The Childish Trick

Heka fastened the sword sheath made of leather and cork to his belt, then walked into the square, which had suddenly grown busy.

Cart after cart of supplies was hauled out of the cellar and piled in the shadows near the corner of the wall.

Heka soon found the little corner where he used to practice swordsmanship. In the past, there had hardly been anyone in the square. Most of the people from the Black Mountain Merchants had their own tasks and could not possibly gather in the square every day.

Only the collective funeral not long ago had brought some people here.

The groom who had been keeping Heka's wooden sword was peeling eggs at the moment. They were extra food for the horses.

In fact, two days earlier, the troughs in the stables, which had originally contained a mixture of fodder, had already been filled with beans for fattening the horses.

When the groom saw Heka come downstairs, he habitually walked over to the side and took Heka's little wooden sword out of the chest.

It was not until he carried the wooden sword out of the stable that he noticed the sword sheath slung across the boy's body.

"Looks like I won't need to keep this wooden sword for you anymore.

You can take it yourself. Consider it a keepsake.

I gave my wooden sword to my younger son back then. If he were still alive, he'd probably be a little older than you."

The groom turned the tip of the wooden sword toward himself, then gripped the spine, its wooden thorns worn away from use, and handed the sword to Heka.

"Where's Martin?"

Heka nodded and accepted the wooden sword.

Whether it was because news of yesterday's battle had spread, or simply because Deko the great tiger was following behind him, Heka could not say.

When Heka approached, the several warriors who had been chatting in the corner immediately got up and left, clearing the little corner for him.

"Martin?"

Deko, following behind Heka, frowned. There was indeed a warrior named Martin in the Black Mountain Merchants, but he should not have known Heka.

"My little friend with a lump growing on his head."

Heka looked around. There were already more than ten warriors gathered here.

At the center of the grounds, two warriors had stripped off their armor and weapons and were wrestling in only their padded garments, surrounded by a ring of cheering spectators.

It looked like the operation would take place tonight.

"Him? We sent him somewhere else. This place will probably be deserted tonight, and it isn't safe to stay here."

Heka curled his lip. From the moment he had woken up until now, he had only seen Tuft of Hair once. After that, Deko had watched him the entire time.

He could not tell how much the people from the Black Mountain Merchants knew after he had passed out.

He could have asked Martin before, but now it seemed the people from the Black Mountain Merchants had made up their minds not to let him know any of that information.

Could it be that they already know about my little scheme and are planning to finish the job and kill me outright?

As Heka surveyed the weapons carried by the people around him, he undid his belt and the attached sheath, hung them on a nearby rack, and then drew the short sword.

As he watched the boy begin practicing again, Deko started counting the frequency of his swings in his head.

One hundred and twenty-six, one hundred and twenty-seven...

When Heka stopped for the first time, Deko considerately handed him a cup of lightly salted water and casually squeezed Heka's forearm.

He had received complete swordsmanship training. For the knightly families of the Black Mountain Duchy, this kind of training generally began as soon as a child could walk.

This period continued until the child received his own name at the age of five. During that time, the focus was mainly on reaction training and attack-and-defense exercises resembling games.

At this stage, older children usually led younger children in fighting another group of children, using wooden weapons to practice group combat.

During this time, parents would select the stronger and more nimble children for special cultivation.

Those with slower reactions or insufficient strength would be placed in the second tier, or sent to the church.

In Deko's eyes, compared with boys of the same age from the Black Mountain Duchy, the boy before him had obvious flaws in technique.

His attack patterns were too monotonous, his footwork transitions were problematic, and his starting stance was also flawed.

But setting those problems aside, his blade alignment was extremely straight, his footing was solid, and he had already begun exploring the application of footwork.

Judging by this sweeping strike alone, he had already reached the standard of an outstanding Black Mountain warrior.

But that was unreasonable.

Training blade alignment was a systematic undertaking. A beginner could not possibly complete that training through a single sweeping strike.

"Your center of gravity is too far back. When transitioning, you can move forward a little more."

Watching the other's awkward movements, Deko ultimately could not hold back. After hesitating again and again, he finally took the initiative to correct him.

Then he saw that Heka quickly understood his meaning after the reminder, and his movements immediately became much smoother.

"What's the point of practicing one move over and over?"

Apparently hearing Deko's reminder, several of the Black Mountain warriors nearby assumed they could instruct Heka and came over with beaming smiles.

There were always people who loved playing teacher. No one had come over earlier only because Deko had recently sent the swordsmanship instructor he had found for Heka to an outlying stronghold.

The transfer had caused no loss for the person involved. The outside had its own advantages.

But the sharp-eyed Black Mountain warriors had immediately realized the unspoken meaning behind it. After that, no one came to instruct Heka's movements.

Even the people training in the square mostly focused only on basic strength and endurance exercises, avoiding technical training.

"Shoo, shoo. Don't mislead the boy. With those three-legged-cat skills of yours, even watching you makes me cringe."

Deko swept his eyes over them and immediately drove off the two men who had come over, eager to indulge in the pleasure of playing master.

"What's the big deal? Do you really need a Second-Level Adventurer to teach a child? He doesn't teach him himself either. What a waste of the boy's diligence."

When Deko saw Heka looking at him, he forced out a smile, but it pulled the scar on his face into an even uglier shape.

"Practice the basic movements properly. What you're practicing now is called Master Technique. That means only people who practice these movements well can become true swordsmanship masters.

Don't learn from them. If you bite off more than you can chew, you'll end up mastering a complete hodgepodge."

Heka looked at the man before him, who was spouting lies with a perfectly serious expression. He knew that the people from the Black Mountain Merchants still did not intend to let him master too much combat power.

But since the other party had already opened this door, if he did not press his advantage and wring some benefit from it, he would be letting this wonderful opportunity slip through his fingers.

Heka nodded with an expression of trust, but after looking away, he cast a reluctant glance toward the direction in which the two warriors had left.

Deko's old face flushed as he solemnly talked nonsense. Deceiving a child like this did make him feel somewhat guilty, but he also did not want the boy to run wild.

Deko thought for a moment, and immediately came up with a plan.

I'll teach him basic skills that require a long time to train before they show results, and use them to wear down his energy.

That would also give the little devil something to do. If he kept practicing Sweeping Strike here all day, Deko felt a chill creep up his neck every time he watched him.