My daughter began receiving formal instruction from her seniors, and day after day, she returned home from school utterly exhausted. For the first week or so, she seemed so drained that even moving was a chore. When I asked what kind of training they were doing, my eyes widened in surprise.
I wondered if this was really the sort of thing high schoolers were supposed to do for after-school activities.
"I can understand running and strength training to build endurance and muscle, but are you already sparring with weapons?"
"Yeah, though it’s still just practice swings and striking drills..."
Today was no different; she was slumped over the living room table, looking completely spent. I struck up a conversation to ask about her progress.
It seemed that since my daughter and her friends had already been training to some extent under their peers, the instruction from their seniors had moved into practical applications quite early on.
"When you actually swing a weapon, it doesn't move at all like you imagine it in your head. I get pulled along by the weight, and I can't snap it to a stop exactly where I want to."
"Well, I suppose so. This doesn't just apply to weapons. Even when you're carrying a long object or a bag with the weight shifted to one side, the slightest bit of momentum makes it move in ways you don't expect."
"Exactly. Just gripping the handle a little too tight while swinging makes the tip veer off in the wrong direction. My senior told me to maintain a constant grip strength from start to finish because tensing up during the swing makes the point wobble. It’s a lot harder than it sounds."
With a weary expression, my daughter grumbled as she recalled her senior's advice. I understood the logic, but it sounded like a difficult level of instruction for a novice who had only started serious practice a few days ago.
Then again, for someone unaccustomed to it, moving a long object with precision was difficult even during simple practice swings.
"Well, I suppose you have no choice but to get used to it through repetition."
"I know, but it’s so exhausting. My senior checks my form for every single swing—checking if the tip wobbled, if my posture broke, if I was using unnecessary force... I get a critique every single time. It’s tough physically, but it’s pretty draining mentally, too."
"I see. But this isn't unique to your situation. In sports, you often hear about athletes getting injured because their running or swinging form was off, putting weird stress on their bodies. If you were to strain a muscle or get injured because you couldn't swing your weapons correctly, it would be a failure on their part as instructors. I think hammering the correct form into you right at the start is the right way to teach, precisely to prevent those kinds of injuries."
"I guess you're right, but I wonder how much I have to practice before I can swing naturally. Mika-chan and the others said they got used to it right away, though..."
With a gloomy look, my daughter shared what she had heard from her friend. According to her, if it was just practice swings, it would supposedly take about two weeks to look decent.
"Is that so? Then you'll just have to do your best."
"I know, but... sigh..."
Thinking of the days of fierce training ahead, my daughter gazed out the window as if staring into the far distance.
Well, if she was training this thoroughly, she likely wouldn't get injured by minor incidents once she entered the dungeons. Yes, I had made the right choice in asking them to train her.
That day, after she had endured her training and returned home, I handed her a letter that had arrived for her. A moment later, a cry of joy echoed through the house.
The living room door burst open, and my daughter appeared, her face radiant with delight.
"I did it! I passed!"
"Hmm? Passed?...Oh, the bookkeeping exam."
"Yes! I was so worried, but look! It clearly says 'Pass' right here!"
Her cheeks flushed with excitement, she proudly showed me the passing notice, confirming she had indeed passed her bookkeeping exam.
"I see, you passed. That’s great. You worked so hard on your studies; I'm really proud of you."
"Yeah! I’ve been so anxious since the day of the test, so I’m really relieved. Now I can focus entirely on training and the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam."
With that weight off her shoulders, she wore a bright expression for the first time in a while. She even did a little victory dance, moving with a lightness that made it seem as though her exhaustion had vanished.
Recently, she had grown accustomed to the training and sat down exhausted less often, but she shouldn't have had enough energy left to dance. She must have been truly happy.
"I see. Well then, along with the dungeon exploration and exam prep, let's work hard on studying for your final exams too. They're coming up soon, right?"
"...That's true."
With that one reminder from me, the joy on her face vanished in an instant, replaced by a look of gloom as she let out a heavy sigh.
Well, for a student, periodic tests are nothing but a depressing hurdle.
"You're going to have another study session with your friends for this test, right? Since you started those study sessions, your grades have been looking up, so it’s a good thing."
"Yeah. We teach each other the parts we don't understand, and we can get advice from our seniors too, so we can study efficiently. It really helps my grades."
"To have them look after your studies as well as your training as an explorer... In that case, I'll prepare some snacks for you to take to the study session again. Not as a formal gift, just as a refreshment for everyone."
"Okay. Oh, and the snacks I took last time were a big hit. The seniors seemed to realize what you were doing, but they said they were delicious anyway."
So they had caught on to my intentions. Well, it was an apology gift, so there was no harm in them knowing. There was no sense worrying about it now.
Besides, it’s perfectly normal for a parent to send a gift when their daughter goes to a friend's house for a study session. Perfectly normal.
"Then I'll prepare the same thing. Or maybe different sweets from the same shop? Like a cake..."
"The same thing is fine. There are a lot of people at the study session, and since we eat while we work, small individual bags of dry snacks are easier to handle."
"I see, let's do that then."
True, if they were eating while studying, individual packets would be much more practical.
"Yeah! Anyway, I'm going to go tell everyone I passed the bookkeeping exam!"
"Right—Wait, hold on a second!"
