The Man Picked up by the Gods

THE MAN PICKED UP BY THE GODS – VOLUME 5 CHAPTER 6: FINDING SOMETHING IN AN UNEXPECTED PLACE

Today, the girls were once again training at Ryouma’s house.

“Five more minutes!” [Ryouma]

“Yes!” [Riera & Kanan]

Riera and Kanan replied to Ryouma as the sound of their swords striking against the bamboo grew even fiercer. If it were only that, then it would be no different from normal. But mixed in with the sound of their swords was the sound of bamboos falling one after another.

“Fu, Fu, Fu, Fuu...”

As for why there was also that sound mixed in, that’s because Ryouma – who usually only gave them advice – was also cutting along with them. Unlike Riera and Kanan, Ryouma could cut at a significantly faster pace than the two. He could cut a bamboo every second, sometimes, even two. At Ryouma’s inhuman pace, the surrounding bamboos slowly thinned out until eventually, only a barren land was left.

“...That’s about it. The bamboo cutting training ends here.” [Ryouma]

At those words, the two girls who were whole-heartedly cutting the bamboos stopped.

“Fu... I’ve gotten used to it already, but... I’m still a long way off.” [Kanan]

“No worries though, we’re cutting more bamboo than before, so we’re definitely improving.” [Riera]

“Exactly, keep it up, you two.” [Ryouma]

As Ryouma said that, he took some towels out of his Item Box, and handed it to the two girls. The two girls used those towels to wipe their sweat as they spoke to Ryouma.

“Still... Ryouma-kun, I didn’t expect you to also train.” [Kanan]

“But of course, it’s not like people are born strong or anything.” [Ryouma]

But as an otherworlder, it also wasn’t completely wrong to say that Ryouma was strong from the start. Because of that, he unintentionally spoke vaguely.

“Well, in any case, it’s my first time seeing you train, Ryouma-dono.” [Riera]

“Now that you mention it, you never really trained in front of us when going back and forth here and the magic team’s side, huh?” [Kanan]

“You’ve advised us and shown us examples of how to do things, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen you train. Did something happen?” [Riera]

“Well, the promotion exam’s tomorrow, so I wanted to do something.” [Ryouma]

“Oh yeah, you did say something like that yesterday.” [Kanan]

“What’s the exam going to be about?” [Riera]

“I’ll be fighting an adventurer above the B Rank that the guild has chosen, while the guild master watches. I don’t really need to win though. As long as my strength is good enough, I’ll be promoted. So basically, a simple power test. It seems my opponent will be decided before the day ends.” [Ryouma]

Ryouma explained the details to the two girls.

“It would be great if we could help you train.” [Riera]

“Just say it if there’s anything we can do to help.” [Kanan]

Hearing that, Ryouma thought for a moment, then he suggested this.

“Then in that case... How about the both of you spar with me at the same time? There’s a new fighting style I want to try out.” [Ryouma]

“Alright.” [Kanan]

“Please let us help you.” [Riera]

Ryouma thanked the two girls, then after taking a five-minute break, they left the bamboo thickets.

“What I’ll be using now is a combination of magic and martial arts, a technique known as: Magic Battle Technique.” [Ryouma]

As Ryouma said that, he lifted his hands, and fire wrapped around them.

“To put it simply, it’s the same thing as wrapping one’s body or weapon with magic power. It’s quite effective against undead-type magical beasts, and also easy to use once you’ve gotten used to it.” [Ryouma]

“...Isn’t that hot?” [Kanan]

“I’m maintaining it with magic power, so there’s no problem. It’s also making use of the concepts of magic barrier. That aside, I’m surprised neither of you are shocked. People are usually shocked whenever I show this to them.” [Ryouma]

“We’ve just gotten used to you. That aside, can I also learn how to do that?” [Riera]

With the two girls’ simple reactions, it seemed this wouldn’t take long to explain. Ryouma answered their question.

“Right away’s impossible. Magic Battle Technique requires exceptional control of magic power and technique. And if you can’t fight naturally while wrapping the magic power around your body or weapon, you’ll be left chock full of openings. But that’s only a matter of ‘now’. If you train, it shouldn’t be impossible to learn in the future.

I’m sure it’ll also be a great help for an aspiring knight, so right... I guess I’ll add it to your training menu then.” [Ryouma]

Ryouma noticed that he was starting to digress, so he moved the topic back on course.

“Anyway, what I want to try out is a fighting style that employs neutral magic. It’s already been three weeks, but when I fought the five of you before, an idea came to mind. I got caught up with a lot of other things, so I wasn’t able to try it out, but I think now’s a good time. This isn’t that dangerous of a magic so please spar with me.” [Ryouma]

“Understood!” [Riera & Kanan]

Riera and Kanan unsheathed their swords, and Ryouma readied his fists. As they took their distance, the battle began. The first to attack was Kanan.

