The Protagonist’s Party is Too Diligent – 59
EP.59 Forced Training (2)
But what choice did I have? I couldn’t think of a better method. I had no intention of learning swordsmanship from scratch at this point. Even if I started now, there was no guarantee how proficient I could become.
…No, the right question was could I even reach a level worthy of being called ‘proficient’?
Aside from specific schools of swordsmanship, the Empire also had military swordsmanship. Although firearms were starting to be more common on the battlefield than swords, there were still plenty of monstrous warriors who wielded swords with deadly precision, even achieving feats that earned them the title of “one-man armies.”
People like Lucas tore through the battlefield, cutting down enemies with ease, so the art of swordsmanship hadn’t completely lost its value.
Even so, I couldn’t help but think it was more practical to take down nearby enemies with a pistol or shotgun… Then again, in close-quarters combat where soldiers were all tangled together, trying to shoot a swordsman might end up putting your own allies at risk.
Though the scene from the game was rendered in 3D CG, the motion was less than ideal, so I couldn’t really tell how the battle played out in detail. The game didn’t even properly depict anti-aircraft fire during large-scale airborne operations, so who knew what it was like ‘for real’? Well, unless I saw it for myself, I’d never really know. That said, I didn’t think the battles from the original work were impossible here either—
“Sylvia!”
—That’s right. Especially because of people like them, I believed Lucas could still perform well on the battlefield.
I thought I had gotten up early, but some others had beaten me to it.
“Claire.”
I answered as I approached Claire, who was waving at me enthusiastically.
“Leo.”
“Hello.”
After three weeks of being around each other, Leo seemed to have learned that I wasn’t going to bite. His expression had softened noticeably, though he still seemed a bit on edge.
Luckily, Mia Crowfield seemed to be keeping my secret. If not, Leo wouldn’t have shown even this small bit of caution around me.
In the original game, Leo was the type to be friendly with people he had no reason to suspect. After all, he was the protagonist of a harem story. His personality kind of had to be like that.
“Out here early on another quest, I see.”
They had probably been out since around three in the morning.
This week’s quest wasn’t something I knew about. Just because the academy was the setting didn’t mean every single day at the academy could be depicted in detail. Sometimes, certain days just passed by without much story.
Still, I could at least check the quest sheet to find out the details and the rewards…
“……”
“I think I’ve got this place pretty much mapped out now. I just took a tour around here for a full sweep!”
Claire’s eyes sparkled as she spoke.
As she said, next to Claire and Leo were six neatly stacked beasts. Well, calling them “beasts” didn’t quite capture what they were. On Earth, they would’ve been considered full-on monsters.
There was a huge eagle with feathers still smoldering, a massive vampire bat that looked like it could wrap its wings around a person in a grotesque hug, and a bison with impossibly large horns—creatures that would have been terrifying even in reality. Then there were three more beasts. They were all the perfect targets for extracting Marmaros from.
…Weren’t there any simpler quests in the original story? Like just running errands?
“Oh, while we were at it, we hunted a few dangerous beasts near the road. They said they’d reward us if we brought proof.”
Oh, I see.
In the original, rewards would appear instantly after slaying monsters, but reality wasn’t so simple. In reality, you had to bring at least part of the carcass to get the reward.
“Then, can’t you just bring a part of the beast as proof?”
“Huh? But leaving the bodies behind wouldn’t be nice for people passing by, right?”
“……”
Well, that’s…
Should I call them diligent or naive?
It seemed like the environment someone grew up in really did make a difference. Who would’ve thought this kid, who used to say all sorts of infuriating things in the original story, would grow up to be so virtuous?
Though, if anything, growing up too virtuous might be the issue here.
“……”
When I looked silently at Leo, he shrugged and added, “It’s true. If we don’t clean up quickly, the blood from the beast carcasses will spill everywhere. The people who maintain the road will have a hard time later.”
No one would blame them for a bit of mess, especially when it was done to help people. But it seemed like these two were particularly concerned about it.
“So, Sylvia, why are you out here at this hour?”
I didn’t think the time I was out here was that odd. At least, it was a lot more reasonable than when these two had been out. It was eleven in the morning now.
…They had probably been out for about seven hours already by their standards.
“Have you had breakfast?”
“Yeah. We brought packed lunches and ate here.”
It was not like they were just out for a stroll.
“…Just to clarify, Leo and I aren’t like that.”
“Who brought that up first?”
Claire’s remark made Leo frown deeply, not in the usual “tsundere” way typical of games, anime, or manga, but with a genuinely horrified expression—like one might make when a misunderstanding occurs between actual siblings.
Well, Claire wasn’t exactly a romanceable character in the original… though, I suppose it was more accurate to say that she wasn’t fully romanced because her storyline always led to her death.
