Academy Slave Instructor

30 – Selma and Clay

Selma and Clay

“You can come this way.”

Zeroa walks familiar streets and guides Rai and Aslan.

When Rai asked who Zeroa had learned the sword from during her training, he replied that he learned the sword from an adventurer-turned-blacksmith.

It seemed like something was right, but when the combination was strange, Rai tilted her head. Zeroa said that she was still working in the forge in Legandia, and that she would introduce her if there was a chance.

Then Rai stood up and said let’s go, and Zeroa, who didn’t know that he would be introduced right away, panicked and led him to her forge. As a bonus, Aslan was sleeping in Rai’s garden and was dragged out together.

Rough Aslan, she is uneasy about the combination of Rai, who does not know what she will do, but she heads to the blacksmith’s forge, thinking that nothing will happen to know zero. On the way, he tells Rai what kind of person her mentor is.

According to Zeroa, the people who run the forge are an adventurer couple. They say she’s an insignificant adventurer, but she seemed to have quite a bit of skill, judging by the way other adventurers and mercenaries show up when they argue with the store.

He jokes that it’s only predictions and that it’s not always him, and that there are other devilish guys. Both of her husband and wife liked Zeroa, and each told her about her sword or mana, and thanks to them, Zeroa was able to live as an adventurer porter and attend her academy without losing her life.

Zeroa eagerly explains, but Athran, who yawns with her sleepy eyes, and Rai, who keeps eating snacks she bought on the street, don’t seem interested.

While sucking his sticky finger, Rai looked at Zeroa’s shield.

“Did you buy the shield there too?”

“Yes, but I didn’t buy it. They told me to use a shield, so they gave it to me for free.”

“Mmm, he’s a nice guy.”

Rai nodded as he judged the quality of his shield. He’s not even a teacher, but he doesn’t say that it’s a gift from the person who taught him the sword, but the quality of the shield isn’t good.

Although he puts on a lot of veneer, as Zeroa said, the quality is suitable for free.

Assuming that he has been an adventurer for a long time and blacksmithing is a hobby, Rai sees the shop that Zeroa has arrived at.

The shop doesn’t look particularly great. It’s a shop you’d normally see while walking down the street. Blacksmiths are mostly located in the outskirts due to the noisy sound of metal beating, so they look a bit shabby compared to the grandiose and large blacksmiths around them.

I wonder if they mainly make weapons. Outside the shop, there are other items such as hoes and shovels on display as well as weapons.

Athran, who has only been to decent shops, looks at the items on display, but usually shops that handle multiple items are of low skill or have just started.

It was two years ago that Zero had been an adventurer, so she must have worked at the smithy for at least that period.

As she removes the curtain half-covering her entrance, Zeroa enters first. I could hear the sound of metal beating around me, but I couldn’t hear it from inside, so the store seemed to be in trouble.

“Selma, Mr. Clay – are you there?”

When Zeroa calls from inside the empty store, a voice is heard from inside and a large man comes out.

The gray hair that shows his age and his originally muscular body seem to have grown up over the years. The man called Clay greeted Zeroa with a big smile, his eyes closed enough to confuse whether he was open.

“Zeroa! It’s been a while! Are you using your shield well?”

“Yes, thanks to Mr. Clay, I was able to train right away. Oh, this is Instructor Rai, who teaches me.”

Rye looked around the weapons on display in the shop and turned to see Clay.

“……”

The two of them met eyes and stopped as if they were frozen.

“What are you doing blocking the road?”

As his wife, Selma, comes out from behind the heavy Clay’s back, she meets Rai’s eyes.

“……”

Selma is just as frozen as Clay, but her gentle eyes turn bloody and she puts her hand to her knife on her counter.

It was a quick move that was hard to believe for her age, but as Rai, who was faster than her, approached and grabbed her wrist, Clay brandished a huge double-edged axe.

– Quagga gagagak

Asran, who was looking at agricultural equipment outside, is startled to see Zeroa suddenly bounce out of the door, but more than that, her eyes widen as her store starts to collapse.

“What did this human do again!”

Of course, in the belief that Rai would have done it, when Aslan shouted, Rai, who came out of the wreckage with his hands, punched him in the chin. Aslan, who was struck by an unexpected blow, looks at him with disapproving eyes, but Rai doesn’t care and stuns Zeroa, who is about to get up.

Rai grabs the two fainted by the necks and throws them away, then turns her head to Clay, who lifts up the collapsed roof and wakes up.

“You devil!! What did you come to the Empire for?”

Is this a question that demands an answer? Clay throws the roof at Rai.

Rye, who hit the scythe that had fallen on the floor and caught it with his foot, swung it, causing the large roof to split in two and pass him by.

Frustrated when he saw the scythe breaking without even swinging it vigorously, Rai grabbed his handle, threw it away, grabbed the weapon lying nearby, and ran forward.

“You’re relentless to chase me all the way here.”

