A few days had passed. Nothing really relevant happened honestly, considering how Cael spent most of his time just training at home, while Nala was also busy in her new workspace. If those 2 are busy, then we're bound to have a fairly peaceful time 9 times out of 10 after all. It was already evening, and I was in Mio's office with her. She was sitting at her desk, while I was munching on strawberries and sipping on some tea at the table.
"Say, Maia…"
She sounded a little bored? Or rather, a mix between lost in thought but also as if she was aware that whatever she was thinking about simply wasn't that deep.
"What?"
"Don't you think that the swordsmen department has gotten a little underwhelming these days?"
"…"
I couldn't necessarily deny it. Though the recruits aren't dispatched to fight nearly as often as adventurers, they do still train every day to maintain their shape, and always be ready to be sent into a mission. For the past few weeks or so though, it has been specifically the swordsmen that seem to have taken a little bit of a habit of slacking off.
I guess it can't really be helped though, since unlike adventurer parties where you can have as many or as little different types of combatants as you want, recruits usually get dispatched with only 1 or 2 swordsmen at most for each group, due to them being the "stronger" type of offenders.
So when you have a department that gets dispatched rarely, and low in numbers, it's pretty inevitable to have them slack off some time sooner or later.
"What can you do about it though? If the "strongest" units rarely get dispatched they're bound to think training is meaningless."
"Calling them the strongest unit is almost an overstatement in their current state though. Not to mention, it's not like they don't get dispatched at all. There's plenty of recruit level monsters anywhere in the continent, and we have plenty of them dispatched already, don't we?"
"But we also have plenty that just don't get to go out, don't we? It's usually only one or two per party after all."
The reason was as a few may have guessed, to not have a single or two persons slay the monster on their own, and waste the talent of the other party members. If a group of recruits is dispatched, we'd prefer it if they all partook in defeating their target, with no slackers. If we allowed more than 2 swordsmen in a team though? You can probably imagine how that would go. You'd have other types of fighters that sit back and enjoy their trip, while the monster/a get butchered up without them needing to lift a finger.
"Still, it's a bit disappointing that they think they can slack off at their current swordsmanship skill level…"
Technically speaking, she's not wrong once again. Even if their technique isn't the most refined, an average swordsman recruit is still comfortably in the top rankings due to the sheer amount of ego and strength that the sword offers. As an example, even a mediocre swordsman can split a rock in half if he just hits it hard enough, no? Considering the difference in strength between a recruit and an S rank adventurer for example, what I mean should be obvious.
"I can't deny that one… but what should we even do about it? Should we just bring more talented swordsmen to teach them?"
"As if those ego blinded shitheads would listen to some random sword saint or whatever geezer has to tell them."
"…"
She has a point. I can't really see them genuinely believing that they can be taught by a non recruit after all.
The ego boost that you get from becoming a recruit to begin with is pretty outstanding to be fair. But unfortunately, the greatest swordsmen you'll find are usually just either adventurers or peaceful people that have already forsaken the dangers of actively slaying monsters, and just live a quiet life, maybe teaching civilians or other adventurers. It's due to the insane ego of most recruits that usually they refuse to even bother trying to teach them.
"Then what should we do? If we can't gather a great swordsman to teach them actual skill instead of raw power slashing, nothing will change, no?"
"Obviously, that's the point of this entire conversation. And I think that you should be starting to understand by now, Maia. Unless we have them face the greatest swordsman in the world, they'll just keep using their power instead of technique."
"If it was gonna boil down to that either way, why did you even bother bringing it up? If you just have to teach them anyway."
She looked at me dumbfounded for around 3 seconds or so, before sighing. I looked away, trying my best to act natural. I'm aware that I spouted nonsense alright? I get it, but even then…
"Let's hear it. Why are you against it? To the point where you'd straight up insult his skill by calling me the best."