“Ha!” [Kanan]

As she approached Ryouma, she swung her sword diagonally down from her right. The results of her training were already showing, as the sword she swung was faster than when she first fought Ryouma in their duel. That sword of hers aimed for Ryouma’s neck.

But Ryouma reflexively took a step back, dodging the sword’s tip by a hair’s breadth. But Kanan expected that, and she had already stepped in, twisting her hips, and sweeping with her right sword. At the same time, she struck with her left blade diagonally up. It was a two-hit combination!

Ryouma once again jumped back to the left, dodging her attack. However, this time he didn’t just dodge, he also moved his right hand toward the direction of Kanan’s sword to parry her attack. Then as if drawing a circle, he moved his body clockwise.

“Eh–––Uwa!?”

As Kanan’s sword missed Ryouma, her body flipped and she fell on her back. From the outside, it looked like she put in too much power in her swings, and ended up falling into the ground, but in truth, this wasn’t her fault. As she immediately went back up on her feet, Riera made her move.

“Shi!”

A sharp thrust came headed for Ryouma’s chest. But as if he was expecting her to make a move, Ryouma leapt to the right. At the same time, his left grabbed Riera’s sword, and his right hand went for Riera’s body. His body turned like a circle being drawn, and as Riera’s sword was pulled down, her body was lifted.

Thrown into the air, Riera flipped, but just before she hit the ground, her body stopped moving. As she was floating in the air, positioned to take a fall, she muttered.

“ ‘Telekinesis’ huh? ...Mind putting me down?” [Riera]

After Ryouma responded to Riera, the Telekinesis that held her body in the air slowly vanished, and Riera’s body fell to the ground. After that, Ryouma started to explain.

After Ryouma had his movements sealed by Elia and the others in their duel before, he started wondering whether ‘Telekinesis’ – which normally wasn’t used in combat – could be used for that purpose. What he showed the two girls just now is the result of that, a throwing technique based on ‘Telekinesis’.

Lifting a person up with ‘Telekinesis’ by relying on the sheer strength of one’s magic power, and then slamming that person into the ground is definitely possible. But that would result in needless waste of magic power. So instead, Ryouma thought to break the posture of his opponent, and then apply ‘Telekinesis’. With the concepts of his Taijutsu which he learned from his previous life, breaking an opponent’s posture should be more than possible. And once one’s posture has been broken, ‘Telekinesis’ should be much easier to use, allowing him to conserve magic power.

After the short battle between him and the two girls, it would appear that his conjecture was indeed correct. Ryouma was able to spectacularly throw his opponents without even touching them once by relying on ‘Telekinesis’. He was also able to confirm that the magic power consumed with this method was far lesser than when relying on just ‘Telekinesis’. If he uses this technique discretely, he should be able to catch his opponent off guard.

After that, Ryouma continued to train with the two girls as he practiced using ‘Telekinesis’ with the fundamentals of Taijutsu to pull off all sorts of feats. For example: stealing the enemy’s weapon, stripping the enemy of his weapon, or even using ‘Telekinesis’ to wield a weapon.

After lunch, Ryouma watched over the magic group’s training as he trained his own magic. Just like Riera’s group, Elia and the other two girls also asked to help Ryouma, so they ended up having a magic spar. Elia used her ‘Telekinesis’ to move the wooden scarecrow targets, while Michelle and Miyabi defended them from Ryouma’s magic.

“‘Sleep Shot’!” [Miyabi]

“‘Earth Needle’!” [Ryouma]

As Ryouma dodged Miyabi’s poison-type elementary magic, ‘Sleep Shot’, which had the effect of inducing drowsiness on its target, Ryouma casted ‘Earth Needle’ toward the wooden scarecrows that Elia was moving around.

“‘Earth Wall’!” [Michelle]

“‘Stun Arrow’!” [Ryouma]

Right before the ‘Earth Needle’ hit the target, Michelle summoned up an ‘Earth wall’, blocking Ryouma’s ‘Earth needle’. Ryouma immediately followed up with an electric-type magic, ‘Stun Arrow’. But just when everyone thought it would hit the wall–––

“!?” [Elia, Michelle, Miyabi]

The Stun Arrow suddenly changed its trajectory, and it went a long way around the wall, then hit the target.

“‘Flame Carpet’” [Ryouma]

“Ahh!?” [Elia, Michelle, Miyabi]

While the three girls were still shocked, Ryouma completely destroyed the wooden scarecrow with his ‘Flame Carpet’.

