We entered the courtyard as I pulled Mera by the hand. Several gazes immediately shifted to focus on us, causing Mera to become uneasy. They were all the eyes of men, and we were the only two women here, so I suppose it was to be expected she would be this way.
There were supposed to be a few female knights here. Where were they? Not here it seems.
The knights who saw me immediately stood up straight.
“Her highness, the Princess!”
One of the knights shouted, instantly catching the attention of the others that hadn’t yet realized I was here. They all halted their activities and kneeled on one knee with their heads bowed. I was taken aback by this to be honest.
I acted all flustered as I held out my hands with a little wave.
“Uh, please rise. You can ignore me and continue with your work. Don’t let me bother you.”
The knights complied and stood up. They returned to their work, back to training and swinging their swords, using their spears, and so on, or that was what was supposed to happen. But they seemed unable to focus. What could the reason be?
Ah yes! It was me!
But something like this should be expected. Aside from my beauty, I was also the Princess.
“Estelia, my dear sister!”
I heard my brother’s happy voice, then I saw him walking towards me. A bright smile beamed on his face, his eyes seemed to sparkle as he beheld me.
“Brother!” My loud sweet voice echoed in the courtyard.
“Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”
“... I feel fine already. Besides, I have Mera by my side. It’s alright.”
Estevan furrowed his brows.
“But even so… is it not difficult to walk around after you just literally fell from the stairs?”
Gasps of surprise escaped from the lips of the knights the moment they heard what happened to me. I smiled internally. Dear sweet brother of mine, you might have unintentionally helped me.
“... Yes… I was hurt at first, it was painful, it hurt the most when I fell, blood coming out—” I shook my head. “No, it’s already over. There is no need to think about it.”
I averted my eyes away, seemingly about to break into tears as I remember the pain I went through. I caught glimpses of worried and concerned gazes directed at me from the knights. When I met some of their gazes as I looked at them, I flinched and looked down, avoiding their eyes.
I appeared so vulnerable and weak that they were looking at me with sympathy. Just the reaction I desired from them.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you immediately. I’m such a useless brother. I should have kept my sister from any harm.”
Estevan had a pained expression on his face, he must have felt truly guilty.
“N-No! Don’t blame yourself brother,” I took a step forward, my ever so pure eyes were wide open as the corners were becoming damp. “It’s my own fault. It’s because I’m clumsy.”
“Estel…”
“B-But don’t worry, brother. I’ll work hard to become a clumsy girl no more!”
“Estel, you don’t have to do that, you’re perfect the way you are.”
He gazed at me with eyes filled with passion which shocked me because of the amount of intensity it had. How could such a brother feel this much towards his sister? This perhaps goes to show just how much he cared.
“I… I don’t want to be a nuisance.”
“You’re not a nuisance…”
I stayed silent for a while, seemingly unconvinced by his words. But then shortly resigned and responded to him.
“Okay… But I’ll make an effort towards self improvement… So, let me borrow your sword.”
“What?”
He was dumbfounded by my request.
Perhaps you were wondering why I asked such a thing. Well, I require a weapon. I am not quite fond of swords since daggers were much better, but a sword was still a weapon.
I want to try such a weapon. Might consider using it.
“My sword? Wait, why?” he asked.
“I… I want to try holding one.”
“But you’re a lady, dear sister. There is no need to use one.”
“I only want to try holding one, not swing it. I’m curious to how it feels. Please?”
He looked at me, then to the sword as he contemplated. He seemed to make up his mind, and with the support of my insistence, he presented the hilt to me.
“Be careful, okay? Also, it’s heavy, so watch out for that.”
With a nod, I reached out for the hilt. It was a bit exciting to try it out. The sword was on the longer side, a long sword, perhaps it was called.
As I saw earlier, this was indeed a two handed sword, so I held it with both my hands. Of course not that I didn’t know that long swords were to be held with two hands.
The moment he let go, my muscles tensed up as my arms received the weight of the sword. I kept lifting the sword.
Damn.
It was heavy, not to my taste, and not the preferred weight that I would like to use as a weapon. I adjusted my posture so I could carry it more properly, I also adjusted my grip. It had become better. The sword in my hand was pointed forward, so I raised it up.
“Careful now.”
I heard my brother’s voice, I only nodded as I focused on the sword.
“Can I swing it?” I asked.
“But…”
“Just swing it forward, right? It’s not harmful.”
“...I guess.”
