Litty, I was Recognized as a Rival

“I’m off!”

“Have a good trip! Be careful and don’t get hurt!”

Litty had always been an early riser. She woke up at the restaurant even before the sun had come out.

I could not afford to idle away the time before the Swordsman’s Guild Training Facility opened. I had to fulfill tasks from the Adventurers’ Guild.

This time the task was to deliver milk to dozens of houses in the city. It was a tough job for a single person, but with my stamina, it wasn’t an issue.

By the time I was done, people were slowly beginning to start their day. The emptied milk containers were returned to the Adventurers’ Guild. That Indicated the end of the task.

The reward was not much, but I was still satisfied. I was happy to be able to help people, and above all, this was part of my adventurer activities.

It was far from what I dreamed of, but I was enjoying the work.

“Yo, Litty! You’ll have to help us out next time, too.”

“Yes~!”

“Here you go, Litty-chan. Here are some freshly picked peach buns.”

“Wow! Thank you!”

Litty’s energetic and easy-going personality helped her fit well in the town. She was responsible for moving goods, tending to Stores, looking for pets and even cleaning gutters.

Litty handled almost all the tasks assigned for a 6th Rank Adventurer. She was especially eager to be assigned a task of exterminating pests.

People in the Adventurers’ Guild already declared her as the most energetic adventurer they had ever seen in the 6th rank.

By the way, the Adventurers’ Guild did not exist only for adventurers. There were various perks in registering with the Adventurers’ Guild, even if people had to pay an application fee.

Before the adventurers’ guild was founded, people needed to do advertisements to hire people. Not only was it tough to get the right person for the right job, it also involved spending a considerable amount of time and money. It was also hard for jobseekers to get the right job (task) suited to their capabilities.

The Adventurers’ Guild mused over it and cleaned up the situation, as a result, most of such job (task) advertisements disappeared from the towns.

“You work tirelessly every day, can your body handle everything?”

“Haha, I haven’t done enough yet!”

“That’s great!”

Litty’s bottomless vitality and mindset left everyone around her in awe. In those past two months, the number of merchants who wanted Litty had increased considerably.

Litty was not afraid of a few troublesome things, considering that she was even able to adapt to the terrible treatment from Yggdrasia. There were also those who wanted to hire Litty permanently, but her goal was fixed, and that was to be an adventurer.

Litty was also feeling concerned about the people approaching her with that intention, but she’ll think about it later. Thinking so, she made her way towards Swordsman’s Guild’s training center as fast as possible

***

“Good morning!”

“Oh, you’re early as usual.”

As soon as the training center opened, Litty was the first to arrive. While the man at the reception desk was yawning, Litty was the only one who was eagerly waiting for today’s training.

Two months had passed since then. At first, I was working hard to obtain the title of Swordsman and to take the exam for advancing to the 5th Rank. However, I unexpectedly found exciting works at the Adventurers’ Guild. I got so caught up in it that before I knew it, I was not even done with half of the lessons here.

Thanks to my work, the residents became fond of me, but I was unable to move forward. Even though it wasn’t a complete downfall, I needed to do something about this situation.

That day, I attentively listened to lectures again, and soon afterwards it was time for exercise.

“301, 302, 303…”

“Enough swinging! Next stage: Defend!”

The instructor James probably sensed that if he didn’t stop Litty, she was going to continue until she ran out of energy. No one in the training center could exceed that many repetitions.

After that, I engaged in “Strike” and “Defence” practice in pairs with Bildet, the man who had once ridiculed me. We continued to exchange blows, unknowingly exceeding 300 swings in Bildet’s practice.

The only thing that could be seen on his face was the determination to beat his opponent.

Our exchange was exhausting, but I still pushed through.

“Haah…haah…I can’t, I can’t take it anymore.”

“You don’t have to push yourself, Bildet. But we can’t keep going with this.”

“I’ll do it.”

Roma came forward. Although she was busy finishing up her final exam, she was here to find out more about Litty.

Was she really a beginner? She wanted to get to the bottom of it.

She disliked the male-oriented society, and was happy to see Litty, a little girl, getting strong as well.

However, her desire of not wanting to lose was the same for both men and women.

“Litty-san, let’s go…hah!”

Roma was a prodigal student who was only a year away from her final exam. Her determination had caused an uproar in the training center.

It was a serious blow, different from before. Litty, who was receiving the blow, could not take the impact and fell down.

“Ah Litty-San… I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s alright…”

Roma came back to her senses and pulled Litty’s hand to help her back to her feet. Instructor James also reflected on his carelessness, thinking that it was indeed reckless.

He should have stopped her. Even though Litty was showing signs of being a talent, there was still too much of a gap in experience between them.

Just as he was about to tell Litty to partner with someone else…

“Roma-san, let’s do it again!”

Litty was neither dispirited nor shocked, and she took a “Defense” stance. The instructor wondered why Litty was being so stubborn.

Instructor James noticed that even though Litty had been overwhelmed by Roma’s Strike and was knocked down, she still held on to her sword with one hand.

If this continued on, then it’d not be surprising if she got injured. Since that was the case, instructor James decided to put a stop to this practice for now.

“Alright, we have to end it here….”

“Please, let me continue.”

The tone of her voice was the same as before. It was not directed to Instructor James to get his permission.

It was a request to Roma who was also equally feeling hyped. Finally, Roma couldn’t stop herself from continuing.

“Taaah!”

