(Cael's Pov)
Some more time passed, and luckily it didn't seem like we had to complete any more side quests for the time being. It was the 5th of January, and we had recently passed the halfway mark, according to Markus who had a map on him. He was the one in charge of leading the front carriage after all, so it was pretty much a given for him to know where we were on our journey.
I was peeling mandarins for Nala as usual at this point, since on our way dad would often go to the nearest towns just to replenish her storage. Honestly, I didn't even know she liked mandarins this much until we left the village. It may be because I wasn't home that much- wait, no. That makes me sound like a father that works overtime too much to spend time with his family… Well, let's just say I didn't know.
On a more positive note though, from all this peeling I've actually slowly but steadily begun mastering the art of citrus peeling. In fact, not only would it only take me around 20 seconds only to get rid of the peel itself, but I'd only need an additional 20-30 seconds to remove any white husk or whatever the hell you call that bitter part that's kinda irrelevant in a mandarin but Nala still wants peeled.
"Here."
I handed the freshly peeled one to her. In the meanwhile, since I had my mana search on at the moment, I happened to notice a group of fanged bears, around a kilometer away, in the forest to our right. Their name pretty much explained it all honestly, they were close to regular brown bears, but had insanely long and sharp fangs, kinda like saber tooth tigers. They're technically a C rank monster, but honestly I think they're closer to a high D rank than anything, which should mean that I could theoretically go and take care of them myself…
"Cael, Aldric is going to do it, so just stay put!"
But before I could even think of leaning over to the window, which to be fair was on Nala's side, I heard Dad shouting for me. The carriage didn't stop moving or anything, but I could see Aldric jump out a few moments later, going into the forest. I let out a sigh, taking another Mandarin from the bag on my left, which was only there so I could regulate Nala's intake and make sure she wouldn't give up and peel them herself, and started peeling it. What I mean by regulating her intake, is that this kid is genuinely only making me peel them for her because she feels like it.
It's not like she can't do it herself, but it's easier to make your older brother do it. I don't actually mind it though, since if I let her have as many as she wanted, she'd probably somehow manage to get close to overdosing on citric acid, and I'd rather not have my little sister die in such a stupid way. It would genuinely rival Kazuma's death in terms of ridiculousness.
"Cael, Cael."
She pulled on my shirt while calling to me.
"What's up? I just started peeling the next one as you can see."
"Why aren't you ever killing any monsters?"
"…"
She hit a nerve.
Like hell if I know! I'm like 89% sure that I could've taken down those few bears myself, but dad has never allowed me to go recently…
"You used to do it sometimes when we first left, so why's daddy not allowing you now? Are you actually weaker than he thought?"
"My…"
Not even mom could stay fully silent after that comment, but instead of joining and helping me she went back to reading with Rune the instant I glanced at her. Was I just betrayed by my own mother? I see… so that's how it is, huh? I see, universe.. I see!
"…why don't you ask dad? I'm sure he knows better than me…"
"Ah, you're right."
Without a single moment of hesitation, she then stuck her head outside the window, and shouted.
"Daddy, Daddy! Why can't Cael take out monsters anymore?! Is it because he's weak?!"
"Hey, daddy! Do you hear me?!"
"Daddy!"
At least give him time to reply…
"What? What are you talking about, Nala?!"
"Daddy, I'm asking why are you and Aldric always killing monsters! Can't Cael do it too?!"
"Uhm, probably?! I guess he could take care of some?!"
"Then why haven't you allowed him to do it for a while, daddy?!"
"Well, it's better off to not risk it, right?!"
"Hmm, yeah, that makes sense! Thanks Daddy!"
"No problem little one! Get your head back in the carriage though!"
"Alright!"
After she sat back down, I gave her a new freshly peeled mandarin, which she started casually devouring as usual.
"He said-"
"I heard him."
"? Hmph!"
"Aouch! What the- what was that for?!"
"You interrupted me while I was speaking, and I wanted to be nice and tell you what daddy said! A kick for that is fair."
"You little-"
"He-hem."
"…?"
"?"
"Both of you, cut it out, alright? Cael was rude for interrupting you, but you also shouldn't kick him like that, Nala."
"But-"
"I'm afraid there's no room for buts today, for neither one of you. Apologize to each other and get along as siblings should, alright?"
"'…alright.'"
"Sorry for interrupting you…"
"…I'm sorry for kicking you too."
"Good, good. I know you two love each other, so don't argue so much. In the end you're still her older brother, and she's still your younger sister after all."
