LIGHTNOVELONLINE V2Ch-6-A Better Training Plan
The rest of the day saw me getting beaten black and blue by a Raina who was far more unforgiving after I managed to get a hit off on her.
It was not done through any actual learning on my part but was instead due to a burst of speed and Raina not realizing how strong someone is when they are at the world's limit for their realm. That did not last long, though, as I was soon drowned under a sea of sword strikes.
When it was all over, I was barely able to walk without stumbling. Thankfully, kind Raina came back and helped me reach the house.
When she initially walked over to help me, I was constantly flinching every time she touched parts of my body because of the sheer number of bruises. It was here that she finally seemed to show some remorse and embarrassment over what she caused.
After we reached the house, Raina helped me sit at the table as Yuki came out of the kitchen with the night's meal in her arms.
As she placed the food in front of me I did not hesitate and immediately began to eat.
At some point, Raina tried to start a conversation with me multiple times but I simply ignored her and continued on with my meal.
Eventually, Raina simply said, "I am sorry, Vale, but that is the only way to teach you how to fight."
Not believing that statement, I responded, "So the only way to teach someone is to beat them until they start defending themselves in a way that is not conducive to proper fighting and will cause them to develop bad fighting habits, which could get them killed?"
At this Raina looked down at the table before asking, "Then how would you like to practice?"
Cooling off slightly from my first outburst, I suggested, "How about we start slow and focus on developing proper fighting skills and habits before moving on to bare-blade sparing? I am not saying we can't spar. I am just saying until I develop proper fighting habits, we keep it to padded spars with blunted blades."
Raina finally looks up from the table after hearing what I said and says, "We don't need blunted blades. I could simply just cover them with a layer of Qi to prevent them from hurting someone. Besides, blunted blades would not work as someone at the peak of body tempering could still cut someone with a blunted blade."
Seeing an issue with Raina's thought process, I clarify, "What happened to going slow? We don't need to start fighting at the peak of body tempering. We could just stick with slowly increasing the power during training until we reach that point. You also don't need to strike with full strength during a spar and could instead just do it based on contact sparing, where simply making contact is enough to determine the winner of the spar."
Raina looked like she wanted to say something else, but I interrupted her, remembering something else that needed to be said. "You also act like it is a matter of life and death, and this needs to be learned as fast as possible when we have plenty of time to go over this at the moment."
As I said this, Raina's expression changed to one of indignation, and she said, "That's because it is a matter of life and death that you learn to fight."
Responding calmly, I say, "And we have the time right now to make sure that I learn how to do it properly."
She then paused and thought for a moment before concluding, "Fine, but if anything happens, we will go back to doing it my way. Now, I will be leaving as I need to prepare for tomorrow."
I was happy that she conceded after hearing the first part of her statement, but the second part made me stand up from my chair, aggravating some of the injuries from today.
"Do you mean that we will be training all day tomorrow?" I nearly shouted in response to her what she said.
She only looked at me and responded, "Yes, we will."
"But I need to get the rest of the peak set up, especially after what I figured out would most likely happen when teaching at the Xia mansion!" I shouted in response this time.
It was now her turn to remain calm as she answered, "Then we will only spend half the day training. It is up to you whether you want your training to be over faster or not."
Recognizing the calm tone, I sat back down in my seat and answered, "Half a day is fine."
With that, dinner was over, and we made our way back to our rooms for the night. When I got up, I was having even more difficulties than earlier, as the injuries had started to develop even more, so Raina came forward to help me again.
When I was walking to head upstairs, Raina instead directed me to one of the rooms downstairs where a bed similar to the one I remember being in Raina's house was.
After entering, Raina placed me on the bed as I got a good look at the rest of the room. It was not just the bed that was similar but the entire room. The only difference was that this room was a little smaller than the other one.
As I was lost in thought, Raina sat down on the bed behind me and pulled out a familiar item, That Accursed Brush.
I only noticed too late what was about to happen when Raina attacked my tail again. When I resisted or tried to complain, she would strike a knot in the fur, causing me to yelp. The entire time, she would keep saying something about not taking proper care of my tail or hair, but I was not really listening to her.
I eventually just gave in and let it happen as I melted into a purring puddle.
I wanted to say something but was unable to as Mother's brushing just felt too good.
Once she was done brushing my tail, she used that spell I still did not know the name of to lift me up and spin me so that my head was on her lap.
Then Mom started brushing my hair and ears as I pulled out the Holy Manuscript to study it.
I never got around to studying it, though, as I soon fell asleep under Mom's careful attention.
(Raina POV)
The multiple times where Vale was being blatantly disrespectful were starting to get on my nerves. I do not know if she realized it or not, but she was not very easy to get along with.
I am not sure if this is just me being old and not remembering how I used to act on earth, but this felt like she was being far more disrespectful of me than was normal.
I never used to treat my mother like this in my past life and was always as respectful as I could be.
This frustration may have clouded my judgment when I was training her earlier and led me to causing more damage than I would have liked, especially after she explained what the actual level of the peak of body tempering looked like.
It felt even worse when she justifiably ignored me during dinner because of this.
Trying to use the excuse of it needing to be like this for training did not go passed her without an argument either. However, her lack of concern over her need to know how to fight was slightly alarming.
She seemed to be treating learning the sword as some sort of hobby and not a necessary thing.
Thankfully we came to the agreement that we would be spending half a day every day for her to train.
The excuse she gave for that was quite interesting, though, and I wanted to investigate whether that was the plan of the current sect leader or not.
I will be able to confirm if that is the case tomorrow when I go down the mountain to get the supplies we need for training. That is one thing I can not complain about her suggestions.
Her training method would indeed be better in the long run. That is if the person following this method had a good teacher.
Now I was sitting here brushing out her hair and tail, which she kept forgetting to take care of.
Seriously, it's as if she is purposefully ignoring it so she can spend more time with me.
She even pulled out a book to read while her head rested on my lap so I could brush her hair. She never got to it, though, as she fell asleep not long after receiving it from her inventory.
After the brushing was finished, I reached over to her to get the book while trying not to disturb her so I could see what she was interested in.
The book had no name, but it was not long after opening to the first page that I found out what this book was.
I was going to need to have another talk with Stephanie as soon as possible.
