That day, I received a report from the king that a visitor would be coming to my training ground.
The visitor was the daughter of the third prince who had recently returned from her martial arts training; in other words, my niece.
I don't think I've met her much, so I wonder what she wanted with me.
So I waited for her to come. And so, she arrived just in time, neither early nor late.
"I may have met you before, but let me introduce myself. I'm Misayano. Misayano BraveLord. Call me Misaya. I'm sure you've heard stories from my grandfather, but I'm the daughter of the third prince, Sanvolt. I guess I can be considered your niece?" As she introduced herself, I took in her appearance, she had brown hair, golden eyes, and a cheerful impression with her short, braided hair on the left side. She has beautiful features, as is the case for members of the hero's bloodline, but she is more cute than beautiful. I remember having a brief conversation with her before, where she used the unique first-person pronoun "boku."
Her long hair has been shortened and her appearance has changed considerably, but I vaguely remember her.
"I'm Eucharlouch BraveLord. You can call me Charles. We may be uncle and niece by blood, but we're not that different in age." Although we are uncle and niece, we shouldn't be more than three years apart in age. "Thank you. Then I'll call you that." There is no hostility in her eyes as she answers me. She seems a little different from the people who have come here so far.
"Charles is a little thin, but you're very handsome. You don't look much like my grandfather, so maybe you look like your mother?" "I can say the same, Misaya. Well, our bloodline is full of good-looking people." "Hehe. I'm grateful for the compliment." She said that and laughed. She was a carefree girl. "So, what brought you here today?" "I want you to spar with me." "Why is that?"
"Charles is the only remaining older hero, right? And I've heard you're very skilled. Even though I'm a woman, I'm still a member of the hero family, so I want to see what kind of power an active hero has." Her eyes are serious, and she doesn't seem to have come here out of curiosity. It's also a request from my cute niece, so I can't just ignore it.
Thinking so, I agreed without hesitation.
"No Brave Arts or magic. I'll just use a normal wooden sword. If that's okay, I'll be your opponent."
"You’ll accept it? Thank you!"
And so we faced off. She stood ready to face me. I didn't take a stance in response. "You're not going to take a stance?" "Yeah." "Well, then, shall I start?" "Anytime."
After a slight pause, she makes her move. *Whoosh* It's a good blow, using her full weight. *Clang*
I parry it.
"You’re good at redirecting the power, this is the first time I’ve been received so softly!"
"That was a good slash from you. I know this isn't the best way to put it, but it's a shame that you are a woman." "I'll take that as a compliment!" Swish, slash, slash! As she said this, she launched a barrage of attacks, but I dodged them all. For a while, I continued to dodge her attacks without even parrying them.
"Charles." I looked at her as she said this. "You're really good at dodging. In fact, after the first attack, I wasn't even allowed to touch your sword. You deliberately took the first one even though you could have dodged it, right?"
"You’re very observant. Swords are also consumables. If we're going to treat this as a real fight, then we need to act in ways that reflect that."
"Nice, you're better than I expected!" She looked really happy as she said that.
"If someone like you was a stupid prince, then there wouldn't be any normal princes left!" "Aren't you praising me a bit too much? I'm not used to being praised, so I'm embarrassed." "No, I can tell that Charles' movements are in a class of their own. They're really beautiful." Even as she spoke like that, she didn't let up on her attacks.
But I didn't sense any deceitfulness in her tone.
Her attitude was completely serious. "You've been dodging for a while now and haven't attacked at all, have you finished observing the situation?" "Yeah. That's enough." "Then let me see Charles' sword!"
"Okay, here I go. Right, left, left, up, down, down, up!" Swish slash slash slash! As I said this, I swung my sword in a totally random direction. "What?! What?! What?!" The honest Misayano was confused by my words and couldn't react properly. I took advantage of that opportunity.
"Yep, you're dead." And with that, I point my sword at her white throat. "No way…!" Misayano is stunned.
"You didn’t say 'that's unfair'. That’s commendable."
"So, there’s such a way of fighting. Charles seems smart."
"I’m just cunning. My head is not that good."
"Is Charles good at strategizing? I’m a bit bad at it…"
"Certainly, Misayano is a bit too honest. You seem like a bad match for someone who confuses people with words like me."
"Maybe."
"Now that you know that there are people like me, you'll be able to deal with them a bit better." "Yeah, that's true." "But this time, I'll go for it without any tricks. This isn't a lie. You can trust me on this." "Yeah, I get it."
As usual, I take the "Concealed Blade" stance. "That's an unusual stance." "That's what most people say when they see it for the first time. It's annoying, right?" "Yeah. I might have a hard time reading the sword's movements."
"Are you ready?"
"Anytime."
Following her example earlier, I also wait a short gap before unleashing a slash. Slash!
Misayano moves to block, but my sword slips through and reaches her throat. "I was completely defeated. We're both descendants of the hero, but there's such a big difference between us."
"It's the difference in experience. If you could equal me so effortlessly, it would undermine my position as the senior. If you gain more experience than me, you might become stronger than me."
"Really?" "It's not impossible. I think you're on the right track." "Hehe. I get embarrassed when Charles praises me."
"Since you've come all this way, why don't we practice a bit? If you're okay with me, I'll join you." "Really? I'd love it if Charles would join me!" She said that with sparkling eyes. So I spent about an hour training with Misayano.
Practicing with her was fun, and time flew by. "Thank you for today. Can we practice again?"
"If our schedules match up, I'll keep improving my skills so I don't get overtaken." "Again. It's not that easy to catch up with Charles. I learned that today." And that's how my time with my niece, who isn't much older than me, ended.
Chapter length 2880 characters.
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