Chapter Six: Hengen Muso Style
The next morning.
“Shield Hero, the queen would like to meet with you.”
I was still asleep in the castle chamber when someone knocked on the door and delivered the message.
“Erm...”
I stumbled over to the door, opened it, and thanked the soldier standing there.
“Good morning.”
“Morning. What does the queen want this early in the morning?”
Raphtalia was already awake, and she had changed into clothes that would allow her to move easily during the training exercises.
Rishia had fallen out of bed and was still asleep on the floor where she had fallen.
I guess that was one advantage of sleeping in the kigurumi. It was a bit like pajamas after all.
Keel was lying on top of Rishia and snoring loudly. I guess he had fallen out of bed too.
“What are you doing, Raphtalia?
“I agreed to meet Eclair for early morning drills.”
“Did you? What about Rishia?”
“Rishia too. Rishia! Wake up please! You too, Keel.”
“Fehhh...”
“Uh, Raphtalia, I’m still sleepy!”
Raphtalia walked over and shook Rishia’s shoulder until she suddenly woke up.
Something about the way she was collapsed there looked unsavory.
“Better start getting ready. Our morning drills will be starting soon.”
“Fehh... Good morning!”
“Morning. Look, I have to go meet with the queen now. I’ll meet up with you later, so just go ahead and get started without me.”
I was afraid that there might be a problem on the horizon. Rishia might end up meeting Itsuki on the training grounds.
That could be a real pain if it didn’t go well.
“Raphtalia, look after Rishia for me, okay?”
I waved my hand to call her over, then whispered in her ear.
“If Itsuki shows up, do your best to keep Rishia separate from him. I don’t want things to get out of hand.”
“Understood. Let’s get going then, shall we?”
“Okay.”
“I’m tired.”
I left them all to their preparations and went to go see the queen.
“What do you need so early in the morning?” I’d arrived in the throne room. The queen had been waiting for me. “Thank you for coming. You will recall that yesterday I said I would be looking for other combat advisors to assist in the training exercises.”
Had she been up all night working on it?
She looked like she hadn’t gotten any rest.
“Yeah...”
“I sent correspondence to a number of individuals, and one of them has decided to participate.”
“Oh yeah? Who?”
“This warrior is well advanced in age, having fought in a war for Melromarc long ago. I believe that if you train with this fighter you’ll find it a great contribution to your efforts.”
Who knew there were still such powerful fighters around?
I had never heard of anyone like that. I naturally imagined she was talking about some kind of mountain-dwelling ascetic.
Was this person going to come down from the mountains to teach me secret martial arts? I’d heard stories like that before.
It’s true that I didn’t want to depend on my levels and ignore fundamental battle skills.
“The fighting style you’ll be taught is known as the ‘Hengen Muso Style.’”
What kind of name was that? It sounded like some kind of old action manga.
I must have scrunched my face up in confusion, as the queen quickly offered an explanation.
“There is a famous legend about this combat style. They say that it was once able to solve a problem that, theoretically, was only able to be solved by a true hero.”
“Oh yeah?”
“According to the legend, this style commands a power commensurate with that of the seven star heroes. This person is the very last practitioner.”
“And what has this person been doing the whole time? Relaxing?”
“I do not know. There are many mysteries surrounding the style.”
I guess this world had its fair share of esoteric martial arts. It really was like some old action manga.
“And you’re sure about this?”
“Yes. I saw it in action once when I was very young.”
I wasn’t sure I could really buy into all this.
It all sounded like hearsay to me. I’d have to see a demonstration of these skills with my own eyes to believe it.
“Actually, it seems the warrior had been training on one of the outlying islands in Cal Mira, unable to return to the main island in time to offer us assistance during the last wave, and so asked when the next wave would arrive. I informed the warrior of our current efforts.”
“Okay?”
“Had this person been there to help, the battle may have turned out differently.”
She was really talking this guy up. Could he really be that good?
I looked around the throne room.
“Where are the other heroes?”
“Mr. Amaki has left to hunt monsters, Mr. Kawasumi is still asleep, and Mr. Kitamura has gone to take his morning bath.”
They obviously weren’t taking this seriously.
