Side Story 4: The Isolated Island 04

Ouka Style Swordsmanship?

Wasn’t that the same style used by Ouna, the elderly swordswoman and blacksmith we met just before coming here? Could she be from this island too? Now that I think about it, she did have similar vibes to the martial artists here.

Apparently, someone named Ouka developed the Ouka Style centuries ago, and it eventually got recognized by the world as a skill.

That very same Ouka spent half of her life in the Hagane Domain, and her descendants still live on the island to this day. The young man named Ouri from earlier was one of them. He must be honing his skills as a successor to the Ouka Style.

I’ve got the feeling that Ouna was also a member of the bloodline. I would love to confirm that, but she told us specifically to avoid mentioning her name as much as possible. I don’t know if she’s trying to keep her identity a secret or something, so I should just play it safe here and stay quiet.

「Ouri is a successor to the legendary swordswoman, so he must be under tremendous pressure that we can scarcely imagine.」

That’s true. I can imagine his fellow disciples and such staring at him every time he messes up.

He might be in a similar position to Hilt, from the Dimitris Style. She seemed to have a lot to deal with as well. Succeeding a famous school of martial arts was not easy.

Well, I guess Dimitris was still alive to personally appoint Hilt as his successor. She was also quite popular with their disciples. Furthermore, a sensible woman like Hilt would be welcomed by everyone inside and outside the school, compared to the eccentric Dimitris.

In that sense, Ouri’s situation was a bit different. The founder of his school passed away ages ago and was made into a legend. And now he’s being compared directly to those legends. That might be an even higher wall to overcome than Dimitris.

Not to mention the mental toll from constantly being compared to a great historical figure. In a sense, it was like being forced to constantly challenge someone you could never surpass, no matter how hard you trained.

「More importantly, are you really going to keep Black Lightning Princess-dono standing around in a place like this?」

「Hmm? Oh, you’re exactly right. My apologies. Please, come this way. There is a reception room inside this building.」

「Nn.」

「Mind if I tag along too?」

「…Do as you please.」

We followed Gekkou into the building, with Genba behind us. By the way, didn’t Genba just disobey orders by participating in a promotion match? Is he really going to get away without any punishment? Apparently not.

「Allowing the top rankers to do as they please will not set a good example. As such, I’ll be increasing your quota for the next month.」

「Tch. Fine.」

Apparently, all of the fighters here were given a quota of materials or ingredients to gather. Gekkou possessed the power to increase Genba’s quota as punishment.

After walking a short distance, we were shown into a large room overlooking the training ground. Wait, is this the VIP room or something? It certainly looked that way.

It seems visiting nobles or important figures from other countries were often entertained here by showing them battles between the martial artists.

I thought that martial artists would hate their matches being turned into a show for the bigwigs, but apparently, it was the opposite. These showcase matches were considered an opportunity to perform on a grand stage, so there were always plenty of volunteers eager to participate. I had assumed most martial artists were the stoic type, but I guess a lot of them enjoyed such festivities too.

「Genba, serve some tea.」

「Very well. I’ll bring out my special blend.」

Hearing Gekkou’s order, Genba nodded and produced a teacup from thin air. That seemed to be from a storage-type skill, but I could barely sense any indication that he’d activated it.

Part of the reason was that he had no killing intent or malice, but I could barely sense any mana either. He must be exceptionally skilled at concealing his mana.

The last time I saw someone who could conceal a storage-type skill so well was the beastkin maid Quina.

「It smells nice.」

「These are the finest tea leaves, grown by my own hands. I carefully steam, roll, and dry the leaves myself. It’s even brewed with special equipment normally used for making medicine, and I’m particular about the water too. I usually don’t let other people drink it, but you’re an exception.」

He really did everything himself, including the cultivation. I saw a lot of people on Earth who were particular about their tea or coffee, but I doubt many went to the trouble of making absolutely everything from scratch.

「Slurp… Tasty!」

Fran took a sip of the tea and turned to Genba with a lovely smile. It must have been exceptionally good. Genba wore a proud grin too.

「Hahaha. Of course it is.」

「I suppose your obsession with tea has finally proven useful.」

「No, your palate is just so poor that you can’t appreciate the quality of my tea.」

「Yeah right. Enough of the chit-chat though, let me once again thank you for accepting our request.」

「I’m looking forward to sparring with you too.」

「Ahahahaha! Looks like the young lady is on the same wavelength as us!」

Genba laughed happily, making no attempt to hide his gleaming, predatory gaze. Well, Fran had the same expression on her face. She must have become interested in Genba after watching his fight earlier.

「Indeed. She’s even allowed us to select up to fifty people for sparring.」

「Well, well! Thank you very much! But are you sure about that? Going through all of those will take way longer than just a day or two.」

「Nn. It’s fine.」

Fran nodded, causing Genba to laugh again.

「By the way, when would you like to begin? If you’re tired from your long journey, we can arrange for a few days of rest…」

「I’m not tired. We can start right now.」

「R-Right now? I’m terribly sorry, but we have yet to finish the necessary preparations yet.」

「Ahahahaha! She’s even more eager than us! As expected!」

「Hehe.」

Fran was looking smug, but that’s not even a compliment! Well, maybe it was to Genba, but that just translates into “you’re even more of a battle junkie than us”, right?

After that, we discussed the topic with Gekkou and Genba before eventually settling on a schedule. It ended up being pretty simple. We fight up to ten opponents per day at the training grounds, starting each day in the afternoon.

Also, we start with the low rankers and work our way upwards. This made sense, as the top rankers were still gathering supplies in the dungeon, and wouldn’t return until tomorrow. I guess the Lucille Trade Association arrived earlier than they expected.

In this world, storms, magical beasts, wind direction, and such could easily delay travel by an entire month. No one thought that we would arrive exactly on schedule.

The average delay was apparently five days, and they’ve never actually arrived on time until now.

「Is there anything else you would like to ask us?」

「Yeah. What enemies are in the dungeon here? Just golems?」

「That is correct.」

「And the deeper you go, the harder the golems get.」

Apparently, the dungeon spawns wood golems at the beginning, then they get upgraded to the next level every five floors. Wood turns to clay, then stone, bronze, iron, crystal, mithril, orichalcum, hihiirokane, and finally adamantite.

That said, even golems made of the same material had varying levels depending on the floor. Some golems could even use arts, so this dungeon must be really good for training.

「You wanna try diving in yourself once all the sparring is done? See it with your own two eyes.」

「Nn! I’m looking forward to it.」

「Ahahahaha! If you’re this excited about a dungeon, then you’ll really fit in here!」

We also tried asking about food recommendations or local specialties, but the island didn’t have anything unusual enough to be called a specialty. And with such a low population, there were hardly any food stalls. I doubt they get many tourists either.

They did say that the seafood is good, so we can look forward to that at least.

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