Chapter 5: Learning To Use A Sword

"Hey, Reimi! Time to change the shift, I hope you have slept well in that 3 hours!"

I went to the camp and called Reimi, she had now awake and rubbing her eyes.

I hope she had a nice sleep because this girl had done the night guard 2 times and now was the third time she did it.

"Alright! Yawn! Ah, sorry, just leave the guard for me, Sir Rigen!" - Reimi said to me with a sleepy voice

"Okay!"

"Sir Rigen! What do you mean by saying "okay", what's that word means?" - Reimi asked me

"Okay is okay, ohh! Sorry, that's just a word from my homeland, okay means alright!"

"That's so? Okay, just sleep, Sir Rigen! I will do the guard for you."

Suddenly Reimi looked at my hands, her face seemed to have a bit curious, I wondered why?

"Sir Rigen, your hands...they have some...thick water? The water in your hands looks a bit stink, sorry!" - What? Reimi even held her nose after saying that to me

Then I looked at my hands, holy Jesus! I forgot to wash them after the relief!!! Must find an excuse for Reimi!

"Ah! Reimi! Maybe my hands have been dirty after touching something, I will wash them, you do the guard."

Then Reimi went out of the camp while bringing her sword with her to do the guard. I ran to a river near there to wash my hands then got into the camp to sleep.

Reimi and Shera slept in the same place but for me, I had to sleep at the opposite site not far from them.

They said to me that their parents told them women and men should not be together for too long, especially sleeping together.

Yeah! Their parents were right, if one of the girls slept with me, I would have lost control if I had the mood for doing that and started to...maybe I should stop for now!

I was now lying on the ground, trying to sleep, I had lied to Shera and Reimi that I was a high-ranking noble who didn't come from this place, lost my memory and somehow woken up in this forest.

That was just a lie, how could I say to them that I came from the future or some sort like that. Thinking too much made my mind spin so I slept right away after so much thinking.

The next day morning

I woke up and saw Shera and Reimi, they were now sitting beside me, waiting for me to wake up.

I slowly woke up and started noticing, looked like these girls always got up before me for some reason.

"Sir Rigen!" - Reimi called me, she seemed to want to say something

"Sir Rigen, when I was doing guard last night, I saw there was many of thick water that stick behind a tree near our camp just a few steps."

"I also sniffed the water, they stink as the same as the water I saw in your hands last night before I do the night guard."

"Sir Rigen, I'm scared that if the thick water last night was some kind of creatures' waste!" - Oh, shook! I forgot to clean my relieved scene

That was me who spilled those "water" in the tree, Reimi! But I would not say anything to you.

"Uh! Maybe my hands touched those water last night, we should stay away from the tree for safety, Reimi." - Must be wise in these situations, at least with these pure girls

"Really, Sir Rigen?" - Why did you tilt your head, Reimi? You knew about those "glues"?

"Understood, Sir Rigen! I will call H-, I mean Lady Shera to stay away from that tree."

"We are about to make breakfast, Sir Rigen! I hope you will fine with the meal!" - Reimi bowed to me then went to help Shera prepare breakfast

Maybe I should hold off my libido and only relieve them when I was alone, must clean all the scenes after relieving.

I must be strict with myself, let's hold off as long as I could or I would disturb the girls sooner or later.

The girls were now about to make breakfast, they thinking about changing the way of making the meals because they were scared that I would keep vomiting and getting diarrhea after eating the meals.

But I told them to make the meals like usual, I had now used to the meals here a little bit. I didn't vomit them anymore but still get diarrhea, I hoped this situation would end soon.

The breakfast had now done for a few minutes of preparation, there were bread, potatoes, some vegetables, and eggs.

These girls didn't know which dish they should make so they mixed the meals, seemed very logical for these girls when they didn't know how to cook.

I was now eating a bread which contained potatoes on it, I realized that the foods here were not as good as the foods from my place.

They didn't have many flavors, seemed very boring to eat they didn't have salts either, but I still tried to swallow slowly these meals.

They were all the products of these girls' efforts after all, it's very disrespectful if I spill the food out of my mouth.

But if I have to say honestly, these girls were bad at making food, the wealthy people like them in the Middle ages only knew to act like someone special.

They lived in wealth too long so they only knew to let someone serve them, I hoped these girls would not read my mind!

But now I had used to the food's flavors, the tastes were not bad but couldn't say they taste good, at least I could swallow these things more than before.

