“That’s not difficult at all.”
At Zion’s casual response, Yuria lifted her head with a bright smile.
But there was still more to say.
“However, there are a few problems.”
“What kind of problems? Just tell me. I can probably handle most things.”
“The first is time.”
The caravan had about two weeks left before arriving at Kornika, the Republic’s capital.
No matter what she learned, it would be tough to even grasp the basics properly.
“I’ll make as much time as possible! And… well… if you don’t mind, how about staying at my place for a while you teach me? I’ll pay you plenty for it.”
Zion didn’t immediately reply but took a moment to sort through his thoughts.
Why was a merchant caravan heiress, clearly raised in comfort, so desperate for ‘strength’?
“There’s still another problem. The second is the motivation.”
“Your reason for wanting to get stronger?” Zion nodded heavily.
He had learned through experience that when the wrong person gained power, endless misery followed for those around them.
Furthermore, the stronger the power, even if wielded without ill intent, the more easily small mistakes could cause great suffering.
“Do I really have to say it?”
“I’m not forcing you, but if I accept your offer, Yuria and I would…”
“Yes, right. Yuria and I would become master and disciple. Wouldn’t it be hard to keep a relationship healthy if there’s something we’re hiding?”
“Well… ughhh!” Yuria covered her head and writhed but finally surrendered.
“Okay. It’s not some huge secret. It’s just embarrassing to say out loud…”
“I won’t laugh.”
“Promise? Just try mocking me, and I’ll yell that you’re doing something weird.”
[…This young lady’s threats are scary.] Frey’s face darkened at the fierce threat.
“So… it’s admiration.” After hesitating for a long time, Yuria spoke in a small voice.
Zion, mulling over her words, asked again, “Is it admiration for power?”
“More specifically… do you know about chivalric romance? It’s been popular in our country for a long time, though I’m not sure about other places.”
Chivalric romance was a kind of knightly fantasy.
A wandering knight with great strength and a strong sense of justice traveled the continent, resolving various injustices.
In the end, they would meet a righteous lord to serve or save a beautiful princess and fall in love with her.
Zion had come across such stories several times, but in the rigid class society of Illium, they weren’t particularly popular.
“I guess I admired freedom and wandering. The main character punishing villains mercilessly was cool. Not being tied down anywhere, acting on their own beliefs.”
Once she opened up, Yuria began sharing many thoughts.
It was as if she was finally revealing her true feelings she had long wanted to show and share with someone.
“Traveling alone as a woman isn’t easy, you know? Bandits, monsters, everything. Just yesterday was a mess. I get chills imagining what would’ve happened if you weren’t here. But if I had strength like yours, it definitely would’ve been different. At least, I wouldn’t have made the terrible decision of treating human lives like numbers.”
“That was a reasonable choice. No one should blame you.”
“But I didn’t want to do that.” Yuria laughed bitterly.
At that moment, Zion saw a reflection of his own past in her.
[A child’s fuss over side dishes.] Frey was harshly cynical.
[Don’t listen to her, Zion. Do you think she lost someone close right before her eyes? Or lived under a cruel stepmother’s oppression all her childhood? She’s the sole heir of the caravan, right? This trip is part of her training to inherit it, isn’t it? A guaranteed future spread before her, yet she whines about wanting to live freely? Not worth listening to.]
The more Frey’s biting words flew, the more sullen Zion’s gaze became.
Seeing that, Frey smirked.
[But, well. Yeah. You’d understand.]
‘Uncle, you told me before that having great power wouldn’t bring me harm.’
[Eh? Did I say that? You’ve got a sharp tongue.]
‘Stop egging me on. I’ll decide.’
[Kid, I’m not against it either. Just don’t rush and think it over once more.]
“I know I’m being spoiled. I grew up rich, ate well, learned a lot, and in about ten years, the caravan will be mine. But all that’s been given from outside. I want to choose and walk my own path. Before it’s too late. Before I get older and things start binding me. For that, I need power. I have to prove I can enjoy freedom and take responsibility for it myself.”
