At some point in their discussion, a servant knocks on the door. Some nobleman has requested an audience with the King.

The King informs us that the first instructor will arrive the next morning and we can start around noon. Everyone leaves with various emotions accompanying them. We separate pretty quickly and choose to do our stuff.

Not having much to do, I spend the rest of my time before the night comes checking out the books in my room since they are in Common. Unfortunately, they are all works of fiction. I leave a mental note to myself to ask for access to the library. There must be one in the King’s castle, right?

 

※ ※ ※

 

The next morning,  I wake up, do some of my usual exercises, grab something to eat at the dining area and move out of the castle to head to the training grounds, a bit before the set time.

I arrive at a vast courtyard with many separated practice fields. Some just like rectangular arenas, some in a fashion of a shooting range, some with a lot of dummies or those wooden mannequins with many rotating sticks you often see in martial arts movies. Surprisingly, I’m not the first from our group here. Natalie is sitting on a bench to my right and writing something in her pocket-sized notepad.

I walk around to approach her from the front so that I don’t startle her. Certain that she noticed me, I plop down on the bench and casually look around. After a few minutes, she closes her notepad and turns to me.

“You are not going to ask what I am doing, Teacher?” she asks with her soft melodic voice but as usual quite a cold one.

“I didn’t come here to disturb you, just to wait. How are you faring… with all the stuff?”

“I still feel like it’s a dream or something, but I know this is real. I hope everything is alright back at home. Father can be… really emotional and caring. Even more than my mother. Hopefully, he’s alright…” she says while slumping her shoulders.

“He’ll be fine. He is a strong-willed person. They’ll get through this.” I try to cheer her up, but some empty words of reassurement won’t do too much good. “Look. It would be a different story if you were kidnapped or disappeared alone. With five people vanishing, they will definitely hold to the hope that you are all alright. No one would want to get rid of all five of you and anger a lot of bigshots, so they should think we are being kept away somewhere or something.”

“Yeah... You are right. Thank you, Teacher,” she speaks more to herself than to me, trying to believe my words.

“No worries. Just remember. I’ll be always there if any of you need anything. And it’s not like I’ll be holding our classes in this world, so you can drop the official title. Carter is fine. Alastair too. Hell, anything is fine.” I stand up, stretch a bit, and smile at her.

“Okay.” She stares at me for a few seconds. “You are not worried about your family, Tea—Mr Carter?”

“My father is gone, Mother could rot in hell as far as I care, and my grandparents are decently set up with the preparations I made in case anything happened to me since my dad was their only son.”

I put my hands behind my head and assume a grim expression on my face when remembering that bitch.

“I have spent only like nine years at their place and haven't lived with them anymore for another nine. Gramps is tough so he’ll be fine. Granny, I guess too. I’ll still miss them of course. Besides that, I didn’t really socialize with the world. You should be aware I was kind of a shut-in.”

“Yes. Although no one would believe that, seeing how open you are in the classroom.” She smiles faintly, but it fades quickly. “Sorry for making you remember the painful past. I didn’t know.”

“All good, I’m long over it. Look. Seems like we are getting started soon. They are coming.”

As I say this, the rest of our group arrives, and shortly after, a well-built man dressed in cloth armour that’s easy to move in, steps forward, accompanied by four people in robes. We walk to one of the arenas. He stands in the middle while the mages or priests position themselves on the edges.

“Okay! Attention please!” he shouts energetically. 

He wears a short shaggy beard and medium length hair tied up in a samurai-style man bun, both in dark brown colour. 

“For the upcoming months, you will undergo training with every weapon we have at our disposal. You will be spending some time familiarizing yourself with those until one day you will stumble on the feeling of one of them perfectly fitting in your grasp. With that procedure, we will be able to deduce what type of weapon is mainly suited for your future Class. When those are discovered, you will be able to focus entirely on developing it or them. Clear enough?”

We nod unanimously.

“Great. Today we will start with something simple. Hand to hand combat.” He hits his chest with his fist with a loud thump. “I’m a Martial Artist! Those guys around are all healers. You are going to attack me and defend against my attacks. No need to push yourselves to the limits. This is not a competition. But do give your best. And don’t worry about me, I’m a tough guy, you won’t be able to do much to me.” He flashes a smug grin. “The big guy with short hair and glasses. You are first!”

“Me?” Paul asks looking around. “I’m not really a close combat type. I’d rather try something with range.”

“Doesn’t matter. You can’t know what kind of skills you got at this moment. Come on! I’m not going to beat you up for sport!”

He reluctantly enters the flat arena, takes off his glasses and assumes a battle position with his fists out. Looks like a boxing stance to me. The instructor pumps his fists a few times and waves at him to start.

Paul approaches him, sidestepping right and left while keeping his guard up. When at the correct distance, he starts throwing some straight punches. They are easily blocked or avoided by the instructor. Paul dances around him, trying to land a solid hit. I don’t know that much about boxing, but his movements look quite good.

