Chapter 55: Chapter 54: Of Understanding

Everything in the world hurts, at least that is how Gabrielle had learned to perceive reality. Her back hurt, her arms and legs as well. Hits and scratches, wounds and headaches, everything hurt… but it always was a very distant feeling. This didn’t make her immune to the feeling in the slightest, but it made pushing through agony a little bit easier for short periods of time.

 

But there were kinds of pain that dug so deeply into her soul that even now, as she walked through the woods a million days later, Gabi still felt the echoes pulsating in her heart. Recollection was a curse for the girl, memories always came to her so vividly as she was forced to relive them.

 

Like the time she had been jumped in an alley for speaking too loudly of a Demiurge in Raion. 

 

The time a group of “adventurers” had mugged her when she tried to hire them for another incursion in Sainbel.

 

Or the mercenary group that outright abandoned her at the first sign of trouble in Nantes.

 

Time and again, depending on others or talking too much had resulted in another bad experience, and with enough repetitions she had grown sick of it all. The pain of abandonment, betrayal and failure… it all just highlighted a different kind of agony in the girl’s heart.

 

The aching absence of the few people who had actually accepted her.

 

“I don’t need help.” Gabrielle said a bit louder to the lancer. “Why do you think I do? I told you I have no money.”

 

“I don’t need your money, damn it!” Lucrece lied shamelessly, she would gladly take the witch’s money any day of the week, but surprisingly enough today she wasn’t thinking of it. “Next time you get surrounded you may get torn to pieces!”

 

“I’ve survived very well on my own.”

 

“By luck and maybe the saints smiling upon you, I don’t know! You swing your sword like a child playing with a stick!”

 

Now that was a new kind of pain, one that Gabrielle had not felt in a long while: her pride, besmirched. She looked around, eyes wide open, arms open as she tried to find a way to respond. Something witty, something quick!

 

“I do not.”

 

“You do! You really do. Where did you train!?”

 

Gabi gulped loudly. She had not trained at all. In fact she never even thought of needing to once she got her hands on her own sword! How hard could it be to wield a blade? Had she really been doing it so badly? She had managed to survive for months on instinct alone!

 

Well… that and her little trump card.

 

“... I don’t need to tell you things.” Gabrielle crossed both arms on her chest, eyes narrowing very slowly. “I can survive on my own. I’ll prove it to you if you don’t leave me alone.”

 

“All right, all right. I have an idea.”  Lucrece ran to the side of the trail, picking up two long, thick sticks of around the same size and tossing one to the Witch. “Let’s put that to the test, shall we? You’re angry at me, so this can be a good chance to clubber me!”

 

“Elaborate.”

 

“Alright, good, you are listening.” The lancer walked to stand right in Gabrielle’s way, firmly holding her stick as if it was a longsword. “Come at me with your stick. If you manage to strike me down, I’ll leave you alone.”

 

“And if I don’t?” Gabrielle felt around the weight of her own stick, nodding in approval. It was a good stick. 

 

“If you don’t, you let me come with you, and I will teach you the basics. It’s a win-win, if you ask me.”

 

The redhead smiled slightly, now that sounded like a great chance to shut this girl up, and let out some steam from the bad memories. Clinging tightly to the base of her stick and taking a deep breath, Gabrielle charged almost immediately to catch Lucrece off-guard. But this is where she would learn her first thing about the lancer: she never relaxed, not even for a bit.

 

That first furious hit was easily blocked by Lucrece, who lazily rose her own “sword” to her right. Then to the left, then to the right again. Hit after hit just went like this, blocked and deflected without much care by Lucrece, who soon even stopped using the sword at all to block and simply started moving out of the way. She ducked, backstepped and slid to the side, a smirk starting to curl on her lips as Gabrielle only grew more and more frustrated.

 

“Like a child with a stick!” Lucrece teased, her footwork impeccable as she dodged. 

 

“Quit moving!” Snarled the witch, her own “sword” hitting the wind each time, again and again. “How are you even doing that!?”

 

“Your rhythm is too obvious!”

 

“Rhythm?” The onslaught stopped for a moment, curiosity beating Gabrielle’s frustration as she tilted her head to the side. “What does singing have to do with fighting?”

 

The lancer’s smirk grew into a warmer smile at that, the girl was open to learning more! To listen more! 

 

“Let me try and you’ll get it all right?”

 

“Alright.”

 

Gabrielle relaxed a little bit, keeping her sword down and taking the chance to catch her breath. Lucrece immediately shook her head and carefully tapped the girl’s stick, slowly pushing it upwards.

 

“First of all, it’s easier if you start like this: the tip of your sword pointing at the neck.”

 

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“Why.”

 

“If you keep it like this and I try to attack you from the front.” Luci took one step, letting the stick touch her own throat. “Blagh! See? I can’t reach you without getting stabbed.”

 

“...Oh!” Gabi’s eyes illuminated at that, of course! It made so much sense now that she saw it.All right, yes. I understand!”

 

“Good! Also, keep your arms straight and your grasp firm! That way I can’t just beat the sword off your hands!”

 

“Always firm, got it.”

 

“That’s a good girl! Now, be ready!”

 

Lucrece would adopt the same posture, with both hands wielding the wooden stick, before trying to hit Gabrielle’s left side. Toc! The redhead blocked with a swift move.

 

“Good. Now, this.”

 

Toc. Toc. Toc. Toc. Hits came from the right and the left, over and over at a steady pace… and this made something in Gabrielle’s mind click.

 

“That’s the rhythm, the way you hit! One-two, one-two, one-two.”

 

“Yes!” Lucrece could hug this girl, just feeling so excited to see her advancing. “Now, what do you think I meant when I said your rhythm was obvious.”

 

“Predictable… I hit like this?”

 

“You always go for threes. One-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three!” Lucrece added a third blow, trying to be a bit more aggressive. “It doesn’t matter if you change the angle if I can still tell you will hit from a meter away!”

 

Never in her life had Gabrielle made that connection, but again, now that she had done it, things came so easily! She deflected a hit from Lucrece before starting the attack again, at first starting to hit at her usual pace only to suddenly shift it.

 

One, two, three-four!

 

Lucrece had to push herself a bit harder to move out of the way of that last one… and yet she felt so proud.

 

“Just like that, yes! Now, keep going!”

 

“...No.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Gabrielle frowned for a moment, taking a deep breath and tossing the stick to the side, crossing both arms on her chest once again.

 

“You tricked me into teaching me something, didn’t you?”

 

“No.” Lucrece lied.

 

“Why do you do this? Why do you care? Are you waiting to stab me in the back? Do you have friends hiding around this forest?”

 

Ah, the sting of recognition in Lucrece was quite painful, feeling that familiar paranoia now pushing back at her…

 

“No! I, ugh. Listen, Gabi… I simply want to help. I really feel in debt and I hate feeling in debt with people. It’s simple like that.” The lancer was not one to admit her own sentimentality, especially with others in an earshot. “I promise, I fucking swear!”

 

“Language.”

 

“A-Ah… sorry?”

 

“Hmmmn…” Gabrielle didn’t fully buy it, but she couldn’t deny that she had learned something important today. Who knows how much she could learn if she allowed this girl to stay. 

 

Besides, if she really got in trouble, Gabi was still confident in her ability to get Lucrece out of her way. That’s what the trump card was for…

 

“Fine. But only until we reach Caen.”

 

“Good, excellent. You will not regret it.” 

 

Maybe Gabrielle would not regret it, but Luci was already regretting her choices as soon as she had gotten what she wanted.

 

What did she just sign up for?

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