Chapter 25. Preparation for the Tower
Nash opened her eyes before three turns—that is, three minutes—had passed.
“D-did I faint? Did I lose?”
Camellia moistened her throat with the honey tea handed to her by her maid, Aisha, and replied.
“That is correct.”
She had expected Nash to be relieved that there was no more need to fight, but the girl’s reaction was the exact opposite of her expectations.
The girl, face flushed, clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly, perhaps to suppress her anger, before speaking defiantly.
“C-can we try just one more time?”
‘Oh?’
When Lohengrin had been going on about her having the heart of a beast and whatnot, Camellia had thought he was just overhyping her, but she actually had more guts and competitive spirit than she had anticipated.
Camellia quickly signaled to Netanel.
The half-elf priest let out a deep sigh, examined Nash’s body here and there, and concluded that there was nothing wrong.
No sooner had he finished speaking than Nash jumped up, grabbed her axe, and stepped back onto the training grounds.
Lohengrin glanced at Camellia before approaching Nash.
The way he was whispering advice suggested he was passing on tips for fighting against a Sorcerer.
Seeing that it looked fun, Netanel whispered into Camellia’s ear as well.
“It seems the Knight Commander is cheating, doesn’t it?”
“How utterly pathetic.”
After delivering a line worthy of an evil mage Lord, Camellia stepped onto the training grounds herself.
Nash took a deep breath and assumed her stance.
Perhaps because Lohengrin had coached her well, the distance between them was closer than before.
If she swung her arms, the axe would be close enough to graze Camellia’s body.
Her body was hunched forward, as if she intended to spring out the moment they began.
‘She intends to use her mobility to land a preemptive strike. How cute.’
It was better than before, but her moves were still obvious.
She had already been defeated once, yet she insisted on a head-on confrontation?
‘I suppose I’ll just have to hit her again.’
Camellia gestured to Lohengrin.
The knight cleared his throat and raised his hand.
“We shall begin the match after I count to three. One, two… three!”
As soon as his declaration fell, Nash lunged forward.
A normal mage would have certainly been hit at least once.
However, as mentioned earlier, a Sorcerer’s spell-casting speed is the fastest among all casters.
“Charm.”
What Camellia chose was ‘Charm,’ the fastest of them all.
Unlike ‘Domination,’ which requires giving a command after casting, ‘Charm’ is an instant-cast spell.
The moment it is cast, affection for the caster blooms, rendering the target unable to attack.
Having taken the spell head-on while rushing in, Nash stopped dead in her tracks without even being able to swing her axe.
“L-Lord, y-you’re incredibly beautiful.”
She didn’t even forget to mumble that with a dazed expression.
“Thank you, Nash.”
Camellia smiled, acknowledged the compliment, and lightly tapped her cheek.
“Would you be a dear and strike your own head with your axe handle for me?”
“Huck, y-yes! I will!”
Nash did not hesitate to bring the axe handle down on her own head with all her might.
*Thwack!*
Once again, there was a sound like a firecracker.
The result, of course, went without saying.
“I-I want to do it again! I want to go again!”
Nash, who had woken up in three minutes just like before, was panting, her face and even her neck bright red.
‘She’s just like our youngest.’
Her youngest sibling, who had been an elite athlete, used to wail loudly every time they lost a match.
They had so much energy that they would be huffing and puffing for an entire month, enough to exhaust anyone watching.
But their coach, and even their parents, didn’t think much of it. They said an athlete without a competitive spirit was as good as dead.
‘Or perhaps not. In a way, Shushu might be even more impressive than our youngest.’
Unlike her sibling, who had walked the path of elite athletics with all sorts of support, Nash had lived her whole life being mistreated and pushed around.
It would have been natural for her to consider bowing her head not just as a necessity, but as a virtue.
Yet, seeing her competitive spirit not only survive but overflow, it meant her innate temperament was extraordinary.
Perhaps the heart of a beast that Lohengrin spoke of was real.
