Chapter 17: Chapter 17: I Tried to Verify It

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

The empty room in the basement was turned into Alec’s room.

You’re wondering if that’s poor treatment of him? Well Alec didn’t like sleeping in my room, and I intrude on my Master’s room, so he’s not allowed in there.

That being the case, the room in the basement inevitably had to become his room.

It’s the night after I came back from my shopping. To confirm my suspicions I had to make a number of items, so I ended up working far too late into the night.

It was after midnight when I finally completed it and crawled into my Master’s bed.

For some reason my Master, who had just been sleeping soundly for once in a long time, was bitter with me.

The next morning, when I come to, my Master isn’t in the bed, and the rhythmic clack, clack, sound of wood resounds. He must be having early morning training with Alec.

Still in a sleepy daze, I change my clothes, go to the well and, after washing my face, use [telekinesis] to transfer water into a water jug.

—If only we could just have a water pump installed in the kitchen.

The usual morning complaints crossed my mind, but today wasn’t the day for that!

Returning to my room, I take the prototype two-handed wooden sword from last night into my arms, and head to where my Master and Alec are.

“Good morning, Master, Alec.”

“Aah, g’morning. You were up awfully late last night, huh?”

“Morning, Yuuri.”1

Alec calling to me makes me once again feel like I’ve gotten a little brother and it makes me happy. In my previous life I only had a little sister.

Was my master winding down the training session? He was wiping away his sweat with a towel just now.

In the middle of this freezing weather, a young boy and beautiful middle aged man, naked from the waist up, wiping their sweat. This is the kind of situation that would make a woman with questionable preferences go wild.

But that’s not my thing, so I don’t really care.

I really mean that, OK? It’s not like my eyes are glued to my Master and won’t leave. I wouldn’t…

“Ahem. Master, are you done with your morning training?”

“Mm, well I can keep going for a little while but… Alec, how’re you holding up?”

“Umm, yeah, I’m fine. I can keep going!”

The young boy energetically replies. Yep, I’m glad he has recovered.

“Then, Alec, could you try using this sword today for me?”

“What… eh? Is this a two-handed sword? But I only have one hand…”

“Now, now, just please give me your impressions after you hold it.”

With a timid attitude, Alec extends his hand. He’s fundamentally a smart boy, but he doesn’t seem to understand my characteristics yet.

Does he think I’d be able to hold this ridiculously heavy looking training sword without magic?

“Huh? It’s light?”

“I’ve added [weight reduction] and [toughness] to this wooden training sword! [Smashing] was left unfinished.”

It doesn’t have a blade, so I couldn’t add [sharpness] like in a previous set-up.

“With that weight, you should be able to swing it with one arm, right Alec?”

“I guess it’s about as heavy as a normal short sword? It’s actually a little too light for me.”

“But, that, I finally got it to where I could barely hold it with two hands…”

My little brother is surprisingly sturdy, and my body is difficult to deal with, God.

“Again, you’re wasting an advanced technique on… well, whatever. Hm, then, shall we have Yuuri be your opponent this time?”

“Are you telling me to die, Master?”

“I’m not saying anything like that. You can use [body reinforcement].”

“Are you asking Alec to die, Master?”

“I’m not telling you to go full power!”

Unable to comprehend our exchange, Alec stares in puzzlement.

I think that facial expression would do a lot of damage to women with certain interests, so could you stop?

“Let’s see… about how precisely can you apply [body reinforcement], Yuuri?”

“I can do it in 1% increments.”

“But normally the most precise would be about 5%…”

“It’s because I’m an expert.”

“Did you really just say that? Ah, well. Then first, aside from vitality, face him with the minimum 1%.”

With 1%… that’s about two times the physical abilities of a regular person.

Taking a stance with a training dagger, I put 1% into agility for dodging, and 2% into vitality.

“Alright, go.”

Master gives some kind of spiritless starting cue.

In that instant, Alec rushed forward playfully. With a huge brandish, the two-handed sword held in his right hand is swung down directly in front of me.

The attack has a childish honesty to it, his swinging muscles and timing are completely visible.

I take a step back to get out of his attack range… eh?!

With a Zushaa sound, I felt an impact on the tip of my nose.

I should have dodge it completely, but that attack—it went and grazed the tip of my nose.

“Holy what?!”

This discomfort, I wonder what it is? Alec lets the sword flow to his side and, making a small circle, comes in for a mowing down attack.

—He wasn’t moving like when he was using a short sword, was he?!

