February Flew By, but the Sword Had to Be Faster Than Thought!

Near noon, Sylphy arrived.

She stood outside near the wall, turned sideways as she lowered her head to carefully examine the weeds by her feet. If her eyes had not occasionally flickered toward the courtyard, Allen might have thought she was merely passing by.

Paul, who had claimed he would spend the whole day training extra hard, unconsciously sighed in relief at the sight. Then, clutching his forehead, he sent the two children out to play.

After being bombarded by the kids with a hundred thousand questions today, his pig brain had clearly overloaded.

Allen walked toward Sylphy with a smile, ready to wave, but suddenly froze awkwardly.

It didn't matter if a kid saw everything, right? Hahaha, it was fine. People in this world matured early anyway.

"I-It's okay. About yesterday, I... I didn't mind."

What did you even have to mind?!

Allen pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation and spoke weakly.

"Then... let's pretend nothing happened. Rudy? Hmm? Rudy??"

Allen noticed that Rudy had not come over. Turning around, he saw Rudy standing a meter away, awkwardly greeting Sylphy. It was not only the embarrassment of having seen each other naked; he was also bad at dealing with girls his own physical age.

Allen blinked.

Rudy might be a pervert, but at heart he still had the traits of a NEET. A giant in words, a dwarf in action. He could talk big all day, but after actually doing it, Eris running away gave him such psychological trauma that he became impotent.

He could not help laughing. Turning around, he hooked an arm around Rudy and headed for the courtyard gate, casually catching Sylphy by the shoulder as well.

"Come on! Let's teach Sylphy magic!"

"Don't put your arm around me, Allen!"

"Huh? Are you embarrassed?"

"N-No, I need to go back and get the Magic Textbook!"

"Oh."

"Hehe."

"Sylphy, what are you laughing at? I was going to get the textbook for you!"

".Rudy, I-I wasn't laughing."

"If you're going to lie, at least manage your expression! Hey, Allen, what are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing because you'll be weak and useless in the future, relying entirely on Sylphy to support you."

"??"

"??"

Two months passed amid laughter, swordsmanship, and magic lessons.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of May.

Just as in the original story, Sylphy displayed extraordinary talent for magic. In only two months, she had mastered most of the spells in the Magic Textbook and was now learning Silent Casting from Rudy.

During that time, Rudy secretly spent every day studying so-called tactics behind Allen's back. At first, he even discussed possible ways to deal with Allen with Sylphy. But after accidentally discovering that Sylphy had been secretly reporting to Allen, he never showed any of his research results in front of her again.

June 1st.

After breakfast, Rudy exchanged a look with Allen, then strode out the door to a chorus of cheers and encouragement.

Allen, meanwhile, leisurely helped clear the table.

Zenith watched Allen with a smile.

"I heard you two were going to compete, and I was a little surprised. Allen, be sure to go easy on him~"

Allen smiled. He had a very good impression of Zenith. Perhaps it was because she was the person most similar to the kind of personality he had known in his previous life, making her feel especially familiar. Besides, she truly treated Allen well.

It was a strange sense of warmth... Was this what a home felt like?

Though Allen did not really understand what a home was, having grown up in an orphanage.

"Rudy is much stronger than you all think. Rather than worrying about him, you should worry about me."

Zenith looked at Allen, curling her lips into the same eerie smile Rudy wore.

A shiver ran through Allen's entire body.

Then he heard Zenith say,

"After all, our child is a genius, and he's very well-behaved too~"

Allen nodded frantically.

If stealing his teacher's underwear counted as being well-behaved.

But Zenith then smiled gently and normally, reaching out to stroke Allen's smooth hair, which he had deliberately flattened around the front of his forehead near his eyes.

"Allen is a genius too~"

Allen blinked, staring blankly at Zenith. He did not know what to say.

Then Zenith suddenly darkened her expression and leaned close to Allen's face.

"So you two won't end up causing trouble at the clinic again today, right?"

Allen gave an awkward cough.

"That definitely won't happen. I know my limits."

Zenith narrowed her eyes at him questioningly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Um, the poisoning incident last time was an accident."

"All right, I won't scare you anymore. Go on, and be careful."

"Okay."

Allen stepped out of the house. Paul was already standing in the courtyard. He smiled at Allen, only to find him stop in front of him in silence, one hand resting on his sword's scabbard.

Paul tilted his head and asked in confusion.

"Is this... morning sword practice continuing?"

"Yes."

"Oh? Aren't you competing with Rudy?"

"He's still making final preparations and running through his tactics one last time. We agreed I wouldn't watch. Once he's ready, Sylphy will come get me."

Paul lowered his gaze to the sword in his hand and smiled.

"I see."

The moment his words fell, Paul's sword was already out of its sheath. His body left an afterimage as the blade's tip shot straight at Allen's throat!

Allen's pupils contracted sharply, and the hand on his sword clenched the hilt.

"Twenty Slashes!"

Sparks flew as Allen instantly swung his sword, knocking Paul's blade aside. Then he raised a leg and whipped it at Paul's face.

"Thud!"

The fabric of his pants fluttered violently in the air. Paul steadily caught his calf with one hand and narrowed his eyes at Allen, whose face showed surprise.

"No. You're still instinctively using other styles. I don't know what technique you used for that slash, but it didn't look like Water God Style. Was it some North God Style technique I don't know? That follow-up whip kick was completely a common North God Style response technique."

Allen withdrew his leg with an ugly expression, then leaped backward to widen the distance.

Paul rolled his neck, raised his sword above his head, and assumed an extremely aggressive high stance.

"If you keep using the styles you're good at, your Sword God Style will never improve. I've said that countless times over the past two months, haven't I?"

"Sorry. Habits built over many years are hard to change."

Whenever he faced Paul's high-speed thrusts, he instinctively used the fighting methods he was accustomed to in order to resolve them. This was already the result of trying to restrain himself; before, he had used Water God Style completely.

Why?

At equal swordsmanship levels, Water God Style held a clear advantage over Sword God Style. It was the subconscious instinct to seek benefit and avoid harm, formed through his conduct in his previous life.

Allen let out a long breath.

Before learning Light Return, Sword God Style's main method of fighting opponents from the same style was to be faster than them. Whoever cut the other first won. That meant taking the initiative to attack.

Even as his mind continued to think, Paul's sword suddenly struck. He slashed at Allen's blade, and amid the grinding of steel, his words beat against Allen's heart like a pendulum.

"Your sword has to be faster than your thoughts, so why are you always thinking?!"

The blades shuddered apart, and the following slash was already tearing through the air beside Allen's ear!