As Yuria mumbled almost like a monologue, she lifted her head.
There was no trace of deceit in those desperate eyes.
Zion, not to boast, considered himself sensitive to others’ malice.
“Have you thought about what those externally given things actually mean?”
“I know. They’re all for me.”
“Even knowing that, you want freedom—and the power to achieve it?”
“Yes. I read ‘Sir Olfrio’ when I was six, and I’ve endured for fourteen years. I just want to stop enduring, even once.”
Zion nodded. “All right.”
“…?” Yuria looked puzzled and tilted her head.
“I’ll help as much as I can.”
“Really?” Blinking in disbelief, Yuria stared.
Zion nodded again, suddenly wearing a serious expression.
“But actually, there’s still one more problem.”
Hesitating briefly, he mustered courage.
“Could you help me prove my identity?”
***
“So you came here all alone from Illium? Sneaking past three borders? Wow. You really are reckless, huh?”
After hearing the situation, Yuria burst into laughter, deciding to keep some things hidden and reveal others roughly.
“But you didn’t do anything bad and run away, right? Like being wanted internationally…”
Mione, who had tried to quietly manage things by calling it an accident, certainly wouldn’t do such a thing.
People’s hearts might change, but if things blew up, news would surely reach Aleph Count.
“If I were that kind of person, I wouldn’t be sitting here quietly like this, would I?”
“True, but… hearing you say that is a little scary.”
During the day, Zion began drafting the basic training plan.
Time was short, so he had little to do and finished it by evening.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Yuria’s reaction after reading the plan was this:
“What? No way. I’m really grateful. You let me ride in your carriage and even helped prove my identity.”
“But this training… training? Is this training? Or is it torture?”
“It’s training.”
Reading the dense parchment repeatedly, Yuria tried to figure out if there was some hidden malicious intent behind this prank.
There wasn’t.
It wasn’t a joke.
Zion was sincere, and the plan was made with care.
“But suddenly doing such harsh training, won’t I get hurt?”
“It’s fine. You won’t die.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve tried it.”
“…?”
Training began—an extreme ‘basic training’ where every available minute of the day was spent exercising.
Even meals and sleep were strictly managed.
“Don’t stop, Yuria. It’s okay. You can do it. Imagine which is better—giving up now and returning to your old life, or enjoying the freedom you’ve admired.”
Zion’s guidance was never harsh.
He maintained a gentle tone and expression and genuinely worried when Yuria struggled.
Every time she completed a goal, he praised her so enthusiastically it embarrassed her.
“You’re tough, but that girl is tougher. Was she just a spoiled kid?”
“If she were really spoiled, she wouldn’t have made the quick call to use a prisoner as bait.”
Frey and Arcs, having rejoined with their gear, watched Yuria gritting her teeth through training and regarded Zion like a demon carrying out the plan with no compromise.
[The training is tough, but not excessive.]
Zion felt unjustly accused so he retorted, “If it were too harsh, she’d have collapsed or fainted halfway. The fact she’s conscious after the first day proves this training suits her.”
[The standard for ‘suitable training’ is different from what I know. Is this another world where common sense doesn’t apply?]
[Ha ha ha. Our Zion really is strange.]
“Strange? This is such a systematic training method!”
The first week was all about building basic stamina.
They woke at 5 a.m., warmed up lightly for an hour, and sparred.
When the caravan departed, Yuria dismounted and walked alongside at the same pace all day.
At night, they played hide and seek using all nearby terrain.
Zion never blindly forced harsh training.
Every night, he made a special health elixir taught directly by his High Elf master and fed it to Yuria twice a day.
Luckily, most key ingredients were included in the caravan’s merchandise.
Yuria allowed using small amounts freely, and they gathered missing ingredients from the surroundings.
“Do I really have to drink this?”
“If you don’t, you might collapse.”
“I might die if I drink it…”
“Ha ha ha. It just tastes bad.”
“Just… tastes… bad?”
That evening, tasting the indescribably foul, mysterious substance for the first time, Yuria thought, ‘So this is how I’ll die.’