As my daughter started to dash out of the living room with the passing notice in hand, I hurried to stop her. It was a bad idea to ask about pass-fail results right this second.
"Even if you're asking your friends about their results, wait a little while longer."
"Eh? Why?"
"Just think about it. What if, by some chance, one of them failed? Even if you're asking friends, give them some time to process it first, just in case they didn't pass."
"Oh... yeah. You're right, that’s a possibility. Okay, I'll wait a bit... No, I'll just ask tomorrow when I get to school."
My daughter's face turned pale for a moment as she realized she had been getting carried away. I could understand her being on cloud nine, but that’s exactly when a careless word can cause friction between good friends.
She had been so happy just a moment ago and now looked conflicted; I felt a bit bad, but it was better to be cautious.
It turned out that all the club members who took the bookkeeping exam had passed. I had made her act cautiously on the off-chance that someone had failed, but it seemed my fears were unnecessary.
Thanks to that, the girls were able to face their final exams in high spirits and felt they had performed well.
"I see. So you have a good feeling about the results?"
"Yeah, I think I definitely got above average. We all studied together, after all."
"I see, that’s good then."
It seemed they had weathered the final exams without issue. Lately, my daughter had been juggling the bookkeeping exam, training for the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam, and her school finals. Seeing her so exhausted from training, I wouldn't have been surprised if she couldn't focus on her schoolwork and her grades slipped.
However, the fact that she could maintain above-average grades while dealing with all that was a testament to her effort. I could see how hard she was working to prove that her life as an explorer wouldn't interfere with her education.
"Yeah. And so, the senior told me... now that finals are over, the main event, the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam, is finally next Sunday. He told me to give it my all."
"I see, so the big day is finally next week."
"Yeah. So we're going to do some final intensive practice until then. There's a written exam too, but they said the content is simple, so if I just look through a commercial prep textbook, I should be fine."
"Is it really okay to study that little?"
The Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam is said to be an easy qualification to obtain once the application is approved, but people do still fail. Since nearly 80% of applicants pass, it’s often seen more as a formality to grant the title rather than a rigorous screening.
"Yeah. They said that if you listen carefully to the classroom learning lectures on the day and understand them, you can pass the written exam even without prior study. The seniors said that's how they did it. They only recommended the textbook as a 'better to be safe than sorry' thing to guarantee a pass."
"...That level of academic rigor actually makes me more worried. Couldn't they make it a bit more challenging?"
"I think so too, but my senior said the classroom learning is mostly just to tell you what counts as a legal violation so you don't do it. He said the written exam might only exist to prove the applicants were actually paying attention."
"That gives me a headache."
Hearing her description of the exam, I instinctively cradled my head. It was lazy, to say the least, but it was a test that did the bare minimum. Since they were taught the laws in the lectures and then tested on their understanding, it felt like a system designed solely to prevent the excuse of "I didn't know" when someone eventually got caught breaking the rules.
Then, realizing that there were actually applicants who couldn't even pass a test like that, a cold sweat ran down my spine. It was essentially proof that those people had no intention of following even the most basic rules from the start.
"I know. And there's a practical exam too, but they said if I can survive the seniors' training, I'll pass without any trouble. Mika-chan and the others said it'll be fine as long as I don't catch a fever or something on the day."
"Well, that’s encouraging. But has your training really been that intense?"
"It seems so. The Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam is just a stepping stone. Since we’re training specifically for dungeon exploration where the goal is to avoid getting hurt, passing this is considered a given. The seniors said they didn't train us so soft that we'd fail a practical exam."
"Well, certainly, if you're looking at the long term, you'd need to be able to pass a supposedly easy exam with room to spare."
Since I had no experience with the exam or the dungeons, I couldn't easily compare the two, but if the seniors said so, then it must be true.
However, was training that allowed one to breeze through the practical exam really something high schoolers should be doing before they even became explorers? Recalling my daughter's exhausted state every day, I felt a fresh wave of concern.
"Yeah. I've worked so hard for this, with the goal of finally exploring a dungeon. I can't afford to trip up on an exam. I'm definitely going to pass."
"I suppose you will... Give it everything you’ve got."
"I will! Just a little bit longer until the big day!"
With her goal finally within reach, my daughter clenched her fists, psyching herself up.
A few days after my daughter took the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam, the results arrived. With a look of pure joy, she gripped the passing notice and danced around the living room, her hands raised high in triumph.
It was the moment she had truly taken her first step toward her dream; her happiness was palpable.
"Congratulations. You worked really hard."
"Thank you, Dad! Now I'm a real explorer!"
"You are. But the real work begins once you actually go into a dungeon. Don't let the excitement make you careless, or you'll get hurt."
"I'll be fine! The seniors have been very strict about that. If I let my guard down because I'm happy about passing, they'll double my training! Carelessness is the greatest enemy; a moment's inattention can lead to a lifetime of injury!"
If she understood that much, then she should be okay. The seniors had promised to dive with the girls for a while, so I hoped she would engage in steady, safe exploration without being reckless.
Regardless, if my daughter had passed, Hino-san had likely passed as well. There was still the matter of purchasing weapons; I should contact Hino-san's parents soon to discuss the next steps.
Even as my daughter takes her first step toward her dream, a parent's worries never truly end.