Showing Off

(Eris POV)

When papa told me I was getting a new bodyguard I was already unhappy with it. Why would I need a new bodyguard? Ghislaine is the strongest. She is more than enough to protect me. She appears whenever I call her, and no one would dare to try anything when she is around.

And then papa told me that he was actually coming to learn from Ghislaine while working as my bodyguard to pay for those lessons. I don't know why but that pissed me off even more. Who the hell does he think he is, trying to learn from my Ghislaine?

If Ghislaine has to teach him as well, doesn't that mean she will have less time for me? I will never let that happen!

So when I first met Rudeus, and found that he was actually younger and shorter than me, I didn't like him from the get go. Getting a kid who is even younger than me to protect me was so insulting! They were basically saying that I was so weak even some random brat was stronger than me!

I wanted to teach the rude brat a lesson. So I slapped him. Or at least I tried to. The bastard actually dared to dodge it!

Being rude was one thing, but not willing to take his punishment and daring to run away was another issue altogether.

But no matter what I tried, he just kept running away while calling me 'Lady Eris' the whole time, which I hate being called that! He must have known that I hate it and kept calling me that on purpose!

That bastard then held my hand behind my back and pushed me down. How dare he! Not even grandfather or Ghislaine have done something like that to me before. But he was too strong, I couldn't break out of his hold.

I'm going to get him back for this, I promised myself. No matter what I would make him pay!

But then Rudeus let me go, and made me a deal. To show that he was strong, he would spar with Ghislaine. And if I was not happy with his performance then I would get to punch him and chase him out of our house.

That sounded great in my head. Because I already knew that no matter how well he did, I was going to say I was not satisfied. I won't let him stay here and learn from Ghislaine no matter what.

But first, I demanded to let me punch him five times before anything else. I had to vent the frustration inside me after he dodged and held me down for so long.

He said okay, but that pissed me off even more. He was so nonchalant about it, like being punched by me would be nothing at all. He would regret that. And so I punched his face. But punching him felt like I was punching a stone wall! It hurt my hand more than it hurt his face! In fact, he didn't look like he even felt anything.

The boy named Rudeus smiled when he saw me in pain. He was enjoying it, I was sure. What a detestable person! No matter how hard I punched him, he would not feel anything but my hand hurt even more.

Then I remembered what I overheard some maids talking about before. A boy's weakness is their thing between their legs. Sometimes when they are attacked by men, the maids would kick the man's thing and run away. Rudeus was a boy too. So he must have the same weakness.

But he was too slippery. If I tried to kick him between his legs he would just block it or run away again. So I used a feint, like what Ghislaine had taught me before. Swing my leg at the thing between his legs and let him think I was aiming for that. But in reality, it would just be a trick.

When he caught my first kick, I jumped and aimed my other leg to kick his face. This time, I poured all my anger and frustration into this kick. I wanted to hurt him, and teach a lesson for underestimating me.

For the first time, he reacted to my kick! He didn't look like he was in a lot of pain, but from the dumb look on his face, he must have felt something! It wasn't much, but I still succeeded in making him feel pain from my kick.

Too bad that that was the last hit out of the five we agreed on. Normally I wouldn't care about breaking a promise with someone like him. He did not have the qualification to even ask me to keep my promise. But since both papa and Ghislaine were there too, I had to keep to our deal.

But it was fine. After he fought with Ghislaine, no matter how well he did, I would tell him to get lost anyways. And then I can punch him even more after that. Serves him right for trying to come to my house and steal my Ghislaine from me.

-----

Eris led the group that included Philip, Rudeus and Ghislaine towards the estate's training ground. Thomas the butler had been called away for some task or another had to do.

When they arrived, Rudeus had requested Philip to ask everyone else aside from the four of them to leave the training ground. He did not want people who did not need to be there see his unique abilities.

After Ghislaine told Rudeus that the greatest strength of his Magic Sword style was that no one knew or would expect him to cast spells while fighting with his sword, he became more careful about keeping this ability of his under wraps.

From now onwards, people who were allowed to find out about his Magic Sword style would be on a need-to-know basis only. The whole point of a secret technique was to keep it secret. At least, until he was strong enough that he would not need the surprise factor of his Magic Sword style.

Plus, Rudeus thought he would be more effective as a bodyguard to Eris if potential assailants underestimated him and assumed he was just a playmate for the little noble rather than a magic-wielding-swordsman-bodyguard.

'Look at considerate I am for this ungrateful brat!' Rudeus thought to himself.

Philip was understandably a little hesitant to proceed with this request. When Rudeus asked everyone else to leave, he included the various estate guards that were stationed at the manor or patrolling the grounds. This would be an ideal scenario for any assassins or if Rudeus had any nefarious intentions.

But the Young Master of the Boreas family still dismissed all the other unnecessary spectators. That was the extent of the trust he had in Ghislaine's ability. Unless it was another King-level assassin, Ghislaine was more than capable of handling it even without any other guards.

"Hmph, you just don't want people to watch you get beat up right?" Eris immediately pounced to poke fun at Rudeus.

The boy had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, and he chose not to respond to the provocation. He would prove her wrong soon enough.

Rudeus could tell from the smirk on Eris' face that it was very likely she would insist she was not satisfied with his performance no matter how well he did short of defeating Ghislaine in a straight up duel. But that was only because she had yet to witness his Magic Sword style.