After done eating, I waited for my stomach to get diarrhea again to go to the toilet but that process didn't happen anymore, maybe I had fully used to eating here.

I felt so happy about that! Maybe my body had now used to the meals, I took a look at Shera and Reimi, the girls now wanted to say to me something.

Shera said to me that the journey would be delayed by about 4 hours, she said our rations were having problems.

Shera said that the foods they brought were now reducing and maybe would not be enough until getting to Attenta Kingdom.

Shera was now considering her plan if she should order Reimi to hunt animals or not, she wanted to provide the rations by hunting.

After knowing that I would have 4 hours to rest, I changed my look to Reimi, who was now swinging her sword around the place to practice, her moves were wonderful, fast and deadly.

I remembered that Advisor told me to use melee weapons, our modern military's melee training only taught us to fight with knives and bayonets mounted on rifles.

Those were just the basic things like slicing, stabbing, and smashing by using the rifle's butt.

Only strikes to attack but no defensive moves or stances to defense, to avoid being cut, stab were taught in those training.

I knew those defense stances were not necessary for the modern wars, we fought with guns by shooting from far away and close combat situations were very rare to be encountered

Then why does our military need to train that thing for our soldiers? Of course, training those melee things in our era was useless but they were necessary, very essential in the eras that didn't have guns.

Our military also taught us to do combat with bare hands, most of the martial arts that were being trained were about wrestling, disabling and taking away enemy weapons.

But the chances to use those things in combat were also rare.

Without the chance to practice those things, our muscle memory wouldn't be able to remember. Fighting with bare hands to me in our era was just used to train our health to let us remember the benefits of doing exercises.

If a US Soldier had to fight with a middle ages farmer or a soldier, even a well-trained royal guard.

The US Soldier would be able to win in the bare hands fight if both of them were only wearing pants.

Our modern soldier had very big advantages when we had a good environment, well educated, good nutrition and scientific methods of training.

In the past, when guns haven't been invented and even in the early eras of firearms, soldiers fought with spears, swords, axes, bows, etc...

The soldiers in those eras were very hardened, they practiced using their weapons daily and they had the skills to react against the attacks of those weapons better than we do.

Those were in their blood, and they were the masters of melee weapons, they knew how to swing a sword to its right target.

They could estimate very accurately where an arrow would hit when the bows didn't have any iron sight and the archer needed to have a very strong body to hold a bow.

They had to remember the number of each inch, each yard, each meter of the target they wanted to shoot before drawing their bows.

They were also used to the wild environments better than us, not like our modern soldiers always sitting in the training camps with air conditioners.

Even if we went on marching outside in some forests, deserts for the long walks then those were just small things compared to the ancient soldiers.

We, the soldiers of the strongest military in the world in this era couldn't even compare to the old-time soldiers who had to live in the wild environment from the time they were born till they died.

If there was the thing that I had to say our modern soldiers had to go through better than the old-time soldiers then that would be about bringing our equipment.

If we plus all of the ancient soldier's equipment, like a middle ages Knight, their armor and their weapons only had less than or just about 40 kgs (88,2 pounds).

About us, a US soldier had to carry about 50 to 60 kgs of equipment in their bag (110 to 132 pounds).

I just have included our military bag, not even the ammo, the rifle, the pistol and the bulletproof armor we had to wear.

Wait for me a bit! Did I remind myself of too much redundant info? Okay, let's forget it and head to the main part.

If I didn't know how to use a sword or any melee weapons, I would die.

At first, I would train myself to use a sword, then a bow, my rifle would have run out of ammo either way, must be used to that.

Then I rushed toward Reimi, she stopped when she saw me going after her.

My language skill had improved a lot, and now I can talk to these girls normally, must take this chance to ask Reimi to teach me swordsmanship.

Though there were still some problems that I made when I spoke but I would solve those things soon.

Our humans were all learned from our faults, which made us successful because we tried to make ourselves better after the faults we stepped in.

"Can you teach me swordsmanship, Reimi?"

Reimi and Shera freeze a little bit when they heard me saying those words to them.

"Sir Rigen! Don't you know how to use a sword?" - Reimi and Shera asked me with the surprising faces

"Didn't you have that powerful magic tool, Sir Rigen?" - Reimi asked me

"In my military, every soldier has that one magic tool but when I ran out of magic power, that thing will be useless!"

Of course, I lied! How could I tell the truth to these people, there was no magic here. That was just superstition and my rifle is a technology that is beyond their explanation.