"…"
"…"
Well, honestly if anything I'd say me and Nala had the most picture example of a siblings relationship. We get along fairly well generally, but we also banter with each other just as often, and argue just as much. It's pretty natural if you think about it, isn't it? For that matter, maybe it's just that me and Maia argued so little that I forgot what siblings are supposed to be like…
Not that it applies to anyone other than Nala though, since I pretty much never argued with Rune, just like Maia. He was in mom's lap the whole time as usual, looking a little distressed at us. I guess maybe he wanted to say something to comfort us? But given how he is, he's probably just too shy to speak up honestly. Mom is right in the end, it's best if we avoid arguing as much as possible, at least to keep Rune out of awkward situations like these.
"And as for you, Cael, we're soon going to stop and start preparing lunch anyway, so how about the both of us go and have a chat with dad about it?"
I guess that's not a bad compromise, huh?
"Alright."
At the very least, the worst case scenario would be simply continuing as things are already going, so there wasn't much to lose on. If it does go well though, I'll finally be able to get a little more practical training in, which would really help me out. There are a few things that I honestly don't even remember if I mentioned before, that I should probably let you know about though.
Mainly, it's about how the "scaling" in this world seems to work, once again. More specifically, I'm talking about mana attacks and blasts in this case. Regardless of your mana amount, your actual blast damage is going to scale to your mana density level. My own level is around D rank now? So for example, if I was to attack those bears with a blast, they would most likely not even die in one blow even if I obliterate the entire forest. It's pretty ridiculous isn't it?
It basically just takes the "fuck everything in that direction" concept of a Getsuga Tenshou, but makes it so you may end up only doing that, instead of actually killing your target as well while you're at it. It's a pretty cool concept that all blasts do the same damage to non alive things to some extent, but i think that there's probably some other exception as well? I'd assume barriers with different levels of absorption would do differently and stuff.
However, since I can apparently condense my attacks a lot more than the average fella, it seems like I can probably almost ignore the mana density rule to some extent. And what I mean by that, is that I could actually probably manage to take out those bears with one attack, as long as I actually condense it enough.
There's no real need for relevance in order to damage someone here unlike in bleach after all. Even a regular human could damage that bear with his fists or his sword, the issue is just that entities with naturally dense mana have thicker and more durable skin, bones etc. I could still probably outrun and just kill them without any blasts too for that matter, since as I've mentioned a few times before, I'm really confident in my sword skill if anything.
But basically, getting back to the main point, I could really use some practical training to practice my mana densification. I can do it a lot easier and better than most people, sure. But that doesn't mean it's perfect, or doesn't need improvement, since at my current skill, I can probably only boost my mana attacks level to maybe a mid to high C rank at most.
About an hour later or so, we did in fact stop the carriages, and stationed ourselves to start preparing lunch. Dad and Aldric brought fire wood, while mom lit it up with her magic as usual. She was the one who'd cook anyway, so it was a given that she'd be near the fire, but luckily for us, today dad seemed to be sticking around as well. Often he'd spend most of the time while mom cooks with Aldric or Markus, discussing God knows what, but this time he was sitting on a portable small chair nearby.
This was honestly just the best occasion to go for it, considering we were all already in the same spot, and we had nothing to do but wait for the pot of water mom had placed above the fire to boil. It was a fairly large pot too, don't be mistaken, since not only would it need to feed 2 families, but also everyone less that was here with us after all. So with that in mind, after nodding at each other, me and mom decided to go for it.
"By the way, dear, there's something we'd like to talk to you about."
"Hm? Ah, is it about what Nala asked earlier?"
"Haha, I'm glad that we can get to the bottom of this quicker than expected. Yes, it is."
He sighed, then turned towards me.
"Look, Cael. I get that you must be bored or something, but this isn't a game. you know that, right?"
"Awh, come on. I'm not thinking of it as a game, but you're not even letting me take down weak monsters anymore…"
"And? On the contrary, there's no need for me to send my kid fighting some monsters when they're weak enough for us to take care of faster, and easier."
"But-"
"Now, now. Dear, why don't you think about it for a little?"
"Isolde, you should understand what I'm talking about…"
"Of course, I do get it, as his mother. I'd also prefer not getting him into too much danger either, but don't forget what Maia told us either."
"…"
"Hm? What did Maia tell you guys?"
"I guess we didn't tell you, huh? In her letter for us, she did tell us about your training in a little more detail. Though she didn't really tell us everything, at the very least we know a little of what you're able to do now."
