I Will Be the Greatest Knight-Chapter 251: Blooming

Irene began rebuilding herself alongside the spring flowers.

Her first, pathetic attempts at truly wielding a sword came as the snow melted and the floodplains filled. Each morning, she had to bring in more dirt and rock so that she wasn’t practicing up to her ankles in mud.

At least, she bothered her father and brother to help her bring in the dirt and rocks because even that was quite difficult for her then.

She then went to the next phase of her rebuilding.

As the rains stopped, the lilacs in her mother’s garden were starting to grow leaves, and the flowers began to bud; she at least had her full range of motion back. It was important to be flexible while sword fighting. It gave better posture and made sure that you were engaging all parts of your body equally.

She had been noticing that with her lack of flexibility, her back would ache. Her legs always did because they were overcompensating. It was only in spring that they stopped.

When the lilac buds finally opened and she could smell their sweet scent all through her father’s practice yard, Irene was giving her brother the matches that he no longer found boring.

While her approach was less offensive than before and more defensive because she still wasn’t fast yet, and her footwork was still a little ways off, she could take down Arne if she caught him by surprise.

Despite what it may look like, the girl had developed her muscles over time. She wasn’t extremely tall, and with the baggy clothing she opted to wear, no one could tell that what was hidden were well-defined shoulders, biceps, and back muscles. Even with all of her stagnancy, she had a line down the center of her abs that she was quite proud of whenever she got a glimpse of herself in a mirror.

There was one spring practice in particular where she started adding in more footwork to her movements, and she became less predictable to her brother.

He ran at her straightforward with the practice sword raised. Arne expected an easy downward strike that would at least force her off balance, as it usually did.

However, Irene stepped to the side. She realized her brother had put his all into his forward motion because she was able to smack him in the back of the neck with her sword and rip his out of his hands.

"I think the most basic rule in sword fighting is to not let go of your weapon," Irene scoffed. "If you were to face battle where there are goblins on all sides of you, doing anything they can to separate you from your weapon, you know how important that rule is. Never allow anything to catch you off guard. Don’t make yourself vulnerable at all costs."

Since Arne had given up by that point, he merely flopped into the grasses growing alongside the practice yard and stared at the sky. Above him, there were branches from the large oak tree that stood on the southeastern side of the house, but he could see the passing clouds and blue sky as well.

Irene opted to sit down with him and tossed the two practice swords into the dirt practice yard. However, her movements were more gentle. There was still an internal worry about the durability of her leg, something she had never even once considered with all the jumping, running, and riding she had done in her life so far.

She hoped that things that were second nature would be once more.

"Goblins taking weapons?" Arne asked absentmindedly. "Those empty-skulled creatures in the forest couldn’t possibly even notice a weapon even if it’s flying directly at them."

Irene was once looking at the sky, but when her brother spoke, she turned her head to observe him. He didn’t know what he was talking about. He couldn’t possibly.

Then her eyebrows lowered, and she focused on the sky once more.

She realized that was the way she wanted it.

The average person didn’t need to know the horrors that the knights had been experiencing day in and day out for over a year. All they needed to know was that the knights were capable of protecting them.

Her brother’s ignorance was a good sign.

"It isn’t like that," Irene admitted. "The goblins I saw were far smarter. Those ones actually scare me."

’Scare’ didn’t even begin to describe what they did to her, both mentally and physically, but she wasn’t going to elaborate until her brother spoke up again.

"Is that what happened to you?" he wondered quietly, finally looking at her instead of the sky.

For some reason, that question made him seem so unbelievably old to her, and she couldn’t hold back the truth. He seemed trustworthy rather than the usual jokester that he was.

"Yes," Irene admitted, equally as quietly. "I was outmatched and behaving irresponsibly. The injuries I sustained were no fault of anyone but myself."

Arne paused for a long time, taking in the seriousness of her words, but being still a child, barely even a teenager, he had to lighten the mood. It was too uncomfortable otherwise.

"Why am I not surprised?" he responded with a scoff, shaking his head as he did.

The kid escaped his sister before she could lay a fist into him.

When he was gone, Irene lay back and allowed the long grasses to caress her body as she seemed to disappear into it. It was nearly the most comfortable she had been since being home. It was the least her injuries had hurt and the warmest she had been.

For some reason, the thought caused tears to sting her eyes.

How I wish I was out there with them...

She didn’t see her father standing around the corner having just listened to his children’s conversation. He had a grim expression on his face.

As much as it was his first reaction to run out there and tell her it wasn’t her fault, he knew it was an important lesson to learn. You needed to take care of your mind just as much as your body on the battlefield.

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