Chapter 35: To be strong
As I was reading in my room at night, I stopped flipping through the pages of my book at the sound of a bird’s loud cry.
Holding the candlelight I had placed next to me towards the clock, I saw that the clock’s hands were already past midnight.
Unconsciously smoothing out the wrinkles on my forehead, I closed the book.
Leaving the book I was holding on top of the pile of books in the corner of the room, I started preparing for bed.
***
Determined to protect William’s spirit and body, the first thing I did was to visit the school library.
The library of the Royal Academy, which is also known as the crystallization of wisdom in this country, has a variety of books collected.
I borrowed and read books on tactics such as strategy and books on martial arts, as well as books on anatomy.
Until now, I had not used logical calculations to move in battle.
The training in the knight corps was both good and bad in that it was intuitive, and I was trained using intuition and spirit under the guidance of [knock down before being knocked down].
However, looking at the books I borrowed from the school library, I realized how wasteful my previous way of fighting was.
To make the weak points of the human body and the ability to accurately aim at them, effective tactics, and ways to deal with being surrounded my own flesh and blood, I pounded them into my head.
I also carefully studied the tactics of leading troops and the formation of formations that would be necessary in the event of fighting against the anti-royalist faction, every time it got dark.
The next thing I did was to observe the body language of the other warriors.
In this academy where nobles gather, knights on guard duty walk around. There were particularly good opportunities to observe their training during class hours.
I thought that by combining the way of carrying oneself absorbed from others with the way of fighting I had come up with myself, I could acquire better movements.
For example, Edward-san, who is Prince Finlay’s escort knight. He overpowers others with his blessed physique and muscle strength, but that’s not all.
As a result of observation, it was found that he exhibits explosive power by skillfully using techniques to move his center of gravity.
I absorbed that movement as knowledge, crushed it, and by changing it to a movement that suited my body, I acquired a technique that can instantly deal a great deal of damage to the target by using my own body weight.
In this way, by turning the power of other warriors into my own power, I gradually but steadily increased the ways of fighting.
And finally.
I began to explore ways of fighting that made more use of my own possession, the [spear].
There were two reasons why I chose the spear as my weapon during my time as a knight apprentice. The first was that if I were using a spear, even if my height was a problem, it would compensate for the reach. The second was that even if it became a contest of strength, if I could use centrifugal force to my advantage, I could win.
Certainly, those two are advantages of the spear.
But can it really be said that I was fully taking advantage of the good points of the spear?
The spear consists of the [handle] and the blade part [tassel], and can fight by making use of each.
The spear I use is a straight spear. It is suitable for thrusting because it has no decorations or branch blades.
There are many things that can be done, such as thrusting that takes advantage of the weight of the [tassel] and sweeping away, and strangling techniques that make use of the [handle].
As my wounds healed, I reexamined my handling of the spear from the beginning and tried it repeatedly.
Repeatedly, no matter how many times, until the spear moves like a part of my body, smoothly moving its center of gravity.
When my physical wounds had healed, I was training at a location where I could see the botanical garden, and I saw a familiar figure in the botanical garden.
Prince Finlay, walking through the botanical garden with golden hair shining in the spring sun. He stopped in front of a group of white clovers and squatted down to take out a pen and paper and start sketching the white clover.
(Observing plants in the botanical garden… the prince sketching white clover… a joint class with another class… I remember, after this…)
As I stopped my training and looked at prince Finlay, as I expected, a girl approached him.
The girl with reddish-brown hair… Charlotte, squatting next to Finlay, talks to him.
They talked for a while, but Finlay suddenly plucked a white clover flower.
He placed the white flower next to Charlotte’s hair by her ear. The contrast between her reddish-brown hair and the white flower was beautiful.
Charlotte was a little surprised for a moment, but eventually her face, which was lightly sprinkled with freckles the color of wheat, crinkled into a flowery smile.
(I’m an outsider, but the story seems to be going according to the scenario for the most part. However, in this world line, there is an organization with powerful abilities that has killed noble offspring and attackers… I wonder how much is going according to the scenario and how much is different from the scenario…)
I silently watched the “scenario-like” scene where Finlay and Charlotte laughed peacefully for a while.