The little noble was unruly, unrestrained and spoiled rotten. But ultimately, she was still a child that respected strength. Even Rudeus who had an adult's brain found Magic Sword style to be the epitome of badassery and coolness. So he had some confidence she would be awed by his techniques as well.

Rudeus and Ghislaine walked to the middle of the training ground while Philip and Eris stayed at the periphery to watch. The training ground itself wasn't that large, since it was more of a private area meant for the Boreas family members' usage. So it was actually more secluded in the interior of the manor.

Normal Boreas guardsmen had their own barracks away from the estate grounds, with their own facilities and training field for their drills as well.

Master and disciple stood a fair distance away from each other, reminiscent to how they had faced each other back at the Greyrat household in Buena Village.

"As much as I want you to be my disciple, I won't be able to hold back, Rudeus. At most I can limit my Battle Aura to Saint-rank. Otherwise, Eris will be angry at me." Ghislaine said as she unsheathed her blade.

Rudeus chuckled and replied while similarly taking out his Blue Fang, "I would have it no other way, Master."

The beastwoman smiled. She liked Rudeus. He had a singular passion for the sword that reminded her of herself when she was younger after being picked up by Gal Farion, the current Sword God, and shown the way of the sword.

She had been even wilder and more feral than Eris when she was her age. It was only through tempering her spirit and taming her wild nature from learning swordsmanship that she was able to mature and grow beyond being just a beast-like person.

Rudeus had a similar thirst to improve his strength and swordsmanship. Though he also incorporated magic into his techniques, Ghislaine could sense that this was his path of the sword. Even though they had only spent a very short time together, she could feel Rudeus' passion for the sword.

While she had relied heavily on instincts and impulses when she was younger, anyone who could break through to Saint-rank and beyond needed much more than just instincts. They not only needed talent, they would also need, above all else, a deep obsession for swordsmanship. Magicians would call them simple-minded, but no one else but other Saint-ranked swordsmen and above could understand it. Rudeus understood it.

And Rudeus had immense martial talent as well. Just from hearing his description of how Paul had taught him, Ghislaine was baffled how the boy could reach the heights he did with swordsmanship. Paul always called her an idiot, or muscle brained, but he was a terrible teacher.

Gal Farion had sharpened her instincts, tamed her feral nature, and guided her in comprehending techniques. Ghislaine felt confident that if she could apply what she had learnt and teach Rudeus, the boy who never had an excellent teacher to guide his swordsmanship before would achieve no less than what she had in the sword.

"Do it like yesterday. If you want to stay here, then you have to show off everything you've got. Show Eris your swordsmanship first, and then your Magic Sword. Thoroughly convince her with your own skills." Ghislaine advised.

"I understand, Master." Rudeus took a deep breath, his eyes going over Ghislaine stance and searching for weaknesses. She didn't have any of course, but it was a habit he had picked up when fighting Paul and the monsters of the forest.

"Then, here I come!" He announced and dashed forward to let Blue Fang meet his Master's sword.

As the two exchanged slashes and techniques, Eris watched with her arms folded. She put on a tough front, her eyes indifferent and unmoved. But inwardly, she was shaken.

'Fast! He is way faster than he was in the room!' She observed, unconsciously leaning forward to get a better view. 'He is fast enough to match Ghislaine, and she has never moved like that when I trained with her…'

Eris couldn't tell if he was four or five times faster than she was. Her eyes could barely catch up with their movements. Their figures occasionally blurred before reappearing when their blades clashed. If she wasn't here personally to witness this sight of a tiny boy fighting on equal footing with Ghislaine, she would not have believed it even if Sauros was the one to tell her.

Whenever they struck, Eris could feel wind whipping in the small, enclosed training ground. She was able to grasp that for such a phenomena to occur, the strength they were using when swinging their sword was way beyond what she herself was capable of.

From offense to defence, it was as though Rudeus had no flaws at all. Eris only learnt the Sword God style, since that was all Ghislaine knew. Thus, she was not familiar with the Water God style and the North God style, so Rudeus' techniques looked very mysterious and unfathomable to her.

Erise could recognize some of the Sword God techniques he used, but when Rudeus transitioned to Water God style when blocking or deflecting Ghislaine attacks, or when he mixed in North God techniques on the fly to adapt to her ferocious offense, she was completely lost.

"Kuk! S-so what! Just because he can use fancy tricks doesn't mean anything. If Ghislaine was serious, she would have already cut him in half! In half!" Eris said to Philip, though it was obvious she was more trying to convince herself rather than her father. "Just based on that measly skill, he doesn't qualify to be my bodyguard, hmph!"

Philip, on the other hand, quietly watched their bout. He wasn't talented in swordsmanship or combat. His time as a youth was spent learning bureaucracy, and after taking the post of Mayor of Roa, he had even less time to train. Thus, he was actually less skilled in swordsmanship than his own daughter.

Regardless, however, he had still seen swordsmen fight before. Their Boreas family had Advanced-rank swordsmen and guards amongst their retainers. And as the Mayor, he often dealt with highly skilled adventurers since he was usually the person issuing S-rank missions to these adventurers. So he wasn't completely clueless in evaluating how strong someone was.

'A-rank, or maybe even S-rank…' Philip judged, watching Rudeus display his skill. 'It is definitely impressive for his gae, but definitely not Saint-level yet. Why did Ghislaine bestow the title of a North Saint to him? Could she have been mistaken?'

But then, Philip's eyes suddenly widened. "That's-!?"