Published at 12th of November 2022 10:19 am

Chapter 261: The Greatness of Backing

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The next morning. Suddenly, I opened my eyes and woke up, as though noticing it was time to wake up

When I raise my eyelids the ceiling fills my view, a different one from the one in the mansion.

Judging from the sunlight that was shining in the room through the curtain, it was probably a bit after the early morning in time, I guess.

Regardless even if we start our training early in the morning, I feel like it’s still too early to wake up.

I was so exhausted yesterday so I thought that I would be able to sleep soundly, but it looks like I woke up early due to the slightly different feel of the pillow and futon maybe.

It’s a common, familiar phenomenon after you arrive at your destination.

But thankfully, perhaps it’s because my timing of waking up was good enough that I’m clear-headed.

However, I have nothing to do even if I get up right now.

Should I just lie around and idle away here?

While I was having that kind of thought, I can suddenly hear the sound of footsteps coming from the hallways, then the door to my room is knocked.

「Good morning, Alfried-sama! It’s time to wake up――Hey! Why are you locking the door!?」

Ooh, that’s because you’re saying the disgusting words of ‘time to wake up’, so I used Psychic to lock the door as a conditional reflex.

「It should be too early to wake up」

「Nord-sama told me to wake you up earlier!」

I can hear Mina’s flustered voice coming from beyond the door when I ask her with a solemn tone.

That Nord-tousan. He really doesn’t have any confidence in me.

Even though I was planning to have a deep sleep, I got up so early like this.

「Okay okay, I’m up already so please tell Nord-tousan that I’m up」

「I can’t do that. He instructed me to bring you to the large room!」

’I will not allow you to be late for the joint training’. I felt such intent from Nord-tousan by sending Mina.

「Alfried-sama, this is another family’s place so you can’t――」

「Okay okay, I get it. I’m going to change my clothes now, so wait there」

Before Mina starts preaching at me, I resign myself and open the door with Psychic.

「E, eh? You are unusually obedient today」

Mina has an amazed look on her face when I got out of bed.

「You will usually make it harder for others, right? Like using magic to resist?」

「This is another person’s house, so of course I can’t do that」

Naturally, I don’t want to have that kind of exchange in another person’s house.

And moreover, I was helped by Nord-tousan yesterday. So I should properly participate in the training to pay back the debt from yesterday, right?

「Please wake up normally in the mansion if you can wake up normally like this!」

「That is that. This is this. Rather than that, even though Mina says that, you often overslept yourself, so it’s not persuasive at all」

「Uuh! Just once in a while! It’s just once in a while!」

「Yeah yeah, I know. I’m changing now, close the door」

After I tell her that as though to interrupt Mina who is still talking, Mina obediently went out and closed the door.

However, after I finished changing and while we were walking to the large room, Mina told me about how she woke up early usually and how she works hard.

I’m sure that, she has no one to have friendly chat with like Sara and Mel, so she had accumulated some sort of stress.

Guessing that, we headed to the large room while I threw in some appropriate responses to her.

◆

By the time I arrive in the large room, the whole family had already gathered inside.

Even though there is no alarm clock, everyone can properly wake up so early like this.

「Morning」

「「Morning」」

Once someone enters the room and greets everyone, everyone inside the room replies.

「Al, your hair is a mess. Take care of your bed hair quickly」

Elna-kaasan immediately points her finger at my bed hair the moment I casually sit on the sofa.

It was troublesome to get to the washbasin, so I make a small floating water ball with magic. Then I warm the water to make it easier to fix my bed hair and compact-ly put it to the bed hair part.

After I wet the part where I have bed hair, I use Wind magic this time to start drying my wet hair.

「Un, this probably fixes them」

「It is fixed but your hair has now become untidy. Tidy them up a bit with your hand now」

Despite complaining, Elna-kaasan still fixes my hair with her hands.

Ooh, there were times when I’m the one who usually arranged Eleonora-neesan’s hair so this is new. 1

Ever since we came to Eric’s house, Elna-kaasan’s mother's power has been high.

「Ara? When I look closely, the back of Eleonora also sticks out a little. Eleonora, you should also fix your bed hair」

「Eeehhー, I can just hide it with the hair on the back of my head, so it’s fine like this」

Even when Elna-kaasan warns her, Eleonora-neesan looks to be more mindful of doing a final check on her wooden sword.