“No one said anything like that, so you can relax.”
“I’m glad there was no misunderstanding.”
“Seriously, who brought that up first?”
Leo growled, but Claire brushed it off effortlessly.
…Well.
“I’m glad to see you two get along so well.”
“What?”
“Me?”
Claire and Leo both spoke at almost the same time.
“With him?”
“With her?”
Their synchronized response, something straight out of a comic, made it difficult for me to hold back my laughter.
Still, how could I not be happy to witness this?
Both of them were characters I really liked.
*
Not just Leo and Claire, but most of the main characters in this game were diligent. Even Jake, who seemed to live a lazy life on the surface, was actually the same. He was constantly studying and working hard. Especially since he was in a relationship with someone of a different race, which was still unfamiliar in this world. He needed enough knowledge to defend her against those who belittled Lottie, his love.
In that sense, maybe I was the laziest one.
Whenever I had a moment to rest, I would reset the time multiple times just to relax to the fullest. Of course, resetting time didn’t accumulate the effects of rest. The fatigue from before would return as soon as the time was reset.
Still, it was a great way to sneak in a “five more minutes” situation. If I had an hour to rest, I would make sure to rest for that full hour. Then, I’d reset time by 30 minutes. Since I was always sincere about wanting to rest, it wasn’t that difficult for me. No matter how exhausting the situation was, a solid 30-minute rest was usually enough to recover, as long as I wasn’t gravely injured. So, I would repeatedly reset those 30 minutes, extending my rest. While my body would only recover as if I’d rested for an hour, my mind would have more time to prepare and plan. During that extra time, I could also handle any sudden tasks that came up.
“……”
I was doing that now, too. Motivated by my dread of facing Monday, I reset the time for the fifth time.
As I lazily sprawled on the bed, contemplating the upcoming week, new ideas would often pop into my mind. The thoughts that flitted through my head were mostly brief, but when I combined them, they often led to a more substantial conclusion.
For example, the thoughts that had just come to me were like this: I had already received the academy’s schedule for the first semester. Thanks to that, I knew what events were happening starting from the second week of May. It was a field assignment. The field assignment would last four days, from Thursday to Sunday. The destination: Winterfield. Far from the battlefield, of course.
That was the academy information I had. The rest came from my knowledge of the original game.
Winterfield was located in the far north of the Empire. The place was named Winterfield because there was always snow, no matter the season. Perhaps because of that image, or maybe due to preconceived notions about a fantasy world, in the setting of this world, most of the Empire’s renowned warriors hailed from Winterfield. It wasn’t strictly because of the name Winterfield, though. Among the names that immediately came to mind, there were several key figures in the story. One of the most important ones was a Sword Saint who was also from Winterfield.
“……Huh?”
Suddenly, my mind snapped into focus, and I shot up from my seat. With my hand on my chin, I began to think more seriously.
The Sword Saint hadn’t died yet in the storyline. The Sword Saint, though a bit aged, was still very much alive. Unless my appearance had caused a major shift, making Lucas seek out the Sword Saint earlier than intended.
The reason Lucas sought out the Sword Saint was because, at that point in the story, he was confident in his own abilities. He believed he could definitely win, which is why he went to find him. According to rumors from the game developers, Lucas was already stronger than the Sword Saint at this point in the story, but he wouldn’t be fully confident about it until the second installment of the series.
If I set my mind to it, meeting the Sword Saint next week wouldn’t be impossible. If I managed to meet him before Leo or Claire did, maybe I could learn some training methods just for myself—like a meditation technique that would let me sleep less. After all, I could rewind time while training… although my physical abilities would reset each time.
“……Oh.”
No, it wasn’t impossible.
I knew where the Sword Saint was, but… he lived on a mountainside.
The Sword Saint had secluded himself from the world, so in the game, you couldn’t meet him through normal means. However, there were hidden quests that allowed you to encounter the Sword Saint.
“But I’d have to climb a mountain.”
I pressed my nose bridge with my index finger and thumb.
Just as the roads were different from the game, the mountain’s terrain wouldn’t be exactly the same either. Climbing a mountain wasn’t easy in any case.
Think about it—even climbing Seoraksan (a mountain located in South Korea) takes hours, and the snowy mountain where the Sword Saint resided was far more treacherous.
“…Wait, hold on.”
I thought about the two people I saw this morning, smiling brightly as they stood next to a pile of six beast carcasses.
Even if I didn’t want to climb, wouldn’t those two persistently trek up the mountain to find the Sword Saint? They seemed incredibly passionate about swordsmanship. And by then, Alice and Charlotte would probably be with them. If Alice was there, then I’d be there, too.
“….”
If anyone had seen my face at that moment, they would have been shocked at how pale I had turned.