"Huh? Then why aren't you allowing me to fight anymore if you know-"
"It's because there's no need. The closer we get to the capital, the More monsters there are around. I have no reason to allow you to put yourself in danger. To begin with, when Aldric went to fight those few bears earlier, he said he also had to fight another fresh batch that came to support the first. Do you think you could've handled, let's say, 10 of them?"
"I mean, that's…"
"Exactly."
"…"
"Hmm, then how about this, dear?"
She then walked next to him, and whispered something in his ears while dad listened with his arms crossed. Then after finishing, she came back next to me with a smile on her face, placing one hand on my head while we waited for Dad's reply. He seemed to be in pretty deep thought about whatever mom had told him after all. He was even striking that one pose where you have 2 fingers on your chin while thinking about something, which I think? Means that he's really thinking about it? Probably? I hope…
"Well… I guess I don't really have any reasons to reject this one, huh? Alright, we'll go with it."
I glanced up at mom, who was still smiling while looking down at me, then back at dad as spoke again, while he got up, and started stretching his arms.
"How much time do we have, Isolde?"
"Hmm, it'll take a while to cook the stew for lunch, so you shouldn't worry too much about time. Go crazy with it, both of you."
"'Go crazy with it', huh? Well, you heard her little one. You already have your sword on you, so just wait for me to grab mine real quick."
"Wait, does that mean?"
"That's right sweetie. I asked him to spare with you instead, to keep you moving at the very least, even if he won't let you directly hunt down monsters."
My face lit up almost instantly, and I rushed to hug her.
"Thanks mom, you're the best!"
"Haha, I'm glad that you're happy with this compromise at least. If you train with your father then you shouldn't have any issues with staying in shape after all."
"And you're also pretty lucky today, little one. It's not snowing outside the barrier either, so I genuinely had no excuses to refuse. You should thank Mother Nature for that one."
"I'll make an Altar for Mother Nature and revere her from now on!"
"No, no, there's no need to go that far…. A simple thank you works just fine, little one."
"Got it!"
And so I hurried outside the barrier, waiting for him for about a minute or so before he came back with his own sword around his waist. His wasn't a katana or anything like that, but it wasn't too shabby either honestly. I could tell from a glance that for starters the steel was of pretty high quality, and it would be safe to assume that considering its being used by someone or his level. Sure, any weapon can be enhanced, but it's a lot more efficient to just get a great weapon that won't need too much of your mana just to survive to begin with.
He had already unsheathed it, and was standing around 10 meters in front of me. Aldric was going to be the referee for this match, so he was watching from the sidelines, closer to us than the rest who were also watching but from inside the barrier. I also unsheathed my own sword, relaxing for now as I was waiting for the beginning signal.
"I was planning on having a little spare with you to begin with honestly, at the very least to see what Maia has made out of you. It definitely came sooner than I anticipated, but I'm not against it. What about you though, little one? You nervous?"
"Nervous? Of course not. I'm so excited I can barely keep my hands from shaking all over the place. I finally get to go into action after all."
"That so?"
"It is."
We both then glanced at Aldric, who had one arm raised towards the sky. He nodded back at us, and began counting down.
"Alright then, remember to not hurt each other too much, and stay within reasonable sportsmanship morals. 3….2…."
I quickly changed position, bending one knee forward, both hands on my sword as I leaned it towards my back, and enhanced my speed.
"….1. Begin!"
And the instant he gave the signal, I was the one to initiate the attack, and dashed forward. He didn't seem to be moving for the time being, but that much was expected. I knew very well that he's a lot stronger than me after all, so instead of getting pressed, I still went on with what I had to do. Bringing my blade forward, I began the slashing motion as soon as I was in range, and sure enough, that's when he began moving his own blade.
Mine was coming from the right, towards the left, and from the movement of his wrist, he was probably trying to deviate it. Unfortunately for him though, I'm not sure how much Maia told him, but I don't think he's aware that this level of swordsmanship is nothing for me. Which is why, right as he was about to deviate my blade from below, I changed slashing motion, striking down.
He seemed pleasantly surprised while his blade had almost fallen out of his hand, but he gripped it harder and smirked as he took a step back.
"I see… I guess I may have underestimated you, haven't I?"
"You don't seem all that surprised though?"
"I can't deny that. But don't take it the wrong way, I am still surprised. But when your 15 year old daughter becomes the Commander's Lieutenant, you kinda get desensitized by most things, you know?"
Hahaha, what a reasonable argument. This time, it was the both of us who simultaneously dashed forward, while I replied, as our blades met.
"I'll take that as a compliment!"