“Mr. Amaki said he would be back before noon.”
“Am I the only one you called for?!”
“I am terribly sorry. I sent for the others but received no response.”
Just thinking about them was giving me a headache. If I was going to be dragged out of bed so early, at least make it worth my while!
I guess Raphtalia and the others were getting up too. I would have had to wake up anyway.
“So when is this warrior going to show up?”
“The warrior was on a ship that arrived at the harbor last night. I expect the fighter to arrive at the castle just after noon.”
That would mean he was either on the ship I’d been on or had been on the ship with the other heroes.
Could there really have been someone that impressive in the crowd? I would have to wait and see if he was all that the queen said he was.
I was thinking it all over when the door to the throne room creaked open. A soldier came running in with a report.
“The combat advisor has arrived!”
“Well, that was fast.”
“Yes, sir! It seems the combat advisor traveled through the night to get here!”
The soldier saluted and bowed.
“Where is this combat advisor?”
“Actually. …”
Noticing that the queen and I had cocked our heads in confusion, the solider explained where the combat advisor had gone.
“Well, well! This girl is one in a million!”
“Fehhhhhh!”
I went to see the new combat advisor and hung my head when I found him.
He was waiting at the training grounds.
But why was there an old lady rubbing Rishia’s soldiers?
I recognized her face. When I had been traveling around and peddling my wares, I’d given her medicine. She’d been very sick in a village that was in the midst of a deadly epidemic.
Shortly after that, a wave had come—we’d first run into Glass during that wave—and she had fought with us in the town square. She’d definitely managed to hold her own against the wave of monsters.
I’d been calling her old lady—I meant it affectionately.
The old lady’s son was decked out in some fancy-looking armor.
The old lady was wearing some Chinese-looking martial arts style uniform.
Was that supposed to mean that she was the Hengen Muso Style practitioner? The new combat advisor?
“Holy saint! It’s been a while!”
“I’ll just ask right up front. Are you the new combat advisor?”
“Yes, I am.”
I probably sounded rude questioning her like that.
I had already figured it out, but I guess there was a part of me that hadn’t really accepted it.
“After you saved my life, good saint, I dedicated that life to helping this world.”
“Right, yes, I can tell. What are you doing to Rishia?”
“Don’t you know? Within this girl a very unordinary power sleeps. I believe she has the potential to be the heir to my school of martial arts.”
“Fehhh! Naofumi! Save meeeee!”
I ignored Rishia’s shout. Could it really be true? Could Rishia really have a talent for martial arts?”
“So if you’re a combat advisor, what level are you at? I think you said before it was the same as your age?”
“Yes, but after that I recovered my commitment to my craft and was able to level further. I am now at level 95.”
Level 95! That was really high!
“I had planned to reach out to you, holy saint, once I reached the leveling limit of 100. But if my services may be of use now, I will happily offer them.”
The leveling limit was 100?
If we were in the upper 70s, then we were almost maxed out.
That must be why we needed to start focusing on technique.
“Oh, so the max level is 100?”
“Well, yes—normally. However, I’ve heard legends of another class up ceremony that may allow further leveling.”
She could take care of training Rishia then. That would be a big help.
Because when you really think about it, I didn’t know very much about how things worked in this world, so how was I supposed to help my party learn anything?
“What about the four holy heroes?”
“They don’t share that limitation.”
So it sounded like the legendary heroes could level past 100 if they wanted to.
But for everyone else, leveling past 100 would mean finding out how to perform a legendary class up ceremony. And that knowledge had apparently been lost long ago.
“Where’s Raphtalia?”
“She’s just over there.”
An exhausted Eclair pointed across the courtyard.
Raphtalia was sitting on the ground, looking pretty tired herself.
I wonder what happened. I suppose it was easy enough to guess.
“Are you okay?”
“Y . . . Yes, but that old woman really had her way with me. She said she needed to check to see if I was who she thought I was.”
“She’s supposed to be really powerful.”
She was at a higher level than Raphtalia was. I didn’t know what her stats were though.
“Every time I tried to move, she was on me in a flash, holding me back. Nothing I did could throw her off.”
“That’s really something.”
Was she using judo holds or something? Not that I knew anything about that sort of thing.
