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"Thank you, Mr. Masked Man," says a very thin boy with a smile on his face, before running off.
The boy's ribs are clearly visible due to malnutrition, and he is dressed only in ragged trousers tied with a worn string at his waist.
But his gratitude is lost among the many others I receive from the people of the impoverished village of Drial Cenit, where Beatrice and I have come to give them some of the money we took from the tax collector we attacked today.
Beatrice helps me distribute the money, her face also covered by a mask so that no one knows who we are.
The first few times we did this, some people wanted to fight their neighbors for the money, to steal it from them.
But we learned that we can quickly stop that idea with the threat that if they do not peacefully receive the coins we give them, we will go elsewhere to distribute the money.
Every time we do this, I am struck by the poverty and misery in which most of the communities of Drial Cenit live, and it makes me reflect on how bad and inept Alessia's uncle must be as a ruler to have brought an entire kingdom to this state of precariousness in less than half a century.
Most people are poorly fed and wear worn and threadbare clothes.
Seeing the state of the kingdom's general population, it is understandable that they had almost no knights or adventurers for the war against Castemira and had to resort to taking untrained people from their homes.
But I do not understand why he sought conflict when Drial Cenit is clearly inferior to Castemira.
Before these incursions began, I thought that the two kingdoms were relatively similar in military and economic terms, as both are similar in size and age, but now I see that I was clearly mistaken.
During the war, I saw nothing to indicate otherwise, but it is also true that it did not really last long and that in the first and only full-scale confrontation, Castemira quickly gained the upper hand.
In any case, it appears that this difference was not so great before the current king assumed the throne.
"I think we're done here. We still have to go to two more villages," I say to Beatrice, after several minutes of throwing money at the people from the roof of a house, after which I take out my wind brazier and begin to lift us both into the air before the astonished gaze of the peasants.
"All right. The nearest village is to the north," she says, pointing in that direction.
Taking advantage of her indication, I check the map on my interface and quickly locate the village she mentions.
As Beatrice and I travel through the air, I suddenly hear Zariche's words in my head: 'I really don't understand why you insist on wasting your time with this nonsense, when it would be much easier to break into the royal palace of Drial Cenit and eliminate all its inhabitants.'
'Haa... And I don't understand why you keep bringing this up every so often, when you know perfectly well why I'm doing this.'
'Because I hope that one day, one of the many times I tell you this, you will listen to the voice of reason.'
'Ha! That's a good one.'
'I thought you had already learned to accept my advice.'
'Only when it comes to sword fighting.'
A few days ago, when I was in the labyrinth with my girls, Zariche decided to start giving me advice on how to use Wind Slash Sword Style after seeing repeatedly how difficult it was for me to understand Alessia's explanations.
Thanks to that advice, I was finally able to gain insight into Wind Slash Sword Style, which allowed me to take the skill up to level 33.
Apparently, what I needed to do was to feel the flow of air generated by my movements when swinging the sword and let the weapon accompany the movement of the wind, rather than trying to oppose it.
It's very strange, but it somehow worked thanks to Zariche's guidance.
Now that it is at level 33, the Wind Slash Sword style chains together 8 cuts at full speed, instead of the original 4.
And its cuts are also much faster.
'Ha! Damn you, fucking opportunist... But I suppose that's just what one'd expect from someone who carries me... Anyway, I'll tell you again in a few days.'
'Don't bother. It's not necessary.'
'I'm doing this for your own good, brat. You're too stupid, despite how strong you are.'
'Don't start with the insults or you'll end up in my inventory.'
'Tcht.'
It's very curious to feel in my head how the sword makes the sound a person would make when clicking their tongue, considering it has no tongue.
It makes me wonder how much of his personality is based on imitating the people who carried him before and how much is innate to the sword itself.
When Blue Wind was 'born' thanks to me and Delia, the spear had a fairly defined personality.
But her personality has changed over time, along with her experiences.
Proof of this is that, according to Delia, the weapon hardly ever insults me or speaks ill of me anymore.
And Zariche, unlike the talking spear, is absurdly old.
Be that as it may, Zariche is slowly learning to 'live' with me, and I hardly need to threaten him to make him obey me anymore.
In fact, sometimes he even helps me of his own accord.
After seeing that he could help me improve Wind Slash Sword Style, the sword's ego skyrocketed and he started saying things like 'no one knows better than a sword how to best use a sword'.
So he spent a long time trying to help me improve Sword Breathing Style.
Most of his advice and ideas weren't very useful, but eventually he hit the nail on the head.
The secret was in the name of the skill, and it was so simple that I don't know why we didn't think of it ourselves.
To improve the skill to the maximum level, you have to think of its activation and deactivation times as if they were something that goes hand in hand with our inhalations and exhalations.
It's easy to say but quite difficult to achieve.
Still, considering that I had nothing to lose by trying, I decided to follow the sword's advice.
After several minutes of practice, with Zariche's help and advice, I was able to do it.
As soon as I got it, the skill automatically leveled up to the maximum.
Now, using the skill is almost like entering a special mental state that allows it to activate and deactivate automatically as I breathe.
The result is that I can now move with the skill activated without having to actively think about it, just by maintaining a little concentration. However, it's not something that can be done constantly because it tires the body and mind a lot.
And what's even better, since I no longer need to say or think its name to activate it, I can now use it while wielding Zariche, bypassing the block imposed on me by the sword curse.
But I wasn't the only beneficiary of Zariche's discovery.
Since Alessia, Delia, Melisa, and Arya all have some kind of Breathing Style skill, they were all able to raise their skills to the maximum level as soon as I explained the trick to them.
The one who understood the concept most easily, by far, was Alessia.
The blonde grasped the idea with almost insulting speed and ease. So much so that, a few seconds after I explained it to her, she had already managed to make it work.
The rest of the girls had some difficulty grasping the idea and took much longer than me to get the skill to work properly.
Even so, they all succeeded without fail.
"We're almost at the village. Put your mask back on," I say to Beatrice when I start to make out the houses, as the redhead takes off her mask every time we use the Wind Brazier.
"Just a little longer. I love feeling the wind on my face," Beatrice says with a cheerful smile.
"Haa... Fine. You have some strange tastes, you know that?" I say as I stroke her head.
"And what does that say about you?" she asks, looking me in the eyes with a mischievous gleam.
"Hahaha... I know I'm a freak. I don't need anyone to point it out to me," I say and give her forehead a gentle tap with my fingers.
"Ouch…" she says, pretending it hurts, but still smiling.
"... I was just saying... If it's any consolation, you're a good kind of freak."
"No one's ever said that to me before, but I guess it's a compliment…" I say humorously and look away towards the village, which is becoming more and more visible.
"... Mask. Now."
"Haa... Ok."