Putting all my muscle behind my dagger, I strike up from below… but I miss!

“Eh? How co… uwa?!”

Lowering my head and rolling on the ground, I barely avoid his attack.

I fix my position. In retrospect, I could have done some more slashing.

The arm movement… bending the wrist, wrapping the blade around the body to build up power, and letting the sword tip speed around; a very distinctive swing.

—So this is the effect of the “two-handed sword” gift?!

Normally if I dodged, would he have time to adjust the sword’s tip to the subtle timing difference?…

To get out of the way, I make a huge leap back and take some distance.

Noticing where I ran to, Alec steps forward.

Taking another step back, I get out of his attack range… is what I thought, when he then twists his inside foot, bringing his waist and shoulder forward to lengthen his sword’s reach further.

—He’s got me. To think gifts were this much trouble to deal with… Alec, as a beginner, can move like this?!

While being amazed, I meet his sword with my dagger, and to kill the momentum I roll backwards with the blow.

With both of us losing our strength, we get back in position and face each other again.

“Right, that’s enough.”

That’s where my Master’s voice of restraint came forth.

~~~*~

“Alec, weren’t your movements better than when you were going at it with me?”

“Yeah, this sword is really easy to use.”

“… So I guess you weren’t fired up because you hate Yuuri, huh.”

“Master, why would he have a motive like that? I try to treat Alec quite preciously, you know?”

“Even when you’re basically sexually harassing him?”

“I do want you to treat yourself with a little more self-respect.”

“How mean?!”

—I wanted to hear his thoughts when he caught his breath, but the words he shoots back are horrible.

“But still, just with it being “easy to use,” there’s such a dramatic change?”

“Master, that’s the effect of the gift.”

“The gift? But I was only using the sword with one hand?”

“That interpretation is off. Alec’s gift, “two-handed sword talent,” isn’t “talent” for using a “sword” with “two hands”, but instead “talent” for handling “two-handed swords”. In other words, handling weapons of the two-handed sword genre in one hand isn’t a problem. Normally they’d be too heavy, so something like that would be impossible though.”

“And so you used [weight reduction] on it, huh?”

“Then, my gift is… still…”

“Yep. Alec, your talent isn’t dead yet. Your ability to protect others was just sleeping.”

Overcome with emotion, Alec looks at his right hand. Those eyes of his quickly fill with tears…

“Thank, you… Yuuri, thank… yo…”

Like that he propped himself on his knees, and cried for a while.

~~~*~

“But still, that was well noticed.”

With Alec calmed down, while we were all having lunch together, my Master complimented me.

“Well, I had a horrible experience once due to the interpretation of gifts after all… by the way, Alec. Please don’t get so close.”

“Why not? I like being next to you, Yuuri.”

“I’m not used to you yet!”

“So get used to me?”

“As if I can do that on command—?!”

Since then, Alec has been somewhat over-familiar with me.

I’m fine if I’m the one doing the touching, but I’m still averse to being touched or approached.

He himself says that my Master is “Master” and I’m his “benefactor” it seems…

He’s a Master to both of us, so it’s not like I don’t understand his feelings.

“Although, I still only have one wooden training sword after all—“

“We also need to prepare a real sword for Alec.”

“Using a [weight reduction] magic circle is well suited for iron after all. Well, I have a prospect for the main material ready.”

“That stupidly huge plate of iron from yesterday?”

“It’s called Sentinel.”

“Can that thing even be lifted? It didn’t seem like it would even budge.”

“It might be impossible right now. [Weight reduction] will need to be a little more compact for that.”

It’s a bit too heavy, so the size of the magic circle would be larger than the blade. That’s the problem that emerged.

Currently, carving [weight reduction] into a blade the size of a short sword, I can make the [weight reduction] down to the level of a dagger. That’s the how far I’ve got it right now.

“Right now [weight reduction] is only useful for someone like me; ‘a weakling who can’t even hold a short sword,’ so such people can hold a ‘short sword reduced to the weight of a dagger,’ and that’s all.”

“Yuuri, show me that magic circle later. I might just be able to come up with something.”

“Now that you mention it, Master, you’re the one who even carved circles on the temples of my glasses, huh.”

“Are you gonna make my sword for me?”

“Well, I haven’t even checked the possibilities, so please wait for it, but don’t get your hopes up.”

With your eyes shining like that, how could I give it anything less than my all?

This is how I completed both my “weapon development for my little brother,” and “recapturing my Master” missions at the same time.

Alec, I’m still not conceding my Master to you, you know…?