Transmigrated As The Final Villain of a Death Game-Chapter 150: Sword Training [ 9 ]

"Please tell me you’re joking."

Aliyah shook her head.

Before I could faint, she added:

"I didn’t do it without a plan, you know? In my eyes, if my bounty is the same as yours, people will start to suspect something more’s happening."

"...What? How does that even work?"

"It’s simple. You’re strong, but you’re not on my level. If the people see that the Holy Order puts these high bounties on just about anyone, they might think that the Holy Order is sending a threat to someone instead of actually taking us seriously."

I paused for a moment and tried to look at things from her perspective.

In a way, I could kind of understand where she was coming from.

It’s like putting the same bounty on a farmer and then on the strongest person in the world.

No one’s going to believe a farmer killed the king.

So doubt would arise about whether the accusations were even true in the first place.

Honestly... it wasn’t that bad of an idea.

The only problem is that we already had a reputation because we killed three Vampire Nobles.

But even so...

"I’ll trust you, since I’m sure you know what you’re doing."

She nodded at me with a faint smile.

"Alright then. That’s it for now. I saw you were training, so get back to it. I’ll call you later."

As she began walking away from me, I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to say something.

And while it wasn’t my place to do so, I felt like at the rate they were going, they would never talk about it.

"You know, the best way to avoid misunderstandings is to talk things through."

She stopped, then slowly turned around, meeting my gaze.

I thought she would tell me off.

But she didn’t.

"If you knew that someone you cared about was walking the same path as you, would you approve?"

Ah...

I should’ve known this was why.

"I wouldn’t like it, but since I know there’s no way to change their mind, I would help them walk the same path as me instead of pushing them away."

"..."

Aliyah let out a sigh.

"Even if that path gets them killed?"

"Yes."

Her eyes widened, yet the moment she opened her mouth to reply, I interjected:

"Because pretending I can keep them safe by standing in their way is just stupid."

With that, silence descended for a few short moments.

I knew that she’s going to be angry at me.

But I didn’t agree with her ideology.

She wanted to keep Eric away from swordsmanship so he never becomes a swordsman and starts fighting demons.

But that’s stupid.

What happens when the day comes where she’s not there and Eric’s left to fight against a weak demon?

He’d be dead.

All because she never taught him how to defend himself.

Without saying another word, I began swinging my sword once again, making sure she saw my Sword Heart progress.

She stayed around for a few minutes before finally leaving me alone and entering the cave.

***

Although I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, when I spotted Clementine approaching me with an uncomfortable look, I knew that Aliyah and Eric likely had that conversation.

"How’s training?" she asked.

I shrugged. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"It’s been pretty much the same. I definitely prefer this over carrying boulders up a vertical mountain, though."

She let out a giggle, then sat down on a nearby boulder and crossed her legs.

"I finally memorized the book about enchanting. It turns out these appearance-changing rings we’re wearing are just normal enchanted rings."

"Yeah, most of the artifacts in this world are just made special by the blacksmiths or previous enchanters," I said, then turned to her.

"I doubt you came here just to tell me that though. What’s up?"

A slight pout appeared on her face.

"And what if that’s really why I came here?"

I just stared at her until eventually, she puffed her cheeks out in anger and took out two books before tossing them my way.

I easily caught the books, and yet the moment I inspected them, my eyes widened.

[Holy Knight - Vanguard Swordsmanship Technique]

[An Aura Manipulation Guide For Dummies 101]

"This is...?"

"Aliyah told me to bring you these, and you need to memorize both of them by week’s end," Clementine replied.

Then, she hopped off the boulder and pointed at the books.

First, the Holy Knight - Vanguard Swordsmanship Technique.

"She said it’s a really good offensive technique that focuses on parrying and countering. If you master it, you’ll learn a technique that can parry an opponent’s technique back at them at 100% of their own attack’s power."

Oh?

I was a little bit surprised that this was considered an offensive technique when it had such passive forms.

But I could already see myself using this final technique, as it was nothing short of overpowered.

"Now, as for this Aura Manipulation book, she just said read it and try to pick something up. Most of the information in it is false, but there are some truths that you can probably use."

"I see... I’ll get to it then," I replied with a sigh.

Clementine ruffled my hair and sat back down on the boulder.

"Do you mind if I stay here while you practice? They’re pretty loud in there."

I smiled.

"That’s fine."

With that, Clementine settled down on the boulder, and as for me, I leaned against the wall and opened up the Holy Knight Vanguard book first.

For starters, I flipped through it, checking just how many forms there were.

Thankfully, despite the book being so thick, there were only four really detailed forms.

1. The Bastion Stance

2. Parry + Counter

3. The Seven Slashes

4. Perfect Counter

Sadly for me, the third and fourth forms only worked once someone could use Aura.

So for now, I only needed to learn the first and second forms.

I spent the next several hours reading through the two forms, and once I was done, I was finally ready to try them out.