"Haaaah!"
With that shout, Arrogan charged at Rei, Magic Sword in hand.
Rei, waiting to receive him, held Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear in his left, just as usual.
"Hah!"
With a sharp exhale, Rei's left hand moved.
The tip of the Twilight Spear, thrust out much slower than he usually released it, went straight for Arrogan…
"Like I'd let you!"
He swung his Magic Sword, deflecting the Twilight Spear.
But the next moment, delayed by just a fraction after the Twilight Spear's strike, the massive blade of Death Scythe was pressed against Arrogan's neck.
"That's enough!"
Vihera's voice rang out across the courtyard of Asimov's house.
"Ugh, damn it! I've only got one weapon, but you've got two, Rei! Isn't that unfair!?"
Shouting, Arrogan collapsed onto the ground.
The lawn beneath him cushioned his fall softly.
When Rei had previously visited Asimov's house, the weeds in the garden had been overgrown—but they must have tidied that up as well when repairing the wall.
Now it had grown into what could properly be called a fine lawn.
(Though there's no way Asimov would do any garden maintenance… by the time summer rolls around, it'll probably be overgrown again.)
Looking at Arrogan lying on the lawn, Rei stored the weapons in both hands into his Misty Ring and spoke.
"Even Twin Spear Style isn't something you can pull off that easily, you know."
Dual Sword Style required holding a weapon in each hand. That alone demanded considerable grip and arm strength, but compared to Dual Sword Style, the weapons Rei used in his Twin Spear Style were Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
Fortunately, in Rei's case, his base physical abilities were extraordinarily high, so holding two long weapons was no burden at all. After all, Death Scythe had the special property of feeling weightless to Rei and Set. For that reason, the weight could be virtually ignored.
However, there were other troublesome aspects to Twin Spear Style as well. Unlike Dual Sword Style, the weapons were long—meaning they were harder to maneuver, and it was not uncommon for them to clash with each other.
In fact, even Rei had struggled considerably to master the style for a while after first coming up with it. Only through relentless practice had he reached his current level.
Even so, Rei himself was not satisfied with where he stood. He did not think he had perfected Twin Spear Style; on the contrary, he understood that his skills were still immature. That was exactly why he never neglected his daily training.
"Hmm… so it's no good for me to just switch to Dual Sword Style either, huh."
"Obviously. If anyone could easily master Dual Sword Style, there'd be a lot more people doing it."
Culotte, who had been watching the mock battle, muttered in exasperation.
(Dual Sword Style… Dual Sword Style? I've been using the term Dual Sword Style naturally all this time, but I've never actually seen a katana. So why Dual Sword Style? If we're going by the wording, wouldn't it be Dual Blade Style or something like that?)
Rei wondered about this, though he never questioned the fact that Dual Sword Style was the term widely used in this world.
Of course, the one who had actually spread the term Dual Sword Style was Takumu of the Zephyle Clan, who had come from Earth just like Rei—but Rei had no way of knowing that.
"Anyway, that's the end of the mock battle, right? I introduced you two to Asimov as guards, but I never thought I'd end up as your mock battle opponent."
Yesterday, Rei had introduced Arrogan and Culotte to Asimov, and he had come to Asimov's house again today to wait for Precious's next move. But Arrogan, upon seeing Rei, had challenged him to a mock battle.
When told it was to improve his skills even slightly for the guard duty, Rei had no reason to refuse. If anything, he judged it would be perfect for his own training as well, and so the mock battle took place.
"Hold on! Don't forget about me. If we're doing mock battles for the sake of guard duty, I should naturally get a turn too."
The one who called a halt to Rei's words was, as expected, Arrogan's partner Culotte.
She held a short dagger, ready to begin a mock battle with Rei at any moment.
(Ah… well, I can kind of understand what she's saying. And maybe it'd be better for me to know exactly how much ability Culotte has.)
Making that judgment, Rei stored Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear in his Misty Ring and faced Culotte unarmed.
"…Wait, you're not going to use a weapon?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm… so you're underestimating me."
"It's not really like that. I just thought this would be better for fighting you."
To be honest, if Rei were to fight while wielding Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear, there was a chance he might inflict a serious injury on Culotte. He fully intended to hold back, but even so, the risk remained. If it were Arrogan, he had trained his body as a warrior and had combat experience, so he would at least have some familiarity with defense. But Culotte, as a thief, was not particularly suited for combat. It wasn't that she never fought, but she would inevitably fall short of Arrogan, a combat specialist.
Considering that, it was only natural for Rei to choose unarmed combat, which made holding back easier. It also served as training for fighting without weapons.
"…Don't regret this!"
Rei had his own reasons, but whether Culotte would accept them was another matter entirely.
Shouting with clear displeasure, she closed the distance to Rei in one dash, dagger in hand.
Rei did not simply stand by and watch. He read her movements.
He usually focused on combat using Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear, so it had been a while since he had done unarmed combat training like this. Though, in the sense of plain brawling, he often fought barehanded.
As befitting a thief, Culotte's movement as she closed the distance was agile. When it came to feints, she was probably better than Arrogan, too. Between Arrogan, who wielded a Magic Sword—a longsword—and Culotte, who wielded a short dagger, Culotte's attack speed was inevitably faster.
"Haah!"
With a sharp cry, the dagger thrust straight forward.
