SML Ch 22

Chapter 22

Peaceful Spring Cleaning

What was supposed to be a sparring match that lasted a day or two ended up continuing for about three weeks.

The young men were far more enthusiastic than Reynald had expected. They even made questionable comments like, “Do you think we could win if it were two against one?” raising doubts about whether they understood the rules of sparring at all, yet their motivation was undeniable.

Of course, Reynald had no reason to refuse. After all, fighting monsters was nothing like sparring. A one-on-one duel was more the exception than the rule, so training them to face a single opponent as a group would be a huge asset for survival. These kinds of formations were difficult to execute without regular training. If the rhythm of swordplay was thrown off, poor coordination could easily lead to worse results than no cooperation at all.

Thus, Reynald generously accepted challenges, whether it was two-on-one or three-on-one. Due to a shortage of wooden swords, the number of participants never exceeded five-on-one.

Still, it was questionable whether the young men would have gained the upper hand even if it had been five-on-one. Even in four-on-one situations, they had never managed to win. They were fired up with statements like, “Next time, we’ll definitely win,” but whether that was actually possible remained to be seen.

Despite their enthusiasm, the young men didn’t engage in sparring every day. They only treated it as a game; most of the time, they were busy with other chores around the village and would only flock to Reynald when they had spare time. Usually, a sparring match disguised as a brawl occurred every three or four days, and afterward, the young men would collapse from exhaustion.

Despite the chaotic nature of the training, the results weren’t too bad. Their movements had noticeably improved. In the past, they would blindly swing their swords with brute force and no control. Now, they had learned to differentiate between a light deflection and a solid strike. Perhaps because they already had some practical experience, their progress was faster than Reynald had anticipated.

“Ah…!”

“You’re too hasty! Charging in just because you saw an opening throws off your stance!”

Reynald struck the approaching young man’s wrist with the hilt of his wooden sword. It wasn’t a heavy blow, but it was strong enough to make him drop his weapon.

Volant seized the opportunity and lunged forward, but the tip of his sword merely grazed Reynald’s hair. Without hesitation, Reynald kicked at Volant’s leg. Technically, kicking was against the rules of sparring, but at this point—facing four opponents at once—talking about rules was meaningless.

Volant tried to dodge the kick but lost his footing and staggered. Considering he had been moaning in pain just four days ago after getting hit in the shin, he had made significant progress, though he still had much to learn. Nevertheless, among the young men, Volant’s improvement was one of the fastest. His natural physical condition made even minor corrections in form noticeably effective.

“Ah, ouch!”

In the end, Volant also fell clumsily, just like the others. Reynald caught his breath lightly and wiped away his sweat. No matter how much of a skill gap there was, handling multiple opponents at once was never easy. Especially when the goal was to avoid injuring any of them—it added a whole new level of difficulty.

That was quite the strenuous fight. Reynald thought this rather casually—something that would’ve prompted loud protests if the young men had heard it—and offered a hand to Volant. The villagers watching from the sidelines groaned in disappointment.

“Volant, you lost again! Boring!”

“Rangel, don’t say that. He lasted quite a while today.”

“But he lost to an ogre! That means the ogre would’ve eaten him!”

Reynald gave a wry smile. It wasn’t that he, the middle-aged lord, had randomly earned the nickname of a monster. It was just a role-playing game. It had been Lyndon’s suggestion—just sparring every day was getting dull, so they added a twist: Reynald would act as an ogre-like monster, and the young men would play the role of adventurers hunting it down.

The villagers enjoyed the show as well, and considering how overrun this region was with monsters, it was actually a fairly efficient training method. Still, Reynald couldn’t shake the feeling that he was always playing the villain. Not that it mattered much—there wasn’t anyone else around to take on the role anyway.

“D-damn it! To lose to the ogre again…!”

“The young warriors of the domain have fallen to the ogre’s blade—what will become of the safety of our lands?!”

“Though defeated, they survived, so there’s always a next time. Come now, let’s end the roleplay and get up.”

Volant, who had been groaning in mock pain, let out a small laugh and took Reynald’s hand. Reynald helped him up, ignoring the whining of the other young men who had been thoroughly beaten under the guise of training. The villagers, having enjoyed the spectacle, chuckled among themselves.

Reynald felt like more of a jester than a lord. If the subordinates who had only ever seen him as the dignified captain of the royal knights witnessed this, they would’ve been horrified.

