Since yesterday, the way Rudy looks at me has become timid and shrinking.
He doesn’t quite dare to meet my gaze, probably fearing I’ll expose that matter to Paul and the others—the matter of his secret collection of Roxy’s panties.
His perverted behavior forced me to reorganize my own clothes as well.
Fortunately, he hasn’t gone so far as to use his own sister’s clothes to satisfy his needs.
Although Rudy looks at me with some fear, he has actually grown to the point where he can take walks in the village independently.
For him, this is a huge step forward.
Thump!
Crack!
Thump!
Crack!
The rhythmic sound of wooden swords clashing came from the yard.
Paul was teaching me swordsmanship.
To be honest, Paul wasn’t a very good teacher; his theoretical guidance lacked a system and was very fragmented, relying entirely on feeling.
However, Paul still tried his best to pass on everything he knew to me, and I could feel that.
Perhaps this body has decent talent; although my strength isn’t there yet, my physical speed and agility are excellent.
I can perform many high-difficulty movements and easily keep up with Paul’s pace.
“Good, Luna, very good!
Just like that, deflect the opponent’s power with the blade, then use the pommel to attack.”
Deflecting with the blade and then striking with the pommel’s weight—this was the Water God Style’s understanding of longsword usage, but in my understanding, it was a Master Riposte.
“Dad, why can’t I use a rapier?
I feel like with my body, using a longsword or a broadsword will drain my stamina quickly, and my swinging speed won’t be enough.”
A female body is naturally at a disadvantage in terms of strength, so it would be better to use a rapier instead.
“No means no!” Paul got a bit agitated and failed to hold back his strength.
With a ‘thwack,’ he sent the wooden sword flying out of my hand.
My wrist hurt quite a bit, and looking closely, it had already swollen.
If Zenith hadn’t been away today, I would have cried to her long ago and let her deal with Paul.
“I’m sorry, Luna, are you okay?”
Paul also realized his mistake and hurried to apologize.
“Tsk, if I can’t use it, then I can’t.
Can I use a dagger in the future then?”
Seeing that I was fine and not crying, Paul breathed a sigh of relief and then steadied himself.
“A dagger?
Do you want to learn the North God Style?”
“No, I just want to use a dagger.
After all, my arm strength isn’t great, and using a longsword will be very taxing later on.
It’s better to switch to a lighter weapon.”
“Actually, there’s no need.
Once you know how to wrap yourself in Battle Aura, any weapon is the same.
Battle Aura can increase your agility, speed, strength, and even your defense.”
Battle Aura?
This world has that kind of thing too?
Isn’t that just like inner power or something?
Wait, wrapping in Battle Aura?
What exactly is Battle Aura?
“Dad, what is Battle Aura?”
“Battle Aura?
Battle Aura is just Battle Aura.”
Paul answered a question that seemed self-evident to him.
But I don’t understand!
What is Battle Aura specifically?
“Then can Dad demonstrate it for me?”
With that, I used Earth Magic to build a target in the yard for Paul to attack.
“Hehe, then watch closely.” Paul stepped forward very proudly; it seemed that being relied upon by his Water Saint-tier Magician daughter made him very happy.
I saw Paul’s speed gradually increase, then he raised the wooden sword high and, with a’swish,’ sliced the rock in half.
So strong!
Slicing rock with a wooden sword, that’s amazing.
Looking closely, there seemed to be a hazy shimmer around his body.
Is this Battle Aura?
“How was it?
Pretty impressive, right?”
“Mm, amazing, amazing!
Dad is so strong!”
Paul turned around and struck a cool pose; he really wanted to show off in front of his daughter.
Naturally, I had to give him enough emotional validation and flatter him.
I was counting on him for my future pocket money, after all.
“Mr.
Paul!
Please come out for a moment!”
Just as Paul and I were having a warm parent-child moment, a strange woman arrived at our gate, bringing a very sturdy-looking child with her.
Judging by her tone, she didn’t come with good intentions.
“Good afternoon, Mrs.
Atte.
Is there something I can help you with?”
Paul treated the woman before him very politely.
She was young, in her twenties, and somewhat attractive, though she couldn’t hold a candle to Zenith or Lilia.
“Hmph!
Your Rudeus is simply outrageous!
He actually beat our Somar into this state!”
I looked closely; the sturdy child had a bruised right eye.
Did Rudy do that?
Since when did he have that kind of guts?
Paul was also surprised; he seemingly hadn’t expected Rudy to do such a thing.
He observed the child carefully; he had indeed been hit.
Paul then bowed to the woman in apology.
“I’m sorry, Mrs.
Atte.
I apologize for my son’s behavior.”
“Hmph, since Mr.
Paul has apologized, we’ll let the matter drop.”
The young woman took the opportunity to steal a few glances at Paul while he was bowing, her gaze burning with intensity.
Women attract men, but the reverse is also true.
A handsome, masculine man like Paul would surely be pursued by many women.
Whenever he practiced swordsmanship bare-chested, who knows how many village girls screamed for him.
In a later era, Paul’s fan club would likely have been established in the village.
Based on my understanding of Rudy, even if he had the skills, his cowardly nature wouldn’t let him pick a fight.