And that was the beginning of the real fight. He was obviously holding back, but still I was actually the one with the upper hand when it came to our swordplay. That's not to discredit his swordsmanship though, because for that type of blade, he may actually be in the top 1% in terms of skill honestly. It just so happened to be a little of an unfair matchup considering I was using a katana, which was generally a more versatile sword. Of course, even if we both used the same exact blade I would still be superior in skill, but generally speaking this was also just a bad matchup for him, so I'm glad he's not pointing it out…
But simply exchanging blows was getting a little boring, so to spice things up…
I bet you also won't see this one coming, old man.
While charging at him, I had secretly released a small strand of my mana in the air, and dematerialized it. Was I going for a sneak attack? Not really, but it wouldn't be too far from it either. Was I going to hit him though? Absolutely not, that would be too boring, wouldn't it? So instead of doing that, just as he was about to intercept my blade, I materialized that small strand, and formed a string with it. Then, I quickly wrapped it around his blade, just as he was about to push it towards mine, stopping it mid air, and making myself a great opening to fully strike.
I guess it won't be that easy, huh?
But somehow, his reflexes at 30 something years old were good enough for him to let go of his sword all together, and Dodge my slash as his blade fell down, and he stepped to the side.
"Would you mind explaining what that was, my dear son?"
Instead of going through the full yapping session though, I just opened my left palm, then materialized some mana in it. Then, I dematerialized and rematerialized it, changing its shape a little from a string to a triangle because triangles are awesome. Pretty sure that dematerializing the mana itself wasn't actually too hard, but of course the impossible part was rematerializing that same dematerialized mana from the air, and changing its shape.
"That's the gist of it."
He sighed, face palming himself slowly as he grinned in acceptance.
"This just makes that little fight we had 2 years ago seem like nothing but an old man's irrationality on my end, doesn't it?"
"I wouldn't say you're that old of a man yet, but the rest seems fairly accurate? Do you need me to step aside so you can get your blade back though?"
After all, I was closer to it than he was now, and we seemed to have paused it for the time being.
"There's no need."
"What, are you giving up on your sword then? You gonna start throwing hands with me?"
But the next instant, before he'd reply, the ground beneath me suddenly rose up in a circle, sending me up.
"I never said that, did I?"
And right afterwards, another rock lifted itself and came crashing towards me, sending me back a few meters. I somehow managed to stop myself from going too far off, grabbing the ground with my fingers which yes, did scrape the fuck out of them, but the snow on the ground helped a little with that, plus I regenerated them so it wasn't an issue. Once I was stabilized and managed to look forward again though, dad had already picked back up his sword.
"Let me educate you a little on fighting etiquette, my dear son. Even if you outclass your opponent in your weapon's skill, that doesn't mean that you have any less chances of losing than you did at the start, especially if he's stronger than you, like in this case."
"…"
And for the record, being thrown in the air then hit with some rocks isn't painless either. Fortunately I was able to heal myself but still. I was the one underestimating him this time. Now that I think about it, I didn't even know dad could use earth magic, unless I forgot, but this doesn't complicate things too much… or I don't think it does at least?
"Close range is my speciality, in which I have 30 years of experience in. I can't use mana blasts or mana attacks after all, so I had to somehow get strong with what I have. In this case, it's mainly earth magic and body or weapon enhancing as my aces. So pick yourself up, and start taking this fight seriously, or you're going to end up defeated before you even get to use your aces."
With a clean air swing, he then cleaned the snow off his blade, then continued.
"From now on, it's less talking and more fighting. So get up, Cael."
I guess this is where the action loving freaks get hyped up. Get some snacks, lay down and enjoy I guess? Because the next instant, I was on my feet and already sprinting forward.
The shift in pacing was extremely noticeable, mainly because not only was dad also moving, but instead of just trying to clash with me, he was actually playing fairly annoying, but effectively. Rocks were coming at me, one after another, from all directions. If I cut up one, I had to dodge a second one coming from the other side, but if I dodged that one, another one came from behind me. It was that kind of an annoying strategy, which was extremely effective in the end unfortunately.
However, that wasn't it, because at the same time amidst all the dodging, dad would also dash towards me, and we'd have to clash while both dodging the rocks he clearly couldn't even be bothered to aim only at me. Was this his way of telling me that it's on? Regardless, I wasn't actually against it, quite the opposite.
After all, it gave me a huge advantage once I began materializing mana around me, and remotely took care of the rocks. He was probably surprised there for a second when I first did it, or at least distracted because I had managed to find an opening, in which I grabbed his arm, and pulled him towards me, then kicked him in the stomach, sending him away.