The sides switch and now it’s the man’s turn to attack. His heavy punches push Paul back a few steps every time they hit his guard. He manages to fit a feint and land a hit on Paul’s stomach, sending him back a few meters. Paul falls to his knees and coughs a bit.

One of the healers approaches him while the man is spinning his arm happily.

“Good, good. That was decent. Did you feel something weird during the match?” he asks with a beaming smile.

“Cough. Cough. Yeah… Your fist on my stomach…”

“Haha! Funny one, ain’t ya? Well then, rest on the side. Maybe a lady wants a go now? I promise I’ll be gentle!” He clasps his hands and laughs. He does that a lot. “Hmmm? What about you there shortie?”

Shino sizes him up for a moment hesitatingly but enters the ring in the end.  She makes a little bow and assumes her position. She moves her left foot to the front and lowers her posture by about one-third.  She then stretches her left hand to the front and down, and right to the back and up, with both palms facing upwards, locking her gaze on the opponent. I suddenly get ninja vibes from the anime, but then I remember her mentioning a family’s traditional martial arts in one of our conversations back on Earth. Kendo might not be the only thing she is focusing on. 

“Hoh? You seem competent.”

Without a word of warning, he launches himself at her with a straight kick. Shino easily moves out of the way and pushes his leg to the side with her palm. She takes a few steps back, but the instructor quickly closes the distance and starts throwing his punches. Left straight. Right uppercut. Right diagonal into a spinning kick. 

They are running around the arena, with Shino dodging every strike by a hair's breadth. He makes another heavy straight kick with his right leg, which flies by her face and makes her wisps of hair flutter. She moves to the left, gaining an opportunity to strike back while his leg is stretched out, and her palm is on its path to the man’s underside… but it suddenly loses its momentum and only pushes him back a bit.

I catch a quick glimpse of her face in all this turmoil.

「It looks like she is struggling… No... She is not struggling with the fight. She is struggling with herself. For some reason, she seems hesitant.」

“Stop!” I shout while raising my hand. They jump away from each other, and still in battle positions, they look my way in confusion. I slowly approach them and soon arrive at Shino’s side.

“Sensei?” She tilts her head.

I place my hand on her shoulder and look straight into her violet eyes. “Why are you holding back?”

They widen in surprise. She clearly hasn’t been expecting anyone to notice.

“You said it yourself. This is no longer Earth. So then?”

She drops her gaze to the ground. 

“Ummmmmmm…”

“Listen here. I have no idea what your mentors have said to you back there, but you shouldn’t view the guy here with our usual, earthly standards. And I believe it’s much better to test yourself in a secure environment with a Human partner than against a creepy beast two times your size.”

I grab her other shoulder and turn her around to face the man again.

“So stop worrying yourself over it and mop the floor with that dude. The hoodies on the sides will take care of him after.”

I give her a light push forward.

“Finished with your little pep talk? Not like it’s gonna change anything here. I’m at Tier 3, y’all still at 0.” He spits to the side and smirks. I leave the stage with a grin.

Shino gazes back at us one last time, turns to her opponent and takes a deep breath. She again assumes her battle stance, but this time, her palms are in a parallel line with her arms, not straight up like the last time. A subtle change, but I feel like she emanates a different aura now.

“Let’s finish this quickly, others want some fun too!”

He throws a happy remark and lunges forward much quicker than in the first bout. He lands on his left foot shortly before Shino and makes a forceful straight kick in her direction with his right leg. In a flash, she lowers herself to the point where it flies above her head, instantly positions herself on its right side below, firmly grabs his leg with her left hand and forms a claw with the right. Faster than we can blink, she hits the sides of his exposed calf and thigh with her knuckles, two times each, making his muscles cramp and start pulling the man’s body backwards and down.

“Ugh!”

She wastes no time, instantly starting to run. Still close to the ground, she dashes under the leg she was holding, turns herself to face the man’s back, and using all her strength, she hits it with both of her palms, sending him forwards with great force. 

And, that’s not the end. With a quick spin, she arrives at his right side, takes another fast spin extending her right leg upwards almost in a full split, and lands a spinning kick right into the poor guy’s face, which is speeding forward due to her previous push. Two opposing forces clash, resulting in the man’s body doing a double backflip in the air from the kick in the head while flying past her, crashing onto the ground on his belly and scraping along the ground for another three meters ahead.

Silence fills the air. Only Shino’s exhausted sigh wanders through it. The instructor isn’t moving. One of the priests finally breaks out of his shock and runs to him. The rest follows shortly. They start some incantations in panic. Shino trots back to us, where everyone is standing with their jaws literally dropped to the ground and I have the smuggest grin on my face ever.

“I suddenly feel like I was just a few steps away from my meeting with Charon¹In Greek and Roman mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. yesterday.” 

I throw a comment at her and she responds with a very mischievous grin, totally unbefitting her usual character. Shivers run down my spine.

「God, please… Don’t tell me she’s a battle junkie...」

We are forced to wait around half an hour before the healers bring our instructor back to a working state. He doesn’t even comment on the last fight. His confidence and pride must have taken a huge hit from being obliterated by a little girl.

