Chapter 109 : The Cabin Father & Son (4)

The fist barely grazed her cheek, and the opposite fist followed, aiming for her temple.

Ria managed to dodge the second attack as well, by a hair’s breadth.

“You dodge simple attacks very well. As expected, you have good eyes.”

Muttering, Jing dug into Ria’s right side this time.

Ria put strength into her left leg in preparation for the attack coming from the right.

Thwack!

Just because one has good eyes doesn’t mean they can always dodge.

Ria, with her guard steadily raised, was struck by Jing’s left fist.

“Ugh!”

Though the impact didn’t disappear completely.

The fist of the former Duke Piteos, no matter how much he held back his strength, wasn’t something to just take, as Ria retreated with a short gasp.

“There’s no training as good as real combat. Now, keep following the fist with your eyes!”

Vitality returned to Jing’s face, excited by the training of a new recruit after a long time.

It felt like his mood, which had sunk due to the truth about the holy object, was improving a little.

Jing continued the attack as soon as she corrected her posture again.

“Using only the upper body to dodge will inevitably meet a blocked moment. Use both your waist and thighs to lower your stance!”

Thwack!

“Even if you get hit, you shouldn’t fall to the ground! If you don’t know techniques to use on the ground, you’ll be crushed and lose just like that! Get up immediately!”

However, his excessive adrenaline secretion was torture for Ria.

It hadn’t even been a minute since they started, but Ria felt her breath already rising to her chin.

The hit areas stung and hurt.

Surely it felt like he hit gently, but a tingling pain was felt from under the skin of the hit area, no, from the bone under the flesh.

This was too far from the light practice Ria had expected.

“W-Wait a minute. Something is strange about this? Why are you doing it so roughly today?”

“Roughly! You say that because you don’t know how many people come looking for me to do this kind of training.”

Along with the unbelievable words, Jing’s foot flew again.

It was too heavy to dodge.

If I get hit by this one, will it really hurt?

Ria’s brain spun fast to find a way to minimize the pain.

Thud!

This time, instead of a clear hitting sound, a thicker, muffled sound rang out.

Ria had grabbed Jing’s leg and hung on.

Her judgment was appropriate.

As Jing lowered his leg, Ria prevented taking a direct hit from his kick.

But Ria, unable to grasp what to do next, just put strength into her arms.

Jing looked down at Ria holding onto his calf tightly and smiled broadly.

“Good, what will you do next?”

“H-Honestly, I don’t know.”

At Ria’s honest answer, Jing burst into laughter.

“I told you earlier, right? When attacking, hit the temple, philtrum, shin, and genitals. Right now, you’ve gained an opportunity to attack two of those places. Of course, usually, one wouldn’t kindly ask where you’re going to hit like I do.”

“But since I’m holding with both arms, I can’t attack either side. Besides, before I attack, it seems I’ll already be kicked hard by the other foot.”

“That’s why you have to be a bit faster. If you stopped the movement by grabbing the leg, you must attack another part during that brief moment. At least make them unable to move. While chatting with me like this now, Miss Ria has lost that opportunity.”

As Jing shook off his leg with force, Ria was thrown off.

“Kuaack!”

Ria, who rolled over, immediately got up and raised her arms above her head as Jing had taught.

“Next time, you must attack immediately as soon as you grab the leg!”

Seeing Jing speaking teasingly, Ria ground her teeth.

Sweat flowed like rain, and she felt a bit vexed, but her mood wasn’t entirely bad.

No, rather, it was enjoyable.

Training with Jing was always like that.

It felt like finding and wearing clothes that fit perfectly for the first time after squeezing into small clothes that didn’t fit all her life.

***

Ria and Jing’s sparring naturally ended with Ria falling first.

Over Ria, who was sprawled on the ground breathing heavily up to her chin, a shadow fell.

Ria lifted her eyes with difficulty and looked at Ratel who had come outside before she knew it.

“Hah, hah……! Is Ratel going to train too?”

As Ria asked with difficulty, Ratel nodded expressionlessly once and approached Jing who was loosening up.

“Have you ever learned combat?”

Jing asked, facing Ratel who had taken off his outer coat and was in a simple tunic.

Nod.

At the simple answer, Jing slowly recalled his appearance fighting Dito.

“The basic stance seems to have been learned solidly but……”

As Jing took a stance with a mutter, Ratel also raised both arms preparing for Jing’s attack.

Jing’s fist headed for Ratel’s face making a sound of cutting the wind.

Thud.

Ratel, dodging his fist, threw a punch aiming for Jing’s philtrum without hesitation.

“The attack is too blatant and honest.”

Jing, letting Ratel’s hand flow past, snatched Ratel’s arm and lifted it.

The moment he was about to collapse, Ratel kicked the ground, jumped over Jing, landed on the floor, and pulled out his caught arm.

“Until now, you might have been able to overwhelm opponents with power and speed, but you won’t be able to win against the Imperial Family with that method. Even in Amica’s space, you couldn’t respond to the sudden attack, right?”

“That was me going easy on you.”

Ratel answered while rotating the shoulder of the arm that was caught by Jing.

“Going easy, what’s going easy? You fainted without even being able to use your strength.”

“I pretended to faint for you.”

At the absurd insistence, Jing gave a hollow laugh.

“Right, young man with acting skills that put actors to shame. Let’s try starting again.”

Taking a stance again, Jing didn’t wait and kicked low at Ratel’s shin.