Following that, I quickly caught up, and tried to kick him again, this time in the face, but he managed to pull down his head, and kick me upwards instead. It wasn't an issue for me though, since unlike him I could actually fly. And I had the clear advantage here now. If close range was his domain which I can't overcome with superior skill alone, I'll play my best card, which is ranged fighting.
"You still haven't landed a single slash on me, Little one!"
He spoke while quickly repositioning himself.
"Until you cut me up properly, you won't be a real man!"
Surely he won't be able to do much, right?… is what I thought while standing in the air, but of course that wasn't the case, because before I could even fully react, he had already jumped high enough to actually reach and punch me. Seriously, what kind of legs does this old man have? Has he never skipped leg day before?! I was around 30 meters in the air too… but now I was rapidly falling backwards from those 30 meters, hoping that I'd be fine with just a few broken ribs which I'd heal on impact, but he didn't even allow me to fully start leaping down before somehow… getting back down and jumping again towards me, then punching me straight downwards this time.
What the hell even was that? I briefly saw it before it hit me, but there were zero swords in sight?! He had actually sheathed it God knows when and hit me downwards with both hands fisted up, like I was some wrestling victim…. Ref, please do something….
Yeah, like hell I'm taking that silently!
Hardening the air around my left hand, I clawed my fingers like a damn animal reaching for the ground, and stopped myself from falling. Then, I charged up some mana in my sword. He couldn't stay in the air after all, and was already falling down towards me… but I think he may just end up getting sent back up.
Let's see how you like getting thrown around.
Releasing it towards him, I made sure to concentrate its range in a smaller circular radius compared to my usual mighty and flashy attacks, because I wanted as much power as possible going towards him. Did it work though? Hell yeah it did, and he was sent back up fast enough to give me time to quickly dash upwards again.
At the same time, not only did I charge another one in my sword, but I also made a blast above him. Not needing my hands to make blasts gave me a scary amount of freedom while fighting honestly, but it was more than welcome. I knew it wouldn't do a lot of damage, but regardless I did in fact sandwich him between both of those.
I decided to at the very least give him the peace of falling down peacefully though, so I didn't interfere with that. Once I saw a massive cloud of dust and snow spread around on the ground, signifying that he had fallen, I also went down.
Did I overdo it? I was pretty confident that he wouldn't take a lot of damage, but was I wrong…?
The cloud hadn't dissipated completely yet, so I was kinda just staring at it, not being able to see in what state he was in… but it was a little worrying.
"Uhm… dad? Are you alright…"
But no reply came.
"…did I go too far…?"
Man, what do I do? What if I killed him or something?! Am I going to go to jail?! Am I a criminal now?! Is that how I'm going to spend my second life, in a prison cell because I accidentally killed my dad?!
"Honestly, that last mana sandwiching was pretty uncalled for, you know?"
"Yeah, I can see that now…"
Even the voice from behind me agreed with me......
Oh.
I quickly tried to turn around.
When the hell did he get behind m-
But I was kicked in the back before I could react, sending me to the ground.
"Ghuah!…!"
I spit up some blood on the ground, probably also having a few broken ribs and teeth besides some obvious internal bleeding, but I focused everything I had on regenerating for the time being. My pain tolerance was fairly high thankfully, since I did fall from above the clouds straight into the ground way too many times than I wanted to before.
"Honestly, you're way better than I thought, Cael. Your swordsmanship is definitely superior to mine, and perhaps even your battle iq… but as you can clearly see, if you're outmatched in terms of speed and strength, there's not much you can do."
Even after healing myself though, I still felt some of the pain, causing me to cough as I turned around, with my back on the ground.
"…I lost…"
"At least you're not a sore loser though. You may not have managed to slice me up, but you were pretty fun to play with. If you feel like getting your ass beaten again, let me know. My dear son."
He smiled as he helped me get up. It was pretty annoying honestly, and frankly embarrassing as well to some degree, but a loss is a loss. Can't do much about it now anyway, since it was over.
I may not have been able to slice him even once, but I swear that one day I will, and I'm sure that it'll be a day I'll never forget. After all, it would mean that I've beaten my dad for the first time in my life, since I don't think I'll ever manage to even slice one of his fingers off unless I'm able to win.
Anywho though, I was satisfied enough with how things went, so I decided to not make a tantrum over not being allowed to fight monsters for the time being. I guess I could also count it as a family trip? Though it may be a little late to do that now that we're closer to the capital than our village, but still.