NOVEL NEXT 40. A sword class
"Before we began, I heard that your highness has some experience using human swords. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
Julia answered her teacher’s question with a nod. And he let out a sigh.
"Then you can forget almost all you learned."
Here it comes: He will now tell me how much vampire swords are superior to human swords. Julia braced herself, even though she is a vampire and a princess at that. She was still raised as a human.
"I will not tell you such nonsense as other teachers might. When it comes to human swords, they are made with different fighting styles in mind. For that reason, any of our soldiers who would pick up a human sword in their hands would consider it inferior. I assume humans would see it the same way."
Contrary to Julia’s expectation, he didn’t praise his homeland’s swordsmanship as superior. And, as he had stated, Julia remembered that vampiric swords were regarded as mere decoration, useless in battle due to their shorter length.
"A human can lose their life easier, allowing their enemy to close on them too closely means almost certain death. That is reflected in their swords as well. The long blade allows them to strike without risking their own lives as much, and the weight of the sword also allows them to overwhelm their foe with heavy strikes."
The teacher picked a human-long sword for emphasis. Julia already knew this. After all, she fought as a human. Wondering where the teacher was going with it, she watched as the teacher picked up his own vampiric sword and held it side by side with the human one.
"The warrior of the Blood Clan, on the other hand, can heal his wounds with his regeneration ability. Not having to fear death, as humans do, the blood clan can focus on offense. Betting on a single deciding strike."
Isn’t that given? Julia wondered. Wasn’t it just common to attempt to end the battle with the first strike?
"Maybe a display would explain it better."
Seeing that Julia didn’t seem to understand him, he prepared two sets of protective gear and presented one to Julia along with the human sword. Putting Kana on the bench and the gear on, she grabbed the human sword and prepared to face her teacher. who, meanwhile, readied himself with the curved vampiric sword in front of him.
Julia took a deep breath and firmly gripped the handle of her sword. In a split of second, the teacher rushed at Julia.
Julia attempted to block her teacher’s sword; he, however, positioned his sword at an angle, redirecting Julia’s long sword to the side. Realizing this, Julia wanted to change the direction of her sword to strike her teacher’s shoulder. However, the momentum of her long sword didn’t allow it.
Before Julia could redirect her sword, the teacher’s sword slammed into her stomach. Based on the lack of pain, the teacher held back a lot.
Taking a few steps, the teacher prepared for a second round. Julia likewise grabbed her long sword and prepared again.
In this fashion, Julia and her teacher dueled for several minutes, in this short time, a total of 12 rounds had passed. Julia had swapped her long sword for the teacher's curved vampiric sword in the last six. Now she leaned against a tree.
12 rounds… 6 with a human sword, 5 losses. The rest with vampiric sword 4 losses. Was that what he wanted to show me? Julia thought about the duel, of which each round lasted a few seconds. But despite that, she was able to experience the advantages of both swords as well as realize that using the vampiric sword as a human one and vise versa is not a good idea.
"I believe that now your highness understands why I referred to the idea of our sword being superior as nonsense."
Julia looked up at his smiling face. You beat me with a vampiric one though. It was true that Julia felt that the vampiric sword was, despite its higher weight compared to its length, far easier to handle than the human one. She could not deny that.
"Teacher, why did you take an interest in human swords?"
The way he fought with a human sword, as well as the mere fact that he had one, to begin with, was strange for a vampire swordsman.
"You could tell your highness? Well, I guess it is unusual to even have a human sword."
"As you say."
The teacher scratched his head embarrassedly. Julia was rather surprised by the mere fact that there was a vampire that did not look down on humans... Well, Loriam made a lot of deals with humans and even slept with and had a child with one, but that doesn’t matter.
"Well, to be honest, when I joined the army in her majesty’s service, I happened to encounter a powerful human opponent. I thought that it would be an easy victory, that I would just crush her and be done with it."
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"She alone killed 10 of ours while keeping me at bay. "I might not have been able to kill her if my comrade hadn't used lighting on her."
He toyed with the sword in his hand as he spoke. while Julia tried to remember whether she ever heard of someone like that.
"This sword was hers; I picked it up once she fell. I never thought that I would be captured by human swordsmanship or their sword. But you see, it had this exotic charm to it."
Julia smiled, surprised to hear the swords she grew up with were described as exotic.
"But enough of that, your highness, we should return to class. Please take your sword."
Julia nodded and, as instructed; grabbed Kana from the bench.
…There is yet to be a sword that could rival me. as long as the master uses me, victory is as good as yours.
Julia was taken aback when she suddenly heard Kana’s voice in her head once she picked her up. Was that one of her abilities? She wondered.
"Then help me use you properly."
As you wish, master.
As Kana agreed to Julia’s command, Julia, under her teacher’s instructions, began practicing vampiric swordsmanship. For several hours, and just as she was told, Kana used her abilities to correct Julia’s moves before she messed them up. All the while, a group of certain girls were not so discreetly cheering her on.