But Rei dodged the strike with a light sway of his body, then gently reached out his hand.
So naturally that Culotte at first didn't notice, Rei's hand extended toward her. Still, when his fingers were about to touch her right shoulder, she became aware of its presence and made a split-second decision to leap backward.
Feeling the sensation of the lawn beneath her boots, Culotte noticed cold sweat running down her spine. She understood that she had been in genuine danger just then. If she had been even a moment slower to notice Rei's hand, she would probably have been sent tumbling onto the lawn.
She hadn't thought she could beat Rei. Even so, she had believed that maybe—just maybe—she could at least land a single blow in return. She felt embarrassed at herself for thinking that.
She had been watching the mock battle with Arrogan from the sidelines. Because she had watched it, she had believed she could fight Rei to some extent herself.
But in reality, that single exchange alone had made her fully realize the overwhelming gap in ability between them.
(Arroganki actually held his own in a mock battle against an opponent like this. …Well, it seems like he was mostly just beaten one-sidedly, though.)
Taking advantage of the fact that Rei wasn't closing the distance himself, Culotte tried to calm her agitation by thinking about unrelated things. The fact that the subject of her thoughts was Arrogan rather than her childhood friend Schola was something she had no awareness of—but it was likely proof of just how significant Arrogan's presence was to her.
And though it was unconscious, having thought about Arrogan, Culotte felt her body, which had been tense in front of Rei, recover at least slightly.
(With this, I can do it!)
The moment she thought that, Culotte kicked off the ground again and closed the distance to Rei.
Compared to before, her movement was clearly lighter. With that awareness, she swung her dagger at Rei, who was closing in in the blink of an eye.
Normally, it went without saying that blunted weapons should be used for mock battles. But Culotte had no composure to spare for such considerations right now. She simply swung her dagger straight forward, exactly as her will dictated. Though somewhere in her mind, she likely had the conviction that even if her attack landed, it would mean almost nothing against Rei.
"Haah!"
"Too naive."
And indeed, the attack she could confidently declare her best yet was easily dodged by Rei. Not only that, her wrist was seized and she was flung into the air, her own momentum used against her.
Thanks to her thief-like agility, she managed to right herself midair and landed on the lawn—but the expression on Culotte's face was one of disbelief.
The fact that Rei still had not gone all out was obvious just from the fact that he was fighting barehanded. Moreover, though Culotte didn't know it, Rei still had a trump card—the skill called Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
"Tch! You're as good as ever."
She knew Rei was strong, but the fact that she still hadn't given up spoke to Culotte's fierce spirit. Even the most effective attack she could muster had no effect.
Culotte kicked off the lawn once more and charged at Rei again.
Attacking head-on had proven useless. With that much clear, what Culotte chose next was an attack heavy on feints.
A short dagger, a weapon with short reach—which was precisely why it was light and well-suited for feints. She feinted a thrust, pulled the weapon back, then thrust toward a different spot.
But such an attack was, as expected, seen through by Rei and easily dodged.
However, that was probably exactly what Culotte had anticipated. Without any sign of discouragement, she dropped low and launched a sweeping kick aimed at Rei's legs.
"Whoa."
Rei leapt backward, confirmed the kick had passed right in front of him, and stepped forward again.
Culotte, having launched the ground-level sweep, confirmed this and immediately swung her dagger as a feint. It was fine if it didn't connect; if she could just buy even a little time—that was the intent behind it.
But to Rei… no, to anyone above a certain level of skill, Culotte's strike looked like nothing but a wide opening.
"Naive. How many times is that now?"
At the word "naive," Rei kicked up the pommel of the dagger Culotte was gripping, and by the time he finished the sentence, he had already seized her arm and pinned her to the ground.
With her arm twisted behind her back and pressed against the ground, Culotte could do nothing at this point. No matter how strong her competitive spirit was, in this situation, the option of refusing to acknowledge her defeat simply did not exist.
"I give."
"Then I win. Your speed and your fighting spirit are good. They're good, but… your technique hasn't caught up. To be honest, if you look purely at combat technique, Byune is better."
"Mm."
Byune, who had been leaning against Set, raised her hand lightly at Rei's words.
"You're kidding! A kid like that!?"
Culotte cried out, unable to believe what she was hearing. But that was only natural. Considering the age difference between them, Culotte overwhelmingly surpassed Byune in pure physical ability.
Even so, Byune used her small stature to excel at agile movements, and she wielded Hakumo, a weapon forged from S-Rank monster materials.
And above all, during the combat training conducted over the winter, Byune's main sparring partner had been Vihera, with Rei and Marina also stepping in from time to time. Every one of them possessed top-tier combat ability even in Gilm.
Combat training against such opponents meant the density of the training itself was vastly different from ordinary practice. Of course, from the perspective of being a thief, she was clearly a failure.
After all, as Culotte herself demonstrated, a thief's primary role was not combat. As long as she was active as an adventurer, a certain level of combat skill was essential, but the skills she needed were things like stealth, trap detection and disarming, and lockpicking rather than fighting.
(Thinking about it that way, Byune isn't really a thief anymore. Maybe "thief-like warrior" would be a more fitting description.)
With that thought, he offered a single remark as if to comfort the stunned Culotte.
"Byune is better in combat, but if you look purely at thief skills, I think you're better."
At those words of comfort, Culotte's expression softened, looking at least a little reassured.