Reincarnated in a Fantasy World with Murderous Intent

A New Journey.

The remainder of my mothers' vacation time flew by. I continued my training with Hungerford, who pitted me against Gisel in a number of different sparring matches. It was good to have someone of my own size to train with, although I did acquire a number of, reasonably minor, injuries. She was not as skilled, or didn't hold back perhaps, like Hungerford did. As Lissa was with us, that wasn't a problem. She healed me when needed, although for the bruises and small stuff she said I could recover as nature intended.

Gisel, now with new clothes, including as set of light armour and even more straps to hold even more knives provided by our giant blacksmith, was a good match for me.

She was a little older, and quite a lot stronger than I was, and her agility was just about a match for me, even using my wind magic. I could beat her up close, especially with swords, but she usually beat me when we were in a distance fight, although I think if I had been allowed to use more powerful magic, that wouldn't have been the case. Hungerford was really good at creating different scenarios though, which didn't give either of us too big an advantage.

"You need to be flexible," he lectured. "It could be that you can't rely on magic for some reason, which means you will have to figure out other ways to overcome problems. Do not fall into the trap of narrow thinking. Always try and have a backup plan, and use different skills and methods. Outwit an enemy however you can, even if it means striking unexpectedly."

"Isn't that rather dishonourable?" I asked.

For way of reply, he spat on the ground. "That for honour. The only thing you need to do is be the one who can walk away. And if that means running from a fight, do that. If you live, you can try again. Dead, well, that's it."

Sound advice, which actually matched my philosophy.

Freia wasn't in total agreement though.

"But the honour of a warrior is something that contributes to their standing!" she complained.

"If you are speaking of promises made, and so forth, I don't disagree," Hungerford replied. "Even in a practice bout, there is room for honour. For real war, for a real, to the death fight though, the winner takes all. Don't forget that."

Freia made a face, but nodded. She was still young enough to fall for the bard's tales of glory, I suspected. No doubt if I was only as old as my body, I would be the same. Experience was the one thing that changed your outlook, and I carried mine from my previous life.

I did see Marie once more, but I arranged it so I didn't have 'time' to run around and play with her. She was still too young to interest me, but it's always good to put in some groundwork for when that wouldn't be the case. So I met her and took her to the baker's, and bought her a few cakes and treats, and also one for her brother this time.

She was very excited to have these. I had the feeling her family wasn't so well off, and couldn't afford such things. I added a few more baked goods, and told her to give them to her mother, apparently her father was no longer in the picture, and she promised she would.

As a final gesture of goodwill, I also gave her my small purse of holding as a present. I never really used it, as I had my larger bag. She was thrilled with that, and gave me a kiss on the cheek as a reward. I took that as a promise of more to come when we were older, and breathed a little harder at the thought.

And so the time to return to the academy grew close.

Hungerford drove us mercilessly in our final few days of training, running us ragged with exercises and drills for most of the day. I went to bed exhausted each night. I think Gisel felt the same too.