A Whiff of Yuri?

His strength was very high.

His agility was very high.

Even his endurance, which he had always been proud of, was still lower than hers.

Looking all the way down, she was a flawless all-rounder with no weaknesses.

The point reward for successfully winning her over was astonishingly high, almost dozens of times that of the opposite-sex targets Noah had scanned before.

But she was Momousagi, after all. Thinking about the difficulty involved... it was hardly surprising.

"Wait..."

When he saw the final note, Noah finally noticed something was off. He froze in shock. "—Compared to men, she actually prefers young, cute girls?"

What did that mean? Momousagi was secretly into women...

Could the absurdly high point reward have taken that factor into account as well?

He silently watched Momousagi's back in the distance, looking hesitant. Perhaps he should not jump to conclusions. After all, the system prompt was ambiguous, and it had even been phrased as a question.

"Hey, Brother Noah, why don't we go join the fun and ask Commodore Gion for some guidance?" Rosinante's voice suddenly came from beside him.

"Hm?"

Only then did Noah come back to his senses. He closed the system panel and shook his head. "It's not our turn. Didn't you notice that all the ones she picked were girls?"

"It's close, one-on-one instruction. There'd be too much physical contact," Shiryu added from Noah's left, then lit another cigarette with a snap. The guy was a serious chain-smoker, going through at least three or four packs a day.

"Oh."

Rosinante finally understood. He was not particularly disappointed, though. After watching for a while longer, he eagerly dragged Noah and Shiryu to a corner to spar with swords.

When it came to swordsmanship alone, Shiryu was unquestionably the strongest of the three.

Like Noah, he had trained in swordsmanship since childhood. He had now entered the realm of Zantetsu and had recently been pondering how to consistently unleash sword aura—Flying Slashes.

A Flying Slash was an attack method realized by taijutsu experts during training, condensing their sense of qi into tangible form.

Broadly speaking, it was not something only swords could perform. Other weapons could do it as well; even Rankyaku among the Rokushiki operated on the same principle.

And whether a swordsman could unleash Flying Slashes was precisely the key to whether he could be called a Swordmaster.

Take an example.

In the manga, Zoro had trained tirelessly and grown stronger ever since setting out to sea. But the true sign that the moss-head had entered the realm of Swordmaster came after the Alabasta arc, when he could frequently and consistently unleash "Pound Ho."

Shiryu was now very close to that step. Once he crossed that threshold, he could truly be called a Swordmaster from then on.

Noah was still quite a ways from the realm of Zantetsu in swordsmanship and had never beaten Shiryu in a spar. However, his fundamentals were exceptionally solid, and he had an excellent grasp of the theoretical knowledge Zephyr taught, basically having fully integrated it into his own understanding.

Thus, every time the two sparred, both could learn quite a bit from their exchanges. They guided and consulted each other, rapidly improving one another's swordsmanship.

As for Rosinante...

The guy was not weak at taijutsu, but his talent for the sword was pitifully low.

Whenever they sparred with swords, Noah and Shiryu could only beat him senseless. Yet despite being terrible, he was addicted to it. He always styled himself as a future Great Swordmaster, shouting that one day he would become the Marines' number one swordsman.

Then Noah and Shiryu would expressionlessly whip him with bamboo swords until he howled miserably and lost all sense of direction...

Today was no different. After a whole morning of sword training, Rosinante was bruised and battered, his face swollen and his body covered in black-and-blue marks. Yet he looked quite satisfied, as though he believed he had improved considerably in swordsmanship through all that abuse.

Noah could not bear to expose the truth. While applying medicine to Rosinante's injuries, he could only offer perfunctory comfort, saying that if this kept up, he would surely fulfill his dream and become a famous Swordmaster in the Marines someday.

The afternoon was devoted purely to taijutsu training. It consumed an enormous amount of stamina, and since Noah showed no sign of leaving, Rosinante and Shiryu were too embarrassed to leave first. They did not stop until seven or eight in the evening.

The two were exhausted, their faces full of fatigue. After getting their meals, they silently lowered their heads and ate, without even the strength to speak.

Noah, on the other hand, looked as though nothing had happened. He was still full of energy and glowing with health, with an incredible appetite. Before long, tall stacks of empty plates had piled up beside him.

The two brothers sitting across from him were dumbstruck.

"Just as expected of you..."

Shiryu stared at Noah, his face full of things he wanted to say but could not. "Your stamina was always monstrously strong before, but lately it seems to be getting more and more absurd..."

"Really? Maybe I've been training less since getting on the warship, so I have more energy to spare."

Noah looked up and blinked innocently before continuing to eat. Although he ate a lot, his table manners were actually quite refined. He did not have the ravenous, wolfing-down-food manner of a starving ghost.

"..."

Shiryu choked. He exchanged a glance with Rosinante, and both saw the speechlessness in each other's eyes.

To spend more time with Noah, the two of them had trained nonstop with him until seven or eight at night, resting two hours later than usual back at Marine Headquarters. And that counted as less training time?

What an unreasonable training maniac!

Noah did not notice their strange expressions. As he rapidly filled his stomach, he silently reflected on that day's training and made a systematic summary and analysis.

It was a habit he had developed over many years.

"Without the acceleration effect of the Taijutsu Training Card, my rate of progress has been much slower than it was last week."

"But compared to when I was stuck at a bottleneck before, it's still much better. It seems the increase in my attributes has widened the channels through which I can tap my body's potential, like opening deeper levels of the human body's treasure vault. At least I won't end up in that awkward state of stagnation again."

He was able to confirm a few things, and his mood was quite pleasant. After finishing dinner, he was about to head to the training room for more practice when Shiryu and Rosinante stopped him together.

"That's enough, Noah!"

Shiryu slung an arm around his shoulders and said helplessly, "It's one thing to work yourself to death at the base every day, but you finally got the chance to come out. Leave yourself some room to relax."

"Yeah, save some energy for the practical assessment, Brother Noah." Rosinante grinned as he tried to persuade him. "The moon is beautiful tonight. Let's take a walk outside together, stretch our legs and work off the food."

"Take a moonlit walk with two grown men?" Noah wore a look of disgust. "How boring! Do you think I'm like you two, unable to find girls to keep me company?"

As he spoke, he lifted a foot and prepared to head toward the training room.

Then, in the next second, the two exasperated men forcibly hauled him out of the cabin and onto the deck.

First release. There will be another before midnight. Thank you to Shi Luonian Ah for the generous reward, and to Night Tower Dread Guest, Deep Street Drunkard, and Panda Panda for the support. This newbie is moved to tears—thank you so much~