A fresh day

I came back to the present when a maid— not Laura— arrived to help me with my morning routines.

It did surprise me a bit, but I could hazard a guess as to why she hadn't come.

"Where's Laura?"

Still, I asked the maid. There weren't many occasions where I was accompanied by another maid during my morning routines. It just felt strange. Not weird, per se, but strange. Maybe I was too used to Laura's existence as my 'helper'.

"The head maid is preoccupied with some other chores, Young Master. I was sent instead to help you get ready."

"Hmm, alright. Let's go."

I jumped off the bed and followed the politely smiling maid to the bathroom. A fresh day awaited me.

'What a lovely morning!'

***

The usual crowd—which would be an exaggeration considering we were only 4 members—occupied the dining table, at our usual spots.

Incidentally, Olivia was absent. I could hazard a guess why, but I was still not fully certain if I was right about it.

My mother looked at us with her usual kind smile. It always made the days better with such a caring mother.

"What did she say, Laura?"

My mother then turned and asked Laura who stood at her usual place near the wall at the back of my mother's seat.

"Lady Olivia said she's feeling under the weather and that she would like to rest in her room for the day. I'll be bringing her food to her room as per her request."

"Oh no. That's horrible! Did she get sick from her travels? Poor thing. The journey from Dukedom must have taken a toll from her. We can't have her fall sick like that. Call the medics. I'll visit her immediately after breakfast."

"Yes, Madam."

Laura left immediately after giving her a respectful bow. I noticed she wasn't looking my way. She was feeling a bit awkward if I had to guess. Well, I was kind of the same. But I was also excited about the prospect.

"Is eldest sister Olivia going to be alright, dear mother?"

Alice asked worriedly. She liked Olivia a lot so this news saddened her.

"It's alright, sweetheart. She's probably just tired. Do you want to go with me, dear?"

"Yes!"

Alice nodded.

"What about you two, dears?"

Mother asked Emma and me.

"I… have to go train."

Emma replied unenthusiastically.

"I'll go check on her later as well. I too have my training. It's been a while since I moved my body. I feel stiff."

"Don't overdo it, sweetie. I don't want to hear another news of you getting sick from overtraining, understood?"

My mother warned. She was always kind, but she could be stubborn when it came to our health.

"Of course, mother. I'll make sure to not overexert myself."

I reassured.

"Good. And how did you like your present, dear?"

"Oh, I loved it, mother! Thank you for the books. I can't wait to learn magic."

She had given me a bunch of magic books to learn from and also arranged classes for it with a senior magician from the magician's tower. Someone who worked under the old head wizard.

We had a relatively normal breakfast after that.

After breakfast, as planned, my mother and Alice left to check up on Olivia.

Emma went for her daily practice at her usual corner in the big backyard garden. I decided to follow her. It had been a while since we had trained together and I wanted to have a match to see how much I'd improved. And there was no better partner than the future swordmaster. Well, there were obviously knights and the Commander who could be much better training partners, but they all had one major disadvantage over Emma. They weren't hot—No! I mean, they weren't a heroine from my favorite Eroge game, nor were they my Capture Targets. But I swear I was mostly going to train.

Luckily, Emma didn't mind me joining her. After 2 years of living and even training together, my presence was normal for her.

***

Emma and I stood a little distance away from each other, facing one another.

Our posture was straight and our attention focused on the other, observing the other's body language and moves.

"Ready?"

She asked, her brows furrowed and her eyes filled with determination. The same kind she had shown every day she had trained in her swordsmanship on her own. Quickly mastering all of the Maximus family's swordsmanship moves, without much guidance. She certainly was a training prodigy.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't envious of her. Till now I had been unable to grasp it properly. But it will change now.

With my RAM freed up—analogically speaking— I had all the free space I needed to run that Maximus_swordsmanship.exe file. Well, that and I needed my mana unlocked for it as well. It was about damn time I got myself the mastery over the sword.

