Yuso Ase

ARC 2 Chapter 2

Between waking up from his nap and the start of the training, Yuso was quickly briefed on what to expect. There were three trainers: Tadek, whom he had already met, led physical conditioning sessions, Lila taught magic, and Bozena instructed in combat.

When they stepped outside the cabin, a woman in her forties was already waiting for them on one of the training fields. She held a wooden sword, so Yuso guessed she was Bozena.

- Welcome, rookie. My name's Bozena, and you are?- her voice, stature, and appearance made her seem like a pleasant person

- Yuso.

- Yuso... That's a name I've never heard before. You're not from this land, are you?

- I'm from the land of the Bear.

- Hmmm, that's not too far from here, but I rarely hear anything about the land of the Bear. It's quite an isolated region. Maybe it's also because we don't sell much over there. Actually, I don't think I know anyone from that land... well, except for you now. Have you ever fought with a sword before?

- No.

- Well, today you'll lose your sword virginity.

Bozena handed each of them a wooden sword and demonstrated the moves the group of five young people was supposed to imitate. Even though Yuso had no experience with a sword, he quickly realized that his strength and physical agility far surpassed the other four. At this point, Yuso started to follow what he and Witold had agreed on earlier- that it would be better not to display the full extent of his abilities during the training. It would definitely raise suspicion.

He thoroughly enjoyed the training. Swinging the sword turned out to be surprisingly satisfying, and much to his surprise, he immediately felt like he was really good at it. It felt as if this was something he had been missing, even though he was doing it for the first time. Still, he made sure not to get too carried away, deliberately making mistakes in moves where he thought it was appropriate. Sometimes after those mistakes, Bozena would approach him and explain what he needed to do, forcing him to reach the heights of his acting skills. After about thirty minutes of dry exercises, it was time for sparring, and Bozena stood opposite Yuso.

- Whenever a new person joins, I always spar with them on their first training session. For someone new to sword fighting, you're doing quite well, so now show me what you've got.

This put Yuso in a real dilemma. The moment he saw his opponent with a sword, a vision immediately formed in his mind of what he should do, but he was still worried about not revealing too much of his true strength. Bozena, seeing Yuso standing still, made the first move. Right away, the boy could tell from her movements that she wasn't giving it her all... no, the imprecision of that statement is too great, she was giving at best 50%.

The black-haired boy blocked her attack with his sword and made a tentative counter, which she block... no, there's no point in wasting time describing a training fight with wooden swords where nothing important is at stake. They clashed their swords for a few minutes, which, to Yuso's bafflement, was even more enjoyable than the dry training.

- You must be a strong mage if you're learning swordsmanship so quickly. I felt like you were even making progress during our sparring. How exactly did you end up here?

- I was a thief and got caught by Witold.

Her face suddenly wilted, as if she had fallen into a well of deep thought. For several seconds, she just stood there, until she finally snapped back to reality.

- Something wrong?- Yuso asked, slightly concerned

- No, no...- her voice now sounded a bit sad- so you must have spent some time with Witold, then?