Back in my own world I was just your everyday otaku. I guess I’d seen some martial arts in anime, but that was the extent of my knowledge about them.
Regardless, if she was able to restrain Raphtalia, then she must have really known what she was doing.
“I’m sure you are already aware of this, holy saint, but status magic and its effects are simply tools to help lead their user to victory. But they cannot ensure victory. One’s true strength, experience, and training all affect the outcome of battle.”
“Sure.”
It didn’t matter how much power you had if you didn’t have the skills or the training to know how to put it to use.
Actually, if you didn’t know what you were doing, really high stats might end up getting you hurt.
With all the fighting I’d done since I got there, I had come to understand at least that much.
I’d run into plenty of people that, judging from their stats, should have been powerful warriors. But they just didn’t know what they were doing. I guess the other three heroes were a good example of that kind of person.
There were many measures of strength that couldn’t be summed up by a person’s level. I’d just realized the leveling limitation for normal people. If we were almost at that limit, then we needed to think of other ways to improve our battle prospects.
“What sort of weapon do you fight with?”
“The Hengen Muso Style does not require the use of weapons.”
“What?”
“Any item that the user comes across can be turned into a weapon—that is the true strength and advantage offered by the style. All enemies fall in its wake.”
I had seen her fighting off monsters with a hoe. What sort of martial art didn’t choose a weapon to specialize in?
“Now then, holy saint, shall I demonstrate the extent of my abilities in a sparring match with you?”
“I’ll be your sparring partner, sure. But how are you going to come at me? You know I can’t attack, right?”
“Then I will only use a tree branch as a weapon. You will be fine, holy saint, if you can withstand even one of my attacks. If you withstand the attack, then you can send me away from here.”
The old lady broke a branch from a nearby tree and set her footing to fight me.
Just to be safe I decided to change to my highest defense rated shield, the Soul Eater Shield.
“Here I come.”
In a flash she was right up against me.
She was so fast! She moved even more quickly than Eclair had the day before.
She didn’t move as well as Glass did, but she was moving at least as well as L’Arc.
But it wasn’t so fast that I couldn't respond in time.
Before the tip of her branch could connect with my shield, I held it out further away from my body.
That was something I’d learned to do. It would lessen the power of her attack.
“Excellent. I would expect no less from you, holy saint. You know your way around a battle. But how will you fair against this?”
There was a loud clang, and even though she was only using a small branch, my shield shook and vibrated violently in my hand.
“?!”
The vibration shot up through my arm and over my body.
When it reached my torso, I felt as though I’d been kicked in the ribs.
“Ugh...”
Wh . . . What was that? Wait, I’d experienced something like that before. But it had hurt much worse this time.
“This is the first form of the Hengen Muso Style. It’s called ‘point.’ It was originally developed for use against opponents in stiff armor with high defenses. It seemed to be an appropriate form to use with you, holy saint.”
I concentrated on a healing spell.
“Zw . . . Zweite Heal.”
It was hard to believe she’d generated that much power from a stick. It must have been an attack that was based on the opponent’s defense rating.
That was the exact type of attack I feared.
Had he ever managed to use it properly, Itsuki’s eagle piercing shot probably had a similar effect.
I’d been able to grab that skill of his out of the air, rendering it useless. I couldn’t do anything to prevent the old lady’s attack though.
“And yet I’m sure that you know there is simple way to counter this attack, don’t you, holy saint?”
“Is there?”
“Yes, there is. I’d very much like to show you.”
“Please do.”
She’d convinced me. She was a powerful fighter.
If we’d been forced into a real battle, we could still probably defeat her, but as a battle advisor I couldn’t have asked for more.
If she wanted to help us, there was no reason to turn her down. In fact, she was about to teach me how to handle the exact attack that had been bothering me the most.
If Raphtalia and the others could learn to fight like that, we'd have a definite advantage.
“So how do I stop an attack like that?”
“That attack works by sending energy at the enemy’s interior. It uses the enemy’s rigidity and strength against them.”
“Hm...”
I imagined something like a ceramic jug. If you put a hard bead inside and shook it, it was probably something similar to the effect she was describing.
