That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.41 Lamprecht's Duel

Lutz' pov: 

Sitting while watching the storefront had become a bit of my job for a while, we had new tenders who were monsters. They could cast a spell to determine the authenticity of the currency, while I needed the small device Rimuru had given us. It was a weird thing to see so many magicule tools around, the factory I had been in the other day. I even tried turning the crank on the fourdrinier machine, it left me completely exhausted the moment I touched it and I was bedridden for the rest of the day. I suppose that is how Rozemyne feels most of the time, she had also been by the other day to talk to me about her new name. She was still distant in the conversation though. 

I heard a bell ding, which indicated it was time for me to go to Benno's office. He had been annoyed when he first arrived, as his butler was still back in Ehrenfest to manage the business while he was away. So he was not able to ask for tea or anything of the sort when he wanted it. I hopped off the chair and made my way to the back room, and then opened the side door to Benno's office. 

"Everything is going great, here. The market is so new, there are so many untapped fortunes. Some people have already started though, I even heard Mjörrmiles-san is coming to Tempest. That man leaves me concerned." He trailed off while saying it, then looked to me more closely. "Come, come. Let's talk." He was smiling a bit devilishly, which told me I'd be getting a lesson today. 

I walked over and sat in the chair in front of his desk, while looking at the papers he had arranged on it. What drew my attention notably was the ledger we had received from Rimuru the day before he left, I wondered if we had finished production on it. "What is it today, sensei?" 

"Has Lady Rozemyne told you anything about new products, I can't assume being here has left her completely uncreative." He clasped his hands together on the desk and waited for my response, how easily he had come to call Rozemyne "Lady" was very offputting to me, I wondered if there had been any screwing around with the minds of people who knew her. 

"No, she has not. Though I do remember her saying something about giving several ideas to a Kaijin, she said they'd be given to us if they are finished." I replied, remembering the note she had given me the last time she was hear. It was a simple piece of paper. Really her behavior was still offputting me, so I got into thought for a moment. 

Before I could get too deeply into it, Benno snapped his fingers in front of my face. Which got my attention. "Alright, that is mildly annoying. Thank you for telling me, though. Now, what do you have to report on our product's competitiveness here?" 

This got my attention whole heartedly, "Our soot ink is much cheaper than the plant based inks they have been using. So we should have an advantage in black inks, but colored inks we cannot compete with the color options." I twiddled my fingers a bit while remembering the cart full of colored bottles of ink, and their price tags. 

Benno nodded then gestured for me to continue. 

I nodded back then smiled, "Rinsham is incredibly competitive with their 'shampoo'. It seems they lack many of our qualities and scents. As well they do not have any abrasives in their products, so it does not clean the hair as well." We'd likely be able to completely outcompete them in terms of quality, as long as we kept our methods for production secret. 

Benno seemed to smile at this, before I had to let him down a fair bit. 

"It seems they already have playing cards. They generally make their cards out of wood, and our paper cards did not do well when customers here were presented with them. It may require us to rethink how customers want their cards to be made." I put my head down a bit while explaining, I puffed my cheeks out a bit thinking about how long it took to make playing cards as well. 

Benno nodded at that, "Well, we can't win in every situation. Have any suggestions?" He seemed to immediately look to me for more information, as I had already seen customer reactions. 

I nodded and looked back up, "I believe it is an issue of the cards being too weak, wooden cards are larger and harder to store, but they also last longer and don't damage as easily. So perhaps we should try an even stronger material than wood? It would also be best if we could store the new cards as easily as the paper cards." I thought on it for a long while, thinking all the things we could possibly use. I then thought of the sign we had hanging out at the front of the store. "Perhaps we could try metal cards? We can press designs into metal, and possibly even paint or dye it. I've seen plenty of metal signs with color here in Tempest." I moved my thoughts to be outloud, so Benno could hear them. 

"Did Rozemyne-sama give you that idea?" Benno raised an eyebrow while leaning toward me, then set his hand on the desk. He seemed focused now. 

"No, I just thought it out loud. I can run it by her the next time we talk, though." Rozemyne again, thinking about her got me a little annoyed. I really wanted her to talk to me like she used to, but it seems something about me stopped that still. 