"…"
"It's because he should enjoy his short vacation while it lasts. Sure, he may do a few laps of training at home, but to begin with we're letting him rest momentarily, no?"
"Of course, I get that. I'm the first one to think of his welfare after all. But Maia, aren't you forgetting something?"
"…"
"Cael Loves the sword. I'm sure that he would be secretly happy about it if we proposed it to him, don't you think so? 'I not only get to train with recruits, but with the swordsmen department?! What did I do to deserve this?!' Or something like that."
"Is it really alright to get him involved this early though…? Sure, he'll eventually surpass them in strength and all, but shouldn't we try to keep his early years as light as possible?"
She smiled, as she got up from her desk and came to sit next to me, laying her head on my shoulder.
"Isn't it a bit late for that? Sure, we'll try to avoid involving him with national level business or threats, but if it's something as tame as letting him train with the recruits, is there really harm in it? Not to mention, he'd most likely be happy about it too."
"…"
"If you play the overly protective older sister, he may start hating you, you know? That boy simply cannot stay put. The stronger he gets early on, the less likely he is to get injured when he jumps to save some random people he's met an hour ago, with his life on the line, no? Neither you nor I can always be by his side to shield him from his curse after all."
"So you don't intend on always being by his side? That's quite the disappointing statement from his pro claimed soulmate, ain't it?"
"It would be, if it wasn't for me simply being in charge of the entire continent, that is. It's the same reason why you can't always be by his side."
"…"
"And above all, don't you wanna see it too? Granted, you've trained face to face and have seen him use the sword a few times here and there, but that and seeing him strictly practice or teach others about sword skill alone, isn't that exciting?"
"I can't deny that…"
"Right? There isn't a single soul in existence that's more skilled with a blade than him after all. Any kind of blade, as long as it has an edge- or even if it's as dull as a rock, he'd still manage to turn it into the sharpest of swords. Even if the receipts may be skeptical at first about your younger brother supposedly teaching them, it'll just take one spare match for them to understand."
"…alright. I get it, I get it."
I sighed.
"Tomorrow we'll bring him here to try and shape those lazy recruits into somewhat decent swordsmen."
"Hehe, I knew you'd give in."
I can't really beat her in an argument, you know? After all, it is true that I may be playing the overprotective role a little too actively. Having him build up experience early on will only benefit him, even if it means straying a little from the time he should spend as a regular kid. Granted… ever since he was reborn, I don't know if I can say he's ever had any regular kid-like experiences, now that I think about it.
"Don't make it a habit… even I will stand my ground one day if you wanna do something completely unreasonable."
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say, my dear older sister."
"… are you gonna watch, tomorrow?"
"Is that even something you need to ask? Though I'll be there as Luna instead of myself."
"I guess that makes sense. Why not stay over tonight then? I'll leave first in the morning after I wake him up, so you two can have a little lovebirds time in the morning."
"Wait, really?!"
She jumped backwards, looking at me as if I had told her that the sky was purple.
"What's with that reaction?"
"No, it's just that, I didn't think you'd actually advocate for me to flirt with him… ah! Could it be that you can't wait to have a little nephew?- ouch!"
"Stop spouting nonsense, or I'll flick your forehead harder next time."
"…yes mam."
I then got up from my seat, and walked towards the exit, stopping just before I opened the door.
"I have some paperwork to do before we go home though, so we may be arriving a little too late for you two to have a night date. Is that fine?"
"I also have a few things to take care of, so don't worry about it. I didn't plan on having a "night date" for at least another 7 years or so, either way."
"You damn freak… I'll be going now. Let me know if you finish before me."
"Got it, got it. Try to hurry up though, I'd rather not go home at 3 am or something like that."
"I should be done by like midnight, so that won't be the case. See ya then."
She nodded, and I left the room, going to my office.
It was around 00:45 or so when I had finally finished my work as well. And after meeting up with her, she opened a portal to my mansion. We didn't expect to find anyone up at this hour honestly, maybe besides the maids, but to our surprise that wasn't the case.