Don't get me wrong though, I knew how to handle the sword. Quite well, in fact. But I didn't have the 'Skill' for it in my skills tab. It didn't stop me from getting acquainted with the weapon, but it certainly hindered me from learning the Maximus swordsmanship properly. That and I was not sure if I wanted to fight with greatswords. I found myself more comfortable with Longswords. As cool as those thick anime-like swords were to wield, they were annoying to work with. Just a personal preference. Emma herself used a tamer, more normal version of a greatsword. Not the kind that was bigger and wider than herself.

I looked at my red-head sibling and replied.

"Yeah. You?"

I didn't even have to ask. Her face and posture told me everything. Still, she honored me with a reply.

"Yeah."

We didn't speak after that as we moved, our dull training swords ready to strike each other.

Her greatsword moved vertically and attacked from the top, to which I replied with my longsword slashing diagonally.

Soon our blades clashed and we pulled our swords back to strike again. We slashed, parried, stabbed, and dogged with practiced each as she slowly increased our speed from slow to normal and then fast.

After a dozen or so clashes, we distanced ourselves to take a moment to fix our posture.

But something stopped me from indulging back in our spar.

"Wait, timeout."

"What, why? We just started."

"I know. Just… give me a sec, okay?"

Ignoring the annoyed redhead, I focused my attention on the notifications I had received just a bit ago.

[Skill: Swordsmanship(Rare) is acquired!]

[Due to the user's familiarity with the weapon, its level has been increased from 1 to 14.]

Asking for a skill description yielded its details.

[Skill: Swordsmanship Lvl 14

Type: Active/Passive

Rarity: Rare

Effects: Grants the user a certain level of Mastery with the Sword. The higher the level, the more the user is well-versed with its use.

Additional info:

Swordsmanship styles learned:

– Basic Empire Style(Longsword) [Mastery: 38%]

– Maximus Style(Greatsword) [Mastery: 0%] ]

'Damn, and I trained in that style for months! …At least I got the levels in swordsmanship and have some mastery in fundamentals. Not much though.'

I didn't feel any different, but I presumed it was because I already had the practice and the skill was more of a numerical representation of my progress so far.

I still had ways to go, considering my guided training in swordsmanship for 2 whole years only yielded me only 38% mastery in basics. But then again, when compared to others, I was quite talented. Enough to gain genuine praises from the Knight Commander. Not just shallow praises out of politeness for my position. So, it meant that the System had higher standards than even the Elite knight of the Marquisdom. Fair, considering that there were much better swordsmen in this world than the Knight Commander Joseph, who could be considered an Elite himself.

Titles like 'Swordmaster' existed, representing the best of the best.

Turning back my attention to Emma who seemed to be impatiently waiting for me, I nodded.

"Alright. Let's start again."

'I can finally grind my swordsmanship levels properly.'

Emma didn't reply. Instead, she attacked me after a short second. I immediately dodged the attack and replied in kind.

Our spar had started and I had noticed a difference. It felt different using a sword now. It felt… smoother.

Hah. Maybe it did give me some boost. Nice!

We exchanged slashes after slashes. Emma constantly barraged me with attacks while I dodged most of them and parried some others, occasionally slashing at her.

"You're pretty good today. I'm surprised."

Emma spoke in between our exchanges.

"Hah. You fought me when I was Tier 0. Now I am Tier 1."

Tier 3, in truth. But she didn't need to know that.

"No. It's not just your strength. Your swordsmanship has improved too, somehow. How are you suddenly better than before?"

'Coz I have cheats—'

I quickly dodged a stab on my neck. She was brutal in her training. That could have been fatal had I not dodged in time.

Still, I did. And I didn't struggle that much honestly. So, it was fine.

"No idea. But I feel like I'm no longer stuck in my training. Like I can finally progress."

She didn't reply; instead, she just gave me a nod.

I ducked under another diagonal slash and attacked her wrist with the hilt of my sword.

She noticed her opening and barely managed to dodge, preventing herself from losing her weapon from my attack on her blind spot.

"Damn, that was good. But it won't happen again."

"We'll see."

I smiled at the girl whose eyes now burned with competitiveness.

She looked pretty hot when she was serious.

***

A/N: It was originally supposed to continue till the end of the training, but it became too long somehow and I had to cut it short. Also, I had to overwork to write this chapter(and part of the next). Please give me Power Stones to cheer me up. :)