I didn't know why the European in the middle age were so superstitious, those girls were like that too!

What caused the girls and the middle ages people to believe magic exist? Lack of scientific knowledge?

"Me and Her, I mean Lady Shera are very surprised to hear you don't know how to use a sword, Sir Rigen!" - Reimi talked to me about her thought

"But the thing I surprised the most was that your army trains powerful mages! Wonderful, this world is so big to me!"

"Of course, Sir Rigen! I will teach you for paying my debt to you for saving me and H-, I mean Lady Shera!"

I felt odd when Reimi hesitated a little bit when saying about Shera with honorifics.

She was about to say the word Her or something but later changed to Lady Shera, very suspect for me.

But that was not a matter, I should not dig the privacy of the other. Reimi later told me to go to an empty plain with her, away from our camp just a few steps.

She said to me that she needed about 30 minutes or more to make a pair of wooden swords for me and her to spar.

Then I rushed to my military bag, opened it and took out a machete, giving it to Reimi and telling her to cut some twigs.

Reimi seemed very impressed at the sharpness of that machete, but according to me, the machetes were quite blunt if compared to the military knives.

Then Reimi went on cutting the twigs, she was crazy, I think! She was very excited to see the machete, she even licked around its blade before going on cutting the twigs.

She was now cutting the twigs like a chainsaw, maybe I should get out of her way to let her do the job.

After cutting the twigs, we gathered the twigs together in one place. I also helped Reimi hew the twigs, making them become the shape of the swords, it took us 30 minutes or more to do it.

After making a pair of wooden swords, Reimi dropped them on the ground and said to me that we would use real swords to practice the techniques.

Reimi told me to swing a sword strike, I got in my fighting stance and swung it. After seeing my performance, she told me to swing the sword more than 10 times so I did exactly what she told me.

"Your physical strength is not bad, the sword strikes are very powerful but your stance is not natural and still has a bit hard!"

"It was still a little hard when you moved and the strikes were not following any of the sword techniques!" - Reimi shared with me that she thought

"This is normal, Sir Rigen! For a person who doesn't know to use a sword but can make the strikes like those is very rare."

"The first basic thing that you want to know about using a sword is that you need to swing it!"

After saying that word, Reimi drew her sword at a very fast speed and performed the sword techniques, she was very fast, then Reimi stopped and stared at me.

"Get here, attack me slowly and I will show you, Sir Rigen!"

Then I went toward Reimi, I was now away from her just a few steps, she said that she would order me to attack her with my sword. Maybe I should make a normal sword strike to see how would Reimi react.

"Hit me!" - Reimi told me to hit her

Then I slowly swung a strike at Reimi, when my sword and her sword collide, her sword pointed towards my head.

"See it? The sword will follow its physical direction to point into your head. If I pointed my sword a little to your head, you'll die!" - If I didn't remember wrong, this technique has in HEMA

"Do it again! In the same direction" - Reimi ordered to me

Then I swung my sword at Reimi, the next directions that she pointed her sword at me are my heart, my neck, my ears, and my shoulders.

I see! There were a lot of directions to kill an enemy by hitting the weak points on the body when two of the swords clacked each other. That was the time you have the chance to change your sword's direction to the enemy's body.

I also realized that Reimi was using swordsmanship that seemed similar to HEMA, a type of martial arts that was used by European Knights.

Oh! This place was also similar to Europe but I didn't know really if I got traveled to the past or if this place was somewhere else.

"Practice the techniques you saw me perform to swing your sword, trying to do your fighting stance accurately then we will move to spar, Sir Rigen." - Reimi told me

Then I started swinging my sword while doing the only stance that Reimi told me, I also practiced the techniques that Reimi performed.

Some of the techniques I couldn't remember so Reimi had to slowly perform them for me to see and practice. I must set up the muscle memory in these techniques if I wanted to remember them longer.

Maybe two hours had passed, and I was now exhausted a little bit after practice. Reimi just got back from Shera's place and she gave me a cup of water as if to ask me to drink if I was thirsty.

"Thanks" - I said to Reimi and took the cup of water

I drank all the water inside the cup, Reimi told me to rest for about 30 minutes then she and I would start sparring.

After 30 minutes, Reimi was now standing beside me, she told me to stand up to do the sparring.

I was about to spar with Reimi, we were now holding wooden swords. Shera was sitting near us to see our spar, and she cheering me.