Though the mansion may be fairly large and intimidating from the outside, it doesn't actually have many distinct rooms with large doors separating them. It's designed more like a home than a mansion, so the dining "room" was pretty much attached to the kitchen. I told her to open the portal there so I could grab something from the fridge, but when we appeared, we found dad and mom sitting at the table in front of each other, while drinking some tea. Besides that, there also seemed to be a few papers on the table.
"Hm? Welcome back, little ones."
"Good work today as well. You're home pretty late tonight though. Want me to cook you something real quick?
"Ah, that would be nice. We only finished our work just now after all. We haven't had dinner yet."
"Speak for yourself… I've waited for you for around an hour. Ah, but I also skipped dinner, so I am hungry as well."
Mom chuckled as she got up, walking towards the kitchen counter.
"I'll whip something out real quick, so why don't you two sit down for the time being? Me and your father were waiting for you actually, since there's something we wanted to talk to you about."
I sat next to dad, while Mio sat next to where mom was earlier, in front of me.
"Is it about these papers?"
"That's right. You see, these are…"
He flipped them around, and well, it didn't really take any effort to understand what it was about. He then flipped it towards Mio so she could see it as well.
"Don't tell me… she's sketched these only in the past few days?"
"You shouldn't even be surprised anymore. Your sister is just in her own league…"
Mio grabbed one sheet, while I had done the same with another.
"I think I can already guess what you wanted to talk about, but that aside, this is genuinely insane…"
"You can say that again. I was familiar with her work in our first life of course, but I never saw her work up close before. Has she always been this quick at whipping out designs?"
"Well, kind of? Even her earliest of projects took longer than a few days to sketch though. She had only reached this speed a few years into already being at the top of the industry. And of course, she bypassed it quickly after, but regardless. I didn't think she'd evolve this quickly in this life."
"Maybe it's because she has access to anything she could need this time around?"
"Even then, she's still progressing at an insanely fast rate."
"I know right? My little Angel is truly a prodigy!"
"Your little Angel is one creepy prodigy to say the least, dad."
"…that's not really the nicest way of talking about your little sister, you know? Maia…"
"Unfortunately even I'll have to agree with Maia on this one, dad. Though of course we mean no harm in it."
"If even Mio feels creeped out by it… dear, I think we have to let it slide this time."
He sighed. Well, of course we didn't mean it in a bad way, if anything it's the opposite, but as mom said 'if even Mio is creeped out' then it's clearly out of the ordinary.
"Alright, alright. But regardless, we wanted to ask if-"
"Don't worry about it. I'll personally select the best non judgemental tailors in the kingdom to come as soon as the day after tomorrow, and help her make these."
"Mio… are you sure about it? We wanted to ask Maia since we figured you'd be too busy for that."
"Well, I can't do it tomorrow because we have something planned, but for that matter Maia can't either so it would've probably been the same result."
"Hm? Are you two doing something in particular tomorrow?"
Mom asked, as she brought 2 mugs of tea for both me and Mio to the table, then returned to the kitchen counter.
"Yeah, you see, the Swordsmen department of recruits has been slacking off quite a lot when it comes to their sword training. So we're gonna take Cael to show them that you need more than muscles to swing a sword."
"That so? Well, even I was surprised about his skill in our little mock battle, before you unsealed our memories. Seems like a good idea to me."
"I'm sure that Cael will be happy about it, so I also see no issues with it."
"No, no, it's not like I was asking for your permission to take my little brother out…"
"Unfortunately for you, your little brother is our son last time I checked. So unless we drop dead or we get kidnapped, his legal guardians are us, you know? But if something happens to us before he turns 15, then I guess as his legal guardian you'll be able to decide whatever you want on your own."
He ruffled my hair while talking, but I pushed his hand away after around 5 seconds or so.
"Don't even joke like that, you stupid geezer."
"Geezer you say… I'm not even 40, you know?"