Benno smiled brightly, then looked down to me. "That is a lovely market sense you have, then. I am glad you are learning." He honestly complimented me for what felt like the first time, since I had been almost adopted by him. 

"Huh, Market sense. I wish I had something like that with Rozemyne." I got a bit distant for a moment, but then I heard something. It was actually a bit piercing inside my head, so it disoriented me. 

{Notice: Conditions met, acquiring extra skill [Market Sense]. Successful.} 

What the hell was that voice? I looked back to Benno, right after I heard it. I realized I had said something out of turn. 

"You can't talk about her like that, use your honorifics or lady." He scolded me while lightly pulling on my hair near my ear from across the table. 

"Sorry, sorry." I winced from the pain of having my hair pulled, but I did deserve it. Talking about her out of turn could get her secrets revealed. Then I thought about something, "Sensei, have you ever heard about a merchant becoming a sage?" I asked sorta bluntly. 

"Huh? A merchant becoming a sage? I've never been too invested in the church, but what I do know is only the strongest holy knights become sages. I think some really strong adventurers do too." Benno explained, while looked out the window for a moment. Afterward he looked back, "Why the question?" He raised his eyebrow at me again. 

"I want to become one, to be there for Lady Rozemyne." I simply admitted while leaning back in the chair, though it always seemed to get further away. 

"Sages are people with skills, and lots of magic power. I doubt you'd have that in you, I've heard some murmurs about Tuuli-san possibly becoming a sage, though. See how fast she got strong?" Benno make a small hand gesture, comparing my strength to Tuuli. For Tuuli he raised his hand high, and for me he kept it low. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think you can do that." 

"Huh, skills? I head something about that just now from some voice. Didn't Ferdinand-sama say something about some voice of the world granting skills?" I posed the question to him while remembering a few moments earlier in the conversation. It seemed almost like my thoughts had triggered some change. 

Before we could elaborate further on this, there was a massive blast of light in the window that made us both close our eyes tightly.

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Tuuli's pov: 

The only one who took my offer was a tall boy with reddish brown hair, and light brown eyes. He looked very similar to Karstedt, with only really his eyes being different. He was of course also much younger, though. If I had to guess, mid-teens. He seemed resigned and stood up to me, "Sorry about this, you seem a bit too confident. Lord Wilfried is known for being, inept at certain things. I will spar you, do you have any training weapons?" He was polite to me, and seemed a bit wide eyed at how Karstedt talked to me. 

I tilted my head, I was a bit surprised someone who worked for Wilfried could be so polite. Especially to someone who was considered a, "commoner." I smiled at his politeness and then gestured over to the weapon rack at the other side of the field. "Of course, I use a bokken. We have many other types of wooden swords though, take your pick." 

He looked to me for a moment, and his gaze settled on the scabbard and ring I had resting at my hip. One held Nahenlicht and the other held my Bokken, they were held tightly together and acted as a single scabbard to make carrying both easier. "You look like you have a real sword too, are you sure you would not be more comfortable with that against someone with mana?" he raised an eyebrow with a tinge of concern in his eyes. 

"No, no. I'd like to know your name, though. Also are you related to Karstedt-dono, you look just like him." I doted a bit despite him being older than me, he really was a bit of a looker though. Karstedt looked too old, but he on the other hand did not. 

The boy became a bit uneasy at this and nodded, "I am Lamprecht, son of Karstedt. However I am simply a guard knight of lord Wilfried." He said it very simply, despite it really not looking that simple. He had more magicules than Wilfried, not by much. He still had more though, so I was a bit put off by him being Wilfried's. 

I smiled at this, "Well, you are very humble, Lamprecht-dono." I commented before gripping tightly onto the hilt of Nahenlicht. I remembered the exchange with Milim while doing so:

"It's very simple, wahaha! Your sword there has a will, so all you need to do is "ask" it for the magicules!" Milim suddenly said after my question on what she had meant about, "Not using my sword well." She stood with her arms raised to her hips. 

"Wouldn't that drain the sword?" I asked with a bit of a concerned look on my face. 