"Attack me first, Sir Rigen! You can use the sword with one hand or two hands, it's up to you." - Reimi told me, I"m not stupid, sorry!

"Alright, 10, 9, 8, 7, 0, fight!" - Shera announced for the sparring, what the hell was that? Skipping the numbers was a cheat

Then I stood still, holding tight my sword in one hand, watching Reimi's movements. Reimi felt disappointed in me a little bit and charged toward me.

If I attack Reimi first, she would have known every of my move. I have to know how my enemy moves in the opening of the fight to have the plans to attack.

A sword fight was just like a mind game, though most of the sword fights were ended very fast. It was not like in Hollywood when the Knights wearing armors and charging at each other with madness sword strikes without knowing directions.

Not like in the nowadays movies, swords cannot cut through iron so every sword technique was taught to us to attack the weak point such as the heart, the neck, etc...that are exposed in the armor when fighting.

About Reimi, I have seen her attack so I just need to, oh dammit!

Reimi was very fast, she swung her sword strikes then moved around like a honey badger, didn't you feel exhausted while doing that? Every swordsman must save their energy in case they got into a hard time situation.

But I managed to step back after colliding our swords from far away, I have to keep my distance from Reimi if she got too close.

I would shout loud to scare her or roll around to dodge the attack, she never thought I would roll because most of the swordsmen in armors never did that during combat.

Then I stepped back a little bit, slowly and slowly, must find a way to beat this muscle brain, where should I attack?

Reimi saw that and charged toward me again, I immediately threw dirt that I took on the ground to her face.

"Ahh! That's not fair!" - Reimi seemed a bit frustrated when she got attacked unpredictable attack

"Wars have no rules!"

Then, after hearing my word, Reimi stepped back a little bit and held her sword tight, heading the blade toward me, standing still, not doing any attack.

I didn't know what she was up to so I swung my sword at Reimi. When our swords were about to collide, Reimi swung a strong blow, the sword flying off my hand and falling to the ground near there.

I dropped my sword, I was now thinking about taking it back, then Reimi slowly moved to the sword. She still pointed her sword at me, then Reimi took the sword that stick on the ground and threw it back to me.

"I don't care, Sir Rigen! This is just a spar!" - Reimi said to me confidently, you good! Let's see how loud you would scream when I beat you...or when you beat me

Now I have my sword, I was thinking about the next move to attack but suddenly. Reimi charged at me too with her sword, swinging strong blows with very fast speed.

In a short time, she crushed me down to the ground with her sword. I was very struggled to push her away by using my sword, I used all my strength to push Reimi out.

"Dammit, Reimi! Are you a gorilla? Give me a break, dammit!" - I shouted to Reimi while trying to push her away

Our faces were now very close to each other, somehow after noticing that. Reimi stopped to crush me down, stood up and breathed non-stop, her eyes looked a bit... panicked?

Reimi's face was now red, she breathed constantly, Reimi then turned around and covered her face like she was very shy or something.

I didn't know why she did that so I took that chance and hit her slightly with the helt of my sword.

"Okay! Sir Rigen won the sparring, congratulations!" - Shera slapped her hands to congratulate me

"Not bad, Sir Rigen! But you need to practice more." - Reimi said to me while her face was still red, she was... exhausted?

Reimi's perspective

That was so close! My face at that time was so close to Sir Rigen, we were about to kiss! My mother said that if a man and a woman kiss, that woman will get pregnant.

I should stop thinking about that, I don't want to think about it anymore!

Every time I think about it, my mind will imagine nonsense things though I didn't what I saw meant.

Alright! Maybe I'm alright now so I walked towards Her Highness. I didn't know why she looked so frustrated, did something unusual happen? She need help?

"Reimi! Sir Rigen is mine! Do not take him away from me." - Her Highness whispered to me, what a cold voice to the bone

I'm scared now! I think I must keep my distance from Sir Rigen!

Rigen's perspective

I had learned something new but I couldn't remember all of the techniques that Reimi taught me, maybe I need to practice them more.

After 30 minutes of resting, Reimi and Shera told me to pack up and start a journey. I have already grabbed my stuff, we are about to go now.

Wait! Did I forget something? Oh! I didn't turn on Advisor yet.

Then I turned on Advisor, maybe I would chat with it on the journey, and maybe I would practice sword with Reimi, we were now on our path.

I hoped we would get to the Attenta Kingdom as soon as possible.