“We lost...” [Elia]

After the round ended, Elia and the others went to where Ryouma was.

“How did you do that with electric magic?” [Michelle]

When offensive electric-type magic is casted, normally, it would follow a straight line. Controlling its trajectory slightly is certainly possible, but Ryouma’s ‘Stun Arrow’ didn’t just change its course slightly. It took a long way around, dodging the wall, and hitting the target from the other side.

This was possible because Ryouma used the electric magic that could avert electric magic power, ‘Ground’. This allowed him to dictate the path of the stun arrow, allowing him to make it hit the target from behind.

As Ryouma said that, Miyabi asked another question.

“Being able to move it is fine and all, but don’t you also need to know the location of the target? [Miyabi]

“Of course, but I’m able to easily pinpoint its location with my Magic Perception.” [Ryouma]

Because the things of this world have magic power, and because Elia needed to use ‘Telekinesis’ to move the target – meaning she had to wrap the target in neutral magic power – Ryouma was able to easily pinpoint where the target was.

“You could even do something like that with Magic Perception?’ [Elia]

“Once you’ve gotten used to it, you could even tell what magic your opponent’s going to use. For example, by inferring from the shape of their magic power, like the spear-shaped magic power of the spell ‘Flame Lance’ or the ball-shaped ‘Flame Bomb’, you can easily dodge spells with good Magic Perception. Especially when it comes to ‘lance’ spells since they tend to just follow the direction of the spearhead.

If you get even better at it, you could even tell whether your opponent’s about to use an elementary, intermediate, or advanced spell, by inferring from the amount of magic power they’re releasing. And if you can tell what element the magic power they’re releasing is, then you can predict their next move even better, and deal with their magic even more easier.”

As I added on that explanation after Elia asked me, the three girls spoke.

“So that’s why it seemed like you could tell what we were thinking.” [Elia]

“I guess this is why you were able to easily dodge everything we threw at you then, huh?” [Michelle]

“In any case, we should train our Magic Perception and Magic Manipulation even more.” [Miyabi]

As the three girls finally understood a piece of the puzzle behind Ryouma’s strength, they grew even more determined to train. The three girls’ training resumed, and Ryouma joined them as well. Of course, they took care not to overdo things.

And then... evening came. After training, Sebasu made supper for Ryouma and the five girls. Then they relaxed around while having some barley tea. It was here that Kanan sighed deeply.

“Fu~...” [Kanan]

“Something the matter? What’re you sighing for all of the sudden?” [Miyabi]

“We got so fired up, my body’s itching all over now.” [Kanan]

Although they didn’t train to the point of breaking their bodies, they still trained much fiercer than normal, so the other girls couldn’t help but agree with Kanan.

“They say you should have something sweet when you’re tired, but there’re no sweets at all anywhere. All the sugar were used up making supper.” [Riera]

“Sweet things sure are expensive, aren’t they?~” [Kanan]

“Would be nice if sugar were cheaper though.” [Miyabi]

“If that were so, we would be able to make more things too.” [Michelle]

It seems even girls are fond of sweets in this world as they suddenly started talking about them. But once they start talking about sweets...”

“Talking about sweets is making me hungry...” [Elia]

“All the more so, since we’re so tired.” [Riera]

As everyone chuckled a troubled laugh, they drank the barley tea in their cups. A minute or two of idle chatter passed, when Ryouma suddenly started thinking of something.

“...” [Ryouma]

“Ryouma-san, is something the matter?” [Elia]

“Mn? Ah, it’s nothing. It just felt like I was about to remember something about sweets...” [Ryouma]

“Like something you have in your house that you forgot about?” [Riera]

“No, I shouldn’t have it.” [Ryouma]

“Something you have to harvest then?” [Michelle]

“That’s also not it, I think... But there’s definitely something... Hmm... It sure feels weird having something at the tip of your mind, but not remembering.” [Ryouma]

A few more minutes passed after that, and the girls continued to ask Ryouma questions as he answered them. Then just when Ryouma was on the verge of exhaustion from thinking, as soon as he took another sip of that barley tea in his cup, he suddenly remembered it.

“Ah!” [Ryouma]

“What?” [Elia]

“Wait here!” [Ryouma]

As Ryouma said that, he immediately ran into the kitchen, desperate not to forget again. And when he came back, he had with him some tools and ingredients. Michelle asked him.

“Ryouma-kun, what is it all of the sudden? We don’t get what’s going on at all, so can you explain things a bit?” [Michelle]

“I think I might just be able to make some sweets with this.” [Ryouma]

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