"Yes, it would. The sword has a will though, remember? So it will generate it's own magicules, probably faster than you with it's capacity." She said while poking the scabbard soft, having moved next to me, now. 

"Do I have anything I need to be careful of when doing this?" I calmed down a bit, and asked seriously while glancing down at Nahenlicht's hilt. 

Milim seemed to walk on air for a moment while tapping her head, "Hm. Hm. For you, probably. Your capacity is really low, so you'll need to be careful not to overflow. It could probably raise your resistance, but it would also hurt you." After that she seemed to trail off into thought and did not speak further on it. 

After thinking on how to test this, before the real thing. I casted my normal light spell, the little ball of light in my palm. Holding up my palm and intently focusing, while watching a small ball of light easily raise from it. After that I tried to pull magicules from Nahenlicht, "communicating" with it to "ask" for them. It was like talking to a tamed animal, or a horse. It had a will, but it was simple and it needed to be convinced with of offer of a small amount of my own magicules in exchange. 

The light spell in my palm reacted to the sudden surge of magicules in my body by getting immensely brighter, and really hot. It flashed bright enough to rival the sun before dimming as I immediately cut the supply of magicules to the spell, and felt a tickle of liquid drip from my nose. 

Cupping my now very hot hand under my nose I watched as a few drops of blood dripped into my palm and winced, before grabbing a rag from the bag at my hip to cover my nose. After doing this, I looked around me. 

The knights all seemed dazed, a few of them had fallen over while gripping their eyes. Karstedt himself seemed uneasy, and even a few of the hobgoblin guards noticed. Rigur was now on his way over to me with a wide eyes and his mouth a bit agape. Once he got to me he put his hand on my back and seemed to cringe away a bit immediately afterward. "Are you alright? There was a massive flash of light centered on you." He seemed to be unable to get closer for a moment. 

I blinked a few times before looking over to him, "I am fine, some of them might not be though. They may have had their eyes hurt by that." I said sheepishly while holding the rag to my nose, and sitting down for a moment as I was a bit dazed. I was simply sitting on the ground, not really caring about the pants I was wearing getting dirty. 

It was a short time after this that Lamprecht walked back up to me, and commented on my dazed state. "Are you sure you are alright? What even was that? I was not looking but that flash of light was clearly large." He seemed a bit concerned, as if I had been attacked by something. 

"It was me." I immediately replied, admitting to my fault. "I tried to use a technique Milim-san suggested, and I did not control it properly." I explained while getting back up to my feet and looking around again. 

It seemed the knight had mostly recovered, and no one was badly harmed. Anyone who had reddened eyes was given a high potion, which they had dripped into their eyes by the hobgoblin guards. The kindness of the hobgoblins got a few murmurs from the knights while this was happening. 

While I was sighing in relief Lamprecht commented, "Milim-san? Who would that be? That was a simple spell, but whatever technique you used powered it up a lot." I really did not know how to answer his question, so I again decided on honesty. 

"The demon lord, Milim Nava. I am fine if you don't trust me, but it is the truth." I replied while dusting myself off and stretching to make sure I wasn't hurt anywhere else, I just felt a little sore like I did when I had magicule poisoning from Myne. My nosebleed had already stopped. 

"I.. Don't know how to respond to that." He trailed off before saying it, and seemed to look over to Wilfried for an explanation. Wilfried simply nodded back while taking an eyedrop of high potion from a hobgoblin himself. After recieving this he looked back to me, and seemed a bit dumbstruck. His mouth ajar and his eyes wide again, though he was quick to get back to normal. "I suppose we will not duel now?" He was holding a wooden longsword. 

I puffed my cheeks out a bit, "Just cause I am a bit dazed doesn't mean you are getting out of this." I then stepped back to the opposing side of the field while waiting and signaling Rigur to tell everyone to get off the field. 

Promptly after this everyone was in fact led off the field, and Karstedt remained as a witness. Once both of us were in place, Karstedt spoke loudly. "Begin!" He stepped back after saying it. 

I waited, while unringing my bokken and holding it in a mid-guard, I also gripped the hilt of nahenlicht softly with my other hand. I felt as the [Thought Acceleration] engaged passively, and from my point of view everything slowed down. 