I tightened my grip, then I swung forward, slashing the empty air. However, with the amount of strength I have, the force of the swing with the motion of the sword carried me with it as the sword struck the ground.
Dammit.
This was not good at all. With muscle training I could do it better. That said, I don’t like swords, they're too long and slow. Daggers would be much better, lighter, and faster. Well this was all based on what I was used to.
I raised the sword again. This was a bit tiring already, since I disliked it, it would be pointless to force myself to go on. But I’ll think about using the sword in the future, it might become useful.
However, can I swing it again? Brother would allow it, right?
Without asking him for permission, I swung again with a better stance and better footing, I stopped the blade before it touched the ground. It was a struggle in the arms. This body was not built for this.
“You’re doing great, Estel!”
“Really? That’s great!” I chuckled. “But, this is enough for me...”
I can’t properly use it. This was a failed attempt to obtain a weapon. Well, not like they would allow me to train with the sword.
But, I really need to increase my muscles.
“Brother, you can have your sword back.”
I offered the sword to him as I let the blade touch the ground.
“Hehehe, how does it feel to lift a sword?” he asked as he received the sword.
“It was a good experience.”
I massaged the muscles on my arms. My poor precious feeble muscles, they must be shocked. I feel a bit numb though.
“You alright?”
“Um, yes, I’m completely fine.”
As I looked at my brother, I noticed a young man behind him. He flinched when he met my gaze. He was the young man I pointed to Mera earlier, and my brother’s sparring partner.
He had brown hair and black eyes, with his skin a bit tanned due to being bathed in sunlight most of the time during training. He must be around my age.
“Hello.”
I called out to him with a wave of my hand and a precious smile.
“Uh-Eh-Uh…”
He was stuttering around as he tried to respond. My brother saw this and grinned.
He pulled him forward and introduced him.
“This guy is Alan Welford. Fourth son of Count Welford. Come on, say hi to my sister or something.”
“Ah, um… G-Good afternoon, your highness.”
I giggled inside, how amusing his bashfulness was.
“Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir Alan.”
I said as I curtsied. With the elegant curtsy and the flower by my ear which boosted my beauty, it had quite the impact on the young man.
“Is training going pretty well?” I asked him.
“Y-Yes your highness.”
“Splendid! I’m sure with hard work, you can become incredibly strong in the future. Let’s do our best to improve ourselves, Sir Alan.”
His eyes went wide, not only was he captivated by my beauty but was also entranced by my words. I lump us together, our, I said to him. My words meant that we would improve together. As young as this man was, I imagine this would have a considerable effect on his impression towards me.
“Y-Yes, certainly!”
“Perfect. Ah, I have interrupted your sparring session. Please brother, you can return to your work, pay me no heed.”
I ought to not keep disturbing them and the other knights. Talking or interacting too much while they were working would only bring me the opposite of what I was intending to do. I must not become annoying. Therefore, I must take it slowly. These people looked serious in their job, so I must be careful not to overdo it or do anything unnecessary that would bother them too much.
I have planted the seeds, thus I only need to cultivate them.
If Estelia wasn’t somewhat antisocial and introverted in the first place and interacted with the knights even for just a little, I might have gotten to expend less effort and use less time. However, that was not the case, thus, I have no choice but to act.
“But sister—”
“Brother?” I pouted a little as I stared forcefully at him.
“Fine… Let’s go Alan.”
I waved at them goodbye. Of course, I also waved at Alan as he glanced back at me a couple of times. When they left me, I looked around. They were working hard. This reminded me of the early times in the organization.
The training of the knights here were incomparable to what I’ve been through. It was hell and painful, if I might say. They trained me hard when I was still a little girl, along with others. We would be often ordered to fight to the death. Not a day went by that I didn’t have any wounds or bruises.
I even had plenty of broken bones. But, thanks to my excellent performances, I was not disposed of. Nevertheless, it was a painful experience. And how I was glad when I was freed from the training facility.
Doing missions was much better compared to that.
As I scouted the area, a knight caught my eyes. He was a middle aged man, black haired, brown eyes and brown complexion. He was muscular and a long scar by the side of his face, showing the long years of servitude as a knight and hinting what he went through. But that wasn’t what attracted my eyes. It was the dagger in his hand.
When I looked closer, there were also a few more daggers by the table next to him. I became excited.
Daggers!
“Mera, come.”
I beckoned Mera to follow me.
“M-Milady, where are we going?”
“There.”
I saw that your note that you made changes to this chapter for the lifting the sword thing, but that's still absolutely ridiculous how you have it written. If she can't even hold up the tip of the standard long-sword and her hands are shaking, she doesn't have the strength to even walk to the end of the corridor.
Trust me on this, I work in nursing. People so feeble they can't lift something like a sword are also so weak they have trouble walking 50 feet. She's running around all energetically though, so she should have no trouble just HOLDING a sword.
What takes muscle and training is the ability to use a sword with precision. Also, if she has some weapons training from her previous life memories, she should be familiar with how to balance the blade so that it's heft does not weigh her down as much. She should instinctively know that separating her hands on the hilt a bit should allow her to handle the weight distribution better. So, she really ought to have no trouble at all just holding it.
The point where her weakness would show would be if she tried to swing it, and it would most likely come in the form of her being unable to handle the torque of the swing. The two possible points of failure would be either she looses her grip or looses her stance. Again, due to her training in the previous life, loosing her stance is very unlikely. She would naturally step into a stable stance when she attempted to swing. So, the most likely point of failure then is loosing her grip and having the sword move wildly due to her weakness.
This is all if you really want to have her fail in some way. I would honestly not recommend it though. Rather, something anyone would train with swords might tell you is that the pain you feel in your arms the day after your first real day of training with them is way beyond what you would expect just for swinging around a long object a few times. So, the FAR more realistic reaction would be to have her successfully swing the sword maybe 3 or 4 times (with a form that is not good, but surprisingly better than it should be for a woman who has never held a sword before,) and then have her amazed that her arms feel like jelly a few minutes later.
If she can't even hold up the tip of the standard long-sword and her hands are shaking, she doesn't have the strength to even walk to the end of the corridor.
I rewrote it to her hands trembling a little, so it's just a little. And she just gave up trying trying because it would be pointless, and would only strain her arms if she continued to force it, so yeah.
The two possible points of failure would be either she looses her grip or looses her stance. Again, due to her training in the previous life, loosing her stance is very unlikely. She would naturally step into a stable stance when she attempted to swing.
She wasn't trained to use a sword. Guns and daggers, better tools in assassinations in the modern world. They wouldn't use swords to assassinate where guns exists... So she wouldn't be used to using a sword.
In addition, she was just trying to test it and considering it to be used as her weapon.
This was a failed attempt to obtain a weapon.
as that line said. But I guess she should be able to fix her stance.
I'll think more about this later.
Thanks for sharing this thought.
@Tearing_Sanctuary The issue is she should have something called "kinesthetic awareness" regardless of what weapon she trains with. That is the ability to be aware of how your body should be balanced regardless of the situation. The kinesthetic awareness of someone who has trained in ANY martial field is EXTREMELY high to the point they can effectively use any object they pick up as a weapon, regardless of the weight distribution.
Trust me on this one, I have been in the martial arts since I was 7 years old. I'm in my 30s now, and I have also learned Bujin Taijutsu. A historical preservation of what was supposedly the style used by the Iga ninja clan.
Being trained in guns and knives means those are the weapons they are most familiar with. However, you should probably watch a TV series called "Burn Notice" if you want a better idea of how professional assassins might really operate. They are trained in a very wide field of weapons, not just guns and knives. They are also trained in numerous fighting styles, and some fighting styles actually require you to learn outdated weapons in order to get a better feel for the combat style. There is especially a focus on improvised weapons though, and if you are going to pick up an improvised weapon then an object that happens to be around the same size and shape as a sword is one you would favor. (A classic example would be a fire poker, although those are seen less frequently these days. Similar objects can be found rather easily though.)
So, she may not have the form of a trained swordsman, but she ought to be familiar enough with weapons of approximately this shape that she would have no trouble managing the weight distribution and would be able to hold it effectively.
@Tearing_Sanctuary Another thing you might want to look into is tool-assisted jujutsu. (Jujutsu, FYI, is also the Japanese word for "joint locking technique." There are identically named martial arts that make Jujutsu techniques their main focus, but it's actually the name of a classification of techniques.) Tool-assisted jujutsu basically means a type of joint locking technique that uses the weapon in your hand as a leverage point while you are getting the joint lock. Those are also techniques that would be highly employed by assassins, especially if they were trying to choke someone out with a stick they happened to randomly pick up.
(Yes, I mentioned I learned Bujin Taijutsu in my last comment. That exact technique is something prominently featured.)
@Jemini it's always nice to see someone that knows their stuff.