But seeing Zion gulp it down easily, she found she couldn’t refuse.
The taste was exactly as expected, but the effect was just as Zion said.
After a few days of muscle pain from training, Yuria woke feeling incredibly refreshed.
When Zion arrived on time and smugly asked if she agreed, she felt so energetic she almost wanted to hit him.
[That’s… insane. It’s an MP booster.]
Frey analyzed Zion’s special health elixir using his mana sight and discovered a shocking truth: it was an MP booster—a rare elixir only made by Awakened skilled in alchemy, which increased MP without fighting monsters.
[The High Elf master made that? What on earth kind of person is he?]
[MP boosters only work on Awakened, right? But that young lady doesn’t look Awakened.]
[…That explains something. Maybe that world’s people don’t awaken powers even if they fight monsters?]
[What if all humans in that world are born with a faint level of awakening?]
[Sounds ridiculous, but it fits a lot of things. Damn. I want to cross over and verify this properly. Why does this broken pendant keep blocking me?]
[Hey! Don’t call my child broken! How can you say that?!]
While the two Awakened exchanged baffling theories, Yuria finished basic training and moved to advanced training, divided into two parts.
“We’re going to play rock-paper-scissors.”
“…Huh?”
“Don’t you know? Using your hand as a fist, scissors, or cloth, like rock-paper-scissors.”
“I know that. Is this training?”
“It’s training focused on reflexes and peripheral vision.”
Compared to basic stamina training, her body felt lighter.
But the training itself was even harsher.
Zion’s relentless pressure on a twenty-year-old woman was anything but ordinary.
“Aaah! I lost again! I saw it! I saw you throw scissors at the end!”
The goal was to change her hand shape to beat the opponent’s after seeing it.
Zion, of course, changed his hand based on Yuria’s moves.
Her record on the first day was 0 wins, 662 losses.
After rock-paper-scissors, they lightly ran for about four hours to match the caravan’s pace.
After sunset, it was time to move the body.
The training involved dodging Zion’s attacks while maintaining bizarre postures that seemed to test human joints to their limits.
“Ah, this posture is a bit embarrassing…”
Holding her right leg so her heel touched the back of her head, one hand on the inside of her thigh, the other on her tailbone, Yuria blushed.
Facing her with a thin branch, Zion wore an indifferent expression.
“It’s okay. To me, you’re not a woman right now, just a hopeless disciple.”
“Zion? Zion?! I’m four years older than you!”
“But right now, you’re my disciple.”
Yuria’s evening training record was 0 wins, 374 losses.
“Surprisingly bad.”
[What do you mean? That Yuria is worse than expected?]
“No, the opposite. Her peripheral vision and flexibility are much higher than I expected. Should I increase the training intensity…?”
The two Awakened regarded Zion as a terrifying demon as he seriously considered revising the plan.
[Why peripheral vision and flexibility?]
“Because those are Yuria’s strongest weapons.”
When ambushing bandits in the forest or battling an orc that night, even the battle-hardened mercenary leader couldn’t keep up with Zion’s movements, but only Yuria’s eyes tracked him.
If it was innate, it was an astonishing talent.
[You’re more impressive for noticing that in the chaos.] Frey clicked his tongue.
Zion took it in stride.
“Yuria’s a woman. No matter how hard she tries, it’s hard to overcome physical differences she was born with. Time is short. I thought it better to maximize strengths rather than fix weaknesses.”
[No, not entirely.]
“Huh?”
[The MP booster you made… the health elixir, that is.]
The two Awakened explained its effects to Zion, who suddenly looked alarmed.
“Then maybe it’s better to increase the training intensity now?”
[Hey, you crazy idiot! Why jump to that conclusion? You want to kill her?]
[Ha ha ha! Zion has some surprising charm.]
From the next day, without warning, the training doubled in intensity.
Yuria seriously wondered if she’d done something wrong.
As Zion had predicted, on the morning of the fifteenth day, the caravan safely arrived at Kornika.
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