It was probably wrong in theory though.
If you shook the jug really hard, it might eventually break. But that only worked because the jug was completely hollow—I was not hollow. If the attack worked like the ceramic jug and the bead, that would really screw up my insides.
“The simplest way to repel this sort of attack is to purposefully create a softness and then to use that softness to reject the destructive force.”
“I think I get it.”
So basically, I had to release the energy before it could start to run wild.
If that jug was more like a piggy bank, then before the coins inside could be shaken around, you had to make a slot for the coins to escape from.
But I wasn’t living in a manga. If I could really do something like that, then this really was a fantasy world.
Granted, I had been summoned to another world with a magical shield. I’d been making magical barriers out of thin air. It was probably time to get used to living in a fantasy world.
“I understand in theory, but I don’t know how I would go about actually doing it.”
It didn’t seem like the sort of thing that you could just will into being.
This old lady really knew her stuff.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me. Please become our combat advisor.”
“Thank you very much. Then I will focus my efforts on you and the girls here.”
“Good. Just so you know, this woman here, Eclair, is also going to be working with us on swordsmanship. Please teach us all you can.”
I pointed Eclair out, and she saluted the old lady.
“I never would have dreamed I might receive instruction from a master of the legendary Hengen Muso Style. Please include me in your teachings. It would be a great honor.”
“Ha, ha, ha! My training is tough work. I hope you can keep up.”
“I will certainly do my best.”
“You’re supposed to be the teacher here, aren’t you?”
Why was Eclair acting like she was showing up for lessons too? She should be focusing on teaching Raphtalia to use her sword.
And Keel . . . Keel was clearly intimidated by all the strangers. His tail was curled between his legs.
He really was like a dog.
“You want to get stronger, don’t you? I’ll go through the whole thing with you, so buck up and let’s get to it.”
It was a good chance to teach him the basics.
We couldn’t level past 100, but we could still get stronger if we learned how to fight.
I needed Raphtalia to get stronger than she was, and even Rishia seemed like she sincerely wanted to get stronger.
“Then the training is about to get tough!”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Fehhh...”
“The other heroes have yet to arrive.”
I took the opportunity to explain to the old lady just what sort of a situation we were facing.
I told her that while I wanted her to teach Rishia as much as she could, I also wanted to keep Rishia separated from the Bow Hero.
The old lady waited until I was finished talking before agreeing. She didn’t ask any obnoxious questions about it.
“That reminds me, where’s Filo? I wanted her to take Keel out leveling after we finished breakfast.”
He’d probably throw up if he had to go for another ride on Filo’s back.
When he heard me ask about Filo, Keel looked startled and ran behind Raphtalia, shaking in fear. I guess he really didn’t like the idea.
“I think she might be with Melty.”
“Good thinking. Okay, I’m going to go get Filo and have her take Keel out.”
“No! Shield guy! Anything but that!”
Damn, Keel was getting too familiar for my liking.
“You won’t get any stronger if you give up now.”
“You mean I have to make myself sick or I won’t get stronger . . . oh no...”
“Not exactly.”
“Keel, you’re not leveled up enough to make use of the training we’re doing here. You have to go level up first.”
Considering how much he’d leveled yesterday, it probably wouldn’t take very long.
The only way for a lower-level character to get stronger was to start leveling.
Even if he didn’t level enough in time to participate in the training, we could always just teach him the things that we’d learned later.
“When Filo gets back, you need to go out with her. But you can work with us here until then, okay?”
“Okay!”
Keel nodded.
We spent the rest of the time until breakfast was ready, learning the basics of the old lady and Eclair’s techniques.
It started off with a lecture from the old lady.
“The Hengen Muso Style was first developed so that weak fighters could hold their own against enemies far superior to them in strength.”
Apparently, the style relied on the user’s manipulation of life energy, or something like that. It was the sort of concept you came across in older manga from time to time. Now we would have to learn how to use that energy ourselves.
“Energy, hm...”
Was it something different from SP? Probably.
“For example, the Shield Hero’s abilities are enhanced because he is given energy from his legendary weapon.”
“Does that mean that I can’t practice it?”