As Selma rushes in with her ferocious eyes and stabs her sword, Raido stabs the tip of her sword precisely.

As Rai, who showed her virtuosity, straightened her fists, Selma hurriedly turned her head despite her distance.

– Paang

Her white hair spreads in all directions as something cutting through her air pierces the spot where Selma escaped her. Kicking Selma with her foot, her posture collapsed from dodging her, Rai rolls over onto her side without even checking as she flies into her wreckage.

Clay’s ax fell on the spot he avoided, scattering debris and dust in all directions. Clay, who was pulling up a huge ax, saw Rai stepping on the ax and coming up.

“Kuk!!”

I try to avoid it, but Rai’s knee is already kicking his chin. Lai, who puts her legs on his collapsing shoulder, crushes him as he collapses and falls down as well.

“Devil!!”

“Don’t move.”

As Rai said in a cold voice, Selma, who had walked through the wreckage, stopped on the spot with a devastated expression. Lay, who was sitting on Clay’s chest as he fell backwards, had a longsword hanging down his neck.

The bad quality longsword Clay made pierced his skin, ready to slash his throat at any moment. Selma dropped her weapon and fell to her knees as her red blood ran down her longsword.

“If you’re going to wear camouflage, at least make your weapons straight. Who are you aiming for?”

“We didn’t shoot anyone.”

Clay frowns and says, but Rai doesn’t believe it.

Selma and Clay. I don’t know if it’s the original name, but I didn’t call it that before.

Cyan Lizard and Bane’s Fallen Knight. They were known as fixers who took on the dirty work. Rai, who had been with them several times during his time in the Kingdom of Kaylan, immediately recognized their faces, and they immediately saw through the same camouflaged face of Rai.

“Don’t talk bullsh*t. That guy said he’s been here for over 5 years. Why did you ask him to put so much effort into it? Princess?”

“Damn it… What kind of bullsh*t are you talking about? Who else is the princess talking about?”

Clay says ferociously, spitting out his missing teeth. Selma, who was on her knees, said when Rai felt something strange in his face, as if he really didn’t know.

“Why did you come after us? Kayle…”

“You may be mistaken, but I am Rai Redford. I was born in the Empire and have lived here all my life.”

Rai, unable to reveal her identity, cuts her off and says.

If you don’t notice, you can’t work as a fixer. Selma immediately recognizes his intentions and meets her eyes with Clay.

“You mistook us for someone else too?”

Clay says the same thing as Rye.

Since the store has been blown up, people are bound to flock to it. As blacksmiths from the shop and people walking down the street begin to gather around, Rai takes care of the people around him, withdraws his sword, and holds out her hand to Clay.

“If you run away, I will chase you and kill you.”

“What am I afraid of and running away?”

Clay grumbles and grabs his hand and gets up.

“Are you okay Mr. Clay?”

“Ah- it’s okay, it’s okay. It’s me. All I have left is my body. This evil… This human said that my weapon wasn’t good enough, so I got really angry.”

“That… His throat is bleeding…”

“It’s okay. Look, the hair is well attached. Go and see.”

Perhaps he is well acquainted with the shops around him, Clay waved his hand at the concerned man and asked him to go.

The man looks at Rai and goes back to her shop. She says with a gentle smile that she is no big deal and apologizes for making her a fuss.

They seem to have settled down quite well here, judging from the fact that everything they say is worrying about the two of them.

“Let’s go in and talk. Half… Collapsed.”

As Clay said, pointing at the house with a clear view of the kitchen, Rai turned around and dragged Aslan and Zeroa, who were sprawled on the floor, and went inside.

As Rai sits on a chair at the table, with the background of what appears to be ruins that have become a battlefield behind, Selma and Clay also sit on the other side of the chair.

Since it was a relationship of exchanging sharp blades with each other, there is no tea to entertain guests.

Rai casts a soundproofing spell and sees the two of them. A smile forms on his lips, which had been expressionless throughout the fight.

“I heard that there is no business for years, so you have weakened a lot? Does your back hurt?”

“Because I’m 20 years older than you. Besides, the cumulative injuries have burst and my body is at a loss. If I had only met you five years ago, I would have drawn a line on your neck instead of mine.”

Though it was a threat, Clay, who suffered a neck wound thanks to a sword that penetrated quite deeply, laments while receiving treatment from Selma.

Selma, concerned about Rai’s mention of growing up in the Empire, looks at him and asks.

“Are you an imperial citizen?”

“Oh, I’ve been a citizen of the Empire since the beginning. The Empire knows it too.”

Selma stops her treatment hand and infers her thoughts from Rai’s words. Clay calls her throat tight, but troubled, she refuses to move.

Selma, who had been staring blankly at her for a moment, looked at Rai again.

“Involuntary? Involuntary?”

“Nothing. Don’t pay any attention. The high sun is watching.”

The sun symbolizes the emperor of the empire. When he tells her not to get involved in her pointless curiosity, she nods her head slightly and wraps the bandage around Clay’s neck again.

