Under the Oak Tree

255 Chapter When Maxi did not move, Ursuline motioned with his head to urge her on.

She swallowed dryly and said, “A-Are you not… in charge of the castle while Riftan is away, Sir Ursuline? I could not burden you with such a task… when you’re already so busy.”

“I can spare a few days, my lady. And when I am unable to, Ulyseon here will oversee your training.”

The young knight’s head whipped to stare at Ursuline in surprise. “M-Me?”

“Will that be a problem?”

Ulyseon hastily shook his head, but Maxi could tell from the queasy look on his face that he was not entirely happy with the plan. Mortification prickled through her. He was likely recalling how he had bashed her on the forehead, as well as her complete lack of physical agility during her dagger training with Riftan.

Ursuline arched an eyebrow. “My lady, please, make haste and change into something more suited for physical activity.”

“Y-You… really do not have to trouble yourself, Sir Ursuline. If there were to be a battle, I would be in the supporting forces at the rear. I wouldn’t be fighting—”

“Anything can happen during a battle, my lady. I am sure you’re more than aware from experience. You might be ambushed by monsters or find yourself in a situation where you are unable to use magic. It is always better to know more ways to defend oneself.”

Unable to refute his sound logic any further, she reluctantly entered the great hall once more.

A short while later, she found herself nervously standing before Ursuline, her flowing dress replaced with a knee-length woolen smock over baggy trousers. After appraising her attire from head to toe, the knight placed his fingers on his chin.

“We should first fit you with some protective gear.”

Cocking his head, Ulyseon looked down at Maxi, who stood more than a head shorter than him now. “Do you think we’d be able to find anything in her ladyship’s size?”

Maxi glowered at him. “I-It is not that I am small! It is you knights who are excessively tall. And might I remind you… y-you were my height just a few years ago!”

“My lady, that is not true!” Ulyseon said, practically hopping in protest. “I was already much taller than you when we first met!”

“Much?” she said, gaping at him.

Ulyseon’s face flushed as though he were truly upset. “I was at least a half-hech taller.”

She was about to disagree when Ursuline cut in. “We have no time for squabbling. We should head to the smithy at once. I am sure some of the squires’ armor will fit.”

Maxi heaved a sigh and reluctantly followed Ursuline’s lead. They circled the castle and walked down the forest path cast with web-like shadows from the canopy of stark branches. Soon, the clanking of hammers reached them.

When they stepped through the smithy’s wide-open door, the brawny master blacksmith, who had been chastising the apprentices with his booming voice, turned to look at the visitors. The man had a thick black beard and large, bright eyes. A hint of annoyance crossed his face.

“Might I ask what brings you here?”

“We’ve come to find armor for her ladyship,” Ursuline replied nonchalantly, striding in as though used to the blacksmith’s brusqueness.

Following him, Maxi glanced at the blazing furnace and the sacks of sand and equipment piled haphazardly against the wall. More than ten blacksmiths were hard at work. Among them, she spotted Anette and Armin. It was amazing to see how naturally they had integrated with the blacksmiths in just a few hours. Anette, engrossed in conversation with one of the smiths, gave Maxi a big wave when she saw her.

“Max! There are some excellent candidates over here! Why don’t you choose from these?” she said as though she owned the place.

The blacksmiths around her looked incredulous at her audacity. Anette did not seem to pay them any mind. She picked up a helmet from one of the stands and began spinning it in her hand.

“All of them are superbly made!” she exclaimed. “This one might be crude in design, but it’s well-polished and astonishingly light.”

The helmet’s creator gave her a pleased smile. “You have a good eye, miss.”

Anette tossed the helmet aside and plucked up another. “It limits your vision, though. This one ought to be better.”

“Hold on, what about this black one?” suggested Armin. “It won’t reflect any light, so there’s no chance of it giving her away when she needs to hide. It also looks sturdier than that one.”

“That thing is needlessly heavy. I’ve already tried it. Whoever made it must have wanted to break the wearer’s neck.”

The faces of the blacksmiths grew a deeper shade of red as Anette and Armin’s exchange continued.

Tearing his gaze away, the master blacksmith said to Maxi, “I was told they were your guests, my lady. Could I ask that you escort them someplace else now? They are disrupting our work.”