Lamprecht seemed cautious to advance, instead I felt the pressure of that "crushing" thing Wilfried had used. It had more pressure than his, but it was still easily manage-able. 

To demonstrate this I took a few steps forward before re-assuming my stance and saying, "Wilfried already tried that. Did you think he screwed it up, or was he too embarrassed to tell you?" I joked lightly before continuing my approach while holding my stance. 

I watched the change in his own footwork, as he lunged forward. The wooden longsword in his hand sliding directly, past my neck. 

I had narrowing dodged it, he was clearly stronger than me in terms of physical strength. As a result I'd focus on evasion and deflection as opposed to blocking strikes directly. I could not quite reach him with my bokken as I thrusted it forward in response, as he himself stepped back. Taking the initiative I tried to step to his offside, and made a horizontal slash to his unguarded shoulder. 

He had been able to respond to this, by statically blocking my bokken before making a move forward to try to grab onto it with his gloved hand. 

Seeing this as a worst case scenario, I was quick to jump back while taking in a small amount of magicules from Nahenlicht. I settled on taking in the magicules only when I was using them, as it seemed to difficult to control the intake if I was using them at the same time. Once I had them, I motioned forward with my bokken while casting a small light spell on the tip to daze him, flashing him in the eyes with the feinting strike. After this I quickly used the momentum of the strike to change it's direction from a mid to a low strike, hitting his knee with a small thud. 

Lamprecht winced at this and stepped back, before getting a bit serious with a high guard and then began rapidly making strikes and slashes. It seemed he was willing to try now. 

I was able to deflect and evade most of the strikes, a few did hit my fingers though. I put my right side forward to better protect my off hand, which was still on Nahenlicht. It seemed I was faster than him, which was good to know. 

He did not easily fall into a pattern, often changing and seemingly keeping most of his moves deliberate. Though when I looked out at a wider picture, I realized that while there was not a pattern overall. Each set of strikes had a small pattern to it, so I had to start tracing each in the air. 

Once I had caught a small gap in one of the patterns, and realizing I'd need to risk getting hit on the arm to capitalize on it. I decided to do it, and take the risk. 

Watching as his sword went for a high feint before changing to a mid-thrust and into a low slash. 

I allowed the low slash to pass instead of deflecting it, while thrusting my own sword forward. I felt a tinge of pain  as the wooden longsword touched my arm, but my thrust hit it's target. My bokken's tip slammed into his collar, directly above his chest-plate and next to his shoulder-plate. 

 He winced back and stepped back fully. 

Karstedt seemed to get alerted to this, and announced. "Tuuli-san wins, under normal circumstances that thrust would have killed." He seemed a bit unnerved while saying it, and glancing at me with a bit of a worry in his eyes. 

"Wow, you are way better at sword skill than me. If I did not have my skills, you would have won." I complimented him while smiling and stepping back to rub my arm, it was a little sore from the hit. Otherwise it was undamaged, it would likely simply bruise. 

"I am better? You seemed to know exactly when to strike during that move." While saying this he seemed to get a little dower. 

"Oh yeah, that was just me recognizing the pattern with my skill's help. Don't sweat it." I smiled brighter to try to lift his mood a bit, and put my bokken back on it's ring. 

Lamprecht rubbed his collar lightly while commenting, "I'll still need some medical attention for this, I think it broke the skin." He winced while rubbing over the exact spot the thrust had hit. Afterward he looked to my arm, "Do you need any medical attention yourself?" 

I giggled a bit before brushing it off with, "This will just be a bruise. I am fine, I've taken way harder beatings." With that I stepped back from him and got a little blush while looking at his envious face. 

"I'd certainly love to be that durable, you are interesting." He commented before stepping back himself and looking over to his father, who Wilfried was now standing next to. 

Wilfried had a face that screamed, "I told you so!" While he seemed to shake his head a bit, I suppose even he wins sometimes. 

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--3624 words-- 

--Lamprecht's EP: 51,303--

(AN: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I really enjoyed writing this one, so I will simply ask how it was?)