A more powerful sword strike landed on Litty’s sword but the result was different from last time.

This time, Litty’s lower half stayed rooted to the ground in perfect stance as her stable center of gravity was all in the right position to receive that blow from Roma.

When Litty’s sword stopped with Roma’s sword, Litty’s eyes were like a bottomless pit, not exactly directed at Roma but just staring blankly. It was a gaze that could make people feel like their souls were being sucked.

It was the same look she had shown many times when she was with Yggdrasia.

It was that unusual power of concentration that made Aldis gasp in shock, even if it was only for a moment.

“Ugh…!”

“Ha?!”

It was no wonder that Roma was also intimidated to the point that she forgot to give a second strike.

Litty hastily released her stance and bowed her head.

“I, I’m sorry!”

“Why are you apologizing? How were you able to take that blow in the first place?”

“We, well, you see”

She still didn’t get over her weak-minded temperament from when she was with Yggdrasia. Litty reminded herself that she could not go on like this.

She once again held her stance and urged Roma to continue, to which Roma responded with a series of blows with no hesitation.

Litty gritted her teeth and endured the relentless barrage.

“That’s enough! Stop!”

“Ah!? Yes…”

Instructor James’ voice was choked out from inside his gut, as if he sensed the danger in Roma’s continued sword strikes. It was not because they had drawn the attention of other adventurers and instructors in the training center.

The reason was simple: Litty had already completed the stance. She repeatedly received the strikes from one of the best apprentices preparing for the final examination.

Considering her Defense stance alone, she was already at a level far from that of a beginner.

Instructor James had yet to fully access Litty’s potential but he had already decided to make Litty learn the next step.

“Litty, since you are done with the Defense stance, let’s move on to the Cleaving stance.”

“What? Instructor! Isn’t that too fast?”

“You can try practicing the new stance a few times first. If you think it’s too early for you, we’ll stop. Then, Litty, take your stance.”

“Yes!”

She was in no position to go against the instructor’s decision. To receive Litty’s sword, Roma prepared herself to the best of her abilities.

As soon as they clashed, she instantly wanted to pull back. But her pride of being a senior and more experienced barely prevented her from doing so.

“Haah!”

“Uhh…!”

The power of the blow was sharp and heavy. It was a blow that broke her center of gravity, which she had practiced maintaining so many times.

The impact from the blow traveled from the sword to the hand and continued to her whole body. It was as if the impact was slowly creeping up her body until it was felt all over it.

She suppressed her shaking knees and tried not to make it obvious. She did her best to hide her discomfort.

Litty, unaware of Roma’s feelings, unleashed another, ruthless blow.

“Ugh…!”

At that time, Roma realized that she could not endure a third blow. This time, it would be her turn to be knocked down.

Where in this little body did she get this kind of power? Was she actually a beginner?

The next blow proved that there was no room for such thoughts.

“Ah!”

“Ah, Roma-san!”

“Stop right there!”

Unable to hold back, Roma fell. It was Litty’s turn, to lend Roma a hand, who was stunned enough to let go of her sword.

She stood up but avoided any eye contact with Litty.

“Litty-san…you’re amazing.”

“Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize! And don’t get me wrong, I, rather, want to thank you.”

“Eh?”

Roma clenched her fists as she stared at Litty.

“You have allowed me to improve without showing any arrogance. I always get complimented on being on the last stage of my final exam in one year… I think that I also looked down on you because you were a beginner.”

“Ha, huh…”

“Now that I have a rival who is close to my age, I feel more inspired!”

“Rivals…”

For Litty, this was a new experience. A rival was someone who shared the same aspirations and was willing to improve upon them. And the person with whom one would most like to avoid losing to.

Whether Litty could consider Roma to be a rival was still a mystery to her.

But seeing Roma’s cheerful demeanor, she understood that this was what rivals were like.

“Instructor James! Is it okay if I pair with Litty-san for a while?”

“Oh, sure. I don’t mind, but you would have to change the instructor in charge…”

“Yes, that’s fine. I don’t mind the changes.”

Caddock, who was older than James and others, accepted the task. He had a gentle deposition, and after retiring from the front line, he devoted himself to training the younger generation.

Because of a dare from someone, he left the Knight’s Order and was transferred to the Swordsman’s Guild. And because of his long years of experience from his long career, he was given a post of a higher rank instructor.

“However, it will involve some adjustments for the final examinations. So, do restrain yourself.”

“Yes! Thank you very much!”

“James, her name is Litty, right? From the looks of it, she should be ready for her final exam soon as well.”

“What!? But, as you can see, I don’t think she is there yet…”

“Don’t get hung up on formality. A brilliant student should leave the nest as soon as possible.”

Although he had worked as a knight until his retirement, he had some doubts about the stiff atmosphere within the Knight’s Order and their way of work.

There was strength that comes with commanding a group of people, but Cadoc believed that there was also something that was missing… People vary so vastly that there were even stories of people who left the order of knights as a normal knight, but became great achievers after venturing out in the world.

Because of this experience, Caddock deliberately emphasized flexibility.

“Well then, Roma and Litty, I’ll be expecting to see both of you at the final exam.”

“What? What do you mean by that…”

“Don’t worry about it. For now, let’s get started.”

Caddock’s comment about the final exam of his words caught her attention, but she quickly brushed it aside. This was because Roma, who was more enthusiastic than before, was pressuring Litty.

Litty was again in a state of “concentration” as she faced Roma.



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