"Now, now, both of you quit it. You're going to make Mio regret having you as her family if you keep acting like that."
"To begin with, this freak would be fine even if we all died as long as she'd be able to keep Cael…"
Of course, I was joking. I didn't mean a single word that came out of my mouth, however, when I glanced at her out of curiosity, my eyes widened, and well, frankly speaking… I wish I had never said that. She was smiling, you know? But at the same time, a few tears were streaming silently down her face, as she spoke gently.
"…you know that's not true… right? Maia…"
"I-n-no, wait, I didn't mean it, Mio-"
Even mom had stopped chopping whatever she was chopping, and looked back at us as she heard Mio. Dad then almost immediately placed a hand on my head sternly, and pretty much dragged it down on the table.
"Even as a joke, that one was going too far, my dear Eldest daughter. You know what to do, don't you?"
You're not giving me a choice if you're gonna keep my head against the table…
Of course, he let go right afterwards. I genuinely didn't think Mio would take it seriously though. Just a few days ago she had executed someone just for pushing and insulting Nala after all, so I was the first one to know how much she cared about us. It was genuinely… just a joke. But as I looked slightly up to meet her eyes once again, I felt as if I was about to collapse from guilt.
…I see. I hadn't thought about her perspective at all, have I? It's almost like the first time that Cael met "Luna". Once again, I didn't think about Mio whatsoever before speaking.
Even as a joke, saying something like that after all she's been through for Cael's and all of our sakes… was definitely too far. After all, I still probably can't even begin to imagine the amount of suffering she's been through, or how she may be feeling right now, after all of that suffering. Which is why. I made up my mind as quickly as possible, got up from my seat, then walked towards her. Without saying a word for the time being, the first thing I did was simply hug her. An ordinary hug. Nothing more, and nothing less.
"I'm sorry for saying that, even as a joke, Mio. I don't believe any of what I said, and I'd never doubt the fact that you love us all as if we're your family- no, it's because we are your family that I know you love us, and not just Cael. I'm sorry."
This was one of the relatively rare moments, where I was visibly the older one. She was in her own body, but in her "real" 11 year old form, not the grown up form she sometimes uses instead, so she was still shorter than me for the time being. Even as I hugged her, she felt as nothing but a fragile little girl. The Duality of The Strongest… is really something else. You'd never in a million years guess that this little girl was the Commander of The Sentinels just from looking at her, unless you knew her personally.
"It's fine. It's really not a big deal haha. I obviously knew you were joking… I myself don't even know why I was so shocked by hearing it to begin with. But don't worry, I know that's not what you think, Maia."
"I'm glad. To make up for it, how about you go and wake him up tomorrow instead of me? Though I will check on you if you end up taking too long."
She pushed away, actually surprised once again at hearing what I said.
"Are you sure? You haven't woken him up yet even once since they arrived… Don't you enjoy torturing him in the morning?!"
"Don't call it torture… and shouldn't his lover be against it to begin with if it was torture?!"
"Still, you have fun waking him up, no? You haven't managed to do it these days because of work and all, but this could be your first occasion in a while."
"It's fine, you really don't have to worry about it. It's true that I do enjoy it, but on the other hand, if you can take care of waking him up I can leave even earlier and start preparing the recruits earlier. You two can take your time in the morning, since to begin with the plan was to anticipate that you two would take at least 2 to 3 hours later than expected to arrive…"
"Woah. Didn't think you'd actually expect it. The supposed schedule time we decided on a whim on was like 9 am, no?"
"Normally, that'd be enough time for you to wake him up at around 7 when we're all eating, and I'm leaving, then arrive just about then to get started. But you're heavily overestimating how much trust I have in your punctuality when you're with him…"
"I'll pretend like I didn't hear the last part. But still, I'll gladly take on your offer. I promise to manage to get him there by midday at the latest!"
That's already 3 hours later than expected though…
"Got it, boss."