Though it was hidden by her ponytail, her bed hair would be noticeable the moment she moves a little.

Amazed at the usual Eleonora-neesan, Elna-kaasan points her chin toward her and conveys a message through her gaze.

Judging from the current situation, her eyes probably says 「Just do it」. And thinking about her slightly angry gaze, I think it’s like she’s scolding her.

If I were the one to do it then of course she will retaliate against me, but now, I have a large backing.

So now I have nothing to fear. Let’s do this with no hesitation.

I create the same small water ball just like the one before. Normally I will adjust the temperature of the water since it’s for fixing bed hair, but this time it was to scold Eleonora-neesan so I use Ice magic at the same time to make it really cold.

When it was on the verge of being frozen, I roughly threw it to the bed hair on the back of Eleonora-neesan’s head.

「Hyaa! Coldd!」

I usually apply it gently so the water won’t scatter around, but this time I threw it roughly so not only the back of her head, even her neck got water on them.

Raising a small shriek, Eleonora-neesan strongly lifted her shoulders.

「Hey Al!」

「Now now, fix your bed hair now quickly」

Eleonora-neesan was trying to hit the culprit as she shout in anger, but then my backing - Elna-kaasan - protect me.

Understanding it was by Elna-kaasan’sinstigation, Eleonora-neesan starts to obediently tidy up her bed hair even while making a dissatisfied expression.

Ooh, I wonder if this wonderful feeling is the feeling of being protected by our backing.

It would be great if I can always have this kind of backing.

Although, I’m scared of Eleonora-neesan’s revenge later so I help Eleonora-neesan by using Wind magic to blow some wind in her direction.

With this, the aftercare is complete. This could communicate my intent since I did that reluctantly since Elna-kaasan’s told me to do that.

「Then, after you all have light breakfast we will have the joint training today. We also have to prepare our training equipment, all right」

「Yeeーs」

◆

After having breakfast of fish dishes, a few meat dishes, and bread just like yesterday evening, we change our clothes into our training clothes and head outside the mansion.

Immediately after we head outside, we saw Eric, Luna-san, and Egar-san wearing their training clothes already waiting outside.

They are also wearing training clothes and equipment like us, which are chest protectors, arm guards, and knee protectors made of leather, giving them a minimum amount of protection.

「Nevertheless, you don’t look that good even when you are wearing training gear, huh」

「Shaddup. Leave me alone」

Different from the training gear that I’m wearing, surprisingly, Eric’s training gear makes him look good.

Now he's wearing appeal-ing and ostentatious, close-fitting gloves.

I’m quite concerned about the problem that the clothes that make one look good normally didn’t make me look good, so please don’t touch on that subject.

「Luna still has a minimum amount of protectors as always」

「Are you all right wearing only that much protector?」

Hearing Eleonora-neesan’s impressed tone, Sylvio-niisan asks her with a concerned tone.

Compared to Eric, I feel that Luna-san’s protectors are quite light.

She is wearing something like inner protector that sticks to her skin and something so light it was barely sufficient as protectors.

「……It’s fine. I have a fighting style that emphasizes speed after all. And Sylvio-kun may attack me without hesitation when we spar」

I see. I can understand it now if she makes her moves while being mindful of her speed. So basically, she would be attacking or avoiding the opponent even if she gives up on her defense.

Either way, it's not something that you can achieve unless you have something you specialize in.

「Eh, but, if you get hit then.....」

「It’s all right. Since it’s impossible for Sylvio to hit Luna with your ability」

Eleonora-neesan completely cut off his words when Sylvio-niisan tries to say something nervously with a concerned tone.

「Ahaha, right」

Sylvio-niisan can only smile wryly at that.

It was coming from Eleonora-neesan, someone who doesn’t underestimate or overestimate their opponents. So what she’s saying is probably the truth.

Then Eric whispers to me while looking at Eleonora-neesan.

「……miss Eleonora said the exact same thing as my sister」

「Those two have friendly relationships after all」

「I guess it’s like that」

It’s because they can clearly say what they think to each other and that would be times when they can say strange things to each other without holding back.

It’s just that, I think that deviates from the common characteristic of a noble young lady.

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