Natalie goes next. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like he is holding a grudge and he doesn’t take his anger out on her. He still does his job properly. Natalie blocks some of his weaker attacks and dodges the others. He doesn’t push her around too heavily. She even tries to grab him a few times, but the weight difference is too big. They end up pretty quickly.

Next volunteers Marcia. And forget everything I said about Paul dancing around the instructor. She is the real dancer. She keeps moving irregularly in every direction while being light on her feet. Fast and agile. Her movements are very rhythmic; you can almost hear the beat somewhere. She reminds me of that capoeira guy’s idle animation from a certain fighting game I’ve played in the past. They exchange some moves, but in the end, she is pushed back.

Before I can move, Kamil jumps into the arena and starts attacking the instructor. There’s not much style in his movements. He just keeps pressuring the other man with his random punches and kicks. They do pack some power though. The instructor’s guard flies back a few times, but nothing worth mentioning happens. At last, my turn comes.

I enter the arena. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of real fighting experience. Yes, I’ve done some training with my father in the past, but I was like twelve back then. I also attended a few courses of self-defence and military CQC, but I have never gotten into a serious fight. And the man standing in front of me is a pro martial artist. But, this does not discourage me. It’s the opposite. It’s like a challenge.

「I can’t rely on strength or agility since he’s much better in those terms. I don’t have any special techniques I could utilize… There’s only one way, and it all depends on him… Time to make a bet...」

I try copying Paul’s boxing stance with my guard high up and covering my head. The instructor starts throwing some punches. They do not land on my guard. Although, it’s not because I am quick to dodge, but because I take a step or two back when I see his attack beginning. From time to time, I try to clumsily send a punch of mine at him. We spend a minute with the instructor chasing me backstepping around the field.

I start to stumble over my own feet and breathe heavily. He matches my speed and more punches begin to hit my guard, throwing it in every direction. After another twenty seconds of me getting beaten up, it finally happens. Being done with all this charade, the instructor takes a heavy stance readying his right fist for a powerful punch that will send me flying. Unfortunately for him, it's exactly what I was waiting for.

He throws his punch with a lot of strength and body weight behind it, expecting me to jump back like usual. Instead, seeing a punch flying straight at me, I angle my guard to my left at something like fifty degrees from the vertical axis, move it to my right side and rush forward. My arms meet his fist and it—painfully for me—scrapes over my angled upper forearms.

“What?!” 

His fist slides off to the right, but at the same time, still keeping my momentum from the jump forward, I retract my left arm while turning my torso with it. Mustering all my strength alongside the centrifugal force, I slide my right elbow over his extended arm, straight into his face.

His head receives my hit and he takes a step backwards. I quickly crouch under his still extended arm, turning my back to him. Hastily, I position myself close to his body, grab him by the aforementioned limb, and while thrusting my ass behind me, I throw the still surprised instructor over my shoulder, right into the ground in front of me, slamming him down as hard as I can. I hurriedly kneel over his throat and cock back my fist in a threatening way; his eyes wide in surprise.

Exhaling heavily, I step away.

「Haaaaaaaaaah… Ouch, he hits like a fucking truck. My poor arms… I can’t believe it actually worked this well.」

He stands up on his own. My attack didn’t do enough damage to knock him out, just dazed him for a second. Massaging his forehead he turns to me, who is breathing roughly.

“How the hell did you get so strong in the middle of the fight?” he asks confused.

“Well…” I stop for a moment to catch my breath. All this running around hasn’t left me without any fatigue. “Some people say that the lack of information is the easiest way to lose a war. But, I dare to disagree.” I flash him a smug grin. 

I look around so that others know I’m not only speaking to him. “What’s worse than the lack of information?” No one seems to want to answer, so I continue. “Mis-information.”

“Misinformation? What do you mean by that? I didn’t have any information about your strength before the fight. Wait… Does that mean…” The instructor makes a thoughtful expression.

“Looks like you’ve finally realized. It’s exactly like you think. I fed you with false information during our bout. Since the very beginning, everything has been an act. My cowardly steps back, my semi-weak punches, my guard being punched around by you, and finally, my fake exhaustion announced by me stumbling over my own legs.” I walk around as I explain my plot. “All that just for a single second, a tiny chance that you will drop your guard and underestimate me. And honestly, I really didn’t think it would work after you got destroyed by Shino previously. I got lucky.”

I stretch a bit. “It’s way worse to be misinformed than to be underinformed. The weak aren’t always helpless.” While speaking the last sentence, I sweep my gaze over the students. Hopefully, they’ll remember that. Who knows what Classes they will receive in the end.

Kamil looks slightly annoyed by the fact that I was able to manage against the instructor while he failed to achieve anything noteworthy. Paul seems impressed by what I did with the boxing style. Shino didn’t need any help with what she did, but she still looks at me with amazement. Marcia smiles at me impishly. It feels kinda dangerous… And lastly, Natalie, who was the most dejected with her performance, seems a bit less depressed now. She’s the creative type, she’ll manage.

「Seriously… I can’t get rid of my inner teacher even in another world...」