if she'd lost all hope in me and doesn't want to teach me anything. If that were the case, then I'll have no choice but to reveal my rank to Roe by showing him my magic and having him pay someone to teach me.

"Huh? Well, you were fragile before but after that incident, when you almost died...since then you have not been the same. You would've run out of stamina only by walking to this building from home if things were the same," she explained. A slight expression of worry clouded her face.

'So that's how it is, huh?' I'd say it was a major discovery. This boy, the original Zero Blanks was weak and fragile. Come to think of it, I never had any memories of the time before I reincarnated into this body.

This was something I had completely ignored until now.

"Hey now, don't get lost on your own," Anya said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Listen, the reason I think you are not able to swing properly is that you are using too much strength in it. From looking at you it's like you are using a heavy hammer instead of a sword. Try not to apply too much force, also, use your whole body not only your arms," she explained.

After that she assisted me while I practiced, it was not easy but after around two hours of training my sword was not pulling me with itself and I was able to do a perfect swing every time.

We practiced for five hours that day. One would think that this was a long period but Anya practiced for seven to eight hours with Ron when she started learning sword arts.

But that was only because she was with Ron. No matter what world you are in you can't stay out for long as a child, and I was an innocent ten-year-old child after all. Having my parents worry about my safety was to be expected, and I enjoyed the privilege. 

It was nice...having a family who cared about you. It was nice, and I didn't want this to end.