“W-Well…”

Maxi looked back and forth between the smiths and the Umri mages, her face troubled. While she stood floundering, Anette and Armin finished selecting a set of armor for her.

“Try this on,” Anette said, handing her a breastplate. “It’s the smallest one here. It should fit you well enough.”

Ulyseon’s face hardened. “That belongs to me.”

“Isn’t it rather small for you?”

“I wore it when I was a squire.”

“Gosh, ordinary humans really do grow at a frightening speed. He went from this to that,” Anette said in awe.

Armin reproachfully nudged her on the shoulder, a subtle warning about her use of the phrase, ‘ordinary humans.’ Ulyseon, however, did not seem to find anything strange about her statement and merely regarded his old breastplate dolefully. He looked so disheartened that Maxi attempted to console him.

“Don’t let it bother you, Ulyseon. Y-You’ve grown so much, after all. I was truly surprised… when I first saw you at the tavern. I scarcely recognized you.”

Ulyseon’s face instantly brightened. “I have, haven’t I? I am taller than Garrow now! And soon enough, I’ll match Sir Ursuline and Sir Elliot!”

The young knight stood straighter next to Ursuline to prove his point. Though a subtle scowl took over the older knight’s face, Ulyseon did not seem to notice. Jauntily swinging his hand from the top of his head to Ursuline’s, he smiled widely.

“I am a little taller already.”

When neither Maxi nor Ulyseon answered, the young knight continued his exuberant chatter.

“Still, I don’t think I will grow much more. If I couldn’t get to the same height as Sir Hebaron, I was hoping to at least match Sir Riftan’s. Sadly, I have been at this stage for months. I suppose I must be content with my lot, as I am still one of the—”

“Rovar,” Ursuline interjected in a low voice.

Ulyseon turned to look at him with an innocent expression. “Yes, Sir Ursuline?”

“Do shut that mouth of yours.”

“Yes, sir!”

Ulyseon made a show of clenching his mouth. Shoving the young man aside with an annoyed look, Ursuline took the armor from Anette.

“Come closer, my lady. Allow me to help.”

He deftly strapped the breastplate around her chest, then encased her wrists and legs with protectors. Maxi teetered under the weight of the metal. As Ursuline stood back to assess the fit, Ulyseon waved to indicate that he wished to speak.

Ursuline sighed and glared at him. “What is it?”

“Should we not also get her ladyship chain mail? Her abdomen is completely unprotected.”

...

“A breastplate will be sufficient.”

“What if a spear or an arrow comes at her? And short monsters like goblins tend to aim for the lower abdomen!”

Persuaded by Ulyseon’s argument, Ursuline began searching for chain mail. Lumbering behind them, Maxi felt like an animated armor stand as she added on the pieces of gear they kept handing her.

“She should have shoulder protectors as well.”

“They would be too heavy. With her ladyship’s stamina, the weight would easily tire her out during the journey. It would be best to keep to the bare minimum.”

“But a helmet is essential! What if a monster ambushed her from behind with a club?!”

As if Ulyseon’s anxiousness were catching, Ursuline began encasing her entire body in armor. Half crushed under the steadily increasing weight, Maxi looked to Anette and Armin for help, but the pair seemed to have lost interest. They were bickering with the blacksmiths in front of the furnace.

In the end, unable to curb the knights’ worries, she lumbered out of the forge fully armored. It only took her ten steps to realize she would not be able to go anywhere with so much steel weighing her down. After seeing the pleased looks on the knights’ faces, however, she could not bring herself to tell them so.

Oblivious to her distress, Ulyseon said cheerfully, “It might feel uncomfortable now, my lady, but you’ll soon get used to it. I also found wearing armor heavy at first. Give it two days, and it will start feeling like any other piece of clothing.”

Maxi stared at him as if he were a strange creature. How could she possibly get used to this? Ursuline, by contrast, appeared skeptical. Despite his doubts, he stood back and observed her struggling to walk as if to see how far she could get. When they reached a clearing near the forge, Ursuline began his lesson by tracing something in the dirt with a branch.

