WeTried Translations
Translator: Nemui
Editor: Nemui
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Reincarnated as the Villain's Heir
Chapter 42: Strength Is Survival Ability
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Using the holidays, Luchel and I had come to the Jimul Mountain Range, where the magic sword Disbaleid had been.
Whenever we had time, we trained like this in nature.
Training against humans was good, but if that was all we did, we could only expect combat ability to improve.
Strength was the power to survive.
Not every situation was like an academy duel, where two people faced each other and fought one-on-one.
Reality welcomed surprise attacks, and no enemy would give you time to prepare your heart.
"Lord Alphys, is it not terrible to ban flying?"
"In your case, when you are in danger, you have a habit of immediately flying up and escaping. Against a certain level of master, that will be read."
Luchel complained as she walked using a tree branch as a staff.
How cliche of her.
"But if I fly, unless they have projectiles, they cannot aim at me."
"Are you going to live while flying at all times? What will you do if someone targets your life while you are on the ground?"
"That is why I will fly and escape."
"You would not lose to someone who gives you that much time. If someone shoots an arrow from far away, it is over."
When I deliberately said that meanly, Luchel pouted.
Her current mentality was the same as when she was the mid-boss defeated during the story.
Before fighting, she bragged endlessly, and after losing, she escaped while spitting excuse-like parting words.
With that attitude, she was far from being the strongest hidden boss.
Actually, after acting with her, I wondered how game Luchel had ever become that strong.
Before reincarnating, I had never cared, but neither the game nor the setting materials explained it at all.
The monster encyclopedia had written some joking nonsense like, "She trained very hard."
"Hah... hah... Aaaah, I cannot move even one finger! Impossible, impossible, impossible, impossible, impossiblooo!"
"It cannot be helped. Let us rest a little."
"As expected of Lord Alphys! I will wipe your sweat!"
"You can move just fine."
As if seizing her chance, Luchel scrubbed my whole face with a cloth.
I had said I would train her, but I did not intend to give her Spartan instruction.
There was no meaning in that.
Besides, the important thing here was how to fight in nature.
In nature, you never knew when a monster might attack, so you always had to stay alert.
All directions, presence, sound, smell, droppings, animal trails, and so on. If you were not sensitive to every trace, you were the one who would be taken down.
By constantly being exposed to danger, you sharpened your senses and instincts.
Fighting could not be handled by technique alone.
It was also important to read ahead from an enemy's presence and movement, then land your attack.
To become sensitive to that, survival ability was necessary.
Because monsters always lived in nature, this was more developed in them than in humans.
They fled from opponents they sensed were dangerous, and they could even read movements.
The reason that Emperor Worm was so strong probably involved that too.
Thinking back, there were signs that it had read what I would do next.
For such a huge body to land hits so violently was seriously dangerous.
"Um, Lord Alphys. I looked at the items we brought, and I feel like we are missing things for sleeping."
"We are camping outdoors. Sleep with a tree root as your pillow."
"Eeeeh! If I sleep in a weird posture, my neck will hurt! Eight years ago, we brought all kinds of things!"
"Back then, we would have died without preparations. Actually, do not raise your voice. Strange things will come."
Because of Luchel, we had already been noticed.
The ones that came from behind the bushes were four Blood Mantises.
Eight years ago, one of these would have been an opponent we wanted no part of.
"Aaaahwahwah! Can we beat these with just us?!"
"If we cannot, we are finished."
Their scythes could cut a human apart through armor.
They were said to be so fast that everything was decided the instant you entered their range.
"These things cannot be eaten boiled or grilled. The only thing we can eat from them is experience."
I used mana reinforcement on my legs and hips and deliberately stepped in.
With a moment of acceleration, I slipped into the Blood Mantis's chest and cut its body sideways.
"Close combat is suicidal, but combat too close is effective. When you are this close, the scythes cannot reach, right?"
They say a mantis's scythes exist so prey cannot escape, but apparently these were different.
Even after one was killed, the Blood Mantises all attacked me at once.
But I immediately slipped through another one's range, approached, and cut off its head at a distance close enough to kiss.
At that moment, I adjusted properly so I would be outside the range of the other two.
"Sacred Star!"
Luchel's arrow became light and pierced through two Blood Mantises.
The arrow was so fast that after piercing through, it left only one streak of light as a trace.
An invisible arrow with this performance that could attack multiple targets at once had greatly troubled Leticia's group when Luchel was the hidden boss.
Because it could not be defended against or dodged, it naturally dealt defense-ignoring damage.
Seeing the Blood Mantises collapse with a thud, Luchel smiled broadly in relief.
"Ahahahaha! What, that was nothing! Weaklings!"
"You are incredibly strong against weaker opponents."
"Lord Alphys! How was I? I am strong, right?"
"Strong, strong."
"Ehehehe!"
Since she had grown stronger, I at least had to pat her head.
Still, in terms of processing speed alone, she might be faster than me.
Well, there was an opening in the initial movement just before her attack, so it would not work on me.
"You are quite enthusiastic. Do you have time to play in the mountains?"
"Hiyori, this is training for the escort selection exam."
Hiyori rose like smoke and materialized.
To her, this was mountain play too?
That was her evaluation of our current level, so I had to accept it sincerely.
"Escort selection?"
"They select students to escort royalty and nobles who come for academy observation."
"From among students? There is no need for you to be so eager over that. More importantly, that worm the other day was good. Something around that level puts me in a fine mood."
Hiyori was in a fine mood, but she gave an exaggerated yawn.
Well, I understood how she felt.
"Why do you think that? Escorting is different from ordinary fighting, and the difficulty rises sharply. It is not easy to gain experience fighting while protecting someone."
"The selection exam will be against those little brats anyway, yes? I hate it, hate it! At least let me cut something as pleasant as that worm from the other day!"
"No, no. It is not like we directly fight them. The exam is a little unusual."
"Oh?"
Hiyori tilted her head and fluttered the sleeves of her kimono.
Luchel was glaring at her from a distance close enough to kiss, and I could not help being distracted by that.
"It is an escort selection exam. Fighting normally would be meaningless. Also..."
"Also?"
I thought about continuing, but stopped.
There was no guarantee this world would progress exactly like the game.
Because I had become Alphys, there was a possibility irregular events would occur.
In other words, it was the Alphys route, which had not existed in the game.
It was similar to those hidden tricks where you could enjoy the story of an enemy character.
The problem was that I had never played anything like that in the game.
There had been no chance to control Alphys, the enemy character.
That was exactly why it was interesting.
From here on, what would happen?
"Well, do not look down on them because they are students. Someone slightly better should appear."
"Really?"
"It is just intuition, though."
Hiyori tilted her head again suspiciously.
Luchel's neck bent in sync with hers, and I was about to laugh, so please stop.
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