Clang!

Smack!

The sound of wooden swords clashing echoed through the quiet forest.

“You’ve improved a lot since the beginning,” said Siegfried, smiling faintly as he blocked my strikes with minimal effort. Unlike me, who was drenched in sweat and swinging the sword with everything I had, he remained perfectly composed.

It seemed he was pleased with my progress.

“You’ve even lost some weight,” he added.

“Hah… just a little,” I panted in response.

As he pointed out, I had lost about 5 kg over the course of our training. It seemed my teacher's brutal Spartan-style training was paying off, …