“Although it is always best to start with the basics, we shall skip ahead to some practical techniques since we are short on time. You must make up for your lack of stamina by catching your enemy off guard. Aim for a critical blow. A knife to the chest is always effective, or a strike between the ribs, aiming for the heart or lungs. Either will be instantly fatal. However, that requires both strength and skill, and it would be difficult with monsters of the Ayin race that are more often than not wearing breastplates. Since your enemy will be more guarded if you fail on the first try, you must strike where a fatal blow is most likely. Aim for visible vital points. That would be the eyes, throat, and abdomen. Even if the blow doesn’t kill your enemy, it should give you enough time to escape or protect yourself.”

...

As he explained, he used his skillfully sketched outline of the human body to indicate the various points.

“The monsters of the Ayin race have quite similar anatomies to humans, including locations of the organs. Attacking the liver or the spleen should cause heavy bleeding, as will large arteries on the inner parts of joints. A deep slice into the hamstrings should do the trick too. All this requires a lot of strength, though, and it would be difficult for anyone other than a trained knight to make a big enough cut. If these areas are the only ones open, aim for a stab instead of a cut. Hold the dagger with both hands and use all your strength to drive it in as deep as possible. Then twist the blade like this before pulling it out to open the wound.”

Maxi listened to the lecture in a daze. She bobbed her head when he paused, made all the more difficult by her heavy helmet. Ursuline narrowed his eyes as if to determine whether she was listening before continuing with the lesson.

“The techniques I’ve explained so far only apply to low-grade monsters such as goblins and kobolds. It’s unlikely, but if you ever run into a troll, do not attempt to fight it. Trolls possess formidable regenerative abilities. Since most wounds would heal instantly, the only way to kill a troll is to behead it. The best way to attack would be fire magic. The monsters of the Ayin race are not as resistant to magic as the dragon subspecies, and magic will be effective against them.”

“I-I… specialize in defensive magic. I cannot cast such powerful fire magic.”

When she saw Ursuline’s face growing dark, Maxi hastily added, “But… I am confident in my defensive magic skills! C-Concealment spells are my strong suit.”

“We shall see how you do first, my lady. Since a longsword would be too heavy for you, a baselard should be a suitable option.”

Ursuline drew a dagger the size of a forearm from his belt and held out the hilt.

“It is one of the most commonly used daggers. Its blade is longer than most, which makes it easier to land a fatal blow at close range.”

The weapon looked similar to one Riftan had given her a while back. That dagger had been lost in the chaos of the war. She stared blankly down at it, then gripped the hilt with both hands. After wordlessly observing her for a moment, Ursuline stepped forward to show her the proper way to wield it.

“Holding it this way lessens the burden on your wrists. Remember to keep your wrist aligned with the blade when driving it in. That way, you can focus your strength on your arms more effectively and mitigate the strain on your joints.”

“L-Like this?”

After silently assessing her stance, Ursuline nodded.

“Yes. Very good, my lady. Now try attacking. I shall correct your stance as we go.”

Maxi frowned at him. He was not wearing a shred of protective gear.

“Didn’t you… just teach me to aim for the vital points?! What if I were to hurt you by accident?”

“Then you could heal me with your magic, my lady,” Ursuline replied dryly.

With that, the knight took a few steps back. A strange sense of déjà vu washed over her. She wondered if all knights were so sure of themselves. Narrowing her eyes, Maxi glared at his impassive face before raising the dagger with a sigh.

To be fair, even she did not think she would be able to wound any of the Remdragon Knights. She would no doubt make a fool of herself again. However, the knowledge that she would never be able to land a blow did nothing to lessen her trepidation. It was still difficult to summon the courage to run at the knight, aiming for his eyes or throat.

After a moment of hesitation, Maxi squeezed her eyes shut and charged. Right away, her legs gave out. She had not even taken three steps when the weight of her armor had her toppling to the ground. Though she had half expected something like this to happen, she still felt her face burning with embarrassment.

She tried to scramble to her feet, but the clunky armor made it impossible. After flailing like an overturned turtle, Maxi tearfully called to the knights.

“A-A little help, please! I can’t… b-breathe!”

“Allow me, my lady!”

Ulyseon dove and hoisted her to her feet.

Seeing her dangling in the young knight’s arms, Ursuline heaved a heavy sigh. “We should change your armor first, my lady.”