Thinking if he dodged the foot, he would break the opposite leg just like that.

But Ratel followed Jing’s attack with his eyes yet didn’t dodge it.

Since it was an attack Ratel could dodge, pulling back the force was too late.

Crack!

It was the sound of bones colliding.

And Jing’s leg ended up being caught by Ratel just like that.

Jing opened his eyes wide.

Surely there must have been an impact, but Ratel’s posture didn’t waver even a bit.

“Look at this crazy human?!”

It was words Jing spat out unknowingly after checking Ratel’s face.

He was wearing a thin smile.

While Jing flinched, Ratel used the injured leg as support and struck Jing’s side with the opposite knee.

With a dull sound, as Jing lost balance, Ratel tried to bring his heel down immediately. Startled, Jing quickly widened the distance.

“Why don’t you block or dodge?!”

At Jing’s astonished shout, Ratel tilted his head.

“Even if I get hurt to some extent, I heal quickly. Getting hit once and attacking is more profitable than dodging.”

The problem was that he wasn’t just crazy, but crazy in a calculated way.

“You should leave that as a last resort, what will you do if you overuse it like that?! If you’re someone who uses your body, realize that your body is most precious!”

At the suddenly started nagging, Ratel frowned.

“That applies to ordinary people. I don’t die even if my stomach is pierced. Even if an arm is severed, unless it’s completely destroyed, I can reattach it.”

“Even so, who thrusts their body forward on purpose?”

“Injuries heal however many, but if you lose once, it’s over.”

“No, still……”

Jing was speechless for a moment and looked at Ratel.

It wasn’t wrong, but it was a dangerous way of thinking.

“Anyway, my point is don’t trust your durability and use your body recklessly. I know you heal quickly, but deflect attacks you can deflect, and dodge what you can dodge. Just because you heal quickly doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

Ratel’s rolling eyes didn’t look like he accepted Jing’s words in any way.

“You’re saying that because it seems like I’ve developed a strange habit. There are times when driving oneself to death’s door is effective. But if you learn only that, you won’t cherish your life.”

“Can you distinguish between attacks that should be dodged and attacks that shouldn’t be dodged, Jing? Are you confident that judgment will be correct?”

“At least not when training with me.”

Jing, who answered without hesitation, paused for a moment.

Because he was confused whether his question referred simply to attack and defense, or if he was alluding to something else abstract.

Their training ended ambiguously due to an unexpected interruption.

“I told you not to touch it carelessly!”

It was due to a loud scolding coming from the kitchen.

***

“Ah, seriously! I said I can do it too!”

Coming back down the stairs at the brat’s voice full of defiance, I ran into the three people just entering the cabin.

Ria, the most obviously exhausted of the three, brightened up seeing me.

“Ran, Jing just helped me with training. It would have been good if Ran did it together.”

“Indeed. That’s a pity.”

At my soulless answer, Ria pressured that I must join next time, but I pretended not to hear and moved my steps toward the kitchen.

It was to check the cause of the shouting that rang up to the second floor.

“This time I’m really making something that will surprise Father!”

“This rascal, really! What does a guy with blood barely dry on his head know to act like he knows?!”

The owner of the following voice was the cabin owner, that is, the child’s father.

Hearing the father’s voice which seemed quite emotionally heightened, Jing and Ria followed behind me with worried expressions.

The cause of the fight was revealed immediately.

“Did I tell you not to enter the kitchen carelessly or not?!”

“I said I know how to do everything too? Just sit and watch.”

“Know how to do what? You made the fire too strong, it looks like it’s going to burn everything!”

“Ah, I said you have to grill it strongly like this originally so it doesn’t smell bad?!”

It was also revealed that the reason was pettier than expected.

Angry at the son’s backtalk confronting him without losing, he eventually knuckled the child’s head.

“That means you don’t know anything! You catch the bad smell with spices!”

“Aack!! Because you cover it in spices like that, likes and dislikes are divided every time!”

Even while clutching his throbbing head, the child didn’t bend his opinion until the end.

“What are you both doing right now?”

Ria asked dejectedly to the two wrestling near the brazier.

The father and son, who were getting angry at each other unaware that people were coming, discovered us gathered and scratched their heads as if embarrassed.

“Oh my, making it so noisy you couldn’t even rest……. I apologize. Because this guy touched the kitchen as he pleased…….”

“I didn’t touch it, I cooked. The one Father smells strange.”

“What did you say? Why do you only get strangely stubborn as you grow older?”

“The one being strangely stubborn is Father.”

Beside the father quickly apologizing, the cabin brat grumbled.

“If it’s because of cooking, there’s no need to fight like that. There’s no one with a picky palate among us.”

Jing quickly blocked the words of the two trying to start fighting again.

“That’s right, we eat anything well. Besides, the smell is amazing?”

Ria quickly chimed in with Jing’s words.

At Jing and Ria’s words, the child’s father had to bend his opinion with a slightly crestfallen face.

“You must be very hungry……. Then I will serve what that guy made together for now.”

But he quickly regained his energy.

“But! Even if it doesn’t taste good, don’t worry! I will treat you more lavishly for dinner!”

“Ah, I got it so go inside already!”

The son pushed away the father who revealed pride in his cooking skills until the end.

Perhaps standing and wrestling for a long time was quite taxing on his strength, as he limped a bit more severely than before while going inside.

“The old man is just stubborn.”

The child watching that back figure muttered.

The child’s gaze was directed towards the father’s limping leg.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep