Book 5: Volume 5 Chapter 6, Combat in Dresses

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

It had been some time since Riku last visited the Management Floor.

 

Between his studies at the academy and his work as an adventurer, his days had grown full in a way that left little room for anything else. He had been managing, more or less, but the visits had quietly tapered off without him quite meaning them to.

 

“Mother Peach, let me—”

 

“No.”

 

The word was gentle but absolute. Riku blinked, the rest of his sentence dissolving before it could form.

 

He had never been refused before. Not by Peach. Whenever she had time, she trained him. It had simply been how things were. He stood there for a moment, searching for the right footing.

 

“…Why?”

 

“Why?” Kousuke repeated his Son, studying the look on Riku’s face with curiosity. Something in his expression confirmed what he’d suspected. “Haven’t you been in contact with Towa or Miya lately?”

 

Riku’s gaze drifted sideways, just slightly. “I’ve been… busy.”

 

Kousuke sighed. Even Towa, occupied as he always was, managed to stay in touch. There was no reason Riku couldn’t have spoken to Miya, at least.

 

“Dad, are you trying to say I’m easy to talk to?”

 

Miya’s voice cut into the conversation from nearby. She hadn’t been to Little Amamiya Tower, so her timing was impeccable and her expression said as much.

 

“That’s not what I said,” Kousuke replied carefully. “Just that it’s unreasonable not to keep in contact with Family.”

 

“And yet here we have a Brother who barely shows his face.” Miya looked at him without warmth, clearly unconvinced.

 

Sensing the conversation was circling rather than moving, Riku spoke again, more directly this time.

 

“So, why can’t you train me?”

 

“Because Mother Peach is pregnant,” Miya said.

 

The room settled. Riku stared.

 

“…Huh!?”

 

“You know, that reaction actually hurts a little,” Kousuke said, with a slight frown.

 

Riku came to himself with visible alarm and began waving both hands. “N-no, that’s not… I didn’t mean it like that, I was just surprised, or rather, is that even the right word, I—”

 

Miya watched him with the patience of someone observing a small catastrophe.

 

“Just say you were caught off guard because there were absolutely no signs of it,” She offered.

 

Riku stopped, finally a lifeline. “Yes. Exactly that.”

 

He brought his hands together with perhaps a bit too much relief, and Kousuke and Miya both gave him the same unimpressed look.

 

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The group moved to the management’s relaxation area.

 

Peach, for her part, seemed unbothered. “I don’t mind training you,” she said, “but the others seem to have opinions.”

 

“That’s because you’re seriously underestimating what pregnancy actually means.” Floria did not raise her voice, but her expression carried all the weight of someone who had said this before and expected to say it again. “Give up on the training, Riku.”

 

“It’s just that Mother Peach makes it sound like nothing…”

 

“Seriously.” Floria turned to him. “In a situation like this, the man should be more thoughtful.”

 

Riku absorbed this with a quiet “Ugh” and said nothing further.

 

Peach, watching the exchange with the serene air of someone entirely at peace, clapped her hands together. “Well then. Why not ask Schrein?”

 

Schrein, who had been sitting nearby without particular expectation of being called upon, blinked. “Me?”

 

“You don’t mind, do you? The question is whether Riku is comfortable with it.”

 

Riku looked up. “I… don’t really know,” he admitted honestly.

 

The truth was, he had no clear sense of how strong Schrein actually was. Without that foundation, he had no way to judge one way or another. He glanced around, and his eyes landed on Kousuke, who wore the particular expression of someone who already knew how this would go.

 

“Well,” Kousuke said, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, “since Schrein’s willing, why don’t you start with a mock battle?”

 

Something about that expression made Riku uneasy. But he had already agreed, in spirit if not in words, so he said nothing and followed Schrein to the training area.

 

Kousuke paused beside Schrein as they prepared.

 

“Schrein. No magic.”

 

“Hm? Sure.” Schrein’s expression shifted, as though the restriction had genuinely slipped their mind for a moment.

 

Riku’s unease deepened into something closer to cold dread.

 

He knew that Schrein was a formidable mage. He had heard, in passing, that Schrein could handle upper-level monsters alone when using magic. The fact that such a person had nearly forgotten that magic was off the table was… not reassuring.

 

He was still operating on the wrong assumption, however. He would understand that soon enough.

 

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*Thud.*

 

The sound of Riku hitting the floor carried clearly through the training area.

 

“Hmm. I thought that might happen,” Kousuke said.

 

“He’s been working hard lately,” Peach observed, “but there’s still quite a gap.”

 

Floria nodded quietly beside them.

 

“Can he really not read his opponent’s strength at all?”

 

“In this case, the opponent is simply too skilled at concealing it. She’s a Vampire, after all.”

 

Vampires, once counted among the creatures of darkness, had a particular gift for veiling both their presence and their power. Schrein, who stood at the highest level among them, was especially adept at this. No matter how much Riku had grown, it would have been unreasonable to expect him to see through it.

 

“Though I do think there’s something to be said,” Peach added thoughtfully, “about fighting someone in a dress and not immediately taking that seriously.”

 

Schrein was, in fact, wearing her usual everyday dress. She was simple unassuming, the kind of thing that invited no particular attention. And yet she had not only matched Riku’s movements, she had surpassed them with an ease.

 

The difference was so stark that to Riku, it felt entirely surreal.

 

It was not strange though. All the women around Kousuke had seen profound improvement in their fundamental strength and movement since beginning their training in Divine Power. But beyond that, Schrein had spent years conducting intelligence work, infiltrating gatherings at the highest levels of society. Parties. State dinners. Formal events where a dress was simply what one wore. It was rare, in that context, to need to fight. But not so rare that one did not need to prepare.

 

One trained in whatever they were wearing.

 

“It just feels normal to me,” Schrein said, from across the training floor.

 

“That makes sense, given your background,” Kousuke replied.

 

Meanwhile, Riku was on the floor, feeling something he might have described, if pressed, as a profound sense of injustice.

 

[Why…] he thought, for what was not the first time, [Why do all the women Father takes in never look the way they fight?]

 

He was still sitting with this thought when Schrein tilted their head, watching him with a mildly curious expression.

 

“Are you getting used to the feel of it now?” A small pause. “Shall I get serious? You do know that was just warm up, right?”

 

Riku stared at Schrein, sword held lightly. His expression was perfectly calm but he screamed in his heart, [huh!!?]

 

He couldn’t say that, of course. He had been the one to ask for this. And Schrein, apparently, had found the motivation to continue.

 

In the end, what followed was somehow more demanding than any session he’d had with Peach. He endured it. He didn’t have much choice, after all.