I’ll Live My Second Life! Chapter 81

Fii frowned deeply at Doug.

“You’ve got guts, Doug!”

Standing five metres away, she pointed her wooden sword at him. Considering her short reach, it was far from her contact range. An attack from here was impossible.

The location was the outdoors apprentice knight training grounds, and the pair were currently in the midst of a mock battle.
Standing around them were other apprentice knights, exchanging fierce blows.
Well, not Fii and Doug though. The pair were not exchanging a thing.

“Doug!”

A troubled expression appeared on his face.

The reason that Fii had been angry all this time was not because he had hit her.
It was the opposite in fact; Doug had not attacked even once.

The moment that the irritated Fii took a step forward, Doug hopped another three steps back.
Fii’s frown further deepened.

“d.a.m.n it, Doug! I told you to take this seriously!”

Normally Fii preferred a docile Doug for the sake of protecting her secret. However, mock battles were a different story.
If Doug didn’t take this more seriously, it would only disadvantage them both.

But despite that…

When Fii tried to break the gap again, this time Doug leapt to the left.
The power in his legs were incredible, and the distance between them widened once again.

“URGHHHHHH!”

Although Fii stamped her feet in vexation, Doug simply maintained that troubled countenance as he watched her from far away.
His sword was still held loosely by his side, and he showed no signs of going on the offensive.
Despite still being close enough to attack, as he had demonstrated in his battle with Gorms.

The whole mock battle had been like this.
Ever since she had partnered with Doug, not once had Doug attacked her.
Not a single time.

The truth was that the gap between their abilities was immense.
Fii knew this too.
If Doug ever took this seriously, Fii would be defeated in the blink of an eye, without any chance to retaliate.

In fact, Fii and Doug fought in similar ways.
They were fighters who made use of their agility to avoid enemy strikes as they attacked.

But their ability was completely different.
Fii was certainly a natural jumper, but that was only for a girl. It was unlikely that her pure muscle power could match a boy’s.
The main advantage that her body held was its natural lightness.
Because of that lightness, not only could she perform feats of agility with her meagre power, it was also easier to change the direction of her movements, giving birth to an irregular and unpredictable fighting style.

On the other hand, despite Doug’s slenderness, he was still the height of the average apprentice knight. And as aspiring knights, these boys were far from short.
Also, despite being so slender, he was heavier than boys his height. His thin frame was incredibly muscular.
By making use of that sinewy, muscular body, Doug could perform the same feats of agility that Fii did. Not only that, but faster.
That disparity in speed made all the difference.
Just the speed of his first leaps were much faster than Fii’s, and using his muscles to run brought his final velocity to a level beyond compare.
Not only that, but the strikes backed by the momentum of his speed and ma.s.s were powerful enough to topple even Gorms.
Doug was simply a monster.

Doug was like an upgraded, ‘Holy s.h.i.+t, what is that guy!’ version of Fii.
It was impossible for her to win.

Still, in the five battles they had, the score was five draws.
And the reason for that was because Doug would never, ever attack her.
Doug who took down any other knight in five seconds, with the exception of Gorms who could hold on for a praiseworthy thirty.
Doug, legendary in the Northern Dormitory for his record of being undefeated and invincible, for some reason held back for Fii alone.

At first Fii had a.s.sumed that he was afraid of being scolded, so she ordered him to attack. Unfortunately she was met with the same result.
She told him before the match to attack her, but was met with the same result.
She told him during the match to attack her, but was met with the same result.
It was only during Doug’s matches with Fii that he would run about with that awkward expression on his face.

As mentioned previously, not only was Doug’s initial speed higher than hers, so was his final speed.
In other words, no matter what Fii did, it was impossible for her to catch him.

As a result, these matches between them would always end with a game of tag between a furious Fii chasing and ordering him to fight and Doug who was intent on running and avoiding her.

“DOUUUUGG! DOUUUUUUGGGG! WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!”

Today as well, Fii ended up red-faced and gasping for breath, having completely failed to catch him.
And although Doug looked at her apologetically, he made sure to stay out of the reach of her sword.

At that moment, an unfamiliar laugh appeared on the training ground.

“Hahahahahaha, is this really their training grounds? It looks more like a ballroom for amateur dancers! Are you guys really practising the sword?”

“I’d heard that the Northern Dormitory had bad standards, but this is even worse than I imagined. Heh.”

Everyone turned to the sudden laughter and found five unfamiliar boys standing there.
And for one of those boys, the first thought these boys of the Northern Dormitory had was,

(Mushroom…?)

A boy with an inflated brown mushroom for his hair and a blonde, long-haired youth were standing there openly mocking them.