How to Survive as a Knight’s Son – Chapter 17

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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The guild trainees surrounded the training grounds. I stood in the center, facing Andrei. He seemed to want to use this as a teaching moment for the trainees. I noticed a familiar face among them.

Fiore, who I thought had gone home after being dismissed, was standing in the front row. She was in full armor, probably thinking I wouldn’t recognize her, but her death glare gave her away.

I stared at her for a while, and Fiore raised her index finger to her lips, then made a throat-slitting gesture.

‘Tell anyone, and you’re dead!’

It seemed she realized that I had noticed her. Frankly, there was no need for her to tell anyone.

“Ugh. That girl…!”

Andrei, who was looking in the same direction, groaned. If I, who had just returned after a long absence, could notice her, Andrei, who had lived with her for over twenty years, would certainly recognize her as well.

“Fiore hasn’t changed at all.”

“That’s the problem.”

That was the end of the small talk. Silence fell, and a sea breeze swept through the training grounds. Andrei drew his sword. I drew mine as well.

“Let’s see what you’ve got. Attack me.”

I didn’t hesitate. Andrei was one of the strongest knights in the region. Even if I tried my best, I wouldn’t be able to touch him, considering how much time I had spent slacking off.

My goal was to prolong the spar as much as possible. I glanced down. A window had appeared in the bottom right corner of my vision as soon as I pointed my sword at Andrei.

I wondered how much experience he would give me.

“Here I come.”

I took a step forward and thrust my sword, aiming for Andrei’s neck. I saw his eyes follow the tip of my blade. He smirked, as if watching a grandchild showing off a trick.

At that moment, a flash of white light emanated from Andrei’s hand and crossed my vision. I felt a powerful force transmitted through my sword. My thrust was deflected, and the force pulled at my arm and body.

“Ugh.”

I managed to retrieve my sword and looked up. Andrei stood in his original stance, sword pointed at me.

“Your thrust is fast and powerful. It’s an efficient way to deal damage with minimal effort. However, there are plenty of countermeasures against it. My swordsmanship utilizes the structural strength of the sword. Try thrusting slowly this time.”

I thrust my sword again, just as before, only this time, at a much slower speed. Andrei also slowly moved his sword to meet mine.

Even without putting much effort into it, he easily deflected my thrust. I couldn’t overpower him even with both hands and all my strength. It was like magic.

“The tip of the sword is structurally weaker.”

I finally noticed where our swords had connected. Come to think of it, Andrei had used the base of his sword to deflect my attack earlier as well. I had thought it was a coincidence, but it was a calculated move.

The tip of the sword, where the structural strength was weakest, versus the base, where it was strongest. It meant that as long as he could connect with my sword, deflecting my thrust was easy.

“So, thrusts are useless?”

“Of course not. The motion to deflect a thrust inevitably creates an opening, and there are many ways to exploit that. Try deflecting my attack, just like I did.”

Andrei slowly thrust his sword. The moment I swung my sword to deflect it, he paused, then resumed his attack. He easily bypassed my sword and completed his thrust.

I looked down at the tip of his sword touching my neck.

“So, it all comes down to the person wielding the sword?”

Andrei grinned.

“Correct.”

Andrei’s lesson continued.

“Swordsmanship is simply a method of thrusting and slashing. Especially with swords of the same type, the techniques are predictable. Therefore, victory isn’t determined by the techniques themselves, but by the effort put into mastering them.”

Andrei seemed to want to emphasize the importance of effort.

My own perspective was changing. I had mistakenly believed that simply leveling up would make me stronger. However, my experience with Andrei showed that physical strength alone wasn’t enough to guarantee victory.

While helpful, it was meaningless without the necessary skills and experience to back it up.

“I’ll try again.”

“You’re persistent. Come at me.”

I swung my sword without hesitation. A diagonal slash from upper right to lower left seemed more difficult to deflect than a thrust.

I was wrong.

Andrei’s stance changed instantly. He lowered his body and pointed the tip of his sword towards the ground, changing from his initial stance with the sword held at his waist and pointed upwards. He then took a diagonal step forward and swung his sword upwards in a diagonal motion.

Clang!

Sparks flew.

Andrei had simply placed his sword in my path without much effort, yet my full-powered diagonal slash was easily deflected.

“Don’t rely on brute force. You’ll tire out much faster than you think. Especially if you’re facing multiple opponents, wasted stamina will become a serious problem. As I said, you need to utilize the structural strength of the sword.”

As he said, Andrei had used the stronger base of his sword to block my attack.

“I’ll try again.”

This time, I aimed for Andrei’s upper body, which seemed relatively unguarded since he was holding his sword at his waist.

Andrei raised both hands above his head and thrust downwards, the tip of his sword pointed towards the ground. My sword, aimed at his head, was blocked by his crossguard. His sword, however, reached the hollow between my collarbones.

It was a seamless defense and counterattack, executed in the blink of an eye.

Gulp.

It was a weak point unprotected by my chainmail. If this were a real battle, not a spar, I would be dead. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my cheek.

“The purpose of swordsmanship isn’t to kill your opponent, but to protect yourself. Taking it a step further, you can defend and attack simultaneously. That is the essence of my swordsmanship: the unity of offense and defense.”

“Haa…”

Andrei retrieved his sword and returned to his original position.

I finally let out a sigh of relief. We had only exchanged two blows, but my heart was pounding, and my clothes were soaked with sweat.

“Now you understand that sparring with you would be pointless.”

Andrei, on the other hand, wasn’t even breathing hard. I realized that even if I reached his level, I wouldn’t be able to beat him. Level was important, but swordsmanship was even more so.

My desire to learn grew stronger.

“Not yet. This time, I’ll defend.”

“How dare you—!”

The outburst came from among the trainees surrounding the training ground. The husky voice was unmistakably Fiore’s. All eyes turned to her. Fiore flinched and hid among the other trainees.

“Haa.”

Andrei looked more exhausted than when he was sparring with me.

Meanwhile, I tensed my body, preparing to block Andrei’s attack, no matter the direction or method. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead and into my eye.

“Here I come.”

Andrei swung his sword like a bolt of lightning. At first, I didn’t even realize it was a sword. It was just a white blur. Only as it grew larger and approached my neck did I realize it was an attack.

The force and speed behind his sword ignited my imagination. For a fleeting moment, I saw my neck pierced by his blade.

The sword drew closer.

‘I can’t dodge it.’

Realizing that I couldn’t completely avoid the attack, I twisted my body, hoping to at least prevent a fatal blow. However, my body was too slow, and Andrei’s sword was too fast.

Gulp.

In the blink of an eye, the tip of his sword was at my neck, barely an inch away. I hadn’t been able to react until his sword was practically touching me. What would have happened if my opponent had been Roland? A chill ran down my spine.

‘But, I saw it.’

Andrei’s attack was like a flash of lightning. But I had seen it. I replayed the trajectory of that blindingly fast sword in my mind. Unlike my body, my eyes had followed his sword from beginning to end.

I suddenly realized that I could postpone allocating my bonus stat points. I looked up. Andrei was watching me with a strange smile.

“Can I try again tomorrow?”

“Don’t be absurd!”

Once again, it was Fiore who answered.

Andrei, however, disagreed with his daughter. He replayed our brief exchange in his mind. Allen hadn’t been able to move until the sword was at his neck. But he had seen it. Andrei had seen Allen’s eyes follow the sword from start to finish.

‘Seeing is the beginning of everything.’

He suddenly remembered the first time he met Allen. His eyes had been the same back then. He had agreed to become Allen’s instructor after witnessing that talent. It turned out to be a mistake, but…

Anyway.

Andrei realized that Allen’s talent hadn’t disappeared. If he was sincere about wanting to become stronger, if he was truly willing to make up for lost time…

‘It’s not too late.’

Andrei felt a pang of bitterness as he reached that conclusion. His gaze shifted to his daughter, who had stormed out in a fit of rage. It seemed unfair that Allen, a scoundrel, possessed such talent, while his daughter trained tirelessly to overcome the disadvantage of being born a woman.

But that was reality.

“Fiore. Do you want me to extend your punishment from one week to a month?”

“I-I’m not Fiore!”

That’s why Andrei couldn’t bring himself to scold his daughter, who was running away with a flimsy excuse. He sighed as he watched Fiore leave, then turned back to Allen, who was waiting for his answer.

“If you train properly, I’ll give you a chance.”

He still didn’t trust Allen completely, but he felt that he deserved another chance.

That’s what Andrei thought.

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The next day.

Jin arrived early and sat in front of a vanity. It was a common waiting area where the whores could rest before starting work.

“Do Westerners have a different standard of beauty?”

Jin considered herself more beautiful than Lucy, the ace. Considering the novelty of being an Easterner, she was arguably superior. Yet, Allen had been satisfied with just a kiss.

She couldn’t understand it.

Confident in her own beauty, she looked for the reason not in herself, but in Allen. As a result,

“Don’t tell me, his preference is…?”

Just as she was entertaining a thought that would have made Allen frown, Lucy plopped down on the chair next to her.

“Getting all dolled up early in the morning, are we?”

Her tone was laced with sarcasm. Her reflection in the mirror looked haggard. Jaken had been working her relentlessly.

“…”

Jin chose to remain silent, as if she wasn’t worth her time. Lucy’s reflection in the mirror frowned.

“Oh my, are you ignoring me? Because of that scoundrel? Honestly, you’re hilarious. You haven’t learned your lesson after what happened yesterday? He’s not your prince charming. He’s just a scoundrel.”

Jin couldn’t help but chuckle. A scoundrel? Him? She thought Lucy, who had been close to him for so long yet failed to see his true nature, was the fool.

“Is there a man who comes here who isn’t a scoundrel?”

“Sir Roland is different.”

“Why? Is he going to rescue you from this hellhole?”

“He is! Sir Roland likes me!”

Jin shook her head.

“A womanizer who sleeps with a different woman every night, sometimes even two at once, is going to sacrifice a fortune for a mere brothel ace? You should have asked Master Allen. I heard he was quite kind to you, despite being a scoundrel.”

“Hmph, I’d rather not be rescued by a scoundrel like him.”

“It seems you’re the one looking for a prince.”

Jin couldn’t understand Lucy. Roland was a baseborn hedge knight. He had no wealth and was far from being devoted to a single woman. His only redeeming quality was his kindness towards women, but the problem was that he was kind to all women. Jin didn’t consider that a virtue.

On the other hand, Allen was the heir to a knight’s family who owned land. While he had a bad reputation, she suspected it was all an act. In her opinion, he was a far better catch than Roland.

Of course, this was only because Allen, aware of her future self, was being cautious, but Jin genuinely believed it.

“You, you…!”

Lucy stood up abruptly and glared at Jin, her nostrils flaring. She looked as if she might grab Jin’s hair. Before she could, one of Jaken’s men intervened.

“Master Allen is here.”

“Hmph. Have fun with your scoundrel.”

Lucy scoffed and walked out, probably to greet Roland, who always accompanied Allen.

However, Roland was nowhere to be seen. Lucy looked around, bewildered.

“Oh my, it seems your prince charming didn’t come. Don’t tell me he’s already tired of you? How pathetic.”

Jin smirked at Lucy as she walked past and confidently approached Allen. However, Allen’s expression was slightly strained. It was because of Jaken, who was standing next to him.

“Even you, Master Allen, can’t resort to violence! Jin is a citizen now, protected by city law!”

“Violence?”

Jin suddenly remembered her act yesterday. She made eye contact with Allen.

“Hic.”

She started hiccuping and couldn’t stop.

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Is it really miss becoming hot mom turn now??!! 😆