Dragon Bloodline

Chapter 7

A 13-Year Old’s Journey

 

The wooden sword and bokken exchanged blows in a compet.i.tion. However, the wooden sword was wielding with both hands and gradually had more strength put in to it. [TN: Wooden Sword = ‘bokutou‘, ‘bokken‘ is another type of wooden sword.]
Although Reyas swung his shield at Ria to send her flying, Ria had let go from the wooden sword just before that.
Reyas’ movement momentarily stopped from the unexpected maneuver. It was a fatal gap.
She dove towards his chest, taking the sword from his hand. She went to slam her shoulder into the plate mail on his abdomen, and furthermore he built up strength to counter it.

According to plan!

The next instant, Ria’s body rotated around Reyas, throwing him to the ground from behind.
“Buho-”
Picking up the wooden sword she had abandoned from the ground, she rested it on the nape of his neck. Without a doubt, it was Ria’s victory.
“… Seriously… that you would abandon your sword right then…”
Reyas stood up after a moment with a complex smile.

In pure swordplay, Reyas could not yet win. However, in the sense of one-on-one combat, it was Ria’s victory.
Because the main combat in this world were mainly fights and wars against demons, empty-handed arts–throwing techniques and holds in particular–weren’t developed.
In addition to Ria being of the second dan in karate and judo in her previous life, she also studied kenpou and jiu-jutsu. As for the Skill, Taijutsu was Level 6.

Anyways, with this one goal had been reached.

 

 

Ria slipped out of the royal palace as usual, arriving at Agatha’s shop.
“I’m home~”
Even now as she lived in the royal palace, she would use that greeting when entering the shop.
“Welcome home.
Fei had returned the greetings. Lulu smiled softly.
“Lulu, I beat Reyas!”
With Ria saying that so full of confidence, Fei was surprised.
“The Sword King, Reyas-sama?”
“That’s right. Well, even though I said that I’ve only beaten him once.”
She sat next to Lulu. The counter stools were now filled.
“Where’s mother?”
“Manager went out to the guild for a request.”
“Putting that a.s.side, Ria, so that means since you won against Reyas…”
Lulu timidly asked. Ther two people present knew Ria’s decision. She was here to ask if Lulu was ready to depart.
“Yeah, as soon as you are ready, we’ll leave.”
Houu, Lulu sighed.
“Then we can leave tomorrow.
Lulu had already resigned from the Ministry of Magic. For a short while, she helped out at Agatha’s shop.
As for the goods necessary for going on a journey including food, Ria had arranged with the allowance she saved.
And so, Lulu would accompany Ria on a journey.

“Although I said that, is it really alright? This is incomparable to goblin extermination you know?”
Ria asked to make sure, reconfirming her intentions.
“It’s probably my parent’s blood. I feel that I also want to go on a journey.”
The half-elf that was dying like a dog from hunger on the roadside had become extremely splendid.
As a travelling companion, Lulu was definitely ideal.
Receiving Rufus’ instruction in magic, her skill was probably considerable within the country.
Above all, she had things that Ria didn’t. Things like timidity and prudence.

Before long Agatha joined them, and the four surrounded the dining table. Fei had already married and had a family, staying in this special store to this day.

After returning to the royal palace at midnight and receiving a court lady’s scolding, she returned to her room.
When opening the door of the walk-in closet that was attached to the bedroom, one side was decorated with weapons.
The first thing to prepare was the magic pouch. Putting everything in the room into it would fill it up; the effects of s.p.a.ce-time magic were valuable. She carefully selected what to put in.

Dresses were unnecessary. Precious metals and goods that could be sold for money would packed as much as possible.
She had only one ring and dagger with the carved seal of the royal family.

The problem was weapons.
In this world, because the only weapons used in active duty were swords, the skill of blacksmiths was exceedingly high. Perhaps even j.a.panese katanas produced from the Edo period wouldn’t be able to compete with them.
Although she had the chance to appreciate the important cultural a.s.sets and national treasures in her previous life, she preferred old katanas. Of course modern swords were actually checked to see if they could kill in practice, old katanas were beautiful. Moreover someone that had actually used an old katana would say that they were excellent.
The manufacturing methods for steel and katana production was not pa.s.sed down, Ria also thought that her previous life was thoroughly sacrilegious.

She took as many iron katanas as possible. Although she took as many katanas made from mithril as possible, in terms of strength and endurance, the cutting power of a steel katana far outstripped it in many cases. Mithril was a metal with a high affinity for magic.

Not just katanas, but swords were taken as well. Furthermore, she took as many war hammers, battleaxes, spears, knifes and so on as possible.
Ria was not much of a collector, though she did have a collection of weapons in her previous life.
Although she did regret dying, she wondered what happened to her sword collection. She thought it would have been nice if it wound up in the hands of someone who understood their value.
Especially the great Nagasone Kotetsu’s famous longsword, it wasn’t something that could be obtained by mere money. Having it for one week, she appreciated it while grinning. Although thinking back to it now, the katana had an ominous and devilish feel to it.

 

 

Ria woke up the next day and dressed like normal, tucking the magic bag up her sleeves.
As usual, she went to Anise after jumping down from her window. In the main street’s plaza, Lulu waited with a donkey. Next to her was Agatha.

“Mother.”
After only that they embraced each other.
“Even if it is pointless to say, please don’t do anything unreasonable. Troubling Lulu is no good.”
“Don’t worry, since Lulu won’t let something become dangerous.”
Right, Lulu played the important role of a stopper. Rather, it was the main role.
“We’ll be back within two years.”
“Send me letters.”
“Okay.”

They separated while waving at each other. The front gate opened at dawn, and the two left Anise by slipping in with the peddlers.

 

 

“Well then, where to?”
“How about a labyrinth city to start??”
By the way, in Ria’s room in the royal palace, a single sentence was left.

 

 

[I am going out to find people even stronger than me.]