“Of course not. It does mean that you are unlikely to have much success manipulating your own energy. However, if you learn the techniques of the Hengen Muso Style, then you will be able to apply those techniques to your skills.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?
“The shield hero may be able to increase the power of his special skills. Or at least there is a legend among practitioners of the Hengen Muso Style to that effect.”
It sounded like there was another power-up system separate from the legendary weapon’s skill system.
I guess that meant I might be able to make air strike shield even more powerful than it was already.
“I see.”
So there was a reason for me to participate in the practice, but I wouldn’t benefit from it as much as Raphtalia and the others.
“The most important aspect of this is that the techniques that make up the Hengen Muso Style can easily be applied to other martial arts.”
“Is that the reason that you don’t specialize in any particular weapon?”
“Yes. The trade-off is that you will have to study your weapon of choice separately. Once you have grasped the fundamentals, you can practice applying them to your preferred fighting style.”
So what she was basically trying to say was that while there are some attacks that are specific to her style, if you want to use a weapon to carry out her techniques, you will have to find a way to apply the energy manipulation skills of her style to your chosen martial art.
Did that mean that other martial arts would necessarily have better and stronger attacks?
I tried to think of it in terms of magic and skills.
A skill would be equivalent to the Hengen Muso Style techniques, while magic would be like another martial art.
It would be like if Raphtalia was chanting a spell like First Hiding, and I was going to use air strike shield.
When we did that, we had the chance to perform a combo skill called hiding shield, which produced an invisible shield.
Or when Filo used Zweite Tornado and I used air strike shield.
Then we would have the chance to use a combo skill that literally blew the enemy away: tornado shield.
In both situations, air strike shield did something and was important.
But it could be used with different types of attacks to produce different combo skills.
I think that the system she was suggesting worked the same way.
I don’t think her style was like a formal school or art but more like a flexible concept that could be applied to any fighting style.
So the beginner user would learn to use Hengen Muso Style techniques, then go on to specialize in a particular martial art as a mid-level user, and finally advanced users would learn how to combine the two to make their attacks even more effective.
“Those are the basics. Now, learning to actually perform these skills is another story.”
“You mentioned that Rishia had a particular aptitude for it. What makes you say that?”
“Good question! That girl has an innate skill for energy manipulation!”
“Rishia does?”
“Fehhh!”
The old lady had reached out and touched Rishia’s arm, which caused Rishia to scream.
“She learns very quickly. Surface! She will understand the system. Depths! She will master those techniques. That is my plan.”
“Surface? Depths?”
“It is a way to express the different capacities we all have. On the surface, anyone can grasp the concepts. But to master them requires a depth of understanding and innate talent.”
So without talent, there wasn’t much point to it all? With an understanding of the surface concepts, anyone could be stronger than they were. But to really implement them would be more difficult.
“Do Raphtalia and I have a talent for it?”
“It is difficult for me to judge in your case, because you are a hero.
Raphtalia, on the other hand, has the potential for discipleship.”
It was hard to figure out what she wanted to say. I was starting to get a little irritated by it.
But what I knew for sure was that, after suffering from the attack she’d used against me, I had something to learn from her.
At the very least, if I could learn to defend against defense rating and defense ignoring attacks, I would stand a better chance of surviving my next encounter with L’Arc and Glass.
“Anyway, breakfast is almost ready. Hey, old lady, could I get you to explain all this to the other heroes too?”
“Naturally, that was my intention.”
“Any idea what we are going to need to practice these techniques?”
“To truly understand and master them, some time spent alone training in the mountains is necessary. For a naturally talented individual, a month or so of asceticism should be sufficient.
A month? The next wave would he here in two weeks, so that wasn’t going to work. And that was for someone with a natural talent?”
“What about for a normal person? How long would they need to really learn it?”
“Ten years or so.”
Well, that wasn’t going to work! We couldn’t afford to spend years just learning the basics.
We had other things we had to do. I guess we could go to the mountains and wait for the wave to come, but there was too much else to do.
We could continue the training after the wave had come and gone.
“Got it. Heroes have a pretty convenient means of travel available to them, so I guess we could think about a mountain hermitage. We’ll keep that option on the table.”
We left the training grounds and went to eat breakfast.
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