Being beaten would break your pride.
Being beaten by a girl was even more humiliating for Yu Valarfin.
There was a saying on the street that 'you don't learn how to beat without being beaten' and he knew that when he started training he would be beaten to get stronger. Yet being beaten by Sivina still wounded his pride and made him feel helpless.
"I don't have a problem with that."
If he hadn't been able to ignore his pride, the training would have ended as it had begun, but for the time being he let his pride go and continued to be beaten by Sivina so that his pride would not be hurt further in the future.
"Keep your back straight, please."
One blow from Sivina was enough to make Yu lose his balance and stagger.
He was a beginner in his training and Sivina was polite, he could tell when it was Ana's turn to train. Yu was terrible, though. As he was now, a fourteen-year-old knight's squire could pick up a sword and beat Yu.
"Spread your legs! How can you retreat? Not like this!"
Sivina thrust the wooden sword in her hand in a straight line towards Yu's chest. If it was a real sword, it would have pierced a hole in Yu's chest.
Yu hesitated between using his wooden sword filled with sand to defend himself against the move or fleeing.
By the time he decided to flee, it was too late, Sivina's wooden sword struck Yu in the chest, knocking him off balance and onto his back.
"Are we sure this is beginner level?"
It was the third day of their journey to Virgo. They were traveling with a larger caravan than when they arrived in the Mora and their speed of movement was slow.
They were coming to the end of February and would soon welcome spring. Although there was still snow on the ground, it would soon melt and a green ground would emerge from under the white blanket.
Leoral's caravan consisted of three hundred people. Two hundred of them were soldiers and the rest were servants or their families.
On the way from the Mora they didn't stop much during the day, but on their journey to Virgo they stopped many times and lost time. The reason was that Leoral had difficulty traveling for long periods of time.
On the bright side, Yu had plenty of time to train during breaks. Sivina also had nothing to do, so she trained Yu.
"Theory in the morning and practice in the evening. And I treat you kindly."
"I know. Don't look at me, no matter how much I whine, go ahead because I'm going to whine like this for a while."
He took Sivina's outstretched hand and stood up. In the mornings she had shown him how to hold the sword, how to position his body and how to move his feet and hands.
In the evenings it was for practice. Sivina would appear before Yu and ask him to demonstrate what he had learned.
"Still, I wonder what a terrible experience I would have had if you hadn't been kind."
He spoke with a laugh. He turned his body sideways, straightened his back as he spread his legs and pointed his sword at Sivina.
"I'll be angry with her if she's rude to you, Yu. Don't worry."
"It's embarrassing to be protected by a little girl..."
When Yurine found out that Yu was going to receive sword training from Sivina, she was angry and opposed. Yurine said that she could protect Yu if necessary. Yu was happy that she thought so, but one of the reasons he wanted to learn the sword was that even though he had a daughter of his own and loved her, he didn't like being dependent on the protection of a small child.
Still, Yurine's willingness to protect made Yu smile.
When Yu insisted on the sword, Yurine said she would watch them during the training. Yu wondered if it was because she was worried about him or to prevent him from having love with Sivina.
"I can empathize with Mr. Valarfin. I was once in the same situation."
Yurine sat on a rock and Ana stood next to her, waiting for her turn. Since Ana was ahead of Yu in training, she sometimes helped him too.
"Coming."
Sivina took the same position as Yu. Yu's back was facing Yurine while Sivina's chest was facing Yurine. Yu's chest was facing the sea, near which they had set up camp.
"Don't run, defend!"
Sivina tried to strike Yu's hand, knocking his sword away. Yu met the move with his own sword and was happy to meet Sivina's sudden move for the first time.
This was because Sivina had told him to defend himself, but he was still happy that he had managed to protect his hand from Sivina's sword.
But his happiness did not last long. As joy and excitement filled Yu's chest, the tip of Sivina's sword struck Yu's chest again.
Sivina was slow, so he did not fall to the ground this time, but fell back a few steps, groaning.
"Are you afraid? If you are scared, you cannot defend yourself."
"It's impossible not to be scared with you coming at me like this..."
"As a warrior I take it as a compliment, as a girl I find it rude."
Sivina took up her battle stance again and waited for Yu to do the same.
"How many times tonight has my chest been pierced by Sivina's sword? I have died so many times."
Yu was preparing himself for his next death when he heard the voice of a blond man.
"Don't be angry with him, it's hard not to be afraid. Every man is afraid when someone comes to kill him. There aren't many who aren't scared shitless in their first battle."
Link, who had come to watch their training, joined Yurine.
"My father told me a similar story. It's good to be afraid, a man who is not afraid is a fool, but he must not let fear take over his mind, or he will die. Take position, Yu Valarfin!"
Seeing that Yu was still not in position, Sivina shouted and Yu immediately took the same position.
Then Sivina attacked him again. Yu was still scared, the few sentences he had heard in ten seconds were not going to help him overcome his fear.