He would only strike back when being bullied.
I suspected it was Rudy’s counterattack that caused this.
However, even if I told them Rudy wouldn’t initiate an attack, they wouldn’t believe me; they’d just think I was being biased toward Rudy.
So, I had to change my way of questioning.
“Wait a moment!”
I called out to the mother and son.
“What is it, little girl?”
“I want to ask Somar and Mrs.
Atte, how did Rudy hit him?”
Hearing this, both mother and son clearly panicked for a moment.
Something was fishy.
“Th-that…
of course Rudeus used…
used his fists to hit me.”
Somar’s eyes were darting around as he spoke; he was clearly lying.
“Huh?
A big guy like you couldn’t beat him?
He can’t even beat me!”
The mother and son were a bit flustered after I exposed the lie, but Mrs.
Atte utilized her specialty as a shrew, resorting to unreasonable pestering to shift the focus.
“In any case, a hit is a hit!
Rudeus definitely hit my son!
Mr.
Paul, you should discipline your child well and not let him bully our child whenever he likes!
Hmph!”
Afterward, Mrs.
Atte, with a slightly guilty expression, slunk away with the child named Somar.
Paul stood frozen in place, unsure of what to think.
“Dad, I don’t think Rudy would bully anyone.
There must be a reason…”
“Luna, stay out of this.
This is between me and Rudy.”
Paul insisted on handling it himself.
How would he handle it?
A heart-to-heart with Rudy?
As it turned out, Paul insisted on sitting in the yard waiting for Rudy to come home, waiting until it was dark.
I leaned against the second-floor windowsill and looked out.
I saw Rudy happily carrying the ‘Encyclopedia of Plants’ that Zenith had given him for his birthday as he returned to the yard.
By the look of it, he definitely hadn’t hit that kid named Somar.
However, Paul looked very angry, seemingly wanting to use this incident to establish his fatherly authority and give Rudy a good lesson.
But his act of judging without knowing the facts also annoyed Rudy.
The result, naturally, was that Paul was not only argued down by the extremely experienced Rudy, but he was also driven to strike Rudy with a slap—a truly loud slap.
But this time Rudy didn’t back down.
His reasoning was correct; he hadn’t hit Somar, but had instead stood up to help a child being bullied by Somar.
It was indeed Paul who had listened to an outsider’s one-sided story and scolded Rudy indiscriminately.
Finally, with Paul taking the initiative to admit his mistake, the matter was resolved smoothly.
After Rudy returned to his room, I followed him in.
Looking at his expression, he wasn’t affected by what just happened; he was much stronger than before.
“So, what exactly happened today?
That guy named Somar and his mom came looking for us at home.”
“Actually, it’s like this…” Rudy recounted the day’s events in detail.
It turned out a little green-haired boy was being bullied by that group of kids, and Rudy had stepped in to save him.
He had only used magic to drive those people away and hadn’t hit them.
For some reason, this Somar had come to our house to complain.
“Sigh~ you’ve had it rough.
What Paul did was indeed a bit much, but he’s also a first-time father.
I hope you can understand him.
I’ll handle this matter tomorrow, otherwise that brat will keep coming to our house.”
“How are you going to handle it?”
“With a child’s solution, of course.”
The next day, I went to find those children alone.
According to the villagers, that kid named Somar always relied on his size to bully other children and was constantly up to no good, making him a nuisance to everyone.
Most people in the village disliked him.
“Somar!”
“What is it?”
He had gathered his little buddies, three or four of them huddled under a large tree, unsure of why I was looking for him.
“Fight.”
“Huh?”
“Fight.”
I repeated it.
This kind of brat who bullies others and then goes home to make false accusations needs a heavy hand.
“Just you?” He looked around in disbelief.
“That’s right, just me.
I’m also a companion of the Demon Race.”
“Hmph!
Don’t think that just because you’re a knight’s kid, we won’t hit you!”
“Haha, it’s fine.
I won’t be like some people—a good little boy who goes home crying to his mama for help after losing a fight.”
“What did you say?!”
Somar was completely enraged by me.
“Come on, you big dummy, hit me!”
Under my taunting, Somar lost his reason and lunged at me.
However, I didn’t use magic to fight him.
Even if I did, if Paul found out, he would think I won unfairly by bullying the weak.
But fighting this tall, sturdy, early-blooming boy and his lackeys head-on was unrealistic.
Even if I had studied swordsmanship for a while, the overall gap in strength wasn’t large enough to handle a one-against-many situation.
So, I decided to run a marathon.
Isn’t this how Nobita kites Gian?
“Come on, catch me, you big dummy!”
“You just wait!”
Thirty minutes later, he was the only one left by his side.
The others had either run out of breath or were just slacking off, unwilling to keep running with him.
“Huff, huff, huff…
you…
just…
wait.”
By now, he was panting heavily.
No matter how much he tried to act tough, without systematic training and with uneven breathing, he could never outrun me.
The guy bent over with his hands on his knees, unable to run another step.
I had also broken a sweat, but overall, I was still in very good condition.
“Somar, let’s start the fight now.”
Reflected in his terrified pupils was my grinning figure.