“Our relationship is terribly strong. I thought I would never see you again after I retired.”

“Are you retired? Really?”

“Oh, Luigi is dead. After that, I never even picked up a weapon until I met you.”

Selma says with sad eyes. She bows her head with a melancholy look at her name, which not only hers, but also Clay, Luigi. As the large man droops his shoulders, Rai looks at him with a pitiful expression.

They built up a friendship while working as fixers, and even after becoming a couple, they still worked as fixers. And Luigi is their son. If he was said to be alive, he would be around the same age as Zeroa by now.

It doesn’t make sense to work as tough fixers while raising children, but when the two of them were together, it was difficult for Rai to deal with them, so they proved themselves with their skills.

Lai, who had a chance to see Luigi while facing them for several things, asked, thinking of him staring at him with sparkling eyes unlike her parents.

“What happened?”

“The Six Finger Organization kidnapped Luigi. And made a beggarly request. Her request is Luigi’s life.”

“Have you failed?”

“It can’t be. It was still in its prime at the time. It was in its prime… It was a problem because it was so good… Poor Luigi was guilty of something…… Although he was slightly injured, we completed the request and worked hard. What I gave back was Luigi’s head.”

Selma scatters her flesh at the end, she says. The hateful look in her eyes reminds me of the ferocious verdigris lizard in her prime.

“Six fingers?”

“You’ve been in prison, haven’t you been out recently?”

Criminal organizations deeply rooted in back alleys such as drugs, murder, kidnapping, etc. Seeing that he did not know that the six fingers were missing, Selma, who reasoned about the situation, asked, and Rai quietly nodded her head.

Even though she guessed right, Selma, who doesn’t seem interested, says in a sad voice.

“Six Fingers died without leaving any of my couple’s hands. Their entire family. There, Clay was wounded even with healing magic.”

“And flowed here?”

“I know it looks weird when I think about it. But neither I nor Clay take advantage of Luigi’s death.”

Responding with the eyes of her parent who lost her child, Rai shuts her mouth and sees Zeroa passed out on her floor.

Similar age to the deceased Luigi, a humble person who would be popular with older people, and a hukou-like personality that seemed to need to be taken care of. If what she just said was true, she would have been right in the hearts of Selma and Clay, who knew zero.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have shared their vision with the local boy.

The magic within Zeroa and the swordsmanship possessed were too high-level skills to be taught by mere ordinary adventurers. Rather, it demanded too high a level, to the point that Zeroa could not use it properly.

Rai, who found it strange, took an interest in his teacher and met the two with a tough relationship.

Rai shakes his head and laughs, then looks at them and smiles wickedly.

“Somehow I thought I was used to seeing those crappy skills, but you guys taught me.”

“What kind of nonsense are you saying I’m lousy? My skills are the best in the world. Your eyes must be dumb.”

“Yes, Mr. 3 Losses and 2 draws in the next 5 matches. Win at least once and tell me.

Hearing the conversation between the angry Clay and the giggling Rai, Selma felt transported back to the past for a moment. Although she was an enemy, most of the people who fought with him became love-hate relationships, talking like her old friends and stabbing each other’s throats.

Her charming red hair is disguised as dull brown, and her crazy eyes look very benign.

However, Selma smiles slightly when she sees Rai, who has only changed her appearance but has the same atmosphere and personality.

No matter what, those who have lived in fierce battles always remember the past.

“Are you teaching that child?”

“I teach. I’m not like a disciple, so don’t worry. Even if I’m very good, I have no intention of stealing my disciple.”

“We didn’t teach him properly either. He looked so precarious that we only taught him the minimum amount of strength to survive. He’s a good boy. Take good care of him.”

Selma looks at Zero Ar, who is lying on the ground with her drool on her face, as if she were looking at her own child.

She smiles at Raido Zeroa in her eyes, which contain a lot of complex emotions such as sadness, memories, regret, and affection.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make it to the point where I can smear the Lizard and the Fallen Knight.”

“Wouldn’t that be too much? I don’t know what to say, but…”

“No talent?”

Selma nodded slightly and looked away from her, as if she was sorry to say it out of her mouth.

There is no talent that anyone can recognize.

But she can’t do anything. A collection of talents as mediocre as a cobblestone on a street is worth giving up as soon as anyone sees them.

She thought that Rai was a better material than she thought, but to be honest, she didn’t have the confidence to raise him properly.

“How long will you spread out and sleep. Wake up!”

Ray wakes Zeroa and Aslan, who are still fainting, by hitting them on the back of the head.

The two woke up and looked at Rai with dumbfounded faces as they looked at the ruined surroundings.

“What did you do?”

“What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you?”

“Why is it all my fault?”

It was Clay who actually destroyed the store, but Rai frowned when he was pointed out as the culprit. Selma turns her head and laughs, while Clay laughs heartily and says that this guy is to blame.

They fought like they would kill each other until they passed out.