“It wouldn’t be difficult to go another round, but if you don’t know the countermeasure, you’ll just lose again, won’t you?”
When she asked as a test, Nash, who had been agonizing over it with a red face, asked back.
“C-countermeasure? If I know that, can I beat you, Lord?”
Camellia smiled and stated firmly.
“No. With your current skill, you couldn’t beat me even if you died and came back to life.”
“…….”
Nash looked like she was about to cry, but reality wouldn’t change just because she cried.
If she couldn’t beat a low-level character with nothing but raw stats—not even a level 3 knight—as a Sorcerer, she might as well quit the game.
“It’s a bit much for an employer to be so mean to a child.”
Netanel chimed in, perhaps unable to watch a veteran cruelly trample a newbie any longer.
“Sixteen shouldn’t be a child.”
Netanel chuckled and joked.
“By the time you reach my age or the Lord’s, sixteen is a child. Isn’t that right?”
Though he looked like a boy, Netanel was a half-elf, seventy years old. It wasn’t strange for him to call Nash a child.
Camellia tried to brush it off with a joke, but Nash mumbled and spoke again.
“E-even if I’m going to lose, can’t we try one more time…?”
Her eyes were welling up with tears and she looked somewhat intimidated, but there was no sign of fear.
‘Truly unexpected in many ways.’
I want to have a word with the planner who wrote the character description. How could a kid like this be a ‘normal girl’?
Camellia reached out and lightly brushed Nash’s frizzy hair as she said,
“Are you not afraid of me?”
Nash, bewildered that her Lord would stroke her hair, asked back.
“Y-yes?”
“I used magic to control you. Were you not scared or afraid?”
At her words, Nash tilted her head and opened her mouth.
“D-do I have to be scared…?”
Then she added to herself, “W-well, the Lord is scary even without that anyway…”
She immediately covered her mouth, looking startled that she had said it out loud.
Camellia smiled at the girl, who was cowering for fear of being scolded.
‘I expected as much, but she really isn’t afraid.’
Most humanoid races show resistance when faced with mental-type magic.
The few exceptions that fall outside of ‘most’ are as follows:
They are evil beings, they have mental issues, or their Intelligence and Wisdom are both 10 or lower.
The first two are understandable.
As for the last case, well… I will let the answer the developers gave on the community Q&A board—‘Why don’t characters with Intelligence and Wisdom below 10 get affected by mental magic? Is it because they aren’t smart?’—suffice.
└ Oh, you really hit the nail on the head! :)
‘Our Shushu isn’t stupid; she’s just bold. She has potential for growth. Yes.’
In any case, isn’t it a good thing if she isn’t scared?
It’s rare to find a companion character who doesn’t lose loyalty even after seeing mental magic and being hit by it directly, so why should I be picky?
Camellia tried to smile kindly as she patted the girl’s head.
“If you want to learn how to fight against a caster, I shall see you often from now on. There are quite a few mages in the castle besides me who are worth sparring with. It will be helpful.”
Nash, who had been watching her cautiously, carefully removed her hand from her mouth once she realized Camellia had no intention of scolding her, and asked.
“Then… a-are we not fighting with you anymore today, Lord?”
“That is right.”
For the sake of the disappointed Nash, Camellia added,
“But we will conduct training in preparation for when we enter the Tower.”
“T-training?”
When she mentioned that she would learn how to fight in formation with people acting as monsters, a spark of spirit ignited in Nash’s eyes.
“B-but who will play the role of the monsters?”
“Are there not those here who owe a great debt to the High Priest?”
She meant she would mobilize the knights.
Netanel grumbled about why the Lord should benefit when he was the one who did the work, but he didn’t object.
The same went for Lohengrin. In fact, he seemed to welcome it.
I had vaguely thought about it since the moment I pitted Nash against the knights, but I was a boss who worked her subordinates quite ruthlessly.
“Since there seem to be no objections, I shall summon the knights right away. Aisha.”
“Yes, my Lord. I shall obey.”
Though, of course, Camellia was in no position to talk.
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