Sivina aimed her wooden sword at Yu's chest. Yu met her with his own sword and tilted it to the side. When the swords were side by side, Sivina took a step back and freed her own sword from Yu's sword. With the sword free, she took two steps forward for the one she had just taken. It was the fear of failing this time that occupied Yu's mind. Yu was overcome with fear and froze. Sivina's wooden sword slammed into Yu's chest again.
Yu hadn't lost his balance and fallen this time, but in a real battle he would have been dead. Still, Sivina didn't give her dead opponent any rest, she raised her sword and struck Yu's sword-holding hand.
Yu was incredibly hurt and dropped his sword as he screamed. Then he looked at his hand. The white glove on his hand was getting wet and blackened, and Yu felt an extraordinary warmth there.
"Are you all right?"
"Tch... Uh..."
Yu took off the glove as he moaned. His right hand was bleeding. It was natural to bleed during training, so of course he wasn't going to complain about it.
But something frightened him, the blood was black and dripped from Yu's hand onto the ground. When the blood hit the ground, the white ground darkened and smoke rose from the snow.
"Yu!"
Yu was still staring at his hand as Yurine and Ana ran to him. The black blood was hot enough to melt the snow instantly, but it didn't hurt Yu. He felt the heat but not the pain.
He saw that the purple ribbon under the glove and attached to his pinky finger had melted.
Soon after, he realized that he couldn't move his fingers as he wanted. His hand was numb.
"I'll heal Yu, don't worry!"
Yurine cleaned Yu's hand with a handkerchief from Ana and immediately threw it on the ground. When the handkerchief hit the ground, it melted the snow.
"I..."
"Sivina."
Yu muttered as Yurine cast a healing spell and closed the wound. His murmur reached Sivina and silenced her.
"When you have finished training with Ana, gather small animals like birds, mice, snakes, etc. in a cage and bring them to my tent. A few will be enough."
Yu's eyes were still on the melting snow. His ribbon had also completely melted away. If he had only used that ribbon, he would have been sad, but since he changed his ribbon every day as a reminder of his duty, he had no emotional attachment to them.
"I'm not trying to punish you. Don't misunderstand and feel bad."
The skin on Yu's hand was red. Yurine's healing spell had healed the peeling, but without it, Yu's hand would have been a mess.
"Why is your blood like this?" Link, who hadn't spoken since he saw the blood running down his hand, walked through the snow to his side and looked at the hand on which Yurine was still casting the healing spell.
"I'm just learning with you that's what my blood is like," he replied to Link. He was not lying.
"Is that because?" Ana asked. She was referring to the curse on Yu's shoulder.
"Probably."
The curse on Yu's shoulder had turned his blood black, that was the only explanation. He knew his blood was red because his body had bled before he was cursed by the demon.
For the first time since the curse he was wounded and now the blood flowing from his body was black. The color wasn't the only difference, he could feel the heat of the blood, abnormally hot. If his hand could feel the pain of being burned, the heat would have made Yu cry out.
Melting the thin ribbon tied around his finger was something to worry about. Yu didn't know how to deal with such a thing.
"I don't understand, so what is it?" Link bent down and began to examine the melting snow. The snow had turned into a black liquid with smoke coming out of it.
"You don't need to understand. You won't tell anyone what you saw," Yurine said. She said what Yu wanted to say.
Link was forced to remain silent because of an order from the Virgo Cardinal.
When the healing spell was over, Yu's hand looked as if nothing had happened. There was no wound and the skin was normal.
"It's scary to think of this coursing through my veins."
No one spoke and Yu put his left hand to his heart.
"If it's not killing me yet, either I'm immune or it's killing me slowly. All I can do now is hope that the first option is true. I already have a short lifespan because of my illness, this shouldn't shorten it any more."
Knowing that there was poison coursing through his body made him feel like a spider.
"What would happen if this thing got into someone else's body?"
"Is there any problem left?" Link asked.
"No."
Even though it was the end of winter, it was still winter and it was cold. Yu put his hands in his pockets to keep warm.
"I came here for that job. He did yours."
"Uh... That job?"
Yu averted his eyes from the girls and looked away.
"I don't want to take such a drug at my age. How can there be one here? It's just a detail to humiliate me."
"Yes."
They were both hesitant to speak. The drugs were not something that either Yu or Link wanted to use. He mean, as far as Yu knew, he didn't want to use them himself. Link might have wanted to use them. Yu wouldn't be surprised if he did.
"Let's go get it."
"I'll go alone."
"I want to talk about something, that's why."
Yu nodded with a sigh and accepted Link's offer.
"Then I'll come too."
"No!"
Yu's sudden reaction scared Yurine. When Yu saw that he had scared her, he immediately kneel down and grabbed her hands.
"I didn't mean to yell, Yurine, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Yu didn't want people to find out that the medicine for constipation was suppositories. He especially didn't want Yurine to find out.
"W-well..."
"I apologize."
"Yu, it's okay."
He bit his cheek. He would rather bite his tongue and make it bleed than give her such a sudden reaction.
"You stay with them, I'll be back in a little while."
Yurine resented being left behind, but Yu didn't want it to be known that he was going to use a suppository. He had a reputation to protect.