But Reynald didn’t mind. What did it matter? If it made the cold and dreary winter more bearable, that was enough for him. Reynald found himself genuinely satisfied in that moment.

It may not have been much, but he had his own domain now. Even though there were only around twenty soldiers under his command, it still fell under his responsibility. It wasn’t far off from the peaceful retirement life he had envisioned.

Of course, it was true that the domain lacked many things—such as prosperity, stability, or even a future.

Still, with steady effort, he believed it would be possible to maintain the status quo. And for Reynald, that was enough.

Still, all this training and we haven’t really gotten a chance to put it to use.

Reynald gave a bitter smile. Despite their earnest efforts, they hadn’t had any reason to venture beyond the fortress in the past few weeks. With their food supply stable, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.

Besides, they had recently been caught stealing grain from the ratman village—if they ran into any ratmen now, things could turn ugly. As Reynald wiped away his sweat, Heide approached and held out a damp cloth.

“Ah, thank you.”

“It’s nothing. By the way, my lord, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”

“Something to discuss? Ah, is it about the transmission scroll acting up?”

“Well, yes, that too, I suppose…”

According to Heide, the transmission scroll within the domain had been experiencing some confusion in recent weeks. Usually, it was only used to receive official government documents, but lately, strange love letter-like messages had been coming through.

Apparently, none of them had any recipient names written, so Reynald simply advised Heide to ignore them. Even if they were meant for this domain, the fault lay with the sender for not addressing them properly, so there was no real issue in disregarding them.

Reynald had little interest in repairing the scroll. He figured it would make a good excuse if the king ever tried to contact him. “The scroll was malfunctioning, so it seems your letter didn’t arrive properly.” That sort of excuse would keep him out of trouble.

“If it’s not that issue, then what are you talking about?”

“Well, it’s just that winter is drawing to a close.”

“Ah, yes. It ends rather quickly in this region, doesn’t it?”

Reynald wiped his sweat with the damp cloth. It wasn’t warmed water, so it was a bit cold, but it was nowhere near as chilly as it had been just a few weeks ago. The winters here seemed to arrive and pass swiftly.

Winter typically began to settle in during early November, hit its peak between December and early January, and by February, the daytime temperatures started to warm up noticeably. Of course, the evenings remained chilly, so people had to watch out for colds caused by the large temperature swings. This was what one might call the changing of the seasons. Currently, it was late January—right at the tail end of winter.

Winter is ending, Reynald thought over those words for a moment, then suddenly turned his gaze beyond the fortress. A loud flurry of wings had reached his ears. The wyvern flock, which had been quiet lately, appeared to be preparing to take flight. Reynald quickly understood what Heide was about to say.

“The wyverns are preparing to head north. That’s rather early, compared to other regions.”

“Yes. But they also return early, so come harvest season, the skies will be filled with wyverns again. Most of the time, they only harass other monsters like the ratmen, but we suffer a bit of damage as well.”

What this meant was that the wyverns were migrating in search of colder regions. Spring hadn’t quite arrived yet, but it seemed their active season in this area had ended.

Wyverns had thick hides that helped them endure cold, but they were vulnerable to heat. When the seasons changed, they would flee the warmth and migrate to colder climates. They were, in essence, like migratory birds—understanding them that way made it easier to grasp.

Now that they were preparing to head north with such commotion, it seemed likely they would leave within the week. One of the main reasons villagers stayed holed up inside the fortress during winter was the wyverns—so with them gone, people would be able to head outside again. It seemed Heide wanted to begin preparing for that.

“Is it about time to start getting ready for spring? How do people in this area typically prepare for it?”

“Nothing too special. First, we clean out the houses that have been left empty over the winter, and then we clear the fields.”

“I see, that makes sense.”

“The training those young men received will probably come in handy.”

“Yes, that training will help… Wait, what?”

Reynald widened his eyes, wondering if he’d heard wrong. Heide, with a serious expression, was gazing at the young men. It went without saying that the training Reynald had given them over the past few weeks was sword training—not housework or farming. What possible connection could there be between swordsmanship and cleaning?

“While we’ve been holed up for the winter, some monsters have probably taken up residence in the abandoned houses. We’ll need to clear them out. I imagine there are man-eating plants growing in the fields by now as well…”

“……”

“Is something wrong, my lord? Don’t other domains go through similar cleaning tasks?”

No. Generally, they do not.

Reynald looked at the young men with a rather complicated expression. It seemed that teaching them swordsmanship had turned out to be a better decision than he had realized.